CLOSED: Thread Dedicated to the Upcoming/Anticipated Integration of Vistana & Marriott Ownerships (Marriott Link + Vistana Discussion)

[lorenmd]

ok i will add to this thread in hopes of going over 100 before rollout. i own westin flex 126k SO developer purchase. as well as another 325k SO developer and requaled. 4*. my westin flex gets me 12 month reservation window but it's only 126k. i would like a 12 month 148k ability. ( to reserve a flex colorado week ) will all my SO become 13 months plus one day reservation ability only in the marriott system and not in the vistana system? should i buy more westin flex to make it an even 148k westin flex? seems cheaper to buy a mandatory resale vistana and hope they let you enroll it in MVC ( like WKORV) than pay the MF on DP points purchased resale and junk fees payed to move them in. My print out said only 3/6 of my VSN weeks were eligible for DP points ( because 3 were requaled) but my vistana sales person said that marriott sales person was wrong and it is a computer error in the merger that says requaled weeks are not eligible. marriott says even requaled weeks will not be eligible, vistana says yes they will. what say you knowledgeable people

 

[DanCali]

My print out said only 3/6 of my VSN weeks were eligible for DP points ( because 3 were requaled) but my vistana sales person said that marriott sales person was wrong and it is a computer error in the merger that says requaled weeks are not eligible. marriott says even requaled weeks will not be eligible, vistana says yes they will. what say you knowledgeable people

They will say what they need to say to make a sale...

Vistana sales have an incentive to say requaled weeks will be included because. if you are not requaled, they can requalify you now and make a sale. And if you are already requaled they can't really try to sell you DPs as of now.

Marriott sales have an incentive to say requaled weeks will not be included because, if you are already requaled, they can try to convince you to buy DPs now anyway. And if you are not requaled the same applies.

I happen to think requaled weeks will be included, but that's just my opinion. If I were to do any retro now it'd only be through Vistana because I would want my weeks to be fully retrod into both systems. I don't know if a Marriott purchase would also retro a week into VSN and I doubt most MVC salespeople would even know what you are talking about or have the right documents/access to pull it off.

 

[byeloe]

will all my SO become 13 months plus one day reservation ability

I don't think any SO will ever be 13 months reservation ability. You may get that if you elect for DP for that year with Marriott.

 

[Don Springett]

I just had a owner update at Westin Riverfront. I do not own here but am 5 star elite (Maui and Kierland). Program looks pretty good for my situation…no change to Vistana privileges but get the benefits of Marriott system at the Chairman level if I want to use them. No cost to enroll in the system or exchange into the system. I can also check inventory of desired resorts before committing my weeks. He mentioned the Marriott priorities are based on status vs time stamp so we won’t need to scrambled 365 days in advance. I have been using or renting out my weeks and will probably continue to do that. Nice to have the flexibility of all the Marriott properties but I really like the Westin options. I tried to get clarification on trust inventory vs exchanged inventory in the Marriott system. He seemed confused with this and indicated that once we traded into the system, there was only one inventory pool. When I mentioned someone wrote that they were pressured to buy points do they would have access to both inventories, he said it sounded like a sales tactic to sell points. They made a very low pressure effort to sell some Riverfront inventory or Westin Flex, but I declined. I also mentioned a friend who exchanged to Westin Flex with the specific purpose to book Westin Riverfront in the summer but he could not get in, while I got in in 8 months with Staroptions. They mentioned that very little inventory at Riverside went into flex. I will start my graduate studies of this Marriott program when it is on line.

 

[vacation dreaming]

I just had a owner update at Westin Riverfront. I do not own here but am 5 star elite (Maui and Kierland). Program looks pretty good for my situation…no change to Vistana privileges but get the benefits of Marriott system at the Chairman level if I want to use them. No cost to enroll in the system or exchange into the system. I can also check inventory of desired resorts before committing my weeks. He mentioned the Marriott priorities are based on status vs time stamp so we won’t need to scrambled 365 days in advance. I have been using or renting out my weeks and will probably continue to do that. Nice to have the flexibility of all the Marriott properties but I really like the Westin options. I tried to get clarification on trust inventory vs exchanged inventory in the Marriott system. He seemed confused with this and indicated that once we traded into the system, there was only one inventory pool. When I mentioned someone wrote that they were pressured to buy points do they would have access to both inventories, he said it sounded like a sales tactic to sell points. They made a very low pressure effort to sell some Riverfront inventory or Westin Flex, but I declined. I also mentioned a friend who exchanged to Westin Flex with the specific purpose to book Westin Riverfront in the summer but he could not get in, while I got in in 8 months with Staroptions. They mentioned that very little inventory at Riverside went into flex. I will start my graduate studies of this Marriott program when it is on line.

