FREE USAGE of Marriott Timeshares From Owners

[SueDonJ]

As the expiration date of special COVID-affected Holding Account Abound Points was nearing, @TUGBrian allowed a thread in this forum where owners could voluntarily offer their expiring points for free to TUGgers. At that time we talked about the possibility of a permanent thread in the forum. With the success of that thread and Brian's okay, this thread is intended to be permanent and apply to all types of Marriott ownership, as long as the below rules are followed and nothing transpires that effectively violates TUG Rules pertaining to ads.

*********** THREAD RULES ***********

- OWNERS/MEMBERS may list here any Marriott timeshare usage that they have directly reserved through their vacationclub.com accounts using either Weeks or Abound Club Points. This free usage is for responders' PERSONAL USE only.

- Abound Members may list here any amount of Club Points, whether as transferrable to other Abound Members or to be used by the Owner to book specific intervals as requested by responders.

- Absolutely NO reservations booked using cash or booked through BONVOY, Interval International, private rental or other third-party entities are allowed.

- NO COMPENSATION of any kind can be requested, nor should it be offered.

- ALL discussion about offers posted here should take place in private messages.

- NO Wanted Ads allowed.

- Any posts that violate this thread's rules or the TUG Rules will be immediately deleted with no notice.

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

A few notes:

- Marriott expressly allows direct transfers of Abound Points among Abound Members at no cost. If you're responding to any offers listed here for Abounds Points transfers, you will need to provide contact info including your Member Number so the transfer can be processed.

- Marriott expressly allows Owners/Members to gift usage of Weeks and Points reservations to others at no cost but the form copied below is required. If you're responding to any offers posted here for gift usage you should be prepared to release all of the requested info to the Owner/Member. After the Guest's info is submitted, Owner Services will issue an email confirmation that includes the guest's name. (Although the form states that the info must be submitted 30 days in advance, in practice these changes are usually processed within a few days of submission.)

>>Change Arriving Guest Information

Family members or guests of Owner/Member may not be permitted to check-in if the required information below is not received 30 days in advance of arrival date. If the Owner/Member's Guest is not arriving at the same time as the Owner/Member, the form below is required.

Please choose one of the following:
___ I, the Owner/Member, intend to stay at the property for the full duration of the confirmed reservation.
___ I, the Owner/Member, DO NOT intend to stay at the property for the full duration of the confirmed reservation.

Change Arriving Guest Information

---

Guest First Name

Guest Last Name

Address

Country

State

Zip Code

Email address

Phone contact number

Marriott Bonvoy #<<

- @StevenTing hosts the Abound Points Charts on his website. Link here to figure out what you can get with a certain number of Points. If you're an Abound Member and have points to play with you can save time/aggravation by searching availability in your own account before responding to posts here. If you're a Member but don't have points, or you're not a Member, the TUGger making the offer can search availability for you.

- This thread will be shut down as a failed experiment if either the thread rules above or TUG Rules are violated and/or if it causes undue headaches and excessive monitoring by TUG Admin/Moderators. This is a thread that can only exist using the honor system. As much as it may hurt the collective, TUG Admin/Mods would appreciate being notified if known instances of rules violations are taking place behind the scenes.

Good luck, everyone!

[Post edited for clean-up 10/30/25]

 

[jmhpsu93]

Why the restriction on Interval exchanges / getaways? I've had a couple of these I had to eat as our travel plans changed and would have loved to give the usage away.

Thanks for putting together the thread and explanation.

@m61376 : Actually, that makes sense. since II allows you to book for yourself or others, as long as you are not charging but gifting them. While posting them in the last minute/distressed forum is questionable, posting them here should be reconsidered because it's actually within II's policies.
Such a great idea, btw. Several years ago a very generous Tugger couldn't use a II exchange to Aruba and he asked me if I wanted it (and the only money that exchanged hands was for the II guest certificate fee). It coincided with my week, and I had already invited a close friend who always wanted to go to Aruba who, at the time, was battling cancer. Anyway, his generosity enabled me to invite other mutual friends and it was truly a memorable trip, and a time we will always treasure as our friend lost her battle the following year. Just had to share when I saw this thread and post. Sometimes a simple act of kindness really impacts others.

@jwalk03 : You can post exchanges as distressed in the Sightings Forum (which is restricted to TUG members only) which I believe helps limit the exposure of "advertising" an excahnge week.

@SueDonJ : It's simple, really. This thread exists in this forum because of @TUGBrian's concern that it will be only for reservations issued from Owner Services for Marriott timeshares, that no fees are involved, and that what's being done here doesn't violate any TUG or Marriott rules. They're what I know and what I think I can knowledgeably recognize, which should result in very little moderation being necessary to keep this thread up and running. What I'm expecting is that the majority of offers will consist of small amounts of Abound Points nearing their expiration dates, but we'll see how it progresses.

As for II exchanges and Getaways, renting those is a discussion that takes place on TUG every so often without consensus. My reading of the II Buyers' Guide (#s 16 and 17 on Page 8) is that gifting is expressly allowed but there is a Guest Cert fee involved, and there's a strict rule that the GC can't be sold or bartered. We all know that in practice II isn't known for widespread policing of their own rules, but I have no interest in moderating gifting activity by others that I wouldn't be doing myself.

@jmhpsu93 : Fair enough.

[Moderator Note: posts merged.] <-- SueDonJ

 

[SueDonJ]

And now on to the business of this thread!

I have 188 Points which will expire 12/31/25, and I'm happy to offer them to any TUGgers who will be using them for their own personal use. These are severely restricted Elected/Banked Points that can't be transferred but can be used by me to make reservations and gift them to others. The Points Charts hosted by @StevenTing that tell you how many Points are necessary for certain reservations are linked in Post #1 above; keep in mind that as Chairman's Club status I'm eligible for the 30% discount within 60 days of check-in. If you are an Abound Member you can save a lot of time and aggravation by doing a search in your own account to check availability.

All of the rules in Post #1 apply here and I will be using one of the Change Guest Name forms shown in Post #1, so I will insist that you give me the info that Marriott asks for. And I checked already to learn that the heavily-discounted "Escapes" can't be gifted.

Please use private TUG messages (the envelope icon to the right of your User Name at the top of the page) to make requests. I'm a little busy offline so may not get to any requests immediately but I will search availability and book reservations on a first-come-first-serve basis.

[ETA] FYI, I'm down to 31 expiring Club Points for this year, and very happy to not see more than that go unused.