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Re: Marriott Going to Point Syst (by Erman C.):

Bob2001

I truly feel your pain as we've all experienced the reduction over time of the availability of great internal Marriott trades. As you stated this did not just happen on 20 Jun 2010 when the points system was introduced. To my understanding the main reason for the change in experience occured because in the past the Marriott owned inventory (unsold) was available for internal booking/trade/use just like owner deposits. Note: Marriott was still on the hook for all their share of maintenance fees/taxes. To reduce their inventory operating costs they fully integrated MVCI resort properties into their Marriott Hotel reservation system and now are able to rent out more of their inventory with greater success. I book these frequently as an alternative to Marriott hotel rooms in an area with Marriott timeshares. Now the down-side to doing this type of rental is that Marriott must hold some of these units out of the MVCI available use/trade inventory since many renters don't book until a few months or weeks prior to travel. Marriott's un-rented units are those you see come back in the short-stay or last minute exchange listings at Interval.

Unfortunately for all, many of the past deals have indeed been reduced. I just don't think it is fair to attribute that to Marriott's Destination points system. I haven't done this, but it might be interesting to see what it costs to book MVCI's inventory one year out. Perhaps it is less than owner annual fees.

I wish you all the best in your vacation planning,

EC