# Club Wyndham access



## riperoo (Jun 24, 2014)

Ok, been digging around a little on this site about CWA and found some good info, but one thing I am not getting, I am reading in someplaces that it has to be developer purchased points to be eligible. Then I see ads like the one I linked on ebay here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/251562565854 that seem to say different. Anyway, can anyone give me a solid answer on what exactly one needs to do to have Club Wyndham access, is it worth it? If that ad is true and you can have ARP at all those resorts that seems to really minimize the ownership at anyone resort, would really appreciate any and all info on the program. Thanks in advance!!!


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## pacodemountainside (Jun 24, 2014)

When one purchases from Developer either gets a deed or CWA membership.

CWA membership can be sold  just like   deed  as ad indicates.

Is CWA worth it??  Depends. Is Chevy better than Ford or super sudsier?

Many threads discussing and  no one size  fits.

As far as sales weasels go if you have no good and if not you need!


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## uscav8r (Jun 24, 2014)

riperoo said:


> Ok, been digging around a little on this site about CWA and found some good info, but one thing I am not getting, I am reading in someplaces that it has to be developer purchased points to be eligible...


No, CWA can be bought resale. I think you are confusing the issue with VIP-eligible points (CWA or Club Wyndham Plus) that can only be bought directly from Wyndham with a steep premium.



riperoo said:


> ...Anyway, can anyone give me a solid answer  on what exactly one needs to do to have Club Wyndham access, is it worth  it? If that ad is true and you can have ARP at all those resorts that  seems to really minimize the ownership at anyone resort, would really  appreciate any and all info on the program. Thanks in advance!!!



This was just hashed out most recently in these threads only a couple days ago.
http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=213019
http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=212801 post #3

There are plenty of resorts with much lower MF than CWA. Read through the threads above for pluses/minuses of CWA vs deeded resort ownership.

Sometimes search is your friend, sometimes not. If the forum search doesn't get you what you want, try the TUG Google search feature, which seems to work better.
http://tug2.net/Global_TUG_Search.html


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## Cheryl20772 (Jun 25, 2014)

riperoo said:


> Anyway, can anyone give me a solid answer on what exactly one needs to do to have Club Wyndham access, is it worth it? If that ad is true and you can have ARP at all those resorts that seems to really minimize the ownership at anyone resort, would really appreciate any and all info on the program. Thanks in advance!!!



I own deeded points at Panama City. The same resort also has Club Access owners. At 13 months I have ARP for units in the deeded owner inventory where I own, and the Club Access owners have ARP only for those units included in the Access inventory at Panama City. The Access owners also can try for any other unit in other resorts that are in the Access inventory. 

Since you wouldn't have a deed for Access, it's a different kind of ownership. If you defaulted, there would be nothing for them to foreclose on. If you had a loan, I don't think it would be a mortgage.

When you get past the 13 month ARP time, the main differences I see are the deeded ownership vs. Club ownership and the individual resort fee vs. the pooled fees.

So, when you buy deeded points, you end up with your name on a registered deed down at the clerk's office at the county seat where the resort is. When you buy Wyndham Access, you end up with a contract giving you membership in the Access with a stated number of points to use in the Access listed resorts. They are the same resorts we own deeds in, but Access holds those member deeds in the Club name. 

I pay the Panama City Beach resort maintenance fees, but Access owners pay a slightly higher fee which is an average of fees from all the units in Club Access.

There are other things too, like when you buy Access, closing is simpler because there is no deed to register. Wyndham just puts the name of the new owner into their club system.  I think these are the main differences.

I'm not sure what you mean by "ARP at all those resorts that seems to really minimize the ownership at anyone resort".  My ownership at PCB is not really effected, that I can see, by having others owning Access units there. It's possible that having Access units there could help stabilize the budget if there should be a lot of defaults in a down economy. On the other hand, if there were only a few units designated Access at a given resort, the number of units available for high demand times for ARP, might be limited for Access members.


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## gstepic (Jun 25, 2014)

I think what some of us want to know but it probably is not an easy answer, are the chances greatly improved at being able to book during prime season for Access owners or only marginally better compared to the standard 10 month window. I am sure it all depends on inventory and without actually being able to see real numbers it probably is a guessing game on our part.

I loved the PCB resort and also fell in love with Bay Club II in Destin. We probably will book at both places when we are in that area, like we did on our very recent vacation. There seem to be more rooms to book even during the standard period (we had no trouble booking for first week of June) at PCB resort. Bay Club II appears to be much smaller. We want to visit the Destin/Panama City Beach area every other year so for now my priority is to look for a Bay Club II resale as I am more certain that will give me a better chance of getting what I want. But Club Access still interests me so I also appreciate any threads or posts concerning Club Access.


