Rumor of MVCI sales offices closing

Is there any truth to the rumor that "all MVCI sales offices are being closed". Sounds crazy to me, but perhaps there is a reason given the spin-off of the club from the corporation?

Sullco2 said:

Is there any truth to the rumor that "all MVCI sales offices are being closed". Sounds crazy to me, but perhaps there is a reason given the spin-off of the club from the corporation?

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They already closed many after the big market collapes. Not sure what else they would close.

Sullco2 said:

Is there any truth to the rumor that "all MVCI sales offices are being closed". Sounds crazy to me, but perhaps there is a reason given the spin-off of the club from the corporation?

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What is the source of this rumor? I had not heard it.

Maybe MVCI sales people will go to the high traffic tourist shopping areas like Las Vegas, Waikiki and Maui, similar to what Wyndham does.

The source of the rumor is

a benign conversation with an agent who is in the timeshare business. From the context and situation, he had nothing to gain by saying it and had nothing to sell me. It was a social situation. Had it been anything else, I wouldn' t have posted here.

thinze3 said:

Maybe MVCI sales people will go to the high traffic tourist shopping areas like Las Vegas, Waikiki and Maui, similar to what Wyndham does.

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We were at Son Antem in Majorca in May and will be there again soon. The Sales and Marketing staffing is way down there from last year. Many of the familiar faces who have been in the team there for many years have been let go and some new and totally clueless people have been hired.

I went for a information meeting - no sales - and spent 45 minutes educating a young lady on how the Marriott Timeshare system worked. We were there on an II exchange but also we are owners at Son Antem - she had no clue that I was an owner, knew nothing about other MVCI resorts or the AP points system or the DC points system. All I got was a bottle of wine and my owners card for the discounts. When we are there next week it will require more than that to get me in since the discount card is valid for the whole of 2011.

Well, ever since the destination club was introduced, I would think there's been a big problem for onsite sales centers: the inability to assure potential buyers that they'll have access to the specific site they're touring. What sold me on my original Ko Olina week was knowing that I'd be able to go there, and specifically there, every other year, guaranteed. The sizzle is out of that steak with points: "yeah, you can come here, IF we have room and IF you have enough points. But Branson is always lovely."

OldPantry said:

Well, ever since the destination club was introduced, I would think there's been a big problem for onsite sales centers: the inability to assure potential buyers that they'll have access to the specific site they're touring. . . .

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I think this is a good point. There are probably cheaper ways for the spinoff to sell points. The most popular resorts are going to be problematical for the spinoff anyway. Too many points will be needed to actually reserve anything good.

I think the spinoff will have an uphill battle to survive in this shakey economy given its current vacation options. I have said it from the beginning: I believe they need cheaper vacation alternatives than they are currently offering.

A week long stay in the top resorts during prime time will simply require the typical purchaser of 2000 points to use 3 years worth of points.

for 2012 usage:
Deposit 2011
Use 2012
Borrow2013

Three years of MF's won't be cheap either. Just about the same as renting.

and there is the rub, these days, owning is pretty much the same cost as renting. Not cool as I bought not as an investment per se, but as a way of reducing the costs at places I knew I wanted to travel to.

thinze3 said:

A week long stay in the top resorts during prime time will simply require the typical purchaser of 2000 points to use 3 years worth of points.

for 2012 usage:
Deposit 2011
Use 2012
Borrow2013

Three years of MF's won't be cheap either. Just about the same as renting.

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Yes, same as renting, IF you ignore the lost income on what you gave Marriott for the points in the first place. Otherwise, much more expensive than renting.

Sullco2 said:

Is there any truth to the rumor that "all MVCI sales offices are being closed". Sounds crazy to me, but perhaps there is a reason given the spin-off of the club from the corporation?

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The rumour is a likely an outgrowth of the global restructuring of Marriott International including the February 2011 announcement of a spinoff of MVCI. The restructuring dates back to a key change in senior leadership, see Washington Post March 10, 2009.

Presently MVCI HQ is located a stone's throw from Cypress Harbour and Harbour Lake on Westlake Blvd in Orlando. Shortly after the opening of Lakeshore Reserve and announcement of DC Club, an internal rumour leaked last July/August 2010 that MVCI would be relocating offices to Bethesda area by year end, 2011. During this timeframe, MVCI experienced a workforce reduction that heavily impacted the development team among others. Lacking confidence-building communications, the shift from weeks-based home resort ownership to points has likely undermined owner confidence. The proliferation of MVC units on e-Bay and other channels at cut-rate prices underscore the importance of restoring MVC Resales to preserve value as opposed to free falling prices.

It's no coincidence that Florida is known as the world's timeshare capital. The lion's share of state statutes that regulate the industry are authored by Florida legislators. The 2010 Florida statute 721.855 shifts even greater powers to spinco regarding foreclosure. With this law in place, spinco and spinco sales could be relocated to wherever legislation provides a growth impetus to what appears to be an industry in decline.

Having to force a lot of Florida owners into foreclosures doesn't sound like a healthy timeshare capital of the world to me. I wouldn't be concerned about the owning vs renting comparisons. I'd be worried about the industry model as a whole and whether it can survive America's race to the bottom. The sage advice given on TUG many times is to buy where you want to spend a lot of your vacation time. It was true when you bought, it's true today and will be true tomorrow. It's the new buyers that have to worry about points, trust inventory, availability, etc. You will get what you paid for if you use your unit over a long period of time.

