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DC Causing Challenges for Villa Assignments

Superchief

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Has anyone else encountered problems with their villa assignments since the DC system was implemented? I spoke with reservation managers at Oceana Palms and Canyon Villas, and both indicated the shorter stays and flexible check-in dates are making it very difficult to assign preferred views to owners.

When I checked in on a Saturday at Oceana Palms, only two ocean side units were available for 1 week stays. Many were being used for short weekends and sat vacant during the weekdays. In addition to the many multiple week owners at Canyon Villas in March, many others had added 1-2 nights with DC points to their stay, thus making more prime location villas unavailable for my Sunday check-in.

Regarding villa assignment priorities, this is the order of priority (within owned view) I have been told:
1. Multiple week owners staying on owned week at home resort
2. Mutliple week owners using DC points at home resort
3. Multiple week MVC owner using DC points at any MVC resort
4. Single week owners staying at home resort and/or using DC points (CV gives priority to home resort owner, Oceana Palms treats both equally)
5. II traders into home resort
Other II traders and Mariott rentals/point redemers follow

Although I like the DC point system overall, I am disappointed with the negative impact on getting my preferred villa locations.
 

puckmanfl

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good morning...

Where do TRUST owners using Trust points fit in??? After All, they own as well if the ressie is part of Trust inventory!!!

just curious!!!
 

Superchief

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good morning...

Where do TRUST owners using Trust points fit in??? After All, they own as well if the ressie is part of Trust inventory!!!

just curious!!!

That's a good question. When I asked, there was no mention regarding whether I was using trust points or legacy points. They only mentioned 'Destination Club' points, so I assume it includes both. My reservation included both trust and legacy points, so I don't know how they will be able to differentiate. They also did not know whether Premier Plus point owners received higher priority, but most would also be multiple week owners.

It just keeps getting more complicated. For example, how do they handle a situation in which a multiple week owner checks in on a Friday for a weekend stay, and a home resort owner checks in Saturday for an 'owned' week. Will that 2 night stay take that preferred villa out of the aavailability pool for the week? I don't envy the job of the room assignment managers (or the front desk staff when owners are upset at check-in).
 

FractionalTraveler

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good morning...

Where do TRUST owners using Trust points fit in??? After All, they own as well if the ressie is part of Trust inventory!!!

just curious!!!

Good question puck.

I am a trust owner but I would expect that legacy owners with purchased deeded "views" get what they purchased if it was available at reservation time.

Other than that, there is no contractual agreement to get any preferred bldg., floor, exposure, or unit number.

IMHO this concern will never be solved unless in the future you could modify your purchase agreement to reflect an exact unit number. Highly unlikely.

I guess it comes down to individual rooms control function at each facility to devise and implement fair and equitable assignment practices based upon usage patterns.
 

pacheco18

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I think the staggered arrivals is a problem

We were at Shadow Ridge last month (we go every year) and I used my 800 bonus points for two extra days. I arrived on a Wednesday. I have always been able to get my preference (top floor) in particular buildings. Because there were hardly any checkouts on Wednesday, they only had middle floor in my preferred buildings -- but offered to move me to the top floor on Friday when there were lots of checkouts. I declined. Moving would have been a hassle.
 

molemay

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I'm trying to understand the villa assignment pecking order mentioned above. If you are a multiple week owner and are only staying one week at a home resort, where does that put you? Above the DC or below?

I know if you are a multiple week owner and stay for more than one week at your home resort you are at the top of the pecking order.

We own 4 Hawaii weeks and 1 at the Timberlodge. I have not joined the DC and am worried that since we go to Hawaii for 2 weeks every year and ususally stay one week at one resort and another week at another resort, that we won't get any room preferences. I notice a huge difference if we stay 2 weeks at the Waiohai versus 1 week with our room assignments. I would hate to always be at the bottom of the pecking order by using only 1 week at a time at each resort we go to.

