Which Marriott location will you buy to trade?

[dioxide45]

Rob, are you saying the desert properties have two 1br lockoff options?

Shadow Ridge Enclaves has 2BR units that lock off in to two 1BR units. I believe they call these deluxe 2BRs. Similar to the 2BR units at Lakeshore Reserve that lock off in to two 1BR master units.

 

[klpca]

As someone who likes to play with trading power and availability in both II and has owned 2 gold Barony Beach weeks, 1 platinum manor club, and one EOY Marriott Willow Ridge, but have either sold, had one taken back by ROFR, and sold two back to Marriott (they weren't offering brokered resales for any of my units at the time when I was divesting them) I know the meaning and value of Marriott preference.

That said the OP started off by saying he wanted to explore II and thought Marriott would be a good choice. I feel unless you have a specific plan for exchanging into Marriott units where the preference is needed that Marriott is too expensive to use as a trader in II. I kept my WR to use to exchange into gold season at Hilton Head until earlier this year. I found I could exchange into Harbor Club for the week I needed without preference and could possibly eplus into one of the big 3's some of the time. My family decided the $300 or so in savings for the week was worth it. We really don't like Myrtle Beach or HHI in the summer. Haven't made it down to any of the Florida resorts and the Orlando ones are still exchangable without Marriott. Manor Club is an easy exchange with almost anything. So for us there just wasn't any value in having a Marriott exchanger. I still have them in my II account so I can still play with the the value for instant exchange.

For me it wasn't an expensive lesson. I probably made about $1000-2000 total over what I paid and I enjoyed the experiment.


My take on WR which is one of the more cost effective exchanges. You are looking at about $1100 in MF plus the lock off fee. The 1 br exchanges very well. I would value that at about $750 of the $1100. The studio is very mehh. Even valuing it at $350 may be high. Even though it has Marriott preference it just couldn't pull most 2 br that I needed. It would occasionally perform great but I attribute that more to II glitches because sometime something that was available with the studio would not show a few days later even though it was still sitting in inventory and I would log off and refresh or even try to match by setting up an ongoing request (which I would cancel if matched). To me the studio was like a bonus week but still not the most economical bonus week.

First of all, I would like to thank you for consistently sharing your knowledge on the board with respect to trading. It is always helpful.

With respect to the statement above in red, this is probably the only benefit I have found for owning a Marriott trader. Every once in awhile, I see amazing trades with my DSVII studio, always under preference. Otherwise, I agree, unless you have your heart set on a Marriott trade that requires Marriott preference, there are other traders out there that work just fine. My SDO sees a lot since I trade my two bedroom as two one bedroom units. Interval really penalizes the studio units.

 

[tschwa2]

I don't think you would ever be able to get a 3 br Marriott ski holiday week through II even using a full 2 br Marriott. You would be extremely lucky to get a 1 br Christmas or new year's ski week using a 2 br platinum week or a non holiday 2 br Marriott ski week if you did an ongoing search 1 year out. Those ones might happen ( and would have no chance without Marriott preference) but still I wouldn't count on it happening on a regular basis.

Having preference isn't going to help with exchanges with a 2 or 3 bedroom Christmas or New Year week anywhere other than Orlando for prime locations. If those are they types of exchanges you expect to get with preference you will be disappointed.

If you got a 3 br Tahoe Christmas week for $3000 as a rental you did well.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

When I was looking for a unit at the chateau, I looked at Marriott resale on MVCI out of curiosity. To my surprise, they do not show resales at that resort. I called the marriott resale department to see what they had and they told me they can't sell in Vegas (maybe Nevada) because of real estate laws.

The unit I purchased was on eBay and after the purchase, I asked the seller about passing ROFR. He was 99 percent confident it would pass because Marriott wasn't taking any more units for now. The 1 percent was because this could end at any time though he did not think anytime soon.

It used to be (prior to 6/20/2010) that Marriott would not offer re-sales in any location unless the resort was at least 90% sold out. I am not sure where that stands today, but clearly Grande Chateau still has many, many Developer Vacation Points to sell.

Now, keep in mind that Marriott sold thousands of those weeks in Las Vegas until June of 2010, so I am not sure why anyone would say that they are not licensed to still sell weeks if they really wanted to..... I think they would like to sell you some points instead!

Because of the glut of unsold Grande Chateau available points then I think your privately purchased resale week has an excellent chance of passing. Best of luck with that.





