Ripoff - Marriott Vacation Club Destinations Program - New Point System

Charles - I have Marriott weeks acquired thru Marriott and also weeks acquired privately. I did enroll the weeks acquired thru Marriott but the others are not eligible for enrollment in Destinations. I kept my old Interval account for use with the privately purchased weeks. Of course, the weeks acquired thru Marriott are handled thru the second Interval account which is covered by the annual Destinations fee.

I like the idea of having two Interval accounts and they both come up when I access Interval. The idea of being able to transact trades thru a non-Marriott resource is not a bad thing to me. I even upgraded the second membership to Gold with Interval which enables additional options such as spliting my Marriott weeks thru Interval.

'Hope this helps.

Based on my review of this blog and others, I'm declining the new points program. I will be in the Kona Tower till June 17th. I look forward to your decision after you speak with the MVC salesperson. Thanks Mike

You have made a wise decision!

sorry if this is a repeat - seem to have trouble posting. We have not used our home resort weeks in many years - a close family member bought a condo nearby and we use that and have only used our weeks for points or to trade.

Given our high II fees, it seemed that the Destinations program might not hurt us - especially since we seem to have trouble using our banked II weeks because of our scheduling

Any thoughts? I am working on my frustration level to make the Marriott call tomorrow.

sorry if this is a repeat - seem to have trouble posting. We have not used our home resort weeks in many years - a close family member bought a condo nearby and we use that and have only used our weeks for points or to trade.

Given our high II fees, it seemed that the Destinations program might not hurt us - especially since we seem to have trouble using our banked II weeks because of our scheduling

Any thoughts? I am working on my frustration level to make the Marriott call tomorrow.

Randy, I enrolled our weeks in Destinations in the summer of 2010 and, for us, it has proven to be the right decision. We expanded our options/flexibility with respect to our owned weeks and reduced our annual Interval costs. I especially like the option of using a few days rather than an entire week.

If you don't want to deal with the typical sales person, call Tim Hamilton at the Marriott Custom House in Boston. He is professional, knows the product inside out, and has always treated us fairly. We deal thru him even though we live in California.

Good luck,

Dennis

Your requested advise but did not share how many weeks you have. If one, I would recommend not purchasing the destination points program. If three I would recommend doing so. Two is a toss up depending on how you plan to use your weeks.

j227 wrote:

Your requested advise but did not share how many weeks you have. If one, I would recommend not purchasing the destination points program. If three I would recommend doing so. Two is a toss up depending on how you plan to use your weeks.

Even if I only owned 1 week, I would still enroll in Destinations for the ability to use points for days - rather than an entire week. I would then look at the Interval fee savings as my bonus. However, if you want to join, you should do it before the scheduled price increase "early" this week.

Thanks everyone for your help. I am just going wait on buying for now. I have also decided not to sign up for the points program. I might regret it.... It will be interesting to see if the enrollment price really goes up as advertised. All this vacation talk has me itching for some island time with my family!!!!! lol

Waiting it the worst choice. Either do it now or forget it as the price difference is huge.

Well, the price difference might start out huge, but it seems they are having trouble selling it now at the introductory offer so we'll see. They can't continue to sell something at a price that isn't selling.

Any pointers to a resource or summary about advantages of the new MVC Destinations points program? One unfortunate aspect of the Timeshare biz is that the employees are uniquely unable to actually explain how things work. One example: go back to the original sales presentation (for us 13 years ago Desert Springs II high week) and compare what they said then to what actually happened. I think a whole generation of timeshare huxters got wiped out in the crash...

Destinations Enrollment - I suspect that Vacation Club has enrolled most of the existing owners who would join. They are probably now just trying to push the rest off the fence. Please note that it has been two years since the start of Destinations. It's decision time for many owners!

The question now is what are the next steps to bring Marriott Vacation Club to a profitable state? You can see reported results under the stock symbol "VAC". We, as owners, have an interest in seeing VAC thrive.

