Marriotts new policy

I chated with a salesman yesterday as I was going to pull the trigger on purchasing a Marriott resale Platinum @ NCV 2 weeks 2bdr for $34,000. I figured I would call to see if the resort had any unbeliviable deals and chated for a bit then the salesman told me that Marriott was going to adopt a new policy.

If you were to purchase a resale that you would not be able to reserve any more than 6 months in advanced.!!! WHAT??

This would kill anyone trying to resale. Would this effect all the previousley bought resales. Is this a bunch of BS from a salesman or what??

Any thoughts??

it is not good news but it's interesting to see all the hotel based TS's are trying to screw it's loyal customers.

At this point, yes, it is a bunch of BS from the salesman.

This thread, specifically the first post, is what we know so far.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60528

Note that salesman do not know how the new program will be implemented and should not be telling you that they do. If a salesman tells you this press him for details and written statements. If they can't/won't provide it in writing, it's a lie.

Also note that any resale weeks already owned or purchased prior to the implementation date will probably be grandfathered in under the new program.

There's a bunch of threads over in the Marriott forum full of conjecture and complaints about this, even though nobody really knows what Marriott is or is not going to do yet. There are at least 3 other reports of Marriott TS salesman saying the same thing. You can have fun reading those posts if you want to.

As of this moment, the only difference between buying resale and buying from the developer (besides price, of course) is that resale owners cannot participate in the "trade for Marriott points" option.

My opinion? Don't worry about the new program since you are buying in before the change and try to buy the week at resale. The only thing that all current and future Marriott owners need to be concerned with here, regardless of who they purchased from, is if the new changes will hurt the independent resale market and make it harder to sell in the independent resale market.

-David

As previously said this is pure speculation of a new Marriott policy which hasn't been announced yet.

But your idea of buying two plat week at NCV for $34K sounds like a great deal. Anything under $18K/week is a good deal, getting 2 week at $17K /week is great!

The infamous Florida Club only allows booking 6 months ahead and all the prime weeks are long gone by then. It's better to just book your home weeks 12-13 months out and deposit with II for best results. And Marriott has the nerve to have an annual fee for the FC!!

Brian

Next time have the salesman fax that claim to you on resort letterhead. As a developer owner there, these are things I need to know

BTW, 2@17K is getting close to ROFR, IMO. Don't be surprised...

Pat

Aruba, Newport Coast, Hawaii

It concerns me that these reports are exactly the same and come from all over the map.

Charles

pwrshift said:

And Marriott has the nerve to have an annual fee for the FC!!

Brian

Click to expand...

The fee for the FC actually only works out to be $4 a year extra.

CMF said:

It concerns me that these reports are exactly the same and come from all over the map.

Charles

Click to expand...

I tend to agree. Maybe it was discussed in generalities at a sales convention or the like. Makes yoy want to go ahead and make that one last purchase just in case you are grandfathered in, doesn't it?

Fairfield (now Wyndham) had a similar rumor for 3+ years before they pulled the trigger. Now 5 years later they are "ungrandfathering" the resale times....

Watch out - the big guys will do anything to make a buck.

Is Marriott Damaging the Rights of Its Customers?

davis6 said:

I chated with a salesman yesterday as I was going to pull the trigger on purchasing a Marriott resale Platinum @ NCV 2 weeks 2bdr for $34,000. I figured I would call to see if the resort had any unbeliviable deals and chated for a bit then the salesman told me that Marriott was going to adopt a new policy.

Click to expand...

A few thoughts about what this Marriott salesperson said, if this is true:

Damage to Seller: If the salesperson’s comments discourage Davis6 from purchasing from a Marriott customer, then Marriott has caused one of its customers to lose a sale and suffer an economic loss. The customer may now have to sell at a substantially lower price – if he can find a buyer.

Fraud: If this salesperson is lying, Marriott should instruct its salespersons to stop lying about this issue – otherwise Marriott is allowing its employees to commit fraud.

Lower Resale Value: If Marriott allows this rumor to persist, and its salespersons to perpetuate it, then Marriott is hurting all of its customers. Marriott TSs will now be harder to sell and they will be less valuable because of this uncertainty.

If Marriott does change the rule to restrict resale purchasers from selecting dates until 6 months in advance, then one has to wonder if Marriott has its own economic problems that would cause it to implement changes that damage its own customers. Is Marriott being affected by the credit crises? What is motivating this possible change?

Marriott should let its customers know if this is all false speculation so that the resale market doesn’t freeze up because of this uncertainty.

What would it hurt if ALL of us sent emails to Marriott Owner Services to let them know that their sales people are making these statements, and that we, as owners of MVCI properties, demand to know the truth, as these rumors are affecting the value of our properties. We should also demand that the rumors be stopped if indeed they are not fact. IMO

Just a thought - Could it be possible that ONE of the Marriott sales persons read Dave's post and that the rumor has now spread like a virus through the Marriott sales force?

.

