Destination Escapes posted for September reservations. Although Destination Escapes CAN be the very best value for your Club Points, don’t be fooled that EVERY Destination Escapes option is a great deal. Before I get into the “great deal” and “don’t do this” options for September, I want to review how Destination Escapes Works so you can see how a “don’t do this” option can occur.
Destinations Escapes is not a “sale” or discount off of what you normally would be required to use in terms of Club Points. For example, Marriott isn’t stating “If you stay at Cypress Harbour in September, you get 25% discount on your points”. Rather the pre-determined Destination Points chart is applied to every MVC resort Marriott identifies as having excess inventory to include in the Destination Escapes offerings. Whether it is a good deal or not is if the resort would be requiring more points than the discounts on their pre-determined table.
And a tip when reserving Destination Escapes — since more points are typically required to stay during a weekend, if you are reserving a trip for a period of less than a week, scheduling your Destination Escapes on weekends will MAX your ownership value. Destination Escapes doesn’t differentiate between weekends or weekdays. I’ve included the chart below so you can see the numbers yourself.
Now let’s look at what options owners have for September. There are three resorts with Destination Escapes “discounts”. The BEST deal by far is Shadow Ridge – Enclaves. You can stay in a Guest room, 1-bedroom, or 2-bedroom villa for 3 or 4 nights. As you can see from the above chart, to stay in a 2-bedroom for 4 nights would only 720 Club Points. If you try and reserve the same room under the normal process, it would be up to 1190 Club Points, and that is WITH the 60-day discount owners receive. That equates to a discount of at least 39% — a great deal! To MAX your value, check-in on a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday for 4 nights – again, weekends require more points, and Destination Escapes doesn’t differentiate between weekdays and weekends. Second best option would be checking in on Sunday or Monday for a 24% discount. No discount received if you check-in on Saturdays.
Another option is Villas @ Doral in Miami, FL. Here, you need to be selective on when you travel if using Destination Escapes. All villas are 2-bedroom units. Check-in on a Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday to receive a 19% discount. If you check in any other day, you actually would be using more Club Points with the Destination Escapes – 720 Club Points — than if you reserved the villa under the normal procedure, which is only 560 Club Points – a “don’t do this” deal.
The last option for September Destination Escapes was also listed for August – Mai Khao Beach, Phuket, Thailand. This is a 13% discount for any day you reserve for 7 nights in a 2-bedroom villa — 1260 Club Points (all villas are 2-bedroom). I assumed if you are going to Thailand, you wouldn’t want to spend only 3 or 4 nights at this resort, so I didn’t include that in my comparisons.
Bottom line, you need to understand that just because you have an option with Destination Escapes, it might not be something you should do to MAX your Ownership potential. That’s what Maxing Marriott is here to help you with!
The owner who understands the process the best, gets the best results.
When to the Destination Escapes post to the website?
Great question that I asked the VP of Owner Services at Marriott just a few weeks ago. They used to post them once a month, usually at the end of the month. But lately, there is no schedule. Marriott has not had many properties listed, as so many owners are traveling trying to use up their banked points from COVID. I try and check the website every day, and will post immediately when any properties are added to Destination Escapes.
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