Does owning Marriott Club Points give a lot better access to inventory

[Don Springett]

We are Chairman members with all Westin Kierland and Kaanapali ownership. We recently traded a small 1 BR Kierland for club points and did our first stay for a couple weeks in the MVC San Diego property. Nice little getaway from Scottsdale heat in August. We got the honor of a virtual owner update and they push real hard to get us to buy Marriott Trust Points. They said owning a little bit of trust inventory would give better access for all our Westin points should we choose to convert. We turned them down, but was wondering if anyone sees benefit for a chairman club member to buy more.

 

[ljmiii]

Trust points see the same inventory as points converted from weeks.

Which is not to say that buying additional Abound Points resale would be a bad thing…or a good thing. It depends on your situation.

 

[daviator]

This is a lie, and a really common one. I'll bet there are hundreds of posts here on the same topic.

Owning trust points does not give you access to any additional inventory. Zip. Nada. Zero. Trust points and elected points access the same inventory.

 

[DanCali]

We are Chairman members with all Westin Kierland and Kaanapali ownership. We recently traded a small 1 BR Kierland for club points and did our first stay for a couple weeks in the MVC San Diego property. Nice little getaway from Scottsdale heat in August. We got the honor of a virtual owner update and they push real hard to get us to buy Marriott Trust Points. They said owning a little bit of trust inventory would give better access for all our Westin points should we choose to convert. We turned them down, but was wondering if anyone sees benefit for a chairman club member to buy more.

We finally got that pitch last year. I was surprised it took them so long...

My rebuttals were unrelated to the fact vs. fiction of the inventory access, but more about the price... So even if the claim about access to more inventory was true - why buy direct and not resale? But I'll keep going to sales presentations because I'm waiting for them to offer enrollment of multiple resale weeks when you buy 1000 points. I may wait forever, but that's what it will take for me to consider it.

By the way - here are some samples of this urban legend from over the years... enjoy the read!

2022: https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/is-it-worth-it-to-buy-into-the-trust-points.338150/

2021: https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/trust-dp-versus-exchange-legacy-points-in-the-destination-club.319886/

2017: https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/enrolled-versus-trust-inventory-availability.259184/

2015: https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/ko-olina-sales-presentation.225293/

2013: https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/canyon-villas-presentation-points-question.201739/

 

[dansimms]

I think the only time you would be able to see different availability is if you had Abound Points and you had exhausted your Vistana points / home options for that given year. I recently was very low on Abound Points and my Sheraton Flex Points were for 2026. It made sense to convert them to Abound and they became immediately available for me to book in 2025.

 

[buzglyd]

This is a lie, and a really common one. I'll bet there are hundreds of posts here on the same topic.

Owning trust points does not give you access to any additional inventory. Zip. Nada. Zero. Trust points and elected points access the same inventory.

I was told that same lie at a presentation at WDW.

 

[daviator]

I was told that same lie at a presentation at WDW.

I think it's a pretty effective lie for sales, they find that people believe it and then spend lots of money to acquire trust points that they may not need. So they keep telling it.

 

[YYJMSP]

The only thing we can't see is Marriott "weeks" inventory, right?

I assume they have to elect into Abound for us to see those weeks, same as we have to do with Vistana weeks (convert to Abound so that they can see them)

Marriott "points" (trust?) inventory is all visible in Abound, as Abound is effectively just a new brand name for that bucket, right?

 

[daviator]

Marriott weeks inventory isn't part of Abound unless elected into Abound. And unlike Vistana, MVC doesn't have an internal transfer network for Marriott weeks, they just have Abound (formerly Destination Club.) So unelected weeks inventory is only available to weeks owners at that individual property. And elected weeks become part of the Abound inventory for that year.

Now it's possible, maybe even likely, that when MVC owns a bunch of weeks at a given property, they may "elect" those to Abound and then they become part of Abound inventory. But you should see those whether you're searching with trust points or elected points. In other cases they actually deed those weeks to the Abound trust and then they become permanently part of Abound inventory.

This is my understanding at least.

 

[dioxide45]

Marriott "points" (trust?) inventory is all visible in Abound, as Abound is effectively just a new brand name for that bucket, right?

Abound is the brand name for the MVC Exchange company and points system. It makes up two sets of inventory. Inventory from what the Trust owns. It seems MVC just deposits all the weeks into the MVC Exchange company. Then there is inventory that gets deposited by weeks owners when they elect Club Points for their week. We don't really know how MVC manages everything all in the black box though. With a floating weeks system they could own X number of Platinum weeks and use those to reserve all of week Y at a resort. If n% of weeks in a season at a resort have been deposited to MVC Exchange, do they balance that % out across all the weeks in a season and that is what Club Points owners can book? Or if Club Points owners book up certain weeks, can that squeeze out weeks owners? Again, we don't really know.

 

[Hindsite]

And unlike Vistana, MVC doesn't have an internal transfer network for Marriott weeks, they just have Abound (formerly Destination Club.)

