"My-vacationclub.com" System Enhancement/Improvement Ideas

SueDonJ · Feb 9, 2013

FractionalTraveler said:
... Recall that when the spin-off occured, MVCI basically had to create their own system and bring it up live in a short period of time. We did end up waiting for an extended period to get to make reservations on-line. That was a terrible wait....

It is better today than last year but it can certainly be improved much more with the help of some dedicated IT resources.

Maybe there is an opportiunity for the TUG Marriott board to play a role in this improvement process.

It is possible to make a special thread on this topic "myvacationclub.com" system enhancement/improvement ideas.

I would think we could present our ideas and thoughts to Marriott for their consideration.

If others thought this was a good idea, I would be happy to participate and help communicate the requirements to Marriott.

I think it's a great idea.

FractionalTraveler · Feb 9, 2013

my-vacationclub.com Reservation System Enhancement Ideas

Please post in this thread your ideas for enhancing the current reservation tool. Please include User Interface Improvements, desired features and functionality, and any other ideas that would make it a better tool for us to use.

FractionalTraveler · Feb 9, 2013

1. The system should have the capability to search for availability prior to point election since this is just another usage option for the owner to consider.

2. The system should allow for searches to be performed using a wider scope including geographic region, unit configuration, view category, check-in day of week, number of days, etc.

3. The system should show availability even though the user may not have all the necessary elected point at the time.

4. The login credentials of the authenticated user should directly correlate to the user making the reservation request.

5. In the case where multiple individuals have deeded ownership, each owner should have their own separate login credentials.

6. Enable the "Make my Stay" functionality in the system.

7. Add the capability to add additional guest names on confirmed reservations after the reservation has been confirmed using the on-line tool.

8. Add the capability to book City Explorer Hotel Escapes directly from the website.

9. Add capability to CANCEL a confirmed DC reservation on-line.

10. Add the capability to reserve online Luxury Club Residences from the Explorer collection.

11. Add the capability to purchase the optional travel insurance at the time of the on-line booking.

12. Add the capability to register interest as either "Yes" or "No" to be contacted for an owner’s tour during the on-line reservation process. This could be part of the "Make my Stay" functionality.

13. Add the capability to purchase PLUS Points on the system in order to complete a reservation request.

14. Add the capability to elect to Bank your points online.

15. Add capability to make a waitlist request online.

16. Modify the "Donate your Marriott Rewards Points to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals" form to also include Destintation Club points.

Bnov · Feb 9, 2013

1) Simplify the web page that comes up after log in by featuring the 3-4 most commonly accessed links. Place the large array of additional options in pull-down menus.
2) How about an option that lists "last minute travel options" that fall within the 14/7 day discount for premiere plus/premiere owners?
3) Offer a map interface that allows owners to enter in desired dates, and then create an interface that shows availability (view and floor plan) for those dates at the various resorts by hovering the cursor arrow over the resort location. Clicking on an option of interest would then open a separate browser tab with further details (point requirements, stay requests-such as high/low floor, resort map, and other similar information). This would allow an owner to select multiple options that open separately (and not require going back to the map for each resort).

dioxide45 · Feb 9, 2013

FractionalTraveler said:
4. The login credentials of the authenticated user should directly correlate to the user making the reservation request.

Click to expand...

I don't know what you mean by this? Isn't this how it works today? If you end up giving your user name and password to a friend, isn't that your mistake?

5. In the case where multiple individuals have deeded ownership, each owner should have their own separate login credentials.

Click to expand...

I do think this is a good idea. I know that right now DW and I have two different tabs in our account. I can book in either her name or mine. Though regardless of which tab I make a reservation under it still attaches my Marriott Rewards number to the reservation, even though it might be in her name since it was made on her tab. Her MR number does show up under her name in the Profile section.

I should be able to pick one of the associated Marriott Reward numbers when making a reservation or just have it correspond correctly to the primary name on the reservation.

9. Add capability to CANCEL a confirmed DC reservation on-line

Click to expand...

The same should go for weeks based reservations also.

14. Add the capability to elect to Bank your points online.

Click to expand...

I thought you can do this when making a reservation if you are short on points?

FractionalTraveler · Feb 9, 2013

dioxide45 said:
FractionalTraveler said:

I don't know what you mean by this? Isn't this how it works today? If you end up giving your user name and password to a friend, isn't that your mistake?

I do think this is a good idea. I know that right now DW and I have two different tabs in our account. I can book in either her name or mine. Though regardless of which tab I make a reservation under it still attaches my Marriott Rewards number to the reservation, even though it might be in her name since it was made on her tab. Her MR number does show up under her name in the Profile section.

I should be able to pick one of the associated Marriott Reward numbers when making a reservation or just have it correspond correctly to the primary name on the reservation.

The same should go for weeks based reservations also.