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## uscav8r (Jun 25, 2014)

gstepic said:


> I think what some of us want to know but it probably is not an easy answer, are the chances greatly improved at being able to book during prime season for Access owners or only marginally better compared to the standard 10 month window. I am sure it all depends on inventory and without actually being able to see real numbers it probably is a guessing game on our part....



Gary, you hit the nail on the head. There is no public knowledge base of actual inventory in CWA. Even if one were to put together a database, it would become obsolete after a few months (but it may provide a good snapshot in time for a baseline). The uncertainty has kept me on the CWA sidelines, but I have had no problem getting what I want at 10 months anyway, so I don't yet see a big driver to go to CWA for me, yet.


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## uscav8r (Jun 25, 2014)

Cheryl20772 said:


> ... I pay the Panama City Beach resort maintenance fees, but Access owners pay a slightly higher fee which is an average of fees from all the units in Club Access....


Cheryl, I don't know if I would consider a ~35% increase from PCB to CWA maintenance fees a slight difference, but I generally agree with all you said.




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## persia (Jun 25, 2014)

As others have said, too many unknowns, without knowing how much of a resort is CWA, you can't assess your ability to ARP there.  The good thing about CWA is that you are protected against Special Assessments.  If you own a Florida Wyndham and it get's hit by a hurricane you are going to get hit with a big special assessment.  

Anyone with CWA try to ARP into Glacier Canyon in the summer?


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## ronparise (Jun 25, 2014)

I wanted ARP at La Belle Maison At the time the La Belle contracts were selling for a lot more than CWA contracts, so I tried to figure out just how much La Belle Maison was in CWA.....I even asked the president of the CWA board at one of the annual meetings...said he would get back to me...but never did

Another tugger knew of my quest, and was able to get a look at "the book" at an owner update.. she let me know that 25% of Labelle Maison was in CWA....so so I bought some...and I bougtht some La Belle Maison too. and I have been able to use them both for ARP for Mardi Gras

Since then I have seen "the book" too. It really does exist and I bet the sales managers at the resorts will show it to you, if they think they will get a sale


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## gstepic (Jun 25, 2014)

I would go though another grueling presentation (after our last experience we said no more, not worth the freebees) to see the "book". Speaking of books and presentations we went on the last one and our only gift was the "Dream Book" and I was very disappointed in it. I was hoping it was a deluxe directory but it is only a photo book. Pretty but not useful.


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## uscav8r (Jun 25, 2014)

gstepic said:


> I would go though another grueling presentation (after our last experience we said no more, not worth the freebees) to see the "book". Speaking of books and presentations we went on the last one and our only gift was the "Dream Book" and I was very disappointed in it. I was hoping it was a deluxe directory but it is only a photo book. Pretty but not useful.




But hey! The Dream Book is a $75 value, right?

:rofl:


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## gstepic (Jun 25, 2014)

According to the salesman a $100 value! Yeah, right!


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## Ron2 (Jun 26, 2014)

persia said:


> As others have said, too many unknowns, without knowing how much of a resort is CWA, you can't assess your ability to ARP there.  The good thing about CWA is that you are protected against Special Assessments.  If you own a Florida Wyndham and it get's hit by a hurricane you are going to get hit with a big special assessment.
> 
> Anyone with CWA try to ARP into Glacier Canyon in the summer?



I can’t say how useful CWA is for reservations at Glacier Canyon but I can say that CWA does work at Seawatch in Myrtle Beach – another very difficult prime summer reservation to obtain. I used my CWA ARP to reserve a 3-BR ocean front unit for the 4th of July week next year. This is a very difficult a reservation to obtain at Seawatch and I got it with my CWA points. So despite what the “book” may or may not tell you, the best way to see if CWA works is to make a reservation


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## gstepic (Jun 26, 2014)

*kind of like rolling the dice*

From the very useful posts in this forum I am understanding how to best use my ownership and at the same time I am seeing how inefficient it has been. Up to now we generally would travel during the off season and did not have any one resort or area we would have wanted to go to on a regular basis. Also up to last year we never had enough points (168000 odd year and 154000 even year) to do much. Last year I bought a 94500 annual point resale, my first resale purchase, and it has helped, but we still had to rent points from a friend on our last trip.

As much as I would love to have Hawaii as the area we would go to on a regular basis it is not practical financially and we really have a hard time getting family and friends to travel with us because of the expense. So going to Destin and Panama City Beach a few weeks ago was our attempt to find an Hawaii alternative, a relaxing destination with nice beaches and plenty of places to have a meal or drink by the ocean.

