Club Wyndham Suspension

[JeepGirl]

I am new here and found this site via a fellow timeshare owner who recommended it to me.

Our family has been Founder VIP Owners with Club Wyndham for over 25 years. During COVID lockdowns my mother was diagnosed with aggressive dementia, which required around the clock care for over 2+ years until her death recently. We were unable to travel and spent the majority of our time caring for my mom. Since we couldn’t travel we used our complimentary guest pass (we are afforded 45 passes per year) to let friends and members of our church to use the resorts. They helped to mitigate our maintenance fees and were able to enjoy Wyndham resorts since we were unable to leave my mom.

Earlier this year, Wyndham notified us they were suspending our ownership for “commercial use” because we used too many guest passes and had not used our reservations for personal use. Our account was suspended for 90 days, BUT during that period they continued to collect maintenance fees to the tune of thousands of dollars. Basically, we were charged for something we weren't allowed to use. Over the last 25+ years we have traveled to well over 20 Wyndham resorts and used our guest passes for friends to accompany us. When we contacted them to explain our situation, they said there is nothing they can do and we were designated a "commercial user"? When I asked for documentation to better explain this policy, I was told there is no objective language what determines what a "commercial user" is and based on our usage the last 2 years they determined our account to be a commercial user (regardless of our situation). I asked to appeal the decision, but was told there is no appeal process. As Founder VIP owners with well over 7 figures of points, I can not believe there is no way around this. This whole experience has really changed my opinion of Wyndham.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[bnoble]

Wyndham has been pretty aggressive about trying to curtail private renting. I’m a little surprised they didn’t send you a letter telling you to stop before freezing your account though. That’s what they’ve often done in the past.

As far as any of us know, your options are limited. Once Wyndham has decided this there is not much chance of changing their minds—and if you’ve been accepting money for those guest certificates they will claim that’s commercial.

If one of you has legal coverage through work, this might be worth a phone call. Depending on how mich is at stake it may even be worth paying for a few hours out of pocket just to see if that gets you anywhere.

Longer term it is worth thinking about whether you all can collectively start using these points yourself. If so, it may be time to transfer them into the names of her kids if you haven’t already. If you can’t use them, consider selling (May not be worth much) or deeding back to Wyndham via Certified Exit.

 

[am1]

First they came for me and no one cared and now they came for you. I am glad it ended they way it did for me and now I can just read about the misery on here. Unless you are willing to sue it is hard to get issues resolved with Wyndham as they see it as their sandbox.

 

[cbyrne1174]

First they came for me and no one cared and now they came for you. I am glad it ended they way it did for me and now I can just read about the misery on here. Unless you are willing to sue it is hard to get issues resolved with Wyndham as they see it as their sandbox.

It's not that nobody cared, it's that this is just predictable Wyndham behavior.

 

[troy12n]

Sounds to me like you probably should have heeded the warning you got back "earlier this year"... right?

Being an owner for 25 years and being founders level VIP doesn't grant you special privileges to operate outside the rules... and bringing in the reference to the relative with dementia is irrelavent. I have lost 3 relatives to either dementia or alzheimers in the past 8 years. So I can sympathize to what you are going through. But it doesn't allow you to use that as an excuse for operating outside the rules.

To loosely quote the movie "Top Gun": You knew the rules, you broke them, then you broke another one with those circus stunt additional rentals"...

Wyndham is doing this because of complaints from owners like me who were tired of fighting to get bookings with people like you selling them to the highest bidder. That's not what timeshare ownership is about. No matter which way you cut it...

First they came for me and no one cared and now they came for you. I am glad it ended they way it did for me and now I can just read about the misery on here. Unless you are willing to sue it is hard to get issues resolved with Wyndham as they see it as their sandbox.

Some of us are glad they are cutting down on renters... and applaud Wyndham for the stance they are taking against them. Our ability to book is way up.

 

[JeepGirl]

Sounds to me like you probably should have heeded the warning you got back "earlier this year"... right?

