How does Marriott Vacation Club International work?

Question

I have recently been interested in getting into real estate type things, and I was interested in MVCI. After reading their website though I was a little confused. I basically want to know how it works. Do you purchase a condominium in a MVCI building and then Marriott takes care of leasing it out when you're not there? Or is simply a vacation exchange program? Do you make money off of it? If anyone owns property with MVCI or is familiar with the whole process, please give me some insight!!

Answer 1

MVCI is a time share.  You do NOT make money.  You simply "pre-pay" for vacation weeks.  The price you pay depends on the weeks you buy and the location of the club.  Generally speaking, these deals have become tremendously overpriced.  Why?  First you need to plunk down $30-80k for your 'reserved week'.   They you need to pay property taxes and owners fees every year on that week... this can amount to $200 to $2000 per year depending on location and what the needs of the club are (i.e. are major capital repairs required like a new roof?  you are paying, not Marriott... YOU own it.)  Finally, after those payments, you can use your week on your week every year or trade it to another similarly priced week or club for a "small fee" like $200 or $300.  Oh, and don't forget that each time you visit, you will need to pay a housekeeping fee of $150 for the week, plus an extra $10 or $15 a day if you want them to come and make your beds or anything each day.  So, when all is said and done, you have prepaid tens of thousands of dollars to "own" your vacation, which you have to pay about $500 to $2500 per year for the right to use.  Sound like a good deal to you?  Didn't think so.

To make it worse, there is almost no resale value in these... they are a timeshare and timeshares loose almost all of their value immediately after you buy one.  If you still insist on looking into this, at least consider buying a 'used' one for $5000 to $10000 from a third party... the fees and everything else will be the same.  There are thousands of these for sale.

Look at the price for a nightly rental on the marriott.com website.  You can stay in any of these units most weeks for $179 to $229 per night... no upfront investment, no fees, no housekeeping, no strings attached, plus you get rewards points when you stay there and pay... they also take rewards points as payment certain weeks.