(Sheraton Vistana Villages) I don't fully understand MVC plan, can you help me?

[kagune]

Hey.

I just got into a sales presentation at the Sheraton Vistana Villages for a $100 card since I'm having vacations here. Anyways, I don't fully undestand the program after reading online due to my lack of trust on these kind of programs. Basically, I got offered 300K points that recharge anually and a "Platinum" status that would allow me to book unlimited "weekouts" that work as vacations without spending points, all of that for around $48.000.
I've read the main forum on how to start, but I've been looking into the marketplace and even though I can see that prices are way lower, they also don't come with the benefits the salesman talked me about. Also, he never stated I would be kinda "buying" a certain specific room on the facility, bur rather the possibility of booking places at my will for me or to rent online (to pay fees and whatnot).
Is there any way to correctly understand this and make a decision on wether or not this can be benefitial for me? I do love traveling, and I really want to make the most out of this.

 

[CPNY]

@kagune 1. if you purchased, rescind immediately!! 2. Spend some time doing more research. there are better ways in via certain resale options. DO NOT SPEND 48K ON SHERATON FLEX!!!!!!

 

[WorldT]

Yes there is a way to understand it. It takes a little bit of time, patience, questions, and research.
Hope you didn't buy anything. If you did, cancel within the cancellation window.

When the mouth of a sales person moves, they only thing that you can be sure of is that all that person wants to do is sell you the unit at the highest cost possible.

 

[kagune]

@kagune 1. if you purchased, rescind immediately!! 2. Spend some time doing more research. there are better ways in via certain resale options. DO NOT SPEND 48K ON SHERATON FLEX!!!!!!

Hahaha, don't worry, I didn't accept at all, though the salesman is quite pushy. Anyways, I'll keep doing my research, but are there any specific good sources for this? I've checked the forums but can't find information that helps me getting rid of all doubts!

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Hahaha, don't worry, I didn't accept at all, though the salesman is quite pushy. Anyways, I'll keep doing my research, but are there any specific good sources for this? I've checked the forums but can't find information that helps me getting rid of all doubts!

You can buy what he offered you on the resale market for free.

 

[kagune]

Yes there is a way to understand it. It takes a little bit of time, patience, questions, and research.
Hope you didn't buy anything. If you did, cancel within the cancellation window.

When the mouth of a sales person moves, they only thing that you can be sure of is that all that person wants to do is sell you the unit at the highest cost possible.

Yes, I immediatly thought it was sketchy since it sounded too good to be true, good thing I got here. But I still want to understand since I think I could make use of something like this MVC thing, specially if I can get it for cheaper, but I feel like there are a lot of things that I'm missing and information online is confusing me further

 

[kagune]

You can buy what he offered you on the resale market for free.

That's what I've read as well, but cannot find offers like that one, maybe I'm missunderstanding the proper terms? Like, I found about Marriott Abound, but it sounds different from what he offered to me. I cannot see the whole "weekouts" concept mentioned anywhere, and the points I see online are usually way less, like 6K or so which he told me are not even enough for 1 night in Cancun.

 

[dioxide45]

Unfortunately, Marriott has a program that is hard to recreate on the resale market. But that doesn't mean spending nearly $50K to buy from them is a good idea either. Any Sheraton or Westin you purchase resale, that includes deeded weeks or the Flex programs won't have full access to the entire program. Vistana resale ownership can't book MVC resorts using Club Points and resale deeded Marriott weeks can't book using Club Points either. There are ways to get around it, but it costs money and requires a direct purchase from Vistana or Marriott Vacation Club.

Vistana has some other nuances with regard to mandatory vs voluntary resale ownership. Mandatory resale VOIs can book other Vistana resorts using StarOptions. Voluntary can only reserve their deeded week or exchange through Interval International.

Marriott deeded resale weeks can only reserve their deeded week or exchange through Interval International. No Club Points.

The Marriott Abound program is very flexible, but also very expensive. There are several options to go with but they all have their pros and cons. There is no perfect way to go for everyone.

