Worth it to Buy a Traditional Marriott Platinum Week?

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

I've seen many of these weeks plunge in price. Are they still worth buying for exchanging into other Marriotts via Interval, or has the points system made that no longer advisable?

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

JMHO - I feel it is too early to tell.
If I were buying a Marriott Platinum week now it would be to use almost every year.

Maint fees at most Marriott's have broken the $1,000 mark - lock off fee $75 plus II exchange fee for each half $159ish X 2. For high demand resorts, II still offers an AC for another week of vacation but these have been severely restricted recently.

If you are an off season traveler with flexibility, you could make it work by trading up in unit size and using the AC - but as the DC takes hold, there will be less and less in II. Might not be for 5+ years, but it is the direction things are taking.

Now there will be a follow up post about RCI and southwest FL .....

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

I agree with Pat. At this point, I would only purchase for use, not trading. I think it will get more difficult to trade through II, and the prices keep increasing. If you want to visit different locations on a regular basis, you're probably better off renting.

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

It will become more difficult to do exchanges through II. We have heard this multiple times already from the Corporate Sales Staff at a few resorts in CA (Palm Desert and Lake Tahoe) and the last one was NOT a sales presentation so no reason to lie to us to get a sale. Some resorts are very difficult to exchange into today already unless you go off-season.

I asked them what is going to happen to II and he said that it was going to be more of a boutique type of exchange company like some of the others.

Buy where you like to go most of the time and take advantage of the dirt cheap prices today if you plan to travel many more years. The rental fees by the Marriott at their top location resorts are still much higher than the maintenance fees and you will be guaranteed to get the week in the season you are buying but if you like traveling in the off-season then renting is the way to go. JMHO.