Increasingly disappointed long term owner

[dan_hoog]

Sorry in advance if this is a little long. I wanted to provide some background for feedback and discussion.

We own 3 deeded weeks (all platinum, 2 Myrtle Beach, 1 Aruba surf) and 4,000 vacation club points.

The weeks have always worked well, mostly, and continue to. We either use or rent those out on redweek with 100% success rate.

I have found since vacation club has grown that our preferred check-in day with the 13-month window seems sold out instantly when inventory opens. I suspect (can't prove) that bulk diversions to points are somehow causing this. I also find unit preferences (high floor, particular buildings, etc) are much harder to get, being told there is some magic rotation and maybe next year. In the first 10-15 years of weeks ownership, I got the desired check-in day almost every year and we were always satisfied with unit location. In the last 5 or so years, the opposite is always, and I mean always, the case. Early on we traded weeks or lock-offs a couple of times. Since then, we rent weeks were are not using through RedWeek. That works well, though Marriott is also trying to make that more difficult it seems.

Vacation club points are the main disappointment. We purchased points about five years ago to incorporate some excluded resale units and thought the flexible schedule options would be nice (short stays, longer stays, etc). We managed a few trips in the first couple of years (HI-Maui twice, Newport Beach once).

In more recent years, I have been unable to find much interesting or appealing, or much of anything. Newport Beach is always available; we enjoyed it, but we are not really interested in regular visits. Maui was very nice, but we are on the East Coast and won't do that often (for that much travel, we prefer Europe or Asia, where we go, but not with MVC much). We've used it for pulse locations (DC) twice (nice place, but not a great points use).

My regular searches basically show no inventory all the time unless I go deep, deep into the off-season. We are pretty flexible, but not interested in the very off-season inventory for the same reason it is available. I've looked at the specialized trips and cruises, etc. All of these seem to inefficiently convert your maintenance payment into surplus/discount inventory markets. Every single cruise I found (about 5 or 6 tested) was much more attractive when searching discount cruise sites directly. I didn't see any lift above maintenance fees (I think all the cruises were available for less than the points pro-rata maintenance fees), let alone a premium for having joined the program.

I wouldn't even consider turning a week into points now (and never did that). I can't see any reasonable added flexibility to our existing ownership. While good weeks clearly have more utility than than their maintenance fees, I don't see this with points, let along any premium for the up-front membership.

Does anything see this improving? Could I be doing something wrong? Do I need a different search/request approach?

I'm trying to understand whether this is a post-COVID inventory problem or vast overselling and oversubscription of the points system.

For decades, I was a strong advocate for Marriott and encouraged a few people I know to buy (resale platinum weeks thankfully). Now, I just tell anyone who will asks to simply rent what you want through a service like Redweek with their verified reserve-through-redweek option. I met a family in Aruba earlier this year that had the impression points were as easy to use as booking a hotel, even with the constraints of a young child. They were contemplating a loan. I was embarrassed to even be at a Marriott property after hearing how they were trying to mislead these people.

This is increasingly annoying and disappointing for me, but not a hardship. We like to travel a lot and are quite flexible, but at least the points are turning into a dead end. We are still generally happy with the weeks, but the points seem like a scam at this point (I think we paid 35K-40K). I don't mean a weak product; I mean a scam in the full sense.

Is there a realistic way to get valuable usage from these points or is there some aspect of usage that I'm missing?

All feedback or follow-up questions welcome

Thanks in advance,
Dan

 

[VacationForever]

I am finding it harder to make reservations using points:
- MVC has tweaked the availability calendar for certain resorts with no rhyme or reason or with any sort of logical reasoning. For instance, I wanted to book 1 week at Desert Springs in January. When it first opened up at 13th month, there was no issue. But if I waited a couple of months out, it would say that it was not available. But if I want to book 9 days, the dates were available. This is beyond the 1 or 2 days block to "avoid" breaking up the week that have been reported on TUG. I tried that with different check-in dates and it's still the same issue. I then booked 9 days, called MVC and asked them to trim it back to 7 days and a supervisor would have to do so. Another variation of the problem is that studios and 2Brs are available for booking but not 1BR. Every villa in Desert Springs is a 2BR L/O and they just do not allow 1BR to be booked. I called and the agent said that they could not do anything about it. I now absolutely hate the MVC points booking system.

- I tried for weeks to book Heritage Club the second when reservation opened up at 13th month and I tried for every week of March check-in and came up empty.

