How Starwood Vacation Ownership Works

Starwood Vacation Ownership, Inc. is the name of the Starwood brand of timeshares. Since they are owned by the company that also owns the Sheraton, Westin, Meridien and W Hotels, it isn’t surprising that this is another luxury timeshare choice and I consider them to be one of the top timeshare companies in terms of choice, value and variety of resorts. I stay at the Vistana Orlando resort frequently in Florida and it is one of my favorite resorts. So let’s take a look at how Starwood timeshares work and see if this is the right vacation ownership program for you.

As has become pretty common in timesharing today, Starwood timeshares offer a fairly flexible arrangement. Instead of buying a fixed week at a single property that you need to return to again and again each year, unless you exchange through a third party exchange company like RCI, Starwood timeshares are sold as floating weeks within a particular season. So you can adjust your yearly vacation week each year, depending on what month is going to suit you best. In addition, internal exchange options are available that allow a owner to select a different resort to visit, instead of always choosing the home resort.

Called StarOptions, the Starwood points program is what allows owners their increased vacation flexibility. Starwood Vacation Ownership includes both Sheraton timeshares and Westin Vacation Ownership resorts, so owners can exchange between both the Sheraton and Westin resorts as well as other resorts that the parent company owns, as they are all part of the same family. And at the home resort, you can use your points to choose a different villa type at your home resort or a different view if you’d like to have a new environment outside your window. Your ability to exchange is based upon the value of your own home resort villa, so the season and size of the villa will impact your flexibility, but with so many options for exchange, it shouldn’t be difficult for any owner to find the right vacation opportunity.

If the opportunity to exchange between Sheraton and Westin isn’t enough for you, then you can also do exchanges through Interval International. Interval International is a third party timeshare exchange company that features some of the best timeshares you are likely to find. How it works is that you simply deposit your own vacation week and select from all of the available II resorts throughout the world. Starwood timeshares are currently located in Hawaii, Florida, California, Colorado, Arizona and South Carolina in the US, as well as The Bahamas, Mexico and the US Virgin Islands. But with the exchange opportunities available through Interval International, the whole world is available as your vacation destination.