Marriott Vacation Club Announces Points Program

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

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Breaking News:

ORLANDO, Fla., July 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Marriott Vacation Club International (MVCI), the recognized worldwide leader in the vacation ownership industry and a division of Marriott International, Inc. (NYSE: MAR - News), today announced its continued growth into Asia with the opening of its Asia Pacific Regional headquarters in Singapore. As the first major branded hospitality company in the Asian timeshare market, MVCI brings more than 22 years of experience to consumers in this region.
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MVCI Asia Pacific will introduce a new Club Points product uniquely tailored to the vacationing habits of consumers in Asia. The program offers flexibility of use such as duration of stay, accommodation size and location at Club resorts in addition to exchange at MVCI resorts around the world.

"The development of Marriott's Phuket Beach Club in 2001 was just the beginning of our long-range plans for the Asia Pacific region. We have recognized for quite some time that while timeshare is booming elsewhere in the world, Asia is still a relatively untapped market. I am excited about the opportunities that are upon us to offer exceptional vacation experiences to consumers in Asia," said Steve Weisz, president, Marriott Vacation Club International.

The regional Asia Pacific team based in Singapore is lead by Harold Derrah, senior vice president and managing director, MVCI Asia Pacific.

MVCI will continue to develop its core product of deeded or right-to-use vacation ownership resorts in addition to the points-based product for consumers in Asia. Current Asia Pacific plans include developing properties across the region, and utilizing inventory at the existing Marriott's Phuket Beach Club. Marriott's Grand Chateau in Las Vegas, and Marriott's Ko Olina Beach Club, Oahu, Hawaii will also provide inventory to the Club Points product.

Since 1984, Marriott Vacation Club International has been the recognized worldwide leader in vacation ownership with a program highly regarded for its quality and unique flexibility. MVCI currently has over 8,000 timeshare villas worldwide and nearly 312,000 owners own their vacations "The Marriott Way," offering options to exchange within the MVCI portfolio, trade for Marriott Rewards points, exchange within Interval International's global system of 2,000 resorts in 75 countries or rent their week(s). Please visit http://www.vacationclub.com.

MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC. (NYSE: MAR - News) is a leading lodging company with over 2,800 lodging properties in the United States and 67 other countries and territories. For more information visit http://www.marriott.com.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Awesome. It appears that Marriott has decided to first launch their new point system in Asia/Pacific to work out the bugs before bringing it back into the rest of the Marriott system. Showing success in Asia will enable them to have case studies to share with existing owners.

It appears that the last two majors, Marriott and Orange Lake, have now made the jump to points.

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

Awesome. It appears that Marriott has decided to first launch their new point system in Asia/Pacific to work out the bugs before bringing it back into the rest of the Marriott system. Showing success in Asia will enable them to have case studies to share with existing owners.

Agreed....watching and waiting.....

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

Here it comes.......

Interesting mix of supporting properties...

Pat

[TalkToMeForAdvice Member Find all posts View Profile Close TalkToMeForAdvice]

Can I go out on a limb here?

Asians vacation completely different than Americans. Not many people in Asia spend a full week in any one location as oppose to the average American vacationer who spends a week in locations like Kauai, Florida, etc.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Asians vacation completely different than Americans. Not many people in Asia spend a full week in any one location as oppose to the average American vacationer who spends a week in locations like Kauai, Florida, etc.

Nope. Americans also take a lot of short vacations. That's because we get so little of it when compared to other countries such as those in Europe. Asians don't get a lot either.

So, short stays are extremely popular here in the US, especially when its within driving distance to their homes. It's just that for so many years, timesharing was so inflexible that it couldn't offer what customers wanted. Now it can.

Not too many people want to travel to Las Vegas for a week either. They typically stay 2-4 days. People would rather spend 3-nights in Las Vegas and spend 4 or 5-nights in the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff or Sedona.

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

I agree with the idea that for some, staying 3-4 days in one location and then moving on is desirable.

Marriott has been offering "city" and "island hopping" point deals for their hotel stays for a while now.....Stay in any three European Cities, or stay on any three of the Hawaiian Islands. I think it is stay 2 nights in two different cities, and three nights in another city. There is a similar offer for Florida....Knowing that many people do not want to spend 7 days in Orlando. You can break your week up, and stay in different locations.....I am writing this from memory, so I may not be exact.

Also, they currently offer splitting your week for a number of timeshares. I think this may be the next step toward an eventual point system.

I personally would like a system similar to the SVO point program....Perhaps Marriott will do something on that order.

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

Wait for their whole system to go to points. Since they already have the points infrastructure (MRP's), it's only a matter of time. Yahoo...

Pat

[Hostelling Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Hostelling]

Way Out On A Limb

Why do you think the 3 or 4 night cruise vacation is much more popular to the younger crowd. As entitlement programs shrinks within the work place, shorter vacations are becomming the norm.

The time share industry understands this, some more slowly than others. In the market place, any market place, it is still demand that will determine what product will survive.

Daniel

Asians vacation completely different than Americans. Not many people in Asia spend a full week in any one location as oppose to the average American vacationer who spends a week in locations like Kauai, Florida, etc.

