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Geez... we went for another owners' update

VacationForever

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The last owners' update we attended was at WLR from 4 years ago or so. This week we are at WMH... and since we have nothing better to do, we say why not... incentive was 8000 Starpoints, $100 Visa card or $100 resort credit. We did not negotiate (heard someone was offered more when we checked out at the sales office) and chose 8000 Starpoints.

The salesperson came across a bit intimated by us... kept saying we knew so much already and did not know what else she could tell us. Right upfront we told her that we owned more than what we could use, so she ended up trying to sell us:

37,000 (studio low season) at Aventuras, which we could elect to convert to 19,240 Starpoints annually for $12,950 with first use year of 2019. MF including club fees would be $542.45. We could not get a straight answer whether this club fee is different from VSN club dues. The sales manager kept saying they like to quote all inclusive fees so that there are no surprises. Incentive of 50K Starpoints and option to exercise 6 packages of 90K Starpoints at $1,875 by Dec 15, 2019.

The sales manager kept saying it is only 2 cents per point and it is a great deal. I declined as it really comes up to 4 cents per point when you add the $12,950 into the total price of buying the starpoints + incentive. Plus we have no use for the Aventuras points/SOs and don't want another MF. We own too much already.
 

duke

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What is your suggestion on how or what to negotiate for the incentive? Points/$'s? What did you hear? We will be at WMH soon.

Oh, by the way, we always bring our 4 year old and the meeting is very short......
 

VacationForever

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What is your suggestion on how or what to negotiate for the incentive? Points/$'s? What did you hear? We will be at WMH soon.

Oh, by the way, we always bring our 4 year old and the meeting is very short......
To negotiate, you would decline their first offer of incentives... the concierge would go up from there. Normally, the way it works is that the concierge is paid a fixed commission for every prey they could sign up for the presentation. The first offer is normally quite standard. Any higher offer is paid out of their own commission.
 
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What is your suggestion on how or what to negotiate for the incentive? Points/$'s? What did you hear? We will be at WMH soon.

Oh, by the way, we always bring our 4 year old and the meeting is very short......

Offer not to take your 4 year old in return for an extra 5,000 points :thumbup:
 

Sea Six

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Also keep an eye on your account to make sure you get your points. They say it takes a while so you tend to stop checking. After about 6 months and still no points, I called and found out they opened a new account to deposit the points instead of using my own account. I may have never figured out what happened.
 

duke

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To negotiate, you would decline their first offer of incentives... the concierge would go up from there. Normally, the way it works is that the concierge is paid a fixed commission for every prey they could sign up for the presentation. The first offer is normally quite standard. Any higher offer is paid out of their own commission.

WOW, wish I knew this for past years.... Does this mean more points or more $'s possible and how much?
 

VacationForever

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WOW, wish I knew this for past years.... Does this mean more points or more $'s possible and how much?
I don't negotiate even though I know how it works. We overheard $125 Visa for another guest.

Once at Marriott many years ago, they offered $100 or 10K MRPs, we said no. We really did not want to attend. They next offer was $150 and we took it. Worldmark and Shell were very similar. Last year we even got a night worth more than $400 at Vino Bello at Napa when we were trying to get a room for friends coming from out of town to join us. We said no to their incentives and said if they could get us a room for one night while we were there, we were in.
 

gardenjj

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Even though we had been at a presentation at Kierland a month earlier, this week at the Orlando Vistana Resort we were told there was new information and offered $125 to attend the 50 minute update. Well, OK - we had an hour. In the past, we have attended "Westin" updates (WMH, WKOR, WKV) and they seemed at least a little bit customer focused. We usually learn a few new bits of information. BUT are all the Sheraton owner updates this bad? It was so scripted, and the sales presenter requested the same information on a pre-discussion survey as well as the discussion (about us, income, what we paid for our properties, and - geez - why didn't we use II) that I got rather annoyed. She got annoyed back, and we ended up with the manager. He was nice, gave us some more info on the Flex program, and we were out in under 50 minutes. Are all Sheraton property sale presentations that bad? Vistana can only sell Sheraton product - does that explain why they don't seem to know anything about the Westin side of the business? Neither our check-in person or the sales person in this last presentation even knew where the Kierland resort was.... Lesson learned.
 

