# Texas Great Wolf Lodge Diamond Affiliate



## skotrla (Nov 10, 2020)

I was looking at RCI stays for my 2020 Wyndham points and noticed the Texas Great Wolf Lodge - there was one 5-night stay available.  I did a little research and see that this property is a Diamond Affiliate.  I have a lot of experience with Wyndham and Holiday Inn systems, but none with Diamond.  Are Diamond Affiliates stays available to resale owners?  What would availability and pricing look like for a resale owner?

With the maintenance/program cost of my Wyndham point and RCI booking fee, the cost of 5 nights is only about $65/night, which is a pretty good deal for a GWL - on the website, the price is $260/night for the same nights.

Thanks,

Scott


----------



## tschwa2 (Nov 10, 2020)

I looked into Diamond for Great Wolf years ago and the price per point even 5+ years ago were in the $200+ per night midweek off season and  $400+ for in season just on the MF's for the points regardless of how good or poor availability was; it hardly saved over Great Wolf retail prices.

What your seeing in RCI now is probably only a covid thing and isn't likely to continue once things get back to normal.

edit.  I looked back at my old post and it was about 8 years ago I looked into it.  
On top of everything else affiliate resorts aren't part of any of the collections you can buy as a resale owner so no go even if there is availability.
In 2012 the points value per night were 2000-3000 per night  and no one could tell me what availability looked like on a typical weekend.


----------



## pedro47 (Nov 10, 2020)

skotrla said:


> I was looking at RCI stays for my 2020 Wyndham points and noticed the Texas Great Wolf Lodge - there was one 5-night stay available.  I did a little research and see that this property is a Diamond Affiliate.  I have a lot of experience with Wyndham and Holiday Inn systems, but none with Diamond.  Are Diamond Affiliates stays available to resale owners?  What would availability and pricing look like for a resale owner?
> 
> With the maintenance/program cost of my Wyndham point and RCI booking fee, the cost of 5 nights is only about $65/night, which is a pretty good deal for a GWL - on the website, the price is $260/night for the same nights.
> 
> ...


$65 dollars per night is not bad. Is this a studio unit?


----------



## tschwa2 (Nov 10, 2020)

pedro47 said:


> $65 dollars per night is not bad. Is this a studio unit?


It's a 6/4 family suite (2 double beds and sofa bed) partial wall separating sofa bed from the beds.  5 nights are Sun-Fri.  They had deposited mid Oct-mid Dec.  Regular exchange fee (now $249) plus not too much in terms of points or trading power.  I think there is a per night resort fee but I don't remember how much that was- maybe $20 per night.  Depending on when you booked they had a $209 exchange fee for Oct special.


----------



## tschwa2 (Nov 10, 2020)

Resort fee is $29.99 per night so for 5 night stay it would be about $400 in exchange fee and resort fee plus whatever your points cost.


----------



## Janann (Nov 10, 2020)

skotrla said:


> I was looking at RCI stays for my 2020 Wyndham points and noticed the Texas Great Wolf Lodge - there was one 5-night stay available.



I can see availability in RCI for three-night stays from late November to mid-December.  Seen with HGVC.


----------



## skotrla (Nov 11, 2020)

tschwa2 said:


> Resort fee is $29.99 per night so for 5 night stay it would be about $400 in exchange fee and resort fee plus whatever your points cost.


The RCI fee is a killer on cheap stays - I thought it would be $179 for 5 nights, but I guess it counts as a full week (I have not deposited Wyndham points so I couldn't check out).  After my post I checked with Holiday Inn points and saw the $249 and the $30/night resort fee.   Pushes the price up to around $550, which is still not bad if the kids were in online school instead of in-person school.

In my experience, if you own a low maintenance unit, booking through a resort system is cheaper than booking an RCI stay and the availability is better, but it sounds like this is not the case here.

-Scott


----------



## skotrla (Nov 11, 2020)

Even with all of the fees, that stay is almost the price of a day pass for 5 people on the Sunday of check-in - $487!


----------

