Marriott Vacation Club International
reviews and complaints

My parents owned this timeshare for close to 30 years. They pass it on to me and my family who used it for 5 years after that. I then become diagnosed with end stage renal disease and have to start dialysis. Anyone who deals with dialysis knows it isn't easy to vacation with all of the equipment and ordering the supplies to be at your destination when you get there is a bit nerve racking, wondering if it all is there and what do you do if it isn't? We were paying the fees and all bills pertaining to it for 4 years without using it, thinking once I got my transplant we should have a nice vacation destination waiting for us. Things don't always turn out as you plan I guess. With me unable to work money got tight, and the $1, 500 annual fee to them got delayed. We called and explained out situation to which we got a "we'll see what we can do for you" in response. There is then a person on my front step presenting me with papers and saying you've been served. Spent the next three weeks calling every person I was told to by Marriott to help fix this, only to have them say that it will cost me $4, 600 to reopen my account with them because of attorney fees. I'm saying all of this for anyone who hopes that there are people out there have a heart and can do the right thing. Marriott Vacation Club is not one those places. Do not expect any kind of sympathy no matter how long you've been a customer for. They only care about your hard earned money and how they are goi g to steal it from you. MARRIOTT VACATION CLUB DOESN'T CARE ABOUT YOU AT ALL!

Complaint Description:
Miss sell of a Time Share - Marriott Vacation Club - ability to take a 5/7 day Travel package/Cruise/Marriott Points - High maintenance fees We are a family from Dubai and were invited to a 90 min session with Marriott Vacation Club with a promise that there is no commitment to subscribe to any of the services. At the end of this session, an offer for a time share at Marriott;s Village D'Ille de France was made by the Sales Executive - Fadi Al Mahaini. An amount of USD 48, 477/- was to be paid for purchase of the time share which entitled us to have access to two Silver weeks(three bed room) at the resort, in April 2011. The maintenance fee was Eur 1087 per week and we were informed that in the event we did not want to use the week at our home resort we could use Interval International to deposit our weeks and opt for different resorts at different locations. Much to our surprise we realised that this was a total compromise on the quality of the resort as we decided to take this option just to be led to a second class resort at Phoenix where there were insects in the room. Secondly we did not realise that there would be a USD 150 charge everytime we deposited our week for an exchange. So this option was not a viable one. The 2nd option that was given was to us was that we could opt for a travel package - 5/7 day option with flight tickets and at that time for 220, 000 points we could easily get two return tickets on Emirates Airlines + a 5 day stay at a Cat 5 hotel. But today's day and age we are not able to get a single ticket on Economy to any Indian destination let alone European destination on Emirates as the number of miles that is likely to be credited - Skywards is less than 30k. Hence the second option also flopped. The third option was to use our week which ended up being one of the lowest category of weeks where we had to literally book a year in advance to get a room, hence the third option also failed. Last we could convert the same to Marriott Points but today with a credit of 220k points for the two weeks that we have, i am able to get 5 nights at a Cat 5 hotel, the cost of staying here being only EUR 1500 - 1750 whilst the maintenance fee we are paying is EUR 2500. If non of the other worked we were promised that if we were unhappy with any of the options, we would always have the option to re-sell the same to MVC at the prevalent market price. Given that all the options did not work we first approached MVC to request them to buy back the property, only to be informed that they had not commenced the re-sell activity for this property and there was no immediate requirement for our property, this being in 2014. We were very upset and during our visit to Florida in 2016 visited MVC HO there and met with the official there at Grande Vista - Ms. Giena Small. She heard us out and suggested that we should add more weeks to our holdings there by enhancing us to an Platinum Elite Class of membership and access to cruises if required. For this we had to pay an additional amount of USD 19, 560. However we would not need to pay any fees whatsoever other than the maintenance fees of approx, USD 1300 for this. Trusting Ms. Giena who gave us a detailed explanation of how we could use the highest category of suites on a Cruise for just 9000 vacation miles for a 7 day cruise, we agreed to go in for the above. To our surprise when we tried to book a cruise in 2019, we were given to understand that we would need 7500 MVC points to book just a Balcony suite on an Alaskan Cruise. We felt totally cheated again and today when I called MVC, they politely informed me that they could help me. They mentioned that they could just waive the requirement for maintenance fees for all the properties we held, provided we forfeited the USD 69k that we had paid in the past, as the option of re-sell was not there, as there was no demand for the property. Not only did we pay the maintenance fee of USD 30k in the last 10 years, which could have easily covered the cost of stay for 14 nights each calendar year in the US or UK or EU but we stand to lose our investment. Is this not a Con - game