I have 3000 points and will not elect my weeks for Abound points. It is seriously bad. I will keep using Interval International. For anyone who is thinking of buying Abound/Marriott Destination Points, I would say please be prepared to be frustrated and disappointed.

 

[Hindsite]

Weeks: Over time its easy to get discouraged as resort quality slowly slips away in the clamour of least cost at any cost from "owners". You also get used to how things were, which were usually better "back in the day", especially if you bought and stayed at a resort that was still actively selling, sales spent a lot of money schmoozing owners into buying more.

Club points: Well that was always populated with the leftovers of what they couldn't sell for weeks, so is always going to disappoint. You haven't mentioned using the waitlist feature, use that if you haven't already done so, as it works well for us. As you have found, other MVC owners have found that electing for points is not great value and MVC have had very poor uptake of enrollment, so they changes their approach with the Vistana owners and auto-enrolled them, instantly adding 200,000 members to the Abound pool, few or none who owned club points so the scramble for decent inventory escalated. Some good Sheraton and Westin availability is now via Abound, but its early days and not anywhere near what sales spin it as.

If you haven't explored II as a way to broaden use of your ownership consider that, even if its just to use getaways and accom certs. Locking off Aruba and then getting 2 very good exchanges is easily achievable. There are some very decent Hyatts and Four Seasons in the US to explore and there are also a good number of independent elite resorts elsewhere in the world that are worth considering. If you want a truly stunning bargain in Europe, put in a request using the small side of your lock-off or 1000 club points for New Years Eve in Madeira at one of the elite resorts. If you like fireworks, the Portuguese don't disappoint and its a great place to go at that time of year. It comes up every year that I've watched and is one of the very few good value exchanges in II for club points. Your weeks will do considerably better in II than your club points.

Also bear in mind that if you haven't upped your game in the last 10 years, you are falling behind other owners who are learning how to better use their ownership. Its a competitive system, and TUG is one way people educate themselves into how to use their ownership better. It takes time and experimentation to find what works for you and adapt it over time, but its there to be had. Go explore some other brands and when you go back to your familiar places you, and they, may be more refreshed, that's what we did!

 

[DanCali]

I agree with many of the issues raised. I've been mentioning in various threads the problems with inventory, whether it's weeks or points. There is no credible scenario that doesn't involve conspiracy theories where I book 5 Saturday checkins in a row with weeks and on the 6th week I can only get a Friday or Sunday (at 14.5 months out). And of course I always book at 9:00:00am on the day when the first checkin date opens.

Moreover, these issues are, in my view, compounded by the 30% increase in MFs over 2 years. As the OP mentioned, good weeks may still have utility beyond their MFs but that utility is much less now. And if at some point there is even less utility, then expect to sell at near-zero resale value, or have to pay to get rid of your week.

If I was a new buyer today, I would not buy MVC. Perhaps I'd look at it again in 3-5 years if the MF situation stabilized.

 

[dioxide45]

If I was a new buyer today, I would not buy MVC. Perhaps I'd look at it again in 3-5 years if the MF situation stabilized.

I would have to agree. I feel very privileged that Marriott allowed us to enroll our resale weeks (for a fee way back then) in the Destinations Points program. Then also enrolled our Vistana VSN weeks for free. Enrolled weeks are, IMO, a far superior product to trust points and I think enrolled Vistana weeks are even better.

If I were just starting out now, I don't think I would consider Marriott resale weeks. The exchange fees, upgrade fees and II membership fee on top of the maintenance fees are way too much. I think they are still an okay value, but just not what they were. I might still pursue mandatory Vistana resale weeks. Outside of that I would probably look into other systems more such as HGVC or Club Wyndham (which we now own).

 

[WBP]

Sorry in advance if this is a little long. I wanted to provide some background for feedback and discussion.

We own 3 deeded weeks (all platinum, 2 Myrtle Beach, 1 Aruba surf) and 4,000 vacation club points.

The weeks have always worked well, mostly, and continue to. We either use or rent those out on redweek with 100% success rate.

I have found since vacation club has grown that our preferred check-in day with the 13-month window seems sold out instantly when inventory opens. I suspect (can't prove) that bulk diversions to points are somehow causing this. I also find unit preferences (high floor, particular buildings, etc) are much harder to get, being told there is some magic rotation and maybe next year. In the first 10-15 years of weeks ownership, I got the desired check-in day almost every year and we were always satisfied with unit location. In the last 5 or so years, the opposite is always, and I mean always, the case. Early on we traded weeks or lock-offs a couple of times. Since then, we rent weeks were are not using through RedWeek. That works well, though Marriott is also trying to make that more difficult it seems.

