ExDean
TUG Member
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2010
- Messages
- 33
- Reaction score
- 6
- Points
- 219
- Location
- Holland, Ohio USA
- Resorts Owned
- Marriott Grand Vista (3 BR LO) Gold, Marriott Royal Palms, White
We recently had our two-hour visit with a very knowledgeable Marriott Sales Exec in Orlando and found the session interesting and helpful. The presentation was very well done, good graphics, a chart of all our MVCI history (sort of a CIA report on us), visual aids (a four buckets demo) and had many questions answered – although we had additional ones after we chatted about what we heard. We were offered 15,000 MR points or $100. We took the points.
When we raised the issue of Marriott not informing the owners of what was coming, our rep apologized for Marriott’s “poor job of marketing.” He further stated that they were, however, 150% over their sales budget (locally or system wide?) with sales – he didn’t break that down and we didn’t press him. He maintained that competition forced the point system.
At the start of his presentation, he said that only one person has ever said “no” when he was done.
Background: (I took pages of notes and am now trying to make sense of them, so forgive me if I get some stuff wrong or confusing.)
Some four years ago, Mr. Marriott established a group to study the timeshare industry looking at the top players DVC, HVC, etc. They set up owner focus groups for one year and plotted trend lines on the input received. According to our rep. the issues that surfaced were:
• Owners were not happy with II
• Want to check in at any time not just weekends
• Want to check in at any resort
• Didn’t like being nickel dimed with charges (lock off, exchange, II, etc)
Further, Bill Marriott said to study the other players but don’t copy them, come up with a unique Marriott product. He further said, “Don’t change the system.” (Not sure what that meant.)
The presentation: He began by showing us that when we join we could still have what we have today:
1. Occupy our home resort
2. Exchange within MVC
3. Exchange outside MVC w/II
4. Exchange for MR points
Plus:
5. We can join MVC programs at Owner Only special rates
“Currently owners have the best of all worlds” … if we buy in, of course. We have a choice – old or new. With the new (at the 6500 points level), we don’t compete with non-MVC owners.
In other words, what we have now doesn’t go away we just add to it. He said 4% of owners go outside MVCI. He occasionally commented what we interpreted as negative statements, about II. In his bucket demo he said II will be getting “less and less MVC weeks” and we shouldn’t “enroll in trouble in the future” by sticking with a “diminishing II.”
Then he got to the number crunching prodding us, not really pushing, to purchase 1000 points to add to our 4600. “But, we really needed to get to 6500 points to maximize our situation.” He had all sorts of Bill Marriott “gifts” of points with each purchase level, 1400 to 2000+ points depending on the level purchased, along with the fact that MVC pays the $595 entry fee,. We were quoted $9.20/point. And, of course, points cost are going up. All this plus what MR points we would get using our Marriott Visa card,
Another positive he told us of the special toll free phone number for “one stop shopping” to handle all our requests.
In addition he emphasized the 1-30 point conversion ratio, one Destination Club point = 30 MR points in exchange.
We talked about the “skim” although we didn’t refer to the point difference as that.
We respectfully declined to make any purchase and wanted to digest what we had heard and seen. We were then offered the “Encore $1495 Package.” $100 down to lock in the Vacation Club Point cost for two years for when you return, to one of three Orlando properties, for another 60-minute presentation. If you purchase within 12 mos. the Vacation Club Point price is $10.10. If after 12 mos., the price is $10.60.
CAVEAT: When you read the “fine print” in this four-page document, you discover your credit card will be billed for equal monthly installments of $139.50 unless you cancel in writing within 10 days of signing. If you don’t cancel, you’re stuck for the whole $1495. They failed to explain this minor point but emphasizing the $100 deposit was refundable.
Afterward I did some calculations based on how we use our weeks. (We’re not interested in mini-stays but in two/three week blocks.) If we just used our points to stay three weeks in our season, our allocated 4600 points would put us between 875 and 1275 points short. So why enroll or buy more points when we could still be short?
Also, using the 1 for 30 point exchange we still come out short. By exchanging our Royal Palms (90,000 yearly) and our Grand Vista (100,000 EOY) we get 190,000 MRPs. Using the points program exchange - 4600 x 30 = 138,000 MRPs, making us 52,000 points short.
The only fault I could attribute to the presentation was our rep seemed to not hear our needs and how we us our weeks. His emphasis was on free cruises, flying first class to most any destination, etc. He was selling the Dream in the hopes that we were buying.
