Exchanging Marriott Points with Interval International: A Comparison between internal exchanges and external exchanges

In my previous post, I gave you an overview of a Marriott Vacation Club timeshare presentation that I attended at the Marriott Summit Watch. 

The one piece of information that was completely overlooked was how Marriott Vacation Club points can be exchanged through Interval International.  

Interval International is one of the two major exchange companies with RCI being the second. 

Here is an overview of Interval International. 

Interval International allows owners of affiliated resorts to exchange through their program into other weeks.  They do have something called "short stay" exchanges that are less than a week but generally, are used for 1 week exchanges. 

During the Marriott presentation, they did not discuss the ability to exchange into Interval International since they indicated that most owners prefer Marriott properties and prefer to exchange internally.  

This is a tremendous oversight as exchanging through Interval International can give you an excellent way to maximize ownership.  

As you may recall, Marriott offered me a 4,000 point package for over $40,000.  Here is a chart showing the amount of points required to exchange through Interval International. 

On the far left side is the demand for the particular week.  Marriott uses "Peak", "High", "Medium" and "Low".

The Chart

​The importance of the chart above is basically to understand the minimal amount of points required to stay in the various size units.  I find that most resorts and time periods that I want to travel and most people would want to travel is the top tier level - "Peak". 

I generally ignore the other levels. 

For example, for the 4,000 point Marriott Vacation Club package that was offered to me, I COULD NEVER exchange those points for a 2 bedroom unit during peak time through Interval International.  This is extremely relevant to any purchase decision as this will significantly impair your travel options.  

Many very nice properties ONLY have 2-bedroom units so you can NEVER travel to those properties during peak times.

Marriott Vacation Club

One reason that Marriott likely does not discuss the Interval International exchange options is that they require a lot of points to be able to exchange for one week.  Even if the package they offered me was for 4,500 points, in exchange for over $40,000, I would be able to receive 1 week in a 2 bedroom unit through Interval International in addition to the exchange fee of $179 per week.  

Comparison to Internal Trades

Each Marriott Vacation Club property has different point requirement for each week.  If I purchased 4,000 points, I would be able to use those points for various resorts. 

For example, here is the 2018 chart for Marriott Summit Watch. 
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As you can see, the point requirements vary significantly but if I used my points for Christmas week, it would cost me 3,175 points. 

As you can see, if I owned 4,000 points, I could NEVER stay at the Marriott Summit Watch during Christmas for anything greater than a studio unit.  A 1 bedroom would cost 4,450 points and a two bedroom would cost 6,725. 

Comparison to using Interval International

Using the same comparison above, if I wanted to exchange my points through Interval International, I could reserve the same Christmas week at the Marriott Summit Watch for only 2,250 points - a savings of 29.1%. 

Additionally, by exchanging through Interval International, I now have enough points to reserve 1 bedroom unit during peak times whereas I would not have enough points to reserve the same weeks through Marriott's internal exchanges. (3,000 points through Interval International as opposed to 4,450 through Marriott's internal program)

This example above is only one example of why exchanging through Interval International is an important aspect of any timeshare ownership.  I can use almost 30% less points simply by exchanging through Interval International instead of reserving directly through Marriott Vacation Club's internal program.  

*A caveat to this example is that inventory is different for the internal and exchange exchanges.  If you can reserve something using their internal exchange, it does not mean that it will be available in the external exchange.  Most of the time, Interval International makes sense from exchanging from one brand to another.  For example, I routinely use my Hyatt week to exchange into Marriott properties.  Interval International restricts my ability to reserve Hyatt properties through Interval International in order to avoid this type of arbitrage above.  

I expect that this is one reason that Marriott does not want to discuss this portion of their program.  I expect that the other reason that Marriott does not want to discuss this portion of their program is that through Interval International, you can exchange into other brands of timeshares and they likely want to keep you vacation dollars within the Marriott portfolio. 

By exchanging through Interval International, you can exchange into many highly desirable Hyatt properties including great properties in Breckenridge, Beaver Creek and Lake Tahoe as well as other highly desirable ski properties as well as beach and urban properties as well.

Conclusion

The example above is just one of thousands of examples of why exchanging through Interval International can make a lot of sense.  The exchange chart for Marriott Vacation Club points is not as appealing as other timeshare brand charts but in certain circumstances, exchanging your points may save you points that can be used for more vacations and is a great way to maximize ownership. 

Overall, I think it is a shame that they do not discuss this option.  It is one of the easiest ways to maximize timeshare ownership.  

As I stated, I'm sure that the reason for this is to avoid owners from spending their vacation dollars at resorts out of the Marriott family, but external exchanging and the potential value that it can bring is an important consideration to review before any purchase. 

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