Does anyone else have a very hard time finding any of the Marriott's available to use via Reward Points? I was just able to stay at the Barony Beach Resort in Hilton Head and tried to book for somewhere else in Hilton Head next year and there is no availability for points but you can book for $500+ per night at 3-4 of the resorts there.

We also did the Timeshare presentation and they told us repeatedly how lucky we were to be able to use points at the Barony Beach Property.

I don't ever have a problem finding non-resort Marriott's to use points but its becoming a pain to try and use them in-season at one of their resorts. They did charge us an extra 10k mile per night at the Barony resort since all the rooms are 2 bedroom suites and its considered an upgrade and that is fine.

For me personally the best use of points will be at Resorts not at the regular hotels. Any insight is appreciated.

Are you having a hard time at resorts in general, or just timeshares?

Is there a difference between a timeshare and a resort?

Yes. Timeshares only "rent" a small fraction of their rooms (the vast majority are owned by actual MVC owners). This can lead to extremely limited availability for points (and even cash).

Yes. There are many Marriott resorts that are not time shares.

Is there a list of resorts that aren't timeshares? This would help planning future vacations.

All 'Marriott Vacation Club' properties are timeshares. These are not owned by Marriott and Marriott only gains access to these resorts when an owner trades in their owned week for Marriott Rewards Points. Prior to Marriott Vacation Club being spun off from Marriott, unsold weeks were also available for MR point redemption or rental. Since the spinoff and initiation of a new program, very few unsold weeks are now available. Additionally, Marriott has significantly devalued the value of MR points, so very few owners now redeem their weeks for MR points. Therefore, there will likely be very limited availability in the future for redeeming points for MVC resorts except for lower demand resorts/weeks.

In the past, we had to get two upgrade certificates for each night at MVC properties redemption. End up costing a total of 40,000 points a night even before the recent devaluation. I wonder if this practice went away with the points requirement.

MVC properties cost the normal points of their category level for a studio for each night, then 5000 extra points for a one bedroom and another 5000 points for each additional bedroom.

In season at the beach can be tough and pricey with cash and almost impossible on points or comp.

I guess that makes sense. We got the two bedroom suite. There was no benefit from out Marriott status.

If you are plat you should get an arrival gift. But other than that, generally nothing at MVC.

While I agree availability is very limited at timeshares, be very persistent and you can still find some. This year we're staying at Kauai Lagoons (2 Bedroom) in a couple of weeks as a rewards stay. Kauai Beach Club and Ko'olina Beach Club were also available the same week. In previous years I have had reward stays at Manor Club - Sequel, Maui Ocean Club, and Marriott Monarch (3 units the same week). The year I stayed at The Monarch, Barony Beach Club and Grande Ocean also had some availability.

To find the availability you need to check often and when something shows up, book it immediately. You can always cancel later if you decide not to go. I frequently will book a couple of different options for the same week well in advance and then cancel the one(s) I am not going to use 1 to 2 months out. YMMV....

--Jon