Interesting Statistic for Marriot owners

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

At least I thought it was interesting.

I received this E-mail about a Webinar invite for Marriott owners to learn about exchanging thru I.I. Now, I'm not so much interested in the Webinar as I'm am this one sentence I've put in bold.

Dear xxxxx xxxxx,


It is my pleasure to invite you to join fellow new Owners for a web based seminar (webinar) that will discuss how to exchange your Marriott Vacation Club week through Interval International to experience a new destination.

Each year, over 40% of Marriott Vacation Club owners exchange their week(s) with Interval International, our exchange partner. This webinar will cover the different exchange methods, comparability factors, the Travel Demand index, and tips and tricks to help you comfirm your vacation with Interval International. I am confident that you will have a greater understanding of how to maximize your vacation ownership with Marriott Vacation Club after participating in our webinar.

The webinar is complimentary: all you need is a computer with access to the internet. To register for our Owner Webinar, please click here and then click on the red "Learn about Upcoming Webinars" button.

Sincerely,



Jennifer deRosier
Director of Education
Marriott Vacation Club International

Really? Over 40% exchange? That means that nearly 60% either use their week for personal usage or rent it out. My bet is rentals are a realitively small portion of what's not exchanged.

What I'd like to know is, out of that nearly 60%, how many of those are internal Marriott exchanges and how many are confirmed in the 24 day Marriott priorty exchange period? I know that lately, the majority of what I've requested for exchanges have been Marriott internal exchanges. Mostly because we've become very comfortable with Marriott quality, good locations and a great variety of destinations to choose from. Having internal exchanges cost less than going outside of Marriott also is a big factor in our decision to stay within the Marriott family when exchanging our Marriott weeks.

Heck, even when I'm looking with one of our non-Marriott weeks, I'm generally looking to see if I can get back into a Marriott resort. For that matter, I believe that, if I could trade our two 2 bedroom Polo Towers units for just one good Marriott week, I'd probably do that as well.

This also got me to wondering, what are the percentages for exchange vs owner usage with other systems. Is it just as high? I'd almost bet that Hilton, Disney, Hyatt, Westin et.... are all about as high if not higher.

I guess this really does point to the idea that it's good to own withing a system and, within a system that has the quality and destinations that you like. If nearly 60% of Marriott inventory never hits the open market, it's good to own in a system that gives priorty to it's owners.

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

Actually, if I'm reading that right, the 40% includes Marriott-to-Marriott exchanges via II. I could be wrong though.

I would guess that within mini-systems with no-cost internal exchange (Wyndham, Bluegreen, WorldMark, DVC, etc.), internal use is even higher than 60%.

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

Actually, if I'm reading that right, the 40% includes Marriott-to-Marriott exchanges via II. I could be wrong though.

I would guess that within mini-systems with no-cost internal exchange (Wyndham, Bluegreen, WorldMark, DVC, etc.), internal use is even higher than 60%.

I'm sure it does. What intrigues me most is only around 40% exchange meaning the majority actually use what they own. Nearly 60% seems to be rather high owner occupancy rates to me when we all talk about exchanging and getting the stongest week for exchange.

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

...Heck, even when I'm looking with one of our non-Marriott weeks, I'm generally looking to see if I can get back into a Marriott resort. ...

I've always though that Marriott owners, myself included, felt this way, but I've never been able to point to any statistic that would bear this out. This link, I think does just that. The file of interest is the Susquehanna Timeshare Conference pdf presentation. The 7th slide shows the following:


How Do Marriott Vacation Club
Owners Use The Product?

Home Resort 33%
Other Marriott Vacation Club property 31% (I assume MAR to MAR II exch)
Exchange for Marriott Rewards points 20 %

Sub-total 84%

External Third Party Exchange 9%
Other 7%

From this data I interpret that only 16% are looking to get something other than a Marriott week in exchange for their week (The majority of the 20% that choose MR points, IMO, are looking to use those points to stay at a location that doesn't offer an MVCI property, i.e. New York City)

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

I've always though that Marriott owners, myself included, felt this way, but I've never been able to point to any statistic that would bear this out. This link, I think does just that. The file of interest is the Susquehanna Timeshare Conference pdf presentation. The 7th slide shows the following:


How Do Marriott Vacation Club
Owners Use The Product?

