the difference
Thanks for all the good info! Another thing I have noticed while looking at CWA points is a huge difference in MF's. I have seen 189,000 points with a $87/month MF, and 210,000 points with $160/month MF... Why would similar points be so different?
There are a lot of different reasons for this. let's talk about a few.
First, older resorts tend to have more things go wrong and they need to refurbish more often. Thus they have higher costs to deal with and therefore higher maintenance fees.
Second, contracts with small amounts of points have higher rates because of Wyndham's program fee. The program fee is 57 cents/1000 pts. owned, but the minimum program fee is ,I believe, $128 (somebody correct me if my numbers are off!). So if you only own a 100,000 pt contract instead of your program fee being $57, it is $128. The minimum fee goes away once you hit somewhere around 250,000 pts. TOTAL in your account. Yes, you add the total points up in your account.
Third, high point stay resorts tend to have low maintenance fees. Low point stay resorts have higher MF's. The reason for this is fewer points to pass the maintenance buck around to.
Which brings us to the grand finale. A lot of this high maintenance fee stuff is illusory. Let me explain with some math.
Bali Hai has a maintenance fee of just about $4/1000 for UDI points.
It costs 325,000 points for a week in a 2BR deluxe.
Total cost for the week 325 times $4 =$1300
Pagosa Springs has a maintenance fee of around $6.50/1000
It costs 166,000 points for a week in a 2BR during prime season.
Total Cost for the week is 166 times 6.5 = $1079
It is important to realize this when buying. That high MF resort you want ARP at may not be so high after all! However if ARP IS OF NO INTEREST OR VALUE TO YOU, then buying the lowest MF resort you can find is in your best interests.
Look at the above example. It costs you $1079 to use your Pagosa Springs points to stay at Pagosa Springs. But it is only going to cost you $664 ( 166 x $4/1000) if you use Bali Hai points to stay at Pagosa Springs. A considerable savings.
Conversely, if you use Pagosa points to stay at Bali Hai it will cost you $2112.50 ( 325 x $6.50/1000) to do that. A poor use of points.