[2017] Just Joined Marriott Vacation Club - Was it a good choice?

[jeepie]

Or, perhaps cynically, it is to inoculate themselves from shareholder litigation

the idea is to give investors and idea of what the worst case risks are.

 

[GoldenVIKE]

It is my assertion that the primary motivation and plan behind regular quarterly price increases is not to make more money (directly) from sales, but rather to create/re-inforce the impression that points are an asset which is appreciating. All MVW personnel mention price increases as appreciation so it is reasonable to assume it may be part of corporate sales training.

The reason I believe this is unethical is that this strategy is followed despite MVW having full guaranteed 100% up-to-the-second visibility into the actual value of these points obtained through their ROFR waiver process meaning that it is impossible for a trade to legally be completed in these points wihout Marriott knowing about it.

In my opinion, Marriott are raising prices to create an impression of asset appreciation while being fully aware that the real value of the points continues to depreciate over time.

I agree. In our presentation they:
- referenced a pending price increase about 30 times as a reason to BUY BUY BUY NOW
- referred to the notion that while yes the resale value of points are less than what you pay for them, if you assume you can sell them for 60%, then the price has almost risen enough since 2010 for those original points buyers to be close to a point that they can get their money back in full just 7 years later
- referred to the fact that the 20% discount they're offering on points is the largest discount they've ever seen

It's like jewelry stores marking the prices up higher and higher just so they can advertise bigger and bigger sales--when really the prices are always about the same.

Here's an interesting question. Does MVCI have to be nefarious like this? If they were honest and just more focused on presenting the true value of the product, would they be just as successful? Or do all TS developers have no choice but to be dishonest jacknozzles in order to sell their product? They convinced me to buy after all. Granted they had to do a hybrid package to get my business. But even so, if they ramped up their ROFR activity and make hybrid packages more standard, would they checkmate the rest of the TS industry and be even more succcessful?

 

[GoldenVIKE]

Or, perhaps cynically, it is to inoculate themselves from shareholder litigation

Every 10-K from every publicly traded company has a section on risk factors. It's their duty to disclose all material risk factors. That's not unique to MVCI.

 

[JIMinNC]

funny that they don't mention that they may exercise ROFR at their discretion to mitigate this risk.

They sorta do reference ROFR in this part of the quote:

Development of a viable secondary market may also cause the volume of vacation ownership interests inventory that we are able to repurchase to decline, which could adversely impact our development margin, as we utilize this lower cost inventory source to supplement our inventory needs and help manage our cost of vacation ownership products.

But the "Risk Factors" section is just that - the risk factors - not how they propose to mitigate them. The law requires them to disclose every risk factor in the purest of sense, without any representation as to the likelihood of that event to occur, or to represent how they can mitigate those risks. Risk factors sections of 10-Ks are designed to present the plain, unvarnished risks, without other statements that would serve to bias or otherwise mitigate those risks. All 43 of the Risk Factors outlined in the 10-K are just that - statements of what the worst case scenario would be for the company, regardless of any mitigation that they do or might do.

 

[JIMinNC]

Here's an interesting question. Does MVCI have to be nefarious like this? If they were honest and just more focused on presenting the true value of the product, would they be just as successful? Or do all TS developers have no choice but to be dishonest jacknozzles in order to sell their product? They convinced me to buy after all. Granted they had to do a hybrid package to get my business. But even so, if they ramped up their ROFR activity and make hybrid packages more standard, would they checkmate the rest of the TS industry and be even more succcessful?

It's sorta the way timeshare has always been done...it is a relatively expensive, discretionary purchase that most people don't think about until they attend a presentation to get a cheap vacation or some other incentive. The statement that timeshare is usually "sold not bought" is a true statement.

For many years, Marriott was probably one of the most soft sell developers in the business, but based on what I read here on TUG, even they have seemed to gravitate more toward the traditional approach than they had in the past. Having said that, they are still soft sell compared to the weasels at Diamond. We used to own in their system and avoided their presentations like the plague.

