Worldmark or Wyndham? I live in Arizona

[Uduhman]

First,

I have been advised to look into Worldmark, instead of Wyndham because I live in Arizona. I already own Wyndham Governors Green in VA for a 126000 Biannual/even years. However, we are paying $46/month, or around $1100MFs ($550/each year) for it. This does not sound like a good deal as it has been shown on TUG that I can obtain 308000+ CWA points for around $2000. I am thinking of selling and purchasing 308000 CWA points instead.

Would it be difficult to unload Governors Green? Anyone's thoughts?

Second,

If I did unload Governors Green, what would be the equivalent amount in Worldmark points (if that is the way I go), compared to 308000 CWA?

Thanks

 

[geist1223]

There is no true exchange ratio between Wyndham and Worldmark. But roughly 308000 Wyndham Points would be 20,000 Worldmark Points/Credits. Remember with Worldmark there is no home resort. You would have access to about 90 Worldmark Resorts in Fiji, Mexico, Canada, Hawaii, and all over CONUS but mainly West of the Mississippi. Also with Worldmark there are various Cash options - Bonus Time, Monday Madness, and Inventory Specials. With 20,000 Points you would get 2 HKC and 2 GC.

The resell a cost of 20,000 Worldmark Points would be about $6,000. You can buy resell Worldmark Points on TUG, EBAY, www.wmowners.com/forum.

Read up on Worldmark on the Subsection under Wyndham on this Forum or on www.wmowners.com/forum.

 

[bizaro86]

Where do you mostly like/want to travel is more important than where you live to answer this question.

 

[easyrider]

It seems most Wyndham owners are not near as happy as Worldmark owner regarding their ownership. Worldmark has no debt. Wyndham has huge debt.

Bill

 

[chapjim]

It seems most Wyndham owners are not near as happy as Worldmark owner regarding their ownership. Worldmark has no debt. Wyndham has huge debt.

Bill

I am a not-totally-happy Wyndham owner but it has nothing to do with the amount of debt Wyndham has or doesn't have.

And, since Worldmark is actually Worldmark by Wyndham, it doesn't seem to be terribly important (to me) whose books carry the debt.

 

[easyrider]

The Worldmark governing docs actually say they will not take on debt to build resorts. This keeps the MF down. Wyndham borrows to build resorts resulting in huge debt and a higher MF .

Wyndham is not really a partner of Worldmark. They are more like an employee as they were hired to develop and run day to day operations.

I bet if you ask 10 Wyndham owners how they like the system maybe 2 might like it. If you ask Worldmark owners the same I bet 9 out of 10 would say they like or even love Worldmark.

Bill

 

[breezez]

I find 1 WM credit is about the same as 25 Wyndham Points.

I have both Wyndham and WorldMark. Wyndham does have some nicer new resorts, but I find WorldMark has more of the type of locations I would like to stay and tons more flexibility.

Your MF’s per 1000 points are what’s killing you under Wyndham. Plus 126K points or 63K a year is not really enough to do anything. If you don’t need ARP you can get MF’s below $4 per 1K Points by buying the right intervals at low cost resorts. Your paying around $9.33 based on original post.

Wyndham vs WorldMark really boils down to where you will primarily vacation and take mini vacations. If east of Mississippi Wyndham is a better fit. If West of Mississippi WorldMark becomes a better fit.

Under WorldMark current guidelines you could buy a 6K, 10K - 12K account and you can alway borrow a year in advance. Plus you are allowed to rent from others up to 2 times your annual use credits. So if some years you want to vacation more just rent some credits typically other users rent them out for $.07 each.
This allows you to have a small account but still have ability to get 2-3 weeks if need be.

The fact that you live out west you have access to a lot of Bonus Time, Monday Madness, and also Fax Time to give you opportunities to book for cash rates minimum $65 night There are also Inventory special opportunities. These allow you to book rooms for minimum of $65 or .069 per credit which ever is greater.

Living in Arizona you are close to several location ones off top of my head South Mountain Pass I think almost by Phoenix Airport. Couple in White Mountains Pine Top and Bison Ranch.

WM the more credits you own the lower the fees. 6K account fees are a lot higher plus you normally will need to borrow or rent for a week stay, so I recommend 12K account to start with. This gives you at least a week in 2 bedroom most resorts a year or 1.5 weeks in a 1 bedroom.

Last thing WM can exchange into Interval however very few Wyndham units can. You will find Interval has better selection of high end units. If you book something within 60 day if checkin it’s only 4000 WM credits any size unit.

 

[CO skier]

If I did unload Governors Green, what would be the equivalent amount in Worldmark points (if that is the way I go), compared to 308000 CWA?
Thanks

There is no true exchange ratio between Wyndham and Worldmark. But roughly 308000 Wyndham Points would be 20,000 Worldmark Points/Credits.

16:1 is about the right ratio to approximately compare Wyndham to WorldMark. A few examples comparing equivalent 2 BR units are:

Resort-----------------------Club WYN----WorldMark---------Ratio

Steamboat Springs, CO------229,600-------10000------------23
Angels Camp, CA-------------164000-------10000-----------16.4
Indio, CA----------------------180,400------11000-----------16.4
Florida - Santa Barbara-------189,000------11800----------16.0
"Classic" 90s 2 BR resort-----154,000------10000-----------15.4
TUG Comparison Chart-------190,000-------12000-----------15.8 https://tug2.net/timeshare_advice/timeshare-system-comparison-chart.html

 

[IRMO]

Awesome comparison and analysis!