Vacation club points are the main disappointment. We purchased points about five years ago to incorporate some excluded resale units and thought the flexible schedule options would be nice (short stays, longer stays, etc). We managed a few trips in the first couple of years (HI-Maui twice, Newport Beach once).

In more recent years, I have been unable to find much interesting or appealing, or much of anything. Newport Beach is always available; we enjoyed it, but we are not really interested in regular visits. Maui was very nice, but we are on the East Coast and won't do that often (for that much travel, we prefer Europe or Asia, where we go, but not with MVC much). We've used it for pulse locations (DC) twice (nice place, but not a great points use).

My regular searches basically show no inventory all the time unless I go deep, deep into the off-season. We are pretty flexible, but not interested in the very off-season inventory for the same reason it is available. I've looked at the specialized trips and cruises, etc. All of these seem to inefficiently convert your maintenance payment into surplus/discount inventory markets. Every single cruise I found (about 5 or 6 tested) was much more attractive when searching discount cruise sites directly. I didn't see any lift above maintenance fees (I think all the cruises were available for less than the points pro-rata maintenance fees), let alone a premium for having joined the program.

I wouldn't even consider turning a week into points now (and never did that). I can't see any reasonable added flexibility to our existing ownership. While good weeks clearly have more utility than than their maintenance fees, I don't see this with points, let along any premium for the up-front membership.

Does anything see this improving? Could I be doing something wrong? Do I need a different search/request approach?

I'm trying to understand whether this is a post-COVID inventory problem or vast overselling and oversubscription of the points system.

For decades, I was a strong advocate for Marriott and encouraged a few people I know to buy (resale platinum weeks thankfully). Now, I just tell anyone who will asks to simply rent what you want through a service like Redweek with their verified reserve-through-redweek option. I met a family in Aruba earlier this year that had the impression points were as easy to use as booking a hotel, even with the constraints of a young child. They were contemplating a loan. I was embarrassed to even be at a Marriott property after hearing how they were trying to mislead these people.

This is increasingly annoying and disappointing for me, but not a hardship. We like to travel a lot and are quite flexible, but at least the points are turning into a dead end. We are still generally happy with the weeks, but the points seem like a scam at this point (I think we paid 35K-40K). I don't mean a weak product; I mean a scam in the full sense.

Is there a realistic way to get valuable usage from these points or is there some aspect of usage that I'm missing?

All feedback or follow-up questions welcome

Thanks in advance,
Dan

I agree entirely with your assessment.

In my opinion, the MVC of today is unrecognizable. I trace this back to the spin-off (of MVC) from Marriott International. I believe the Marriott International “core values” are long gone at MVC. Further, I have no confidence in MVC’s Leadership Team; I believe they are unscrupulous, and do not have MVC Owner’s interests on their radar screen.

Owner Services is a disaster, the MVC website is a disaster, and Marriott’s Product Supply Management/Inventory Management is scandalous. I am unimpressed with MVC’s villa refurbishments.

On the Marriott Lodging side of the Marriott business, I believe that Marriott Bonvoy is amongst the worst brand loyalty programs in the world.

This is not the Marriott that we knew 50 years ago, and not the MVC that we knew 40 years ago. One would have expected these enterprises to get better with time, but, they’ve gotten worse.

We will sell our multiple MVC weeks, sometime soon, when the timing is right, and our patience is exhausted with MVC. Certainly, our confidence in MVC is long gone. We vigorously discourage our friends from considering a MVC purchase.

 

[rickandcindy23]

@dioxide45 So surprised by that post. Marriott-Marriott trades are cheap, and if you don't need a bigger unit, it's not a bad deal.

Deed issues are becoming a problem with my II accounts. I added the kids on some deeds, some do not have any kids (just us), and some even have our son-in-law and daughter-in-law listed.

Vistana and Marriott aren't allowing me to deposit weeks with different names into my II account. I don't know how many accounts I have to have to make II happy. I already added one additional account, and now they are saying I need a 3rd account.

This is why I am giving away a Gold Willow Ridge unit, and I am trying to sell an EOY Sheraton Broadway lockoff. Anything else that has too many names added, I will be dumping those weeks as well. I cannot have this many II accounts.

