How many points to buy

[RCAerobat]

Hello! So we are considering buying Wyndham points (resale) to start using for our family vacations. My thought is I want to get enough to have a two bedroom one week vacation at least once per year. We live in Georgia and primarily will be traveling down to Florida at the locations in Daytona, Orlando (Walt Disney World) or Destin Beach. However, Wyndham has a lot of choices, and we’d love to be able to go to some of these other ones as well. So, here are some of my questions…

I read somewhere that maybe 160,000 points was a good place to start for a one week, two bedroom unit. Would you agree with us or do I need more or less?

Also, does it matter if I have a Home timeshare location? In other words, I noticed some of the points for sale say just Club Wyndham points, whereas others were tagged to a specific location.

Also, if I were to get points that were for use every other year, if I don’t use them all in one year, can they be spread out to the year where I don’t have points? I hope that makes sense.

Thanks in advance.

 

[DeniseM]

I own 5 Wyndham weeks and I would not buy Wyndham again: Wyndham is not owner friendly - read some of the posts in this forum and reconsider.

 

[chapjim]

I don't totally agree with @DeniseM. For sure Wyndham has its dark side but it's hard to beat for decent vacation lodging in a lot of locations at a reasonable price.

I do my share of Wyndham bashing on specific features of Wyndham ownership. But, I still have 2.3 million points and since I retired, we have no problem using them all.

Keep it simple. Buy low maintenance fee contracts with the number of points you think you need. Contracts tend to be in multiples of 77,000 (154K, 231K, 308K, etc.) To do what you want, you'll probably end up in the 300K range. You can view points charts without being a member. Go to https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinations.com/ and do a search for the resort or location you're interested in.

Edit: I didn't address Club Wyndham Select (deeded ownership) vis a vis Club Wyndham Access (points in a trust). You can find that on Wyndham's website.

 

[RCAerobat]

I don't totally agree with @DeniseM. For sure Wyndham has its dark side but it's hard to beat for decent vacation lodging in a lot of locations at a reasonable price.

I do my share of Wyndham bashing on specific features of Wyndham ownership. But, I still have 2.3 million points and since I retired, we have no problem using them all.

Keep it simple. Buy low maintenance fee contracts with the number of points you think you need. Contracts tend to be in multiples of 77,000 (154K, 231K, 308K, etc.) To do what you want, you'll probably end up in the 300K range. You can view points charts without being a member. Go to https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinations.com/ and do a search for the resort or location you're interested in.

Edit: I didn't address Club Wyndham Select (deeded ownership) vis a vis Club Wyndham Access (points in a trust). You can find that on Wyndham's website.

Thanks, I did not know that I could look up that info without already owning points.

 

[RCAerobat]

I own 5 Wyndham weeks and I would not buy Wyndham again: Wyndham is not owner friendly - read some of the posts in this forum and reconsider.

So then is there another TS group you like better or would you buy nothing? What attracted me to Windham was just the fact that they have so many resorts and locations to choose from And at least in the resale market, it’s fairly inexpensive to get those points compared to many of the others I’ve looked at.

 

[jp10558]

I personally prefer Wyndham Select because it is deeded, though still just a VOI in a particular resort. Though you can then shop for lower MF/pt if you want and are willing to wait. I also think if you're OK with their quality level, then they're cheaper to buy and book than some, though the points prices seem to vary a LOT, probably by season.

The upshot is if you're going out of season it can be cheaper. I've gotten 5 nights in a 2BR for 79,000pts and a week in a 2BR for 125,000 pts. In season I'm guessing these are more like the 300,000+ points. If you really need 300,000pts then the MFs seem high to me for a single week at the average MF/pt (literally near the middle of the prices). That said, you usually pay monthly (if that helps) and there doesn't appear to be any fees booking with your points on their site. HGVC for instance charges $64 outside of home week.

The other thing to keep in mind however is as long as you can get in RCI with something, you can often book Wyndham as "extra vacations" in shoulder seasons and the like, for way less than the MFs are going to be, so maybe also consider buying something small and just seeing if you can get what you want via RCI Extra Vacations.

