Beach9bum

Are others feeling how desperate Marriott really is?

The rapid one-sided increase in points needed for points usage on hotel stays. MARRIOTT may be getting ready to take other moves to DEVALUE EVERYONE'S POINTS and hotel experience.

It appears that Marriott has chosen to take other moves in this same direction. The elimination of check cashing and elimination of the WSJ that others have posted are probably just the first in addition to the approach of the timeshare part of the business that has taken away previously offered incentives and not felt like they needed to make point adjustments on exchanges for points.

I believe that these moves point toward a Brand that is slipping. Not only my opinion but that of those participants on the Marriott Rewards Insiders site.

GrizShel

Yes.

Marriott hotels seem well-run to me and they are still building some new hotels even as the recession deepens. Don't know about MVCI, but if there's a problem we'll soon see more reports I am sure.

welookgood.com

Marriott has decent amount of cash short term (current assets/current liabilities or current ratio which should be over 1) buts LOTS of long term debt...


Total Cash (mrq): 117.00M
Total Cash Per Share (mrq): 0.335
Total Debt (mrq): 3.05B
Total Debt/Equity (mrq): 2.133
Current Ratio (mrq): 1.353
Book Value Per Share (mrq): 4.09


however Starwood is worst off short term and slightly worst off long term:
Total Cash (mrq): 127.00M
Total Cash Per Share (mrq): 0.694
Total Debt (mrq): 4.07B
Total Debt/Equity (mrq): 2.169
Current Ratio (mrq): 0.791

PHLGovFlyer

Is MVCI wholly owned by MI? Or is it a separate entity?

Mr. Vker

I believe Phuket is owned seprately. There is a different company in Thailand we send our maint. fees to.

socrates

One thing to remember about MI is they are unlike Hilton & Starwood, they own very few of their hotels-by very few I mean it is typically under 10 each year but they do manage a large % of them for the property owners...this means they dont have to worry about making mortgage payments on the hotels - the owner of the building does, capital expenses for these hotels is the responsibility of the building owner etc because MI is just a manager of the asset....what this boils down to is MI continues to generate profits even in difficult economies (the downside is limited...but then because they dont own the properties the upside is limited too)....the real key to MI is the net cash flow they generate each year, I haven't taken the time to look at it in a few years but it has always been in excess of $800M each year...that's a lot of cash....one area MI is being hit on is MVCI's operations, they are the developer and they would package the mortgages for owners who purchased weeks and sell them on the open market, given that the financial market for owner occupied residences has frozen I can assure you the market for timeshare mortgages is equally frozen so I can see that division looking at their entire cost structure.....but now with this said I am a MVCI owner and haven't yet received such a letter but then I own my units free and clear (I'm confused why someone with their lending arm sent the lend anyways but it sounds as if this was a new purchase offer or something similar)

socrates

100% owned

socrates

different countries have different structures and as a result you'll have holding companies setup but if you follow the chain up eventually you'll end up with the sub companies stock being owned by Marriott International, Inc.

stratofortress

Yes. Marriott MAY be getting ready to cancel everyone's points...

And I MAY be getting ready to walk out my back door, get in my personal spaceship and fly to Mars.

lskohn

Wait a second! I'm normally a Chicken Little sort myself, but this move isn't quite what you're making it out to be. I got the same letter, related to an MVCI timeshare I own.

Marriott Vacation Club International, Marriott's timeshare operation, is a separate subsidiary from the hotel property owning and/or managing entities, and they make money on their financing of timeshare sales. In this case, what has been announced is that MVCI is ending an incentive program they had been running, that gave people thousands of Marriott Reward points semi-annually if they made their loan payments on their timeshare purchases via automatic deduction from their bank accounts.

This says nothing about the financial stability of the Marriott Rewards Program, IMHO, but it says a lot about MVCI. What it says is that MVCI's finances are shaky enough, probably because of people defaulting on their loans, or other impacts of tight credit on MVCI's operations, that MVCI no longer wants to pay the Marriott Rewards Program what is required to buy the points that were then being passed on as incentives.

Now, Marriott may have trouble maintaining the current level of benefits in the Marriott Rewards program, but that's a different issue...I think.


btw - now you can prepay or switch to payment by Marriott credit card, neither of which were available under the incentive program.

BKKLEE

If you equate hotel points to airline miles, as I recall airlines such as United and others were in bankruptcy, however it never affected their mileage programs.
Sure lawyers wrote the rules and Marriott has the right to now institute these rules so long as the rules were provided to the buyer, either actually or by reference, then why are you now complaining about having those rules implemented.

aaupgrade

LOL

Yes, the language was in the contract you and Marriott signed, and in the loan agreement you and MVCI Mortgage Banking Operations signed; thus agreeing to the T&C. You were not forced to sign the contract or loan agreement. You may want to check your contract and the terms of your TS loan to see if there is recourse. If you want to get back at them, then I would suggest you pay off the loan and in so doing cut off the income you are currently providing MVCI Mortgage Banking Operations. The plus side for you is, all the money you will save by not paying interest on your loan.

LOL - again... Yes, BK is very far behind. Even in today's economy I would be surprised if Marriott went that route. But as someone else said, even if they did go Ch 11 BK, their affinity program would remain intact as it has with all the airlines.

Oh and to be in sync with many posting recently I have to add my own bit of emotion....

The sky is falling!

CarolDisney1

Has hysteria taken over on your side?

If you want to be taken seriously consider your title. They took away one thing and YOU decided that meant lots of other things. Hmmm......

And it obvious that you didn't read your contract and are now shocked that it was written in favor of the lender. (Which is pretty much the norm LOL!) They got what they wanted YOU spent money. Now they don't need to keep bribing you. Sorry!


I agree with an earlier poster. This says a LOT more about the timeshare industry then Marriott. Tough economy to try to sell those in. (I am watching for a cheap resale myself LOL!)

SASSICAIA

Where did the $3 billion in debt come from????

sunnyjl

This is a really timely post. I logged on this morning to post something I heard when I called MR last night. I was inquiring about Pointsaver awards for RC, and the rep told me that MR is restructuring their reward redemption program and Pointsavers would likely not be offered anymore...