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[hsintang]

I don't think you would ever be able to get a 3 br Marriott ski holiday week through II even using a full 2 br Marriott. You would be extremely lucky to get a 1 br Christmas or new year's ski week using a 2 br platinum week or a non holiday 2 br Marriott ski week if you did an ongoing search 1 year out. Those ones might happen ( and would have no chance without Marriott preference) but still I wouldn't count on it happening on a regular basis.

Having preference isn't going to help with exchanges with a 2 or 3 bedroom Christmas or New Year week anywhere other than Orlando for prime locations. If those are they types of exchanges you expect to get with preference you will be disappointed.

If you got a 3 br Tahoe Christmas week for $3000 as a rental you did well.

Yes. I normally don't need a 3 bedroom, however, after comparing prices online, I picked this 3 bedroom offer and locked it off to a 2 bedroom and studio. Our friend used the studio and we split the costs...
Tahoe probably got more snow this season so far than what it did in the past 3 years total...

 

[tschwa2]

Even so if you want a holiday 2 br or even 1 br Marriott event ski week you won't get one exchanging through II. You will need to buy one and even on the resale market I would expect to pay $25,000+ for a 2 br in addition to $1300ish MF annually.

 

[Quadmaniac]

I don't think you would ever be able to get a 3 br Marriott ski holiday week through II even using a full 2 br Marriott. You would be extremely lucky to get a 1 br Christmas or new year's ski week using a 2 br platinum week or a non holiday 2 br Marriott ski week if you did an ongoing search 1 year out. Those ones might happen ( and would have no chance without Marriott preference) but still I wouldn't count on it happening on a regular basis.

Having preference isn't going to help with exchanges with a 2 or 3 bedroom Christmas or New Year week anywhere other than Orlando for prime locations. If those are they types of exchanges you expect to get with preference you will be disappointed.

If you got a 3 br Tahoe Christmas week for $3000 as a rental you did well.

I've been pretty consistent in getting 1 br and 2 br units springbreak and Christmas/NY in Maui and Oahu the past 6 years through II. This year I had 5 units during the holidays (2x1br, 1x2br Christmas and studio, 2br NY) in Ko Olina and know of a friend who got a couple as well. It does happen. Some I traded into in June and some last minute. My brother just had a fill a few days ago for Maui next year in a 1 br MMO through OGS. I don't search as much as I used to but it does come up.

Currently I can see 3 br units in Feb/Mar at the Grand Chateau using my studio units.

I've recently noticed that they have put limitations on the studios much more than before and they are not grabbing as much, but still not not bad in my opinion. I used to be able to grab 2 br Ko Olina units months out with studios but that is becoming more restricted to a couple months out.

 

[dioxide45]

I've been pretty consistent in getting 1 br and 2 br units springbreak and Christmas/NY in Maui and Oahu the past 6 years through II. This year I had 5 units during the holidays (2x1br, 1x2br Christmas and studio, 2br NY) in Ko Olina and know of a friend who got a couple as well. It does happen. Some I traded into in June and some last minute. My brother just had a fill a few days ago for Maui next year in a 1 br MMO through OGS. I don't search as much as I used to but it does come up.

Currently I can see 3 br units in Feb/Mar at the Grand Chateau using my studio units.

I've recently noticed that they have put limitations on the studios much more than before and they are not grabbing as much, but still not not bad in my opinion. I used to be able to grab 2 br Ko Olina units months out with studios but that is becoming more restricted to a couple months out.

I think this is where EPlus or enrolled DC is very powerful. One can confirm a unit that will work early out, either through OGS or instant exchange. Then they can search inside flexchange when a lot of larger units tend to popup.

I suspect that there are a lot more prime units in prime time that are confirmed via OGS that we simply don't hear about, TUG is only a small population of timeshare owners. Those doing the trading game are a subset of that population.

 

[BocaBoy]

It should also be on the recorded deed. I don't think Marriott does double closings for these, just transfer directly from seller to buyer.

That has been my consistent experience with two MVCI brokered resales and one brokered purchase over a 15-year time frame (2001, 2009 and 2015).

 

[Quadmaniac]

I think this is where EPlus or enrolled DC is very powerful. One can confirm a unit that will work early out, either through OGS or instant exchange. Then they can search inside flexchange when a lot of larger units tend to popup.

I suspect that there are a lot more prime units in prime time that are confirmed via OGS that we simply don't hear about, TUG is only a small population of timeshare owners. Those doing the trading game are a subset of that population.

Yes very true. I buy Eplus on just about every trade now unless I am set in stone on going and it's a 2 br already.

I think on average though, TUG members are probably more educated on timeshares with the sharing of information than the non members. I've learned so much here in the past few years, that I wouldn't have the faintest idea of without having the resources here. How else can people expect to know all the ins and outs on their own ?