Marriott Vacation Club point system

Someone mentioned that enrolling your week is expensive. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't. Kind of depends how you plan to use your week. If you have, say, a 2BR and are finding that more often than not one of the bedrooms goes empty, or if you find that you often only use the villa for 4 or 5 days instead of the full week, or if you frequently find yourself paying internal exchange fees or paying for Marriott Rewards trades, I think you will find that the $2395 quickly pays for itself. And from what I understand, if you make a purchase of a small amount of their points product, they will give you the enrollment on your week for free. But if you always use the full villa, 7 days, same size as always and are happy with that, there would be no reason, really, to pay for enrollment fee. I suggest you go on a sales tour next time you use your villa and find out the facts for yourself. I am pretty sure the sales tours are free, and come with no obligation to buy anything.

Good thoughts. My experience is that I enrolled our weeks for something like $550 for all 5 weeks back when the new program started in 2010. I would probably do this again for that price and I do like the one annual fee aspect rather than the Interval transaction fees. For point use, I trade one high point value week each year and have enough points for fractional week reservations and I like this. For one bedroom needs, I think the better deal is to buy an aftermarket week at Grand Chateau with the lock-off feature and trade. Another option is to rent out good weeks and use the cash to rent a one bedroom week.

I think most of us accumulate weeks and or points and then figure out over time how to maximize our experience. We have enjoyed our Marriott experience.

We just returned from Hawaii and declined the presentation. I've never had one last only 90 minutes and find them inconsistent with vacationing. Also, my wife said she would kill me if I subjected her to another "imagine" and "wear you down" presentation.

Is there a negative to buying DC points on the open market? Does Marriott treat these points any differently?

robert3210 wrote:

Is there a negative to buying DC points on the open market? Does Marriott treat these points any differently?

Marriott has fees that you must pay in order for you to have those points not treated differently. I can't remember the specifics but it's something like $200 for every 250 points you buy on the open market. You also had to purchase a minimum of about $1000. Plus, if you done own points from Marriott already, you have to pay an education fee of about $300 as well. These numbers could be higher now, but that's about what is was a while ago. Even with the fees it can be very cheap to buy points on the open market. However, remember that Marriott has right of first refusal to buy the points from the owner. They only do this if the feel the price per point is too low.

I know the last post on this was 2014, but hope to revive it as we just returned from another Marriott presentation. Thinking we learned a lot, but mostly learned that you can't trust Marriott reps! We did not buy destination points to add to our Legacy week, though we are considering buying some points on resale market. Much better deal, and nice to help out people wanting to get out from Marriott. Not sure how consumers get the real story- who can we trust to find out for sure what, if any fees, are associated with purchase of 3,000 VCPs. Is it true that there is a set price per VCP for maintenance? On this site, each owner selling points have very different maintenance fees even taking into consideration the number of points. We looked couple days ago on Redweek and there were multiple sellers and various denominations available. Today on Redweek all links go to same realtor! Only denomination is $1,000! What happened? Would love to hear from someone who has purchased resale VCPs and how that works. Fees? Limitations using them? Maintenance fees per point? Thanks!

look at the timeshares users group - TUG (http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/) under Marriott and search for info. I am a legacy week owner that signed up to trade my legacy week for Destiation Points but have never done so. I think Marriott charges $500 for every 250 points purchased with a min charge of $3000 for someone buying resale. They also have the right of first refusal if the purchase price is too low. I have no interest in purchasing points so I read what is on the TUG website but I do not retain much. If you have a legacy week and you signed up for trading it for DC points, you can rent points from an owner instead of buying. Renting points right now go for about 50 to 60 cents a point. Almost what the MF is for points. Again, go to the above website and you will get all the information you need to make an informed decision.

You would be looking at a minimum of about $6700 in fees to set up 3000 resale points in addition to the purchase price. MF's is currently around $0.47 per point. It rises a few cents just about every year.

I am a destination points owner and want to purchase additional points and am looking on the secondary market. Curious if other owners have had similar experiences.

Well done. You have nicely articulated this growing feeling I've had for several years.

who typically pays the transfer fees? Are they negotiated between the buyer and the seller? Curious to know current market practice.

I could not find your spread sheet under http://pointscruncher.com. Did I do something wrong or is it not available anymore?

johnd2083 wrote:

The decision to purchase vacation club points can be difficult. The only way to determine if vacation club ownership represents a good value is to perform a financial analysis. This requires comparing costs associated with vacation club ownership with the costs of the alternative - paying retail costs for lodging fees. Before I purchased vacation club points, I created a spreadsheet to determine if there was a financial benefit associated with vacation club ownership. The spreadsheet was so helpful that I decided to create an application so that I could analyze future vacation club purchases. This application is called PointsCruncher and is located here: http://pointscruncher.com. I hope it helps make vacation club ownership decisions a bit easier.

Same deal . Big presentation and all about how they would increase in a few months and that Marriott would buy them back. Then when I called Marriott, they have no program to buy back points. The market for selling them is a third of what we paid. Lying salesmen and manager. I own 2 weeks at the Oceanclub in Aruba. for 10 years. It used to be worth it now the fees keep going up and value going done. Not worth it anymore. Not happy with Marriott.

..

It doesn't make sense that you would purchase points for $9.oo per and later in the year be able to sell them back to Marriott for about $13.00. How would Marriott stay in business? The cost of the points goes up gradually every quarter. It's sad that legacy owners have a limited inventory even at their home resort. I have a feeling the vacation club bought the rights to use the Marriott name because a lot of the problems that seem to be happening would be solved if J.W. was still at the helm.

Wouldn't it be grand if 'Marriott" would switch your week to the same destination points that they will charge you to stay. My wife and I bought platinum at the Newport Coast Villas in California. The week is worth 3,475 points but to stay with points in July or August, it takes nearly 4,500 points. Now why isn't our week worth the same amount of point s? We used to be able to stay there during July or August but because "Marriott" has decreased the inventory for legacy owners, we will have to try and use our week at the end of September. What's fair is fair...we purchased the week for use the entire year except late December and should be afforded the appropriate points. As was stated before, it's win, win, win for them and lose, lose, lose for us.

Part of the problem with your story is that Interval doesn't have that many premier resorts. You stay at 3 star resorts, not 5 star.

We are in the DP program...might be interested in purchasing a resale Marriott week but not from Marriott. The only benefit I see is that we will save a ton of $$ and still be able to use this week at my home reort...is that true?

That can be true. Interval has some good places but you need to request so far ahead ! I own 2 weeks of Marriott's top end, platinum season, 2 BR, ocean front on St Kitts. Its very hard to find an exchange worth that.

I cannot begin to tell people how disapponted I am with Marriott VacationClub. It would sound like a rant ! I won t touch their Destinations as a result. No trust anymore.

yes, if you wish to go to a Marriott Timeshare location either purchase the week from a third party or rent the week from an owner. Do not purchase the destination points.

Example. To purchase the points from Marriott to go to Grande Ocean at Hilton Head during the Gold Season in an Oceanfront would require purchasing 4000 points. At 13.18 per point this is 52,720 not including closing fees. The annual maintenance fee is 50 cents per point or 2,000 annually, ' There are people on redweek.com willing to sell you this week for 9,000 and the annual fee is about 1300. How easy is this decision to make?

it is 500 for every 250 points with a 3000 minimum