I thought you can do this when making a reservation if you are short on points?

Click to expand...

#4 & #5 are security issues that require attention. The person executing the transaction should be the individual who's login credentials have been authenticated. This should be managed in the record's audit trail (i.e. history table). Currently you can login and process a transaction under your wife/partner's account number. For legal purposes this should be corrected. It is easy to make the mistake and make a reservation under your partner's account number. Later on down the road it may be a potential issue in modifying/canceling the reservation.

#14 you may be correct on this one. I probably didn't remember this correctly. Thanks for the verification.

m61376 · Feb 11, 2013

Currently in order to change a legacy week reservation the owner must call in to check availability. It would be nice to be able to change a legacy week reservation online. At a minimum, it would be nice to see what dates are still available in the calendar without having to call in after you initially book.

piper_chuck · Feb 11, 2013

FractionalTraveler said:
5. In the case where multiple individuals have deeded ownership, each owner should have their own separate login credentials.

Not sure I agree with this one. If you put one deed under multiple IDs you introduce the possibility of one person being able to do something without the other person's knowledge. While the same potential exists if two people share a single ID, the issues of awareness and access to the property rests with the owners rather then Marriott.

dioxide45 · Feb 11, 2013

piper_chuck said:
Not sure I agree with this one. If you put one deed under multiple IDs you introduce the possibility of one person being able to do something without the other person's knowledge. While the same potential exists if two people share a single ID, the issues of awareness and access to the property rests with the owners rather then Marriott.

I agree. Though with separate IDs, you would be able to tell who booked the reservation and the other person couldn't claim innocence. The audit history doesn't exist today.

FractionalTraveler · Feb 11, 2013

piper_chuck said:
Not sure I agree with this one. If you put one deed under multiple IDs you introduce the possibility of one person being able to do something without the other person's knowledge. While the same potential exists if two people share a single ID, the issues of awareness and access to the property rests with the owners rather then Marriott.

That is exactly what the system allows you to do today!

#5 refers to the requirement that each individual on the deed should have their own UID and PWD.

piper_chuck · Feb 11, 2013

dioxide45 said:
I agree. Though with separate IDs, you would be able to tell who booked the reservation and the other person couldn't claim innocence. The audit history doesn't exist today.

With one id, the issue of who booked the reservation belongs with the people on the deed, where it should be. Access to the reservations can only be done under one ID and it's up to the owners to work out how that should be shared. If there's an argument about who made the reservation, it's up to the owners to deal with it. While one could logon and make a reservation, the other would be able to see it when they logon through the same id.

Allowing access to one deed under two separate IDs means Marriott would enable a situation where you could have two people acting not only independently, but with the each totally unable to see what the other is doing. Marriott should not enable such a situation.

piper_chuck · Feb 11, 2013

FractionalTraveler said:
That is exactly what the system allows you to do today!

#5 refers to the requirement that each individual on the deed should have their own UID and PWD.

One Rewards account, one ID. One deed, one ID. If the owners can't figure out how to share the ID, that's their problem, not Marriott's.

FractionalTraveler · Feb 12, 2013

Not all deeds are for individuals. They can also be for entities such as Trusts and Corporations.

piper_chuck · Feb 12, 2013

FractionalTraveler said:
Not all deeds are for individuals. They can also be for entities such as Trusts and Corporations.

And that changes what? Can you show a scenario where it would make sense for Marriott to allow actions to be taken on a single deed by separate userids?

FractionalTraveler · Feb 12, 2013

piper_chuck said:
And that changes what? Can you show a scenario where it would make sense for Marriott to allow actions to be taken on a single deed by separate userids?

Yes. The deed can be for corporation with multiple LLC partners are equal shareholders in the fractional real estate.

Also, deed can be for multiple individuals who's relationship status is not joint tenants in common.

dioxide45 · Feb 12, 2013

piper_chuck said:
With one id, the issue of who booked the reservation belongs with the people on the deed, where it should be. Access to the reservations can only be done under one ID and it's up to the owners to work out how that should be shared. If there's an argument about who made the reservation, it's up to the owners to deal with it. While one could logon and make a reservation, the other would be able to see it when they logon through the same id.

Allowing access to one deed under two separate IDs means Marriott would enable a situation where you could have two people acting not only independently, but with the each totally unable to see what the other is doing. Marriott should not enable such a situation.

I don't think the intention is to hide what the other owner does. If one person makes the reservation, the other would be able to see that the week has been booked under their user ID also. So it wouldn't be a case where one person couldn't see what happened with the week. They would know that they couldn't book it. It wouldn't prevent an owner from making a reservation and fighting out who actually has usage rights in any given year is still up to the owners. At least with separate user IDs you know who actually made the reservation. Right now that history trail does not exist.

