Marriott DC trust points

[genomicist]

Concerning the Marriott DC program, we are enrolled owners and have no trust points. We would like to know if, for example, renting 2000 points to add to our current 2175 points from Grande Vista will open us up to trust point owners' level of property availability or must we buy trust points to get their level of property availability? The pitch we heard today was that we'll never have the same level of property availability without buying trust points. I just want to know if I can rent enough points from someone to get the same level of availability? Thanks so much!

 

[Fasttr]

What you were told is simply a scare tactic to get you to buy points. While technically correct, that some inventory may only be available via Trust points directly from Trust inventory, we have found that the vast majority of DC reservations come from the MVC Exchange (where weeks from enrolled owners converting to points, Trust Inventory moved to the Exchange, ressie's begotten from II, etc. are comingled). We used to see an occasional week in the 13 month reservation window come directly from the Trust, but I recently booked 3 Hawaii reservations in the 13 month window and all 3 of those came from the MVC Exchange. Trust inventory moves to the Exchange almost immediately upon inventory release...and once in the Exchange, any points can get at them.

So, don't fret.....your enrolled points have 99.9% of the pulling power as Trust points would.

And furthermore, on renting points, most points available for rent are enrolled points like yours. Its rare that I see folks with Trust points renting them out. It does happen, but there are a lot more enrolled points owners out there than there are Trust points owners....and the # of enrolled points owned by each owner are likely also in greater quantity than comparable Trust points owners, so its likely the enrolled owners are the folks that have excess to rent.

 

[taterhed]

You beat me to it. What he said --^

 

[genomicist]

That is encouraging. What about the availability of the newer Pulse properties and even Lakeshore Reserve in Orlando that are solely Trust points? These don't come up for us as enrolled owners with our 2175 points. But I wonder if we had either a Select level of points or rented trust points if we could see availability open up for us?

 

[Fasttr]

That is encouraging. What about the availability of the newer Pulse properties and even Lakeshore Reserve in Orlando that are solely Trust points? These don't come up for us as enrolled owners with our 2175 points. But I wonder if we had either a Select level of points or rented trust points if we could see availability open up for us?

When you say "These don't come up for us"....what exactly are you saying. Are you saying you are searching for a specific week using the online system and it always says its unavailable? Trying to determine if what you are experiencing is an issue with the reservation system, actual availability, or a Trust points issue.

I want to make sure as a starting point that you understand that in order for a reservation period to show as available in the online system, you need to have the points available to book it...meaning you would have to have at least that many points converted into the Use Year of the reservation you are seeking (or converted and borrowable from the following Use Year) for the system to know you had those points available to book the ressie....otherwise it will show you no availability, simply because you don't have enough points to book it. Such an issue would have nothing to do with Trust or Enrolled points.

 

[jimf41]

Fasttr is correct. I have 1575 points available currently. I checked for 1 night at Lakeshore and at NYC Pulse. Both came up available for all types of units. As soon as I changed it to 7 nights there was no availability as 1575 points won't get you a week in either place. I do not own trust points but I have never had a problem getting into any resort with DC points as long as you try early enough.

 

[bazzap]

It is not even that rare to see the new Pulse properties and Lakeshore Reserve available as Interval Getaways, let alone be limited to Trust points rather than Enrolled points.
I have seen several of these just within the last week, at reasonable prices (well below MFs) too.

 

[BocaBoy]

That is encouraging. What about the availability of the newer Pulse properties and even Lakeshore Reserve in Orlando that are solely Trust points? These don't come up for us as enrolled owners with our 2175 points. But I wonder if we had either a Select level of points or rented trust points if we could see availability open up for us?

Just a minor clarification.....Lakeshore Reserve is not all trust points. Weeks were sold there before the introduction of the DC.

 

[SueDonJ]

That is encouraging. What about the availability of the newer Pulse properties and even Lakeshore Reserve in Orlando that are solely Trust points? These don't come up for us as enrolled owners with our 2175 points. But I wonder if we had either a Select level of points or rented trust points if we could see availability open up for us?

For what it's worth, each time a Pulse property has been announced we have seen almost immediately intervals available via the DC Exchange Company (book-able with Trust or Exchange Points) and via II. In fact, the Points charts for new properties include a footnote that inventory is available only through the Exchange Company; this is because the inventory becomes available immediately upon the announcement but cannot be conveyed to the DC Trust until the contracted purchase deal is completed.

It may be true that at some point in the future MVW can/will segregate certain inventory for DC Trust Points-use only but despite whatever the sales reps may say, MVW has given absolutely no indication that's their intent. Until/unless they do it, their system of manipulating all inventory through the DC Exchange Company is resulting in DC Exchange Points successfully gaining immediate access when the 13-mos Reservation Windows open to all but the highest-demand Trust intervals. And even with those, they're made available via the Exchange Company at the 12-mos window.

As noted Weeks were sold at Lakeshore Reserve. There aren't any from-the-ground-up developments of MVC resorts at which Weeks were not sold.

 

[dioxide45]

That is encouraging. What about the availability of the newer Pulse properties and even Lakeshore Reserve in Orlando that are solely Trust points?

Surprisingly, Lakeshore Reserve was almost sold out when Marriott converted to the DC system. It is primarily weeks owners.

 

[BocaBoy]

As noted Weeks were sold at Lakeshore Reserve. There aren't any from-the-ground-up developments of MVC resorts at which Weeks were not sold.

Although, because of timing, the number of weeks sold at Kauai Lagoons was extremely small.

 

[dioxide45]

Although, because of timing, the number of weeks sold at Kauai Lagoons was extremely small.

I think we determined it to be less than 300.

