Newbie needing help

[Theonlymisslee]

Hi there

I'm looking to take on my parents' gold week at Mai Khao Phuket as they are no longer in the position to travel there annually. I've found asking Marriott these questions to be frustrating and I get back a whole lot information that is full of jargon and not easily understandable! The thing is I will get more use of the timeshare at other MVC resorts. I'm reading that I will have to convert to the destination points system but also that with points system the annual maintenance fee is higher and fluctuates? Is it a permanent change, ie. If I want to forget about points and go back to week, is that possible? So many more questions but this will do for now. Appreciate your advice!

 

[Theiggy]

Hi and welcome! Some follow up questions. Is your parents week enrolled in the destinations program? If not, when did they purchase it?


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[bazzap]

Hi there

I'm looking to take on my parents' gold week at Mai Khao Phuket as they are no longer in the position to travel there annually. I've found asking Marriott these questions to be frustrating and I get back a whole lot information that is full of jargon and not easily understandable! The thing is I will get more use of the timeshare at other MVC resorts. I'm reading that I will have to convert to the destination points system but also that with points system the annual maintenance fee is higher and fluctuates? Is it a permanent change, ie. If I want to forget about points and go back to week, is that possible? So many more questions but this will do for now. Appreciate your advice!

Hi, a few immediate comments.
Welcome to TUG by the way.
Your parents gold week will be at Phuket Beach Club, as weeks were never sold at Mai Khao Beach Resort.
You will not have to convert (permanently change) to the Destination Club points programme.
Subject to eligibility, you would just enrol the week in the programme and have the option annually to either use the week as now or elect the week for points to book at other MVC resorts.
Enrolment (if the week is not already enrolled) will probably incur a reasonable one time charge, which in the past has been different for Phuket weeks than the charges made in the US.
The annual maintenance fee would continue to be the same as now (subject to existing annual review / increase, as you retain ownership of the week.
You would have to pay annual Destination Club dues of ~$200, but would receive other benefits for this.
Are you already named on your parents ownership?
I suggest your first step should be for you / your parents to contact MVC Owner Services to confirm that the week can be simply transferred into your name as a direct lineal family member AND retain full rights for enrolment.
I hope this helps?

 

[NboroGirl]

If your parents' week is not already enrolled into the Destination Club, you do not need to enroll it if you are not interested in the points program. There is a one-time fee to enroll your week and thereafter there is an annual fee. The points program gives you flexibility to book less-than-a-week stays at your home resort as well as other Marriott timeshare resorts. It also allows you to use these points for other types of vacations such as cruises. The points cost for these is pretty high, though. If you are not interested in any of that, don't bother enrolling your week. If all you have is one week, I don't think it makes sense.

If you want to trade your week in Phuket, you will need to join Interval International. That is the exchange company for Marriott that allows you to trade your week into other timeshare resorts around the world.

 

[Theonlymisslee]

Hi and welcome! Some follow up questions. Is your parents week enrolled in the destinations program? If not, when did they purchase it?

Thanks for the reply! Not in the destination programme as far as we know and it was purchased about 15 years ago.

 

[Theonlymisslee]

Hi, a few immediate comments.
Welcome to TUG by the way.
Your parents gold week will be at Phuket Beach Club, as weeks were never sold at Mai Khao Beach Resort.
You will not have to convert (permanently change) to the Destination Club points programme.
Subject to eligibility, you would just enrol the week in the programme and have the option annually to either use the week as now or elect the week for points to book at other MVC resorts.
Enrolment (if the week is not already enrolled) will probably incur a reasonable one time charge, which in the past has been different for Phuket weeks than the charges made in the US.
The annual maintenance fee would continue to be the same as now (subject to existing annual review / increase, as you retain ownership of the week.
You would have to pay annual Destination Club dues of ~$200, but would receive other benefits for this.
Are you already named on your parents ownership?
I suggest your first step should be for you / your parents to contact MVC Owner Services to confirm that the week can be simply transferred into your name as a direct lineal family member AND retain full rights for enrolment.
I hope this helps?

