MGV is 0 for 2 in Preferences/Requests

[NboroGirl]

Just arrived at MGV for our annual week. We own 2 weeks here and have been coming every year since 2003. Almost every year I've gotten my preferences, either with building and/or with view. This year I filled out the pre-arrival form, stating my preferences, within 5 minutes of receiving it (2 wks ago) so I thought I'd have a good chance of getting what I wanted, especially since we were having an early arrival.

My first choice was Pool View/High Floor
My 2nd choice was Golf View/High Floor

A couple of days later I was contacted, via email, by someone from MGV who welcomed me and asked if I had any additional preferences. I stated that I would like to add Building 92 to my list of preferences (1st choice), and Building 91 as my 2nd choice.

We arrived around 12:30 and I didn't really expect our villa to be ready. Imagine my surprise when it was AND they assigned us to Building 83 - Lake View. WHAT? I asked if there was anything available in either of my two preferred buildings. After checking, I was offered a villa in Building 91 on the third floor, which I accepted and I didn't mind waiting the 2-3 hours for it to be ready.

I know requests aren't guarantees, but you'd think with all the villas that have either pool views or golf views, I could have snagged ONE of them. Otherwise, what's the point of filling out those pre-arrival preference forms?

 

[dougp26364]

Just arrived at MGV for our annual week. We own 2 weeks here and have been coming every year since 2003. Almost every year I've gotten my preferences, either with building and/or with view. This year I filled out the pre-arrival form, stating my preferences, within 5 minutes of receiving it (2 wks ago) so I thought I'd have a good chance of getting what I wanted, especially since we were having an early arrival.

My first choice was Pool View/High Floor
My 2nd choice was Golf View/High Floor

A couple of days later I was contacted, via email, by someone from MGV who welcomed me and asked if I had any additional preferences. I stated that I would like to add Building 92 to my list of preferences (1st choice), and Building 91 as my 2nd choice.

We arrived around 12:30 and I didn't really expect our villa to be ready. Imagine my surprise when it was AND they assigned us to Building 83 - Lake View. WHAT? I asked if there was anything available in either of my two preferred buildings. After checking, I was offered a villa in Building 91 on the third floor, which I accepted and I didn't mind waiting the 2-3 hours for it to be ready.

I know requests aren't guarantees, but you'd think with all the villas that have either pool views or golf views, I could have snagged ONE of them. Otherwise, what's the point of filling out those pre-arrival preference forms?

A couple of questions just for reference and my own curiosity.

1. How far in advance did you make your reservation? It's my understanding reservations are date/time stamped and, all other things being equal, the early bird gets the worm. I could be wrong in that assumption

2. Is there high owner occupancy during your visit? I know at some resorts with high owner occupancy they try to rotate the highly preferred locations.

 

[hangloose]

I also own two weeks at MGV and NEVER get my first request. Odd enough, I generally get my villa request at all other MVC resorts, just not the one I own multiple weeks at. I'm really not sure why. We'll be back in a month, so I'll try my luck once again.

 

[dioxide45]

We have generally received all of our requests at Grande Vista. We always exchange back in. Though perhaps the fact that we usually travel in low season ups our odds?

 

[NboroGirl]

A couple of questions just for reference and my own curiosity.

1. How far in advance did you make your reservation? It's my understanding reservations are date/time stamped and, all other things being equal, the early bird gets the worm. I could be wrong in that assumption

2. Is there high owner occupancy during your visit? I know at some resorts with high owner occupancy they try to rotate the highly preferred locations.

1. My reservation confirmation is time-stamped 2/25/15, so I guess I booked 12 months ago.

2. That I don't know. Usually we come down here in March (when colleges have their spring break) or during President's Day week, both of which are pretty crowded. This year I tried to pick a week in between - 2 weeks after President's Day week but just before college breaks begin. I've seen mostly elderly people walking around so far. I haven't been here long enough to know if there is a high occupancy rate and there's no way for me to know how many of this week's guests are owners.

 

[#1 Cowboys Fan]

After checking, I was offered a villa in Building 91 on the third floor, which I accepted and I didn't mind waiting the 2-3 hours for it to be ready.

QUOTE]

In 2012, we stayed in 92, and had a reasonably good view of the golf hole below-----well---when the pin was on the FRONT of that green.

In 2013, I requested HIGH floor of Building 91 (we are not owners). We were given a 3rd floor unit. We were hoping to watch golfers on that par three below, but my HIGH floor request didn't come in.

The trees blocked the view of that green looking out a 3rd floor window-------a 5th floor unit would be able to see over them.

