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Is Welk the best?

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I know that title is click-bait, so sue me.
The more I read about other major/minor timeshare systems, the happier I am with my ownership of Welk, even after buying retail. (Yes, I would have bought 3xs as many points resale if I had known about that option 4 years ago....)
To be clear I am talking about Welk Platinum Points ownership and these are the reasons I believe it's the best and simplest.
  • High quality accommodations with great ratings in RCI and II
  • Great trade-ability in RCI and II, depositing into either system gets you a bonus week.
  • RCI platinum membership included in MF
  • Only one annual fee. Just the MF no club dues or house keeping
  • No transfer fees to go to any of the 5, soon to be 7 Welk resorts
  • 16 affiliated resorts and growing also without transfer fees.
  • No Guest Cert fees.
  • No fee to roll/borrow points to/from the next year.
  • No parking fees
  • Great customer service
  • MF are average compared to other resort systems.
  • Can book as little as a two day stay to spread the points out.
  • Good availability
  • Easy to book online and see availability through owners lounge.
Other than not having any resorts out East or in Florida, yet, I haven't read anything to make me want to own with anybody else.
 

Passepartout

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So, how IS that Kool-Aid anyway?
 

VacationForever

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It is important that owner of whatever timeshare likes what they own.

I posted in another thread, we are never Welk again. Horrible leaky ceiling rundown condo building in Cathedral City. At Escondido, horrible housekeeping, cobwebs covered corners of ceilings, toilet and other areas, shower head as drip drip drip with no water pressure. Wifi not working.
 

mjm1

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Glad to hear you are enjoying your ownership.

We are former owners having first owned a fixed unit in Escondido and then converting to the points program. The resorts, other than Palm Springs, were always very nice. The only down side for us was the locations were not in prime locations at least for us. We love San Diego and Escondido is a 45-60 minute drive from there. At least 30 minutes to the nearest beach. We observed the same thing with their resorts in Cabo, Branson and Northstar. We weren’t very excited about the proposed location in Poipu either. Again, these are personal preferences. We decided to move on.

The staff was always very helpful when we stayed at a Welk property. The sales team is terrible, but that can be said of most sales teams.

I hope they continue to add more properties in good areas. That will help owners and those who exchange in. Enjoy your experiences with them.

Best regards.

Mike
 
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It is important that owner of whatever timeshare likes what they own.

I posted in another thread, we are never Welk again. Horrible leaky ceiling rundown condo building in Cathedral City. At Escondido, horrible housekeeping, cobwebs covered corners of ceilings, toilet and other areas, shower head as drip drip drip with no water pressure. Wifi not working.
Did you post a review in trip advisor about your Palm springs experience? Cuz that sounds familiar. And I've heard that Palm Springs needs renovating badly. Escondido is renovating the oldest section (Welk resort villas) now.

I've never been to Hawaii as beaches are not my thing. I love the water, hate sand. But the two affilliates in HI are on the cliffs at princeville and pono Kai resort on Fuji beach. Not the best but decent.

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VacationForever

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Did you post a review in trip advisor about your Palm springs experience? Cuz that sounds familiar. And I've heard that Palm Springs needs renovating badly. Escondido is renovating the oldest section (Welk resort villas) now.

I've never been to Hawaii as beaches are not my thing. I love the water, hate sand. But the two affilliates in HI are on the cliffs at princeville and pono Kai resort on Fuji beach. Not the best but decent.

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It was in another thread on TUG with you. I did not post on TripAdvisor.
 

rhonda

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So glad you are happy with your ownership. That is the best one can hope for with each our decisions, right? Well done!
 
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So, how IS that Kool-Aid anyway?
I'm not saying it's perfect. I almost dropped them regardless of the consequences when I was an EOY owner. There are a lot of limitations there. But I have learned as much as I can about the system I own and compared it as best as I can to many others and this is my conclusion.
Im open to discuss/back up my opinion if you want to convince me otherwise.

