MARRIOTT / CORONAVIRUS [MERGED]

[burg1121]

Marriott cares about Marriott nothing more nothing less, If it doesn't benefit Marriott oh well that's to bad. There was a time it was different. That time is long passed. They have a good product that was once exceptional.

 

[mjm1]

Thanks for sharing. Please note that the letter shown above is from Marriott International not Marriott Vacation Club. Two separate entities.

Best regards.

Mike

 

[GregT]

Unfortunately, I ran into this same issue when the hurricane passed through St. Thomas and devastated the island. I canceled the reservation within 60 days and got restricted points. While I wasn't happy to have restricted points, it was better than nothing and I found an alternative use for them.

What bummed me out a little bit was that the hurricane happened more than 60 days out and Marriott slow played the communication about whether or not the resort would re-open soon. In retrospect, there is no way it could have re-opened, but at the time, the communications suggested that it might. Oh well....

I hope you end up with a satisfactory arrangement!

Best,

Greg

 

[turkel]

I just cancelled a points stay for HHI. MVC said that since its within 60 days of the reservation they will allow bookings within 120 days and not the normal 60 day window. WTBS- my points expire 6/30/2020 and cannot be used past that date. It would be nice if MVC would extend past the expiration dates if warranted.

Prime example of enough is never enough.

 

[Homer1]

My issue is there is no way to contact Marriott to cancel a reservation. They will not answer phones or respond to emails. The standard answer is to contact Owner Services. I have been doing that for over a week and still can't reach them. If anyone know a secret way to cancel an upcoming reservation I would really appreciate it. My wife and I are in the high risk category and it is recommended to not travel. We have points reservations for the first week of April.

 

[rthib]

Have you tried the chat?

 

[samara64]

Thanks Mike.

Yes, unfortunately no one has heard a thing from MVCI so far.

 

[ilene13]

My issue is there is no way to contact Marriott to cancel a reservation. They will not answer phones or respond to emails. The standard answer is to contact Owner Services. I have been doing that for over a week and still can't reach them. If anyone know a secret way to cancel an upcoming reservation I would really appreciate it. My wife and I are in the high risk category and it is recommended to not travel. We have points reservations for the first week of April.

I have called twice this week and I requested a call back. Both times they returned my call within 45 minutes

 

[icydog]

My issue is there is no way to contact Marriott to cancel a reservation. They will not answer phones or respond to emails. The standard answer is to contact Owner Services. I have been doing that for over a week and still can't reach them. If anyone know a secret way to cancel an upcoming reservation I would really appreciate it. My wife and I are in the high risk category and it is recommended to not travel. We have points reservations for the first week of April.

I’m having the same issues. No one is answering the phones. It’s so frustrating. I have several exchanged weeks and points reservations in my account. I’m on the high risk category list. I don’t know what to do.

 

[dioxide45]

you still run into the same problem. The points in Marriott are based on weeks. With DVC, they are not. They were pure points from the beginning. I don’t know how DVC came up with their number of points but they could defer them indefinitely and have them accumulate.

DVC would still have the same problems. Their underlying inventory is still time. Sure they could allow people to accumulate more points from cancellations, but the bottleneck will still catch up with them down the road when there it a lot more points than available inventory to meet the demand.

I suspect what the other companies do is they offer up their unsold and inventory that they otherwise control (for Encore packages or cash rentals) and make that up for offer for those with accumulated points from cancellations. After Irma and Maria, we know there is no hope of Marriott offering up their owned inventory to give it back to their customers to use.

 

[icydog]

I have called twice this week and I requested a call back. Both times they returned my call within 45 minutes

I tried that. Nobody called me back! But then I got an emailed rating slip on “the so-called” return call from Marriott. Whoever was supposed to have called me never did. That ratings slip was not a good one believe me!

 

[icydog]

What do you propose they do and how to you propose they implement it? Marriott is selling time. Once time passes you never get it back. I think the best they could do is give you some certificates in II but I don’t think they can do much more.

I have fixed weeks that guarantee my usage at a certain time. Once that time passes, how would you expect Marriott to provide that time back?

If they do give people “credit” you then create a bottleneck for future years and it will be even more difficult to find what you want. When your system is based on weeks, there are less options. DVC is based on points so they have more options.

you still run into the same problem. The points in Marriott are based on weeks. With DVC, they are not. They were pure points from the beginning. I don’t know how DVC came up with their number of points but they could defer them indefinitely and have them accumulate.
With MVC, the points in the trust came from weeks. I guess they could convert them to points. However you’d likely find yourself using them for airline tickets, resort credits, or other things that don’t provide you the same value. That’s the only way I can see it working. I guess you could also use the points for Third Home or something that is not resort based. Either way, I don’t think owners would be happy regardless of what MVC offered.

Hi Steve, Don’t you and your brother work as Account Execs for Marriott Vacation Club at KoOlina.

