Has anyone ever gotten out of a Marriott promotional stay?

[JandD Mom]

Hi everyone,

I am wondering if there is someone out there who can help me. Several months ago, when we were considering buying Marriot Vacation Club, we accepted a promotional stay. After changing around places and dates, we finally ended up with a 4 night stay at Grand Vista in November at a promotional rate of around $325.

In the interim, we decided to buy DVC and just settled on our BWV points. So we are full fledged DVC members.

Anyway, DH no longer wants to go to MVC, since we have no interest in buying. He says he would rather stay at DVC, and does not want to do the TS presentation any longer because it is a waste of our vacation time at this point. IN addition, MVC scheduled our presentation at a very inconvenient time of 1:30 pm on a Saturday, and tells us nothing else is available.

However, I called Marriott, and they tell me if I cancel I will still be charged $199 as a cancellation penalty. They tell me I can use it until March, but we do not have any time to fit that in.

Has anyone been able to cancel and get Marriott to waive the fee? I know my mother did once, but that is because they booked dates and then Marriott subsequently called her to tell her the dates were not available.

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[JandD Mom]

I am guessing by the lack of response that no one has had to go through this? If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. Thanks!

 

[pumpkinboy]

Maybe you should get them to switch the presentation and the stay to one of the excellent Hawaiian MVC locations, than lots of DVCers always want to trade into? Just a thought.

I suspect that you're gonna be stuck with the cancellation fee. Then again, you could schedule the MVC stay over a weekend that you were planning to go to DVC, suck it up for the timeshare presentation, then move over to your beloved BWV on the lower points Sunday, and bank the unused points. The Grande Vista is a lovely property, with very large units. It's just that it's not Disney.

 

[lllovell]

I would go as well (rather than pay 1/2 the cost in a cancellation fee). Tell the sales person when you go in you own at DVC, you don't want to waste their time, but you bought into it after signing up for the Mariott tour and thought canceling was terrible since it would cost you 1/2 the price of your trip. Be honest and say "I don't want to waste your time, but if you want to go over some basics, I am game" and then let him/her decide how much time to invest. To the best of my knowledge, you have agreed to attend a presentaton (with a set time limit) for a discounted room rate. While hubby might not want to go on Sat, ask him if his time is worth $132 a hour, because that is what its going to cost you to cancel. I would not be willing to pay that kind of fee to cancel. As long as you show up for the presentation, you are living up to your end. I would go, enjoy a nice little trip, not let them pressure you or be ugly to you and forgetaboutit!

 

[Dean]

You are stuck. If you cancel, you must pay the fee. If you go but miss the promotion, you will be charged an additional amount. You might gripe and moan and get them to change it but unlikely.

 

[bicker]

I got out of a promotional stay by eating the penalty fee, for me $99. It was worth it not to have our vacation disturbed.

 

[TammyAlphabet]

I did the Marriott promotion and it was not high pressure. But it was higher pressure than the DVC presentation.

 

[kathleena]

Did you sign a contract with them that stated there was a penalty? If you did, then I would say you knew the risk ahead of time. Just stay there, get it over with and move on.

If you signed a contract that did not state a penalty - then they are just trying to pressure you to go through with it and you should pressure/threaten them right back.

If you didn't sign anything, and you were charged a deposit, then you should consider disputing the deposit on your credit card bill.

And if you didn't sign anything and haven't been charged anything, close the credit card that you gave them and then cancel the trip.

 

[paulh]

we did one where you got tickets and cash you had to just go to a presentation when the seller sat down i noted time and told him the time as well and said if you can beat DVC in 90min we will buy as soon as the 90min came up i told him i had forfiled my contract they had to forfill theres he was upset but they were not a patch on disney so i was within my rights .we have booked into ronjons this aug and are looking forward to staying there have booked the room there on the pressentation offer so wil do the same if they are as good as dvc i will buy if not i wil not
Paulh

 

[llp479]

Are you not interested in purchasing any timeshare, or just another in Orlando? All Marriott guides can sell any Marriott property. We ended up buying at Grande Vista to get into the Marriott system for trading purposes. In fact, just confirmed a trade with our Grande Vista week into the Marriott Maui Ocean club for June 2006.

