Ripoff - Marriott Vacation Club Destinations Program - New Point System

I did a legitimate search as a Dest Pts owner and I shared the results. What's the point, are you accusing me of being a sales person? Well, I'm not but I am a serious participant in Vacation Club resources. There's no conspiracy here, any other Dest Pts owner can duplicate my online search in a few minutes. In fact, one could even validate a sales persons findings by comparing them against mine.

I get the impression that, to some, one has no credibility in this forum unless he/she substantiates the complaints/suspicions of others in this forum. Is that the way you want it to work?

I strongly recommend that those making comments please discuss the issues and questions and drop the comments about other people or defending themselves. I think the majority of us are interested in the facts being presented along with views that are based on common sense and experience.

Dennis, your search of availability in Maui to me does not support the program you are so supportive of. This is where we have a large difference of opinion. This program is being sold at a premium price based on the idea that if you have enough points you can go ANYWHERE. That is my point with respect to what I see as a ripoff, regardless of price. Maui owners of a sold out resort will never give up a unit for a below market value point total that will not get them a premium unit in a high market location. One bedroom units in the original Lahaina tower will only get an owner 3100 points. A total that will not get them anything comparable based on location. Mind you the unit isn't great, but the location sure is. This simply presents a problem. Keep in mind Maui units sold at a large premium due to that location.

As i have said often, satisfaction is an individual thing. I am extremely satisfied with the units I own and simply will never give them up for what I perceive to be less.

My writings of today were intended for Edd132 who was trying to assess availability of particular weeks using Dest Pts. Inasmuch as I own Dest Pts, I could do a search and the results are posted - good or bad, depending on Ed's view.

I know there are those who have not bought Dest Pts, don't like the concept, etc. Plenty has been written on that; and, generally by non participants in Destinations.

I think this forum is a sad and angry commentary that has lost it's way. I will withdraw for now and probably just go on vacation from this for a while. I suggest that those who remain remember that they probably bought into timeshare for a better life, despite the high cost. Please accept my apology for any trauma or disagreement to which I may have contributed.

My experience with Marriott personnel and with owners of Marriott properties has been favorable. My wife and I are happy with our timeshares and are also happy with our Dest. Pts.

Kind regards,

Dennis

Is there any class action law suite against Marriortt Time shares or destination programs?

Thank you all for your feedback...and Dennis, thank you for tying a search for me...that was kind of you..I didn't intend to start a debate so I apologize if that occurred...I was just looking for candid, factual owner feedback as to their experiences in securing desireable properties with less than full lead time of 13 mos...Thanks again...Edd

One more test: if any of you would be nice enough to check availability for a 2 br unit in either of the Aruba facilities in Feb - April 2012, that would be great. Dennis checked Hawaii already and I appreciated that...one more confirm might tell me what I need to know before purchasing the 6500 points program...tug2.net was also a big help...Regards, Edd

In January 2011 I reserved six consecutive weeks in Marriotts Desert Springs Villas Palm Desert (my home resort). In February 2011 was persuaded by a Marriott Sales person to join the points programme and hand my reserved weeks back. I did so and then, once I was enrolled and paid my fees etc I attempted to reserve the same six weeks in Palm Desert. I was then told that in the new points scheme I did not have enough points to reserve the six weeks I had previously held. I therefore asked to revert to my original status. Even though it was within the time allowed for a change of decision ( I requested the reversion in 4 days) it took me six months to get me money back and to reserve my six weeks over again.

I have not bought into the points system as yet but have a question. If you want to deposit your week for points do you have to make a reserve first and then deposit?

You do not need to make a reservation first when you trade in your deeded weeks for vacation points. You do however need to trade in your weeks by June 30th of the previous year. So for 2013 you need to trade in any weeks that you wish to trade for points by June 30th of 2012.

