StarOptions Upgrade for Sheraton Vistana Lake/Cascades Units

Just received the following note in my e-mail (doesn't apply to me as my unit is not in SVN, though). The first StarOption number is the current valuation, the second the new valuation.

Glorian
_______________________________________________________________

Dear XXXX,

Due to a recent evaluation of Starwood Vacation Network(SM) resorts, the StarOptions® values for Lakes and Cascades Owners will increase with the beginning of the 2009 Use Year. Please refer to the chart below to view the new StarOptions value of your villa.

StarOptions Valuations Effective with the 2009 Use Year
Villa Type Weeks in Season Current Lakes and Cascades Owner StarOptions Allotment 2009 Lakes and Cascades Owner StarOptions Allotment

Two-bedroom lockoff villa
1-52 81,000 90,000

Two-bedroom villa
1-52 67,100 76,000

One-bedroom premium villa
1-52 44,000 49,000

One-bedroom villa
1-52 37,000 41,000

StarOptions values are subject to change.

As an Owner in Lakes or Cascades, you maintain the ability to reserve any week of the year for the amount reflected in the chart above. Should you wish to return to your Home Resort in your deeded phase, please make your reservations during the Home Resort Preference Period, which is 12 to 8 months prior to your desired check-in date. You are guaranteed a villa in your Home Resort phase only when you make your reservations during this timeframe.

In other exciting news, Starwood Vacation Network will expand its resort collection to include Vistana's Beach Club, as well as Fountains and Fountains II phases at Sheraton Vistana Resort in Orlando, Florida. This change will take place with the start of the 2009 Use Year.

If you have questions about these changes or need assistance regarding your ownership, please don’t hesitate to call Owner Services toll free at 888.SV.OWNER (786.9637) or direct at 407.903.4649. You may also log on to mystarcentral.com to email your inquiries via the Message Center.

Sincerely,
Suzanne Clark
Vice President, Owner Services
Starwood Vacation Ownership

Ut Oh. I knew those luggage tags were signaling bad news to come from SVO.

While this is great news for the limited class of Lakes and Cascades original owners (and requalifiers), it also means that the much, much larger class of existing non-VR SVN members will now have to “pay” more StarOptions to stay at VR.

In other words, SVO has devalued existing StarOptions for the majority of existing SVN members by increasing the StarOptions to the far fewer Lakes and Cascades SVN members.

I suspect this is all aimed at getting us all to buy another developer unit to top off our StarOptions so we can continue to exchange into other SVO resorts at the same level as when we entered into the system. But I think it will backfire. Instead of buying another SVO property, we’ll all figure out that it is a much, much better deal to trade into other SVO properties through II, where, for example, you can regularly deposit a small one bedroom SDO and pull a 2 bedroom at VR just about any day of the year, except some holidays.

On the plus side, it looks like Suzanne spared you 5 Star’s “Platinum–for-Life” benefit . . . this year. Unfortunately, since there’s really nothing more she can do to destroy the “elite” program any further, she was forced to move onto devaluing StarOptions, the holy grail of SVO’s system. I think we can expect more devaluations to come, which may or may not come with another luggage tag.

-nodge

Similar to what they did with the Fountains units, Starwood has assigned one value to Lakes/Cascades owners, but another value to SVN owners wanting to exchange in. The new StarOption chart is posted on MSC. It shows that a 2 bedroom LO in the high season costs 95,700 options, but they are only giving Lakes/Cascades owners 90,000 options.

There is another wrinkle, though. I believe all Lakes/Cascades unit float 1-52, but on the new StarOptions chart, Lakes/Cascades is now shown as having two seasons. So a 2 bedroom LO in low season is worth 81,000 options. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I don't think I've seen this before with a Starwood built resort. They did something similar when they acquired SDO--they went from a 1-52 float to a 3 season, but it only applied to the new units Starwood sold. So I guess when assigning a value to existing Lakes/Cascades owners, they had to average between the between the two new seasons, hence the 90,000 options figures. What I'd like to know is when they sell Cascades/Lakes units now, are they selling specific seasons? Can they take an older unit that was sold 1-52, and now sell it as a specific season depending on the deeded week?

Glorian

Good for me. I could use all the extra SOs I can get. That pretty much decides it for me to go with Cascades instead of a gold SVV. Less MFs and more SOs -- perfect. The SPs don't change??

