Outgrown our MVC timeshare?

[abtraveller]

We've owned a week at the Fairway Villas, Absecon NJ 2 BR Platinum with Marriott for 10 years or more. Since then we have added points and now have 10,000 Club Points. We travelled with our kids and feel we got a great value from it for many years, staying in 3BR units in Tahoe, Newport Beach, Orlando, Williamsburg, St Thomas and others. During that time, so much has changed - the maintenance fees of course continue to rise, availability has grown scarce, and Airbnb / VRBO have come on the scene. My kids are now grown and are starting their own families. We don't travel the way we used to. As I'm sure everyone here knows - the rental car use is terrible as is airline miles. Villas of distinction is a ripoff. Cruises are no value. Collette is interesting to us now, but when I look at the cash cost vs the maintenance fee for the necessary points - it doesn't pencil. The titanium level benefit is cute and all, but the reward points are constantly devaluing...and what is a free couple of breakfasts in the grand scheme?

Here's the question for the forum: I'm not getting the value out of the program I used to, availability is terrible, even a year out...Marriott will take everything back (no compensation - no fees) and I can walk away. They will reimburse this years maintenance fees (about $10,000) and I'm done. They don't appear to be worth anything on the resale market. Interesting that DVC (Disney) does retain a value, and a solid one. I've tried making some reservations at peak times and popular locations and posting to redweek, but it seems a lot of other people have the same idea and the rental pages are clogged with listings. In fact, looking at redweek listings - it would be cheaper to rent the week I want to go somewhere from there and not own. I think redweek has better availability!

Do I relinquish my holdings? Is there a legit place to sell my holdings? Whatever you have to offer - please share!

Adam

 

[vacationtime1]

Your 10,000 Abound points are worth ~$1-$3 per point -- if you can sell them; there is much more supply than demand on the resale market.

Your Fairway Villas unit is worth little or nothing.

So if that is all you own -- and you really, really want out of timesharing -- Marriott's offer is in the realm of reality, as much as I detest giving Marriott 10,000 points for free that they will likely sell for >$100,000.

Have you considered giving Marriott your points, keeping the Fairway Villas, and exchanging it through Interval?

 

[GTLINZ]

Glad you got your use out of it and enjoyed your ownership. If you are like me, you have taken trips just because you have points to spend/ownerships to use. But i understand and agree that the value proposition is declining in timeshares in general.

I agree with vacationtime1 about maybe not going cold turkey. Is your Fairway villas part of your 10k points (enrolled), or separate, or gone? If you still have it that might be a good thing to keep either way.

These timeshare companies are wise to create the trusts, which they can fill up with low season weeks. To me a large percentage of the best inventory likely comes out of the enrolled weeks people kept in addition to their points and subsequently turned in. I suspect those are being turned in less often, along with all of the various rental methods reducing the best inventory.

The house of cards is looking shaky ....

 

[abtraveller]

Your 10,000 Abound points are worth ~$1-$3 per point -- if you can sell them; there is much more supply than demand on the resale market.

Your Fairway Villas unit is worth little or nothing.

So if that is all you own -- and you really, really want out of timesharing -- Marriott's offer is in the realm of reality, as much as I detest giving Marriott 10,000 points for free that they will likely sell for >$100,000.

Have you considered giving Marriott your points, keeping the Fairway Villas, and exchanging it through Interval?

I have considered it. I actually moved 8000 points to II last year after I foolishly missed the bank deadline. So I have 2 weeks in a 3 BR in their equivalent. Exchange options and availability have been limited , unless I don't know what I'm doing there, which is entirely possible.

 

[abtraveller]

Glad you got your use out of it and enjoyed your ownership. If you are like me, you have taken trips just because you have points to spend/ownerships to use. But i understand and agree that the value proposition is declining in timeshares in general.

I agree with vacationtime1 about maybe not going cold turkey. Is your Fairway villas part of your 10k points (enrolled), or separate, or gone? If you still have it that might be a good thing to keep either way.

These timeshare companies are wise to create the trusts, which they can fill up with low season weeks. To me a large percentage of the best inventory likely comes out of the enrolled weeks people kept in addition to their points and subsequently turned in. I suspect those are being turned in less often, along with all of the various rental methods reducing the best inventory.

The house of cards is looking shaky ....

I have 10k points plus the week. I can sustain the fees. I just don't want to throw good money after bad if I can constantly get cruises, tours, stays less than the annual I'm paying now. And yes...I did travel with my family just because I had to burn points. It's all been good.

