Advice request: Club Wyndham without ownership

[kvinuk]

So a friend and i were offered the usual club wyndham ownership with yearly points which we both agreed didnt make sense to us because of the monthly fees. As they kept giving us "better offers" which were just lower points lower cost offers which we rejected, they offered us Discovery+ with the following:

800,000 wyndham points throughout 6 years, (400k on 3 years then 400k on the next 3)
RCI subscription but just able to use last call and cant remember the other option but they're just cash options, no points
Cost of this is 10K with no maintenance fee (we are able to cover the 10K fully so no interest rate)

Context about us:
We are both able to travel on non prime times and weekdays,
We calculated around 10k-12k per night so got about 67-80 nights on the 800k points
and we said as long as we can keep a ratio of 135USD/night value we would get some value out of it sicne its a 6year and we were told points/night dont go up with inflation (not sure if thats true)
Most of the value we were planning to get was out of the RCI last call, since like i mentioned we are able to make last minute trips on non prime times, but ive read you're likely to get trash resorts and never a regular/good one
Any advice on how bad/average this deal is? any cheaper or better way to get RCI last call?
What is the real availability for wyndham resorts? Since we normally dont plan ahead with a lot of time, would be a bummer if you have to plan 6 months in advance because availability

Thanks in advance

 

[CaliSunshine]

10,000 dollars seems like a lot of money to punt on trying out a timeshare experience.

Points per night generally do not go up that’s true.

But you can probably get a nearly free Wyndham contract resale with a similar yearly cost of 1.6K

 

[paxsarah]

But you can probably get a nearly free Wyndham contract resale with a similar yearly cost of 1.6K

Yes, you could probably get 200k CWA for nearly free (or better, something like Grand Desert with lower MFs), which would give you 1.2 million points to use over 6 years at a similar cost.

 

[kanerf]

I purchased 640000 points in Hawaii last year for $450. Of course I do have to pay maintenance fees on this.

 

[austdav]

The price per point wouldn't work for me. I need a 2bd in prime season (grandkids) and that would give me about 4 wks total. If it were just me and the wife who can travel most anythime it could work ok but my question is, what about all the other fees these places charge. Short stays can have reservation fees, housekeeping fees etc. Them can really add up if thats what your doing. I have another option that has worked great for me although it is not a point system, it is a floating week. It is at Magic Tree in Kissimmee FL. You can buy these right from the resort. The last i knew you could get a 1bd for free. They do not always have 2br but can be bought for around $1500 avg when they have them. MF on a 2bd is $600 on a 1bd i think it is $525. They do not care what trading co. you use, so you could join both rci & II if you wanted or any other trading co. I bought a 2bd in 2019 and now have 3 units i liked them so much. They have a deed back program of 2yr mf. max im told. MF's haven't went up in around 20yrs im told. I can only say they were $600 in 2019 & still that this year. While this is a small place, it is gold crown & trades well. I have only traded in II but have traded to sheraton vistana twice, a gold crown resort at daytona, and this year traded for a week in key west, all 2bd. $850 total for a week in key west, not bad. You can call the resort at 407-396-2300 if your interested. I also did another post on this resort with a little more info, on the thread (why would anyone do this), i think around page 6-7.

 

[CO skier]

and we said as long as we can keep a ratio of 135USD/night value we would get some value out of it sicne its a 6year and we were told points/night dont go up with inflation (not sure if thats true)

It is true but maintenance fees go up with inflation.

Most of the value we were planning to get was out of the RCI last call, since like i mentioned we are able to make last minute trips on non prime times, but ive read you're likely to get trash resorts and never a regular/good one

This is completely untrue. There are a lot of fantastic resorts available for cash using RCI Extra Vacations and Last Call ($300-500, 1 bedroom) throughout the year; some 2 bedrooms available, too, for a little more.

What is the real availability for wyndham resorts? Since we normally dont plan ahead with a lot of time, would be a bummer if you have to plan 6 months in advance because availability

This might be an issue, depending on your choice of Wyndham resorts. Planning months ahead is key to happy timeshare ownership, because there are hundreds of thousands of owners who want to vacation during prime season, plus it is generally easier to book a 1 bedroom than a 2 bedroom.

 

[CO skier]

Any advice on how bad/average this deal is? any cheaper or better way to get RCI last call?

Look into buying a Grandview Triennial, there are some TUG posts about it.

 

[austdav]

It is true but maintenance fees go up with inflation.

