CLOSED: Thread Dedicated to the Upcoming/Anticipated Integration of Vistana & Marriott Ownerships (Marriott Link + Vistana Discussion)

[dsmrp]

New here and trying to learn about the upcoming integration. Learned about TUG and bought a resale Vistana week last year that I used. I have many questions since this idea sounds enticing.
-How would I know how many destination points my flex purchase would convert to?
-What are the maintenance fees on the flex purchase?
-How would I make a Flex purchase to enroll my week?
-Do you have a contact person to inquire with?

Thank you in advance.

Look here for the MF on Westin and Sheraton flex programs.

OFFICIAL *2022* Vistana Maintenance Fees Thread

This thread is for 2022 Vistana maintenance fees. Please remember to also post your Maintenance Fee details to the searchable database. Thanks. http://eternaltides.com/svn/svnhome.aspx Westin Flex Just received the 2022 maintenance fee billing for Westin Flex. The fee for 2022 is...

tugbbs.com

You'd have to get the DP conversion amount for your unit from a Vistana salesman. And according to sales, purchase now before the Abound program roll-out, and they stop selling Flex. If you really want to buy flex, I do believe the urgency is real at this point in time. I think there will be a hard deadline when they'll cut off flex sales, and switch to only sales of DP.

Some have reported the roll-out and sales switch will be in August, and others have said July.

No official details yet of other options to enroll in Abound program, besides purchase of DP points. It may very well be not worthwhile to enroll & convert based on your unit &resort location.

 

[DanCali]

Can you elaborate? Are you saying you get more DP points per dollar if you rent DC points rather than depositing your enrolled weeks for DC points? Is this because of your specific week has low DP values relative to renting it out? or does this apply to all enrolled week DP values?

Yes, you nailed it. It all comes down to what are you alternate uses once you don't use your week as a home resort. Here is an actual example.

My Marriott NCV (Newport Coast Villas) Platinum week converts to 3475 DC points. That's one option... Alternatively, I can rent it out rather easily for $3500. Since points rental rate is about $0.70/point I can now use that cash to rent 5000 DC points (44% more than 3475). Alternatively, if 3475 points is sufficient, I can rent 3475 points for about $2450 and pocket the $1000+ I have left over. $1000 is too much cash to leave on the table, imo, just for the convenience of point election. If it was $200-$300 I'd be ok with it, but $1000, less so...

Weeks like Platinum WKV from the Vistana world will have a similar issue. The 2BR Platinum allegedly gets 4050 DC points. I can rent it out rather easily for $4200 (maybe even as high as $4800, but I'll be conservative). $4200 gets me 6000 DC points (about 50% more than 4050). Alternatively, I can rent 4050 DC points for about $2850, and have about $1400 left over from the rental. So, even though my WKV weeks might be eligible to elect points - the odds of me ever electing DC points for them are about zero.

That doesn't always work out like this. For example, NCV Platinum Plus 4th of July week converts to 5300 DC points. The rental value is about $3900 (just a bit higher than regular Platinum weeks above) which might get me 5600 DC points, or I can rent 5300 for around $3700 and keep $200 from the rental. That difference of $200 is something I can live with in order to save the hassle of renting, so I'd be much more inclined to elect points for this week. The Vistana Maui weeks got a generous point allocation so the math for those is probably similar to this. Parhaps it works out well for Platinum Lagunamar, but I'm less familiar with rental rates there.

In all the calculations above, the actual MFs don't matter because you pay those no matter what - whether you use the week, rent the week, or elect points for the week. So it's a matter of finding the most optimal use for a week you don't use for an actual stay.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Vistana has this now. Legacy weeks, flex weeks, and developer weeks. At least three pools of inventory. VSN allows us to cross book at 8 months, but I doubt all of the developer weeks get automatically dropped into VSN.

Sorry, Vistana does NOT have this now. Weeks, Flex and Developer are deeds pools that have ownership rights.

Abound is an exchange which includes enrolled week non-owners. Please don't confuse exchange pools with deed pools. Exchange with non-owners is potentially a new and large-scale introduction into the home week reservation period for Vistana.

 

[dioxide45]

If you buy a Marriott resale week, is it automatically enrolled if you are a destination points owner? It seems unlikely to me when they charge $3 a point to enroll resale destination points.

It would not be enrolled and is eligible for enrollment unless you purchase a large amount of Trust Points direct from Marriott. Minimum purchase is probably north of $30,000 to get it enrolled.

 

[DanCali]

New here and trying to learn about the upcoming integration. Learned about TUG and bought a resale Vistana week last year that I used. I have many questions since this idea sounds enticing.
-How would I know how many destination points my flex purchase would convert to?
-What are the maintenance fees on the flex purchase?
-How would I make a Flex purchase to enroll my week?
-Do you have a contact person to inquire with?

Thank you in advance.

Conversion rates for Flex are scattered throughout this long thread. Maybe somewhere between 28:1 to 34:1 (??), depending if Sheraton or Westin Flex.

