ask-redweek-interval-buys-starwood

Other than the 1st-class accommodations and the 1st-class-citizens treatment, the most important benefit a Starwood owner receives is the early-checking & early-checkout ability at all Starwood Hotels. What that means is, if your flight arrives at 6:00 AM on New York or Los Angeles, you can proceed immediately to your hotel, check in, get freshens up in YOUR room, and still make your 9:30 appointment. And, if your flight leaves at 10:00 PM, you aren't forced out at 11:00 AM. You can leave whenever you want. Terrific benefit for anyone... especially for business travelers. Will this important benefit be continued for deeded Starwood owners?

We went to an owner's presentation at Sheraton Myrtle Beach Plantation resort for the first time in a few years. We wanted to learn more about what the acquisition meant to our time share but we got the used car sales treatment to buy into the Flex program. After 2 hours of hearing about the sales person's awesome timeshare vacations, how great of a sales person he is, learning about his family, and told repeatedly that we need to go to Hawaii, about the only things we could glean: nothing changes for the current owners, and the Flex program may allow us to book resorts in peak times at lower amount of options. We already had 81,000 points for a re-sale at the Orlando resort that we purchased 10 years ago for about $13,000. For 81,000 options in the Flex program, the price was $28K. After trading in our current deed, the price was $15K. After we scoffed, the price dropped to $10K. The manager came out with a soft sell but did not really try to explain the benefits of the Flex program. Of course, the offer was only good while we were in the office and they would not let us take the quote sheets with us. Finally, we sat for an "exit interview" where the guy wanted $2000 to keep the same $10K offer available for 2 years + 5 days at the MB resort. We left feeling dirty about the whole experience. The sad part is that plenty of people will write a check for $15K to someone that was pleasant and scribbled a bunch of stuff on a piece of paper. The acquisition has certainly turned up the heat to sell nothingness - that is what we learned. We are concerned that this Flex program will make it more difficult for us to book resorts because others will be getting preferential treatment. As usual, the consumers lose out on big corporate mergers.