Any insight?
 

dougp26364

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I think they'll get this worked out over time. I don't see a lot of complaints about other systems and their room assingments. We own with two other points based systems with HGVC and DRI and I can't say I've seen any issues with good or decent unit assignments. With HGVC and DRI we've always received what I consider very good unit assignments within the range of what we've paid in points. I expect (demand) at least as good from Marriott. It's just going to take a little time for them to figure out who it all works.
 

dioxide45

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If it gets too difficult, they will just go the route of no villa requests. That makes it a lot simpler. They really should have certain villas set aside for week long stays and others for days based DC stays. Of course a lot depends on how many are staying on what type of stay. I sure wouldn't want the rooms control job.

We always make a request but are never broken hearted if we don't get it. In every case we are exchanging in. We usually get what or close to what we asked for. On our trip last week to Ocean Watch we asked for a high floor or one of the ocean side/ocean front towers. We got a great room in Conch (ocean side) on the first floor. At first we were like "the first floor???", but it was great. Not having to deal with the elevator made it easy to get in and out. Down only one floor to exit out to the lower pool We may ask for lower floors more in the future.
 

MALC9990

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None of my home resort Marriotts offer any guarantee of placement. Whilst they encourage requests they do insist ghat these be general in nature - at Club Son Antem they suggest that you request a particular area of the resort (villa number series and a villa type preference but make give n guarantee that they will be able to provide what one may request.

Obviously short stays and add ons to stays do complicate the allocation process. However this should not be rocket science to resolve. It is not as though the resorts are taking lots of reservations in the last few days like might happen in hotels so well in advance they should know what the occupancy and check in patterns for each week in the coming months are going to be and their IT systems should be able to deal with the complexities with only minor manual tweaking required for late adjustments such as a unit needing to be taken out of service.

This happened to us recently at Phuket Beach Club when we reported a structural issue with the floor in our Ground Floor Villa. We were moved for the rest of our stay and the unit was out of service for over a week whilst repairs to the floor were made. This obviously impacts plans for villa allocations but this sort of thing should be manageable.
 

windje2000

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good morning...

Where do TRUST owners using Trust points fit in??? After All, they own as well if the ressie is part of Trust inventory!!!

just curious!!!

Good question. Are they owners if they used trust owned inventory and exchangers if they used exchange Co inventory?

What points level makes a trust point owner the equivalent of a multi week legacy?

What about 'mixed reservations?
 

FractionalTraveler

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Good question. Are they owners if they used trust owned inventory and exchangers if they used exchange Co inventory?

What points level makes a trust point owner the equivalent of a multi week legacy?

What about 'mixed reservations?

I don't think this will be a problem for quite some time. I think there are many more multi-week legacy owners right now versus Premier Plus DC owners. So, if both owners can reserve at 13 months out, the legacy owner should still be able to get what they want.

Will there ever be a Premier Plus TRUST-only owner? Its possible.
 

RBERR1

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If you are traveling in a floating season and you are traveling the week that is on your deed. Don't they usually give you the unit that is on the deed? I know I asked in one of the resorts (either CH or Barony) and they said they always honor that request first.
 

californiagirl

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Yes, they are required to give you the view you purchased. However, there are better and worse views within a given category. For instance. We own MOC garden view 2 bdrm. Some of the garden views units are the next unit over from the OCEANFRONT room!!! Needless to say, these are the highest demand garden view rooms on property. We have been given these rooms the last few times we were there. We will be there on May 5th and I will report back. (I put in a request for one of these rooms when we made our reservation last year and I confirmed a couple of weeks ago that the request was listed.)

We are a multi-week Marriott owner, staying a single week at our home resort.
 

RBERR1

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Yes, they are required to give you the view you purchased. However, there are better and worse views within a given category. For instance. We own MOC garden view 2 bdrm. Some of the garden views units are the next unit over from the OCEANFRONT room!!! Needless to say, these are the highest demand garden view rooms on property. We have been given these rooms the last few times we were there. We will be there on May 5th and I will report back. (I put in a request for one of these rooms when we made our reservation last year and I confirmed a couple of weeks ago that the request was listed.)

We are a multi-week Marriott owner, staying a single week at our home resort.

That was not what I mean.. If your deed says Week 13 Building 56 Unit 5602 do they have to give you that unit if you request it versus another in your view in your category.
 

