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[2019] MVC Owner Update for Sheraton Owner

CPNY

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I'm getting some pretty good information that suggests the upper level sales team has already had some training on some new introductions but time will tell.
New introductions could be a small step easy exchange in the meantime until a full integration down the line. Let’s be honest, I think they have just been assessing their new acquisition for the past year. From technology, to employees, to operations. As owners we want to think they went guns blazing on a joint DC program from day 1. While they prob had some Ideas in mind, most of the past year has been getting to know and see how they can maximize the new business they bought.
 

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Never meant to create an Apple vs. PC debate, but glad to see the comparison comments.
I don’t think you’re getting anyone defending their favorites to the death. Lol. My favorite is Harborside at Atlantis and completely for the Atlantis affiliation. The TS resort isn’t anything to write home about. But everyone has different tastes. I really can’t comment on many MVC because I’ve only
Stayed at a handful. MVC Owners will say they are the best. Westin owners will say it’s the best.

For me, adding 100 of the best Hawaii destinations does nothing for me. As someone said earlier, I can hop a direct flight cheap and galavant through Europe. I’ll be doing it 3 times next year actually. So I value Caribbean resorts. That’s what works for me. Someone in California May not give a rats patooti about the Caribbean and can’t wait for more Hawaii islands. Everyone’s preference is different. The best thing about this acquisition is the variety MVC now holds. Different buy in levels to appeal to all
 

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I don’t think you’re getting anyone defending their favorites to the death. Lol. My favorite is Harborside at Atlantis and completely for the Atlantis affiliation. The TS resort isn’t anything to write home about. But everyone has different tastes. I really can’t comment on many MVC because I’ve only
Stayed at a handful. MVC Owners will say they are the best. Westin owners will say it’s the best.

For me, adding 100 of the best Hawaii destinations does nothing for me. As someone said earlier, I can hop a direct flight cheap and galavant through Europe. I’ll be doing it 3 times next year actually. So I value Caribbean resorts. That’s what works for me. Someone in California May not give a rats patooti about the Caribbean and can’t wait for more Hawaii islands. Everyone’s preference is different. The best thing about this acquisition is the variety MVC now holds. Different buy in levels to appeal to all

I love your optimism that somehow these different products will all be packaged as one. I don’t buy it. I own in both and have no desire to see them ‘merge’. I believe, given the ownership provisions, it will be a legal quagmire for the parties to agree on such a plan. Everything said here has been salesmen conjecture, no facts, just wishful thinking. I love both Vistana and Mvwc and prefer they remain independent. Use II if you want to trade.


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I love your optimism that somehow these different products will all be packaged as one. I don’t buy it. I own in both and have no desire to see them ‘merge’. I believe, given the ownership provisions, it will be a legal quagmire for the parties to agree on such a plan. Everything said here has been salesmen conjecture, no facts, just wishful thinking. I love both Vistana and Mvwc and prefer they remain independent. Use II if you want to trade.


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Oh believe me, I’m in the same position as you. I’d rather them stay separate. If anything was to happen, I’d like to see the interval exchange priority merge. That would be easier, especially for star option owners, we have the benefit of star option booking. Using the interval exchange priority would be easier and seamless. I have maintained that II exchange would come first before anything else and that’s IF anything else came down the pike.

My optimism on these products being packaged as one is based off what everyone here thinks. I’ve actually never thought that would happen in the short term.
 

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I love your optimism that somehow these different products will all be packaged as one. I don’t buy it. I own in both and have no desire to see them ‘merge’. I believe, given the ownership provisions, it will be a legal quagmire for the parties to agree on such a plan. Everything said here has been salesmen conjecture, no facts, just wishful thinking. I love both Vistana and Mvwc and prefer they remain independent. Use II if you want to trade.


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While it's true that this thread is based on sales conjecture, we do know that something is coming in the way of an integrated product. Steve Weisz said this during the most recent quarterly earnings call early this month:

"We also continued our work on enhancing our product offerings across our multiple Marriott brands. As we shared with you previously, we continue to evaluate the various options, and our current plan is to add new enhancements in stages, each building on the strong foundation that we offer customers today. Over time, our goal is to develop an integrated product that leverages all of our Marriott family of brands, providing owners and potential owners an even greater array of vacation destinations and experiences from which to choose. We remain extremely optimistic about its potential, and we’ll have more to say about this in our Investor Day on October 4.”

