posted 05-01-2005 17:10            

Congratulations on your purchase...

My advice would be predicated on what incentives you received, your current participation in the MRP (Marriott Reward Points program) and your prospective travel itineraries over the next two years, sans timesharing.

For example, if the 90K points will round out a Cat 7 travel package, and/or allow you to procure the necessary miles to travel to Europe/Asia in business class or first class, indeed the money would be well spent.

See this link for more information on travel packages.

Be aware you can use your incentive points for any reward purchase, and I believe also the points under consideration. However, if the points offered are in lieu of occupancy for the first year, due to lack of available units, I am unclear on their use parameters. There is a caveat regarding using points from turning one's interval in to Marriott, in that they cannot be used for stays at timeshare properties in timeshare units. You likely wouldn't anyway, since the value is poor IMO, but just wanted to throw that in.

There are numerous developer interval owners here so I'm sure you'll get great advice. Enjoy your new interval!

posted 05-01-2005 17:20            

Not being familiar with how these points work, I am worried that there may be something I need on one of my exchanges or home resort usages that I won't be able to access without the points (that even money can't buy!).

Thanks again.

posted 05-01-2005 17:33            

If you don't mind saying, could you post the resort purchased and the incentive points received? That might help the more experienced Marriott owners give you advice.

As an example, we bought EY (every year) at NCV (Newport Coast) and received 230K points for our purchase. We also use the Marriott hotel system frequently. As such, points received from hotel stays easily rounded out a travel package, so we did not take NCV up on an offer similar to the one made to you.

Also, if members know the resort you own at, they can compute your MF's, the interval points surrender value, and thus determine the best value for your EOY purchase and use.

Hope you hang around, join TUG and learn how to best use your new Marriott. It's a great family (here) and a great way to vacation.

posted 05-01-2005 17:57            

I only found out about TUG after I made my purchase... I had entertained the thought of buying a timeshare for a few years, and trust the Marriott name.

posted 05-03-2005 13:43            

Also, is there a special way to use "free" weeks as opposed to "traded" weeks?

Thank you for your help.

posted 05-03-2005 16:55               

Don't be surprised about the lack of an incentive.

Marriott really does use the incentive to move specific inventory. For example when we toured SurfWatch on Hilton Head, there was no incentive for purchasing Platinum weeks and only 100K points for purchasing silver or gold weeks.

Even that incentive was only marginal. Similar to what the original poster mentioned, one had to finance at 13.99% APR thru MVCI to get 40,000 of those points. One could pay off the loan after 3 months. However, the 3 months worth of finance charges on $20,000 work out to $600 or $700, a rather high price for 40,000 points. For us, that turned out to be an incentive to not purchase at SurfWatch. Even sent Pete Waletzka a e-mail to that effect.

To JJ As far as buying the 90,000 points for $750, it's marginal. If you already have a good source of points thru business stays at Marriott hotels, it's a reasonable price to build your kitty. If these will be your total inventory of points, they will have a value between one and two cents a point depending on how you use them. The question then is if it is worth tying up $750 for some undefined future use.

Art

posted 05-04-2005 06:02            

quote:

---

To your knowledge, is there any reward that can only be accessed with points that cannot be accessed with a certain amount of cash?

---

None to my knowledge. IMO, the travel packages are the best deals, but those components can be purchased for cash as well.

Personally, absent the travel packages, I've found the best bang for the point to be in reserving award stays at hotels which have high event rates for the dates desired but still have award availability. This doesn't happen consistently but I've caught a few deals from time to time. Usually got .02 or so per point..

BTW, if you don't have one already, get the Marriott Rewards VISA card. You can pay your MF's online with it, getting 3 points per dollar, as well as using it for other purchases. You can also get better rental rates at some MVCI properties by using it along with the MOD codes when reserving (through Marriott's online booking engine or over the phone). Having it will give you perpetual Silver Elite status, which means, among other things, a 20% points bonus on hotel and timeshare rental stays, as well as Marriott stay incidentals.

Lots to learn. Between TUG and FlyerTalk, you'll be up to speed in no time.

posted 05-07-2005 07:27               

Welcome to TUG!!

I second Alan's suggestion to become a Tug Member. It's money well spent. The Access to the Reviews Section alone is worth the price of admission.

Not to mention all the helpful advice from Tuggers - I know many Tuggers, including myself, who have literally saved thousands of dollars because of advice offered here on Tug.

As my son likes to say - It's a no-brainer

posted 05-08-2005 02:22               

I'm in Canada and they don't offer that card to us, but I got a Starwood Mastercard as soon as it was introduced in Canada and in less than a year had enough SPG points to stay 2 nights in the Westin Excelsior penthouse suite with terrace in Florence, and 2 nights in a suite at the Danieli in Venice. While the rooms may have seemed 'free' nothing else in Italy was!

Paying cash you might not stay in upscale rooms like these, but on points it can become more practical. Ahhh...you only live once! You can check the 1500E per night penthouse suite prices and the pictures here:
http://excelsior.hotelinfirenze.com/main_en.htm?source=

and the 1200E junior suite lagoon view price in Venice here:
http://danieli.hotelinvenice.com/main_en.htm?source=

We just took a 2 week trip to Italy on points. Marriott has just a few hotels in Italy, but we stayed a week in Rome at their Marriott Grand Hotel Flora on Via Veneto on points using Marriott Rewards package that included 120,000 FF miles and the week in this Category 6 hotel. We flew business class so I needed a few extra FF miles which I already had in my FF account with UA. While the Marriott Flora wasn't a former palace like Starwoods (as you can see from the pic url's above, it was very nice - and Tom Cruise and his now gal were next door). Here's the Flora site:
http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/ROMDT

I guess my point to all this is that you take a good look at the Marriott Rewards site on 'air & hotel packages' to judge their value to you. For me they are great as my kids have grown and it's my time for world travel now -- so staying in a 2 bdrm timeshare and wasting a bedroom doesn't have the same appeal as it did when the kids were little. Time changes everything. www.marriottrewards.com Personal business class air fare can be very very expensive, but for a 11 hours of air travel I did yesterday returning from Italy it made such a difference for the 50% increase in FF miles required - but the Travelocity cost was almost $10,000 for two tickets! So points can work if you work the system and read TUG. I'm not into the stress of bargaining with Priceline for hotels and business class air tickets, so it works for us.

My original intent in buying Marriott was to have enough (eventually) to be able to trade in 2 weeks a year for 220,000 points to replenish what I use in travel. But trading a $1000 a week TS for 110k points isn't as attractive as one that cost $607. Even so, it's a nice option you get for buying direct from Marriott in addition the the possibility of someday selling your timeshare back to Marriott for nearly what you paid for it. Buying resale does not permit you to do this, so you're in the club already. Enjoy

Brian

posted 05-15-2005 02:14               

My contact at Marriot in FL says that they usually buy back properties that are near sell out or have been sold out and are in high demand. He also said that last year they were buying back at 75% of current sales prices, but more recently only at 60%.

Prices will have to inflat considerably to cover the 40% loss.

posted 05-15-2005 12:41               

I'll bet the current Marriott buy back price is all of that for OP if not more. So, the demand has to be there for a healthy buy back price. I hear that's the same for the early NCV buyers too and there may be others. The nice thing is that after time, you do have a shot at getting close to your investment back at some resorts and might not have to try the Ebay route, etc. to sell. Wish I bought OP, but at the time I couldn't justify it as I already had 4 Marriott weeks. Now I've got 6!

Brian