Thank you so much for that!! I'm not named on ownership

 

[Theonlymisslee]

If your parents' week is not already enrolled into the Destination Club, you do not need to enroll it if you are not interested in the points program. There is a one-time fee to enroll your week and thereafter there is an annual fee. The points program gives you flexibility to book less-than-a-week stays at your home resort as well as other Marriott timeshare resorts. It also allows you to use these points for other types of vacations such as cruises. The points cost for these is pretty high, though. If you are not interested in any of that, don't bother enrolling your week. If all you have is one week, I don't think it makes sense.

If you want to trade your week in Phuket, you will need to join Interval International. That is the exchange company for Marriott that allows you to trade your week into other timeshare resorts around the world.

Appreciate the advice. Ok so I need to sign up to a separate programme if I want to use the week at any other MVC? Ill give that a Google. Thanks

 

[Theonlymisslee]

Mum's just messaged that they were told by Marriott that they don't use interval international anymore??

 

[Theonlymisslee]

Sorry another thing - what about selling back to Marriott? They've tried listing their timeshare with a UK company but have had no bites. Marriott buy back the week but not if you've converted the week/s to points?

 

[JIMinNC]

1.

Appreciate the advice. Ok so I need to sign up to a separate programme if I want to use the week at any other MVC? Ill give that a Google. Thanks

2.

Mum's just messaged that they were told by Marriott that they don't use interval international anymore??

3.

Sorry another thing - what about selling back to Marriott? They've tried listing their timeshare with a UK company but have had no bites. Marriott buy back the week but not if you've converted the week/s to points?

1) No. You do not need to sign up for a separate program to use the week at other MVC locations. You can trade it through Interval International as always. You can optionally enroll the week into the Destination Club points system to take advantage of the many benefits of that system (shorter stays, can pick the view you want, a more hotel-like booking process, etc.), but you don't have to join to go to other MVC locations.

2) While there is a small sliver of truth to what Marriott told your mom, it is mostly false. It is true that the points product MVC has been selling since 2010 no longer uses Interval for bookings at MVC resorts. You use Marriott's system to book the resort stays using your points and don't need Interval unless you want to travel to a non-MVC property. But, for traditional weeks like your parents own, Interval International is still a viable way to go to other MVC weeks - and in fact, if the week is not enrolled in the Destination program, Interval is the ONLY way to use your week to travel to another MVC location. One other fact they didn't tell your mom is that ever since September 2018, the parent company of Marriott Vacation Club now owns Interval International. They acquired it when they bought Interval Leisure Group (ILG) last fall.

3) Marriott will generally not buy back weeks any more. Sometime they will allow an owner to deed-back their week to them for free, but buy backs have been rare. They used to buy back more often, but they seem to have curtailed or stopped that practice. They do have Right of First Refusal on any sales, so if someone sells a week on the secondary market at a cheap price, MVC will often step in and exercise their right of first refusal and re-acquire the week that way.

Re-read Barry's post in post #3 above. He covers most of the bases.

 

[bazzap]

Marriott Vacations Worldwide (MVW) now own Interval Leisure Group (ILG), so Interval International are part of the same group of companies.
Sadly, your Mum has been misled.
We regularly exchange some of our MVC weeks through Interval to stay at other MVC resorts.
We also elect our enrolled MVC weeks to stay at other MVC resorts.
So there are plenty of options open to you.
Marriott Vacation Club in Phuket have not been buying back weeks, although they are talking about offering a viable resale programme in 2020.
Third party companies and MVC facebook groups are also possible options for selling Phuket weeks.
We have successfully bought resale MVC weeks from both UK and European Third Party companies and I am happy to share those experiences if that might help you.
I would definitely suggest getting a definitive statement / cost from MVC though on transferring / enrolling the week before making any final decisions.
Also this TUG Marriott forum should offer far better advice than just using google searches.

 

[Theonlymisslee]

Thank you all for your advice, much appreciated!

Lots to think about and no doubt I'll be back with more questions!!

THANK YOU!