End of Owner Update Soliciting???

[Kozman]

I've noticed the new tactic in the past couple of years is to try and get someone into your room to deliver the 'free' gift. Once in the room they try to discuss your contracts and push for you to buy into a new program. They are trying to get by on the cheap rather than tantalize you with $$$ and gc's at the parking pass desk.

 

[belfry]

As crazy as this may sound, I reuse my parking passes. I currently have two that I keep in the glove compartment box of my SUV. Yes, I am that crazy or that organized that after reading some of the post on this forum that I decided to do just that... save the parking passes. Wyndham only looks for the light blue tag hanging on the rear view mirror and does not pay attention to the dates. When I drive into and out of the resort, I make sure that the dated side of the tag faces the inside of the car. Now, I usually only go to the 4 resorts that are in driving distance from where I live. All 4 resorts use the same light blue/white parking pass. If that did not scare you, then this will. I also filled out the Pre Registration - Check In Form with all the information requested such as - address, owner's name, make & model of car, license plate #, emergency contact, ect... I Xeroxed the form, made several copies so when I make my usual 4 - 6 vacations
a year the forms are already partially filled out. The only things remaining on the form to fill - in are the names of the people staying in the room ( which changes) and my signature (has to be signed in front of Wyndham staff ). My friends this is true.
Belfry

 

[vacationhopeful]

As crazy as this may sound, I reuse my parking passes.

I was told years ago, the only purpose of the hangtag at that hangtag girl's resort was to sign you up to do the sales presentation. I personally have noticed only interest in those hangtags at resorts where a security gate is present ...I believe the "reused" tags would work as well there too - as long as the "Blue" part is visible as you drive thru.

 

[chapjim]

Wyndham's "Owner Updates"

During an owners update at Gov Green yesterday the manager informed us that effective July 25th 2011 Wyndham will no longer solicit for owner updates when owner's are checking in.

He indicated that there have been too many complaints from owners and that Wyndham finds that they are not getting a good return on their investment when they pressure individuals to an update the owner would rather not attend

He said that parking passes and welcome information will still be passed out at check in but updates will only be offered to those who specifically request one.
I’ll be back in August and will see what happens when we check in…

Last time I stayed at a Wyndham resort, it was a "survey," not an "update." Other than that, it seemed the same.

 

[lprstn]

That was a bold faced lie. :hysterical:

 

[JimMIA]

I was told years ago, the only purpose of the hangtag at that hangtag girl's resort was to sign you up to do the sales presentation.

No! Say it isn't so!!!:hysterical:

I personally have noticed only interest in those hangtags at resorts where a security gate is present ...

On our recent trip to Wyndham Bonnet Creek, I was pretty amused -- not only by the twinkie who tried to sign us up for the sales presentation (No??? Oh...that's so SAD!), but also by the security gate.

If I recall correctly, the security gate was closed during the daytime. Hang tag meant nothing -- you had to swipe your room key. At night -- when you might think security might be a little heightened -- the gate was open and you could just drive through.

The gate-shack was manned 24 hours, as far as I could tell, but I'm still trying to figure out what the dudes in the gate shack actually do.

 

[cbm32]

I am thinking I dont really want to know what they are doing in the gate shack

 

[vacationhopeful]

...The gate-shack was manned 24 hours, as far as I could tell, but I'm still trying to figure out what the dudes in the gate shack actually do.

At Star Island which has some Wyndham units, the guard shack is manned 24/7 and actively LOOKs at the hang tag, opens the gate, and waves at you. No Hang Tag? You have to stop and talk to them; they direct you to checkin which is a good tennis ball throw and roll from the guard shack. And they watch you go and park there. There are at least 2 guards on and they have a golf cart to ride the resort - looking at who is around when they are driving. I have never seen any interest at Bonnet Creek by their on-duty security staff.

 

[bnoble]

I'm still trying to figure out what the dudes in the gate shack actually do.

At one time there was a lovely woman, with some great music playing in the shack, who was having a grand ol' time and happy to welcome you back. She was great! I hear she's no longer there though, which is too bad.

 

[UWSurfer]

At the Worldmark in Indio (Palm Springs) the guards come out for nearly every car and all but take your room key and work the card reader, partly as a service and partly because they are so bored.

