Aggie

I received a call from a guy at Marriott Vacation Club about a “deal” in Vegas.

For $99 I could hold a package for a year with the following:
4 days/ 3 nights at Treasure Island
2 tickets to Lance Burton
$50 to gamble with

Then I pay $150 when I decide the dates (only blackout dates were New Years and in/out on Sat).

The catch is a 90 min presentation about their new property – Grand Chateau.

Has anyone ever done this before – scam or deal?

Jim C

It is a way to hook you in to taking a timeshare presentation for their new resort in Vegas. Get you committed by "reserving" the package, then get the rest when you select dates. I have not done it but have heard about it over on the Marriott Resort board at TUG.

Their tour packages are generally pretty good. If you like Vegas then it might be worth doing. Their timeshare presentations are pretty low key.

CPRich

These are indeed fairly common - there's a long thread on the SPG forum about similar offers at Princeville and Maui, but they don't require the time-share presentation.

In fact, I'm leaving for the islands on Sunday and the last 5 days are one of these offers - $750 for 5 nights with $150 coupon for an Avis car, $50 in on-property play money, and a few other things, at the Westin Maui. Others have already been through it and report them as totally legit, and everything so far has been on the up-and-up. I've received Marriott offers like it before, and my investigation showed they were similar, but I never signed up for one.

It's kind of like Cracker Barrel giving our free cheese and sausage at the front of the store, but on a much larger scale. Just another marketing tool

The only downside is limited availability. We locked our dates in March and grabbed some of the last summer dates available.

pinniped

Well, it doesn't sound like a scam. It sounds like a legit timeshare-viewing offer, but I'd probably want to see it in print on a Marriot or MVCI site before booking it. I've also received direct mail pieces using that format: $99 now, balance due when you pick the dates. So that fits within what Marriott is known to do.

Is it a "deal"? Well, if you are allowed to book peak Vegas weekends like Super Bowl, March Madness, etc. with it, then YES it's a great deal. If it's "subject to availability", and that means nearly all of the good weekends are "sold out" for your offer (even though they aren't blacked out), then NO it isn't any kind of "deal" at all, as it's easy to score a cheap Vegas hotel room on an off-peak weekend WITHOUT the timeshare hassle.

I look at it this way: if I feel like I'm getting "paid" $200-300 to view a timeshare, I'll do it. That is, I'd figure out what hotel I'd book otherwise, whether I'd really be buying magic show tickets, whether I'd actually buy the gambling chips, etc. I might cut 'em a little slack on that if I'm bored - I accepted 15,000 MR points to do a tour in Orlando because I had a 1PM flight out on a Monday and looked at it as killing time.

Marriott's sales pitches themselves are tasteful compared to what most of the industry does. I wouldn't hesitate to do another one if the price is right.

jerseyfinn

As others have noted, the Marriott timeshare offer is a real deal and is absolutely legit.

As to the availibility issue. There's no sleight of hand here. Marriott can not provide prime-time dates for a sales presentation stay. In the case of this particular Vegas timeshare resort, on-site resort stays are not being offered because this timeshare resort does not officially open until October 2005.

Unless you urgently want to see this specific timeshare, I would pass on this offer until the resort grows a bit and Marriott begins offering on-site promo stays. An on-site promo would be a good deal as one gets a heavily discounted promo price to stay in a time share villa ( not a hotel room ).

Keep in mind that Marriott Vacation Club has several promotional offers going on at selected Marriott timeshare resort destinations. These offers provide steeply discounted nightly rates on 1 or 2 bedroom villas.

Who would want to do this? Someone who is pondering the idea of timeshare, or someone who is looking for a nice resort destination at a good price. All that is required is 90 minutes to listen to a low-key Marriott timeshare presentation. At the very least it's a cozy vacation. It's also information about the Marriott timeshare product.

Check out the Marriott Vacation Club web site for more info on where Marriott timeshare resorts are located. You can always call and inquire as to where special promos are presently availible and at what rates.

Barry

( PS we are satisfied owners of multiple Marriott timeshare weeks )