Being an owner for 25 years and being founders level VIP doesn't grant you special privileges to operate outside the rules... and bringing in the reference to the relative with dementia is irrelavent. I have lost 3 relatives to either dementia or alzheimers in the past 8 years. So I can sympathize to what you are going through. But it doesn't allow you to use that as an excuse for operating outside the rules.

To loosely quote the movie "Top Gun": You knew the rules, you broke them, then you broke another one with those circus stunt additional rentals"...

Wyndham is doing this because of complaints from owners like me who were tired of fighting to get bookings with people like you selling them to the highest bidder. That's not what timeshare ownership is about. No matter which way you cut it...



Some of us are glad they are cutting down on renters... and applaud Wyndham for the stance they are taking against them. Our ability to book is way up.

I guess I should have clarified. All correspondence were sent to my mother who in her state lost mail, threw it away, etc... We were only granted access to the account a few weeks ago. We never sold any rentals to the "highest bidder", just friends and members of our community.

Glad your booking are way up. Thanks for the advice.

 

[troy12n]

OFFENDING CONTENT REMOVED DUE TO FORUM RULES VIOLATION

So you had at least 1.4 million points... how many points, how many GC's were used for rentals? Help change my mind, maybe i'm off base here.

Let us know how it works out, if you explain to Wyndham what you did, maybe they can forgive you. The story of your mom having a serious health condition may help your cause.

 

[JeepGirl]

OFFENDING CONTENT REMOVED DUE TO FORUM RULES VIOLATION

So you had at least 1.4 million points... how many points, how many GC's were used for rentals? Help change my mind, maybe i'm off base here.

Let us know how it works out, if you explain to Wyndham what you did, maybe they can forgive you. The story of your mom having a serious health condition may help your cause.

We have more than double 1.4 million points and used them extensively until her illness. We actually have 5 owners, but my mom was the primary owner. We have never used the points as "rentals" exclusively, just for friends and members of our community which is why we never used large numbers of guest passes until she became ill.

I appealed to Wyndham, and sent documentation - even her death certificate.

It sounds like I am up the creek without a paddle b/c there is no appeal process. It is such a same because our kids and family members grew up going to Wyndham resorts but I think it may be time to part company and move in a new direction.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

We have more than double 1.4 million points and used them extensively until her illness. We actually have 5 owners, but my mom was the primary owner. We have never used the points as "rentals" exclusively, just for friends and members of our community which is why we never used large numbers of guest passes until she became ill.

I appealed to Wyndham, and sent documentation - even her death certificate.

It sounds like I am up the creek without a paddle b/c there is no appeal process. It is such a same because our kids and family members grew up going to Wyndham resorts but I think it may be time to part company and move in a new direction.

It’s just a 90 day suspension though? What does that mean exactly? Just that you can’t make new bookings for 90 days? That doesn’t sound that disastrous, what am I missing? The 90 day suspension caused you to lose points?

 

[rickandcindy23]

I guess I should have clarified. All correspondence were sent to my mother who in her state lost mail, threw it away, etc... We were only granted access to the account a few weeks ago. We never sold any rentals to the "highest bidder", just friends and members of our community.

Glad your booking are way up. Thanks for the advice.

You don't have to make excuses to people who feel we cheated them out of their reservations because we were renting. I don't explain anything to that guy. He thinks everyone is out to make money on what he owns.

I am sorry you are going through this after 25 years of ownership. I hope you can learn to use what you own and that you won't feel you have to give it all back. It's a great product, and people who don't have the status we enjoy (we are also Platinum Founder's VIP) seem to have a little issue with jealousy. Not everyone, but some.

You can have friends and family join you on vacation and be there when they check into the resorts. That is one way to use the points.

Again, so sorry for what you had to go through with a mom that had dementia. Those of us here that have had friends and family going through this can certainly empathize with you.

 

[DRIless]

troy12n needs to get off his soap box. Sorry, you've broken whatever threshold they deemed appropriate with the 45 guest certificates that are included in your annual allotment. When they arbitrarily canceled 15 summer reservations on me, it was because they were all in my name, go figure. So, you've not lost your points for those 90 days, right? You've lost access and use of those points for those 90 days? with four remaining owners you should certainly get in some vacations, right?