Our Desired Resolution:
We expect that we should either receive a higher no. of Marriott points as 220 k points in 2011 cannot be compared to 220k in 2019 where the stay in a Cat 5 property has literally doubled. They should also provide better options for Travel packages where in the air miles should be aligned to the promise made for 2 tickets + 5/7 nights in EU. If either of the above are not possible, they should consider a refund of the investment

Saturday, January 5, 2019 I just called the customer service number and received a message saying the call volume was such that they could not take the call. Call Back or go to the website. If there was any sense of customer service why not take my number and call me back at your convenience?

I tried going to the website to ask if a part of my vacation club points were going to expire or what my options were? I tried using a "chat". The chat response was I was 9th in line. OK. I waited. When I got to 1 in line I received a message that said no one was available to answer my chat. Try again later.

I tried the chat again an hour later. same Response. There is NO SERVICE to OWNERS who are new and trying to understand how things work! Horrible

We were sold a Marriott Vacation Club package for $1000 and chose a Hawaiian vacation. We were told the rooms would be very similar to those which we stayed in at Newport beach the year before, which was a 2 bedroom, full kitchen and living room. After spending an additional $300 to go to a tier 2 resort plus an additional $400 for 2 additional nights, we arrive to a small studio they call a guestroom. So completely different than what we were told, we immediately spoke to the front desk Supervisor, who said they did have bigger rooms for ONLY an additional $100 a night to upgrade. We were unwilling to pay more as we were already receiving less than what we were told. We then went to Encore, their marketing department, who told us exactly the same thing and said we had come during the busy season. So, 1) the room does not come close to what was described at the last presentation. 2) The contract does not say the "guest room" is a studio. 3) It says the room has an ocean view when available yet no one told us this was their busy season. I feel this was a bait and switch and want to do whatever is necessary to expose these deceptive practices.

I have enjoyed all the Marriott products since 1989. The sales persons have always been great, except for Miami pulse team. However, with this current expansion, there seems to be some "misfits". My issue is with the Friend Share concept. Let me explain the deception about their referral program.

It has been explained to me that their program is the same for everyone, except in thre or four states. North Carolina is one of these states. It was explained to me that Marriott offers three types of awards for Friendship referrals: 100, 000 Marriott Rewards Points, 15, 000 Marriott Rewards Points, or $150 off Maintenance Fees. The problem is If one expects 100, 000 points, he will get 15, 000 points instead. Why—North Carolina states by law that only 15, 000 points are allowed.

Maybe there are some legalize clauses somewhere, but not obvious to the consumer. I had to make five phone calls during a two month period. The deception happens when an obvious expectation is not fulfilled. Marriot must notify clients in some way that there are exceptions to their referral program. Programmers should program an asterisk on the web so there is not doubt about possible exceptions. Hopefully Marriott will clean up the appearance of deceit in this matter.

We booked trip to stay at the Marco Island Location for February 24th - 28th 2018 using out Vacation Club Points on August 28 2017.

Due to hurricane renovations not being finished, MARRIOTT canceled our reservation on January 24th 2018 after asking us for room preferences on January 13th.

They offered us alternative locations but would not cover any change fees for adjusting our airfare.

I then find out that they penalized us as if we cancelled this ourselves.
Therefore I have over 3000 points I have to use this year or lose them, but can only book using these point 60 days in advance of stay, which is typically 12 months!

All customer service can say is that this is what the executive teams at Marriott has instructed them to do.

My partner and I have just returned from a two week holiday at the Desert Springs Marriott Vacation Club Villas 1 Palm Desert which we booked direct with Marriott and paid £2300.
We have stayed there previously and couldn't fault it however this time has changed our opinion and unless things are changed we are going unlikely to return.
1. Litter and refuse lying around the site
2. Noisy refurbishment of other blocks of villas
3. Swimming pools dirty and did not witness any cleaning during our stay.
4. Extremely unhelpful reception staff
5. Pool attendant at the Springs pool at the Marriott hotel made everyone feel uncomfortable...was constantly moving umbrellas and chairs. He removed the ice cold water at 1500 hours and never replaced it and the water next to the ice machine was boiling. He was rude and in the end I had to ask what time it closed to his reply was well what does it say on the gate...so why was he clearing everything away at 1500hiursbifbthe pool closed at 2200hrs?
I have emailed Marriott hotel group and given case number [protected]. I have not received a reply and all u was asking was the email address of the property so I could direct my reply accordingly.
I have also not received the 750 bonus points per night stay either.