Maintenance fees go up regardless of inflation at these point based companies. MF's are tied to corporate profits. Higher mf's & the more fees that they can dream up, the better their profits and the better for their shareholders. Up till the last couple years inflation haven't been a problem, yet mf's kept going up. i have owned marriot, hyatt, and still own hilton and have not seen a year they didnt raise fees. That is why i try to make people aware of Magic Tree. They havent raised fees since i first bought in 2019 and told a lot longer than that. Inflation doesn't seem to be a problem here. Here's a thought for the original post. Put 10,000 in a cd earning around 5% & the interest pretty much pays the 1bd mf which they gave you for free. Now you can join and have full access to rci or whatever trading co. you want. And you have a week to trade if your having trouble getting somewhere. Point base systems have their benifits, but i agree they are not great for last minute vacations, not sure any timeshare is good for that.

 

[BoomerKwanger]

Welcome to TUG! Reaching out with your questions here is definitely a first great step to doing your research...To respond to some of your questions:

we were told points/night dont go up with inflation (not sure if thats true)
True...Once the points costs are set for a particular resort, they are basically set in stone, and generally don't change.

ive read you're likely to get trash resorts and never a regular/good one
I would say availability of RCI Last Call is more based around resort location/time of year than resort quality. I live in the DC area and almost always see a last call deal for resorts around Massanutten and Williamsburg (sometimes even 3 bedrooms during prime season). This includes resorts that are at the RCI Gold Crown or Silver Crown level, so they're definitely not "trash" resorts. Places that just generally have a lot of inventory relative to demand are ones I'd expect to see on Last Call (i.e. Orlando and Las Vegas will probably have a bunch of Last Call options as well, though someone else can vouch for me on this since I haven't looked specifically at those places in RCI)

Any advice on how bad/average this deal is?
This is a very average deal. Any time I hear about a Discovery membership, the price ends up being around $12-13 per thousand points in the Discovery contract. This has been so consistent, in fact, that I think that's just the price at which Wyndham sets Discovery memberships.

In terms of the cost per point of $12.50/k is quite high as others have said. Comparatively, someone with a Club Wyndham Access timeshare (which are typically available for free) pays around $8.35/k. This means that if a room costs 12k to book, they would be paying $100.20 per night compared to your cost of $144 per night. But $8.35 is actually also pretty high. My maintanence fees this year (even after a pretty big jump due to inflation last year) are about $5.5/k so I'm paying $66 per night for the same room. Broadly speaking, I would say $7-8/k is a good ballpark guess for an average maintanence fee at a Wyndham resort (for a knowledgeable consumer.)

any cheaper or better way to get RCI last call?
The cheapest way would probably to get a free timeshare off of this website or from www.timesharenation.com. I've actually used timesharenation and can vouch for them (they pay for everything, including closing costs and title transfer fees). The only downside is that this process will take a very long time (about 6 months).

You also need to weigh how much you actually want Wyndham points, vs how much you're just getting Wyndham points in order to get RCI last call. If all you care about is Last Call, then you would get an Every-Other-Year contract with a very small point value. This will give you the lowest yearly costs, though the MF costs per thousand will probably not be good.

Honestly, an even cheaper way to get an RCI membership is to not go the Wyndham route at all. Just find a resort that is LISTED on RCI that is being offered for free on timesharenation. You would then set up your own RCI membership and then use that to access last call.

What is the real availability for wyndham resorts? Since we normally dont plan ahead with a lot of time, would be a bummer if you have to plan 6 months in advance because availability
Generally speaking, 3 factors make booking a vacation easier: 1) Booking earlier 2) having flexibility in location/week 3) having the patience to neurotically check the Club Wyndham website every day to see if something opens up. I would say that if you have 2 out of the 3, you should be fine in finding something that you're happy with. Case in point: I was able to get a 2 bedroom for an entire week last year in Myrtle Beach in July, and only booked about 1 month beforehand. So it's definitely possible, but it just takes a lot of patience that people don't always have.

My advice for seeing whether availability at the places you might want to book (and this is actually what I did before I decided to buy) is to check AirBnB for the resorts that you might want to stay in. When you have dates in mind, ask the AirBnB renter whether those dates are actually availble. When you do that, they will basically log onto the Club Wyndham website and check for you. The added benefit of this is that you'd see how much it would've cost you in dollars to simply book from AirBnB. Compare this to the cost that you would be paying if you were a Club Owner by multiplying the points cost by your cost per point. That should help you determine how good of a deal you're getting by being owning a timeshare (or a Discovery membership).

*One last small point about the Discovery membership is that I belive you will *have* to attend at least one Owner Update (i.e. sales pitch) during one of your first stays as it is written in your contract. Just thought it might be worth mentioning that.

 

[CO skier]

Maintenance fees go up regardless of inflation at these point based companies. MF's are tied to corporate profits.

Not in WorldMark, where I own. The (corporate) Developer voluntarily capped management fees at 11% (shorting the "corporate profits" of up to 15%), all revenue beyond that 11% is directed to the WorldMark budget for each year, which benefits every WorldMark owner.