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View for exchangers - Aruba and others

Zac495

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Dave - I grabbed this from the Grand Ocean thread - it's what you wrote:

Multiple-week Marriott Grande Ocean Owner stays
Single-week Marriott Grande Ocean Owner stays
Marriott Grande Ocean Owners, returning on an exchange
Marriott multiple-week owners on an exchange
Marriott single-week owners on an exchange
Rental and sales preview guests
Non-Marriott owners on an exchange.

Is this the case with Aruba and other Marriotts? We currently own ocean view at Ocean Club. Wonder if we sold it and visited on an exchange if we'd get a good view (still owning another Marriott)... I'm thinking that all rooms at OC face the ocean, but the lower floors wouldn't see them...
 

Dave M

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Hi, Ellen.

It looks to me as though you, as a non-Ocean Club owner, would be well down the priority list for requests. The one advantage you might have is that many exchangers don't know that they can make requests for a location preference.
 

Cathyb

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DaveM: Does the same pecking order apply to say Newport Coast or Desert Springs Villas? Is this info printed somewhere in Marriott's writings?
 

Dave M

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As I understand it, each resort determines its own assignment priority, although there is a general path that resorts are supposed to follow, supposedly at least similar to what I have posted. Grande Ocean has published in several letters to owners in recent years its methodology, which is why I have been able to quote the details.
 

Latravel

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I have to add something that I learned a couple of weeks ago. How far in advance you reserve your unit determines, in large part, how nice of a unit you will get, at least at Newport Coast Villas.

We exchanged into the Newport Coast Villas for Thanksgiving during flexchange. We are multiple week owners and were coming in as an exchange so I thought I would get a decent unit. I was wrong.

It turns out they give priority to people based on when they reserved the unit. Even though the owner of the unit probably reserved a year in advance to get the Thanksgiving holiday week, I only got it one month in advance during flexchange, so according to Newport Coast Villas, I reserved the month before so I got the worst unit. The conclusion I made is that if you get a unit during flexchange, be prepared for a not-so-good unit. I made a big stink so I ended up getting a great ocean view unit anyways.
 

Valleykat

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Heidi, based on my experience, I can't say that an early reservation will get you a better room. We are multiple week owners (though one is gold and one is platinum) at NCV who reserved a year in advance for last summer. I tried calling shortly before to request a room preference and was told that I should have made the request at least 3 weeks out and there was nothing that could be done at that point. Sure enough, I arrived only to be given a very poor room choice IMO, a partial ocean view over the parking garage. I made a stink too and was upgraded to a great room. Guess that's what it takes there.
 

ecwinch

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Heidi, based on my experience, I can't say that an early reservation will get you a better room. We are multiple week owners (though one is gold and one is platinum) at NCV who reserved a year in advance for last summer. I tried calling shortly before to request a room preference and was told that I should have made the request at least 3 weeks out and there was nothing that could be done at that point. Sure enough, I arrived only to be given a very poor room choice IMO, a partial ocean view over the parking garage. I made a stink too and was upgraded to a great room. Guess that's what it takes there.



Just curious, was the week you reserved via one of your NCV week or via a II exchange. Also are your NCV weeks floating or fixed?

As a MVCI owner, we recently had two reservations at Ko Olina. One week was via our MVCI ownership, the other was a bonus week/AC we received for depositing our HarborPoint week. Likewise we failed to contact the resort in advance, and as result our HP unit was ocean view, but the AC week was a parking garage view. After talking to mgt, their position was that we might have got a better unit if we had contacted them a couple of weeks out.
 

Latravel

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I forgot to add that I contacted NCV about 3 weeks in advance by phone and talked with an employee. I also faxed my preference to NCV AND told my vacation advisor who added a note to my reservation with my room preferences. I got nothing. When I complained, they told me it was due to getting the room 1 month in advance while some people reserved their unit 1 year in advance.

Bottom line, some properties do indeed have their own specific pecking order as far as who gets the good rooms. I'll definitely try to figure out the methodology/system with the properties I am interested in visiting.

As a side note, when I visited Maui Ocean Club, I got a great ocean view higher floor unit which I reserved only 2 months in advance. Obviously, they give views based on what the owner reserved/owned. I believe NCV doesn't have view categories.
 

Valleykat

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Just curious, was the week you reserved via one of your NCV week or via a II exchange. Also are your NCV weeks floating or fixed?
The week was our own NCV week, not acquired via an II exchange. Our NCV weeks are floating. I think they all are there, unless you buy a July 4th week. We were fortunate to reserve a prime July week. I may have secured a better room initially if I had requested a room preference earlier as they suggested. At a week out, I was out of luck, according to them, but they made it right in the end.
 

Cathyb

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Heidi, et al: Actually at one owner's meeting last August the MC basically said we Every Other Year owners were at the bottom if everything else is equal for Newport Coast owners. That is first comes many multi-week owners, then owners of 2 weeks, then owners of one week, then EOYs, then exchangers that own Marriott and lastly regular exchangers. This was in August -- one of the hard to get months. I was hoping we could find the dialog in writing, but DaveM doesn't think so :(
 
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