In the previous quarterly call in May, he indicated that changes and some form of integration would be coming for 2020.

I don't think anyone here has been suggesting that the programs are all going to legally merge into one single program. I think that actually could be a legal quagmire as you suggest. What we are talking about, and what we have interpreted Steve Weisz to be talking about, is some sort of exchange program between the brands. MVC Sales seems to be surmising that that exchange will be the DC, some have suggested the first step might be somehow II-based, others have speculated it could be something totally new. Only time will reveal the details, but maybe we'll know a little more after the October 4 Investor Day.
 

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While it's true that this thread is based on sales conjecture, we do know that something is coming in the way of an integrated product. Steve Weisz said this during the most recent quarterly earnings call early this month:

"We also continued our work on enhancing our product offerings across our multiple Marriott brands. As we shared with you previously, we continue to evaluate the various options, and our current plan is to add new enhancements in stages, each building on the strong foundation that we offer customers today. Over time, our goal is to develop an integrated product that leverages all of our Marriott family of brands, providing owners and potential owners an even greater array of vacation destinations and experiences from which to choose. We remain extremely optimistic about its potential, and we’ll have more to say about this in our Investor Day on October 4.”

In the previous quarterly call in May, he indicated that changes and some form of integration would be coming for 2020.

I don't think anyone here has been suggesting that the programs are all going to legally merge into one single program. I think that actually could be a legal quagmire as you suggest. What we are talking about, and what we have interpreted Steve Weisz to be talking about, is some sort of exchange program between the brands. MVC Sales seems to be surmising that that exchange will be the DC, some have suggested the first step might be somehow II-based, others have speculated it could be something totally new. Only time will reveal the details, but maybe we'll know a little more after the October 4 Investor Day.
I wonder if resale deed recording would have to be done by October 4th with any small announcement coming. Was the DC program a big announcement? For DC enrollment The deeds had to be recorded prior to the announcement date correct? I wonder if this “leak” or slight information coming on investor day would count as an announcement.
 

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While this is a very strong statement, I have seen executives use the term "integrated" loosely to mean many things. One possibility is that each sales office could cross sell the other system's portfolio's i.e. MVC sales can sell DC, Flex and HPP; Vistana can do the same as well as Hyatt.

This plus II priority if you own two or more systems would have been the simplest and fastest form of "integration." The fact that it has been a year and this simple cross-selling of each portfolio has not happened, leads me to believe that something deeper is happening.
 
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While this is a very strong statement. I have seen executives use the term "integrated" loosely to mean many things. One possibility is that each sales office could cross sell the other system's portfolio's i.e. MVC sales can sell DC, Flex and HPP; Vistana can do the same as well as Hyatt.

This plus II priority would have been the simplest and fastest form of "integration." The fact that it has been a year and this simple cross-selling of each portfolio has not happened, leads me to believe that something deeper is happening.
A year isn’t a very long time. They were in “assessment” mode. You can’t just jump into something the day after the acquisition. It takes time gather facts, assess their current situations then come back and formulate a plan. I actually think the fact that they are talking “integration” after a year tells me something simpler is coming. I’ve been betting for a while it’s going to be II exchange priority to start, even though I was met with pushback from the DC crowd. I may be wrong but it’s just what I think will come first. This way it doesn’t leave post DC resale weeks out as well. I guess we will see how customer centric MVC really is.

I was at a vistana resort in May. MVC folks were visiting (I know the employees, I had the info). They were their scouting operations, resort conditions, and Atlantis etc. they were from MVC not Marriott hotel group. So they are still figuring out their products
 

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A year isn’t a very long time. They were in “assessment” mode. You can’t just jump into something the day after the acquisition. It takes time gather facts, assess their current situations then come back and formulate a plan. I actually think the fact that they are talking “integration” after a year tells me something simpler is coming. I’ve been betting for a while it’s going to be II exchange priority to start, even though I was met with pushback from the DC crowd. I may be wrong but it’s just what I think will come first. This way it doesn’t leave post DC resale weeks out as well. I guess we will see how customer centric MVC really is.

