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Re: Buying Marriott Destinations points (by Den):

nanciek2 wrote:

I did hear at the owners forum at Marriott's Grande Ocean in Hilton Head, two weeks ago, that there is a "rumor" that Marriott was going to build another property there.

What I found particularly interesting though, is that MDVC owns no points for the platinum and gold weeks, and on average, less then 11% of point stays are available through the year for Grande Ocean. I wonder how many of the sales presentation tell that to buyers of points.

When they say a new Marriott property is being built, this does not mean that it is a timeshare and that the units will go into the trust for sale as points. In fact, I suspect under the new "asset light" posture, this is very unlikely. The more likely prospect is that they sell points and then go buy a "resale" unit for the trust - low price, no risk, and high margin on the transaction. Then, they are free to offer acquired packages to the point holder and rent out the unit exchanged. Vacation club just becomes a retailer, buying premium inventory for resale from owners and others. Their advantage, owners must use points acquired thru Marriott. Owners are shut out of the more competitive marketplace due to points becoming the currency.

At least, this is how I see it. This is why I like my owned weeks which I can use, exchange thru Interval, exchange for points, or rent out for "unrestricted" currency, US dollars.