 

[Dean]

I must say that I have always gotten what I want when I expected to be able to do so. I always get my weeks reservations and when I don't get points reservations, it's not an unexpected event because I know it's a very busy time. But I do feel it's tightened up after Covid. All types of vacations have seen a boom the last couple of years (cruises, etc) but there is evidence that things are easing up. I'm hopeful the same will be in reserving. Members are becoming increasingly educated which makes it more difficult for the rest of those that are educated and proactive. I have trouble recommending any timeshare for many situations because of the lack of ability to have access to all of the system options. This includes DVC, MVC, Wyndham and Bluegreen as the ones I'm very familiar with. That said, I am confident I will continue to be successful even where others are not.

 

[DanCali]

@dioxide45 So surprised by that post. Marriott-Marriott trades are cheap, and if you don't need a bigger unit, it's not a bad deal.

Deed issues are becoming a problem with my II accounts. I added the kids on some deeds, some do not have any kids (just us), and some even have our son-in-law and daughter-in-law listed.

Vistana and Marriott aren't allowing me to deposit weeks with different names into my II account. I don't know how many accounts I have to have to make II happy. I already added one additional account, and now they are saying I need a 3rd account.

This is why I am giving away a Gold Willow Ridge unit, and I am trying to sell an EOY Sheraton Broadway lockoff. Anything else that has too many names added, I will be dumping those weeks as well. I cannot have this many II accounts.

I suspect the fraction of MVC owners who trade via II is 1% or less (maybe more use it for getaways). I'm relatively knowledgeable and haven't used II for about 10 years - it worked for me then, but I didn't like the way it works. And MVC hasn't been pushing it since they launched the DC system in 2010.

There are still some "good deals" in MVC whether via II, weeks or points. That's not the issue. The issue is that those deals as just not as good as they were 15, 10 or 5 years ago when you factor in the MFs. As an example - NCV MFs around 2010 were around $850 and the Redweek rental cost was about $2500 (about 200% more). MFs today are $1900+ and the rental cost is about $3500 (only 85% more). So while MFs have increased by 125%, rental costs have only gone up by 40% over that same period, in part because so many owners are all trying to rent out their weeks to offset the MFs. How long until the MFs are as high as the rental cost?

And do people want to hang on to their ownership until those "good deals" are truly exhausted, the ownership is truly worthless, and they need one of those exit companies that advertise on SiriusXM all day to get rid of what they own?

 

[Red elephant]

I would have to agree. I feel very privileged that Marriott allowed us to enroll our resale weeks (for a fee way back then) in the Destinations Points program. Then also enrolled our Vistana VSN weeks for free. Enrolled weeks are, IMO, a far superior product to trust points and I think enrolled Vistana weeks are even better.

If I were just starting out now, I don't think I would consider Marriott resale. The exchange fees, upgrade fees and II membership fee on top of the maintenance fees are way too much. I think they are still an okay value, but just not what they were. I might still pursue mandatory Vistana resale weeks. Outside of that I would probably look into other systems more such as HGVC or Club Wyndham (which we now own).

I have to agree that enrolled Vistana weeks have been great. I have converted my SVR to convert to Abound points and using it to go to Spain, Newport. I did just buy a Spain week which was locked off and gave me 2 weeks in Spain for May 2025 for the MF of $1600 which I think is reasonable. So if you don’t have to pay all the other fees then Marriott is fine but if you are paying 20-30% increase MF plus all the other fees then I think MVC has gone overboard.

 

[bazzap]

We only own weeks (developer purchased initially, then all resale), although most are enrolled in Abound.
For many years, we used Interval to exchange into other MVC resorts and never elected for points.
In recent years, we have switched our approach and very rarely use Interval and now have good success electing and booking with points.
Perhaps it helps that we tend to favour off peak seasons and MVC resorts in Asia and Europe, but this works well for us.

 

[jp10558]

I would have to agree. I feel very privileged that Marriott allowed us to enroll our resale weeks (for a fee way back then) in the Destinations Points program. Then also enrolled our Vistana VSN weeks for free. Enrolled weeks are, IMO, a far superior product to trust points and I think enrolled Vistana weeks are even better.

If I were just starting out now, I don't think I would consider Marriott resale weeks. The exchange fees, upgrade fees and II membership fee on top of the maintenance fees are way too much. I think they are still an okay value, but just not what they were. I might still pursue mandatory Vistana resale weeks. Outside of that I would probably look into other systems more such as HGVC or Club Wyndham (which we now own).