I was at a vistana resort in May. MVC folks were visiting (I know the employees, I had the info). They were their scouting operations, resort conditions, and Atlantis etc. they were from MVC not Marriott hotel group. So they are still figuring out their products

I agree that it takes 9 months or more for traditional sales programs to roll out at large corporations, however I would expect that they would have done more assessment up-front and would apply more modern agile approaches. Perhaps this is my entrepreneurial, agile thinking but it would not have been hard to train a sales rep or two in a few key sales offices to offer the additional portfolios to start. They could expand from there based on what works/doesn't work. This would jumpstart sales from the acquisition right away regardless of what they are doing long term. It also doesn't change anything policy-wise from what they are selling today except adding more sales feet to the mix. KISS
 

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I agree that it takes 9 months or more for traditional sales programs to roll out at large corporations, however I would expect that they would have done more assessment up-front and would apply more modern agile approaches. Perhaps this is my entrepreneurial, agile thinking but it would not have been hard to train a sales rep or two in a few key sales offices to offer the additional portfolios to start. They could expand from there based on what works/doesn't work. This would jumpstart sales from the acquisition right away regardless of what they are doing long term.
While I agree, it would be nice and easy to just “go and sell”. But in the end it’s not that simple. They may want to keep the sales team separate for a bit. They may always keep them separate and in the future any “new developed” product could be a POS buy in from either site. Another theory I had said a while back. For example; You can buy flex as it is and DC points as it is currently and if you want to enroll your ownership in the “affiliate ambassador” club to have access to convert to AA points and book all brands it will cost you only XX dollars more. Or require a purchase amount of XX dollars.

Point is, there are so many ways they can go about this to increase sales revenue and be the true leader in vacation ownership. Many ways that will take plenty of time to work out, legally and effectively to maximize profits. So look for a more simple approach in the beginning, such as an interval exchange. Another theory I had a while back.
 

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I wonder if resale deed recording would have to be done by October 4th with any small announcement coming. Was the DC program a big announcement? For DC enrollment The deeds had to be recorded prior to the announcement date correct? I wonder if this “leak” or slight information coming on investor day would count as an announcement.

I wasn't an MVC owner or very active on TUG in 2010, so I don't know how that was disclosed, but at that time MVC was a very small part of the much-larger Marriott International, so I would suspect that any discussions with investors about the timeshare operation in the earnings calls would have been very high level at most. Now that MVW is independent and a 100% pure timeshare play, they talk about that business at a more detailed level than when it was part of MAR.

I would not expect the Investor Day info to be the kind of announcement that would trigger tigger dates and stuff like that. It will likely be the high-level, strategic directional stuff that dominates investor presentations. I wouldn't expect any cut-off or qualifying date to be set until very close to the operational roll-out announcement of whatever they do. But who really knows? Just speculatin' here.
 

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I wasn't an MVC owner or very active on TUG in 2010, so I don't know how that was disclosed, but at that time MVC was a very small part of the much-larger Marriott International, so I would suspect that any discussions with investors about the timeshare operation in the earnings calls would have been very high level at most. Now that MVW is independent and a 100% pure timeshare play, they talk about that business at a more detailed level than when it was part of MAR.

I would not expect the Investor Day info to be the kind of announcement that would trigger tigger dates and stuff like that. It will likely be the high-level, strategic directional stuff that dominates investor presentations. I wouldn't expect any cut-off or qualifying date to be set until very close to the operational roll-out announcement of whatever they do. But who really knows? Just speculatin' here.
Well you speak as if you’ve been around for a while so thank you for being knowledgeable. One deed was recorded 2.5 weeks after initiating closing. Just went into escrow yesterday for another and waiting on another to close. In case you’re wondering, yes I’m buying too many lol. But I promise, I’m done after this lol
 

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In the OPs example, they were Sheraton owners. MVC went to the expense to get them in a presentation but lost an opportunity to sell them more flex, upgrade etc because all they could sell them is MVC with some vague promises which didn't work. If they had a peaked rep in the office that rep could have come in and offered them some flex options. Same policy as today. This would have been no different than if they had walked into a Vistana presentation. Just leveraging the assets they already have.

The fact they haven't executed this simple solution tells me that they are either stuck in analysis paralysis, have sluggish bureaucratic management, or have something much bigger planned.
 
