Our Marriott Point Presentation Experience

[dioxide45]

So T-U-G is the pass code to get out of the timeshare tour quickly? It didn't work for us a few years ago at Grande Vista. I even took the sales rep to the TUG resale listings, she kept commenting how desperate the sellers of those units must be to be selling them so cheap.

 

[azmoats]

I finally received a response today! All I was looking for was an apology and that it would not happen again to other Marriott owners. I'm glad that someone was willing to listen and hopefully take action on what happened.

Dear Mr. Moats:

Thank you for your email to Mr. Weisz. I appreciate this opportunity to respond on behalf of the Executive Office of Marriott Vacation Club.

Please accept my sincere apology for the negative sales experience endured during your recent stay at Ko Olina Beach Club. The described behavior displayed by your Sales Executive is not in accordance with the exceptional level of service that the Marriott name is known for. I also apologize for the lack of response from site management upon your request to be contacted in relation to the incident. In an effort to ensure that future experiences are not repeated with other Marriott Vacation Club owners or guests, I shall share your feedback with senior leadership at the sales center.

All Marriott owners are encouraged to enroll their interests in the Destinations Program if they feel that they would benefit by doing so. The enrollment fee for your interest is $1495, should you elect to enroll your week you will be allocated 1,825 Destination Club Points each year that you elect points as your usage option. Please keep in mind that the new program is designed as an overlay meaning that you may continue to use your week in the same manner as you have in prior years if you wish to do so. One major advantage of joining the Destinations Program is that you will only pay one annual club due in the amount of $165. This fee will replace most of your prior usage fees such as:

- Annual Interval International membership.

- Internal Marriott to Marriott exchange fees (domestic and Carribean only)

- Trade to Marriott Reward Points fee.

- Lock Off Fee

- Split Usage Fee

By joining the Destinations Club Program you will also be eligible to access our exciting Explorer Collections which provide new usage alternatives not available under the traditional weeks program. For you convenience, I have attached an electronic presentation that more thoroughly explains the Destinations Program. If you have any further questions after viewing the presentation please feel free to contact me at the phone number provided below.

http://vacationclub.richfx.com.edgesuite.net/presentation/media/benefit_2_enroll/



As always, thank you for contacting the Executive Office of Marriott Vacation Club and allowing me this opportunity to reply to your concerns.


Kind regards,



Ray Filippone

Customer Advocacy Manager

Marriott Vacation Club International Executive Office

 

[scrapngen]

Glad to see that they responded to you and your concerns directly.

 

[nanceetom]

Question about joining Points with remaining II membership

I know I read somewhere on this forum that if you have time left on your membership with II, then you possibly would receive an AC from Interval when or if you join the Point program.

We just spoke with a Marriott rep and asked him this question since we have 18 months remaining. He said Marriott has nothing to do with this and we would have to contact II ourselves and some people are getting them and some not. It was II's choice.

A friend told me Marriott took care of it for them. Does anyone have any info on this?

 

[dioxide45]

Based on the OP, we knew what we were walking in to today at our Ko'Olina presentation. And it sure didn't disappoint. It was almost the same as the experience of the OP. Though our rep wasn't as blatantly rude. She did indicate that the points we are offered isn't high, and using points vs. II wasn't a good option for us. She did push enrolling based on fee savings alone as it would pay for itself in about four years.

She did indicate that she wasn't concerned if we enrolled or not, didn't matter to her, do what we want. So there was no pressure. She hadn't done her research on us though. No CIA report on us I guess. She knew what we owned and how many points our weeks would garner. However, she initially offered us conversion for $595. I indicated I would be happy to enroll at that rate but likely couldn't since we were resale owners and our enrollment fee was $1995. She looked it up to confirm.

Then the person doing the survey came along. I have figured out that this person really doesn't want to do a survey nor is your feedback really used for anything. It is all a front, their goal is to try to extract some money from you utilizing their encore packages. $1950 to come back to a MV 1BR unit anytime in the next 24 months, we passed.

