# II fights back -incentive to keep Wyndham II account - AC



## GrayFal (Jul 8, 2014)

Early threads discussed the letter Wyndham sent "telling" owners they would be switched to RCI. in 10 days if they did not reply to said letter...

Apparently II did NOT like this threat to it members and sent out the following letter I received this week. 

I know Wyndham II members make up a fraction of owners but I am glad II has stood up for the bully tactics of Wyndham....way to go II!


From Pat Taylor Membership Marketing , Interval International….


"You may have received a letter from Wyndham Vacation Ownership informing you that they have selected RCI as their exchange company and as a result, your membership with II will be automatically transferred to RCI

*However, we want to assure you that you still have the right to retain your membership in II. (their emphasis)"*

just return the attached form….blah blah blah

"*Wyndham Vacation Ownership will remit the yearly membership fee included in your annual Club Fees directly to II*


_As a thank you for renewing your membership with II, you'll get a Resort Accommodation Cert every time you receive a confirmed exchange using your Club Wyndham Membership. This will continue until December 31, 2017._"

(price is from $249-$449 depending on unit size - can reserve from one year out to 24 hours out and you can get a guest cert for this resie)


I am staying with II - and I NEVER got the letter from Wyndham telling me they were going to switch me to RCI.

Link to thread about switch….http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206019


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## simpsontruckdriver (Jul 8, 2014)

Makes sense, when you think of it. Wyndham owns a majority stake in RCI, so they obviously want everyone to trade with them. It does seem bully-like to tell II members they will be transferred to RCI (or whatever they call it on their side). So, II members should do what they say, inform Wyndham they are sticking with II.

TS


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## hjtug (Jul 8, 2014)

GrayFal said:


> From Pat Taylor Membership Marketing , Interval International
> _As a thank you for renewing your membership with II, you'll get a Resort Accommodation Cert every time you receive a confirmed exchange using your Club Wyndham Membership. This will continue until December 31, 2017._"



I didn't receive this letter from II nor did I receive an AC with my very recent confirmed exchange.  Not that the ACs seem very valuable.

Something seems to have prevented Wyndham from just switching all of us to II.  They took a devious approach to maximize the number who would go along with the switch.  II has now taken action to counteract.  A couple of times when I was on the phone with II in the last couple of months I asked reps if they knew what Wyndham was up to.  They did not but perhaps passed the information from members up to management.  Or, perhaps one or more of us contacted II management directly.


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## Fin's (Jul 8, 2014)

*II Letter*

Thanks to a member on here. I signed and returned mine on Monday. Although I have never needed to use it, I liked that they were concerned.


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## clotheshorse (Jul 8, 2014)

GrayFal said:


> Early threads discussed the letter Wyndham sent "telling" owners they would be switched to RCI. in 10 days if they did not reply to said letter...
> 
> Apparently II did NOT like this threat to it members and sent out the following letter I received this week.
> 
> ...



Outside of Wyndham having a major stake in RCI, does anyone know why the change as one of my other TS companies did the same thing two years ago and II offer the same deal to us.   We signed up through 2017 or so and receive the free certificates.   Is II considered a limited exchange company?


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## Don40 (Jul 8, 2014)

Back story Wyndham ( Fairfield) had to divest of either RCI or II to complete a merger, so the divested II gov't would not let them control the majority of the vacation exchange.  Ever since they have tried to do everything to diminish II.

The reason for the forced switch is plain and simple Greed. They want all the money, if II goes out of business, then we will pay through the nose to make trades.
Don


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## momeason (Jul 9, 2014)

I received the letter and I sold my Wyndham 2 years ago. I did like the letter.
Wyndham tried to switch me when I purchased in 2007. Did not work, then either I complained.


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## comicbookman (Jul 9, 2014)

Don40 said:


> Back story Wyndham ( Fairfield) had to divest of either RCI or II to complete a merger, so the divested II gov't would not let them control the majority of the vacation exchange.  Ever since they have tried to do everything to diminish II.
> 
> The reason for the forced switch is plain and simple Greed. They want all the money, if II goes out of business, then we will pay through the nose to make trades.
> Don



I agree the motive is greed, but I don't think Fairfield/wyndham ever owned II.  A quick search turns up no articles on any divesture of II by either Fairfield or Wyndham.


