Interval priority after Marriott takeover

[DannyTS]

I am thinking that after the takeover, Vistana owners may be given priority in II exchanging not only with Vistana resorts but also with Marriott. Any thoughts?

 

[NiteMaire]

I am thinking that after the takeover, Vistana owners may be given priority in exchanging not only with other Vistana resorts but also with Marriott. Any thoughts?

One can hope. My hope is for the opposite to be true as well in that Marriott owners' preference would include Vistana resorts.

 

[Tucsonadventurer]

When we attended a Marriott presentation our salesman indicated that all inventory would be in one pool and that it would be a huge advantage for us to own with Marriott. He said he couldn't give us details as he wasn't allowed to yadda yadda. His boss however assured us that the 3 programs would remain separate and we should purchase Marriott if we wanted to own Marriott. When our salesman introduced his boss he told us that we would hear the politically correct version. The two were good buddies and have worked together for years so who knows what that was about.

 

[canesfan]

When we attended a Marriott presentation our salesman indicated that all inventory would be in one pool and that it would be a huge advantage for us to own with Marriott. He said he couldn't give us details as he wasn't allowed to yadda yadda. His boss however assured us that the 3 programs would remain separate and we should purchase Marriott if we wanted to own Marriott. When our salesman introduced his boss he told us that we would hear the politically correct version. The two were good buddies and have worked together for years so who knows what that was about.

I highly doubt the sales people know what is going to happen yet. It’s all at the corporate level for decisions still and until it is official everyone is guessing, including sales.


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[VacationForever]

When we attended a Marriott presentation our salesman indicated that all inventory would be in one pool and that it would be a huge advantage for us to own with Marriott. He said he couldn't give us details as he wasn't allowed to yadda yadda. His boss however assured us that the 3 programs would remain separate and we should purchase Marriott if we wanted to own Marriott. When our salesman introduced his boss he told us that we would hear the politically correct version. The two were good buddies and have worked together for years so who knows what that was about.

This is called hedging and they hoped that by covering both scenarios would influence a sale. But then they were assuming that it would work.

 

[NiteMaire]

When we attended a Marriott presentation our salesman indicated that all inventory would be in one pool and that it would be a huge advantage for us to own with Marriott.

Of course he said that.

 

[taterhed]

Well, I heard that Vistana owners would only be allowed to play if they <insert favorite sales line here>

So you should join <program TBD> now!

Oh and for you Hyatt owners, you've got to <something will come to mind soon>!!!

 

[Ken555]

I'm of the opinion that anything said by timeshare sales staff should be disallowed on TUG. Anyone can make up rumors, and timeshare sales staff are great at it. Why do we give them any credence? Because they seem so likable... Rofl.


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[Maui_ed]

I'm of the opinion that anything said by timeshare sales staff should be disallowed on TUG. Anyone can make up rumors, and timeshare sales staff are great at it. Why do we give them any credence? Because they seem so likable... Rofl.


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But if we didn't allow their rumors, what would we have to talk about?

 

[canesfan]

Why is everyone so assured that there will be integration to the Vistana and Marriott programs upon the sale when there wasn’t integration of the Vistana and Hyatt when ILG bought Vistana? It obviously is not that easy to merge different TS systems and owners have their own shares and rights.


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[Ken555]

Why is everyone so assured that there will be integration to the Vistana and Marriott programs upon the sale when there wasn’t integration of the Vistana and Hyatt when ILG bought Vistana? It obviously is not that easy to merge different TS systems and owners have their own shares and rights.

I'm not assured there will be integration between the systems. I think the Marriott/SPG hotel integration is encouraging this perspective. At the moment I'm hoping there won't be integration. I bought Starwood and not Marriott for many reasons, and have generally been pleased with that decision.


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[Tucsonadventurer]

Of course he said that.

This is a summary too so I have not even gone into all that was said. Our first salesman created fear re the vast number of Marriott folks and the small number of Hyatt and Vistana inventory that would be grabbed by Marriott owners. It reminded me of Hyatt portfolio pitch of their new program. The district manager stressed that all would be separate and nothing would change for us as Hyatt and Vistana had legalities in place to protect them ; it would take a lot to change that and that both companies were making a good profit taht would work well for them.
And when we went to Hyatt and Westin owners updates it was stressed that we better own in Hawaii as we would not be able to get in in the future without actually owning in Hawaii, again playing the fear factor. I believe we bring that out in them as they can see how thrilled we are now with our ownerships and how well they are working for us. It gives them an angle to play off of.
For right now though we are going to continue to thoroughly enjoy what we have and see what the future brings, making a decision from facts that are in writing.

