marriott grande ocean 2020

[Nsivertsen]

We have been members of Marriott Grande Ocean for many years and have used our week every year Gold Season which entitles us to an ocean front 2 bedroom villa. Our time to use is up to the first week in June. We have used our week in May and once in the beginning of june for at least 12 years. The way they require you to book is exactly one year in advance on the very day that you want for the following year, at 9:00AM on a Thursday you go on line to the vacation villas site and after registering your availability calendar appears with options. We have been able to get our May and June week until now. Don't know what is going on, but since Marriott is now Bonvoy, I am blocked out on my calendar They offer me only up to April. I tried every Thursday at exactly 9:00AM for the entire May and June. When I called several times I am told the exact message, that every Marriot member wants those times and I am too late. Cant believe that the entire hotel is booked at 9:00 every Thursday for months. The same message as if it was a script. However when going into the regular Marriott Hotel calendar to Grande Ocean the entire May and June are available for rental for much more money almost triple of my maintenance. I am told it is a different inventory. Whats the difference? I was wondering if anyone else is have this problem with Marriott Grande Ocean.

 

[Fasttr]

Have you tried Sept/ earlyOct for usage of your Gold week. Those are great months on HHI.

As for the cash availability on marriott.com, those weeks come from folks turning in their week for Bonvoy points, weeks that go unreserved, weeks in foreclosure, etc.

Also, per the inventory release calendar for GO on the MVC site, it appears Wednesday is the release date, not Thursday.

 

[tschwa2]

Is it still 9am or is it midnight online these days. If so they are popular times and if you wait to call or book until 9am it may have been too late.

 

[Nsivertsen]

Is it still 9am or is it midnight online these days. If so they are popular times and if you wait to call or book until 9am it may have been too late.

i was told by Marriott at ocean grande while I was there this year that it was Thursday at 9 someone else told me it was Wed. so I tried both days they wouldn't even check for me at the desk I had to wait until Thursday (wed) years ago it was midnight, however wont hurt to try.

 

[Nsivertsen]

Have you tried Sept/ earlyOct for usage of your Gold week. Those are great months on HHI.

As for the cash availability on marriott.com, those weeks come from folks turning in their week for Bonvoy points, weeks that go unreserved, weeks in foreclosure, etc.

Also, per the inventory release calendar for GO on the MVC site, it appears Wednesday is the release date, not Thursday.

thanks I tried also on Wed. I thought I might just try wed. also to no avail. I ended up taking late April, but not happy

 

[JIMinNC]

Don't know what is going on, but since Marriott is now Bonvoy, I am blocked out on my calendar

It has nothing to do with Bonvoy. That is operated by the Marriott International hotel company. The timeshares are now managed by a totally different company, and have been for about eight years, ever since Marriott sold them off into that new company. The timeshares just participate in Bonvoy since they still license the Marriott Vacation Club name from Marriott International.

If you are booking with an owned week instead of Destination Club Points, the Weeks inventory is released at exactly 9am Eastern time, usually on Wednesday, 12 months prior to the check-in week. There is a handy tool on the Vacation Club website to always know when the inventory will be there. From the Home Page click on Education & Resources at the top, then from the pull down menu Helpful Tools, then click on the When Can I Reserve? box, then Using My Week, then pick your resort from the list that appears. From the calendar form that then appears, enter your desired check-in date, and it will show you which morning you should be online at the exact moment of 9am Eastern. I believe it will usually/almost always be a Wednesday.

Since May and early June weeks are probably the most popular Gold season weeks at Grande Ocean, those may be gone very quickly. Unless you click reserve very close to 9:00:01. You may not get what you want. Back when most people called to make the reservations, the inventory might last longer, but as more and more people use the online system, it goes much faster. A couple years ago I was playing around with our Maui week on several high-season release days just to see how long the inventory lasted, and it was there at 9:00:01, but sometimes gone in less than 30 seconds or so. A couple times it lasted for a minute, but not much longer. Those high demand weeks at Grande Ocean might be similar.

