Pros and Cons of weeks ownership vs points...would love your input

[Steve Fatula]

Electing points is not the best financial value- you get more out of your week especially if it is a lock off where you get 2 weeks. The amount of points you get if you elect your week is less than you would need to stay at your home resort for a week.

There are cases where election makes good financial sense though. I purchased a very cheap resale week from Marriott a number of years ago (yes, Marriott and cheap in the same sentence). That week came enrolled. That week is in Spain, I might go to Spain once every 10 years, maybe. For the 9 out of 10 I will not, I have a non lockoff. As you hinted at, that non lockoff means I can only trade for 1 week. And, it's silver season, so, not the best trader. However, it's worth a good number of points, so, a better value than trading it. Really, we purchased it as cheap points, not as a week, but we could use it as a week.

 

[Pamplemousse]

Thanks. I guess there are special circumstances where electing points would be better.
For me as an owner of an enrolled lock off I can get 2 weeks exchanging on II (and I am very successful doing so) and not even a full week using points unless I downsize and travel off season.
But I do like the II fee savings of being enrolled and the option/flexibiliy to elect points if I want to.

 

[JIMinNC]

As @GregT said, both weeks and points have advantages. Weeks are more cost effective and points are more flexible. We use our two EOY Odd Hawaii weeks to actually go to Hawaii very cost effectively, but we use our points when we want to visit other MVC locations or visit Hawaii in the Even years we don't own. We prefer points to go other places because we detest the uncertainty and waiting inherent in Interval International trading. Points also offer the ability to stay for less than or more than 7 night increments and check in any day.

The flexibility advantage of points is well illustrated by our 2021 use year for our two Hawaii weeks. We had booked our week on Kauai at Waiohai and our week at Maui Ocean Club in late January/early February. But with the frequent changes and unpredictability of the Hawaii COVID testing and quarantine rules, we decided that the "rules" we would have to abide by were too uncertain to make the early 2021 trip desirable. So, we cancelled the two weeks, but we had to rebook for later in 2021. We had to use by Dec 31, 2021 or deposit the weeks in II, and we wanted to avoid the II deposit option at all cost. We rebooked Kauai and Maui for October 2021 and are now hoping things will be better/easier to enter Hawaii by then. With points, we could have cancelled and banked the points until 2022 and traveled in January or February. We would not have been forced to rebook within 2021. That whole experience was a driving factor in our recent decision to bite the bullet and buy 3000 Trust Points from Marriott to enroll our two EOY weeks so that we have another usage option other than depositing in Interval should future situations like the pandemic arise which exacerbate the inflexibility of weeks.

 

[dougp26364]

As @GregT said, both weeks and points have advantages. Weeks are more cost effective and points are more flexible. We use our two EOY Odd Hawaii weeks to actually go to Hawaii very cost effectively, but we use our points when we want to visit other MVC locations or visit Hawaii in the Even years we don't own. We prefer points to go other places because we detest the uncertainty and waiting inherent in Interval International trading. Points also offer the ability to stay for less than or more than 7 night increments and check in any day.

The flexibility advantage of points is well illustrated by our 2021 use year for our two Hawaii weeks. We had booked a week on Kauai at Waiohai and a week at Maui Ocean Club in late January/early February. But with the frequent changes and unpredictability of the Hawaii COVID testing and quarantine rules, we decided that the "rules" we would have to abide by were too uncertain to make the early 2021 trip desirable. So, we cancelled the two weeks, but we had to rebook for later in 2021. We had to use by Dec 31, 2021 or deposit the weeks in II, and we wanted to avoid the II deposit option at all cost. We rebooked Kauai and Maui for October 2021 and are now hoping things will be better/easier to enter Hawaii by then. With points, we could have cancelled and banked the points until 2022 and traveled in January or February. We would not have been forced to rebook within 2021. That whole experience was a driving factor in our recent decision to bite the bullet and buy 3000 Trust Points from Marriott to enroll our two EOY weeks so that we have another usage option other than depositing in Interval should future situations like the pandemic arise which exacerbate the inflexibility of weeks.