For example, Smuggs on the point charts was 350,000pts for a week, but in September I booked Extra Vacations for $560. Orlando is way overbuilt with timeshares so once you're in RCI there's often a lot of choices to grab for pretty cheap.

Oh, one other thing about Wyndham, it takes them like 5-6 months to finish the transfer, and so you can end up with it kicking over to you in the latter half of the year, the MFs are due, but the points don't become available till Jan1 the next year. So time it right too.

That all said, I think the actual resorts are nice enough, in good locations, and it's nice having things "part of the MFs I'm already paying" vs all the fees for exchanges in RCI or HGVC sometimes.

 

[RCAerobat]

Oh, one other thing about Wyndham, it takes them like 5-6 months to finish the transfer, and so you can end up with it kicking over to you in the latter half of the year, the MFs are due, but the points don't become available till Jan1 the next year. So time it right too.

So, I might not want to purchase until May? Is that what you mean? Thanks again.

 

[ridgerunner71]

Wyndham is a good system in terms of the amount of vacations you can get for the money. IF, and this is the important part. IF you buy on the used market.

There are 2 types of Wyndham Ownership:
Select (AKA deeded)
Access (AKA trust)

Access gets you the ability to book at all resorts which have Access inventory (which is MOST of them, but not all) at 13 months, and everywhere else at 10 months. Access usually also has higher maintenance fees than Select.

Select gets you the ability to book at your home resort at 13 months, and everywhere else at 10 months. Select usually but not always has lower maintenance fees than Access. There is a spreadsheet linked at the top which shows maintenance fees for most resorts.

Points are points at 10 months, remember that.

Now, what are maintenance fees? Annual "dues" for lack of a better word, which pay for the operations of the resort.

If you buy used, the upfront costs will be MUCH lower, pennies on the dollar, vs buying retail. For the same vacations/opportunities.

My recommendation would be to browse the club wyndham website myclubwyndham.com then look at resorts. Each resort has a points chart which will show you how many points you would need for the specific resorts that interest you. Note room type and season when doing that. You may notice the points costs vary wildly from resort to resort, especially the newer ones and urban resorts like New York, San Francisco, DC and Atlanta.

You can always buy more points. You may notice some resorts have different use year. I would recommend getting a January one, most are that anyway. It will make it easier to line up future purchases.

Also, in case you were wondering you can buy multiple contracts, the points pool together, and if you buy different select contracts you will end up with multiple home resorts, but you can only use the 13 month reservation for points you own for that resort.

You can also move points to a future use year, for a fee, and with limitations on when you can do that.

I have been an owner for about 10 years and don't have many regrets and have never been "screwed over" by Wyndham. If you read you will find a bunch of disgruntled people here, but from what I gather, most of the people with bad opinions of Wyndham seem to be people who were renting out their points to individuals on ebay running little side hustles. And apparently Wyndham stopped allowing this a couple years ago. If you just use it for vacations, like you are supposed to, you will likely not have many issues. All the timeshare companies are cracking down on these practices now, by the way.

Are there "better" systems? Yeah, maybe if you look at terms of resort quality some of the Hilton, Disney or Marriott resorts are nicer, but they are also much more expensive. I felt Wyndham was a good compromise in quality/cost.

DO NOT BUY RETAIL, ignore anything about "VIP", it's not worth it.

 

[tschwa2]

I think around 210,000 is a good amount. You would get 3 housekeeping certs, 2 guest certs, you are running up against the minimum program fee but not by that much. Worse case scenario you can rent out 2 reservations and they can even be during owner priority time. If you don't like it after 2 years, you would be able to use certified exit as long as you get one that qualifies.

 

[RCAerobat]

So, let’s say I had 210,000 points but the resort and time that I want is 220,000. Do I have to buy 10k more points or does Wyndham let me kick in some money to make up the difference?

 

[tschwa2]

So, let’s say I had 210,000 points but the resort and time that I want is 220,000. Do I have to buy 10k more points or does Wyndham let me kick in some money to make up the difference?

Wyndham sells points for $12 per 1000. If you just need enough for the last night you can do it during the regular 10 month prior to check in but not at the 13 month priority period. If you need more than just a few to book that last night, you can rent or borrow (from your next use year) but you can only do that if you are within 90 days from check in.

