Marriott Going to Point Syst

FOR THOSE WHO BOUGHT INTO THE NEW PROGRAM. Using your new II account number (the one that comes with the new program) be sure and call II to see if they have all your weeks in their system under your new II account number.

The previous writer had a problem and so did I. It did get fixed, but it took a couple calls to Marriott to have them provide II the correct information. (Until fixed II had most of my weeks under someone else's name.)

thomasn15 While all this theoretical discussion about how the new program should or should not work is certainly beneficial, ultimately the advantages and disadvantages to owners will be based on the actual usability of the program. /Q]

While this is true (theoretical discussion vs. actual usability), the only truly valid comparison is a 5-10-20 year comparison, trades (or even home resort occupancy dates that can be gotten) pre-June 20, 2010 and thereafter. My experience for the past 20 years was fantastic, unbelievable, incredible, wonderful. But, I can't wait 20 years to see if I got hosed. I already know I got hosed, even if it is only theoretical. Therefore I sold my 4 weeks and I am out of the timeshare business.

It appears, based on your experience thus far, that you, too, have figured out you have been hosed. Some of your bad experience can best be described as 'annoying inconvenience' but many of your experiences describe a fundamental (and undesirable) shift in vacation ownership experience.

My best to all of you who decided to try this out for awhile, Redweek rentals with known dates that are available look mighty good from here.

Just saw this from http://www.marriottvacationclub.com/landing/email/insider/november/important-dates.html

•You will receive your 2011 MVC Trust Owners Association (TOA) maintenance fee at the beginning of November for your 2011 use year. The TOA maintenance fee for 2011 is approximately 40 cents per Vacation Club Point owned. Your maintenance fee will also include your 2011 Club Dues.

From the Marriot website, I could not find any info about this fee. Say if you got 5000 points, that's extra $2000 in TOA maintenance fee! Do I understand it correctly?

If you are a deeded owner your mtce fee will be the one you normally receive for your ownership location. If you trade your deeded unit into some Destination points you will NOT be charge any mtce fee for those points. The 40 cents per point mtce fee is for those new owers who just own points.

I concur with J227. The 40 cents per point are for newly purchased points from the new program. It does not have anything to do with our existing deeded weeks. I thought this was real high when I first looked at it, but then, it is based on points, not weeks. In other words I compared it to the "value" of my platinum week which is 4200 points and concluded that the maint fee would be $1680, much higher than the approx $1050 I pay today, but then on the other hand, my bronze week which is worth 1100 points, would be a $440 maintenance fee, much less than the $1050 approx I pay now. So as far as maint fees go, if you buy into the new system with enough points to balance your seasonal availability like we did way back, then the maintenance fees on the points are about the same... you can argue both sides of whether this works or not or is fair or not, but I dont think it could be done any other way.

Also, the new interval account cards have your deeded weeks printed right on them. At least mine did as a full original owner purchased from Marriott.... Any deposited exchange prior to the program did NOT convert and are still in my old account number with my non Marriott week that I own...

Beware the Marriott New Point System for their timeshares (Called Marriott Vacation Club Destinations) is a Ripoff! I joined and regreted it after really reading over the info. I have two Platinum timeshares with Marriott. What they don't tell you at the presentation is that you only get 6 nights of Points values for each of your 7 nights timeshare. It costs hundreds of $'s to join and you get a yearly fee. My yearly fee is another $199. Stay far away!

I own two Platinum week Marriott Timeshare weeks. I joined the Marriott Vacation Club Destinations - the new point system. Don't Join - if you are smart. They only give owners a points value of 6 nights to trade back into your own resort for each of your timeshares. What does that mean? It means you get a 6 night value in points when your timeshare is 7 nights. I called and asked a customer service rep about this. I was given this BS answer- "Not all weeks in your Platinum time period have the same level of request by owners -- so we averaged the value of your Platinum week out." In other words - we screwed you, we know it and tough luck for you.

