Ongoing Sales Incentive - Enrolling Post-6/20/10 Weeks [MERGED]

If this offer is legit, how do those people (weeks owners with post 2010 weeks) who, in the past, have bought additional trust points react? If i had bought points a year or two ago and I was told at the time that my post 2010 week was not eligible for enrollment I would be very upset by this latest news. My guess that Marriott will just keep quiet and handle it on a case by case basis to deal with those buyers who are aware of this situation .

jont said:

If this offer is legit, how do those people (weeks owners with post 2010 weeks) who, in the past, have bought additional trust points react? If i had bought points a year or two ago and I was told at the time that my post 2010 week was not eligible for enrollment I would be very upset by this latest news. My guess that Marriott will just keep quiet and handle it on a case by case basis to deal with those buyers who are aware of this situation .

Click to expand...

I agree....those folks would and should be pissed. That said, it seems that MVC's sole motivation in laying this deal out there is to sell more points....and untold is unsold, so it seems to me they would be notifying everybody who fits the mold in an effort to peddle more points.

Wonder if they would consider retroactively allowing enrollment of post 2010 week(s) closed prior to the folks you mentioned closing on a points purchase that would have qualified under this new deal. If I were one of them....I would be asking that question for sure.

Fasttr said:

I agree....those folks would and should be pissed. That said, it seems that MVC's sole motivation in laying this deal out there is to sell more points....and untold is unsold, so it seems to me they would be notifying everybody who fits the mold in an effort to peddle more points.

Wonder if they would consider retroactively allowing enrollment of post 2010 week(s) closed prior to the folks you mentioned closing on a points purchase that would have qualified under this new deal. If I were one of them....I would be asking that question for sure.

Click to expand...

That is a very interesting question indeed that I will ask if/when I am approached with this offer during an upcoming stay. We would fall in such a group.

Ok, here's the deal we passed on:
1. Buy minimum points package $31,650
2. Rent back first years usage for $4750, bringing out of pocket purchase price to $26,900
3. If we wanted to, could put entire purchase on Marriott Rewards credit card for 5pt/$ spent
4. If we financed at 12+% interest and made at least 18 payments, we'd get 2500 pts after 18th payment. These payments could also go on Marriott Rewards credit card
5. Our Barony Beach gold garden view week purchased on EBay in 2013 would be eligible to be used in the points system for *no* additional cost. We talked about this point quite extensively, I'm sure of what salesman said. We'd get 2700 pts for it in years we decided to deposit it with the Marriott DC. By purchasing points, salesman also said all of our points (both purchased trust points and our Barony Beach points) would access trust inventory plus weeks inventory.
6. If we ever wanted to be rid of it all, we'd give Marriott our Barony Beach week for free and then they'd buy our points for 60% of current price.

Salesman said points about to go up in price into the $18/pt range.

Questions? Fire away.

heathpack said:

Salesman said points about to go up in price into the $18/pt range.

Click to expand...

Did you smell alcohol on his breath??

heathpack said:

2. Rent back first years usage for $4750, bringing out of pocket purchase price to $26,900

Click to expand...

Rent Back??? This just sounds like the 15% price discount for buying a 2500 point bundle.

heathpack said:

6. If we ever wanted to be rid of it all, we'd give Marriott our Barony Beach week for free and then they'd buy our points for 60% of current price.

Click to expand...

Was he claiming this would be spelled out in the purchase contract.....or was this sales speak??

@fasttr, I had no intention of purchasing and was not trying to catch the guy in a lie. I was there to learn a little more about the system in theory and also for the sales incentive (we're heading out for a nice dinner on Marriott as we speak). I did not ask him to put anything in to a sales contract because I wasn't going to waste his or my time in doing so. Nor did I prolong the process by challenging everything the guy said.

heathpack said:

I did not ask him to put anything in to a sales contract because I wasn't going to waste his or my time in doing so. Nor did I prolong the process by challenging everything the guy said.

Click to expand...

I assumed you didn't get to a sales contract....was just wondering if he indicated that his buy back scenario would be officially spelled out in a contract, or if he was just talking like salespeople like to talk, theorizing that one day, MVC would start a points buy back program yada, yada, yada.

The reason I ask is that the rest of what you laid out is no different than what GregT posted way back in post # 25 of this thread....but the buy back, if real, would be a significant addition to the deal and could potentially sway somebody who was on the fence. Oh well.

jont said:

If this offer is legit, how do those people (weeks owners with post 2010 weeks) who, in the past, have bought additional trust points react? If i had bought points a year or two ago and I was told at the time that my post 2010 week was not eligible for enrollment I would be very upset by this latest news. My guess that Marriott will just keep quiet and handle it on a case by case basis to deal with those buyers who are aware of this situation .

