A few basic things about Marriott's Points system, just in case a comparison might be helpful:
Buyers of Marriott's Destination Club Points do have deeds; they buy deeded interests in the DC Trust (which consists of conveyed Weeks that Marriott had not previously sold or that Marriott has since re-acquired.) Trust conveyances are ongoing and it's not true that the Trust is comprised of only the least-demand intervals. Deeded Trust interests are the same as deeded Weeks in that they can be passed to heirs and re-sold. Annual MF's for deeded interests are determined on a per-interest basis.
Owners of eligible Marriott Weeks can choose to enroll them in the DC Program but doing so doesn't involve a new purchase or any changes to the Weeks deeds - it's basically an overlay exchange system with some other unique usage options. (In fact, Marriott hasn't instituted a program whereby Owners can elect to permanently exchange Weeks for Points.) Once enrolled, Owners can choose to convert a Week to Points on an annual basis. There's a one-time enrollment fee and various incentives for enrollment. Weeks Owners whether enrolled or not pay annual MF's based on the individual resorts' operating budgets. Usage remains the same for un-enrolled Weeks and for enrolled Weeks during the years in which Owners don't choose to convert the Week(s) to Points.
Trust Members (purchasers of Trust Interests/Points) and Exchange Members (Owners of enrolled Weeks) also pay an annual Club Dues fee which covers most transactions in both the Marriott account and an II corporate account. The annual Points Chart closely resembles DVC's (Disney) program with each stay costing various amounts of Points depending on the resort, dates of stay and the particular unit size/view desired.
In addition to the Trust, at the outset Marriott established the DC Exchange Company which is the mechanism for mingling all available inventory so that Trust and Exchange Members can gain access to it. With a nod to the caveat that availability is always an issue in any floating timeshare system, Points and Weeks Owners are generally happy with Marriott's new system. The dire predictions of Trust Members taking all the good stuff and Weeks Owners being left in the dust, or the opposite of Trust Members not being able to access any good stuff, have not played out.
There's a lot more to it, of course, but those are the basics. It'll be interesting for you Starwood folks at the beginning but hopefully, your new program is rolled out with much more help from Starwood than Marriott gave us. We got a new home page on our online accounts and links to all the legal documents to get us started.
Good luck!
