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We went through a journey with Marriott Vacation Club. If you know where to look, the new Marriott Vacation Club Points program has a lot of sweet spots. If you have a week already designated or deeded, we aren't advocating that you pivot away from that week. For a specific reason, you bought at that location. The Marriott Vacation Club Point program has a lot of redemption options that are outside of the time-share industry. These are the best uses of Marriott Points.
The first Marriott Timeshare Property was located in South Carolina and it deeded an exact unit during an exact week. You could either use the week to trade into another property or your home property during a different time of the year. You could transfer within the program, but it wasn't too complicated to manage it. You paid yearly maintenance on a fraction of the condo you owned.
The program changed. You couldn't buy the deed to an exact unit during an exact week because the banks of units that priced differently according to view, location, and other factors were different. If you bought an Ocean Front unit during Platinum season, you knew what you were getting, but you didn't stay in Unit 3-206 as often as you used to. One year you may get that favorite unit, the next it may be in a different building. The new system was similar to a Co-Op program in that you owned a share of the overall property rather than the unit.
New buyers are given points for joining the program. These points are shares in the Marriott system and give you access to redemption options based on the valuation Marriott has given to those redemption options. Think of it as a real estate investment trust. You can redeem your share of the real estate company for stays based on what the company values individual properties.
This is a decrease for new owners. You don't buy a week with a deed anymore, so you are no longer guaranteed a full week. Marriott Vacation Club can devalue Vacation Club Points at any time, so if you buy Vacation Club Points, you can save money.
The newest incarnation can be hard to understand. Marriott has pivoted new ownership away from the old program, so old owners can have their cake and eat it too. Lemme explain.
If you have a specifically deeded unit, you keep it and the deed, and you can stay in that unit. If you own a seasonal unit, you keep it as well. Current owners can convert their ownership into vacation club points by buying points for the new program. You can convert your week into Vacation Club Points if you want, or you can use it for anything you want. The sweet spots can be found here.
My family has been able to take some truly once in a lifetime trips that incorporate Marriott Vacation Club points, but we have enhanced those trips with credit card points. Marriott Vacation Club Points can be used for the stay portion of your trip, but how about the flights? We have been able to use credit card points program sweet spots to fly in some of the world's best first and business class products. I urge you to look at other pages on my website that give further insight into how I can consistently earn 500k+ points every year, but also the techniques and strategies I incorporate to find the best way to fly for the cheapest amount of points. My parents were able to tour Ireland this way and fly in business class because we had earned the right Marriott Vacation Club Points.
Marriott Vacation Club prices their awards at a certain time of year, but also costs based on what part of the week you choose to stay. I stayed at the property with my family in Florida. It was close to both a Ritz Carlton and a Marriott. It is also where the father/son PGA tournament is played in November/December, and you may remember it since Tiger Woods son was heavily highlighted this past year.
The full week rate is roughly half the Sun-Thurs rate.
If you need a unit for Friday and Saturday, you can check it out, rent it, and use the same amount of points as you would for just 7 nights. A 7 night trip becomes 12 nights for the same number of points and the cost of renting a unit for 2 nights.
A lot of properties around the world are out of our budget if we pay cash. They suddenly become well within reach.
Marriott Vacation Club Points can be converted into Marriott Bonvoy points at a rate of 1:40, but instead of that you can access a list of hotels directly with Marriott Vacation Club Points. We need to beat the ratio of 1:40 in order for this to be a good deal. Take a look at some examples.
The new search is by brand function.
Marriott Vacation Club folded a lot of new properties into their Explorer Collection in early 2021. If you're looking to stay at a property with your vacation club points, this could be a good way to find some tasty treats.
Here is a look at the Ritz Carltons around the world that are part of the program. In May, the new St Regis Bermuda will open and prices range from $600 to over $1k a night. If you want to have a good use for your MVCP, it could be a good use. The Ritz in Turks and Caicos has the same thing. The point cost is very high at expensive resorts.
The Royal Hawaiian Hotel is located on Waikiki Beach in Hawaii.
If you want to go this fall, you can either stay on the Royal Hawaiian or go somewhere else.
The Royal Hawaiian was a category 7 hotel, so the rates fluctuated from 50 to 70k per night.
If you want to use Marriott Vacation Club Points, you need to know that the room category that you want is available on the Marriott site. For category 7 hotels, the range is between 50 and 70k per night. If we compare the Marriott Vacation Club Points to these rooms, we will find that they are 825 points per night.
We are better off booking with Marriott Vacation Club Points than we are moving into Marriott Bonvoy. The Marriott Bonvoy Points are worth 35k at a 1:40 ratio.
My parents went on a tour of Ireland a couple years back and it was called Treasures of Ireland. It runs 13,500 Marriott Vacation Club Points per couple. 540k Marriott Bonvoy Points is the ratio of Marriott Vacation Points to Marriott Bonvoy. I think the $0.008 valuation is low, but even at a penny a point value, it's still a lot of value.
There are 5 star hotels.
You can use your vacation club points to become a hotelier. Depending on the number of points you own, you can get a lot of benefits within Marriott Vacation Club, but also status with Marriott Bonvoy. Marriott formed a new loyalty program called Bonvoy after merging with SPG.
Marriott Bonvoy Platinum or even Titanium status will allow you to enjoy Club Lounge access when you stay at Marriott properties. Ritz Carlton is excluded from guaranteed lounge access.
I have found that the old SPG properties treat Marriott elites better than they did before the merger. We were upgraded to a 2 Bedroom Empire Suite at the St Regis Doha because of our Titanium Elite status. What does that mean? If all things are equal, choose a legacy hotel.
This chart can be found here.
For some reason the Marriott status isn’t mentioned in the latest chart, but here it is here alongside the benefits each status provides
You got benefits in 2019.
You can convert up to 2500 Marriott Vacation Club Points into airline miles with this new addition. If you don't have any use of the Marriott Vacation Club Points, or you are looking to fly in a premium cabin, this could be an advantage. You are given three choices of airlines: American, United, and Hawaiian.
You just need to fill out a form and request the number of Marriott Vacation Club Points you want to convert. This can be done once a year.
It could take up to 6 weeks for the miles to populate, so I would strongly advise finding the award space before making this conversion. I haven't used this feature yet, so I can't speak to my experience. One great use for this would be to fly on Hawaiian Airlines from the mainland to the islands. If you can find the availability, it's a pretty solid use of 2500 VCP.
You can use your Marriott Vacation Club points to get tickets to the most exclusive sports. How? This is something to check out.
I mentioned earlier in the post that I was looking into theExplorer Collection, but I didn't think it was related to golf.
The epitome of a bucket list is golf.
The Masters One Day Program increased from 6700 points to 8500 points in 2021. If you're a golfer, going to the Masters on Thursday-Sunday is a must do. This isn't as great as it used to be, but 8500 will save you over $2k on the resale market. Resale sites usually sell tickets on the low end for $2500 a piece, and they don't include tent access.
I was able to attend the Masters with my dad for his 70th birthday. It was going to be one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. We may have to go back.
If it's on your list, you can go this coming year, next year, or the year after that.
The Explorer Collection can be used to rent entire villas. This could be a great way to have a family reunion, get a group of friends together, and avoid the hotel crowd. As the world adjusts to the Covid and Post Covid era, I think experiences and stays like these will be popular. One of the best hotels in all ofBali, but it also requires over 2k Vacation Club Points a night. Renting out an entire villa would come with a staff.
Maybe you would like to see the Big Sky Montana?
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