I have not purchased into the points program yet as I am very concerned of all of the above issues. I have received emails that the price to change over will increase from $695 to $2000 something. Is this something that Marriott will forcefully make up switch over to in the future? Should I convert now (as hesitant as I am at the moment)? I do not want to change and would like to continue how things are at the moment. I suppose I'm not fully aware of all the disadvantages if I do not change..thoughts anyone? Greatly appreciated! -L-

We enrolled our weeks nearly two years ago and have benefited from this decision. I would do it again and see no downside to our existing owned weeks.

Dennis

Add 5/11/12 - The primary advantages you pick up by enrolling include being able to use pts to acquire less than full week periods (or a day or two) and the flat fee for use of Interval for your owned weeks. I like the 5 day reservations, Sunday night thru Friday morning which are quite reasonable in points. Sometimes, It is also helpful to add a day or two to a reserved week.

If you only own one week and want to go to this location each year, don't purchase the points. If you own three weeks or more, join the points program. If you are not one of the above then it is a close call.

j227 wrote:

If you only own one week and want to go to this location each year, don't purchase the points. If you own three weeks or more, join the points program. If you are not one of the above then it is a close call.

This is not a hard and fast rule, because if you own 3 weeks and won't get that many points overall, it may not be a good deal. However, if you own a platinum week at a Hawii resort, you may want to consider the points because is can offer you quite a few days to exchange to another Marriott.

In either case, think before you leap.

j227 wrote:

If you only own one week and want to go to this location each year, don't purchase the points. If you own three weeks or more, join the points program. If you are not one of the above then it is a close call.

I own one week in Ko Olina, but occasionally trade into Interval to visit new areas. I enjoy staying the full 7 days at whichever location I am at. I have never had he need to just stay 5 days or fewer (as I have another timeshare that allows me to use points and I am able to do this already). So, is it worth it?

Would you happen to have a hunch whether or not Marriott will force us into points in the future? Many thanks. -L-

Legally, I don't think Marriott can force anyone to join the Destinations program. I think they are trying to get people to decide to join it by increasing the fee. They did announce right at the start that the introductory fee to enroll would go up. We thought at the time that the lower fee would be good for, say, a month or some other short time period. So we enrolled. But they kept it for a pretty long time. I read somewhere that only 25% of legacy week owners have enrolled, so we are one of those. Since we take one vacation per year, usually for a week, the primary benefit we get from it is simply that the $165 annual fee includes the II membership for the Marriott desk, the cost of trading for another Marriott property, and the cost of trading for Marriott Rewards Points (MRPs). One still pays II a fee if one trades for a non-Marriott property.

Since we did enroll, maybe someday in the future we will try what others have done/suggested by turning in our two weeks for Destination Points by Sept 30 and the following year take a 5 night (Sun-Fri) stay, use MRPs for a weekend stay en route to a second resort where we would take another 5 night stay (Sun-Fri). Sun-Fri stays use far fewer points than weekend stays, so this would be a way to go to 2 resorts that were within driving distance. Note that it doesn't have to be two resorts, they have added a few hotels in certain cities to the program. But we achieved that in Spain last year doing it a different way. I'll explain below.

One thing to be aware of is that turning in your legacy weeks for Destination Points is one bucket of points. Buying Trust Points from Marriott is a whole separate bucket of points. The two buckets, as I understand it, can't be combined and used together. Also, you can only save your points for one year and you can borrow from a future year (one year out). So your 2012 points can be added to your 2013 points and 2014 points can be borrowed to add to your 2013 points. But then you would only have one vacation in 3 years. If you don't use the past year's points in that 2-year time, you lose them.

A Marriott person told me that the maintenance fee on 5,000 legacy Points (which is what our 2 weeks are worth) is higher than the maintenance fee on our 2 Cyprus Harbour legacy weeks. So that is a specific thing to figure out--a comparison of the maintenance fees. It's one more factor to help you make a decision on what you want to do. Some people like to take several trips and figure out how to get more bang for their buck using the Points.