Starting like I did in 2022, I think I came to the same conclusion - hence my ownership of HGVC and Club Wyndham. I haven't stayed at the Marriotts, but I have a hard time thinking they'd possibly be enough better locations (I don't care about the "stars", happy with 3ish) to be worth the MF premium and high resale costs in comparison. It sounds like some limited locations doing a 2BR LO and 2 II trades with paying the one or two size upgrade fees might still be a good deal, but I just don't trust the MFs won't continue to rise way faster than the competitors, so I'd want to see that stabilize out a lot. Plus, for a lot of people needing to understand locking off, multiple II trades etc just to make the MFs worth it is a high bar for non experienced timeshare people not on TUG etc...

 

[jp10558]

On the Marriott Lodging side of the Marriott business, I believe that Marriott Bonvoy is amongst the worst brand loyalty programs in the world.

I don't know about "all brand loyalty programs in the world" but I'm continually amazed at how bad it seems on the outside compared to Hilton's program. Every time I look at it, I just end up noping right out because it's so ... well hard to get value out of IMO.

 

[jp10558]

We only own weeks (developer purchased initially, then all resale), although most are enrolled in Abound.
For many years, we used Interval to exchange into other MVC resorts and never elected for points.
In recent years, we have switched our approach and very rarely use Interval and now have good success electing and booking with points.
Perhaps it helps that we tend to favour off peak seasons and MVC resorts in Asia and Europe, but this works well for us.

I think points, well all TS, work better off season. IDK about MVC, but in HGVC and Wyndham, the points costs off season tend to be noticeably less, so you can get more stays for the same MFs. And I can't say enough good things about the RCI Extra Vacations and Last Call deals for off season stuff. II Getaways are less great and there's less availability, but there is some.

 

[dioxide45]

I suspect the fraction of MVC owners who trade via II is 1% or less (maybe more use it for getaways). I'm relatively knowledgeable and haven't used II for about 10 years - it worked for me then, but I didn't like the way it works. And MVC hasn't been pushing it since they launched the DC system in 2010.

I'm doubtful that your made up 1% is really anything close to the real number. Perhaps from a trust point owner perspective it could be right, but certainly not from an enrolled week or and even an unenrolled week perspective. Only about 60% of weeks are actually enrolled. What percentage of unrolled owners are using their home resort every year? How many owner weeks are in the system? A million? That means less than 10,000 weeks make it to II? The number of owner rentals is probably far fewer than what II gets.

 

[ljmiii]

I'm doubtful that your made up 1% is really anything close to the real number…

I know from my own experience that you are right. I’ve never considered buying a MVC week to be a ‘trader’ and kind of regard II as what happens when the plan fails, but I’ve used II a few times because life happens and I found myself with weeks reservations or Abound Points that I couldn’t use as anticipated.

That said, I’ve been reasonably pleased with the trades I’ve gotten…but our lives are not yet so flexible that I can consider II as Plan A.

 

[Red elephant]

Once you learn where/when/how to use points then it will work for you especially if it’s just 2 people needing 1 bedroom.
Reading Tug experts has helped me navigate some of these systems. Which resorts have a lot of points in the trust and which don’t. So booking KoOlina on points was not difficult whereas Hilton Head is a bit of a challenge but doable and frankly owning there during platinum season if you want to go there every year is likely better. I like HHI but not willing to spend the $$ involved to own it so I trade into it but not the platinum season. I like Lakeshore reserve so trading into it is not difficult. Even using points it’s not too bad got December for 1250 points.

 

[Dean]

I suspect the fraction of MVC owners who trade via II is 1% or less (maybe more use it for getaways).

I dought this is very accurate but it does depend on how you defines usage. If it's the % of members who have used II ever, I think that would be very high. If it's the % that use II in a year, then that would be less but still significant. If one looks at the % of usage that involves II vs non II usage (points/weeks combined) then that would be much lower. I'm sure MVC has that data and one could get the yearly audit which should give some insight unless MVC uses II's audit which would be worthless in this situation. Even for DVC it's higher than 1%, more in the 2-3% range (last I looked) as measured by usage in a given year which is the way the required audit looks at it.

 

[wuv pooh]

I hear your issue, but don't experience it.

Weeks - Now that they sell views there are obviously less nice rooms available for week owners. Unless you have Bonvoy and MVC status you are going to do worse than you used to. I am Titanium and Executive and always get a nice room, but not the best room unless I pay for it with points.

Points - If you can't get good points reservations then you are doing something wrong. They are plentiful and with 13 month advantage you should be able to request anything you want and get it. If you are not planning that far out then it is hit or miss. If you are just searching yourself then it is more hit or miss. Some resorts are better than others depending on where they were in the sales process when the conversion occurred. I like Marco Island and have gone 8 times May - September with no issue. Just got back from a 3bd stay with the whole family. They only had ~ 20% of the resort in weeks, so there is always points inventory. Peak time is January - March, but I would never pay for that, I go to Hilton Head then for 90 points a night.

