Insights on putting your Wyndham ownership into a trust?

[JWM2021]

My father-in-law put their Wyndham ownership (about a million points) into a trust at the recommendation of someone at Wyndham. All three of their daughters are listed in the trust. Anyone know what this does? All three daughters use points on occasion but I believe two of the three don't have any desire to inherit the points (or more specifically the MFs). I just wondered if this changes anything about making reservations and how (hopefully many many years in the future) the estate would be settled.

 

[Jan M.]

If this is a VIP account you don't ever want to split it up or downsize it and lose that VIP status.

If it's a gold or platinum VIP account they've had since before November 2019 it gets unlimited housekeeping credits which newer VIP accounts no longer get. That's a big deal because otherwise you get one free housekeeping credit for every 70k points per calendar year and they don't carry over. If you have to pay for more they're $159 each. Every reservation from 2-14 night regardless of the unit size uses a housekeeping credit. If you cancel a reservation you do get it back.

Having all of the names on the account means there's no need to use a guest confirmation for their stays. It also removes the headache of worrying about the owner priority lists. Wyndham now has owner priority lists for some resorts at certain times of year. This started in 2021 and currently runs through the end of 2023. We have no idea if Wyndham will continue doing this. Owners get two exceptions a year to that priority list if they aren't staying at a resort on the list for those dates at the same time.

If this is a gold or platinum VIP account they also get unlimited free transaction fees. Currently everyone is getting free transaction fees through the end of the year. Normally all non VIP owners and bronze and silver VIP owners get one free transaction fee for every 77k points they own per calendar year and they don't carry over. After that they're $19 online or $39 over the phone. You don't get them back if you cancel the reservation.

One really great advantage to having extra names on the account is to hold multiple reservations while you're trying to put together a stay or want to hold reservations while you're trying to decide. Some people will even leave a deceased family member's name on the account for that reason.

I don't know much about trusts but I think that eliminates the need of settling anything. However I believe you could remove the sister's names if that's what's decided. You could also add your name and your children's names too. Normally children have to be 18 but I've heard some people say 16.

If your wife doesn't have her owner login set up the two of you can do that. You just need the account number. If her parents have given her their login info to access the account I'd still recommend getting one set up for her.

Once you have access to the website if you or your wife ever want help understanding the website and how to do things just start a private conversation with me and I'll give you my phone number.

 

[JWM2021]

Thank you. A very much appreciate the information. I'll try to do some research on how the trust is treated. Again, I very much appreciate the insights.

 

[Zeke_62]

What about an LLC? Would there be any advantages to creating a family LLC?

 

[Jan M.]

Correcting what I posted about housekeeping credits. Prior to November 2019, silver, gold and platinum VIP got unlimited free housekeeping credits and those owners were grandfathered to keep that when the new VIP program launched. Since then all owners get one free one per every 70K and VIP owners get additional ones as follows: bronze-1, silver-2, gold-4, platinum-6, founders-8.

I'm glossing over your question about the trust because I think it's important for you and your wife know exactly what it is she has and to familiarize yourselves with how to use it. Many owners, even those who have owned for years don't use their points to the best advantage. They also don't know or pay attention to things that are important. Like when is the last day to move unused points to the next use year. Non VIP owners have the first 3 months of the use year to do that and there's a $39 fee. It can be done online. Bronze VIP have 4 months, Silver 6 months, Gold 9 months, Platinum and Founders have until the last day of their use year.

At the top of the Club Wyndham Forum there are pink boxes we call stickies. In the Wyndham information and advice sticky there's a link to the 2018-2019 Directory so you can see what the VIP benefits were before the changes to the program in November 2019. The chart is on pages 242-243. This might be helpful if your in-laws were VIP owners before November 2019. You can see see more about the benefits I mentioned that were grandfathered. If your in-laws don't have a copy of the current 2021-2022 directory they or your wife can call in to order one.

There are some things you don't have to login to be able to see. Go to: www,clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinations.com and at the bottom of the page in dark blue on the right side you'll see Publications. If you click on that it will take you to the next step where you can view the current directory.

