Could use some help with II and Worldmark

[sun starved Gayle]

After much coveting, researching and searching, I finally purchased Worldmark points from a person on wmowners forum. I have joined II, never been a member before, always used RCI. I am having trouble figuring out how to use the system with Worldmark. I have no deposit, I am using a "float" deposit. My questions:

Is it better to deposit points first, and then search?

Do I call Worldmark or II to do this?

How many points should I deposit?

All this talk about blue studios, etc. is confusing to me because there are different point levels for different studios.

My goal is Hawaii next winter, 2013. I currently have 12000 points, and will get 6000 more February 1.

Any help or advise would be most appreciated!

 

[slum808]

Welcome fellow owner. You're a few steps ahead of me as I'm still waiting on WM to complete my transfer. I don't have first hand knowledge, but here's what I've mined from WMowners.

You can use the request first feature of II to place an ongoing request.
Allways use your 3 br float reguardless of what size unit you want, it will give you the most trading power. You will only be charged the number of points required for the room that matches. Off the top of my head I think its 8000 studio, 9000 1-bed, 10,000 2-bed. This is the best way to search since you don't have to give up any points, and you are searching with the trade power of a 3 bedroom. If you are inside of the flexchange 60 day window any trade will only cost 4000 pts.

If you have points that will expire soon, or you want to get a trade for less than the points needed above, you can try deposit first. You call WM and tell them you want to deposit points into II. You dont get to choose what unit gets deposited. So say you have 6000 pts to deposit, you could get a blue 1-bedroom or a white studio. I think those are the right seasons. If you're going to try and get some thing larger than a studio ask for the larger unit in the lower season. Even if you had a red studio, II may not match you into a larger unit. Better to take an off season 2-bedroom and try and get a match.

If hawaii is your goal, I think your best off setting up an ongoing search with the 3bedroom float. You might not have enough trade power with a low point deposit, and there is no sense in depositing a large amount of points. Unless they're going to expire soon that is. If you're going to get 6k pts in Feb that means you'll also have a fresh 6k to borrow from next year. Set up your ongoing search and if it comes through, II will take the points required starting with oldest points first.

Hoped this helped, let me know if you get a match.

Steve

 

[slum808]

BTW Wmowners is a better resource for WM info. Look at the exhange thread stickies. There should be one for II and deposit strategies.

Here's a couple good threads to get you started.
http://www.wmowners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4155
http://www.wmowners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6204

 

[GregT]

Gayle,

Steve has given you excellent advice here -- I think you will find that you will be successful getting a late 2013 reservation in Hawaii, searching with a 3BR Float Request.

I would not try to do Space Banks at this time (depositing 4K, 5K or 6K credits) unless you have expiring credits. Many WM owners will deposit the smaller credit amounts and then setup searches to try and get a match that takes fewer credits than the 8K, 9K or 10K credits that the Float Request will take for a Studio/1BR/2BR. However, there is a (modest?) trade power limitation to the space bank, and I would encourage you to get comfortable with normal WM trading before trying the Space Bank approach.

WM is a great trading property and I have multiple on-going searches right now (all the time) just to see what will match. One of the really nice things about Worldmark is that you can start the search and you don't have to give up your credits until the match is made. I have three searches going on right now, and when one matches, I'll go rent the credits from another to fulfill the credit needs.

Good luck -- and enjoy your WM!

Best,

Greg

 

[sun starved Gayle]

Thanks slum808 and GregT for the great advice!

 

[melschey]

After much coveting, researching and searching, I finally purchased Worldmark points from a person on wmowners forum. I have joined II, never been a member before, always used RCI. I am having trouble figuring out how to use the system with Worldmark. I have no deposit, I am using a "float" deposit. My questions:

Is it better to deposit points first, and then search?

Do I call Worldmark or II to do this?

How many points should I deposit?

All this talk about blue studios, etc. is confusing to me because there are different point levels for different studios.

My goal is Hawaii next winter, 2013. I currently have 1200 points, and will get 6000 more February 1.

Any help or advise would be most appreciated!

The vast majority of people that post here are talking about Wyndham Resorts (formerly Fairield) not WorldMark. There is very little in common with the 2 clubs other that having the same developer and sharing a very limited number of units. They operate very differently. I suggest that you check WWW.wmowners.com for your answers. That site is specifically for WorldMark owners. You will find your answers there.

 

[LLW]

After much coveting, researching and searching, I finally purchased Worldmark points from a person on wmowners forum. I have joined II, never been a member before, always used RCI. I am having trouble figuring out how to use the system with Worldmark. I have no deposit, I am using a "float" deposit. My questions:

Is it better to deposit points first, and then search?

Do I call Worldmark or II to do this?

How many points should I deposit?

For II/WM beginners, it is better to Request First.

All this talk about blue studios, etc. is confusing to me because there are different point levels for different studios.

Blue studio is 4000 credits, per the Exchange Grid on WMOwners, which lists all point levels:
http://www.wmowners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10111

Read the 2 threads linked above by slum808, and other threads on that Vacation Exchange forum, and it will become less confusing.

My goal is Hawaii next winter, 2013. I currently have 1200 points, and will get 6000 more February 1.

Any help or advise would be most appreciated!

Per the Exchange Grid, you will need 9K credits for a 1BR, 10K credits for a 2BR, and 12K for a 3BR, as Hawaii is all high (red) season. You may rent one-time use credits on WMO. Depending on what resorts you want, it will probably match 6-14 months before check-in, i.e. you may run out of credits when it matches. They will charge uninformed owners 15 cents per credit for the insufficient portion. You may get them for about 6 cents on WMO.

 

[HudsHut]

Gayle edited to say she had 12,000 credits and will get 6000 more in Feb, so she will have plenty of credits for her Hawaii exchange.

Which island Gayle? What dates? What size unit?

Welcome to WorldMark!!!

 

[GregT]

Gayle,

Another thing to think about: many people have successfully used the strategy of booking a reservation at a Worldmark in Hawaii as a backup (Maui-Kihei is really nice) and then placing a trade request for one of the nicer II properties. This way they go ahead with their airline reservations, and have until 30 days out to cancel (or keep) the Worldmark reservation.

We went for a number of years to Kihei and really liked it, we think its the best of the Worldmark properties in the Hawaiian islands.

Let us know what you end up doing!

Best,

Greg