1. Buy a resale Vistana mandatory VOI. The list of mandatory resorts is in one of the stickies. This will allow you to reserve using StarOptions into any of the other Vistana resorts starting at 8 months. Buy in is relatively cheap and it provides the most flexibility.
2. Buy a resale Vistana vuluotarny ownership. Most people use this to exchange through Interval International. Not as much flexibility but buy in is very cheap but there are fees association with exchanging. You do get priority when exchanging into other Vistana resorts through II.
3. My a resale Marriott ownership. This is perhaps one of the cheapest way to go if you purchase one of the more desired MVC resorts for trading (Grand Chateau, Grand Vista and a couple others.) Use the deeded week to exchange through II. There are fees associated with exchanging.
4. Buy either Sheraton or Westin Flex resale. This is kind of included in #2 above, but offers a little more flexibility as you can use the HomeOptions to reserve the home group of resorts from 12-0 months from checkin. You can't use Sheraton Flex to reserve Westin resorts nor Westin Flex to reserve Sheraton resorts. If you prefer to travel to either Sheraton or Westin, this can be a good option but I still like #1 above better.

 

[kagune]

Unfortunately, Marriott has a program that is hard to recreate on the resale market. But that doesn't mean spending nearly $50K to buy from them is a good idea either. Any Sheraton or Westin you purchase resale, that includes deeded weeks or the Flex programs won't have full access to the entire program. Vistana resale ownership can't book MVC resorts using Club Points and resale deeded Marriott weeks can't book using Club Points either. There are ways to get around it, but it costs money and requires a direct purchase from Vistana or Marriott Vacation Club.

Vistana has some other nuances with regard to mandatory vs voluntary resale ownership. Mandatory resale VOIs can book other Vistana resorts using StarOptions. Voluntary can only reserve their deeded week or exchange through Interval International.

Marriott deeded resale weeks can only reserve their deeded week or exchange through Interval International. No Club Points.

The Marriott Abound program is very flexible, but also very expensive. There are several options to go with but they all have their pros and cons. There is no perfect way to go for everyone.

1. Buy a resale Vistana mandatory VOI. The list of mandatory resorts is in one of the stickies. This will allow you to reserve using StarOptions into any of the other Vistana resorts starting at 8 months. Buy in is relatively cheap and it provides the most flexibility.
2. Buy a resale Vistana vuluotarny ownership. Most people use this to exchange through Interval International. Not as much flexibility but buy in is very cheap but there are fees association with exchanging. You do get priority when exchanging into other Vistana resorts through II.
3. My a resale Marriott ownership. This is perhaps one of the cheapest way to go if you purchase one of the more desired MVC resorts for trading (Grand Chateau, Grand Vista and a couple others.) Use the deeded week to exchange through II. There are fees associated with exchanging.
4. Buy either Sheraton or Westin Flex resale. This is kind of included in #2 above, but offers a little more flexibility as you can use the HomeOptions to reserve the home group of resorts from 12-0 months from checkin. You can't use Sheraton Flex to reserve Westin resorts nor Westin Flex to reserve Sheraton resorts. If you prefer to travel to either Sheraton or Westin, this can be a good option but I still like #1 above better.

Thanks for all the info! I'll look more into what you said, though, I still don't understand all the concepts well. I do understand though that the offer he gave me is overpriced, but at the same time it's a hard offer to find, due to policies or something I guess?
I'm really intersted in traveling a lot tbh, and from what the salesman said I thought I could make benefit from this one way or another. eg, I spent around 35K in vacations for my family last year, and this year I spent around 20K more, so I thought maybe purchasing this plan would help me lower those costs while having to pay only a maintainance fee which was around 1.5K or so.

 

[vacation911]

With Marriott, if you buy resale, you’ll miss out on some perks— That said, you can still travel to other locations by trading, though there’s an added cost for that....However, it would take a very long time to make up for the $48,000 price tag. dioxide45 also lays out some other options should you choose to go resale.....

