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[2018] How happy are you with your Marriott ownership?

How happy are you with your Marriott ownership?

  • I'm very happy with my ownership.

    Votes: 123 44.2%
  • I'm happy despite occasional problems, e.g., availability issues, Destination Club confusion, etc.

    Votes: 89 32.0%
  • I'm neutral.

    Votes: 10 3.6%
  • I'm a bit unhappy with my ownership, but have no current plans to dispose of my Marriott ownership.

    Votes: 32 11.5%
  • I'm unhappy, want to sell and would not buy another Marriott.

    Votes: 30 10.8%
  • My eyeballs are bleeding from trying to keep up with changes.

    Votes: 18 6.5%

  • Total voters
    278

SueDonJ

Moderator
Joined
Jul 26, 2006
Messages
16,612
Reaction score
5,778
Points
1,249
Location
Massachusetts and Hilton Head Island
Resorts Owned
Marriott Barony Beach and SurfWatch
Unbelievably, another five years have passed since the last poll, with significant changes to products and the correlated loyalty program, Marriott Rewards. It's time for a re-boot. :)

(2013 poll thread locked and un-stuck here.)

Please add your vote; note you can choose two options if you need to vent some frustration with inevitable changes. :eek:

Thanks for participating!
 

JCBOSS76

newbie
Joined
Nov 2, 2018
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Resorts Owned
Marriott's Kauai Beach Club; Marriott's Grand Vista in Orlando FL; plus Vacation Club Points (Presidential Level)
I said I was a bit unhappy in this survey. That reflects my current feelings after purchasing another 2000 VC Points and another Grand Vista week. This got me to the Presidential level with lots of "perks". My main gripe is that I was given a pitch about how easy it is to acquire sought after weeks at various locations and then rent them for a great ROI on my investment. As I have discovered, there are a large number of issues that make it difficult and very time consuming to receive enough payback to make this investment work. For example, I was told I would get 30% discount in points if I made a minor change to my reservation inside the 60 day window. That's true but it turns out that the points can't be banked into the next year so they expire at the end of the year, they can only be used to book a unit with in 60 days of occupying it! So these points are difficult to use for anything for myself and difficult to acquire something that has rental value.
They showed me VacationCandy web site showing the great $$ listings. Then I found that VactionCandy jacks up your asking price by $500 plus fees sowhat I would receive was much smaller.

I am just trying my first attempt at this and so I don't know how this will turn out. I booked 3 weeks at a site for Thanksgiving 2019 due to the good $/point value but the 30% point discount I will likely not be able to get value from.

I have used my previous points and weeks for vacations for more than 15 years and have been mostly very happy.
 

Finntastic

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2015
Messages
170
Reaction score
14
Points
128
Location
canada
Just recently stayed at Beach Place Towers in Fort Lauderdale on a Sunday post cruise. Second time we have stayed there. Wonderful after a cruise. Great amenities and great location. We were flying out next day and it was great to be able to have laundry facilities and repack in comfort. Tons of dining options in walking distance. Even on only 1500 points we could come vacation for a week in a studio with 3 people for a week.
 

GRCTahoe

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2019
Messages
30
Reaction score
12
Points
58
Resorts Owned
Marriott grand residence tahoe
Unbelievably, another five years have passed since the last poll, with significant changes to products and the correlated loyalty program, Marriott Rewards. It's time for a re-boot. :)

(2013 poll thread locked and un-stuck here.)

Please add your vote; note you can choose two options if you need to vent some frustration with inevitable changes. :eek:

Thanks for participating!

I wonder if you could add the question if the voter purchased before 2010 or after. To see if there is a divide to the response.
 

Steve Fatula

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 12, 2017
Messages
3,723
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2,718
Points
349
Location
Calera, OK
What if both (like me)?
 

Mr. Vker

Guest
Joined
Jul 25, 2008
Messages
1,682
Reaction score
226
Points
373
Location
Baltimore, MD
We bought in 2005. Converted our weeks to points. We are very happy with our membership and flexibility. Would we buy now? Probably not.
 

pumbug

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2005
Messages
31
Reaction score
10
Points
218
Location
California
We bought in 2002 and have used our weeks very successfully. We lock off the 2BR into 2 weeks/yr....deposit the lock off with II and usually use the 1 BR at Shadow Ridge around Thanksgiving combining it with family get together in Los Angeles.
I learned a long time ago to trade the lock off into Marriott locations with no lock offs....therefore getting at least a 1 BR and often a 2 BR.
Being retired and able to go on a moments notice we find some great opportunities on the II 1 to 59 moment notice listings..
Most recently in April 2018 we traded a lock off for a 2BR at KoOlina in Hawaii..".and Next month, March 2019 we traded two lock offs for successive weeks in a 2BR at Phuket Beach Club...that’s 3 weeks in 2BR units for 3 hotel size room lock offs. We are very pleased with these results.
If you plan, are flexible and do not think of the T/S as an investment but vacations, they’re worth the cost.
 

