Marriott unable to offer week in season, what next?

[davsar09]

Having only just purchased this resale week upon contacting Marriott they were unable to offer a week but still wanted the maintenance fees for 2012.

Are they within their rights to to demand this? Would they be likely to offer points rather than the usage, the only issue here is that the weeks are both resale in Europe where dcp are not in use. And on resales in Europe you are not allowed to bank weeks for Marriott reward points.

Has anyone been in this position before, and if so are you able to share the outcome.

Thanks in advance.

 

[curbysplace]

Does your resort allow you to reserve a lower season and if so is a week available?

 

[davsar09]

No I don't think Marriott let you reserve a week outside of your normal season. Otherwise everyone with silver weeks would try to get gold or above. Likewise I don't really want an off season week that I could rent for less than the maintenance fee.

 

[MALC9990]

No I don't think Marriott let you reserve a week outside of your normal season. Otherwise everyone with silver weeks would try to get gold or above. Likewise I don't really want an off season week that I could rent for less than the maintenance fee.

Call and ask an advisor to deposit a week with II for you. That is probably the best you can get. It is not guaranteed but they did it for me when I was in this position a couple of years ago when a resale purchase took a long time to get processed.

 

[dioxide45]

Ask Marriott for a replacement week. We had a similar problem when we bought our Grande Vista week back in 2007. There were no gold weeks left by the time the week was in our name. Marriott took a couple days to see if they could find a replacement week, but they did deposit a gold week for us in to II. I think for us it was week 18, even though it was late August when they did it. We were then able to use that for exchange, of course we had to pay the exchange fee to exchange through II. You would also have to be signed up with II.

 

[PamMo]

Ask Marriott for a replacement week. We had a similar problem when we bought our Grande Vista week back in 2007. There were no gold weeks left by the time the week was in our name. Marriott took a couple days to see if they could find a replacement week, but they did deposit a gold week for us in to II. I think for us it was week 18, even though it was late August when they did it. We were then able to use that for exchange, of course we had to pay the exchange fee to exchange through II. You would also have to be signed up with II.

Ditto what Dioxide wrote. The same thing happened to us, and we were given a Marriott replacement week in II. We were able to book the perfect trade into a Kauai Beach Club 2BR.

Marriott does not HAVE to give you a replacement week, so ask nicely!

 

[thinze3]

Is your week listed in your my-vacationclub account? There is an option to deposit to deposit your week. I have never used it, but I think you do it without actually having a week reserved, because once you make a reservation, this option disappears.

 

[abdibile]

What season and resort is it? And how close are we now to the end of that season?

I never had the feeling that European resorts were booked out for every week in the season. High seasons are quite long for most resorts there.

 

[MALC9990]

I recall that Marriott (MVCI) have the right to take for their own use any week unit unreserved in a season at the 70 or 75 day prior point. Thus an owner not reserving until very late in their season might well find that all available units have been taken by MVCI.

The problem face by the OP happened to me at Son Antem in Majorca back in 2010. In Sept/Oct 2099 I agreed to purchase a Gold Season Week at Son Antem as a resale. The week was for use from 2010. The week was being sold by the estate of a deceased owner from Germany. The purchase went slowly but smoothly partially due to issues with the estate lawyers in Germany until all the paperwork was passed to MVCI for the ownership to be transferred to my name. Then it went quiet for several months. By March 2010 I was becoming concerned and the resale agent chased the people in MVCI. They then took several more weeks to respond that they had not done anything since this was a sale for a week owned by a deceased owner - they wanted a copy of the "Last Will & Testament". This was duly supplied by the lawyers in Germany. More time passed. We again chased Marriott - still nothing done - reason - "well the Will is in German and we cannot read it." By now half the Gold season had passed and I decided all I wanted was to book a week and then bank it with II. Also since it was now mid-year - no one had paid the MFs - not me since I was not yet the owner, not the deceased German - obviously he was dead, not the estate since they were selling the week.

The selling agents in the UK being a multi-national company had a German speaking employee translate the document into English and faxed it back to Marriott. Eventually in late August the week was in my name and I paid the MFs - but obviously these were now delinquent. Marriott agreed I should not be required to pay the late fees (that was kind of them). However by now most of the Gold Season for 2010 was past and what few weeks were left were not available at all.

After many calls with MVCI Owner Services in Cork a supervisor agreed that the delays were all down to Marriott's lack of action in requesting translated documents and they agreed to ask II if II would accept a week to be deposited for Gold season for 2010 in my name. Fortunately II agreed and I got my Gold Week deposited into my account with II.

Interestingly the week deposited by MVCI for me was the very first week of the Gold Season for 2010 - a week in late April 2010 - it was deposited in September 2010 - so I also lost 5 months of the 2 year life on that deposit. I got a request in for an exchange back into Son Antem for a week in 2011 ASAP and got my request filled very quickly.

Gold weeks at Son Antem actually go very quickly at the 12 month point as they are very popular with owners who want to avoid the European School Holidays. Nothing wrong with children but since we don't have any - we like to vacation when the resort is quieter but still enjoys the hot summer sunshine - i.e. in June and September.

So I would advise the OP to keep asking MVCI owner Services to deposit a week with II for him/her and if at first you do not succeed then as for a supervisor.