# Worldmark Constitution / Deed - Did they illegally start charging guest fees?



## Jesse6283 (Jan 5, 2022)

I met the original founder of Worldmark by Wyndham in Fiji, his name was Bill Pear. Actually, he started the club as Trendwest Resorts but it later turned into Worldmark by Wyndham. He was explaining to me that when he founded Trendwest he did it in a similar fashion to how they made the US Constitution and that some rules were embedded to NEVER be allowed to be changed. Their goal when they made the club was to make a real timeshare that is actually on the owners side and does not waste funds towards big manager payouts/bonuses, etc. A club that is always on the owners side, not managers. He also went on to explain that a lot of rules were made in the original "constitution" so that they could never be changed by management. This also explains why some old contracts are Non housekeeping fee contracts, so Worldmark can never impose housekeeping charges on those old contracts. 

My question is though, is it legal for them to be charging us $99 Guest Fees on all our reservations? Is this against the original constitution of the paperwork? Does anyone have the original Deed they can post in here so we can look at the fine print, I could not find my old papers...


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## geist1223 (Jan 5, 2022)

I have no idea what you mean by a Constitution for Worldmark. There are the Original Founding Documents registered in California. These can and have been changed by a Vote of the Members. You also have part of the History wrong. If I remember correctly the original Club was Es Spirit (sp?). With Trendwest as the Original Developer. At one point I believe Jen Weld's original Owners got into Resort Development with WM in addition to other Resorts.  Because of a copy right issue they had to change the name of the Club and it became Worldmark by Trendwest. Eventually the Developent right were purchased by Wyndham's predecessor, which has now changed it name several times.

Wyndham/Wyn-D etc are retained by the Worldmark BOD to be the day to day Managers of the Resorts. They make recommendation to the WM BOD such as Guest Certificates, etc but it is the duly elected WM BOD that enacts these types of things.

This is from my memory in reading all the Documentation several years ago.


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## rhonda (Jan 5, 2022)

@Jesse6283 , I would be so glad if you are proven correct on this research!  Best wishes!


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## Tacoma (Jan 6, 2022)

rhonda said:


> @Jesse6283 , I would be so glad if you are proven correct on this research!  Best wishes!


Be careful what you wish for Rhonda I am pretty sure that Jesse6283 rents out WM units on airbnb all the time. I know this is legal and he has the right to do so but I believe he rents out lots of destinations and units. The more units rented for profit the less availability for owners. I hate the guest fee too (especially for families) and in all honesty have rented occasionally for profit but people who make this a business are changing the original intention of the club. There's almost no point in even trying for the resort near Yellowstone in the summer, mega renters book all the rooms to rent for profit. I was hoping when WM brought in the new rule that with multiple reservations a guest fee had to be added within 5 days that the name on that guest fee could not be changed. Most people with family reunions (multiple units) would be able to make an educated guess as to which family members would be the most likely not to cancel and put the other units in their names. As it is now Wyndham just gets the $99 guest fee within 5 days of making the multiple reservations and then another $99 guest fee when the renter knows the name of the guest. More profit for Wyndham is not what I want to see when they make changes. I want to see more availability for owners at peak times.
Joan


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## tschwa2 (Jan 6, 2022)

With Vistana they reversed their policy of charging guest certs on home week reservations only because the original documentation for most of the resorts had a specific provision stating that owners could designate guests to stay and that there would be no fee to make that guest designation.  If the original documents had just mentioned the ability to designate guest without specifically mentioning that this ability came with no charge, then I'm sure that the fee would have stuck. If such a provision existed, I would have thought that someone would have found it in the documents for Worldmark within a month or so of the fee.


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## Jesse6283 (Jan 6, 2022)

I am actually surprised that they increased maintenance fees this year, even with all the extra profit from the guest certificates, not too mention reduced costs from Covid and hiring less staff but still charging all owners maintenance fees, it is not as if they extended those points an extra year... I suppose that is unrelated, but yeah if it said in the original documentation that you are allowed to have friends and family stay in your unit, they should not be able to change that rule... I guess the law is the law though, I am just curious if what they did is legal.


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## CO skier (Jan 6, 2022)

Jesse6283 said:


> My question is though, is it legal for them to be charging us $99 Guest Fees on all our reservations? Is this against the original constitution of the paperwork? Does anyone have the original Deed they can post in here so we can look at the fine print, I could not find my old papers...


The general consensus when guest certificates were introduced was that, yes, the BOD is authorized by the bylaws to impose fees on guest usage.  The specific wording the of bylaw is quoted in this post and others, if you want to search other threads on the topic.









						New Guideline Changes - Regarding Guest Certificates
					

I'm a professional engineer, and I have done building reserve fund studies. I know how they work.  It is my considered (but not professional) opinion that worldmark does not have sufficient reserves in place to cover the costs they will face in the future.  I cite a couple pieces of evidence for...




					tugbbs.com
				




It should also be noted that the quoted bylaw was in the original governing documents when Club Esprit was created in 1989.


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