Even though TUGgers report more questionable tactics at Marriott presentations now, I haven't experienced them personally. I've been to four Marriott presentations - two during the old weeks days, back in 2000 in HHI and in 2001 or 2003 in Maui; and two since points were introduced, in Oct 2013 and June 2014 in HHI. I can say that in all four the sales reps were professional, it was low pressure, and there were no outright falsehoods that I can recall. In our first points-based presentation in Oct 2013, we took advantage of a cheap 3-night offer at the HHI Marriott hotel and went mainly to learn about points, since we had just started thinking about selling our Diamond week in Hawaii. We told them we had interest in their product, but we couldn't do anything until we decided what we were going to do with our Diamond week. We bought an Encore package to return to Barony, which we did in June 2014. Before returning on the Encore, I thoroughly researched the points product here on TUG. That's how I learned about the Hybrid packages and knew that would be the only thing we would buy, and would do that only if we could get the price per point below $7. We did, and we bought. Came home and immediately listed our Diamond week for sale with Timeshare Resales Hawaii, and within two - three months or so, had a contract to sell our unit. In both the 2013 and 2014 presentations, the sales rep was the same guy, and he was low pressure and seemed like a straight shooter. Yes, he used all the lines - prepaid vacations, the prices will go up soon if you don't buy today, etc., but those are not false statements. When we rapidly shifted the conversation to Hybrids, he quickly brought in his manager who presented the hybrid options. The first sales rep almost seemed surprised when we decided to buy the package.

We haven't decided if we're going to accept a presentation when we are back in HHI in mid-April. Right now my inclination is no, since we're going to spend one day while there with a Realtor to look at possible whole ownership options in HHI. Until we make the call on whether we're going to pursue that or not, I'm probably not going to seriously consider any more Marriott points or weeks. We do have a possible interest in an EOY Maui Ocean Club unit, and possibly trying to structure another hybrid around that to get us to Executive level, but that conversation can wait until we're back in HHI in September or maybe even 2018.

 

[GoldenVIKE]

It's sorta the way timeshare has always been done...it is a relatively expensive, discretionary purchase that most people don't think about until they attend a presentation to get a cheap vacation or some other incentive. The statement that timeshare is usually "sold not bought" is a true statement.

For many years, Marriott was probably one of the most soft sell developers in the business, but based on what I read here on TUG, even they have seemed to gravitate more toward the traditional approach than they had in the past. Having said that, they are still soft sell compared to the weasels at Diamond. We used to own in their system and avoided their presentations like the plague.

Even though TUGgers report more questionable tactics at Marriott presentations now, I haven't experienced them personally. I've been to four Marriott presentations - two during the old weeks days, back in 2000 in HHI and in 2001 or 2003 in Maui; and two since points were introduced, in Oct 2013 and June 2014 in HHI. I can say that in all four the sales reps were professional, it was low pressure, and there were no outright falsehoods that I can recall. In our first points-based presentation in Oct 2013, we took advantage of a cheap 3-night offer at the HHI Marriott hotel and went mainly to learn about points, since we had just started thinking about selling our Diamond week in Hawaii. We told them we had interest in their product, but we couldn't do anything until we decided what we were going to do with our Diamond week. We bought an Encore package to return to Barony, which we did in June 2014. Before returning on the Encore, I thoroughly researched the points product here on TUG. That's how I learned about the Hybrid packages and knew that would be the only thing we would buy, and would do that only if we could get the price per point below $7. We did, and we bought. Came home and immediately listed our Diamond week for sale with Timeshare Resales Hawaii, and within two - three months or so, had a contract to sell our unit. In both the 2013 and 2014 presentations, the sales rep was the same guy, and he was low pressure and seemed like a straight shooter. Yes, he used all the lines - prepaid vacations, the prices will go up soon if you don't buy today, etc., but those are not false statements. When we rapidly shifted the conversation to Hybrids, he quickly brought in his manager who presented the hybrid options. The first sales rep almost seemed surprised when we decided to buy the package.

We haven't decided if we're going to accept a presentation when we are back in HHI in mid-April. Right now my inclination is no, since we're going to spend one day while there with a Realtor to look at possible whole ownership options in HHI. Until we make the call on whether we're going to pursue that or not, I'm probably not going to seriously consider any more Marriott points or weeks. We do have a possible interest in an EOY Maui Ocean Club unit, and possibly trying to structure another hybrid around that to get us to Executive level, but that conversation can wait until we're back in HHI in September or maybe even 2018.

