Marriott New Point System....Destination Club

[ange Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ange]

Hi everyone,

I own an every other year timeshare at Marriott Desert Springs with lock-off capability. I've been doing some research on the new point system and was wondering if it's worthwhile for me to convert. I know the following information:

-To enrol the first year is $595 and $165/year afterwards to stay in it (since I bought the timeshare from Marriott directly, not resale.)
-This will waive my II membership fees, exchange fees, lock-off fees, converting my week into points fees.
-If I convert my week into points it's into the new point system, not the MR points anymore. (I've been reading and people have been saying that it's not worth it to convert weeks to points since it'll always cost more points to get a week.)

So what I'm planning on doing every other year is depositing my weeks into II as a master bedroom unit and a lock-off unit. Then depending on availability I would like to trade these two units for 2 weeks (not necessarily consecutive, could be 1week/year) of stay for 2-bdroom units. (I've been told that it's possible as long as I can find these units available on II myself. However, if I want to put myself on the waitlist then a 1bdroom unit can only reserve another 1bdroom unit at max. Can someone please confirm this?)
With all this in mind, my costs per year would be $89 for II membership, exchange fee, and lock-off fee. Would I be better off enrolling in the new point system?
Thanks everyone!

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

Hi ange, and welcome to TS4M's

Has Marriott extended their June 2011 date for enrollment? I'm not sure because I haven't stayed on top of it, but I thought that you needed to enroll by June 2011.

If not, I would consider enrolling, just to have more options. Since you would only be paying the $595 fee, I think it would be worth it to you in the end.

I would like to trade these two units for 2 weeks (not necessarily consecutive, could be 1week/year) of stay for 2-bdroom units. (I've been told that it's possible as long as I can find these units available on II myself. However, if I want to put myself on the waitlist then a 1bdroom unit can only reserve another 1bdroom unit at max. Can someone please confirm this?)

Correct, you cannot request a larger unit than you are depositing when putting in a request. The exception to that rule is if a resort only has larger units, (some resorts only offer 2 or more bdrms) then II will allow you to use a smaller unit to place the request. Of course, before II will fill your request, they will first fill the request of those who requested with the higher number of bdrms, 2 & 3.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

Right now in a two year period you spend $89 x 2 for II = 178
One lock off fee $75
Two exchange fees (only Mar to Mar is covered) $109x2= 218
total = 471

Two years in the club is currently 165 x 2 = 330

In 4 years you would almost make back your money of $595.....and start to be ahead....although the club membership will surely start to rise from the current $165 per year.

And you can convert your ownership to the new Marriott Destination Club Points as well as Marriott Reward Point to use in hotels - and no longer have to pay the fee for that either.

So in the long run you would make back your money.....if you own other non Marriott timeshares then you still need to maintain a paid II account so your payback time will be MUCH longer, in fact you will be losing money every year.

Your choice...

[rikkis_playpen Diamond Club Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close rikkis_playpen]

I just wanted to add a comment..

For several Marriott resorts I have been finding MUCH better availability for requests made 3 to 6 months out via destination club points than with weeks ownerships, but the costs of those reservations have been much higher due to the number of points required for the same reservation. It seems to be a bit of a trade off at this point..

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

I just wanted to add a comment..

For several Marriott resorts I have been finding MUCH better availability for requests made 3 to 6 months out via destination club points than with weeks ownerships, but the costs of those reservations have been much higher due to the number of points required for the same reservation. It seems to be a bit of a trade off at this point..

Yup,

I traded a 1BR Platinum Willow Ridge thru II for a studio Aruba Ocean Club.

The exchange was confirmed about 7 months from check-in and I had a 'back-up' plan if this did not happen.

The cost thru the destination club would have been between 1950-2150 depending on check-in day - and they would have only given me 1850 points for the entire 2BR unit.

For some people who by luck (because there really is no reason about how Marriott assigned points to different resorts) ended up with high value weeks, you can get some good destination club point resies.
And for people who can/want to travel Sunday thru Friday, they can stretch their ownership.

For the rest of us, there is not much sense in the new system.

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

GrayFal

And for people who can/want to travel Sunday thru Friday, they can stretch their ownership.

For the rest of us, there is not much sense in the new system.

I completely agree with this. The only real benefit I see for myself is trying to use the Sunday thru Friday stays. This could work, especially as an add on to a weeks stay.

[ange Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ange]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

So basically, I have a couple of options if I do want to enrol: I can still deposit my week with II, or I can use my week to get destination points. I would get better weeks with destination points but it would cost a bit more.

I think I'll call MVCI and see if I can still enrol first before I lose anymore brain cells over this.
I really do appreciate all this information everyone I've just started helping my mom manage her timeshare so I really have no idea how this thing works yet.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

You can still enroll today and the enrollment fees are the same. It depends if you bought from the developer direct or re-sale and how many weeks you own. Any timeshares bought after June 30, 2010 do not qualify for enrollment. There may be a few exceptions if you still bought through the Marriott. This is very unclear at the moment.

You still receive the 800 bonus points and, if you use them, you will make your original payment back. We did if we had to pay the maintenance fee for the nights that we are going to stay at our resort or the rental of a private party and certainly if we rented from the Marriott direct. They also give you an AC for each year that your membership has left with II but you only get one per year so we have a second AC coming. We booked a week already so we feel that the enrollment didn't cost us anything except for the yearly fees to stay active in the membership.

The yearly fees could be $165 or $199. This depends on how many points they give you for your week or weeks. We only own one week but fell in the $199 category.

It seems to be easy to get the reservations you want and the view and length of your stay too but it is more expensive than the old way if you want to stay a whole week because the points are much more expensive for the week-end nights so most people seem to book the week day nights so make it a five day stay instead of a full week.

You still call II but go through a special desk that handles enrolled Legacy week owners and most likely trust owners too. I am not sure about that as we didn't buy points.

I am afraid though that the fees, that are free now, will eventually start costing money again. We enrolled anyway as we still hope that Marriott will change their mind and let the new buyer take over our benefits eventually or they will lose trust inventory and certainly at the resorts that were almost sold out.

People buy and sell timeshares all the time so all these re-sales will be after June 30, 2010 and cannot be enrolled. This will hurt the trust inventory eventually unless the rules get changed again. JMHO.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

Thanks for the replies everyone!

So basically, I have a couple of options if I do want to enrol: I can still deposit my week with II, or I can use my week to get destination points. I would get better weeks with destination points but it would cost a bit more.

I think I'll call MVCI and see if I can still enrol first before I lose anymore brain cells over this.
I really do appreciate all this information everyone I've just started helping my mom manage her timeshare so I really have no idea how this thing works yet.

I just gave an example of how I got the week I wanted for much less in cost thru II, not a little. But yes, that would be your options and you can still get Marriott Reward Points for your ownership as well.