We can't afford all those trips every year, not in time or money. And when you have Points you have to use them or lose them, so it locks you into having to use them each year. If you can afford it, that's one thing. But we can't every year. Last year we did take roughly a 2 week vacation, which is rare for us. We stayed at an AC Hotel in Madrid for 5 nights (AC Hotels are now part of Marriott) and then we went to a Marriott resort on the coast of Spain for a week that we had traded one of our weeks for. We had a great time.

The benefit of this way is that there is no maintenance fee for those 5 days in Madrid in a hotel. We don't want to have to figure out how to use an additional resort week and pay maintenance fees (that are always rising, an average across the industry of 12% each year). We have limited funds for vacationing, so some years we just take the one week and that's it. So staying in a hotel using MRPs is the way we extend an occasional vacation to longer than a week.

I hope this gives some food for thought for you to make your own decision. No one can tell you what the "right" answer is since different people can afford different things, want different things, and can manage different scenarios. We may or may not ever trade our weeks for Destination Points for a particular year--just not sure. But we like the $165 annual fee that covers 3 of the 4 costs we incur. However, for our family, we know we will not be buying Trust Points since we feel we can vacation more economically in other ways. But others are very pleased with what the Trust Points can do for them--they seem to have more vacation dollars available than we do. Our philosophy is to live within our means, so vacationing is a pleasure and not a burden.

Simply put, you probably have the BEST Timeshare in the Marriott system. Ko Olina units are simply beautiful with a beach that far exceeds anything else I have seen. Add to that the fact that Disney just completed their location next door that is renting units for over $750 a night, and they want YOU to pay THEM for the for the privilege of turning it in for an amount of points far less than what they will charge someone else, so you can go to a location that they can no longer sell. Sounds like a deal to me.

NO! They can NEVER force you into their point system.

In my honest opinion, the point system only benefits owners who own multiple weeks in locations they are simply tired of going to. Where I own one of my weeks in Palm Desert, I constantly run into owners who own six or so weeks. They come from a very cold winter home and split their units to get twelve or so weeks. If you came there year after year it would possibly be beneficial for them to consolidate into points. However, they would than have a yearly adventure spreading out their points at numerous locations, and increased travel costs.

In conclusion, as we have all said there is no right answer. What is good for Dennis is not good for me, and what is good for you may not be good for someone else. The one thing you and I can be thankful for is that we both own locations we will always be happy to go to. Although, I my be limited to Palm Desert each winter and two weeks in Maui whenever I want, I can live with that. That may not have been my plan when I bought that second week but being 66, with two daughters who can't wait to get one each. It is now!

Remember, this is just one opinion.

Thanks to all who posted information re: the Destinations Program-- my wife and I are owners since 2009 in the Exchange Program-- very satisfied. Question- How is it that this program launched 2 years ago and the salesteam at Marriott is still giving misleading inaccurate information on how the exchange program works vs the Destination Points Program? We were literally told by the sales agent that the points are combined--no mention of different banks and how that effects future reservations.

After a few days of research, we went back to the sales office where we met with a Sales Manager who stated that the sales rep was not correct in how the information was presented.

We did not purchase the new program.

Buyers beware.

Distinguishing Trust versus Exch Pts -

Recently, I received a call from our Sales Rep and he advised that all Dest. points were interchangeable in use. He called because I had asked this specific question a few months ago. Apparently, the lack of distinction was recently covered in a Sales meeting to clear up confusion. I also called the Owner Services line today and received the same answer.

If one still has a question about this, I suggest they call Owner Services at 888 682 4862 and ask the specific question of those who administer the Dest program on a day to day basis. Questions regarding this need not persist.

Incidentally, I have used both Trust (purchased Dest Pts) and Exch (acquired thru depositing weeks) Points in combination to make reservations without incident.

Thanks Dennish-- agreed, folks should ask the question. The point here is not everyone will know to ask that question. A factsheet should be readily available on how the program works.