If you’ve done your research and feel the perks are worth it, just keep in mind that when it comes time to resell, the value will be nowhere near what you paid. If you’re okay with taking that loss, then go for it! Honestly, $48,000 isn’t necessarily overpriced for developer costs—it’s just hard to recommend spending that much when Marriott ownerships are often being given away due to the poor resale value. To be fair, though, this isn’t unique to Marriott—resale value is pretty bad for most timeshares.

 

[jeffox]

I cannot see the whole "weekouts" concept mentioned anywhere

This sounds like last call weeks that are available to every member of RCI and II to rent for $.

 

[kagune]

With Marriott, if you buy resale, you’ll miss out on some perks— That said, you can still travel to other locations by trading, though there’s an added cost for that....However, it would take a very long time to make up for the $48,000 price tag. dioxide45 also lays out some other options should you choose to go resale.....

If you’ve done your research and feel the perks are worth it, just keep in mind that when it comes time to resell, the value will be nowhere near what you paid. If you’re okay with taking that loss, then go for it! Honestly, $48,000 isn’t necessarily overpriced for developer costs—it’s just hard to recommend spending that much when Marriott ownerships are often being given away due to the poor resale value. To be fair, though, this isn’t unique to Marriott—resale value is pretty bad for most timeshares.

So, there are very cheap ownerships online, but none of them will give me the perks of buying directly from the salesman (or Marriott), is that correct?
As I said before, I want to travel a lot with this plan, but of course I don’t also want to enter into a plan that will be more expensive than normal or will kept me in debt forever!

 

[dioxide45]

So, there are very cheap ownerships online, but none of them will give me the perks of buying directly from the salesman (or Marriott), is that correct?
As I said before, I want to travel a lot with this plan, but of course I don’t also want to enter into a plan that will be more expensive than normal or will kept me in debt forever!

If you're considering financing the purchase, then it is not the product to buy. Their interest rates are around 15% and like any luxury purchase should really be bought for cash. While the Abound Club Points provide for the most flexibility, you can still get most of the way there with resale purchases. My suggestion is to do a lot more research and then dip your toes into the water with a resale Vistana (mandatory week) or resale Marriott deeded week. You can also look into resale Marriott trust points, but they are still quite expensive at about $8 per point all in after purchase and junk fees and the annual fees are quite high.

You don't need to replace all your current travel all at once with timeshare. You also don't need to replace it all with Marriott, Westin & Sheraton timeshare stays. There are other timeshare systems out there that can be good alternatives like Hilton Grand Vacations Club and Club Wyndham.

 

[kagune]

If you're considering financing the purchase, then it is not the product to buy. Their interest rates are around 15% and like any luxury purchase should really be bought for cash. While the Abound Club Points provide for the most flexibility, you can still get most of the way there with resale purchases. My suggestion is to do a lot more research and then dip your toes into the water with a resale Vistana (mandatory week) or resale Marriott deeded week. You can also look into resale Marriott trust points, but they are still quite expensive at about $8 per point all in after purchase and junk fees and the annual fees are quite high.

You don't need to replace all your current travel all at once with timeshare. You also don't need to replace it all with Marriott, Westin & Sheraton timeshare stays. There are other timeshare systems out there that can be good alternatives like Hilton Grand Vacations Club and Club Wyndham.

Yeah, interest rates were around 18% from what the salesman told us, but I would purchase in one payment only but then, as far as I understand, I’d have to pay an annual maintenance fee, which is what confuses me as I understand that buying the program is not “buying” a property but rather a package of properties that I can dynamically acquire for a fixed time with points.

Also, do you happen to have links to some of those resale options? I’ve been looking for them, but I’m not sure which are the correct ones. As far as I know, buying those will be way cheaper but they will also lose benefits that I would have paying the Developer costs.

Thanks for the help and sorry if I’m not fully understanding yet!

 

[Hindsite]

So, there are very cheap ownerships online, but none of them will give me the perks of buying directly from the salesman (or Marriott), is that correct?
As I said before, I want to travel a lot with this plan, but of course I don’t also want to enter into a plan that will be more expensive than normal or will kept me in debt forever!