If you end up going, ask to be put in one of the new buildings.

 

[JandD Mom]

Are you not interested in purchasing any timeshare, or just another in Orlando? All Marriott guides can sell any Marriott property. We ended up buying at Grande Vista to get into the Marriott system for trading purposes. In fact, just confirmed a trade with our Grande Vista week into the Marriott Maui Ocean club for June 2006.

If you end up going, ask to be put in one of the new buildings.

Hi,

Actually, we are not interested in buying any TS at the moment. We bought a substantial number of DVC points, so that will be plenty for us for right now. If we were to buy another TS, we would probably want MVC. But that is way in the future for us.

And we would not buy MVC from the developer. The value goes down too much for us to consider it. The points are not worth the difference in cost for us.

Thanks!

 

[JimC]

Take the promotion, tack it on the front end of your DVC stay. Tell the sales person right away that you just bought DVC and are not interested in buying MVC now. Let them give you the basics and a tour, then off you go. We have attended two MVC presentations and they were not high pressure.

Grande Vista is a nice resort, but it will be big, very big, very very big when it is complete.

 

[Cruelladeville]

We did the same thing, and we stayed Friday-Saturday nights so we didn't have to use our points. Let Marriott know up-front that you bought DVC instead, and you are just fulfilling the terms of the agreement you signed. It's only slightly more high pressure than DVC, and it is quite interesting. You need to insist on a one or two bedroom villa at Grande Vista, though, or they will put you in a studio instead. Marriott have wonderful resorts for a week of relaxing, but it doesn't beat DVC. Their units are larger, too. I ended up buying Marriott on resale for under $6000, which eases the crunch on my DVC points, and allows me to vacation 4 times a year.

 

[bongo59]

Hi everyone,

I am wondering if there is someone out there who can help me. Several months ago, when we were considering buying Marriot Vacation Club, we accepted a promotional stay. After changing around places and dates, we finally ended up with a 4 night stay at Grand Vista in November at a promotional rate of around $325.

In the interim, we decided to buy DVC and just settled on our BWV points. So we are full fledged DVC members.

Anyway, DH no longer wants to go to MVC, since we have no interest in buying. He says he would rather stay at DVC, and does not want to do the TS presentation any longer because it is a waste of our vacation time at this point. IN addition, MVC scheduled our presentation at a very inconvenient time of 1:30 pm on a Saturday, and tells us nothing else is available.

However, I called Marriott, and they tell me if I cancel I will still be charged $199 as a cancellation penalty. They tell me I can use it until March, but we do not have any time to fit that in.

Has anyone been able to cancel and get Marriott to waive the fee? I know my mother did once, but that is because they booked dates and then Marriott subsequently called her to tell her the dates were not available.

Thanks in advance for any help!

A medical excuse will work...........it did for my sister. Get the Doc to write one out on letter head.

 

[ColoradoBelle1]

Well, it looks like you've rec'd lots of good options to consider.
Even if you have a ton of DVC points, it's just good sense to 'save' the points needed for weekend stays...and staying at Marriot will do just that and prevent the loss of $200 cancellation.

On the other hand, unless it was in the contract you signed, I doubt that Marriot can hold you to that cancellation fee...the only 'fee' I've seen is for when people USE the lodging and don't take the promotional tour.
Did you put it on your Credit Card? Is there time to dispute the charge? If so, write to Marriot and tell them that you will be disputing the charge. Usually , it is n't worth it for them to pursue it...especially when your agreement was to exchange lodging for $$$ + sales presentation. I did one with Fairfield and was only penalized if I cancelled 4 days before the trip!

 

[Crissup]

We bought a substantial number of DVC points, so that will be plenty for us for right now.

No matter what you bought, it's never enough!! CarolAnnC and I have 1,020 and she's been trying to decide which resort we should buy more in.