This scenario pretty much illustrates why we paid the original joiner fee when the DC came out. I wanted to protect our options.

Originally I was outspoken and dissatisfied with “the skim” and openly doubted we’d be using the points option at all. I envisioned us continuing to lock of and trade as we always had done. After all, our two weeks could easily become 4 full weeks. Part of the reason we purchased our Grand Chateau 3 bedroom was that it locked out into a full two bedroom and a full one bedroom unit, which meant I could easily search for one bedroom units without the worry of having enough juice to trade up in size.

Fast forward to today and we barely use the weeks option anymore. A couple of unplanned job changes when our long time employer was sold to a larger corporation, reducing our available paid time off, which necessitated manipulating check in days or shorter, more frequent getaways. We learned we REALLY enjoy a nicer view (ocean front or ocean view/ocean side).

We still use our owned Ocean Pointe 3 bedroom ocean front unit. It’s one of two weeks we bought to use and have always used (the other being a BGV unit in Breckenridge, CO). But 2022 is going to be a challenge. We’ve banked as many points as possible, but some still need to be used before Jan 2023. While it’s not economically the very best move we can make, we’ll likely convert that Ocean Pointe week to DC points, bank those points, then use the expiring points to reserve a 1 bedroom ocean front unit at Ocean Pointe. I’ve always been curious about the ocean front units that actually face the Inlet instead of a true ocean front view (that was a BIG debate back in the day about being misleading), so maybe we can get one of those “undesirable” ocean front units. Who knows, maybe we’ll like this option so much we’ll begin converting this week to points as well.

 

[cowboy]

Have any of you that have used points midweek been able to stay in the same unit that you reserved using your 7 day legacy week, or have you had to move?

 

[Dean]

Have any of you that have used points midweek been able to stay in the same unit that you reserved using your 7 day legacy week, or have you had to move?

We've consistently been able to stay in the same unit when we bracketed weeks with points whether it was owned or an exchange. We've been careful to have the same unit type. Having a different unit type or view type is a recipe for having to move.

 

[deniseh]

We've consistently been able to stay in the same unit when we bracketed weeks with points whether it was owned or an exchange. We've been careful to have the same unit type. Having a different unit type or view type is a recipe for having to move.

Yes, we’ve done the same thing a number of times. But as noted it must be same type of unit as far as view. We have had success going from 2 BR to 1 BR and staying in the master.

 

[deniseh]

This scenario pretty much illustrates why we paid the original joiner fee when the DC came out. I wanted to protect our options.

Originally I was outspoken and dissatisfied with “the skim” and openly doubted we’d be using the points option at all. I envisioned us continuing to lock of and trade as we always had done. After all, our two weeks could easily become 4 full weeks. Part of the reason we purchased our Grand Chateau 3 bedroom was that it locked out into a full two bedroom and a full one bedroom unit, which meant I could easily search for one bedroom units without the worry of having enough juice to trade up in size.

Fast forward to today and we barely use the weeks option anymore. A couple of unplanned job changes when our long time employer was sold to a larger corporation, reducing our available paid time off, which necessitated manipulating check in days or shorter, more frequent getaways. We learned we REALLY enjoy a nicer view (ocean front or ocean view/ocean side).

We still use our owned Ocean Pointe 3 bedroom ocean front unit. It’s one of two weeks we bought to use and have always used (the other being a BGV unit in Breckenridge, CO). But 2022 is going to be a challenge. We’ve banked as many points as possible, but some still need to be used before Jan 2023. While it’s not economically the very best move we can make, we’ll likely convert that Ocean Pointe week to DC points, bank those points, then use the expiring points to reserve a 1 bedroom ocean front unit at Ocean Pointe. I’ve always been curious about the ocean front units that actually face the Inlet instead of a true ocean front view (that was a BIG debate back in the day about being misleading), so maybe we can get one of those “undesirable” ocean front units. Who knows, maybe we’ll like this option so much we’ll begin converting this week to points as well.

