The Future of Weeks ownership

[Retired2025 aka AlmostRetired]

I have worked in technology/solution sales for 48 years, often needing to understand yearly changes to my sales plan and figuring out how to add value to my customers while making my numbers. Though lying was a fire-able offense and in timeshare sales it is not, MVW has the same challenge, how to let customers see value by makings Investors happy.

The Week/Trust relationship is complex. MVW manages the resorts for a fee, units in the resorts make up the Trust and MVW manages the Trust for a fee. MVW is the largest single point holder in the Trust and they are the largest single week owner at Resorts. The HOA is responsible for decisions at the resort level but at many of the resorts MVW has the power to control the HOA if they choose via voting power of the weeks owned at a resort by the Trust. More and more weeks are being acquired by the Trust making the complexity dynamic each and every year. Adding to the complexity of the relationship is the Trusts dependency on Legacy week Owners to exchange their platinum weeks into the Trust to increase what is a limited number of platinum weeks owned by the Trust at most resorts.

The OP asked about the Future if Week Ownership but the same can be asked of the Future of Point Ownership. Usage and MF are challenges for both week owners and point owners. I would feel comfortable saying it is a bigger challenge for points owners. Most point owners are much younger than week owners which suggests to me a higher desire to travel when school is not in session which tends to be the least represented in the Trust. The MF for points usage at resorts are much higher than for weeks because of the much lower ownership of platinum weeks in the trust. I would suggest that the satisfaction of point owners are much less than that of week ownership. Especially since MVW buys weeks in default, takes Deed Backs and exercise's ROFR which all tend to be the least satisfied group. Marriott only uses ROFR for points and we know how difficult that can be even at 3 per point. I rent 20,000 points a year for the last few years. If I had a need (which I don't) and I was allowed (which we are not), the point rental availability is endless.

A board member pointed out to me that furniture replenishment has been moved from 5 to 6 years and even 7 is being considered. 2025 was a moderate inflation year, it is magical that resort increases the MF in 2026 was harder to find than Big Foot. 2026 inflation is even worse. Cutting costs to manage expenses in a quality of product expectation environment is a losing idea.

The Future of Ownership of weeks (or points) is not something I think about and definitely not smart enough to figure out. I look at the value of my timeshare ownership as a train ride. Each year I look at he value I get and decide if I stay on the train. I look at would reshuffling my ownership could increase my value buy looking to sell, buy or rent points to get the value I need. I have an exit plan to get off the train if the value becomes low enough. BTW, though I do not own any, the exit strategy for points is a lot more difficult in most cases in my opinion even at 3 per point

 

[Tuggernaut]

It would seem that the timeshare industry is ripe for a product called a "fixed deeded week". If that young couple who needs to take a vacation when school is not in session were to purchase a fixed deeded summer week at say, a beach location, all they would have to do every year is show up. No need ever to try to reserve a summer week a year in advance with "flex points". When the children move out, they could then easily sell their fixed deeded summer beach week to another young family.

The resulting surplus of timeshare sales staff could then apply for jobs at any the various Buc-ee’s that seem to be always opening up near where timeshares are located.

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

It would seem that the timeshare industry is ripe for a product called a "fixed deeded week". If that young couple who needs to take a vacation when school is not in session were to purchase a fixed deeded summer week at say, a beach location, all they would have to do every year is show up. No need ever to try to reserve a summer week a year in advance with "flex points". When the children move out, they could then easily sell their fixed deeded summer beach week to another young family.

The resulting surplus of timeshare sales staff could then apply for jobs at any the various Buc-ee’s that seem to be always opening up near where timeshares are located.

"And the circle is now complete..."

Timeshares started out as deeded weeks. Everybody complained about the lack of flexibility.

 

[bnoble]

Interestingly, Disney sells a point-based product that includes fixed week booking rights. You can opt out of the fixed week anytime, and if you opt out you get the contract’s underlying point to spend as you please.

 

[davidvel]

That shouldn’t really matter. At least what was initially reported, MVC would take their fair share (based on Trust ownership of each reservation date and/or weeks exchanged by owners for DC points in a given year, and then those units would be in the point reservation pool. So week owners are competing with week owners for the week share of units. So it’s two separate inventory pools being reserved by different owners.

Of course, in theory this all sounds fair, but we can only hope MVC is being an honest broker here. I think that’s where the rub is.


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I don't know what you mean by "reported" but none of this was ever reported by any official source, it is pure speculation based on how people think it must work.

Even if the bucket theory is true, they instantly take which? weeks in a season? Best, worst, a combination? By using automated means that "regular" owners cannot? That does not comport with equality requirements of the CC&Rs.