 

[TXTortoise]

"Hi Steve, Don’t you and your brother work as Account Execs for Marriott Vacation Club at KoOlina."

Definitely got the wrong Steven. ;-). He's based in Utah and co-founder of VacationPointsExchange.com

 

[StevenTing]

Hi Steve, Don’t you and your brother work as Account Execs for Marriott Vacation Club at KoOlina.

Nope. Don’t work for MVC. However, it would be nice to have access to the inside scoop.

 

[enma]

Yes, I got a call back from MVCI late last night (9:30pm). I guess they were working overtime. I was supposed to check in on March 21 but canceled the trip. they did a deposit into II with some restrictions. I felt this was better than losing the entire week so I went for it.

This was your owner week / deeded week? What are the restrictions? I am potentially running into the problem of cancelling a week reservation with 30 days. Was this week of yours in Europe / restricted area or just somewhere else where you didn't feel comfortable going? Normally I would call owner services to ask these questions but hopeless now to get thru.

 

[dioxide45]

Nope. Don’t work for MVC. However, it would be nice to have access to the inside scoop.

I have considered applying for a job in their IT department now that we are in Florida. It would be interesting to see what is going on behind the curtain.

 

[Big Matt]

I'm not sure I understand what your issue is. You mention that you have exchanged weeks and points in your accounts. Exchanged weeks should be with a trading company (II?). You need to talk to the exchange company, not MVC. If it is with II, you can just retrade the reservations to a date out in the future. Points can be cancelled by contacting MVC or using a chat feature.

 

[tubelaw]

I am having the same experience trying to cancel a point reservation checking in for this Monday. They did call back one time but my wife thought it was spam and didn’t answer. . Got through again after many attempts and it’s been over an hour and still waiting. I tried calling resort directly and just kept referring me back to customer service.

 

[bizaro86]

I think it's not unfair to comment that Marriot has consistently been the least customer friendly TS company when disaster strikes. Both the hurricanes and coronavirus are evidence of that.

Even the much maligned Wyndham brands are offering free cancellations (I cancelled a worldmark reservation only 2 days out and got a full points refund). Holiday Inn Vacations did full waivers as well.

 

[bazzap]

I have considered applying for a job in their IT department now that we are in Florida. It would be interesting to see what is going on behind the curtain.

Please do, haha

 

[Dean]

I am so upset. If Disney Vacation Club can allow cancelations without penalty why can’t Marriott follow the same guidelines.

I’m a nervous wreck about my points and exchanged weeks’ reservations.

Why hasn’t Marriott stepped up to the plate and offered us a way out? What’s wrong with Marriott’s Code of Ethics?

It's not without penalty in reality as you still have the UY and expiration restrictions. DVC has a formal policy for hurricanes and a history of a similar response to natural disasters. They also have a history of case by case which means different members are treated differently. In reaslity the brunt of the allowance is shouldered by the other members, not DVD or DVCMC. Marriott has a history of no such allowances. Personally I'd far rather them be consistent than like DVC, blowing in the wind. Ideally they'd developer a policy, at least internally, that gave limited flexibility such as waiving cancelation and change fees, eliminating holdings accounts and allowed banking where the deadline has passed when true disasters occur then administer it consistently.

 

[TXTortoise]

I have considered applying for a job in their IT department now that we are in Florida. It would be interesting to see what is going on behind the curtain.

They probably need COBOL and PL/1 programmers.

 

[Steve Fatula]

Thanks Mike.

Yes, unfortunately no one has heard a thing from MVCI so far.

Except for the emails we got and several have posted copies of in various threads. They did send them out. Let me see if I can update this post with a MVCI copy.

MARRIOTT / CORONAVIRUS [MERGED]

This is why travel insurance exists. Travelex doesn’t cover European owners and I do have travel insurance but someone has just informed me it needs to be specific for timeshares which I didn’t know . Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

tugbbs.com

You said "a thing" so maybe you were not specifically asking about this, but it qualifies as a thing.

 

[ljmiii]

[DVC] is not without penalty in reality as you still have the UY and expiration restrictions...

Actually DVC is allowing people to 'unborrow' their points for cancellations as well as banking points that have passed the banking window.

 

[Steve Fatula]

My issue is there is no way to contact Marriott to cancel a reservation.

I had no problem reaching them yesterday. Therefore, not true. As has been stated, if they allowed weeks owners to defer via any mechanism their weeks stays, then, every resort will be overbooked for the next year or 2 with no way to use it anyway. Points users always can cancel their points, I have used cancelled points for 7 years now. But in the end, everyone that defers will create an upstream bottleneck which will then be a subject for more complaints. They can't create more inventory is the bottom line. Nor can any competing system. One way or another, there will be impacts to every system.

I sadly had to cancel the end of month ocean front II exchange to Kauai due to upcoming medical tests and issues I can't easily defer until after my trip.