Kath

At SDO, Starwood rationalized offering "Gold" SVN status to week 1-52 floaters because those units were sold PRE-STARWOOD (and for much less than Starwood's developer rates) and it didn't HAVE to let those folks into SVN. In contrast and as Glorian as said, LAKES and CASCADES phases at VR were all SOLD by Starwood from the get-go.

Starwood adding this new higher season in the Cascades and Lakes phases, but only giving owners of week 1-52 floaters the average of the StarOptions between the old and new seasons is a completely new game/low for SVO.

I guess it could have kept these owners at their old StarOptions, so it's something. But, this is clearly a devaluation of StarOptions for all of us SVN members. And in typical SVO fashion, it’s presented by Suzanne to owners as good news.

-nodge

Oh right, now that I'm thinking about it, when we were all playing "pin the tail on the latest elite benefit to remove" at our slumber party with SVO, Suzanne did mention something about the pool of available elite benefits to remove being too small, and wishing she could remove something bigger. I thought she was joking.

Not sure if I understand you and the "devaluation" although I do agree that 81,000 SOs for SDO 2BR LO (old) is way too low for that great resort. I just don't see how this latest (slight) increase in SOs in SVR is a devaluation.... Just spell it out to me using small words and short sentences and then maybe I will get it.

K

devaluation-If you bought 81000 options at another resort with the idea of trading into vistana via SVN now you cant. If you bought 148000 options as I did and like the idea of using 81000 for a 2br at vistana and havign enough options remaining for a studio in maui, now you cant.

djp said:

devaluation-If you bought 81000 options at another resort with the idea of trading into vistana via SVN now you cant. If you bought 148000 options as I did and like the idea of using 81000 for a 2br at vistana and havign enough options remaining for a studio in maui, now you cant.

Click to expand...

Right on.

On the plus side, even with SVO's latest devaluation, if you use II, you can deposit a small one bedroom SVN property (valued at 67,100 StarOptions) and pull a 2 BR Platinum Season at VR (now valued at 95,700 StarOptions), and still have 81,000 StarOptions left over to book a large one bedroom in Maui via SVN.

In light of this change, I think very few folks will be using StarOptions to trade into VR.

-nodge

SDKath said:

Good for me. I could use all the extra SOs I can get. That pretty much decides it for me to go with Cascades instead of a gold SVV. Less MFs and more SOs -- perfect. The SPs don't change??

Kath

Click to expand...

What is the deeded week on your unit? Are you getting 95,700 options assigned to it, or 90,000?

Glorian

I am not seeing 95,700 anywhere. My contract says 81,000 so I guess that will become 90,000. Where do you see the 95,700??

I will look at the deeded weeks. They are 2 summer EOY weeks (20-something) in high season (only 2 seasons in SVR -- high and low).

Katherine

SDKath said:

I am not seeing 95,700 anywhere. My contract says 81,000 so I guess that will become 90,000. Where do you see the 95,700??

I will look at the deeded weeks. They are 2 summer EOY weeks (20-something) in high season (only 2 seasons in SVR -- high and low).

Katherine

Click to expand...

That's what is posted on the new StarOptions chart on MSC. To trade into Lakes/Cascades 2 bd LO units in the high season (weeks 6-17, 23-34, 51-52), you will need 95,700 options.

Glorian

if you look at the svv bella chart the staroptions are now equal to the staroptions and seasons for svr at lakes and cascades, the way it should be.

the same size units are now equal and now have the same seasons. you can still go to svr using 81000 for a 2 br l/o but at certain weeks which are still when the kids are off on break.

the only part of this that concerns me is the amount of staroptions they are giving to the owners. they will have enough to go to any of the resorts in the network, but i am sure starwood's goal is to get them to purchase additional weeks.

djp said:

devaluation-If you bought 81000 options at another resort with the idea of trading into vistana via SVN now you cant. If you bought 148000 options as I did and like the idea of using 81000 for a 2br at vistana and havign enough options remaining for a studio in maui, now you cant.

Click to expand...

Not sure but I think SVV is as nice if not nicer for 81,000 options

pointsjunkie said:

if you look at the svv bella chart the staroptions are now equal to the staroptions and seasons for svr at lakes and cascades, the way it should be.

Click to expand...

Hmmm. If SVO arbitrarily inflates StarOption values at a new resort, more or less to induce new sales at that new resort and at the expense of pre-existing owner's interests, "should" the StarOptions at pre-existing SVO resorts in that area be increased also, even to the point of introducing new "seasons" and the like, thereby resulting in an across the board devaluation of non-area owners' StarOption values?

