Marriott Special Offer

[mjm1]

I just received this email from a sales person with Marriott. One way they are trying to sell DC points. Interesting angle, but not something I want to do.I noticed his reference to "hybrid points". Cheers.
----------------------------

For a very limited time, until March 21st 2012, Marriott Vacation Club is offering the capability to bundle a Marriott Resale week with a minimum purchase of 2,500 Vacation Club Points. The resale week (i.e. Legacy week) can be converted into Vacation Club Points every year at no additional cost. As you may not be aware, this limited resale inventory on its own cannot be converted into Vacation Club Points.

The minimum bundle amount will be changing next Thursday, whereby you will be required to purchase more Vacation Club Points to take advantage of this new offer. By acting sooner rather than later you can get the best of both worlds by obtaining a traditional Marriott Vacation Club week combined with our new Destinations Program – both which are deeded to you forever – at a significantly reduced cost.

There are only a limited amount of properties that we are currently offering resales. The 2 best valued properties that yield the highest Destination Club Point values for the lowest price are as follows:

* Marriott's Mountainside at Park City , Utah - 2 bedroom, Platinum ski week, $24,900
* Marriott’s Kauai Beach Club - 2 bedroom, Platinum, Ocean View, $14,000
o Both have lock-outs and both will exchange for 125,000 Marriott Reward Points on an Every Year Basis.
o There are other properties available, please call or email for details.

Owners that want a lot of Vacation Club Points for the least amount of overall cost will definitely want to move forward with this current bundle offer. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity because the minimum bundle price was set too low – which is why we are changing it Thursday.

Here is a popular bundle that has been a hot seller for me already:

* Kauai Beach Club, 2 bedroom Ocean View week for only $14,000 (which is normally $41,000 retail)
o Ability to convert the Kauai Beach Club week to 4,225 Vacation Club Points on an annual basis should you desire.
* Bundled with 2,500 Vacation Club Points for $23,250
* Total Asset Price = $37,250
* Total Vacation Club Points Possible each year, forever = 6,725 points
o Did you know the regular cost to buy 6,725 points right now would be $73,571 (at current pricing of $10.94 per point), what a savings!
* Note: If you wait until Thursday, the minimum bundle amount will be increasing in this example to 4,500 Vacation Club Points (instead of 2,500 minimum), which increases the total bundle cost to $55,850.

Did you know that by having some Vacation Club Points combined with a traditional Marriott week this is called a hybrid point? Call or email for details.

Here is a great link that will give you an overview of our new product and why it’s important to buy sooner vs later. CLICK HERE. If you have questions please call me at (801) 468-4259 or (808) 635-7669. As a reminder, incentives are up to 30% larger when purchasing direct through myself here at Owner Services rather than buying at one of our resorts.

Marriott Vacation Club Points Chart

* You can also CLICK HERE to see an example of the number of Vacation Club Points needed to travel to our current and ever expanding locations.

As the saying goes, when tomorrow comes, when was the best time to spend quality time with your loved ones – the answer is always yesterday. Which would be today – the present. Remember if you have children they will seldom remember what they received for holiday gifts, but they will always remember their vacations.

“Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed in the things you did not do than the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Author: –Mark Twain

 

[slum808]

This is very interesting. The resale point offer has been around for several months, its a good way for new buyers to get into the system. Expensive but it gives the best of both worlds. I would consider it if the minimum point was 1000, but not 2500. I'd be surprised if they actually raise it to 4500.

 

[FractionalTraveler]

Looks like a good offer for developer purchase. The price for the legacy developer weeks are reasonable to me.

 

[dmharris]

It says to me they NEED owners to pay maintenance fees.

 

[smithde]

Why would Marriott sell weeks that they could otherwise put in the trust and sell as points at a much higher price? Maybe the points program isn't selling as well as they hoped. Looks like they are getting creative in trying to unload inventory.

 

[mcow2011]

too mujch inventory is right

Why would Marriott sell weeks that they could otherwise put in the trust and sell as points at a much higher price? Maybe the points program isn't selling as well as they hoped. Looks like they are getting creative in trying to unload inventory.

Marriott does have excess inventory.

Why change to the point system when you can just use II and exchange much cheaper?

I just exchanged MOU Park City Summer week for MKO Hawaii Summer 2 bedroom. It is cheaper to exchange than buy into the point system. The point system is their way of selling more units directly to consumers at inflated prices.

 

[FractionalTraveler]

I believe the weeks they are offering here may be from owners who want to sell through the resale department. Marriott makes a sizable commission from the resale and offers the buyer Marriott Rewards and access to purchase trust points.

You don't need to convert to points in the Marriott system. Its an optional enhancement to the program that may offer some customers greater flexibility in their vacations.

The points system is different from the legacy weeks based system so its really not an apples to apples comparision.

Th points system is much more flexible than using interval international. Interval International does not Guarantee a particular view when you exchange. Nor can you exchange for less than 3 days and check-in any day of the week.

These are some of the fundamental differences in the programs.

 

[thinze3]

Marriott has been offering these resale weeks and the ability to retro them by purchasing 2500 more points for some time now. The only thing "new" is the possibility of raising the number of points purchased.

