Need some advice to join or not to join DC

[patriotx87]

I have been a reader on this site for many years and am a platinum Canyon Villas owner since '05 (developer).

My ultimate goal is to add another week (not at the present time) to take advantage of the 13 month advantage and expand my vacation opportunities.

I would like to still use the weeks system rather points at the current time.

I guess that my question is should I join now or wait? Assuming that I do join now my question when I buy a second week (which will be resale) would I still be able have fees waived? (splitting lock off, depositing for another week in Marriott system) Or do I have to register that week through the Marriott DC??

Just a little unsure of that part of the process. Any info or advice that you have would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[GregT]

I have been a reader on this site for many years and am a platinum Canyon Villas owner since '05 (developer).

My ultimate goal is to add another week (not at the present time) to take advantage of the 13 month advantage and expand my vacation opportunities.

I would like to still use the weeks system rather points at the current time.

I guess that my question is should I join now or wait? Assuming that I do join now my question when I buy a second week (which will be resale) would I still be able have fees waived? (splitting lock off, depositing for another week in Marriott system) Or do I have to register that week through the Marriott DC??

Just a little unsure of that part of the process. Any info or advice that you have would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Patriot,

Unfortunately, the second week will not be eligible (at this time) for enrollment into the DC system. Accordingly, you would have the fee savings only for your existing week.

It's hard to recommend enrolling to a single week owner, unless that week is a very high point week. The owner who annually locks off and trades their single week does save money by saving the second exchange fee.

The primary reasons that I think a single week owner would enroll are: 1) you can rent points from other owners for use in making reservations and don't have to redeem your own week 2) you still get the fee savings -- even if modest -- on trading and 3) if you own another system (like HGVC) and would like to arrange trades with Marriott owners. As an example, I booked for a 2BR in August 2012 at HGVC Waikoloa on the Big Island for a Marriott owner and she transferred me a chunk of DC points -- so I used a companion system with nice properties (where Marriott doesn't have a presence) and got points in trade. Someday I may do the same thing with Starwood if I have an extra Starwood week.

But these are unconventional uses of the system. There is a lot to like about the structure of the Marriott point system and Marriott properties are terrific. But a single week owner who doesn't own a companion system, and doesn't wish to rent points, may find it is no better than existing ownership. Enrolling preserves your options, but may not provide immediate intangible benefits.

And when you buy your second week, you're going to be committed to a second II account (and the membership fees/lock-off fees/trading fees).

Good luck and let us know what you decide. Thanks!

Greg

 

[CashEddie]

I wish I had found TUG before I enrolled in the DC program. After reading a lot of the posts here, I probably would have not joined at this time. I enrolled a single, 2 BRD EOY gold week a GV that I purchased back in 2005. That week only gives me 2175 points EOY. Not too much I can do with that unless I bank/borrow/rent points to add to complete an exchange in a higher demand area.

For me, the best value I can see using my points would be to do an occasional DC exchange into a cruise. I would have to do a little banking/borrowing but they have some decent tier 3 cruises for ~3400 points with only out of pocket costs are taxes and port fees. (and tranportation to port but thats an addiitional costs no matter what.)

I think Puck posted something on a different thread about being able to get into the non beach front properties at HHI during the summer for cheap. I can also see utilizing my points for this because I don't care about being on the beach as long as I'm a short drive or bike ride to it, I'm cool.

 

[Bill4728]

We own two weeks at NCV, one we bought resale and enrolled it in the DC and one we purchased since the dc started (therefore not in the DC)

We enrolled for one reason, we like the option of using our points to do shorter mid week stays. WE can stay Sunday thru Thursday and a second Sunday thru Wednesday for the same number of points as a full week stay. Then we use our hotel points to stay in a driveable SoCal area on Friday & Saturday.

 

[pwrshift]

I would suggest you do not join. Owning one in and one out of the DC plan doesn't make sense to me. I own 6 weeks, bought direct, and haven't, and won't, join what I consider a Marriott rip off. If you buy where you want to use, I don't see any advantage in joining.

