HUGE increase in points needed to stay at TSs

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

Wow! I feel your pain....this is the downside to points, the manipulative factor.

Joining a points program opens you up to those who run the points scheme moving the goalposts. That one of the reasons I will stick with a weeks-based system, thank you.

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

Joining a points program opens you up to those who run the points scheme moving the goalposts. That one of the reasons I will stick with a weeks-based system, thank you.

Yup.....A points system definitely has it's benefits, but it has a major flaw, as well. The value of your points are at the mercy of the company, the times, etc. What you bought even 5 years ago is most likely worth much less today. Who knows what it will be worth in 5 years down the road?

A week will always ensure you a week's vacation.

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

Amazing....I feel for you who are caught up in this. That is why I also never liked the points systems.....at the whim of those in control and that is not the owners.

Yup.....A points system definitely has it's benefits, but it has a major flaw, as well. The value of your points are at the mercy of the company, the times, etc. What you bought even 5 years ago is most likely worth much less today. Who knows what it will be worth in 5 years down the road?

A week will always ensure you a week's vacation.

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

Amazing....I feel for you who are caught up in this. That is why I also never liked the points systems.....at the whim of those in control and that is not the owners.

I agree nor a floating system either because it is a hassle often to get the desired week and certainly with the Marriott if you are only a one week owner.

All this has nothing to do with a regular exchange, I hope? It only has to do when you exchange your week for points? Right???

Here is an interesting letter asking Marriott to restore the points to at least one week stay again somewhere else.

MVC Plea for Help
submitted: May 4, 2009 4:55 PM

Below is an email I sent to David Babich, Chief Customer Officer of MVC. I apologize for the length, but I want to express my concens and suggest potential solutions. I am anxious to hear other MVC owners feedback to these suggestions, and will let you know when I receive a response.



Dear David,
As a long-term, multiple week MVC owner and a lifetime Marriott Rewards platinum member, I hope you will consider my concerns and suggestions for restoring the value of Marriott timeshare ownership. The recent and previous Marriott Reward point devaluations have greatly disappointed MVC owners who purchased their timeshares with the good faith that Marriott would continue to provide fair value for their investment.
I purchased my first timeshare at Royal Palms in January, 1990, and currently own five weeks across the country. At that time, the 110,000 point exchange opportunity meant that I could stay 7 nights in any Marriott resort worldwide if I decided not to use my two bedroom unit at Marriott World Center. Now, I am lucky to get a 7 night stay in a low market Courtyard for my points. My costs to own have increased more than 5% per year, but the value of my purchase has been greatly diminished. Additionally, I have been greatly disappointed in my exchange experiences with Interval International. It seems that the only high quality properties participating in their program are other MVC resorts. It has been my experience that other quality resorts have no availability. Therefore, they add no value to the exchange process. These are my suggestions regarding how to restore the value of MVC ownership so that owners will again feel comfortable in recommending it to friends.
1. Either increase the number of points, or provide other bonuses when members deposit their weeks for points. If contracts restrict your flexibility to increase the points allocated, then offer other bonuses (dinner for 2 awards, free weekly breakfast vouchers, free night certificates) that will provide fair value for the exchange. If you do not take action in this area, Marriott will see significant decreases in the units they will have available to rent to non-owners.
2. Offer the opportunity to exchange with other MVC owners without having to go through Interval. Provide ownership benefits (villa location, etc. ) to owners who exchange with other owners. Provide a forum for owners to communicate with other owners regarding longer-term exchange opportunities. I currently ‘exchange’ with other owners I know, but our opportunities are limited. Many owners would be happy to only exchange to other MVC properties.
3. Add a MVC forum to the Marriott Rewards Insiders chat room. This will provide an excellent opportunity for MVC owners to learn from the experiences of others. MVC issues are frequent topics today, but there is no specific forum to cover our issues. The MVC website is not conducive to exchange of ideas and suggestions.
If something isn’t done in the near future, you will see the growth of MVC come to a standstill. Current owners will not recommend ownership to others, and many will sell out. I am anxious to learn your plans to address these issues.

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

iconnections

All this has nothing to do with a regular exchange, I hope? It only has to do when you exchange your week for points? Right???

Correct....This has nothing to do with a regular week exchange. Nothing has changed regarding exchanging your week through II.

It will have a huge impact on those who trade their week for points, tho.....I have often times traded one of my weeks for points, and then used those points for a travel package, or hotel stay. I sure won't be doing that in the future. Nevermind using points for a timeshare stay.

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

I'm trying to follow this thread and am a bit confused.

I went to a TS presentation recently at Custom House and I asked him about this because I used 60,000 Marriott rewards points from a credit card to stay for 2 nights and they were only giving 150,000 points in exchange for the week so I of course said that was not an equitable exchange.

His response to this discrepancy is that using my points for a short stay like I did was the worst way to use my points. He suggested that I should have used my points for a Residence inn stay or just do a cash purchase.

He showed me how to maximize my points and of course part of the shpeel was the conversion of my week to points. He also said that the best use of points was for their air/hotel packages and that using your points for redeeming a stay or just air by itself was a waste of points. He said his rule of thumb was to pay for any airfare under $350.

Honestly I didn't see any benefit in the points package except for the incentives they give you to buy but ongoing it didn't make much sense to me.

Anyway, I am seriously thinking of buying a Marriott but just a 2 bedroom lock off and splitting it up into 2 deposits and getting 2 vacations out of it, probably even an EOY use unit.

I think Angie already answered this but am I missing something? Aren't most of the Marriott's 2 bedroom lock-offs? I see most of the resales are 2 bedrooms so can't most people deposit their units as 2 units and be able to double their vacations or use the flexchange and get 2 bedrooms for their studio deposits?

And what happens if Marriott drops II and changes to RCI like DVC did?

The TS salesman told me that Marriott was not interested in an internal exchange program because they were not into the exchange business but would rather focus on creating new resorts.