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Re: Important Update Affecting Resale Purchasers (by Eric M.):

I just sent this email to sparenovation@starwoodvo.com and I will let you know what response I receive:

Vistana Spa Board of Directors, We own two weeks in the Spa section of Vistana Resort. The breakdown of the cost per villa in the "Your Vistana Spa Makeover" mailing that you sent us is inadequate. I want a complete and detailed accounting of how the refurbishment money is going to be spent. Please send it to me immediately at: Eric Main ****private****** ********************** If the file is small enough, you may respond to this email with the information attached. I have spent seventeen years as a real estate appraiser, broker, investor and landlord, in addition to serving on the board of several organizations. The total cost of the refurbishment fee per unit is excessive. The only way you could spend that much money on the improvements you have described and showed in photographs is through waste or outright fraud. I understand that the units need to be renovated, but do you not realize that there is a worldwide recession right now? As a matter of fact, the front-page headline in my local newspaper last week read "Real Estate Depression". The middle class owners of timeshares are suffering financially right now. Many of them have slashed expenses and are still having trouble paying their bills. I am sure Vistana was going to have a good number of owners who could not pay their regular maintenance fees this year. Do you really think this is the time to hit them with huge assessments for an obscenely expensive makeover? What difference does it make how wonderful it might be if a big percentage of the owners default? Or is that the real reason for making it so expensive and forcing owners to prepay? SVO gets back a bunch of unit weeks and gets to sell them all over again at retail price. The federal reserve cut it's key lending rate to a record low of between zero and 0.25% (and indicated that it would stay there for a long time) prompting banks to lower their prime rates to 3.25%. Suppliers in the real estate building industry, along with construction companies, are in dire straits right now due to the real estate bust. SVO and affiliated companies have a tremendous amount of leverage due to their size. SVO's forcing owners at Vistana Resort to prepay for an overpriced renovation is going to cause a lot of defaults. Add everything in the previous paragraph together and what is the logical conclusion? 1. Use your size and the real estate collapse to negotiate hard with suppliers and construction companies to reduce the cost of renovations by half. 2. Start renovations now by borrowing at record low rates. You can finish the renovations before they were even scheduled to start in the old plan. 3. This will allow you to spread the cost of renovations out over several years instead of demanding it up front within one year. 4. This will cause fewer defaults and result in happy owners and good publicity instead of the headache you are creating for yourself now. If you don't believe you are creating a public relations nightmare, watch the news and search the internet. Keep in mind, it is only going to get worse. I look forward to a quick reply. Sincerely, Eric Main