Although the gulf coast area does not compare to Hawaii, we felt it met our needs as an easy destination to go to for friends and family and we could be very happy going to that area every other year or more. We loved Destin and our stay at Bay Club II and PCB. We really loved the PCB resort. That is an area where going during off season does not work as well for us so now it has become important to find ways to make it a little more certain we can book when we want to.

I had thought the safest thing to do was to wait for a Bay Club II and now I feel it has to have at least enough points to cover a prime week. I have seen a few Bay Club II resales but all with less points than what is required for a week in prime season. So my dilemma is wondering if I will find just the right Bay Club !! resale in the next 6 to 8 months or if I can get what I want with a Club Access ownership. If the the inventory is half way decent in Club Access we could also use it for the Majestic Sun (that was our first choice for our last trip but no availability), Emerald Grande, and PCB. We do want to go to Myrtle Beach in the next few years so from your post I am thinking Club Access could be more useful to us then an every other year Bay Club II. 

I keep going back and forth as to what my next purchase will be, but I do know I need more points and need to think a little more how I make that purchase, and all of your posts have been extremely helpful.

Gary


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## vacationhopeful (Jun 26, 2014)

gstepic said:


> From the very useful posts in this forum I am understanding how to best use my ownership and at the same time I am seeing how inefficient it has been.......
> 
> Gary



Gary,
You might want to start looking at Hawaii thru RCI exchanges using your Wyndham points. I got 3 units at one resort via a bulk deposit 2+ years ago on Kauai. It would have cost me a look more in points over the RCI exchange with the RCI fees.

And don't discard the idea of flying in/out of Ft Lauderdale for the Wyndham Pompano area resorts (about 12 miles from the airport). That cruise port and Miami's port are some of the busiest in the world ... creating great service 7 days a week.


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## uscav8r (Jun 26, 2014)

gstepic said:


> ...
> I had thought the safest thing to do was to wait for a Bay Club II and now I feel it has to have at least enough points to cover a prime week. I have seen a few Bay Club II resales but all with less points than what is required for a week in prime season. So my dilemma is wondering if I will find just the right Bay Club !! resale in the next 6 to 8 months or if I can get what I want with a Club Access ownership. If the the inventory is half way decent in Club Access we could also use it for the Majestic Sun (that was our first choice for our last trip but no availability), Emerald Grande, and PCB. We do want to go to Myrtle Beach in the next few years so from your post I am thinking Club Access could be more useful to us then an every other year Bay Club II.
> 
> I keep going back and forth as to what my next purchase will be, but I do know I need more points and need to think a little more how I make that purchase, and all of your posts have been extremely helpful.
> ...



Finding a CWA contract is the easy button for you IMHO. There are plenty of contracts and options that come along right in your sweet spot of contract size. It sounds like you will have to piece together 2, maybe 3, different Bay Club contracts via the same number of purchases.

I still maintain that Bay Club does not need ARP, but you want peace of mind. If you want this sanity on the back end (booking your vacation) it seems to me you can help your sanity on the front (purchase) end with CWA. Test it out. Ask some CWA owners if they could call in to find availability at Bay Club next summer or when you would consider your usual time of year for heading there.

If you like what you hear, then CWA will be your best bet. And then if you want to switch it up and go to Myrtle Beach (for example), it sounds like CWA will help you with that, too!

But first, use your current account to see if there is availability at Bay Club and/or PCB at the 10 month mark during prime season (even if you don't have the points).




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## gstepic (Jun 26, 2014)

*Loved  Bay Club II but*

I think we could be happy at the Majestic Sun or Emerald Grande (that resort sucks up the points but seems exceptionally nice) so maybe WCA would work best as all those have CWA inventory. After all the only Destin week we could get on our last trip was the Bay Club II, so you could be right. And not all our trips will be during the summer. If we travel with another couple that do not have kids then May would be a good month. I think May is still prime but my guess still easier to book because school is not out yet. Like you said I will start checking beginning of July and then should help me know what I can get in May.

On our bucket list is a trip to Charlston combined with a week at Myrtle Beach and we want to spend a few nights in Key West so we would combine that with a stay in the Ft. Lauderdale area. We want to go on a few more cruises as well. So given all this maybe a CWA would help a little more. And as I said we mainly want to get into the Destin area (we checked out Club Destin and did not like that property) so again I think CWA would come in more handy.

Gary


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## uscav8r (Jun 26, 2014)

It's a lot to digest isn't it!

FYI, you will be best off if you get your cruises with cash through Costco or direct to the cruise line. Cruises through your Wyndham points end up cost a bunch more. 


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## gstepic (Jun 26, 2014)

I agree, I was thinking of tacking on a few days at a resort after or before a cruise, not using points for a cruise. It seems like the only real efficient way to use points is for rooms or to rent.


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