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Which Vacation Club Goes Well with Wyndham? (Opinions)

cbyrne1174

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100% resale!!
Lately I've been trying to compare each of the 5 major vacation clubs: DVC, Marriott, Hilton, Wyndham and Bluegreen. It seems to me like Hilton is a good club to buy resale to pair with my 500,000 resale points Wyndham membership. Bluegreen is too low quality for me and Marriott is too expensive for what you get. I was also thinking of getting 100 Saratoga Springs DVC points to stay at Disney for a week every 2-3 years in a 1 bedroom.

What vacation club do you guys feel compliments Wyndham the best? I think Hilton because it has higher quality resorts built in prime locations like Orlando, Myrtle Beach, Las Vegas and Hawaii. The new Ocean Tower at Waikoloa is part of such a huge resort that it literally has a monorail to get around. If you Youtube Ocean Enclave at Myrtle beach, it makes Ocean Boulevard look like crap in comparison. Bonnet Creek is the only Orlando resort I care to stay at in the Wyndham system. However, I would totally stay all 4 Hilton locations because the rooms are really, really nice and closer to Universal. With Universal having 4 gates, it makes sense to stay closer to that area.

DVC is nice to have, but keeps getting more expensive every year compared to the natural inflation rate. Thoughts?
 

ecwinch

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Assuming you have not purchased retail, I would suggest Worldmark - as it gets access to a wide range of resorts in the Western US, an area largely underserved except for few overbuilt areas (Las Vegas, Lake Tahoe, SF, So Cal).

More importantly from an options standpoint, WM allows you to join Interval International - which gives access to the Marriotts and Hyatts, which you cannot access thru RCI. So adding WM opens up all the exchange options, where as Hilton limits you to just RCI.
 

littlestar

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You could buy an EOY Marriott lock-off week for access to Interval International and Marriott priority in II. Or buy an independent lock-off resort dual affiliated with both exchange companies - we bought a 2 bedroom Fairways of the Mountain lock-off week (it can actually be considered a Wyndham resort, too, if enrolled in points).

We own DVC points, Wyndham points, and our independent EOY Fairways of the Mountains 2 bedroom. Used to own an EOY Marriott Grande Vista 2 bedroom and Marriott Willow Ridge 2 bedroom but decided to downsize those because I didn’t need Marriott priority enough to pay Marriott maintenance fees.
 
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cbyrne1174

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For Worldmark, you could also just buy a 105,000 EOY retail Wyndham contract for cheap and enroll one 3 bedroom PIC to get the new 300,000 VIP tier. The tier still gives upgrades and 15% discounts as well as friends and family guest certificates.
 

bnoble

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My "second system" would be WorldMark. Marriott is more than I want to spend for the value I would personally get from it. HGVC doesn't have enough diversity in destinations for me. DVC is worse. Bluegreen's destinations don't seem to be sufficiently complementary, and I'm not that excited about most of the resorts. (Though I have stayed at Mountain Run here in Michigan on an RCI last call a few times, and really like that.)
 

capjak

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For me it would come down to where I want to go. I own Marriott/Hilton/Westin/Sheraton/DVC, of those each has a purpose or place I like or is easy to rent if I do not want to go.
I used to exchange my marriott but find I do not like to play that game anymore so I enrolled it and use Destination Points and it works quite well for the last 4 years.

So look at the resorts and pick one that has destinations that "excite" you.
 

cbyrne1174

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I was thinking of buying a 7,000 HGVC Flamingo Platinum deed. If I did Marriott Destinations, I would only use it for short stays since the system doesn't have housekeeping credits or booking fees. A full week is just too expensive compared to Hilton and Wyndham.
 

capjak

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I was thinking of buying a 7,000 HGVC Flamingo Platinum deed. If I did Marriott Destinations, I would only use it for short stays since the system doesn't have housekeeping credits or booking fees. A full week is just too expensive compared to Hilton and Wyndham.

