In some places, one gets live solicitations of a different sort in phone calls to one's hotel room.

My complaint to Marriott was answered with a canned response that missed the point. It consisted of 2 sections that appeared to have been copied and pasted together.

a) Fraudsters are pretending to be Marriott mostly in Canada and Australia; don't get scammed. [In my case I do not believe this was a Marriott impersonator.]

b) Marriott shares personal information with various Marriott related entities but does not sell it to unaffiliated third parties. [No surprise here, since Marriott Vacations is affiliated with Marriott.]

So in other words, nothing. By the way a survey followed the email by a few hours and I gave them all 1's...

The points system significantly hurt the secondary market. Points resale is there, however it is much more costly due to having to go through some Marriott 'program' which involves a fee to be able to actually use the points in the system.

I get much more value out of the weeks program, and I am not tied to one property. The week lets me get in to my home resort over the points owners if I want to stay there, and I can still exchange through interval (and generally do quite well with trades). The points system tends to be much more expensive especially if you want to stay over a weekend, since the cost is heavily weighted so that weekends are significantly more expensive. If you are only planning to make shorter stays during the week it can provide some better value.

I'm glad I answered the call this time.

For 90 minutes and $99, I'm getting 4 nights in St Thomas.

Definitely worth it to me.

You DO realize that if they sold you this, so you could VIEW the Marriott timeshare there, chances are that is NOT where you are staying. This is common - and gets lost in the flowery fast-talking. Might be worth a call to double check - and avoid disappointment when you arrive. Just sayin' . . .

As far a general contacts from Marriott - we have TimeWarner as our TriplePlay carrier - and installed NoMoRoBo. Works GREAT - one ring, and you know that a robocall has been blocked. Other numbers, I block manually. Same with cell phones. I have made it PLAIN to Marriott that we are NEVER to be called while staying there. And I *remind* the pre-visit caller (calls the house to ask if there is *anything they can do for us* . . ) that we refuse to attend ANY more meetings - ever. I have told them to flag our listing as "cranky owner" or "really, really stubborn owner" and never call. Have dodged the bullet for years.

As far as "the best buyers are previous Marriott owners" - well, some of us have reached our saturation, thank you. I frankly would tell them that we travel OTHER ways that they do not provide, and also entertain ourselves in far more ways that just travel. As are most owners, we are hardly lost babes, and if we fly into a great city, we can book our OWN dining, show tickets, sports tickets,etc. Yes, there are folks who want it all done for them - and there has got be a concierge in NYC who has a line on Hamilton tickets!!!! - but otherwise, I thank Marriott for their previous service - and I am "all grown up" now, thank you.

Mamianka

Years ago we purchased one of these packages at the Aruba airport. As they had recently opened the surf club. It was noted that for the stay I was purchasing the accommodations could be at either the surf club or the hotel. Since it was being built and not much availability we had to "suffer" at the hotel. I'm glad as it was a much nicer stay as we didn't have to deal with construction.

As far as St Thomas, my Marriott account is reflecting in my upcoming reservations the 2 bedroom at the Cove timeshare which is what I purchased.

Everything so far has been on the up and up.

Can't answer yet about the presentation.

Stay at the Cove timeshare villa for 99 bucks is a steal. I own there and love it. Even if you had to 'rough it' at the Frenchman's Reef Marriott next door it would be worth it.

Fortunately we don't live close to their timeshare properties - once in a while we get some deals from them for a timeshare villa in Spain. Can't really work out how we could do that with 3 kids though - would someone babysit them while we are at the presentation or they only need 1 person to be there?

When I did the presentation, they insisted both of us would be present, and my son was in a supervised play room for the duration. Even when our son was crying and my wife wanted out of the meeting, they insisted on her returning to try to lock in the sale.

Well, it's important to know that first place gets a Cadillac, second place gets a set of steak knives, and third place gets fired.

4 nights isn't enough, so we are "roughing" it next door for 1 night.

On an LNF rate.

Definitely looking forward to this trip.

Just hoping the rain and the mosquitos don't join us.

When are you going? It is tropical climate so you can get sporadic rain showers, and yes I recommend bug spray for the evening if you are outside.

End of October which is also tail end of hurricane season.
Hence the good rate.

Glad I didn't hang up on that phone call.

We had a great time in a 2 bedroom villa at the Cove. The guy who gave us the presentation was great. The points system really doesn't meet our needs and we felt was not worth it. He understood and did not try to put the squeeze on us.

Thanks for the update.

Cheers.