Villa Assignment by Ownership Type Observations

[Superchief]

I noticed this topic being discussed in the St. Thomas Ritz thread and believe it is worth starting a new one.
The Marriott Vacation Club has changed dramatically over the last few years and the integration with Vistana will create more complexity. The poor people who are assigning villas have a very difficult job in determining who should go where, especially since the number of days per stay and check in dates increase complexity. I highly doubt that whether it is a trust or exchange deposit has any impact regarding how the villas are assigned. I own both trust and exchange points and recently haven't experienced any 'trust only' requirements for making VC points reservations. As a chairman club owner of weeks and points, these are my observations over the past few years regarding villa assignment priorities. We typically try to avoid peak weeks, so are less likely to encounter high occupancy by current weeks owners.

• Owners using their owned week almost always receive highest priority, especially if owning multiple weeks. I assume they receive this priority even when using points to extend their stays.
• Home resort owners who use VC points to stay at their home resort appear to be the next in line. I have usually been treated the same when using VC points for a week.
• II exchangers staying at their home resort previously received high priority, but II no longer indicates whether you are an owner or not when they provide the resort reservation details.
• When using VC points to stay at a resort, I typically receive high priority for my villa placement within my reserve view, especially when staying 7+ nights. I typically email or call a few weeks prior to my stay to make my request and discuss options. I've also successfully combined II exchanges with VC points reservations as long as they are within the same view type.

II exchanges, Encore or Marriott hotel reservations typically follow, but I've noticed recently that some Encore guests are receiving premium view placement. There are also some exceptions at specific resorts due to inventory differences. An exchanger into Crystal Shores will be assigned to the older buildings and frequently receive gulf front villas. Vail resorts have limited availability for some villa types and locations. I've learned that all of the 2BR units (without den) are located on the highway side of the resort.

The only bad experiences I've had as an owner/points user have been at Grand Ocean and Ocean Point, even though my stays were off season. Grand Ocean management told me that only weeks owners receive any priority. Ocean Pointe was assigning higher priority to Encore users than to owners using VC points. Hopefully this changed with recent management changes. Some resorts rotate view assignments to owners at resorts like Barony and Mountainside. I'm not sure what happens if you aren't using your owned weeks.

I doubt that the room assignment people have information regarding inventory source for specific villas. I doubt that the guest information includes much more than resort ownership, MVC level status, and repeat guest. I'm sure others have had other experiences, but this has been my experience over the past five years with about 5-7 stays per year.

 

[wballoni]

Interesting. I am a new MVC member using my MGO platinum, ocean front week for the first time in late June! I don't really know what to expect in terms of villa assignment. I've heard that the lowest floor ocean front villas at MGO can have very little of an actual ocean view, so I've requested a high floor. I've also heard that most guests make this request, so the results will vary. As a week owner my hope is I'll have priority and be on one of the top 2 floors. We'll see what the assigners do in a week or so!

Quick question, is it possible to know before arrival and checkin which villa we are assigned?

 

[SueDonJ]

Interesting. I am a new MVC member using my MGO platinum, ocean front week for the first time in late June! I don't really know what to expect in terms of villa assignment. I've heard that the lowest floor ocean front villas at MGO can have very little of an actual ocean view, so I've requested a high floor. I've also heard that most guests make this request, so the results will vary. As a week owner my hope is I'll have priority and be on one of the top 2 floors. We'll see what the assigners do in a week or so! ...

You might already be aware of this but to make sure you have reasonable expectations, here is the Grande Ocean property map. If you draw a horizontal line just under the Sea Horse and Sea Castle buildings, all units above the line are Oceanfront (termed "close to ocean" in the reservation system) and all units below the line are Oceanside (termed "courtyard view" in the reservation system.)

Quick question, is it possible to know before arrival and checkin which villa we are assigned?

I'd say it's impossible until the moment of check-in, and at some impossible until the moment you're able to enter the unit. (Meaning, if you get there and the unit they've designated for you isn't ready yet, you might still not be told which unit it is.)

