After I posted the info just above, I went to the Marriott Vacations Worldwide investors web page and found a presentation the CFO, John Geller, did on December 2 at the Barclays Bank "Eat Sleep Play 2020" virtual conference. In that presentation, he specifically references a common points product that they plan to be selling at all Marriott/Westin/Sheraton sales centers in 2022. He said they were working on the technology now.
Below is a link to the recording, but below that, I've quoted and summarized some of the key points that would be of interest to TUGgers:
Marriott Vacations Worldwide at Barclays Eat Sleep Play 2020
Here is the most important thing said by John Geller about the upcoming combined product form:
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The other thing which we haven't done yet - and the goal is still to get to this in 2022 - we still sell the same products that were sold prior to the acquisition. We've got the Marriott Vacation Club, we've got the Westin Flex product, we've got the Sheraton product. So, the idea is to have a consolidated product for all of the Marriott brands - Hyatt will always be a separate platform, a separate licensor - but you get to one product form that you're selling to all of your folks at the sales table, as well as the benefit of bringing all of these resorts together under one cohesive product form, that's the opportunity. There are a lot of technology and things that we are going through right now to get to that point, but that's still a broader opportunity, that when you sit down today across the table from somebody if you are at a Marriott Sales Center, we're just pitching you the Marriott resorts - which is still a great portfolio of resorts - but in the future we'll be able to include the Westin and the Sheraton because they will be a part of that, call it a consolidated product form, in a way that will allow us to sell it a little differently, which will increase the value proposition."
Previously, in other investor presentations, they had spoken of two phases with Phase 1 being a "common points currency" and Phase 2 being "a common points product to sell". It sounds like above he may be referring to the Phase 2, since he mentions "
one product form that you're selling to all of your folks at the sales table". He clearly says they hope to get to that point in 2022, but is not clear if they still have a two-phase approach. If it is indeed still two phases, then it is conceivable that they could perhaps introduce a common currency sometime in 2021 (second quarter has been rumored/reported from sale presentations), with the full consolidated product rolled out sometime in 2022. So, it's still not 100% clear what the timeline is, but this does offer a few nuggets.
There were also a few of other things that I learned from the presentation and will just summarize below:
- Geller said they were very excited about the expansion opportunities presented by the Hyatt product. It is a high-end product with a smaller, more limited network, so there is great opportunity to use MVW's resources to expand that brand into new markets where they are not currently. He implied they were ready to put major resources into Hyatt when COVID hit, so once things normalize in 2021 or 2022, Hyatt may see a major expansion. But he made clear that those locations would never be combined into the Marriott/Westin/Sheraton consolidated product.
- They have sold their development parcel in Cancun since, once the common product is in place, all MVC owners will have access to the Westin properties in Mexico, making that property expendable.
- They have also completed the sale of excess parcels in Orlando.
- They have another $90 - $140 million of property to be disposed of. Some of this property is operating hotels that came with the ILG acquisition. He said they may convert some of that to timeshare, but that they do not want to be a long term owner of operating hotels. They will find a third party that wants to own the hotels and sell to them. He said they were in "first rate locations" and specifically mentioned Kauai and Puerto Vallarta.
