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Re: Marriott Going to Point Syst

Sorry I was confusing - you are right about the finances, but wrong about what I said. At a peak I owned 4 weeks. 3 had no lockoff (Hilton Head), 1 had a lockoff (MDS). I usually traded for hotel points, getting the high end hotels and 120K airline miles for 270K Rewards points. On Jan 15, 2009, Marriott devalued the hotel points (the same trade now goes for 360K points - 33% more). So, I sold 3 weeks and am selling my 4th week ASAP. I have never rented any of my weeks out. I bought all weeks through Marriott and sold my 3 through Marriott. Selling MDS through Marriott is not an option, so it will go 3rd party. My first week was 1991 and, in total, I have had around 40 year/weeks to occupy, trade with II or trade for Rewards Points. I occupied a total of 1 week out of those 40, the rest were trades or points. My white MDS lockoff (1BR + Studio) constantly got me very nice 2BR units (I can't explain why, but they did). My Sunset Pointe (Platinum, valued at 1400 points in the new program) got me Aruba Surf in March (2BR OV 4650 points) and Ko Olina in Janurary (2BR Mountain View 4050 points). I could go on and on about the good trades and the good old days. But, they are gone. Back to my (confusing) '6 out of 20' - that was merely stating that, as a white week MDS owner, I had access to 20 weeks in a given year, including Thanksgiving. The points (2375) that Marriott offers to white week owners would allow me access (from my home unit) to 6 of those 20 weeks - 14 weeks are taken away due to high point values placed on the weeks that I can no longer access. It has been pointed out - it makes no sense to trade your unit in for points and then go back to your home resort - with the price to occupy and the points offered, that would be a very poor transaction for any owner. But, losing 70% of my weeks is a picture of HOW BAD the points offered is compared to the points required to get in somewhere else. I think there may be over 10,000 different numbers in the matrix of points (resort, week, unit size, view) which makes an exhaustive comparison quite difficult. I'm just saying that my meager points don't get me what II has gotten me. As to owners who have accumulated many weeks in order to rent - they are left with the choice of selling and getting out of the business or trying to rent non-prime weeks, or joining points to get access to prime weeks - but the prime weeks are going to the Premium and Premium Plus points owners at 13 months out . But, come to think of it, the ones who rent have also been severely short changed with their points - so even they can't get the prime weeks unless they buy points or consolidate units (points for 2 units combined to get access to one prime unit) The result (as the last poster noted) is that maintenance fees that will make the process not financially viable. All told, there is no current owner (one who trades, rents or occupies every year) that could benefit from points vs. the "old system". Even those who got a lot of points and see points as an opportunity to use those points to go to other Marriotts - they could have done that quite nicely with II in the old system. The only one who has posted so far that I see has a benefit from points is where they can get a slight reduction in lockoff fees if they have heavy use of lockoff (many weeks). With this scenario, they never ever turn their week in for points, they occupy their home resort, but occupy it in lockoff units creating extra vacation weeks at their home property. That is a pretty narrow window of 'points usage' - that is, they never actually use points!?! Renters want prime weeks, traders want prime weeks (greater value of trade) and owners want prime weeks to occupy. Marriott sold the weeks initially with MUCH less differentiation, but now is pricing a large differentiation via the point structure (prime weeks cost many more points). Hawaii is the easiest example (weeks 1-50 sold at the same price, but rent out at widely varied points prices) - the weeks Marriott has cherry picked will be very difficult to come by.