You don't have to use points to stay at your own resort. So you will have 7 nights at your own resort. However, you may lose nights at other resorts when you use points. Some people will have additional resort time dependent upon where they bought their timeshare. For example, a Maui Ocean Club week is worth many more points than at Desert Springs Marriott so one could stay longer than 7 nights at Desert Springs if they owned at Maui.

There are good parts to the program. It's not all bad. If you have two lockoff units, you will find that you will save money on using them as well as other savings with II. Some of us will do well by joining. Don't be too negative too quickly.

I know many of us feel that we need to have as many points to use at other properties as our supposed points value. That is a problem for many, but we must get over it. It is what it is. If we dono't like it, thenjust use II. There are other properties outside of Marriott. We will just have to explore.

I know that I don't need to use points to stay at my resort. I own a very expensive and desirable resort = Marriott Mountain side in Park City. There is a short window of opportunity to ski so - I have a Platinum week. I assume you know that other folks, using points, can get a reservation at my resort before me because they can reserve 13 months ahead. If I make my reservation the old way - like a timeshare owner - I can only reserve 12 months ahead. When I go to get a reservation it will be essentially impossible to get a reservation. I called last year (at 9:00am the first day the week was made available) to get a desirable week at my resort and was told it was sold out. I asked how that could even happen. Never got a good answer. That will happen more at my resort. That is one reason I thought it may be good to get into the point system. Now I find out I get 6 nights instead of 7 at a resort comparable to my resort. Sure if I want to go to a less desirable resort I will get some more value but, perhaps you forget - I paid a lot more for my week in Park City. And may not get to go. In other words Marriott takes more value away from you and I.

If you own two weeks, you can still use your 13 month advantage that multiple week owners can do. I don't think that has not changed.

They are looking at it from the standpoint that you paid for your week at Park City not for all of the other resorts. However, if your resort weeks are of high value, I bet you can get quite a few days at other resorts. I do understand the six day as opposed to 7 day stays are seem as if we are being ripped off. For me, since I live close to several of the resorts I can see me staying Shadow Ridge or Desert Springs. They are very, very cheap compared to my Hawaii resort at Ko Olina. I can stay there for more than my 7 days. I like that.

charless345 wrote:

compared to my Hawaii resort at Ko Olina. I can stay there for more than my 7 days. I like that.

You have to be kidding, or else you aren't very good at math. Using 'points' from Ko Olina to stay 'more than 7 nights' at Desert Springs is a very sorry use of points. You can rent Desert Springs for a song - an II getaway or a red week rental. Either one would be a FAR better value than using 'free' points from a Ko Olina week to stay at Desert Springs. Ko Olina cost a lot. Using it to go to Desert Springs is not good.

Charles, Bob is right - you can get more days using points at other resorts for your Hawaii timeshare but, those are days with less value. That's what Marriott wants you to do. I want to ski. And I paid Marriott big bucks for my week. I have never traded my ski week timeshare away. If you own Hawaii you would probably want to go other places other than Hawaii - so no big deal for you. ( By the way, I have tried to book my two timeshare weeks 13 weeks in advance but, I have been told I would have to book both weeks at the same time - back to back. I don't do that because I have one week in Orlando, Florida and one week in Park City, Utah. I don't want to fly to Florida right after I just flew to Utah to ski. So I don't reserve the weeks at the same time.) I reserve my week to ski in the months of Jan, Feb, or March. Tried to get a week in January last year (12 months out) and was told it was gone. Using points would possibly allow me to get any week I want to ski at Park City - because I can reserve 13 weeks out. But, by using points I would also forfeit a day. I don't plan to do that. As more people get into the Points program - It is conceivable that Points users could take all the good snow weeks from my timeshare's block of weeks. ( A Very Limited # of weeks) Marriott doesn't care if I end up with the choice of the crappy snow weeks at my Park City timeshare. Marriott will just force the timeshare owners to take one of the leftover weeks in Nov. and April. (Not optimal snow weeks.) Marriott probably figures that is a great way to basically force owners to buy into the Points program to get a good week at their own property. So if you have a good point value resort such as Hawaii and you like to trade your timeshare week, the Points program may work for you. But, if you like to go to the resort you bought. And your resort is a high demand resort with a short window of great weeks - Marriott's Point system is working in Marriott's favor not the owner's.

