Hybrid Bundle Going Bye-Bye???

I just received an unsolicited email from a sales rep that we did a presentation with a few months back which indicated that she just received word that the company is discontinuing the bundle program (a MVC resale week + points bundle) within a few weeks and wanted to give me a chance to snag one before that purchase option goes away.

I have no way of corroborating this, but figured it was worth pointing out in case somebody was pondering such a purchase and assuming this is true, timing could become critical.

and it is also bad news for those who are listing for the brokered resales as they won't move nearly as fast without the bundled points for many locations.

Fasttr said:

I just received an unsolicited email from a sales rep that we did a presentation with a few months back which indicated that she just received word that the company is discontinuing the bundle program (a MVC resale week + points bundle) within a few weeks and wanted to give me a chance to snag one before that purchase option goes away.

I have no way of corroborating this, but figured it was worth pointing out in case somebody was pondering such a purchase and assuming this is true, timing could become critical.

Click to expand...

Always helpful to have such feedback, thank you.
History does tend to raise the question though as to how much this is reality v how much it is sales spiel to generate a deal?

Fasttr said:

I just received an unsolicited email from a sales rep that we did a presentation with a few months back which indicated that she just received word that the company is discontinuing the bundle program (a MVC resale week + points bundle) within a few weeks and wanted to give me a chance to snag one before that purchase option goes away.

I have no way of corroborating this, but figured it was worth pointing out in case somebody was pondering such a purchase and assuming this is true, timing could become critical.

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I had a vacation club sales rep tell me the same thing earlier this year, so I contacted the Marriott rep who handles the resale weeks to see if there was any truth to it (we bought a bundle four years ago). His reply was that they weren't going away any time soon.

When I went to a presentation in February and asked about a hybrid purchase the rep said that not only were they about to go away but that he was only 'supposed' to sell them to people who had already bought one. But that since we were long term owners and we explicitly asked about them he would see what he could do.

Needless to say, I didn't buy from him. When I got back home I asked the MVCI rep I've worked with before and she said she would be happy to sell me whatever they had in inventory...but that if she didn't have a week I wanted new weeks came in periodically.

Caveat Emptor.

I would think the bulk of Marriott's brokered weeks are sold via the hybrid bundles. This explains why people are able to sell EOY properties so quickly through Marriott. I don't see them doing away with these any time soon. These are really only offered when people balk at the price or all other options. It is a tool to at least be able to sell points and I would think they do fairly well with these bundles.

dioxide45 said:

I would think the bulk of Marriott's brokered weeks are sold via the hybrid bundles. This explains why people are able to sell EOY properties so quickly through Marriott. I don't see them doing away with these any time soon. These are really only offered when people balk at the price or all other options. It is a tool to at least be able to sell points and I would think they do fairly well with these bundles.

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I generally agree with all your points above. That said, in the last two presentations I attended (at two different resorts), the bundle was the only thing that was presented to me. It was not offered as a 2nd option after I said no to anything else first. Being around sales folks a bit in my career, I do know that sales folks will usually take the path of least resistance. (no offense to those of you in sales, but you know I am right )...and perhaps sales management has figured out that instead of trying to sell a larger bundle of pure Trust points first, the resort located sales folks have been taking the easy way out and just start out pitching the bundle....and perhaps because of this, they are taking the bundle away from the resort located sales folks as a selling tool.

Perhaps they will remain a tool for the MVC Resale folks to utilize.

Just spit balling possible reasons, if indeed what she emailed me proves to be true.... which we all know is a big if.

I attended a sales presentation at the Las Vegas Grand Chateau on Monday. I am a legacy week owner. Their sales approach was to show me the option to enroll my week, and purchase 2000 points at 13.18. They then explained the hybrid bundle, and said it was a method that the sales staff there were able to use for their own personal purchases to expand their personal ownership into MVC, and that they had permission to offer that to legacy owners greater than 10 years, although MVC really did not like it when they did it. They presented it as if it was something unique to their sales operation, and you wouldn't find it elsewhere.

I see from reading around TUG that this is probably a bald faced sales tactic. Am I right on that?

Todd

I agree with previous posters that the statement is just a pressure tactic to get you to buy now. The hybrid option appears to be successful for Marriott to lower the cost per point down for buyers while unloading excess inventory, so I doubt they will be ending it soon unless 3rd party prices start rising (which they most likely won't).

