posted 04-07-2005 12:57               

Since the letter indicates Marriott may use a lottery system for week 53s, it would appear as though there will be no "best customer" approach to allocating the weeks, contrary to what Marriott had been telling people.

posted 04-07-2005 13:23               

I’m sorry I misunderstood.

I do think that Marriott and other timeshare developers should have a frequent buyer’s club. Why should someone who has bought many weeks from the developer not get a price break? If Marriott would offer a simple 5% savings on 2-5 weeks and 10% from 6-10 and 15% above that many more folks would probably buy from the developer.

This simple approach would stop a group of owners being pitted against another group, like Fairfield’s VIP program. I’ve never understood why merchants don’t reward loyalty with cold hard cash.

I mean Marriott hands out 10,000 or 15,000 Marriott Reward Points to folks all day long for sitting thru a 90 minute presentation. Why not cash rewards that mean something for loyal owners.

I don’t know what Marriott is doing in sold out resorts or where 51% of the resort is sold out – that week 53 belongs to the HOA of that resort. Just because Marriott hired clever lawyers to pilfer week 53 doesn’t make it right.

Marriott should have a policy where week 53 benefits sold out or 51% ownership resort and not Marriott. After all Marriott is just the hired management company in those cases and if another management company pilfered the use of week 53 the owners would lynch that company.

Some year Marriott's bungling of week 53 is going to cost them dearly in terms of sore feelings of owners and bad press.

Perry
P.S. I like the idea of renting too.
P.P.S. the 40,000 referral points that Marriott hands out for week 2 and above is worth $800 at the best. This is paltry compared to the average Platinum week worth $25,000.

posted 04-07-2005 14:18               

quote:

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Originally posted by PerryM:
Some year Marriott's bungling of week 53 is going to cost them dearly in terms of sore feelings of owners and bad press.

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I'm guessing that you are overstating what the downside will be of seemingly unpopular methodology for selling such weeks. Virtually all corporations make mistakes. Marriott is no exception. But the overall product is still attractive enough to so many people that Marriott's success in the timeshare continues to grow. Just take a look at comparative sales for recent years.

Separately, I have some personal thoughts on the issue of how to sell those weeks. My guess is that it hasn't been easy for Marriott to decide how to offer them. The three choices that we know about:

• A lottery, as it appears might be the method for this year, is probably the most fair way to sell weeks, at least as most people might view it. Everyone has an equal chance, although I suppose it's possible that people might be given one chance for every week they own or some variation thereof. That seems fair, even though it hurts those of us who don't own many weeks. It gives weighting to every week of ownership.

  The downside to a lottery is that many people who may not really, really want such a week with a passion will get one. Those of us who watched the mail and our email and this board zealously in the past, waited for word on when weeks would be available for purchase, marked our calendars and then called at 9:00 a.m. on the appointed day had to contend only with other similar minded zealots.

• Offering weeks only to Marriott's "best customers" would have cut out those of us who are little guys, but it might have had its merits. The upside for Marriott is economic - encouraging multiple week ownership. Since that addresses a normal corporate motive, it's hard to argue with, even if it hurts most of us. After all, the documents of most resorts clearly state that week 53 belongs to Marriott. Period! Marriott could have simply offered all of those weeks for rent without ever suggesting the possible sale to owners. Thus, we have had a benefit that we were entitled to only because Marriott offered the benefit to us.

  The downside to this method, as Perry suggests, is unhappiness among the majority of owners who would not be considered Marriott's best customers.

• Under the third or old method, weeks were offered for sale on a first-come basis and only those of us who had the passion to stake out the date and time and try to get through at 9:00 a.m. had a chance to get one. Trying to get through was a mess, but I probably had a better chance than I would with a lottery.

  The big downside was the significant hurt feelings of those who couldn't get through to Marriott to purchase a week.

A lottery should restore that sense of fairness. However, although I was successful in getting three week 53s in the past, I'm not likely to get one under a lottery.

posted 04-10-2005 07:05            

quote:

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Originally posted by MikeM132:
Week 53 for those with 11 weeks or more? OK, this might be a fantastic Marriott customer who deserves a benefit, but with over 11 weeks already, I would think the benefit they want might NOT be another vacation week!

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