Reserve Hotel Stays Using MVC Points Survey with the new (2025) Hello Hotels Program?

[PHWiest]

Have you successfully reserved hotel stays with Marriott Vacation Club points with the new (2025) Hello Hotels Program?

 

[Eric B]

Never even tried after doing the math.

 

[ljmiii]

Could you please add, "Yes, before the introduction of the Hello Hotels program?"

As bad as some of the Destination Point rates were for the old Explorer Collection Hotels, you could find hotels that were worth booking with points in holding (and we did so). As @Eric B wrote, for us it seems extraordinarily unlikely it will ever happen again (unless they double the value of Abound Points...in which case reserving a hotel stay with points would become merely a 'bad' redemption and not a laughably, absurdly, awful one).

 

[jwalk03]

No way- the exchange is highway robbery.

 

[mjm1]

It’s a terrible value proposition, so we won’t even consider it.

 

[davidvel]

Have you successfully reserved hotel stays with Marriott Vacation Club points with the new (2025) Hello Hotels Program?

The poll should say:

Would you pay 85 cents for a quarter?
__ Y
__ N

 

[SueDonJ]

We've done hotel stays with Club Points under the Explorer Collection and would do it again if we could. Hello Hotels, I don't think so because - as everyone else has already said - it's a terrible value. But I won't say "never" because if/when the choice comes down to that or having points expire, I'm open to anything.

 

[Marriottsrule]

Question?? Has anyone played with the filter option? I adjust it to what the cost of a Pulse property would be anyway (city collection/whatever they call it now) Looking at the required point charts for clubs in cities like San Diego, NYC, Boston and DC it looks like they average around 750 club points a night. Weekends being 750 up to 1200 like in empire view in New York. Some week nights being as low as 325 Boston in January. However if you are elite w Bonvoy you get no perks when staying at a club (there are no lounges) but I think w this hotel option you do (If full service Marriott?) I kind of look at this option like they opened a club everywhere in the world as long as the points are in a Pulse range of points. The maneuvering of the map is kind of cool…you can search England then move the map to the Philippines and then search that area. All w the low point filter still on. Thoughts?

 

[daviator]

Question?? Has anyone played with the filter option? I adjust it to what the cost of a Pulse property would be anyway (city collection/whatever they call it now) Looking at the required point charts for clubs in cities like San Diego, NYC, Boston and DC it looks like they average around 750 club points a night. Weekends being 750 up to 1200 like in empire view in New York. Some week nights being as low as 325 Boston in January. However if you are elite w Bonvoy you get no perks when staying at a club (there are no lounges) but I think w this hotel option you do (If full service Marriott?) I kind of look at this option like they opened a club everywhere in the world as long as the points are in a Pulse range of points. The maneuvering of the map is kind of cool…you can search England then move the map to the Philippines and then search that area. All w the low point filter still on. Thoughts?

If you book a hotel with Abound points, you receive no Marriott status benefits nor do you earn Bonvoy points on the stay. So your Titanium (or whatever) status gets you nothing. No breakfast, no lounge access.

 

[Hindsite]

Question?? Has anyone played with the filter option? I adjust it to what the cost of a Pulse property would be anyway (city collection/whatever they call it now) Looking at the required point charts for clubs in cities like San Diego, NYC, Boston and DC it looks like they average around 750 club points a night. Weekends being 750 up to 1200 like in empire view in New York. Some week nights being as low as 325 Boston in January.

Even if the club points requirements are similar to what a City Collection property would be, why would you use club points to pay 5-10 times more than the cash equivalent cost? Even with timeshare reservations there are times of the year when paying $$ via Bonvoy is significantly less than the maint fee cost of the points that you would use.

If you have club points to burn and don't want to spend the $ then that's a choice you can make, just as you can when working out whether using Bonvoy points or $ is better. Add the overlay of not getting any elite benefits when using Club points, that makes it a very poor redemption.

 

[Marriottsrule]

Has anyone ever made a chart or something that tells us when and where…would be super useful “there are times of the year when paying $$ via Bonvoy is significantly less than the maint fee cost of the points that you would use.” Also has anyone used this option yet and can you confirm there are no Bonvoy elite Platinum/Titanium benefits w the stay?

 

[dioxide45]

If you book a hotel with Abound points, you receive no Marriott status benefits nor do you earn Bonvoy points on the stay. So your Titanium (or whatever) status gets you nothing. No breakfast, no lounge access.

Some first hand reports have indicated that you could get lounge access and other titanium benefits like the welcome gift. Certainly earning Bonvoy points wouldn't apply since you aren't paying cash. You should earn Bonvoy points for any incidental spending.

 

[ljmiii]

Also has anyone used this option yet and can you confirm there are no Bonvoy elite Platinum/Titanium benefits w the stay?

Initial reports on various social media and travel websites were that no one was receiving Elite benefits because 'Hello Hotels' uses Hopper, a 3rd party website. Since then there have been reports of people receiving Elite benefits and others still denied.