When you finally sell and no longer wish to vacation there it won't matter what you get from the sale. You will have already gotten more than your money's worth. You can't assume that the current owning vs renting difference will always be the same. If eventually there is a tight market, ownership will come back as the preferred way to timeshare. Markets never move in a straight line.

The sales office at MFV closed a few years ago, right when the economy started to turn. And they aren't sold out. And others have definitely gotten smaller.

The whole points thing has likely allowed MVCI to associate points sales to the ownership of MFV units. Which is probably better for the bottom line of that development interest. I don't have any specifics, just thinking...

LUVourMarriotts said:

The sales office at MFV closed a few years ago, right when the economy started to turn. And they aren't sold out. And others have definitely gotten smaller.

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I was at MFV for 3 days in May using our 800 PlusPoints and we got two calls trying to get us to do a 90-minute sales presentation. If the sales office is closed, how would that work?

BocaBoy said:

I was at MFV for 3 days in May using our 800 PlusPoints and we got two calls trying to get us to do a 90-minute sales presentation. If the sales office is closed, how would that work?

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I think that Marriott has actually reopened some sales offices, at least on a limited scale. I believe they now have one or two on-site sales people on Marco Island at Crystal Shores. That sales office was also closed after the big collapse. Now that they no longer sell a specific resort, they can open up smaller offices at all locations instead of large offices that still had lots of unsold inventory.

kjd said:

Having to force a lot of Florida owners into foreclosures doesn't sound like a healthy timeshare capital of the world to me. I wouldn't be concerned about the owning vs renting comparisons. I'd be worried about the industry model as a whole and whether it can survive America's race to the bottom. The sage advice given on TUG many times is to buy where you want to spend a lot of your vacation time. It was true when you bought, it's true today and will be true tomorrow. It's the new buyers that have to worry about points, trust inventory, availability, etc. You will get what you paid for if you use your unit over a long period of time.

When you finally sell and no longer wish to vacation there it won't matter what you get from the sale. You will have already gotten more than your money's worth. You can't assume that the current owning vs renting difference will always be the same. If eventually there is a tight market, ownership will come back as the preferred way to timeshare. Markets never move in a straight line.

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An excellent summary and great advice. BUY TO USE! Be it a specific resort / week/ unit or a point system as long as you buy the time for your use and not to rent or trade or flip or anything else but use at resale price you will likely have a great ownership experience. Buy to trade, buy to rent, buy because you can't believe this beautiful resort that you get to use a week of every year is selling for "only" a few hundred or thousand dollars and you can flip it for two or three (or even a few hundred) more and you'll likely be back here crying that you can't rent it or trade it or flip it - how do you get out?

Timeshares for use can be a tremendous bargain for great accommodations. Buy for that use and enjoy. Do anything else and it is at tremendous risk to your bank account and peace of mind.

Went through strange points presentation last time I was at Summittwatch in Park City. Where once Marriott had an impressive sales office with a number of sales people (pre points), we had a meeting in a glorified broom closet with a salesperson with an attitude (did not help I had one going in on Marriott's brand destruction). Really sad to see the pitiful attempt at selling this half baked rip off of a program.

Got a call from the sales office at Beach Place where we will be staying this week. Caller said Marriott had some new features for their points program. I said that I have the information about the program and that I didn't like the points program. The caller said that the reason I didn't like the program is that I didn't understand it. I responded that is exactly why we have a problem. I do understand it and don't like it. That ended the call.

Evidently the sales staff thinks that if you don't like the points program you must need further "education" about it. The point of the phone call was that the rep wanted to sell points. Obviously, the sales strategy is to work over existing owners. Unfortunately, it appears that every time we are going to use our timeshares we are going to get a call from someone who wants to give us more "education". Is there a way to stop these calls every time an owner has a Marriott reservation? I would prefer to hear from someone in reservations rather than a sales rep trying to sell something. After a number of these calls when we scheduled vacations I think this sales practice borders on harassment.

kjd said:

Got a call from the sales office at Beach Place where we will be staying this week. Caller said Marriott had some new features for their points program. I said that I have the information about the program and that I didn't like the points program. The caller said that the reason I didn't like the program is that I didn't understand it. I responded that is exactly why we have a problem. I do understand it and don't like it. That ended the call.

Evidently the sales staff thinks that if you don't like the points program you must need further "education" about it. The point of the phone call was that the rep wanted to sell points. Obviously, the sales strategy is to work over existing owners. Unfortunately, it appears that every time we are going to use our timeshares we are going to get a call from someone who wants to give us more "education". Is there a way to stop these calls every time an owner has a Marriott reservation? I would prefer to hear from someone in reservations rather than a sales rep trying to sell something. After a number of these calls when we scheduled vacations I think this sales practice borders on harassment.

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I would have to agree. I think Marriott went about this wrong. They should have concentrated all efforts to getting as many of their current owners enrolled in the program. Then when owners started to use it and realized that they needed a few extra points, they could have sold some small points packages 250, 500, 1000.

Of course the problem is that those small packages of points don't mix well with legacy points. Marriott knew it, so they couldn't go that route.

Of the three presentations we have been to, two of them thought we just needed more education and then we would be jumping at the chance to own trust points. Yeh right.

At my home resort, we were told that the sales center was going to close when the resort sold out and the area would be converted to a new workout area and possible a new restaurant. Now with the sales staff selling the points program I'm not sure if the sales center will ever close