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New Owner - points questions

lovethesun

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Hi -

I purchased a Marriott Harbour Lake week on ebay - we had stayed at the resort in the past as renters and loved the pool. We still do, but I don't want to do the Orlando thing every year, so I am trying to figure out the whole exchange process which I find very confusing. I think I messed it up already - deposited a week with II that wasn't the best I could have reserved. Oh well, live and discover the trade value calendars!

My question is about the whole points thing and "enrolled weeks", "trust points" and "legacy points" - what are these things? Why are there 3 different types of ownership on the MVC website? Is there a dictionary somewhere I can look up all these Marriott terms? ;)

Since I bought this timeshare as a resale I thought I was not eligible to enroll my week in the points system, and yet during our recent stay at Harbour Lake we got hit up at least 4 times by different salespeople trying to get us to do just that. Am I wrong? Is there some sort of exception they make when trying to meet sales quotas?

If there is, is this something I should do? Would it make my life easier? Would it make it easier to trade with other Marriott properties? I got a really good price on my week - surprised it passed ROFR, actually. So I'd be willing to pay some extra to make my week easier to use in the future.

Thanks! I've learned so much from just reading this board prior to buying, so I'm happy to be here!
 

jdunn1

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Your week will not qualify for the Marriott points program. Any week purchased resale after 06/20/2010 (?) doesn't qualify. Even if you did qualify, I'm not sure the points awarded for Harbor Lake are all that great. My guess is you would only get around 2,500 points for your week and you would need a lot more points to book something else. Your best bet will be to trade via II. Have fun owning your Harbor Lake week. I would like to see the pool area at this resort and the mini golf. Looks cool.
 

NJMOM2

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New Jersey
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Abound Club Points
Marriott Harbour Lake
Marriott OceanWatch
I have owned at Harbour Lake since 2003 and always thought I needed to deposit the full 2BR unit in II to get a decent exchange. This year is the first year I used the lockoff option. I currently have a 1BR deposited in II and I can't believe some of the exchanges I could have snagged - including a 3 BR at Grande Vista during "Jersey Week" if I wanted it, among others.

Learn how to play "What if" this year and think about locking off for next years plans.
 

m61376

Tug Review Crew
TUG Member
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Aug 2, 2006
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NY
Resorts Owned
Marriott Aruba Surf Club 2 & 3BRs
Hi -

My question is about the whole points thing and "enrolled weeks", "trust points" and "legacy points" - what are these things? Why are there 3 different types of ownership on the MVC website? Is there a dictionary somewhere I can look up all these Marriott terms? ;)
First of all, congrats on your purchase and welcome to Tug :wave:


To try to answer your question- briefly, an owned week, or legacy week, is a deeded week (like you bought) that entitles you to reserve a single week within your season every year, and allows you to trade via II for alternate destinations and/or times.

An enrolled week is a developer purchased week or a resale week purchased prior to 6/2/2010 that has been enrolled in the new destinations club. An enrolled week can be used as a regular legacy week, or can be traded for points and used to make reservations via the new DC program.

If an enrolled owner exchanges his.her week in a given year for points, they are allocated legacy points according to the allocations of the DC program. These points can then be used to make reservations subject to availability from the exchange pool. The trade off here is the "skim"- basically, an owner is given less points than would be required to reserve a week at their home resort during their owned season in most cases. Some owners feel the tradeoff doesn't warrant the increased flexibility, while others feel it is well worth it. Clearly, some locations received higher allocations that others, so there were those who fared well and tout the new program while others strongly dislike it.

Trust points are DC points that have been purchased since the start of the DC program and have direct access to trust inventory and can also exchange for inventory in the legacy pool, again subject to availability. There is no home resort for trust points and owners are not guaranteed a week anywhere, but theoretically can choose to go anywhere that's available. The trade-off for the flexibility is increased cost.

You can enroll your resale week IF you bought it prior to June 20, 2010. Otherwise, you will have to be content getting great trades in II and using your week as you purchased it- and enjoy the thousands of dollars you saved by buying resale. Stick around here and you'll learn the ins and outs of the system, and feel free to ask questions.
 

m61376

Tug Review Crew
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Learn how to play "What if" this year and think about locking off for next years plans.