And as others have said, the reason you can see inventory on Marriott.com for cash rentals when owner stays are gone, is because of weeks that the timeshare management company controls, not owners. The most common way those weeks get into the cash inventory is when an owner converts their owned week into Bonvoy points. The management company has to pay Marriott International for those points, so the management company is allowed to rent that converted week out in the Marriott hotel system to recoup their cost of buying the points from Marriott. That cash inventory is always kept totally separate from the pool of units controlled by owners.

 

[JIMinNC]

Here's something to help you see what you might be up against and why you need to move rapidly on release date. These are example numbers since we don't know the real numbers, but the principals are the same regardless of the actual numbers:

There are 290 units at Grande Ocean. I'm not sure how many are ocean front, but from looking at the resort map, it looks like maybe about a third or a little less of the units might be OF. So lets say there are 90, just for arguments' sake. There are 20 weeks in Gold season, so that makes 1,800 units available and 1,800 owners wanting to book those weeks. But then, any owner who converts their week to Destination Points or Bonvoy Points takes themselves and their week out of the weeks bucket. So lets assume that 50% of the Gold owners convert to points of some kind. I'm not sure what the real percentage is (according to MVC about 60% of owners are part of the Points system), but the same principal applies either way. So if 50% take their weeks out of the weeks "pool" to play in one of the points pools, that leaves 900 weeks and 900 owners, or 45 available units for each of the 20 Gold weeks.

So that means that on each Wednesday in Gold season, only 45 units become available for booking, right at 9am. The first 45 people to click "book" get an OF unit; number 46 gets blocked. The next week, 45 more units come online on Wednesday at 9am, and so on for the rest of Gold season.

To see why that might make it tough to book, consider this:

Using our assumptions above, there would be 900 Gold owners trying to book one of the 900 units in Gold season. Perfect balance: everyone gets a week. But lets assume that the last four weeks of May and that first week of June are the most popular Gold weeks - the weather is typically really good, but unlike the fall Gold season, you don't have to worry about hurricanes. So, it makes sense that those five weeks might be the five most popular weeks (maybe except for Easter week, when that falls in Gold season). That means there are 225 available units over that five-week stretch (5 weeks, 45 units each week). But, lets assume that because of their popularity, 400 of the 900 owners want to book a unit during that five-week period. That means that those 400 owners will be competing for only 225 weeks and the other 500 owners will be competing for the other 675 weeks. So, from that, it's obvious that 175 of those 400 owners who really want one of those May or June weeks are going to be disappointed, because there are only 225 available. They will have to take one of the other 15 Gold weeks (as you did).

It get's even tougher if you assume that all 400 of those owners are online each week trying to reserve the only 45 units that come "on the market" each week. In actual practice, it's probably never that extreme, as not everyone will try for each week and once some are successful, they won't be competing in the future; but for popular weeks, there may be so many people competing for those few units that they disappear very quickly, within seconds, or at most minutes, after they are released. As more and more owners get educated about the best way to book and get what they want (by reading TUG, the various Marriott owners groups on Facebook, or just experience) the competition will only increase.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

.... and don't 23 of those units come available at the 13 month mark leaving only 22 at the 12 month mark?





.

 

[JIMinNC]

.... and don't 23 of those units come available at the 13 month mark leaving only 22 at the 12 month mark?

Good point. I think the specific language is "up to 50%" can be made available at the 13 month mark. So, it could be less. My example was obviously a simplified hypothetical. As you point out, reality is even more nuanced.

 

[BreakingAway]

.... and don't 23 of those units come available at the 13 month mark leaving only 22 at the 12 month mark?





.

When the owners of multiple weeks decide to reserve consecutive weeks to stay part or all of May, there would be even fewer weeks available to reserve at each release date in May. At Grande Ocean, if you are unable to reserve a week in May on the release date, the prior weeks in May have already been reserved. I think the last week in May and the first two weeks in June are the highest demand weeks at Grande Ocean.

