Changes to Reservation and Exchange Procedures documents re "Luxury Property"

I think it is definitely a devaluation of the Premier & Premier Plus member but there must be RC owners feeding the inventory so they must be exchanging into the Marriotts. Maybe there is a lot of inventory and that is why they are opening it up to all DC members. Maybe the RC owners like the increased options. There aren't that many RC Clubs and they may get bored vacationing in ultimate luxury all the time and want to take a walk on the wild side.

I am not so sure it is much of a devaluation. Those properties are not cheap points wise. How many standard owners are going to have enough points to really go to any of the Ritz properties for any length of time?

I don't see how it can be a devaluation in usage when nothing has been taken away from Premier/Plus Members. They still have an advantage with their 13/12/10-months Reservation Windows ahead of the 6-months window for Standard Members, and even at the 6-mos window they're equal with the Standard Members because it's first-come-first-served for available intervals. And like Dioxide says there aren't many Standard Members who will have the required DC Points or who will be interested in renting enough to be able to book the R-C properties.

I guess it does take away the "exclusivity" of Prem/Plus membership in that certain Ritz-Carltons are now available to all members instead of only to Prem/Plus Members through the Explorer Collection. But it seems to me that the R-C Owners have much more of a claim to any "exclusivity" loss than any MVC Owners/Members.

suzannesimon said:

I think it is definitely a devaluation of the Premier & Premier Plus member but there must be RC owners feeding the inventory so they must be exchanging into the Marriotts. Maybe there is a lot of inventory and that is why they are opening it up to all DC members. Maybe the RC owners like the increased options. There aren't that many RC Clubs and they may get bored vacationing in ultimate luxury all the time and want to take a walk on the wild side.

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The R-C Owners don't have to exchange into the MVC properties in order for MVW to gain access to R-C intervals for DC Points users. Just like with Weeks, MVW can mingle pretty much any R-C intervals that they own as well as any that the Owners exchange for any other type of usage. I do think that some R-C Owners will exchange for DC Points because their fractional ownerships give them access to a boatload of DC Points, but it's not necessary for them to do it in order for R-C intervals to be mingled in the DC Exchange Company.

jtdillian said:

Wouldn't that mean that it was already devalued because Vail Ritz has been available to everyone anyways. Do you know why it is available? Because it is in the Trust that's why! And now all Ritz Clubs are in so whatever is in the Trust is available to all owners as long as it goes into the exchange pool. About you thinking it has been devalued I think standard owners can only book 6 months in advance where premier/premier plus owners can reserve 13 months out. Can someone else chime in here tell us if that is true?

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One of the benefits that the sales people pitched was being Premier/Premier Plus would allow you to book Ritz Clubs. My understanding is that this benefit was restricted to Premier/PP owners prior to the recent changes by MVW. Some owners bought specifically for this privilege. Their ownership is since devalued by having a benefit that was exclusive to them being made available to everyone else.

MVW did a fantastic job of devaluing the Ritz-Carlton Clubs and it seems they have moved on to the Premier/Premier Plus owners now.

Do you own Marriott yourself? This program compared to Interval is 100x better. Availabilty if you have enough points is amazing compared to the old exchange a week way! I don't understand why someone who owns a grande vista week thinks they should get the same vacation destination points as a Maui owner or be able to use what they get from thier Orlando week and be able exchange for the same points and nights in Maui. I don't agree with what they charge for most of the explorer collection but time share availabilty is unbeleivable.

jtdillian said:

Do you own Marriott yourself? This program compared to Interval is 100x better. Availabilty if you have enough points is amazing compared to the old exchange a week way! I don't understand why someone who owns a grande vista week thinks they should get the same vacation destination points as a Maui owner or be able to use what they get from thier Orlando week and be able exchange for the same points and nights in Maui. I don't agree with what they charge for most of the explorer collection but time share availabilty is unbeleivable.

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Yes I am an owner with Marriott. I also owned with Ritz before we voted Marriott out of our property.

I watched Marriott de-value the Ritz memberships to the point where the clubs are leaving them one by one. This change is de-valuing of the premier and premier plus owners by taking a benefit that was exclusive to them and making it available to the entire owner base.

I wonder if Marriott will refund those owners who bought that 1,000 or 1,500 point package to get to the next level to be able to reserve these properties. My hunch is probably not.

Here's the new definition for Luxury Property in the documentation: "Luxury Property means any Accommodation that is located in a Ritz-Carlton Club, or is otherwise designated a “Luxury Property” by the Exchange Company in its sole discretion."

Here's my take on the four bullet points that follow the new definition:

1) The wait list verbiage states: "Wait list requests for Luxury Property, other than Accommodations located in The Ritz-Carlton Club, Vail, will not be accepted prior to six (6) months in advance of the first day of a given Use Period; Exchange Company may accept wait list requests for all other Accommodations twelve (12) months in advance of the first day of a given Use Period." It appears the six-month limitation applies only to the MVW-defined luxury properties (other than Vail RCC). All other properties in the system have a wait list option at 12 months.

2) The verbiage about the Advanced Priority Reservation applies only to Standard level owners. The documents define an Advanced Priority Reservation this way: "Advance Priority Reservations may be made by Standard Owners who were granted the right to make an Advance Priority Reservation by Program Manager in exchange for the number of Points for Use required for the exercise of such right. The number of Points required to reserve a Use Period with an Advance Priority Reservation may be up to twenty-five percent (25%) greater than the number of Points that would otherwise be required to reserve the same Use Period." This indicates that Standard Owners cannot use this option with MVW-defined luxury properties (again with the exception of the RCC in Vail).

3)The third bullet point verbiage indicates that Standard Owners have the option of making reservations at all the remaining MVW-defined luxury properties at the six-month mark. I believe this is the most significant change, opening the way for non-premier/premier-plus owners to have access to ALL the luxury properties. Note that the wait list limitation in the first bulletin point also places all owners on the same footing when it comes to wait list requests.

4) The final bullet point gives MVW the option (as always in their discretion) to withhold up to 50% of their luxury property inventory until six months before the Use Period begins.

You TUG experts can correct any mistakes I may have made in my research.