Greetings from a new member. I have loosely followed TUG over the years since my first visit to WSJ (maybe in 2009?) plus 3 more stays since. I've also stayed @ the Westin Princeville and currently staying a week at the Orlando SVV plus a night at the SVR.
I've attended a presentation at each of these resorts (for fun and learning) and even bought/rescinded a WSJ package (thanks TUG!!).
Westin St John is my favorite resort out of all, over the years. WSJ has endured as I've added my wife, 3 kids, inlaws, and sometimes my sister's family to my travels.
In any case, as I've mentioned, I had read enough here to have rescinded my WSJ purchase. And then I'd decided I should purchase a resale mandatory timeshare at either Westin Kierland or SVV Bella/Key West. You can probably guess my intent would be to swap into one of the WSJ units via SOs @ 8 months.
(For those of you new to all this, like me, the gist of this is the two mandatory resales I mention above have relatively low maintenance fees while including Star Options to the resale purchaser; SOs are currency which can be used to book other resorts across the VSE network - so basically I'd buy something cheap to get into something more desirable like WSJ, with a bunch of caveats.)
Now I'm turing to you all for some help, because these new presentations I attend are talking about the (new to me) Sheraton Flex program which allow booking 12 mo out within the respective Flex network, and then 8 mo across the SVN network. And then of course I wonder about the long term effect of VSE ownership by MVC. And so, I am beginning to wonder if my above strategy still holds water today, and what does the future look like? My fear in a nutshell is that the SOs I purchase on the resale market will effectively be diluted when it comes to booking WSJ and other similar resorts.
Now here I will try to distill some points from my research in the past couple days:
(1) There are 3 Flex programs, each with their own Flex network:
Westin Flex; 7 resorts situated @ west USA
Sheraton Flex; 6 resorts situated @ east USA + AZ & CO
Westin Aventuras; 2 resorts in Mexico
(2) Flex inventory is separate from other program inventory, and so there should not be competition with the mandatory inventory @ 12 months booking, but...
(3) At 8 months, all the inventory across all the programs are open to both Flex and Mandatory options (and here is where I am interested in using SOs to book places like WSJ)
(4) Flex resale is subject to ROFR, and if passes, the Flex options are transferred to the buyer
(5) There are other inventory pools sold @ certain phases of certain resorts (with things like Home Options?) which I am not familiar enough with to more than mention here. I perceive these to not be a significant factor, but please correct me if wrong.
And so I think point (3) is really where I need to pay attention, as my primary use of a resale WKV/SVV would be to use SOs @ 8 months to book WSJ and elsewhere.
So here is where I start to draw my own conclusions:
(a) if Flex inventory (generated either via new development, or buyback of legacy inventory) is separate from other inventory the ratio of owners:inventory competing @ the 8 mo pool should remains the same - this is a good thing
(b) But if much of the retail Flex inventory came from purchasing voluntary resale inventory and re-selling it as Flex, this puts more Flex options into play @ 8 mo - not a good thing!
(c) If Flex options are passed to resale buyers, these Flex options will remain in play @ 8 mo bookings over time as Flex resales take place - again not a good thing (is this right?)
My quick thoughts on this (thanks for reading - getting tired). (A) is somewhat related to owner:inventory ratio is theoretically fixed and limited and if there were no resale, then all the available VSE currency would remain in play @ 8 mo. However, since a lot of resale happened where options didn't transfer, the mandatory owners have traditionally enjoyed a benefit from those options essentially disappearing. I think (B) is pulling those "disappeared" options back into the Flex network, diluting Star Options @ 8 mo and will continue to do so until Flex sales have run course. And (C) (if I'm right about that) means the dilution is permanent, or at least, survives resale. And so B & C are returning the pool of currency in play @ 8 months back to that theoretical limit.
Unfortunately I still haven't figure out if the mandatory purchase strategy is viable. Only that I think it won't be as great as in the past.