I drove in and out of that place several times without my parking permit displayed and they didn't seem to care. They did however direct me to the front desk upon arrival, again a tennis ball's throw away.

I also arrived (a few weeks ago) tired after 9 pm and got to stand and listen to this older couple ahead of me being given the full court press on activities and update tours. When someone finally came to help and see me I told the guy that I was here using the week as corporate housing (I WAS!) and wasn't at all interested in touring the resort, doing activities or any of the pitch...I just needed the parking pass and to go to bed. He was thrown a bit, made sure that we knew we were welcome to tour anytime and then gave us the parking permit.

Maybe I've been doing this enough now to know how to short circuit some of the process!? It's always interesting to me how the various systems and resorts approach their update solicitations, more so when I'm in the mood. I just wish there was a lane or something that we could check-in without the BS.

 

[jjmanthei05]

Last time I stayed at a Wyndham resort, it was a "survey," not an "update." Other than that, it seemed the same.

We got a "Don't call it an Owners Update" Owners update on thursday. They still live on just called a "survey".

Jason

 

[Explorer7]

During an owners update at Gov Green yesterday the manager informed us that effective July 25th 2011 Wyndham will no longer solicit for owner updates when owner's are checking in.

He indicated that there have been too many complaints from owners and that Wyndham finds that they are not getting a good return on their investment when they pressure individuals to an update the owner would rather not attend

He said that parking passes and welcome information will still be passed out at check in but updates will only be offered to those who specifically request one.
I’ll be back in August and will see what happens when we check in…

Just got back from my follow-up visit to Gov Green and the parking pass lady was just as aggressive as ever.
Business as usual as many anticipated.
This time she used the angle that it’s customer appreciation month now and that even though we had a recent stay that they are still accountable for our satisfaction and want our feedback.

We respectively declined.
No phone harassments, however we did receive a follow-up call the next day to ask if our accommodations were OK.
So much for the corporate change the nice sales manager said was coming effective July 25th.

 

[puppymommo]

Last time I stayed at a Wyndham resort, it was a "survey," not an "update." Other than that, it seemed the same.

Same for me last week at the Canterbury in San Francisco. Instead of the parking pass lady (who parks in San Francisco?), we were sent to the "concierge". She was actually quite helpful; gave us a ton of information about the area, transportation, information about tours, etc. But she did strongly advocate for the "survey". I was surprised they would offer it to me since I was traveling without my spouse. (It was a girls' trip with my sister, DD and myself.)

Much to my suprise there was an actual survey, given by a very green saleswoman. After some chatting, she passed me on to the "closer". He immediately pulled the "there is a problem with your account". Not only is one of my contracts EOY, they are both ... RESALE!

He drew an interesting set of stairs with "resale" and "EOY" at the bottom and VIP platinum at the top. He told me that this is the priority for reservations, and that as long as I was resale I would never get the reservations I want. DUH. How did he think I got to Canterbury in the first place? With my dreaded resale points.

It didn't take long for him to figure out I wasn't interested in "upgrading", and before long I had my $100 gift card in hand, which was helpful when DD went shopping at Union Square! She found a backpack for school and a new purse. Thanks, Wyndham!

 

[rrlongwell]

... He drew an interesting set of stairs with "resale" and "EOY" at the bottom and VIP platinum at the top. He told me that this is the priority for reservations, and that as long as I was resale I would never get the reservations I want ...

I am VIP Platium and I am not aware of any scheduling priority that I have other than a couple of ARP transactions anywhere in the system not just my home resort. Other than that my ARP and scheduling priority are the same as far as I know. Did they offer to make your re-sale contracts VIP point eligable if you bought a new contract?

 

[timeos2]

Same for me last week at the Canterbury in San Francisco. Instead of the parking pass lady (who parks in San Francisco?), we were sent to the "concierge". She was actually quite helpful; gave us a ton of information about the area, transportation, information about tours, etc. But she did strongly advocate for the "survey". I was surprised they would offer it to me since I was traveling without my spouse. (It was a girls' trip with my sister, DD and myself.)

Much to my suprise there was an actual survey, given by a very green saleswoman. After some chatting, she passed me on to the "closer". He immediately pulled the "there is a problem with your account". Not only is one of my contracts EOY, they are both ... RESALE!

