Legacy Resale Weeks vs. Destination Points -- My Cost Comparison

[Wahoo]

I first purchased into MVC in the summer of 2017, and between 2017 and 2019 purchased a total of 10 resale weeks. I first learned about the system at a sales presentation at Ocean Pointe in 2017, and while the flexibility of the points system was appealing I decided I could do much better by purchasing resale legacy weeks. This forum was especially helpful as I navigated my way into the system. My weeks are all platinum; about half are Utah ski weeks, the other half are beach weeks at Ocean Pointe, Grande Ocean, and OceanWatch.

Out of curiosity, this year I decided to tally up what my 2020 weeks would have cost me had I gone for DP points rather than the legacy week route. I recognize this is not really an apples-to-apples comparison, as my legacy weeks can not match the flexibility of the points system. That said, the contrast in price is quite striking as I'll summarize below:

I have 3 young children and am married to a school teacher, so our vacations tend to be during high-demand weeks. For 2020 my reservations were mostly over President's Day, Spring Break, and prime summer/4th of July.

To book the exact 10 weeks I reserved via my legacy weeks would have required 59,775 destination points. To purchase that many points at the rack rate of $14.54/point would have cost me a whopping $869,129! The annual maintenance fees for that number of points would be $36,104. In contrast, my actual total cost to acquire my 10 weeks was $108,526. My annual MF amounted to $16,560 last year. I feel that I got good deals on my purchased weeks, but was able to pass ROFR at those levels.

Obviously there are less expensive ways to purchase DC points (hybrid packages, resale), but even with those methods it is nearly impossible to buy in to the points system at less than $6 a point (~$360,000 to acquire 59,775 points).

As an aside, it is also interesting to note that if my 10 weeks were enrolled (they are not eligible for enrollment, but just hypothetically), they would only convert to 45,925 points. Based upon the 2020 DC Points chart, my reserved weeks would actually cost 59,775 points to book. It appears the "skim" is especially pronounced if one reserves peak-travel weeks as I tend to do.

Legacy weeks won't work for everyone, and I am jealous of the flexibility those of you in the DC enjoy. That said, I thought I would post this example in case anyone else is thinking of buying into the system (as I was 3 years ago) and is deliberating whether to buy DC points or go with legacy weeks like I ultimately chose. I hope my post is helpful, and I look forward to any questions or contrasting opinions.

 

[GrayFal]

You certainly have gotten a great bang for your buck.
I agree with your math. I agree with your method.
Thanks for posting it in Black & White for others to see.

 

[GregT]

Wahoo,

I agree with your numbers and like the way you are thinking about this. I am particularly happy for you because you have so many years of enjoyment ahead of you, and your family will have priceless memories from those trips.

I bought my first timeshare 15 years ago, and it has truly changed my life. The memories are amazing, and God willing, there are many more to come. Enjoy your weeks!

Best,

Greg

 

[Fasttr]

The only way Trust points value can even try to compete with your legacy approach for prime weeks is the age old buy a 1500 Trust point package resale at an all in cost of say $6 a point including the junk fees and rent the rest of your needed points That would put upfront costs at $9,000 (far below your $108K). The annual MFs and point rental costs would still be in line with your $36K calculated above assuming the same total points need, which still exceeds your $16K by $20K annually. So in 5 years, the upfront savings are eaten up by higher MFs and point rental costs, so in the end, you win.

Enjoy what you have for many years to come!!!

 

[rthib]

Using points for a week is almost always a looser. Especially when comparing to the highest demand time.
But as you noted the flexibility is where things start to change.
We mostly do 9 or 10 day trips. With weeks that requires two weeks. Or when we did a Sun-Th stay in San Fran for a convention where the point cost was much lower.
Once you leave the world of having to book the same time everyone else is during spring break and summer, the flexibility starts to be really kick in.

Between Getaways on II side and Destination escapes on points the math gets harder.
For instance we did an escape for a 3 bedroom at Kauai for less than 1000 points. I just booked some friend into a two bedroom for 700 points. The other advantage is I am booking a trip to Hawaii. 4 days on one island, 5 days on another. I can book now, know exact dates and lock in airfare when it is cheap.

I have the flexibility with enrolled weeks (both lock offs too) that I can do either. Looked back at last three years and unless I am staying at my home resort, I used points and got more stays.
Had an AP for Disney. Was able to do cheap II getaway and then tack on some points to extend. No wasted week deposit, no lost days from week.
The strangest one is where I had some banked points and realized there was an escape back to my home resort. So I was able to use some leftover points and get a week in my home resort for almost 1/4 of the point value they gave me for that week.