Here we go again. At least we're consistent. Over the next two years is there going to be yet another new thread about this with the outcry from new people and the typical posts from the retractors that post to every Marriott thread?

READ THE OTHER THREAD. POST THERE. (unless, of course, you are posting advice or comments about the OPs NCV question.)

In case you missed the link in post #3 of this thread, here it is again:

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60528

-David

I'm usually a lurker, but figure I might as well chime in to all the speculations floating out there. It seems so many of the salesmen are starting to say the same things about resales only having the ability to book six months in advance. It would not surprise me if there is a little truth to it. Seeing that the info is coming from salesmen trying to make a sale, I think that little bit of info might be the worst thing about the internal exchange system that they can come up with to discourage resales.

So this is my take on what this 6 months thing is all about. I think it will be sort of an expanded Florida Club thing where only Marriott direct purchases can have the ability to internally exchange into other Marriott resorts at the 6month point as if it were their home resort. Something like DVC and the 7 month rule. Owners, whether they bought directly or resale would still have the ability to book at their own resort with the current guidelines. At six months, the buy direct folks would be able to book at any of the Marriotts directly as long as space is available. Of course, the most premium weeks will all be taken already by owners. It wouldn't be totally useless as it may work out great for people who like to travel off-peak so they don't have to pay an II exchange fee or for people who like to get out of the regional blocks(Example:Orlando to try to get into DVC). It's a feature that would sound great in their sales pitches, but not actually work that well, just like the FC.

Since many(most?)of the resorts are not owned by Marriott, it would be very surprising to me if Marriott has the right to make each resort treat their owners differently based on how the unit was purchased. I don't think the resort itself really cares how the unit was purchased as both direct and resale owners pay the same maintenance fees. I think legally, Marriott can't monkey around too much with owners at their own resort, but they can certainly exclude resale folks from certain exchange programs administered by Marriott, just like they exclude resale folks from the points exchange program.

Yes, this is all speculation. Until the cat's out of the bag, they'll be many more attempts to figure out what's around the corner for us. But it's probably not nearly as bad as the picture the salesman's going to be painting for resale folks. They have to do what ever it takes to make a sale.

Pure BS

Come one guys, you know this is BS.

Just because the salesreps talk to each other is no reason the believe any of this.

Right now a bunch of them are looking at this thread and laughing so hard that they are falling off their bar stools.

How many times to we need to put any credence into these timeshare salesrep rumors?

Once is too much.

As mentioned before numerous times, ask for written proof. Keep it simple.

OP - you have the salesman's card, right? Email and call him for this proof tomorrow!

The salesman did not say it was a fact as it is happening today, however he did mention that he was in the ear of one of the VPs and he said there was definantely going to be a change towards the resale purchases. It was definantely an attempt to get me to buy direct.

The thing that frustrates me the most is that some day I am going to be the seller and I am going to have to compete against these salespeople who try and lure prospects away:annoyed:

How fair is that.?

I purchase 2 weeks for the price of one and take my chances or the one week and feel more secure??

Did he make the statement in bold in your first post or not? Nobody knows how they are going to handle existing resales yet. See the other post. Nobody knows exactly what the changes will be. See the other post.

The thing that frustrates me the most is that some day I am going to be the seller and I am going to have to compete against these salespeople who try and lure prospects away

How fair is that.?

Click to expand...

What was the salesman response to that point? I'm sure you must have mentioned it to the salesman since he had more information than we do about the new program.

Honestly, the salesperson doesn't know the answer to any of these questions any more than we do, and they shouldn't be mentioning this since they really have no idea how, if or when any change will be implemented.

But if anybody is told by a salesman that resale buyers rights are going to be restricted, please, get out their card and call them back and ask them why you should buy a Marriott timeshare that might be harder to resell on the open market under unforeseen circumstances if resale buyers rights are going to be impacted by this new program. Ask them how this new program is going to benefit owners.

-David

I agree with a previous assessment about the situation. Marriott salesman are making stuff up, reading it on these forums and ROFLTAO.

davis6 said:

I purchase 2 weeks for the price of one and take my chances or the one week and feel more secure??

Click to expand...

If it were me, I'd definitely buy the 2 weeks for the price of one, with no reservation. Look at it this way:
-these statements are rumors at best; at worst they are the overactive imaginations of salespeople desperate to make a sale
-Marriott , IMHO and that of many here who certainly know a lot more than me, would be stupid to shoot itself in the foot. Many Marriott owners are repeat customers; even resale owners are prime prospects for pre-construction purchases at the new resorts they are anticipating building. Furthermore, any changes to existing owners which would affect use of their current ownership would be ripe for litigation; Marriott would be stupid to put themselves in such a position and would be sure to avoid the negative publicity that this would incur. As DaveM has postulated on the other thread (and I quote him, because he has some reliable resources and differentiates between fact and fiction) grandfathering of current resale owners is the most likely scenario. Frankly, it is the only one which makes business sense for Marriott, again in my opinion.
-if resales in the future are negatively impacted by a new system, one will naturally expect the resale market to wither and values to decline, because buyers will not have as many benefits (hence, the product would be worth less). You are already seeing that buying from the developer immediately means that the value of the product being purchased will diminish by half for your particular property (since you can buy 2 for the price of 1). Thus, IF there were to be any adverse effects from the new policy, you would stand to lose less, because all owners would take a bath on reselling.
-the likely scenario, as stated in the other post on this topic, is that present resale owners will retain the same rights and that ownership benefits would likely only change for future resale buyers.
-keep in mind that Marriott does not have a monopoly on exchanging. The more they exclude from their internal exchange program, the more business they lose- to II and elsewhere. If, for instance, they were to enact the internal exchanges at 6 months only for developer purchases, I would venture to guess that many owners (including developer purchasers) would opt to deposit into II to try their luck at earlier exchanges.

