Nothing against Ron Parise, personally. I did not agree with his perspective regarding cancel/rebook in 2012 and years following or his trying to pass off stripped Wyndham contracts as bargains in 2015, or whenever it was. It should be noted that eventually Wyndham did not agree with his perspective regarding cancel/rebook -- never thought I would see the day -- and TUG did not agree with his idea of what is a bargain.
Through it all, I had the general impression he did enjoy the banter. Maybe it is just my perspective.
I will speak up in your defense because you did have a very legitimate reason to resent some VIP owners. Try to look at it from the perspective of what is probably 94-97 per cent of VIP owners who weren't making a business out of renting using the book, cancel, rebook, upgrade strategy or stripping deeds. They had years of being able to use book, cancel, rebook and upgrade successfully a good majority of the time. They were coached in how to do it by the sales people and in many cases even by the VC's for so many years that it felt like something they were entitled to be able to do as long as they didn't mind taking the chance of losing an occasional reservation. Some of them wouldn't have bought enough points to be at the VIP level they are at and many now feel cheated. And why wouldn't they? Again I will use a car analogy. It's like being told if you buy from us for $100k-$200k every year you will get a top of the line Lincoln Town car or Cadillac and all you have to pay is this annual maintenance fee. For years you get that car then one day they tell you from now on we aren't going to do that anymore even though we've told you repeatedly for years we would and we did. You should be grateful for the Ford Focus we are now going to give you because it is so much better than a Ford Escort. And we can get away with that because regardless of how often and to how many people it was said and by how many of our people it was said, it wasn't put in writing, only a verbal thing. But we still get to take your money every year. Then they tell you how much they care and value you and that if you want out of paying them the annual fees, well, they care so much that they will graciously allow you to walk away with nothing.
It is easier for me to be objective about this than many VIP owners because as I've stated in previous posts I very, very rarely did the book, cancel, rebook, upgrade. It invariably turned out that there was no need to do it because when the discount period came there were reservations available, that I had tied up those points needlessly and then had to worry about having cancelled points left at the end of the use year. I've told how flexible my husband's work schedule always was but it was really only flexible within a shorter time period, several months, not a year or even six months out. Also for many of the years we've owned when I was working we could never go during holiday times and summers. But other than that I had flexibility too. We got so spoiled with the resorts being quieter that we still prefer not going during those busy times. The 60 day window to get the discounts and upgrades was and still is ideal for our needs. It also helps that we don't need the larger units either. Sometimes it might have taken me a few days and once in a great while even a week or so to be able to put together the stays we wanted but I never had to say we couldn't go because I couldn't find or piece together a reservation. That is until this new website and the changes. It makes me feel resentful that I who used the system like it was intended am finding difficult to get reservations now. There is absolutely no reason that people like us who are happy with the one and two bedroom units at non peak times should be having this problem.
There is no doubt in any VIP owner's mind that Wyndham has devalued what we own. Every corrective action that Wyndham has taken over the years has been at the expense of the VIP owners and has failed. However what is really important to realize is that Wyndham failed to keep the sharks away from all of us, lower point owners, resale owners and VIP owners. And now it is very much looking like Wyndham has used all of us to become Megladon. Wyndham could always have prevented all of the abuses but they chose not to because it benefited them. Everything they do is ultimately for their benefit, anything that trickles down to us is the scraps thrown on the floor for the dogs spun by them to make it sound like a feast for a king. Divide and conquer is a very basic strategy. When we allow them to pit us against each other, low point developer owners, VIP owners, resale owners, it is important for all of us to keep in mind who really wins.
