• A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!
  • The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 31 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 31st anniversary: Happy 31st Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $24,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $24 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!
  • The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!

I am so confused

Campbell Vaughn

TUG Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2017
Messages
98
Reaction score
12
Resorts Owned
Vistana St Augustine
I have found resorts that we would love to vacation, Wyndham has the majority. I am thinking I want to own between 400,000 and 600,000 points. I am confused as to the different names, Club Wyndham, Club Wyndham Access, Wyndham Club Plus(what to buy)... Looking at the point chart, that point total should get me multiple weeks of vacation with atleast one in Destin, correct? Lake Lure, Nashville, Gaitlinburgh, etc...

From what I have read thus far, I should buy points in smaller packages 100-200k(easier to divest) instead of one large package of points, correct?

With Access points it doesn't matter where you buy, resorts are in a trust and mf and assesments are spread between Access Resorts.

My wife is a teacher we will want Destin as a destination, Majestic Sun, Emerald Grand. There are places listed in the CWA sales brochure that have Wyndham Resorts in a number of places we would like to vacation, but Destin at least every other year.
 
Club Wyndham is the overall timeshare system.

Club Wyndham Plus is the points program. Everything else (Select, Access, Presidential Reserve) are subsets of the overall CWP points scheme, with the main differences being when you can book in the 10-13 month ARP window (PR has up to 14 month ARP at the home resort) and in the maintenance fee structure.

Club Wyndham Select is for deeded ownerships and you typically only have ARP privileges at your home resort. You also pay MF on that one resort, which could be good (below average MF) or bad (really high MF). For instance, Destin has higher than average MF, but I don't know about availability.

Club Wyndham Access gets you ARP at a wide variety of resorts. You also pay MF based on a blended rate of the underlying deeds own by the CWA trust. This could be good (shared risk for potential special assessments) or bad (MF skewed higher than one might find in Select).

At 10 months, points are points and can be used anywhere in the system.

I personally would buy resorts for which I would definitely need ARP (this is DIFFERENT than simply wanting to go to a particular resort... it also depends on the typical demand for that resort at a given time of year), or on low MF resorts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The advice to buy in small chunks of 100k-200k is highly questionable. Every sale costs money for closing costs/deed/paperwork prep ($150-450) and for Wyndham's $299 transfer fee. If you buy something now with those costs included with the purchase price, who do you think will likely have to bear those costs when you sell? Probably yourself.

So splitting a 600k ownership into 6 smaller chunks can cost a pretty penny sooner or later. Additionally, really small accounts are hard to sell (and the closing/transfer costs are amortized over a smaller set of points).

There is a balance, of course, if you are concerned about drawing down in the future. I would not buy anything smaller than 154k, with 231k or 308k being the sweet spot (and try to buy contracts that are sized in multiples of 77k due to how reservation transactions are allocated).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
BTW, I think CWA has lower MF than Destin.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Club Wyndham Plus is the overall points Program. The other programs are all part of this.
Club Wyndham Select is where you own points that are deeed at a specific resort. You have 13 month advance reservation priority at that resort only. You pay Maintenance fees based on that resorts expected maintenance costs.
Club Wyndham Access is where you own points in a program, and that program owns a bunch of deeds to many resorts. Your MF is a blended fee based on all the deed the program owns. You have 13 month ARP at the resorts the program owns, but this is limited to their ownership at 13 months.
Margaritaville - You own points deed at a Margaritaville resort.
Presential Reserve - You own points in the presidential reserve program and have ARP in the Presidential Reserve units. The MF are based on where you own, and the program fee is slightly higher.


At 10 months, "points are points" for the most part, and you can get any available unit within the Club Wyndham Plus. With resale you do not get VIP privileges or Club Pass (WorldMark resort access). Those without VIP do not get access to Margaritaville unless you have a Margaritaville contract.

As far as point size, there can be problems divesting of contracts that are both too small and too large. The general guideline I would use is contracts between roughly 154,000 points and 308,000 points are probably fairly easy to sell. Much over 400,000 and definitely anything under 77,000 and my guess is that there will likely be a lot of buyers not interested because of the ongoing MF (large) and resale transfer costs (small).

The resort desirability and MF also play a part. Another consideration if looking for ARP at a specific resort is the number of points needed to get the unit you want at that resort. Most people would say buy in multiples of 77,000 points, but a contract that also aligns with what is needed for ARP for a specific room size during a Prime demand period at higher demand resorts is also worth considering if you want ARP there.
 
If I buy Wyndham Club Access points I am getting the "right to attempt" to make reservations at a desired resort 10-13(ARP) months out correct? Im not buying Presidential(I dont think). Thank you for the points advice.

