FAQ & Links for Timeshare Point and Hotel Based ownerships

HGVC
Vistana Signature Experiences FAQ
Vistana Signature Experiences information
Wyndham Points FAQ
Diamond Resorts International FAQ
Shell Vacations Club
Hyatt Residence Club
Disney Vacation Club Points information
Raintree Vacations/Whiski Jack/ Club Regina www.raintreevacationclub.com
Worldmark the Club information
Club Intrawest CI
And the Clubintrawest Wiki http://clubintrawest.pbwiki.com/
Monarch Grand MGV MGV bought out by Diamond Resorts International (formerly Sunterra) in Oct 2011 DRI
Vacation Internationale VI
Marriott Destination Points FAQ



Chart comparing the 4 major hotel based TS systems chart of 4 hotel based sytems

OK, let the comments begin.

Also anyone who want to help with this, I really like the help.

Like a Bluegree FAQ or Advice and a Raintree or advice.

PS I'll be taking your advice and edit the earlier posts to keep this thing clean

I'm trying to keep clubintrawest.pbwiki.com up-to-date with info about Club Intrawest as an alternative to the TUG pages, which are quite stale.

S

Okay, I checked the FAQ stickey at the top. Any info yet on Bluegreen?

Raintree Users Guide

I have a pdf version of the Raintree Users Guide which I can forward to you if you can post it. It lays out the program and has a decent faq section.

Please let me know.

Chris

Do any of these point based systems come with a free II membership?

How about the Amber Vacation Club--it is a pure points based system
thanx, Dawn

Wyndham points

If we purchase Wyndham deeded points, can these be used on Wyndham hotels also??

Bill4728 said:

PS Here is a document comparing the 4 major hotel based TS systems chart of 4 hotel based sytems

Click to expand...

Hi- just curious- is the above document up to date? I am wondering because I see some of the membership fees include memberships to II and they are lower than a regular II membership. Wondering if these prices have gone up or if the reduced fee is a perk of ownership.

Bill4728 said:

This thread will have links to advice article and FAQ for the many different point based TS systems.

Some systems I call "Pure Points"
-these systems are more like stock in a TS system. You don't own a deed at a single resort but "points" in the TS system. The biggest of these is Worldmark but there are many others Like Club Intrawest, Vacations Internationale, Monarch Grand Vacations and others (I will add as I discover them)

Click to expand...

This is probably going to be a really stupid question, but I'm gonna ask it anyway If you don't own a deed at a single resort, how to you go about buying the points? I'm curious as to what I should be looking for, for example, on eBay.

Obviously, I have zero experience with points.

Second question. I'm assuming that if you own WM points and you want to stay in a non-WM property, you'd deposit your points with with RCI? Is that right? Would it be possible to get Bonnet Creek?

tenthousandvolts said:

Hi- just curious- is the above document up to date? I am wondering because I see some of the membership fees include memberships to II and they are lower than a regular II membership. Wondering if these prices have gone up or if the reduced fee is a perk of ownership.

Click to expand...

They may not be up to date. But some systems have a special deal with their exchange companies so there is a special price to belong.

If you don't own a deed at a single resort, how to you go about buying the points? I'm curious as to what I should be looking for, for example, on eBay.

Click to expand...

Instead of owning a deeded property you own "points" in the company which holds the deeds to the resort. So when you buy someones points, they have the ownership of those points transferred to you much like buying stock in a company.

Second question. I'm assuming that if you own WM points and you want to stay in a non-WM property, you'd deposit your points with with RCI? Is that right? Would it be possible to get Bonnet Creek?

Click to expand...

Yes, But with worldmark, you have access to both RCI & II. So you can use either exchange company.

Festiva Adventure Club

What can you find for us about the Festiva Adventure Club?

Any information about RCI Points and how that system stacks up to other points systems? What about the (dis)advantages aginst the RCI Weeks system?

We are currently on RCI Weeks but are contemplating converting to RCI Points.

Any advice or input?

Updates.

Im surprised at the age of most the overview docs. The forum is certainly active and I'll keep at it but it is sure difficult finding starter docs like this but up date. This did help and I am happy to have found it but I would love to see more comparison stuff like the benefits of the pure points versus deeded like rci versus Wyndham .

