Possible New Marriott Point Program versus MVC Asia-Pacific
I can not speak for the possible new points program for Marriott USA. However, I can tell you how the Marriott Asia-Pacific Vacation Club program works.
Before I mention that, let me say that it seems Thailand is a testing ground for Marriott. The Courtyard Bangkok is the example for all new Courtyard hotels. Marriott is expanding here in Thailand with several new properties in the pipeline. Also, it seems some of the updated MVCI resorts have copied Marriott's Mai Khao Beach as far as styling is concerned. My guess is that the new points program will be similar to the Asia-Pacific program in many ways. This OPINIONATED (Please do not hold me to this) summary below is just an overlay with that thought in mind (USA program will be similar to the Asia program).
The Marriott VC Asia-Pacific program:
In a nutshell, platinum 2-bedroom weeks cost about 32,000 points at almost all of the resorts - about 7 of them. Except for Hawaii where they range between 48,000 and 55,000 points. I highly doubt they will base the point values off of maintenance fees, rather, base the point values on the demand of that property during the platinum time frame. They have flexchanges (59 days or less) that cost 10,000 points for any available sized unit. Points cost $1.25 through Marriott and $1.13 if you pay everything off in 30 days. Promos include double points for the first year, bonus weeks for the first year and/or free interval memberships. Points can stay in your account for up to 2 years and afterwards have to be converted to Marriott Rewards points. You can borrow point from the next year, as long as your MFs are paid up.
The big selling point to Asians is the flexibility of the program. Many Asian people like to go several places rather than lounge out at one resort all week. This is where things get interesting because you can stay one night or seven nights. A typical 32,000 point property (for the week) costs 3,700 points on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (14,800 total), 6,400 points on Friday and Saturday (12,800) and 5,100 on Sunday. I'm not sure how much of a benefit this would be to the person who likes seven straight days. Also, just FYI, you can use the Club points to stay in various Marriott hotels across Asia (2,500 to 4,000 points per night), staying in just standard hotel rooms.
Phuket deed owners were offered to pay $5,000 to switch over to points. At that time the points sold for $0.75. However, Phuket deed owners are not lifetime owners to my knowledge. Rather it is a leased timeshare that ends in 2080 (I am not 100% on this and therefore should not have stated it, but oh well). The Asia-Pacific points program is a program that expires after about 46 years of purchase.
Once again, I'm not sure how the Asia-Pacific program will translate into the USA program. But, this writing is based on the idea that similarities will exist.
The big push in the Asia-Pacific program was how you would be able to convert your club points into Marriott reward points. To the common "Joe", Marriott Rewards is a big deal because many of us in the business world have collected many of those Reward points (with company funds) and have redeemed them many times for quality stays. The common "Joe", like me, when presented the MVC-Asia points program was very confused about the value of a club point, but, hey, I knew really well what a Reward point was. "With 32,000 club points you can have 160,000 reward points". That registered with me and probably will for other first time presentation goers.
We all know (at least I do now) that this is not a good deal. Doing the math, MVC club points are worth far more than Marriott reward points. Conversion is 5:1 in the program (5 reward points for every one club point) until 2020 and then 3:1 after. Starting last year, new program members received the 3:1 ratio. In any case, it is not a good deal at all unless you just have to stay in the city or near something specific. But you can forget the 2 bedrooms and the kitchen unless you want a Residence Inn.
Asia-Pacific programs have hit the resale market. Most programs sell for between $0.83 a point and $1.00 a point. It seems a majority of resales come from Singapore and Hong Kong. This is a discount versus todays price of $1.13 or $1.25, but is not nearly the deal that you would get on a deeded week timeshare at any other MVCI resort. But, if you stop selling weeks and only sell points, it may keep resale values high (for points) in the initial years, just because there are not many programs for sale. I have no idea what this would do for deeded weeks, but logic says the value of a deeded week would either go up, or the resale of points would come down to match the value of a deeded week. My guess is that it will land somewhere in the middle. Raising the value of a deeded week from where it is right now.
Certainly a new point program would have to have "forever" terms, just like a deeded week. If it does not, than deeded weeks will certainly go up in value. I'm told by the Asia-Pacific folks that the Club point values to stay 7 nights at a resort (ex. 32,000), will NEVER change. Rather, the cost to buy points will just increase over time. So, based on where your timeshare is and the point value assigned to your resort, will make a big difference. My guess is that most resorts will land in the 32,000 range for a 2-bedroom, platinum week if the USA system is similar to the Asia-Pacific program. Hawaii, 50,000 because it's Hawaii.
Club point users go direct through Marriott, not Interval, so point users may have a booking edge over week owners if those week owners were trying to trade their home resort for a different resort. However, I think it would take a very long time for that to make a difference.
MFs for the Asia-Pacific program are roughly $290 per 10,000 points. So a 32,000 point 2 bedroom, platinum MF is about $928. 50,000 points annually, enough to stay in Hawaii one week is roughly $1450.
The real downer for the points programs is in the area of lock-offs and trading your lock-off for 2 full weeks (sometimes 2 bedrooms for both weeks). It seems that it would be much more difficult or maybe impossible with the points program. If you owned 32,000 points, the only way to make this happen is with two flexchanges (59 days or less). I do not see how Marriott would work around this. Maybe they will not work around it on purpose.
Of course this is all my opinion. Many of you know much more about timeshare point programs than I do. Knowledge wise, I think I'm above average on the MVC Asia-Pacific points program, so I just wanted to give the viewpoint with that program in mind.
My advice is, if you are a week owner, hold on to it and if you see that your week does not give you what you want and see that the points do give you what you want, then convert to points (only if the points last forever). By that time, your week should be worth more and the level of points you are looking for will hopefully be about the same price. All speculation of course.