Another thing you can see without having to login are the current VIP benefits. At the top of the website page and you'll see Owners Guide. Click on Resourses, then page down to It Pays To Be A VIP, then click on Explore VIP. You'll see what the current VIP benefits are.

Also under the Owners Guide click on Resourses then Booking Your Vacation and in the first box on the right you'll see Timeshare Owner Priority Reservations for the current lists I talked about. The list does change and the current list was more extensive when it was first posted..

You can also click on Resorts to view information about them. For some of the resorts the point charts are still missing so you'll have to look up the missing ones in the Directory under Publications which is found in dark blue on the right hand side at the bottom of the website.

If you've viewed the VIP chart you've seen the timeframes for the different VIP levels to get their discounts on the points needed to book reservations and get a free upgrade on the unit size. However, again without logging in you can click on Deals & Offers then Owner Travel Deals. You'll see Exclusive Points Discounts and can click on the five different regions to see which resorts are being discounted, the discount %, the dates and unit types the discounts apply to. This is something all owners can take advantage of and can make your points go a lot further.

 

[Jan M.]

I'm going to add some snark here. You said your wife's sisters aren't interested in having to eventually pay maintenance fees. I guess they'll be happy paying more for their own vacations than the maintenance fees would be. Most timeshare owners would take staying in a timeshare any day over spending their vacations in, gasp, a hotel room.

We've seen people walk away from their parents high level VIP accounts. Also accounts that aren't VIP but have some of the lowest maintenance fee rates you can have. I'm not going to sugar coat it, because somtimes they're dumbasses. They were so sure their parents were stupid to spend what they did, Their parents never made the best use of their points. The parents never helped their adult children learn about what they have before they passed. All the adult children could see was omg we're going to have to pay the maintenace fees ourselves now. They never took the time to fully understand what they stood to get and how to use it before dumping it. They had no idea what they were giving up for their own children down the road. So sad. There's a lot of work is involved in settling things when parents pass so I do understand how overwhelmed their heirs feel and why they just want to get things done. Most owners leave enough when they pass to cover at least a couple years maintenance fees which would give them time to evalute when more pressing matters have been taken care of.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I'm going to add some snark here. You said your wife's sisters aren't interested in having to eventually pay maintenance fees. I guess they'll be happy paying more for their own vacations than the maintenance fees would be. Most timeshare owners would take staying in a timeshare any day over spending their vacations in, gasp, a hotel room.

We've seen people walk away from their parents high level VIP accounts. Also accounts that aren't VIP but have some of the lowest maintenance fee rates you can have. I'm not going to sugar coat it, because somtimes they're dumbasses. They were so sure their parents were stupid to spend what they did, Their parents never made the best use of their points. The parents never helped their adult children learn about what they have before they passed. All the adult children could see was omg we're going to have to pay the maintenace fees ourselves now. They never took the time to fully understand what they stood to get and how to use it before dumping it. They had no idea what they were giving up for their own children down the road. So sad. There's a lot of work is involved in settling things when parents pass so I do understand how overwhelmed their heirs feel and why they just want to get things done. Most owners leave enough when they pass to cover at least a couple years maintenance fees which would give them time to evalute when more pressing matters have been taken care of.

Unfortunately timeshares seem to enjoy a generally dismal reputation online and most people therefore seem to think timeshares are a rip-off. Our MFs for 2021 totaled around $7200 all in last year, including the two non-Wyndham PIC Plus properties that we convert into points most years. When people ask me how much we spend on our timesharing, they are shocked when I tell them it's roughly $600/month. I get all kinds of comments - that's more than my car payment, that's almost another mortgage payment, etc., I can't believe you spend that much, etc.

