The Marriott Vacation Club is considered one of the premium brands in the timeshare industry and many of their properties live up to the chain's reputation quite well, but you will definitely pay for the privilege if you buy direct from Marriott. Some of their resorts cost as much as $85,000 for a single week.

Resale is always a much better deal, but Marriott does retain Right of First Refusal (ROFR) for resales at most of their properties so you may not find rock bottom prices for very popular weeks at certain resorts.

They are also the first major hotel chain to get into the timesharing industry, with the opening of their Sabal Palms Resort in Orlando, Fl in 1986. Currently they have more than 40 resorts worldwide. The majority of Marriott's properties are located in the US, but they also have resorts in Thailand, Spain, France, England and at various islands in the Caribbean.

Vacation Club owners have a 12 month priority booking window at their home resort, or 13 months if they own multiple weeks are are booking them consecutively or concurrently. Check-in dates are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They also allow split week options, for a fee, that allow you to use a weekend during one trip and the rest of the nights during another.

If you buy a lock-off unit, then you can lock off one half of the unit and basically double your vacation time.

For exchanges, Marriott is affiliated with Interval International (II) and they also have their own internal exchange program operated by Interval International which allows Marriott Vacation Club owners to exchange into other Marriot Vacation Club or Grand Residence Club resorts. What this means is that Marriott properties can be viewed within II only by other Marriott owners for a specific time period before they are released for availability to all Interval International members for booking. This hold period runs anywhere from 3-24 days.

You can exchange your Marriott Vacation club week(s) for Marriott Rewards points that allow you to book cruises, buy airline tickets, and rent cars, among other things. You can even exchange your Marriott Rewards for hotel accommodations.

But like most points exchange programs in the timeshare industry, trading your Marriott timeshare for points is generally not as cost effective as simply buying the points outright from Marriott or using your resort and paying cash for other destinations.

The ability to trade in your timeshare week for Marriott Rewards points is only available to owners who buy directly from Marriott, so if you are buying resale, keep in mind that you won't be able to get points for depositing your week with Marriott. There are other ways of getting points however. The Marriott Visa Rewards Card is one possibility.

if you do decide that you want to purchase Marriott through resale, then it is a good idea to research their properties located in the areas you are interested in visiting. I would keep an eye on Ebay auctions and check completed auctions and take my time buying in order to see what kind of price fluctations occur.

The best time to buy any timeshare is in November and December as current owners will often be trying to get out of paying their maintenance fee for the new year. For a Marriott, it will probably also pay to look at some other sites besides Ebay. Try Redweek and Bidshares.