Marriott Vacation Club
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Marco Island - BEWARE prior to staying for pitch
BEWARE if you are invited to visit Marriott Crystal Shores on Marco Island. The resort is beautiful, sales team professional, and if you're interested in buying a time share this would be a lovely place to do so. HOWEVER, they will put you up (you'll pay $600 for 3 nights and up) at the nearby Marco Ocean Beach Suites resort where they have a block of rooms (all privately owned by "some guy") as they can't seem to find others on the island - do NOT stay there unless you have a full video review of the room you are assigned, down to the cleanliness of the sheets and box spring (ie, no stains from bodily fluids per our experience), whether all the furniture is intact or if it's completely scratched up and upholstered furniture has stuffing coming out of it, whether the baseboards are black from not being cleaned, whether there are holes in the walls, etc., etc., etc., and a written guarantee you will be assigned the room in perfect order or be moved. The "resort" has a filthy entry, no services except a guy sitting at a makeshift front desk plugged into his phone, no restaurant, and housekeeping only on request which if you read other reviews, only sometimes shows up. Less egregious but also not resort-like - You will need to take beach towels from your closet on the fairly long walk to the beach where again there is no food or drink service. The pool is far from the beach and there is little shade. Any food service has to be ordered in or you need to go out. These are only a small portion of the hidden challenges we experienced two weeks ago. During and after our very uncomfortable stay, which we cut short because all the issues combined made us uncomfortable, we asked MVC for help, got none, and then emailed executives at MVC with details to bring awareness and help others avoid, if anything, this particular room (804). At Crystal Shores, there was no effort to assist other than joking about it, and we have not heard back from MVC executives. Not sure how they expect you to be in a buying mood when you've paid for and have been staying in a 2-star hotel.