Trying to understand Marriott Crystal Shores' reservation window with points

[Likes to Travel]

Just wondering how point reservations work at Crystal Shores. I am a Chairman with points. I can reserve at 13 months out. It has been my understanding that some inventory is released at 13 months and some is released at 12 months. MOC seems to follow this pattern. This morning is the 12 month window and nothing was released for March 4 2023. I called and they said that's because points inventory is always there starting at 13 months and no one must have converted their week to points so that is why nothing was available at 12 months. Am I thinking wrong that some inventory should be released at 12 months?

 

[bazzap]

Just wondering how point reservations work at Crystal Shores. I am a Chairman with points. I can reserve at 13 months out. It has been my understanding that some inventory is released at 13 months and some is released at 12 months. MOC seems to follow this pattern. This morning is the 12 month window and nothing was released for March 4 2023. I called and they said that's because points inventory is always there starting at 13 months and no one must have converted their week to points so that is why nothing was available at 12 months. Am I thinking wrong that some inventory should be released at 12 months?

For MVC resorts where the DC Points Trust owns no inventory, e.g European resorts, up to 50% of inventory is released at 13 months with the remainder released at 12 months.
For MVC resorts where the DC Points Trust owns significant levels of inventory (and I understand it is very high at Crystal Shores) the release process for any Weeks inventory should be the same, but I don’t believe that it works in the same way for Points inventory?
So if all Points inventory has already gone for the dates you want to book, you would be dependent on Weeks owners electing for Points and those may well be few and later.

 

[dioxide45]

Two things matter for future year points reservations. Inventory release and owners electing points for their week. The points election deadline for most owners for 2023 weeks is September 30, 2022. The trust also owns a lot of weeks at Crystal Shores, but enrolled point owners are also relying on Marriott depositing that inventory into the Exchange Company. I also don't know how much of the Crystal Shores has been conveyed to the trust. I know they had an arrangement with a third party company to invest in the completed build out of that resort and they would buy inventory on an as needed basis. Inventory not bought in and added to the trust would be rented on Marriott.com with a profit share going to this third party.

Point reservations seem much harder at Crystal Shores than it seems they should given that only about 25% of the total resort was sold as weeks. I suspect the dynamics of the ownership of the unsold inventory plays a big roll in this availability.

The amount of weeks available for 13 and 12 month reservations isn't necessarily 50% of the entire resort, but rather just 50% of what is allocated to the Exchange Company. The actual number may be very small.

 

[JIMinNC]

Just wondering how point reservations work at Crystal Shores. I am a Chairman with points. I can reserve at 13 months out. It has been my understanding that some inventory is released at 13 months and some is released at 12 months. MOC seems to follow this pattern. This morning is the 12 month window and nothing was released for March 4 2023. I called and they said that's because points inventory is always there starting at 13 months and no one must have converted their week to points so that is why nothing was available at 12 months. Am I thinking wrong that some inventory should be released at 12 months?

See my post from yesterday, linked here:

Early Destination Points Inventory Release

At least for the last three weeks, Marriott has been releasing the 12 month inventory earlier than what the "When Can I Reserve" calculator shows. Yesterday it loaded sometime between 1pm Eastern and 3:45pm Eastern. As I said in the linked post, when I checked yesterday morning and at 1pm, there was no March 4 inventory for Maui Ocean Club Lahaina/Napili Villas, but when I went back in at 3:45, inventory for March 1-7 check-ins had been loaded and there was plenty to be had. I booked MOC Lahaina/Napili for March 4, 2023 yesterday at 3:45 even though I wasn't supposed to be able to do that until 9am today.

After I booked Maui, I went back in and did some spot check searches to see if March 4 inventory was already loaded at other places in the MVC system. Crystal Shores was one of the locations I looked at, and at about 4pm yesterday afternoon, I could have booked a 2BR unit for check-in any day March 1-7. I don't recall which view categories, but there was inventory available. Those were the only days available, so it was clear that was freshly-loaded inventory. As you note, March 1-7 is gone now, but it was there for the taking yesterday at 4pm.

So, if you could travel with a March 11 check-in instead of March 4, start checking next Thursday around noon and check every hour or so. If it's like it has been the last three weeks, the March 11 inventory will get loaded on Thursday.

 

[Superchief]

When I've checked inventory at 13 months, it has always been limited to the new buildings since they are in the trust. The gulf front and gulf side villas don't start opening up until closer to the 12 month date. As Dioxide said, availability of the owned weeks villas are more limited early in the year because many owners have not yet converted to points. We typically go in October so the availability seems to show up earlier. I've learned to check availability frequently because the release patter varies by resort and season.