Ripoff - Marriott Vacation Club Destinations Program - New Point System

I agree completely on both counts! Let's to try help each other make the most of what we have. If someone has an issue about something they would like to do, share it with all of us and maybe we can strategize and help them achieve their ends. I've learned so much from this blog, and it has really helped me dealing with the reps when I call in with an issue.

Secondly, I agree that it would help SO much if we could get someone from Marriott to address some of the issues that have come up. I sadly agree that it is a shame that Marriott International is no longer involved. You could always coun't on the Marriott quality and efficiency.

Has anyone besides me had trouble getting a good trade through II (other than trading for another Marriott property in the past)? We tried for 13 months to get ANY trade in the Venice area and got nowhere! We finally used some Marriott Rewards Points and stayed at the Courtyard by the airport and bused in to Venice each day!

Also I do realize that we didn't have to join the Destinations Program, but we got the feeling that a future trade with a Marriott property might get increasingly difficult--especially if the inventory would be drying up as members joined the Destinations Program and would deposit them with Marriott and not II. And I do like having to pay only one fee each year that even includes the fee we had to pay to trade for Marriott Reward Points every other year! We have never rented our properties (and they are desirable ones as was pointe out), but we didn't get into timeshare ownership to be landlords. And I know there are plenty of fees you need to pay to rent your properties--no? So what do you actually net in the end on a rental?

Yes, please DO post the results--or at least a website where we can read it for ourselves.

Many thanks!

Rental comment - I only rent excess units from time to time. They are easy to rent using ads thru Redweek. The only cost for me has been the ad at $24.99. I have never used an agency or rented out thru Marriott. You can view rental prices, etc. by property on this same website.

Dennis

But don't you have to pay MVC $69 since it is not you using the unit?

What annoyed me was that I was told the maintenance fee was X and then they added 9*X for blocks of points. In addition i was told that soon you would be able to you the points for nights in Europe rather than whole weeks - this seems to have died a death !!

MVC Fee for rental - I do not know of any such fee and I did inquire. Perhaps, you are referring to a guest certificate fee which pertains to Interval units. Please clarify.

Dennis

I am a legacy owner (5 locations) and I joined the Destinations program. I read a lot of blogs and ask a lot of questions when we attend the sales presentations at our timeshares. I am on the fence as to whether this is a good deal for me. I think it may be when we retire but not right now.

The best advice we ever got was to buy where you want to go....so we bought in Maui and Kauai, go every year and have been happy with our decisions. We have bought all our units from Marriott as we wanted to be able to trade for Marriott Reward Points. In hindsight, we probably should have purchased a couple in the aftermarket but we were loyal to the Marriott brand and the quality beind the name.

I don't see one very important fact mentioned here. The points that legacy owners get for depositing their weeks are treated differently than the points new owners purchase (called trust points).

If you want to trade your points gained from a legacy trade you can only trade for a unit that has been deposited by a legacy owner. You can only get access to Marriott-owned units (trust units) if you bought new points (again, called trust points).

Many people have mentioned that when you turn in your legacy week for points you generally will not get enough to trade for a comparable week. That is why when you first joined the Destinations program they gave you the opportunity to purchase 1K points. (The min. Number of pts. For purchase is now 1500)

Now here's what the sales reps aren't upfront about. Your combination of legacy points and trust points must match availability. For instance, your legacy points can only be used to exchange for legacy units turned in by owners and you need trust points for trust units. So if you tried to exchange for Waiohai in Kauai that might be impossible if you try to use both legacy and trust points as Waiohai is largely owner-owned (meaning Marriott has very few trust units).

This works the other way too...for locations that are mainly trust units, you cannot trade in using just Legacy points.

Now I am not claiming to be an expert on this nor am I saying that the Destinations program is a good or bad deal. What I would suggest is that before you buy into the Destinations program you have an idea of where you want to go and ask the questions, what is the mix of Legacy vs Trust units, how much flexibility do you need,and how does your Marriott portfolio/points match up?

Yes, it was the Guest Fee--but I guess now that we are only paying the one fee per year ($199 since we own 3 units) we don't have any fee for guests (even if you rent). Would you even need to let them know you are renting your unit? Many thanks for you help.

I think you are spot on with your assessment of Legacy vs Trust Points--and if you go way back in this blog, I think you will find a discussion of this point. This is precisely why we did not buy additional Trust points--because we would have to spend a bundle of money to get any trading power in the Trust. Since we are Legacy owners of 3 weeks, we did join the Destinations Program and fully understand that we are limited to Exchange with another Legacy owner or resort. There are still plenty of these resorts (marked E vs T in the brochures) that we have yet to visit, so we will be content to go to those--or trade with II--or trade every other year for MRPs. It may not be a perfect compromise, but it will work for us.

Kathryn - Renters name on reservation? -- I don't think you need to mention that you are renting out your unit, afterall, this was one of the options touted at the time we acquired our weeks from Marriott. However, if you do rent out a unit, you will want to add the name of the renting party to the reservation. You can do this easily over the phone with Marriott and there is no charge. Your name will remain on the reservation and the name of the renter will be added. It is very important that the name show on the reservation, otherwise the renting party will not be able to use the reservation. Also, the party on the reservation will be asked for identification and a credit card.

Suggestion - I find the title of this forum to be offensive and unfair and it does little to enhance our ownership experience. What do you think about starting another forum under a title such as "Marriott Legacy Weeks and Destinations Program - Maximizing our Value." We could then set this old forum adrift for anyone who wants to be constantly depressed.

