miles_navigator

Sigh, another change to Marriott Rewards for the worse....

http://www.marriott.com/marriott.mi?page=mvci-faq

They increase the number of points required but ofcourse they don't offer "no blackout" (because they can't).

travelexpert

The amount of open timeshare inventory is certain to increase in the current economic climate.

I guess that the same rocket scientists at Marriott who devalued MR points late last year as the economy imploded have figured out that the best way to get their loyal customers into that excess timeshare inventory is to increase the number of points required....

GrizShel

Thanks for the heads up. I booked a nice beach vacation for next February; hopefully I'll be able to use it with the dates booked as it is likely to be about double the points under the new system.

miles_navigator

Yeah, I burned my points for the 2Br Villa at Ko Olina. I even talked to the mrs about burning through the rest of the Marriott points at a villa next year by booking now.

3 nights Cat 8 hotel = 5 nights 2 Bedroom Villa (+ 5K points) till 7/16/09!!

GrizShel

Two more days to get the last great Marriott reward deal left. Availability is pretty spotty, but some great deals remain.

Times are getting tougher and the rewards for loyalty are getting slimmer.

socrates

I'm not sure why you feel the inventory will increase, or why even if it did that MI would have the right to take what they dont own.....if the owners default on their property MI might not have the right to foreclose (because MI might not have any legal standing) and the owners associations aren't MI etc...so I'm just completely confused by this line of thought

TrojanHorse

I interpreted what he said is that MI owners would not be able to go on vacation this year so that they would toss their ownership weeks back into inventory which MI would pass on to MR to issue for point redemptions.. I'm not an owner so I don't know how the process works but that was just my non-owner interpretation of what he said

ExtonUS

Not really a suprise. After the hotels bumped this year I was looking at some of the MVCI properties and even the ritz carlton awards as a relatively better value than some of the hotels....not for long!

socrates

Remember the owners of Timeshares have prepaid for their vacations years and sometimes decades ago - so the cost of taking a typical vacation at a MVCI property for an owner would be much cheaper than taking it at a hotel resort and from what I've seen the occupancy at most resorts (timeshare properties that is) hasnt changed too much overall - what I've found over the years is most people's assumptions are TimeShares and hotels are operated the same way and their occupancy demand acts the same....they are very very different...while time share purchase demand is down their occupancy demand hasn't changed much

pinniped

OK, silver lining here: this brings the MVCI's into play for Travel Package awards.

Of course, we're talking about a 35k-70k premium above the existing Travel Packages because who the heck would redeem at an MVCI for just the lockoff portion of a 2-bedroom unit?

Today's award: 150k for 7 nights in a 2-bedroom villa.
Future award: 370k for 7 nights in a 2-bedroom villa plus 120k air miles.

Comparing against today's MVCI awards, that's 220k MR converting to 120k FF.
Comparing against today's regular hotel awards (I'm using a Cat 6 example here), that's 190k MR converting to 120k FF.

Would you trade 190k MR for 120k FF? We all agree that the usual 120k:120k is a screaming good deal. I'm not sure so about 190k to 120k.

Thanks for this thread: I'm tentatively planning a Spring Break 2010 trip for which I've love to do an MVCI. We can usually tweak our dates to avoid the max-peak season for any given location, so I might give Marriott a call tonight and see if I can find an award.

EDIT: To clarify my "190k" bit above. I realize from MR's perspective, it's still 120k to 120k for the air miles as part of the Travel Package. It's that extra 70k that needs to get redeemed to get the 2-bedroom villa that is the sticking point for me. IMHO, the real value of MVCI is the 2-bedroom villa. YMMV.

TrojanHorse

thanks for the lesson. Since I'm not an owner, my lines of thought were just as you explained above

miles_navigator

Just a quick FYI: I spoke with Marriott Rewards and they said if your dates change after 7/16/09 on your MVCI award then you have to go into the new point level of payment. So go ahead and book in advance NOW but the dates are not changeable (if you want the award at the current level).

socrates

Just a word to the wise...Spring Break is usually difficult for owners to book because more MVCI properties use seasons instead of assigned weeks, my guess is spring break is already sold out for 2010 at this point in time

travelexpert

In some instances owners may take 100-150K MR points in lieu of using their properties, which Marriott can then "rent out" for revenue much like hotel nights, or allow use in exchange for MR points.

But even if the majority of existing owners actually use their weeks, there is a significant amount of new inventory coming into the system (Crystal Shores on Marco Island, a new one in Palm Beach early next year, another new build adjacent to the Ritz Carlton in Orlando opening the following year). All will be very difficult to sell in an economic environment where people are nervous about their jobs--plus the added issue of credit markets being closed. And all these new complexes are in addition to unsold inventory within new sections of Myrtle B+each, Newport Beach, Maui etc.

This article does a great job summarizing the state of the industry.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1247...=MKTW#mod=MKTW

Renard

Just one more reason why I'm so glad that I burned all my Marriott points and moved on... my only Marriott stays now are priceline stays