 

[genomicist]

OK, I was searching incorrectly and was able to get availability to come up for a shorter time period. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Regarding the weeks at Lakeshore, the sales guy has only been with Marriott for 2 months after coming over from Wyndham so clearly he was incorrect about Lakeshore being Trust only. Thanks for your help everyone! I truly appreciate it!

 

[BocaBoy]

I think we determined it to be less than 300.

That sounds about right. I don't think weeks were sold for more than a month or so. We considered buying one because it was reputed to be top of the line and the prices were actually a lot lower than you would have expected for a developer week. All the weeks offered to us were fixed week, fixed unit weeks. However, we could not pull the trigger because we had not personally seen the property. After having stayed there three times, I now wish we owned a week, but it would have been reckless to buy a week at a resort we had never seen, especially since it would have been for us to use, not to trade.

 

[mas]

Regarding the weeks at Lakeshore, the sales guy has only been with Marriott for 2 months after coming over from Wyndham so clearly he was incorrect about Lakeshore being Trust only.

Just curious, the sales guy at Lakeshore wouldn't happen to be William Tortorella?

Also, I have a question for all you DC points experts out there: How you do determine whether a reservation is coming from Trust or the enrolled exchange inventory? I am somewhat new to the DC points usage, i.e. I'm an enrolled owner and also own trust points. I've never exchanged any of my weeks for DC points as of yet--only used trust points to make reservations. So if I were to exchange a week for DC points, I'm assuming they would be added to my dc points total. Would they then be treated any different than my trust points when making a trade?

Thank, in advance, for the straight scoop.

 

[Fasttr]

Just curious, the sales guy at Lakeshore wouldn't happen to be William Tortorella?

Also, I have a question for all you DC points experts out there: How you do determine whether a reservation is coming from Trust or the enrolled exchange inventory? I am somewhat new to the DC points usage, i.e. I'm an enrolled owner and also own trust points. I've never exchanged any of my weeks for DC points as of yet--only used trust points to make reservations. So if I were to exchange a week for DC points, I'm assuming they would be added to my dc points total. Would they then be treated any different than my trust points when making a trade?

Thank, in advance, for the straight scoop.

On the email from Marriott (not the confirmation from MVC), in the Rate, Taxes & Fees section, it will list if the ressie came from MVC Exchange, or MVC Trust.

As to your question about enrolled points if you exchange your week for points... they would indeed be added to your DC points total, but each chunk of points actually show their source, so you can see one bucket for your Trust points and another bucket for your Enrolled points from the week you converted.

In most instances, you would not notice any difference in the usage of the points as both sets can get at inventory from the MVC Exchange, where again, the vast majority of the reservations come from. That said, I have witnessed one odd issue that does occur, and that is if you are combining Trust and Enrolled points in a single reservation, the system will only allow one type of point (Trust or Enrolled) for each single night of the ressie, so as an example, you may have 1000 Trust points and 2000 Enrolled points and are booking a 3000 point ressie, so it should work, but the system might not allow it because the last night might be 250 points and you might be trying to use 100 Trust points and 150 Enrolled points to book it because that's the way it worked out. Others have pointed out if that happens, you can call MVC and they can have IT force it to work. Other than that one oddity, you should not notice a difference most of the time.

 

[JIMinNC]

In most instances, you would not notice any difference in the usage of the points as both sets can get at inventory from the MVC Exchange, where again, the vast majority of the reservations come from. That said, I have witnessed one odd issue that does occur, and that is if you are combining Trust and Enrolled points in a single reservation, the system will only allow one type of point (Trust or Enrolled) for each single night of the ressie, so as an example, you may have 1000 Trust points and 2000 Enrolled points and are booking a 3000 point ressie, so it should work, but the system might not allow it because the last night might be 250 points and you might be trying to use 100 Trust points and 150 Enrolled points to book it because that's the way it worked out. Others have pointed out if that happens, you can call MVC and they can have IT force it to work. Other than that one oddity, you should not notice a difference most of the time.

Also, if you have the situation you describe where you need to combine Trust and Enrolled points to book a night, you can just call Owner Services, and a VC can just make the reservation using both types of points. No need to go back and have IT fix it later. When I recently booked a single night at HHI Heritage Club to add-on to our week at Barony in a couple of weeks, I had an odd lot of 25 leftover 2017 Enrolled Points I wanted to use, plus some leftover 2017 Trust points. The online system wanted to book that reservation with 100% trust points since I didn't have enough Enrolled points to book that single night. It wouldn't let me use the 25 Enrolled points for that night. But I was able to call Owner Services, and the VC was able to book the reservation with the points I wanted to use - she booked the single night using 175 Trust points plus the 25 Enrolled points.

 

[mjm1]

Also, if you have the situation you describe where you need to combine Trust and Enrolled points to book a night, you can just call Owner Services, and a VC can just make the reservation using both types of points. No need to go back and have IT fix it later. When I recently booked a single night at HHI Heritage Club to add-on to our week at Barony in a couple of weeks, I had an odd lot of 25 leftover 2017 Enrolled Points I wanted to use, plus some leftover 2017 Trust points. The online system wanted to book that reservation with 100% trust points since I didn't have enough Enrolled points to book that single night. It wouldn't let me use the 25 Enrolled points for that night. But I was able to call Owner Services, and the VC was able to book the reservation with the points I wanted to use - she booked the single night using 175 Trust points plus the 25 Enrolled points.

Jim, thanks for sharing the ability to combine enrolled and trust points for one night. I was under the impression that doing so was not possible, even when calling in. I haven't needed to try it, but can definitely see that happening in our future plans.

Best regards.

Mike