Click to expand...

I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand of course it'd cause some aggravation but on the other, they're not able any more than we are to state with any certainty what MVW might/might not offer in the future. All we can do is base our decisions on what's on the table today. Think of when Weeks were being sold and they occasionally offered discounted prices - there was no recourse for previous buyers then.

BUT if in the interim I'd bought the number of Trust Points to satisfy the requirements for this offer today, I'd contact them and ask for my post-6/20/10 resale Weeks to be enrolled. It can't hurt to ask. (I'd go through the Customer Advocacy office but whoever you may call, make sure you're talking to a rep who knows this offer is in the pipeline - it wouldn't surprise me to learn that some reps aren't aware.)

heathpack said:

Ok, here's the deal we passed on:
1. Buy minimum points package $31,650

Click to expand...

This sounds like buying 2,500 points at full price, no discounts all incentives in.

2. Rent back first years usage for $4750, bringing out of pocket purchase price to $26,900

Click to expand...

I don't know how one could possibly rent 2,500 points for that much. That is almost $2 per point in a rental market where some are lucky to get $0.50.

3. If we wanted to, could put entire purchase on Marriott Rewards credit card for 5pt/$ spent

Click to expand...

Good deal if you pay the balance in full.

4. If we financed at 12+% interest and made at least 18 payments, we'd get 2500 pts after 18th payment. These payments could also go on Marriott Rewards credit card

Click to expand...

Obviously a bad deal. You are going to pay $5,474.83 in interest along during that 18 month period. You could rent those one time points for about $1,250.

5. Our Barony Beach gold garden view week purchased on EBay in 2013 would be eligible to be used in the points system for *no* additional cost. We talked about this point quite extensively, I'm sure of what salesman said. We'd get 2700 pts for it in years we decided to deposit it with the Marriott DC. By purchasing points, salesman also said all of our points (both purchased trust points and our Barony Beach points) would access trust inventory plus weeks inventory.

Click to expand...

Your Barony elected weeks would be able to access exchange inventory and the 2,500 trust points can access trust inventory. This is an extension of the super morphing fib.

6. If we ever wanted to be rid of it all, we'd give Marriott our Barony Beach week for free and then they'd buy our points for 60% of current price.

Click to expand...

Marriott has no buyback program for points. The only way to unload points is to sell them on the external resale market.

Salesman said points about to go up in price into the $18/pt range.

Questions? Fire away.

Click to expand...

Perhaps, but not for a few years. We are still more than $5 a point away from that price p[points. Points haven't gone up that much in the last five years. So I doubt they will go up that much in the next five.

That's what I assumed. Which would not be a good result for a Plat Willow Ridge week, since the season is fairly long and you'd get a blended point value.

dioxide45 said:

Property, season, week, and unit size. It might be based on week for true fixed weeks.

Click to expand...

jont said:

If this offer is legit, how do those people (weeks owners with post 2010 weeks) who, in the past, have bought additional trust points react? If i had bought points a year or two ago and I was told at the time that my post 2010 week was not eligible for enrollment I would be very upset by this latest news. My guess that Marriott will just keep quiet and handle it on a case by case basis to deal with those buyers who are aware of this situation .

Click to expand...

I would think the population of people affected by this would be small. Though I am sure there are some out there. I guess it is no different than anything else. Buy a car and at year end the dealership offers big discounts. Buy a TV today and 3 months from now it is much cheaper. Of course a little difference here is that that TV is obsolete where trust points then are the same as trust points now.

Fasttr said:

I guess these mega renters could still rent....they would just have to change their focus to renting the points needed to book ressies, book the ressie and add the renters name to the ressie. Then again, how much of that could be done before that became a commercial endeavor in the eyes of MVC, which I believe is prohibited. Its certainly much cleaner for those folks to just rent the points and be done with it. Not sure many of them want to effectively become a travel agent for many.

Click to expand...

Do a google search for someone called Daddio/David who, when Disney announced DVC's transfer restrictions, developed a goldmine somehow acting as a middleman between owners and renters. I haven't looked at it closely enough to know how it works but if MVW someday decides to go that route, his model might be one to follow (if Marriott doesn't proactively manage to prohibit it.)

Fasttr said:

Lets play this scenario out a bit. Lets say that eventually, MVC does limit points transfers to 1x in and 1x out per calendar year. What do you think that would do to point rental availability and pricing. Some thoughts off the top of my head....

