Avenue Plaza Owners Update what to expect?

[AgSweep]

My husband and I bought a fixed week at Avenue Plaza on E-bay. It is our first timeshare. We have successfully negotiated paying the MF and booking our week. Because we are week owners we are not part of Club Wyndham and have no online site available to us. To book you have to call the number provided on your documents. Wyndham certainly doesn't seem to treat their week owners very well.

So now I am wondering what to expect at the owners update meeting, should we decide to go. I assume we will get some high pressure deal to 'upgrade' to their points system. Is there really any point to doing that? I don't care about VIP status, the only thing that would tempt me might be increased flexibility, although I doubt they are going to offer me anything at a price I would be willing to pay.

 

[ronparise]

My husband and I bought a fixed week at Avenue Plaza on E-bay. It is our first timeshare. We have successfully negotiated paying the MF and booking our week. Because we are week owners we are not part of Club Wyndham and have no online site available to us. To book you have to call the number provided on your documents. Wyndham certainly doesn't seem to treat their week owners very well.

So now I am wondering what to expect at the owners update meeting, should we decide to go. I assume we will get some high pressure deal to 'upgrade' to their points system. Is there really any point to doing that? I don't care about VIP status, the only thing that would tempt me might be increased flexibility, although I doubt they are going to offer me anything at a price I would be willing to pay.

In addition to the weeks owners here, there are also units available to Club Wyndham points owners and Worldmark owners. So you may be offered a membership in one or the other or both of these clubs. And from what I understand the sales force here is among the most agressive anywhere in the system


As you probably know your week is a floating week and can be used for any week of the year except for 5 "black out" weeks (2 Mardi Gras weeks, 2 Jazz fest weeks and Sugar Bowl) and you can use your week, or split it into a a 3 and a 4 day stay. Also you are entitled to a "right to use" week, (just pay another mf) and this week can be split too

Bottom line, this is a very flexible ownership. The only reason to buy Wyndham points or Worldmark credits would be to gain access to other resorts in the system, or to be able to reserve one of the "black out" week, I listed above. 140000 Wyndham points or 12000 worldmark credits (enough for a week in a one bedroom at Avenue Plaza will sell for over $20000. Dont do it. If you want want the points and credits can offer you they are available on the secondary market for much much less,

The salesman will no doubt tell you that a weeks ownership is obsolete. Dont believe them. What you have with an Avenue Plaza Week is the best timeshare ownership out there. At least thats my opinion...I own 14 of them.

Regarding your comment: "To book you have to call the number provided on your documents. Wyndham certainly doesn't seem to treat their week owners very well." You are right that its a different phone number, but the folks there are very good at what they do. I like working with them better than either Club Wyndham or Worldmark.

Remember to pay your mf early and make your reservations early. Because this is a sold out resort, and because everyone is allowed a right to use week, there are always some owners that get shut out. ie they pay there fees but there is nothing available for them to reserve.

 

[dagger1]

Question for Ron...

In addition to the weeks owners here, there are also units available to Club Wyndham points owners and Worldmark owners. So you may be offered a membership in one or the other or both of these clubs. And from what I understand the sales force here is among the most agressive anywhere in the system


As you probably know your week is a floating week and can be used for any week of the year except for 5 "black out" weeks (2 Mardi Gras weeks, 2 Jazz fest weeks and Sugar Bowl) and you can use your week, or split it into a a 3 and a 4 day stay. Also you are entitled to a "right to use" week, (just pay another mf) and this week can be split too

Bottom line, this is a very flexible ownership. The only reason to buy Wyndham points or Worldmark credits would be to gain access to other resorts in the system, or to be able to reserve one of the "black out" week, I listed above. 140000 Wyndham points or 12000 worldmark credits (enough for a week in a one bedroom at Avenue Plaza will sell for over $20000. Dont do it. If you want want the points and credits can offer you they are available on the secondary market for much much less,

The salesman will no doubt tell you that a weeks ownership is obsolete. Dont believe them. What you have with an Avenue Plaza Week is the best timeshare ownership out there. At least thats my opinion...I own 14 of them.

Regarding your comment: "To book you have to call the number provided on your documents. Wyndham certainly doesn't seem to treat their week owners very well." You are right that its a different phone number, but the folks there are very good at what they do. I like working with them better than either Club Wyndham or Worldmark.

Remember to pay your mf early and make your reservations early. Because this is a sold out resort, and because everyone is allowed a right to use week, there are always some owners that get shut out. ie they pay there fees but there is nothing available for them to reserve.