Home Resort 33%
Other Marriott Vacation Club property 31% (I assume MAR to MAR II exch)
Exchange for Marriott Rewards points 20 %

Sub-total 84%

External Third Party Exchange 9%
Other 7%

From this data I interpret that only 16% are looking to get something other than a Marriott week in exchange for their week (The majority of the 20% that choose MR points, IMO, are looking to use those points to stay at a location that doesn't offer an MVCI property, i.e. New York City)

This is interesting in that these figures seem to indicate that only 1/3 of owners actually use the resort week they own. This would stand in contrast to the above statement, that seems to indicate that around 40% exchange, indiretly indicating that around 60% do not exchange. There seems to be a rather large difference between these numbers.

Of course, the E-mail I received only states that over 40% exchange their weeks. I guess if you want to be literal, it doesn't say how far over 40% are exchanging. Any number above 40% would fit the literal definition of over 40%.

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

I think you are forgetting the 20% that opt for rewards points. If you add that to the 33% you get 53% which is a lot closer to your 60%.

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

Nearly 60% seems to be rather high owner occupancy rates to me when we all talk about exchanging and getting the stongest week for exchange.

I think that's what the discussion is about because that's the place where knowledge helps most. How often can you have a discussion that starts: "I'm thinking about using my deeded fixed week. Anything I need to know?"

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

And what about the people who don't use their week at all--don't deposit it AND don't stay there? I'm always amazed when the subject of timeshares comes up and so many people say, "Oh, I have one, but I never use it."

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

we all talk about exchanging and getting the stongest week for exchange.

Further food for thought: if you read the DVC-oriented boards on DIS, or the Wyndham Owners forum over at forums.atozed.com you'll find that very little of the discussion revolves around exchange---it's mostly about internal use, the points system generally, etc. There's still some discussion on the Wyndham boards about leveraging low-point deposits into high-value weeks, but that's probably not the bulk of the conversation.

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

Further food for thought: if you read the DVC-oriented boards on DIS, or the Wyndham Owners forum over at forums.atozed.com you'll find that very little of the discussion revolves around exchange---it's mostly about internal use, the points system generally, etc. There's still some discussion on the Wyndham boards about leveraging low-point deposits into high-value weeks, but that's probably not the bulk of the conversation.

This doesn't really surprise me as, IMHO, I think most people who buy into the large chains do so to take advantage of the internal perks.

In my case, the biggest advantage, to me, for owning the Marriott family is the uniformity of quality, the size of the organization (probably the largest family of locations) and the ease in which one can exchange between properties. The single biggest negative is the maint. fees. I guess you get what you pay for??

[m61376 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close m61376]

Very Interesting...

If you combine both statistics (and assuming both are correct) then you can extrapolate that about a third use their home resort and 20% exchange for points, a few percentage rent their week (brings us closer to that 60%), and with 31% making Marriott to Marriott exchanges less than 10% exchange to other resort groups.

The 7% "other" figure makes sense, because it is likely that somewhere between 5 and 10% of people just don't use their week. A lot of owners just get busy, life intervenes, something comes up when they usually go, etc..

Both groups of statistics seem to correlate, lending credibility to both.

[thinze3 Member Find all posts View Profile Close thinze3]

... The 7% "other" figure makes sense, because it is likely that somewhere between 5 and 10% of people just don't use their week. A lot of owners just get busy, life intervenes, something comes up when they usually go, etc...

A big percentage of those are probably the $1 Marriotts you see on eBay.

[m61376 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close m61376]

A big percentage of those are probably the $1 Marriotts you see on eBay.

Or support the PCC's ...although if they didn't then you wouldn't have gotten those great deals, so I guess for you it is