I would tend to agree. 18-20 years isn't that long in the timeshare timeline. Some older owners may have passed it on to adult children or still own it. There are also the people that come in and "upgrade", so Vistana takes that back and turns around to resell it again as brand new.
It is very likely that an owner will need to elece to Club Points by Sept 30 or Oct 31 of the year prior to the use year. An owner will need to make a specific decision to elect. I think one can elect up to 25 months prior to the start of their use year. So much will depend on how many people elect points for prime inventory. WIth Vistana it is different than MVC. MVC didn't already have a points program where Vistana does. Many people despised II and liked the ability to reserve directly through Marriott. With Vistana, the most owners already have that ability.
Also consider that for every owner that elects Club Points, it is also an owner that is no longer competing for a home resort reservation. So even if they elect early, the supply/demand stays the same.
We don't really know how MVC handle inventory when an owner elects Club Points. For resorts with long seasons or a season that takes up the entire year like Hawaii, we don't know how MVC handles the inventory when an owner now wants to use DC points. Technically that week being in the MVC Exchange Company has the ability to reserve any week of the year at a resort. So it is possible that DC point reservations could snap up all the prime weeks of a season. There has been mention in the past that MVC allocates a proportionate amount of inventory from each week of a season to DC point and week reservations based on the percentage of weeks elected and owned by the trust vs the number of weeks still under weeks inventory. But in the end, MVC isn't forthcoming with how they manage the inventory between the systems.
It would seem that you are understanding correctly. When a Vistana owner elects Club Points, their underlying ownership becomes available for all DC point users to reserve. So as a Marriott only owner, you would potentially able to book a Westin or Sheraton property where the owner elected Club Points.
No it won't increase the value of mandatory resales because it will likely be similar to Marriott's program where you have to own by the official full launch date to be eligible to enroll without the fairly substantial DC points purchase to enroll.
Right now, based on replies by Denise's contact, any kind of resale (unqualified ownership( will be froze out. This would be different from Marriott's program where they allowed resale weeks that were acquired prior to the changes to enroll.
And since only DC points will be sold supposedly once the integration is completed, all unsold VSE inventory and ROFR'd units will be added to the DC Trust. So, there should more Westin and Sheraton available for DC exchange.
Resale weeks can be enrolled, not traded in, by buying some amounts of DC points.
VSN fee is for Staroption exchange and available to all mandatory units including resale. But unauthorized resales can not be enrolled to the DC program without buying DC or flex points at this time.
I agree that resales probably won't be eligible but even if they were allowed it wouldn't increase the resale value because of the date restriction which would certainly be in place even if they allowed resales to join for a sub $5000 fee.
Are you referring to 13 month reservations?
Am I missing something, can they any VSN owners be enrolled at this time? Are people who buy today immediately eligible to enroll their flex points for next year's usage?
No my original response was to PACMAN #490. Who thought IF mandatory resales were allowed in it would increase resale value for WKV.
Westin and Sheraton units exchanged to the DC program will be available to all DC owners.
I have no idea who Denise's contact is - and I'm not asking - but I'd be very surprised to find it's a low-level salesperson or manager. Marriott doesn't easily give up information for public consumption and anyone in the org who decides to do it for themselves is pretty much gone immediately. IMO the info that Denise is sharing is too advanced to be coming from Sales unless it's at the executive level and in conjunction with the product development higher-ups.
Vistana people are lucky to have this contact and to have Denise working with him/her! Marriott people didn't have that until our moderator, DaveM, was able to develop it after the DC rollout - we were hit with this huge shift from Weeks to Points overnight, BAM!, after YEARS of sales speculation and threats, a great deal of which never came to fruition. Enjoy your "soft rollout" period, use it to your advantage to learn as much as you can, and thank Denise every day that she cultivated this contact whoever it is.
And whatever else you do, keep an open mind and listen to your fellow Vistana TUGgers who join whatever this new thing is and then generously share their experience with it. The overall tenor on the TUG Marriott forum at the DC rollout was negative. I mean, very negative! Over the years that's changed and we who are enthusiastic members of the Destination Club have many different reasons why. It has its negatives, of course, but for many of us it's not at all the money-sucking too-confusing worthless scheme that was predicted by many at the outset to fail spectacularly.
Good luck!