I wouldn't call the hybrid option a bald faced (lie?) as a previous poster did - I think for some buyers it works well, especially when you want a combination of points and legacy weeks (with the points enrolled), and Marriott takes care of the paperwork on the legacy week. The only real advantage to the hybrid offer (IMO) is that you get the 3rd party legacy week points enrolled. You are still paying in the $12-$13/point range for actual DC points.

tmmabey said:

I attended a sales presentation at the Las Vegas Grand Chateau on Monday. I am a legacy week owner. Their sales approach was to show me the option to enroll my week, and purchase 2000 points at 13.18. They then explained the hybrid bundle, and said it was a method that the sales staff there were able to use for their own personal purchases to expand their personal ownership into MVC, and that they had permission to offer that to legacy owners greater than 10 years, although MVC really did not like it when they did it. They presented it as if it was something unique to their sales operation, and you wouldn't find it elsewhere.

I see from reading around TUG that this is probably a bald faced sales tactic. Am I right on that?

Todd

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The hybrid bundle has been around for a while and has been pitched at all resorts to people who have been in the program for years, as well as to brand new entrants, so your sales folks were certainly molding their story to make it sound unique to them and to you and your situation....but alas...it is not.

chuck1955 said:

I agree with previous posters that the statement is just a pressure tactic to get you to buy now. The hybrid option appears to be successful for Marriott to lower the cost per point down for buyers while unloading excess inventory, so I doubt they will be ending it soon unless 3rd party prices start rising (which they most likely won't).

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You and the others could be right, but it seemed very odd that this sales gal who I have only met once....and 4 months later out of the blue, sends me an email telling me that the hybrid deals are going away in a few weeks (sounded like end of October-ish). Also, when you review MVC's latest quarterly earnings call info, it sounds like their VPG (Volume Per Guest) stats are down, which leads me to believe they may be trying to change sales strategies to increase their VPG stats...and as I mentioned in post #7, they may feel the hybrid bundles are driving down the average quantity of points purchased vs what it was before using the hybrid bundle as a go-to offering during their standard pitch.

I'd be skeptical. I just got immediate listing agreements for MGV Gold and MMC Gold and Platinum. I expected MGV Gold to have such a long wait list that it would take up to a year to sell. It could be that they are moving them like hot cakes now but may plan on stopping at some point. Perhaps they will stop the resale department all together. I'd bet the other way but anything is possible.

Fasttr said:

You and the others could be right, but it seemed very odd that this sales gal who I have only met once....and 4 months later out of the blue, sends me an email telling me that the hybrid deals are going away in a few weeks (sounded like end of October-ish). Also, when you review MVC's latest quarterly earnings call info, it sounds like their VPG (Volume Per Guest) stats are down, which leads me to believe they may be trying to change sales strategies to increase their VPG stats...and as I mentioned in post #7, they may feel the hybrid bundles are driving down the average quantity of points purchased vs what it was before using the hybrid bundle as a go-to offering during their standard pitch.

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It seems to me that the hybrid bundle helps to both sell points and increase the number of points sold per customer by lowering the cost per point. What exactly does VPG mean? Points per customer (sold)? Nights used by customer? Inventory held by customer?

chuck1955 said:

What exactly does VPG mean? Points per customer (sold)? Nights used by customer? Inventory held by customer?

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VPG = Volume (or Value) per Guest
A measure of how efficiently a sales force is doing. You take the dollar volume of your sales and divide it by the total number of guests you toured, and it tells you your VPG. The higher the VPG, the better you are doing. For instance: say that in a week’s time you have 20 tours. You sell three of them a deal for $20K each, or $60K total. Divide $60K by 20 and you get $3,000 VPG.

Keep in mind....on the points sale, all of the sales dollars count towards the VPG, but on the sale of the week, those are resale weeks, so they only get to count the commission earned in the VPG calculation (which is 40% of the total as I recall from other posts). So a pure points sale totaling $30,000 will get them a better VPG than a sale of 1500 points at $20,000, and a resale week at $10,000 that they really only make $4,000 on. The bundle is perhaps an easier sale, but VPG is a measurement that helps drive the stock price, so they do pay attention to it.

chuck1955 said:

It seems to me that the hybrid bundle helps to both sell points and increase the number of points sold per customer by lowering the cost per point. What exactly does VPG mean? Points per customer (sold)? Nights used by customer? Inventory held by customer?

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AND, don't forget the important VPE for Vacation Point Exchange. Why buy additional points when you can rent them as you need them



www.VacationPointExchange.com



This site is run by several TUG members.






.

TheTimeTraveler said:

AND, don't forget the important VPE for Vacation Point Exchange. Why buy additional points when you can rent them as you need them

www.VacationPointExchange.com

This site is run by several TUG members.

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Point rentals are a great strategy, but one reason to buy versus rent is if you want to achieve a higher ownership tier to get the benefits of that tier. A secondary benefit of owning is the ability to bank and borrow owned points, which can't be done with rental points. Each person needs to determine if the intrinsic value of those benefits of ownership warrant the high cost of points. Hybrid buddies have generally been the most cost effective way to buy points.