 

[cp73]

Jim,

In reading through your post above it made me realize that a weeks owner has a lot better chance of making a reservation at his resort then a points owner. Because the number of points owners that play in the points pool is a lot large then the size of the weeks owner pool and available weeks owners weeks. Also in walking through your example do you agree that its no tougher making a reservation today than 10 years ago. Because as the size of available weeks drops so does the number of owner in proportion. Thus the demand also has to change just because of the number of owners. Therefore unless by chance the demand for that particular week the op wanted increased his chance of getting it is no less today then it was years ago. Therefore there is no statistical reason why it should be more difficult for him to get the reservation he originally wanted.

 

[Dean]

Here's something to help you see what you might be up against and why you need to move rapidly on release date. These are example numbers since we don't know the real numbers, but the principals are the same regardless of the actual numbers:

There are 290 units at Grande Ocean. I'm not sure how many are ocean front, but from looking at the resort map, it looks like maybe about a third or a little less of the units might be OF. So lets say there are 90, just for arguments' sake. There are 20 weeks in Gold season, so that makes 1,800 units available and 1,800 owners wanting to book those weeks. But then, any owner who converts their week to Destination Points or Bonvoy Points takes themselves and their week out of the weeks bucket. So lets assume that 50% of the Gold owners convert to points of some kind. I'm not sure what the real percentage is (according to MVC about 60% of owners are part of the Points system), but the same principal applies either way. So if 50% take their weeks out of the weeks "pool" to play in one of the points pools, that leaves 900 weeks and 900 owners, or 45 available units for each of the 20 Gold weeks.

So that means that on each Wednesday in Gold season, only 45 units become available for booking, right at 9am. The first 45 people to click "book" get an OF unit; number 46 gets blocked. The next week, 45 more units come online on Wednesday at 9am, and so on for the rest of Gold season.

To see why that might make it tough to book, consider this:

Using our assumptions above, there would be 900 Gold owners trying to book one of the 900 units in Gold season. Perfect balance: everyone gets a week. But lets assume that the last four weeks of May and that first week of June are the most popular Gold weeks - the weather is typically really good, but unlike the fall Gold season, you don't have to worry about hurricanes. So, it makes sense that those five weeks might be the five most popular weeks (maybe except for Easter week, when that falls in Gold season). That means there are 225 available units over that five-week stretch (5 weeks, 45 units each week). But, lets assume that because of their popularity, 400 of the 900 owners want to book a unit during that five-week period. That means that those 400 owners will be competing for only 225 weeks and the other 500 owners will be competing for the other 675 weeks. So, from that, it's obvious that 175 of those 400 owners who really want one of those May or June weeks are going to be disappointed, because there are only 225 available. They will have to take one of the other 15 Gold weeks (as you did).

It get's even tougher if you assume that all 400 of those owners are online each week trying to reserve the only 45 units that come "on the market" each week. In actual practice, it's probably never that extreme, as not everyone will try for each week and once some are successful, they won't be competing in the future; but for popular weeks, there may be so many people competing for those few units that they disappear very quickly, within seconds, or at most minutes, after they are released. As more and more owners get educated about the best way to book and get what they want (by reading TUG, the various Marriott owners groups on Facebook, or just experience) the competition will only increase.

I agree. I'm thinking there are 105 or close to it.

The reservation window for 12 months out should have started on Wed 5 June as it's 12 months from the FIRST checkin day of that week, and 5 May (actually 6 may since it has to be done by phone and they are closed that day) for 13 months out. But as noted, with half the inventory being released at 13 months out it's half at most. Plus there are 2 other ways (member usage wise) that the inventory is further reduced. There are those reserving using the 13 month option for consecutive weeks and there is also DC points usage for members who elected points. I suspect the former is very important at GO, the latter much less so esp for OF weeks. This is one of the issues owning OF there, they are more difficult to reserve than OS weeks it seems.

We stay there at least EOY for a large group normally week 25, 26 or 27; this year I had 7 owned weeks and 3 DC points week. Of the owned 4 were OF and 3 DC points weeks. Next year with have more weeks with 9 owned weeks. For 2020 I did see significantly more availability for week 27 than previously and for several days longer than before. I'm not sure why, it may be an anomaly or it may be that more owners are electing points than before. Given that week 27 starts on the 4th I doubt it's a lower demand (slightly) week for 2020 as it might be in other years.

