Our Marriott Point Presentation Experience

[azmoats]

My wife and I stayed at Marriott Ko Olina the week of September 4th-11th through a Interval International exchange. We own a 2BR Lock-off Silver week at Marriott Shadow Ridge. We purchased our week re-sale a few years ago.

We decided to take the offer to learn about the new Marriott points system during our vacation. I'm a Tug reader but wanted to hear about the program from a Marriott Sales person before making a final decision. The salesperson brought up our Marriott Owner information. He looked at us and said "We are looking for high demand week owners at high demand resorts. What you own is not what Marriott is looking for. I have to keep you here 45mins to give you your gift for attending the presentation." I asked that I still would like to learn about the system so I could make that decision for ourselves. He handed me a binder to look through and said "this will start you off and I will be back in a few minutes" and walked out of the room. We sat there for 30mins before a lady walked in to say that she was here to check us out.

She wanted to take a survey on how the presentation went. I told her we never got a presentation. She kind of looked at me strangely and proceeded to ask the survey questions. I told her that I was very disappointed in Marriott in the way we have been treated. I told her I wanted to have someone from Marriott contact me so I could discuss our experience with them. They made us feel like we have a worthless timeshare week and that owners should not be treated this way.

I then completed an online complaint to Marriott to the resort and the Vacation Club. I also received an online survey from Marriott asking about our Vacation Points System presentation and another one for our stay at Marriott Ko Olina. I explained our experience and that I wanted a call from Marriott with an apology. It has now been 2 weeks and still no call from Marriott. How times have changed! Owning a week with Marriott is not what it used to be.

 

[scrapngen]

What is it about the Ko Olina TS sales office?? It seems to be the Marriott location with the most consistent negative feedback! In fact, I don't think I've ever seen anyone report anything positive or even just neutral about the Ko Olina sales force, which is different from reports of other Marriott locations.

 

[scpoidog]

My Guy

It sounds like you got the same guy I had for our presentation. I hope you at least had a good vacation.

 

[ilene13]

I then completed an online complaint to Marriott to the resort and the Vacation Club. I also received an online survey from Marriott asking about our Vacation Points System presentation and another one for our stay at Marriott Ko Olina. I explained our experience and that I wanted a call from Marriott with an apology. It has now been 2 weeks and still no call from Marriott. How times have changed! Owning a week with Marriott is not what it used to be.[/QUOTE]

I also completed a survey and asked that I be notified. I just got a response from John Goodman in consumer advocacy and I asked for the response about 8 weeks ago.

 

[dioxide45]

That is my kind of presentation. In and out as fast as possible with zero pressure .

Kidding aside. This shows the level of incompetence of the sales rep. They should have used this opportunity to tell you how your silver SR week will never ever again trade in to Hawaii since II will dry up and this is never how Marriott intended their system to work.

Once he frightened you in to thinking you would would be delegated to silver weeks at your home resort, you would have been happy to sign you up for a couple thousand new and shinny trust points that can go anywhere and get anything. Easiest sale ever!

 

[jlr10]

We haven't done a presentation since the points rollout, but did a presentation at Ko'Olina a couple of years ago on a preview package. It was one of easiest we had been to before. He saw we had a /DSVII timeshare, told us our DSV II was a nice resort but out summer week could not be traded in to purchae trade up for another resort, so we should by a Hawaii week if we wanted to come back. We advised we already had a non-Marriott Hawaii week that we loved, and combined with our Marriott week had successfully traded to Hawaii for 3 weeks EOY. He said we obviously had the system down and didn't really need another week at that time. He asked if we had any questions in regards to anything Marriott, when we said no, he shook our hands, gave us our certificates and told us to enjoy our time at Ko'Olina. We were in and out in less than 20 minutes with a $100 certificate for dinner and 15,000 rewards points. Sweet!

 

[mkahanek]

Ko Olina

I have been to presentations at Ko Olina 3 times, Ocean Pointe, Aruba and Frenchmans. At Ko Olina I always sat with the same sales guy. IT was the lowest pressure presentation I have been to. Guy told my buddy and I on our first visit back in 2004 that if at any point during his presentation that we decided that ownership was not for us just tell him, he would thank us for our time, give us our goodies and we would be on our way. We were both intrigued by the possibilities of using a Ko Olina based week (split between us) for our future families. So we bought. I think we surprised sales guy. Two guys in their early thirties executing a purchase. So you can have pleasant experiences at Ko Olina. Or you could at one time. I met with this same sales guy back in Feb. Was tempted for an EOY week to compliment my other purchase but declined. He thanked us politely and we moved on. I emailed him a couple of weeks ago and his email bounced back.. I can only conclude from that that he was put off by the DC program as he had been there for years. To me he seemed honest and low pressure.. Perhaps that was not compatible with the new program in his mind. It was quite evident that he believed in the weeks product when we purchased. I doubt he was just as confident about points.

