Marriott Vacation Club New Policy - Can’t Do Rentals? No long can change the primary guest name for Ownership Week Reservation?

Hi, my family has a few Marriott Vacation Timeshare deeded weeks. Since we can’t goto our home resort every year, we have been renting out the unused weeks on Redweek for the past 7 years.

Up until just recently, we were able to log onto Marriott.com to change the primary guest name for our guests. However, the system no longer allows us to do that from the website so we called Marriott Vacation Club Ownership Service and asked them to manually change it for us. To our surprise, the manager told us due to the new policy change, they no longer allow owners to change the primary guest name and asked us to goto myvacationclub.com to fill out a new guest change request form. He said, the guest name can only be added to the ‘additional guest’ section and the primary guest has to remain under owner’s name who made the original booking (also the linked account number can’t be removed). Additionally, we had to agree to all the terms including a clause saying, we (as owners) can’t use our week for ‘commercial’ purpose (like renting to a 3rd party for profit) and if Marriott were to find out, they have the right to cancel the reservation!! Is this true??

1. Owners can no longer change the primary guest name and can only add the guest name to the reservation.

Redweek requires us owners to change the primary guest name to the guest name….but with this new policy, how do we do that? I want to know if anyone experienced this for Marriott ownership week reservation (not points reservations / interval exchange bookings) and how did you solve this issue?

2. Owners cannot rent out their units for commercial purpose? If Marriott finds out we are renting out to a non-family (for example on Redweek), they have the right to cancel this booking? (Is this really enforced?? Has anyone ever had their bookings cancelled since it was deemed ‘commercial use’

When we purchased our deeded Marriott timeshare, the sales person assured us many times that we as the owners have the right to rent out the unused weeks to 3rd part to recoup some of high annual maintenance fee + tax. How can Marriott Vacation Club suddenly say, we can’t do that? Owners renting out their own units on Redweek is also considered ‘commerical use’? We feel like we got scammed by Marriott Vacation Club…

If you can share with us your own experience, any insights, that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Update: I posted another thread on Tugs timeshare forum and someone told me there is a similar topic that’s been posted with more details (it seems like they are cracking down on points bookings / interval exchanged weeks more so than ownership weeks, but who’s to say they won’t do the same in the near future for ownership week bookings too? https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/arriving-guest-information-merged.351715/

This is very distressing news as I have rented out week out for many years with no problem, inc this year. This makes me think it is time to sell or surrender our remaining week as we no longer go to Spain.

Thanks for letting us know!

I believe it’s not strictly enforced for ownership week bookings but they started cracking down on points booking / interval exchanged weeks. The definition of ‘commercial use’ on their form is very vague…. I posted another thread on Tugs timeshare forum and here’s more info about this topic you can check out.

https://tugbbs.com/forums/threads/arriving-guest-information-merged.351715/

Hi all - we are furious about this change. We own 4 weeks of 2 bedroom lock-offs in Hawaii and have always been able to use 2 weeks for ourselves and rented out the other two to friends or on Redweek.

We are super distressed and have had a 2 room oceanfront on Redweek for a month with no bites, as well as a 1 room oceanview and a studio oceanview.

We have reduced the price to less than half of what we earned on them in previous years and then yesterday got an email from Marriott stating changes to the Guest of Owner process and advising that no changes can be made within 30 days of arrival. Today when trying to extend our post for one of these weeks a new pop-up came up on the Full Service posting process with Redweek that bookings cannot be made within SIXTY days of arrival.

What gives? I can't believe there are not more entries on these forums. How can this be changed with no notice and no input from owners? Can anyone advise on Class Action Lawsuit options - or any actions anyone else has tried to take about this?

Original Starwood owner - bought off the plan and now exploited by Marriott

We have a confirmed Redweek Marriott Hawaii rental that is less than 30 days out. I did fill out the MVC name change form, and spoke to a MVC associate before that on Thursday, and he never mentioned any 30 day name change ban. I had already the changed confirmation and will call MVC Monday, as I am worried about the renter backing out if they are actually serious about that!. We have been pretty happy Marriott owners for over 20 years, and at Chariman's level have more points and weeks than we can use ourselves. The current week rented is because I had knee replacement surgery and am no where close to wanting to go to Hawaii in August. It was to be for family anyway but put them on Redweek when the timing didn't work out. We have been promised in multiple "presentations" that the rental option was one of the best reasons to go ahead and add more points or weeks. Of course we never did it for that reason, but it has been a nice occasional back up for years when travel was restricted.

I think everyone needs to call to let our shock with this belated announcement ! We already had the week and rental in place. How can they retroactively do that?

Class Action Suit required

So, if you rent for more than 30 days out and fill out the Guest of Owner form as required, you should be OK?

This new policy is very upsetting. I'm wondering if there is some way we can band together to try to oppose this policy?

I too own several Marriott timeshares....inherited...I rent them for the most part. My gut is that Marriott is saying "don't run a business out of your timeshare". For example, don't use the timeshare or a group of timeshares as like a mini hotel within a resort where one person books (with you and not Marriott) for a couple of nights while another books for just 1 night and Marriott is none the wiser. I could see this being a legitimate concern from Marriott's point of view.

I don't think they are saying "you can't rent your specific timeshare period out to a specific guest"....I mean Redweek has lots of new Rentals every day for Marriott timeshares. I don't believe Marriott can legally stop us from renting stuff out to guests. In fact, I've openly talked to the Marriott helpdesk about how to do private rentals. I think they even gave me Redweek's name.

My husband and I were considering renting a week from a Redweek offer. Are we at risk if we rent from them of having it canceled and not having a place to stay. We are owners at Frenchman’s Cove and have been for 20 years. We have never heard of this. It’s very concerning.

I really think people may be overreacting to this guest form to fill out. "Commercial Use" in the form can't possibly mean I'm prohibited from renting my time share out to people to use it for "private use". Honestly, Marriott has their own service to rent out owner's timeshares. "Commercial use" means don't use your timeshare as a mini hotel. For example, don't Airbnb your week in 1 or 2 day segments without giving Marriott guest info!

Maybe I'm wrong, but Marriott may actually have a valid point here and this policy may actually help owners. For example, I don't want somebody renting 3 days from Redweek to think that some random individual is cleaning up their room to prepare for a new guest. This could potentially hurt all rentals on Redweek. I want them to know Marriott is cleaning their room up to prepare for a new guest. Additionally, getting "companies" involved splitting up weeks to try the raise the rental price per day of renting might actually be lowering the price of renting a typical week that belongs to an owner like me.

Let's just see how this one plays out....

you should be OK with that as I did so last year with no problem.

resulo wrote:

So, if you rent for more than 30 days out and fill out the Guest of Owner form as required, you should be OK?

The new Marriott 30-day rule is really onerous. Suppose a renter cancels within the 30 day window. Sure, as an owner you are not obligated to refund the rent. But, this rule makes it impossible for you as an owner to rent the week to another party at any price. And, if you have taken your name off the reservation, you can't use it either! However, Marriott does gets to rent it or otherwise fill the villa, and you get nothing. I live on the West Coast and l would almost certainly book a flight to Hawaii and occupy the villa- if my name was still on the confirmation.