I own 3 weeks of MVC. I also own in the Disney Vacation Club (a points system that I love) and a week with a traditional weekly timeshare. Disney definitely has it down. If the MVC program attempts to emulate DVC - I'm happy. I haven't enrolled yet but Probably will. I have one week of MVC that was a high cost, high demand resort. IF I can get the week I want, we usually have to fight for a decent view - even though we paid for Ocean Front. Imagine - every time you book your week - that you paid dearly for - you get nothing but aggravation. Turns out that week is worth more than 5,000 points. I can go to Aruba or St Kitts mid-winter for fewer points and no aggravation!

It will take time to transition over to the points system but in the end, I believe it will be better. I am glad that there is some added consideration for those of us that bought direct from Marriott. God knows we've paid for it.

I will continue to rent my lock-offs and occupy or trade my 1-bdrms and my one week at Marco Island - I will never give up.

Just got out from the presentation today. My gut feeling is that Marriott is running into a hard bottle neck that the sales is so bad that they decided to make profit out of the current owners. What a pitiful decision to destroy their own kingdom of timeshare.

We were there for almost 2.5 hours. At first, when we were contacted about this before our arrival, we were told it's an explanation of the new system. The rep were full of smile and chat with us in the beginning, asking questions about our experiences and our destinations in our mind. He kept throwing out pretty pictures and dream travel plans to the desinations that he heard from us.

This kept going for about 1.5 hours until we got bored and realized that this is a sales presentation, not an informational meeting. This is the first red flag raised in my mind, the "honesty" we trust in Marriott is not here. So we cut into the point : How it works and how much it costs? Our questions were not answered to what we want to know, but again he just talked about how good the new program is and how flexible it can be, and how good our future Hawaii trip could be by using this new point system. He is using our friendly answers to trap us into his sales practice "This is what you told me you want, so now you have to buy it so you are not lying to me". This is the 2nd flag raised, how come Marriott sales practice becomes like this?

We tried to understand how the new point system works while he was pushing us to buy 1500 points ($15000) and enroll our weeks ($695) so we can be at the "Platinum" level and our Hawaii trip will become so easy and becomes reality under the new system.

But we realized something is not right. We asked about the destinations we frequently went, and found out the new points we get from our weeks will not be enough to exchange there anymore. But the sales immediately pointed to another facility and told us if we stay there, we can stay for almost 2 weeks. When we point out that facility is not our interest, he told us "the one you normally exchanged to is a very expensive one and you were just lucky that you got it".

He also kept ensure us that the new system will keep all our options as before, if we prefer, we can still do the old exchange as before, nothing will change, but will get better. Later when he was trying to push us to enroll, he revealed that II will no longer have Marriott facilities available for exchange. So if we don't enroll but still use II for exchange, it will be almost impossible to get a Marriott facility. That obviously is conflicting with his statement that nothing will change. This is the 3rd red flag raised. He obviously is lying to us.

We quickly became suspecious about what he said, since so many red flags raised, especially when he guaranteed us that the exchange fees such as II membership, reward points, deposit fee, etc, will all be history, "no more fees", it will be a big saving for owners. And we later found out Marriott charges $199 exchange fee. Before if we exchange to our home base, then there is no fee at all, now it's $199 no matter what. That's the final red flag that made us decide to walk. The honesty in Marriott sales is gone.

We asked for literatures that we can study and analyze so we can make educated decision, not on impulse. But he refused to give us any printed material. We asked to borrow the booklet he looked up points for the facilities, but he claimed that "the booklet is so expensive to print, he would not allow us to borrow it".

Marriott Marriott, why you are so greedy on your loyal owners? You want to lie to us in order to squeeze more money out of us? Why you change your sales practice to the kind that all the others use? This makes you no difference from others.

We will be getting ready to sell our weeks if we found out that Marriott is playing tricks on owners. It's doesn't worth it to own it anymore.

