Following the recent announcement of the Abound by Marriott program that promises to join Westin, Sheraton Vistana, and Marriott timeshare resorts together, there has been much speculation as to how the program will work. Would Marriott choose to create a trust that would hold the hundreds of resorts that these three vacation clubs offer? How will they facilitate booking between club with such varying points systems?
Now, we have additional information that may just peal the curtain back on the nuts and bolts of how this program will work that come from legal documents that were posted on the Orange County Comptroller’s website. Read on to see what we found!
Master Affiliation Agreement For Destinations Exchange Program
Marriott has recently filed documents with the Orange Country Comptroller that detail the integration of Westin, Sheraton Vistana and Marriott resorts under an integrated exchange system. Although many believed Marriott’s Destinations Exchange Program would be completely replaced by this new Abound program, it seems that behind the scenes Marriott is actually vastly expanding the Destinations Exchange Program.
They have done this by filing a master affiliation agreement that adds a number of the condominium associations that run Westin and Sheraton Vistana resorts directly into the Destinations Exchange Program.
It is our conclusion from reviewing these filings that, while Abound will be the new branding for the program, legally speaking, Marriott is simply adding resorts from Westin and Sheraton Vistana to their existing Destinations Exchange Program. A rose by any other name, right?
MVC and VSN has or will enter into a master affiliation agreement (the”MVCD/VSN Master Affiliation Agreement”) whereby the members of Vistana Signature Network become members of MVCD Exchange
Documents posted on the Orange County Comptroller's websiteWhat Resorts Are Included In This Agreement?
There are a number of condominium associations that are entering into this master affiliation agreement between Sheraton Vistana, Westin and Marriott. Keep in mind, that while some specific resorts have associations that match the resort name, some of these associations manage multiple resorts, so there are quite a few resorts being added to the Destinations Exchange Program.
Here are the associations which have entered into this agreement:
- Vistana Signature Network
- Sheraton Flex Vacations
- Flex Collection
- VCH Systems
- Vistana Hawaii Management
- Vistana Arizona Management
- Amelia Resort Condominium
- Bella Florida Condominium
- Key West Condominium
- St. Augustine Resort Condominium
- Bay Vista Condominium
- Coral Vista Condominium
- Sunset Bay Condominium
- Broadway Palmetto Horizontal Property Regime
- Broadway Plantation Horizontal Property Regime
- Vistana Cascades Condominium
- Vistana Lakes Condominium
- Vistana Condominium
- Harborside Resort Condominium
- Harborside Resort Condominium II
- Mountain Vista Resort
- Riverfront Mountain Villas Condominium
- Nanea Ocean Villas
- Ocean Resort Villas
- Ocean Resort Villas
- North Princeville
- Ocean Resort Villas
- Scottsdale Pinnacle Condominium
- Steamboat Villas Condominium
- Village North Condominium
- Virgin Grand Villas – St. John Condominium
- Aventuras Vacation Ownership Plan
What Does This Mean For Owners?
Based on these filings, Marriott is adding Sheraton Vistana and Westin resorts to the Marriott Vacation Club Destinations Exchange Program, rebranding it as Abound, and allowing owners at these three vacation clubs the ability to exchange with each other.
This master affiliation agreement would allow owners of any of the resorts that are part of the Destinations Exchange Program to book at any other resort that is also part of this exchange program, based on availability.
Ultimately, joining these clubs together would open up new destinations for owners of these three vacation clubs, provide new inventory by distributing travel demand across the different vacation clubs, and do this without owners needing to use Interval International to exchange.
This is definitely an exciting time to be an owner at these three vacation clubs. What is not known is how the exact process of converting points from one club to another will work, what the exchange rates will be, or what booking windows would be allow across clubs or what, if any, fees would be charged for exchanges.
Stay tuned to the Selling Timeshares, Inc. blog to get all the latest developments. We will be adding new posts to our blog as more information becomes available regarding Abound by Marriott Vacations.