bazzap

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
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4,423
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Location
Cirencester UK
We bought direct from Marriott, starting around 2003 with weeks in all the MVC regions
We discovered resale from friends and TUG and have bought more using brokers in recent years.
We enrolled all our eligible weeks, including early resales, in the points programme as soon as the option was available.
We enjoy our ownership and the flexibility of home weeks, lock offs, Interval exchange, electing weeks for points, renting extra weeks / points...etc
If we were starting again now, we would still buy into Marriott, but only resale weeks and only in the resorts we would really want to visit most years.
 

pspercy

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2007
Messages
312
Reaction score
92
Points
388
Location
North Texas
Resorts Owned
Maui Ocean Club x2
DC points
Our ownership is two 1br (now) enrolled weeks, one odd year and one even year, one bought in 2008, the other a year later. We bought to occupy not rent or trade.

In hindsight we should've bought one 2br EOY with the option to lock-off.

The points system allows lots of flexibility, for example we converted to points then banked last year's points so we're going for a full two weeks this year:banana:

MFs keep rising of course but MOC seems well run.
 

Mr. Vker

Guest
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Jul 25, 2008
Messages
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Location
Baltimore, MD
Why wouldnt you , out of curiosity?
Raf

We wouldn't by DC points out right I should have said-unless secondary market. I don't think they are as good a value as weeks tied with points.
 

pianodinosaur

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2008
Messages
1,965
Reaction score
239
Points
273
Location
Texas
Resorts Owned
HGVC SeaWorld x 2, HGVC Las Vegas Strip x 2, MVC Mountain Valley Lodge, MVC Legend’s Edge
Very happy! Just purchased my second MVC week at Legend’s Edge on EBAY. I purchased my first week about 9 years ago at Mountain Valley Lodge.
 

hjp

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
29
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0
Points
211
Location
Arizona
Was very happy; however, with the introduction of the points system, I am very unhappy. I refuse to buy the points and feel the scheme was another way to get to my pocketbook. Prior to points, we had no problem trading weeks. With the points, we also find it difficult to get a good week at our home resort whereas previous to points, we did not experience such problems.
 
Joined
May 11, 2017
Messages
78
Reaction score
36
Points
79
Resorts Owned
Maui Ocean Club Napili building, Lawai Beach Resort
Was very happy; however, with the introduction of the points system, I am very unhappy. I refuse to buy the points and feel the scheme was another way to get to my pocketbook. Prior to points, we had no problem trading weeks. With the points, we also find it difficult to get a good week at our home resort whereas previous to points, we did not experience such problems.
We like ours! We originally bought a 2 bedroom in 2000 in Maui. In 2008 we upgraded to an Ocean Front Villa 3 bedroom fixed week 50. Shortly after they stopped selling deeded weeks. We signed up to convert to points when we didn't want to use our fixed week. The point value for our villa is 10,225 points and we love the flexibility of using the vacation club points anywhere. It's not for everyone but it works for us because we use it.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

DEScottzz

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Mar 22, 2015
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161
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128
Location
Houston
We're pretty happy.

We've been owners for about 5 years, starting with 2500 points bought at retail. We've subsequently purchased a bundle deal and, most recently, a handful of resale points that got us to Presidential.

We like it because it disciplines us to plan vacations, and we get to stay at much nicer places than we otherwise would. I would never recommend MVC as a value proposition. It's really a lifestyle choice for those who can afford it.
 