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It was in another thread on TUG with you. I did not post on TripAdvisor.
Gotcha. It seems at least two people have had that problem then. I'm still planning to go out there and see for myself though.

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JohnPaul

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Like better, best is also in the eye of the beholder.

Better and best are in comparison to what is important to you, which varies greatly by individual. As discussed, what's important is that it works well for you.
 

Icc5

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I know that title is click-bait, so sue me.
The more I read about other major/minor timeshare systems, the happier I am with my ownership of Welk, even after buying retail. (Yes, I would have bought 3xs as many points resale if I had known about that option 4 years ago....)
To be clear I am talking about Welk Platinum Points ownership and these are the reasons I believe it's the best and simplest.
  • High quality accommodations with great ratings in RCI and II
  • Great trade-ability in RCI and II, depositing into either system gets you a bonus week.
  • RCI platinum membership included in MF
  • Only one annual fee. Just the MF no club dues or house keeping
  • No transfer fees to go to any of the 5, soon to be 7 Welk resorts
  • 16 affiliated resorts and growing also without transfer fees.
  • No Guest Cert fees.
  • No fee to roll/borrow points to/from the next year.
  • No parking fees
  • Great customer service
  • MF are average compared to other resort systems.
  • Can book as little as a two day stay to spread the points out.
  • Good availability
  • Easy to book online and see availability through owners lounge.
Other than not having any resorts out East or in Florida, yet, I haven't read anything to make me want to own with anybody else.

I've been real happy with our Welk but we bought for a real cheap price for a Villa in Escondido about 25 years ago. We've also been to Welk in Palm Springs about 20 years ago and enjoyed it.
The Villa in Escondido has always been my favorite even among our other holdings of Orange Lake, Donatello, and Worldmark plus the 200 or so trades we have done. I've said this on Tug many times before that when at our Villa I feel as if the weight of the world melts off my shoulders.
Bart
 

nuwermj

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Can book as little as a two day stay to spread the points out.
Good availability

The standard reservation window is 15 months prior to check-in date. But the reservation must be for a full week starting on the resort's standard check-in day (typically Friday, Saturday or Sunday). A split-week reservation cannot be made until 9 months before check-in. I understand why this is done from a management point-of-view (fewer holes, or unused rooms, in the inventory), but it makes non-standard reservations more competitive in the high demand seasons. Air-fares are sometimes lower mid week and a Wednesday to Wednesday reservation might be desirable. Or a 10 or 12 day reservation might be more desirable than a 7 or 14 day reservation. Welk's rules make these non-standard reservations more difficult.
 
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The standard reservation window is 15 months prior to check-in date. But the reservation must be for a full week starting on the resort's standard check-in day (typically Friday, Saturday or Sunday). A split-week reservation cannot be made until 9 months before check-in. I understand why this is done from a management point-of-view (fewer holes, or unused rooms, in the inventory), but it makes non-standard reservations more competitive in the high demand seasons. Air-fares are sometimes lower mid week and a Wednesday to Wednesday reservation might be desirable. Or a 10 or 12 day reservation might be more desirable than a 7 or 14 day reservation. Welk's rules make these non-standard reservations more difficult.
Reservations further than 9 months out do have to be a week long, booked checking in on Fri-Sat-Sun. Reservations inside of 9 months, "short stay/split week" owners can check in any day of the week.
I can book a stay right now from 11/5-11/16 at any Welk resort. That's a Tuesday check in to the following Sat check out.
I can also book past 9 months for whatever length of stay I have points for as long as check in is Fri,Sat, or Sun. I could book a 1/4/20-1/15/20 stay at Northstar in Tahoe right now if I had the points.
 
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bizaro86

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What are the MF for Welk points? Is it just calculated by points or is there a fixed portion as well?
 
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There is a minimum fixed amount and then calculated by amount of points from there. I don't know the exact numbers. But my MF for 240k points is 1450. For 540k points in 2017 it was around $2k.

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Sandy VDH

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There are a list of pros and cons for every resort or resort system.

