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Re: Marriott Going to Point Syst (by L M.):

Hi arindasue, evlevin and all, It has been a while since we went to listen about the new point system. But we were told very clearly by the sales person that the inventory available to II was definitely going to be reduced. He told us that in the past any unreserved inventory was turned over to II for exchanges and that was going to stop.

Having said that, here is what we are trying to do now after the system has changed that worked for us before they changed it.

We deposited our week and have a request for trade which is pending. It has been about a month since the request has been put in. It is for a partial unit at the Grand Vista high demand season to a larger unit at Oceana Palms in a lower demand season.

Even though the unit sizes are not equal the difference in seasons has always allowed this to work this out with exchanges with II.

So, I am not sure if the availability is not there or if II has tightened down the trading for equal sized units. Either way it is not working so far.

Another thing we did try to do is some shorter notice exchanges for equal to equal earlier in the year and they did not go through at all. That could have been availability of deposited units (people actually using their home resort) or the new system.

There are so many unknowns and different variables to the exchanges we don't have a clear picture as to why there seems to be a much lower amount of available units to trade lately.

Another executive at Marriott told me that there are fewer deposits because the economy has caused people to do more drive to vacations. Which is supposed to mean that people are using the main land resorts more. Therefore there is less availability.

I don't know if I agree that equals the same lack of availability. It doesn't seem to be the same thing to me. Not everyone has purchase the main land locations or goes to the location that they purchased. But maybe there is a correlation.

I am not sure if I just muddied the waters with our experience or helped. I hope it helped.