What are the options with Marriott?

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

Still reeling from the costs of helping DRI go upmarket and the recent supplemental billing I have been wondering if Marriott would be a better option for me. (Based in UK but often holiday non European).

Can anyone reccommend where I might get the inside story on how well run it is and the best options for making the most of a Marriott ownership? I.e. Buy from Ebay or from an existing Marriott owner?

Any pointers much appreciated

thanks

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

Ray,

Welcome to TS4M's

Marriott is a great company. I own a couple of weeks with them, and have been very happy. They are very consistent with the quality of their resorts, treatment of customers, etc. I have been to quite a few locations, and the quality is always very good, and I've always been treated very well. Not too many surprises, when dealing with Marriott.

First off...Most definitely purchase resale. Ebay is great, and there are some other good sources, as well. I'll get you a list of sites to try.

Marriott has some very good locations, including 3 in Europe. As a Marriott owner, you would be entitled to the Marriott preference. The first 24 days that a Marriott becomes available for exchange in II, only other Marriott's are entitled to an exchange. This is a big help in being able to exchange into another Marriott.

Where, and when, are you looking to vacation, and how many bedroom would you need? This could make a difference in what Marriott to purchase.

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

Angela,

thanks for your response, I guess "all the usual suspects" Mexico, New Orleans, New York, Boston, Caribbean, South Africa & Maylasia.
It may be a question of spreading my options as I own approx 6 wks floating with DRI which might be pruned back a bit.

Ray

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

Still reeling from the costs of helping DRI go upmarket and the recent supplemental billing I have been wondering if Marriott would be a better option for me. (Based in UK but often holiday non European).

Can anyone recommend where I might get the inside story on how well run it is and the best options for making the most of a Marriott ownership? I.e. Buy from Ebay or from an existing Marriott owner?

Any pointers much appreciated

thanks

Good advice from Angela......

And another thought for you....

An example of a good Marriott deal would be to pay $11,000 USD for a 2BR L/O Platinum week at Marriott's Manor Club at Ford Colony. When u lock-off, u would get a 1BR, an "AC" for the one bedroom and a studio to trade.

There are some other slightly less expensive Platinum weeks - but this gives u an idea of the price point u r looking at -
Marriott has a ROFR for many of its' properties and this keeps the prices high.

Another option you MIGHT want to look at is a resale Starwood/Sheraton/Westin week -
Platinum 1 and 2BR weeks can be had for $500-$3500 depending on location - they do not get an AC but are still a very good value.

How do these prices compare with your DRI ownership costs?

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

I own both DRI and Marriott. Actually, I own two deeds with each company. Each is completely different from the other. If I had to choose one over the other at this moment in time, I'd stick with my Marriott weeks. But, that's just me. DRI's THE Club point based reservation and exchange system has some definate advantages over Marriott's week for week exchange system. My preference for Marriott is based on the general quality of their resorts and my desire to generally return to the resorts I own.

For the most part, Marriott maintains a rather strict hand on the quality of the resorts it puts it's name on. Resort HOA's that decide not to pay the fee's or higher the contractors stipulated by Marriott risk having Marriott leave as the management company of their resort and take the Marriott name with them. I believe this has happened with a couple of resorts on Hilton Head, SC. There was also a thread on TUG about another Hilton Head HOA that was balking at Marriott's demands for improvements and management fee's and was considering not renewing Marriott's management contract (or Marriott not renewing based on the HOA's decision to not impliment Marriott's recomendations) and Beach Place Towers in Orlando to cross ways of Marriott until they were able to come to an agreement and maintain the Marriott name. There was also an issue with the resort in Vail, CO and I believe a portion of that resort is no longer managed by Marriott. In order to keep the Marriott name, individual HOA's basically must toe the Marriott line as I understand it or lose the Marriott name. Such is the power that Marriott controls.

This, IMO, is not necessarily a bad thing. To some degree, in theory it should maintain a certain standard that Marriott owners can expect when exchanging within the Marriott system. Most Marriott branded resorts (not all but most) have been built and sold by Marriott. So again there is a degree of consistancy.

In contrast DRI has only recently purchased a company that was already a mish mosh of other companies it had aquired (Epic comes to mind). Resort quality, as it stands now, is anything but consistant. To add to this some offerings in DRI are not even managed by DRI anymore. Gatlinburg Town Square, for instance, is now managed by Summer Bay. Having affiliated resorts means that those resorts must meet another management companies standards and another company controls what goes on at those resorts.

