Frequently asked questions

What exactly is a Destination Points rental?

Marriott Destination Points (DP) members own points instead of weeks.  They use these points to make reservations at the Marriott resort of their choice.  Sometimes the reservation requires fewer points than they own, so they have some "left over".  Or sometimes the reservation they desire requires more points than they have. DP members can transfer points to each other at a mutually agreeable price for one-time use in making or extending a reservation. This is referred to as "renting points".

There is no limit to the number of points involved -- one  DP member can rent to another all of his points for one-time use, if he wants to.

What is a Destination Points resale?

Since DP members don't own weeks, when they want to get out of the business, they don't have a week to sell -- they just have their Destination Points to sell.  They can do that on this site, similar to selling a week.

There are some additional Marriott fees involved, after which the buyer is a full-fledged Destination Points member.  Buying a Destination Points membership in the resale market saves a lot of $$.

Who is behind Ownertrades.com?

Ownertrades.com was put in place by a Marriott Vacation Club® owner like yourself, who saw the need for a system whereby Vacation Club Owners could exchange amongst themselves without incurring exchange fees, without having to "bank" their property, and with the ability to arrange an "equal" exchange -- not getting stuck with someone's lock-off unit when they are trading a complete unit. The proprietor of Ownertrades.com is its webmaster. Ownertrades.com is completely independent, and not affiliated in any way with Marriott.

The original and primary purpose of the site is facilitating free exchanges amongst owners.  Facilitation of resales and rentals was added at the request of members.

Who can join Ownertrades.com?

Any person may search for Marriott resales or rentals at the Resale Center or Rental Center, but only those with an Ownertrades.com account can place listings there.

Use of the Exchange Center is restricted to Marriott Vacation Club ® Owners interested in exchanging with each other. Any Marriott Owner can participate in the Exchange Center by signing up a property they would consider exchanging. After creating an Ownertrades.com account, go to the Exchange Center to sign up one or more property /configurations you would consider exchanging, and choose the Marriott resorts to which you would consider exchanging.

This gets your property into the database and allows others to find you as they seek owners to exchange with. If you wish to do exchange searches yourself, a $12 exchange membership fee gets you 12 month's access to the Exchange database. You are not "banking" your property or actually committing to anything by inputting a property when you sign up.

You cannot search the Exchange Database if you have not listed at least one Marriott property/configuration for potential exchange.

I own at a comparable resort, why can't I join and trade with Marriott Owners?

We have had many such requests, which we can not accommodate because the search engines on this site are designed around the Marriott resorts and their season-based ownership. That, plus the relatively modest number of Marriott resorts in existence gives us a high member-to-resort ratio, and makes it easy for members seeking exchanges to conduct searches and find potential exchanges. Adding occasional members from other resorts would both dilute our member-to-resort ratio, and make the search drop-down menus more cumbersome.

Our resort was sold out, and Marriott no longer manages it, can I still join?

No, sorry you cannot. We did "grandfather" such resorts for many years but have now discontinued doing that. It was confusing to people finding exchange choices to resorts that were not on Marriott's list.

Why should I join?

First, because with Ownertrades.com you can see the choices for trades available to you, and you can investigate them with the other Owners wanting to trade with you without having to give up or "bank" your week. So you never give up your week unless you have arranged exactly the exchange you desire.

Second, it costs you nothing to make an exchange.

Third, and maybe most importantly, an owner can reserve for you exactly what you are looking for -- you want Ocean Front? That's exactly what an OceanFront owner will reserve for you!

No waiting around to see if someone happens to "bank" the property you want,  no other exchangers standing by to grab it if they see it first, and no chance you will get stuck with a lesser view after having "deposited" your week somewhere!

I am a Marriott Destination Club member. Why should I join?

A good reason to join ownertrades.com would be to make use of the Destination Points rental feature, where points can be transferred amongst Destination Club members for single-time use at a price agreeable to both. This process is called "renting points", and it is an excellent way to solve the problem of needing a few more points for making or extending a reservation, or recovering some of your cost for  a few left-over points you might not be able to use some year.

