Margaritaville Vacation Club by Wyndham

[RLS50]

My apologies in advance for my ignorance about Wyndham...

We have recently gotten curious about Margaritaville Vacation Club by Wyndham. Is there a chart somewhere that would tell us how many Wyndham points we would need to book certain unit types there? Like Westin Star Options chart?

Do we need to buy Wyndham points connected to this property? Or would any Wyndham property with points suffice?

I am happy to do the research, but just not sure where to start if our goal would be to visit this specific Wyndham property.

 

[Sandy VDH]

this should have all of Wyndham including Margaritaville resort point requirements.

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/wyndham/plus_membersdirectory1819/index.php#/0

Margaritaville is a club within a club. You get priority to Margaritaville but you also get all other Wyndham stuff.

 

[joestein]

Actually looking at Margaritaville in PR. I cant believe how many points they are asking for a 1 bedroom. I would rather pay and stay at the Waldorf down the road.

 

[capital city]

Actually looking at Margaritaville in PR. I cant believe how many points they are asking for a 1 bedroom. I would rather pay and stay at the Waldorf down the road.

Yeah, the presidentials are really high. I'm planning on just a studio pool side in January

 

[joestein]

Yeah, the presidentials are really high. I'm planning on just a studio pool side in January

That is not a presidential, that is a normal unit.

 

[Richelle]

If you are not a Margaritaville owner or a VIP, you can only book Rio Mar or Saint Thomas, five months from check in. That’s new this past year. Pigeon Forge is not included in the five month booking. You have to be VIP or a Margaritaville owner to book that property.

There is one exception to the five month rule. CWA has some Margaritaville inventory at either Rio Mar or Saint Thomas (I forget which). CWA owners can book the CWA units earlier then five months. However, there are not many and they book fast.

If you think you would want to go on a regular basis, and you’re not VIP, I suggest buying a Margaritaville contract resale. Up to 50% of the Margaritaville inventory is reserved for Margaritaville owners. That means you’re competing with just Margaritaville owners for that inventory instead of both Margaritaville owners and Club Wyndham VIP owners. It increases tour odds you’ll get what you want. No guarantees obviously. You still should book early if you want anything bigger then a studio or one bedroom.


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[capital city]

That is not a presidential, that is a normal unit.

Yeah, I understand that. I was trying to say that it's a good value there. The presidentials are really expensive. I might book a 2br deluxe if I think I can get friends to go but I can't book for a couple of weeks because of the 5 month rule that Richelle pointed out. I do own CWA but see zero availability anywhere after 5 months at the Margaritaville resorts.

 

[OutSkiing]

There is one exception to the five month rule. CWA has some Margaritaville inventory at either Rio Mar or Saint Thomas (I forget which).

Rio Mar has the CWA inventory. In planning our travel for 2019, we could see plenty of those CWA units available at 13 months but all we saw at that time were studio units. We are VIP so we waited for the 10 month mark and were able to get a presidential 1 bedroom .. sure expensive but really nice.

Bob

 

[joestein]

My point is that the TS point cost is too expensive for what you get.

There are tons of hotels that can get you just a nice or nicer unit or resort for a better value than the maintenance on your points. I can stay at the Waldorf Conquistador for less than $200/night. There is no comparison between those resorts. I have been to each of them, thought I only toured Rio Mar.

Last time I was there I stayed at Club Melia Coco beach. The property was sold to Hyatt. Not sure what will become of it.

Joe

 

[Richelle]

My point is that the TS point cost is too expensive for what you get.

There are tons of hotels that can get you just a nice or nicer unit or resort for a better value than the maintenance on your points. I can stay at the Waldorf Conquistador for less than $200/night. There is no comparison between those resorts. I have been to each of them, thought I only toured Rio Mar.

Last time I was there I stayed at Club Melia Coco beach. The property was sold to Hyatt. Not sure what will become of it.