 

[vacation dreaming]

The only value you will find is using those points to book vacation club properties. Trading them into cruises, etc is not a good financial decision. If you do not wish to travel to the properties anymore, you need to consider selling or giving them back. If the issue is that you can’t find availability, is this because you don’t want to plan 12-13 months in advance anymore? If you are still looking to travel to the club properties but are struggling to find availability, then people here can help give advice on using waitlists, which properties are easiest to book, etc.

 

[elaine]

Sometimes, one just has to say, "we had a good ride, got good value out of what we had, and are ready to be done." That was us...we had a fixed summer 3 BR HHI week (non-Marriott) for 15 years. We had great beach trips and then were able to trade thru RCI for awesome places (including DVC 8X). Kids grew up and we didn't need the larger units anymore, I was tired of "managing" the RCI trading, and we'd rather cruise--so I divested it for almost nothing. I felt the capital outlay amortized over our 15 years of ownership more than netted out--so i was OK to just be done. You can decide if that's your case. 10,000 points is a lot to walk away from. some tuggers might be amenable to some swaps for reservations (I've done this a few times) but that takes a lot of trust and management.

 

[abtraveller]

The only value you will find is using those points to book vacation club properties. Trading them into cruises, etc is not a good financial decision. If you do not wish to travel to the properties anymore, you need to consider selling or giving them back. If the issue is that you can’t find availability, is this because you don’t want to plan 12-13 months in advance anymore? If you are still looking to travel to the club properties but are struggling to find availability, then people here can help give advice on using waitlists, which properties are easiest to book, etc.

I've tried to book 12 m out. Ultimately, too often, I end up needing to alter plans.
I hadn't thought about wait listing. Thinking it was always a long shot. Maybe I've been wrong. I will read some posts about that option.

 

[5finny]

In the near future would any of your children and their new families have some use for your points?

 

[Pamplemousse]

I have considered it. I actually moved 8000 points to II last year after I foolishly missed the bank deadline. So I have 2 weeks in a 3 BR in their equivalent. Exchange options and availability have been limited , unless I don't know what I'm doing there, which is entirely possible.

You need to place a request on II.
You are just seeing what’s left after requests are filled when you search the inventory.
There are video tutorials in the general discussion section of the II community to show you how.

 

[Dean]

I agree that if you're truly done, just giving it back is a reasonable alternative. I get the sense though that if you learn the system a little better you could easily use it to your advantage. But you would need to plan to reserve 12 to 13 months out so actually do your planning even further out. You will need some flexibility especially if you plan to reserve under 12 months out. Make certain you know the exact time you can reserve using your points and be on the phone and computer at that time. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[vol_90]

I've tried to book 12 m out. Ultimately, too often, I end up needing to alter plans.
I hadn't thought about wait listing. Thinking it was always a long shot. Maybe I've been wrong. I will read some posts about that option.

Any listing will take time to find a buyer (Redweek currently has over 355 postings for Destination points). If Marriott is taking back and reimbursing the $10,000 in maintenance fees I would go that route.

 

[vacation911]

We've owned a week at the Fairway Villas, Absecon NJ 2 BR Platinum with Marriott for 10 years or more. Since then we have added points and now have 10,000 Club Points. We travelled with our kids and feel we got a great value from it for many years, staying in 3BR units in Tahoe, Newport Beach, Orlando, Williamsburg, St Thomas and others. During that time, so much has changed - the maintenance fees of course continue to rise, availability has grown scarce, and Airbnb / VRBO have come on the scene. My kids are now grown and are starting their own families. We don't travel the way we used to. As I'm sure everyone here knows - the rental car use is terrible as is airline miles. Villas of distinction is a ripoff. Cruises are no value. Collette is interesting to us now, but when I look at the cash cost vs the maintenance fee for the necessary points - it doesn't pencil. The titanium level benefit is cute and all, but the reward points are constantly devaluing...and what is a free couple of breakfasts in the grand scheme?

Here's the question for the forum: I'm not getting the value out of the program I used to, availability is terrible, even a year out...Marriott will take everything back (no compensation - no fees) and I can walk away. They will reimburse this years maintenance fees (about $10,000) and I'm done. They don't appear to be worth anything on the resale market. Interesting that DVC (Disney) does retain a value, and a solid one. I've tried making some reservations at peak times and popular locations and posting to redweek, but it seems a lot of other people have the same idea and the rental pages are clogged with listings. In fact, looking at redweek listings - it would be cheaper to rent the week I want to go somewhere from there and not own. I think redweek has better availability!

Do I relinquish my holdings? Is there a legit place to sell my holdings? Whatever you have to offer - please share!

Adam

If you feel you are done, them reimbursing the mfees is not that bad of a deal imho when you factor the time you will take to find a buyer. I would move on that though because I would think they are offering that cause it's the beginning of the year. I offer no expertise in this timeshare take back program, just saying what I am assuming.