We own just over 1.4mm Wyndham points and are VIPG. I remember one guy I used to work with telling me how stupid I was for spending that much on a timeshare. I happened to know he had just come back from a weeklong Disney vacation, and had also spent a week at the Jersey shore. I asked him how much he spent on both of those vacations. For his family of four - he spent $8k on the Disney trip, and $4k on the trip to the Jersey shore. So I said ok, you spent $12k on your two weeks of vacations. Granted, those numbers included all expenses, but my overall point was, you have already spent 40% more than I do per year for two weeklong vacations. For that same $12k - I spend 30-45 days on vacation per year - usually at larger places (condos as opposed to hotels), can cook my own food to save money whenever we want, and have no concerns about ongoing upkeep to deal with, and the resort staff are generally great to deal with and very helpful with any vacation planning in and around each resort area. How am I being stupid exactly? He changed the topic at that point.

Of course, timesharing is what you make of it, but overall I find timesharing to be a good match for our vacation styles and we really enjoy our travel/vacation experiences with Wyndham. It's a good product IMHO. @JWM2021 if you have a VIP membership in a family trust - I'd take a hard look at keeping it. If all three of you all were to spread out the cost of the MFs equally - it'd likely only be a couple hundred a month each total. That's not much really when you start to take a hard look at what you are getting in the way of vacationing over the long term.

I will say that one of the biggest advantages of timesharing that I've noticed is the sense of relaxation we experience when vacationing. We used to try and pack as much into our individual vacation plans whenever we would take vacations prior to buying into Wyndham in 2018. By the time we got home, we'd either need a vacation from our vacation due to running ourselves ragged, or if we kicked back and didn't plan a bunch of activities, we'd somehow be left feeling like we didn't really get our money's worth. Nowadays, if we head anywhere, we breathe, we relax, there's no pressure to stack tons of activities into our vacations. Why? Because we can always come back whenever we want within reason, using our points. We literally just go online, and book another trip to that same location - oftentimes within the VIP discount window - and we add an activity we weren't able to get to on the current trip to our next trip agenda. I can only say this now, after owning our timeshare for several years. Most folks paying out of pocket for typical vacations, might book for the same week the following year - roughly a year out - but that's pretty far away in comparison. Sure, it's possible to do this same thing without timesharing, but personally the persistency of timeshare ownership promotes more enjoyable vacations IME. YMMV.

 

[Jan M.]

I remember one guy I used to work with telling me how stupid I was for spending that much on a timeshare. I happened to know he had just come back from a weeklong Disney vacation, and had also spent a week at the Jersey shore. I asked him how much he spent on both of those vacations. For his family of four - he spent $8k on the Disney trip, and $4k on the trip to the Jersey shore. So I said ok, you spent $12k on your two weeks of vacations. Granted, those numbers included all expenses, but my overall point was, you have already spent 40% more than I do per year for two weeklong vacations. For that same $12k - I spend 30-45 days on vacation per year - usually at larger places (condos as opposed to hotels), can cook my own food to save money whenever we want. How am I being stupid exactly? He changed the topic at that point.

Exactly! We first bought in 2002, the next year bought more points and the bonus points made us silver VIP. It was a slippery slope from there, lol, but we make excellent use of the VIP discount and upgrades. Until DH retired in early 2018 co-workers at the three companies he worked for would ask how we could afford to vacation like we did. Yup, they all knew timeshares were a rip off and anyone who bought one was a fool.

What gives us a lot of satisfaction (read gloating) is that what those people spend on 1-3 weeks of vacations a year is more than we spend in a year with both our Wyndham points and our other resort weeks that give us an RCI points account. As of right now if I don't book us anything more for the limited amount of time we still have open in 2022 we'll have 221 nights in the timeshares just in this year. That's not counting the stays for family and friends.

This was my nephew and his family's third summer of going to Glacier Canyon with us. That gets me his and especially his two boys the "Greatest Aunt Ever" award. This summer they enjoyed two vacations in their own unit at Glacier Canyon with us and our granddaughters. Five nights over the 4th of July and a week at the very end of July. I won't take any money from my nephew for their stays because he and his wife are so great about taking all the kids to do stuff later in the evenings when we're beat. However he buys the $49 unlimited fun pass bands for DH and our two granddaughters. Plus his wife can be counted on to make a couple of pans of her excellent lasagna which feeds everyone for two dinners and a lunch for some of us.

