It was official just a few weeks ago. Marriott Vacation Club International (MVCI), the most prominent name in timeshare and vacation ownership, announced that they will no longer be selling “weeks” at their resorts. From now on, they are only selling points. This is somewhat big news as the battle of “weeks” vs. “points” has been going on for years. The topic of Marriott having their own exchange service has been rumored for years. Many think this came about because of so many MVCI owner complaints about Interval International and the poor service level. And what choice did MVCI have? Switch to RCI? I don’t think so. Create their own exchange club? Well, in essence, they just did. It is a closed club but it is a club.

Here are a few points to consider:
1. Marriott (MVCI) has over 400,000 customers in their timeshare business owning from over 50 resorts worldwide. They all own “weeks”. So what happens to them? They will be asked to either convert to the points-based system or have to do their exchanges with Interval (of course the members that have already jumped ship to TimeshareJuice will always be welcomed here). We’ve had more than one industry person tell me this is a big opportunity for TimeshareJuice to grow our member base of MVCI owners as these owners are going to feel left behind and will now seriously begin look for alternatives to Interval.

2. Points vs. Weeks: So what is the difference? A timeshare “week” is a deeded property much like the home you own right now. You can sell it, gift it, or keep it in the family. You also have tax advantages like you do in real estate.

“Points” are not deeded. Points expire after so many years. You redeem the points for vacation time (a week, a weekend, 2 days, 1 overnite etc). There are many people that don’t like the points-based system for the reason that they are just too confusing. If you own 1000 points (for example) at a club they can be redeemed for a weekend, 2 weekends, a week, or other combinations depending on what you bought and the time of the year/season you want to travel in. And how can you possibly rent it to someone and explain it to them when you don’t even understand it completely.

On the other side, points-based systems are very flexible. For many travelers they might not take a full week or 2 full weeks for vacation, but you will take a few 3-day vacations (long weekends) during the year. You can’t do that with the week-based system but you can with points. The way it works is like this: You buy 100 points from the Vacation Club. Each year you pay the maintenance fees on the 100 points. You redeem 10 points to have 2 days during the week at one of the resorts. Then later on you can redeem 30 to have a weekend at another resort (a resort with more demand) and then you can use the remaining 60 points to have a full week at yet another resort. Each resort has a different scale of points based on demand.

3. Exchanging with RCI and Interval: The critics of the points-based system get the loudest when you bring up exchanging the points with RCI. RCI has their own system on how to convert your points to their points and what exactly that equates to for your next vacation.

I can see the merits in both “weeks” and “points-based” systems but I do like the “ownership” aspect of weeks. I’m glad we have owners of both types on TimeshareJuice that are free to exchange with whomever and however they want.

As far as MVCI personally I feel as if they had no choice. They had to do something and severing their long-time (and financial) relationship with Interval would have been difficult. Sources from inside MVCI said they have been getting complaints for a long time about the service level at Interval (of course that’s not exactly breaking news, just ask any MVCI owner). And now, not being as intermingled with Interval also frees them up to partner with another exchange service (perhaps one online that’s free and fun) that their owners can use instead of Interval. So the move to points system on a strategic basis was a good one for MVCI. Let’s see if it’s a good one financially.

For more information on MVCI moving to points system, please see www.TimeshareWizard.com He is a valued member of TimeshareJuice and a fantastic source of information about timeshares.

Any Marriott timeshare owners that want to voice their opinion on this topic?