Just found this ebay auction, I think this fits as a horror story!

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

Could you please elaborate?

it has been rumored, by people in the know, that marriott, is going to be implementing an internal exchange system. they will still be associated with ii, for those who want to exchange out of the marriott system.

marriott has started, or will soon be starting, to offer a "point" system to a very limited number of their resorts. I believe the phuket locations is one of the resorts that will soon be offering this system.

some believe that this is a "test run" and that if successful, marriott will start implementing points, throughout their system

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

Adding, my instinct is the new system will be MVCI points, not to be confused with MRP's, which developer purchasers can now surrender their intervals for annually or biennially, depending on resort/interval. However, even with a points system, they are still going to have to deal with season compression, like exists at NCV, since there will still be too many points chasing too few summer "stays". I think it will be a long time, if never, where the weeks system currently in place goes completely away, so we'll still have our games, if we choose to play

Pat

[love2fly Member Find all posts View Profile Close love2fly]

it has been rumored, by people in the know, that marriott, is going to be implementing an internal exchange system. they will still be associated with ii, for those who want to exchange out of the marriott system.

marriott has started, or will soon be starting, to offer a "point" system to a very limited number of their resorts. I believe the phuket locations is one of the resorts that will soon be offering this system.

some believe that this is a "test run" and that if successful, marriott will start implementing points, throughout their system

I have also seen these rumors, but I thought you knew more than those rumors, so I was curious why you said "if they do go to points ... these problems may no longer exist."

I understand point systems, but they still would have many opportunities for Marriott manipulation, so I struggle to understand your statement that "if they do go to points ... these problems may no longer exist.". Of course the optimist in all of us hope the problem goes away, but I was asking if you knew more.

My instinct would be like camachinist's, namely that points/weeks make no difference, and if gjradz calls, they will still tell him "SOLD OUT"

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

To the OP, Just want to make sure you are calling on the Thursday AM of the week you are trying to reserve (365 days from the Friday of the weekend you are interested in reserving).

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

Adding, my instinct is the new system will be MVCI points, not to be confused with MRP's, which developer purchasers can now surrender their intervals for annually or biennially, depending on resort/interval. However, even with a points system, they are still going to have to deal with season compression, like exists at NCV, since there will still be too many points chasing too few summer "stays". I think it will be a long time, if never, where the weeks system currently in place goes completely away, so we'll still have our games, if we choose to play

Pat

Marriott needs to look realistically at what they are calling Platinum season.
October, November, early December in CA is not - April, May,October,November in NJ is not ....
This would help cut down on the resie difficulty.....

As to points - it will be interesting to see how this is IMPLIMENTED.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Get out your wallet

it has been rumored, by people in the know, that marriott, is going to be implementing an internal exchange system. they will still be associated with ii, for those who want to exchange out of the marriott system.

marriott has started, or will soon be starting, to offer a "point" system to a very limited number of their resorts. I believe the phuket locations is one of the resorts that will soon be offering this system.

some believe that this is a "test run" and that if successful, marriott will start implementing points, throughout their system

And remember any new true timeshare points system - not the hotel/travel thing they tie into now - will mean $$$ to join. This will not be a free upgrade.

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

Just for clarity, gold season at NCV occurs from after January 1 to stays starting on or about Memorial Day. My sample ad here is such a stay.

Platinum season starts after that and runs until roughly Christmas (though week 52 is fixed), with the exception of July 4th week, which is fixed and sold as platinum plus.

IMO, they should've fixed Easter Week and July 4, as Easter is far more popular than Christmas (see Xmas weeks in sightings all the time) or made platinum season to include Easter (split platinum) and done the same with gold (October, November). But, that said, and I'm sure Marriott knew the realities ahead of time, they can be more profitable selling things as they are. Want Easter? Buy gold. Want summer? Buy platinum. It was called the "California Pack" when we bought there. For us, it came down to location and being able to book an owner's stay at any time during the year.

Interestingly, when we bought, they weren't pushing exchanging, though they did show us the "catalog". It was mainly location and the advantages of a pre-paid vacation, compared to other vacation options. In a way, I've come to find out they were right. NCV, while relatively unknown/unimportant when I joined TUG, has grown to be of immense interest to many, and prices (both sales and rental by Marriott) have increased beyond even my immagination. Hence, we may actually be able to recover our capital, and have enjoyed stellar rental performance renting privately during our ownership. Even though the forums preach resale (we discovered forums after purchase), I'm quite satisfied with what this pre-paid vacation has done for us. We'll be flying to Australia first class and staying for 3 weeks, one of them at the Sydney Marriott on points, all obtained from our developer purchase. Not that I'd buy F tix for cash, but January F tix are in the 15-16K range, each, right now, and the hotel is going for about 275 USD per night.

