posted 01-16-2005 12:12               

In addition to the 1br Premium, 1br Deluxe (smaller unit), and combination of both units common to Phases I & II, Phase II also has a true 2bdrm unit, and a corner 1br 'lockout' for a 3br, sleep 10 unit. Phase II units will have a more upscale, contemporary look (think the agent said similar to Kierland(?)), and will be identified as a separate resort. Construction is proceeding nicely on the 4 new buildings for Phase II, I think I saw an Sep 05 opening date, which seems on target for at least some of the buildings.

Harbourside did not appear to be full, I saw several units in our building which were empty, with at least some of them having maintenance work done on them.

posted 01-16-2005 21:38               

BTW...are they still selling units for the first phase? If so, are the prices cheaper? Thanks.

posted 01-17-2005 15:18               

I could be wrong, but if I were to own there, I think I'd much rather own one of the Phase I units vs a Phase II one. Another HAR guest blurted outlook my thoughts exactly, "The new buildings look VERY close together." I guess when any resort expands in the same area (Key West Hyatt's - Sunset Harbor, Beach House, Windward Pointe come to mind), usually the first buildings they put up seem to be the best ones (we were in bldg 2, 3rd floor, overlooking the pool, fantastic location).

I did ask the agent (once I understood that Starwood operating as a points-based, floating time resort), "Wouldn't there be an advantage to buying a unit (StarOptions) at whatever resort was selling them most inexpensively?" She seemed to downplay that, also mentioning that why two different resorts can offer the same number of StarOptions, the number of StarPoints can be different. Seems complicated, but I don't know the exact details of SVO.
The agent we had (Jennifer Groh I believe) said she has only been at Harborside for I think several months, having worked at the Maui property recently. She also said she lived on Paradise Island (didn't think any lodging there was cheap), so I speculated that maybe she's one of SVO's top salespeople, who travels among resorts doing pre-opening sales.

She said that if you buy the EOY unit, that you could lock in the EY price and apply 100% of the EOY purchase to an EY purchase if done within 12 months. She also mentioned their sampler, which I think was 6d/5n in either Beach or Coral towers,for I believe $1300 during Gold and Silver seasons, and $1800 during Platinum). She did say the 100% of the price was appliable to a future purchase, though she didn't mention locking the price.

posted 01-31-2005 17:06               

"I did ask the agent (once I understood that Starwood operating as a points-based, floating time resort), "Wouldn't there be an advantage to buying a unit (StarOptions) at whatever resort was selling them most inexpensively?" She seemed to downplay that, also mentioning that why two different resorts can offer the same number of StarOptions, the number of StarPoints can be different. Seems complicated, but I don't know the exact details of SVO. "

It depends on how badly you want to go to a particular resort. With SVO, you can book your own resort from 8-12 months in advance. At the 8 month mark, all SVO members can book at any SVO resort. Of course, by the time you get to the 8 month mark, there may not be much availability at the real popular Starwood resorts (i.e. St. John, Ka'anapali and Harborside). So basically, if you want to be guaranteed the right to book into a particular resort year-in and year-out, then you probably need to buy in at that resort. If you're more flexible, then it would probably be ok to buy the least expensive StarOptions you can find. Just beware that
not all Starwood resales come with StarOptions.

For more information, go to:
http://www.tug2.net/advice/Starwood_Vacation_Network.htm

Also, there's lots of information about this on the Hotel board.

Glorian

[This message has been edited by grgs (edited 01-31-2005).]

[This message has been edited by grgs (edited 01-31-2005).]