We've played that course in three different years now; while it is not of Championship length, it is generally in quite GOOD shape.

Have a nice trip!

Pat

 

[Bucky]

We stay for 3 weeks at a time every other year. Usually during the month of March. I always call room control at least 30 days in advance and establish some type of rapport. At that time I express my preferences and have never been disappointed. We usually end up with a top floor room in either 90 or 92. It may be easier in our case since they are usually blocking off the same room for all three weeks.

 

[Big Matt]

With every timeshare you should call and talk to the people that are assigning the units. At Grande Vista it is an entire department. At places like Manor Club it is usually one person. Get to know these people. Be friendly, tell them how much you love their resort and how special it will be when you get there. You will get what you want. Making your name something more than the others on the list gets you what you want. Being an ass will put you at the bottom of the list.

BTW, 83 is one of my favorite buildings. It is close to everything, but not on top of any of the noisy areas.

 

[Bogeygirl]

I do agree that calling room control helps.

We own at Lakeshore Reserve and just checked in on Friday. This is only the 2nd time we've gotten our preference -sort of. We are pool facing but with palms partially blocking our view. This time I actually called room control and had a pleasant conversation with the person. I did the same thing when we went to Canyon Villas in October. That time we got the exact view we requested

That being said Friday looked like a pretty quiet day here at Lakeshore.... we also arrived early at about 11:30 and didn't see anyone else checking in. We were told that housekeeping would be immediately alerted to clean our unit but it still took until almost 4 pm to get in.

Another interesting note... the person we dealt with at check in said he would have liked to get us on a higher floor but he said there are people in a unit on the 5th floor who have been there since December! How do you manage that?

 

[dougp26364]

1. My reservation confirmation is time-stamped 2/25/15, so I guess I booked 12 months ago.

2. That I don't know. Usually we come down here in March (when colleges have their spring break) or during President's Day week, both of which are pretty crowded. This year I tried to pick a week in between - 2 weeks after President's Day week but just before college breaks begin. I've seen mostly elderly people walking around so far. I haven't been here long enough to know if there is a high occupancy rate and there's no way for me to know how many of this week's guests are owners.

Well, it doesn't appear that it's a matter of a late reservation. I suspect you're simply there during a high demand season and owning 2 weeks isn't enough to trump other multiple week owners or.......this one particular resort management team isn't as efficient as most of the other resorts.

I know at Ocean Pointe, at least when it was new, there was very high owner occupancy in Jan, Feb and March. Because of the high cost of condo's in the area, it was more cost efficient to buy a few, or several weeks. Needless to say while I have little to no problem getting a very nice location (silver season), those who own single or 2 weeks in Platinum season have issues getting above the 3rd floor.

A few years ago we exchanged into Canyon Villa's during Feb, a high demand time for that resort. We're multiple week owners with Marriott and made some rather basic requests for location/view. Where we ended up was a first floor unit behind a fake rock wall by the pool. Probably one of the worst locations in the resort but, I rationalized it by knowing we weren't owners and were there during one of their highest occupancy months.

So maybe it's just an issue of high demand/owner occupancy that's keeping you from getting your desired location/view. Of course I'm just guessing but it's my best guess.

 

[taterhed]

I know that knowbody wants to hear "...that didn't happen to me..." but, that didn't happen to me.

This year was our first stay in Marriott as owners. One week was owner occupied with 6 mos reservation, one week was flex-exchange with 2 weeks reservation. I received a preference request for both weeks, I called room control to 'chat' with them and was quite surprised: They had both weeks linked and had my preferences noted on the reservation. Further, I made clarified my requests (floor etc..) and was treated with courtesy and kindness. It was a great call.
When we checked in, it was an odd check-in day and late in the day as well. The assistant at the desk gave us our room and offered an alternate choice (it was a special needs room). All in all, the room was exactly what I had requested and was a great room. Everybody was very kind and helpful.
I know this was our first year as owners (2 weeks), so maybe that influenced their treatment of us....I hope not. It was great.

I'm sorry your experience differed.

 

[NboroGirl]

Could we have been blackballed? I ask this because last year we had one big problem regarding our room, and it took 4 or 5 calls and/or visits to the front desk to finally get it straightened out. Maybe we received a black mark because of it?

