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Travelscowt assists owners of brand name vacation clubs (timeshares) to successfully rent their weeks/points.

Marriott's Grande Ocean

The Marriott Pulse properties – chasing Airbnb…

I recently had the pleasure of touring one of Marriott’s newest vacation club properties, the Marriott San Diego Pulse. My wife and I were visiting friends in Escondido and decided to head south to San Diego to check out the city and tour the Pulse. Located in the Gas Lamp quarter and close to Balboa Park, the Pulse enjoys great shopping and hundreds of dining options within easy walking distance to the Vacation Club. One of the sales reps showed us around the lobby, fitness area and took us up to see a room. The room we previewed was categorized as a hotel room, however, it was much more spacious than a typical hotel room with a separate bedroom and small living room/kitchen area complete with an incredible view of the surrounding city. Although not nearly as spacious as the standar

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Marriott's Grande Ocean

Best ways to bequeath a timeshare

Although timeshare ownership cannot guarantee adding years to your life, it can certainly add some life to your years.  But as Rocky Balboa declared in the great movie Creed “ Father Time is undefeated”.  We are all moving downstream towards the Ocean and, as such, many timeshare owners will consider, at some point, that they want their children or family members to have their timeshare when they die.

Many, if not most, timeshares are real property interests. Even with the advent of points-based ownership programs such as the Marriott and Disney (to name a few) points generally, correspond to a trust based on real property and transferred to the client/owner in the fo

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Marriott's Grande Ocean

Thinking about Donating your timeshare to Charity?

In this post about timeshare donation, the content was principally drawn from an article written a number of years ago by David H. McClintock, CPA for Timesharing Today. Although the article is dated back to 2001, I have found the content sound and if nothing else a good starting point with regard to possibly donating a timeshare. I have also added my own commentary throughout the article as I saw fit.

As always, this article is for informational purposes only, please consult your accountant or legal expert with regard to renting, selling, donating and bequeathing your timeshare(s).

Mr. McClintock has written a number of very interesting articles on the tax implications of timeshare donation, rental and sales. I will be curating his work and submitting his articles w

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Marriott's Grande Ocean

Marriott’s BeachPlace Towers Review

Here’s another in my series of Vacation Club reviews:

The Marriott’s BeachPlace Towers vacation club is located six floors above ground level, sandwiched between the intercostal waterway and the Atlantic Ocean.

The resort’s lobby level and sun-kissed veranda sit atop the Gallery of Beachplace shopping center, situated directly across the street from the Ft Lauderdale’s white sand beach.

The GPS announces that I have arrived and after doing a few dizzying circles up the parking tower I find a spot and proceed to take the elevator up one more floor level.  My eyes adjust to the lobby area which looks out over the veranda, bar and pool area &n

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Marriott's Grande Ocean

Marriott’s Mountainside Villas Review

No exaggeration, I have probably declared this vacation club resort to be my very favorite at least a hundred times to various friends and clients.  It’s one of the main reasons I moved my family from Hawaii to Colorado and lived in the Vail Valley for about a year. I was presented with the opportunity to work in a ski town and after a dozen trips with my family and friends to Park City over the years, I decided if there was anything better than living by the beach and surfing (I had been living in Maui), it would be by the mountains and skiing.I am a self-confessed fanboy, I really don’t think I can do a review of the property justice in terms of being unbiased or even critical of Park City or the resort itself.

Of course, if I really wanted to find fault, I

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Marriott's Grande Ocean

Marriott’s Grande Ocean Review

I recently visited the Marriott’s Grande Ocean with my family over our spring break and decided to pen a review of the resort. I handle quite a few owner rentals for Grande Ocean, and the trip served the dual purpose of vacationing with my loved ones and getting to know the property better. I had stayed with my family at the Marriott’s Barony Beach Club a few of years ago and had managed only a brief visit to the Marriott’s Grande Ocean down the beach.

My wife and our two teenagers were joined by two of their cousins, close in age, who had been driven up by my brother-in-law from Florida.

Upon arriving at the Marriott’s Grande Ocean, we were directed to our vi

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Marriott's Grande Ocean

Marriott’s Crystal Shores review

My old friend Steve texted me, and he asked me if he could FaceTime me via our phones. “Sure, what’s up?” I asked. The image of aqua blue pools running left from left to right from an office window flashed on to my screen. “Huh?” But I had already accessed my memory banks. Are you at Marriott’s Crystal Shores? …

He replied affirmatively and explained that he had transferred from Marriott in Orlando down to Marco Island. Steve and I had worked for various Marriott Vacation clubs since meeting over 20 years ago and enjoyed the friendship and commonality of a shared career.

“Get me some pics from the Poolside balcony – please.” I exci

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Marriott's Grande Ocean

Marriott’s Ocean Pointe

I had the good fortune to have worked for the Marriott Vacation Club for over a decade, in that time and to the present, I have been able to work for, visit and stay at dozens of vacation clubs (Marriott and others). I took some notes during my stays and have decided to add these observations and insights on the website. Furthermore, I will enlarge upon these notes from my vacation club travels, and I hope you find some nice nuggets when considering your next trip using your ownership.

I recently visited Marriott’s Ocean Pointe with my family, and I can present the following review for the property.

Before I get started, I would like to disclose that I spent the very early part

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Marriott's Grande Ocean

Marriott’s Ocean Watch Villas review

I grew up in the Northeast and during my college years, my friends and I would sometimes drive from our school in Rhode Island down interstate 95 to visit Disney World and other Spring Break locales. We would normally stop about halfway down at a town called South of the Border, which presented itself as a mix of a Mexican border town blended with a simulacrum of International Drive in Orlando with all its tourist traps. Heralded by never ending billboards advertising cheap tourist shops and Mexican cafés with a neon glow. For us, it was just a place to stop, eat and take some pics decked out in our store-bought sombreros and accompanying ponchos.

A little over an hour away from this Carolina cut-rate Tijuana lie the beach town of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Having gr

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