mike2200

Any feedback on staying at the Marriott at Marbella, Spain. Planning a trip in Oct.

Thanks

tellmanny

Great place! Stayed there in March with family (2010).

Would recommend and would go back in a heartbeat...

jerseyfinn

The Marbella resort is actually a Marriott timeshare resort, so you'll have a great time there. The rooms are mostly apartments with a full kitchen and balcony ( ranging from 1BR, 2BR & 3 BR units ). An on-site full service restaurant, a sports bar, and a pool grill along with a Market Place, 2 indoor pools, 2 outdoor pools and all sorts of other ammenities.

City of Marbella is very close along with other coast towns such as Puerto Banus and Estepona. The resort is some 40 miles from Malaga airport, so you'll either need to rent a car at the airport or take a limo to the resort ( the resort concierge can arrange this before you leave ). Car rentals are also availible at the resort for decent rates.

Lots to see and do in this region, so I'd suggest staying for as many days as you can budget as time will go fast and you'll want to mix things up between hanging out at the resort and being on the go. The first two weeks of October are especially nice in terms of weather and local vibrancy; = still busy and peopled, restaurants operating at full hours but not as hectic as in the summer peak season < and not as hot>.

The gallery link below will take you to links <Marriott Vacation Club Resorts > for the Marbella resort which give an idea of the look and feel of the place anc region.

Have a great trip.

Barry

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the update Jerseyfinn; helps your fellow FTers.

Cheers.

mike2200

Thanks for sharing the info the property sounds lovely as does the area

lkar

Interestingly, you can book there on points when available and use something called 5k upgrade certs to get 2BRs. I'd never heard of upgrade certs, although perhaps they are common.

Basically, you pay category 6 (I think) points (or 30k), plus an additional 5k for a 1BR and 10k for a 2BR. So, for a 5 night stay, it's 170k, for example, in a 2BR. (4 nights x 30k, with 5th night free, plus 5x10k for the upgrades.)

mike2200

I have been looking on eBay, Redweek, and Tugs for timeshare owners to rent a week to me at a reasonable rate. Interesting also how low of a asking price people have this timeshare listed for sale ($300-700.).....

lkar

You're probably looking at silver weeks -- I think platinum still go for $15,000 to $20,000 or so. Silver is pretty limited -- first few weeks of the year, and a few weeks around the end of the year except for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. If you are flexible enough for off-season travel to Spain, it's perhaps a good deal, but I think given the yearly maintenance fees of $1300 to $1500, it's not hugely desirable.

jerseyfinn

I can comment as an owner at both Marbella and the Playa Andaluza resort as well as a Marriott timeshare owner who rents some of their weeks out on Redweek (I've never rented our Marbella or Playa Andaluza weeks, but I have rented Florida weeks on Redweek ).

You've got the right idea to shop around, but be careful about what you think a reasonable rate is. You're talking about a very popular in-demand Marriott timeshare resort. The availibility of inventory here boils down to what the owners of the timeshare do with their weeks ( occupying them vs. trading vs. renting or trading weeks back to Marriott for MR points ). Marriott itself has only a limited number of units for any given week at the resort. In high season, 90% of owners here occupy their units. The Sep/Oct middle season is also another time when a preponderance of owners occupy their weeks.

Redweek is your best bet to track down what owners are offering in the rental market. TUG is another source, but is probably better for finding "distressed" weeks . . . ie. rental weeks where an owner has their week up for rent and time is running out < less than 60 days before occupancy > and you might find an owner on short notice who lowers the rental price.

Most important is understanding how the Marriott timeshare seasons work and how these seasons relate to demand versus the relative availiblity of inventory. Marbella Sept/Oct weeks actually fall in the "middle" season ( called gold weeks in Marriott nomenclature ). Gold weeks fall in the spring/early summer weeks ( May thru June ) as well as the Fall ( Sep & October ). But this does not necessarily mean that gold weeks will be "cheaper" as the metric which determines price is demand by owners who want to occupy their weeks. Truth is that gold weeks which fall in Sep and early October are high demand weeks sought after by owners. Occupancy rates can run 95 to 100% for September and early October as this is a very sought after time to visit.

Note that Marriott.com rates for these Marbella weeks run between $2100 and $2500 for a 2 BR unit. Redweek prices for September pretty much mirror these Marriott.com prices. In theory, these rates should fall as you get to mid October when the temps drop a bit and rain showers begin to pop up in the region. But Marriott.com keeps their prices up as October demand remains strong and tapers off only towards the end of the month.

Unless you're looking for a late October week, I don't think your chances are very strong for finding a steeply discounted rental week for Marbella < but TUG "distressed" lisitngs would be the place to find such a week if it is out there >. Redweek offers realistic prices outside of Marriott.com. At this moment, I see one Redweek Marbella listing for $1500 for 6 thru 13 October which is likely as good as it gets for a 2BR this time of year.

Some 80% of Marbella weeks are owned by Europeans & I can't speak to how the typical Euro owner strategizes. But here in North America, we Marriott owners reserve early and when we rent, we tend to put our rental weeks on offer at about 6 months prior to occupancy. There may be additional Marbella inventory for Sep/October popping up on Redweek, but I'd say that by late May, Redweek will reflect whatever owners there are who are renting a Marbella week for the Fall.

So use this as a guide to help you to determine when to make a decision. Let those Marriott prices show you the top of the market and watch Redweek to see howm much an owner discounts off of the Marriott.com price. Keep in mind that owners have several options prior to 60 days before occupancy ( they can elect to occupy themselves, trade the week for another resort / with time 2 years into the future to use the traded week, or they can take MR points for their week < with Marriott using the week on Marriott.com or for MR points or promo purposes >. So be realistic about the prices you will find for the period that you want to visit.

Good luck hunting.

Barry

Nfldflyer

i'm staying here next month. Any recommendations on restaurants within walking distance of the resort?

AYellowBelly

How was your stay? Did you find any good restaurants / any recommendations (4yr old friendly)?

We're there next week and very little information on FT about the resort

FlyerGoldII

anyone stay there recently?

LovetoTravel83

Stayed here on a (literally) last minute reservation after a fiasco with Marriott Homes and Villas.

Booked a 2 bedroom for 7 nights with breakfast. Nothing spectacular but the place is unbelievably clean and everyone is quite friendly. No complaints, it's your usual Marriot Vacation spot.

Happy that I stayed here on a short notice as the place was completely full.

bresnab

We stayed there for our 2nd time there over Christmas and New Years.

We had a short stay there last year but didn't venture off property much last year due to covid (we had planned to do some group tours, but that didn't seem like the best plan at the time)

We liked the property and realized with the underground parking under the units it would be a great base to tour that region of Spain.
We came back this year, got a rental car and toured the area extensively. It a very convenient location for getting around by car, its a very short drive to the main highway the services the whole region

The property is well kept and the service there is very good. We mostly ate in our room or off property this year, but the meals we had there were quite nice.

It a very nice place to hang out for a few days or stay longer and explore the larger area.

GoldenItalianBoy

Hi, I am thinking about a 5 days trip here for next February, booking as hotel guest and not owner.
Did you get nice and warm weather in January?
Did you get night credit and points from the stay?
Thank you!