email just received - Important Updates to Your CLUB WYNDHAM Plus Program Guidelines

[Sloane S]

Can't you just put a fake name for the guest & change it to a real one once you secure a renter?

Sure, but then you have to pay for a new guest certificate.

 

[Sloane S]

@scootr5 The last part, in parentheses, seems contrary to the way I'm reading it. 3. "Credit Pooling" is now "Points Deposit Feature" - you must now specify what use year you want to move the points to. It's no longer a three year window from date of pooling (so no more pulling points forward, only pushing back).

I can push 2018 pts into 2019 or 2020, right?

Yes, that's correct. You can no longer pull 2019 points in to 2017 or 2018 though.

 

[wed100105]

I've been on hold for 38 minutes. Grrr.....

An hour and 20 minutes later----

I'm REALLY unhappy about these changes and I let the vacation counselor know. I asked who I needed to speak to higher up about my displeasure with these changes, and he said that he would be happy to talk to me about it. He had no other number or customer service information.

I was not able to credit pool 2019 points; I expressed my frustration that there was no notification given that this would be changed.

I did find out through my ranting that upgrades will be first come first serve. So if you book your unit 13 months out and opt-in for the upgrade, you will be one of the first to receive the upgrade.

I believe this is a major disadvantage for VIP gold owners. I can't see how any upgrades will be available.

 

[spackler]

Sure, but then you have to pay for a new guest certificate.

Probably still worth it for the high-value reservations.

 

[paxsarah]

I've read the information over several times now and I don't see anything that says you can't borrow points from the next use year. Did I miss something?

I don't think it's the borrowing, it's the ability to credit pool points from a future year and use them in the current year (or from two years ahead, and use them in the next year). That seems to be explicitly gone.

 

[md8287]

Great insight from all, and no personal attacks. Thanks.

 

[Avislo]

Any panic moves at this point would be jumping the gun, with the possible exception of attempting to credit pool 2019 points before the lock-down is done. If I read the supplement correctly, this part goes into effect right now.

 

[Sloane S]

Probably still worth it for the high-value reservations.

Maybe, but it seems you can no longer rely on getting the unit with an upgrade at a points discount (so no 3 bedroom for 50% of a studio). It would likely have to be a very high dollar rental to make enough of a profit to make it worthwhile, let alone cover a second $99 gust certificate.

 

[comicbookman]

Other than the limiting of the credit pool, which is unfortunate, but does not have a huge impact on me, my question is will we be able to change the owner name or guest name, on a reservation after the fact online? I currently have several reservations for Thanksgiving, and have not yet assigned guest names to them because I am not sure who is arriving when (won't know for several months). Once the new system goes live I will have 48 hours to separate everything or risk losing some of them.

 

[ronparise]

Can't you just put a fake name for the guest & change it to a real one once you secure a renter?

It will cost another $100 but yes I think so

Some years ago,(before I owned Wyndham) they introduced guest fees and although I'm sure there was lots of complaining, it seems as if the megarenters adjusted to less income it they raised their prices. That's what would probably happen here. Except that The problem for megarenter is that the guest fees are only one facet of what they have done. They have also taken away the possibility of most cancel and rebook and upgrades which we rely on to keep our prices down

If we have to charge something more than mf plus $200 for guest confirms, I don't think we can be competitive

 

[JeffandJamie]

So my wife and I are just regular resale owners (259k points), and this points deposit feature...well, I'll be blunt, it sucks.

I can understand them wanting to eliminate the capability of bring reservations forward into this use year. But now, instead of having to plan vacations 10 months in advance, I must plan several years in advance so I know what year I want to move my points to. For example, if we want to take a big family vacation two years from now, but there is no guarantee that it will actually happen, I have to move my points into two years from now's use year, and then hope for the best. At least with the credit pool option, I could be flexible and use them how I saw fit over the next few years.

The BS piece of this is that if they wanted to kill megarenting, all they had to do was eliminate the speculative reservations without making any changes to the credit pool. But they took a multi-faceted approach and hurt all their owners - developer owners, resale owners - everyone.

They made their product less valuable today.

 

[comicbookman]

Also, just checked into the preview site and no specific account information (it was all there before) showed up. I'm guessing they are working on that part of it. I was hoping to preview some of the new features. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[Lita]

Other than the limiting of the credit pool, which is unfortunate, but does not have a huge impact on me, my question is will we be able to change the owner name or guest name, on a reservation after the fact online? I currently have several reservations for Thanksgiving, and have not yet assigned guest names to them because I am not sure who is arriving when (won't know for several months). Once the new system goes live I will have 48 hours to separate everything or risk losing some of them.

