Marriott Vacation Club point system

I get you are guessing, but, I am curious as I do not know, are they still selling old style timeshares there? Do you know?

Yes Marriott Aruba Ocean Club has had some limited resale inventories. Two years ago they bought a 2 bedroom Marriott Ocean Club for $5,500. Total. The couple first offered it to us but with the almost $2,000 maintenance fee we turned them down

It depends on the resort but the current tactic is to allow you to buy a standard old style week along with Trust points for which they say they will enroll the week basically giving you more points in the end for a little less money than if you purchased via all Trust points.

Trust, mistrust, whatever. We used to just have the week and even early December at the Marriott Ocean Club we received a week. Now with points the choice in late November , December becomes six days and not a week. Yes, you can find an eight day points. Inversion in August and September. Some new math? How is that lawsuit coming?

So, you used to just have the week. You still have the week, you've added points perhaps. It's rarely good to trade the week for points, so, you wouldn't do that. You would simply use your week as you always have, 7 days, right? So, your legacy week will always give you a week, not 6 days, not 8 days, unless you trade it.

I trade my two weeks for points now. I do not want to be tied down to an exact time as things can happen. Now in Aruba and going home Saturday September 9th. I'm already looking to somehow stay longer at the Marriott hotel or Hilton as I don't want to be in a United flight diverted because of Irma. Flying in a hurricane is for hurricane hunters. See the weather maps as right in the path of going home to New Jersey.

I see, so, that makes sense Michael. The ideal timeshare customer is of course one who can plan a year in advance. But I understand that is not possible for everyone. It's never been an issue for us thus far. However, you use case makes sense. So, to be more flexible, you trade your week for points, which immediately devalue leaving you with (depending on the time of year) less than a week. This is true of everywhere really. I've never really heard a good explanation for that, and have constantly asked about that and got nowhere. Of course, we can guess the reason, but, I like hassling them about it every presentation (when I remember). I always wondered who would ever trade for points since you always lose, but, this makes sense. We'll be heading to Virginia this coming week, but driving so should not be an issue no matter where Irma goes. Could get there (Williamsburg) near the time when Irma would be there, we'll see. I was in New Orleans for Andrew and that was no fun! Looks like Irma has a decent chance of staying at sea.

The best plans go? With Irma coming I extended 4 days at tha Marriott Hotel and was just able to keep the first class fares . Believe it or not if you wait for a travel waiver and first class is full you get economy or worse at no return price on the fair. Fly the unfair sky's of United. Well 4 more days in Aruba

I agree. My husband and I purchased the point system for 3000 points. Our maintanence fee already increased, we are unable to book the week we want unless we book one year ahead which doesn't always work for us. We purchased for $28,300 and when said and paid we will have paid a total of $52,600! $23K toward interest. This is a scam and I am not sure how the government allows it to continue. Disappointed with Marriott.

You can rent a Marriott timeshare for a week at most locations for under $2,000. $52,600. Goes a long way towards renting for what can amount to over 20 years and you never have to pay a maintenance fee. You can choose when and where you want to go with no waiting lists.Your purchase price of the initial timeshare is the sales fee which is never recoverable.For 2018 the maintenance fee for a one bedroom in Aruba is )215.00 per day and two bedroom is $270.00 per day. That’s a rediculous start up price. Don’t forget to add the $10.00 Aruba utility fees. One other thought. As you get older do you really need a full kitchen or in Paradise aren’t you going to eat out? Yes in Aruba you have that out of date whirlpool tub. It should be replaced with a washing machine as needed in the Aruba Ocean Club room. Hey maybe you can place your dirty clothing in that whirlpool turn it on high and wash your clothing. for me a studio with a balcony is good enough.

We are 1,000 points short for a Collette tour we'd hoped to go on. Marriott said it would cost over $13,000 to up my package. I don't want to purchase a larger pkg. as my husband has Alzheimer's and our traveling days are coming to an end. Is it possible to purchase points from another member just for this trip?

You can indeed "rent" points from another person, Marriott fully supports this process and they can add those one time points to your account. 50-60 cents per point is reasonable IMHO. Definitely do *not* purchase them from Marriott! As you can see, a lot of money. Maybe someone here will make you an offer. I always use everything I have myself. Heading to Palm Desert next month, and, Spain in May amongst others.

rent?

Look, Marriott itself rents the Aruba rooms for as little as $2,100 per week as well as RED Week and you don't worry about membership fees, extra clean up charges, government fees, constant calls from the timeshare unit.You CAN cancel within a few days of the rental period at NO , I repeat, at NO fees or even loss of your week use if too far into the timeshare period. The so called maintenance fees rising at double inflation rates is a rel turn-off and getting almost to the point of no return. There are too many scammers and gimic offers out there to trust anyone except Marriott or Red Week rentals.