 

[dmharris]

This is unbelievable! If Bill Marriott knew about this he'd probably roll some heads!

I plan to do a presentation when we're in Grande Ocean end of October. I'll report back.

 

[rthib]

Stupid, but it is understandable

Not the best approach, but his logic is not completely flawed.

Someone who bought resale (other than from Marriott) has produced no significant revenue for Marriott. MVCI makes money selling property, not from transfer fees.

Add to that the week you own is a cheap week and you have lots of alarm bells for the rep.

The rep makes his money selling weeks, not giving information sessions.
It is not about converting you to points program (that could be done over the phone) it is about you buying you more points.

Are you expecting him to believe that someone who bought the cheapest week, the cheapest way possible, is really going to pay top dollar for an unproven program.

You should be happy - he looked at you background and said this program was not designed for you - thanks for your time, here's you prize.

He probably should have handled it better, maybe say something like - let me get you someone to talk about conversion and handed you off to one of the newbies - but he was smart to get away form you a quick as possible and go find someone who he could actually sell to.

 

[tiel]

All I can say is, the sales reps's behavior was inexcusable and VERY unprofessional.

 

[saturn28]

Not the best approach, but his logic is not completely flawed.

Someone who bought resale (other than from Marriott) has produced no significant revenue for Marriott. MVCI makes money selling property, not from transfer fees.

Add to that the week you own is a cheap week and you have lots of alarm bells for the rep.

The rep makes his money selling weeks, not giving information sessions.
It is not about converting you to points program (that could be done over the phone) it is about you buying you more points.

Are you expecting him to believe that someone who bought the cheapest week, the cheapest way possible, is really going to pay top dollar for an unproven program.

You should be happy - he looked at you background and said this program was not designed for you - thanks for your time, here's you prize.

He probably should have handled it better, maybe say something like - let me get you someone to talk about conversion and handed you off to one of the newbies - but he was smart to get away form you a quick as possible and go find someone who he could actually sell to.

I would tend to agree with you. The salesperson was making a good decision for him as well as the resale owner. In addition, he said they only needed to sit there for 45 minutes instead of the 90 minute presentation. If they had no itention of buying and were only doing the tour for the gift, I think they should be happy. I would have been.

In fact a similar thing happened to me once. I had a salesperson say to me as soon as they sat down that they had 2 tours, one for the person that was truly interested and the other for the person just there for the gift. He asked me which tour I wanted and I said the gift tour. He said ok. Then he took me to view the model unit, told me the prices and asked was I interested in buying. I said no and was out the door in less than half an hour. He didn't waste his time with someone that wasn't going to buy, and I didn't have to sit there and listen to his presentation that I have heard numerous times.

 

[sparty]

We haven't done a presentation since the points rollout, but did a presentation at Ko'Olina a couple of years ago..... We were in and out in less than 20 minutes with a $100 certificate for dinner and 15,000 rewards points. Sweet!

What are the current offers in Kauai and Maui for attending presentation?

$100 dinner cert and 15K PTS is a great deal, wouldn't mind getting that when we're in Kauai and Maui in Dec...

 

[ricki999]

Not the best approach, but his logic is not completely flawed.

Someone who bought resale (other than from Marriott) has produced no significant revenue for Marriott. MVCI makes money selling property, not from transfer fees.

Add to that the week you own is a cheap week and you have lots of alarm bells for the rep.

The rep makes his money selling weeks, not giving information sessions.
It is not about converting you to points program (that could be done over the phone) it is about you buying you more points.

Are you expecting him to believe that someone who bought the cheapest week, the cheapest way possible, is really going to pay top dollar for an unproven program.

You should be happy - he looked at you background and said this program was not designed for you - thanks for your time, here's you prize.

He probably should have handled it better, maybe say something like - let me get you someone to talk about conversion and handed you off to one of the newbies - but he was smart to get away form you a quick as possible and go find someone who he could actually sell to.

In addition to making money through timeshare sales, Marriott makes lots of money by managing those timeshares and receives revenue through maintenance fees.

While the salesperson may not immediately increase their paycheck, I've heard that sales is all about planting seeds. In this case it appears that this saleperson isn't looking at the importance of Marriott's reputation and Goodwill.

A salesperson may not like giving information sessions, but Marriott, right or wrong, has made the decision to use its sales staff to communicate the details of their product.

 

[Hoc]

Owning a week with Marriott is not what it used to be.

And it never was.

 

[Herb33]

This is unbelievable! If Bill Marriott knew about this he'd probably roll some heads!

I can tell you for a fact Bill Marriott reads his blog.

