WYN/Extra Holidays experience

[Sandi Bo]

I thought I'd post my drama for the weekend

I had a guest show up at Bonnet Creek on the wrong day. 100% his fault. But who shows up with a family of 7, including in-laws and a baby, trying to scam or pull a fast one? We all make mistakes, just saying.. you would think Bonnet Creek or Wyndham could at least try to help.

First, they told the guest there are rooms available, and that I (the owner) could call owner services and they could change the dates for him. They were sold out on the myclubwyndham website. I knew better. I knew it was not true, owner care can't book it if I can't see it. Nor can they change dates. And it takes an act of God to have a guest confirmation comped. But it left me in the position of having to try, since that is what the guest was told.

I did have a pretty amazing vacation counselor. She thought they should have to make good on the manager's promise - haha - she won't last long. There is supposably a process, but they couldn't agree. She said there was form he needed to fax, he said there was a form she needed to fax. Bottom line, it could be done but he didn't want to do it, and she didn't have the authority to do what was needed. Only bad thing I can say about her (and it wasn't the VC's fault) is that she wouldn't transfer me to Owner Care - said they couldn't help me and I'd need to call back to BC and talk to the rooms controller or general manager.

One problem with all this, is the lower level folks must be dinged somehow for transferring owners to owner care (at WYN) or an upper lever manager (at BC). They won't do it. They don't have the authority to do what's needed, and they will not transfer you to someone who can. Gotta love call center mentality, metrics, performance ratings, etc.

The compassionate and helpful BC manager (read with dripping sarcasm, please) did offer to rent rooms (via extra holidays).

So, the guest ended up renting from the front desk I've heard rumblings of that, and now I've seen it in action. One less reason for WYN to try to help you or provide good customer service. Not when they have such a wonderful solution for you - which of course involves taking more of your money

I ended up finding a coupon online. No, the manager did not offer that possibility. The room rate for a Friday and Saturday night was $575. Not nearly as bad as I expected it would be.

I am still left with a BC reservation for other dates and a wasted GC. Later in the day, availability showed online on the owner website for the dates the guest needed. Only cementing my opinion - the manager could have helped out but chose not to. No compassion whatsoever.

I was surprised it was only $575. I have mixed emotions about that. I'm thankful, for the guest, that it was only $575 but not thrilled that they could actually offer a 'competitive rate'. Here we are spring break... owner site is sold out. And yet Extra Holidays can offer substantial discounts, offering the rooms for about the same price an owner can book it for (not counting VIP discounts). And they don't burn guest confirmations.

Irony for me, is that I am far more willing to help out someone who made an honest mistake than WYN. They just made money. I lost a few bucks.

 

[55plus]

I had a guest show up at Smokey Mountains a day early. Fortunate for us availability was available on the website. I booked it and charger them only a guest confirmation even though I still had guest conversations available. I upgraded their unit to the same size unit they rented from me, which I had upgraded originally. Fortunately everything worked out for everyone. I don't think I would have tried to deal with the resort or at Wyndham since the issue wasn't my fault.

 

[Sandi Bo]

I had a guest show up at Smokey Mountains a day early. Fortunate for us availability was available on the website. I booked it and charger them only a guest confirmation even though I still had guest conversations available. I upgraded their unit to the same size unit they rented from me, which I had upgraded originally. Fortunately everything worked out for everyone. I don't think I would have tried to deal with the resort or at Wyndham since the issue wasn't my fault.

Yeah... I figure as difficult as it is for those of us who know the system, it would be impossible for a guest to be able to do anything. And they have no authority. What is the 800 number going to do for a guest (who the resort directed to call)? Absolutely nothing, they won't get past what is your member number. Which is just the tip of the iceberg to my complaint about at the manager at the resort telling the guest to call reservations.

I've had a couple people book the wrong weekend. One a week off, one a month off. Makes for interesting times. But not the same urgency as a family sitting in the lobby after traveling all day. And in those cases I did not engage Wyndham whatsoever. My goal is to not call them (I'm sure that's one of their goals, too - I bet call numbers are way down these days).

 

[Wolf&Sprite]

Several years ago when I was a brand new owner I showed up at the Great Smokies Lodge a day early. I had it in my mind what day I had reserved and wasn't really familiar enough with the web site to even check. We got there late in the evening and they informed us of our mistake. They said they couldn't check us in but since our room was empty the had someone escort us to the room and let us in. Since we didn't have keys we had to station someone at each door to get our luggage in. the next day we went back and got registered. I was quite impressed with the resort since they went out of their way to help us out and didn't charge us a thing for the extra night.

Sounds like Bonnet Creek isn't so helpful. I had a week there last month and have a different complaint about their management.