Thanks for time everyone, I know I'll get there eventually.

LannyPC said:

Any information about RCI Points and how that system stacks up to other points systems? What about the (dis)advantages aginst the RCI Weeks system?

We are currently on RCI Weeks but are contemplating converting to RCI Points.

Any advice or input?

Click to expand...

Kdjk5467 said:

Im surprised at the age of most the overview docs. The forum is certainly active and I'll keep at it but it is sure difficult finding starter docs like this but up date. This did help and I am happy to have found it but I would love to see more comparison stuff like the benefits of the pure points versus deeded like rci versus Wyndham .

Thanks for time everyone, I know I'll get there eventually.

Click to expand...

RCI points isn't a TS system but a product that any TS can offer if the resort system signs up for it. THEREFORE this thread doesn't contain any info about RCI points.

Bill4728 said:

RCI points isn't a TS system but a product that any TS can offer if the resort system signs up for it. THEREFORE this thread doesn't contain any info about RCI points.

Click to expand...

Ah! Thanks. I think I am on the way to enlightenment. I tool RCI to be a "Pure Points" system as described above. Where "You don't own a deed at a single resort but "points" in the TS system. "

Don't worry, I'll be back with more newbie questions.

Thanks again,
JK (One half of KDJK).

How many points...is good number of points?

Clearly I am new and researching... so please bear with me. I see, for instance, 12k WorldMark points on ebay with current price just less than 2k. Then, on TUG, I saw 12k WorldMark points for 5k. Then I see over 300k wyndom/fairfield points advertised for 3k. RCI 12k points for 11k. The 300k sounds like a better deal of course...but how do you know?

Say you buy the 300k points with Wyndom/fairfield and want to exchange via RCI...what can you get for that?

Does the maintenance fee go up with the # of points you buy....how do they determine that?

This is all a little elusive and imprecise it seems. Your help is very much appreciated!

A broad comparision of systems

12,000 WM points is a 2 bedroom Prime Season at most resorts
for Wyndham 231,000 is the same 2 bedroom Prime Season
for RCI around 70,000 unless it is an RCI points resort, then higher.
Of these WM is currently the most expensive, with RCI points and Wyndham being almost given away on Ebay.

WM points can be found for around .25
Wyndham for next to nothing
RCI points also almost free

The purchase price is only the down payment, the real cost is the annual fees and the trade costs.

WM trades very well with RCI, there a 4000 is a Blue studio, 6000 is a red 1 bedroom, and 8000 is a red 2 bedroom. Their annual fees are better the more points you own.

Wyndham a 28,000 is a blue studio, 70,000 is a red studio, 154000 is a red 2 bedroom.

RCI points short notice weeks can be had for 7000-9500 points if you can travel on short notice and offs season. The exchange fees are still the same, but a 50,000 points ownership will get a lot of short notice weeks.

There is the rough comparison, there are many fine points to learn about each system.

Greg

EliseRN said:

Clearly I am new and researching... so please bear with me. I see, for instance, 12k WorldMark points on ebay with current price just less than 2k. Then, on TUG, I saw 12k WorldMark points for 5k. Then I see over 300k wyndom/fairfield points advertised for 3k. RCI 12k points for 11k. The 300k sounds like a better deal of course...but how do you know?

Say you buy the 300k points with Wyndom/fairfield and want to exchange via RCI...what can you get for that?

Does the maintenance fee go up with the # of points you buy....how do they determine that?

This is all a little elusive and imprecise it seems. Your help is very much appreciated!

Click to expand...

fyi we are in the process of creating "resort review" pages for point systems that we can use to stockpile all of this data (links and such) on...as well as consolidate the rentals/resales listings for each specific points system too.

stay tuned =)

Does anyone have any info on California Vacation Club? I am looking at listings that are basically free on ebay, zero closing costs. I would love to see a points chart, but I cannot find anything.

mgv points every year?