 

[rickandcindy23]

First they came for me and no one cared and now they came for you. I am glad it ended they way it did for me and now I can just read about the misery on here. Unless you are willing to sue it is hard to get issues resolved with Wyndham as they see it as their sandbox.

Edited to explain that @am1's most made me think of this poem, not that I am a victim of Wyndham, the big bad company. We have acquiesced, as a lot of "mega renters" have had to do over the last few years.

Martin Niemöller Poem, titled "First They Came:"
First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me.

 

[JeepGirl]

troy12n needs to get off his soap box. Sorry, you've broken whatever threshold they deemed appropriate with the 45 guest certificates that are included in your annual allotment. When they arbitrarily canceled 15 summer reservations on me, it was because they were all in my name, go figure. So, you've not lost your points for those 90 days, right? You've lost access and use of those points for those 90 days? with four remaining owners you should certainly get in some vacations, right?

Sadly, all the owners are under the same account and the account is suspended so we are all in the same boat. I think I have exhausted our options, which is how I ended up here originally. I appreciate everyone's help, but from what I have gathered from my own research, Wyndham can classify you as a commercial user based on their internal criteria. I never got an answer as to what the benchmarks are for their decision. I guess taking hundreds of vacations over the last 25+ years has no bearing on their decision.

Thanks again for your input but I think a pivot from Wyndham may be our only option at this point.

 

[JeepGirl]

You don't have to explain anything to me. I know where you stand. And I don't have to have sympathy for you for accumulating 6 million + points, and renting 75% or more of them every year for profit...

You try really hard to play the victim, but do such a poor job at it.



Stop it, please... you are embarrassing yourself and honestly trying to conflate your self-inflicted timeshare fiasco to the holocaust is downright insulting and offensive

We never rented more than 25-30% of our points until my mother was ill, but nice assumption. I actually came her for advice not a lecture.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Make your case directly to the office of the CEO at Wyndham:

Michael.brown@travelandleisure.com

It may or may not make a difference, but your difficult family situation with a dying relative with dementia who was the primary owner certainly can’t hurt. What I would likely do is to propose a compromise solution of some kind that allows you and your family to continue to enjoy your Wyndham ownership while also eliminating the type of activity that flags your account as has happened of recent. So for example, you will likely have to curtail rentals to church/community members especially if you are receiving any monetary compensation - even if such compensation is only covering your maintenance fees and no profit is in play. It’s likely the level of activity they are seeing and the variances on the guest confirmations used that flagged your account in the first place.

For example, your Founders account with at least 2.8mm points is likely made up of various smaller contracts obtained over time. Perhaps consider using Certified Exit to deed back a subset of what your family currently owns such that the remaining owners can keep the Founders level account - but cut the monthly fees in half and get the total points down to a level where it’s almost universally used only by the named owners and occasionally uses guest confirmations for friends and family. The core issue is that it’s likely that somewhere between 50-75% of your points owned are being consumed under guest confirmations and not actual personal use. That’s the problem you have to solve for IMHO.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JeepGirl]

Make your case directly to the office of the CEO at Wyndham:

Michael.brown@travelandleisure.com

It may or may not make a difference, but your difficult family situation with a dying relative with dementia who was the primary owner certainly can’t hurt. What I would likely do is to propose a compromise solution of some kind that allows you and your family to continue to enjoy your Wyndham ownership while also eliminating the type of activity that flags your account as has happened of recent. So for example, you will likely have to curtail rentals to church/community members especially if you are receiving any monetary compensation - even if such compensation is only covering your maintenance fees and no profit is in play. It’s likely the level of activity they are seeing and the variances on the guest confirmations used that flagged your account in the first place.

For example, your Founders account with at least 2.8mm points is likely made up of various smaller contracts obtained over time. Perhaps consider using Certified Exit to deed back a subset of what your family currently owns such that the remaining owners can keep the Founders level account - but cut the monthly fees in half and get the total points down to a level where it’s almost universally used only by the named owners and occasionally uses guest confirmations for friends and family. The core issue is that it’s likely that somewhere between 50-75% of your points owned are being consumed under guest confirmations and not actual personal use. That’s the problem you have to solve for IMHO.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you so much for your input. I am going to look into doing that. This is about the best advice I have gotten researching this issue.