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## pacodemountainside (Jul 9, 2014)

Don40 said:


> Back story Wyndham ( Fairfield) had to divest of either RCI or II to complete a merger, so the divested II gov't would not let them control the majority of the vacation exchange.  Ever since they have tried to do everything to diminish II.
> 
> The reason for the forced switch is plain and simple Greed. They want all the money, if II goes out of business, then we will pay through the nose to make trades.
> Don



No doubt Wyndham is greedy and milked RCI ala lawsuits and big  increases in exchange fees. 

However, was unaware II was ever in picture.  The story I have heard is  a  couple founded II  and in divorce one  got II and the other founded RCI.

No mention of II when  Fairfield morphed into  Wyndham  circa 2005 and three other Cendant companies spun off!

Could you supply a link?


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## hjtug (Jul 9, 2014)

We first purchased from Fairfield at an II affiliated resort years ago and have never heard about Fairfield or Wyndham ever owning II.


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## Don40 (Jul 9, 2014)

In 1997 CUC merged with HFS and was renamed Cendant. Had to divest of RCI or II to get approval for merger, so they dumped II.  Cendant is now Wyndham.

The root entity of Wyndham comes from the largest accounting scandal at the time.  Reason I can recall this, I lived in South Florida at the time and drove by their HQ in Boca. This is the reason for name changes so the public will not remember what crooks are running the organization.  


Sad the SEC has no real power when the politicians can be bought. (JMHO)


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## comicbookman (Jul 10, 2014)

Don40 said:


> In 1997 CUC merged with HFS and was renamed Cendant. Had to divest of RCI or II to get approval for merger, so they dumped II.  Cendant is now Wyndham.
> 
> The root entity of Wyndham comes from the largest accounting scandal at the time.  Reason I can recall this, I lived in South Florida at the time and drove by their HQ in Boca. This is the reason for name changes so the public will not remember what crooks are running the organization.
> 
> ...



Found the government order at:

http://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cases/1997/12/ftc.gov-cucinter.pkg_.htm


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## hjtug (Jul 10, 2014)

Is my understanding correct?:  In 1997 two companies merged.  One had owned RCI and the other had owned II.  They were required to divest themselves of one and chose to keep RCI.  The merged company eventually became Wyndham or part of Wyndham which later acquired Fairfield timeshares.  Perhaps Wyndham should have been required to divest itself of RCI before acquiring Fairfield?


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## pacodemountainside (Jul 10, 2014)

Don40 said:


> In 1997 CUC merged with HFS and was renamed Cendant. Had to divest of RCI or II to get approval for merger, so they dumped II.  Cendant is now Wyndham.
> 
> The root entity of Wyndham comes from the largest accounting scandal at the time.  Reason I can recall this, I lived in South Florida at the time and drove by their HQ in Boca. This is the reason for name changes so the public will not remember what crooks are running the organization.
> 
> ...



I think this  highlights  what you were referring to. However, I don't think  either  Fairfield or Wyndham ever owned  II.