The DC points program is the worst I've seen because of the skim...if I was a trader I could trade a Manor Club week for a Maui week, but on points I probably wouldn't get enough DC points for Manor Club to stay 2 days at Maui. Bad deal IMO.

 

[winger]

I would suggest you do not join. Owning one in and one out of the DC plan doesn't make sense to me. I own 6 weeks, bought direct, and haven't, and won't, join what I consider a Marriott rip off. If you buy where you want to use, I don't see any advantage in joining.

The DC points program is the worst I've seen because of the skim...if I was a trader I could trade a Manor Club week for a Maui week, but on points I probably wouldn't get enough DC points for Manor Club to stay 2 days at Maui. Bad deal IMO.

Hi Brian. Do you do enough locking off and II exchanging and exchanging for MRP's to make joining the Club just to save on all the al carte fees worth the enrollment cost?

 

[billymach4]

Don't waste your money. Use your week as intended.

 

[dougp26364]

IMHO, it's hard to validate enrolling a single week. Other than flexability, I don't see tremendous value in converting a legacy week into DC points. The main value I find as a DC member is the elimination of the ala carte fee's in favor of one membership fee to cover all transactions. As an owner of two lock-off weeks who regulary has locked off both units and made two to three exchanges/year, the fee savings made it worth the price. If we owned a single week, I wouldn't see those savings and probably would not have joined.

The flexablity did come in handy this year. Due to health considerations and loss of paid-time-off due to having to take to many sick-call days, we've had to modify our vacations to Thurs check in's or even shorter vacations that require fewer vacation days (we work three 12 hr shifts/week). Thus we converted our MGC week to points for the flexablity. It has been a challange to maintain our value as far as points reservations vs weeks exchanges but we have managed. I won't do this next year so long as my wife's vacation time recovers. Should we need to take more time off, then we'll be back to converting that one week to points and go from there. So there is something to say about flexablity but, what price to pay? The joiner fee plus annual membership fee is a high price for just one week IMHO.

I just can't recommend enrolling only one week for most people.

 

[siberiavol]

The ability to rent points is the benefit that Greg mentioned that is going to increasingly be seen as valuable. If you join the program you might discover renting points will turn out to be a better option than purchasing a second property.

If you think that is something you are unlikely to use then I would continue to use your week as you have in the past.

 

[BocaBoy]

The DC points program is the worst I've seen because of the skim...if I was a trader I could trade a Manor Club week for a Maui week, but on points I probably wouldn't get enough DC points for Manor Club to stay 2 days at Maui. Bad deal IMO.

It is all in the eye of the beholder. As a Maui owner, I see it differently. It is a fairer system when you need to trade comparable value to what you are getting.

 

[dougp26364]

It is all in the eye of the beholder. As a Maui owner, I see it differently. It is a fairer system when you need to trade comparable value to what you are getting.

For the high value week owner, it's a good deal when you're trading down......so long as those lower value weeks are in the system and in play.

The problem as I see it is that that is very little value to enroll those lower value weeks. IMHO, Marriott has seriously over valued some resorts, seriously undervalued many resorts and made the enitre points system virtually unusable for all but those who must have the flexablity of points.

According to the DC points allocation, we have two mid-level weeks. It's not enough to get value trading down and we certainly get short changed if we want to "trade up" using points vs the traditional weeks exchanges.

If there's little to no incentive for lower to mid level weeks enroll or convert their enrolled weeks to points, then high value week owners who do join may not have the availability to find the reservations they desire at those lower level resorts and thus lose the value they're seeking.

IMHO, Marriott did about as bad a job setting this up as could be done when it comes to owners. They didn't really give anyone much of a reason to join with the exception of multiple week owners who want to eliminate the ala carte fee's or those who demand the flexablity at any cost. You can add high value week owners who want to trade down to the list of winners if, and only if, they can get the reservation and value stretching enhancement they desire.

As an example:

We locked off our MGC (4,625 points) week and exchanged the two bedroom master suite for a March 2 bedroom Waiohai Beach Club (4,850 points) and then exchanged the 1 bedroom lock-off for a May Custom House Week (2,900 points). Now why on Earth would I ever consider giving up our MGC week with the idea I'll get good value in the DC points reservation system?