I really appreciate your help.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Thank you so much for your input. I am going to look into doing that. This is about the best advice I have gotten researching this issue.

I really appreciate your help.

No guarantees of course, but worth a shot at least IMHO. While your account is in a state of suspension and cannot be used at present, a Founders level account is rare. Our family personally loves most of the Wyndham resorts we have been to and while we don’t like this sales side of Wyndham - we really like how Wyndham manages the resorts overall. I’d therefore fight hard to try to keep a Founders level account if possible so that your family can continue to create memories together just like you all have done over the past 25 years.

Lastly, if any particular forum member rubs you the wrong way - click on their name and choose the Ignore function - which will hide all posts from that forum member for you.

Welcome to TUG! We are here to help!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cbyrne1174]

You don't have to explain anything to me. I know where you stand. And I don't have to have sympathy for you for accumulating 6 million + points, and renting 75% or more of them every year for profit...

You try really hard to play the victim, but do such a poor job at it.



Stop it, please... you are embarrassing yourself and honestly trying to conflate your self-inflicted timeshare fiasco to the holocaust is downright insulting and offensive

I think Cindy was trying to say that people only speak out or care when it only directly affects them.

[Moderator Note: Political/Contentious Social Issue topic - and all responses to it - deleted after multiple Reports.] <-- SueDonJ

 

[5finny]

I have no Wyndham ownerships and no ax to grind here
I simply stumbled upon this thread
@troy12n
I am surprised and disappointed that someone posting here on tug would be as rude as you appear to be
Your posts simply sound like you are trying to pick a fight with someone
IMHO you are entitled to express your opinions but not to disrespect others

 

[am1]

Sounds to me like you probably should have heeded the warning you got back "earlier this year"... right?

Being an owner for 25 years and being founders level VIP doesn't grant you special privileges to operate outside the rules... and bringing in the reference to the relative with dementia is irrelavent. I have lost 3 relatives to either dementia or alzheimers in the past 8 years. So I can sympathize to what you are going through. But it doesn't allow you to use that as an excuse for operating outside the rules.

To loosely quote the movie "Top Gun": You knew the rules, you broke them, then you broke another one with those circus stunt additional rentals"...

Wyndham is doing this because of complaints from owners like me who were tired of fighting to get bookings with people like you selling them to the highest bidder. That's not what timeshare ownership is about. No matter which way you cut it...



Some of us are glad they are cutting down on renters... and applaud Wyndham for the stance they are taking against them. Our ability to book is way up.

I am glad I rented thousands of reservations, 3 and 4 bedroom units AC, Vegas, Daytona, BC during prime and special weeks. All booked and upgraded during the 60 day discount window. Found a way to get 100s of extra guest confirmations for free and using the guest confirmations for 2 different guests if I could do split reservations and add 2 first names and two last names. Looking back a little scary to cancel rebook then cancel upgrade. But I had duplicate reservations.

Wyndham by their own fault gave me 10's of millions of extra points. There were times when I would cancel a reservation the points would come back but the reservation was still in the account. Had to rinse and repeat till the reservation was gone. No one I told at Wyndham cared. Reservations that were booked the day account was merged would show up as duplicates in the new account. They could be cancelled and points returned but it was just cancelling ghost inventory. No one at Wyndham cared.

One New Years Eve I had a 100 rooms booked in AC. Sadly AC was dying and NYE was midweek but still made out well.

When cancelling units at 15 days I would rebook the next day and then cancel at night and when finally done with the week I would book the middle 2 days and then when the first 3 and last 2 were booked by someone else I would cancel the middle two days. Eliminate the competition.

Renting Wyndham timeshares was just what the salespeople told me I could do. Its not my fault I just did it better then you.

Everyone who is an owner has an equal opportunity to book reservations. I guess you are against the free market?