That is exactly right. I called and confirmed I could not have duplicate reservations for more than 48 hours from initial confirmation. As I posted above, I sent this complaint using the online system. Have not yet gotten a response:

"I was very disappointed to learn about the changes to the system for guest confirmations. You have ruined my ability to plan family vacations and destroyed any reason for me to continue to be a Club Wyndham Platinum member.

I plan family vacations for myself and my relatives in advance, especially in hard to book locations a year in advance - sometimes longer than that using advance reservations. At that point in time I have no idea of who in the family may be able to come and don't actually put in guest names until the last minute because there are always last minute emergencies that require changes. I always add the guest reservation before the date based on prior rules.

You have killed my ability to plan these family vacations with the new guest confirmation policies. There is no longer any reason for me to maintain a Platinum membership and I will plan to give up my membership as soon as possible using my contract."

I was able to put some reservations in my co-owners name to avoid all family vacations from being destroyed completely.

 

[alexadeparis]

Am I reading this correctly? They way I read the changes you will have 48 hours after a reservation is confirmed to add a guest name if you have have more than one reservation for the same dates. If I am interpreting this correctly it will kill renting for many owners!

Thats the last thing in the supplement but the first one that made me sit up and take notice.. The rest were pretty much predictable, or at least not surprising
This one as you say seems designed to prevent speculative bookings...

im already trying to figure out a way around it.

Actually, looking at the page someone attached above - that is NOT what is says AT ALL. It says that you must put the guest's name on AT THE TIME OF BOOKING. If you don't have the guest name, you cannot make the reservation IF THAT RESERVATION IS WITHIN 48 HOURS OF CHECK-IN of ANY OTHER RESERVATION on your account! So, for example, If I wanted to go from Wyndham's Las Vegas resort to Sedona, there would have to be a minimum 2 night stay in between the start of the first reservation and the start of the next one in order to avoid the Guest certificate.

 

[Sloane S]

So my wife and I are just regular resale owners (259k points), and this points deposit feature...well, I'll be blunt, it sucks.

I can understand them wanting to eliminate the capability of bring reservations forward into this use year. But now, instead of having to plan vacations 10 months in advance, I must plan several years in advance so I know what year I want to move my points to. For example, if we want to take a big family vacation two years from now, but there is no guarantee that it will actually happen, I have to move my points into two years from now's use year, and then hope for the best. At least with the credit pool option, I could be flexible and use them how I saw fit over the next few years.

You could move 259K 2019 points to 2020 for that vacation. If for some reason your plans for that year did not work out, you could then move your 259K 2020 points to a future year, leaving you with 259K points to use in 2020 (since those were from 2019 and could not be moved again).

 

[Lita]

Actually, looking at the page someone attached above - that is NOT what is says AT ALL. It says that you must put the guest's name on AT THE TIME OF BOOKING. If you don't have the guest name, you cannot make the reservation IF THAT RESERVATION IS WITHIN 48 HOURS OF CHECK-IN of ANY OTHER RESERVATION on your account! So, for example, If I wanted to go from Wyndham's Las Vegas resort to Sedona, there would have to be a minimum 2 night stay in between the start of the first reservation and the start of the next one in order to avoid the Guest certificate.

You will not be able to book overlapping vacations in 48 hours without a guest certificate. Otherwise you can book them without a guest certificate, but must add a guest certificate within 48 hours after booking or the reservation can be cancelled.

 

[Sloane S]

Actually, looking at the page someone attached above - that is NOT what is says AT ALL. It says that you must put the guest's name on AT THE TIME OF BOOKING. If you don't have the guest name, you cannot make the reservation IF THAT RESERVATION IS WITHIN 48 HOURS OF CHECK-IN of ANY OTHER RESERVATION on your account! So, for example, If I wanted to go from Wyndham's Las Vegas resort to Sedona, there would have to be a minimum 2 night stay in between the start of the first reservation and the start of the next one in order to avoid the Guest certificate.

I think that's just poor wording, and they intended to say that if you are making a reservation that has a checkin within 48 hours and it overlaps another reservation, you must add a guest certificate.

You might run in to a problem if your check out in Las Vegas is on Friday, and you booked the checkin in Sedona for Thursday (unless you have multiple owners on the account traveling with you and selected the other owner).

 

[JeffandJamie]

You could move 259K 2019 points to 2020 for that vacation. If for some reason your plans for that year did not work out, you could then move your 259K 2020 points to a future year, leaving you with 259K points to use in 2020 (since those were from 2019 and could not be moved again).