We stayed at Ocean Pointe in January for the first time. We had one of the inlet “ocean front” villas and enjoyed it very much. It was a last minute interval trade so we were happy to get it. Had to change our plans from California due to their lockdowns. We spent so much time out on our balcony enjoying the warm weather and watching the boat traffic. If we were to stay there again with an ocean front villa we likely would request it.

 

[Dean]

Yes, we’ve done the same thing a number of times. But as noted it must be same type of unit as far as view. We have had success going from 2 BR to 1 BR and staying in the master.

With the adjustments of Covid they have been extremely flexible to keep people in the same unit. I strongly suspect that is ending and one can expect them to generally be hardline on such measures going forward at least by the fall. Members should realize that the unit type and view have to match EXACTLY. For purposes of this process a 2 BR dedicated, 2 BR L/O and 2 BR portion of a 3 BR are all separate unit types and one would have to move if not matched exactly.

 

[rthib]

Have any of you that have used points midweek been able to stay in the same unit that you reserved using your 7 day legacy week, or have you had to move?

Now just legacy weeks but also II trades. Just did Ko Olina Ocean View. Made sure to decode the II code so I knew what view and door arrangement. Then booked same thing with points for a long stay. One of the great things about TUG is the help in decoding.

 

[deniseh]

Now just legacy weeks but also II trades. Just did Ko Olina Ocean View. Made sure to decode the II code so I knew what view and door arrangement. Then booked same thing with points for a long stay. One of the great things about TUG is the help in decoding.

Yes, that is true. I am grateful for all the tips I have learned here.

 

[Steve Fatula]

Have any of you that have used points midweek been able to stay in the same unit that you reserved using your 7 day legacy week, or have you had to move?

I've done this maybe 15 times, out of 15. Have yet to be denied. takes a little planing to make sure you arrange the same view, size, lockoff or not on some 2BR, etc. at some resorts where there are many options. I usually call in advance for those and ask for specific details on what I need to arrange via points to match my stay or exchange.

 

[Dean]

Yes, that is true. I am grateful for all the tips I have learned here.

I'll go a step further. It's not just the tips but direct information sharing that I enjoy about TUG and some other sites as well. There's almost a family atmosphere here.

 

[MrockStar]

I have to agree with points as its very flexible and like others have said here its nice to stay for 3 day weekends or arrive one day early on a weeks stay. Also booking 9-10 days and then modifying latter depending on flights or family schedules.

 

[hangloose]

One great thing about TUG, the community is excellent and will provide a wide variety of viewpoints to help the OP decide. In the end, it is what works for them.

I see value in deeded weeks and Pts. It just depends on what works for you and your budget. I really love my deeded weeks b/c they are at the locations I love visiting consistently. But, I also enjoy the flexibility of Pts....for a short weekend trip, or adding a day or two on the front/back end of another trip.

My only added point of advice/recommendation is.....don't buy more than you can technically use....whether deeded weeks or DC Pts...unless you have a reason/plan to manage. We own 5 deeded weeks, which is enough for our use at the moment. Probably a bit more than we can use...if you lock-off, etc, etc...to achieve highest value. I offset by bringing family or renting a week (or portion of a week) or so if I have extra time. While I'd love to enroll my 2 non-enrolled deeded weeks, I just can't justify the cost to enroll in coordination with a larger Pts purchase. I'd then definitely own more than I could use.

 

[AlmostRetired]

The best position to be in is having multiple enrolled legacy weeks in the points program. This is the sweet spot for point ownership. The OP does not fit this category. I can only speak for myself. I own a timeshare for one of three reasons, to use, rent or trade. The greatest flexibility is cash. No one will convince me otherwise. If you can find one that does all three (use, rent trade) well, this is the sweet spot for weeks ownership. Summer HHI fits this for me. We enjoy going since we enjoy the ocean. When I don’t go, I rent it. Even though it trades well, these are the only two (use, rent) way I use my two units. I can get anywhere between 50 to 90 percent above my MF. The cash allows me to travel outside of timeshares which after 25 years of ownership and grown unmarried kids is important to us. It has funded vacations to Punta Cana, Barcelona and many other places. I can the cash to rent in hard to trade times/places. I also have a 2 br EOY unit at the Grand Chateau. It rents poorly, I will never use but is a great pure trader. I use the lock off to get two trades. We have traded for summer HHI and Aruba, or Christmas Palm Desert and Phoenix. My wife is tied to a school schedule so the trades take both time and frequent checking. One of my HHI weeks is enrolled in the points program but in 10 years I have never exchanged for points nor rented points. This year I did not pay the club fee so they will unenroll the week at some point.

