marriott vacation club asia pacific---cost basis of points [2014]

[points newbie]

i am an owner of marriott vacation club asia pacific which is a points based system separate from the main marriott VC and want to know what my points are actually worth when i use them, ie when comparing to what i can pay on open market when i book at vacation club as a non-member. (i know i have already bought the points so it may be moot, but i still want to know what i am actually paying per night when i use my points)
in our case, the upfront purchase price of the points was US$1.20/point and annual maintenance fees (club dues) are $.03127/point, over a 43 year period. if i divide US$1.20 by 43 years, it's US$.03 per point over the whole period. if i multiply that by the cost of the points required for each night, ie 6400 for 2BR unit in bangkok during platinum season, then that equals US$192 per night. however, i would still need to add the current maintenance fee (club dues) for 2014 of US$531, divided by the number of nights that i stay in bangkok to arrive at the nightly cost. based on my math, that seems a lot more than what i would pay if went directly to tripadvisor or agoda.

my math is not soo good---is my above basis calculation correct? i hope not because it seems that marriott vacation club asia pacific is not a good deal. if a smart person can help straiten me out, hopefully i can feel better

 

[RuralEngineer]

as an fyi

i'm not familiar with your system but DRI has stated that their system is a benefit if one is an owner for 10 years. To get a fair analysis of the system one needs to include all of the benefits. A simple comparison of spot rental prices vs the price of a specific week within your points system may not be attractive.

I find that totality of the benefits within DRI very attractive right now. Benefits do change every year so comparison / analysis over a long time is difficult.

Stephen

 

[SueDonJ]

Welcome to TUG!

There are a few TUGgers who own Points in the Marriott AP system; I'm moving your post to the Marriott forum where they'll be more likely to see it.

 

[MALC9990]

i am an owner of marriott vacation club asia pacific which is a points based system separate from the main marriott VC and want to know what my points are actually worth when i use them, ie when comparing to what i can pay on open market when i book at vacation club as a non-member. (i know i have already bought the points so it may be moot, but i still want to know what i am actually paying per night when i use my points)
in our case, the upfront purchase price of the points was US$1.20/point and annual maintenance fees (club dues) are $.03127/point, over a 43 year period. if i divide US$1.20 by 43 years, it's US$.03 per point over the whole period. if i multiply that by the cost of the points required for each night, ie 6400 for 2BR unit in bangkok during platinum season, then that equals US$192 per night. however, i would still need to add the current maintenance fee (club dues) for 2014 of US$531, divided by the number of nights that i stay in bangkok to arrive at the nightly cost. based on my math, that seems a lot more than what i would pay if went directly to tripadvisor or agoda.

my math is not soo good---is my above basis calculation correct? i hope not because it seems that marriott vacation club asia pacific is not a good deal. if a smart person can help straiten me out, hopefully i can feel better

As Sue as already said - welcome to TUG, this time from a fellow MVCI AP points owner. There are not many of us AP points owners here on TUG so you are more than welcome. I have been an AP points owner since 2009 but I only purchased 30000 AP points - at the time the price was 0.95 USD per point. The way AP points usage is calculated is that each night at a particular resort is priced at a point value. the value you have quoted is for Friday and Saturday nights which are the most expensive nights of the week. Sunday night is priced at 5100 points and Mon to Thurs are 3700 points. So a week costs 32,700 points or just less than 4700 points per night but if you are only looking to use points at the Empire Place apartments for Fridays and Saturday nights then the cost per night is indeed 6400 points per night.

However for this you get a 2 bed 2 bath apartment with full kitchen and living accommodation in the Empire place condominiums. This is a full service apartment with hotel style services - housekeeping will visit and clean the apartment each day. Now you cannot rent these apartments through Marriott for cash since they are part of the MVCI Asia Pacific Timeshare club but an equivalent property in Bangkok through Marriott.com would be the Mayfair Executive Apartments for which a 2 bed 2 bath unit costs 6500 Baht per night in January 2015 which is the height of plat season. This is roughly $200 per night. Roughly equivalent to your calculation of $192 per night.

However that is not taking into account your annual club fees (maintenance fees) so on the immediate face value of per night costs you would have been better to use Marriott.com to simply book nights at the Mayfair Executive apartments for a 2 bed apartment. of course it would be cheaper to stay on a Monday thru Thursday night whereas the Mayfair Executive Apartment rate probably would be the same for any night of the week.

