Marriott Vacation Club point system

I'm in agreement with the comments of these owners who have experienced the dream at a very high cost. I advise our married children to avoid buying the points. If they want to own timeshare, I suggest that they buy in the aftermarket. Further, I suggest that they buy units that can be easily rented at a good rent. I know Marriot's Newport Coast Villas meets this criteria. I also know that Marriott's Grand Chateau in Las Vegas does not.

Newport Coast - you can buy a platinum 2 bedroom week for less than $10,000. I easily rented weeks this year for $2,500 to $2,700. Maintenance fees and property taxes approximate $1,200. Use this as a base and either use it or rent it out for enough to rent something on Redweek. You can also deposit with Interval. The only thing you can't do is exchange for Marriott Destination Points.

I know people who love and feel destination points are well worth it. I am not one them. I look at it this way. At the current price of say 12 a point, I own an ocean front at the Monarch that takes 3600 points to get in. This is 41,000. Lets say you can buy resale points for 7.5 a point (including all fees). This reduces it to say 25,000. I paid 12K resale 20 years ago. I agree with the statement that you should buy timeshares that rent well. I can rent out my two Monarch units and get 5000 (for both). my MF is about 2800. I have a legacy week so I am fortunate in that I can rent points. 5000 cash can get me 9000 points if ever I want to. I can pay for a cruise. I speak for me and only me,,,DP in not for me .

With the benefit of hindsight and a clear view, is there anyone out there who would buy their timeshare or points again from Marriott? If you would, why?

Absolutely not. I bought in St Kitts pre construction. The promises inc,uded an office to help with resales and Marriott would assist with rentals. No such thing exists. I can take 120,000 points (plus I pay $149 fee!) for my platinum beach front week. However, Somebody looking to use points for my week would need 650,000 or more points per the Marriott web site. I have spoken at length with their customer service spin doctor and was told that I was correct but nothing would change. I can rent it myself and mostly do that. Its re sale value is quite low. Luckily the property is attractive and well maintained. A credit to the board (not to marriott).

I just attended a Marriott Vacation Club "90" minute presentation.

The sales people told me that in the last six years the "Trust" members maintenance fees went up a total of 5%.

I see on a comparison chart Trust maintence fees for example Marriott Crystal Shore Marco Island went up as much as 80% and Marriott Barony Beach around 35%.

The Marriott corporate would not reply to my question so I ask the owners?

If the Trust maintenance fees do not go up that's a good deal. Now about the spreading of hurricane Matthew damages in 2018 or as I was told Marriott is 100% insured?

Trust maintenance have increased more than what you were told. I've only owned trust points for three years, but the maintenance fees have increased at least 10% during that period. I expect the annual fees to rise 3-5%, although with inflation currently low, I hope the increase isn't that high. As far as Matthew, it is probably more true than false about the extent of coverage. Marriott would have excellent coverage (owners can get specifics), although there is a relatively large deductible. Maintenance fees may be somewhat affected over time, as insurance claims do affect the renewal pricing (as we all know from our own personal insurance). Cheers.

michaelb1903 wrote:

I just attended a Marriott Vacation Club "90" minute presentation.

The sales people told me that in the last six years the "Trust" members maintenance fees went up a total of 5%.

I see on a comparison chart Trust maintence fees for example Marriott Crystal Shore Marco Island went up as much as 80% and Marriott Barony Beach around 35%.

The Marriott corporate would not reply to my question so I ask the owners?

If the Trust maintenance fees do not go up that's a good deal. Now about the spreading of hurricane Matthew damages in 2018 or as I was told Marriott is 100% insured?

Trust pays maintenance fees like all owners on timeshares owned. Plus, trust has fees for trust costs. My experience is that trust will assess maintenance fees at higher rate.

I have owned Vacation Club points since near start of new program. 5% aggregate increase since inception is not true. More likely 5% per year increase.

Please consider aggregate cost of "all" ownership costs - initial cost, maintenance fees, and loss at time you try to sell). Please consider cost of enough points to go to your desired vacation spots. Consider how inexpensive and flexible it is to rent each year.