Don't think they will ever thrive as they have in the past until they recognize who helped them thrive, the orginal owners. Whether some of you want to admit that they have slapped a large portion of us in the face with their rediculous low offers for rebuying our timeshares, this has created some very bad PR for them and competition is making the best of all the negative comments that are made by owners who recognize that slap.

WHETHER YOU WANT TO CONSIDER BUYING BACK TIMESHARES AT PRE-CONSTRUCTION PRICES OF 20 YEARS AGO AS A BRILLIANT AND PROFITABLE MOVE OR IF YOU BELIEVE LIKE SO MANY OF US OLD TIME OWNERS, IT SHOWS THE CORPORATE GREED OF A COMPANY THAT MOST HELD IN HIGH ESTEEM. BUYING FOR $14,000 AND SELLING POINTS FOR THE SAME UNIT FOR $46,000, IS NOTHING BUT OUTRIGHT GREED.

PLEASE OWNERS, DON'T SELL TO MARRIOTT UNTIL THEY OFFER YOU A REASONABLE PRICE. WITHOUT OUR KEY RESORT LOCATIONS, THEY HAVE OR WILL HAVE A HUGE DEMAND FOR PRIME LOCATIONS LIKE ARUBA AND HAWAII, THAT THEY CANNOT ACCOMODATE . THEN, THE PRICES WILL GO UP FOR REBUYS.

JIM

Does anyone actually have a personal vacation advisor like we were promised with Destination Points? The one person you go to with knowledge of your account? We keep getting the run around and each person we talk to tells us something different.

When were you promised a "personal vacation advisor"? I just enrolled our weeks a couple of days ago, but there was no mention of that.

My Marriott rep was very nice and somewhat knowledgable. But he did not know until I figured it out with him online, that not every Marriott resort is participating in the Destinations program. I think there are only 53 - and almost all in the US.

I just enrolled. I was totally against it because I thought I couldn't go to my home resort at the high time of the year since I would have to convert my week to points. That's not true. I just don't convert my week to points for that year. I studied this excellent board, reviewed their presentation, read the program from the beginning to the end and it's worth it. Although I have a week in Maui, I do like going to Oahu. Right now I pay $89 a year for Interval International and it costs $109 when the trade occurs. If I chose to split my 2-bedroom into a 1-bedroom suite and a lockout, it costs me $80 for the lockout trade.

The Club Fee is $165 and it includes a membership for Interval International. There are no fees for trading my week, which is normally $109, and there are no fees if I make a trade and change my mind, which is normally $30. If for some stupid reason I decide to convert my week to Marriott Reward Points (100,000), I don't have to pay the $109 fee.

There are actually more good then bad. The best thing is if I want to go to my home resort, I don't have to convert my week to points so I can go any week I want.

Personal Owner Services Advisor - One is assigned to our account and I have her name and extension; however, I have never talked to her. This has not been a problem as I have found the advisors that pick up the calls to be very knowledgable. I have no complaints about their responsiveness, knowledge of the program, courtesy, etc. I have learned much from Owner Services personnel.

Owner Services personnel seem to be held to a very high standard and I often have a chance to evaluate their performance thru online surveys. My only suggestion is that Sales personnel be subjected to the same process.

Congratulations,Marriott's Destination fee now is $2395.00

I am willing to give them 16-24 months to change it in a very creative way for less.  However, if you take  under consideration the majority who thinks there is nothing wrong with this rip off money making machine it might not happen. This fee is a gamble. Marriott is hoping that the destination program is successful enough to charge this kind of money.

I guarantee MVI will continue to change the rules and regulations to make it more difficult to get Marriott properties for exchange. I can't wait for it, because this is when I am going to make my investment worth it.)))))

I am not sure of your point. Owners had two years to make their decision to participate or not. TWO YEARS. That is more than fair in my opinion for people to make up their minds and save the money. to do so at the cheaper and reasonable price.