Original Message:
Re: Ripoff - Marriott Vacation Club Destinations Program - New Point System (by Richard E.):
Just reading this thread after 22 years of even year weeks owned on Maui and 1000 points purchased in 2021. We’ve been very happy with staying at our home resort all these years. Due to Hawaii’s Covid lockdowns we used II for the first time and ended up with a week at Lake Tahoe where we (foolishly) agreed to sit for a presentation on the points program. Presented with a “killer deal” special to buy only 1000 points and enrollment fee waived, we took the bait. Only later did we learn about the misrepresentations and omissions. Wouldn’t you think your week would trade for the same amount of points you would need to get the week back? I’d love to know how they rationalize that. We rolled our 2024 weeks into points assuming there was no downside. Since we had two weeks worth of points plus purchase points plus bonus points we decided to upgrade to a 2 bedroom unit in one of the newer towers to accommodate our adult children. We had a heck of a time booking 13 months out. In Feb and March! From this thread I’m guessing if we just keep our weeks for 2026 we’ll have an easier time reserving than we did with points. We are now retired and living in a beautiful area and no longer needing the escape from work and winter weather. Selling our weeks seems financially painful so looking into renting to recoup our maintenance fees. Can someone explain how Hawaii taxes non-residents on rental income? How do they even know about it if the rental is private? (Will use Red Week). We rented one 2022 week back thru Marriott (not realizing what a ripoff that was) and there were no tax ramifications then.