Another reason to join is for the free exchanges -- same as Vacation Club weeks owners -- If you are a "legacy" weeks owner that joined the Destination Points program, you still have the option each year of using your week as opposed to putting it into the Destination Points program.  So you can avoid the hidden exchange fee that Marriott charges by giving you less points than your resort is worth (known in the timeshare community as the "skim") by arranging a free exchange via ownertrades.com.

Can I exchange back into my home resort using Ownertrades.com?

Yes, you can indicate your own resort as one into which you would like to trade. Most owners are seeking to trade elsewhere, but there are some seeking to trade back into their home resort during a different season than they own. Of course, you could also use the search engines on the site to locate other owners of your resort who you could contact, even if they had not indicated an intention to exchange back into their own resort -- you might find someone willing to exchange.

Do I lose any privileges if I buy a resales listing I found on Ownertrades.com?

If you buy a resale Week property from a Broker / Real Estate agent or directly from an owner, you are not eligible to participate in the Marriott Rewards Points program. Of course, you usually are able to make the purchase for less $$ than if you purchase from Marriott, so that compensates for not getting the Points program. If you purchase a resale unit, but purchase it thru a Marriott saleperson, then you get all the privileges of ownership, including points. There may be some resales units listed on Ownertrades.com that indicate the Rewards Points program is available. That means the Owner is offering to sell it via a Marriott salesperson. Or he has made an error.

If you buy a resale Destination Points Membership, then after paying certain Marriott fees, you are a full-fledged Destination Points member with all the priviliges you would have if you had purchased from Marriott directly. But you will have saved a lot of money. We do recommend using an experienced broker to complete such a transaction to ensure everything is done properly to activate your Destination Points Membership.

What is the cost of exchange membership in Ownertrades.com?

First, there is a one-time $2 setup fee to open an account with the site. This nominal fee is charged to keep automated web-bots and lurkers from opening accounts and cluttering up the database.

For exchanging, there is no fee to just sign up one or more properties and exchange preferences for the Exchange Database so other members can find you when they search for trading partners. But if you desire to do database searches for trading partners yourself, a $12 Exchange Membership fee gets you access to the exchange search engines for 12 months.

You can execute as many exchanges as you can arrange for free.

What about fees for resale and rental listings?

First, you must have an account which carries a one-time $2 setup fee.

Resale listings cost $15 and are good for a year. Rental listings are $5 each and last for 90 days. Both can be extended by paying for the next term.

How can I find the season calendar for all the Marriott resorts?

This link takes you to the Marriott Resorts  webpage. You will need to login with whatever username and password you have for that site. Then click on the resort of interest to see the calendar.

I own several properties I would consider trading - what should I do?

You can enter as many property / configurations as you own that you would consider trading. For example, suppose you have a Villa that can be locked off, so there are three possible configurations you could exchange: Full Villa, Master Suite, and Lockoff

After you sign up that Villa/Season combination, you can select each of those configurations as a separate entity you would consider exchanging, and select the places to which you would consider exchanging them.

As a site member, you can add as many resort / season / configurations as you wish for potential exchanging, and your $12 search membership allows you to arrange exchanges for as many as you can muster. All for free!

Do all the amenities come with the trade?

There are some sites that have features that do not come with the trade. For example, at Grande Ocean, some owners have signed up for the golf package. The golf package can only be used by the owners, so if you trade into Grande Ocean the golf package that belongs to the owner there cannot be used by you.

How can I make my exchange membership or listing payment to Ownertrades.com?

All payments are made by credit card using PayPal, which is an organization that handles secure credit card transactions via the Internet.  Because Ownertrades.com is automated to provide access immediately on completion of the Paypal transaction, we cannot accept payment by any other method.