You quoted your annual club dues at $531 for 2014 - this would indicate that you purchased around 16,000 AP points. This is not enough for a week at the resorts in Plat nor even Gold Season so I am wondering what your motivation in buying was. My motivation was that I also own weeks at the MVCI Phuket Beach Club TS resort so I can use my points to add additional nights to the front or end of my weeks stay as required or they can be used to book nights at selected Marriott Hotels that accept AP points or can be traded for Marriott Reward Points.

If your motivation was to use the AP points to stay one weekend or two at the Empire Place in Bangkok then I would say that you would have been better to simply book stays at a serviced apartment complex elsewhere in Bangkok.

I have stayed at both the Mayfair Apartments and also at the MVCI AP apartments in the Empire Place and they are both very nice and there is little to choose between them in quality but it would seem that for your requirements the Mayfair Apartments for cash booked on Marriott.Com would be a cheaper option in both the short term and long term.

If however you were doing the comparison of paying cash for a 2 bed unit at Phuket Beach Club the rate per night would be $442 whilst the AP points would still be 6400 points for Friday and Saturday nights - so this would make the AP points a better deal but still not a wonderful deal.

You really need to explain to us why you bought into a TS points system in Asia Pacific. if it was simply to use the points for says in Bangkok at weekends then it was probably not the best decision.

 

[points newbie]

further to cost

malc9990,
thanks for your explanation. in my case, i just used bangkok as an example, but i think it still applies since we can use any of the club resorts. mai khao is very nice, i am happy with it, though you can book it for just over US$200 online. as for my logic in my point purchase, my spouse and i wanted to start out small and with the logic that we did not want to take all of our trips to timeshare resorts, as we like to travel widely and to different locations and lodgings. with our point total, we have enough points to take nearly a full week every two yrs by borrowing next year's points. that way, we are free to do other travel in off years.
i have considered about upping my point total, but if it's not clearly advantageous costwise, then commonsense says 'no.'
i am heartened that marriott ap members can now book europe resorts directly. salesperson said that later in 2014, we will be able to book u.s. resorts directly too, without going thru interval international.

i get the sense that my attempt at math is pretty close, which is not totally satisfying, ie timeshare is not clearly a better deal financially than just booking lodgings on my own. as newbie, is there general agreement that for a timeshare to be cost effective, you have to book a whole week?? that was part of the sales pitch, but is it reality? even for a points-based system (not the old style 'buy a whole week same time each year' plan)?
welcome anyone's expertise

 

[ufjay]

I just finished a timeshare presentation for the club marriott asja pacific. The rep told me I can exchange points for 30 to 1 to marriott points. So if I purchase the 40k points a year, I can exchange for 1.2 mill regular Marriott points. Is this true?

 

[Fasttr]

I just finished a timeshare presentation for the club marriott asja pacific. The rep told me I can exchange points for 30 to 1 to marriott points. So if I purchase the 40k points a year, I can exchange for 1.2 mill regular Marriott points. Is this true?

That doesn't sound right. The U.S. points system gets you a 1:32 conversion rate of DC points to MR's, but your 40K AP points would be the equivalent of about 4K DC points in the U.S system from what I understand. I am guessing the conversion rate for AP points is more like a 1:3 conversion factor. Others who know the AP system will chime in I am sure.

Also, in the U.S., the percentage of your DC points you can convert to MR points is limited based on your status tier, so if the AP is similar, you may not be able to convert all of your AP points to MR points in any given year.

As always, the devil is in the details.

 

[bazzap]

That doesn't sound right. The U.S. points system gets you a 1:32 conversion rate of DC points to MR's, but your 40K AP points would be the equivalent of about 4K DC points in the U.S system from what I understand. I am guessing the conversion rate for AP points is more like a 1:3 conversion factor. Others who know the AP system will chime in I am sure.

Also, in the U.S., the percentage of your DC points you can convert to MR points is limited based on your status tier, so if the AP is similar, you may not be able to convert all of your AP points to MR points in any given year.

As always, the devil is in the details.

That sounds more like it.
As the APC ratio is 10:1, then if the DC:MR conversion rate is 1:32 it would seem logical that the AP:MR conversion rate would be 1:3.2
No doubt someone will soon confirm whether logic actually does apply to this.

 

[Toni]

I just finished a timeshare presentation for the club marriott asja pacific. The rep told me I can exchange points for 30 to 1 to marriott points. So if I purchase the 40k points a year, I can exchange for 1.2 mill regular Marriott points. Is this true?

ufjay,
Speaking from my personal experience as member of the MVCAp for the past 7 years, I regret to say that my purchase is a very bad decision. As to your query, MVCAp points can be converted to 5 times as many Marriott Reward Points, so you can have 200K MR points if you are willing to pay the current administration fee of, I think, US $134.