current travel news

Marriott Vacation Club introduces new "points" program

June 20, 2010

Marriott Vacation Club announced today a new usage option for Vacation Club members. For a fee of up to $695, owners can enroll in the Marriott Vacation Club Destinations Exchange Program. By turning your ownership week into points you will have access to stay at any Marriott Vacation Club Resort and check-in any day of the week for any length of stay you choose. "BASED UPON AVAILABILITY" is the buyer-beware for this enrollment. This new option will offer flexibility for some owners but available inventory will be limited until owners opt into the new program. Each ownership week has been assigned a points value. These points can then be used to stay at other Vacation Club properties. Often one week's number of points will not be equal to a week at another destination. New purchasers will no longer have access to deeded ownership weeks.

Fees Increase from II and MVCI

January 4, 2010

January 1, 2010 Interval International increased their exchange fee by $10 for trading from Marriott to Marriott resorts. The fee is now $109. MVCI increased the fee to trade your week into Rewards points from $104 to $109.

JW in Capri to leave Marriott

October 24, 2009

The JW Marriott Capri Tiberio Palace Resort & Spa will leave the Marriott system as of November 16, 2009. This fabulous resort will no longer be available to Marriott Rewards members to book using rewards points. Marriott has few hotels in Italy and this further reduces the available rooms. This hotel is owned by the same company as the Grand Hotel Flora in Rome and the Renaissance in Naples.

Marriott Announces Halt in Timeshare Development

September 24, 2009

Marriott International, Inc. announced that they will stop developing timeshare projects and write down the value of their luxury residential, fractional and timeshare properties under construction by $760 million. Due to soft demand, Marriott expects to reduce residential prices, convert certain proposed projects to other uses, and sell some undeveloped land.

For the segment’s traditional U.S. timeshare business, recent successful marketing promotions included volume discounts and other purchase incentives. The company expects to continue targeted short-term promotions. At the same time, the company has enhanced returns by lowering overhead, streamlining sales and marketing efforts and deferring introduction of new projects and development phases. Despite the difficult business environment, only one U.S. timeshare project is incurring a charge for the 2009 third quarter, largely attributable to its high development costs coupled with lower demand than originally anticipated. (Note from Pam: I believe they are referring to Marriott's Crystal Shores at Marco Island.)

To read Marriott's Press Release, go to http://www.marriott.com/news/detail.mi?marrArticle=457129.