To date we have been very happy with our decision to purchase Royal Palms in 1989 and Grande Vista (Florida Club) in 1997. We have always been pleased with II (and RCI earlier) in our dealings with them and in getting what we wanted in an exchange.
We’re still considering joining the MVC Collection program (but not buying 1000+ points) as we think it might be beneficial, in the long run, for us to save the various fees and perhaps a tad lower MFs??
When we raised the issue of Marriott not informing the owners of what was coming, our rep apologized for Marriott’s “poor job of marketing.” He further stated that they were, however, 150% over their sales budget (locally or system wide?) with sales – he didn’t break that down and we didn’t press him. He maintained that competition forced the point system.
At the start of his presentation, he said that only one person has ever said “no” when he was done.
Background: (I took pages of notes and am now trying to make sense of them, so forgive me if I get some stuff wrong or confusing.)
Some four years ago, Mr. Marriott established a group to study the timeshare industry looking at the top players DVC, HVC, etc. They set up owner focus groups for one year and plotted trend lines on the input received. According to our rep. the issues that surfaced were:
• Owners were not happy with II
• Want to check in at any time not just weekends
• Want to check in at any resort
• Didn’t like being nickel dimed with charges (lock off, exchange, II, etc)
Further, Bill Marriott said to study the other players but don’t copy them, come up with a unique Marriott product. He further said, “Don’t change the system.” (Not sure what that meant.)
The presentation: He began by showing us that when we join we could still have what we have today:
1. Occupy our home resort
2. Exchange within MVC
3. Exchange outside MVC w/II
4. Exchange for MR points
Plus:
5. We can join MVC programs at Owner Only special rates
“Currently owners have the best of all worlds” … if we buy in, of course. We have a choice – old or new. With the new (at the 6500 points level), we don’t compete with non-MVC owners.
In other words, what we have now doesn’t go away we just add to it. He said 4% of owners go outside MVCI. He occasionally commented what we interpreted as negative statements, about II. In his bucket demo he said II will be getting “less and less MVC weeks” and we shouldn’t “enroll in trouble in the future” by sticking with a “diminishing II.”
Then he got to the number crunching prodding us, not really pushing, to purchase 1000 points to add to our 4600. “But, we really needed to get to 6500 points to maximize our situation.” He had all sorts of Bill Marriott “gifts” of points with each purchase level, 1400 to 2000+ points depending on the level purchased, along with the fact that MVC pays the $595 entry fee,. We were quoted $9.20/point. And, of course, points cost are going up. All this plus what MR points we would get using our Marriott Visa card,
Another positive he told us of the special toll free phone number for “one stop shopping” to handle all our requests.
In addition he emphasized the 1-30 point conversion ratio, one Destination Club point = 30 MR points in exchange.
We talked about the “skim” although we didn’t refer to the point difference as that.
We respectfully declined to make any purchase and wanted to digest what we had heard and seen. We were then offered the “Encore $1495 Package.” $100 down to lock in the Vacation Club Point cost for two years for when you return, to one of three Orlando properties, for another 60-minute presentation. If you purchase within 12 mos. the Vacation Club Point price is $10.10. If after 12 mos., the price is $10.60.
CAVEAT: When you read the “fine print” in this four-page document, you discover your credit card will be billed for equal monthly installments of $139.50 unless you cancel in writing within 10 days of signing. If you don’t cancel, you’re stuck for the whole $1495. They failed to explain this minor point but emphasizing the $100 deposit was refundable.
Afterward I did some calculations based on how we use our weeks. (We’re not interested in mini-stays but in two/three week blocks.) If we just used our points to stay three weeks in our season, our allocated 4600 points would put us between 875 and 1275 points short. So why enroll or buy more points when we could still be short?
Also, using the 1 for 30 point exchange we still come out short. By exchanging our Royal Palms (90,000 yearly) and our Grand Vista (100,000 EOY) we get 190,000 MRPs. Using the points program exchange - 4600 x 30 = 138,000 MRPs, making us 52,000 points short.
The only fault I could attribute to the presentation was our rep seemed to not hear our needs and how we us our weeks. His emphasis was on free cruises, flying first class to most any destination, etc. He was selling the Dream in the hopes that we were buying.
To date we have been very happy with our decision to purchase Royal Palms in 1989 and Grande Vista (Florida Club) in 1997. We have always been pleased with II (and RCI earlier) in our dealings with them and in getting what we wanted in an exchange.
We’re still considering joining the MVC Collection program (but not buying 1000+ points) as we think it might be beneficial, in the long run, for us to save the various fees and perhaps a tad lower MFs??