Ron, we plan on spending 10-14 days (5-7 Spring, 5-7 Fall) in New Orleans every year. It's one of our favorite cities! I have read many of your posts regarding Aenue Plaza and know it's among your favorites. We are considering buying (resale of course, thank you Tugger's) a week. The decision is: deeded floating or CWA points.. The MF's seem almost the same, I think CWA is a little higher. Do you have to be a deeded floating week owner to get the second week for MF option, or is this available with CWA points as well? Can I pick your brains as to the pro's and con's of the different purchase options? Thanks in advance for your time and help!

 

[ronparise]

Ron, we plan on spending 10-14 days (5-7 Spring, 5-7 Fall) in New Orleans every year. It's one of our favorite cities! I have read many of your posts regarding Aenue Plaza and know it's among your favorites. We are considering buying (resale of course, thank you Tugger's) a week. The decision is: deeded floating or CWA points.. The MF's seem almost the same, I think CWA is a little higher. Do you have to be a deeded floating week owner to get the second week for MF option, or is this available with CWA points as well? Can I pick your brains as to the pro's and con's of the different purchase options? Thanks in advance for your time and help!

The mf for a one bedroom floating week at avenue plaza is about $750
Mf for 140000 CWA points is over $800.

The right to use week is a benefit of owning a floating week. There is no such benefit in points ownership.

If you want 2 weeks a year at avenue plaza i would stay with your floating week. There's no need to buy anything else. However if you want one f the event weeks I would buy some Wyndham points for that

 

[dagger1]

Thank you for the quick response!!! $15/ year for the expertise you and others provide has got to be one of THE great deals out there!!

 

[dagger1]

One last question re: deeded floating week vs CWA at Avenue Plaza (or anywhere, I guess): with CWA if I booked both weeks in the same day I would use one booking credit and several housekeeping credits (14?); i am guessing these credits are only required by points systems (CWA, UDI, etc) and don't apply to deeded floating non points based contracts?

 

[ronparise]

One last question re: deeded floating week vs CWA at Avenue Plaza (or anywhere, I guess): with CWA if I booked both weeks in the same day I would use one booking credit and several housekeeping credits (14?); i am guessing these credits are only required by points systems (CWA, UDI, etc) and don't apply to deeded floating non points based contracts?

That's right. None the rules and procedures that apply to the points system apply to weeks. Neither do the rules and procedures that apply to the weeks apply to the points system

As you know there is a different phone number to call to make reservations with your weeks. In the case of avenue plaza there are no transaction fees and no housekeeping fees (even if you split your week) and no guest fees. There are fees to cancel a reservation. $25 if you cancel before the 30 day mark and $150 if you cancel inside 30 days Reservations made with your right to use week are non cancellable

 

[dagger1]

As has been said before many times, because of the patience and expertise you display every time you answer a question, you will be my go to guy if we need to rent a unit to complement one of our points stays!!! Thanks again for your help!

 

[dagger1]

I would like to say this is my last question for you Ron, but that would probably be a lie!!! In another thread I mentioned I have purchased three separate CWA points packages due to the flexibility offered. But I also know that we will burn through these points fairly rapidly traveling with kids and grandkids. I am considering a floating week at Avenue Plaza just for my wife and myself for reasons you clarified above.. My question is does Avenue Plaza participate in Wyndham's Ovation program, making it possible to give back when our traveling days are over..?

 

[ronparise]

I would like to say this is my last question for you Ron, but that would probably be a lie!!! In another thread I mentioned I have purchased three separate CWA points packages due to the flexibility offered. But I also know that we will burn through these points fairly rapidly traveling with kids and grandkids. I am considering a floating week at Avenue Plaza just for my wife and myself for reasons you clarified above.. My question is does Avenue Plaza participate in Wyndham's Ovation program, making it possible to give back when our traveling days are over..?

I just gave back 10 of my 14 weeks through ovation
I sold 2 of my event weeks and I retained ownership of a Mardi Gras week and a jazz fest week

To answer the inevitable question: why?... because they changed the rules regarding split weeks. I used to be able to split a week and get two reservations for the same weekend, Now I can't do that the "splits" have to be for different timeframes, no overlapping

So I can no longer use those 10 weeks to make 40 reservations for the essence music fest as I have done for the last several years

 

[dagger1]

Gotcha, thanks. I don't know if we would split, probably use a week in spring and then rent another for fall.. But nice to know that we can still split the week if we want four days in the spring and three in the fall...

 

[Sloane S]

My question is does Avenue Plaza participate in Wyndham's Ovation program, making it possible to give back when our traveling days are over..?

With Wyndham I would not assume that what is possible today will be possible in the future. They are constantly changing policies.

 

[dagger1]

Great point. Ovation can be gone at anytime I guess!!