SueDonJ

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That was not what I mean.. If your deed says Week 13 Building 56 Unit 5602 do they have to give you that unit if you request it versus another in your view in your category.

I've never heard that. If you own floating season, the docs are chock-full of stipulations that make it clear you don't have any claim on the unit numbers in your deeds. Every owner is guaranteed a week in the resort/season/#BR/view unit type that was purchased, but no owner has a guarantee of a specific unit unless a fixed week/unit was purchased.

If ever Marriott tries to force owners of a floating system into the specific weeks stipulated in their deeds, or gives a priority to owners based on those number, I'll fight that tooth and nail! They didn't give us a choice when we purchased. In fact they went out of their way to say that that our unit configuration would always remain the same as the unit number listed in our deed but that the number had no relation to unit placement, and then they showed us several sections in the different paperwork where that was spelled out.

************

Getting back to your original post, the Hilton Head resorts all have a priority placement system that favors owners, but they also use a rotational system so that the "best" units within a specific configuration are not always taken by the same highest-priority owners. As yet my resorts haven't incorporated DC Trust or Exchange Members into their published lists but now that you've heard one from your resort, maybe the rest will follow suit.

If I own weeks at a resort and convert those to DC Points, then use those to exchange back in (to a lower-point-cost season or unit, of course,) then I would hope I'd be treated about the same as a Weeks Owner exchanging back in. If I use those points where I don't own, I'd expect to be treated about the same as an II exchanger. If I own DC Trust Points and use those anywhere, I'd expect to be treated as an owner.
 

pipet

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If you are traveling in a floating season and you are traveling the week that is on your deed. Don't they usually give you the unit that is on the deed? I know I asked in one of the resorts (either CH or Barony) and they said they always honor that request first.

Haha, for me, I sure wished. My Waiohai deed gives me a summer week, super location in Hale 1, but as SueDonJ says, the docs definitely spell out you don't get a specific unit.

-------

3. Multiple week MVC owner using DC points at any MVC resort
4. Single week owners staying at home resort and/or using DC points

If this is true in the pecking order above, it means that single week owners have less priority at their own resort than someone who does not own there. For me, it sounds like I would have better room placement by using DC points. I'm a multiple week MVC owner but only have 1 week @ Waiohai, where some OVs need binoculars and/or giraffe necks to see the ocean and should never have been classified as such. The big comeback for people complaining about skim (which would be really bad for me when I can travel) is why use DC at your home resort? Well, crappy room placement will certainly nullify that comeback.

I'd like to see Marriott clarify this.
 

dioxide45

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That was not what I mean.. If your deed says Week 13 Building 56 Unit 5602 do they have to give you that unit if you request it versus another in your view in your category.

I suppose if you own week 26 in Unit 1234 at resort ABC and you are traveling there that week (or any week) you could request that you be placed in that unit. You could even tell them that you are deeded that unit and want to stay in it just for kicks. Just like any other request, they don't really have to honor it, but I am sure they would try.
 
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jeepie

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Adding nights to weeks...Good idea?

...What about 'mixed reservations?
I'm thinking of adding one or two nights with (trust) points right before a two (legacy) week reservation. The purpose would be to fly on a less crowded day, avoid the crowds when checking in, etc. It occurred to me this may make it more difficult to get my preferred unit placement...or maybe they would want to move me? Any insights?
 

GregT

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I'm thinking of adding one or two nights with (trust) points right before a two (legacy) week reservation. The purpose would be to fly on a less crowded day, avoid the crowds when checking in, etc. It occurred to me this may make it more difficult to get my preferred unit placement...or maybe they would want to move me? Any insights?

I don't think they would move you, but you may be in a "lesser" quality of view room than you are accustomed to?

This may be inevitable however, considering how chopped up the room assignments are getting. I think you should add the additional days to get the length of stay you want, and then just hope that one of the better rooms is available for check-in when you arrive...

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

Best,

Greg
 

SueDonJ

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I'm not merging these two threads but, it would be helpful if any discussion related to unit placement is continued in this thread:

Unit Placement Discussion ...
 
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