• It would severely alter the game of the mega renters (Grand Residences type renters) who rent out tens of thousands of points a year, as they would seemingly wait to rent out as many points as they could in one block to somebody who needs a large bundle. Certainly would limit how many points they could rent as compared to the current landscape, severely reducing supply.
  
• Anybody who needed a large bundle would look only to those with large bundles to rent as they would not be able to do like they do now and be opportunistic, snatching 2000 well priced points from this person and 3000 well priced points from that person.
  
• Folks with smaller points bundles to rent (1000, 2000, etc) would likely be more patient to find somebody who wanted a quantity very near the quantity they were renting.
  
• Folks would have to more closely determine total quantity needed in any given use year, rather than be able to wing it as they do now, as currently, they can always rent more.
  
• Folks only needing a small amount of points (250, 500, etc) may find it more challenging to rent a smaller block, unless they are lucky enough to find a match to somebody with only a smaller block to rent.

Any thoughts if the circumstances laid out above would drive rental supply up or down, rental pricing up, down, or have no effect? Perhaps some of you already have wisdom from other systems who currently limit transfers.

I agree with GregT.....this is the one trigger that if flipped, would be a game changer in how one looks at this current enrollment opportunity.

Click to expand...

I think it would have significantly change how we rent points and would be much more restrictive, but I don't think it would change the price very much. I would become an advocate of a "block rental", meaning every year, I rent the same amount of points, probably from the same seller. It would likely be a relatively large block, perhaps 8,000 - 10,000 points, because each of us is using our one allowed transfer so it needs to be sized large enough to be worth it.

I agree with you that it would be a problem for the Grand Residence owners, because they probably don't want to become a travel agent, they want to sell points and move on to the next transaction.

But who knows -- I believe it took Disney 15 years before they restricted the points transfer ability, and Marriott transfers are small potatoes compared to the more vibrant Disney transfer world. Additionally, Marriott wants us to play in points and point rentals may not be viewed as competition. We will see.

Best,

Greg

New conversion offer

Spoke with Marriott today and they announced a new program for owners of outside purchased weeks after 6/10 where owners will be allowed to purchase points, and get their outside owned week(s) the same benefits as direct purchased weeks. Use, Trade, DP, MRP would all be available to the weeks converted. Announcement coming out this week. You would have to buy 2,500 points(to convert 1wk), 3,500 points(to convert 2 or 3 wks), or 5,000 points(to convert 4-7 wks) to the same as direct purchased weeks. I am waiting to see it in writing to confirm, but reviewing the cost/value benefits.

Thoughts/comments??

jbvp said:

Spoke with Marriott today and they announced a new program for owners of outside purchased weeks after 6/10 where owners will be allowed to purchase points, and get their outside owned week(s) the same benefits as direct purchased weeks. Use, Trade, DP, MRP would all be available to the weeks converted. Announcement coming out this week. You would have to buy 2,500 points(to convert 1wk), 3,500 points(to convert 2 or 3 wks), or 5,000 points(to convert 4-7 wks) to the same as direct purchased weeks. I am waiting to see it in writing to confirm, but reviewing the cost/value benefits.

Thoughts/comments??

Click to expand...

This is actually better than direct purchased week. I bought 2 weeks from Marriott and it was in writing that I had to purchase matching points for each week (It was around 3250 per week) as my DSV I converts to 3225 enrolled points. No volume discount was given.

dioxide45 said:

This sounds like buying 2,500 points at full price, no discounts all incentives in.



I don't know how one could possibly rent 2,500 points for that much. That is almost $2 per point in a rental market where some are lucky to get $0.50.



Good deal if you pay the balance in full.



Obviously a bad deal. You are going to pay $5,474.83 in interest along during that 18 month period. You could rent those one time points for about $1,250.



Your Barony elected weeks would be able to access exchange inventory and the 2,500 trust points can access trust inventory. This is an extension of the super morphing fib.



Marriott has no buyback program for points. The only way to unload points is to sell them on the external resale market.



Perhaps, but not for a few years. We are still more than $5 a point away from that price p[points. Points haven't gone up that much in the last five years. So I doubt they will go up that much in the next five.

Click to expand...

The main purpose of my post was to relay the fact that we were today offered a deal which included the ability to use our resale week, purchased after 2010, in the DC points system. Which as I understand it, is something new.

The secondary purpose was to relay the terms which we'd have to meet in order to make this happen.

I see you took the time to refute point-by-point the salesman's spiel, which was not something we bothered to question, as the purchase was never on the table as a serious consideration for us.

He did however say that the "rental" of the first years points was a guaranteed thing. I got the impression it was really a way for them to give us a discount while still maintaining the fiction that they don't discount.