 

[Sandi Bo]

My father-in-law put their Wyndham ownership (about a million points) into a trust at the recommendation of someone at Wyndham. All three of their daughters are listed in the trust. Anyone know what this does? All three daughters use points on occasion but I believe two of the three don't have any desire to inherit the points (or more specifically the MFs). I just wondered if this changes anything about making reservations and how (hopefully many many years in the future) the estate would be settled.

Are your daughters listed as trustees (versus successor trustees)? My Dad had his 1.4M in a trust for which he was the only trustee (with me and 4 siblings as successor trustees). In that scenario, I am almost certain the only one listed as an owner (when booking a room) would be my dad. I found it easier to purchase a small resale contract with my and my siblings names and my Dad's. That makes all of us owners on the account (and anyone of us can be chosen in the owner drop down when booking).

Rather than buying the resale contract, we could have retitled an existing contract, with all of the names on it (would only need to do one, not all (paying to update and record the deed and the transfer fee).

I looking into transferring everything into an LLC. My understanding, talking to Wyndham, is that with an LLC you can only delegate 2 owners. Otherwise, it is my understanding that the names on the deeds in the account are what drives the names of owners on the account.

Before you create a trust or LLC, I would try to contact someone at Wyndham for clarification on how to do things. But pinning down anyone that can tell you exactly how things would work is very hard to do. Thus how I landed on purchasing an additional contract (simplest way to accomplish what I needed to do). You could try calling the title department. My experience with Wyndham has been to research as best I can, make my best guess as to how things will work, then do what I need and see what really happens. Whatever you do, do not ask as a salesperson or anyone in sales for advice on how to do this.

If you end up going with a trust and are looking for exact verbiage needed for your deed, let me know, and I can let you know how ours is worded.

As far as liability for maintenance fees, I am comfortable that we can easily get rid of our deeds should we want to dissolve/get rid of all this (for whatever reason). Sadly, but pretty risk-free, we could give it back via certified exit. So while the concern of being responsible for maintenance fees is a valid one (likely true one cannot refuse inheritance if it's in the trust), as long as you have an "exit plan" (even if it's giving it back), I feel the risk is very low for leaving someone holding the bag.

 

[JWM2021]

I'm going to add some snark here. You said your wife's sisters aren't interested in having to eventually pay maintenance fees. I guess they'll be happy paying more for their own vacations than the maintenance fees would be. Most timeshare owners would take staying in a timeshare any day over spending their vacations in, gasp, a hotel room.

We've seen people walk away from their parents high level VIP accounts. Also accounts that aren't VIP but have some of the lowest maintenance fee rates you can have. I'm not going to sugar coat it, because somtimes they're dumbasses. They were so sure their parents were stupid to spend what they did, Their parents never made the best use of their points. The parents never helped their adult children learn about what they have before they passed. All the adult children could see was omg we're going to have to pay the maintenace fees ourselves now. They never took the time to fully understand what they stood to get and how to use it before dumping it. They had no idea what they were giving up for their own children down the road. So sad. There's a lot of work is involved in settling things when parents pass so I do understand how overwhelmed their heirs feel and why they just want to get things done. Most owners leave enough when they pass to cover at least a couple years maintenance fees which would give them time to evalute when more pressing matters have been taken care of.

First, let me say that I very much appreciate your insights, not only in this thread but many others where I've lurked and you've contributed.
I feel like I need to explain. I overstated when I said my sisters-in-law had no interest. I stated it this way only because I had 2 questions: 1) what was the advantage from an operational perspective (making reservations and such), which you wonderfully explained and 2) what was the implications for 3 people in a trust that might have unequal needs/desires once (again, hopefully many many years from now) the trust is on-its-own. I just thought it would be "cleaner" to just say they had no interest. In reality, one sister-in-law has some interest but because they just don't enjoy a lot of travel, they likely don't want to sign up for 400k or so points. I maybe wrong. The other sister-in-law (and her husband) are very much travelers, but they have over a million Wyndham points on their own already and a significant position in at least one other time share system. They love it, use it, but the last I knew they were trying to down-sell just a bit to get right-sized so I'm doubtful they would want their full "share."