I can not speak for the possible new points program for Marriott USA. However, I can tell you how the Marriott Asia-Pacific Vacation Club program works.
Before I mention that, let me say that it seems Thailand is a testing ground for Marriott. The Courtyard Bangkok is the example for all new Courtyard hotels. Marriott is expanding here in Thailand with several new properties in the pipeline. Also, it seems some of the updated MVCI resorts have copied Marriott's Mai Khao Beach as far as styling is concerned. My guess is that the new points program will be similar to the Asia-Pacific program in many ways. This OPINIONATED (Please do not hold me to this) summary below is just an overlay with that thought in mind (USA program will be similar to the Asia program).
The Marriott VC Asia-Pacific program:
In a nutshell, platinum 2-bedroom weeks cost about 32,000 points at almost all of the resorts - about 7 of them. Except for Hawaii where they range between 48,000 and 55,000 points. I highly doubt they will base the point values off of maintenance fees, rather, base the point values on the demand of that property during the platinum time frame. They have flexchanges (59 days or less) that cost 10,000 points for any available sized unit. Points cost $1.25 through Marriott and $1.13 if you pay everything off in 30 days. Promos include double points for the first year, bonus weeks for the first year and/or free interval memberships. Points can stay in your account for up to 2 years and afterwards have to be converted to Marriott Rewards points. You can borrow point from the next year, as long as your MFs are paid up.
The big selling point to Asians is the flexibility of the program. Many Asian people like to go several places rather than lounge out at one resort all week. This is where things get interesting because you can stay one night or seven nights. A typical 32,000 point property (for the week) costs 3,700 points on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (14,800 total), 6,400 points on Friday and Saturday (12,800) and 5,100 on Sunday. I'm not sure how much of a benefit this would be to the person who likes seven straight days. Also, just FYI, you can use the Club points to stay in various Marriott hotels across Asia (2,500 to 4,000 points per night), staying in just standard hotel rooms.
Phuket deed owners were offered to pay $5,000 to switch over to points. At that time the points sold for $0.75. However, Phuket deed owners are not lifetime owners to my knowledge. Rather it is a leased timeshare that ends in 2080 (I am not 100% on this and therefore should not have stated it, but oh well). The Asia-Pacific points program is a program that expires after about 46 years of purchase.
Once again, I'm not sure how the Asia-Pacific program will translate into the USA program. But, this writing is based on the idea that similarities will exist.
The big push in the Asia-Pacific program was how you would be able to convert your club points into Marriott reward points. To the common "Joe", Marriott Rewards is a big deal because many of us in the business world have collected many of those Reward points (with company funds) and have redeemed them many times for quality stays. The common "Joe", like me, when presented the MVC-Asia points program was very confused about the value of a club point, but, hey, I knew really well what a Reward point was. "With 32,000 club points you can have 160,000 reward points". That registered with me and probably will for other first time presentation goers.
We all know (at least I do now) that this is not a good deal. Doing the math, MVC club points are worth far more than Marriott reward points. Conversion is 5:1 in the program (5 reward points for every one club point) until 2020 and then 3:1 after. Starting last year, new program members received the 3:1 ratio. In any case, it is not a good deal at all unless you just have to stay in the city or near something specific. But you can forget the 2 bedrooms and the kitchen unless you want a Residence Inn.
Asia-Pacific programs have hit the resale market. Most programs sell for between $0.83 a point and $1.00 a point. It seems a majority of resales come from Singapore and Hong Kong. This is a discount versus todays price of $1.13 or $1.25, but is not nearly the deal that you would get on a deeded week timeshare at any other MVCI resort. But, if you stop selling weeks and only sell points, it may keep resale values high (for points) in the initial years, just because there are not many programs for sale. I have no idea what this would do for deeded weeks, but logic says the value of a deeded week would either go up, or the resale of points would come down to match the value of a deeded week. My guess is that it will land somewhere in the middle. Raising the value of a deeded week from where it is right now.
Certainly a new point program would have to have "forever" terms, just like a deeded week. If it does not, than deeded weeks will certainly go up in value. I'm told by the Asia-Pacific folks that the Club point values to stay 7 nights at a resort (ex. 32,000), will NEVER change. Rather, the cost to buy points will just increase over time. So, based on where your timeshare is and the point value assigned to your resort, will make a big difference. My guess is that most resorts will land in the 32,000 range for a 2-bedroom, platinum week if the USA system is similar to the Asia-Pacific program. Hawaii, 50,000 because it's Hawaii.
Club point users go direct through Marriott, not Interval, so point users may have a booking edge over week owners if those week owners were trying to trade their home resort for a different resort. However, I think it would take a very long time for that to make a difference.
MFs for the Asia-Pacific program are roughly $290 per 10,000 points. So a 32,000 point 2 bedroom, platinum MF is about $928. 50,000 points annually, enough to stay in Hawaii one week is roughly $1450.
The real downer for the points programs is in the area of lock-offs and trading your lock-off for 2 full weeks (sometimes 2 bedrooms for both weeks). It seems that it would be much more difficult or maybe impossible with the points program. If you owned 32,000 points, the only way to make this happen is with two flexchanges (59 days or less). I do not see how Marriott would work around this. Maybe they will not work around it on purpose.
Of course this is all my opinion. Many of you know much more about timeshare point programs than I do. Knowledge wise, I think I'm above average on the MVC Asia-Pacific points program, so I just wanted to give the viewpoint with that program in mind.
My advice is, if you are a week owner, hold on to it and if you see that your week does not give you what you want and see that the points do give you what you want, then convert to points (only if the points last forever). By that time, your week should be worth more and the level of points you are looking for will hopefully be about the same price. All speculation of course.
No one knows. At least not anyone here.