MFs for Flex are relatively high. Not sure what the number is, but points MFs are bad at Vistana and bad at MVC. That's because the Trust those points are in consists of (i) less desirable weeks like shoulder and mud season, (ii) high MFs relative to points like much more IV on Maui vs no OF. You'll probably find exact MF numbers in the 2022 MF sticky in the forum.

A Flex purchase can be made at a Vistana sales office - that would retro your week into VSN (even for Mandatory weeks, they will then be eligible for Elite status and Bonvoy conversion), but you should get it in writing that it would be part of the DC exchange if that's what you are concerned with.

I can DM you a salesperson who we worked with to retro our weeks a couple of years ago.

 

[TAT]

New here and trying to learn about the upcoming integration. Learned about TUG and bought a resale Vistana week last year that I used. I have many questions since this idea sounds enticing.
-How would I know how many destination points my flex purchase would convert to?
-What are the maintenance fees on the flex purchase?
-How would I make a Flex purchase to enroll my week?
-Do you have a contact person to inquire with?

Thank you in advance.

Sorry I don’t have more, but the cheapest Flex they would offer me was 67,000 (studio every other year) @ $14.5K with a maintenance fee of $706 per year. That’s based on this specific property set though I think (included 6 properties).
They did have a status guide for conversions and such, but I didn’t get a copy.
I assume you’ll have to go sit through a pitch at a property to get a contact.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

What about an international purchase of a small MVC enrolled deed and requal?

 

[iowaguy09]

Has anyone heard that per Marriott Vacation new policy, as of July 15, Vistana EOY contracts cannot be traded in towards a new annual contract in any developer transactions?

 

[byeloe]

Has anyone heard that per Marriott Vacation new policy, as of July 15, Vistana EOY contracts cannot be traded in towards a new annual contract in any developer transactions?

Haven't heard this. Was it from a sales person?

 

[iowaguy09]

Haven't heard this. Was it from a sales person?

Yes

 

[byeloe]

Yes

I don't think anything is official yet, definitely not a specific date.

 

[dsmrp]

Does anyone remember if the new Abound club fee mentioned by Denise's contact, would include guest certs ? I recall housekeeping and banking would be covered by the fee. Thx

 

[iowaguy09]

Does anyone remember if the new Abound club fee mentioned by Denise's contact, would include guest certs ? I recall housekeeping and banking would be covered by the fee. Thx

Yes, as confirmed in our owner update last week.

 

[justJT]

Currently at WPOVR and attended owners update. Marriott transition should be sometime in July. They had marketing materials that they said should be mailed to all of us shortly (MVC resort books with point values).

A couple of things stood out to us in update. We own Westin Adventuras (Mexico flex) EOY and after finding TUG bought at SVV resale EY. Our SO for Westin is 81k even years and SVV is 67,100. They said our DP conversion to MVC for WA would be 2700 and SVV 2350...BUT the SVV would not be considered for MVC DP conversion because it was a resale and considered unauthorized. So essentially we can only use the WA points for MVC.

Also regarding reservations, for MVC they book at 13 months. If you elect to convert to use MVC then we are eligible to book as early as 13 months as well. Once we convert then our deeded weeks go into the system as available to others. MVC owners are supposedly not going to be able to book VSN at 12 months since their ownership are not based on deeded weeks or specific resorts. So Vistana and Sheraton owners are supposedly going to have an advantage with this merger.

Westin Flex sales from developer are supposed to end in July when the info of the Marriott transition is officially announced.

 

[dioxide45]

Does anyone remember if the new Abound club fee mentioned by Denise's contact, would include guest certs ? I recall housekeeping and banking would be covered by the fee. Thx

This is from page 42 of this thread and shows the fees that would be consolidated into the Abound Club Fee.

CLOSED: Thread Dedicated to the Upcoming/Anticipated Integration of Vistana & Marriott Ownerships (Marriott Link + Vistana Discussion)

All salespeople want to sell something. I’ve documented earlier in this thread how I received the information and what I’ve been told - he didn’t just pull the number from thin air. He didn’t try to tell me that I needed to buy more flex to bring our resale mandatory into the system - which I...

tugbbs.com

 

[kozykritter]

Soooo...does anyone think there will be announcement about the integration this Friday July 1st? That is the date that the majority of salespeople have used with owners as the launch date according to posts here.

I've had two different MVC staff members tell me in the past 10 days that MVC enrolled owners will be able to start booking Vistana inventory on that day but I got the sense they were working from old information as they had no recent updates to change the date from what they were told in the past. My response to them was how can MVC owners book that inventory that is supposed to available only through Abound if they aren't launching that program until "later this summer"? Blank stares and "I dunno" were received in return. The mystery continues...

 

[VacationForever]

I thought in the last shareholder call, August is the new month?

 

[kozykritter]

I thought in the last shareholder call, August is the new month?

I don't recall them giving an exact month. Brian Miller MVW President of Vacation Ownership said in his letter to MVC owners posted on Facebook that a 12-week sweepstakes and education campaign would start in August but the wording before it seemed to indicated that would occur after the program launches meaning perhaps July.