If you are unfamiliar with PayPal, you will find that through them you can pay or send money to anyone with an email address (like your kids at school), so there may be other uses you find for PayPal . Ownertrades.com is not affiliated with PayPal in any way except that we use them.

You do not need to have a Paypal account to pay with your credit card (although they will probably offer you to open such an account). But if you do have an account there, you can use it to pay.

I want to renew my $12 exchange membership - do I need to re-sign up?

No, you do not need to reenter any resort or personal information.  When your 12 month exchange membership expires, you will automatically be given the option of paying for another 12 months the next time you go to search for an exchange..

What information does PayPal need for me to send my payment?

You will need to provide PayPal with your credit card number and enough other information to allow them to verify it is your card.

I tried to pay via PayPal but the payment didn't go through - what's wrong?

You must use the link on our page to get to PayPal (even if you already have a PayPal account). Our links are automatically set up to help you make your payment, to make sure you get confirmation of the payment, and to make sure notification of your payment is received by us.

You will still be able to use your existing PayPal account to make payment, or, if you don't have an account, you will still be able to make a payment with your credit card.

I am concerned about my privacy, what does Ownertrades.com do to ensure it?

Ownertrades.com does not share your information with any third party. As part of it's terms and conditions, Ownertrades.com commits that it will not make it's database information available to anyone in any form other than by the search engines which are on the site for the purposes of finding exchange partners, or locating ReSales or Rental properties. In all cases, those searches only display the data needed to accomplish their function.

The only exception to this is if all or part of Ownertrades.com were to be sold to another party, in which case they would become the holders of the database, in which case they would have access to and responsibility for the data.

I want to change the data I have submitted for exchanging, how do I do that?

Your username and password give you access to the appropriate pages in the "Manage My Resorts" section of the website.

I can't remember what I signed up, how can I review my current entries?

Again, your username and password give you access to the "Manage My Resorts" section of the website where you can view all your records.

My search for a trading partner fails to find any -- why is that?

If the search you are using returns no records, then the database currently contains no owners of properties at the exact location and season to which you are seeking a trade that have indicated interest in trading to your location. Broaden your search by trying the Season-Independent Search if you would consider some other Season, or, if you are completely open to possibilities, try the Wide-Open Search, which will list all the Owners in the database interested in trading to your location.

I tried to contact an Owner by email and never got a response! What gives?

First, some people read their email very infrequently, especially if they happen to be on vacation. And, unfortunately, it can happen that an owner changes their email address without updating their profile here, so that their address in our database is invalid. In such a case, you have no way to contact them, they don't realize they can't be contacted, and we don't know their address is invalid so we haven't disabled it

What can go wrong in making an exchange?

The biggest "risk" in this process is that you and your trading partner are counting on each other to make the agreed upon reservations for each other's use. If one of you backs out of your agreed-upon arrangements, or fails to follow through, it could lead to disappointment. It takes cooperating Owners to make this work -- it's up to you!!

Can I list a unit for sale if Marriott used to manage it but no longer does?

No, sorry, we no longer "grandfather" such listings.

How can I modify my rental or resale listing?

Your account username and password give you access to the Resale Center and the Rental Center where you can modify, add to, or delete your listings at any time.

Why do rental and resale listings have automatic expiration dates?

We found that people would forget to notify us if their listing were no longer needed, so we now automatically expire them after a reasonable period to ensure that the database is not cluttered with old, out of date listings.

How do I pay if I buy a resale unit?

Payment arrangements are between the buyer and seller - Ownertrades.com plays no role in the transaction. Some people take advantage of the services of one of the closing companies that specialize in handling such transactions to make sure everything is done correctly. If you would like assistance with any aspect of buying or selling a unit, help is available .

I sold my Marriot and am no longer an owner. How do I keep people from still contacting me about an exchange?

Go to "Manage My Resorts" / "Add or Delete My Resorts" in the navigation menu, and delete your resorts. That will remove  your resorts and associated exchange preferences from the database. No one doing an exchange search will find you after that.

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