L U N A C Y !!!!

THe maintenance fees start off quite low and this is to pull you in. In St Kitts, they can go up each year by a certain percentage.; each year since 2006 they have gone up by the maximum possible. I now pay fees which are double 2006 fees. THe money is used wisely and honestly by our board. HOwever, in 2006 the fee quoted was not at all realistic ! BEware of Marriott hype.

Marriott restated to me that the Trust maintenance fees averaged just over 5% increase per year.

The Ocean CLUB Aruba not being in the Trust averages just over 4% per year.

I consider my Marriott timeshare maintenance to be a rent and the cost to join to be a club membership. This is like renting a golf community condo in Florida and paying rent plus a fee to pay golf. A big difference between a golf community Florida rental or even a rental in Aruba you can pick your time, most likely cancel even close to the arrival date ,and almost surely get several weeks per year for the same annual cost of buying a Marriott timeshare "ownership".

The inflation rates per year in the United States have averaged less than half the 5% maintenance costs increases per year. let's hope that the inflation rates stay low as it appears the timeshare maintenance fees will be double inflation rates each year.

I would buy points again. We own 2.5 weeks at the Grand Chateau and also a minimal 1,000 points. We are both self-employed so we can get away whenever we want. Plus we tend to take more short local trips rather than long & distant vacations. The fact that the Marriott timeshares can be used on Sun-Thurs for about 30% of the points that it would take for a weekend day (or 70% for a full week's day) really works for us.

Generally speaking the Marriott set-up is not bad when considering all other timeshare companies.

Currently I own 7 Marriott Legacy weeks 2 of my own and 5 that I just inherited from my parents. All of them are enrolled in the destination points program..

We always go to the "Owner Presentation" Mainly for the freebies but also to annoy the sales people a bit when you know more about the system than they do.

Some things to know. The Legacy owners who are enrolled actually have quite a bit of power and are generally in much better shape than those who just own points. If you are a deeded owner with high level properties and enrolled in the Destination Points program you are much better off than lower level properties.. ( 5 of the properties I have are High Level, 1 is moderate, and one is low) Generally speaking I can trade the high level properties for points and get more out of them using the destination points than I can by using them. The moderate can go either way and the low is a pretty much use it or trade it into interval.

Maintenance fees: Marriott can raise Maintenance fees whenever and by pretty much whatever, but, generally speaking these raises are given to owners via balance sheets in their yearly reports. So you can find out where your money is going and you can complain if you want (whether it does and good, don't know).

The Trusts maintenance fees are based on the combination of the costs to run the trust and the associated maintenance fees for all the weeks that are designated to the trust which includes Remaining unsold weeks for all Marriott Vacation Clubs when Marriott converted to Destination Points, New resorts that have been introduced to the Program (All go into the trust), Weeks that Marriott buys back. The Trust does have a set number of available points to sell or have been sold but that does increase with every new resort as new properties are put into the trust. Marriott cannot sell more inventory than it has and honestly probably never will sett all their inventory. As well Marriott must pay the maintenance fees (same as owners do) for every week that they own at a particular resort.

The Overall Maintenance fees per resort varies considerably. I have two resorts in my portfolio where the annual Deeded Maintenance fees are actually higher than the trust but the other 5 are at or lower. and this is the same way the Trust works averaging all the fees to come up with a per point basis.

The Unsold Marriott owned inventory of the Trust can be used in any way they see fit (just as we can use or rent or let it go) which is why we now see that Marriott actually rents rooms to the Vacation clubs on their normal Hotel website.

Now the question, would I but Trust Points when I have so many "Exchange Points", No and Yes, at the moment my answer would be NO as I have found that there is no current difference in using the points at any resort.. BUT that being said there IS a difference between the legacy "Exchange Points" and the "Trust Points". Currently MOST of Marriotts properties contain a combination of Enrolled Exchange points and Trust points as the resorts were built and sold prior to the Trust being created, however, Every resort the has come into the program AFTER this time is considered a completely TRUST point resort.. What this means is that if Marriott decides at some point in the future that CAN designate that the "Exchange points" can only be used at resorts where there are available "exchange points" availability. this would effectively exclude Trust resorts from Legacy owners and this would be the time where it is possible that I would buy some additional points. As of right now though Marriott places enough of their ownership into the general points pool where availability is there for all resorts.