 

[dioxide45]

They said on their investor day webcast was "later this summer". That means between June 21st and September 22nd for all I know.

I don't know who Brian Miller is. Stephen Weisz is the CEO of Marriott Vacations WOrldwide and John E. Geller Jr will be taking over for him when Stephen retires at the end of this year. I also don't know of any letter to owners. Was it the letter sent to board members?

I wouldn't expect a Friday announcement. Perhaps something over the weekend like they did in 2010 when rolling out the DC program. I wouldn't expect anything right before or during the holiday weekend. They will be bombarded with calls and they are closed on the holiday Monday.

 

[kozykritter]

They said on their investor day webcast was "later this summer". That means between June 21st and September 22nd for all I know.

I don't know who Brian Miller is. Stephen Weisz is the CEO of Marriott Vacations WOrldwide and John E. Geller Jr will be taking over for him when Stephen retires at the end of this year. I also don't know of any letter to owners. Was it the letter sent to board members?

I wouldn't expect a Friday announcement. Perhaps something over the weekend like they did in 2010 when rolling out the DC program. I wouldn't expect anything right before or during the holiday weekend. They will be bombarded with calls and they are closed on the holiday Monday.

Brian Miller is the President of Vacation Ownership at MVW...my bad. All those senior executive titles seem the same to me

 

[dioxide45]

Brian Miller is the President of Vacation Ownership at MVW...my bad. All those senior executive titles seem the same to me

To clarify, it was a letter sent to board members. Not sure if it is individual HOA board members or members of the MVW board of director. In either case, it didn't go out to owners.

https://tugbbs.com/forums/attachments/1655605453588-png.58342/

 

[kozykritter]

To clarify, it was a letter sent to board members. Not sure if it is individual HOA board members or members of the MVW board of director. In either case, it didn't go out to owners.

https://tugbbs.com/forums/attachments/1655605453588-png.58342/

Semantics. Never said it went out to owners...said it was posted on Facebook. From memory of seeing it once I thought he addressed it to owners because it detailed benefits for owners using Abound...my bad. But my point was the information contained within it.

 

[EnglishmanAbroad]

Had our owner's update today at Nanea (other properties busy training staff apparently) and the date we were given was July 28th. Not sure we were told anything that hasn't already been mentioned or discussed on here but will try to answer questions if anyone has any.

We indicated we didn't have much/any money to spend so our starting offer was 81,000 Westin Flex for $37,746 ($33,971 with 10% discount), 162,000 SO incentive (valid 2 years with 8 month booking window) or 260,000 Bonvoy Points and they then worked their way down from that to the point where they said 'how much would you be willing to spend today. When I answered $0 it was a swift 'have a nice day' and we were out in about an hour. Don't know how they expect me to spend any money when they can't even supply me with free coffee and pastries

We did actually get printed versions of the offer(s) for the first time I remember.

 

[Tucsonadventurer]

Had our owner's update today at Nanea (other properties busy training staff apparently) and the date we were given was July 28th. Not sure we were told anything that hasn't already been mentioned or discussed on here but will try to answer questions if anyone has any.

We indicated we didn't have much/any money to spend so our starting offer was 81,000 Westin Flex for $37,746 ($33,971 with 10% discount), 162,000 SO incentive (valid 2 years with 8 month booking window) or 260,000 Bonvoy Points and they then worked their way down from that to the point where they said 'how much would you be willing to spend today. When I answered $0 it was a swift 'have a nice day' and we were out in about an hour. Don't know how they expect me to spend any money when they can't even supply me with free coffee and pastries

We did actually get printed versions of the offer(s) for the first time I remember.

Ha ha, my husband was disappointed there were no cookies. We had to ask for water.

 

[DavidnRobin]

Posted on appropriate thread - sorry.
But here it is for those concerned...

Dear valued Owner,

I am reaching out to share a renewed commitment to your future ownership experience. The last two years have been challenging, and if we’ve learned anything, it’s that our Owners want to go on vacation and continue to spend time with those who matter most.

Service Enhancements
As you know, ownership is not only about the place you vacation but also about the service you receive. Most recently, we have worked diligently to bring our Marriott Vacation Club, Sheraton Vacation Club, and Westin Vacation Club products together to give Owners even more options. To support these efforts, a series of digital enhancements are needed to integrate the website and mobile app that Owners use. The goal is to deliver a better online experience, making it easier for you to search, book, and manage your vacations.

These enhancements will require periodic technology and systems upgrades, some of which may result in outages and downtimes. As part of this modernization effort, steps are also being taken to combine online upgrades more efficiently, reducing the impact on you and other Owners.

We are proactively sharing this with you and ask for your patience during this time. In the coming weeks, you will notice updates on scheduled maintenance and outages on the Owner website and app you use to help keep you better informed.

With Gratitude
We are excited to bring our premium vacation club brands together and improve service to valued Owners like you. Your ownership and vacation experiences are about to get even better.

Thank you for your continued ownership. We look forward to sharing more detailed information with you.

To More Vacation Possibilities,

Ron Essig
Senior Vice President, Global Owner Services
Marriott Vacations Worldwide