 

[EducatedConsumer]

My wife and I stayed at Marriott Ko Olina the week of September 4th-11th through a Interval International exchange. We own a 2BR Lock-off Silver week at Marriott Shadow Ridge. We purchased our week re-sale a few years ago.

We decided to take the offer to learn about the new Marriott points system during our vacation. I'm a Tug reader but wanted to hear about the program from a Marriott Sales person before making a final decision. The salesperson brought up our Marriott Owner information. He looked at us and said "We are looking for high demand week owners at high demand resorts. What you own is not what Marriott is looking for. I have to keep you here 45mins to give you your gift for attending the presentation." I asked that I still would like to learn about the system so I could make that decision for ourselves. He handed me a binder to look through and said "this will start you off and I will be back in a few minutes" and walked out of the room. We sat there for 30mins before a lady walked in to say that she was here to check us out.

She wanted to take a survey on how the presentation went. I told her we never got a presentation. She kind of looked at me strangely and proceeded to ask the survey questions. I told her that I was very disappointed in Marriott in the way we have been treated. I told her I wanted to have someone from Marriott contact me so I could discuss our experience with them. They made us feel like we have a worthless timeshare week and that owners should not be treated this way.

I then completed an online complaint to Marriott to the resort and the Vacation Club. I also received an online survey from Marriott asking about our Vacation Points System presentation and another one for our stay at Marriott Ko Olina. I explained our experience and that I wanted a call from Marriott with an apology. It has now been 2 weeks and still no call from Marriott. How times have changed! Owning a week with Marriott is not what it used to be.

The salesperson's behavior is inexcusable, even if you own a low-value Silver week, and purchased it independently of Marriott.

 

[billymach4]

I can tell you for a fact Bill Marriott reads his blog.

Really?

Well he better get a better pair of reading glasses. There have been over 200 comments on the new Points system. The vast majority unfavorable? How has he reacted to this commentary?

 

[EducatedConsumer]

Not the best approach, but his logic is not completely flawed.

Someone who bought resale (other than from Marriott) has produced no significant revenue for Marriott. MVCI makes money selling property, not from transfer fees.

Add to that the week you own is a cheap week and you have lots of alarm bells for the rep.

The rep makes his money selling weeks, not giving information sessions.
It is not about converting you to points program (that could be done over the phone) it is about you buying you more points.

Are you expecting him to believe that someone who bought the cheapest week, the cheapest way possible, is really going to pay top dollar for an unproven program.

You should be happy - he looked at you background and said this program was not designed for you - thanks for your time, here's you prize.

He probably should have handled it better, maybe say something like - let me get you someone to talk about conversion and handed you off to one of the newbies - but he was smart to get away form you a quick as possible and go find someone who he could actually sell to.

Excellent points!

I'm intrigued by the entitlement of those who purchase low-valed weeks independently of Marriott. One thing this poster was entitled to and did not receive was a professional encounter with Marriott. I'm equally intrigued by the "career tour-takers." It seems that sone think they're Marriott's quality assurance department and/or Marriott's consciounse.

 

[kedler]

My wife and I stayed at Marriott Ko Olina the week of September 4th-11th through a Interval International exchange. We own a 2BR Lock-off Silver week at Marriott Shadow Ridge. We purchased our week re-sale a few years ago.

We decided to take the offer to learn about the new Marriott points system during our vacation. I'm a Tug reader but wanted to hear about the program from a Marriott Sales person before making a final decision. The salesperson brought up our Marriott Owner information. He looked at us and said "We are looking for high demand week owners at high demand resorts. What you own is not what Marriott is looking for. I have to keep you here 45mins to give you your gift for attending the presentation." I asked that I still would like to learn about the system so I could make that decision for ourselves. He handed me a binder to look through and said "this will start you off and I will be back in a few minutes" and walked out of the room. We sat there for 30mins before a lady walked in to say that she was here to check us out.

She wanted to take a survey on how the presentation went. I told her we never got a presentation. She kind of looked at me strangely and proceeded to ask the survey questions. I told her that I was very disappointed in Marriott in the way we have been treated. I told her I wanted to have someone from Marriott contact me so I could discuss our experience with them. They made us feel like we have a worthless timeshare week and that owners should not be treated this way.

I then completed an online complaint to Marriott to the resort and the Vacation Club. I also received an online survey from Marriott asking about our Vacation Points System presentation and another one for our stay at Marriott Ko Olina. I explained our experience and that I wanted a call from Marriott with an apology. It has now been 2 weeks and still no call from Marriott. How times have changed! Owning a week with Marriott is not what it used to be.

I would email Corporate Customer Advocacy: customer.advocacy@vacationclub.com. Let them know what happened and how upset you are and that you would like to speak to someone about it.