Luvtoride

TUG Review Crew
TUG Member
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Apr 10, 2011
Messages
1,326
Reaction score
981
Points
324
Location
New Jersey
Resorts Owned
Marriott Cypress Harbor
Marriott Ocean Pointe
Marriott Desert Springs Villas II
Marriott Grande Ocean
unfortunately, my vote this time slipped to the 2nd category of being mostly happy with our ownership, after our recent Explorer Collection Collette Tour. See my separate detailed assessment in another thread I just posted about the tour.
I don't think that MVC is doing its owners justice with offerings such as this Collette Tour. We are all used to a certain level of accommodations, food options etc and this company's tour just did not meet ours. I really wanted to enjoy all aspects of the tour, but overall we were disappointed and won't be booking another anytime soon.
There are other tour companies out there and perhaps offering some of the higher level tour options such as Tauck, which I hear is very good, is a better way to cover all bases of owners expectations.
Our "happiness" with our MVC ownership just dropped with this recent experience.
 

fdough1

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May 7, 2015
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I would say pretty happy We started with 2500 points in 2014 and have build up to 15K over the last 5 years. I read a lot on this forum about not cost effective and expensive...yep...but it forces us to schedule several vacations a year by ourselves or with our kids (grown and gone). We haven’t had a bad vacation yet and I like how the offerings are expanding.

So would I do it again...yep.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

jmhpsu93

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2018
Messages
1,764
Reaction score
1,147
Points
274
Location
Maryland, USA
Resorts Owned
MVC Abound Points
MVC Grande Vista (x2)
MVC Cypress Harbour (x2)
MVC Harbour Lake (x2)
Golden Shores (Mexico)
Owner for about a year and a half now...waiting to post until I got a little experience under my belt.

Bought 3K points retail in April 2018 (yeah, I know...) before I found TUG but it was water under the bridge so I decided to use it for the best value, leveraging the best case scenario for DC points vs. Bonvoy points vs. paying cash retail and have been happy so far with both availability (even at 10 months for this lowly "Owner" status) and value.

We subsequently bought two resale MGV gold 2BR LO weeks with free 2019 usage, which I parlayed into a free week at Ocean Pointe this year and $1700 rental income. We also bought a couple of free SVV weeks as well, one with 2019 free usage with gave me another $900. After the MGV week costs I cleared about $1400 and the free week's stay at OP in June. All in all a considerably better ROI than my points purchase, but heck the points purchase is what drove me to research which brought me here.

The really cool thing about owning (as others have said) is that you plan WAY ahead. I have 2020 totally planned minus flights. I have 2021 pencilled in pending a trade request in II (or we'll just use DC points) for Hawaii around Memorial Day and a second honeymoon in Italy in the fall with Bonvoy points and five-night packages.

Yeah, it's expensive, I suppose, and I'll probably faint when the MF bills come in the mail, but we're VERY happy so far.
 

Bodie

TUG Member
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Messages
251
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I've been thinking about using Collette for a Sicily tour. Think I will just do it on my own. Thanks for the input. Frankly, I think the value of most of these outside vendor trips (cruises, land) are waaaay too point intensive.
unfortunately, my vote this time slipped to the 2nd category of being mostly happy with our ownership, after our recent Explorer Collection Collette Tour. See my separate detailed assessment in another thread I just posted about the tour.
I don't think that MVC is doing its owners justice with offerings such as this Collette Tour. We are all used to a certain level of accommodations, food options etc and this company's tour just did not meet ours. I really wanted to enjoy all aspects of the tour, but overall we were disappointed and won't be booking another anytime soon.
There are other tour companies out there and perhaps offering some of the higher level tour options such as Tauck, which I hear is very good, is a better way to cover all bases of owners expectations.
Our "happiness" with our MVC ownership just dropped with this recent experience.
de
 

brianfox

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Messages
796
Reaction score
445
Points
423
Location
Thousand Oaks
Resorts Owned
Marriott Waiohai x3
In 2006 my wife and I had twins that were just old enough to travel. We decided to look into timeshare as a vacation method, realizing hotel rooms were not going to hack it. We took a 4 day intro package at Ko Olina and fell in love with the place. Although we were tempted to buy, we decided to pass and learn about timeshare.
We stumbled across TUG and spent the next year learning and tracking timeshare resales.
Back then a Ko Olina week was going for upwards of $60K from Marriott and $20K on the resale market.

At that time, we were still pretty green, so we ignored TUG's second commandment "Thou shalt buy where you will stay often". We bought a Branson Willow Ridge week and a Desert Springs Villas II week. Our intention was to exchange these for prime Ko Olina weeks, while having traders with low maintenance fees. This did not work out very well, as our target weeks were 2BR. In Summer. In Hawaii. It took lots of planning and checking every single day for exchanges. Based on that alone, our intro to Marriott was not that great. We got some good trades, and a lot of gray hair waiting for them. But then again we were trying to squeeze diamonds from stone. We ended up selling those weeks, taking a bit of a loss (about $2000). This wasn't based just on what we paid vs sold. I included the value of weeks we exchanged into vs what it would have cost to rent into those weeks. The closing fees for buying and selling really added up, BTW...

