Marriott Destination Club - points system

[haleakala20]

Some month ago the new point-system Destination club was opened in the US.
Most / all of the US-properties are now on that system.

As I know, there is only the St. Kitts, the Thailand Phuket and all four European resorts not cobnverted to the land trust.

Does anybody know about, when it will get joined to the all over MDC?

 

[dioxide45]

Some month ago the new point-system Destination club was opened in the us.
Most / all of the US-properties are now on that system.

As I know, there is only the St. Kitts, the Thailand Phuket and all four European resorts not cobnverted to the land trust.

Does anybody know about, when it will get joined to the all over MDC?

Actually the three other Caribbean resorts (Aruba Ocean Club, Aruba Surf Club, and St Thomas) are also not converted to the land trust. All of the Caribbean resorts can be exchange for/with through the new DC Exchange Company, one can only buy weeks there.

 

[haleakala20]

Are there for all those nine clubs (4 Europe, 4 Caribbean, 1 Thailand) always the same reasons that they have not been converted into the MDC-points system?

What are those reasons?

When will they get converted?

Can it be, that they will never get converted?

 

[MALC9990]

Are there for all those nine clubs (4 Europe, 4 Caribbean, 1 Thailand) always the same reasons that they have not been converted into the MDC-points system?

What are those reasons?

When will they get converted?

Can it be, that they will never get converted?

For the resort in Phuket - Phuket Beach Club - this is part of the MVCI Asia Pacific Points system. Weeks owners at PBC can join MVCIAP and then enroll their weeks at PBC to be exchanged for points in the MVCIAP system. HOWEVER to do this they must buy a significant number of points in MVCIAP and so it requires an outlay of many thousands of US$. Weeks at PBC have not been sold for about 3 or 4 years. All unsold weeks were transferred to the MVCIAP Club ownership for MVCIAP points owners to book days or weeks at PBC.

For the 4 European Resorts there have been several reports - mostly from MVCI sales reps stories at presentations. I was told by two separate reps - one in Phuket and one in Marbella that the 4 European resorts would form a separate points club and MVCI would stop selling weeks in Europe and set up a separate points scheme for Europe. To exchange between the three MVCI points schemes we would have to use Interval International.

In my opinion this would not be a good thing for owners at European resorts since it would make it very difficult for us to get exchanges to the USA. The best solution would be for MVCI to merge all resorts into a single points club so that we could all do internal exchanges with points inside the MVCI family.

 

[m61376]

I was told for the Aruba resorts that it will take about a year before the legal arrangements are completed, but that they would eventually be part of the DC program.

 

[haleakala20]

For the resort in Phuket - Phuket Beach Club - this is part of the MVCI Asia Pacific Points system. Weeks owners at PBC can join MVCIAP and then enroll their weeks at PBC to be exchanged for points in the MVCIAP system. HOWEVER to do this they must buy a significant number of points in MVCIAP and so it requires an outlay of many thousands of US$. Weeks at PBC have not been sold for about 3 or 4 years. All unsold weeks were transferred to the MVCIAP Club ownership for MVCIAP points owners to book days or weeks at PBC.

For the 4 European Resorts there have been several reports - mostly from MVCI sales reps stories at presentations. I was told by two separate reps - one in Phuket and one in Marbella that the 4 European resorts would form a separate points club and MVCI would stop selling weeks in Europe and set up a separate points scheme for Europe. To exchange between the three MVCI points schemes we would have to use Interval International.

In my opinion this would not be a good thing for owners at European resorts since it would make it very difficult for us to get exchanges to the USA. The best solution would be for MVCI to merge all resorts into a single points club so that we could all do internal exchanges with points inside the MVCI family.

Your knowledge is similar to mine, but I never heard the separation idea for the only 4 European resorts. That would be not, what we did buy, if there would be no conversion or overlay possible between Europe and the US.

I heard in my sales-talk-stories for St. Kitt's, that the government on that island has already refused the idea of any points-system, because that would be not reated to the island and controlled by its government.

In Phuket you have the overlay-option into AP-points, but with a lot of restrictions to very few resorts in Asia and Marbella e.g.

For the European resorts I heard, that they can be booked with the MDC-points, but nobody from the European resorts have access to reservations of the land trust.

Everything is still very foggy and the given stories by sales are all weak.

But within MVCI there must be some management working on that issue to join all week-owners into the points-users-community.

Perhaps somebody else might have even more details and schedules.

 

[SueDonJ]

If any TUGger had been told the information you're trying to find then it would have been posted here, and there haven't been any such posts. Until an official statement is made by Marriott about if/when the European and Caribbean resorts will be added to the Destination Club, you won't find official/reliable information on TUG.

Sales reps don't seem to be privy to the detailed info you want either, so it's probably best to just not ask them what the future holds for Marriott timeshares. Based on reports to TUG, many of them can't correctly tell you what is available today. (Which is a very sad state of affairs.)

 

[haleakala20]

If any TUGger had been told the information you're trying to find then it would have been posted here, and there haven't been any such posts. Until an official statement is made by Marriott about if/when the European and Caribbean resorts will be added to the Destination Club, you won't find official/reliable information on TUG.

