Direct, Vrbo, RedWeek or Marriott: where should you book the villa?

For guests choosing where to book a Marriott Vacation Club villa: the villa is the same whichever door you walk through; what changes is the price, the fees, the terms and who answers your email. Booking direct with us gets you the owner’s nightly rate with no platform fee; Vrbo and RedWeek add their service fees and taxes to that same rate; Marriott’s own site charges the resort’s rate. An Airbnb house is a different product.

Before I compare anything, I should say where I sit. I sold these weeks for Marriott for over a decade, I started Travelscowt in 2012 to rent them out for the owners, and some of the Vrbo and RedWeek listings you will see at these resorts are ours. So this is a former Marriott salesman comparing Marriott with his own company, and you can weigh what follows accordingly.

What are you actually comparing?

Not the villa. A two-bedroom at Marriott’s Crystal Shores is the same two-bedroom whether the reservation came from an owner, a rental company, a listing site or Marriott’s reservations line, and the front desk assigns it the same way at check-in. What you are comparing is who holds the reservation, what sits between their price and the total you pay, and what happens if you need help or want to change something. So let me take the doors one at a time.

Marriott’s Crystal ShoresMarco Island, Florida8 guests · 2 bedroomsFrom $435 a night

Booking direct with Travelscowt

You pay the owner’s nightly rate for your dates, by check at no charge or by card through PayPal at 3.4%, and the rate invoice is the whole amount: no booking fee, no service fee, no security deposit. One scowt handles the request, the rental agreement, the reservation in your name with Marriott and the confirmation number that follows payment, and that person is still the one answering when you have a question the week before check-in. The terms are plain and strict: final and non-refundable once the owner is paid, with travel insurance recommended on every stay. Many of our guests find us on a listing site the first time and book direct the second, because the villa was the same and the fee was gone.

Booking the same villa on Vrbo or RedWeek

A good part of what you see on Vrbo and RedWeek at Marriott resorts is owner inventory, and some of it is ours. The platform puts its service fee and the taxes on top of the nightly rate, and the host’s rental terms (ours included) stay as written on the listing, so a no-cancellation listing is a no-cancellation booking there too. In return you get a site you already know, a card payment inside it and a review history to read, which is worth something to a first-time guest and I will not pretend otherwise. One quote this January gives the size of the difference: a 12-night September stay at Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas came to $6,200 booked direct and about $8,000 for the same villa through Vrbo at the time.

Booking with Marriott directly

Marriott sells the same villas to the public at the resort’s own rate, and that rate is the one the owners’ rentals are measured against. In one November quote, Marriott’s site was asking over $4,300 for a one-bedroom for a March week at Marriott’s BeachPlace Towers while our two-bedroom for the same week was $3,300. Rates move, so take that as a snapshot and not a promise. The honest point in Marriott’s favor is that you are dealing with the company that runs the resort, on its terms rather than an owner’s.

What about an Airbnb house instead?

I wrote about this when Marriott opened its Pulse hotels: Airbnb did not just meet a demand for spacious, home-style places to stay, it created one, and the hotel companies have been chasing it since. A vacation club villa is that kind of space, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a full kitchen and a washer and dryer, set inside a resort with pools, activities and a front desk, and with nobody’s bicycle in the hallway. A house on Airbnb can be bigger, cheaper or closer to a particular beach, and if that is what the trip needs, book the house. If the trip needs a pool bar, a kids’ program and a front desk that answers at midnight, it is a villa, and then the question is only which door.

The pros and cons, door by door

Direct with us. Pros: the owner’s rate with no fee on top, one scowt start to finish, the reservation in your name with Marriott. Cons: non-refundable, 7 nights weekend to weekend in the peak weeks, and our inventory is thinner than Marriott’s.

Vrbo or RedWeek. Pros: a site you know, card payment inside it, reviews to read. Cons: the service fee and taxes on top of the same rate, and the same non-cancellation terms once you read the listing.

Marriott directly. Pros: the company that runs the resort, on its own terms. Cons: the resort’s own rate.

An Airbnb house. Pros: more choice of size and street, sometimes a lower price. Cons: no resort, no front desk, and the terms are whatever the host set.

If a villa is the right call, browse the resorts, read how renting works for guests and the refund policy before you book anywhere, and send your scowt the dates. If you have already booked us through Vrbo once, write to us directly next time and keep the fee in your pocket.

Marriott’s Crystal ShoresMarco Island, Florida8 guests · 2 bedroomsFrom $435 a night