Around 2010, the bottom fell out of the timeshare market. Ko Olina weeks were now $10K or less resale. So we purchased two weeks at $9500 each.
Then between 2015-2017 we purchased three Waiohai weeks for $5000 each. We rented our Ko Olina weeks every year, netting around $1K each.
We've gotten value from our Waiohai each year because we pay about $2200 in MF and renting into Waiohai would be about $2800-$3100 per week.
The Ko Olina weeks are worth about $7000 per week resale and the Waiohai are worth around $8000 a week resale.
So, we are going into 2020 at a net positive for our ownership.
Meaning that if we sold them all today, while we would have less money than we spent to get them (after selling fees), we have gotten value from rental income and savings of MF vs renting.

It hurts to put out $11K every January for MF, especially with MF ever increasing. Credit card reward points earned help counter that pain.
But we are guaranteed to have our consecutive 3 weeks in the summer every year.
Renting the Ko Olina units are easy as can be.
I don't have to deal with Interval (my membership has long expired).

For us, ownership has been fantastic. Even if the prices dropped by half again, we would not be complaining.
We found the way to make our once lofty goals maintainable. It works for our case, but probably not for many other cases.
When our kids leave the nest, maybe our goal will change to stay at different hard-to-get locations every year.
If that happens, we would probably not be exchanging our high-MF weeks, instead renting them out and renting into the places we want to stay.
In a case like that it might make more sense to just sell our weeks, and just rent.

So we tried it both ways - first ignoring important TUG guidelines, then following them.

What did not work well:
Buying a "low cost, low MF" trader and trying to exchange into difficult locations
Buying into a location that we had to give away for free (Willow Ridge)

What worked well:
Having the same plan to execute year after year
Renting until we were able to afford to execute the purchase plan
Buying into a property only after tracking it for at least a year (every deal we thought we'd never see again, we saw again...)
Buying into the location we wanted to stay at
Buying into a location that will not be difficult to unload

I can honestly say that all of the advice I received on TUG was incredibly helpful, while everything we were told by Marriott salespeople was wildly inaccurate.
It's not often that Good vs Evil is so evident.
 

sandcfort

TUG Member
Joined
May 14, 2014
Messages
108
Reaction score
10
Points
128
Location
Michigan
Resorts Owned
MVCI Points
Owner for about a year and a half now...waiting to post until I got a little experience under my belt.

Bought 3K points retail in April 2018 (yeah, I know...) before I found TUG but it was water under the bridge so I decided to use it for the best value, leveraging the best case scenario for DC points vs. Bonvoy points vs. paying cash retail and have been happy so far with both availability (even at 10 months for this lowly "Owner" status) and value.

We subsequently bought two resale MGV gold 2BR LO weeks with free 2019 usage, which I parlayed into a free week at Ocean Pointe this year and $1700 rental income. We also bought a couple of free SVV weeks as well, one with 2019 free usage with gave me another $900. After the MGV week costs I cleared about $1400 and the free week's stay at OP in June. All in all a considerably better ROI than my points purchase, but heck the points purchase is what drove me to research which brought me here.

The really cool thing about owning (as others have said) is that you plan WAY ahead. I have 2020 totally planned minus flights. I have 2021 pencilled in pending a trade request in II (or we'll just use DC points) for Hawaii around Memorial Day and a second honeymoon in Italy in the fall with Bonvoy points and five-night packages.

Yeah, it's expensive, I suppose, and I'll probably faint when the MF bills come in the mail, but we're VERY happy so far.
What are free SVV weeks?
 

dioxide45

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
May 20, 2006
Messages
47,368
Reaction score
18,931
Points
1,299
Location
NE Florida
Resorts Owned
Marriott Grande Vista
Marriott Harbour Lake
Sheraton Vistana Villages
Club Wyndham CWA
What are free SVV weeks?
Sheraton Vistana Villages. The weeks that are free these days are usually the non mandatory phases that don't include StarOptions.
 

jmhpsu93

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2018
Messages
1,764
Reaction score
1,147
Points
274
Location
Maryland, USA
Resorts Owned
MVC Abound Points
MVC Grande Vista (x2)
MVC Cypress Harbour (x2)
MVC Harbour Lake (x2)
Golden Shores (Mexico)
Sheraton Vistana Villages. The weeks that are free these days are usually the non mandatory phases that don't include StarOptions.
+1.

We "bought" (were given) two 2 BR LO Platinum non-mandatory weeks (Amelia and St. Augustine), one of which included free 2019 usage.
 
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