In an aggressive and enticing pitch I agreed to purchase a promotion. Now they will not let me cancel. Only 3 days has gone by. I think their inflexible policy is wrong. As I wouldn't even have gotten this sales pitch if I hadn't called Marriott Rewards, this experience tarnishes their brand in my eyes too. I think I will be cancelling my Marriott Rewards credit card and will stay at other brand hotels from now on if they don't decide to fix my issue and put the customer first. Guess they would rather have $199 of my money than have a lifetime loyal customer.

Im writing this email to seriously complain my and my husband disappointment upon our
Registration at the venue captioned above.

The associates involved, a lady and man who looked after the reception were so rude and respectul to us when we reported to the counter.

We were asked for our names and id cards to confirm the invitation when we reached the counter. The lady just skimmed through her name list and in few seconds she said we are not the list. (not in a polite way or tried to assist us)

Then I tried to showed them your invitaton email and whats app confirmation received,
She just didnt listen and said we have gone to a wrong place and this is a wrong email without looking at the details! Then suddenly the guy found my name on the list and told the woman yes we are on the list!

This is very disrespectful! We went all the way to attend the preview event as we are interested in the program but we were treated
So impolitely! And their impolite manner really made us feel so bad and insulted!

This has wasted my and husband time and ruined our sat! We both are so busy and just returned from business trip yesterday but we still came to find out more a out tbe club.
Anyway we just turned our back and left as this is totally ridiculous and ever worst arrangement!

We tried to write our complaint to the hk office and mr ed tsui response made us even feel worse as he said they had already provided the car park redemption onsite but we couldnt stand the associates' attitude and just left. Is this a compensation that my time and travelling expense is not a matter?! Also he explained that they put my name as ms winnie on the list thats why they couldnt find our name! However this is not valid as the guy could find my name on the list at the end when I first reported my surnamr is chan and my husbands tam.

I cant imagine a five star hotel could bear such low service standard and personell and I cant see them handling the case seriously and try to get back our confidence.

I look forward to hearing your headquarter response on this particular case.

This review is for Marriott Vacation Club, the timeshare, not the resort itself, which is a beautiful place for a vacation. Below is the occurrence of events that has given my wife and I a lot of anxiety after being suckered into a timeshare with the Marriott Vacation Club.

We can start two weeks after we signed the contract and before we made the first payment. We called the salesman, Tiago Monteiro, to tell him that we had serious reservations about the timeshare purchase and wanted to cancel. He kept saying that there was no way to terminate it and we would lose the money we had put down, go into foreclosure, ruin our credit.

Maybe three months in, we called and spoke with a rep to ask how in the world to get out of it. He told us he'd put us on a list of the people who wanted to sell. Obviously, nothing came of that and we never heard anything about it again.

You understand that we have wanted and tried to get out of this from the very beginning. The document package came after the rescission period and we were unable to look it over in time to make a timely decision to cancel.

We were on our honeymoon in Hawaii, thinking about starting a family and future vacations. At that time my wife was considering taking a trip to Italy with my brother. The salesmen zeroed in on those feelings and plans and told us it was all possible. They raved about how it would be paid off before we knew it and we wouldn't have to shell out any extra money at all. She could go to Italy solely on the points we had.

They told us that the points could be used for cruises or airfare.

These statements are not true. The Italy trip would take a lot more points than we have. We can't save the points for future use because they expire every year. Cruises and airfare are possible but only by paying extra and heavy fees to do so. We looked at a Carnival cruise out of Tampa and after spending over an hour on the phone with multiple agents we booked the cruise. We had to pay $1000 in fees - fees we weren't told about - and found out the points we had amounted to almost nothing.

The sales presentations we attended were hours of fast talk, confusing marks on a whiteboard, and industry jargon we didn't understand and wasn't explained to us. It was high pressure sales and we fell for it. We never have made an upgrade but attended the mandatory owner update meetings where we heard the same promises and lies that are meant to coerce the owner into buying more.