 

[b2bailey]

Thanks, that helps. I'm still planning out to build and add on more resale weeks, slowly over the next several years. Planning on when we can slow down and take much more vacation time. I was starting to doubt if this was a good idea given the changes.

I used that strategy as my husband and I were approaching retirement.
I wouldn't recommend your plan if you will need to rely on renting out the units.

 

[b2bailey]

It would seem that the timeshare industry is ripe for a product called a "fixed deeded week". If that young couple who needs to take a vacation when school is not in session were to purchase a fixed deeded summer week at say, a beach location, all they would have to do every year is show up. No need ever to try to reserve a summer week a year in advance with "flex points". When the children move out, they could then easily sell their fixed deeded summer beach week to another young family.

The resulting surplus of timeshare sales staff could then apply for jobs at any the various Buc-ee’s that seem to be always opening up near where timeshares are located.

I was only a sentence into this post when I stopped and asked -- is this person serious? (Somehow the thought of avocado green kitchen appliances coming back came to mind.) Was relieved that it was intended as humor.

 

[Retired2025 aka AlmostRetired]

It would seem that the timeshare industry is ripe for a product called a "fixed deeded week". If that young couple who needs to take a vacation when school is not in session were to purchase a fixed deeded summer week at say, a beach location, all they would have to do every year is show up. No need ever to try to reserve a summer week a year in advance with "flex points". When the children move out, they could then easily sell their fixed deeded summer beach week to another young family.

I was only a sentence into this post when I stopped and asked -- is this person serious? (Somehow the thought of avocado green kitchen appliances coming back came to mind.) Was relieved that it was intended as humor.

Sorry, I liked the movie Back to the Future.

There are two major complaints causing the most dissatisfaction with Marriott timeshares, availability and MF with availability being in the lead. I run a Monarch FB group that is mainly fixed week. The owners are a very loyal group of owners. Many of the current owners are the children of the original owners that go back to 1983 before Marriott took it over. I owned an oceanfront 4th floor unit (week 29) and a 4th floor garden unit (week 32) that has a better ocean view than most oceanfront units at other resorts. There is something nice about knowing your unit with no guessing or positioning. It isn't that difficult to plan yearly usage. Many owners are legacy owners and very very few are even enrolled in the points program (from a board member). The nice thing about going year after year the same time is you eventually got to know your follow owners and their children. A major problem a few years ago was when MVW took the Monarch butterfly sign from when you drive onto the property and changed it to a Marriott Vacation Club sign. Owners are prideful.

MVW owns close to 40% of the units very few in the summer. They can't play games with grabbing all the desirable weeks because the units they own are fixed unless it is a small number of floating weeks that Marriott went to when they purchased the resort.

I did got rid of my units because it only sleeps six and the board refused to figure out how to expand the second bedroom to move from 2 singles to 2 doubles. My adult kids were upset with me when I sold. I bought Grande Ocean. I normally book the same week every year and either use or rent it. I have an exit strategy getting rid of my GO and Grand Chateau's. If I still had the Monarch, the simple fixed week usage would have gone to my kids. There is no system to learn.

It might be just me, but fixed week is not bad at all.

 

[pedro47]

We just learned in April 2026 that the furniture renovation was changed at the Manor Club from 2026 to 2027. I just make a correction on the correct dates.

 

[Dean]

It might be just me, but fixed week is not bad at all.

IMO there are lots of advantages to fixed weeks but lots of disadvantages also. One thing I like about my Bluegreen weeks is that there is an underlying fixed week that I can access if I so choose and my underlying weeks are very good weeks. BG is a points first system so I do have to opt for the underlying week by or before 11 months out.

 

[m61376]

I don't know what you mean by "reported" but none of this was ever reported by any official source, it is pure speculation based on how people think it must work.

Even if the bucket theory is true, they instantly take which? weeks in a season? Best, worst, a combination? By using automated means that "regular" owners cannot? That does not comport with equality requirements of the CC&Rs.