Did they give you timing for rollout? Rumor is July 1.

 

[Red elephant]

ok i will add to this thread in hopes of going over 100 before rollout. i own westin flex 126k SO developer purchase. as well as another 325k SO developer and requaled. 4*. my westin flex gets me 12 month reservation window but it's only 126k. i would like a 12 month 148k ability. ( to reserve a flex colorado week ) will all my SO become 13 months plus one day reservation ability only in the marriott system and not in the vistana system? should i buy more westin flex to make it an even 148k westin flex? seems cheaper to buy a mandatory resale vistana and hope they let you enroll it in MVC ( like WKORV) than pay the MF on DP points purchased resale and junk fees payed to move them in. My print out said only 3/6 of my VSN weeks were eligible for DP points ( because 3 were requaled) but my vistana sales person said that marriott sales person was wrong and it is a computer error in the merger that says requaled weeks are not eligible. marriott says even requaled weeks will not be eligible, vistana says yes they will. what say you knowledgeable people

I went to a Marriott sales and was told requalified weeks were eligible .

 

[Don Springett]

Yes, July 1 but I am not holding my breath

 

[SandyPGravel]

I will start my graduate studies of this Marriott program when it is on line.

Is that a degree offered by the University of Pheonix? (Purposely misspelled )

 

[lorenmd]

I don't think any SO will ever be 13 months reservation ability. You may get that if you elect for DP for that year with Marriott.

what i was told was if i elect DP points then i would be able to make a reservation at 13 months and one day for something using the DP points chart including vistana places which will have a DP points reservation amount. but because i am 4 star, the equivalent in marriott would allow me to have that booking window.

 

[lorenmd]

Did they give you timing for rollout? Rumor is July 1.

they are scrambling to get it rolled out by july 1 but they keep running into computer integration issues. they know what the rules are they just have to get the computers to do their job. i would rather they tell us what it is going to be and tell us to sit tight while they get the computer programs to run smoothly than to unload it all at once and find out all kinds of glitches. it's going to be a mess when it goes live since everyone will want to be on the site checking out what they have and finding out what they can do with what they have.

 

[DanCali]

what i was told was if i elect DP points then i would be able to make a reservation at 13 months and one day for something using the DP points chart including vistana places which will have a DP points reservation amount. but because i am 4 star, the equivalent in marriott would allow me to have that booking window.

MVC owners with 4000+ DC points can book 7+ nights at 13 months out (I think even owners with less than 4000 points can do so, for an extra cost in points). Owners with 7000+ DC points can book 1+ nights at 13 months out. But booking at Vistana at 13 months out using DC points should be from inventory which has been deposited into the exchange company. If no WKV owners elect DC points for a given year you would not, in theory, find any inventory to book using DC points at any time horizon. That inventory should remain available for home resort bookings at 12 months out and SVN reservations at 8 months out.

How DC deposits will actually impact the ability to reserve SVN at 12 months out remains to be seen...

 

[VacationForever]

MVC owners with 4000+ DC points can book 7+ nights at 13 months out (I think even owners with less than 4000 points can do so, for an extra cost in points). Owners with 7000+ DC points can book 1+ nights at 13 months out. But booking at Vistana at 13 months out using DC points should be from inventory which has been deposited into the exchange company. If no WKV owners elect DC points for a given year you would not, in theory, find any inventory to book using DC points at any time horizon. That inventory should remain available for home resort bookings at 12 months out and SVN reservations at 8 months out.

How DC deposits will actually impact the ability to reserve SVN at 12 months out remains to be seen...

I've got to say it is a win-win situation for those who own in both systems. I don't see myself electing DC points for my Vistana ownership in most years.

 

[PlayInTheDirt]

MVC owners with 4000+ DC points can book 7+ nights at 13 months out (I think even owners with less than 4000 points can do so, for an extra cost in points). Owners with 7000+ DC points can book 1+ nights at 13 months out. But booking at Vistana at 13 months out using DC points should be from inventory which has been deposited into the exchange company. If no WKV owners elect DC points for a given year you would not, in theory, find any inventory to book using DC points at any time horizon. That inventory should remain available for home resort bookings at 12 months out and SVN reservations at 8 months out.

How DC deposits will actually impact the ability to reserve SVN at 12 months out remains to be seen...