I'm not sure why I feel so compelled to explain, after all, your information is totally relevant and helpful, and its anonymous which makes my sisters-in-law anonymous-once-removed . I think maybe "dumbasses" triggered me. My sisters-in-law are two of the brightest, most engaging people you might ever hope to meet.

 

[Jan M.]

First, let me say that I very much appreciate your insights, not only in this thread but many others where I've lurked and you've contributed.
I feel like I need to explain. I overstated when I said my sisters-in-law had no interest. I stated it this way only because I had 2 questions: 1) what was the advantage from an operational perspective (making reservations and such), which you wonderfully explained and 2) what was the implications for 3 people in a trust that might have unequal needs/desires once (again, hopefully many many years from now) the trust is on-its-own. I just thought it would be "cleaner" to just say they had no interest. In reality, one sister-in-law has some interest but because they just don't enjoy a lot of travel, they likely don't want to sign up for 400k or so points. I maybe wrong. The other sister-in-law (and her husband) are very much travelers, but they have over a million Wyndham points on their own already and a significant position in at least one other time share system. They love it, use it, but the last I knew they were trying to down-sell just a bit to get right-sized so I'm doubtful they would want their full "share."

I'm not sure why I feel so compelled to explain, after all, your information is totally relevant and helpful, and its anonymous which makes my sisters-in-law anonymous-once-removed . I think maybe "dumbasses" triggered me. My sisters-in-law are two of the brightest, most engaging people you might ever hope to meet.

Thank you for sharing more about the circumstances. It's so sad when we see people walk away from their parents high level VIP account when many of us have a good idea how much the parents spent and how much use they could be getting from the points. You have no idea how rare it is that we hear from people who don't fall into one of the following categories!

1. They were so sure their parents were stupid to spend what they did,
2. Their parents never made the best use of their points.
3. The parents never helped their adult children learn about what they have before they passed.
4. All the adult children could see was omg we're going to have to pay the maintenace fees ourselves now.
5. The adult children never took the time to fully understand what they stood to get and how to use it before dumping it.
6. Those adult children had no idea what they were giving up for their own soon to be adult children in a few years down the road.

Since timeshares are considered to have zero value there's no monetary value to be split. Just who wants in and who doesn't.

The points and maintenance fees wouldn't have to be shared equally if that doesn't work for the parties involved.

Here's some options that are worth considering since one sister already has her own points and the other wouldn't be using a lot of points. Do any of them have adult or soon to be adult children who would want to be included. Do you have siblings who would want to be included and that you would want included.

Sandi Bo manages the account and I believe the bookings for her family, her siblings and their families. She'd be a great one to advise. In most cases it works best to have one person in charge. Although some families manange just fine with everyone taking care of making/cancelling their own reservations. And not messing up anyone else's reservations in the process.

I sometimes forget that not everyone loves staying at timeshares like those of us here on TUG do. Some people want what they want and are willing to pay whatever the cost is to have it. They want highend hotels, exotic locations, eating all their meals out, etc. Tineshares really aren't for them.

 

[HitchHiker71]

First, let me say that I very much appreciate your insights, not only in this thread but many others where I've lurked and you've contributed.
I feel like I need to explain. I overstated when I said my sisters-in-law had no interest. I stated it this way only because I had 2 questions: 1) what was the advantage from an operational perspective (making reservations and such), which you wonderfully explained and 2) what was the implications for 3 people in a trust that might have unequal needs/desires once (again, hopefully many many years from now) the trust is on-its-own. I just thought it would be "cleaner" to just say they had no interest. In reality, one sister-in-law has some interest but because they just don't enjoy a lot of travel, they likely don't want to sign up for 400k or so points. I maybe wrong. The other sister-in-law (and her husband) are very much travelers, but they have over a million Wyndham points on their own already and a significant position in at least one other time share system. They love it, use it, but the last I knew they were trying to down-sell just a bit to get right-sized so I'm doubtful they would want their full "share."