That's a fair point. I guess since I credit pool points anyway most years as an "insurance policy" to prevent me from losing any should a vacation be cancelled for some reason, it really is the same cost for us.

Any word on whether unused points that have been moved with the new feature will be able to be rolled into RCI should they not be used by the end of their new use year?

 

[paxsarah]

Actually, looking at the page someone attached above - that is NOT what is says AT ALL. It says that you must put the guest's name on AT THE TIME OF BOOKING. If you don't have the guest name, you cannot make the reservation IF THAT RESERVATION IS WITHIN 48 HOURS OF CHECK-IN of ANY OTHER RESERVATION on your account! So, for example, If I wanted to go from Wyndham's Las Vegas resort to Sedona, there would have to be a minimum 2 night stay in between the start of the first reservation and the start of the next one in order to avoid the Guest certificate.

No, that is not what it says.

I think that's just poor wording, and they intended to say that if you are making a reservation that has a checkin within 48 hours and it overlaps another reservation, you must add a guest certificate.

You might run in to a problem if your check out in Las Vegas is on Friday, and you booked the checkin in Sedona for Thursday (unless you have multiple owners on the account traveling with you and selected the other owner).

This is how I read it as well. Throughout that section, they repeated refer to the reservations as having "dates that overlap." The part I didn't parse properly until this conversation is where if the overlapping reservations are booked within 48 hours of check-in, the guest certificates have to be added immediately. Otherwise, you have 48 hours to get them in place. But it's still all about overlapping reservations only.

 

[Sloane S]

I've read the information over several times now and I don't see anything that says you can't borrow points from the next use year. Did I miss something?

I don't see anything in here dealing with "Borrowing" points, so it would seem that would be unchanged from the current directory and supplements.

I think someone used the word "Borrowing" when referring to using the credit pool to pull points from future years in to the current year.

 

[Braindead]

No one may like the credit pool change but I understand why the change was made.

Mega renter had 200 million points in multiple accounts. He passes away and used 3 years of points. Who pays the MFs. No heir wants the liability. Estate is probably not liable. Their account is current on MFs. Estate not liable for future bills not billed prior to owner passing.

Somebody knows they are going to file bankruptcy . So credit pool points to take a big vacation. Probably still owes on the original points. Wyndam or us owners stuck with the foreclosure and MFs.

I'm sure Wyndham has already been exposed to some of this.

 

[antjmar]

If I read this right, they have put an end to speculative bookings... and to megarenting as we know it

If you have overlapping reservations a guests name must be added within 48 hours of confirmation If no guests name then the reservations will be cancelled and points forfeited

so no more making 10 reservations for one event and then advertising to find your paying guest..

as I see it this makes large scale commercial renting a thing of the past

and with the upgrade button there will be no cancel/rebook of popular reservations, except perhaps studios (and 1 bedrooms at the places that dont have studios)

Ron what about if you used your ARP for multiple reservations? I would think if you own deeded rights at a resort they can't restrict use.

 

[wed100105]

Wyndham says that this will increase inventory. I will believe it when I see it.

We are at the point in our lives that we have to book more last minute stays; the kids are involved in so much that booking a year in advance isn't working for us. I love last minute reservations (within 60-30 days before check-in). These will be snatched up by automatic upgrades, right? We are a family of 5 now, and we can't "legally" be in a one bedroom unit.

 

[bestresort]

There is no longer any reason for me to maintain a Platinum membership and I will plan to give up my membership as soon as possible using my contract."

I agree. I will let the dust settle but they can have my platinum account back and i dont give a sxxt if they sue me

They just devalued platinum, gold, silver...The more you owned the more you got harmed. Wyndham has screwed their best customers.

The fallout will be loan defaults--hurts banks not wyndham
and MF defaults ( doesnt hurt wyndham) but other wyndham owners

Someone that has paid 700 for a 2 bedroom at bonnett creek will have to pay 1750 14 months in advance and the rentor.

Mega rentors held mf's down thru use

Puts mega rentors out of business and will leave many popular resorts with unused inventory

 

[nicemann]

Really happy about the ARP can be done online. Never understood why it couldn't be done in the past. Sucks about the point pulling. As for renting...guess there won't be as many great deals out there anymore. Guess that means some people may have to look for more resell points if they have been renting instead of using their own points. Kind of like what I have been doing.

Funny how some of the things everyone on here has been guessing could happen, really did happen.