. . . There is no good way to convert to fixed weeks and units from floating. I don't see that happening. What would likely happen is that Marriott would allow you to convert from the current floating and fixed weeks (without fixed units) to an equivalent point value based upon the type of week (season and location) you own . . .
Continuing "what if" thoughts on this very interesting thread.
Floyddl & ciscogizmo touch upon an important point.
The overwhelming majority of MVC weeks are floating weeks. IMO, Marriott was spot on years ago when they develop their program as a floating week program. It allows the greatest ownership flexibility ( and in a twisted logic of its own -- "democracy"). Consider that every MVC owner of a specific resort/season has a theoretical chance to nail down one of those highly sought-after weeks. Of course this comes via a frequently discordant reservation system/process, and there's a lot of disappointment/angst by those who don't succeed in reserving that sought-after week, but what other way is there to create potential parity amongst thousands of owners? We bought the product with full knowledge of this, although many folks did not initially realize the practical imperatives. Given all of this, I'm quite satisfied with our multi-week ownership, uncertainty and all.
But as the MVC product has matured, two things become increasingly apparant to Marriott. First, prime resort land is becoming an increasingly expensive commodity to find ( for example, MVC will never be able to consider another Florida on-the-beach resort such as Ocean Pointe simply because of the prohibitive economics of the land and development costs ). This is true in lots of places. Note that there will be more joint hotel/resort and timeshare combination type resorts in the future simply because of these high costs. This is the strategy MVC will pursue in Florida and at locations such as St. Thomas and St. Kitts.
Second, as the TS market matures, Marriott has become more bottom line conscious. Hence many of the new resorts are offering fixed and premium weeks. Indeed a market exists for folks who will pay the premium prices for the assurance of a fixed week. In one sense, it's simply a sign of the times as the market matures & new resorts are increasingly costly to build and more difficult to sell to a discriminating public. But look closely at some of the recent new offerings, and one thing I note is that prices are racheting way up there from the get go. It might reflect great potential price appreciation, but it might also reflect a shrewder MVC marketing strategy. It's simply getting a little more difficult to determine what constitutes a good deal because the destination and the market dynamics have evolved.
I think that we as MVC owners should keep these forces in mind as the future continues to unfold before us. Desperate to create more premiums ( read that income ), MVC won't hesitate to tinker with the product base if it see a buck in it. I think that we should all look more closely at what we currently have and be prepared to posit this against whatever "new future" MVC or anyone else tries to trumpet. We might be better off with what we already have, warts and all.
Barry
