Hello, my name is Syed Sarmad and I am the principal broker for Advantage Vacation. We are a licensed real estate company specializing in the resales of timeshares.  We’ve been in business for over 20 years specializing in timeshare resales.

Westin Kierland Villas Golf Course

Westin Kierland Villas Golf Course

Today I would like to talk about the Westin Kierland Villas which is a Starwood Vacation Ownership property.  The two most important points about this property is that it is classified as a Mandatory Resort and the annual maintenance fees for this property is the lowest of all Starwood Vacation Ownership properties that are Mandatory Resorts.  There are 6 Mandatory Resorts – this being one of them.

Before going into the explanation of Mandatory Resorts, I would like to talk about the Westin Kierland Villas.  It is located in Scottsdale, Arizona and there are three seasons:

There is the Platinum Plus which is weeks 1 through 21 and weeks 50 through 52.

The Gold Plus season is from weeks 22 through 27 and weeks 36 through 49.

The Silver season is weeks 28 through 35.

There are three types of units – there are the two bedroom lockoff units, there is the one bedroom premium and the one bedroom deluxe unit.

As an owner at the Starwood Vacation property at Westin Kierland Villas you can reserve into your resort in the season you own in anywhere from 12 to 8 months in advance you have priority.  Since it is a Mandatory Resort you have StarOption benefits and therefore you can exchange into any other Starwood Vacation Villa up to 8 months in advance.  Voluntary or Mandatory Resorts, you can exchange into any of them.

If you want to use your timeshare at your home resort in a season you do not own in then you can reserve that in 8 months or less in advance.

We’ll touch briefly on Mandatory and Voluntary Resorts.

Mandatory Resorts – there are six of them

Westin Kierland Villas

Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas

Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas North

Harborside Resort at Atlantis

Westin St. John Resort Villas

Sheraton Vistana Villages (Bella and Key West Phases) in Orlando

All other resorts are Voluntary Resorts.

Therefore, at this resort when you own a resale unit you have the right to use your StarOptions benefits to vacation at other Starwood Vacation villas.

All the benefits of purchasing a Starwood resale at the Westin Kierland Villas are the same as purchasing from the developer except you don’t have the right to convert your StarOptions into StarPoints, which StarPoints has to do with using Starwood Hotels or using those points towards airline tickets.

So all the vacation ownership benefits for the timeshare remain in place.

I hope this information has been useful to you.  If you have any questions, please get in touch with us.