 

[pipet]

Those numbers definitely tell the story.

The DC made many folks happy because they were trading high value for low value weeks in II, but I have a high value week and was still unhappy because I mainly wanted other high value weeks myself. For those tied to a school schedule, there is a real points penalty.

I think the DC might be more useful for you once the kids get older. Then you can take advantage of Sun-Thurs or shoulder season pricing. By then, who knows, they might have a DC buy in opportunity again, but in the meantime you can get all those peak weeks for a fraction of the maintenance fees/buy-in, and even if there isn’t a buy in, having peak weeks is still pretty awesome.

I mainly use the DC to rent points vs my week when I’m heading to non-Marriott territory, which arguably is convenient but I could do the same with my week. I don’t even use it for down-trades because I generally can still do better with a trader week in II.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

An excellent cost comparison. There is still something to be said about how the value of weeks are the best way to go as long as you don't mind your vacations in seven day increments.

Thank you for sharing!




.

 

[Steve Fatula]

Your comparison is somewhat good, but, you have picked the absolute ideal comparison case, retail points at current market, resale weeks and old prices, and, worst possible use of points. Yes, now, resale points cost a little more, but you are also comparing current resale points cost and junk fees vs what they were at the time you purchased your weeks. Not exactly a fair comparison. I have points at $4/point all in just several years ago, may have been less before, don't know. It would be interesting to get like historical comparison.

An interesting further comparison is to use retail points cost vs retail weeks costs at the time. Some of those weeks were a fortune.

 

[MOXJO7282]

Using points for a week is almost always a looser. Especially when comparing to the highest demand time.
But as you noted the flexibility is where things start to change.
We mostly do 9 or 10 day trips. With weeks that requires two weeks. Or when we did a Sun-Th stay in San Fran for a convention where the point cost was much lower.
Once you leave the world of having to book the same time everyone else is during spring break and summer, the flexibility starts to be really kick in.

This really does sum it up from what I can see. If you have flexibility and enjoy shoulder or off-season that is where I see DC can meet or exceed the value.

 

[MOXJO7282]

I first purchased into MVC in the summer of 2017, and between 2017 and 2019 purchased a total of 10 resale weeks. I first learned about the system at a sales presentation at Ocean Pointe in 2017, and while the flexibility of the points system was appealing I decided I could do much better by purchasing resale legacy weeks. This forum was especially helpful as I navigated my way into the system. My weeks are all platinum; about half are Utah ski weeks, the other half are beach weeks at Ocean Pointe, Grande Ocean, and OceanWatch.

Out of curiosity, this year I decided to tally up what my 2020 weeks would have cost me had I gone for DP points rather than the legacy week route. I recognize this is not really an apples-to-apples comparison, as my legacy weeks can not match the flexibility of the points system. That said, the contrast in price is quite striking as I'll summarize below:

I have 3 young children and am married to a school teacher, so our vacations tend to be during high-demand weeks. For 2020 my reservations were mostly over President's Day, Spring Break, and prime summer/4th of July.

To book the exact 10 weeks I reserved via my legacy weeks would have required 59,775 destination points. To purchase that many points at the rack rate of $14.54/point would have cost me a whopping $869,129! The annual maintenance fees for that number of points would be $36,104. In contrast, my actual total cost to acquire my 10 weeks was $108,526. My annual MF amounted to $16,560 last year. I feel that I got good deals on my purchased weeks, but was able to pass ROFR at those levels.

Obviously there are less expensive ways to purchase DC points (hybrid packages, resale), but even with those methods it is nearly impossible to buy in to the points system at less than $6 a point (~$360,000 to acquire 59,775 points).

As an aside, it is also interesting to note that if my 10 weeks were enrolled (they are not eligible for enrollment, but just hypothetically), they would only convert to 45,925 points. Based upon the 2020 DC Points chart, my reserved weeks would actually cost 59,775 points to book. It appears the "skim" is especially pronounced if one reserves peak-travel weeks as I tend to do.

Legacy weeks won't work for everyone, and I am jealous of the flexibility those of you in the DC enjoy. That said, I thought I would post this example in case anyone else is thinking of buying into the system (as I was 3 years ago) and is deliberating whether to buy DC points or go with legacy weeks like I ultimately chose. I hope my post is helpful, and I look forward to any questions or contrasting opinions.