 

[richardm]

troy12n needs to get off his soap box. Sorry, you've broken whatever threshold they deemed appropriate with the 45 guest certificates that are included in your annual allotment. When they arbitrarily canceled 15 summer reservations on me, it was because they were all in my name, go figure. So, you've not lost your points for those 90 days, right? You've lost access and use of those points for those 90 days? with four remaining owners you should certainly get in some vacations, right?

Just left click on his user name and choose ignore.. Deletes that poster and their comments from your view. Like spoiled children, these trolls just crave the attention- and once the attention stops they go away....

 

[rapmarks]

We never rented more than 25-30% of our points until my mother was ill, but nice assumption. I actually came her for advice not a lecture.

He was addressing rickandcindy. He does that a lot.

 

[HitchHiker71]

MODERATOR POST

I have removed any/all offending content from the offending forum member and have also deleted any/all subsequent quoted replies of the offending content from other posters from this thread. The poster has also been suspended (again) due to repeated forum rules violations. I suspect we will have no issues being civil with these actions now taken. Moving on....

 

[rickandcindy23]

I think Cindy was trying to say that people only speak out or care when it only directly affects them.


[Deleted content.]

You are always sweet. I agree with everything you said right there.

As I said in my edit of the poem, the post by @am1 just reminded me of that poem. I don't really feel like a victim of Wyndham's at all. They are doing what they need to do to keep inventory for owners.

 

[CO skier]

I am new here and found this site via a fellow timeshare owner who recommended it to me.

Our family has been Founder VIP Owners with Club Wyndham for over 25 years. During COVID lockdowns my mother was diagnosed with aggressive dementia, which required around the clock care for over 2+ years until her death recently. We were unable to travel and spent the majority of our time caring for my mom. Since we couldn’t travel we used our complimentary guest pass (we are afforded 45 passes per year) to let friends and members of our church to use the resorts. They helped to mitigate our maintenance fees and were able to enjoy Wyndham resorts since we were unable to leave my mom.

Earlier this year, Wyndham notified us they were suspending our ownership for “commercial use” because we used too many guest passes and had not used our reservations for personal use. Our account was suspended for 90 days, BUT during that period they continued to collect maintenance fees to the tune of thousands of dollars. Basically, we were charged for something we weren't allowed to use. Over the last 25+ years we have traveled to well over 20 Wyndham resorts and used our guest passes for friends to accompany us. When we contacted them to explain our situation, they said there is nothing they can do and we were designated a "commercial user"? When I asked for documentation to better explain this policy, I was told there is no objective language what determines what a "commercial user" is and based on our usage the last 2 years they determined our account to be a commercial user (regardless of our situation). I asked to appeal the decision, but was told there is no appeal process. As Founder VIP owners with well over 7 figures of points, I can not believe there is no way around this. This whole experience has really changed my opinion of Wyndham.

Has anyone had any experience with this? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

I am glad I rented thousands of reservations, 3 and 4 bedroom units AC, Vegas, Daytona, BC during prime and special weeks. All booked and upgraded during the 60 day discount window. Found a way to get 100s of extra guest confirmations for free and using the guest confirmations for 2 different guests if I could do split reservations and add 2 first names and two last names. Looking back a little scary to cancel rebook then cancel upgrade. But I had duplicate reservations.

Wyndham by their own fault gave me 10's of millions of extra points. There were times when I would cancel a reservation the points would come back but the reservation was still in the account. Had to rinse and repeat till the reservation was gone. No one I told at Wyndham cared. Reservations that were booked the day account was merged would show up as duplicates in the new account. They could be cancelled and points returned but it was just cancelling ghost inventory. No one at Wyndham cared.

One New Years Eve I had a 100 rooms booked in AC. Sadly AC was dying and NYE was midweek but still made out well.

When cancelling units at 15 days I would rebook the next day and then cancel at night and when finally done with the week I would book the middle 2 days and then when the first 3 and last 2 were booked by someone else I would cancel the middle two days. Eliminate the competition.

Renting Wyndham timeshares was just what the salespeople told me I could do. Its not my fault I just did it better then you.

Everyone who is an owner has an equal opportunity to book reservations. I guess you are against the free market?

I guess you can blame am1 and his ilk as the root cause of your predicament.