In 2016 an attorney hired me to sell his Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club when the conversation turned to Marriott’s Destination Points Program. I’ll never forget something he said to me, “leave it to Marriott to figure out a way to sell the same thing twice”.
That is precisely what Marriott has done, ever since mid 2010. In fact, Marriott went on a massive psyops campaign designed to scare all current owners into “enrolling” their existing “legacy weeks” (as they were now suddenly known as due to the newer points product arriving). At the same time, Marriott began the sustained effort of having all legacy week owners also purchase deeded points. The pitch was the legacy weeks would fade away, become worthless. And guess what, resale prices at MVC’s Grande Ocean, Barony Beach, SurfWatch and Monarch at Sea Pines took a nosedive once points were introduced. In fact, the average price of an annual 2/2 Platinum OceanFront unit at Grande Ocean in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina dropped from $21,000 to $13,000 in the first year points were sold.
What is interesting about Marriott’s strategy
Some people believe they own Maui when they own points
Walk with me down a hypothetical path where a bright light shines at the end. Let’s pretend, for illustrative purposes, that all Marriott Vacation Club resorts are 100% sold out. Marriott starts selling points instead of what is now called ‘legacy weeks’. Marriott cannot actually double sell a timeshare interval. In fact, all legacy week owners inventory and all points inventory that is tied to that respective resort is segregated. Legacy week owners have their own inventory pool, points owners another pool. So how does Marriott acquire
In Mid 2010, Marriott did a complete 180 and stopped selling floating weeks at their resorts, and began selling Destination Points. They started calling the floating week product, “Legacy Weeks”. Deeded points ownership is sold in chunks of 250 point increments called beneficial interests. Each beneficial interest contains 250 Destination Points.
The Good:
Points are Flexible!
Points are Easy to Understand!
Choose Any Check-In Day of the Week!
Choose Any Length of Stay!
Bank points if not using!
Borrow Points From A Future Year's Allotment
The Bad:
Points are like currency.
Currency can be manipulated
Too Much competition for all the best spots
Originally sold with anniversary months. Those were the months that the owners points would renew. Now Marriott makes all points deeds with January anniversary months.
Buyers are charged a high transfer fee of $3.00 per point. This is a junk fee.
“Electing points” one year with a Platinum Legacy week at Grande Ocean or anywhere else for that matter and the number of points you receive in return for turning in that legacy week, are not enough points to turn around and rebook that same room, same season at the same resort.