 

[Dean]

The best position to be in is having multiple enrolled legacy weeks in the points program. This is the sweet spot for point ownership. The OP does not fit this category. I can only speak for myself. I own a timeshare for one of three reasons, to use, rent or trade. The greatest flexibility is cash. No one will convince me otherwise. If you can find one that does all three (use, rent trade) well, this is the sweet spot for weeks ownership. Summer HHI fits this for me. We enjoy going since we enjoy the ocean. When I don’t go, I rent it. Even though it trades well, these are the only two (use, rent) way I use my two units. I can get anywhere between 50 to 90 percent above my MF. The cash allows me to travel outside of timeshares which after 25 years of ownership and grown unmarried kids is important to us. It has funded vacations to Punta Cana, Barcelona and many other places. I can the cash to rent in hard to trade times/places. I also have a 2 br EOY unit at the Grand Chateau. It rents poorly, I will never use but is a great pure trader. I use the lock off to get two trades. We have traded for summer HHI and Aruba, or Christmas Palm Desert and Phoenix. My wife is tied to a school schedule so the trades take both time and frequent checking. One of my HHI weeks is enrolled in the points program but in 10 years I have never exchanged for points nor rented points. This year I did not pay the club fee so they will unenroll the week at some point.

I think everyone's sweet spot is going to be different. For me personally my goal has been to own what I'll use in the best way possible but not to rent routinely. To that end I have weeks I use routinely (HHI), weeks I take points on routinely but use occasionally (also HHI, Aruba, HI) and weeks I trade (but take points when I don't need the volume. That will change upon full retirement. My goal is not to have to rent but I do have the option and only use it when we don't go to HHI in the summer family trip which has only been a couple of times in the last number of years. Unless the location you want to visit just happens to be one of the best trading locations, there isn't a lot of overlap in the best units to trade vs the best units for points or to use. LV is probably the best balance between trading and points of the traditional trading locations. Anywhere with a good to great ratio of fees to points can be great for usage and points. With weeks, points and exchanging there are quite a number of options for everyone to find what works best for them but there is also the cost factor. And there certainly is an economy of scale. We find with most trips we're using a combination of at least 2 of the 3 options. For HI it's usually reserving our week plus points options then looking for exchanges to replace the other reservations. For HHI it's using our MGO weeks but also getting additional weeks on points. We try for exchanges but other than last year with covid, we haven't had a lot of luck since we're looking at the highest demand week or 2 on the island and the highest demand MVC resort. We've gotten a couple of exchanges inside the 60 day window but that's about it. Everyone uses their ownership a little differently.

 

[jont]

We are big fans of points. They give us lots of vacation planning flexibility. They are great for adding days to an existing reservation, booking a vacation less than 7 days, being able to up or downsize our villa and sometimes gives us view options when available, plus the relative ease of renting points when needed. Although we have a few weeks in our portfolio, all enrolled, we find ourselves using points more and more. Although you may pay a premium for using points.ie skim, we feel the flexibility is well worth it. Plus, there are bargains to be found out there as well as using your points wisely, as has been discussed here many times.

 

[KarenP]

We still use our owned Ocean Pointe 3 bedroom ocean front unit. It’s one of two weeks we bought to use and have always used (the other being a BGV unit in Breckenridge, CO). But 2022 is going to be a challenge. We’ve banked as many points as possible, but some still need to be used before Jan 2023. While it’s not economically the very best move we can make, we’ll likely convert that Ocean Pointe week to DC points, bank those points, then use the expiring points to reserve a 1 bedroom ocean front unit at Ocean Pointe. I’ve always been curious about the ocean front units that actually face the Inlet instead of a true ocean front view (that was a BIG debate back in the day about being misleading), so maybe we can get one of those “undesirable” ocean front units. Who knows, maybe we’ll like this option so much we’ll begin converting this week to points as well.