It's one think if the salesman was saving you time because you wanted it that way but once you asked him to take the time to explain it to him then its unprofessional of him to hand you a booklet and walk away.

I read the documents myself and I thought we'd enroll but I too wanted to speak to someone in person. The first sales person we spoke to at Grande Vista was terrible and we walked out with our incentive a week later at MOW we had a good salesperson and manager and we enrolled and bought points. Hopefully the sales guy you dealt with misses lots of opportunities going forward.

 

[gomike]

I got yelled at during our ko olina presentation. She told me that she did not like my attitude.

So I sat there for another 45 min, told the closer she yelled at me, and then went to dinner with my wife.

 

[BocaBoy]

My wife and I own at both Ko Olina and Maui and have taken multiple tours at each location. While I have never had a really rude Ko Olina sales person, our Ko Olina tours have generally been characterized by sales people who are full of themselves and not good at listening. Our experience at Maui has been the complete opposite, where the sales people have been friendly, informative and accurate in what they say. We did not buy when we were at Ko Olina (the sales guy's main concern seemed to be that we buy from him and not from our Maui sales rep). Because we liked our Maui sales rep better, we then called him and bought our Ko Olina week from the Maui rep. We have also attended sales presentations at Grand Chateau, Grande Vista and Waiohai, and the Ko Olina presentations are have been consistently inferior. (All of our presentations were before the introduction of the new points program.)

 

[Herb33]

Really?

Well he better get a better pair of reading glasses. There have been over 200 comments on the new Points system. The vast majority unfavorable? How has he reacted to this commentary?

Yes. Comments about 'the system'. We'll have to wait and see what his reaction will be, if any.

But I can tell you this much. My recent post to Bill Marriott's blog contained specifics about what took place at our DP presentation. A week went by and the post was never published online, so I assumed it wasn't read or they just blew it off. Then I got an email from an executive at MVCI HQ telling me they had heard from "Mr Marriott" about my post to his blog, and would I please give them a little time to look into my concerns and come up with an appropriate resolution.

If what I'm reading in this thread about the sales operation at Ko Olina is accurate, then someone ought to bring some facts & specifics to Mr Marriott's attention.

 

[cbdmvci]

I explained our experience and that I wanted a call from Marriott with an apology. It has now been 2 weeks and still no call from Marriott. How times have changed! Owning a week with Marriott is not what it used to be.

This is the one perception that I have internalized about the whole DC program rollout. The "customer satisfaction is primary" reputation of Marriott has been damaged beyound repair.

This mistake Marriott management has made is twofold.

First, they think that is is all just an unavoidable, small, inevitable collateral damage to a major change like this one. That's wrong. The correct response to the anger would have been first to have planned the rollout better (e.g. make sure all the sales rep's and VAO's were on the same page); and second to publically adress the complaints immediately (e.g. don't let the TUG and Bill's Blog posted concerns just sit out there with no public response.)

Second, and most important, they have underestimated the fallout effects on the rest of their business. As I've said before, in anger, I've already cancelled a large conference at the Marriott at EWR that I have held there twice before. And I've just booked a Hilton in London, to start building my HH points which I had started to let go moribund. (If I were a Marriott hotel owning financial group, I'd be plenty pissed that Marriott's concern with their own timeshare business is hurting the hotel I own that they are supposed to be managing.)

 

[azmoats]

I understand that I purchased a resale week and don't have the same benefits of other owners who purchased directly from Marriott. I accept that. We have attended 30-40 timeshare presentations over the years and this was by far the easiest! It came down to respect. We are still Marriott owners and should be treated fairly. Marriott asked us to come and listen about the new points program, not us. When the salesperson places a book in front of us and leaves us for 30-40 minutes in a room by ourselves, that's disrespect! :annoyed:

 

[carolinept]

I understand that I purchased a resale week and don't have the same benefits of other owners who purchased directly from Marriott. I accept that. We have attended 30-40 timeshare presentations over the years and this was by far the easiest! It came down to respect. We are still Marriott owners and should be treated fairly. Marriott asked us to come and listen about the new points program, not us. When the salesperson places a book in front of us and leaves us for 30-40 minutes in a room by ourselves, that's disrespect! :annoyed:

Totally agree. You were INVITED to attend, and to be left alone in a room for 30-40 minutes not knowing what was going on after being told you had an inferior ownership is unprofessional and inexcusable. Even if it was in the best interest for the salesman to move on, it could absolutely have been handled in a more respectful way.

Sounds like the same KoOlina guy that, 10 years ago, literally left us standing by ourselves in the model unit because I happened to mention that I was a TUG member. He ended the meeting abruptly, walked out, and told us the way to get back to the sales office ourselves. Ridiculous.