On fact, these rumors would, if anything, make me nervous about buying direct from the developer, because it would kill the resale market. One of the great things about Marirott is that due to their price structuring and retention of value, many people have posted that after 5-10 years they have sold their units for at or, in many cases, above their original purchase price. I think instead of allowing the salespeople to intimidate us and get frightened by spreading this rumor (and, who knows, maybe it is pervasive because some "smart" PR person wants to test the waters and see what impact this might have) we should counter by asking why we would ever want to purchase a Marriott timeshare in this case because it would adversely affect the resaleability of their product and thus negatively impact our "investment."

I would love to see the salesperson's reaction to that- they tout these purchases as investments, and emphasize how the values keep on going up. Under this scenario, why would it make sense for anyone to buy?

Mums the word...

I just got a super secret memo from Marriott (somehow I got on the distribution list) that states any Marriott salesrep that talks about Marriott’s resale plans is to be immediately terminated.

Gee, I hope this doesn’t get to the Marriott salesreps and ruin their new year. God forbid that happen.

Mums the word…..

Icarus said:

...... Nobody knows how they are going to handle existing resales yet. See the other post. Nobody knows exactly what the changes will be. See the other post....

-David

Click to expand...

And you know this to be fact or are you just basing your judgement on this "other post" by another Tugger. Truth is, where there is smoke there is usually fire, and right now there is smoke coming from different locations of the MVCI system.

"Nobody knows" - I totally disagree, somebody knows.

Because of the consistency and broad spread nature of this rumor, it is now very possible that it may come to be sooner than not. IMO
.

PerryM said:

I just got a super secret memo from Marriott (somehow I got on the distribution list) that states any Marriott salesrep that talks about Marriott’s resale plans is to be immediately terminated.

Gee, I hope this doesn’t get to the Marriott salesreps and ruin their new year. God forbid that happen.

Mums the word…..

Click to expand...

I got the same e-mail regarding Starwood Vacation Ownership

Trust me on this....

thinze3 said:

And you know this to be fact or are you just basing your judgement on this "other post" by another Tugger. Truth is, where there is smoke there is usually fire, and right now there is smoke coming from different locations of the MVCI system.

"Nobody knows" - I totally disagree, somebody knows.

Because of the consistency and broad spread nature of this rumor, it is now very possible that it may come to be sooner than not. IMO
.

Click to expand...

Good grief; don't fall for the rumors.

I've been hearing Marriott rumors since I bought our first one in 1999:


"Marriott charges 25% commission to resell your unit - hasn't changed in 10 years"


"Marriott hasn't changed the Marriott Reward Points for 10+ years - you can bank on that"


"Marriott is about to introduce an Internal Exchange System - resales can't use it"



Making decisions based upon rumors is no better than getting a hot stock tip from your barber.

If something happens it happens and then that's the time to start new plans.

Falling for these rumors is what the salesreps hope will happen - don't reward their lies with action.

If something does happen Marriott will grandfather in ALL owners at that instant. This you can bank on or there will be so many class action lawsuits that Marriott will be sued back to the stone age. That you can count on too.

Every month there is a new rumor here and if some of you want to make decisions on these rumors maybe I've got a new source of revenue I should pursue.

PerryM said:

Good grief; don't fall for the rumors.

I've been hearing Marriott rumors since I bought our first one in 1999:


"Marriott charges 25% commission to resell your unit - hasn't changed in 10 years"


"Marriott hasn't changed the Marriott Reward Points for 10+ years - you can bank on that"


"Marriott is about to introduce an Internal Exchange System - resales can't use it"





Making decisions based upon rumors is no better than getting a hot stock tip from your barber.

If something happens it happens and then that's the time to start new plans.

Falling for these rumors is what the salesreps hope will happen - don't reward their lies with action.

If something does happen Marriott will grandfather in ALL owners at that instant. This you can bank on or there will be so many class action lawsuits that Marriott will be sued back to the stone age. That you can count on too.

Every month there is a new rumor here and if some of you want to make decisions on these rumors maybe I've got a new source of revenue I should pursue.

Click to expand...

What are the chances that some Marriott salespeople come on here to start rumors.