We would never finance a TS, certainly not at 12+%. OMG, I can't imagine.

I was under the impression that Marriott didn't buy points back, so I was quite surprised by the very specific points buy-back at 60% deal. He actually spent a decent amount of time on this- telling us how points are very soon (he implied within weeks) going up to $18/pt and doing the math to show that when that happened, we could sell back to Marriott for 60% of that new, higher price & therefore only be out a fee thousand dollars (plus our Barony Beach week that they'd get for free). If there is no buy-back program, that was indeed a pretty blatant and well-spun lie.

Fasttr said:

The reason I ask is that the rest of what you laid out is no different than what GregT posted way back in post # 25 of this thread....but the buy back, if real, would be a significant addition to the deal and could potentially sway somebody who was on the fence. Oh well.

Click to expand...

Right, but wasn't there subsequent speculation as to whether the terms of GregT's offer would be generally available vs just offered to owners of valuable weeks? My week would probably be a medium to low-ish value week, so it looks like this may be an offer that is generally available.

I assumed the "Marriott wisdom" actually evolves by hearing multiple people with different scenarios get the same (or perhaps slightly different) offers. Thought y'all might be interested in hearing from more than one person.

heathpack said:

Questions? Fire away.

Click to expand...

Sorry....I must have been confused that questions were ok.

heathpack said:

Ok, here's the deal we passed on:
1. Buy minimum points package $31,650
2. Rent back first years usage for $4750, bringing out of pocket purchase price to $26,900
3. If we wanted to, could put entire purchase on Marriott Rewards credit card for 5pt/$ spent
4. If we financed at 12+% interest and made at least 18 payments, we'd get 2500 pts after 18th payment. These payments could also go on Marriott Rewards credit card
5. Our Barony Beach gold garden view week purchased on EBay in 2013 would be eligible to be used in the points system for *no* additional cost. We talked about this point quite extensively, I'm sure of what salesman said. We'd get 2700 pts for it in years we decided to deposit it with the Marriott DC. By purchasing points, salesman also said all of our points (both purchased trust points and our Barony Beach points) would access trust inventory plus weeks inventory.
6. If we ever wanted to be rid of it all, we'd give Marriott our Barony Beach week for free and then they'd buy our points for 60% of current price.

Salesman said points about to go up in price into the $18/pt range.

Questions? Fire away.

Click to expand...

It is interesting to see the pitch as presented. Marriott is very good at tailoring the sales pitch based upon the ownership of the customer. I'm glad you passed on this and thx for posting the experience.

Best,

Greg

kds4 said:

One of the 3 posters on this thread who have said they received essentially the same offer is an EOY owner. I believe that their required points purchase was the same as someone who owned EY - 2500 points. One year they would get 2500 and in the next year they could get 2500 points plus the value of their enrolled EOY week (if they elected DC points for it).

Click to expand...

MKO ocean front EY weeks are 4950 points, so 2500 points is definitely only half of that when rounded up.

BocaBoy said:

MKO ocean front EY weeks are 4950 points, so 2500 points is definitely only half of that when rounded up.

Click to expand...

True, but I don't think annual versus EOY ownership affects the required points purchase for this new enrollment offer. The amounts appear fixed and vary only by the number of weeks an owner wants to enroll.

For some owners, they may be looking at buying about as many points as their week is worth to enroll it at 2500, while for others buying 2500 points is less than their week is worth and is a 'better' deal than past offers requiring purchase of 'matching' points.

Has anyone seen or heard the data for the purchase of 5000 pts. In Greg's post, there were rebates/discounts etc listed for the 2500 and 3500 points purchase to bring the price down, just wondering about the 5000 point purchase.

We have a few Aruba weeks that we either occupy or rent, so we would probably not act on this, but would like to have all the numbers/facts to consider.

Thanks

Travelmore said:

Has anyone seen or heard the data for the purchase of 5000 pts. In Greg's post, there were rebates/discounts etc listed for the 2500 and 3500 points purchase to bring the price down, just wondering about the 5000 point purchase.

We have a few Aruba weeks that we either occupy or rent, so we would probably not act on this, but would like to have all the numbers/facts to consider.

Thanks

Click to expand...

Just got an email confirming from Marriott. 5,000 points @ $10.76 each($53,800) covers 3-7 weeks conversion. 5,500 DP's or 400,000 MRP's as incentive. I am looking at activating 7 weeks totaling 27,650 point value.

In my earlier post, I had one item wrong. 3,500 points covers 2 weeks, not 2 or 3 weeks. 5,000 points covers 3-7 weeks.