It may or may not be. But without a real world comparison, you'll never know the relative costs and likely reserveability (fake word).
There were a couple of real world comparisons left above. I know what my travel plans are and based on those and the input of everyone, it seems the deeded weeks would work better and be more cost-effective for us.
yeah, I think that makes sense. Is there a point value chart somewhere for each property?
Is this what you are looking for. This is the points required to book resorts
It’s important to note that, unlike HGVC that you are familiar with, where the points cost to book a week is equal to the point value an owner gets for his week to use for Club reservations, that is not the case with Marriott.
Getting points of any form is going to be an expensive proposition. Cheapest going in might not be best when you consider the yearly fees. If I were starting from scratch, wanted a moderate number of points (say 5000 to 80000), I'd look at my planned usage. For many that might be a resort to use AND a good trading resort as it's unlikely you'll find both in one single resort. Then I'd look at enrolling keeping both price AND yearly fees in mind. Of course there are many variations depending on your preferences and desired usage. For the trading resort I'd likely put Grand Vista at the top due to its availability resale, higher than average points if elected for points, lower yearly fees AND wide Platinum window. The best deals I've seen have been at the Spanish resorts but there have been some specials for St. Kitt's as well. I can't speak to the non Spanish, none Western Hemisphere resorts though, I have no knowledge for those.
You are misunderstanding.
There are alot of costs with HGVC too, banking fees, booking fees if you are not booking at your own resort. I think HGVC fees are comparable to II membership exchange fees. We were going to get a few free HGVC weeks off Timeshare Nation and nixed that idea when we realized that HGVC nickel and dime you to death.
... $199 exchange fees if you trade into Marriott-Vistana family.
Oh, that sounds a lot better.
They're better than II fees, in that you already have the club membership for the resort and that also kinda pays for RCI. So you really only have the $80 booking fee, which is substantially less than the $239 II exchange fee, though MVC to MVC might be lower or free - I'm not clear on that. To bank points it does cost, but borrowing is free, so many just run a deficit instead of paying to bank.
In II to exchange from a resale (unenrolled) MVC week to an MVC, Sheraton or Westin week the exchange fee is discounted to $199.
Sorry, I was replying to HGVC having as many fees, saying that compared to an unenrolled resale week a resale HGVC week charges ~$80 for an exchange, looks like it's $199 in MVC. And the points stuff was HGVC as everyone gets points, though there is the now $750 activation fee, I think that's still significantly less and doesn't scale with point values from a week unlike the $3/point extra charge to get the Abound points (if I understand correctly).
It's a strategy that can work well if you want shoulder season, don't need larger units and can be flexible about location.
Oh, well, given that's lower than my current fees, I may someday look into it if the up front is low enough. I would be wanting sub $1,300 and of course lower is better right lol.
How do you get below $1,000/week? I believe that Grand Chateau has the lowest MF of the lockoff traders, and MFs were $1,576.23 this year, add $90 to lockoff and two exchange fees of $199 and you're already over $1,000/week without accounting for room size upgrades, e-plus, or II membership.
Wait, you have to pay for II membership too? It's not included?
Nope.
Yes, unless your week is enrolled, but that would not be applicable to any new resale purchases.