Are the points a good buy well that depends on you.. You can play hardball and get the points lower in price (they will negotiate a bit). The maintenance fees were around $.55 per point for the trust not too long ago. Should you buy the Destination Points third party (mmm not so sure), Marriott has actually put in place some serious stuff to keep resale points from devaluing their sold points. The first is the enrollment They charge some decent costs to enroll points back into the system which I think is mentioned above at $500.00 for every 250 points with a minimum enrollment. This means that even if you purchase third party just to get them enrolled it will cost you $2.00 per point. If you do not enroll you can use your points but you are limited to making last minute reservations which of course means you are left with what is available.

When Marriott converted to the trust they also set in place some things that actually help owners. #1 is they internalized trading. This in turn actually limits how many weeks leave the Marriott system which means that Interval International actually receives less Marriott exchanges so they are actually harder to get for non owners.

It is fun to mess with the sales people as they always say a point is a point is a point.. but as I explained above not all Destination points are created equal and Marriott knows which are which. The also like to sell small packages of points and say you can Bank left/right/and center to get your vacation.. While this is true it is not exactly user friendly to do as you pay three years of maintenance fees to take one vacation every three years.. Trading points into Interval for other travel is NOT advantageous as Interval ranks your deposit by point level deposited which is not as good as resort level ranking (this is where having a DEEDED week is much better, especially at a GOOD resort). Cruises and other third party travel options really kind of suck in exchange rates, yea you can do it but it will probably cost you more than you can buy it for.

Generally speaking the Marriott system is good and is pretty transparent if you do your research. #1 rule DONT take the word of the Sales person.. They say Marriott is no pressure and for the most part they are less pressure but there are a few sales people that are VERY HIGH PRESSURE.. We actually called out the manager on one that was nice as can be until we said Nope not buying and then turned into a RUDE ***. We were like so that is how you treat owners huh.. or even someone who is there for the first time.. generally though Many of the sales people we have , Because I know more about the system, generally pick my brain about how it actually works. BTW I got most of my information in pieces from vacation advisors and supervisors along with all those documents that no one ever reads that are sent to owners.

Anyway what it all comes down to is that I do think the Marriott Point system is pretty transparent and not that bad, Second I would say Hiltons is OK (have a little experience with that through other friends) also have experience with a couple of the lower ones which are NOT good. Like I said as an Enrolled Legacy I will not buy more points until I need them to go to a "Trust Only" resort or I find them extremely cheap where the re-enrollment fees don't up the cost back to what Marriott is selling them for. It's all about knowing what you are getting and how to use it.. The problem with the Trust Destination Point system is that all points are now valued even like $ bills so unlike with the deeded properties there is no advantage to owning certain "properties". You are deeded a portion of the land trust but it is all located in Florida.

I just attended a sales presentation and am considering a bundle if legacy week and points? Anybody happy with this purchase?

stevenm317 wrote:

I just attended a sales presentation and am considering a bundle if legacy week and points?

If you're planning on buying what the sales people were offering you at that presentation, then it is very likely not a good deal. Do some research first. See if you can find the same thing on the resale market for a tiny fraction of the cost.

What exactly was offered to you at this presentation and for how much?

I was told so many lies by Marriott Vacation Club sales staff, I can only say walk away from it ! I am still sorry I ever attended their presentation.