It depends what "perks" you think the salesperson is offering, and whether you can get them other ways:
1) Bonvoy Platinum Status: Get the Bonvoy Credit card that gives you this as part of the package, there may be an annual fee, but that's waaaay cheaper than $48k
2) Weekouts: That sounds like staying Sun-Thurs which use less points than travelling Fri/Sat. You can get that buying resale, its not a benefit, its a way that points system ownerships work.
3) reducing your annual vacation lodging spend: That's got to be a good plan and can easily be done via buying one, or more, products resale. But you have to work out whether the pattern of lodging needs you have matches the Sheraton flex product, or whether that, plus one, or more brands is what you need.
4) Maint fees: Yes as well as your up front £48k, almost all timeshare also require you t pay annual maintenance fees5) Developer Perks - one of the things that you can get if you buy direct is more "flexibility" on different ways to use your ownership. Lots of those ways are a very expensive use of ownership e.g cruises, hotels and tours. You'd be much better saving the $48k and paying for those direct than buying from the developer.
Take your time, you can start by looking at resale and rental prices on redweek.com. Rent from other owners to try out different resorts to match your quality and facilities needs.
Read up in the Vistana and MVC forums on this website. Consider completing the "New to timesharing" questionnaire to tease out your actual requirements, and get advice on the different systems available.

 

[jp10558]

You don't need to replace all your current travel all at once with timeshare. You also don't need to replace it all with Marriott, Westin & Sheraton timeshare stays. There are other timeshare systems out there that can be good alternatives like Hilton Grand Vacations Club and Club Wyndham.

As dioxide45 says, Marriott / MVC is kind of the most expensive option in a lot of cases. Not saying it's not a good product, but you really ought to take a step back and see if you can go to the same places with a different system cheaper. Club Wyndham is a great example - it's not quite as nice as MVC, but is close to free to acquire resale and has competitive yearly MFs if you look for a good deed (and even the trust / CWA isn't horrible) and has many many locations itself. At 10 months, points are points in Club Wyndham.

You might also want to consider just renting for a bit in different systems - TUG does have a rental board on TUG2, and ebay, redweek, koala etc do rentals too.

 

[2rebecca]

Also, do you happen to have links to some of those resale options? I’ve been looking for them, but I’m not sure which are the correct ones.

There are two different Marriott properties listed for FREE on TUG's "Free Timshare" forum.

 

[dioxide45]

Yeah, interest rates were around 18% from what the salesman told us, but I would purchase in one payment only but then, as far as I understand, I’d have to pay an annual maintenance fee, which is what confuses me as I understand that buying the program is not “buying” a property but rather a package of properties that I can dynamically acquire for a fixed time with points.

Also, do you happen to have links to some of those resale options? I’ve been looking for them, but I’m not sure which are the correct ones. As far as I know, buying those will be way cheaper but they will also lose benefits that I would have paying the Developer costs.

Thanks for the help and sorry if I’m not fully understanding yet!

Finding resales isn't always easy. You will need to check several sites and inventory changes all the time. Check the TUG Marketplace, Redweek, TimeshareNation and Ebay. You may want to setup some saved searches on Ebay and have them email you when new listings come in. You can do something similar on Redweek and TUG Marketplace too.

Resale mandatory Vistana VIOs aren't as plentiful as they were many years ago. So it takes some patience to find them. The good deals also tend to go quickly.

As with any timeshare, there are annual maintenance fees. These will be higher per points with Westin and Sheraton Flex than you will find with a good mandatory resale week. Marriott Abound Club Points have very high maintenance fees. When you buy Club Points or one of the Flex programs, you are buying into a trust that owns at a collection of resorts. When you buy a deeded week, you are buying a week at a specific resort that allows you to reserve a week in the season.

 

[CPNY]

Hahaha, don't worry, I didn't accept at all, though the salesman is quite pushy. Anyways, I'll keep doing my research, but are there any specific good sources for this? I've checked the forums but can't find information that helps me getting rid of all doubts!

look into Vistana mandatory resorts. buy a platinum week since maint fees are assigned by room size not season. mandatory deeded weeks allow the transfer of star options usage