The Marriott Destination (points) is expensive to purchase resale, however, if you get a 1500 point contract resale you can rent points relatively inexpensively from other owners. In addition, some of the Marriott Grande Vista units come with the "Florida Club" which is sort of a mini system within marriott where it allows you to book other Marriott's at 6 months as if you were an owner at the other "Florida Club" marriott's, with a 3 bedroom you can use this to get 3x1 bedrooms to exchange in II (quite a value) 3 weeks (and can exchange into 3 x 2 bedrooms if available and by paying upgrade fee).

You mentioned DVC and I own DVC but it is only a good purchase to use at DVC or rent out to others (renting DVC to others for 2x the MFs is very easy).
 

ecwinch

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For Worldmark, you could also just buy a 105,000 EOY retail Wyndham contract for cheap and enroll one 3 bedroom PIC to get the new 300,000 VIP tier. The tier still gives upgrades and 15% discounts as well as friends and family guest certificates.

Anyone who does this in order to book Worldmark resorts in high season will quickly be disappointed in their purchase decision, as they will find it exceedingly frustrating when they go to book at the 9 month mark vs the 13 month booking window that WM members have. So forget about booking anything coastal, West Yellowstone, Hawaii, and many other resorts in prime season. Many of those resorts are fully booked for the summer at the 12-13th month mark (some at 13 months to the day), and any cancellations that occur are usually captured by the Worldmark waitlist system that Wyndham members do not have access to.
 

spackler

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Are Worldmark resorts comparable in quality to Wyndham?
 

bnoble

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if you get a 1500 point contract resale you can rent points relatively inexpensively from other owners.
I would tread lightly here, if it were me. Some systems that had open transfers between owners eventually either severely restricted them (DVC, one transfer in/out) or eliminated them (Wyndham). I would want the time horizon for payoff on something like this to be in a very small number of years.
 

rickandcindy23

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For a second system, I wouldn't buy anything that trades only with RCI. That has kept me from a Hilton purchase. If Hilton goes to II, I would be looking seriously at Hilton.

I am not a big fan of RCI. But then again, you said you would buy 100 points at SSR to stay once every two-three years. I would skip that purchase and just enter an ongoing search with your Wyndham. You will get a match for most any time of year. Food and Wine is tough to get via exchange, but I have seen a few pop up now and again. I would attempt that exchange. All it will cost you is 105,000 Wyn points+ exchange fee + $190 to Disney. You will be treated like an owner of DVC while on property. You get up to 60 days FP+, early magic hours, trans to/from airport, and all bus trans.

Now if you want VGC or Aulani, exchanges will not work for that.

I love Vistana and Marriott. I would buy the same Marriott Willow Ridge again, if I didn't already own three of them.
 

dcdowden

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Our second ownership is at Westin Kierland Villas in Scottsdale. Westin/Sheraton (formerly Starwood - now Vistana Signature Experiences) was recently acquired by Marriott, but is still a separate exchange network. The Westin Resorts are top quality. We stay at Wyndham Royal Vista on the beach in Pompano Beach each January and then spend March at the Westin in Scottsdale.
 

ecwinch

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Are Worldmark resorts comparable in quality to Wyndham?

Most of the resorts are similar to the standard Wyndham experiences.
 

K2Quick

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Are Worldmark resorts comparable in quality to Wyndham?
As it currently stands, Wyndham is a slight step above WM although the lines seem to be blurring between the two. The biggest differences you will find are the soft goods (basically the Wyndham units will have cloth drapes whereas WM units just have venetian or vertical blinds) and countertops in the kitchen and bathroom. The reason I say the lines are blurring is that WM maintenance fees have gone up at a rate greater than inflation for several straight years and I think a large chunk of that has gone to upgrade the soft goods in the units (the beds are a lot better than what they had when I joined the system about 8 years ago and the linens and bedding are a lot more comfortable/attractive). Also, we just wrapped up a stay at the WM South Shore in Tahoe (a shared resort where some of the units are WM and some are Wyndham). The WM units there have been upgraded to granite countertops in the kitchen. The bathroom showers/tubs/fixtures were more in line with what you'd find in a budget hotel.

I'm kind of in the camp where I'm not thrilled with more incremental upscaling of the WM product. I bought into the system because of locations and low maintenance fees and upscaling the units means upscaling the maintenance fees.
 
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