 

[Dean]

Interesting. I am a new MVC member using my MGO platinum, ocean front week for the first time in late June! I don't really know what to expect in terms of villa assignment. I've heard that the lowest floor ocean front villas at MGO can have very little of an actual ocean view, so I've requested a high floor. I've also heard that most guests make this request, so the results will vary. As a week owner my hope is I'll have priority and be on one of the top 2 floors. We'll see what the assigners do in a week or so!

Quick question, is it possible to know before arrival and checkin which villa we are assigned?

Generally owners using their week are given 3rd floor or higher when possible. Look at the map Susan linked. The units in Dolphin and Starfish that are parallel to the beach are OF but ALL units in Sea Horse and Sand Castle are OF even if on the side. The south side is closer to the Dolphin pool and grill, the North side is a little more laid back I fell and the pool there not quite as busy/crazy. I'd call today and make a request, maybe higher floor Dolphin or Starfish, depending on preferences. If you're arriving in the next week it's likely they have made the assignment already but it might be possible to adjust if needed. If you don't make a request you'll likely get one of the side units in the 2 OF only buildings.

 

[wballoni]

Generally owners using their week are given 3rd floor or higher when possible. Look at the map Susan linked. The units in Dolphin and Starfish that are parallel to the beach are OF but ALL units in Sea Horse and Sand Castle are OF even if on the side. The south side is closer to the Dolphin pool and grill, the North side is a little more laid back I fell and the pool there not quite as busy/crazy. I'd call today and make a request, maybe higher floor Dolphin or Starfish, depending on preferences. If you're arriving in the next week it's likely they have made the assignment already but it might be possible to adjust if needed. If you don't make a request you'll likely get one of the side units in the 2 OF only buildings.

Wow, great information, yours as well, Sue. I would not have guessed that the Sea Horse and Sand Castle units on the sides of the buildings would be considered ocean front.

I previously requested a high floor, but didn't think to include a building in the request. Do they typically honor such a specific request? Can making such specific or too many requests be detrimental in getting what one really wants? Again, noob here.

Are the side units in Sea Horse and Sand Castle still clear ocean views, especially from higher floors?

 

[Dean]

Wow, great information, yours as well, Sue. I would not have guessed that the Sea Horse and Sand Castle units on the sides of the buildings would be considered ocean front.

I previously requested a high floor, but didn't think to include a building in the request. Do they typically honor such a specific request? Can making such specific or too many requests be detrimental in getting what one really wants? Again, noob here.

Are the side units in Sea Horse and Sand Castle still clear ocean views, especially from higher floors?

If you're 4th or 5th floor you should be fine but the front side is definitely better.

 

[normab]

We have received some of the worst room assignments at Ocean Pointe, which we visit once or twice a year using exchanges and or points We don’t own here, but are 2x Titanium and Chairman’s club. I always write and call before we come, but I honestly don’t think they always look. They have to deal with owners weeks, interval exchangers, marriot.com, lock offs, and the crazy in and out of DC Points reservations. It must be hard at such a big resort, but it’s frustrating to us if they can’t give us a room that’s at least on the fourth floor.

We also had terrible placement at KBC on DC points in April, and they would not even offer us a replacement room the following day. We couldn’t believe it. If we go back there, we will only reserve ocean front because that is a great view.

Although we don’t need 2 bedrooms, the one nice thing about Oceana Palms is we always get a room that’s high because they simply have more high floors and fewer owners.

Every now and then you get a nice surprise. We recently checked into Ocean pointe. We ended up coming in the next morning due to an issue that prevented us from getting there on the check in day. Before the agent even told me the room location, she looked up and said oh you’re Chairmans and you’re Titanium? She said “you don’t have a very good room assignment, I’m going to see what I can do for you”. That has NEVER happened.

She came back five minutes later, and told me they originally had put us in a second floor room in the back of the building. We don’t mind the back of the building but second floor is not so great. She gave us a really nice Oceanview/side on the sixth floor. It really made such a nice difference. I wrote a thank you note to her and her manager. She didn’t have to do that based on our past experience here. But I guess it was fortuitous that we ended up checking in at noon and not 4 PM the previous day.

All in all, we’ve mostly had decent placements with some stinkers thrown in. We own Ocean front at Surfwatch, and sometimes we can’t get a over the fourth floor because it’s not a big building, and if there’s too many owners they’re trying fit pieces of the puzzle around for the check in dates.