Here are a couple of threads mentioning it.

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156000
http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=163832

 

[GregT]

Mike, thank you for posting this -- I do think it is interesting that they are using the existing deeded week as a hook to entice Trust Point sales.

I also think the time will come when we can re-qualify our post June 20 2010 resale weeks (not purchased from Marriott) if we buy Trust Points and perhaps they are moving towards the 4,500 point level to allow those resales to be enrolled. But that is a big number...

Best,

Greg

 

[mjm1]

Mike, thank you for posting this -- I do think it is interesting that they are using the existing deeded week as a hook to entice Trust Point sales.

I also think the time will come when we can re-qualify our post June 20 2010 resale weeks (not purchased from Marriott) if we buy Trust Points and perhaps they are moving towards the 4,500 point level to allow those resales to be enrolled. But that is a big number...

Best,

Greg

I agree. If they require that large of a buy-in the re-qualify a post 6/20/10 week that would be a huge commitment. They will need to continue to be creative to entice people. It will be very interesting to see this play out over time.

Cheers.

Mike

 

[Michigan Czar]

I received the same email the other day but I am not interested in the new points option.

 

[FractionalTraveler]

The DC points enrollment will fee will dramatically increase from a low of $595 today to $2395 in June!

It may be a good time to get in now for those who have been considering it.

Why the huge jump? I don't get it.

Will they be adding more options to the program over the next 12-24 months which will make the program that more desirable for existing owners to justify these new fees? Or do they need more CASH? Only time will tell.

From all the posts I have been reading, it seems they are making it harder and harder to join over time. Will this get to the point that non-DC members will be locked out either through reduced benefits or astronomical buy-in fees?

 

[amyhwang]

If I had that kind of cash sitting around, that is tempting.

 

[m61376]

Marriott has been offering these resale weeks and the ability to retro them by purchasing 2500 more points for some time now. The only thing "new" is the possibility of raising the number of points purchased.

Here are a couple of threads mentioning it.

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156000
http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=163832

This is the first time they are making a large scale solicitation for the program though, which is kinda interesting.

 

[gblotter]

The DC points enrollment fee will dramatically increase from a low of $595 today to $2395 in June!

Why the huge jump? I don't get it.

From all the posts I have been reading, it seems they are making it harder and harder to join over time.

I don't get it either.

Unless, of course, this is just a marketing tactic to create a false sense of urgency for the fence-sitters. "Offer good for a limited-time only" is the oldest ploy in the book. Every salesman (even the non-sleazy ones) at every timeshare presentation has used that on me. I'm immune (oh, but wait - I bought two developer weeks - darn!).

The DC either makes sense for you or it doesn't. A false sense of urgency will not change that. Increasing the enrollment fee only means that it might make even less sense than before.

 

[windje2000]

Why the huge jump? I don't get it.

Raising the price of admission can indicate several things:

• The enrollment program was aimed at high value weeks and multiple weeks owners. After nearly two years, they probably figure they are not leaving much (if any) low hanging fruit on the table.
  
  
• They have a sufficient number of enrolled weeks to achieve 'critical mass' for the points exchange program, in combination with their access to II.
  
  
• They are incentivizing those who are on the fence to either fish or cut bait.
  
  
• They are creating a barrier to exiting the program for those already enrolled.
  
  
• That barrier to exit may also allow them additional latitude to raise the 'bundled fee', since once you're in you think twice about getting out if the price of reentry is high.

 

[FractionalTraveler]

windje2000, Thanks!

Personally, I joined a while back but I can't help to think that they are also creating a situation where enrolled owners will not be able to either sell their enrolled legacy weeks or purchased Trust Points without some form of penalty.

The penalty may come by way of devaluation of the enrolled week(s) or points after sale. If the resale weeks or Points will not have the same access to benefits, then this will make the assets virtually worthless at disposition time.

Now they have not formally announced this yet but the program is still relatively young enough to bypass such scenarios. Given enough time we will see how the process plays out for customers in need of unloading purchased trust points or enrolled weeks.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

 

[windje2000]

windje2000, Thanks!

Personally, I joined a while back but I can't help to think that they are also creating a situation where enrolled owners will not be able to either sell their enrolled legacy weeks or purchased Trust Points without some form of penalty.

The penalty may come by way of devaluation of the enrolled week(s) or points after sale. If the resale weeks or Points will not have the same access to benefits, then this will make the assets virtually worthless at disposition time.

Now they have not formally announced this yet but the program is still relatively young enough to bypass such scenarios. Given enough time we will see how the process plays out for customers in need of unloading purchased trust points or enrolled weeks.

It will be interesting to see what happens.

I, too, joined a while back.

DC enrollment doesn't transfer to a new owner if you sell your enrolled week.

Moreover, a resale buyer is (currently) ineligible to enroll a resale week even if they wanted to.

Resale value will reflect home resort use value, rental value, and exchange value. Same as before DC.

Regarding penalties, either you're eligible to enroll or you're not. I don't believe there is anything in the documents which would allow otherwise identical weeks to have different point values. That would create an administrative nightmare.