I understand that WKV weeks owners must elect DC points in advance, thus there are a known number of weeks in the exchange pool for DC reservations. And it all works out. But I’m having trouble figuring out how that might work for Flex /Trust inventory. Developer /qualified Flex owners don’t have to do any such election in advance, do they? So can they reserve Westin or Sheraton Flex inventory at 13 months? And can’t Marriott DC owners also reserve Westin and Sheraton Flex inventory at 13 months? But resale / unqualified Flex owners can only reserve Flex / Trust inventory at 12 months, right? So will anything be left? Seems like resale Flex owners might really get starved out of popular reservations. Or am I missing something?

I guess they could only open X% of the Flex inventory at the 13 month mark, where X is the percent of qualified Flex owners, versus unqualified Flex owners?? And open the remainder at the 12 month mark??

Any speculation ?

 

[VacationForever]

I believe "qualified" Flex owners will also need to elect DC points each year if they want the Flex points converted to DC and book through MVC DC system.

 

[dioxide45]

I understand that WKV weeks owners must elect DC points in advance, thus there are a known number of weeks in the exchange pool for DC reservations. And it all works out. But I’m having trouble figuring out how that might work for Flex /Trust inventory. Developer /qualified Flex owners don’t have to do any such election in advance, do they? So can they reserve Westin or Sheraton Flex inventory at 13 months? And can’t Marriott DC owners also reserve Westin and Sheraton Flex inventory at 13 months? But resale / unqualified Flex owners can only reserve Flex / Trust inventory at 12 months, right? So will anything be left? Seems like resale Flex owners might really get starved out of popular reservations. Or am I missing something?

I guess they could only open X% of the Flex inventory at the 13 month mark, where X is the percent of qualified Flex owners, versus unqualified Flex owners?? And open the remainder at the 12 month mark??

Any speculation ?

I suspect Flex will work just like weeks. You must elect DC Club Points first. Once you elect, that decision is final. You can't just opt to make a 13 month reservation and if that doesn't work, still keep the HomeOptions.

 

[Mowogo]

I suspect Flex will work just like weeks. You must elect DC Club Points first. Once you elect, that decision is final. You can't just opt to make a 13 month reservation and if that doesn't work, still keep the HomeOptions.

I see this being an easy opt in on the website, and I think owners updates for qualified owners are likely to enter a period of pushing exchanging within DC almost to the level of pushing more points specifically to get people exchanging in DC. And for Flex owners that are elite, I definitely see advantages booking DC over Flex points given the issues of inventory in Westin Flex and just the greater variety for Westin Flex with booking advantage.

 

[William Seward]

From what I've been told and understand.

July 01, Westin properties will only be selling Marriott point and the flex will be discontinued. That eventually everything will be Marriott points. But the property owners who have Westin Flex will still continue a early reservation priority at the below Westin properties.

1. Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort
2. Westin Nanea Ocean Villas
3. Westin Desert Willow Villas
4. Westin Kirkland Villas
5. Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort North
6. Westin Princeville Ocean Resort Villas
7. Westin Mission Hills Resort
8. Westin Riverfront Mountain Villas

But I do think everything is still in flux. Believe it when it's in writing.

Bill Seward

 

[kozykritter]

Went to a presentation today at MVC Summit Watch and finally saw the DP point election for my two Sheraton Flex developer-purchased contracts, 160,700 options. The ratio they are using is approximately 34.21 to 1, not the 32 to 1 that was originally reported here. When I brought this discrepancy up to them, they said that the ratio set in the MVC database has not changed since the soft launch began and is unlikely to, based upon how things were handled when they did the Marriott weeks DP conversion back in 2010. So instead of the 5,022 DP I was thinking, my ownership converts to 4,695 which is a difference of 327 DPs.

 

[PlayInTheDirt]

Went to a presentation today at MVC Summit Watch and finally saw the DP point election for my two Sheraton Flex developer-purchased contracts, 160,700 options. The ratio they are using is approximately 34.21 to 1, not the 32 to 1 that was originally reported here. When I brought this discrepancy up to them, they said that the ratio set in the MVC database has not changed since the soft launch began and is unlikely to, based upon how things were handled when they did the Marriott weeks DP conversion back in 2010. So instead of the 5,022 DP I was thinking, my ownership converts to 4,695 which is a difference of 327 DPs.

Did they mention anything the process of electing conversion of Flex points to DC points in advance (as speculated by VacationForever and dioxide45 above), by any chance?

 

[kozykritter]

Did they mention anything the process of electing conversion of Flex points t o DC points in advance (as speculated by VacationForever and dioxide45 above), by any chance?