[The problem we had last year was: we had a reservation for one night in a studio because we arrived a day early. That was a separate, cash-paid reservation. Then we occupied our week in the 2BR, which we shared with friends of ours. I purposely did not link the 2 reservations because I wanted to try different areas of the resort, but Marriott somehow linked them anyway. The problem arose when they thought they would do us the favor of giving us the other side of the studio for the week (making the 2BR). That would have been fine if they cleaned the studio we occupied the night before, since we were having friends of ours occupy that part. But they wouldn't clean it unless we paid them to, even tho it had been a separate reservation. If we had moved to a different 2BR unit after our 1st night, they would have had to clean the studio we were in but I couldn't get them to understand this. So they gave us a free "tidy service" which wasn't adequate. We insisted they change the sheets in the studio, which they finally did, but then they left the bathroom dirty with dirty towels, etc. It was very frustrating and perhaps they branded us as troublemakers and decided to give us less than optimal service?]

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess I will call them ahead of time next year a few weeks before our arrival. Whom do I ask for when I call? "Room Assignment Team"?

 

[Bucky]

Could we have been blackballed? I ask this because last year we had one big problem regarding our room, and it took 4 or 5 calls and/or visits to the front desk to finally get it straightened out. Maybe we received a black mark because of it?

[The problem we had last year was: we had a reservation for one night in a studio because we arrived a day early. That was a separate, cash-paid reservation. Then we occupied our week in the 2BR, which we shared with friends of ours. I purposely did not link the 2 reservations because I wanted to try different areas of the resort, but Marriott somehow linked them anyway. The problem arose when they thought they would do us the favor of giving us the other side of the studio for the week (making the 2BR). That would have been fine if they cleaned the studio we occupied the night before, since we were having friends of ours occupy that part. But they wouldn't clean it unless we paid them to, even tho it had been a separate reservation. If we had moved to a different 2BR unit after our 1st night, they would have had to clean the studio we were in but I couldn't get them to understand this. So they gave us a free "tidy service" which wasn't adequate. We insisted they change the sheets in the studio, which they finally did, but then they left the bathroom dirty with dirty towels, etc. It was very frustrating and perhaps they branded us as troublemakers and decided to give us less than optimal service?]

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess I will call them ahead of time next year a few weeks before our arrival. Whom do I ask for when I call? "Room Assignment Team"?

Room control

 

[dioxide45]

Could we have been blackballed? I ask this because last year we had one big problem regarding our room, and it took 4 or 5 calls and/or visits to the front desk to finally get it straightened out. Maybe we received a black mark because of it?

[The problem we had last year was: we had a reservation for one night in a studio because we arrived a day early. That was a separate, cash-paid reservation. Then we occupied our week in the 2BR, which we shared with friends of ours. I purposely did not link the 2 reservations because I wanted to try different areas of the resort, but Marriott somehow linked them anyway. The problem arose when they thought they would do us the favor of giving us the other side of the studio for the week (making the 2BR). That would have been fine if they cleaned the studio we occupied the night before, since we were having friends of ours occupy that part. But they wouldn't clean it unless we paid them to, even tho it had been a separate reservation. If we had moved to a different 2BR unit after our 1st night, they would have had to clean the studio we were in but I couldn't get them to understand this. So they gave us a free "tidy service" which wasn't adequate. We insisted they change the sheets in the studio, which they finally did, but then they left the bathroom dirty with dirty towels, etc. It was very frustrating and perhaps they branded us as troublemakers and decided to give us less than optimal service?]

Thanks for the suggestions. I guess I will call them ahead of time next year a few weeks before our arrival. Whom do I ask for when I call? "Room Assignment Team"?

Not sure if they have a "black list". I sure would hope not. Not a good way to treat an owner. I am not sure why they gave you such a hard time last year, it sounds like they were trying to save some pennies.

I think it is more about the time of year that you are traveling, but given the high number of exchanges at Grande Vista, I think that they could do a better job of getting you in to a unit you desire.

 

[hangloose]

Just returned from a 3 bedroom at MGV. We had a fantastic time! MGV is a great resort with a lot to offer.

However, once again, I did not get my view, building or high floor preference. We were also placed into a non-renovated room. Very disappointing as a multi-week owner here at MGV.

After some discussion, MGV staff was able to at least move us into a renovated room. Our view however was overlooking trash and parking unfortunately. The renovated villas looked great though, as indicated in other threads!

Oh well. Either way...we had a great visit to our home resort of MGV.

 

[SkyBlueWaters]

First time there, we got our preference. After that, other than high floors, never.

 

[dioxide45]

We have some co-workers visiting Grande Vista on some Getaways booked through our account. I don't know if they fulfilled any of the requests though. Will have to wait until their return. They had booked two studios. I submitted the preferences and indicated both confirmation numbers and asked for both units to be in the same building as close together as possible. With high floor as a preference.