I'm not sure why I feel so compelled to explain, after all, your information is totally relevant and helpful, and its anonymous which makes my sisters-in-law anonymous-once-removed . I think maybe "dumbasses" triggered me. My sisters-in-law are two of the brightest, most engaging people you might ever hope to meet.

If the "other sister-in-law" and her husband already own over a million Wyndham points, are those points developer points or resale points? Some of both? I'm asking because - down the line or even sooner rather than later, it may or may not be feasible and make sense to merge the two family accounts into a single account, especially if both accounts hold developer points. Depending on the amount of qualifying developer points across both accounts, doing so would likely create a single Founders level account that could be utilized by all three children. Just an idea to put out there for consideration.

 

[JWM2021]

Are your daughters listed as trustees (versus successor trustees)? My Dad had his 1.4M in a trust for which he was the only trustee (with me and 4 siblings as successor trustees). In that scenario, I am almost certain the only one listed as an owner (when booking a room) would be my dad. I found it easier to purchase a small resale contract with my and my siblings names and my Dad's. That makes all of us owners on the account (and anyone of us can be chosen in the owner drop down when booking).

Rather than buying the resale contract, we could have retitled an existing contract, with all of the names on it (would only need to do one, not all (paying to update and record the deed and the transfer fee).

I looking into transferring everything into an LLC. My understanding, talking to Wyndham, is that with an LLC you can only delegate 2 owners. Otherwise, it is my understanding that the names on the deeds in the account are what drives the names of owners on the account.

Before you create a trust or LLC, I would try to contact someone at Wyndham for clarification on how to do things. But pinning down anyone that can tell you exactly how things would work is very hard to do. Thus how I landed on purchasing an additional contract (simplest way to accomplish what I needed to do). You could try calling the title department. My experience with Wyndham has been to research as best I can, make my best guess as to how things will work, then do what I need and see what really happens. Whatever you do, do not ask as a salesperson or anyone in sales for advice on how to do this.

If you end up going with a trust and are looking for exact verbiage needed for your deed, let me know, and I can let you know how ours is worded.

As far as liability for maintenance fees, I am comfortable that we can easily get rid of our deeds should we want to dissolve/get rid of all this (for whatever reason). Sadly, but pretty risk-free, we could give it back via certified exit. So while the concern of being responsible for maintenance fees is a valid one (likely true one cannot refuse inheritance if it's in the trust), as long as you have an "exit plan" (even if it's giving it back), I feel the risk is very low for leaving someone holding the bag.

Thanks for all the insight.
I'll find out if the daughters are trustees, successor trustees, or beneficiaries of the trust.

I'll also try to get the exact verbiage of the trust when it seems appropriate. If you would be willing to share the verbiage in yours, I would very much appreciate it.

I'm pretty sure you can disclaim something from either an inheritance or a trust, with some very specific time and filling procedures. I doubt this would come into play, since I think we would be willing to take 100% of it.

 

[JWM2021]

Thank you for sharing more about the circumstances. It's so sad when we see people walk away from their parents high level VIP account when many of us have a good idea how much the parents spent and how much use they could be getting from the points. You have no idea how rare it is that we hear from people who don't fall into one of the following categories!



Since timeshares are considered to have zero value there's no monetary value to be split. Just who wants in and who doesn't.

The points and maintenance fees wouldn't have to be shared equally if that doesn't work for the parties involved.

Here's some options that are worth considering since one sister already has her own points and the other wouldn't be using a lot of points. Do any of them have adult or soon to be adult children who would want to be included. Do you have siblings who would want to be included and that you would want included.

Sandi Bo manages the account and I believe the bookings for her family, her siblings and their families. She'd be a great one to advise. In most cases it works best to have one person in charge. Although some families manange just fine with everyone taking care of making/cancelling their own reservations. And not messing up anyone else's reservations in the process.

I sometimes forget that not everyone loves staying at timeshares like those of us here on TUG do. Some people want what they want and are willing to pay whatever the cost is to have it. They want highend hotels, exotic locations, eating all their meals out, etc. Tineshares really aren't for them.