I'm guessing that you mean electing in advance of their use year as in by the end of September this year for your 2023 use year that starts January 1 Yes, that was confirmed to me in a different presentation last week. Once the hard launch happens in a couple weeks, that option should automatically appear in your online account which will actually be hosted on Marriott's IT platform,. This is assuming you are eligible to convert.

 

[PlayInTheDirt]

I'm guessing that you mean electing in advance of their use year as in by the end of September this year for your 2023 use year that starts January 1 Yes, that was confirmed to me in a different presentation last week. Once the hard launch happens in a couple weeks, that option should automatically appear in your online account which will actually be hosted on Marriott's IT platform,. This is assuming you are eligible to convert.

Thanks for the insight. Is it all or nothing? Do you have to convert all of your 160K Flex points to DC points, or choose not to convert any? Or can you say, for instance, that you want to convert 34.21K Flex points (and get 1K DC points)? And keep the rest as Flex points? I wonder if everyone that's eligible will just convert all their Flex to DC...

Sent from my SM-T220 using Tapatalk

 

[kozykritter]

Thanks for the insight. Is it all or nothing? Do you have to convert all of your 160K Flex points to DC points, or choose not to convert any? Or can you say, for instance, that you want to convert 34.21K Flex points (and get 1K DC points)? And keep the rest as Flex points? I wonder if everyone that's eligible will just convert all their Flex to DC...

Sent from my SM-T220 using Tapatalk

You can make your decision for each contract individually and if you decide to elect for points, it's the entire contract value, no partials. So for example if you have two contracts you could elect to receive points for one and keep the other just in Vistana for a given year.

 

[kozykritter]

Here's an update on my previous post about Vistana owners being assigned a Marriott owner number and account. At my update yesterday I learned that Marriott uses a very old but very effective DOS-based database to hold all its owner information for customer management purposes. The sales broker told me that all similar Vistana data has been merged into this database and Vistana-only owners assigned an 8-digit Marriott owner number (he called it a customer number and it was labeled on the report they gave me as "OTM number"). He said this has transformed the sales experience for them because now they have some real hard data to work with during presentations. This data includes all of the details related to each of your ownership contracts including DP election value, your history of sales presentations at Vistana and MVC, encores purchased and their status, etc.

He told me that this owner number is the same one that will be used to set up an account for Vistana-only owners in the MVC reservation system/IT platform but it won't be active/accessible for use until the hard launch happens and all of your Vistana ownership is loaded into that account.

Anyone can create an online account in Marriott's system at marriottvacationclub.com ... you don't need to know your owner number to do it. Evidently you can use it with things like the MVC app. This username and password will eventually be the one you use to access your ownership on Marriott system but only after the hard launch. I can confirm all of this as I created my online account and then clicked on the link to add my ownership to it since I do have my owner number. It came back with a message saying something like ownership not found (yet). But we have real evidence that progress has been made and that the integration is nearly upon us!

 

[alexadeparis]

Here's an update on my previous post about Vistana owners being assigned a Marriott owner number and account. At my update yesterday I learned that Marriott uses a very old but very effective DOS-based database to hold all its owner information for customer management purposes. The sales broker told me that all similar Vistana data has been merged into this database and Vistana-only owners assigned an 8-digit Marriott owner number (he called it a customer number and it was labeled on the report they gave me as "OTM number"). He said this has transformed the sales experience for them because now they have some real hard data to work with during presentations. This data includes all of the details related to each of your ownership contracts including DP election value, your history of sales presentations at Vistana and MVC, encores purchased and their status, etc.

He told me that this owner number is the same one that will be used to set up an account for Vistana-only owners in the MVC reservation system/IT platform but it won't be active/accessible for use until the hard launch happens and all of your Vistana ownership is loaded into that account.

Anyone can create an online account in Marriott's system at marriottvacationclub.com ... you don't need to know your owner number to do it. Evidently you can use it with things like the MVC app. This username and password will eventually be the one you use to access your ownership on Marriott system but only after the hard launch. I can confirm all of this as I created my online account and then clicked on the link to add my ownership to it since I do have my owner number. It came back with a message saying something like ownership not found (yet). But we have real evidence that progress has been made .and that the integration is nearly upon us!

Interesting, we used to own with Marriott so I wonder if my old login would work, and also whether our number will change or be what it used to be. Will try later.

 

[kozykritter]

I'm rethinking what he told me yesterday. He may have just said it was the online account login that will be the same once your ownership is loaded. That 8 digit customer number could just be for sales and marketing and they will assign a different 7 digit one as an owner account number. I guess we'll know shortly!