Joe

You cannot compare apples to oranges. The Waldorf are hotel rooms. The studios at Rio Mar are about the same size and contain a partial kitchen. I’m not sure what “season” that $200 a night falls into, but a studio ocean view during high season is 140,000 points. If you have CWA, the maintenance fees on those points $922.60 for 7 days, or $131.80 a night. Prime season is 189,000 percent points. That’s $1,245.51 for the week, or $177.93. Cheaper then the Waldorf. Both the same size. Both ocean views, and the cheaper one has a kitchen.

Also, I don’t know about everyone else, but I bought a timeshare because I wanted more then a hotel room.


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[RLS50]

We really enjoyed St. Thomas / St. John and were considering becoming first time Wyndham owners. Points at Margaritaville could be used to stay directly at the property, or supplement our trips to Marriott or Westin property with extra nights at the Wyndham property.

Who owns in this "club within a club?" And would you recommend it? And what about first time Wyndham buyers like us? Is to too expensive on a price per points basis since there are cheaper Wyndham properties to get points from? Or does it make sense to purchase here if we want the flexibility to use them specifically for St Thomas?

I assume we would also be able to use the Margaritaville points anywhere inside the core Wyndham network? Is that correct?

I appreciate any feedback pro or con.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Rio Mar has the CWA inventory. In planning our travel for 2019, we could see plenty of those CWA units available at 13 months but all we saw at that time were studio units. We are VIP so we waited for the 10 month mark and were able to get a presidential 1 bedroom .. sure expensive but really nice.

Bob

We've got a 1 bedroom PR oceanview at Rio Mar scheduled for my wife's birthday in Feb 2020. IIRC it was 350k points for a week. She's worth it.

 

[HitchHiker71]

We really enjoyed St. Thomas / St. John and were considering becoming first time Wyndham owners. Points at Margaritaville could be used to stay directly at the property, or supplement our trips to Marriott or Westin property with extra nights at the Wyndham property.

Who owns in this "club within a club?" And would you recommend it? And what about first time Wyndham buyers like us? Is to too expensive on a price per points basis since there are cheaper Wyndham properties to get points from? Or does it make sense to purchase here if we want the flexibility to use them specifically for St Thomas?

I assume we would also be able to use the Margaritaville points anywhere inside the core Wyndham network? Is that correct?

I appreciate any feedback pro or con.

If you want to book within the ARP window 13 months out at the specific MVC resort (like St. Thomas) then obtaining a MVC contract may be worthwhile for you to consider. From what I've seen when doing availability searches, usually only studios and one bedrooms show up as available as a VIPP CWA owner. If you need access to larger rooms I suspect having a CWS MVC contract would help. You can find MVC resale contracts occasionally on eBay as well, here's one for St. Thomas right now up for auction:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/312703578109?ul_noapp=true

Yes you can use MVC contract points within CWP for any other points bookings across all other CWP resorts, within the standard 10 month booking window.

 

[capital city]

I dont know about st Thomas but when I was looking to book Wyndham Rio Mar with points vs $ the taxes on the $ option was approx an additional 20%.

 

[Eric B]

My point is that the TS point cost is too expensive for what you get.

There are tons of hotels that can get you just a nice or nicer unit or resort for a better value than the maintenance on your points. I can stay at the Waldorf Conquistador for less than $200/night. There is no comparison between those resorts. I have been to each of them, thought I only toured Rio Mar.

Last time I was there I stayed at Club Melia Coco beach. The property was sold to Hyatt. Not sure what will become of it.

Joe

You cannot compare apples to oranges. The Waldorf are hotel rooms. The studios at Rio Mar are about the same size and contain a partial kitchen. I’m not sure what “season” that $200 a night falls into, but a studio ocean view during high season is 140,000 points. If you have CWA, the maintenance fees on those points $922.60 for 7 days, or $131.80 a night. Prime season is 189,000 percent points. That’s $1,245.51 for the week, or $177.93. Cheaper then the Waldorf. Both the same size. Both ocean views, and the cheaper one has a kitchen.

Also, I don’t know about everyone else, but I bought a timeshare because I wanted more then a hotel room.