 

[ridgerunner71]

So, let’s say I had 210,000 points but the resort and time that I want is 220,000. Do I have to buy 10k more points or does Wyndham let me kick in some money to make up the difference?

Search on ebay for the sized contract you want or think you need. Search in ebay "Wyndham Timeshare Points" or "Wyndham Timeshare for sale".

There are multiple auctions for Wyndham Grand Desert which has relatively low maintenance fees.

Someone will correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't think there are any disadvantages of owning multiple contracts. Points pool.

I own 3 different contracts, and at 2 resorts. Remember also, if you end up with a bigger contract or more points than you think you need you can move them to a future use year. There's a $35 charge for this, and if resale you have to do it in the first 3 months of your use year. You can also move them to RCI.

 

[schoolmarm]

I personally prefer Wyndham Select because it is deeded, though still just a VOI in a particular resort. Though you can then shop for lower MF/pt if you want and are willing to wait. I also think if you're OK with their quality level, then they're cheaper to buy and book than some, though the points prices seem to vary a LOT, probably by season.

The upshot is if you're going out of season it can be cheaper. I've gotten 5 nights in a 2BR for 79,000pts and a week in a 2BR for 125,000 pts. In season I'm guessing these are more like the 300,000+ points. If you really need 300,000pts then the MFs seem high to me for a single week at the average MF/pt (literally near the middle of the prices). That said, you usually pay monthly (if that helps) and there doesn't appear to be any fees booking with your points on their site. HGVC for instance charges $64 outside of home week.

The other thing to keep in mind however is as long as you can get in RCI with something, you can often book Wyndham as "extra vacations" in shoulder seasons and the like, for way less than the MFs are going to be, so maybe also consider buying something small and just seeing if you can get what you want via RCI Extra Vacations.

For example, Smuggs on the point charts was 350,000pts for a week, but in September I booked Extra Vacations for $560. Orlando is way overbuilt with timeshares so once you're in RCI there's often a lot of choices to grab for pretty cheap.

Oh, one other thing about Wyndham, it takes them like 5-6 months to finish the transfer, and so you can end up with it kicking over to you in the latter half of the year, the MFs are due, but the points don't become available till Jan1 the next year. So time it right too.

That all said, I think the actual resorts are nice enough, in good locations, and it's nice having things "part of the MFs I'm already paying" vs all the fees for exchanges in RCI or HGVC sometimes.

This post has some good information, but I want to clarify that the variability of points needed for a week is more a function of age of the resort rather than season.

Once the points chart goes in the book, it is NOT changed. So you can get some real deals if you want to travel to some of the older resorts (Old Town Alexandria, all of the Branson and Williamsburg properties, some in Orlando, Nashville, anything that is/was a Fairfield resort, etc.) You can get a week for under 50K points!

There are "seasons" to the resorts as well. Prime, High, Low and Quiet. Some of the newer resorts are Prime all year round.

One thing that I like about Wyndham is that I do not have to stay for a full week. As an organist I usually have to be back to play for church on Sunday, so a 5-6 day vacation works best for me. Also know that the points needed for a Friday or a Saturday night are about double those needed for a night Sunday-Thursday.

So when someone asks "how many points do I need for a week?" The answer is "it depends". Not just on the size of unit or season, but on the resort, and the days of the week.
When buying resale, try to get a low maintenance fee resort. I go to NYC a lot. It cost A LOT of points, because it is new (A Monday in a "hotel" unit is 33K points). I own Bali Hai and National Harbor that have low MFs. MFs can vary from around $4-around $14 per 1000 points owned. If you are deeded (Select) you can book your home resort 10-13 months ahead. At 10 months, points are points and they can be used anywhere (with the exception of some Margaritavilles and Presidential Reserve units). While I have booked National Harbor at 13 months in advance when I needed a large unit for a convention, I have never been to my Bali Hai property. . I also have a small amount of Club Wyndham Access and am annoyed that the MFs are almost double of my other properties. But they were needed to use the PIC program (where you bring in a fixed/floating week RCI property into Wyndham--but don't worry about that right now...that is part of Wyndham "grad school", you are still working on Wyndham Kindergarten!)