The promises of using points anywhere and anytime are not true. We went to New York City for one night on a day that wasn't our first choice. In Orlando 2016 the sales reps told us that the number of points we had was so low you don't even offer that any more. They are "pretty insignificant" was the phrase they used. They wanted us to buy more; we didn't fall for that again.

The promises of easy selling and tax benefits and minimal fees and availability - all not true.

The maintenance fees alone are crippling and come at the end of the year; we have had to add to our credit card debt to pay them. All in all, the monthly payments are way too much and not the amount talked about at the closing. The timeshare was presented as a great deal and a financially wise one and that is not the case by any means.

We have reached out Marriott the last few months to cancel the timeshare but have received nothing but response letters ignoring the fact that the entire contract and process was deceitful. In addition to multiple letter to the Marriott Vacation Club, we have reached out to the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General's from each state involved in the sale.

In conclusion, we wouldn't recommend anyone to attend any sales meetings for a timeshare. All it has left us with is a big hole in our pockets, stress and a bunch of empty promises from a deceiving sales team. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

Used our points to book a vacation in Fl. At the Ocean Pointe in Palm Beach Shores, Fl.
After speaking to an agent to book was asked if we wanted to attend a sales meeting. I said NO THANK YOU just want to vacation with some friends. Upon arriving again was asked if we want to attend a sales meeting AGAIN NO THANK YOU we do not want to, just want to vacation with friends. The next morning at 9:30am we get a phone call ASKING the same question. We went to bed very late and was woken up by the call we asked not to get. AGAIN we asked NO CALLS. The next morning again THE CALL? After going downstairs and speaking to the same person we spoke to upon arrival SHE SAYS SHE IS SORRY!At this point I am very angry and request to see and speak to a manager. Had to travel to their other site to speak to a SALES manager Michal Pesik (Director of Marketing) who was very irritating and wanted to justify their calling. Basically Marriott in their rules for sales are allowed to call after 9AM. Unless you state at check in you do not want any call from the sales team YOU WILL GET CALLED. I mentioned we used points and where not there on a promotion and I expected my no calls to be honored? BUT I DID NOT SAY THAT AT CHECK IN, doing so at booking and arrival has no meaning. So I spent 2 days with no sleep. We partied the night before and wanted to sleep in BUT MARRIOTT said NO way we have to sell you more things or at least try! And to make things even better at 5pm on Wed. 1/17/2018 they decide to run a test on the hot water in the building for an hour. Dirty and smelly from playing all day, wanted to shower and go out for dinner, missed our reservation waiting for hot water. ALL IN ALL A BEAUTIFUL PLACE BUT MARRIOTT'S TIME SHARE PEOPLE RUINED OUR TRIP AND FEEL THEY ARE IN THE RIGHT. I am getting to hate these people. Would have never purchased points if I knew how they operate and how rude their Marketing people can be. ALL FOR MORE $$$$$

Our reservation on Marco Island, Florida was cancelled by email 4 weeks before we were due to arrive during the busy Christmas/New Years week.. The reason was the hurricane. We certainly understand that damage was done and the amount of usable units is depleted. However, communication was inadequate. They have a "hotline" to keep owners updated for each site incurring storm damage. When we used the "hot line" # (as late as 11/30th) the recording from Oct says they are up and running and are expecting guests. Hence, we made no back-up plans. We feel we should have received timely notification to consider making other plans. (or at least have an updated recording)

In addition, unused points expire on Dec 31st and at this late date, there are no available placed in southern Fl (we already have air tickets).

When asking for assistance and compensation from customer service, we were told there is nothing they can do.

Voucher for a hotel? "different company"
Extend expiration date? "would make it too difficult for other in the new year"
Give "reward points" to be used at hotels...now or in the future? " Too costly as they would need to buy them"
Refund our maintenance fee? "Used for upkeep of resort"
Any other requests were answered with "if we give it to you we have to give to all"...well I say YES!

In short...the customer service people said it is too costly for Marriott. No concern for us, the owners. They not only notified us too late...they omitted information and we cancelled owners are left with nothing. Marriott has deep pockets and is covered with insurance. Certainly they should feel some responsibility and loyalty to their members. I also assume they can write off the loss.

In summation, we know the storms caused havoc. We should have been given updates and in failing to inform us in time, we lost our points and have no place to go.