When the system was announced 16 years ago or so that was what customer advocacy was assuring owners. I remember having a long conversation with the head of CA at the time, as did many others. Of course, it’s a system built on trust that Marriott will take their fare share of each week and even each arrival day. Assuming that their automated system is set fairly, it doesn’t matter if they claim the weeks more quickly than regular deeded week inserts, because those weeks would be available to the pool of points owners.
I can only speak to what I’ve seen, and I know Aruba is a bit of an anomaly. However, there is a small subset of rooms which makes me confident they’re playing fair. There are only 20 3 BR units. With 5 arrival days, that means there should be 4 units available for each day. With 50% released at 13 months that makes potentially 2/day at 12 months without Marriott taking them.
The gold season is May-mid Dec., and I’d assume summer weeks are the most desirable. They certainly book the fastest. Yet every time I’ve gone on at 9:00 AM on booking day there are always units available every arrival day, even though they’re gone fast. But I can always see them. With such a small number of units, if Marriott was not fair and nabbing all Sat arrivals, for example, or an unfair number of July and August weeks I’d think it’d be more easy to spot.
I don’t remember 3 BR week owners at other reports complaining of feeling availability suddenly got fishy (and I mention 3 BR because of limited numbers might make shenanigans more apparent). So maybe I’m naive, but I’m hopeful the Marriott is an honest broker here.


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[ljmiii]

IMO there are lots of advantages to fixed weeks but lots of disadvantages also. One thing I like about my Bluegreen weeks is that there is an underlying fixed week that I can access if I so choose and my underlying weeks are very good weeks. BG is a points first system so I do have to opt for the underlying week by or before 11 months out.

My favorite timeshare ownerships (from a usability standpoints) are DVC at resorts that have both dedicated and lock-off 2BRs and HGVC's bHC in NYC.

While I don't own a DVC fixed week, at DVC resorts that have both dedicated and lock-off 2BRs the DVC Home Resort Priority Window is sufficient to 'guarantee' availability in 1BR and 2BR villas at 11 months. And HGVC's bHC NYC and DC locations have a Home Resort window in addition to the Home Week window that basically 'guarantees' availability for most units (aside from the fixed week of Thanksgiving).

 

[sponger76]

IMO there are lots of advantages to fixed weeks but lots of disadvantages also. One thing I like about my Bluegreen weeks is that there is an underlying fixed week that I can access if I so choose and my underlying weeks are very good weeks. BG is a points first system so I do have to opt for the underlying week by or before 11 months out.

I do like the BG system of having a specific fixed usage available but with automatic points overlay. What is scary to me is how many BG owners seem to have no idea about the fixed usage and think it's strictly a points program.

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

I'm a former Marriott person who left because of the problems with the system. It's a system on top of a system that doesn't work well to start with.

The base season system is inconsistent. Some of the resorts have split high seasons. (Some in winter, some in summer - both are "platinum" or its resort equivalent.) This blows up the 13/12 month reservation system. If you want to reserve a later window "platinum", and you can't get it; your fall back on the previous part of the "platinum" season may not exist. The worst case (Royal Palms) has 3 platinum seasons - winter, summer, and the occasional Week "53". The 13/12 window starts based on the week you want to reserve. If you want that Week "53" (when the year has it), then the first few weeks of that year's "platinum" have already passed the reservation window and gone to Marriott. If <any> were not reserved, the remainder of "platinum" holders end up playing "musical chairs", with someone not getting a week they paid MF for. (Not hypothetical, it happened to me!) Marriott's response? They would try to find me another week on II, if I would pay the II reservation fee. Gee, I needed to pay more money to get the the week I paid for. (Such a deal. . . .)

The points system is even more greedy. Marriott rigged their system where, unlike the old weeks system - where Marriott only got the profit from the initial sale, they get a cut of every resale of point, in perpetuity! (Currently $3 a point. All pure profit, no sales force to pay, no overhead, as all the transfer costs are billed separately.)

Now you may consider the product so good (and it is an excellent product) that all of this is worth the cost involved, I merely point out some of the costs. . . .

 

[Dean]

I do like the BG system of having a specific fixed usage available but with automatic points overlay. What is scary to me is how many BG owners seem to have no idea about the fixed usage and think it's strictly a points program.

Agreed but then the majority of timeshare owners in general are less knowledgeable than they should be about timeshares though I do think there has been a shift over the years in favor of people having at least a little more knowledge on average. One can be knowledgeable without getting into the weeks like we do here.

My favorite timeshare ownerships (from a usability standpoints) are DVC at resorts that have both dedicated and lock-off 2BRs and HGVC's bHC in NYC.

While I don't own a DVC fixed week, at DVC resorts that have both dedicated and lock-off 2BRs the DVC Home Resort Priority Window is sufficient to 'guarantee' availability in 1BR and 2BR villas at 11 months. And HGVC's bHC NYC and DC locations have a Home Resort window in addition to the Home Week window that basically 'guarantees' availability for most units (aside from the fixed week of Thanksgiving).