 

[DannyTS]

Just to clarify my original post (edited), I was referring to the priority in II exchanges.

 

[vikingsholm]

When we attended a Marriott presentation our salesman indicated that all inventory would be in one pool and that it would be a huge advantage for us to own with Marriott. He said he couldn't give us details as he wasn't allowed to yadda yadda. His boss however assured us that the 3 programs would remain separate and we should purchase Marriott if we wanted to own Marriott. When our salesman introduced his boss he told us that we would hear the politically correct version. The two were good buddies and have worked together for years so who knows what that was about.

Moving lips sink ships.

 

[Ken555]

Just to clarify my original post (edited), I was referring to the priority in II exchanges.

Hope not. We have enough issues with priority just amongst Starwood. However, it's never been a transparent benefit and there have been many reports of availability not in any priority, so who knows how they'll handle it in future. When and if this changes, it will be without notice.


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[taterhed]

Well....FWIW

Marriott made some points in the last call. In Simpson language:

• Points good
• Converted resorts good, new resorts bad.

Having said that, I think Marriott will work to perfect/improve new/existing points at Westin/Hyatt (if they keep Hyatt). I think they will favor anything that optimizes points. I also think they will try to figure out how to make super-premium resorts/units (ocean-front etc..) available to those members under the points umbrella; possibly even across brands (if they can figure an angle).

But, will I still be alive when this happens? Who knows?

I'd probably have better luck playing the ponies or the lottery than guessing Mother Marriott's intensions.
I think the sales weasels (that's gender neutral, right?) have only slightly better odds.

 

[Tucsonadventurer]

Just to clarify my original post (edited), I was referring to the priority in II exchanges.

That actually makes the most sense of all the scenarios

 

[TravelTime]

Why is everyone so assured that there will be integration to the Vistana and Marriott programs upon the sale when there wasn’t integration of the Vistana and Hyatt when ILG bought Vistana? It obviously is not that easy to merge different TS systems and owners have their own shares and rights.


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ILG has a different model than MVC. I would not see an incentive for ILG to merge timeshare companies because they are an unknown brand and what would they even call the new system or what would they have gotten out of that. MVC is moving toward a points model so in their case, it might make sense, to have a points system that can access all the brands they own. They did it with the Ritz Carlton Club even though it angered all the RC Club owners.

 

[JIMinNC]

Why is everyone so assured that there will be integration to the Vistana and Marriott programs upon the sale when there wasn’t integration of the Vistana and Hyatt when ILG bought Vistana? It obviously is not that easy to merge different TS systems and owners have their own shares and rights.

It's all just speculation, of course. But there was one different dynamic with the ILG acquisition of Hyatt/Vistana. Those were two separate, independent hotel-based timeshare systems with no commonality between the hotel brands. But now that Marriott International owns all of the old Starwood brands, and Marriott Vacations Worldwide is buying the Sheraton and Westin Vacation Clubs, there will be commonality of ownership on both the hotel side and the timeshare side. That is a very different situation than under ILG. Hyatt is the wild card, and I could actually see them keep that separate, but since Marriott Vacation Club, Sheraton Vacation Club, and Westin Vacation Club will all be controlled by Marriott-affiliated entities, combining the Sheraton and Westin clubs as they did Ritz-Carlton club would not seem to be out of character for Marriott.

The other dynamic is Marriott is paying a hefty premium for ILG and taking on a good bit of debt. The only synergies they have discussed so far are about $75 million of annual administrative and operational cost savings from eliminating redundant back-off staff and systems and operational cost efficiencies. Given the premium paid and the debt, Wall Street will expect Marriott Vacations Worldwide to come up with a way to enhance shareholder value a lot more than just $75 million. That means finding a way to increase top-line revenue by increasing sales over and above what the programs could have done independently. In my opinion, that means they have to find a way to allow bookings across the brands to increase the appeal of buying more product.