You'll see that 3 bedroom MGC unit available for 2013 ONLY because I had to have the flexablity and because I own more timeshares than I can use secondary to a temporary change in our vacation needs. Past this year, that unit isn't likely to ever see the light of day in points again and, you're high value Hawaii week might not have as great of a chance getting it in the DC points system.

When the values aren't relatively even (2 bedroom equals 2 bedroom, high season equals high season), then the system won't work.

 

[cruisin]

I only joined because I have 3 lockoffs and trade 6 in II every year, purely for the savings on the fees, I would never have joined with 1 unit. It is also nice to be in, just in case they ever have something come along that is worth having, nothing yet, but you never know.

 

[puckmanfl]

good morning

Doug....

when you snagged the waiohai and Custom house ressies, were those your exact dates desired? or did you give II a wide range?

You are correct..If you don't need date and time certainty II is often better...

However I did some things with DC that just aren't possible with II...

3 concurrent 5 nite stays at Mountainside during ski season...

took my 4200 waiohai pts for 2 bedroom and converted to 3 bedroom for 7 nites at Frenchmans cove in June...

took 2 waiohia's and converted to 3 bedroom at Kauai Lagoons (OF) and kept the 1500 pts change and snaggged 3 nites in a 3 bedroom townhouse at Lakeshore...

it's nice to have both...

p.s I was able to cancel and change some of these without penalty.....

 

[dougp26364]

good morning

Doug....

when you snagged the waiohai and Custom house ressies, were those your exact dates desired? or did you give II a wide range?

You are correct..If you don't need date and time certainty II is often better...

However I did some things with DC that just aren't possible with II...

3 concurrent 5 nite stays at Mountainside during ski season...

took my 4200 waiohai pts for 2 bedroom and converted to 3 bedroom for 7 nites at Frenchmans cove in June...

took 2 waiohia's and converted to 3 bedroom at Kauai Lagoons (OF) and kept the 1500 pts change and snaggged 3 nites in a 3 bedroom townhouse at Lakeshore...

it's nice to have both...

p.s I was able to cancel and change some of these without penalty.....

I typically give a range of 3 or 4 weeks. When we plan vacations, we plan to take vacation in a particular month. I have, however, given I.I. not only specific dates but a specific check in day. Every exchange request I've made has been matched except for one. That one was partly due to my finding another instant exchange online I prefered. We had asked to exchange into a Hyatt on Key West using our Polo Towers unit when I spotted what I knew was a 3 bedroom master suite at Ocean Pointe, I grabbed the Ocean Pointe instant exchange rather than waiting for Hyatt to start depositing units, which typically seems to be 6 months before the arrival date.

Like I said, if you must have the flexablity, then the DC makes sense. But if you look at the points received and the points required, it's a horrible waste of exchange power. I've gone back and looked at most of our exchanges using the weeks based exchange system and none of those exchanges could have been reserved using the DC. I had plenty of exchange power with weeks but not nearly enough points with the DC.

Keep in mind that weeks exchanges can also cancel and change without penalty. The ala carte fee's have disappeared with both weeks exchanges and points reservations. I refer to points as reservations rather than exchanges because that's more or less what we're doing with points. They're being used as a currancy to make a reservation rather than a barter system to exchange.

Maybe I'll take a closer look at past exchanges made with our weeks to make a complete list of what we've done and what it would have required in DC points. I did this roughly in my mind when deciding to join the DC and found that points were a very bad deal economically speaking.

DC points are great for flexability and that's been great for us when planning 2013's vacations. In our case, we needed the flexabilty of Thurs arrival dates. Because we own so many timeshares it was easiest for us to use the flexablity of the DC to get the Thurs reservations we desired. I can work the system to stretch more value if I want.