He drew an interesting set of stairs with "resale" and "EOY" at the bottom and VIP platinum at the top. He told me that this is the priority for reservations, and that as long as I was resale I would never get the reservations I want. DUH. How did he think I got to Canterbury in the first place? With my dreaded resale points.

It didn't take long for him to figure out I wasn't interested in "upgrading", and before long I had my $100 gift card in hand, which was helpful when DD went shopping at Union Square! She found a backpack for school and a new purse. Thanks, Wyndham!

I have enjoyed the irony of the "you'll never get in here as you only own resale" forever. We owned for over 15 years, went to every resort on the prime dates (we were tied to school schedules just like so many others) never had VIP - it just isn't needed. We also paid zero housekeeping fees and I think only one guest certificate. I really got a kick out of the "you'll never get in here" when we went back to a few of our favorite resorts/locations not one or twice but a half dozen times or more. It is all BS. Now that we sold our Wyndham time I'm finding it even easier to get EXACTLY what we want by renting. And it is considerably cheaper than owning with no risk of future fee increases or SAm's.

I still feel Wyndham may be one of the best values (at resale of course) in all of timeshare. But even that great system still turns out to be an even better rental value.

 

[Free2Roam]

Just returned from Palm-Aire

The parking pass vultures did hound me about doing an owner's update. I declined no less than 5 times... the only civil way to get them to release my parking pass was by saying I'll think about it. Of course that gave them more reasons to call the room...which they did a few times..until I remembered to unplug all phones.

Now, my sister - who bought resale about 2 yrs ago - checked into her unit at the same time. She was told that her paperwork indicates that they don't need to ask her to do an update/survey.

I called Wyndham owner services to explain the situation (leaving out the resale aspect) and asked how I go about getting my account flagged. The rep checked with a supervisor and came back to tell me they don't have a way to do that. That tells me that the flags are put on by local sales staff because of resale purchases...they assume that retail owners are easy targets still? (My first two contracts were retail... I have others that I picked up resale.) The rep went on to say that she's also an owner....and she gets hounded as well...and hates it.

I recall others saying they have asked to have their accounts flagged as "do not update/bug me". Has this actually worked? If so, how did you get it done?

 

[2tall]

Ready for an unnamed meeting at Ocean Blvd

I thought it would be fun to read the BBS to see if I could arm myself with some knowledge before my Tuesday morning session at Ocean Boulevard in North Myrtle. I declined the owner's breakfast or lunch three, maybe four times before she finally wore me down (this is how we got into this time-sharing predicament in the first place 11 years ago )

While I am interested in learning about the WAAM program I heard her mention and have seen listed a few times on this BBS, it wasn't necessarily during this short week when we're at the beach with friends (four adults and four kids under the age of 8, what were we thinking!). But it was promised to be 45 minutes (as always) over coffee and muffins, and we got a $75 AMEX gift card, so hopefully it won't be too painful.

I'll post an update tomorrow!

 

[learnalot]

I thought it would be fun to read the BBS to see if I could arm myself with some knowledge before my Tuesday morning session at Ocean Boulevard in North Myrtle. I declined the owner's breakfast or lunch three, maybe four times before she finally wore me down (this is how we got into this time-sharing predicament in the first place 11 years ago )

While I am interested in learning about the WAAM program I heard her mention and have seen listed a few times on this BBS, it wasn't necessarily during this short week when we're at the beach with friends (four adults and four kids under the age of 8, what were we thinking!). But it was promised to be 45 minutes (as always) over coffee and muffins, and we got a $75 AMEX gift card, so hopefully it won't be too painful.

I'll post an update tomorrow!

FYI, although I am sure sales will talk about the WAAM program as if it is somehow pertinent to what you own, the WAAM program is nothing more than a business model wyndham has adopted for acquiring inventory by assuming properties or portions of properties that have already been developed but are struggling with unsold inventory. They started doing this a couple years ago when the real estate bubble burst. All the properties they acquired under this model are available for ALL owners to book.

