Last week my husband and I took our three boys to Newport Beach, California. We attended a 90-minute timeshare presentation in exchange for 3 nights at the Marriott Newport Coast Villas for $299 plus a $50 Marriott gift card. In this post, I’ll be sharing with you how I got this offer, a review of the property, how the timeshare presentation went, and how you can get this offer as well.

 

Booking the Promotional Offer

This summer I received an email from Marriott inviting me to come and stay at the Newport Coast Villas at a discounted rate in exchange for attending a 90-minute timeshare presentation. I called and booked us for October 27-30. Finding dates wasn’t the easiest thing. There are more dates available if you are willing to arrive on a Sunday or Monday. In fact, my mom called and purchased the package (she hasn’t booked the dates yet) and she was told if she checked-in on a Sunday or Monday they would give her four nights! Unfortunately, they didn’t mention that to me when I called. If you decide to do this I would ask about that.

If you ask me, three nights isn’t enough. There might be an option to book more nights at a reduced rate, I am not sure, but it is definitely worth asking about and something I wish I would have at least asked about. Our vacation was for four nights so we spent our first night at the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach. The kids had fun and enjoyed the pool but the rooms are small, outdated and not very nice. The beds and pillows were actually very comfortable! I wouldn’t stay here again though. What was nice is we used the annual free night that comes with the World of Hyatt Card for this stay so it was free (which was why we stayed here).

 

Marriott Newport Coast Villas Rooms

After being in a small hotel room the first night, we were so excited to arrive at the Marriott Newport Coast Villas! We were so looking forward to those spacious rooms that sleep 8, more than enough room for my family of 5.

When you walk into the villa you will enter the kitchen. It is a full kitchen and has all the necessities one would need. There are also grills available to use near each building which we took advantage of.

The room has a nice dining table and then you will enter the main living area. This room has a tv and a large couch that pulls out to a bed. There is also an outdoor seating area just outside the main living area. We never went out here because our ground floor room had a terrible view of a little road and some bushes. We were told these rooms are specifically for people visiting on the timeshare promotion.

Each villa has two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The kids’ room has a full-size bed plus a smaller couch that pulls out into a full-size bed as well. This room also has a tv. Four kids could sleep in that one room. The kids had their own bathroom to use which was really nice. The master bedroom is huge! It has a king-size bed and a tv in there as well. The bedroom space is very open and includes a large bathtub and bathroom sink. Through a door inside the bedroom, you will find the toilet and shower. The shower is very large and has two showerheads.

Marriott Newport Coast Villas Property

We actually didn’t realize all the property had to offer and how big it was until our timeshare presentation! The property has just about everything you could want and is such a great family resort.

The Marriott Newport Coast Villas have 3 pool areas. We only made it to two. Our kids’ favorite was one that had actually just opened a few days before we arrived. It is a large pool with a walk-in entrance. This pool area also has a separate water structure with two small slides that the kids enjoyed as well as a hot tub. There was plenty of seating and at least three fire pits.

The other pool that we made it to was their main pool. The views at this pool are beautiful! They offer poolside food and drinks. Above the pools, you will find a large chess set and two ping pong tables.

Behind the pool is the main lobby of the hotel. On the ground floor of this building, there is a small arcade, a fitness center (at least I’m pretty sure that’s where it was), a kids club with daily activities (we didn’t have time for these but I am sure my 7-year-old would have loved it).

On the grounds, you will also find a sand volleyball court, a small and large putting green, tetherball, basketball court, and a playground. I believe there are tennis courts as well but we didn’t see them. There is also a huge fire pit in this area.

The resort is in a great location. It isn’t on the beach but it has amazing ocean views and is just a 4-minute drive or so to Crystal Cove State Park. The property also has a shuttle that will take you there as well as to some other nearby attractions.

 

The Timeshare Presentation

This was our first timeshare presentation and we didn’t really know what to expect. You hear the horror stories but we figured with a name like Marriott it couldn’t be too terrible, right?! Well luckily, we were right!

When we arrived at the building where the presentation was we checked our kids in with child-care. They were the only kids there and were watched by a very sweet lady. The room had art, toys, books, and a movie to entertain the kids.

We were then taken to a large sitting to a room to wait for our salesperson. Once she arrived she took us to a top floor room to show us the kind of room we could book as owners. The views were amazing, it was night and day difference from our room! Afterward, we headed back to her office.

In her office, she explained how Marriott Vacation Club works. When you become an owner you get an annual allotment of points, not a week at a particular property. Your points can be used at any Marriott Vacation Club property. More in-demand properties, like a two-bedroom, unit at The Marriott Waiohai Beach Club in Kauai, will cost you a lot of points while less popular places are cheaper. You can use your points for as many days as you would like. You can also borrow from the next year or roll your points over a year. The flexibility in the program is really nice.

When it came to the sale she quickly realized we weren’t going to be big spenders. She came in with the lowest amount of points they sell, 1,000 points a year. With 1,000 points we could stay in a studio in Kauai. She showed us some other ways we could use our points but nothing I was super excited about. With 1,000 points we couldn’t take our kids to Hawaii. We couldn’t even return to the Newport Coast Villas unless we borrowed or rolled points over. The price for 1,000 points of ownership was around $14,000. On top of that, each year you pay a maintenance fee. For our 1,000 points, it would have been $580 or something similar to that. The more points you have the more you will pay in maintenance fees.

The saleswoman always had a counter-argument but was very nice and good at her job. She didn’t keep us over the 90 minutes. Afterward, she had us meet with a guy about doing an encore presentation. Basically what this is is another chance to stay at a Marriott Vacation Club at a discounted rate in exchange for another presentation. This time it was 4 nights and if I remember correctly it was between $995-$1595 depending on where you decided to go (there are a lot of choices) and how many bedrooms.

 

How to Get This Deal

Here is a screenshot of my email from Marriott. If you are interested in doing a timeshare presentation at the Marriott Newport Coast Villas then give them a call.

Another thing to mention is if you want to have access to condos but don’t want to buy a timeshare, look into Red Week. Red Week is a timeshare rental and resale site. You can usually find much cheaper rates here vs booking directly with the property. For example, in a quick search, I found listings for the Newport Coast Villas for $2,000 for 7 nights checking in on June 6th. If I were to book directly with Marriott it would cost $4,000 for those same dates! If you want to travel in the offseason you can find prices for under $1,000 for 7 nights! Keep in mind I have never used Red Week. It was actually the timeshare presenter who told me about it! It looks like in order to book you may have to pay a yearly membership of $18.99

 

Bottom Line

Needless to say, we didn’t buy purchase a timeshare during our presentation at the Marriott Newport Coast Villas. But, I will say that there are some perks of timeshare ownership. Once you buy in it is yours forever and like anything you own can be passed on. I have great memories of traveling with my grandparents and staying at their timeshares. And now my parents do the same thing with their grandkids. If I ever decide to buy a timeshare though I would definitely not buy one during a presentation! You can always find people trying to sell theirs at a discounted rate. My mom even bought one in Hawaii for $1….yes you saw that right, ONE DOLLAR!

I wouldn’t say a timeshare presentation is my favorite thing to do but it wasn’t as awful as I thought. I think a lot of that depends on the company you do it through. This is something I would do again if the offer was sweet enough. What about you? Would you sit through a 90-minute presentation in exchange for a discounted vacation?