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I agree wholeheartedly, with most of the owners at Vistana that are being assessed the "refurbishment fee" that has been announced through the blanket mailling that we all recieved. In the mailing it states that the reason that we were not consulted or had the opportunity to have a say is that the "board members" chose on our behalf. Well, all I can say to them is "It's very easy to go all out for the "best" when you aren't paying the bill our of your own pocket." What are these board members thinking?? Perhaps they are all in the upper income bracket, but I dare say that most timeshare owners are hardworking middleclass people that don't have that much disposable income to pay out for something that only very minutely benefits them. Or perhaps this is just an efficient way to force people to sell their ownerships at greatly reduced prices so that they or thier constituates can scoff them up for profiting after we pay the bill. When I want to remodel my home, I have a budget to work with and I have to stay inside the perameters of that budget. I feel that if they want to refurbish our units.. then they should have to do the same. I read that they do have 14 million dollars in our "maintainance fee account" . Well then they should have to find someone that can do the refurbishment for that amount. It may mean that they won't be able to use Granite for the countertops, and add huge plasma tvs to each room...who comes to watch TV anyway? and they might have to cut back on the "high class" decor that they showed us in the brochure. ( which by the way I feel will cause our resort to loose it's Florida feel. ) Why would we want Dark wooks and dark colors and cold granite for decor when we go on vacation to Florida?? Someone has lost site of what this resort is catering to. People that are here for a relaxing FLORIDA vacation. IT doesn't need to look like the Queens palace. It needs to look like FLORIDA!! We all need to write directly to Starwood Vacation Ownership Management Headquarters, or better yet,, anyone that can should attend the annual meeting and voice your oppinion of the plans. And let them board know that what they want to do is NOT going to be allowed by the "owners" of this resort. Please join me in writing letters to the board members, that we elected, and tell them that they can't expect us to pay for such elaborate decor in these hard economic times... or any other times for that matter. They need to stay within the budget allotment that they have to work with. Or perhaps they can donate their pay as board members toward the shortfall, if they feel so strongly about it. Don't just write in this forum where it won't do much good,,, write where it counts. We have the numbers... but we need to use them.