What does the price of a Marriott rental include?

For guests pricing a Marriott Vacation Club villa rented from an owner: the figure on our rate invoice is the whole of what you pay us. We add no tax, no booking or service fee and no security deposit, and a check costs you nothing (PayPal adds 3.4% on a domestic card). What we do not collect are the resort’s own front-desk charges: parking at some resorts, daily housekeeping, and the occupancy tax in Hawaii and the Virgin Islands.

I sold these weeks for Marriott for over a decade of my working life, and since 2012 I have rented them out for the owners through Travelscowt, so I have sat on both sides of the front desk when a guest asks why the folio does not match the invoice. Here is the whole list, with the usual disclosure that I am a former Marriott salesman who now makes his living renting these villas.

Is our invoice the full price?

Yes. The rate on the invoice is the owner’s rate for the whole stay, and we stack nothing on top of it: no booking fee, no service fee, no cleaning fee, no tax line and no resort fee. When a guest booking Marriott’s Summit Watch last November asked whether the $3,500 on his invoice was really the full amount, the answer was yes. If you have rented one of our villas through Vrbo, you will have seen a service fee and a tax line added on top of the same nightly rate; those are Vrbo’s, which is why a returning guest does better writing to us directly.

Marriott’s Maui Ocean ClubLahaina, Hawaii8 guests · 2 bedroomsFrom $747 a night

What about taxes?

On a direct booking with us there is no tax line on the invoice. The one tax you will meet is the resort’s, and only in certain places: Hawaii and the U.S. Virgin Islands charge a transient occupancy tax on the villa, by the night, and the resort collects it from you at checkout, so it appears on your invoice as its own line under the resort’s name. At Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club, where I spent over a decade, most villa types carry $12 a day; at Marriott’s Kauai Beach Club it runs from $13.30 to $19 a day depending on the villa type; at Marriott’s Frenchman’s Cove on St. Thomas it is $25 a day. On the mainland (Florida, South Carolina, California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nevada) our invoices show no tax line at all.

Is there a resort fee?

Not at the Marriott vacation clubs we rent, and never from us. Hotels love the daily resort fee; the vacation clubs were built for owners who already pay a maintenance fee, so the pools, the Wi-Fi, the fitness room and the activities are in the rate. A few of the non-Marriott resorts on our site do charge one (the Four Seasons Residence Club Aviara in Carlsbad, the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki, where it is $52 a room a day plus tax, the Northstar Lodge at Lake Tahoe, and the Westin St. John, where it is folded into the rate), and where one applies to your stay it is printed on the invoice before you sign, with the figure on the resort page.

What does parking cost?

This is the one that changes from resort to resort, and it is the resort’s charge, so the resort page and the parking line on your invoice are the ones to read. At most of the Marriott vacation clubs self-parking is free and the valet costs extra: Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas parks two cars per villa at no charge, Marriott’s Crystal Shores allows one car per two-bedroom villa and two per three-bedroom, and Marriott’s Summit Watch has a free underground garage. The ski resorts are where it costs money: Marriott’s Timber Lodge in South Lake Tahoe has valet parking only, at $35 a day, Marriott’s MountainSide in Park City gives one parking pass per villa and charges $25 a night for a second car, and the Westin Riverfront in Avon charges $15 a day to self-park. In Hawaii it is free at Maui, Ko Olina and Waiohai, and $25 a day (valet $30) at Marriott’s Kauai Beach Club.

Is there a security or damage deposit?

No. We do not take one. What you will be asked for is a credit card at the front desk when you check in, for incidentals (the resort’s hold for anything you charge to the villa, as at any hotel), and that is between you and the resort. The only deposit in our vocabulary is the booking deposit: 50% when you book and the balance 120 days before check-in on a stay booked well ahead, or the full amount if you are inside that window. The dates are not held until the owner has been paid.

What about housekeeping?

At most of the resorts, daily housekeeping is not included in the rate and can be purchased at the front desk if you want it, which is the standard line on our invoices. A few resorts include some housekeeping in the week, and where yours does, the resort page and your invoice say so.

How can you pay, and what does it cost?

By check, at no cost to you, or by card through PayPal, which adds 3.4% on a domestic card. The rate invoice lists both. If you are paying from outside the United States, ask your scowt for the card fee before you pay.

The pros and cons of the way we price a stay

Pros:

• The invoice is the whole charge from us. The number you sign is the number you pay.
• No security deposit to chase back after the trip, and no cleaning fee.
• The pools, the Wi-Fi and the activities are in the rate at the Marriott resorts we rent.

Cons:

• In Hawaii and the Virgin Islands the resort collects its occupancy tax at checkout, on top of our rate.
• Parking costs money at the ski resorts and on Kauai, and daily housekeeping is extra almost everywhere.
• PayPal adds 3.4% to a card payment; a check avoids it, and a check takes longer to clear.
• The stay is non-refundable once the owner is paid (the policy is on our refund and cancellation page), so buy the travel insurance.

The resort pages answer the parking and resort-fee questions for each resort, our FAQ has the shorter version of all this, and how renting works for guests covers the rest of the process. If you are pricing Hawaii, add the occupancy tax to your sums before you fall in love with the week. And if the folio at checkout ever shows a line you did not see on your invoice, show it to the front desk before you leave the property, and then send it to your scowt; a line is far easier to argue on the spot than from the airport.

Marriott’s Maui Ocean ClubLahaina, Hawaii8 guests · 2 bedroomsFrom $747 a night