Hi,
First some background:
We purchased 4000 points in mid-2017, aligned with our weeks use years. We did this to allow us to enroll a couple of excluded resale weeks we'd purchased. It's not critical for us now, but over time my wife and I want the scheduling flexibility of points. Our combined enrolled and purchased points make us Chairman level, which I think gives us free coffee during Thursday checkouts, special room keys, and some other benefits.
We've had timeshares, including buying a couple of units resale, selling a useless week resale, and so on. Early on, we used II for trades a few times. I don't like the random view and low priority assignment with II, so I stopped using it 10+ years ago. Instead, I rent out weeks we don't use and rent weeks we'd like from private parties, Mariott, etc.
We are new to points. We've combined, moved, banked, unbanked, etc for a Hawaii vacation next year. We changed our mind once and Marriott was quite helpful reversing the transaction when a waitlist alternative became available. To place the second reservation, we had to borrow from the distant future, etc, which was netted out when it came through and the first was reversed....
Now the points question:
I've been looking at uses for points. Our blended cost per point, if we elect vacation points for all legacy weeks, is about .46 per point, rising to over .60 per point if we only use the trust points. I'm assuming here they act about the same in practice, though I've never used legacy points -- please let me know if that assumption is far off. For this discussion, I'll assume an annual cost/point of around .55, as we most likely wouldn't convert everything in a given year.
When I spot check various options, like explorer collection, cruises, and so on, I find the buying power of the points is generally below the maintenance cost of the points. I can book through expedia (or presumably Marriott) and get the same exact time/unit for less per night, sometimes ridiculously less. When we took a cruise last year, it first looked appealing. An then, I did the math. It was much better to bank the points for the Hawaii trip and just pay for the cruise we chose directly - exactly the same cruise line/departure/room options, though from another site.
On the other hand, 4000-5000 points will generally get us a week we'd enjoy at a cost (2200-2750) below the private market ask prices (from redweek as an example) and well below the direct rental cost from Marriott or third parties. Even the full rack price for the points, at .67 with the club dues included, is in the same range as private market resales, with the benefit of dealing without the private transaction risks or limitations (however small).
I know leveraging the daily rate has other advantages and works out better if you stay longer but span only one weekend. We will definitely do that, but I wanted to get the overall tradeoffs in mind before optimizing. I'm also aware of the last-minute discounts, but we generally can't take advantage of that yet.
Are there hidden gems in the alternatives sometimes? Or is direct use of the points to reserve a unit the best use of points in virtually all cases? In the latter case, we could reserve and rent out, though we already do that with the weeks in those cases where we don't use them. I probably wouldn't convert them to points with that intent.
That's all for now. I'd really like to hear how others get maximum value and any other thoughts on leveraging our portfolio of weeks/points.
Thanks in advance,
Dan
First some background:
We purchased 4000 points in mid-2017, aligned with our weeks use years. We did this to allow us to enroll a couple of excluded resale weeks we'd purchased. It's not critical for us now, but over time my wife and I want the scheduling flexibility of points. Our combined enrolled and purchased points make us Chairman level, which I think gives us free coffee during Thursday checkouts, special room keys, and some other benefits.
We've had timeshares, including buying a couple of units resale, selling a useless week resale, and so on. Early on, we used II for trades a few times. I don't like the random view and low priority assignment with II, so I stopped using it 10+ years ago. Instead, I rent out weeks we don't use and rent weeks we'd like from private parties, Mariott, etc.
We are new to points. We've combined, moved, banked, unbanked, etc for a Hawaii vacation next year. We changed our mind once and Marriott was quite helpful reversing the transaction when a waitlist alternative became available. To place the second reservation, we had to borrow from the distant future, etc, which was netted out when it came through and the first was reversed....
Now the points question:
I've been looking at uses for points. Our blended cost per point, if we elect vacation points for all legacy weeks, is about .46 per point, rising to over .60 per point if we only use the trust points. I'm assuming here they act about the same in practice, though I've never used legacy points -- please let me know if that assumption is far off. For this discussion, I'll assume an annual cost/point of around .55, as we most likely wouldn't convert everything in a given year.
When I spot check various options, like explorer collection, cruises, and so on, I find the buying power of the points is generally below the maintenance cost of the points. I can book through expedia (or presumably Marriott) and get the same exact time/unit for less per night, sometimes ridiculously less. When we took a cruise last year, it first looked appealing. An then, I did the math. It was much better to bank the points for the Hawaii trip and just pay for the cruise we chose directly - exactly the same cruise line/departure/room options, though from another site.
On the other hand, 4000-5000 points will generally get us a week we'd enjoy at a cost (2200-2750) below the private market ask prices (from redweek as an example) and well below the direct rental cost from Marriott or third parties. Even the full rack price for the points, at .67 with the club dues included, is in the same range as private market resales, with the benefit of dealing without the private transaction risks or limitations (however small).
I know leveraging the daily rate has other advantages and works out better if you stay longer but span only one weekend. We will definitely do that, but I wanted to get the overall tradeoffs in mind before optimizing. I'm also aware of the last-minute discounts, but we generally can't take advantage of that yet.
Are there hidden gems in the alternatives sometimes? Or is direct use of the points to reserve a unit the best use of points in virtually all cases? In the latter case, we could reserve and rent out, though we already do that with the weeks in those cases where we don't use them. I probably wouldn't convert them to points with that intent.
That's all for now. I'd really like to hear how others get maximum value and any other thoughts on leveraging our portfolio of weeks/points.
Thanks in advance,
Dan