Finally, while they were lax in not keeping us informed, they were able to send an email to cancel and to add insult to injury, they sent a follow-up indicating that WE cancelled when it was Marriott

I received an email early this week that my reservations for 2 condos at Crystal Shores (Marco Island) on December 26th had been canceled. They stated do to hurricane Irma there would not be enough rooms available. I am at the Chairman's level and made the reservations 6 months ago when there were still rooms available. I am confident that all of the other rooms were not booked by deeded owners and also suspect that several of the rooms will be checked in by re-rents. I have played phone tag with the MVC rep. who sent the email but he has been very unresponsive. We called the MVC Chairman's line scrambling to find other accommodations, but they can't help saying that my points attached to these reservations will most likely not be deposited back into my account or even if they were would need to used by 12/31/2017 as I used points to reserve these rooms that would expire by the end of 2017. As you can imagine there are no properties available in FL to book for the last week of the year. Until I hear back from the MVC headquarters I am stuck with no accommodations for my 14 family members. I have came to realize I won't win the battle to get the reservations back, but at a minimum I should get the points back for use in 2018 or even convert them to Marriott rewards points so I could at least book a hotel.

Purchased points at high pressure sale while vacationing and we found later the points are basically worthless in trying to book anything Now we are getting maintenance fees of over 700.00 a year. Maintenance on what ? We kept the papers that they scribbled on and no where is there any mention of a maintenance amount. Going to find a lawyer to sue for return of money and government needs to stop these scams

Due to the September 2017 Hurricane, we lost our vacation week at Marriott's Barony Beach in Hilton Head. We lost $1351 for our timeshare week and nobody from Marriott Vacation Club cares. I called several times and was told that since I don't have travel insurance that I am out of luck. I made a post on Barony Beach facebook page on Oct. 1st. A MVC representative called me that night and told me that MVC was coming out with an offer within 2-4 weeks for all members that lost their week. It has been 6 weeks and I never received an email offer from MVC. I did noticed that MVC deleted my post along with a couple of other people's post. I travel a lot and gold member at Marriott. I expected a lot better treatment from Marriott. My future hotel choices will not be Marriott properties.

Marriott Vacation Club is BY FAR the worst investment I have ever made. I 'own' a unit at Marriott Desert Springs in Palm Desert, CA. I paid-off the mortgage, so have no monthly principal / interest. Even without a loan payment it is a horrible investment. Between the 'maintenance fees' and property tax, I pay in excess of $1, 900 per year for one week at this resort in a suite (two bdrms, living room, kitchen). You also have to 'wait in line' to schedule the unit for a desirable season (despite the fact I paid extra for a 'Platinum' membership). The unit is close to worthless if you try and sell it. MVC makes sure of that by not allowing you to pass on any benefits of value. If you manage to get 25% of what you paid your are fortunate. I cannot imagine any scenario where you can benefit from this, if you are paying financing plus the ~$1, 900 year 'maintenance and taxes'. Stay away

We are owners at Marriott Marbella have been since 2007
Trying to book at Cork customer centre for a year in advance is a complete
Customer nightmare
We have tried on two consequetive Wednesdays at 2pm first week agent took 16 minutes to answer and this week 20 minutes to answer only to be told no vacation week available and to try again next booking date
Explanation from call centre ar Cork this is a very busy booking although 47 agents available to answer calls also to try booking on line which we did to have no success
We hope Marriott Europe listen to their timeshare vacation customers and find a solution to this ongoing problem

Don't buy the points have very little v value. Ask your salesman to tell you about the points repurchasing for the program. They don't have one. If you try to sell them on the open market it probably is worth 25% of what you paid for them. Of course then marriott has the first right of refusal. If you purchase enough points to go to work particular resort during a certain period of time nothing can stop marriott from increasingly the amount of points you need for that week. Then they want to see you more points. You're basically buying nothing. Check it out for yourself.
Below please find photographs I took at my recent stay in heritage club hilton head. They called us two days before we went and said there was some construction going on at the place it was a total mess but they never let anybody know how really bad it was. Just another case of taking advantage of the owners.

Marriott Vacation Club is ethically corrupt. Marriott foreclosed on my Ocean Point Time Share due to a $3.81 maintenance fee shortfall. Marriott stole my $16, 600 (paid cash) Time Share for just $100 at foreclosure.

As a senior citizen and a 12 year (owner) customer, Marriott's treatment of me was reprehensible and despicable. Marriott's 'core values' are a lie.

Marriott is ruthless, uncaring, unethical and its God is 'greed'. Buyer beware.