Given the complexity of the Vistana system, I don't think a combination will be easy or quick, but I think Marriott will face considerable market pressure to show enhanced shareholder value to justify this acquisition.

 

[canesfan]

Given the complexity of the Vistana system, I don't think a combination will be easy or quick, but I think Marriott will face considerable market pressure to show enhanced shareholder value to justify this acquisition.

I agree with this. I think people are expecting a change too quickly with the sale or even at year end. For me, I’m seeing things happening more in the future in phases.



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[DannyTS]

interesting to note 18 months after starting this thread that the Vistana/Marriott extended priority did happen in a modified form.

 

[PamMo]

The discount on II trades is great, but reciprocal priority for trades in Interval isn't there yet. I was just comparing availability with a parlor (basically a hotel room) at Marriott's Kauai Beach Club vs a large 1BR at SDO. Marriott priority is alive and well.

 

[DannyTS]

The discount on II trades is great, but reciprocal priority for trades in Interval isn't there yet. I was just comparing availability with a parlor (basically a hotel room) at Marriott's Kauai Beach Club vs a large 1BR at SDO. Marriott priority is alive and well.

I am not sure that we have established that yet conclusively one way or another. Few reported increased Marriott inventory when searching with Vistana units. What we do not know yet is if the deposits made prior to enabling this policy had not already been coded with Marriott priority alone.
I also encourage anyone, when changing the unit the search is based on, to log out and log back in to start again with a clean slate. It is a known II glitch that modifies trading power after multiple searches within the same session.

I think establishing trading priority will take some time. To begin with, the inventory changes rapidly, sometimes within seconds. How many times did I not see units disappearing and reappearing after minutes. Secondly, we have to search with a Marriott unit, then with a Vistana unit then to a non Marriott/Vistana unit and to compare results. We also probably do not know if priority is fixed or different for the initial deposits and for the cancellations.

 

[NiteMaire]

The discount on II trades is great, but reciprocal priority for trades in Interval isn't there yet. I was just comparing availability with a parlor (basically a hotel room) at Marriott's Kauai Beach Club vs a large 1BR at SDO. Marriott priority is alive and well.

I am not sure that we have established that yet conclusively one way or another. Few reported increased Marriott inventory when searching with Vistana units.

Apologies for the generic comments about the post below, but didn't want to put the link/post specifics from the sightings page here.

If you look at the post by @alwysonvac you'll notice the Vistana unit was able to see things the WM couldn't see. Shortly after reading her post, I tried with my Vistana unit as well as my Vacation Village unit. My Vistana unit was able to see the same units posted by @alwysonvac . My VV, however, could not see them. @Theiggy then pointed out that there were some other units that could be seen with a Marriott. That's exactly what I would expect after reading the Marriott/Vistana emails and websites.

I'd expect some units to be seen by Marriott only, some to be seen by Marriott and Vistana only, and some to be seen by all. The posts by @PamMo and @alwysonvac show these scenarios exist now. I'll take this to mean there is some form of (new) priority/trade power that's been implemented...now if only we could find out if Marriott changed the preference period so Vistana owners had access sooner, or if they are extending the preference period.

 

[CPNY]

Apologies for the generic comments about the post below, but didn't want to put the link/post specifics from the sightings page here.

If you look at the post by @alwysonvac you'll notice the Vistana unit was able to see things the WM couldn't see. Shortly after reading her post, I tried with my Vistana unit as well as my Vacation Village unit. My Vistana unit was able to see the same units posted by @alwysonvac . My VV, however, could not see them. @Theiggy then pointed out that there were some other units that could be seen with a Marriott. That's exactly what I would expect after reading the Marriott/Vistana emails and websites.

I'd expect some units to be seen by Marriott only, some to be seen by Marriott and Vistana only, and some to be seen by all. The posts by @PamMo and @alwysonvac show these scenarios exist now. I'll take this to mean there is some form of (new) priority/trade power that's been implemented...now if only we could find out if Marriott changed the preference period so Vistana owners had access sooner, or if they are extending the preference period.

There is another thread I just posted on. It seems vistana can see MVC in September but not December. MVC can see the December week. My though is possibly they adopted the same timing as VSN booking? 12-8 months for home system or 12-10 months. Then 10-8 or 8-6 months for sister system? If we run some exchange scenarios we can prob nail down the timing.