It takes a bit of time to learn all you need to know about Wyndham. Most happy owners KNOW how to use the program and have flexible travel plans and like to go to areas where there is a resort. Sometimes you can get RCI exchanges (even into NEW and more costly Wyndham properties) for less points than booking directly. I've done this for NYC and saved about 1/2 the points needed....but again this is Wyndham grad school.

This forum is the best place to learn! You are asking good questions. If you read through the directory, most are answered there. TUGgers can answer the rest.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Hello! So we are considering buying Wyndham points (resale) to start using for our family vacations. My thought is I want to get enough to have a two bedroom one week vacation at least once per year. We live in Georgia and primarily will be traveling down to Florida at the locations in Daytona, Orlando (Walt Disney World) or Destin Beach. However, Wyndham has a lot of choices, and we’d love to be able to go to some of these other ones as well. So, here are some of my questions…

I read somewhere that maybe 160,000 points was a good place to start for a one week, two bedroom unit. Would you agree with us or do I need more or less?

Also, does it matter if I have a Home timeshare location? In other words, I noticed some of the points for sale say just Club Wyndham points, whereas others were tagged to a specific location.

Also, if I were to get points that were for use every other year, if I don’t use them all in one year, can they be spread out to the year where I don’t have points? I hope that makes sense.

Thanks in advance.

I see you mentioned Orlando. Are you looking to stay at Bonnet Creek during prime weeks (Christmas, Easter some years, much of the summer, etc?). If so, 160 isn’t going to be enough. CWBC is 224k for prime, 189k for High, and 112 for Value season for a 2 bedroom unit for a week. We started with a 252k contract, and then liked it so much that we immediately started acquiring more contracts…. We now have about 600k points per year (spread over multiple contracts including EOY contracts) at multiple low to medium maintenance fee resorts (Bali Hai, Canterbury, and Grand Desert).

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

So, I might not want to purchase until May? Is that what you mean? Thanks again.

No, Wyndham takes forever to transfer a deed (at least 12 weeks from being notified that the deed has recorded, and the process of recording the deed generally takes a few weeks) and if they transfer it to you in the second half of the year they generally don’t give you the points for that year. At this point, if you were to buy something on eBay TODAY you maybe have maybe a 50/50 shot of getting the points for this year because of how long they take. If you aren’t ready to pull the trigger in the next week or so, then I would wait till the end of this year to try to have something that will get your points loaded in 2025, so that you’re not paying dues this year on points you can’t use. Best time to buy timeshares seems to be about November - Late January since that’s when people get dues increase notices and decide to sell, so it’s always a buyers market.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

So, let’s say I had 210,000 points but the resort and time that I want is 220,000. Do I have to buy 10k more points or does Wyndham let me kick in some money to make up the difference?

You can purchase points during the standard reservation priority window to complete your last day. So in your scenario, you would likely be able to purchase the points, at $12 per thousand, so $120. It’s a good system for that flexibility (and I have used that feature myself several times), however you are definitely better off buying enough points to not have to use the feature, since the annual dues on your points will always be less than the $12/1,000 that you’re paying to rent them from Wyndham.

 

[ridgerunner71]

This post has some good information, but I want to clarify that the variability of points needed for a week is more a function of age of the resort rather than season.

Once the points chart goes in the book, it is NOT changed. So you can get some real deals if you want to travel to some of the older resorts (Old Town Alexandria, all of the Branson and Williamsburg properties, some in Orlando, Nashville, anything that is/was a Fairfield resort, etc.) You can get a week for under 50K points!

There are "seasons" to the resorts as well. Prime, High, Low and Quiet. Some of the newer resorts are Prime all year round.

It's really more of a function of whether or not the resort is in an urban location. Old Town Alexandria is still relatively high point value for a week. Especially compared to Branson. The Branson and Smokey Mountain resorts are newer than Alexandria and less points. Bonnet Creek too, but the delta there is a little less, at least in Prime. The newest resort is Atlanta and it's a crazy high cost per night. I dont understand why/how it can be so high.