>>
>>The True History of Cendant, Fairfield and Wyndham
>>
>>Ever wonder how your Fairfield or Trendwest(WorldMart) timeshare became a Wyndham timeshare? Ever wonder what happened to Cendant? What happened to Fairfield? And what about the rumors of executives going to jail? Wonder no more, here are the answers.
>>
>>In 1997, two major companies merged to form Cendant, Hospitality Franchise Services (HFS) and Comp-U-Card (CUC). Henry Silverman was the CEO of HFS, a major hotel and real estate franchiser. Walter Forbes was the CEO of CUC, a direct marketing giant. Silverman saw this merger as an opportunity to expand the HFS brands through CUC’s existing marketing structure. They agreed to share leadership of the new company, Cendant; however, Silverman had made his millions and was stepping into retirement. When Silverman was trying to quietly step down, the merged stock prices were soaring, until April 1998, when former HFS executives discovered CUC had previously overstated their financial condition prior to the merger. Stocks plummeted $14 billion in one day as shareholders jumped ship amidst the largest accounting scandal in Wall History (Enron and Worldcom would not happen until three years later). The SEC immediately opened up an investigation of Cendant. Silverman demanded Forbes to cede management of Cendant to him, Forbes refused and eventually Cendant nearly went belly up.
>>
>>
>>Silverman canceled his retirement and jumped back into the fire to try and restore his great reputation. I don’t recall when Forbes was out of the picture, but it was sometime around 1999 or 2000 when he was charged by the SEC with misrepresenting company profits, corporate embezzlement and generally ripping off shareholders. Forbes and his CUC executives spent five plus years on trial. In 2005, Forbes’ second-in-charge, Kirk Shelton, was convicted to 10 years in jail. (A humorous side-note is that Shelton was ordered to make financial restitution to Cendant, to the tune of $3.3 billion, payable at the rate of $2000 per month. That works out to be a payment schedule of 134,000 years! What a joke.) Finally, after eight years of trial, in October 2006, Forbes was convicted and sentenced to up to 25 years in jail. Most of the other CUC executives went down with Forbes and Shelton, but provided testimony for immunity and/or were released on technicalities. Seemingly, all of these crooks were off Cendant’s payroll before Fairfield entered the picture. Incidentally, Silverman was found guilty only of NOT doing his homework prior to choosing business partners.
>>
>>Silverman was left with Cendant in a shambles. After coming out of retirement, he made great strides to rebuild his personal reputation and save Cendant. One of his first steps was to have his lawyers contact the plaintiffs of every pending lawsuit and immediately settle all of them – to the sum of several billion dollars. They dumped some brands to fund this and Silverman pitched in personally as well. He worked hard to restore his reputation, but kept the name Cendant in place until his departure in 2006. 
>>
>>The way this history affects us as FairShare Plus or Worldmark owners is Silverman created Cendant Timeshare Resort Group (CTRG), a new Cendant division geared at taking full advantage of their direct-marketing resources already in place and applying them to the vacation ownership market. CTRG was headed up by Silverman’s former CFO at HFS, Stephen Holmes. (Keep in mind that Stephen Holmes worked for The Blackstone Group prior to working at HFS.) In January 2001, Cendant purchased Fairfield Communities, Inc., the developer of Fairfield Resorts and management company for the FairShare Vacation Owners Association (VOI), for $635 million. Then, in April 2002, Cendant purchased Trendwest Resorts, Inc., the developer and management company for WorldMark The Club, for $927 million. 
>>
>>During this time Cendant also acquired RCI which Fairfield had a close working relationship with and around Y2K had started a points program! 
>>
>>
>>By 2004, everything was going smoothly for Cendant and its subsidiaries; Fairfield and Trendwest. Just about everyone was happy and enjoying the relationship. Silverman had regained the confidence of shareholders and built Cendant into the single largest hospitality/travel name in the industry, now a conglomerate with $20 billion in annual revenues. So, Silverman was once again content and decided to try to retire again. In October 2005, Silverman announced a decision to split Cendant into four separate companies. We will focus on the hospitality brands, which were coupled with CTRG to be spun-off in mid-2006 as Wyndham Worldwide, Inc. Other three parts were AVIS Car Rental, Century 21 Real Estate and Realogy!
>>
>>
