"Flattish" Maintenance Fees in 2026

[dioxide45]

So, apparently, sometime during the Q2 earnings call today it was mentioned in the prepared remarks that maintenance fees should be "flattish" in 2026. I can't actually find those remarks by one of the MVW execs and only heard it referenced during the Q&A. Anyway, that might be some good news. Whatever "flattish" means by MVCs definition.

 

[iftravel]

So, apparently, sometime during the Q2 earnings call today it was mentioned in the prepared remarks that maintenance fees should be "flatish" in 2026. I can't actually find those remarks by one of the MVW execs and only heard it referenced during the Q&A. Anyway, that might be some good news. Whatever "flatish" means by MVCs definition.

5% is the new flat.

 

[billymach4]

So, apparently, sometime during the Q2 earnings call today it was mentioned in the prepared remarks that maintenance fees should be "flatish" in 2026. I can't actually find those remarks by one of the MVW execs and only heard it referenced during the Q&A. Anyway, that might be some good news. Whatever "flatish" means by MVCs definition.

Well I asked the Google and it's actually in the dictionary.

 

[vol_90]

So, apparently, sometime during the Q2 earnings call today it was mentioned in the prepared remarks that maintenance fees should be "flatish" in 2026. I can't actually find those remarks by one of the MVW execs and only heard it referenced during the Q&A. Anyway, that might be some good news. Whatever "flatish" means by MVCs definition.

From earnings call transcript:
Benjamin Nicolas Chaiken

Got it. Understood. And then I believe in the prepared remarks, you mentioned a 12.5% loan loss provision is the expectation for the year. Can you just remind us, how does that compare to your previous expectation? And then maybe parallel to that, I believe you mentioned that the maintenance fees should be flattish in '26 in part because of some of the modernization initiatives. Do you think that will show up in -- I guess, like theoretically, should that show up in an improvement in loan loss provision?

Jason P. Marino

Yes, Ben. So the 12.5% is about 0.5 point higher than our previous guidance, which was about 12% for the full year. The modernization and the lower maintenance fees, we certainly, if you go back a couple of years, I think some of the delinquencies that we had were attributable to the higher-than-normal inflationary increases or the higher inflation. So we do think that will help going forward. But the loan book is in good shape, as we talked about, with delinquencies down to really the lowest levels in 2 years, both on a sequential and a year-over-year basis being down pretty materially 110 basis points year-over-year on the delinquencies. So we feel good about where the loan book is.

John E. Geller

Yes. Keeping the maintenance fees not -- flattish, just big picture, that obviously helps with the value proposition, right? Maintenance fee is a component of the long-term cost of prepaying or buying timeshare. So everything we can do to continue to enhance the value proposition, we think it helps from a sales perspective, hopes from an owner satisfaction perspective, should have some impact, hopefully positive on our loan loss. So it is and will continue to be a focus.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I guess the coin has finally clicked in that MFs affect value and delinquency. However I will believe "Flatish" when I see it.

IMO "Freeish" would be better.

 

[JIMinNC]

IMO "Freeish" would be better.

“Freeish” reminds me of two very wise statements:

“There is no such thing as a free lunch”

and

“Anything one person gets for free has to be paid for by somebody else.”

 

[VacationForever]

Maybe flatish means it is not 10%.

 

[cubigbird]

I would guess that maintenance fees (and developer sales pricing) are already at the top of market tolerance. They have to be careful, they can always ask for huge fee increases but if they do increase it by double digit %, they’ll see delinquency soar even higher. The higher the fees become, the harder it will be for sales, and it’s already an expensive product. They’re going to have to flatten out fees for a bit and offer reprieve or the whole system will start collapsing.

 

[pedro47]

Nothing is free. Someone must pay and someone will pay at the end.

 

[sponger76]

IMO "Freeish" would be better.

Free-ish would mean that the resorts would completely van-ish as timeshare locations. Would that really be better? Maybe for some that want out of their timeshares, but for those of us that want to keep using our ownership, not so much.

 

[gravityrules]

Loan loss provision - 12.5%

Would the delinquency rate be higher or lower than the loan loss provision rate?

Delinquency rate is said to be 1.1% lower than a year ago.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Free-ish would mean that the resorts would completely van-ish as timeshare locations. Would that really be better? Maybe for some that want out of their timeshares, but for those of us that want to keep using our ownership, not so much.

FWIW...I was referring to 0% increase from current maintenance fees

I hope you realize my statement was in jest because there isn't a MF increase that MVC/Vistana does not like.

 

[sponger76]

FWIW...I was referring to 0% increase from current maintenance fees

I hope you realize my statement was in jest because there isn't a MF increase that MVC/Vistana does not like.

Free and no increase are two completely different things in the English language. With that being said, I do realize it was at least somewhat in jest, which is why I replied with my own joke transfering the "ish" from the end of your "freeish" to the end of vanish afterwards.

 

[jmhpsu93]

I'm reading those statements as that they have a ton of control over maintenance fee increases, that it's not necessarily solely due to local cost increases, and it's discretionary by the developer. Maybe more so that even TUG'ers have noted.

 

[dioxide45]

I'm reading those statements as that they have a ton of control over maintenance fee increases, that it's not necessarily solely due to local cost increases, and it's discretionary by the developer. Maybe more so that even TUG'ers have noted.

They do. The budget is put together by Marriott Vacations. Each resort has a financial person. That person may manage a few resorts, but there is a dedicated employee working on financials for each resort. If Marriott decides they want to spend a bunch of money on something, they just put it in the budget. If they want to cut back on some things, they can do that too.