Lynne, I would strongly suggest other discussion forums for you. The people here despise Timeshare for the most part. They don't seem to understand how it works, and have no interest in learning how to properly use it. Seem to have plenty of time to whine and complain, but putting a little effort to figure out how they can use in way that makes financial sense, they simply don't want to. It's sad really as they could be doing so much better. Tug has an active and mostly positive and helpful community. There's a lot of disadvantages to renting units from third parties.

This place is wayyyyyy too negative.

I am against timeshares for "the most part". Want to buy my 2 Aruba Ocean Clubs for $20,000. real cash total?

To me there is no way to properly use a Marriott Timeshare with so many rules and fees.

I would be much happier without them now and I can then choose when to go for the best price and airfares, etc.

I would not rent to third parties though I do rent condos and houses from qualified, verified renters.

A condo canal front in Marco Island can be rented for as little as $3,000. to even $5,000. in season and for one month. A Marriott weekly rental times four for 28 days is $6,000. maintenance fees and for the normal two bedroom condo rental verses Marriott two bedroom the Marriott Timeshare price goes up to $8,000. Let's not forget the fees for 'extra cleaning".

What will the Marriott Timeshare maintenance fees be in 5 years, 10 years? using 5% increase a year> Perhaps $1,750. in 5 years and that's for a one bedroom. That/s $250.00 per day just to pay fees!!!

If you hold out you can get .85 easily. I did so two years in a row. Had to turn down a lot of lowball offers, mostly from resellers who wanted to steal my points, make a reservation, and then sell the actual reserved nights. .50 doesn't even cover maintenance fees.

stevef280 wrote:

You can indeed "rent" points from another person, Marriott fully supports this process and they can add those one time points to your account. 50-60 cents per point is reasonable IMHO. Definitely do *not* purchase them from Marriott! As you can see, a lot of money. Maybe someone here will make you an offer. I always use everything I have myself. Heading to Palm Desert next month, and, Spain in May amongst others.

stevef280 wrote:

I see, so, that makes sense Michael. The ideal timeshare customer is of course one who can plan a year in advance. But I understand that is not possible for everyone. It's never been an issue for us thus far. However, you use case makes sense. So, to be more flexible, you trade your week for points, which immediately devalue leaving you with (depending on the time of year) less than a week. This is true of everywhere really. I've never really heard a good explanation for that, and have constantly asked about that and got nowhere. Of course, we can guess the reason, but, I like hassling them about it every presentation (when I remember). I always wondered who would ever trade for points since you always lose, but, this makes sense. We'll be heading to Virginia this coming week, but driving so should not be an issue no matter where Irma goes. Could get there (Williamsburg) near the time when Irma would be there, we'll see. I was in New Orleans for Andrew and that was no fun! Looks like Irma has a decent chance of staying at sea.

You could indeed elect points for your week and end up with six nights. Or you could elect points for your week and end up with 30 nights. Depends on what / when / where you own and what / when / where you want to vacation. It's no different than if you wanted to sell your home and move? Yes, you might end up in a smaller home if moving to a more expensive neighborhood or city. Or you might end up in a mansion if moving to a rural community. The fact is that a points transaction is a much more fair transaction to both sides than a week for week exchange. With a traditional week for week exchange there is always one winner and one loser. If you want the most vacation for your buck, the best thing to do is to buy what you plan to actually use, and use what you actually own. If you think about it, that makes sense, because any other choice means there will be a middleman, and middlemen have costs and try to earn a profit. People make less financially beneficial choices because they are willing to pay for the flexibility to meet their current year's vacation desires. Nothing complicated about it, really.

I have 150 points left for 2018 and hope that I can use that magic date for Williamsburg, VA I will use it on the way home from a drive from Florida.Everything has to be in place. Now the electricity is off at the Marriott Ocean Club so this continues the annual electricity problems at this timeshare. Can’t wait for timeshare presentation today. Some people can use the Marriott timeshare system very well but as you get older you don’t want so much structured vacations and worrying about time slots, airfare and all this preparation for one week. I prefer planning monthly vacations and without Caribbean Island airfare.

Why is the maintenance fee if a "buy" 2000 points lower than the weekly maintenance fee that I am paying now for the Marriott Aruba Ocean Club/ It's almost $1,500.verses around $1,100. if I bought another week of points? I am staying in the same place and get that same once a week" tidy" cleaning. Hey it's only $24,000 for another week!

So as of July 1,2018 the Aruba local sales tax goes from 3.5% to 6.0% . If this affects the already $10.00 per day Aruba add on taxes to a timeshare that can make the daily change go to $18.00 per day. It’s getting like New Jersey and you know what New Jersey people are doing? They are leaving so keep it up Aruba and Marco Island is looking a lot better.