Hello everyone,
Does anybody have specific examples where they deposited one week and used either a portion (lock-off) or the entire unit for two "ShortStay"s. It seems like a great deal, but I'm curious what people have landed. Are they considered "strong" upgrades or just average or less than average?
Hi Asia,
Yes, I have had what I believe good value out of my Short stays.
I used a week that was only valid for a year as it was a replacement week for a unit I cancelled under 6 months.( I believe if you use a normal week it will be available till its original expiry. I did call about extending but was told this cannot be done with a week that already had short stay on. )
Anyway, I booked during spring break at Marriott GV 2 bedroom to bridge a few days between a conference in New Orleans and an exchange week at GV. I felt this was good value as before I would have used a week and lost the rest of the days but at least I could use it again. Or I would have used an AC week but would have had to wait till flexchange period to get true value...........come to think of it short stays however probably is also more of a flexchange product.
Secondly just last night I snagged a Marriott Village d'lle-de-France 2 bedroom this week but will be using the unit during next weekend and just tagged an extra night on through Marriott.com. I will be taking kids to Disney for a full on two days before going back to school.
As been mentioned before in one of the Marriott forums II do not do points just weeks and at the moment if you get your Marriott confirmation number you can call Marriott and link the reservation to your rewards account. This will then allow you to see the full week which you should be able to use in theory. I will not as cannot change my plans so drastically in such a short time. Maybe if I took it a couple of weeks ago when nearly the same week became available I could have. I normally take the full available six days covering the period I want to go as I figure I might wrangle thins to get that extra day if possible. Also I could offer friends or family the free days that they might just be able to use.
The other good thing is that good resorts always seem to appear within a two three week notice period. I have noticed weeks in England, Australia, Aruba etc. GV I booked three months out as Orlando always seem to have something three to four months out. Depending on the area and the demand(II index) availability is anything from two weeks to 4 months out.
The bad thing is the flexibility factor. This is bad because quite often if you really want to go somewhere specific it might become available but then the notice period is too short to allow for decent air travel prices.
Of some interest to you is that I have played around before with the Asia areas and noticed what I think are Marriot hotels in Bangkok(ie. Marriott V.C. at The Empire Place[at the momet there are one and two bedroom units available for check in 4/5, 18/19 Sept check in if you want to go 6 days]) etc that was available. I guessed from reading your threads they probably came out of the Asia points program.