I'm actually really glad to hear this. I wonder if your experience was a little better because you clearly knew the system and knew the exact things to say to cut straight through the BS to get at what you wanted. Our understanding of the whole TS system (and the points system in particular) was pretty vague even though I had done as much research as I could. I think they saw me as a mark to perhaps sell a higher-margin product. Do you have a sense for why they don't sell more hybrid packages? They're such better values. Do they not have enough supply of enrolled resale weeks to offer them up front perhaps?

 

[Quilter]

Jason gave a tip about some vacation insurance a couple pages back.

I passed the information along to one of my friends who will be traveling shortly after baby #5. He called for a quote. Said it was only going to be about $150. I asked him to let me know more details once he bought the package.

Thanks Jason.

 

[JIMinNC]

I'm actually really glad to hear this. I wonder if your experience was a little better because you clearly knew the system and knew the exact things to say to cut straight through the BS to get at what you wanted. Our understanding of the whole TS system (and the points system in particular) was pretty vague even though I had done as much research as I could. I think they saw me as a mark to perhaps sell a higher-margin product. Do you have a sense for why they don't sell more hybrid packages? They're such better values. Do they not have enough supply of enrolled resale weeks to offer them up front perhaps?

I think that may have been a factor. We let him know up front we knew what our parameters were, and dropped the name of TUG casually. I think it did help cut through the BS.

I think they don't sell more hybrids because the profit on the pure points is greater. If they had sold you 8000 points the old fashioned way, that would have cost you $80,000 to $90,000 depending on what the discount was offered. Your package was considerably less than that, so they made less money - they only sold 4000 points, plus their, I think, about 40% commission on the $10,000 resale unit (if the 40% is correct, that's about $4000). Had they sold you 4000 more points, they would have made a lot more than $4000 on that second batch of points.

 

[SueDonJ]

... Here's an interesting question. Does MVCI have to be nefarious like this? If they were honest and just more focused on presenting the true value of the product, would they be just as successful? Or do all TS developers have no choice but to be dishonest jacknozzles in order to sell their product? ...

There are many one-off comments in these later posts with which I agree/disagree but this one sticks out. I actually don't think Marriott is "nefarious" at all in their selling practices. I've said it at least a thousand times over the years on TUG but it baffles me that we don't hold all buyers of direct-from-the-developer timeshare sales to the same standard warning as we would every other purchase of a big-ticket item, namely "Buyer Beware." I've sat through Marriott timeshare presentations and purchased several directly from an informed, knowledgeable sales rep who was careful in making sure that we knew what we were buying. Granted, she knew that we were knowledgeable, but one of the forms we were required to sign was a multi-item disclosure itemization that explicitly stated among other things the importance of reading the Public Offering Statement, and, our right to rescind. Marriott doesn't make that disclosure statement available out of the goodness of their hearts - it's mandated by legislation and every buyer, armed with foreknowledge or not, walks out of a developer purchase with it in hand.

Yes, some Marriott sales reps put the best possible spin on ownership. Yes, some even lie. But none of them put the pen in our hands and manipulate our hands to effect our signatures. If you count out the timeshare companies which engage in explicitly illegal sales activities, of which MVW is not one, the industry reputation suffers more from the unwillingness of buyers to avail themselves of bestowed protections than from the companies themselves. It's not popular to say it but, there it is. It's just mind-boggling to me! With what other products that entail an ongoing financial commitment are we so willing to excuse self-inflicted ignorance on the part of those doing the buying?!

 

[BocaBoy]

Do you have a sense for why they don't sell more hybrid packages? They're such better values. Do they not have enough supply of enrolled resale weeks to offer them up front perhaps?

The weeks do not have to be enrolled weeks to be sold as part of a hybrid package. In fact, weeks are automatically dis-enrolled when they are sold. The buyer of a hybrid package can enroll (or re-enroll) the week he/she buys regardless of whether it has ever been enrolled before. And a previously enrolled week can not be re-enrolled by the new buyer unless it is sold as part of a hybrid package.

 

[GoldenVIKE]

I agree/disagree but this one sticks out. I actually don't think Marriott is "nefarious" at all in their selling practices.

