Good News for Starwood Timeshares, Means Good News for Starwood Timeshare Resales

Starwood Resorts reports an extremely positive first quarter.

When Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc., released their first-quarter profit numbers for 2007, the numbers were impressive. And when Starwood hotels and Starwood timeshares are enjoying good business, that’s also good news for people who have Starwood, Sheraton and Westin timeshare resales and Starwood or Westin rentals.

Starwood Resorts owns the brands St. Regis, Westin, and Sheraton, as well as other famous hotel and resort properties, along with all of the Starwood Vacation Ownership timeshare resorts. Starwood Resorts’ first quarter financial reports for 2007 showed a net income of $122 million, a substantial increase over the same quarter in 2006.

A number of factors individually and collectively contributed to the gain, including the sale of the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel for a one-time gain of $18.3 million. Reuters (http://www.reuters.com) and other major news sources have quoted Bear Stearns financial analyst Joe Greff as attributing the earnings increase in part to timeshare gains, along with higher management and franchise fees.

Starwood Vacation Ownership has 18 timeshare resorts, with the greatest concentration of them being Florida, Colorado, the Caribbean and Hawaii timeshares. As long as demand is high for Starwood timeshares as new properties, you can count on there being a good market for Starwood, Westin, and Sheraton timeshare resales and timeshare rentals. If you are looking to buy a Starwood, Westin or Sheraton timeshare vacation property, you can expect good service and good accommodations. The Starwood timeshare company will be putting money back into their timeshares in the form of renovations and updates, recognizing that this is a valuable segment of their market.

When you purchase a Starwood timeshare resale, be sure you understand all of the terms of your purchase. Resale timeshare transactions vary greatly. You may or may not receive full (or any) use of Starwood timeshare points. Some owners of Starwood timeshare resales have reported that in cases where they own Starwood timeshare resale weeks, but did not have access to the Starwood points, they were able to negotiate points (StarOptions, StarPoints, and Elite Status) for their resale timeshare by purchasing new Starwood timeshare and making the sale contingent upon their resale timeshare receiving points status as well.

Let me reiterate that I am passing along unconfirmed information here. Have I done this with a Starwood, Sheraton, or Westin timeshare? NO. Has anyone with the Starwood timeshare company told me this is an option or even a possibility? NO. Do I personally know of anyone who has done this? Also, NO. But I have heard of people who owned timeshare resales, and reportedly have been able to accomplish this negotiation.

The key piece of information here, is to remember that timeshare, whether purchased as new or resales property, is almost always a highly negotiable purchase. If you have specific needs or requests, you have nothing to lose by bringing them to the table. And although the best value in buying a timeshare is always to purchase it as a resale, owners of timeshare property who want to sell—whether it is new timeshare or a timeshare resale—want to sell. You never know what kind of timeshare deal you can make, unless you try.