If you are looking into purchasing a Marriott Legacy Week for the purposes of trading it with Interval International, you have come to the right place! With the incredible value that can be found on the resale market when shopping for a Marriott legacy week, many prospective timeshare buyers choose to buy an affordable deeded week and trade it with Interval International to gain a greater degree of booking flexibility.
In this article, we will discuss how to select the perfect week for trading purposes, what fees are involved in order to exchange your week, and we’ll be covering how you can double your vacation time by using Interval International to turn one week of vacation into two weeks of the same unit size! Read on to learn how it’s possible!
Why Buy A Marriott Legacy Week For The Purpose Of Exchanging It?
While Marriott legacy weeks can be some of the best value for the money you can find on the resale market, some travelers wish to book at differing resorts, or during differing seasons, or within differing unit sizes from year to year.
By understanding how to effectively exchange your Marriott legacy week, you can book at literally thousands of resorts, any time of the year, and if you get creative with some of the tips we will cover in this article, you can even change unit sizes from year to year as well.
What’s The Ideal Marriott Legacy Week To Buy For Trading Purposes?
Ideally, you would want to purchase:
- your week during a season that is comprised of high travel demand weeks
- at a resort that allows you to lock off the unit
- at a resort that has the lowest maintenance fee possible
We will explore in detail how to approach checking off each item on this short list of attributes in the following sections.
Buying A Marriott Week During A Season With Peak Travel Demand
When exchanging your week with Interval International, you will want to select a season at your preferred resort that has high travel demand weeks. Normally, this would be Platinum season, but you can get much more in-depth information by browsing the Interval International website and looking at their Travel Demand Index (TDI) charts for the resort you are looking at buying and seeing what week numbers carry the highest travel demand, then using that information to select the right resort and season for your purposes.
For example, let’s say we are considering purchasing a 2 bedroom unit at Marriott’s Grande Vista. First we would want to find the TDI chart that shows what week numbers are more valuable, and ensure we are buying the most advantageous season. Above you can see that weeks 26, 27, 51, and 52 for the Orlando are carry a TDI of 150.
To have the highest trading power, we would ideally want to book one of those weeks, or a week with as high of a TDI as possible, then deposit that week into Interval International. It would be wise to buy at a resort that has many weeks listed as high demand, and buy during a season that allows you to book those weeks each year before depositing.
Buying A Marriott Week At A Resort That Features Lock-Off Units
By owning a lock-off unit, this simply means you have purchased a 2 or 3 bedroom unit, but it can be turned into a 1 bedroom and a studio, or possibly a 2 bedroom and a studio, depending on what your specific unit type is.
Essentially this affords you 2 different weeks for one maintenance fee. Each of these weeks can be separately deposited into Interval International. We will show you later in the article how to turn each of those weeks into a 2 bedroom villa with Interval International, doubling your vacation time!
Marriott Resorts That Feature Lock-Off Units
| Resort Name | Interval International Resort Code |
|---|---|
| Aruba Ocean Club | MAO |
| Aruba Surf Club | MSU |
| BeachPlace Towers | MBP |
| Canyon Villas | MCV |
| Desert Springs Villas | MDS |
| Desert Springs Villas II | MPD |
| Grand Chateau | MGC |
| Grande Vista | MGV & MGR |
| Harbour Lake | MHZ |
| Kauai Beach Club | MKW |
| Ko Olina Beach Club | MKO |
| Lakeshore Reserve | MHZ |
| Manor Club Sequel at Ford’s Colony | MSE |
| Maui Ocean Club | MMO |
| Maui Ocean Club Lahaina and Lapili Villas | MM1 |
| MountainSide | MOU |
| Ocean Pointe | MPB |
| Playa Andaluza | MUZ |
| Shadow Ridge | MRD |
| Summit Watch | MSW |
| Timber Lodge | MML |
| Village d’Ile-de-France | MVF |
| Willow Ridge Lodge | MHB |
Marriott Resorts With Lowest Annual Maintenance Fees
Generally, annual maintenance fees will be lowest when buying at a resort that is located in Nevada or Florida. Whereas usually resorts in Hawaii or Aruba can be considerably higher. Some examples of great resorts to own at for trading purposes would be something like Marriott’s Grand Chateau in Las Vegas, Marriott’s Canyon Villas in Phoenix, or Marriott’s Grande Vista in Orlando.