Perhaps a bit off-topic, and I'm often critical of Marriott of late, but I think some balance is in order. That said, I wouldn't have made lemonade out of our developer lemons if it hadn't been for TUG and TS4M's great timeshare minds

Pat

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

Marriott needs to look realistically at what they are calling Platinum season.
May and October in CA is not - April, May,October,November in NJ is not ....
This would help cut down on the resie difficulty.....

As to points - it will be interesting to see how this is implicated.

i agree.......

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

I agree too because we also have stayed at some very nice Marriott hotels with our MRPs but the best way to get value from your points is to buy a combination package that includes airfare and a hotel stay too as Pat has done with his trip to Australia.

You should read Brian's posts too as he also knows how to take full advantage of the MRPs program. He manages to go first class and stay at the best hotels in Europe and they are expensive. He has posted this many times already. He even mentioned it today again! We like the MRPs system for another reason too because you can constantly add on more MRPs by using the Marriott credit card. I hope that this will not go away once they start using the other points product that they recently announced and it may prove to be popular.

Another advantage of the Marriott is that they keep adding more locations constantly and have done this for years. All of them are prime locations too. Other chain hotels haven't done so well but some of them are starting to add more locations too, especially the Westin chain.

The whole thread of this link I gave you above shows you some of the pros and cons of buying resale. You may want to read it. Brian's post was #17.

My advise to gjradz is to keep trying to get your desired week and enjoy your resort.

[Steamboat Bill Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Steamboat Bill]

ouch...that must sting...3 years in row getting skunked.

[Debbyd57 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Debbyd57]

It reminds me of when I book a WM resort on the ocean in the summer or my Landmark Holiday Beach resort during spring break. I start dialing in a couple minutes before they open and log into WM on the website to see which one gets in first!! Oh well, the joy of timeshares on the beach with a view!! I hope he has better luck next year. Debby

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

Wow, it's sad to hear you can buy a timeshare and not even get to go there. It's also funny to see how someone can read the op where he says he paid for a week and hasn't been able to use it since the purchase and yet one of the responses here says, he got a great deal. Since when is $21,000 a great deal for a holiday you can't use? Yikes! Sounds like someone has money to throw away. I agree with the op....it is quite a horror story.

[Bill4728 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Bill4728]

The thing with Marriott reservations is to keep calling. Not just at 9 am, 12 months in advance but over and over and over again. Because there are always people who cancel their vacations.

Also you could do a request first with II and hope to pick up a week which has been deposited.

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

Marriott shenanigans

There is another reason for the "sorry - all sold out" scenario that seems to have been missed in this lengthy discussion.

When an owner exchanges his/her week for MRPs, Marriott then "owns" that week. Whenever there is unsold inventory at a particular location, Marriott "owns" those weeks too. Therefore Marriott snaps up the most desirable dates for their own use (whether it be for promotional sales visits or renting out). This inventory disappears from the system long before any of us have the opportunity to request a reservation. That is why Marriott was able to offer a "back door" reservation method to this unfortunate eBay fellow.

As an example: Newport Coast Villas (NCV) has a lot of unsold inventory, and that is one reason why it is so notoriously difficult to reserve a week there during the most desirable times. A good friend has had the repeated experience of "sorry - all sold out" when calling 12 months, 6am PST in advance. In frustration, he called Marriott hotel reservations to get a unit at NCV during the same period (albeit paying cash). "No problem - we have availability".

Although I am sure it is probably not illegal contractually, this is a very sleazy thing for Marriott to do. Locking out their owners from reserving the most desirable weeks, while taking those weeks for themselves is just wrong. I attended a NCV sales presentation a while back, and raised this exact topic with my salesperson. They immediately went into scramble mode when they realized that I was aware of their "tricks" - they assured me that they could get me desirable NCV weeks through a special process if I ever had any problems. This only confirmed to me that Marriott is playing shenanigans with their owners. Needless to say, I did not purchase at NCV.

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

Excellent example of what has gone wrong with Marriott....

I see examples of the same thing in their hotel system. Not a trip goes by without a further example. Marriott is now second in my search preference for hotels and I'll often stay at a competitor even if there's a Marriott next door.

Pat