Yes, I've done it twice. It can be a good way to acquire Destination Club points, because the week Marriott sells you will be "enrolled." That means it can either be used as a conventional week, or you can "elect" to use the DC points value any year you want. Thus, the best of both worlds. It would work best if the week is one you would like to use many years. That said, you should also consider buying resale DC points and resale weeks. Those weeks would not be enrolled, but they typically cost perhaps half of what they would cost when buying from Marriott. Most importantly, unless you are absolutely certain, you should hold off, do some research and then decide. The combo deal is pretty much always available. And yes, I am happy with my purchases. I also have purchased DC points separately as well as resale weeks. I have an extremely flexible portfolio, but I know how to use it. Ymmv. Cheers.

stevenm317 wrote:

I just attended a sales presentation and am considering a bundle if legacy week and points? Anybody happy with this purchase?

stevenm317 wrote:

I just attended a sales presentation and am considering a bundle if legacy week and points? Anybody happy with this purchase?

It is an OK deal.. Basically it is the ONLY way you can currently buy a Deeded week and enroll it for use in the Destinations club program.. They use it as a way to give you additional points in the destination club.. Basically in the end you would have an Enrolled Week which will give you Enrolled Destination points every year and then you will have Trust points as well every year. In essence each of these works the same at this moment however Marriott does track and knows the type of points that you have. Each section will have its OWN maintenance fees.

Right now in Resale you can buy a Week but you CANNOT enroll it to use it in destination points or You can Buy Trust points but you will have to pay a significant amount to get those points fully usable in the Destinations program I think the enrollment fee equates to about $3 - 5.00 per point.

So if what they are selling you weeks/Points wise puts you around $7- $9.00 per point it might not be so bad as by the time you buy the trust points off of someone and then get them usable. The other thing to note is that depending upon the Week they are selling you the Maintenance fees on that week could be far less per point than even the trust.. I have weeks that average enrolled about $.38 per point in exchange as opposed to the Trust Maintenance fee of approx $.55 per point.

So it is basically make sure you ask all the numbers because in essence you are making two purchases. YOU CAN also choose the week you wish to purchase and some have more point value (but of course will be more expensive).

I have not actually done one of these deals myself but they are always pushing it for existing owners.

They offered a bundle forcabout $30k 4000 points with double incentives and encore rebate too. Price oer point about 7 Is that good? Oouble Marriott rewards one time.

How much cheaper outside Marriott and where to buy points outside? Assume resale weeks dont get points but are very cheap

I still wonder what happens to the Trust fees when there has been storm damage to some of the Marriott resorts. Not all repairs are covered by insurance.

As the annual maintenance fees rise we see now at least $185.00 per night to stay at a Marriott Timeshare resort. For locations like Aruba and Marco Island with rooms usually going for more than $300.00 per night it is still worth owning a timeshare. Now don't forget the add-ons such as the Governmental taxes in Aruba.

With renting a timeshare location you can at certain times find pricing within the $200.00 to $300.00 per night. The advantage of just renting you can cancel even up to two or three days in advance and no fees associated with cancellations. By renting there is no need to wait for an opening and try your hardest to find that best airfare for the time period. So many times I needed to settle on what airfare was available thus adding more cost to my already $1,300. maintenance fees.

Yes I love my timeshares in Aruba but just getting it coordinated with airfare and I look for first class is almost impossible.

At some point the maintenance fees will approach the timeshare rental price thus you loose that advantage.

Take the Hilton timeshares say in Longboat Key, Florida and the annual maintenance fees are over $1,000. per year. You can go to the Wyndham Vacations site and rent the same timeshare for abount $700.00 per week and cancel a day before. Trust me, I have done this. Also sometimes you can catch an Wyndham Vacation special for A Aruba Marriott property and for less than $1,000. for week.

If the privileges for Trust members become better than enrolled or legacy members then let the legal wars begin.

Knowing what I see with the new Crystal Shores Marriott expansion I see it becoming almost impossible to find a week timeshare use . I can rent a three bedroom house for a month with a pool, on the canals for $5,000. to $7,000. per month in September, October and even November. Three timeshares maintenance fees for a two bedroom Marco Island Marriott timeshare cost almost $6,000. Now add the cost of buying three Crystal Shores timeshare from Marriott and you can rent a house for a month in Marco as mush as 10 years in a row, You choose the house, you choose the location, you can even choose a house anywhere in Florida and probable much less than Marco Island.