Yeah that word was probably too strong. I guess it comes down to transparency. To an uneducated or semi educated buyer they ("they" being potentially the entire TS industry?) appear pretty willing to stretch the truth, sugar coat, and sell less-than-optimal value deals to customers. But by the same token that's capitalism and as long as a buyer and seller agree to a deal and there wasn't outright fraud, then all is fair and both parties are still better off after the deal otherwise they wouldn't have done it. I guess my point is that the lack of transparency in this industry may be part of the reason that more people don't own TS. If Marriott or anyone else decided to become an industry leader in transparency and liquidity of investment, perhaps there's a big opportunity to expand the market and take bigger market share, all the while being easier and less intimidating and frustrating to deal with for customers and potential customers

 

[Beefnot]

There are many one-off comments in these later posts with which I agree/disagree but this one sticks out. I actually don't think Marriott is "nefarious" at all in their selling practices. I've said it at least a thousand times over the years on TUG but it baffles me that we don't hold all buyers of direct-from-the-developer timeshare sales to the same standard warning as we would every other purchase of a big-ticket item, namely "Buyer Beware." I've sat through Marriott timeshare presentations and purchased several directly from an informed, knowledgeable sales rep who was careful in making sure that we knew what we were buying. Granted, she knew that we were knowledgeable, but one of the forms we were required to sign was a multi-item disclosure itemization that explicitly stated among other things the importance of reading the Public Offering Statement, and, our right to rescind. Marriott doesn't make that disclosure statement available out of the goodness of their hearts - it's mandated by legislation and every buyer, armed with foreknowledge or not, walks out of a developer purchase with it in hand.

Yes, some Marriott sales reps put the best possible spin on ownership. Yes, some even lie. But none of them put the pen in our hands and manipulate our hands to effect our signatures. If you count out the timeshare companies which engage in explicitly illegal sales activities, of which MVW is not one, the industry reputation suffers more from the unwillingness of buyers to avail themselves of bestowed protections than from the companies themselves. It's not popular to say it but, there it is. It's just mind-boggling to me! With what other products that entail an ongoing financial commitment are we so willing to excuse self-inflicted ignorance on the part of those doing the buying?!

This is a bunch of pro-Marriott pablum fluff, unless you swap in "Westgate" or "DRI" instead of Marriott and still happily stand by the statement. Perhaps Marriott is not as bad as some of the other guys, but hard or deceptive sales tactics are not to be excused even if one considers the product desirable.

 

[Marathoner]

If Marriott or anyone else decided to become an industry leader in transparency and liquidity of investment, perhaps there's a big opportunity to expand the market and take bigger market share, all the while being easier and less intimidating and frustrating to deal with for customers and potential customers

Established industry participants like Marriott will not do something that will dramatically increase market transparency because doing so has the potential to kill their golden goose. This type of asymmetric thinking has to come from a new market participant. But the timeshare industry is not glamorous and we have not yet seen a new creative player who has tried this yet. Until then, we will have a small group of informed timeshare owners who use this lack of information transparency to significantly maximize their resale timeshare holdings and experiences as many on TUG do. The vast majority will have only themselves to blame, as SueDonJ points out, for not educating themselves and understanding what they were getting into. As always, caveat emptor.

 

[davidvel]

Here's an interesting question. Does MVCI have to be nefarious like this? If they were honest and just more focused on presenting the true value of the product, would they be just as successful? Or do all TS developers have no choice but to be dishonest jacknozzles in order to sell their product?

Yes. No. Generally, yes.

 

[BocaBoy]

Established industry participants like Marriott will not do something that will dramatically increase market transparency because doing so has the potential to kill their golden goose. This type of asymmetric thinking has to come from a new market participant.

Oh, the naivete of a youngster. Those of us who remember the mid-1980's know that Marriott did just this when they entered the timeshare business with a fresh new approach and did a lot to clean things up.

This is a bunch of pro-Marriott pablum fluff, unless you swap in "Westgate" or "DRI" instead of Marriott and still happily stand by the statement. Perhaps Marriott is not as bad as some of the other guys, but hard or deceptive sales tactics are not to be excused even if one considers the product desirable.