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I agree that it takes 9 months or more for traditional sales programs to roll out at large corporations, however I would expect that they would have done more assessment up-front and would apply more modern agile approaches. Perhaps this is my entrepreneurial, agile thinking but it would not have been hard to train a sales rep or two in a few key sales offices to offer the additional portfolios to start. They could expand from there based on what works/doesn't work. This would jumpstart sales from the acquisition right away regardless of what they are doing long term. It also doesn't change anything policy-wise from what they are selling today except adding more sales feet to the mix. KISS

I think it would be very hard to try to sell both products out of the same sales offices because the structures are so different. We know many sales reps get confused about the details of the single programs they each now sell. Unless that was the truly long-term strategy, with no integration ever planned, I think it would be a waste of time and resources to train every sales rep on both programs. How would they know what to sell to whom?
 

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In the OPs example, they were Sheraton owners. MVC went to the expense to get them in a presentation but lost an opportunity to sell them more flex, upgrade etc because all they could sell them is MVC with some vague promises which didn't work.
sell them on buying into the DC program. Many own both. If they were good at sales they would ask questions and figure out how to make them realize they NEED to be in the DC program NOW lol
 

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sell them on buying into the DC program. Many own both. If they were good at sales they would ask questions and figure out how to make them realize they NEED to be in the DC program NOW lol

This part of the discussion is almost as intriguing to me as what kind of exchange program they might create for us - will they continue to try to sell both products or settle on one and train everyone to sell that one? They stopped selling Weeks when they built the DC; will they do the same here?

As @SeaDoc said, trying to truly combine the existing programs could be a quagmire, but I would think some bean counter at corporate has calculated the savings if they only had to maintain one training program, one set of sales documentation/materials, etc. I can't imagine they wouldn't want to do that if they can find a path to do so.
 

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Well you speak as if you’ve been around for a while so thank you for being knowledgeable.

Been on TUG one way or another since a few months before we bought our first timeshare in 1998. I was more engaged on TUG early on, but then my activity faded a bit as our original ownership started not working as well for us. It eventually became part of the crappy Diamond system, so after we bought into MVC in July 2014, we sold our Diamond that fall. I started really engaging on TUG again in 2014 researching DC Points and bundle packages before we went to an Encore sales presentation in Hilton Head that July and became MVC owners. Now I spend waaay too much time here! :crash:
 

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sell them on buying into the DC program. Many own both. If they were good at sales they would ask questions and figure out how to make them realize they NEED to be in the DC program NOW lol

For us it didn't work because we wanted to leverage what we already owned. Offering Flex or other VSN programs would have provided alternatives but our rep was shut down with only MVC alternative. (Good for us, bad for MVC)
 
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I think it would be very hard to try to sell both products out of the same sales offices because the structures are so different. We know many sales reps get confused about the details of the single programs they each now sell. Unless that was the truly long-term strategy, with no integration ever planned, I think it would be a waste of time and resources to train every sales rep on both programs. How would they know what to sell to whom?

Not hard because you don't have to train the entire office. You need one trained specialist rep to come in to the sale similar to the closer, or you transfer a rep from the VSN office into the MVC office (cross-polinate) and they are brought in similar to a closer. The specialist can train the new office on the program if they decide to roll out more broadly.

OTOH, Hyatt may be more problematic due to brand licensing issues. Marriott may not like Hyatt in the MVC offices and vice versa.
 
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Not hard because you don't have to train the entire office. You need one trained specialist rep to come in to the sale similar to the closer, or you transfer a rep from the VSN office into the MVC office (cross-polinate) and they are brought in similar to a closer. The specialist can train the new office on the program if they decide to roll out more broadly.

OTOH, Hyatt may be more problematic due to brand licensing issues. Marriott may not like Hyatt in the MVC offices and vice versa.

True, if they felt there was sufficient potential to sell both programs in all locations, that would be a way to do it on a limited basis. Hopefully, the Investor Day on October 4 will provide a little more insight into their strategy, as promised, and we can focus our speculating a bit tighter...
 

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True, if they felt there was sufficient potential to sell both programs in all locations, that would be a way to do it on a limited basis. Hopefully, the Investor Day on October 4 will provide a little more insight into their strategy, as promised, and we can focus our speculating a bit tighter...

If this is all they announce in October, it will be deeply disappointing. They could have executed this months ago.
 

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I wasn't an MVC owner or very active on TUG in 2010, so I don't know how that was disclosed, but at that time MVC was a very small part of the much-larger Marriott International, so I would suspect that any discussions with investors about the timeshare operation in the earnings calls would have been very high level at most. Now that MVW is independent and a 100% pure timeshare play, they talk about that business at a more detailed level than when it was part of MAR.

