Collette Tours e-brochure

[Fasttr]

Received this in an email from Collette for MVC DC members.

Its a pretty exhaustive list of all available Collette tours using DC points.

For those who may have missed it in your inbox, or did not receive it, here it is....

2022_2023 Worldwide_Marriott_US

2022_2023 Worldwide_Marriott_US

viewer.zmags.com

 

[bazzap]

Received this in an email from Collette for MVC DC members.

Its a pretty exhaustive list of all available Collette tours using DC points.

For those who may have missed it in your inbox, or did not receive it, here it is....

2022_2023 Worldwide_Marriott_US

2022_2023 Worldwide_Marriott_US

viewer.zmags.com

Many thanks for this.
We never receive or see anything like this as European owners!
I guess I will have to check that we have access to this or similar, but it is very helpful to see what may be available even if the tours do have a very high points requirement.

 

[mbstn6254]

We are considering a Canadian Rockies Tour so the arrival of this brochure was very timely. The tour I am interested in is priced at 19,800 points per couple. The same exact tour with Collette without using MVC is $4,590 per person. 19,800 points is the equivalent of approximately $13,464. Huge difference. Not to mention it would take me almost 5 years to save for those points. Not a good deal.

 

[VacationForever]

I believe the MVC Collette tour is for 2 persons. Still, it is a huge gap: $9,180 vs. $13,464. My points cost me roughly $0.60 per point so for me it will come out to $11,880.

 

[Fasttr]

We are considering a Canadian Rockies Tour so the arrival of this brochure was very timely. The tour I am interested in is priced at 19,800 points per couple. The same exact tour with Collette without using MVC is $4,590 per person. 19,800 points is the equivalent of approximately $13,464. Huge difference. Not to mention it would take me almost 5 years to save for those points. Not a good deal.

Just rent out 13,500 points at 68 cents each and take the $9,180 income and pay cash for the tour. More than one way to skin the cat and still use your points.

 

[goodbadugly]

Looked into Jordan & Israel: Cultural Crossroads trip. It is $3600 (40%) more using MVC points for the exact same trip as confirmed by Collette. Brought this to attention of MVC. They continue to duck me.
When we originally purchased points we were told by MVC sales representatives that one of the advantages would be the buying power MVC would have with its partners. It made perfect sense that MVC would be able to pass those savings onto us. It appears the opposite has occurred. Because MVC is a middleman they need to "take a cut".

 

[VacationForever]

Looked into Jordan & Israel: Cultural Crossroads trip. It is $3600 (40%) more using MVC points for the exact same trip as confirmed by Collette. Brought this to attention of MVC. They continue to duck me.
When we originally purchased points we were told by MVC sales representatives that one of the advantages would be the buying power MVC would have with its partners. It made perfect sense that MVC would be able to pass those savings onto us. It appears the opposite has occurred. Because MVC is a middleman they need to "take a cut".

Yep, nothing has changed. We complained at every MVC owners update for about 3 years about the huge loss we would take if we used DC points to pay for Collette tours and cruises. Each time they got pissy with us and ended on a bad note. We haven't been back to an owners update for more than a year and don't intend to in the near future.

 

[goodbadugly]

Yep, nothing has changed. We complaint at every MVC owners update for about 3 years about the huge loss we would take if we used DC points to pay for Collette tours and cruises. Each time they got pissy with us and ended on a bad note. We haven't been back to an owners update for more than a year and don't intend to in the near future.

So at purchase time did you "buy their line" about because they are MVC they can leverage their partners?? BTW we are doing the Collette South African tour this October. It is for MVC owners only. Supposedly a lot smaller group.

 

[VacationForever]

@goodbadugly Our purchase decision way back then had nothing to do with their "vacation club" offerings. Their spiel was about how much we would save by owning more so that we could take land tours and cruises with the use of MVC points.

 

[Dean]

We are considering a Canadian Rockies Tour so the arrival of this brochure was very timely. The tour I am interested in is priced at 19,800 points per couple. The same exact tour with Collette without using MVC is $4,590 per person. 19,800 points is the equivalent of approximately $13,464. Huge difference. Not to mention it would take me almost 5 years to save for those points. Not a good deal.

As noted, the points is for 2 people and the cash PP. Every time I look at the per points cost for Collette, I get right at 43-46¢ per point consistently. For cruises it's almost always 34¢ per point or very close. This makes sense as there are losses along the way to turn those points into cash. This reflects every system I've even seen when a timeshare offered a cash type exchange including DVC and Bluegreen. BG used to have the best exchange rate but now it's as bad as everyone else.