I personally would buy resorts for which I would definitely need ARP (this is DIFFERENT than simply wanting to go to a particular resort... it also depends on the typical demand for that resort at a given time of year), or on low MF resorts.

I dont quite follow this since Club Access, my understanding isn't tied to a resort. I guess this is where I start getting confused. Club Access 10-13 ARP at listed resorts

Club Wyndham Access Ownership Resorts

A Club Wyndham Access Ownership allows you to make reservations to any of the below listed over 70 resorts 13 months in advance and 10 months in advance to all other resorts. A regular points account only allows you to do this with your home resort. The majority of the new resorts are under this Wyndham Access ownership:



Arizona

Arkansas

California

Colorado

District of Columbia

Florida

Illinois

Louisiana

Maryland

Missouri

Nevada


New Jersey

New Mexico

North Carolina

Oklahoma

Pennsylvania

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Tennessee

Texas

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Wisconsin

Caribbean

 
You can use CWA points to make ARP reservations at the listed resorts subject to availability.

Here's the issue. Only a fraction (sometimes a very small fraction) of the units at any resort are owned by CWA

As to what that means I'll use La Belle Maison (a place I'm framiliar with) as an example. There about 140 units at LBM and about 25% are in CWA. So about 35 CWA units

I don't know how many CWA owners there are but I do know there are a whole lot more than LBM owners.

So using Mardi Gras as my example there are only 35 units open to all the CWA owners and 105 units available to the deeded LBM owners

The point is that if you want a Mardi Gras reservation you have a better chance as a deeded owner than as a CWA owner
 
What Ron said is also true about other CWA resorts ... like the snowbird meccas of South Florida or the summer beaches of South Carolina, etc.

CWA initially got a lot of deeds from the older resorts .. places without activity sale offices. These older resorts mainly were converted fixed weeks to points and OFF season weeks to boot. Just by converting these weeks to points, did NOT magically turn them into Prime season weeks available for PRIME booking windows. Those fixed week owners knew what the owned and did NOT need, want or desire to join a points system. Prime season fixed weeks can be private sold & used my their owners ... just not from the HOAs or Wyndham.

In the newer resorts ... Club Access owns points just as Club Wyndham Plus owners. Booking out of their 2 respective piles during the ARP booking window ... open to everyone at the 10 month out mark.
 
How can I see the newer resorts?? I am assuming it is bull rush at the 13 month mark for prime season weeks.

If I understand you correctly, and I want to be certain we get to stay in Destin, I need to purchase a deeded week during the season we want to travel to that particular resort. It doesn't matter if we own 400,000 CWA points and it is only 189000 for a week during prime season... we won't be getting in, more than likely.
 
I own deeded fixed weeks .. like Week 52 at Santa Barbara in Pompano Beach. The unit number I think is 504 ... a studio. That week originally was sold in the 1980s and I brought it off eBay 5-8 years ago .. most likely for $1. It has either a FRI or SAT attached FIXED day of the week for checkin.

Buying a fixed week in a season, is called a FLOATING week and each system (developer) has their own procedures for booking a unit.

I also own at resort NOT associated with Wyndham in South Florida beach area ... a which are still functioning a fixed week resorts. One resort I own at has a realtor who maintains a website page of units available... unit number, view, week number, size and ASKING price. And a vacation club is trying to muscle in taking some units via HOAs foreclosure list not available to the public.

If you want that web address, PM me (or the new term "start a conversation with me").
 
I just checked availability for Destin online. There appears to be availability everyday starting in August until 10 months from today (although some days I checked just had Presidential Reserve units available. I'm not sure you get access to those unless you're VIP?). But with all the availability I see, it leads me to think that you shouldn't have problems booking it 10 months out if you don't have ARP there. But it looks like it's in the Access program if you want to be more confident in getting it, you'll be able to book 13 months out (for the CWA units). We don't go to Destin, but we do go to South Florida alot and even during showbird season availability changes practically daily. With no penalty to cancel more then 14 days out, a lot of reservations are made with hopes of going, then cancelled later.
 
I just checked availability for Destin online. There appears to be availability everyday starting in August until 10 months from today (although some days I checked just had Presidential Reserve units available. I'm not sure you get access to those unless you're VIP?). But with all the availability I see, it leads me to think that you shouldn't have problems booking it 10 months out if you don't have ARP there. But it looks like it's in the Access program if you want to be more confident in getting it, you'll be able to book 13 months out (for the CWA units). We don't go to Destin, but we do go to South Florida alot and even during showbird season availability changes practically daily. With no penalty to cancel more then 14 days out, a lot of reservations are made with hopes of going, then cancelled later.
BTW---that was for Emerald resort which has mostly 3 bedroom units.
Majestic has a lot of availability from the beginning of Nov. 'til 10 months out in several types of units.
 
Top