MVC and Marriott International haven't said anything so we have no idea if giving benefits is a hotel by hotel thing, related to the brand in question, or some MVC and/or Marriott International silent change in policy.

 

[dioxide45]

Initial reports on various social media and travel websites were that no one was receiving Elite benefits because 'Hello Hotels' uses Hopper, a 3rd party website. Since then there have been reports of people receiving Elite benefits and others still denied.

MVC and Marriott International haven't said anything so we have no idea if giving benefits is a hotel by hotel thing, related to the brand in question, or some MVC and/or Marriott International silent change in policy.

According to the terms on the MVC website related to Hello Hotels, they aren't eligible for Bonvoy benefits because it is technically a third party booking. As with anything, policy and what happens in practice are often two different things.

 

[ljmiii]

Has anyone ever made a chart or something that tells us when and where… “there are times of the year when paying $$ via Bonvoy is significantly less than the maint fee cost of the points that you would use."

I'm not sure what "...paying $$ via Bonvoy" means. Do you mean paying cash to buy Bonvoy points and then making a reservation using those points? If so, that is almost never a good deal vs the cash rate.

I can tell you that both Bonvoy and cash rates fluctuate all the time. And that the average valuation of Bonvoy Points at 0.8 cents hides both a multitude of horrible potential redemptions and some good to great values - I never redeem for less than a penny a point and occasionally see 2 cents a point or a little more.

I can also tell you that 'Hello Hotels' redemptions consistently value Abound points at approximately 30 cents per point compared to that moment's cash price. Which is part of why 'Hello Hotels' is so much worse than the old Explorer Collection - those rates were fixed and negotiated well in advance so an unexpected rise in the cash price for particular set of dates made Destination Point redemptions more acceptable.

 

[davidvel]

Has anyone ever made a chart or something that tells us when and where…would be super useful “there are times of the year when paying $$ via Bonvoy is significantly less than the maint fee cost of the points that you would use.” Also has anyone used this option yet and can you confirm there are no Bonvoy elite Platinum/Titanium benefits w the stay?

They are talking about Mvc timeshare reservations, not the Hello hotels the OP is about.

 

[daviator]

Some first hand reports have indicated that you could get lounge access and other titanium benefits like the welcome gift. Certainly earning Bonvoy points wouldn't apply since you aren't paying cash. You should earn Bonvoy points for any incidental spending.

I should have said you should not expect to receive Bonvoy benefits.

There are instances when hotel staff does not seem to notice that a reservation was made via a third-party booking service, and they provide Bonvoy status benefits and maybe you even earn Bonvoy points (on cash stays.) It seems fairly random but this has happened to me. It's likely that it might sometimes happen on stays booked via Hopper and paid with Abound points. But since the official policy is "no Bonvoy or status benefits" I think the only prudent choice is to assume that you will NOT receive those benefits (and if you DO receive them, great!) I don't think you can predict in advance when you might luck out and get Bonvoy benefits on a stay booked via a third party.

 

[Hindsite]

Has anyone ever made a chart or something that tells us when and where…would be super useful “there are times of the year when paying $$ via Bonvoy is significantly less than the maint fee cost of the points that you would use.” Also has anyone used this option yet and can you confirm there are no Bonvoy elite Platinum/Titanium benefits w the stay?

No because dynamic pricing is in place for both $ prices on the Bonvoy website and Club points on Hello Hotels, and the rate comparing club points to $ is not fixed. As above you can assume that the value of club points used is in the region of $0.30, based on experience so far.

If there are gems of value in there some where I haven't seen them or heard about them.

 

[Jim Mc]

Why would anyone, other then someone about to lose the points, EVER use them for anything but MVC reservation? Eveything is 25%, or more, expensive using points. Everything you can do with the points, you can get cheaper going direct.

Just my opinion

 

[daviator]

Why would anyone, other then someone about to lose the points, EVER use them for anything but MVC reservation? Eveything is 25%, or more, expensive using points. Everything you can do with the points, you can get cheaper going direct.

Just my opinion

I agree - but there are people who own so much MVC/Vistana that they can't always use all that they own at MVC properties. If you owned a boatload of Club Points but wanted to take a trip to someplace where there were no MVC properties but there WERE Marriott Hotels (there are a LOT of places like that) then you might be motivated to use Club Points even though it's a bad deal – it's not as bad a deal as letting points expire unused.

Same philosophy when you want to take a cruise or something.

Now I'm not one of those people – if I have excess points, in the worst case I'd rent them out and at least cover my maintenance fees for those points, before I used them for something which provided even less value. But there are owners for whom the time and hassle of doing so is more valuable than the monetary loss they might take.

Again, I'm not suggesting any of this is a good idea, just trying to answer your question on "Why would anyone...?"

 

[dougp26364]

Why would I pay $500 for a $200 hotel room?

I won’t say we’ll never use this option. Perhaps someday it will come down to a use it or lose it situation. I can say I’ll do all I can to avoid that from happening.