>>Now, you might be wondering how Cendant decided to spin off a company called Wyndham? Let’s start with some quick history about the name “Wyndham”. Wyndham International, Inc., was an upscale and luxury hotel brand based out of Dallas, TX. They owned 34 hotels, 82 franchise agreements, and had 29 hotel management contracts. In August 2005, Wyndham International sold everything to Blackstone Group (a massive private investment firm that is famous for huge leveraged-buy outs and mergers) for $3.2 billion. (Don’t forget, I already mentioned Stephen Holmes used to work for Blackstone.) Within three months, Blackstone rebranded half of the most luxurious of the Wyndham hotels under their own brand, LXR Luxury Resorts; sold the remaining properties to Columbia Sussex Corp for $1.4 billion; and sold the brand name “Wyndham”, the franchise agreements, and management contracts to Cendant for $100 million. So, the only thing Cendant purchased was the leftover management contracts and the name, “Wyndham”. This was a perfect opportunity to get rid of three names that were blackened in the industry; Cendant, Fairfield and Trendwest, and replace them with a name everyone already associated with luxury travel accommodations. 
>>
>>Purchasing the coveted Wyndham name for just $100 million and burying the stigmatized names was a great idea by Silverman, but he made a mistake by putting Stephen Holmes in to lead this effort. Holmes rebranded everything. CTRG became Wyndham Vacation Ownership (WVO); Fairfield Communities (which had already been renamed Fairfield Vacation Resorts) became Wyndham Vacation Resorts (WVR), and Trendwest became Wyndham Resort Development (WRD). They even tried to change the names of a few cities (Fairfield Bay and Glade), but the post office and residents did’t like that, so they compromised by adding “by Wyndham” to the end. Everything became something-Wyndham (even the soap) and they were successful at confusing not only the public and taxi-cab drivers, but even half of the employees. 
>>
>>Since 2006 the hotel-side of business was not diversified. They had enjoyed a long-time reliance on associations with businesses; hosting conferences, conventions, and discounting for business travel relationships. Holmes clearly failed to do what CEOs are paid to do; predict the impact of the gas crisis and economic downfall and shift their business strategies to remain competitive. He was behind the power curve and sought rescue from the only Wyndham Worldwide subsidiary that was still in the black; WVO, with its two primary brands, WVR (FairShare) and WVD (Worldmark), led by Franz Hanning.
>>
>>Franz Hanning started with Fairfield in 1982 as a dreaded timeshare salesman. He worked his way up to become the sales manager at Kingsgate within five years. Often credited today as the "founder" or "brain-child" behind the FairShare Plus points program, it is curious to wonder how he could do that when he was still only a sales manager when the FairShare Program was fielded in early 1991. In 1992, Hanning was promoted to vice president of sales for Williamsburg and Myrtle Beach. In 1997, he became the overall vice president of sales for Fairfield. Within two years he became the Chief Operating Officer (COO), second-in-charge to Randolph Warner, the founder and CEO of Fairfield Communities.
>>
>>
>>When Cendant bought Fairfield Communities in 2001, Warner decided to retire. He made a deal with Cendant to promote Hanning to CEO of Fairfield Communities during the acquisition. So Hanning took over as CEO of Fairfield Communities in 2001, as a subsidiary of Cendant. After the spin off, Hanning took over as CEO of WVO, in charge of development and management of both WVR (FairShare) and WVD (Worldmark).
>>
>>Back to Holmes and the mounting financial troubles facing Wyndham Worldwide. Following the spin off in 2006, Hanning had done a decent job of keeping WVO in the black. Right from the start, WVO started to make changes to the existing programs of each of their brands (including FairShare Plus and Worldmark), taking away benefits, and funneling inventory over to external Wyndham Worldwide programs, including Wyndham Hotels, Extra Holidays, Endless Vacations and RCI (there are others, but this mentions a few). This was all done without the permission of existing timeshare owners by using clauses built into the ownership contracts to control the Board of Directors and make decisions on “behalf of all owners” without any owner input. 
>>
>>What a great concept. In fact, they were successful at abusing this relationship for a few years, but Holmes forced Hanning to dig even deeper. With the recent changes in ownership benefits for both brands, owners are finally taking up arms against this corporate breach of duty and conflict of interest.(See Bill Spearman article in  April 2009  TS  Today)!
>>
>>
>>P.S. I don’t want to leave anyone hanging on the fate of Cendant’s founder, Henry Silverman. He took his meager $62 million severance package when Cendant did their split in 2006 and took over as CEO in the much slower-paced, and less controversial, spin off company, Realogy, Inc. Of course he’s doing well, but it turns out he’s always secretly been a Kid Rock fan. He took Kid Rock’s song, “She’s Half Your Age and Twice as Hot” a bit too seriously for a guy without a prenuptial. In November 2008, Silverman decided to dump his wife of over 30 years for a 28 year old chick he met in line at Starbucks. Looks like the 68 year-old Silverman won’t be retiring anytime soon if Mrs. Silverman (ex) gets what she’s trying to get from him!
>>
>>Today Stephen P. Holmes is Chairman and CEO of Wyndham Worldwide!
>>
>>Fran S. Hanning is President and CEO of Wyndham Vacation Ownership! (WVO)
>>


