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Does anyone know anything about Vacation Happy Nation aka Vacation Strategy?

pakwoman

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I was perusing rentals on eBay and found Wyndham listings by a seller named Vacation Happy Nation. Some Googling led me to find that their non-eBay name is Vacation Strategy. I know that Wyndham has cracked down on renters in recent years. So are these rentals legit?
Thank you in advance for any information.
 

dioxide45

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THey are one of the big rental outfits of Wyndham reservations. I know a lot of people rent through them as evidenced in the Wyndham Bonnet Creek thread on DisBoards. I understand that they add the renter's name on the day of arrival to try and circumvent Wyndham's anti renter efforts. I don't know if they are renting their own points or act more as a broker for other owners.

As with any Wyndham rental, there is a chance your reservation gets caught up in Wyndham cracking down on an owner and the reservation gets cancelled. If that happens, you should get a full refund or they should find you something else.
 

Fido Chuckwagon

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I don't know if they are renting their own points or act more as a broker for other owners.
From conversations on Disboards it sounds like they are acting as brokers, although I can’t find where that comes from now, I think it’s buried deep in the Bonnet Creek thread.
 

RENTER

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THey are one of the big rental outfits of Wyndham reservations. I know a lot of people rent through them as evidenced in the Wyndham Bonnet Creek thread on DisBoards. I understand that they add the renter's name on the day of arrival to try and circumvent Wyndham's anti renter efforts. I don't know if they are renting their own points or act more as a broker for other owners.

As with any Wyndham rental, there is a chance your reservation gets caught up in Wyndham cracking down on an owner and the reservation gets cancelled. If that happens, you should get a full refund or they should find you something else.
are you sure that is why they do it. I do the same and not for that reason. Because if they are delayed and have to change the name of the person checking in, it cost $100 to change it to the first people there.

I had a wife book a reservation to attend a traveling sports team competition. On their way there she took ill and had to be admitted to the hospital. Rather than deny her children the event she sent them ahead with her sister and husband. So I made the guest pass in their name and not hers.

Then I have had people delayed at the airports or broken down in traffic. So life happens which is why I wait until the last minute.
 

Sandi Bo

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My 2 cents... I think when Wyndham first started doing owner priority people were doing this. I cannot speak whatsoever as to if Vacation Strategies was. Regardless, I think that window closed with some of the programming in place now (and that we can check our account and see if we've used our "2 allowances" or not). You can't override that - not unless it's an error and then you'd have to call owner care. Unless someone has figured out how to bypass that - I think the 'adding the day of' to circumvent owner priority is old history. Vacation Strategies has been around a long time, I've seen lots of nice comments about them and never anything bad (seen nor heard) - if I were going to rent, I would trust them. (There are some people/companies I would avoid, they aren't on that list).
 

dioxide45

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are you sure that is why they do it. I do the same and not for that reason. Because if they are delayed and have to change the name of the person checking in, it cost $100 to change it to the first people there.
It seems to only be a more recent change that people were mentioning. I believe previously they would add the guest name at 16 days when the reservation couldn't be changed. It is possible it has to do with the charge for guest name changes, but it seems to be a fairly recent (last couple years) change on their side.
 

paxsarah

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are you sure that is why they do it. I do the same and not for that reason. Because if they are delayed and have to change the name of the person checking in, it cost $100 to change it to the first people there.
Since their policy is to charge $99 for any name change inside 30 days regardless, they wouldn’t have a reason not to add the name that far out.
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Fido Chuckwagon

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Since their policy is to charge $99 for any name change inside 30 days regardless, they wouldn’t have a reason not to add the name that far out.View attachment 93546
Yeah. Vacation Strategy is undoubtedly reputable, but I still wonder if they’re going to get zapped at some point. Given the fact that they seem to be acting as a rental broker, any individual owner they are renting for getting zapped won’t impact them overall though.
 

RENTER

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THey are one of the big rental outfits of Wyndham reservations. I know a lot of people rent through them as evidenced in the Wyndham Bonnet Creek thread on DisBoards. I understand that they add the renter's name on the day of arrival to try and circumvent Wyndham's anti renter efforts. I don't know if they are renting their own points or act more as a broker for other owners.

As with any Wyndham rental, there is a chance your reservation gets caught up in Wyndham cracking down on an owner and the reservation gets cancelled. If that happens, you should get a full refund or they should find you something else.
I never heard of them until now. So I looked them up. I could be wrong, but it would appear to me that they are renting their points. Why I think that? I did not see anywhere how a owner could post their timeshare for renting or what they charge an owner.

Second, the prices are so low. Not much for most owners to make to cover maintenance fees if they are paying a fee to this company. I don't see where they are adding taxes or charging the renter a fee.
 

SDawn

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We've rented from Vacation Strategy a few times. They are legit. The most recent was January 2024 and I was told they change the name at noon on check in day. The way they worded their email makes it sound like they are acting like a broker. "Since you are booked as a guest of an owner, your name will be added to the reservation on your check-in day at 12:00 p.m. resort time." This was at Wyndham Bonnet Creek, non owner priority period. Perhaps it's different at different resorts.

Also, when we checked in at WBC, they asked if the email on file was the correct one to use or something like that, and they rattled off a random email that was not anything that identified vacation strategy. Like some random other name.

Our previous experience renting from them was pre covid and our names were added to the reservation at least a couple of weeks beforehand.
 

bnoble

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They are legit. The most recent was January 2024 and I was told they change the name at noon on check in day.
Maybe it is just me, but these two sentences do not seem to go together.

It looks very much like VS/VHN is trying hard to make sure reservations that might be running afoul of Wyndham’s rental vendetta don’t get cancelled.
 

dioxide45

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Maybe it is just me, but these two sentences do not seem to go together.

It looks very much like VS/VHN is trying hard to make sure reservations that might be running afoul of Wyndham’s rental vendetta don’t get cancelled.
It would seem they are trying to avoid the owners getting caught up in potential "commercial use" and having the reservations cancelled. Even outside owner priority periods, owners have received letters due to suspected commercial use.
 

SDawn

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Maybe it is just me, but these two sentences do not seem to go together.

It looks very much like VS/VHN is trying hard to make sure reservations that might be running afoul of Wyndham’s rental vendetta don’t get cancelled.
I mean, yes they are a real company - not an online scam. But I agree, it seems they are doing things differently to avoid getting cancelled. I won't rent again, just because of this. I was nervous on check in day and was checking the Interval International Getaways for that day if things went sour. lol

We did have a credit still from a covid cancelled trip, and they did honour it. If it wasn't for Wyndham cracking down on rentals I'd have no issues renting from them, or renting a place not as popular as WBC.
 

Fido Chuckwagon

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Maybe it is just me, but these two sentences do not seem to go together.

It looks very much like VS/VHN is trying hard to make sure reservations that might be running afoul of Wyndham’s rental vendetta don’t get cancelled.
I agree. I would proceed with caution here as reservations could get zapped.
 

pakwoman

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Hello again, OP here. I just wanted to let you know that I had taken a chance and rented from Vacation Strategy, and fortunately everything turned out ok! Thank you everyone for your information.
 
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