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I would add to the discussion that part of the consideration should be that you have already paid for the Wyndham points as a sunk cost, while paying for the Waldorf Conquistador would be an additional cost. Given unlimited resources, it might make sense (or cents) to pay the $200 a night and use the Wyndham points elsewhere (assuming you are either retired or have enough vacation time). If you have resource limitations in either vacation time or money budgeted for a year, it might be better to pay the higher rate in Wyndham points and use them to stay at Rio Mar. I know that my planning will change once I retire, but have been willing to pay the higher rate for trips that work out better overall for my situation.

 

[Jimag]

If you want to book within the ARP window 13 months out at the specific MVC resort (like St. Thomas) then obtaining a MVC contract may be worthwhile for you to consider. From what I've seen when doing availability searches, usually only studios and one bedrooms show up as available as a VIPP CWA owner. If you need access to larger rooms I suspect having a CWS MVC contract would help. You can find MVC resale contracts occasionally on eBay as well, here's one for St. Thomas right now up for auction:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/312703578109?ul_noapp=true

Yes you can use MVC contract points within CWP for any other points bookings across all other CWP resorts, within the standard 10 month booking window.

256,000 CWP points at Margaritaville St. Thomas could be a good option, but caution is in order here. The resellers' Ebay ID was registered in December 2018 and has feedback from only one buyer. I would want to do some research on these folks before I would consider making a purchase from them. I do not know whether this reseller is reliable, but I was burned for several thousand dollars by a Missouri reseller d/b/a The Transfer Group. It's Ebay ID was thetransfergroup. The Transfer Group changed its Ebay ID to nationaltsbroker. Nationaltsbroker's email was nationaltimesharebroker@gmail.com. Due diligence is definitely in order before making a move on any resale through Ebay. I've made several successful timeshare purchases on Ebay, but being burned has made me very cautious. One safeguard would be to require funds to be paid into an escrow account with a third party of your selection.

If you want to book within the ARP window 13 months out at the specific MVC resort (like St. Thomas) then obtaining a MVC contract may be worthwhile for you to consider. From what I've seen when doing availability searches, usually only studios and one bedrooms show up as available as a VIPP CWA owner. If you need access to larger rooms I suspect having a CWS MVC contract would help. You can find MVC resale contracts occasionally on eBay as well, here's one for St. Thomas right now up for auction:

 

[Richelle]

256,000 CWP points at Margaritaville St. Thomas could be a good option, but caution is in order here. The resellers' Ebay ID was registered in December 2018 and has feedback from only one buyer. I would want to do some research on these folks before I would consider making a purchase from them. I do not know whether this reseller is reliable, but I was burned for several thousand dollars by a Missouri reseller d/b/a The Transfer Group. It's Ebay ID was thetransfergroup. The Transfer Group changed its Ebay ID to nationaltsbroker. Nationaltsbroker's email was nationaltimesharebroker@gmail.com. Due diligence is definitely in order before making a move on any resale through Ebay. I've made several successful timeshare purchases on Ebay, but being burned has made me very cautious. One safeguard would be to require funds to be paid into an escrow account with a third party of your selection.

They almost burned me, but thankfully I was able to file a credit dispute and got my money back. Their communication was lacking until I filed the dispute. Then all the sudden they call ask if we could work something out. I told them to deal with the credit card company because I was done. I know others were not so lucky. eBay does not offer any buyer protections for timeshares either.


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[dgalati]

You cannot compare apples to oranges. The Waldorf are hotel rooms. The studios at Rio Mar are about the same size and contain a partial kitchen. I’m not sure what “season” that $200 a night falls into, but a studio ocean view during high season is 140,000 points. If you have CWA, the maintenance fees on those points $922.60 for 7 days, or $131.80 a night. Prime season is 189,000 percent points. That’s $1,245.51 for the week, or $177.93. Cheaper then the Waldorf. Both the same size. Both ocean views, and the cheaper one has a kitchen.

Also, I don’t know about everyone else, but I bought a timeshare because I wanted more then a hotel room.


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I have to agree with wanting more then a hotel room. Nothing better then having a seperate bedroom, a kitchen and washer and dryer. All for less the a hotel room