One other thing, such change might even entice someone from Marriott Vacation Club to join in occasionally with a useful suggestion or a bit of news.

Dennis

I think that is an excellent suggestion to start a new blog. How do we go about doing that? That way people can choose which one they want to watch. If you're in the program then what you really want to do is maximize your membership. I will, however, continue to make suggestions to MVC that I think would make the program better--and maybe we could as a group make a difference in future policy use. I do remember that they said you would neve have to pay a fee for friends and family to use your weeks--so I guess I would certainly consider a renter my friend! : )!

I joined the Destinations Club program as a legacy owner. The Marriott DCP rep I talked to to make a reservation said a Point is a Point and that it doesn't make any difference whether the points are Legacy or Trust when you are using the points to go somewhere. She also said you will be able to go to any new Marriott timeshare locations that will be built in the future with Legacy points. Where did you get your info about that from that says that the points are separated out into Legacy points and trust points? Is it is from these Red Week blogs or Marriott?

This is my MAJOR complaint with MVC! We thought a point was a point as well, but I did confirm with my assigned rep that Trust points and Legacy point are NOT the same! The sales reps either don't understand the program or they are passing on misinformation to make a sale. I wish to heaven that MVC would make this change (that a point is point) and it would be one I think we should all make a push to see happen in the near future. If you go to the book you should have received when you bought into the Program that lists all the resorts, at the top of the page you will see it marked either E (for Exchange) or T (for Trust). If it's an E resort, Legacy owners can exchange there using your Destination Points--if it is only marked T (Trust) then you can't. My husband and I were told EXACTLY what you were told when we bought into the program--only to find out later that was NOT correct! As I have said before in this blog, my husband and I will only be sticking to the E resorts--and there are a considerable number of them--and will not be buying additional Trust points as they are WAY to expensive for us! We have 6,500 destination E points, and that's going to do for us. I would suggest that you call your assigned rep just to verify that what i say is true.

Trust or Enrolled Pts - We own legacy weeks, which can be converted to Dest pts, and Trust pts.

I talked to a Marriott Rep this morning about a reservation using Trust and/or Enrolled Dest points. It seems that, as a practical matter, distinguishing points as "T" or "E" is not much of an issue and only rarely prevents a reservation. My suggestion is that we try with what we have and will probably not be disappointed. Afterall, happy owners are key to the success of the Marriott Vacations concept.

I have a problem with the point system. Should it be as complicated as our tax system ? I'm sure everyone paid a large amount of money to buy their points. Then there is the annual maintenance fees and in a lot of cases exchange fees. I think it would be a lot easier and more cost effective to simply go to this site or another one and rent a unit that someone has advertised. This way there is no large outlay of cash and no commitment to pay annual fees and sometimes assessments. I got rid of two timeshares last year and I sleep a lot better at night not worrying about future fees or being obligated to travel every year. I had a lot of great vacations over the years but I see a lot of changes in the timeshare industry that doesn't benefit the timeshare owners. It seems to be a big cash cow for the developers. That is just my opinion. Everyone's circumstances could be different.

Bryan - I was asking YOU for Clarification. Where did you get your information? Because what I was told is different. And to be clear I was not talking about the Rep Selling the Destination Club Points. I was referring to the Rep who sets up reservations with the DC Points. As I stated, the reservation rep said that it doesn't matter what kind of point you want to redeem. They all spend the same. (legacy or Trust = all the same.) If you can afford to spend the outrageous amount of points they want for the trade, and the property is available, then they will let you make a reservation. Also Legacy owners will be able to use DC points to go to future resorts. A Point is a Point.

To: g333s -- I am impressed by how much you know about the new Marriott Points System. My wife and I just attended a sales presentation and I can see some definite advantages of joining. Not sure how many points to purchase, or whether this is a "good deal." On the one hand, seems expensive. On the other hand, I'm intrigued at the thought of the international travel, being able to pass along to my heirs, etc. I don't have a problem with the program in theory -- it only makes sense that one would "have to pay" for a premium vacation, whether in cash or points and it seems that the Marriott properties are premium properties. I'm wondering if you would be willing to share knowledge of the program with me on a personal basis by email. If so, my email address is paul.warner@riotinto.com. Thanks!

Some on this forum have asked that I alert them to the following:

Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (NYSE: VAC) will report fourth quarter and full year 2011 financial results before the market opens on March 15, 2012.

Please check under the stock symbol "VAC" after the market opens and you should be able to find the press release.

Think carefully prior to making this purchase, What we initially purchased was completely misrepresented, the Destinations program provides no value add and additional fees. Once you figure annual maintenance, fees and lack of ability to book what and where, you are better off just renting in the locale that you desire and in reality that can be done at rates far lower than they will quote you for an average night per stay - regardless of season. Also when we have exchanged for Interval properties, they are often overstated and properties are very inferior based on our experience. I would never purchase a time-share, nor add to the pain of additional programs. Also when booking using combination of Destinations and pay night be very careful that they do not book you in different accommodations, We just had this happen and not even aware until days prior to departure, Very difficult to get resolution with anyone in corporate (Orlando) while onsite staff tries to accommodate. As a lifetime Marriott Platinum member I thought I could trust the brand, but that is not the case, MVCI is a very different company and they are damaging the Marriott Brand.