MGV is trying to sell me 155 pts, deposited every year, $600 HOA, for $3600.
$12k - $9k credit they are giving me for my Riviera Beach and Spa

I would be converting my Riviera Beach and Spa, which I paid $1 for , for these 155 pts, everything i have seen are every 2 yr deposits and the same HOA per year. So for most it is $1200 for the 155 points, which is consistant with the poster that notes that it is cheaper to use escape time. I have until Saturday to decide. Advise please ??

I'm beginning to like this resort, nothing fancy but a great area.

Bill4728 said:

This thread will have links to advice article and FAQ for the many different point based TS systems.

But first what is a "point based" TS system?

I'm going to define a "point based" TS system as a TS system which has a internal trading system which is based on points. ( so a Marriott would not be since you don't use "points" to trade within the TS system)

Some systems I call "Pure Points"
-these systems are more like stock in a TS system. You don't own a deed at a single resort but "points" in the TS system. The biggest of these is Worldmark but there are many others Like Club Intrawest, Vacations Internationale, Monarch Grand Vacations and others (I will add as I discover them)Added Aug 2010- Marriott new point based TS system

Some systems are "Deed based" or resort based systems.
- These system you own a deed at a single resort but are assigned "points" for use in doing internal trading within the TS system. Points are assigned by the system based on the resort, season and size of the underlining TS. Hilton, Starwood, Wyndham/Fairfield, Disney, Diamond (Sunterra), Hyatt, Shell, Bluegreen are but a few examples of these systems.

These "deed based" systems are broken down more by the resale rights to use the system if you purchase resale.
Some systems are designed so all resale buyers can use the point system no matter how they buy the resort. Other systems allow only those buyers access the the internal points system if the buy from the developer (or other special rules).

PS Here is a document comparing the 4 major hotel based TS systems chart of 4 hotel based sytems

Click to expand...

help

i have two weeks at welk resorts escondido. i dont want to just look at their web site as my only source of info especially after reading some unflattering stuff on this site about the sales pitches. the one i read called the pitch they received the 'platinum overlay' package. this was posted in Nov. 2010. is this the same as buying some points and converting your weeks into points? i am interested in points. the offer to me is $11K for 60K points then they convert my two weeks into points too. its a lot of points in the end but its a lot of money too. they said this is an old offer but they were making it available to me since i never knew about them changing over to points and we've owned there a long time. any opinions are greatly appreciated.

Can't figure Welk's offer

Hi sb23 -

We have been doing our best to stay away from Welk's "owner update" meetings. I just cannot imagine how paying $11,000 to get points could possibly be a good deal for us.

One of my thoughts is this: If you own points, you own Cabo & Branson & Palm Desert. But we *only* want to got to Escondido. Since Escondido is, I believe, the most popular Welk resort, wouldn't points make me compete with all those Cabo owners, etc.?

What did they tell you that helped you feel like switching to points is a smart thing to do?

I can share with you why we won't be buying Points. Just weeks ago, we returned home from a Flagstaff, AZ exchange into a Wyndham property where we got roped into attending a presentation. We did get an education. Our sales presenter-person (some level of manager, we are led to believe) advised us that all the properties are converting to the points-only system and, if we didn't get on the bus now, we would be left behind. Weeks ownership will go the way of dinosaurs. Furthermore, points owners get first crack at all the weeks-only properties (but never the other way around) and then the folks who want to buy time can also purchase from the inventory.

What is to stop points-only venders from over-selling existing inventory? What happens when so many points are sold and there are only a limited number of resorts? With a deed, you at least have time at a real resort where you are an owner.

To convert to points, you must surrender your deed and pay $$$ (thousands) and still get stuck with maintenance fees for the points, but you only have points, no deed, at that time. They get the deed and, I suppose, Wyndham/RCI (both owned by Wyndham these days) become the owners of that time weeks people give up. No deed, only points, and what is to stop Wynd-RCI from recalculating the value of points needed for exchanges in the future? With a deed, you know you can go to your home resort and get priority reservations when your yearly anniversary comes up.

If I were to buy points, I would do so from other owners trying to cheaply unload theirs on any number of websites. Avoid buying them for the inflated prices the timeshare sales staff sell them for.

First there are many point base TS systems. WM is but one of these. .... aliikai2--Thanks for the link, I'll start reading immediately. snpperhd ...