Post reply

Re: Marriott Going to Point Syst (by R Michael F.):

libby31 wrote:

So much for the "no black out - if it is available you can get it" sales pitch!

I made a reservation with Sheraton for the same time in the same area with points and no problem!

I am going to start looking into dumping Marriott Destination Club. The whole system is not functional.

One last caveat, Mario the supervisor at the Owners Services number for Marriott just finished screaming at me and told me to shut up. Guess who will be getting a letter from me?

Not a good experience today with Marriott.

I believe Mario's job has been made exponentially more difficult thanks to Marriott Destinations. :)

As I have noted previously, there are some fairly significant usage restrictions that will occur with point users in that most of the available high demand (platinum/ gold week) inventory will reside in the legacy pool and not be deposited for points. So those point owners looking to redeem their points for great locations at great times will be disappointed. Based on comments on this forum and others - owners appear to finding this to be just the case.

Additionally, the Marriott Destinations system is much different than the other luxury hotel branded names - Hyatt, Hilton, Sheraton, etc. - as its Points system does not provide any proprietary interest for a specific season or resort. Marriott's system is much more a "free for all" system. Additionally, the other hotel systems built their point systems "from the ground up" - not 25 years into its business plan..

I don't believe the Destinations program was designed with any consideration to logistics, statistics, and owner usage. Just the idea the "if Marriott says it is good then it must be good - and the owners will buy it."

With this said - it is easy to understand why Mario and his customer service colleagues may have many difficult days ahead dealing with frustrated point owners.