"Perhaps Marriott is not as bad as some of the other guys?" Really? "Perhaps?" I was around in the mid-1980's when Marriott entered the industry with a fresh new approach. Not only floating time which they helped pioneer, but more importantly with a more honest and soft sell approach. I will be the first to admit that the approach has regressed a bit since they started selling a fungible product (DC points), but if you have been recently to a second or third tier company's sales presentations, you quickly realize that there is still no comparison.

 

[Luckybee]

About "villas". This is our villa - real one, not the "villa" in timeshare speak. With private pool etc. It's on Lombok in October 2016. Traveled there in JAL first class with my wife by using AA miles acquired for ~$0.01 each. Relaxed at the villa after climbing Rinjani. Fabulous beach and food. Paid about ~$100 per night. You cannot get it with a timeshare. If I owned a timeshare, I would never get to experience it.

View attachment 3334

Marriott timeshares are not perfect and are not luxury in the "true" sense of the word. That said you're getting silly. It appears that you seem to be laboring under the misapprehension that when one owns timeshares they are excluded from all other holidays. Dh and I own 2 weeks at the Marriott OC in Aruba. We didn't make it down there this past Nov so we traded for St Thomas and St Maarten this coming May. To that we've added and we're going back to Anguilla, (now the 4 seasons ...was the Viceroy when we went last time...had a beachfront villa with private pool and butler service, and Coral Beach villas on SXM) . Perhaps I missed the part where these were places that we aren't supposed to go because we own a timeshare!??! Let me know because we've obviously been doing this all wrong including but not limited to our trips to the South Pacific, Australia, Europe etc.

 

[dagger1]

About "villas". This is our villa - real one, not the "villa" in timeshare speak. With private pool etc. It's on Lombok in October 2016. Traveled there in JAL first class with my wife by using AA miles acquired for ~$0.01 each. Relaxed at the villa after climbing Rinjani. Fabulous beach and food. Paid about ~$100 per night. You cannot get it with a timeshare. If I owned a timeshare, I would never get to experience it.

View attachment 3334

Timeshare ownership does not exclude other vacation options. We own timeshare points for certain family travel, and are members of Inspirato for other family travel... Must say, the villa pictured doesn't come close to Inspirato quality....

 

[m61376]

Busy for a few days and see what I missed ....
I wanted to welcome the OP to Tug, and hope he's not turned off by all the opinions around here. While I respect his desire to just book and go, I'm guessing at this point he's gleaned it's not quite as easy as that, and the fact that he's spent so much time on this thread lends me to believe there's a good chance he'll become as obsessed with planning as many of us here are, and will likely spend far more time than he anticipated.
That said, I agree with a lot of what's been said here. Sometimes we get so caught up in gaming the system, so to speak, that we forget that we're not representative of the real world, and that most people don't want to spend the effort, even if they have the know how. Moreover, there is a real discomfort level with renting from strangers, and I can appreciate that. Many people don't want to be tied down a year in advance; the flexibility of changing reservations that Greg often uses I think is a big draw, as is the flexibility of not being toed to a 7 day week, with set arrival and departure days. So there's a lot of good reasons why the DC program works better for many people, despite the added cost. Just loo at VAC stock - if prospective buyers didn't like and prefer the model, the stock wouldn't be doing as well as it is.

I congratulate the OP for finding this while his family is young. I wish we had, rather than our "kids" already being in their twenties. It wouldn't have precluded us from taking all the other travel we did in years past, but I'm guessing we would have been more selective and likely frequently enjoyed family timeshare stays. While seeing different places and, especially overseas travel, might be easier with the traditional hotel or cruise vacation, timeshares offer some real intangibles. There's a lot to be said about having the space, and the convenience of starting off the day relaxed, at everyone's own pace, and not having to start by figuring out where to go eat breakfast. More importantly for us, it made travel with family so much easier. Over the years we habitually travelled with three generations, and timeshares made that just so much easier as parents aged and activity levels had to be somewhat adjusted. Amazingly, we even managed to get in one four generation trip. Sadly, while life changes have shifted things a bit, we now find ourselves the grandparents, with our kids now in their thirties. I can unequivocally say there is NOTHING like traveling with grandchildren, even as nice as vacationing with children was for all those years. And there's nothing like having your grandchild look forward to an annual trip, or having a six year old write a book about it. That's truly priceless, as are so many other memories that we've all been so very, very lucky to have.