 

[DanCali]

I believe the MVC Collette tour is for 2 persons. Still, it is a huge gap: $9,180 vs. $13,464. My points cost me roughly $0.60 per point so for me it will come out to $11,880.

What the points "cost you" (presumably in MFs) is often how salespeople pitch it, especially if you have a low MF week, but it really is not the best metric to use in my view. The MFs are a "sunk cost" which you pay either way. Now the question is how you use that week, so things rental income become a much better metric to use when comparing alternate uses.

For example - in my case NCV Platinum converts to 3475 DPs and has MFs (including county taxes) of $1550.

The "cost per point" is about $0.45 (MF/DPs), but if I am not using the week in a given use year and am considering a Collette Tour among other uses, then I can do one of the following mutually exclusive options:

1) Rent out a peak summer week for $3500 (value of about $1/point).
2) Rent out a non-summer week for $2800 (value of about $0.80 per point)
3) Elect for 3475 points and rent those points for $2400 (about $0.69/point).
4) Use of Collette tour where they price a $9180 trip ($4590 mentioned above x 2 people) for 19,800 points ($0.46 per point)

The "value" of the Collette tour is about the cost of my MFs and people averse to using the rental market may take them up on it. But it's a terrible value compared to some other alternate uses where you end up with cash in your pocket and can then book the trip with cash. It's those alternate uses that will ultimately impact my decision.

Based on the above, even converting to DP is a lousy use of a NCV Platinum week which is why, when I don't use it, I prefer to rent it out and then rent points from others. Even if some of those get lost due to non-transferability, I still come out way ahead.

 

[Deborah Modrowsky]

I am looking at the Treasure of Costa Rica Tour and noticed that one of the stops is Playa Herradura at the Los Suenos Marriott Resort. This resort hotel looks beautiful and I would love to go there. I have not been able to find availability if I search the Marriott site for just the hotel. Has anyone been able to book directly into this resort? I am speaking of the Marriott hotel resort, not the timeshare on the island. Can not book into the timeshare either.

We have used Collette for the Great Britain tour and it was AMAZING.

Wondering if anyone has done this Collette tour? I am interested in your feedback.

 

[goodbadugly]

I am looking at the Treasure of Costa Rica Tour and noticed that one of the stops is Playa Herradura at the Los Suenos Marriott Resort. This resort hotel looks beautiful and I would love to go there. I have not been able to find availability if I search the Marriott site for just the hotel. Has anyone been able to book directly into this resort? I am speaking of the Marriott hotel resort, not the timeshare on the island. Can not book into the timeshare either.

We have used Collette for the Great Britain tour and it was AMAZING.

Hotels Herradura, Costa Rica | Los Suenos Marriott Ocean & Golf Resort

Pack up for paradise at Los Suenos Marriott Ocean & Golf Resort. Our modern hotel suites, scenic views and nearby attractions create an oasis in Herradura, Costa Rica.

www.marriott.com

 

[goodbadugly]

I have a long email thread with MVC/MVWC The bottom line is that they do not believe that there is a problem that using MVC points at .62 (maintenance cost) is 40% higher than booking directly with Collette. I'm not making this up!

 

[dioxide45]

I have a long email thread with MVC/MVWC The bottom line is that they do not believe that there is a problem that using MVC points at .62 (maintenance cost) is 40% higher than booking directly with Collette. I'm not making this up!

These types of offerings are profit centers for the timeshare operators. They have to take the points and rent them out to replace the cash spend they put up for the tour or other offering. The MF to them really is irrelevant. They are looking at how much they can rent the inventory they reserve with the points they take in and how much it costs them to book the tour. They also have to take into consideration that they may not be able to rent out all the inventory or they may only be able to rent part of it. For example, a tour costs 5000 points and they can reserve a week in Hawaii to try to rent out for $5000 on Marriott.com. Perhaps they have 7 nights they can rent and they only rent four of them and the other three nights are unoccupied. They now only made about $2900 to cover the costs of your tour instead of $5000. There is a lot of things baked into that "margin", breakage and profit are just two of them.

For legacy week owners that have a low MF to Point ratio, these tours can be a good option and the sales staff always likes to push them when they push sales, but they ignore that MFs on trust points are over $0.60pp.

 

[Bodie]

Received this in an email from Collette for MVC DC members.

Its a pretty exhaustive list of all available Collette tours using DC points.

For those who may have missed it in your inbox, or did not receive it, here it is....

2022_2023 Worldwide_Marriott_US

2022_2023 Worldwide_Marriott_US

viewer.zmags.com

Been a member for many years and never received anything like this. Thank you.

