Help me work through this if you will...

[Gophesjo]

I generally like to travel about once a month, with half of my once monthly trips being 3 day jaunts to the beach. I have two fixed shoulder weeks at beach resorts and a trader that I can use for two or three off season trades each year. My last currently owned week lets me visit family for Christmas out west.

Although I am still also considering using timeshare (I am so over hotels) rentals for this personal use, I have decided that my next purchase will probably be Wyndham points, which I would hope to use for 3 or 4 short trips during the year. Most of those would be off season in the Southeast, but I would hope to be able to do one high season reservation per year. As I believe most of what I would want to use the points for would be 'not hard to get' reservations, I generally think buying for low MF's would be more advantageous for me than buying for a 13 month ARP. That said, is it possible to book a mid-week 3 night summer beach getaway at Myrtle Beach, or a sping or fall weekend in Alexandria, without that 13 month ARP?

Also, would the extra reservation fee and housekeeping fee charges of multiple trips make this kind of strategy cost ineffective?

Thanks for your input!

Joe

 

[Sloane S]

The problem with those short stays in Wyndham is you'll eat through housekeeping credits. You can book a 1 bedroom right now for Towers on the Grove in North Myrtle for end of July (7/26-7/29). It will cost you 91,000 points and 63 housekeeping credits (you get one per 1,000 points). Figure your points cost for MF at about $5/k. You would need close to 200,000 points for two of those weekends; you would get two reservation transactions per year, and have enough housekeeping credits for twomstays Ina two bedroom unit.

Others will probably chime in, but summer in Myrtle other than the high-point-cost resorts will probably be tough.

 

[ausman]

For your 3-4 day summer Myrtle Beach and spring Alexandria stays ARP probably would be advantageous but I would delay.

For your other easy to get stays, I would form a relationship with a Wyndham renter or two, who in all likely hood will be able to obtain reservations for you at a 35-50% discount.

Depending how that relationship(s) develops, and if they can obtain Myrtle Beach etc for you, you can then decide whether it is necessary to buy points or not.

 

[rrlongwell]

... That said, is it possible to book a mid-week 3 night summer beach getaway at Myrtle Beach, or a sping or fall weekend in Alexandria, without that 13 month ARP? ...

If you go with Old Town Alexandria or National Harbor spring or fall weekends should work. These resorts are both Washington D.C. resorts that are not far from each other. The major differences between them is National Harbor has a parking fee where Old Town Alexandria does not and the qualilty of service is far better at Old Town Alexandria. If your target is the southeast, you may want to take a look at Smokey Mountain. Also, the above poster is right, if you can team up with a VIP Gold or Platinum member that does not want to sell into this market and does not want to use the points anymore, you could team up with them on a long term relationship where you pay the maintance fees, they book it at the 60 day or less mark. You pay their average points per thousand for the points used and let them have the 50% discount. It would work well for both parties. This probably will not work to well for Myrtle Beach in the Summer. The price for that may be full rate during the ARP period plus a tad.

 

[ronparise]

The problem with those short stays in Wyndham is you'll eat through housekeeping credits. You can book a 1 bedroom right now for Towers on the Grove in North Myrtle for end of July (7/26-7/29). It will cost you 91,000 points and 63 housekeeping credits (you get one per 1,000 points). Figure your points cost for MF at about $5/k. You would need close to 200,000 points for two of those weekends; you would get two reservation transactions per year, and have enough housekeeping credits for twomstays Ina two bedroom unit.

Others will probably chime in, but summer in Myrtle other than the high-point-cost resorts will probably be tough.

In this example there are no worries with housekeeping credits. Generally if you make your short stay reservations at the expensive resorts (high points) you wont have a problem. However if you book several short stays at the cheaper (low points ) resorts you will run out of housekeeping credits first.

 

[Gophesjo]

Thanks all - if I could consistently get the kind of deal from the Plat VIPs that I just got for my Williamsburg stay, then renting would certainly be the way to go on all of those shorter stays. Thanks for the details on the MB and housekeeping costs, and for the info on Alexandria. As for the Smokey Mountain property, I know the MF's are lower, but I just have no interest in staying there, so buying for the 13 month ARP there would have no value for me.

 

[ausman]

Please come back and report after you decide on a course, and even how it works out for you.

So many of us become quite dispassionate in choices and become numbers guys.

While things may be logical from that viewpoint not all decisions are driven by logic. Other things enter into it, I know I have to fight hard the inclination to have the go fastest car when shopping for a daily driver, for instance. If a TS salesman combined a TS with use of a performance car I'd be very interested and be looking for a way to make the numbers work.

 

[Gophesjo]

Please come back and report after you decide on a course, and even how it works out for you.

So many of us become quite dispassionate in choices and become numbers guys.

While things may be logical from that viewpoint not all decisions are driven by logic. Other things enter into it, I know I have to fight hard the inclination to have the go fastest car when shopping for a daily driver, for instance. If a TS salesman combined a TS with use of a performance car I'd be very interested and be looking for a way to make the numbers work.

Yeah 'I feel you,' as the idiom goes! The whole idea of renting, rather than owning, points has a kind of second class feel to it - even though I know it might make the most sense financially. Getting past that is - I admit - a struggle for me. Making buying decisions is so much more fun that making renting decisions.

 

[rrlongwell]

... I admit - a struggle for me. Making buying decisions is so much more fun that making renting decisions.

Value in the final analysis is subjective. If you are in it for the long haul and can afford to walk away from the principle and can sustain the maintance fees, then buying makes sense. The value is the dollar amount you place on the subject values. I do not regret the money I have spent to restructure an existing Wyndham portfilo. Will I ever recover the re-structuring costs? Probably not unless timeshare re-sale goes go up significantly. But then again, ours are not for sale while the spouse and I are alive, therefore the driving issue is the dollar amount of the subjective value placed on the re-structuring, the amount of money received from friends, family, etc. on rentals, do heirs want the timeshares when you are gone, and other matters determines the true value to a given person. To put this in perspective, right prior to the market crash, an associate of mine's wife sold a New York timeshare for $20,000 for the equilvant of 1 week. That means my breakeven point for my restructuring would be the sale of 2 units, if timeshare re-sale goes back to pre-crash highs.

P.S. Regarding a earlier post on buying a new car with a developer purchase is a novel thought. Maybe I should talk to a car salesman to see what can be worked out. They are used to horse trading and probably more ethical.

 

[Joan-OH]

I find it MUCH more cost effective to rent. Since Wyndham does not allow us to rent our points to each other anymore, VIP members, for the most part, are more than happy to get the short notice, short stay reservations for you.

I have a week that I am thinking about getting rid of right now, except I don't know that I could give it away. We Non-VIP really get soaked for housekeeping fees and it never makes sense to make several short stay reservations because you are using up all your HK credits on the first reservation, especially if you are reserving a 2-3 bedroom unit. I found this out the hard way when I reserved a 3 bedroom unit for 2 nights in Daytona. Used very little points, but used all my HK plus some.

Joan-OH