MVC consider that they do have an internal weeks exchange platform via II, see below from my MVC account. The II MVC to MVC preference period is not a perk, its the internal weeks exchange platform, that has existed long before the points system was introduced and before MVW bought ILG, which brought II into the same corporate group as MVC.

Note this description does not refer to the no fee exchange benefit of MVC enrolled weeks.

What is news to me is the additional charge for making a request by phone, so thanks for raising the topic

 

[dougp26364]

We originally owned only deeded weeks that we elected into Abound points. Eventually we purchased Abound trust points because we wanted to consolidate the majority our timeshare ownerships into Marriott.

Trust me (pun intended), there is NO DIFFERENCE in what elected points and “pure” trust points can see as far as reservations. It’s just another lie told by the salesmen to trick you into buying something you don’t really need.

 

[dioxide45]

But, but, but...theoretically Marriott could distinguish between the two. They are technically two buckets of inventory that MVC just combines through the MVC exchange company. We did see early on where some people made reservations that showed they were made with trust points. So the salespeople aren't really lying, they just aren't being 100% clear on the distinction and how it really works. Quote: The Marriott apologist.

 

[dougp26364]

Marriott weeks inventory isn't part of Abound unless elected into Abound. And unlike Vistana, MVC doesn't have an internal transfer network for Marriott weeks, they just have Abound (formerly Destination Club.) So unelected weeks inventory is only available to weeks owners at that individual property. And elected weeks become part of the Abound inventory for that year.

Now it's possible, maybe even likely, that when MVC owns a bunch of weeks at a given property, they may "elect" those to Abound and then they become part of Abound inventory. But you should see those whether you're searching with trust points or elected points. In other cases they actually deed those weeks to the Abound trust and then they become permanently part of Abound inventory.

This is my understanding at least.

Way back in the beginning there was discussion and concern that there was very few trust only/mostly resorts and trust points wouldn’t see much until enough owners joined and elected their weeks to points. I recall, perhaps incorrectly, that Marriott would have an inventory manager capable of seamlessly moving weeks/points inventory from one “bucket” to another. This being done behind the scenes and so seamlessly that owners/members would never even know it was happening.

We have seen changes as the years have gone by. Getting our desired week/unit in our owned season at Ocean Pointe has become difficult when prior to Abound it was easy. Booking using points at the older HHI resorts has become a little easier. We really haven’t done a MVC week for week exchange using the II platform in a long time so I can’t comment about the Marriott to Marriott aspect for that platform. I can say the instant exchanges have shifted over the years with II and I don’t see nearly the inventory I could choose from 15 to 20 years ago. I suspect that has to do with so many management groups moving more towards internal exchange systems with tighter inventory control favoring their own owners. Then again I’m not doing online searches with what I’d consider a high value week.

 

[DavidnRobin]

We are Chairman members with all Westin Kierland and Kaanapali ownership. We recently traded a small 1 BR Kierland for club points and did our first stay for a couple weeks in the MVC San Diego property. Nice little getaway from Scottsdale heat in August. We got the honor of a virtual owner update and they push real hard to get us to buy Marriott Trust Points. They said owning a little bit of trust inventory would give better access for all our Westin points should we choose to convert. We turned them down, but was wondering if anyone sees benefit for a chairman club member to buy more.

Hi Don -
Funny - we just did similar Abound exchange - used WKV P+ (81K SO, large) in Abound and stayed at the San Diego MVC.
Our cost was effectively $127/nite (1Bd CityView Suite) as we are also Chairman (from our Mandatory resales) and reserved at <60 days out at 30% discount. Good deal, and a fun stay. SF Giants were playing SD Padres at Petco Park (just a few trolley stops away), and spent day at Del Mar.

We just did the virtual update (they ended after only 45min) for 400 MVC CP - they didn't really try to sell me anything because we were upfront that we were happy with our situation and did not need more vacation time. Spent most of the time BSing. However, the Sales pitch idea is that there is both Trust (T) points and Exchange (E) points, and the inventory is different and therefore becoming a 'Hybrid' owner has more inventory (T+E) availability, We didn't get further into it (heard it before... minimum 1000 CP for $15K, plus varying incentives) as we are not looking to expand or ownership and don't care about supposed inventory issues.

 

[dougp26364]

Having thought about it, there is one aspect where I’ve seen a difference between the weeks bucket and trust bucket. That would be for resort like Custom House. The problem for the sales people is the situation is reversed. Some resort have NO trust inventory and therefore are rarely seen when searching with trust points. The best advice I’ve been given was to use the waitlist option (reminds me of request first with II) for those properties.

OTOH I never had a lot of problems finding pool side views available using elected points for Crystal Shores, a very trust heavy resort tower. I have had issues getting a reservation for an ocean front unit at Crystal Shores, which I imagine is heavily deeded week owners rather than trust. I also haven't seen anyone complain about issues booking the 100% trust properties formerly known as Pulse .

 

[dioxide45]

Having thought about it, there is one aspect where I’ve seen a difference between the weeks bucket and trust bucket. That would be for resort like Custom House. The problem for the sales people is the situation is reversed. Some resort have NO trust inventory and therefore are rarely seen when searching with trust points. The best advice I’ve been given was to use the waitlist option (reminds me of request first with II) for those properties.