In and out in 45 minutes and 20K more Marriott Reward points to our name. Couldn't be happier

A few points of interest:

• 85-90% of people are converting. Sure perhaps those they see, but we all know from the financial release that only about 5% of all owners have converted. She said we would be one of those 10% not enrolling.
• Indicated that their goal through year end is to do presentations to current owners and enroll them. After year end they will do presentations only to those interested in new points. They will no longer offer enrollment presentations after 12/31/10.
• Did indicate II inventory would deplete, but didn't understand the concept when I tried to explain that there would also be an equal number of owners not competing against me and that also of those enrolling only a small percentage would likely convert to points on a given year.
• 1500 points minimum to buy at $9.20 per point. So no price increase yet. Though the minimum may have gone up?
• We didn't have to sign anything indicating we would not be able to enroll after our presentation. We even indicated we may enroll by the end of the year.
• The introductory pricing could go away any time, even before year end as indicated in all promotional materials. Sure, right.

All in all, not bad. We knew what to expect and were not in any way offended. She was very honest and upfront. There wasn't anything she could have told us about points that we didn't already know. My wife did ask her to provide more information and she did show us the explorer packages. They look like they could be good options if your weeks convert to lots of points.

 

[toxicesq]

In fairness to the Ko’Olina sales center, I had a very good experience when my sister-in-law and I went to a presentation in September. We are both multiple Marriott week owners and wanted to learn more about the points system. The sales rep was extremely helpful, and when we asked questions that he didn’t know the answers to, he brought in another rep to answer. I already had a fair amount of knowledge about the DC (thanks, TUG), and I found the reps were accurate in their explanations.

 

[arthur06]

While it may be true that the OP has a less then desirable, the system needs those people just as much... Not everyone eats filets, some eat ground beef and some eat bologna! Imagine the cost if silver weeks sat empty, the cost would have to be absorbed by someone...

 

[ABC13]

Had a terrible presentation at SurfWatch while at Grande Ocean last week. We went in with the opinion that we would enrol in the new program just to protect from missing future opportunities. The Marriott Rep had no basic information as to our usage of our two Plat weeks at Grande Vista and told us "it's a no brainer" and "I don't get anything for you enrolling"
She had no answers for direct questions and would go off in a different direction. It became so frustrating that we pulled back in our interest to join.
She also failed to mention the incentives that would be provided if we joined and I therefore decided to take a deep breath and look the information over at a later date. (She had to go out to get the points allowances we would get and those that we needed for the trades we requested) Her only Interval Information was the fees they charge but not what flexibility might be available.
In all honesty I had to wonder why a Marriott rep would seem so ill-informed. It did nothing to build the brand in our mind. We will now do the proper thing and that is a complete review of the pros and cons as we can determine from the MVC site and the comments of other Tuggers to decide our next step.

 

[gabrielij]

I actually had a pleasant presentation in St. thomas. Thanks to tuggers, I already knew a lot about the program and she was consistent with her answers. Whatever she did nto know, she went and asked her manager. THe only question they could not asnwer was what happen if I want to resell my points? Otherwise, it is a wasted asset, isn't it? They said Marriott currently does not have a program in palce for that.

She was polite although she knew that I will not buy as I was pretty mad about the program. She tried to sell me deeded weeks though as she mentioned St thomas is the only location that still sells them for a limited time before all govermental approvals are obtained.

 

[radmoo]

Is it possible that sales reps are not terribly happy with corporate so they are sabotaging the previews? If they know that folks just aren't interested, why should they knock themselves out? Perhaps their goal is to help the points system implode, forcing MVCI to rethink its decision. Then they can go back to the business of selling TS weeks. Just a thought . . .

 

[gravitar]

Is it possible that sales reps are not terribly happy with corporate so they are sabotaging the previews? If they know that folks just aren't interested, why should they knock themselves out? Perhaps their goal is to help the points system implode, forcing MVCI to rethink its decision. Then they can go back to the business of selling TS weeks. Just a thought . . .

I think they would lose their jobs for lack of production before Marriott figured maybe the new program needed fixing. I doubt the sales reps are that noble to sacrifice their jobs like that!

 

[kjd]

With the economy in deep recession and several travel companies in financial trouble it's difficult for me to believe that there are any "deals" that are exclusive to the DC. Cruise ships are practically giving away space because it's a known fact that a passenger spends a lot more on-board than the cost of a ticket. Getting people on the ship is the name of the game. I've seen last minute cruise offers that are practically free. Why turn in precious points for that.

Whether it's DisneyWorld, casinos, cruise ships, hotels or airlines everyone is offering deals. Our mailbox is constantly being bombarded with travel offers. In all of this the DC is merely an echo and not a place that I would go for any exceptional offers.

I will say that one of the great deals for overseas travel within the Marriott universe are the travel packages. You don't need the DC for that, however. You just need MRP's.