Reading through all the threads discussing dollar and cents valuations, everyone seemed to have left out something that many of us used to talk about. We all tend to get busy with day to day things, and many times either planning or paying for a vacation takes a back seat to other responsibilities and other expenses. There's something to be said for the annual "obligation," and knowing that either you use it or you lose it. The time is paid for and the MF's have to be paid anyway, so you don't debate whether to spend the money- or the time- taking a trip. There's a lot to be said for the fact that most of us probably travel more- and some a lot more- than we otherwise would. And that it's wonderfully conducive to sharing vacations, whether with parents, siblings, or friends.

Almost ten years ago we booked a family vacation to celebrate my parent's 60th, planning it for a month after their anniversary during our daughter's intersession. Because we owned and because it was relatively cheap, I grabbed a getaway to Cancun and my husband and I took my parents on an extra celebration shortly before their anniversary. With large educational expenses, it is unlikely that we would have booked the second celebration if we hadn't been able to do it so relatively inexpensively. Sadly, we lost my Dad a few weeks after their anniversary, and never got to take the original planned trip. Needless to say, that what was intended as an extra vacation created cherished and priceless memories. I'm sure many of us here can think of precious moments that likely would not have been had they not been owners, which explains why many of us don't need to justify ownership with a balanced spreadsheet. We bought resale, but at a time when the prices were still high. I can honestly say that despite prices having plummeted the following year with the recession, I have never looked back and wish I had waited. Money can't buy memories....

 

[JIMinNC]

Busy for a few days and see what I missed ....
I wanted to welcome the OP to Tug, and hope he's not turned off by all the opinions around here. While I respect his desire to just book and go, I'm guessing at this point he's gleaned it's not quite as easy as that, and the fact that he's spent so much time on this thread lends me to believe there's a good chance he'll become as obsessed with planning as many of us here are, and will likely spend far more time than he anticipated.
That said, I agree with a lot of what's been said here. Sometimes we get so caught up in gaming the system, so to speak, that we forget that we're not representative of the real world, and that most people don't want to spend the effort, even if they have the know how. Moreover, there is a real discomfort level with renting from strangers, and I can appreciate that. Many people don't want to be tied down a year in advance; the flexibility of changing reservations that Greg often uses I think is a big draw, as is the flexibility of not being toed to a 7 day week, with set arrival and departure days. So there's a lot of good reasons why the DC program works better for many people, despite the added cost. Just loo at VAC stock - if prospective buyers didn't like and prefer the model, the stock wouldn't be doing as well as it is.

I congratulate the OP for finding this while his family is young. I wish we had, rather than our "kids" already being in their twenties. It wouldn't have precluded us from taking all the other travel we did in years past, but I'm guessing we would have been more selective and likely frequently enjoyed family timeshare stays. While seeing different places and, especially overseas travel, might be easier with the traditional hotel or cruise vacation, timeshares offer some real intangibles. There's a lot to be said about having the space, and the convenience of starting off the day relaxed, at everyone's own pace, and not having to start by figuring out where to go eat breakfast. More importantly for us, it made travel with family so much easier. Over the years we habitually travelled with three generations, and timeshares made that just so much easier as parents aged and activity levels had to be somewhat adjusted. Amazingly, we even managed to get in one four generation trip. Sadly, while life changes have shifted things a bit, we now find ourselves the grandparents, with our kids now in their thirties. I can unequivocally say there is NOTHING like traveling with grandchildren, even as nice as vacationing with children was for all those years. And there's nothing like having your grandchild look forward to an annual trip, or having a six year old write a book about it. That's truly priceless, as are so many other memories that we've all been so very, very lucky to have.

Reading through all the threads discussing dollar and cents valuations, everyone seemed to have left out something that many of us used to talk about. We all tend to get busy with day to day things, and many times either planning or paying for a vacation takes a back seat to other responsibilities and other expenses. There's something to be said for the annual "obligation," and knowing that either you use it or you lose it. The time is paid for and the MF's have to be paid anyway, so you don't debate whether to spend the money- or the time- taking a trip. There's a lot to be said for the fact that most of us probably travel more- and some a lot more- than we otherwise would. And that it's wonderfully conducive to sharing vacations, whether with parents, siblings, or friends.

