only plats...........

I am not sure that is correct now. I looked at buying a Marriott time share and no specific unit was offered, only points and home resort - not "deeded" property

Actually, if you are coming into the system new at this point, you purchase an interest in the Marriott Vacation Trust, which is sold in blocks of 250 points. It is a transaction that will be recorded like a home purchase, you will have a real title to that interest. If you need financing to purchase your points, it will be processed through the mortgage process, complete with good faith estimate and HUD (at least here in the US).

In the past, when you purchase a week, you were given a "unit number" in the overall pool of units in the specific property. This was not actually linked to a specific unit in the property (Think about: we have 252 units on the property, the gold season is 35 weeks out of the year, therefore we have 8820 units for sale.)

When arriving at the resort, the resort does do a prioritization for the allocation of units. A owner checking into his home resort (with or without Marriott status) will be treated better than a Platinum who booked a unit through marriott.com. Which figures, since the General Manager of the property knows that his owners have an influence on his board of directors.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

Geneva
You put it much better than me. Bottom line though, the units are not "owned" by the time share person - thus the resort manager has free range with owners coming first.

......

No quite true.
Some Vacation clubs do have fixed unit and weeks.

But for most it is floating season.

First remember that MVCI is not owned by Marriott, Marriott just manages the resorts.
Second, There are 4 pools of rooms.
Week Owners - Actually have a deed to a specific unit/week but are allowed to use anytime during the season.
Trust owned weeks - Trust owns a pool of units/weeks and owners are allowed to use anytime.
Developer owned weeks. This is a little more of a grey area now with points, but weeks and points that are not sold belong to MVCI.
Weeks that have been returned to Marriott in exchange for either MVCI points or reward points. Again these belong to MVCI.

MVCI often takes the weeks it owns and "dumps" them in the exchange company for others to use.

So take this example
You check in on Friday and the maid tells you there is an entire wings of rooms that are empty.
That is true but they may be
Rooms deposited to II that have not been exchanged. I often see rooms available for the next day. They might have a Friday/Sat or Sunday Checkin.

or It is possible that no one has returned any rooms back to the resort and MVCI has used it allocation of developer rooms.


So you ask the manager to give you one of those rooms - which are technically owned by week and trust owners.
Friday night I log onto MVCI make a one night reservation using MVCI points for my room. We get to the resort. Now what?

Remember it is a violation of federal law not to have enough room/weeks available as you have sold. That is what Jim and Tammy Faye got arrested for many years ago. So it is much safer and smarter to simply obey the stated rules. You get the room you reserved.
The upside to the hotel is small - It is offering something that is not required to a group of people that are not its core customers. And the downside is huge, upset owners (who actually have a vote about the management) and possible violation of the law.

So it is not a simple as the manager deciding if he wants to give the rooms away or not. A better analogy would be an airplane overselling seats.
Works great if not everyone shows up, and can be a huge disaster if they everyone does.

By the way, this is also the reason you will sometime see no available rooms at the Vacation on Marriott.com but empty rooms. And also the inverse, why sometime rooms are available on marriott.com but not available through Vacation club (because they are rooms that have been exchanged and thus belong that year to MVCI to use.)

With the note that a number of the passengers purchasing seats actually are shareholders and thus can air their grievance at your next annual meeting.

GenevaFlyer

170 nights enough for Platinum Premiere?
 

Just checked the YTD and I'm clocking in at 170 nights this year (some rollover/CC but majority are butt-in-bed) with about $30k hotel spend. Wondering if I should expect Santa to bring something extra special or not?

Would be curious what any recent PP recipients had when they qualified? Did you find out mid-year or only at year end?

Found out end of year.
And I think Santa is going to disappoint you, because as a Platinum Premiere is nothing special.

Different Colored Card, Crappy WSJ app and A single phone number to call.
The number may or may not be answered by someone who knows what they are doing.

Hotels, some will recognize what it is, but those were the ones that were treating me special as a Platinum already. Many will think it is not even Platinum status.

Used to be something special - no is less than special.

There are no published criteria and, in fact, there are some indications that one's Marriott history over several years is considered.

The short answer is that 170 nights is not sufficient, nor is 365 nights (or even 366 in a leap year).

Your 170 nights this year is impressive but $30K spend means significantly less than $150 per night on average, which isn't so impressive when viewed that way.

Since there is no published requirements for PP, it's all rumor. Search Premier in this forum and you will see. The story is PP is granted to those in the top 2-3% of the MR program. Now what that consists of is also a mystery, is it nights, dollars, lifetime? I made PP for one year (last year with 20% F&B discount) and it wasn't all that great in my view. Some properties didn't even treat me as well as they did when I was there as a Plat, they had no clue to what PP was!

I've found being pleasantly surprised when things go well is better than disappointed when they don't. Expect nothing and you won't be disappointed. :)

If your MR number is in the reservation--they could provide some benefits other than upgrades just to show they really care about their most loyal customers, no matter which Marriott brand are staying at. For example: 500 bonus points, bottled water, complimentary breakfast etc.

But in typical Marriott fashion--they choose to give away as little as possible.

Exhibit A; How many of us Platinum's have received free breakfast at Marriott resorts? I did at the JW in Phuket (best buffet ever) and Marriott Los Suenos is Costa Rica (worst buffet ever). At the other 20 or so Marriott or Renaissance resorts I have stayed at: Nothing. Zero. Nada. Bupkas.

FWIW, I had 171 butt in bed nights last year (after about 110 nights the year before, so >200 nights in total with rollover) yet still did not make PP. No idea about the spend (did not account for that), but I think it's a given you will not make PP on one year's nights alone...

Greetings - Dirk

MVC does give an arrival bonus of 500 points for Plats. But in general the obligation of an MVC resort to its owners far, far outweighs any obligation to Marriott elites.

"$30K spend means significantly less than $150 per night on average"

The average is $176 per night. It is not significantly less than $150 per night on average.