All the urban resorts are high points value, almost without exception. But yes, it's good to point out that the points charts do not change.

 

[RCAerobat]

I see you mentioned Orlando. Are you looking to stay at Bonnet Creek during prime weeks (Christmas, Easter some years, much of the summer, etc?). If so, 160 isn’t going to be enough. CWBC is 224k for prime, 189k for High, and 112 for Value season for a 2 bedroom unit for a week. We started with a 252k contract, and then liked it so much that we immediately started acquiring more contracts…. We now have about 600k points per year (spread over multiple contracts including EOY contracts) at multiple low to medium maintenance fee resorts (Bali Hai, Canterbury, and Grand Desert).

So, my family and I are big fans of going to Disney World and the possibility to stay on Disney property was a big draw for me when I first started to look at Wyndham. So my assumption that I would need 224 points was based on that fact that that’s what it would cost me to stay there during a popular time. That being said, we much prefer to go to Disney at a time that is less busy. I’m thinking that I might get some points at Bonnet Creek to establish that as one of my “home“ resorts.

Do the Wyndham resorts offer you any kind of “bonus time“ (good rates) to stay at your home resort?

Thanks again.

 

[ridgerunner71]

So, my family and I are big fans of going to Disney World and the possibility to stay on Disney property was a big draw for me when I first started to look at Wyndham. So my assumption that I would need 224 points was based on that fact that that’s what it would cost me to stay there during a popular time. That being said, we much prefer to go to Disney at a time that is less busy. I’m thinking that I might get some points at Bonnet Creek to establish that as one of my “home“ resorts.

Do the Wyndham resorts offer you any kind of “bonus time“ (good rates) to stay at your home resort?

Thanks again.

That might sound like a good plan, but consider the following:
1. Bonnet Creek is a higher MF than a lot of other deeded location
2. You don't need to book at 13 months in almost all cases to get into Bonnet Creek. You can literally get last minute reservations most of the time, outside of holidays and spring break
3. Points are points, buy at a low MF resort

Seriously, unless you plan on booking Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years EVERY YEAR at Bonnet Creek, you are wasting money getting deeded there.

My kids cant make up their minds and we were looking at Bonnet Creek for their spring break (their spring break is 3/10-3/18), and as of early December, I could book a 2BR Deluxe there, that was just outside of 90 days.

I just happened to look and the following dates are available to book a 2BR DLX at Bonnet Creek
3/15-24
4/5-4/19
4/21-5/4

Pretty much everything after that is wide open. My point is you don't need Deeded for ARP at Bonnet Creek in all likelihood. If you are a type of person who books last minute, timeshares are not for you.

If you are going to buy Bonnet Creek, you might as well just buy Access and get 13 months ARP (almost) everywhere.

Bonnet Creek: $7.61/1000
Access: $7.65/1000

This is a list of this year's lowest MF resorts

Canterbury	$4.08
South Shore	$4.52
Bali Hal Villas	$4.79
National Harbor (Capitol Cove)	$4.90
National Harbor (Capitol Cove) - PR	$5.03
Bali Hal Villas - PR	$5.12
Midtown 45	$5.31
Panama City Beach	$5.39
Oceanside Pier	$5.43
Towers on the Grove	$5.53
Panama City Beach - PR	$5.60
Grand Desert 1 & 2	$5.76
Grand Desert 3	$5.79

And you can easily get Grand Desert resales on ebay. There's several up there now.

 

[RCAerobat]

That might sound like a good plan, but consider the following:
1. Bonnet Creek is a higher MF than a lot of other deeded location
2. You don't need to book at 13 months in almost all cases to get into Bonnet Creek. You can literally get last minute reservations most of the time, outside of holidays and spring break
3. Points are points, buy at a low MF resort

Seriously, unless you plan on booking Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years EVERY YEAR at Bonnet Creek, you are wasting money getting deeded there.

My kids cant make up their minds and we were looking at Bonnet Creek for their spring break (their spring break is 3/10-3/18), and as of early December, I could book a 2BR Deluxe there, that was just outside of 90 days.