It all depends on a number of factors:
Where you live
Where you want to go
What you like
What level of luxury you like
How far in advance you can you plan
How much flexibility you need
Bla bla bla....

This is not 1 right answer for what is Best.
 
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There are a list of pros and cons for every resort or resort system.

It all depends on a number of factors:
Where you live
Where you want to go
What you like
What level of luxury you like
How far in advance you can you plan
How much flexibility you need
Bla bla bla....

This is not 1 right answer for what is Best.
Those things only matter in initially figuring out which company to go with. My praise and opinion is based mostly in the simplicity, flexibility, and lack of extra/hidden fees

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Sandy VDH

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Those things only matter in initially figuring out which company to go with. My praise and opinion is based mostly in the simplicity, flexibility, and lack of extra/hidden fees

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Well if that is your criteria then a VIPP Membership at Wyndham is likely a better choice. Given the choice of resorts and the usage and value your points obtain. Now if you don't have a VIPP Membership then I think you could knock it down a few notches. Considering that I back doored my way into a VIPP I can't complain. Convert 3 fixed week, PIC 2 weeks and buy 160K point to get to VIPP, then I can't complain.
 
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Well if that is your criteria then a VIPP Membership at Wyndham is likely a better choice. Given the choice of resorts and the usage and value your points obtain. Now if you don't have a VIPP Membership then I think you could knock it down a few notches. Considering that I back doored my way into a VIPP I can't complain. Convert 3 fixed week, PIC 2 weeks and buy 160K point to get to VIPP, then I can't complain.
See, I've looked into wyndham and all that you just said, with the different levels getting different perks and only certain owners can book at certain resorts at certain times..... That's my main argument. Every Welk platinum owner can book at any Welk resort, any time of the year as long as they have the points.
The sub 540k point owners have the 15month window. The 1million plus point members get I believe three months earlier access. That is the only real difference to owning more points. But resale owners don't get that perk anyway.

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bizaro86

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Wait - so developer owners of large accounts can book sooner!?!? IMO that is an automatic no deal for me. That means they get first access to the very best inventory. I'd take a couple of extra fees to have access to the best inventory in a system.
 
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Wait - so developer owners of large accounts can book sooner!?!? IMO that is an automatic no deal for me. That means they get first access to the very best inventory. I'd take a couple of extra fees to have access to the best inventory in a system.
But only a maximum of 20% of total inventory is available for those extended reservation windows. Those people are paying anywhere from $75-125k to get between 540k and 1M points. So there aren't very many of them. Ive never had an issue booking anything I wanted in the 6-9 month range and I only own 240k points.

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bizaro86

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But only a maximum of 20% of total inventory is available for those extended reservation windows. Those people are paying anywhere from $75-125k to get between 540k and 1M points. So there aren't very many of them. Ive never had an issue booking anything I wanted in the 6-9 month range and I only own 240k points.

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How strictly is that 20% calculated though?

Because weeks 51/52/7/12 at Northstar could be 100% booked in advance and that would only be 7% of the inventory at Northstar...

If it's a max of 20% of the rooms at any given resort/week that's better but still not great, imo.
 
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The attached is from the contract. It reads like it's total inventory. Which makes your point somewhat more considerable. However, just a month or two ago, I was still able to book a two bedroom at Northstar during Christmas.
I never realized until joining TUG how much people do Christmas at a resort..... Foreign thought for me. Christmas is always at a family members house for mine and my wife's family.
7a64c76282a3390c351de6504ef23d35.jpg


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bizaro86

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20% of the weeks in Escondido would be 10.4 weeks. So hypothetically, you could see pretty much all of the good summer weeks booked before the 15 months.

The big risk I see is that the Welk Platinum Points is still probably only a small percentage of the total Welk system. As it gets bigger you'll naturally see more bigger memberships, and people will get better at using their points.

Although I'd say the fact that Christmas at Northstar was available after the window was open for quite awhile is a pretty good sign.
 
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