Sales Promotion in Europe!

[MALC9990]

I just received this offer from MVCI for the Paris resort.

Dear: Mr & Mrs MALC9990

As valued Marriott Vacation Club owner(s) we have an incredible limited offer for you. You can expand your portfolio at an incredibly discounted price to include our impressive Marriott's Village d'Ile-de-France.

With easy access to the amazing city of Paris, experience the culture, couture and cuisine, exchange to another MVCI or Interval resort or trade your week for 100,000 Marriott Rewards points.

SPECIAL DISCOUNT OFFER

30% Discount when you purchase Marriott's Village d'Ile-de- France weeks, which trade for 100,000 Marriott Rewards points every year.
Marriott Rewards Points:
 Give flexibility to travel anywhere at anytime
 Go towards selected accommodation, flights, spa, dinner and much more
 Do not have an expiry date for you to enjoy the numerous rewards
100,000 points every year - whether a weekend break or a trip around the world - your Marriott Rewards account is your holiday account!
This offer is available for a limited amount of time and inventory only. For more information contact your Sales executive by calling xxxxxxxxxx

Now even at 30% discount this will be much more expensive than buyiung resale and I don't need the MR points each year since I have enough weeks already to get MR points anually should I so desire.

However it does demonstrate (to me at least) that the pressure on weeks sales is growing in Europe and that perhaps we might see some movement to bring the 4 European resorts into the points camp at some point soon.

 

[jimf41]

I agree. Right before they came out with the point system they discounted all the resorts by 25% if I remember correctly. This is great news if it pans out. I would love to be able to use DC points for Marbella.

 

[pafort]

hi all,
I own at Marriott Village Ile de France. In 2008 I got an offer for 2 weeks SILVER. to € 15100 / week, was given because of the FDB as many as 200,000 points plus a bonus of 50000 for the purchase of 2 weeks, plus, as the owner of the Marbella Beach Resort, other 80000 points (40000 per week). I could also exchange the week for 100000 points every year.
The problem of MVF, are excessive MF, (2008, € 921.68, 2009, € 958.81, 2010, € 975.05, 2011, € 1000.40).
In addition, the resort is 40 minutes from central Paris by train, 2 hours minimum if you go by car. The atmosphere is' very artificial. If you could go back, would not buy even a week.
Gateway now sells II by the end of November to € 354.01 (2Bed) and 232.92€, the other part of the lock-off for 2 persons
In silver season, with discount MOD, a week, costs less than MF. silver in the season, the temperature is cold and often raining.
if you have the silver season, do not buy it, they ought not. Even if they give you points EYP 200000

Paolo

 

[MALC9990]

I agree. Right before they came out with the point system they discounted all the resorts by 25% if I remember correctly. This is great news if it pans out. I would love to be able to use DC points for Marbella.

I really do hope that we will see the extension of the DC points system to include the 4 EU resorts. The EU resorts seem very popular with Americans for exchanges and I am sure that the opportunity to enroll for points would prove popular with multiple weeks owners such as myself.

Ideally Marriott need to amalgamate all resorts into a single points system - that would require merging the MVCI Asia Pacific Points system into the DC points system. That would be complex since the points have different values but I'm sure an exchange rate between the two points systems could be arrived at to solve that problem.

A single Global Points system would be a great move - BUT it would require an online reservation system (which MVCIAP points system does have).

I guess the challenge in Europe is that Son Antem and Marbella Beach Club are essentially sold out with few weeks available to transfer into the DC Trust while Paris and Playa Andaluz would have a significant unsold inventory to transfer.

Only time will tell!

 

[pafort]

entry of European resorts in DC

Last year, in a customary presentation to which all owners are invited, I posed your same question, if that is also the 4 resorts in Europe, tomorrow would be returned to the DC system. The answer I got was negative. The problem is linked to the different rules on timeshare. I asked this question after I noticed how well Marriott in DC had brought him into weeks of resale (so before that DC is not accumulated points).
If one day even the resorts of Europe were to go into DC, would be very interesting to buy resale weeks and wait for the transition to new system

 

[MALC9990]

I had the same story from a sales rep in Phuket in Dec 2010. Then it was that MVCI would eventually establish a points based system in Europe specifically for the 4 EU resorts. When I questioned him about how MVCI owners would exchange into USA resorts after this he said that II would continue to be the exchange company.