I think an uneven acceptance of the points and fees is the most likely outcome. Not knowing anything about the specific trust verbiage, my suggestion (again, hopefully many many years in the future) would be for each to decide what they wanted, and commit to that % of MF's for that amount of points. If desires changed, we would talk.

My issue today is that we want more TS access now. I'm now trying to figure out what to buy now for our travel. I'm mainly looking at maybe trying to buy World Mark (we love National Parks and haven't done much in the western US as of yet) or perhaps a purchase of something that converts well in RCI points (we often like to travel 3 or 4 weeks at a time, but only 3 or for days in one location). We already have some access to Wyndham through my FIL and SIL, so buying a Wyndham contract seems somewhat redundant. Any thoughts you have would be appreciated.

 

[JWM2021]

If the "other sister-in-law" and her husband already own over a million Wyndham points, are those points developer points or resale points? Some of both? I'm asking because - down the line or even sooner rather than later, it may or may not be feasible and make sense to merge the two family accounts into a single account, especially if both accounts hold developer points. Depending on the amount of qualifying developer points across both accounts, doing so would likely create a single Founders level account that could be utilized by all three children. Just an idea to put out there for consideration.

Thanks,

That is a very interesting idea. They're all developer points (as are my father-in-law's).

I really appreciate it. I'll bring it up.

 

[Jan M.]

I think an uneven acceptance of the points and fees is the most likely outcome. Not knowing anything about the specific trust verbiage, my suggestion (again, hopefully many many years in the future) would be for each to decide what they wanted, and commit to that % of MF's for that amount of points. If desires changed, we would talk.

My issue today is that we want more TS access now. I'm now trying to figure out what to buy now for our travel. I'm mainly looking at maybe trying to buy World Mark (we love National Parks and haven't done much in the western US as of yet) or perhaps a purchase of something that converts well in RCI points (we often like to travel 3 or 4 weeks at a time, but only 3 or for days in one location). We already have some access to Wyndham through my FIL and SIL, so buying a Wyndham contract seems somewhat redundant. Any thoughts you have would be appreciated.

We own several point weeks at Grandview at Las Vegas that give us an RCI points account. The highest point one bedroom weeks are 61,000 and 49,000 points with 2022 maintenance fees of $438.50. For a two bedroom it's 122,000 and 98,000 points/$877 maintenance fees. Both unit sizes also have two more lower point weeks but since the maintenance fees are the same regardless of how many points that makes them a poor value.

For us mixing and matching what we book with our Wyndham points and what we book with those RCI points works very well. We did a 110 night trip this Spring, 14 resorts in 8 states. The entire trip was all timeshare stays. Eight weeks of that trip were Wyndham and Worldmark resorts I booked with our RCI points account. We have a 75 night trip to the New England states coming up. Two of the four weeks I booked with our RCI points account are at a Wyndham resort.

You can book less than full week stays with RCI however not all resorts do that and you pay a housekeeping fee for less than full week stays. Last week the exchange for a week with RCI went up to $269. You can also book longer than 7 night stays in one reservation. I booked a two week stay in one reservation at the other resort for our Fall trip and the exchange fee for that is now $319. For our trip next Spring I was able to book one resort for 20 nights in one reservation with the now $319 exchange fee. Not all resorts offer longer than one week stays that can be booked in one reservation.

If we lived on the West Coast I would have been interested in owning Worldmark points. I've seen OP post about bonus time with Worldmark. I think you only get that with a developer purchase. Not sure if its still being offered.

 

[JWM2021]

sorry duplicate post

 

[JWM2021]

We own several point weeks at Grandview at Las Vegas that give us an RCI points account. The highest point one bedroom weeks are 61,000 and 49,000 points with 2022 maintenance fees of $438.50. For a two bedroom it's 122,000 and 98,000 points/$877 maintenance fees. Both unit sizes also have two more lower point weeks but since the maintenance fees are the same regardless of how many points that makes them a poor value.