I would not expect the Investor Day info to be the kind of announcement that would trigger tigger dates and stuff like that. It will likely be the high-level, strategic directional stuff that dominates investor presentations. I wouldn't expect any cut-off or qualifying date to be set until very close to the operational roll-out announcement of whatever they do. But who really knows? Just speculatin' here.

Prior to the 6/20/10 overnight announcement of the implementation of the MVW Destination Club points-based timeshare product, there were YEARS of rumors spurred by occasional targeted "surveys" from corporate, unsupported assertions made during sales presentations that in true TUG fashion were dismissed by many as gibberish intended to spur sales, and vague allusions to something in the pipeline during prior investor calls. NOTHING related, no branding or product or Weeks affiliation or legal documentation or ANYTHING was officially released until that after-midnight wholesale change. The announcement basically consisted of an email blast (that didn't hit every target,) and, a blurb on the owners' website with links to the contact information for purchasing DC Points, the legal documents, and, basic information about enrolling existing Weeks (eligibility, enrollment fees and DC Points allotment amounts for the Weeks in our individual accounts.) MVW didn't even offer a basic FAQ at the outset; that came later and appeared to be a Hail Mary pass because their phones were overloaded with calls from owners who had no idea what was going on. TUG was literally the only site online where information was being disseminated to the masses (and that was proven by a few people who tried to cash in by selling TUG's good info.)

This isn't meant to irritate the Vistana people who think Marriott people are too invested in the discussion of how Vistana might integrate under MVW's umbrella but, whether you (the collective) want to acknowledge it or not, it's not a stretch to say that the people on TUG who were involved in all that speculation were instrumental in gaining as quickly as possible all the information about how the DC works and how to best play the new game. Literally HUNDREDS of posts turned up overnight following MVW's announcement and the rate continued for months, and the TUG Marriott forum moderator, @Dave M , went above and beyond as a go-between using his contacts to try to flesh out every single detail we supposed. If you notice the Marriott Points FAQ on TUG wasn't posted until three years after the DC implementation, and it took every bit of that time for the hundreds whose contributions are contained therein to collect info and share their experiences of actually using the DC.

All that to say, it's not a surprise at all that whatever integration they're intending to introduce to Vistana/Hyatt owners hasn't yet been introduced in the relatively short time they've been under the MVW umbrella.

I'm still in the camp that says the easiest way for MVW to move forward is to keep the Marriott, Vistana and Hyatt set-ups as they are, under the umbrella but separate (with the possibility of existing trusts being combined as much as is legally feasible,) allowing existing ownerships to enroll in the DC Exchange Company subject to a one-time fee and annual Club Dues for access to "internal" exchanges among all brands under the MVW umbrella, as well as, allowing automatic enrollment with new direct purchases from each company.
 
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Resorts Owned
Harborside Resort at Atlantis
SVV - Key West/Bella
WKV
Regal Vista at Massanutten
Not hard because you don't have to train the entire office. You need one trained specialist rep to come in to the sale similar to the closer, or you transfer a rep from the VSN office into the MVC office (cross-polinate) and they are brought in similar to a closer. The specialist can train the new office on the program if they decide to roll out more broadly.

OTOH, Hyatt may be more problematic due to brand licensing issues. Marriott may not like Hyatt in the MVC offices and vice versa.
I suspect they may sell both at each. Unless of course they make access obtainable with a minimum “buy in” or only for certain owner levels. That’s how you’ll sell higher packages, or get people to add more to their existing ownership.
 

csalter2

TUG Member
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Sep 3, 2008
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Location
Orange County, California
Resorts Owned
Marriott Ko Olina
Marriott Aruba Surf Club
Marriott Ocean Pointe
Diamond Resorts Gold
Been on TUG one way or another since a few months before we bought our first timeshare in 1998. I was more engaged on TUG early on, but then my activity faded a bit as our original ownership started not working as well for us. It eventually became part of the crappy Diamond system, so after we bought into MVC in July 2014, we sold our Diamond that fall. I started really engaging on TUG again in 2014 researching DC Points and bundle packages before we went to an Encore sales presentation in Hilton Head that July and became MVC owners. Now I spend waaay too much time here! :crash:

Hey, you hit a soft spot! I am a Diamond owner. :)
 
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