II still seems to be a good value. I had not used it in 10+ years, but traded into DVC last year so used the system to trade a 1BR into a 2BR DVC. This year my FL week MF/Point is higher than the trust, so I locked off and deposited for 2 weeks which is a good value and I see a lot of inventory available where I like to go.

It is not an overselling, since that is illegal, but the points system is definitely less lucrative for me than the old weeks + II system. Points value are more directly tied to actual demand so HI owners can get points and trade to Orlando and have points left over vs. the huge loss they used to have. There is no free lunch, someone wins and someone loses and it is a competitive system as someone previously said. You adapt and find what works or you move on. The investment is too large to be dissatisfied. This year I will do 28 2BD nights for $5,600 and next year will do 33 2BD nights for probably $6,000. I consider $200 tax included/night to be a very good rate vs hotels or VRBO for what the resorts offer and continue to enjoy my membership.

 

[dioxide45]

Weeks - Now that they sell views there are obviously less nice rooms available for week owners. Unless you have Bonvoy and MVC status you are going to do worse than you used to. I am Titanium and Executive and always get a nice room, but not the best room unless I pay for it with points.

I am not really sure what you are saying here? Weeks owners are pulling from different inventory than points owners are. The rooms are all the same and a weeks owner is always going to get the view that they bought and own. I am also not aware of any resorts that specifically mention Bonvoy or MVC ownership status in their villa assignment pecking order. It also seems that point based reservations come behind weeks owners in that same pecking order.

 

[DanCali]

I'm doubtful that your made up 1% is really anything close to the real number. Perhaps from a trust point owner perspective it could be right, but certainly not from an enrolled week or and even an unenrolled week perspective. Only about 60% of weeks are actually enrolled. What percentage of unrolled owners are using their home resort every year? How many owner weeks are in the system? A million? That means less than 10,000 weeks make it to II? The number of owner rentals is probably far fewer than what II gets.

Perhaps you're right (and yes, 1% was made up). It's still probably a very small fraction and getting smaller by the year. MVC encourages owners to use their points in multiple different ways (cruises, destination escapes, tours) before they even bring II up. In all the pool conversations I have or happen to overhear, I rarely hear an owner talk about his/her II usage, but I hear plenty of them happy with the $15+/point purchase from earlier that week - I just don't think those particular owners will be using II much.

And, not being that familiar with II, is there any idea how much of the inventory comes from actual owner deposits vs MVC bulk-depositing units obtained in different ways?

 

[jp10558]

Perhaps you're right (and yes, 1% was made up). It's still probably a very small fraction and getting smaller by the year. MVC encourages owners to use their points in multiple different ways (cruises, destination escapes, tours) before they even bring II up. In all the pool conversations I have or happen to overhear, I rarely hear an owner talk about his/her II usage, but I hear plenty of them happy with the $15+/point purchase from earlier that week - I just don't think those particular owners will be using II much.

And, not being that familiar with II, is there any idea how much of the inventory comes from actual owner deposits vs MVC bulk-depositing units obtained in different ways?

Can anyone explain why MVC would buy II and then not really encourage anyone to use it? I guess to get people exchanging *it* to MVC? Though that would happen with *any* exchange company I would think.

 

[DanCali]

Can anyone explain why MVC would buy II and then not really encourage anyone to use it? I guess to get people exchanging *it* to MVC? Though that would happen with *any* exchange company I would think.

Maybe also because they might make a lot more money if you use your trust/elected points for things like Collette tours, cruise lines, airline miles, travel insurance, resort credit, etc?

How many phone calls with customer service have you had where they asked you if you want to make an II deposit? And how many calls have you had where they asked about travel insurance?

 

[Dean]

Can anyone explain why MVC would buy II and then not really encourage anyone to use it? I guess to get people exchanging *it* to MVC? Though that would happen with *any* exchange company I would think.

Money making, access to data about other companies and vertical integration all come to mind. I wouldn't be surprised to see MVC sell II at some point in the next 3-5 years.

 

[ljmiii]

Can anyone explain why MVC would buy II and then not really encourage anyone to use it?...

That one is easy to answer. First, MVW bought ILG to get access to a bunch of timeshare companies and their users/owners - a great customer base to sell product to. II just kind of came along for the ride.

Second, the business world has many, many examples of companies purchased and later killed in order to increase the revenue and profits of the parent.