Does an inability to enroll a week and access DC represent a negative element of resale value? It probably doesn't help.

 

[pwrshift]

Eventually there will be none...

I take the other side of this possible situation. Long term, every DC member legacy week will be sold for a dozen reasons including death or deciding to just give up on the Marriott charade. That means, unless Marriott changes the re-registration rules that every year there will be less and less legacy week owners in the clubhouse. Eventually there will be none...putting some 400,000 weeks on the resale market with Marriott losing control. JMHO

 

[windje2000]

I take the other side of this possible situation. Long term, every DC member legacy week will be sold for a dozen reasons including death or deciding to just give up on the Marriott charade. That means, unless Marriott changes the re-registration rules that every year there will be less and less legacy week owners in the clubhouse. Eventually there will be none...putting some 400,000 weeks on the resale market with Marriott losing control. JMHO

Unless Marriott buys them (cheap) and adds them to the trust. They then sell the points.

Better than the alchemist's dream of transforming lead to gold. .

Somehow I believe the folks at VAC have thought this through to its end.

 

[FractionalTraveler]

Reluctantly, I have to agree with pwrshift and windje2000 on this.

Feels like a hamster running on a never ending wheel until just one day I fall over and give up. At least it was fun while it lasted.

 

[pwrshift]

Somehow I believe the folks at VAC have thought this through to its end.

The 'end' could be closer than we want to think. Businesses in a state of panic rarely make good decisions.

 

[SueDonJ]

The 'end' could be closer than we want to think. Businesses in a state of panic rarely make good decisions.

I don't understand why you think either implementing the DC or the decision to spin off the timeshare division were "panic" moves by Marriott. There had been rumors on TUG for years before it was announced about them developing a points-based system, and while the spin-off appeared to come from out of the blue when it was announced, it appears since then that VAC isn't anywhere near the disaster that some here expected, predicted it would be. I agree that IF Marriott had made the moves with little to no forethought or planning, or with no regard for protecting their substantial assets, then we could accuse them of taking actions while "in a state of panic."

It's understandable that we might not like the direction that Marriott has taken, sure, because we all love and have been happy with our Weeks-based ownerships. But with the current timeshare climate - that could be seen on the horizon years before it happened - we couldn't expect them to sit pat and do nothing. It appears they've given considerable thought to what they have done, and IMO it's good that they've developed something in which we Weeks-based owners can participate if we choose. I just don't understand how/why you are accusing them of acting irrationally or rashly.

 

[BocaBoy]

I don't understand why you think either implementing the DC or the decision to spin off the timeshare division were "panic" moves by Marriott. There had been rumors on TUG for years before it was announced about them developing a points-based system, and while the spin-off appeared to come from out of the blue when it was announced, it appears since then that VAC isn't anywhere near the disaster that some here expected, predicted it would be. I agree that IF Marriott had made the moves with little to no forethought or planning, or with no regard for protecting their substantial assets, then we could accuse them of taking actions while "in a state of panic."

It's understandable that we might not like the direction that Marriott has taken, sure, because we all love and have been happy with our Weeks-based ownerships. But with the current timeshare climate - that could be seen on the horizon years before it happened - we couldn't expect them to sit pat and do nothing. It appears they've given considerable thought to what they have done, and IMO it's good that they've developed something in which we Weeks-based owners can participate if we choose. I just don't understand how/why you are accusing them of acting irrationally or rashly.

I have thought from day one that the MVC spinoff was probably a smart move that could benefit everyone, including MVCI owners like us. So far it looks very positive to me. I have been professionally involved with upwards of 30 corporate spinoffs and they are implemented for many different reasons. Sometimes it is to get rid of a loser, but just as often it is to strengthen the prospects for the business being spun off. It is not unusual for a spinoff to be very successful. When I offered that opinion a year ago I was in effect told I was wrong and did not understand how these business things worked.

I have repeatedly noticed that whenever anything positive is said about Marriott's business practices, some TUGGERs feel compelled to blast Marriott. I do not like several things Marriott has done, but to me they have also done a lot of things right. And I have never seen anything that I thought was a "panic" move.

It will be interesting to see if this post causes me to be accused of being a Marriott salesman again.

 

[SueDonJ]

I have thought from day one that the MVC spinoff was probably a smart move that could benefit everyone, including MVCI owners like us. So far it looks very positive to me. I have been professionally involved with upwards of 30 corporate spinoffs and they are implemented for many different reasons. Sometimes it is to get rid of a loser, but just as often it is to strengthen the prospects for the business being spun off. It is not unusual for a spinoff to be very successful. When I offered that opinion a year ago I was in effect told I was wrong and did not understand how these business things worked.

I have repeatedly noticed that whenever anything positive is said about Marriott's business practices, some TUGGERs feel compelled to blast Marriott. I do not like several things Marriott has done, but to me they have also done a lot of things right. And I have never seen anything that I thought was a "panic" move.

It will be interesting to see if this post causes me to be accused of being a Marriott salesman again.

How dare you see anything remotely positive in any moves that Marriott makes?! Here's an idea - I'll trade places with you and be the salesperson while you take on the role of the resident Marriott Apologist. At least then I might be able to make some money!