For many Marriott Vacation Club deeded week owners, booking their vacation each year is an exciting time! Putting that date on the calendar, and the anticipation it brings is just one of the joys of traveling, but are they considering if they are getting the best value out of their timeshare? How does a Marriott legacy week owner ensure they are booking the most valuable week possible?
In this article, we’ll be walking you through a different methodology of booking your week, and showing you how you can leverage the Marriott Week Calendars, the Marriott Points Charts, and Interval International’s Travel Demand Index charts to ensure you’re booking the most valuable week each and every year.
Maximum Value: Defined
Value is a concept that is different for any two people. What you find valuable, another may not. For the purposes of this article, we will be showing you how to find the week in your deeded season that would cost the highest number of Marriott Vacation Club points (now called Abound Club Points with the introduction of the Abound program) to book, and have the highest trading power possible when exchanging it with Interval International.
This is a completely objective measure of value, and is ultimately determined by Marriott and Interval International themselves. If you’re scratching your head as to what we’re rambling on about, read on so we can show you what we mean in a real life example.
How To Determine A Week’s Objective Value
For this example, we will be assuming you own at Marriott’s Grande Vista in Orlando, FL. In this case, we’ll be using a 2 bedroom unit size with a Platinum season, but this methodology of booking for highest value will apply to any resort, unit size, or deeded season you may own.
Analyzing The Grande Vista Points Chart
As you can see above, we’ve highlighted two different travel periods on the 2023 points chart for Grande Vista. From January 6th to January 12th, booking a full week in at 2 bedroom unit would cost just 2,900 Club Points, whereas if you were booking that same week from February 17th to February 23rd it would cost you 3,500 Club Points.
Comparing To Week Calendars
As you can see in the image above, we have highlighted these same travel periods. Both of these travel periods are considered to be within the same season, but one would cost an extra 600 Club Points to book every year if you were booking this vacation using Marriott Vacation Club points.
For our example so far, we have chosen basically Week 1, and Week 7 on the weeks calendar as possible candidates to book. As we can see above, booking week 7 is valued at 600 additional Club Points when referring to the points charts for this resort, but what about if you were booking this reservation to deposit it with Interval International? Let’s take a look.
Comparing To Interval International’s Travel Demand Index
Above we have the Travel Demand Index (TDI) chart for the Orlando area. When we look at week 1, we see it has a TDI of 105, whereas week 7 has a TDI of 135. The higher the TDI of the week you deposit, the higher trading power you will have, which makes getting favorable exchanges much more likely.
Putting It Into Practice
You can view Marriott Vacation Club Weeks Calendars for each and every resort in our resort directory, if you’d like to compare other resorts and booking situations beyond the example used in this article.
Also, you can view Marriott Vacation Club Points Charts to get information on any of the over 80 resorts around the world that are part of Marriott’s resort portfolio.
You can find TDI charts for any geographical location at intervalworld.com which will assist you in determining the desirability of your chosen week, in terms of exchanging it using Interval International.
Who Does This Methodology Work For?
As with many things in life, one paradigm of viewing the world doesn’t fit for all. Here are some situations where this methodology of choosing which week to book works well:
- If you’re looking to get the maximum value possible out of your Marriott week – If you have flexible travel plans and want to book the most objectively valuable week, the data is available to guide you.
- If you’re booking a week that you intend to deposit with Interval International – Always reference the TDI chart for your geographical area to ensure you are booking the most desirable week possible before depositing.
- If you can’t decide which week to book and it’s down to a coin toss – Don’t leave it to fate, use the tools available to verify which week is most valuable!
- You’re a deeded week owner who is enrolled in the Abound program, and can convert your week to Club Points. – For example, you may be considering to not elect for points and simply book a week within your deeded season this year. It might be possible to convert your week to Club Points, book your desired week, and have additional Club Points leftover to use for other vacations.
Of course, if you don’t care about the value of your vacations in terms of points or TDI ratings, or don’t have the flexibility in your schedule to act on this extra information, this way of viewing your booking decisions may have little impact for you.
What Did We Learn?
Between Marriott’s own points charts, which determine the value in Club Points of a specific travel period, and Interval International’s TDI, we were able to definitively prove that week 7 at Grande Vista is a more valuable week than week 1, while both being considered part of platinum season. The owner of a deeded platinum week at Grande Vista can choose either week to book, as long as they are available, at no additional cost.
In this case, it was only a difference of 600 Club Points or a 30 point difference in TDI rating, but if you adopt this methodology for selecting your week, you can sometimes find differences of over 1,500 ClubPoints or a 50+ TDI rating difference when comparing two weeks that are considered part of the same season.
Conclusion
Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide how you perceive value when it comes to booking your vacations, and there is no one-size-fits-all way of using your timeshare. Our goal is to educate you about the inner workings of Marriott’s incredible vacation ownership, and give you the most information possible. We hope you found this article interesting and informative, even if it doesn’t fit your personal travel style!
If you’re interested in purchasing a Marriott Vacation Club deeded week for thousands of dollars less than retail pricing, you can browse our wide selection of Marriott listings, or feel free to fill in an online form to contact us and get a free consultation with one of our Marriott Vacation Club specialists that can answer any questions you have about the process.