Am I right about any of this? Do I have any wrong info? Do you all think I'm making sense? Surely there are factors I have missed that you can point out.
Thanks! Cheers!
I've attended a presentation at each of these resorts (for fun and learning) and even bought/rescinded a WSJ package (thanks TUG!!).
Westin St John is my favorite resort out of all, over the years. WSJ has endured as I've added my wife, 3 kids, inlaws, and sometimes my sister's family to my travels.
In any case, as I've mentioned, I had read enough here to have rescinded my WSJ purchase. And then I'd decided I should purchase a resale mandatory timeshare at either Westin Kierland or SVV Bella/Key West. You can probably guess my intent would be to swap into one of the WSJ units via SOs @ 8 months.
(For those of you new to all this, like me, the gist of this is the two mandatory resales I mention above have relatively low maintenance fees while including Star Options to the resale purchaser; SOs are currency which can be used to book other resorts across the VSE network - so basically I'd buy something cheap to get into something more desirable like WSJ, with a bunch of caveats.)
Now I'm turing to you all for some help, because these new presentations I attend are talking about the (new to me) Sheraton Flex program which allow booking 12 mo out within the respective Flex network, and then 8 mo across the SVN network. And then of course I wonder about the long term effect of VSE ownership by MVC. And so, I am beginning to wonder if my above strategy still holds water today, and what does the future look like? My fear in a nutshell is that the SOs I purchase on the resale market will effectively be diluted when it comes to booking WSJ and other similar resorts.
Now here I will try to distill some points from my research in the past couple days:
(1) There are 3 Flex programs, each with their own Flex network:
Westin Flex; 7 resorts situated @ west USA
Sheraton Flex; 6 resorts situated @ east USA + AZ & CO
Westin Aventuras; 2 resorts in Mexico
(2) Flex inventory is separate from other program inventory, and so there should not be competition with the mandatory inventory @ 12 months booking, but...
(3) At 8 months, all the inventory across all the programs are open to both Flex and Mandatory options (and here is where I am interested in using SOs to book places like WSJ)
(4) Flex resale is subject to ROFR, and if passes, the Flex options are transferred to the buyer
(5) There are other inventory pools sold @ certain phases of certain resorts (with things like Home Options?) which I am not familiar enough with to more than mention here. I perceive these to not be a significant factor, but please correct me if wrong.
And so I think point (3) is really where I need to pay attention, as my primary use of a resale WKV/SVV would be to use SOs @ 8 months to book WSJ and elsewhere.
So here is where I start to draw my own conclusions:
(a) if Flex inventory (generated either via new development, or buyback of legacy inventory) is separate from other inventory the ratio of owners:inventory competing @ the 8 mo pool should remains the same - this is a good thing
(b) But if much of the retail Flex inventory came from purchasing voluntary resale inventory and re-selling it as Flex, this puts more Flex options into play @ 8 mo - not a good thing!
(c) If Flex options are passed to resale buyers, these Flex options will remain in play @ 8 mo bookings over time as Flex resales take place - again not a good thing (is this right?)
My quick thoughts on this (thanks for reading - getting tired). (A) is somewhat related to owner:inventory ratio is theoretically fixed and limited and if there were no resale, then all the available VSE currency would remain in play @ 8 mo. However, since a lot of resale happened where options didn't transfer, the mandatory owners have traditionally enjoyed a benefit from those options essentially disappearing. I think (B) is pulling those "disappeared" options back into the Flex network, diluting Star Options @ 8 mo and will continue to do so until Flex sales have run course. And (C) (if I'm right about that) means the dilution is permanent, or at least, survives resale. And so B & C are returning the pool of currency in play @ 8 months back to that theoretical limit.
Unfortunately I still haven't figure out if the mandatory purchase strategy is viable. Only that I think it won't be as great as in the past.
Am I right about any of this? Do I have any wrong info? Do you all think I'm making sense? Surely there are factors I have missed that you can point out.
Thanks! Cheers!