VacationForever

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Even though we had been at a presentation at Kierland a month earlier, this week at the Orlando Vistana Resort we were told there was new information and offered $125 to attend the 50 minute update. Well, OK - we had an hour. In the past, we have attended "Westin" updates (WMH, WKOR, WKV) and they seemed at least a little bit customer focused. We usually learn a few new bits of information. BUT are all the Sheraton owner updates this bad? It was so scripted, and the sales presenter requested the same information on a pre-discussion survey as well as the discussion (about us, income, what we paid for our properties, and - geez - why didn't we use II) that I got rather annoyed. She got annoyed back, and we ended up with the manager. He was nice, gave us some more info on the Flex program, and we were out in under 50 minutes. Are all Sheraton property sale presentations that bad? Vistana can only sell Sheraton product - does that explain why they don't seem to know anything about the Westin side of the business? Neither our check-in person or the sales person in this last presentation even knew where the Kierland resort was.... Lesson learned.

I believe every property is different. The one which I attended at WMH, there was no questionaire. The salesperson sat down and asked "Is there anything you want to hear from me about the Vistana program?" We answered no. She said "Let me at least cover the newest program called Aventuras." My husband had not heard about it and I turned to him and said it was their collection of Mexican timeshare properties. She corrected me and said it will also include Costa Rica. She went to the board where there were pictures of various Vistana properties, and we went "yep, been there... yep... that is xxx property." We went to her office and that was when she said there was nothing to offer us that we did not already know and went on to put forth the proposal of the lowest entry point into Aventuras. At that point she got her manager to come in. It was painless and I would consider professional. It was quite painless.
 

Smithsingeneva

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I have been to an update at SVV. I did not think it was bad. My home resort is WKORVN and also did an update at WLR. Have not noticed an overall quality issue between the three. Different reps at the same resort have given different quality updates.

I have also declined updates many times and don’t recall any offers to increase the compensation to come (so we skip it). Maybe they realize that I bought resale and am unlikely to buy anyway.

At SVV a few years ago the rep had a sheet showing the original owner bought our 2BR annual oceanview lockoff for $69,800. He asked me what I paid resale, and almost fainted when I said “less than $20,000.”

Thanks again, TUG.
 
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PamMo

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We rarely (maybe once every 5 years when there's a big change) do "owner updates" (sales pitches), but DH wanted to hear what they had to say on a recent stay at Kierland (and I was still mad about Harborside taking away the rollaway beds!). The offer was to trade one of our annual oceanview 148,100 mandatory StarOptions WKORV 2BR weeks (resale) PLUS $40,460 for 183,000 Vistana points at Nanea (resort view points). The push was to get us to 4* Elite. Other "incentives" were for DH to get a branded AMEX card (25K SPG points), 80,920 StarPoints for buying the VOI on an AMEX card, the sales guys would give us an extra 20K SPG points, plus four options to buy 110K SPG points @ $2,275/each. To sweeten the pot (only after I asked about it), they would retro one of our annual oceanfront WKORVN VOI's to get to 4* status.

Bottom line is I'd give them a mandatory 148,100 WKORV unit and pay an extra $40,460 to get 183K options for resort view at Nanea. Maintenance fees would "only" be $500 more a year for Nanea, but I would get 4* elite and all those benefits!!! I must admit, they do a great job of making it sound so good, but it's crazy to think that makes any sense!

BTW, we heard from several couples at Kierland that have stayed at Nanea, and they commented that the sewer smell was really bad at Nanea. That's not good!
 

dsmrp

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BTW, we heard from several couples at Kierland that have stayed at Nanea, and they commented that the sewer smell was really bad at Nanea. That's not good!

We were at Nanea last week, and winds were usually E/NE with a few days of off & on drizzly rain. All four of us occasionally whiffed the sewer smell only in the garage. Did not smell it elsewhere on the grounds, by the courtyard, pool or lobby. We were in bldg 2, garden side. Maybe the rain and faster wind speeds helped dissipate the smell, but winds were certainly flowing in our direction!

Also we did not have any more push than usual to get us to an owner's update meeting. A concierge suggested it to DH and he declined; that was it. It helped that we had been to one about 7 months ago and our units are in network. We also don't have WKORV units that Vistana would want for trade-ins.

We met a retired guy briefly at the BBQ grills who said he traded in his WKORV units for Nanea. He and family had been staying at Nanea for a little over a month! He didn't know the distinction between voluntary and mandatory, and didn't care.
 
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We met a retired guy briefly at the BBQ grills who said he traded in his WKORV units for Nanea. He and family had been staying at Nanea for a little over a month! He didn't know the distinction between voluntary and mandatory, and didn't care.

I would imagine that's the same for 99.9% of all owners not knowing the difference. Westin/Vistana/Starwood certainly don't advertise the fact and I must admit I had no clue about voluntary v mandatory until I luckily stumbled across this site one day.
 

canesfan

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Years ago we traded in a WPOR for WKOR. The salesman did explain voluntary vs mandatory to us. It was to his advantage then though.


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