Properties that have become part of the wyndham timeshares portfolio under WAAM (stands for something like wyndham asset and acquisition management) include towers on the grove in myrtle beach, smuggs, reunion in orlando and emerald grande in destin. But there is nothing restrictive about one's ability to book them using our regular wyndham points. There is no such thing as a WAAM ownership (not that deeds or contracts can't be written for resorts acquired through the WAAM model). They will probably try to make a big deal about ROFR (right of first refusal). This is sales mumbo jumbo that means nothing since wyndham does not exercise ROFR. Even if they did, it doesn't guarantee that they will buy it back (as sales likes to imply) - it just means that if and when you ever found another buyer who wanted your ownership, wyndham would have the right to deny the sale and purchase it back themselves at the price the buyer had submitted.

 

[msutton33]

Wyndham in Scottsdale AZ

Is anyone aware of Wyndham owning or managing a resort in Scottsdale AZ?

 

[jdunn1]

I just got back from Ocean Boulevard. I own WM and traded in via RCI it was a July 31st check-in. I had to get my parking passes through the sales department. It was very annoying but thanks to TUG, I was well prepared. The rep knew I had exchanged in and started signing me up for an update. When I told her I was not interested, she was shocked. She said that Wyndham now owns RCI and that RCI is now called Wyndham exchange company or something like that. She tried to tell me something about how exchanging was going to be different and that I must attend the update (which was 45 minutes). I still declined and and said I get all my infromation from TUG. She acted like she didn't know what TUG was and then she seemed to get nervous. She gave me the parking passes without a problem but what a hassel for me and for her, for that matter. She seemed like a nice enough person but no means NO and she just didn't get it.

On a different note, I liked Ocean Boulevard. Even though we were in tower four, we had the better pool (with sun) and we had a great ocean view (even if it was through towers two and three). The 2 bedroom was a great size and very well stocked. My only complaint about the unit was that the carpet was so dirty, it turned our feet dark just by walking on it and they don't give you a vacume, just a manual sweeper. There was also no good way (other than going to the pool, which is four levels up from the ground) to get sand off your beach gear and you. We used a cooler to wash our feet before getting in the unit. Loved the location, right by a carnival and a nice downtown area within easy walking distance. Very nice location.

 

[vckempson]

Has anyone just asked/demanded to get the parking pass at the check-in desk? I thought I saw someone say they always did that. I sure hate having to go through the "No means No" stuff. It just sets the mood on a negative course from the get go.

 

[ronandjoan]

As crazy as this may sound, I reuse my parking passes. Belfry

Amen to that!

 

[ronandjoan]

She seemed like a nice enough person but no means NO and she just didn't get it.

.

My husband always seems to bond with the parking pass girl- are they always rather young and attractive? -- and if he is in charge of "talking" with them that time, he is so tentative in saying no, that they call everyday. He's so friendly. Then he says he thinks we ought to go...because [she] is so nice.

I have to tell him that he does not have a relationship with this person and that she does really not CARE for him! She is just interested in $$.

 

[2tall]

Survived the OB update

A few notes in response to previous posts:

-- For the most part, we like the parking pass folks (they do mostly seem to be attractive women, don't they?!!?). In past visits to Ocean Boulevard, they've given us great recommendations on activities and restaurants, and one time we mentioned that we were there on our anniversary, they sent up a Harry and David's gift box a few minutes after check-in (a mere "here you go, happy anniversary" -- it was no strings attached!).

-- The update today took 70 minutes instead of 45, and we didn't ask many questions. Our sales rep threw a totally new one at us toward the end of the presentation by telling us our "Wyndham rating" was a D -- like a credit rating for the company. He was shocked that no one had ever updated this for us, and said our rating in the system was preventing us from getting the best offers for new inventory (please!). Luckily, he squared that all away for us, but remarkably, the new offer just wasn't a winner!

In the end, they spent most of the time throwing the "you won't be able to book at Myrtle Beach because of the new summer blackout starting next year" as the reason for why we needed to switch our Williamsburg deed to MB (for offers ranging from $12,000 to $55,000!). We heard this same pitch two years ago, had a salesperson last year tell us it was totally false, and now here it is again -- I guess we'll take our chances.

At least we got $75 and good coffee for our hour. My wife and I are teachers, so our hourly rate is somewhat low

 

[timeos2]

We had zero issues getting our most recent Parking Pass at one at one of our favorite resorts - Grand Desert. They just asked for the license plates, filled it in & wished us a good day. A great experience & rare not to be bugged there. They never called except to ask about a towel request we'd made. Big improvement not to have to deal with any sales BS.