 

[Bodie]

Been a member for many years and have never received anything like this. Maybe this is part of the interminable MVC system “update?”

 

[Dean]

I have a long email thread with MVC/MVWC The bottom line is that they do not believe that there is a problem that using MVC points at .62 (maintenance cost) is 40% higher than booking directly with Collette. I'm not making this up!

This is the situation with all Cash type exchanges I am aware of whether it be cruises, tours, etc. They have to rent accommodations to turn into cash and I'm sure several departments have their hand in the pot. There's no surprise and it's not worth trying to discuss or reason with them IMO. It appears that Collete is giving them a discount which is why it's generally a better exchange rate than cruises.

 

[goodbadugly]

I agree with you Dean. But the MVC sales pitch is/was "we are MVC we negotiate better deals with third party's because we bring qualified customers to the table". It's a good story and we fell for it! I did offer to participate in the next negotiation with Collette...HA!

 

[Dean]

I agree with you Dean. But the MVC sales pitch is/was "we are MVC we negotiate better deals with third party's because we bring qualified customers to the table". It's a good story and we fell for it! I did offer to participate in the next negotiation with Collette...HA!

You know what they say about putting faith in what you hear at a sales pitch. It's no different than the "it will appreciate" or "rent and make a killing" ideas you'll sometimes get from sales. I'm fortunate that I have a sales person I can talk to that is a straight shooter and is willing to say something is a bad idea when appropriate.

 

[goodbadugly]

You know what they say about putting faith in what you hear at a sales pitch. It's no different than the "it will appreciate" or "rent and make a killing" ideas you'll sometimes get from sales. I'm fortunate that I have a sales person I can talk to that is a straight shooter and is willing to say something is a bad idea when appropriate.

The thing is in this particular case the "win win" would work for all party's. If the "pricing" was fair it would loosen up inventory, owners/members would get a better deal and Collette would fill their tours. I also believe that MVC has a responsibility to negotiate for owners/customers professionally!

 

[Fasttr]

The thing is in this particular case the "win win" would work for all party's. If the "pricing" was fair it would loosen up inventory, owners/members would get a better deal and Collette would fill their tours. I also believe that MVC has a responsibility to negotiate for owners/customers professionally!

I don't think its that MVC is not negotiating strongly enough with Collette, its just that MVC values points turned in for non core business (core being stays at MVC resorts) at a lesser value than you do. Look at the resort credits.... it takes 325 points to get $110 in MVC resort credit. They only have themselves to negotiate with in this case, and the value of a point is still only about 34 cents for such a use. Look again at Dioxide45's post #15 as to potential reasons why. Remember, MVC has to monetize the points you turn in, and its not a perfectly efficient system.

 

[Dean]

The thing is in this particular case the "win win" would work for all party's. If the "pricing" was fair it would loosen up inventory, owners/members would get a better deal and Collette would fill their tours. I also believe that MVC has a responsibility to negotiate for owners/customers professionally!

I don't disagree they should negotiate as big a benefit as possible. My point was that they may have and regardless, there's no way to get it to the point it makes sense routinely. Assume full price with a 20% discount, turning points into rooms, renting those (but not all night 100% of the time) and a 40-50% drain. Then do they try to get the highest demand weeks they can rent for more but at the expense of availability for the rest? IMO, the bottom line is there's no way to make it make financial sense routinely. You may have restricted points or you may find a one off where the contract allows reserving something that has evolved to a more expensive options but this is extremely rare.

 

[goodbadugly]

I don't disagree they should negotiate as big a benefit as possible. My point was that they may have and regardless, there's no way to get it to the point it makes sense routinely. Assume full price with a 20% discount, turning points into rooms, renting those (but not all night 100% of the time) and a 40-50% drain. Then do they try to get the highest demand weeks they can rent for more but at the expense of availability for the rest? IMO, the bottom line is there's no way to make it make financial sense routinely. You may have restricted points or you may find a one off where the contract allows reserving something that has evolved to a more expensive options but this is extremely rare.

Sorry Dean I'm not sure I understand your point. If I do then the whole concept behind the Explorer Collection program is a sham. BTW I'm not necessarily looking for a discount just for equal value. I'd even understand if there was a couple hundred bucks in processing/administration fees.

 

[Fasttr]

Sorry Dean I'm not sure I understand your point. If I do then the whole concept behind the Explorer Collection program is a sham. BTW I'm not necessarily looking for a discount just for equal value. I'd even understand if there was a couple hundred bucks in processing/administration fees.

I think if you are looking for equal value....the best approach would be to rent your points out on www.vacationpointexchange.com and use that cash to book the tour directly with Collette.