By the way, just want to mention, the "new point" will only last 2 years in your account (current year points can be used one year in advance and to the end of current year). If you don't use it, It vanishes. How nice!!

rickk116 wrote:

Just got out from the presentation today. My gut feeling is that Marriott is running into a hard bottle neck that the sales is so bad that they decided to make profit out of the current owners. What a pitiful decision to destroy their own kingdom of timeshare.

We were there for almost 2.5 hours. At first, when we were contacted about this before our arrival, we were told it's an explanation of the new system. The rep were full of smile and chat with us in the beginning, asking questions about our experiences and our destinations in our mind. He kept throwing out pretty pictures and dream travel plans to the desinations that he heard from us.

This kept going for about 1.5 hours until we got bored and realized that this is a sales presentation, not an informational meeting. This is the first red flag raised in my mind, the "honesty" we trust in Marriott is not here. So we cut into the point : How it works and how much it costs? Our questions were not answered to what we want to know, but again he just talked about how good the new program is and how flexible it can be, and how good our future Hawaii trip could be by using this new point system. He is using our friendly answers to trap us into his sales practice "This is what you told me you want, so now you have to buy it so you are not lying to me". This is the 2nd flag raised, how come Marriott sales practice becomes like this?

We tried to understand how the new point system works while he was pushing us to buy 1500 points ($15000) and enroll our weeks ($695) so we can be at the "Platinum" level and our Hawaii trip will become so easy and becomes reality under the new system.

But we realized something is not right. We asked about the destinations we frequently went, and found out the new points we get from our weeks will not be enough to exchange there anymore. But the sales immediately pointed to another facility and told us if we stay there, we can stay for almost 2 weeks. When we point out that facility is not our interest, he told us "the one you normally exchanged to is a very expensive one and you were just lucky that you got it".

He also kept ensure us that the new system will keep all our options as before, if we prefer, we can still do the old exchange as before, nothing will change, but will get better. Later when he was trying to push us to enroll, he revealed that II will no longer have Marriott facilities available for exchange. So if we don't enroll but still use II for exchange, it will be almost impossible to get a Marriott facility. That obviously is conflicting with his statement that nothing will change. This is the 3rd red flag raised. He obviously is lying to us.

We quickly became suspecious about what he said, since so many red flags raised, especially when he guaranteed us that the exchange fees such as II membership, reward points, deposit fee, etc, will all be history, "no more fees", it will be a big saving for owners. And we later found out Marriott charges $199 exchange fee. Before if we exchange to our home base, then there is no fee at all, now it's $199 no matter what. That's the final red flag that made us decide to walk. The honesty in Marriott sales is gone.

We asked for literatures that we can study and analyze so we can make educated decision, not on impulse. But he refused to give us any printed material. We asked to borrow the booklet he looked up points for the facilities, but he claimed that "the booklet is so expensive to print, he would not allow us to borrow it".

Marriott Marriott, why you are so greedy on your loyal owners? You want to lie to us in order to squeeze more money out of us? Why you change your sales practice to the kind that all the others use? This makes you no difference from others.

We will be getting ready to sell our weeks if we found out that Marriott is playing tricks on owners. It's doesn't worth it to own it anymore.

All of the information you are saying that they would not "give" to you is all online on the Marriott Vacation Club web site. I was very upset after reading a lot of these blogs, thinking that we were not able to know what we may purchase until after we purchased.

However, then I found out that all of the information is online!!! You can look up EVERY resort and find out how many points it take so for every week of the year - and the points vary depending on the week, or the number of days, and the time of year as well as the view. These documents sure helped us and I hope they will help you!

By the way, just want to mention, the "new point" will only last 2 years in your account (current year points can be used one year in advance and to the end of current year). If you don't use it, It vanishes. How nice!!

In reference to to the above comment, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU KNOW THAT EVEN THOUGH THE "NEW POINTS" WILL ONLY LAST 2 YEARS IN YOUR ACCOUNT, THIS IS VERY MISLEADING. IN REALITY, YOU MUST DECIDE BY THE END OF APRIL WHETHER TO USE YOUR POINTS FOR THAT SAME YEAR, OR TRANSFER THEM INTO THE NEXT YEAR. In other words, if for example, you have 3,000 points at the beginning of 2011. You must decide by the end of April to either use them for 2011, or transfer them to 2012. If you do not transfer them to 2012, you must use them for 2011, or lose them.