By this logic, the summer season owners at SMV should be expecting an upgrade notice from Suzanne bringing their StarOptions in line with the new Westin Riverfront's summer StarOption numbers (unless of course there is an air-conditioning exception to this rule).

So which is it?

BTW, No matter which way you fall on this issue, a group of SVO owners is getting screwed by SVO all because SVO raises StarOption values at new resorts in an effot to promote new sales (rather than compromise its over-inflated developer sales prices) without giving a second thought to how it affects current SVO owners' internal exchange power.

None of this is how it should be.

-nodge

nodge said:

...it is a much, much better deal to trade into other SVO properties through II, where, for example, you can regularly deposit a small one bedroom SDO and pull a 2 bedroom at VR just about any day of the year, except some holidays.

Click to expand...

Not to hijack this thread (sorry!) but can someone tell me if there is a difference in trading power between the small and large 1 bedroom at SDO? When I look at II's resort directory for SDO, they don't seem to show a difference.

thanks

Stefa said:

Not to hijack this thread (sorry!) but can someone tell me if there is a difference in trading power between the small and large 1 bedroom at SDO? When I look at II's resort directory for SDO, they don't seem to show a difference.

thanks

Click to expand...

I haven't noticed much difference in trading power on II between the small and large one bedroom SDO's. I do notice a modest difference in II trading power between SDO and WKV. Sometimes, a small one bedroom at WKV will pull two bedrooms at WKORV, while even a full two bedroom lock-off at SDO won't.

Now, everyone back to bashing SVO for being the weenies they are.

-nodge

During the last banking period (last week), I saw all the 2BR LOs at WKORV with the 2BR SDO but did not see them with either the smaller or larger 1BR at SDO. I also didn't see some Disney with the smaller side of the LO at SDO but saw them with the larger side. This only happened once.

Katherine

nodge said:

Hmmm. If SVO arbitrarily inflates StarOption values at a new resort, more or less to induce new sales at that new resort and at the expense of pre-existing owner's interests, "should" the StarOptions at pre-existing SVO resorts in that area be increased also, even to the point of introducing new "seasons" and the like, thereby resulting in an across the board devaluation of non-area owners' StarOption values?

By this logic, the summer season owners at SMV should be expecting an upgrade notice from Suzanne bringing their StarOptions in line with the new Westin Riverfront's summer StarOption numbers (unless of course there is an air-conditioning exception to this rule).

So which is it?

BTW, No matter which way you fall on this issue, a group of SVO owners is getting screwed by SVO all because SVO raises StarOption values at new resorts in an effot to promote new sales (rather than compromise its over-inflated developer sales prices) without giving a second thought to how it affects current SVO owners' internal exchange power.

None of this is how it should be.

-nodge

Click to expand...

the air conditioning is the reason for the difference in the staroptions. if they went ahead and added AC to the other vail resorts then they should be at the same staroption value.

when i originally purchased at svv the staroptions were different then they are now. the owners could not go to other resorts in the svn with the original values. they listened to the owners and they adjusted the staroption values so we could trade to all the resorts within the svn.

i guess people who owned at other resorts might have been PO'd that their staroptions to get to svv and svr were what you would call "devalued" but to make the system equitable for the majority some changes from time to time have to be made.

i think with the adjustments they made to the staroption values for the 2009 season will benefit the entire network.

so if you look at the entire picture for the long haul it is not a BAD thing.

i think they listened to the complaints from the WSJ and WLM owners and they made the correct adjustments.

pointsjunkie said:

i guess people who owned at other resorts might have been PO'd that their staroptions to get to svv and svr were what you would call "devalued" but to make the system equitable for the majority some changes from time to time have to be made.

Click to expand...

Other SVN owners ARE the majority. That's my point.

We're discussing this issue in two threads now, so let's just pick one.

I've recently posted my position in this thread, and will post any further comment regarding this subject there.

-nodge

I am SO confused. I am an owner at Lakes and Cascades...and I didn't get this email. I own two 2-bedroom weeks valued at 67,100 StarOptions each. Does this mean I get more StarOptions now?? When I bought at Lakes and Cascades, it was all ONE season and I was able to book 52 weeks a year at my home resort. Is this changing?? Can they change this after the fact????? CONFUSED!

nodge said:

Starwood adding this new higher season in the Cascades and Lakes phases, but only giving owners of week 1-52 floaters the average of the StarOptions between the old and new seasons is a completely new game/low for SVO.

