13 Months Advance Reservation-Need help

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

This 13-month rule sounds fun. Since I own 2 Marriott weeks, I just got the notice about the leap year for 13-month reservations. I wonder how many throw away weeks it takes to get week 51 and week 52 in Maui?

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

The dates are determined by Marriott on a year to year basis....it seems to be the week before Easter.
You can find out by going to the owner clubhouse and looking at the SurfClub seasonal calendar.
In fact you can check on any/all the resorts calendars that way.

It is not a fixed week I would by as there really is no 'fixed' spring break week for the US - unlike Christmas/New Year/July 4/Presidents week

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

This 13-month rule sounds fun. Since I own 2 Marriott weeks, I just got the notice about the leap year for 13-month reservations. I wonder how many throw away weeks it takes to get week 51 and week 52 in Maui?

The real 'score' of the throw away week - is to realize for a $29 cancellation fee, you can rebook it after the fact for a week that actualy has value for use or as a trader.
Shhh.....don't tell, okay

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

The real 'score' of the throw away week - is to realize for a $29 cancellation fee, you can rebook it after the fact for a week that actualy has value for use or as a trader.
Shhh.....don't tell, okay

This qualifies as a secret that shouldn't be discussed very often. It can easily be taken away by Marriott. But, I must admit, it did cross my mind.

[qlaval Member Find all posts View Profile Close qlaval]

... find out by going to the owner clubhouse and looking at the SurfClub seasonal calendar.

Where is the owner clubhouse?
http://www.vacationclub.com/en-us/owners?
All I see there is a holiday calendar no seasonal calender...


Also was I suppose to pay a $29 cancellation fee?
Beacause I didn't...
Maybe they look at it as modification and not a cancellation...

[Dave M Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dave M]

At that link, click on the "Resort Search" tab and select "Resort Directory". Then select any resort and at the bottom left side of the resort page, you'll see a link for the "Resort Calendar". That has a week-by-week listing of the Marriott "season" at that resort for each week for several years into the future.

[qlaval Member Find all posts View Profile Close qlaval]

Found it! Thanks Dave

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

It's likely that people called last week and the week before that (and the week before that, etc.) to string multiple Saturday check-in weeks together including at least one of the weeks you wanted. Once 50% of the available weeks for a specific check-in date have been reserved, no more are made available until the 12-month window for that week.

For example, it's possible that numerous people called in a week ago and booked the two Saturday weeks 3/1 and 3/8, leaving none for you.

That's one reason some people have purchased "throwaway" Marriott weeks - cheap weeks purchased for less than $2,000 that can be used as the first week in reserving a string of weeks, where the throwaway week is an off-season low-demand week which is easy to reserve. That makes it much easier to reserve the later weeks that you really want.

For example, a "Preferred" (lowest demand) season week at Sunset Pointe, covering all of January and February, can be purchased for a song. Had you owned one, you could have called a week ago and reserved that one for a Saturday check-in on March 1, 2008, thus having an earlier chance at reserving Saturday weeks for the ones you really wanted.

I'm not suggesting you do that. But more and more people are doing it and some Marriott salespeople are touting the methodology!

Stringing the weeks together makes it tough for one week owners to make reservations at their own resort. We had this experience with the MDSV-I as we had a difficult time booking in February or early March three years on a row and we called right on time with the atomic clock. We had no option but to sell a resort we really liked going to.