If you’re sole intention is to trade the week, might as well pay as little as possible for your maintenance!
What Costs Are Involved In Exchanging Your Week Through Interval International?
There are a few costs that will be required each year to exchange your week with Interval International, and there are some optional fees that you can elect to pay, depending on what you are wanting to accomplish.
Required Fees To Exchange Your Week
- Annual Maintenance Fee: For our demonstration purposes, let’s use a $1,500 annual maintenance fee. Some will pay less, some will pay more, but this a good average to use for our math later on.
- Interval International Membership Fee: This will cost about $99 per year. There are usually some specials where you can buy additional years upfront and get discounts, but without any special discounts it will cost $99 annually to be a member of Interval International.
- Exchange Fee: To confirm your exchange, you will be required to pay a $154 exchange fee. Keep in mind this exchange fee is per exchange, so if you’re locking off, and exchanging both weeks, you will need to budget for two exchange fees.
Optional Fees To Exchange Your Week
- Upgrade Fee: With Interval International, you can pay $99 to upgrade to the next unit size up. This fee has to be paid for each step up to you take when upgrading. For example, if you want to turn a studio into a 2 bedroom, you will need to pay 2 upgrade fees.
- Lock Off Fee: Marriott charges a $90 fee to lock off your unit.
- II Platinum Membership Fee: You can also pay $139 for a platinum membership, which you can use to get discounted upgrade fees (among other discounted fees and perks) of just $59. Depending on how you will use your membership, Platinum membership may end up paying for itself in the reduced fees.
Doubling Your Vacation Time Using II Upgrades
Earlier, we promised to show you how to double your vacation time with Interval International. There are a few aspects we will need to have lined up to do so. We would need to own at a resort that allows lock offs, and we would need to deposit both weeks into Interval, then upgrade each week to get two 2 bedroom weeks.
The fees for doing so would look like this:
- Annual Maintenance Fee: $1,500
- Lock Off Fee: $90
- Interval International Membership Fee: $99
- 1st Exchange Fee: $154
- 2nd Exchange Fee: $154
- Upgrade Fee (turning 1 bedroom into 2 bedroom): $99
- Upgrade Fee (turning studio into 1 bedroom): $99
- Upgrade Fee (turning 1 bedroom into 2 bedroom): $99
- Total Costs: $2,294
So, for a total of $2,294, you would be getting 2 weeks in a 2 bedroom villa, plus have the flexibility to book any of the Marriott Vacation Club resorts, or any other resort within the Interval International network. For an average cost of $1,147 per week, this is a very cost effective way to greatly extend the usability and flexibility of your legacy week.
Also, keep in mind, you are not forced to perform these trades or pay many of these fees every year. You can pick and choose which years you would need extra flexibility or extra vacation time, and the years you might not need it, you can choose to travel to your home resort, book another Florida Club resort if your home resort qualifies, or perform a more simple trade for another resort in the Interval International network.
Let’s Tie This Up!
While many people are content to use their Marriott Legacy Week at their home resort each year, some people like to explore the world and take advantage of the Interval International exchange program to change resorts, seasons or unit sizes year to year. We hope this guide has been helpful in understanding how you can select the perfect Marriott legacy week to exchange with Interval International, and how doing so affords you a wide amount of flexibility.
If you’re interested in purchasing a Marriott legacy week, you can browse our wide selection of Marriott listings, or feel free to fill in an online form to contact us and get a free consultation with one of our Marriott Vacation Club specialists that can answer any questions you have about the process.