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## hjtug (Jul 19, 2014)

*I received one of the ACs*

I received one of the ACs described in the II letter as discussed in the original post by GrayFal.  It arrived in my account after numerous telephone and email attempts to get more information about this new Wyndham/II benefit.  I will summarize my experience and the details of the AC.  Since I have never before received an AC from II I may mention things that are standard AC characteristics.  And I will ask questions about the details.

I received an exchange confirmation the day before the original post so I felt that the II benefit must already have been in place for that exchange.  When I didn't see an AC in my account, I kept getting the runaround from phone reps who would just say that I should wait 72 hours, ten days, etc. for the AC to show up.  Then I received a response to an email that it should have shown up within 24 hours of the confirmation.  Finally I connected with a phone rep who took the time to track it down.  My interpretation of what was said is that II hurriedly came up with and implemented this benefit to try to minimize the loss of Wyndham traders.  However, they haven't yet automated it in the website system.  They are now manually issuing the ACs.  I believe the one I finally received yesterday is actually for another exchange confirmation that I received in early June.  This conclusion is based on the AC expiration date of one year after that confirmation and on the size of the AC unit - one bedroom.

The AC shows up under "My Units". I can click on a "Vacation Exchange" button and do an instant search.  A grid of destinations and months shows up and I can pick up to six options to search for availability.  All timeframes seem to be shoulder and off season.  Some times and places on the grid show no availability while others do show availability at some resorts.  While many units showing up are efficiencies or one bedrooms, two- and three-bedroom units also are available.  The cost is $249, $299, and $349 for efficiencies, one-bedrooms, and larger units respectively.  I notice that taxes are applied in some states where I believe they are not applied on Getaways and exchanges.  For example I saw taxes applied when I looked at units in New York (13%) and South Carolina both places where I don't recall ever paying taxes on Getaways.  I looked at the cost for a unit in New Jersey and no tax was applied.

I can also submit an ongoing search by clicking on a "Place Request" button.  That option allows me to search for units through the June 4, 2015 AC expiration date.  Depending on the places I include in the ongoing search there are time periods excluded but they don't seem to correspond to the aforementioned grid. I see that when I submit an ongoing search I will be charged the studio price of $249 even if I specify one-bedroom as the minimum unit size.  Also, no tax is charged in the states where I was surprised to see tax added on a manual search.

It seems that these ACs could be useful to me but how useful remains to be seen.  I wonder about several things:

If I do an instant search within the grid and nothing shows up for the time and place can I repeat this search at a later date with hope that some availability might have appeared?  I seem to see more availability for the fall part of the grid but little for the spring.  I suspect that spring availabity might show up in the future.

Might the grid itself ever change during the life of the AC?

While I have seen that an instant search can yield a larger unit than the one-bedroom unit of the AC, is that same result possible in the ongoing search?

If the answer to the previous question is yes, and an ongoing search yields a unit larger than a studio, will I be billed at confirmation for the difference in unit size and for tax?  I would think so.

If the system allows me to set up an ongoing search for times outside the grid is it possible that units can actually be found in those time periods?

Can I cancel the ongoing search at any time a receive a refund of the charge?

If I get a confirmation through an ongoing search is it cancelable within the first 24 hours as with a regular exchange?

After the 24 hours or once I pay for a unit after a manual search is it cancelable like an exchange where I can at least get the AC back, or is it fully nonrefundable similar to a Getaway?

When I use the AC within the grid, can I hope that it will have similar searching power as my regular exchange deposits of the same unit size?  I wonder if we want to obtain a week within the grid whether it would be better to submit an ongoing search with a deposited unit or with the AC.

Now I will watch for the next AC tied to the more recent exchange confirmation.  Perhaps it will show up sooner than the 1 1/2 month lag time for this one.

I hope this information is useful to some Wyndham/II traders and I appreciate any feedback on the questions I have.


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## GrayFal (Jul 21, 2014)

> .... Finally I connected with a phone rep who took the time to track it down. My interpretation of what was said is that II hurriedly came up with and implemented this benefit to try to minimize the loss of Wyndham traders. However, they haven't yet automated it in the website system. They are now manually issuing the ACs.



This is good to know. That it will not automatically appear.

I also wonder if in order to qualify for the promotion of AC with every confirmation, you need to sign and send back the agreement to stay with II.

I can not help you with all the intricacies of the use of the AC. They seem to come with their own set of rules.
I hope you will be able to use yours. I tend to have so many owned weeks, I rarely use them.


