- Joined
- Jun 20, 2007
- Messages
- 1,688
- Reaction score
- 208
- Location
- Apex, NC (The Peak of Good Living)
- Resorts Owned
-
MFV (P) 2002
MSU (G) 2006
MOW (P) 2018
Enrolled in DP +++
We are currently staying at Barony Beach for Thanksgiving. I've been making all our reservations with my wife's account, as she gets more perks than I do on the Bonvoy side. So, she received the pre-arrival call, and was intrigued by the $350 off our MF's for an "owner's update", so she signed us up. This was our first presentation in 3-4 years. We had to drive over to the Hilton Head sales office, which is across the street from Grande Ocean, which was fine, very nice sales location.
The conversation led us to a discussion about why we own a week at Marriott's Fairway Villas (platinum), and elect points for it every year. They didn't like my answers, especially when I told them that the corporate office sales team told me on multiple occasions that MFV has no value in the Marriott portfolio. I brought my MacBook with me, so I could have my MVCPlanning.xlsx file up and be able to answer any questions they threw at me, and also do quick calculations when they fed me their "offers". I spoke about the many conversations I've had with MVC execs and sales about the possibility of converting my MFV to Beneficial Interests. Of course this opened the door for them to jump on the "Equity Buyback" program.
Our sales woman left for a bit, came back and said they have an amazing offer that was not available until the last year or so, and it would be a dream come true for us. Here's the "offer".
The sales manager then pulled out the chart of the history of the points purchase price (which I took). He says, "We're letting you go back 14+ years on this pricing chart and still getting a discount off the initial $9.20 price. You're only going to be paying $9.07/point. So, do you want to pay cash or finance?" I looked at my wife, we both had the same thought, so I said it, "we don't want to finance, because we don't want to do this." We were already at the 90-minute mark, so my wife said, "we've gotta get heading back". They finished us up quickly, got the "quality" guy in to offer the Encore and we left. The Encore was 5 days/4 nights on HHI (Barony, SurfWatch or Grande Ocean) 2BR for $1099, with a $400 upcharge for July/August.
While we were waiting for the Encore guy, I did some other calculations. The buyback program and incentive is just smoke and mirrors. That $38,541 just happens to be the exact amount of buying 2175 points at $17.72, which is the additional number of points I would have been adding to my portfolio. They would just swap deeds on the backend.
The conversation led us to a discussion about why we own a week at Marriott's Fairway Villas (platinum), and elect points for it every year. They didn't like my answers, especially when I told them that the corporate office sales team told me on multiple occasions that MFV has no value in the Marriott portfolio. I brought my MacBook with me, so I could have my MVCPlanning.xlsx file up and be able to answer any questions they threw at me, and also do quick calculations when they fed me their "offers". I spoke about the many conversations I've had with MVC execs and sales about the possibility of converting my MFV to Beneficial Interests. Of course this opened the door for them to jump on the "Equity Buyback" program.
Our sales woman left for a bit, came back and said they have an amazing offer that was not available until the last year or so, and it would be a dream come true for us. Here's the "offer".
- They take back my MFV week, worth 2075 points
- They give me my original purchase price back
- They sell me the 2075 points as BI's
- But since MVC always needs to have skin in the game, I need to purchase an additional 2000 points
- But since that would be 4075, and BI's are sold in 250 point increments, so I would need to buy 4250 (2175 more than I have now)
- Current purchase price is $17.72, so that comes to $75,310 + closing costs
- I asked her if they'd accept cash, cuz that sounds like a no brainer (I laughed, she didn't )
- The sales manager comes in, explains that they have an unbelievable 40th Anniversary equity program going right now, and I would be amazed at what they are offering (I'm sure)
- The math
Initial Purchase Price | $75,310 (4250 x 17.72) |
Equity buyback | -$17,900 |
"40th Anniversary incentive" | -$18,869 |
Promo Price | $38,541 |
The sales manager then pulled out the chart of the history of the points purchase price (which I took). He says, "We're letting you go back 14+ years on this pricing chart and still getting a discount off the initial $9.20 price. You're only going to be paying $9.07/point. So, do you want to pay cash or finance?" I looked at my wife, we both had the same thought, so I said it, "we don't want to finance, because we don't want to do this." We were already at the 90-minute mark, so my wife said, "we've gotta get heading back". They finished us up quickly, got the "quality" guy in to offer the Encore and we left. The Encore was 5 days/4 nights on HHI (Barony, SurfWatch or Grande Ocean) 2BR for $1099, with a $400 upcharge for July/August.
While we were waiting for the Encore guy, I did some other calculations. The buyback program and incentive is just smoke and mirrors. That $38,541 just happens to be the exact amount of buying 2175 points at $17.72, which is the additional number of points I would have been adding to my portfolio. They would just swap deeds on the backend.