Just so you know, you can look for an exchange on II even if you don't have a week on deposit by making up an 8 digit reservation number starting with 8 or 9- like 87654321; this allows you to search II and get a feeling as to what's available.

Check the sightings board and the reviews section as you plan your future trips.
 

lovethesun

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This was purchased after June 2010. So now I can get rid of the salespeople by telling them I don't qualify, right?

My question about lockoffs: I reserved a week as soon as I could (I was online at 9 am on the day it opened up) and there were no lockoff units available on the Marriott site. But then I went to deposit it with II and the II site had a lockoff option available for me. Was that a mistake? Or is that how you get one of the few lockoff units at Harbour Lake?

I will try playing around with what-ifs with the fake reservation number and see what I can find. I knew going in that HL doesn't have the trading power of some of the flashier resorts, but was expecting to be able to trade to a nice non-Marriott resort fairly easily & am surprised at how little there is on II.

Reading this board is what convinced me to try buying resale.
 

tschwa2

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
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Maryland
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A few in S and VA, a single resort in NC, MD, PA, and UT, plus Jamaica and the Bahamas
My question about lockoffs: I reserved a week as soon as I could (I was online at 9 am on the day it opened up) and there were no lockoff units available on the Marriott site. But then I went to deposit it with II and the II site had a lockoff option available for me. Was that a mistake? Or is that how you get one of the few lockoff units at Harbour Lake?

I will try playing around with what-ifs with the fake reservation number and see what I can find. I knew going in that HL doesn't have the trading power of some of the flashier resorts, but was expecting to be able to trade to a nice non-Marriott resort fairly easily & am surprised at how little there is on II.

II doesn't know what you have reserved so if you indicate that you do, then when it verifies with Marriott, it won't go through with the deposit. Your II account just shows what could potentially be reserved by an owner like you.

It seems strange that LO weren't available at 12 months prior. It may have been a glitch. Even for a holiday week if you called at 9am, one should have been available. Next time if this happens call and check with Marriott.

It may not be an issue with your trading power for the non Marriotts. II often doesn't have a lot of inventory available for prime times in many areas. Also other resort groups have priority to get back into their group like Starwood. II matches exchangers up through on going searches, so some inventory never makes it online. II also holds back inventory and doesn't let it show up online even with the proper exchange power but if you call up or put in an ongoing search you may immediately get matched up.
 

tw502000

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Just so you know, you can look for an exchange on II even if you don't have a week on deposit by making up an 8 digit reservation number starting with 8 or 9- like 87654321; this allows you to search II and get a feeling as to what's available.

Check the sightings board and the reviews section as you plan your future trips.

I go into Exchange Tab and input Destination & Travel Window. When I press Enter to search, I am told I do not have a deposit on file for an exchange. Where do you put the confirmation number to start the search?
What am I doing wrong?
 

m61376

Tug Review Crew
TUG Member
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Location
NY
Resorts Owned
Marriott Aruba Surf Club 2 & 3BRs
I go into Exchange Tab and input Destination & Travel Window. When I press Enter to search, I am told I do not have a deposit on file for an exchange. Where do you put the confirmation number to start the search?
What am I doing wrong?

It asks for you to select a unit which is listed in your exchange tab. Even if you don't plan to deposit the unit, you can enter the fake reservation number and proceed with searching online inventory.

lovethesun- inventory changes throughout the day. On-going searches are generally more productive, although sometimes something is spotted online for an instantaneous match that wasn't yet matched to prior requests (depending upon when II sweeps for matching on-going requests and when the deposit crops up). If you want a larger unit (unless the resort only has larger units) you will need to do frequent online searches.

You have to lock-off with Marriott and for Harbor Lake that means reserving a lock-off capable unit. Even though II gives you the option to select it, you need the Marriott reservation number for the lock-off to complete the transaction. The 87654321 only allows you to play with the system but not really make a reservation.
 
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