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## hjtug (Jul 21, 2014)

GrayFal said:


> This is good to know. That it will not automatically appear.



I believe they will automatically appear eventually.  They just need get it set up in their system.  Today I received the second one - for my July exchange confirmation.  I also received a notification email today announcing the first one.  The first AC showed up as a one bedroom, I thought because the deposit for that exchange was a one bedroom.  However the second showed up as a two bedroom even though the deposit for that exchange was a studio.  Strange.   



GrayFal said:


> I also wonder if in order to qualify for the promotion of AC with every confirmation, you need to sign and send back the agreement to stay with II.



No.  I have never sent in that agreement.



GrayFal said:


> I can not help you with all the intricacies of the use of the AC. They seem to come with their own set of rules.
> I hope you will be able to use yours. I tend to have so many owned weeks, I rarely use them.



I hope to get to use at least some of them but it is a whole new way of searching and somehow I need to figure out a modified searching strategy which up to now included only exchanges and Getaways.


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## hjtug (Dec 14, 2014)

*Update and questions on Wyndham/II ACs*

So far, I have received four of the ACs discussed in this thread.  The II process seems to be working smoothly.  I was able to make good use of the first three.  The first was a one-bedroom AC.  The second and third were two-bedrooms.  The fourth I just received and it is a studio.  This raised a question in my mind about how the number of bedrooms is determined for the ACs.  I believe one of the ACs was the result of an exchange with a Wyndham one-bedroom deposit but the other three resulted from Wyndham studio deposits.
I called II and asked a rep how the number of bedrooms is determined.  After some hold time while she was trying to find out she came back with the answer the Wyndham determines the details of the ACs.  I found this hard to believe so called back and asked the question again.  The second rep came back after some hold time and said that he got the same answer from a supervisor.

Have any of you Wyndham/II traders gathered some experience with these ACs?  Do you think the answer I received about how the number of bedrooms is determined makes any sense?  I believe any of these ACs can be used to acquire any size unit but a studio AC, vs say a two-bedroom AC, can make an ongoing search a bit more difficult to use to acquire a two-bedroom unit.


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## Bucky (Dec 15, 2014)

hjtug said:


> So far, I have received four of the ACs discussed in this thread.  The II process seems to be working smoothly.  I was able to make good use of the first three.  The first was a one-bedroom AC.  The second and third were two-bedrooms.  The fourth I just received and it is a studio.  This raised a question in my mind about how the number of bedrooms is determined for the ACs.  I believe one of the ACs was the result of an exchange with a Wyndham one-bedroom deposit but the other three resulted from Wyndham studio deposits.
> I called II and asked a rep how the number of bedrooms is determined.  After some hold time while she was trying to find out she came back with the answer the Wyndham determines the details of the ACs.  I found this hard to believe so called back and asked the question again.  The second rep came back after some hold time and said that he got the same answer from a supervisor.
> 
> Have any of you Wyndham/II traders gathered some experience with these ACs?  Do you think the answer I received about how the number of bedrooms is determined makes any sense?  I believe any of these ACs can be used to acquire any size unit but a studio AC, vs say a two-bedroom AC, can make an ongoing search a bit more difficult to use to acquire a two-bedroom unit.



I think you are talking about the trading power of these AC's and as such I don't think they are great! After all, Wyndham is not a premier resort group within II. I hadn't noticed the size on the AC's before but mine appears to be exactly what I deposited with them, a 1/4.


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## Fitzriley (Dec 15, 2014)

*History of Wyndham*



pacodemountainside said:


> I think this  highlights  what you were referring to. However, I don't think  either  Fairfield or Wyndham ever owned  II.
> 
> 
> >>
> ...



A fascinating history, thanks for posting this. I am sorry it got lost in the conversation.


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## hjtug (Dec 15, 2014)

Bucky said:


> I think you are talking about the trading power of these AC's and as such I don't think they are great! After all, Wyndham is not a premier resort group within II. I hadn't noticed the size on the AC's before but mine appears to be exactly what I deposited with them, a 1/4.



For us the trading power is adequate for non-peak season weeks, which we tend to use anyway.  Have you received a few of these ACs to have some confidence if the correspondence between the deposit sizes and the ACs?


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