Click to expand...

OK, PLEASE explain this to me...this is the first I am hearing about these changes and obviously I'm a little concerned.

I am a float owner weeks 1-52 at Vistana Resort...both Lakes and Cascades 2 bedrooms which are worth 67,100 StarOptions each (I also own at SVV but that is not changing, so who cares).

If they are going to offer me an AVERAGE of the amount of StarOptions of both seasons, what happens when I want to make a 1 week ressie in the HIGHER season which requires 81,000 StarOptions now??? I have ALWAYS been able to book ANY WEEK I WANTED TO, and I had 12 month priority...I could book any week, any time. So...what does this mean to me? Does this mean I have to wait until 90 days out, since I won't have 81,000 StarOptions??? If so, I will NOT be a happy camper.

I'm sure you'll be able to get any week at your home resort (Lakes/Cascades) -- they can't take that away -- it's a deeded right.

if I'm reading this correctly, your SOs are increasing as follows:

Two-bedroom lockoff villa
1-52 From 81,000 To 90,000

Two-bedroom villa
1-52 From 67,100 To 76,000

One-bedroom premium villa
1-52 From 44,000 To 49,000

One-bedroom villa
1-52 From 37,000 To 41,000

When other SVN members want to trade INTO your resort, they'll have to pay more, or less, depending on the season, example:

95700 for a prime week (more than an owner's 90000)
81000 for a non-prime week (less than an owner's 90000)

I'm too tired to check the totals, but I'm sure the totals balance. The owners are getting an average of all weeks to trade out.

Anyone else reading this differently?

Tried to edit for clarity but I'm doing something wrong. When I say I'm sure the totals balance, it should work like this:

Number of prime weeks X 95700

plus

Number of non-prime weeks X 81000

Should equal 52 X 90000

This is a win for Lakes/Cascades owners who want to trade OUT, and a loss for other SVN members who now need more to trade into prime weeks.

iluvwdw said:

If they are going to offer me an AVERAGE of the amount of StarOptions of both seasons, what happens when I want to make a 1 week ressie in the HIGHER season which requires 81,000 StarOptions now??? I have ALWAYS been able to book ANY WEEK I WANTED TO, and I had 12 month priority...I could book any week, any time. So...what does this mean to me? Does this mean I have to wait until 90 days out, since I won't have 81,000 StarOptions??? If so, I will NOT be a happy camper.

Click to expand...

I believe jerseygirl is correct, and that you will be able to continue to reserve any week at 12 mos. out as a Cascades/Lakes owner. The two different StarOptions amounts only come into play for non-Cascades/Lakes who are doing an internal SVN exchange. They will "pay" a different amount depending on which season they're reserving.

By all means, though, contact Starwood for confirmation.

Glorian

jerseygirl said:

I'm sure you'll be able to get any week at your home resort (Lakes/Cascades) -- they can't take that away -- it's a deeded right.

if I'm reading this correctly, your SOs are increasing as follows:

Two-bedroom lockoff villa
1-52 From 81,000 To 90,000

Two-bedroom villa
1-52 From 67,100 To 76,000

One-bedroom premium villa
1-52 From 44,000 To 49,000

One-bedroom villa
1-52 From 37,000 To 41,000

When other SVN members want to trade INTO your resort, they'll have to pay more, or less, depending on the season, example:

95700 for a prime week (more than an owner's 90000)
81000 for a non-prime week (less than an owner's 90000)

I'm too tired to check the totals, but I'm sure the totals balance. The owners are getting an average of all weeks to trade out.

Anyone else reading this differently?

Click to expand...

Thanks for trying to explain this, but I'm still a BIT confused. I contacted SVN...I'll let you know what they say.

Basically I know this...I will be getting MORE StarOptions from now on. I had 67,100 and now I get 76,000...GREAT if I want to stay in a smaller villa or trade within SVN. HOWEVER, what if I want to stay at my home resort for a week in a 2 BR? MOST weeks at VR are now 81,000 StarOptions...if I only have 76,000 SO for my week, how does this benefit me? Will I still be able to get ANY week for 76,000 StarOptions when it really calls for 81,000 SO? Or will I only be able to stay 6 nights instead of 7? If that's the case, will I still be able to book 12 months out when it's for less than 7 nights, or will I have to call 90 days out?

Thanks for ANY insight anyone can give.