Add to this the fact that DRI offers "standard" and "deluxe" units at the same resort, even those sold and managed by DRI, and you have futher dilution of the "quality" factor for units availabe through internal exchange.

DRI levels this unequal quality by offering a points based reservation system. In theory, the higher the quality of resort, unit or location/view the higher the point total required to reserve a unit. Therefore it is possible to accomadate several levels of buyer/owner in one system. Essentially there is something for everyone. I can see where some might prefer this unequal equality in a timeshare resort system. I can see where knowing what an ocean front unit costs in terms of points and being able to reserve that ocean front unit is an advantage.

DRI also sets a point value for exchange through I.I. One can easily stretch their units point allotment to maximize usage. Marriott, on the other hand, is a weeks based exchange system and, if you want to trade down you lose value. This past January we were in Scottsdale, AZ. The Westin has a tendecy to only have 1 bedroom units for exchange because owners at that resort lock-off their unit to maximize the number of trades they can get (trade two 1 bedroom units rather than one 2 bedroom unit). Under Marriott's week for week exchange system, if all I have to exchange is a 2 bedroom unit them I might have to "trade down" just to get into a particular resort. With DRI's points based exchange system I would only have to spend the number of points required for whatever size unit is available. With DRI there is no waste when making exchanges through I.I.

With Marriott you can request a internal exchange and get it 1 year in advance. With DRI you have to wait until 10 months before you travel date for internal exchanges.

Marriott exchange is weeks based and works on a like for like basis. DRI you can get whatever you have enough points to exchange. With DRI you can borrow or carry forward points to combine them to get something more than what you have. With Marriott you have to exchange with the week you have. Marriott has no provision for combining this years week with next years week to get a stronger exchange.

IMO, DRI is better for trading through I.I. than Marriott but, some Marriott weeks are going to be much stronger than the power of DRI points.

As I said in the beginning, I prefer the Marriott resorts for their quality and location. But, if I'm exchanging through I.I. then DRI's THE Club points are considerably more flexible. I guess it's all in what you want to do. We generally stay at the Marriott's we own using the master suite and use the LO units for exchange.

Ritht now the thing that annoys me about DRI is paying Marriott like MF's but not getting Marriott resort quality. That is something that REALLY bothers me about my DRI ownership. On the other hand, it's only been 1 year since DRI purchased Sunterra. Sunterra was a distressed company and had let things run down. I can't say it's fare to judge DRI against Marriott until DRI has had enough time for it to become obvious whether they will be able to match Marriott's quality in the future. We also have yet to see DRI's plans for building new resorts and how nice those resorts might be. That's why I said if I had to choose at this moment. 5 or 10 years from now I might have a completely opposite opinion.

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

I paid (US$ equiv) $24,000 for 10,000 points direct from Sunterrra (Now DRI),
I also bought from an online forum from two separate owners a further 23,500 points for $5,600 from the owners and a staggering $1,200 for two transfers from Diamond (I have noticed reference to Marriott fees of $120 for the same service).

Appx 5500 pts gets a 1 week 1 Bed sl4 apartment. so it is about 6 weeks

The MF's on these points were $3,500, which had been a large increase on previous years, with Stephen Cloobeck's reason being an accelerated property refurbishment cycle. This was not universally welcomed, particularly by fixed income pensioners who struggled to cope with the increase.

You will doubtless be aware, that we in Europe have been billed a supplementary charge, in my case $480 to cover Diamond's inability to spot that they collected fees in Sterling, but two thirds of their resorts had liabilities In Euros.

There is an awful lot more disquiet about this and we are all considering what our best options are.

regards

Ray

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

Hi Doug,

I guess you are the Doug that was posting on the Yahoo group for a while earlier this year. I am really supposed to be working just now!! so I will read your reply in detail and respond later.

I guess you probably got tired of the bickering on the (European) site, why don't you dip in and have a quick look at the Special Levy thread? Things are as fiery as they have ever been with threats of expulsion and as much vitriol as there has ever been

Even Ron has put his points up on Ebay rather than surrender them to DRI in exchange for being allowed to walk away
regards

Ray