Sales reps don't seem to be privy to the detailed info you want either, so it's probably best to just not ask them what the future holds for Marriott timeshares. Based on reports to TUG, many of them can't correctly tell you what is available today. (Which is a very sad state of affairs.)

Susan,

you may be right by recommending not to ask unaswerable questions.

I thought, that the community might know something more, than I could get as rumors, because there is a strong relationship between owners and Marriott employees.

If you would know the names of the creative folks at Marriott/MVCI, there would be a way to get the infoirmation, what are the obstacles, might there be any bypasses and when will it get accomplished.

 

[SueDonJ]

Susan,

you may be right by recommending not to ask unaswerable questions.

I thought, that the community might know something more, than I could get as rumors, because there is a strong relationship between owners and Marriott employees.

If you would know the names of the creative folks at Marriott/MVCI, there would be a way to get the infoirmation, what are the obstacles, might there be any bypasses and when will it get accomplished.

The only TUGger I know of who might have that close a connection with a Marriott executive (or employee high enough to be "in the know") is Dave, the moderator of this board. He has in the past used his connection to get answers to TUG questions, but even then his connection was very guarded in what he authorized for publishing to TUG. (Rightly so, in my opinion.) I just don't think that the information you want can or will be found on TUG at any point prior to Marriott wanting the information to be made public.

 

[haleakala20]

The only TUGger I know of who might have that close a connection with a Marriott executive (or employee high enough to be "in the know") is Dave, the moderator of this board. He has in the past used his connection to get answers to TUG questions, but even then his connection was very guarded in what he authorized for publishing to TUG. (Rightly so, in my opinion.) I just don't think that the information you want can or will be found on TUG at any point prior to Marriott wanting the information to be made public.

Sue,

can you please ask Dave to give this knowledge to that thread?

 

[SueDonJ]

Sue,

can you please ask Dave to give this knowledge to that thread?

I'm not sure we're understanding each other?

The information that Dave got from his contact and published to TUG didn't have anything to do with what you're asking now. It had to do with several nuances of the Destination Club shortly after it had been introduced - Dave asked questions of his contact that had been brought up on TUG and then copied his contact's responses to various threads. I wouldn't even know where to begin searching for any of it because there were so many DC threads during those first few months!

The reason I brought it up is because you seem to think TUG is loaded with "Marriott insiders" and you want one to respond here to your concerns now, and I was simply pointing out that most of us don't have the same kind of connection with a Marriott insider that Dave does. In fact, his is the only one I'm aware of.

I suppose it's possible that Dave will see your thread here and decide on his own whether it's worthwhile to try to get his connection to become involved in your issues. But honestly, I doubt it, for all the reasons you've already been given.

{edited to add} Have you considered, also, that Marriott executives may have absolutely no idea when/if the European and Caribbean resorts may be added to the Destination Club, because they have no way of knowing how long it will take for the licensing/regulating agencies to give their consent to the program?

 

[KathyPet]

I was told by the GM at St. Kitts that they are attempting to get the necessary govt approval to make St. Kitts part of the DC program but considering how far behind the times that govt is who knows how long it could take. It took the St. Kitts legal system 6 MONTHS to record the deed to my resale unit.

 

[suzannesimon]

Actually the three other Caribbean resorts (Aruba Ocean Club, Aruba Surf Club, and St Thomas) are also not converted to the land trust. All of the Caribbean resorts can be exchange for/with through the new DC Exchange Company, one can only buy weeks there.

When we were there the end of December, I was told that Frenchman's Cove is selling both points and weeks.

 

[dioxide45]

When we were there the end of December, I was told that Frenchman's Cove is selling both points and weeks.

Perhaps they are selling them through their domestic US operation. However, there have been no Frenchman's Cove weeks conveyed to the trust as points.

 

[MALC9990]

I'm not sure we're understanding each other?

{edited to add} Have you considered, also, that Marriott executives may have absolutely no idea when/if the European and Caribbean resorts may be added to the Destination Club, because they have no way of knowing how long it will take for the licensing/regulating agencies to give their consent to the program?

It would however be good customer relations if MVCI were to provide European owners or at least the BODs at the 4 resorts with some idea of what they are thinking of doing vis-a-vis a points system for Europe. Long term plans to include the resorts in the DC points system or plans to create a separate points system for Europe would at least allow owners to know that they are not the forgotten rump of the MVCI empire.

At present, as an owner of multiple weeks in Europe, I feel that the new system discriminates against me because I can only exchange my European Marriott weeks for USA Marriott resorts through II. We have seen evidence of reduced Marriott USA availability in II and many people feel that MVCI is favouring DC points owners over weeks owners let alone II exchangers. Now I have read that DC points owners can use their points to get weeks in Europe - I guess those weeks must come from MR points exchanges by European weeks owners.

My response to the way that I feel that I am being treated and ignored by MVCI is to stop depositing and exchanging my Marriott European weeks until MVCI change the way the are treating their European owners. In 2012 I'll be happy to use my home resorts.

MVCI may not realise that they are causing concern to their European owners and indeed many if not most European owners may not even know the DC exists since there are very few of us who are members or guests here on TUG, but given time and no information from MVCI the word will spread.

I intend to request information from the BOD at my resorts and ensure that they know that there are issues. This may not have any impact but I am spreading the word through the owners that I know and meet at the resorts.