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Re: Spoke to a Marriot rep (now I a really confused) (by Timothy S.):

johnc655 wrote:

tim755 wrote:

johnc655 wrote:

I just spoke with a rep for Marriot and they told me that if I buy the timeshare on the resale market, I lose the opportunity to generate points in the MArriot system. Is the points that useful if I am going to buy a membership in interval international or RCI? He also told me that with Marriot the developer does not negotiate price and that value is built into the product. I have been to many time share presentations but not one for the big brand names. Is he correct because at other timeshare presentations, I was able to negotiate a much lower price than what was originally asked at the presentation but ended up not purchasing.

What I would like to know is 1. During the developer presentations, are prices fixed without negotiation or is their lots of wiggle room 2. Resale market, what do0 you give up by buying on this market, is he correct in that the second owner loses the opportunity to get access to marriot points and trade between Marriot properties.

New and naive but willing to do leg work to find out more

J

John,

If you purchase a Marriott timeshare directly from Marriott, you have the opportunity to deposit your week with Marriott if you will not be using it and get Marriott reward points in exchange. You must let Marriott know by the end of the year for the following year. Also, some Marriott resorts permit you to deposit your week every year and others only every other year. Sometimes this also depends on the season you own.

If you purchase on the resale market, you are not permitted to deposit your week with Marriott for points.

You have to determine whether or not the use of these points are important to you. I can tell give you my observation in a later post, if you want to know.

My experience with Marriott presentations is that the prices are fixed. They do not put pressure on you, but they offer pretty enticing Marriott reward point incentives for purchasing from them. For instance, they may demonstrate that you might earn enough points with the sale to take a trip to Europe or Hawaii.

When I purchased my first Marriott timeshare through Redweek, the realtor I worked with told me about Right of First Refusal. Marriott did not invoke that, so we were able to go ahead with the purchase. Later, my realtor told me that the same seller later offered another villa at the same location and about the same price I paid. In that case, Marriott exercised their option to purchase the villa. The seller had to find another.

Tim

Tim, I would be interested in your experience with Marriot points. I am not sure what to make of the list prices on the redweeks site for the property I am interested in but I am moving towards making a blacket offer to the half dozen units listed on the site currently. When you said you bought two Marriot propertys on the resale market, did you make an offer through a real estate agent or direct through the owner? The list prices do not seem that low compared to buying through the developer. Any suggestions. I know that some of th units have been listed for some time which might be in my favour but the owners may have a fixed price and that is it.

Would enjoy your thoughts

J

Marriott has a point program called Marriott Rewards. It is probably similar to the point programs provided by airlines, banks and other companies. When you accumulate enough Marriott points, you can redeem those points for merchandise in a catalog, but also for travel, which is probably the best option.

Marriott provides a chart showing how many points are required to stay at Marriott hotels, for each category, for a period of 1 to 7 days. There is also a chart which shows points for transportation and housing, where Marriott would convert the necessary points required by an air carrier for travel for two to the required destination.

Points can be earned in several ways.

Points are awarded for staying at Marriott hotels. For instance, you may get 10 points/$ spent at a Courtyard and Fairfield and 5 points/$ spent at a Residence Inn. Check with Marriott to confirm point awards.

You can also accumulate points through the Marriott credit card. The premium card awards more points money spent at Marriot facilities, dining, gasoline, etc, than does the basic card.

If you go to a timeshare presentation, Marriott will offer reward points as an incentive for taking part in the presentation or their may be other rewards.

You can accumulate large amounts of points quickly by purchasing a timeshare villa from Marriott. There are point incentives for making the purchase and, if you purchase from Marriott, you would have the option of depositing the villa with Marriott every year or every other year depending on the location of the timeshare and the season you purchase, for reward points. I have seen the number of points range from 90,000 to 110,000. I cannot do this because I purchased my timeshares on the resale market. However, I accumulate points through other means I mentioned above.

In the beginning, I really didn't recognize the value of Marriott reward points until I went to a presentation where the Marriott rep did an excellent job of exlaining the point system. Some time after that, my wife and I were planning to visit our son in San Diego. Marriott has a timeshare at Newport Coast, CA, which we were able to exchange into for the low II exchange fee. The timeshare is beautiful, but we were about 65 miles from San Diego. If we used reward points, we could have stayed in a Marriott hotel closer to where he lived or worked, so we would save on travel time and expense.

So, if you have time and the desire to travel and want to go to places where there may not be timeshares available for exchange or if you want to use points to pay for air travel, then consider the Marriott Rewards program. You do not have to purchase a timehshare from Marriott to be part of the program. You must purchase the timeshare to be able to deposit the week for points.

A few move comments about depositing your week for reward points. If you deposit the week, you must notify Marriott the year previous to the year you would be depositing the week; in other words, in 2007 for 2008 usage. See Marriott for the exact rule.

If you pay your maintenance fees of, say $800, using the premium visa card, I think you would earn $4000 points (5 points/dollar). If you deposit a week with Marriott, you would get 90,000 or more points in addition to the visa points. If you just earned $1/point using your credit card, you would have to spend $90,000 to get that number of points. So, if you want points, for the cost of your maintenance fees and the deposit of a timeshare week, you could gain about $94,000 points. Of course, you would give up your timeshare for that year.

Is it worth purchasing a timeshare from Marriott to have that option? You must look at your individual situation, your travel goals and availability.

You also asked about my experience purchasing on the resale market.

When I first was introduced to timeshare, I spent hours researching timeshares on the internet, including Redweek, Tug2, Interval and other places. My wife and I went to presentations from 3 different companies and visited 2 other Marriotts before deciding to buy. We also rented 2 weeks at Marriott Ocean Pointe from someone on Redweek and this person was kind enough to share her purchase experiences on the resale market, I believe also from Redweek sellers.

My wife and I decided to purchase an ocean front villa to use and an ocean side villa to trade.

I watched selling prices for Ocean Pointe for several weeks until I found one that was in a price range that we felt we could pay. We emailed the person on Redweek. It was a realtor representing the seller. We made an offer. It was accepted. We sent a deposit into an escrow account and the closing company handled all the paperwork. We were pleased with the timing because we were purchasing in 2005 for 2006 usage. We asked the seller to reserve the weeks we wanted in 2006 and put into the purchase agreement that the weeks would be transferred to our name after the close. It worked out real well.

I believe we contacted the realtor when we were looking for the second villa. I think both closed about the date. We visited Ocean Pointe as renters the first year and owners the second. We used the ocean side villa to exchange to Hilton Head and Marriott Newport and received a bonus week from II which our daughter and son-in-law used with their children at Marriott Cypress Harbour in Orlando.

After our visit to Hilton Head, we were so impressed that we decided we should purchase to be sure we could get back again the next year. We used Redweek again, corresponded with sellers. We ended up purching from a seller who had already reserved time when we wanted to go. The seller suggested a law firm on Hilton Head with a person who specialized in timeshare sales. Once again, this went very well.

Tim