 

[breezez]

1 bad thing about WM they don’t include WIFI unless you bought from Developer and then pay for travelshare.

So at all WM stays you have to pay fee for internet access. Not to outrageous, but can be annoying.

 

[Tacoma]

I originally bought a 10000 point WM almost 10 years ago and with booking for family I upped it to 20000 about a year and a half ago. Just after I upsized my account I found out they would implement a very expensive guest fee of $99 or $129. So now it's not cost effective to let my daughter go for a weekend. Still I have almost always needed to bring in more points every year. This year I have 7 nights at Zihuatenejo for 9000 points, a long weekend in Vancouver for 5500 points, 7 nights at Seaside for 11000 points, 2 nights Deer Harbour about 5000 points and 2 reservations at eagle crest for around 10000 points since we're not sure what size unit we will need. So even though I might not always need 20000 points the ease of renting extra points either direction makes it a no brainer. For internet I usually pay the $50 for an annual 2 device pass. Yes it's annoying we have to pay for what is free at all cheap hotels but that is our reality.

Joan

 

[bizaro86]

1 bad thing about WM they don’t include WIFI unless you bought from Developer and then pay for travelshare.

So at all WM stays you have to pay fee for internet access. Not to outrageous, but can be annoying.

A WM account will be at least $50 less in annual fees than a comparable Wyn account. Likely the difference is more than that, but at minimum it covers the cost of an annual wifi pass.

 

[geerlijd]

A WM account will be at least $50 less in annual fees than a comparable Wyn account. Likely the difference is more than that, but at minimum it covers the cost of an annual wifi pass.

I disagree. My Wyndham account (contracts at South Shore, Canterbury, and Bali Hai) works out to $4.38/1k pts in 2019.

A 20k WM account is $1529.60 while a 320k Wyndham account with my avg fees would be $1401.30. The gap had been growing as my Wyndham maintenance fees have been increasing slower than WorldMark.

When I have reserved Florida resorts, Indio and Rancho Vistoso, the Wyndham account was lower cost in all cases for these stays. Steamboat is an exception from this rule as Wyndham pt values are significantly higher there.

I enjoy owning both WorldMark and Wyndham. If you will stay at WM only resorts, owning WM definitely makes sense for 13 month bookings. However if your travels are primarily at joint WM/Wyndham or Wyndham only, you can do very well if you pick your Wyndham contracts carefully and are patient to get low MF without overpaying up front.

 

[bizaro86]

I disagree. My Wyndham account (contracts at South Shore, Canterbury, and Bali Hai) works out to $4.38/1k pts in 2019.

A 20k WM account is $1529.60 while a 320k Wyndham account with my avg fees would be $1401.30. The gap had been growing as my Wyndham maintenance fees have been increasing slower than WorldMark.

When I have reserved Florida resorts, Indio and Rancho Vistoso, the Wyndham account was lower cost in all cases for these stays. Steamboat is an exception from this rule as Wyndham pt values are significantly higher there.

I enjoy owning both WorldMark and Wyndham. If you will stay at WM only resorts, owning WM definitely makes sense for 13 month bookings. However if your travels are primarily at joint WM/Wyndham or Wyndham only, you can do very well if you pick your Wyndham contracts carefully and are patient to get low MF without overpaying up front.

Agree that WM has been going up faster. You have some of the very best properties and only that, so somewhat of an edge case. Does that average per point include club fees? Because the WM number does include their equivalent.

 

[geerlijd]

Yes, program fees are included in that total.

Your correct, I did cherry pick low MF resorts, but that is quite easy via resale if you are patient, and leads to a low cost ownership.

 

[breezez]

I disagree. My Wyndham account (contracts at South Shore, Canterbury, and Bali Hai) works out to $4.38/1k pts in 2019.

A 20k WM account is $1529.60 while a 320k Wyndham account with my avg fees would be $1401.30. The gap had been growing as my Wyndham maintenance fees have been increasing slower than WorldMark.

When I have reserved Florida resorts, Indio and Rancho Vistoso, the Wyndham account was lower cost in all cases for these stays. Steamboat is an exception from this rule as Wyndham pt values are significantly higher there.

I enjoy owning both WorldMark and Wyndham. If you will stay at WM only resorts, owning WM definitely makes sense for 13 month bookings. However if your travels are primarily at joint WM/Wyndham or Wyndham only, you can do very well if you pick your Wyndham contracts carefully and are patient to get low MF without overpaying up front.

You did a really good job picking the low cost Wyndham contracts. I commend you on that. Most people start off by buying a $1 eBay special and many times get the high $$ ones. So this doesn't always pan out as being this cheap. But you make me want to re-do my Wyndham contracts to lower my costs some.

I find it kind of interesting all the talk on the board people discussing VIP benefits when they can save a lot of money just switching to lower fee contracts... Seem's like if you can't afford to buy telesales and PIC for VIP another way of getting a good discount might be just seek out GEM MF contracts and dump the dogs as long as ARP is not too important to you.

 

[WinniWoman]

Deleted

 

[Uduhman]

Thank you all for the great information. I am reading every word. If I have the opportunity to purchase 12000 Worldmark credits annual, with 24000 transfer credits on top of that, for around $2000, with MFs $996 annual...is this a good deal?