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Just been to a presentation earlier on as part of a discounted resort stay (didn’t buy in).
Would be interested in any experiences (good or bad) of the scheme. Preferably based on actual experience rather than opinion… 🙂
How long did you have to attend the presentation for?
I’m in a FB timeshare owners’ group and some of them are also Marriott VC owners. Anecdotally they seem to be able to get good trading opportunities but you need to be very flexible and the points scheme can be quite expensive.
How long did you have to attend the presentation for?
I’m in a FB timeshare owners’ group and some of them are also Marriott VC owners. Anecdotally they seem to be able to get good trading opportunities but you need to be very flexible and the points scheme can be quite expensive.
90 mins. Zero pressure to make a sale, although I can see how people could easily get reeled in if they get emotionally invested in the ‘vision’.
From research post stay, I’d suggest picking one up on the resale market is a better deal if you really want one. The deal was reasonable, and I could see that some years you might do really well out of it, some years might do OK and other years would have been able to book cheaper myself.
End of the day, if I’m making a spend commitment for 10s of years to them, I’d want to be winning every single year, so I’m out.
I found some quite horrifying articles about a class action against Marriott where people had bought points and sometimes not been able to use them for years on end, so I don’t think I’d touch them! Problem with points is that companies can increase the number they want for their properties whenever they want, forcing people to keep buying more and more, whereas a traditional week of ownership has a less volatile exchange value.
Definitely resale is the way to go just now, or even pick up a week from someone just wants to be rid of. After the pandemic Americans were desperate to offload weeks at Morritt’s (not Marriott!) Resorts in GCM where we own and we picked one up for £500 in legal fees instead of the $10k or so the resort sales office would be asking.
After the pandemic Americans were desperate to offload weeks at Morritt’s (not Marriott!) Resorts in GCM where we own and we picked one up for £500 in legal fees instead of the $10k or so the resort sales office would be asking.
Deal of the pandemic! It’s just incredible how many things turned upside down during that time.
Making a list of things to do for next pandemic.
@Tariq, is there a online version of the presentation? I’d be interested if Asia hotels / resorts are included.
Make sure you know what you’re getting – the comments under this article are enlightening!
@Tariq, is there a online version of the presentation? I’d be interested if Asia hotels / resorts are included.
Doubt it. Everything was on their own screens and written on paper, we couldn’t take anything away (obviously). It’s all built around ‘in the moment’ so you can make a decision (or not).
I am sure that there are properties in Asia, just we were more interested in Europe and US so discussion was focussed to that.
I suspect it’ll be all the properties under Marriott Vacation Club branding in the app/website.
Make sure you know what you’re getting – the comments under this article are enlightening!
Wow. The deeper I went into the comments, the more it resembles people who entered into it without appropriate due diligence.
They did tell us during the presentation that a major difference between the US and European sales of MVC is that you buy as ‘club points’ in the US and buy as a week in a resort based on unit size and season banding (which is allocated to an equivalent number of club points) in Europe.
My suspicion, unvalidated, is that consumer protections are stronger in Spain (EU) than USA, therefore the purchase contract terms would be more beneficial to the buyer in Europe.
Where was the presentation you attended? Does MVC require you to be a resident of the country you purchase in?
Europe does have some strong protections, e.g. cool-off period, after the timeshare scandals of the 80s. Weeks are definitely a better option than points, although some European resorts are moving to points as well – there’s usually something in the small print that they can do this under certain circumstances!
Where was the presentation you attended? Does MVC require you to be a resident of the country you purchase in?
Europe does have some strong protections, e.g. cool-off period, after the timeshare scandals of the 80s. Weeks are definitely a better option than points, although some European resorts are moving to points as well – there’s usually something in the small print that they can do this under certain circumstances!
I was in Spain. We didn’t see any terms – I assume it’s part of the operating model that they try to keep the sales journey as opaque as possible…
Where was the presentation you attended? Does MVC require you to be a resident of the country you purchase in?
Europe does have some strong protections, e.g. cool-off period, after the timeshare scandals of the 80s. Weeks are definitely a better option than points, although some European resorts are moving to points as well – there’s usually something in the small print that they can do this under certain circumstances!
I was in Spain. We didn’t see any terms – I assume it’s part of the operating model that they try to keep the sales journey as opaque as possible…
There are an awful lot of awful sounding complaints at the FOS under s75A (as opposed to s75) challenging fairly historic timeshare type purchases.
Interesting, I’ll have a look at those.
It always surprises me that professional people who can spend $20k+ on something like this (as many American buyers are), don’t do a bit more diligence before committing. Big red flags for me are:
Can the maintenance fees be increased at the whim of the controlling company – yes.
Can the amount of points required for redemption also be increased in this way – yes.No thanks, then!
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