Given the fact that MVCI exchange availability in the USA resorts has collapsed for those wanting to get anything other than last minute Flexchange availability, I cannot see how this will work.

It seems to me that Marriott VOA's are snagging all the good Marriott availability in II for DC exchangers and any bulk deposits are now happening so late as to make them of no value to European based members wanting to exchange since that makes it too late for booking reasonable air fare deals to the USA.

This would put EU based MVCI owners at EU resorts at a BIG disadvantage for Marriott to Marriott exchanges into USA MVCI resorts. Already I have stopped using Deposit First. Either II gets me my exchange or it does not get my good MVCI weeks in Europe to offer to other exchangers. Weeks that I used to deposit at 12 months out now will not get deposited until I get my exchange or I will just use the weeks at my home resort. I will not even wait until near the travel dates - as soon as air fares start to rise between UK and Spain and UK and Thailand I will cancel my Request First exchange Requests and book to travel to my home resort. This will probably be at about 8 months out.

Unless Marriott starts depositing USA weeks in II before the 8 month deadline then my European and Thailand weeks will never become available to exchangers.

 

[kathleenpeyer]

Swap EU MVCI weeks for US MVCI weeks

I had a similar experience at sales presentations at both Phuket and Son Antem. Both reps told me that the likelihood of EU properties participating in the destination points program is slim, mostly because it is thought that doing so would devalue the worth of their resorts, which are highly sought after by owners worldwide. I was pleased to hear that because we own 6 good Marriott weeks which we have always traded well through II and have no desire to join the expensive destination ponts program. I want the weeks inventory to stay in II so we can go back again.

While I was concerned that Marriott might be scooping up all the good weeks inventory in II, I just recently succeeded in getting 2 weeks back to back at Ko Olina, one of which is Thanksgiving week, and a February week at Summit Watch.

I'm going to keep the faith and keep checking II regularly for my desired trades. I'm also going to start swapping my US weeks with EU and Asian owners on TUG and Redweek to avoid all those extra fees. We Marriott owners should keep in touch with each other and try to plan our trades a year in advance so we can get each other the weeks we want. What a savings that could be!

 

[davewasbaloo]

I must confess, I have given up on the idea of exchanges now in the school holidays. We have had a great time with MVCI, but it is no where near as flexible as it was before the kids started school, and then the DC made it even less so.

We bought at Ile De France so we could always drive and because we used to be huge Disney fans, but Disney management have been running their parks into the ground, and sadly, the upgrades we were hoping for at the resort have been compromised by the abuse by some owners. It is very sad really. To add insult to injury, sometimes you can snag a unit for about the same price as the MFs but without the hefty purchase fee. It seemed such a great idea originally.

 

[MALC9990]

I must confess, I have given up on the idea of exchanges now in the school holidays. We have had a great time with MVCI, but it is no where near as flexible as it was before the kids started school, and then the DC made it even less so.

We bought at Ile De France so we could always drive and because we used to be huge Disney fans, but Disney management have been running their parks into the ground, and sadly, the upgrades we were hoping for at the resort have been compromised by the abuse by some owners. It is very sad really. To add insult to injury, sometimes you can snag a unit for about the same price as the MFs but without the hefty purchase fee. It seemed such a great idea originally.

Don't give up on the exchange front but perhaps a switch of tactic to Request First and a long lead time (>12 months) with flexible dates might be the best plan.

 

[davewasbaloo]

Well, we do tend to book and try to exchange about 12 months in advance. I suppose I am always a little nervous of the request first option - "what if we do not get the trade/in enough time to get good flight deals".

Lol.