Announcing Elite Rollover Nights

[Dave M]

I don't believe it's nonsense. Your expectations and reality may well be very different.

Although we as timeshare owners would like to be treated like royalty, there is no question about Marriott's priorities. Yes, we are important. But we are a very small part of Marriott's revenue. The timeshare segment makes up only about 15% of Marriott's revenue. And the recent changes to the Marriott Rewards program were clearly geared to the business traveler that tends to take short (e.g., long weekend) vacations and against the timeshare owner that tends to take one-week vacations.

Even if it is "nonsense", a bit more courtesy in the way one responds will go a long way on this Marriott forum.

 

[TJCNewYork]

there is no question about Marriott's priorities.

Marriott Vacation Club is a vacation ownership brand, and Marriott Rewards is a cross-brand customer loyalty offering. From that perspective, these business units have different business goals and priorities; some of which overlap.

we are a very small part of Marriott's revenue. The timeshare segment makes up only about 15% of Marriott's revenue.

Marriott Vacation Club is one of 18 brands included in the Marriott International 2008 Annual Report. That said, 15% of the revenue delivered by a single brand suggests that timeshare is a successful segment of the overall business.

And the recent changes to the Marriott Rewards program were clearly geared to the business traveler that tends to take short (e.g., long weekend) vacations and against the timeshare owner that tends to take one-week vacations.

There are a number of recent changes to Marriott Rewards, could you be more specific?

 

[Dave M]

Although Marriott has multiple brands, it has only two different types of business segments - lodging and timeshare. The three lodging segments are divided by geography or level of luxury, not by type of product as is the case for the timeshare segment. Thus, with approximately 85% of Marriott's business as lodging and only about 15% (actually less than 14%) as timeshare, lodging is clearly the business driver when it comes to shaping the Marriott Rewards program.

Marriott has only one Marriott Rewards program, which must serve both types of segments. Marriott has conceded (e.g., through the "Marriott Concierge" at FlyerTalk) that many of the major January 15 changes were made because of the needs of business travelers. Although such changes benefitted business travelers to some extent, they were horrible for timeshare owners that, for example, relied upon the very attractive air/hotel Travel Packages as a primary Marriott Rewards benefit.

The details of the various changes and why participants on this forum generally believe they are unfair for timeshare owners have been recounted ad nauseam on this forum. See this lengthy thread for one of the best dialogues on the issue.

 

[Dave M]

Here is a more specific example of why many timeshare owners feel most of the recent changes favor business travelers over timeshare owners.

Most of us here recognize that because of long-term inflation, Marriott must increase the point requirements for free hotel stays and other Rewards, just as it did in January and as it will in July. See the "Devaluation Example" in this linked post for the primary reason Marriott must do that from time to time.

As outlined in the linked example, frequent (mostly business) travelers who pay for Marriott hotel stays earn more points over time because of higher hotel prices. (Higher hotel prices = more dollars spent = more points earned.) Thus, to at least a certain degree, those higher point earnings allow the business traveler to keep pace with the increasing point requirements for free hotel stays and other Rewards.

However, many MVCI owners who purchased from Marriott get most of their points from trading the annual use of one or more timeshares back to Marriott in exchange for points. The points I get for turning in my timeshare are the same today as when I first purchased back in the mid 1990s. Marriott doesn't give me more points each year for that trade.

Thus, the business traveler is usually better able to keep up with the inflationary changes in Marriott Rewards point requirements than the timeshare owner. Although there have been some vague promises that Marriott will review the issue, we aren't holding our collective breath waiting!

It can be argued that the business traveler should benefit more than the timeshare owner because the business owner continues to spend mega-amounts of money on hotel stays, providing Marriott with a continuing profit stream. Although that's true, Marriott makes a ton of money from its portion of the MFs that timeshare owners pay every year. Also, most business travelers don't pay for those points-earning hotel stays out of their own pocket. Their employers pay those bills. Thus, the business travelers earn those gobs of points simply for doing what their employers pay them to do.

I understand Marriott’s decision to skew the changes in favor of the business traveler. That doesn’t mean I like it.

 

[rdh1947]

I for one agree completely with Dave's analsys.

 

[thinze3]

... Also, most business travelers don't pay for those points-earning hotel stays out of their own pocket. Their employers pay those bills. Thus, the business travelers earn those gobs of points simply for doing what their employers pay them to do....

Which is more the reason why somewhere along the way, the US government will begin taxing these benefits.

Oooops. Did I just say that? :ignore:

 

[Dave M]

I don't think that's true, Terry. The IRS announced some years ago that it had no plans to tax such benefits or to ask Congress for such enabling legislation - except for the programs where employers buy FFmiles/points from airlines and hotel chains and give them to employees as a form of compensation. A number of members of Congress, who themselves enjoy the benefits of untaxed FF miles, have stated that it's extremely unlikely that Congress would enact legislation that would tax those freebees.

 

[Superchief]

I totally agree with Dave's comments. Additionally, Marriott benefits by having the MCV units available to rent and provide award travel opportunities to the 'business' travelers. The amounts they charge for these units has also gone up each year even though the return for the MVC owner has diminished in value.

With the significant devaluation of Marriott Rewards points, I hope that MVC owners choose to exchange their properties rather than turn them in for points. This will provide more exchange opportunities for MVC owners, and send a message to Marriott that they need to provide a 'fair value' to owners if they want to profit from our investments. I am curious to see whether there is a significant decline of MCV units being available to Marriott to rent. I know that I will no longer redeem my Royal Palms week for points, and this is a very popular business destination due to the World Center convention facilities.

 

[thinze3]

I hope you're right Dave, but let's not forget that was when the annual deficit was a mere $300-400 million.

Back to the discussion, it would be a show of good gesture if Marriott threw us a bone every once in a while by actually raising the annual poionts we receive for redeemimng our timeshares to them.