What are the odds we'll get this?

[Valleykat]

Hi. I'm new to the board and still trying to get a handle on how to play this timeshare game.

We are Marriott NCV owners. We booked this week next year and have deposited it with a request for MM1 (Marriott's Maui Ocean Club - Lahaina and Napili Villas) for a three week window in early June 2009. Our NCV week has a very high rating in the demand index, next to the highest. The June weeks at MOC are several squares to the left, so we are trading a higher demand for a lesser demand time period. Of course, I know Maui is a higher demand locale, but I'm thinking Newport is up there too. What do you think? Any chance? My DH is skeptical, but I am an optimist. Or am I just a fool?

 

[ajlm33]

NCV Hawaii Trades

Hi. I'm new to the board and still trying to get a handle on how to play this timeshare game.

We are Marriott NCV owners. We booked this week next year and have deposited it with a request for MM1 (Marriott's Maui Ocean Club - Lahaina and Napili Villas) for a three week window in early June 2009. Our NCV week has a very high rating in the demand index, next to the highest. The June weeks at MOC are several squares to the left, so we are trading a higher demand for a lesser demand time period. Of course, I know Maui is a higher demand locale, but I'm thinking Newport is up there too. What do you think? Any chance? My DH is skeptical, but I am an optimist. Or am I just a fool?

Welcome Valleykat,

We also own at NCV. Back in 2006, we were able to trade our June 2007 NCV week for a 2BR Marriott Ko Olina late June 2007 week and were confirmed exactly one year out.

I would say your chances are especially good now that airfare is so high to Hawaii and I expect a lot of owners there will be depositing their reserved summer weeks with II because of the high travel costs. Good luck !

 

[Dave M]

I would also say that your chances are good - unless you are seeking a 2BR. There are very few 2BR MOC units deposited into II. Because of the great trading power, most owners deposit their units separately as a 1BR and a studio. If you are willing to accept a 1BR, you should add it to your request.

 

[Valleykat]

We did put in for a 2 bedroom Dave and in the new villas at that. We want a full kitchen. I figure we can always ammend the request later to broaden our search.

My DH spoke with a friend who has exchanged his Marriott Timber Ridge week for MOC successfully twice with just a phone call. The 2nd time he even got the same corner oceanfront unit that he had previously exchanged for. I told my DH to get the number of whoever he's callling. He must know something we don't.

Is there anything besides posting a request that we should be doing?

 

[Valleykat]

We Got It!

I received a call from II today saying that our request had been filled. We have a 2 bedroom unit reserved for the first week of June at Marriott’s Maui Lahaina & Napili Villas. YEAH! He said that our deposit week had very high trading power. It sure pays to set the alarm for 6 AM a year in advance. We own two Marriot NCV weeks, one gold and one premium. We chose to deposit our late July week instead of our early June week to improve our chances of getting these particular villas.

I am glad we got such a quick response because I know my DH would have been getting nervous and wanting to broaden our request from our ideal place and time if much time had gone by.

 

[lll1929]

Congrats and enjoy Hawaii!!

 

[dougp26364]

I'm glad you received you exchange. Sometimes it's a bit of a waiting game waiting for owners of the resort you want to exchange into to deposit a week during the timeframe you want.

As for demand index, keep in mind that if you're trying to exchange into one specific resort, the travel demand index isn't necessarily a great indicator of how hard/easy it will be to get into a specific resort but an indicator of the demand for that area in general. It takes into account the supply and demand for ALL resorts, both good and bad. So if you're trying to exchange into one particular resort that is extremely popular itself or has an extremely high owner occupancy, you can still have a difficult exchange even though your trading higher for lower.

As an example, NCV itself can be a tough trade because it's popular with owners during certain times and, in the past has had high rental value for owners that weren't going to use their week. I was exchanging a 2 bedroom Platinum week for a 2 bedroom Gold week, both weeks with approx. the same travlel index but, the resort with the Gold week has high owner occupancy and that particular week was spring break for AZ schools. Even though it was higher for lower it was still the toughest exchange I've made in 10 years. BTW, that was a Marriott to Marriott exchange into your home resort of NCV.

Key West is another prime example of how even a lower demand week on the travel index can be a tough trade. Hyatt owns the lions share of resorts on Key West. If you want to exchange into one of the Hyatt's, even during the slowest time, and your not a Hyatt owner with the internal Hyatt exchange preference, you could be waiting to get your exchange until 6 or 7 months before your travel date. That's because Hyatt holds weeks in their system to give all Hyatt owners first crack at the weeks in the most popular places. Hyatt controls their inventory whereas with Marriott, owners reserve the week they want and then can deposit that exact week. Even if it's a holiday week at an extremely popular resorts.

So travel index's can give you an idea of the difficulty of the exchange but there are other, more important factors involved such as popularity of a particular resort, owner occupancy of a particular resort and the style of internal exchange system a particular resort might be in.

 

[Valleykat]

Thanks for the explanation of the demand index Doug. I didn't really understand that before. We have booked our gold NCV weeks during either spring break or the first week of June in the past. I was worried about the owner occupany being too great for MM1 since it is so new, but we got lucky.

 

[AMJ]

That's a great exchange! I would love to go to Hawaii.

 

[dougp26364]

Thanks for the explanation of the demand index Doug. I didn't really understand that before. We have booked our gold NCV weeks during either spring break or the first week of June in the past. I was worried about the owner occupany being too great for MM1 since it is so new, but we got lucky.

If it's new, there could be a good number of developer weeks available. Sometimes the newer resorts can be easier to get into if the developer has a lot of unsold inventory. They especially want Marriott owners in those weeks as they are the very best prospects to buy another week. Current owners already understand the product and, if Marriott has done it's job, current owners will be happy enough with the product to buy again.

Of course this doesn't always hold true. Some resorts sell so fast that demand outstrips supply. I know the 3 bedroom MGC units were selling far ahead of the 1 bedroom units. So one would have a much better chance of excess developer inventory for the 1 bedroom models than of the 2 or 3 bedroom models. Ocean Watch at Myrtle beach seemed to be another example of a resort selling so fast that there was very little developer inventory available of other Marriott owners to exchange into.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Valleykat, great exchange. Have a wonderful time.