My guess is that Marriott designed this so many points will go unused.

Thomasn15 and rick116. Under the old system, if you did not reserve or use your week during the year it was assigned for, did you not LOSE that week as well? Under the new system, you can bank the points for the following year, is that not correct? To me that sounds like additional flexibility over the old deeded week ownership.

As far as the $199 fee that Rick116 discusses, that is a yearly fee that replaces ALL other Interval exchange and membership fees, as well as fees to convert to Marriott Reward Points. So lets get the facts straight. I am not sure about the sales pitch you had, but mine was no different than I have had for the last 13 years. No pressure, just facts and opportunity if I wished.

As an update to a previous post I made, I joined, decided for the first time after 13 years to "give up my home resort" for the summer of 2011, convert 2011 to points for both summer and winter week, and roll the dice. I have already been confirmed for 2 villas in July 2011 at Ocean Watch in Myrtle Beach for 5 days as I requested and have 2200 points left. Maybe I will get the third villa I requested, maybe not, 2 of 3 so far isnt bad. If we dont get it, we will go back to Hilton Head (home resort location) in the fall sometime. Oh, I also exchanged two of my banked winter weeks from Hilton Head with Interval and Got Aruba Surf Clubin July for my son's honeymoon and Maui Ocean Club in September for my daughter's honeymoon this past year, so exchanges with II didnt dry up for me, Of course both the locations I got were just some of the worst undesireable places to go, weren't they....

Rick, Regarding my comment on the expiration of the points, maybe I did not make myself clear. I was not referring to not reserving or using your week. What I was referring to is the fact that once you have decided to convert your unit for the new points (and they are in your account), you must decide by the end of April what year to use them. For example, you said you have 2,200 points left in your account. You must decide by the end of April whether to use then in 2011 or 2012. If you have done nothing with them by May1, then they can only be used for 2011. At the end of 2011 if you have not used then, they are lost.

This is a nuance in the new system that certainly can be managed, but many people are not aware of it.

The Marriott Points System is designed to make more money for Marriott. I will explain why: 1. In the Points System - You only get a six night value in points to trade for your 7 nights. (Marriott just reduced the value of your resort week) That's why they don't give you the Points Value Booklet at the sales presentation until after you signed up for the Points System. That is also why you can bank Points and use them next year because you will need the extra Points to go where you want. 2. If you prefer to go to the resort you purchased, you should know that getting the best weeks will be harder to do if your resort is in high demand. Points users can reserve 13 months in advance and get the best weeks at the resort you own. That will make it harder for the you, the Resort owner, -if you are reserving 12 months in advance- to get the week you want at the resort you purchased. (I think Marriott can give away 50% of the rooms to Points users.) So unless you own two weeks at that Resort and can reserve 13 months out also - reserve early if you want a popular week. 3. If you enroll in the Points Sys. - You do not have to pay the fee to be in Interval International or an exchange fee but, Marriott is now going to get an extra yearly fee from you; whether you convert to your week that year into Points or not. ($199 is the usual new fee.) If you went to your own resort in the past - you paid no exchange fee. Therefore, $199 is more than you spent in the past because you only had the II fee of around $90. 4. If you traded a lot in the past, don't care to go to your own resort and you own Platinum weeks (so that you get a decent Point value for your weeks) - you will may like the Point system. Remember though you get a 6 night value. 5. If you own Silver or Gold weeks the days of excellent trades for you is over. You will find now you will have to buy some extra Points from Marriott to get a decent trade. (More Cash for Marriott) 6. If you buy extra Points I believe there is a yearly "Maintenance Fee" on the extra Points. I hear the fee is high. (More $ for Marriott) I see it this way - Eventually Marriott owners will be forced into the Points system, whether they want to be or not, simply because good trades (if you are not using Points) will become much more difficult.