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Re: Ripoff - Marriott Vacation Club Destinations Program - New Point System

Kathrynm You are a legacy enrolled owner. That means you own 3 legacy weeks and enrolled them. That was what the $1995 fee was for. Enrollment gives you the option to turn your weeks into election points. They are called election points because you have to elect this option each year you want to use your week in this manner. The dead line to elect points for next year is September 30th. It will always be this date. Otherwise you may choose to use your week at your home resort, exchange through interval, or turn it into Marriott reward points just like before you enrolled. Marriott reward points are used for hotels and airfare. Although you may use them to stay at resorts as well, but it's not a great use of MRP. The election points are exchanged with other people who have also elected points for their week. So they are sometimes referred to as exchange points, as owners are exchanging amongst themselves and Marriott is now the middleman instead of interval. But it is still an exchange. Trust owners are those who purchased another deed and therefore have another maintenance fee, with Marriott since 6/20/2010 Trust points are a direct reservation into unsold inventory. It is not an exchange since there doesn't need to be another owner willing to give up his ownership in trade for availability to exist. Basically, if the room is vacant, trust points will get you in. The same way that cash will get you into a vacant hotel room. The main confusion and fear owners have is that the trust is taking inventory away from them and will make things harder to get. In reality, the trust is an actual land trust registered in Florida and filled with all the unsold inventory Marriott had ownership of as of 6/20/2010. Legacy owners never had access to this inventory. The only inventory we had access to was the weeks other owners deposited with interval. The unsold inventory was put on marriott.com for rental so Marriott could off set the maintenance and taxes they were suck with since their name was still on the deeds. So I could call for a week and be told the owners that had that week have not given it to interval yet, and therefore it is unavailable, but there could be unsold, vacant inventory available, that I, as a legacy owner, did not have access to. The great thing about the trust is that I now have access to unsold inventory as well as the weeks other owners are willing to trade. It's increased availability and I'm happy Marriott is letting us have access to their weeks. And before people cry about feeling entitled to this inventory without buying the trust, look at it this way... I pay $1200 in maintenance for my week. I wouldn't let someone use it for $109. I would have to rent it out for $1200 just to break even. So if I wouldn't do it, why should I expect Marriott to do it? Hope this helps.