[TalkToMeForAdvice Member Find all posts View Profile Close TalkToMeForAdvice]

This is kind of an apples to oranges comparison. The average American timesharer typically spends one week on vacation a year. Just because more people want to spend 3 - 4 days in a location does not make it the majority, it just makes it the increasing minority.

The average Asian vacationer majority is a 1-2 night vacationer in about 3 different locations. The point that the average American and Asian have lesser vacation time than the average European is well noted but the average timesharer has typically 2-4 weeks of vacation a year. The average European give or take has around 6 weeks of Holiday a year. Which makes them the most relaxed...

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

This is kind of an apples to oranges comparison. The average American timesharer typically spends one week on vacation a year. Just because more people want to spend 3 - 4 days in a location does not make it the majority, it just makes it the increasing minority.

The average Asian vacationer majority is a 1-2 night vacationer in about 3 different locations. The point that the average American and Asian have lesser vacation time than the average European is well noted but the average timesharer has typically 2-4 weeks of vacation a year. The average European give or take has around 6 weeks of Holiday a year. Which makes them the most relaxed...

We can debate the reason for it, but the fact remains that US Citizens take a ton of weekend and long weekend trips and far fewer full week vacations than Europeans.

I claim it's because Americans are overworked and don't spend enough time vacationing. So, to blow off steam, we take more long weekends. This trend started in the 80's and has continued to this day. Pretty much coincided with the tremendous expansion of dual income families over the last 20 years.

[Ireland's Call Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ireland's Call]

Working hours

Working Hours across Europe
Country Weekly Working hours
Germany 40.1
UK 43.6
France 39.6
Italy 38.5
Spain 40.6
Netherlands 39
Portugal 40.6
Greece 40.8
Sweden 40.1
Belgium 38.4
Austria 40.2
Denmark 38.9
Finland 39.3
Ireland 40
Luxembourg 39.7
The British worrk the hardest ...and their statutory vacation is 20 days.
G

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

UK here

I must be one of the lucky ones then with 37 days per year (inc xmas)

[DDI Par Member Find all posts View Profile Close DDI Par]

365 days a year

Some of the posters here overlook the fact that many timeshare owners have purchased their properties when they were middle-aged and could more likely afford to get into the "game". I "retired" when I was 46, and began entering the timeshare world a few years later.

I now have 365 days of vacation time available each year, and I would bet that a good percentage of timeshare owners have a similar situation. When we fly to New England or Florida or Hawaii (or anywhere else) a 2-3-4 day stay makes absolutely no sense for us. More likely, we will combine 2 or 3 consecutive week stays in somewhat adjacent locations (e.g. Cape Cod and Vermont). In our case, and for the majority of "weeks" owners, the "flexability" of points is completely irrelevant. And if exchange companies "steal" our weeks deposits for the points users, it makes us feel that they are appealing to a minority of exchange company members (maybe 15-20 % at best), to the detriment of what one exchange company (RCI) claims is the meat and potatoes of its membership--weeks owners. Considering the amount a timeshare owner must pay to convert to become a "points" participant, the word "greed" seems to be a pretty accurate word.

Even driving 6-12 hours to a location (for us, SoCal, Tahoe, SF Bay area, Santa Fe, Northern Mexico, etc.) makes a 2-3-4 night stay seem like there is more "getting there" than "being there". And, if you can't enjoy more to do at a location than what you can do in a couple or so days, why go there in the first place?

Give us a week and we will find galleries, museums, several great restaurants, beautiful parks, walks on the beach, hikes in the hills, historic landmarks, nifty people-watching spots, interesting shops, inadvertant adventures, a boat ride, new friends, a golf course or two, neat ladies at thrift shops (and incredible bargains!), the best martini, sheep on the mountain pass, incomparable viewpoints, dancing in the streets, geologic displays, vinyards and wine-tasting (Virginia to the Napa Valley), fairs, farmer's markets and antique shops, the zoo, fishing in that mountain (or urban) stream or lake . . . the activities go on and on, and we can still take time-out to read that novel or linger by the pool for a while. Sometimes a week is hardly enough to sample from all the unique attributes of a specific location. Anything less is shortchanging yourself. Think about where you live. Would a visitor to your part of the world be able to experience much of its neat stuff in a long weekend? You know the answer.

Two-three-four day timeshare points trips? Why not just check-in to a local resort, save the expense of gas or airfaire and the hours consumed, go do some stuff you have not done before around your area and save your points for a real in-depth trip to somewhere very special for a week (or more.)

Perhaps you will have to wait for the years when your job-oriented schedule allows you to really get away for extended quality time. And perhaps, for some young, working families, without much vacation time, the short weekend trip is a valuable timeshare points blessing. But it really is hot dogs vs. fillet mignons. When you get to that mode, you will know it.

Still, whatever works for you. And that will likely change over time--guaranteed.

DDI Par
Phoenix, AZ

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

...
But it really is hot dogs vs. fillet mignons. When you get to that mode, you will know it.

...
DDI Par
Phoenix, AZ

DDI Par, There are so many great points that you make here, where do I begin...but this last idea sums it up so eloquently!

The sad thing is that many people are content with the hot dog because the marketers have hypnotized them into thinking that it is better than the filet mignon that they have been yearning/ searching for!