This is really one of the few reasons anyone should buy a timeshare, when your situation requires you travel during peak season and they need 2BDRM units at least at some point as families grow. Otherwise renting a unit from Redweek at or beyond MFs are out there for much everything BUT the prime weeks that almost always have a big premium to rent. It's exactly why I bought our first Maui way back in 2001 because I was obsessed with taking my family to Maui during Pres week. I assume the OP is renting his excess units to cover some costs as he owns weeks that would be ideal for that. Renting excess units is a great way to bring overall costs down even more. That is another advantage of owning weeks, renting them are more profitable than renting points or renting a unit reserved with points because relative MF costs are cheaper for legacy weeks.

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

I first purchased into MVC in the summer of 2017, and between 2017 and 2019 purchased a total of 10 resale weeks. I first learned about the system at a sales presentation at Ocean Pointe in 2017, and while the flexibility of the points system was appealing I decided I could do much better by purchasing resale legacy weeks. This forum was especially helpful as I navigated my way into the system. My weeks are all platinum; about half are Utah ski weeks, the other half are beach weeks at Ocean Pointe, Grande Ocean, and OceanWatch.

Out of curiosity, this year I decided to tally up what my 2020 weeks would have cost me had I gone for DP points rather than the legacy week route. I recognize this is not really an apples-to-apples comparison, as my legacy weeks can not match the flexibility of the points system. That said, the contrast in price is quite striking as I'll summarize below:

I have 3 young children and am married to a school teacher, so our vacations tend to be during high-demand weeks. For 2020 my reservations were mostly over President's Day, Spring Break, and prime summer/4th of July.

To book the exact 10 weeks I reserved via my legacy weeks would have required 59,775 destination points. To purchase that many points at the rack rate of $14.54/point would have cost me a whopping $869,129! The annual maintenance fees for that number of points would be $36,104. In contrast, my actual total cost to acquire my 10 weeks was $108,526. My annual MF amounted to $16,560 last year. I feel that I got good deals on my purchased weeks, but was able to pass ROFR at those levels.

Obviously there are less expensive ways to purchase DC points (hybrid packages, resale), but even with those methods it is nearly impossible to buy in to the points system at less than $6 a point (~$360,000 to acquire 59,775 points).

As an aside, it is also interesting to note that if my 10 weeks were enrolled (they are not eligible for enrollment, but just hypothetically), they would only convert to 45,925 points. Based upon the 2020 DC Points chart, my reserved weeks would actually cost 59,775 points to book. It appears the "skim" is especially pronounced if one reserves peak-travel weeks as I tend to do.

Legacy weeks won't work for everyone, and I am jealous of the flexibility those of you in the DC enjoy. That said, I thought I would post this example in case anyone else is thinking of buying into the system (as I was 3 years ago) and is deliberating whether to buy DC points or go with legacy weeks like I ultimately chose. I hope my post is helpful, and I look forward to any questions or contrasting opinions.

I give a "green eyeshades" thumbs up!

 

[Dean]

While there is a significant overlap in the ultimate usage options, weeks and points are different animals. Points does give you a lot of flexibility and using weeks, points, exchanges, etc together even more so. I'm writing this from a 2 BR in LV where we got an exchange then added 2 days at the beginning and 1 day at the end all combined into a single stay so no room change. And the room was ready when we got here at 10:30 AM.

Probably the cheapest way to get to that many points would be through quarter shares then enrolling, esp if you could buy 2 quarter shares and enroll them as a single unit like Frank was able to do I believe. You may want to consider enrolling though, particularly if you can get them to do all 10 weeks with one purchase instead of 2. I enrolled 7.5 weeks and I've heard of a couple people that enrolled 8 weeks but I haven't personally heard of them enrolling more at one time but I could see them doing so.

 

[Steve Fatula]

This is really one of the few reasons anyone should buy a timeshare, when your situation requires you travel during peak season and they need 2BDRM units at least at some point as families grow. Otherwise renting a unit from Redweek at or beyond MFs are out there for much everything BUT the prime weeks that almost always have a big premium to rent. It's exactly why I bought our first Maui way back in 2001 because I was obsessed with taking my family to Maui during Pres week. I assume the OP is renting his excess units to cover some costs as he owns weeks that would be ideal for that. Renting excess units is a great way to bring overall costs down even more. That is another advantage of owning weeks, renting them are more profitable than renting points or renting a unit reserved with points because relative MF costs are cheaper for legacy weeks.

i've never bought into the renting argument. 92 nighs last year, just under $89/night. I do check rental rates here and there, and they are almost always higher than whar I am paying via mf. I don't recall a single instance of them being lower. On one 4 weeks trip, I did an extensive search for rentals vs cash, etc, and the mf cost was close to $8,000 less. So, perhaps there are instances where renting is cheaper, but, not on my trips at least. Maybe it's certain locations. But I am a one bedroom person too, so, that likely has a lot to do with it since that halves mf cost/night