If you don't mind being a few extra steps away from where most of the action is, the inlet views in Kingfish are great! Especially if you get a high floor. I think you'll enjoy them.

 

[Pennygodwin]

Now just legacy weeks but also II trades. Just did Ko Olina Ocean View. Made sure to decode the II code so I knew what view and door arrangement. Then booked same thing with points for a long stay. One of the great things about TUG is the help in decoding.

Hi! Where would I find the II decoding? I recently found out about the units in HGVC what their codes mean and now am better able to book a 1 bedroom 3rd floor as opposed to a 1st floor for the same points price.

 

[gln60]

This is our belief as well. Granted, we got in when things were cheaper, but, any time you get in will likely always be cheaper than the future anyway. We simply do not wish to stay a week in general. One can own muitiple weeks of course, but, we also like to travel to many different places. This means II trades, which then can be difficult to get back to back weeks. While points are expensive, many times adding 5 nights to a 7 night weeks stay is pretty attractive. That, and, the incredible cheapness of stays at certain resorts at certain times of year make points a great value to us. But it always depends on your usage. It's tough to beat the value of weeks to stay at a specific place, good luck with that. However, for some of us (likely the minority), flexibility is worth a lot. We've used (during travel) a few couple nights stays as well with points as a bridge to get somewhere.

There have been many times we can't get into a place using weeks (trade), but we can with points. And, there's been many times we can't get into a place with points, but we can with weeks. There have also been many times we were able to get in with weeks, however, the downside was airfare was a lot more. Adding on required number of nights via points helped a lot in those cases. There's also been cases where we got 2 weeks via trades, but there were a couple in between days, we bridged those with points for a single stay.

We enjoy both, weeks and points and also find they complement each other. Were we to start over, I think we'd still opt for both.

Flexibility increases the chance of success

 

[vacationtime1]

Hi! Where would I find the II decoding? I recently found out about the units in HGVC what their codes mean and now am better able to book a 1 bedroom 3rd floor as opposed to a 1st floor for the same points price.

Marriott II Unit Codes

Heyyyyy dioxide... We ended up with an exchange into MM1 coming up in May. It's an Ocean View Studio and the room code is TOGV. Your list shows OVOG as the code but both II and Marriott's website are showing me TOGV with an OceanView description. Just wanted to let you know if an update is...

tugbbs.com

 

[Pamplemousse]

Note this message on your II confirmation certificate-
“ The host unit may vary from the one indicated. The Certificate does not indicate that a particular view or unit location will be provided at the destination resort.”
Realize you are not entitled the the view listed.

I have had good like kindly requesting what I would prefer by email or phone a week or 2 in advance and again with a smile at check in. I don’t always get what I ask for if it’s not available or against the resort’s allocation rules but I do believe I get the best they have available.

 

[rthib]

Hi! Where would I find the II decoding? I recently found out about the units in HGVC what their codes mean and now am better able to book a 1 bedroom 3rd floor as opposed to a 1st floor for the same points price.

Marriott II Unit Codes

Heyyyyy dioxide... We ended up with an exchange into MM1 coming up in May. It's an Ocean View Studio and the room code is TOGV. Your list shows OVOG as the code but both II and Marriott's website are showing me TOGV with an OceanView description. Just wanted to let you know if an update is...

tugbbs.com

In addition to thread, you can also go to Marriott.com, put in the reservation number and it will show you room.
Or you can use the MARSHA Hack.

Also I am 100% on getting II view when I have added a points reservation to the trade.

Here is how to do the MARSHA Hack

KoOlina which is better ZZAA or TBOV?

I know both are ocean view, am I correct that the TBOV is better than ZZAA? And Second question, if I were trying to make a points reservation to match up - 2 Bedroom TBOV would be 2 Bedroom (One Entry door?)

tugbbs.com