I would recommend owners look at the planning tools on the website to see when they can reserve but I would caution that it's not 100%. I've seen it off a couple of times when the reservations day should fall on a day they're closed like Sunday or a Holiday. For example, the reservation date for 4 July, 2020 should be 4 July 2019 but that's a holiday so it's delayed until the 5th. However, inventory actually came on board on Wed 3 July (for DC points) but not right at 9 AM though it was fairly shortly thereafter. And there was more inventory than in the past and it was available for 2-3 days. Plus there was inventory that became available over the next few days after some days had shown no availability. I reserved 3 units on 3 July, 1 on the 8th & 4 on the 15th so 17 units total.

 

[Nsivertsen]

It has nothing to do with Bonvoy. That is operated by the Marriott International hotel company. The timeshares are now managed by a totally different company, and have been for about eight years, ever since Marriott sold them off into that new company. The timeshares just participate in Bonvoy since they still license the Marriott Vacation Club name from Marriott International.

If you are booking with an owned week instead of Destination Club Points, the Weeks inventory is released at exactly 9am Eastern time, usually on Wednesday, 12 months prior to the check-in week. There is a handy tool on the Vacation Club website to always know when the inventory will be there. From the Home Page click on Education & Resources at the top, then from the pull down menu Helpful Tools, then click on the When Can I Reserve? box, then Using My Week, then pick your resort from the list that appears. From the calendar form that then appears, enter your desired check-in date, and it will show you which morning you should be online at the exact moment of 9am Eastern. I believe it will usually/almost always be a Wednesday.

Since May and early June weeks are probably the most popular Gold season weeks at Grande Ocean, those may be gone very quickly. Unless you click reserve very close to 9:00:01. You may not get what you want. Back when most people called to make the reservations, the inventory might last longer, but as more and more people use the online system, it goes much faster. A couple years ago I was playing around with our Maui week on several high-season release days just to see how long the inventory lasted, and it was there at 9:00:01, but sometimes gone in less than 30 seconds or so. A couple times it lasted for a minute, but not much longer. Those high demand weeks at Grande Ocean might be similar.

And as others have said, the reason you can see inventory on Marriott.com for cash rentals when owner stays are gone, is because of weeks that the timeshare management company controls, not owners. The most common way those weeks get into the cash inventory is when an owner converts their owned week into Bonvoy points. The management company has to pay Marriott International for those points, so the management company is allowed to rent that converted week out in the Marriott hotel system to recoup their cost of buying the points from Marriott. That cash inventory is always kept totally separate from the pool of units controlled by owners.

 

[Nsivertsen]

thank you all for all of the information and advise. Is it possible that Marriott is overselling therefore not allowing their members to book their week?? Does "someone" oversee their sales ?

 

[bazzap]

thank you all for all of the information and advise. Is it possible that Marriott is overselling therefore not allowing their members to book their week?? Does "someone" oversee their sales ?

MVC governance and regulations do not allow “overselling”
They can only sell Weeks and Points for which underlying resort inventory exists.

 

[Dean]

thank you all for all of the information and advise. Is it possible that Marriott is overselling therefore not allowing their members to book their week?? Does "someone" oversee their sales ?

Doubtful, too much risk. But the nature of any floating or points system where demand is uneven effectively oversells the higher demand time.

 

[JIMinNC]

thank you all for all of the information and advise. Is it possible that Marriott is overselling therefore not allowing their members to book their week?? Does "someone" oversee their sales ?

Given that you said you were trying to book your week, this is irrelevant. MVC doesn't sell deeded weeks at all in the US any more. All they sell are interests in their points Trust. So even if they were "overselling" the points Trust (highly unlikely) that would have no impact on your ability to book your week. The only MVC weeks being sold now are those that get resold and transferred from one owner to another. No new weeks inventory is being added, and hasn't been since June 2010.