But wouldn't the same apply for elected points too? Trust points can see trust only inventory as well as exchange inventory where elected points can theoretically only see exchange inventory. So trust points shouldn't have any limitations on seeing Custom House where elected points could.

 

[daviator]

But wouldn't the same apply for elected points too? Trust points can see trust only inventory as well as exchange inventory where elected points can theoretically only see exchange inventory. So trust points shouldn't have any limitations on seeing Custom House where elected points could.

But I think you’re both talking about a situation which does not exist, and by theorizing about it you add credibility to a disproven theory.

Let’s say that you are right and people with only elected points can’t see trust inventory. That would mean that when booking trust inventory you'd need to use only trust points, and maybe vice versa – and we KNOW this isn’t the case, there are NO restrictions on where your points came from to where you can use them. You can mix and match to your heart's content. There would be no reason to limit what inventory you could SEE if there were not also limitations on how points could be applied, and we know there are no such limitations.

 

[dougp26364]

But wouldn't the same apply for elected points too? Trust points can see trust only inventory as well as exchange inventory where elected points can theoretically only see exchange inventory. So trust points shouldn't have any limitations on seeing Custom House where elected points could.

It does not matter elected or trust. If it’s available, it’s available to everyone. Elected points or trust points are going to see the same inventory regardless of what a salesman tells you.

Here’s the thing about Custom House. Because of the way it’s set up, almost nine of the owners elect Abound points. The easiest way to get a week is to waitlist it.,when an owner deposits a unit, the inventory manager can snag it and confirm the waitlist request before it ever gets to II.

Trust points aren’t “supercharged”. They’re just points. The buckets are only there to satisfy legal requirements.

 

[dougp26364]

But I think you’re both talking about a situation which does not exist, and by theorizing about it you add credibility to a disproven theory.

Let’s say that you are right and people with only elected points can’t see trust inventory. That would mean that when booking trust inventory you'd need to use only trust points, and maybe vice versa – and we KNOW this isn’t the case, there are NO restrictions on where your points came from to where you can use them. You can mix and match to your heart's content. There would be no reason to limit what inventory you could SEE if there were not also limitations on how points could be applied, and we know there are no such limitations.

Points are points. It doesn’t matter trust or elected.

 

[dioxide45]

But I think you’re both talking about a situation which does not exist, and by theorizing about it you add credibility to a disproven theory.

I know I am, that is why I was confused about Doug's comment. He said that "the situation is reversed". I took that to somehow mean that elected points could see and book inventory and trust points couldn't.

 

[Don Springett]

Hi Don -
Funny - we just did similar Abound exchange - used WKV P+ (81K SO, large) in Abound and stayed at the San Diego MVC.
Our cost was effectively $127/nite (1Bd CityView Suite) as we are also Chairman (from our Mandatory resales) and reserved at <60 days out at 30% discount. Good deal, and a fun stay. SF Giants were playing SD Padres at Petco Park (just a few trolley stops away), and spent day at Del Mar.

We just did the virtual update (they ended after only 45min) for 400 MVC CP - they didn't really try to sell me anything because we were upfront that we were happy with our situation and did not need more vacation time. Spent most of the time BSing. However, the Sales pitch idea is that there is both Trust (T) points and Exchange (E) points, and the inventory is different and therefore becoming a 'Hybrid' owner has more inventory (T+E) availability, We didn't get further into it (heard it before... minimum 1000 CP for $15K, plus varying incentives) as we are not looking to expand or ownership and don't care about supposed inventory issues.

Hi David, maybe we were at the same game…July 18. That’s the game where they hit 3 home runs and scored 4 runs in the first inning and held on to win 4 to 3. We are from the Bay Area but live in Scottsdale and are still Giants fans. It was a nice little get away from the desert heat. If you are out for spring training, PM me and maybe we could hook up.

All, thank you so much for your invite. During the presentation, I told me this almost sounds too good to be true….buy 1000 points and unlock my large inventory to special access to inventory. He said trust me…..my first thought was the lips moving joke. We did stay for the entire 90 minutes as this was my first Marriott owner update. I will know to cut it short in the future.

To add a little value to this awesome group, I am attaching a screenshot of his white board (I cropped out the sales man to protect the innocent…..or not so innocent ). Also is a screenshot of my Westin weeks and my calculation of cost per club point which I use to assess using club points. Note Westin Kierland small 1 BR is the best value to convert to clubppoints. Strange how they give 2150 for a small 1 BR and 4000 for a 2 BR.

Resort	Original SO	Current SO	Clubpoints	Dues	Rent	Cost per point
WKORV 2BR OF	148,200	176,700	8,325	$3,180	$5,500	0.382
WKORVN2 BR IV Christmas	148,200	148,200	7,050	$3,516	$6,000	0.499
WKORVN 2 BR IV (even)	148,200	148,200	6,200	$1,778	$2,250	0.574
WKV 2 BR	148,200	148,200	4050	$2,063	$4,500	0.509
WKV 1 BR (small)	67,100	67,100	2,150	$797	$2,000	0.371