It's possilbe that one reservaition we've made for Canyon Villa's could get changed. We've decided that we want to spend 3 nights in Sedona so I could cancel that last three nights of our Canyon Villa's reservation and use those points for a few nights in either Branson or Vail. I would probably tack one night back onto our Scottsdale trip so we could spend the night at Canyon Villa's rather than drive to the Phoenix airport from Sedona on the day of departure. Once I have our Sedona reervations in hand (thru DRI) then I'll decide if it's worth it to cancel three nights, then re-reserve the one final night at the end of the week.

If you need flexability, then DC points are great. If you're looking to reserve a specific view such as ocean front DC points are great. If you're looking at value it's often a pretty bad deal. The best value appears to be owning a high value week and reserving in lower value resorts but, there's so little incentive for lower value resort weeks to join that inventory could be harder to come by to reserve with DC points.

 

[SueDonJ]

I have been a reader on this site for many years and am a platinum Canyon Villas owner since '05 (developer).

My ultimate goal is to add another week (not at the present time) to take advantage of the 13 month advantage and expand my vacation opportunities.

I would like to still use the weeks system rather points at the current time.

I guess that my question is should I join now or wait? Assuming that I do join now my question when I buy a second week (which will be resale) would I still be able have fees waived? (splitting lock off, depositing for another week in Marriott system) Or do I have to register that week through the Marriott DC??

Just a little unsure of that part of the process. Any info or advice that you have would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Patriot, I agree with the others who say that with only one week, it probably doesn't make sense for you to enroll unless you're in the habit of doing a few different transactions with that one week every year (booking, lock-off, II deposits, cancellations, re-booking, etc.) Your cost for the one week in the DC will be the one-time $595 fee to enroll and then Club Dues annually of $165 - you can take a look back at your last few years' usage/costs to figure out if you might come out ahead by enrolling but I'd guess not.

Aside from the financials with annual usage, if you enroll you'll be given the 800 DC Points bonus to use sometime during the first year of your enrollment. Depending on what's available, some folks stretch those points in their schedule such that the enrollment fee is a wash.

Also like the others have said, if you purchase another week as an external resale you will not be able to enroll it - as it stands now any external resales purchased after 6/20/10 are not eligible for enrollment. (That rule could be changed by Marriott some time in the future but we can't count on such a change.)

The DC Points rental benefit for enrolled members that's been mentioned here is a good one - if you're enrolled, you can rent Points from other members which can be transferred directly into your account so that you have total control over their usage. It's a pretty good option, and TUGger GregT has a pretty good site going that many DC members are using; check the link in his signature. But if you don't enroll, you could still make use of a rental market by renting a reservation made with DC Points by a DC Member - it's similar to the rental market that's alive and well for Weeks, where the owner controls the reservation and puts the renter's name on it as a guest.

Good luck with your decision, and welcome to TUG!

 

[rschallig]

I would suggest you do not join. Owning one in and one out of the DC plan doesn't make sense to me. I own 6 weeks, bought direct, and haven't, and won't, join what I consider a Marriott rip off. If you buy where you want to use, I don't see any advantage in joining.

The DC points program is the worst I've seen because of the skim...if I was a trader I could trade a Manor Club week for a Maui week, but on points I probably wouldn't get enough DC points for Manor Club to stay 2 days at Maui. Bad deal IMO.[/QUOTE

In my case I agree with pwrshift. I purchased a two-bedroom Kauai Beach Club back in 1996. This is my one and only timeshare and I purchased it to use. However, thanks to TUG, I discovered that I could do a lock-off and trade both sides with II. For the past number of years, I successfully traded both sides for two-bedroom units in Hawaii and Newport Beach. Since the Waihohai opened, I have successfully exchanged both lockoffs for that great two-bedroom property.

What I found since the DC plan is that I could lock off both sides and practically all weeks in the year were available for each side at the Kauai Beach Club. For 2012 I made the reservations for the New Years week with both sides on December 28, 2011. I also found that for these past years, the II Getaway was usually available at the Marriott Newport Coast Coast Villas at a very reasonable coast. For me, the Getaways are safer than renting from owners.

Thus the DC plan isn't for me at this time. As a matter of disclosure, we are retired and I am totally flexible. I really appreciate TUG members sharing their experiences - I am still learning.

Bob