Right now there are just tabs at the top of the booking page for each owner on the deed. You click on the owner whose name you want to book under. There is no real control around that. If there were separate userIDs then one owner couldn't book under another. I could see this only really being needed in situations where the owners are not related by marriage.

Heir Apparent · Feb 15, 2013

FractionalTraveler said:
Not all deeds are for individuals. They can also be for entities such as Trusts and Corporations.

I think what would happen in the case of Trusts and Corporations is that they would have one administrator who would be responsible for managing the responsibilities of the deed.

I think this sort of situation should be seriously considered if someone is looking to get into a joint ownership situation with someone else

Bogeygirl · Feb 22, 2013

I would like to be able to search multiple properties at the same time. This is especially useful where Marriott has more than 1 property in a location like Orlando, Hilton Head or Palm Desert. Currently you search 1 property, see no availability and you start all over entering your search parameters again.

SMHarman · Apr 4, 2013

piper_chuck said:
Not sure I agree with this one. If you put one deed under multiple IDs you introduce the possibility of one person being able to do something without the other person's knowledge. While the same potential exists if two people share a single ID, the issues of awareness and access to the property rests with the owners rather then Marriott.

What if you have a deed with Mr A and Mrs B on it and another with Mr A on it and another with Mrs B on it? Are all 3 in the same account? Could Mrs B book on the Mr A only deed?

flyboy0681 · Apr 30, 2013

Bogeygirl said:
I would like to be able to search multiple properties at the same time. This is especially useful where Marriott has more than 1 property in a location like Orlando, Hilton Head or Palm Desert. Currently you search 1 property, see no availability and you start all over entering your search parameters again.

Back to this thread. I agree with being able to search multiple properties and I have two more suggestions (which will never be made).

First, the site has what we in programming call "no persistence". By that I mean that when I go to search a property and press the back button or edit request, the previous page loses all of the information I had entered, such as number of nights and number of guests. That alone infuriates me to no end.

Second, I hate the way that it does a search, and the way it displays a blue box if there is availability for the date selected. I know we have the "Flexibility" feature but for crying out loud, how difficult would it be to search a range of dates and display everything that is available at a property instead of having to request a specific date piecemeal. Just tell me what's available during the entire month of June. How hard can that be?

ZAMF · Sep 7, 2013

Have the option to sell the MVC points back to Marriott at a discount.

sandcfort · May 24, 2014

Website upgrade

Was there any discussion of upgrading the website at the last meeting? Lots of good ideas back in 2013 in this forum.

I would like to have multiple room types and multiple locations shown at the same time when doing an inquiry.

Also would like to see availability whether you have enough points in the "use" year or not.

hcarman · Jun 6, 2014

I agree with Fractional Traveler's request that you be able to see availability prior to point election, or even if you don't have enough points in your account. I know Hyatt and Bluegreen work this way. They tell you what is available, but that you don't have enough points if you try to book it.

On several occasions I have wanted to see if a property is available prior to borrowing points or having Mom transfer her points to me. Unfortunately this involves a call to MVCI. It used to be the online chat which has longer hours could help, but they no longer will check on this stuff for you - unless they make an exception because MVCI is closed.

I have voiced this many times on surveys and to phone reps. After all, that should be less overhead for MVCI, if the owners can do more of their own research and use the customer service folks less.

Just my two cents worth on my pet peeve about the system.

hcarman · Jun 6, 2014

m61376 said:
Currently in order to change a legacy week reservation the owner must call in to check availability. It would be nice to be able to change a legacy week reservation online. At a minimum, it would be nice to see what dates are still available in the calendar without having to call in after you initially book.

I agree with this one as well. Kind of goes along the same lines as not being able to check points reservations if you don't have enough points. You can't check what weeks are available if you have already booked your week.

MVCI explained it to me as they used to have that option, but the only way to check was to pretend like you were cancelling your week - if you saw something you liked, you would go ahead and cancel. If not, you left it as is. Apparently too many owners mistakenly cancelled. So, they took that feature offline. I don't see why you have to pretend to cancel to see availability - that shouldn't be the case and that would fix the problem.

SueDonJ · Sep 18, 2014

Note this thread is being un-stuck in the process of cleaning up TUG's Marriott forum; it will remain open for future posting.

"My-vacationclub.com" System Enhancement/Improvement Ideas

SueDonJ

FractionalTraveler

FractionalTraveler

Bnov

dioxide45

TUG Review Crew: Expert

FractionalTraveler

m61376

Tug Review Crew

piper_chuck

dioxide45

TUG Review Crew: Expert

FractionalTraveler

piper_chuck

piper_chuck

FractionalTraveler

piper_chuck

FractionalTraveler

dioxide45

TUG Review Crew: Expert

Heir Apparent

Bogeygirl

SMHarman

flyboy0681

ZAMF

sandcfort

hcarman

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

hcarman

TUG Review Crew: Veteran

SueDonJ