We like DVC and I prefer the home resort ownership situation for a points system so you have more control. There are few options where reserving exactly 11 months out is still a problem but there are a few. But that assumes you are OK with the home resort even if one prefers another option at 7 months out. Even owning though, most of ours stays are on exchanges. I use each system I own and have access to its own advantage. That includes MVC weeks, MVC points, DVC, Bluegreen, II for exchanges. And I often layer them. For DVC I would reserve home resort at 11 months out then change at 7 months, wait listing if needed. For MVC I use weeks & points combined to put together a large group trip to HHI, usually with either 16 or 17 units. I will also have pending II On Going Searches to replace the points reservations. I use the same approach for places like Aruba and HI among others.

Specific for our upcoming trip to HHI, I started with 11 owned weeks and 5 weeks on points. I have secured 2 exchanges but they have a later start date so I shorted two points reservations to 2 nights to combine and create two 9 night stays. I also shortened another 7 night points reservation to 6 nights as someone was leaving a day earlier. I have one more exchange request in, if it matches I'll do the same if necessary so the arrival dates will remain the same for all. If I got another week now and freed up points they would go into holding account but that should not be an issue as I have plenty of options to use those points.

MVC is my favorite system because it gets me to where we like to go most consistently. BG is my easiest to use option and my best value.

 

[chkvtzn]

No. The availability to book the days for all trust owners is limited to what are in the trust. So if there are 10 platinum weeks and 100 silver weeks, bookings can only be done against 10 platinum weeks and 100 silver weeks. Hence point booking is extremely difficult if you are wanting to book the platinum season.

But the Trust could reserve a disproportionate amount of specific highly valued weeks...no? Let's say that the Trust has 15% of all the platinum weeks at Ocean Pointe, the Trust might grabbed more than 15% of the units during Presidents week when the Trust commands a 30% premium of points to reserve. This would leave more availability for 'Weeks owners' during other Platinum weeks, but wreak havoc for availability for 'Weeks owners' trying to reserve Pres. Week. Could also hurt multi week owners trying to reserve multiple weeks that include President's Week. Thanks

 

[VacationForever]

But the Trust could reserve a disproportionate amount of specific highly valued weeks...no? Let's say that the Trust has 15% of all the platinum weeks at Ocean Pointe, the Trust might grabbed more than 15% of the units during Presidents week when the Trust commands a 30% premium of points to reserve. This would leave more availability for 'Weeks owners' during other Platinum weeks, but wreak havoc for availability for 'Weeks owners' trying to reserve Pres. Week. Could also hurt multi week owners trying to reserve multiple weeks that include President's Week. Thanks

The trust really cannot grab more Presidents' Day weeks because alloted points to trust points (or week converted points) have to be equal to points-equivalent of inventory available to be reserved.

 

[davidvel]

The trust really cannot grab more Presidents' Day weeks because alloted points to trust points (or week converted points) have to be equal to points-equivalent of inventory available to be reserved.

I'm not understanding this. As long as they own the weeks in platinum, they could (in theory not legally IMO), reserve up to the total number of weeks owned in platinum for President's day.

chkvtzn is correct.

 

[RookWDW]

But the Trust could reserve a disproportionate amount of specific highly valued weeks...no? Let's say that the Trust has 15% of all the platinum weeks at Ocean Pointe, the Trust might grabbed more than 15% of the units during Presidents week when the Trust commands a 30% premium of points to reserve. This would leave more availability for 'Weeks owners' during other Platinum weeks, but wreak havoc for availability for 'Weeks owners' trying to reserve Pres. Week. Could also hurt multi week owners trying to reserve multiple weeks that include President's Week. Thanks

But the Trust doesn't just book a bunch of weeks and hold on to them hoping someone will want those weeks. I thought it was points members, through the trust, when they go and book a reservation at 13 months+, then the trust acts and books those weeks

I'm not understanding this. As long as they own the weeks in platinum, they could (in theory not legally IMO), reserve up to the total number of weeks owned in platinum for President's day.

chkvtzn is correct.

But they cannot just book any weeks and hold them for possible use. Someone with points has to request to book the week.

 

[Superchief]

I'm not understanding this. As long as they own the weeks in platinum, they could (in theory not legally IMO), reserve up to the total number of weeks owned in platinum for President's day.

chkvtzn is correct.

The problem is that we have no way of knowing what MVC does regarding inventory. Based on their deception and unscrupulous actions in other areas, I'm confident they do what is best for them and not for owners, and their current priority is on trust points not weeks. I've noticed a definite difficulty in reserving my weeks at owned resorts, and many aren't even in prime seasons. It is virtually impossible to get a Saturday check-in at Oceana Palms now even when signing in at 9am 12 months in advance, and these are for October reservations.