Almost ten years ago we booked a family vacation to celebrate my parent's 60th, planning it for a month after their anniversary during our daughter's intersession. Because we owned and because it was relatively cheap, I grabbed a getaway to Cancun and my husband and I took my parents on an extra celebration shortly before their anniversary. With large educational expenses, it is unlikely that we would have booked the second celebration if we hadn't been able to do it so relatively inexpensively. Sadly, we lost my Dad a few weeks after their anniversary, and never got to take the original planned trip. Needless to say, that what was intended as an extra vacation created cherished and priceless memories. I'm sure many of us here can think of precious moments that likely would not have been had they not been owners, which explains why many of us don't need to justify ownership with a balanced spreadsheet. We bought resale, but at a time when the prices were still high. I can honestly say that despite prices having plummeted the following year with the recession, I have never looked back and wish I had waited. Money can't buy memories....

Can I like this three or four times? GREAT post!!

 

[GoldenVIKE]

And that it's wonderfully conducive to sharing vacations, whether with parents, siblings, or friends.

Yes this was a big reason we did TS. Having relatively set access to 2-3bd units with livings rooms and kitchens makes traveling with other friends and family far more comfortable, and the fact that it's owned makes it a lot less awkward than if we didn't own. Saying, "come join us at our timeshare" is 180 degrees apart from saying, "come travel with us and we'll pay for your lodging" on the awkwardness scale, even if there's really not much difference!

 

[SueDonJ]

~~~ Several unrelated posts have been moved to this thread in the TUG Lounge: Who pays for the room and meals? [Posts moved.] ~~~

 

[m61376]

Would you expect the non-family guest to reimburse you if they stayed with you? What is the protocol?

Personally, I like my privacy and would not want another family staying with us in our unit. On the other hand, if somebody wanted to travel with us and I could arrange a unit for them, I'd have no issue doing that so long as they, at a minimum, covered the value of the points used for that period (number of points multiplied by maintenance fee).

I think there is a variety of differing opinions on this. Personally, I feel like we've already paid whether or not someone joins us. If we choose to enjoy the company of friends rather than locking off and depositing it is our choice, and our vacations are the richer because we've gotten to spend quality time with people we care about. We don't have a big family, but are blessed to have friends who are "chosen family." We'll let them share in the cost of incidentals if they insist (like splitting the cost of a car rental, for ex.), and split restaurant bills, etc. Friends are usually insistent on taking us out, but if they are my hubbie won't let them grab more than one check.
A few years back we were going with family and I had an extra unit that I had traded for, hoping that our daughter could make it. When they couldn't I invited friends, who had always wanted to go to Aruba. She was losing a battle with cancer at the time. As luck would have it, a very generous Tugger who I don't want to embarrass so will leave unnamed had to cancel his plans for the same week, and offered me another unit for just the II guest fee, so I was able to have another mutual friend join us. My friend lost her battle with cancer eight long months later, but the 7 of us (my Mom fortunately was with us too) had an amazing time and, yes, priceless memories. These are the intangibles that money can't buy.

 

[StevenTing]

I finally got through reading this thread after avoiding it as long as I can. I wanted to respond but I was only part way through. After going through it all, everything has pretty much been addressed from both sides.

This was essentially information overload.

GoldenVike, if you have questions about VPE, feel free to send me a PM.

 

[ArubaMon]

Echoing what StevenTing wrote. GoldenVike, I hope your family's experience with MVCI is as good as ours. The properties are great, the space of a two or three bedroom unit makes a multiple day vacation much more enjoyable, and as long as you plan ahead, you will have some wonderful options. It's not a great investment in the classic sense of the word, but I view the premium we paid by going the conventional route to be worth it for the added flexibility and convenience. I don't have much time to look for the absolute best price on my vacation stays either (although I do watch this site to improve on my techniques!), and there is a price for that. We've owned for about 20 years and have had some wonderful experiences and memories, and I've never second guessed myself.

 

[TXTortoise]

Sue, I don't know where it would fit, but this thread belongs somewhere in the FAQ, sticky or whatever. For anyone willing to invest the time, it's probably the best thread for most anyone, particularly newbies to digest. It got me to re-join Tug. ;-)