I just happened to look and the following dates are available to book a 2BR DLX at Bonnet Creek
3/15-24
4/5-4/19
4/21-5/4

Pretty much everything after that is wide open. My point is you don't need Deeded for ARP at Bonnet Creek in all likelihood. If you are a type of person who books last minute, timeshares are not for you.

If you are going to buy Bonnet Creek, you might as well just buy Access and get 13 months ARP (almost) everywhere.

Bonnet Creek: $7.61/1000
Access: $7.65/1000

This is a list of this year's lowest MF resorts

Canterbury	$4.08
South Shore	$4.52
Bali Hal Villas	$4.79
National Harbor (Capitol Cove)	$4.90
National Harbor (Capitol Cove) - PR	$5.03
Bali Hal Villas - PR	$5.12
Midtown 45	$5.31
Panama City Beach	$5.39
Oceanside Pier	$5.43
Towers on the Grove	$5.53
Panama City Beach - PR	$5.60
Grand Desert 1 & 2	$5.76
Grand Desert 3	$5.79

And you can easily get Grand Desert resales on ebay. There's several up there now.

That makes sense. So, if that 13 month window doesn’t make a big difference, doing what you suggest seems to be the better option.

It appears that the more generic club access points are higher in fees than many of the resort fees. Is that correct?

Thanks

***Ok, so I just looked at that and didn’t realize that makes such a difference in cost. WOW! Definitely I will look for one of those lower cost options.***

 

[ridgerunner71]

***Ok, so I just looked at that and didn’t realize that makes such a difference in cost. WOW! Definitely I will look for one of those lower cost options.***

Yeah, say you end up getting 250,000 points.

Maintenance fees:
Access: 1912.50
Bonnet Creek: 1902.50
Grand Desert 1 or 2: 1440.00

Almost $500 difference for the same points and year over year, at least recently, Access has gone up more per year on average. But this varies wildly. Some of the lowest fee resorts Panama City Beach and Bali Hai had big jumps this year. I'm betting Panama City Beach is due to Florida's property insurance costs skyrocketing.

I keep hammering on Grand Desert, but it's the one property which you can reliably get on the resale market that also has pretty low MF. Some of the other properties don't come up very often. There's a Canterbury deed on ebay right now, but it's huge, way more than you would need. National Harbor is a good value too, but they don't come up as often.

And believe it or not, there are some deeded properties that have even higher cost than Access.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

So, my family and I are big fans of going to Disney World and the possibility to stay on Disney property was a big draw for me when I first started to look at Wyndham. So my assumption that I would need 224 points was based on that fact that that’s what it would cost me to stay there during a popular time. That being said, we much prefer to go to Disney at a time that is less busy. I’m thinking that I might get some points at Bonnet Creek to establish that as one of my “home“ resorts.

Do the Wyndham resorts offer you any kind of “bonus time“ (good rates) to stay at your home resort?

Thanks again.

You don’t need Bonnet Creek points to stay at Bonnet Creek. Bonnet Creek is huge and basically always has availability in 2 bedroom suites (and usually 1 bedroom suites as well) at the 10 month mark, which you can use points at any resort for. Buy points at cheap maintenance fee resort and use them to stay at Bonnet Creek. My first contract was Bonnet Creek but I think that was a strategic error on my part.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Bonnet Creek: $7.61/1000

Bonnet Creek isn’t $7.61, that’s presidential. I forget what my fees went up to, I think like $7.30ish? But yeah, I agree with your general point.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

That makes sense. So, if that 13 month window doesn’t make a big difference, doing what you suggest seems to be the better option.

It appears that the more generic club access points are higher in fees than many of the resort fees. Is that correct?

Thanks

***Ok, so I just looked at that and didn’t realize that makes such a difference in cost. WOW! Definitely I will look for one of those lower cost options.***

The only place where Bonnet Creek priority matters (and we are going to use our bonnet creek contract for this) is getting the presidential units at in demand times, especially the 4 bedroom presidential units.

 

[RCAerobat]

Ok, so here’s another question. Can my adult children use the points or RCI when we buy?

Thanks again for all this great information!