Weighing time shares' virtues brings up several costly points

By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff, 03/03/02

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Dozens of owners at the Marriott Custom House Tower say it made sense to buy there purely for trading purposes, but some admit their strategy is becoming less and less attractive with each passing year.

Subhash Kakkar of Winchester bought two weeks at the historic time-share tower for the sole purpose of trading them each year for Marriott reward points, a strategy he and others said I didn't fully explore in a recent column questioning whether it made sense for Greater Boston residents to buy a week at the Custom House to trade.

Point exchanges are an increasingly popular option offered by many time-share operators. Instead of limiting the owner of a week to trading for a week in some other location, Marriott allows owners to trade for points that can be redeemed for stays at Marriott hotels or for flights, train rides, cruises, and car rentals.

With Marriott, points can be earned by staying at a Marriott property or using the services of one of Marriott's partners. They can also be earned in bulk by exchanging a week at one of Marriott's time shares. An off-season week at the Custom House, for example, nets the owner 110,000 points while a peak-season week earns 125,000. Custom House owners can trade for points every year, while owners at other properties are limited to every other year.

Back in 1988, Kakkar said, 200,000 points were enough for two round-trip economy airline tickets to anywhere in the world, a seven-day stay at a Marriott hotel, and a rental car.

"That worked out pretty good for the first year, but thereafter Marriott has reduced the point benefits," Kakkar said. In April 2000, the car rental benefit was dropped from the 200,000-point package. In April 2001, the number of points needed for Europe and Australia travel packages was raised to 250,000.

"If this trend continues, we'll be deprived of what was promised to us at the time of sale," Kakkar said.

Marriott spokeswoman Kim Manthei said the point changes were the first since 1989, and reflect higher costs. She stressed that point changes are not annual events, and that Kakkar unfortunately bought his weeks at the Custom House just as the changes were being implemented.

"I can't say the program won't change again in the future, but I can tell you it takes a lot to change it," Manthei said. "It's not anything we would want to do every year."

Kakkar's concerns, which were echoed by a handful of other time-share owners who contacted me, underscored a lingering concern about time shares. Even though the whole point of owning a time share is to lock in the price of future vacations, nothing remains static. Escalating annual maintenance fees, changes in management of the resort, and difficulties in trading are all factors that to some extent are beyond an owner's control.

Still, vacationing using time shares remains popular, and many owners at the Custom House say the buy-and-trade strategy has worked well for them.

Vanessa Barss of Lexington said she shopped in Orlando, Fla., for a time share but was turned off by the idea of owning where the units are churned out cookie-cutter style. "So when the Custom House came on the market, we decided to buy a tiny bit of history, a tiny piece of a magnificent building, and use it to trade."

She and her family have traded their week at the Custom House for weeks in Williamsburg, Va., Sedona, Ariz., and Kauai, Hawaii. This year, they plan to travel to Orlando.

"I enjoy having the time share because it forces us to take a major vacation each year and stay someplace really nice," Barss said. "Left to my own devices, I am prone to look for a moderately priced hotel room for our family."

Edward Pickering said Interval International, a time-share trading company, has offered him a bonus week for trading his week at the Custom House. That allowed him to recently trade his week in Boston for two in Hawaii.

"I am ecstatic to own a piece of the Custom House," he said. "It's one of Boston's proudest and most recognizable landmarks. It's a beautiful, historic structure."

Pickering said he doesn't regret for one minute buying a week at the Custom House. "Instead of paying money like rent to hotels and resorts, we actually have equity that will hopefully accrue over time. It might not be an investment property, but it's more than an investment in leisure," he said.

Brian Parillo, however, doesn't buy it. He thinks many of the buyers at the Custom House let their judgment be clouded by the attraction of owning a tiny sliver of a historic building.

"If you're planning to buy a time share to trade, the best strategy is to buy the cheapest resort in the highest-demand market," he said. "I bought a floating week, resale, at the Imperial Waikiki, Oahu, about five years ago for $3,000. My annual fee is $400. I've never even seen the facility. I've traded it every year.... Anyone who buys from a resort is a fool."

Glass weapons?

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xrSusan Condon of Saugus was changing planes in St. Louis recently when she noticed a number of couples getting on board carrying liquor they had purchased, presumably in the Caribbean.

Condon thinks no bottles should be allowed on the plane. She said even the pilot and flight attendant agreed. "Can you think of a better weapon than a broken bottle," she asked. "Mind you, they took my husband's disposable Bic away and a nail file."

Bruce Mohl can be reached by e-mail at mohl@globe.com.