Resale Values Marriots vs. DVC

[BWV Dreamin]

I have read several posts regarding Marriot timeshares. How are the resale values? Disney incorporates ROFR to "protect" its devaluation process. But what about Marriot's? Also, do you have to pay an additional fee to participate in "II" exchanges? Although limited II exchanges, you don't pay extra with DVC.

 

[BWV Dreamin]

bump.....

 

[bookwormde]

I think resale is somewhere between the Disney/Hilton ROFR highly protected value and the average timeshare that has almost no resale value. I have seen sports package at Cypress Harbour (their most popular resort in the area) go on ebay for in the 2k range. Other packages seem to go for about ½ of the retail price. My brother has a Cypress Harbour and I think the only interval cost is the yearly fee but I am not sure.

bookwormde

 

[ldo]

there is a DVC BB on tug2.net and several there have both DVC and Marriotts. There are numerous pros/cons to both in the comparison. For me, the biggest pro of Marriott (assuming using mainly for going to WDW) would be if I needed a peak week in a 2 BR (Easter, Christmas), b/c the points cost for DVC is so high.

 

[littlestar]

It depends on which Marriott and what season you own on how the resale values hold up. Someone that bought a Maui week when Marriott first started selling can probably make money if they sell.

I seriously doubt a Cypress Harbour sport week at $2,000 would make it through ROFR with Marriott. I know of someone who recently tried to get one through at $3,500 and Marriott bought it back.

Right now, trading with Marriott is via II. II charges a fee to be a member of II - around $84.00 a year for a basic membership. Marriott to Marriott trade fees are $89.00. If you trade outside of Marriott, the trade fee for domestic travel is $139.00.

I look at DVC's fees as built in. A Marriott 2 bedroom Cypress Harbour week has a maintenance fee of around $800 a year. A DVC 2 bedroom (say between 314 to 350 points for BCV or VWL) is going to have an annual maintenance fee of around $1,500 to $1,700.

 

[BroganMc]

According to the presentation I went to last week, Marriott buys back weeks at 60% the going sale rate if you're trading up. That means for our Grande Vista platinum weeks (Spring Break, summer and holidays) purchased 5-6 years ago, we're still at a loss of $3k.

They do comp your II membership for 2 years with purchase. We did a deal a while back that upgraded us to Gold level? and paid for membership for 5-10 years. I forget which. The only downside with exchanges is that you do pay a processing fee of $79-109 depending on the season you're traveling. That also applies to booking outside your home resort or home season. So for instance, to book these two weeks in Cypress Harbour with our Grande Vista Platinum weeks we paid an additional $158.

If I had to do over again, I'd have gotten Gold season on the GVs instead. But at the time of purchase we were only traveling down here in March. We thought it was a better value.

Other good things are that the maintenance fees are lower ($800-900 for a week in a GV 2bedroom); you can get a lockoff unit and make it two weeks for the price of one; and there's usually lots of last minute availability in Orlando. Also, we get a lot of use out of our Marriott Rewards points (went to London last year for 10 days and stayed in a Cat 7 hotel right across from Big Ben). Last but not least, you do get a full II membership. We often begin our vacation planning just by searching II inventory online.

In the end, I expect DVC to retain a higher resale value over time just due to DVC's active ROFR program but find Marriott makes a great compliment to our regular vacations. Marriott's non-Orlando programs are so good that we won't even consider using DVC for anything other than Orlando.

 

[Dean]

It depends. The nature of a points system is that every purchase is essentially a peak season purchase in the eyes of the buyer. For Marriott it does depend on the resort and season. Marriott has ROFR on some properties and not on others, while 60% is a good rough guideline, it only matters if you get a legit offer and for things like Grande Vista, that is not likely to happen at 60% of even the preconstruction prices. They will not automatically buy it back. OTOH, you have the option of buying in to many properties at 60% or LESS so you can use this difference to your advantage. As with anything else you buy and consider selling at some point, the money is made on the front side with the purchase. It is my opinion that those buying in to DVC now are very unlikely to make money on their purchases like many have in the past. It is likely a well bought Marriott purchase will do better than a comparable DVC purchase in terms of long term $$$ value even without taking into account yearly savings. It is also likely a DVC retail purchase will do better than a Marriott retail purchase other than for a 2042 resort contract.

To exchange Marriott you currently must below to II at a cost of around $84 per year and exchanges to other Marriott's are usually $99 (it went up, no longer $89). You get limited request first to non Marriott's and full request first to other Marriott's compared to DVC. But you get the potential of a bonus week, usually much lower fees overall, access to getaways and exchanges online; all of which are a better value for many than avoiding an yearly membership fee. There are independent exchange companies though that offer many of these options cheaper and/or better for certain situations.

I would caution people (DVC, Marriott or otherwise) from putting too much stock in the info provided by a timeshare sales person, it's not a good choice to do so. Even when well intentioned, they are often not very accurate in their info.