For us mixing and matching what we book with our Wyndham points and what we book with those RCI points works very well. We did a 110 night trip this Spring, 14 resorts in 8 states. The entire trip was all timeshare stays. Eight weeks of that trip were Wyndham and Worldmark resorts I booked with our RCI points account. We have a 75 night trip to the New England states coming up. Two of the four weeks I booked with our RCI points account are at a Wyndham resort.

You can book less than full week stays with RCI however not all resorts do that and you pay a housekeeping fee for less than full week stays. Last week the exchange for a week with RCI went up to $269. You can also book longer than 7 night stays in one reservation. I booked a two week stay in one reservation at the other resort for our Fall trip and the exchange fee for that is now $319. For our trip next Spring I was able to book one resort for 20 nights in one reservation with the now $319 exchange fee. Not all resorts offer longer than one week stays that can be booked in one reservation.

If we lived on the West Coast I would have been interested in owning Worldmark points. I've seen OP post about bonus time with Worldmark. I think you only get that with a developer purchase. Not sure if its still being offered.

OMG. 110 nights, 14 resorts, and 8 states. Wow.
OK. I'm not into social media at all (no FB, et.al) so I've never "followed" anyone, and frankly I'm not sure exactly what that means; but I hope it allows me easy access to your posts.

I was going back and forth between Worldmark and something converted to RCI points for our current needs. Reading on Tug, I had about decided on WorldMark because a) the simplicity of the system and b) the locations. Having read your post, I may go back to looking at RCI points because even with the membership and the reservation cost it seems like an incredible value (assuming you pick one with a good mf per thousand like Grandview). I just could not get a feel for what kind of inventory is available. We tend to travel shoulder seasons because we like to be home (Nashville area) during the summer for gardening and pool maintenance so I think RCI points may be the thing. I may do both.

Thanks for all your help.

Jim

 

[Jan M.]

The charts on the first few pages should be helpful in determining how many points are typically needed with RCI.

https://dvc.rci.com/CDA/Common/Documents/PointsPartners-en_AU.pdf

 

[Jan M.]

Grandview at Las Vegas is in the Vacation Village family of resorts. If you own a week there it gets you two of their VV Extra Weeks per calendar year that can be booked within 45 days of the check in date for appoximately the exchange fee with no points needed. There's more available with those VV Extra Weeks than what's availble in the RCI Last Call Weeks. Vacation Village also has promotions once or twice a year. I also pay the extra to get the RCI platinum benefits you see listed below because I really use some of those benefits.

This is the list of our RCI stays going back a year up to what I have booked for 2023. Thanks to COVID we had a lot of points to use up. I may sell one of our 122k point Grandview weeks to downsize since we bought more Wyndham points and enrolled two PIC weeks. If you don't know about PIC weeks, ask and I'll explain.

8/27-9/3/21 - (3 nights) Grandview at Las Vegas, 1 bedroom, 8820 points
9/3-10/21 - Grandview at Las Vegas, 1 bedroom, Vacation Village $199 for a week with no points needed promo (Labor Day weekend and DH's birthday)
10/2-9/21 - Resort at Cocoa Beach, Cocoa Beach, Florida, 2 bedroom, 7500 points
10/17-24 - Little Gull Cottages, Longboat Key, Florida, 2 bedroom, 7500 points (Platinum upgrade from a 1 bedroom at the Anchorage in Key Largo, FL)
11/5-12/21 - Wyndham Cypress Palms, Orlando, Florida, 2 bedroom, 7500 points
11/12-19/21 - Oyster Point Resort, Sebastian, Florida, 2 bedroom, 7500 points
11/19-26/21 - Oyster Point Resort, Sebastian, Florida, 2 bedroom, 24,500 points (Booked this week farther out and the previous week closer in)
12/11-18/21 - Galleon Resort, Key West, Florida, 2 bedroom, 33,000 points (Platinum upgrade from a 1 bedroom to a 2 bedroom. It was amazing and we have to wait 3 more years to go back!)
1/7-14/22 - Vacation Village at Parkway, Orlando, Florida, 1 bedroom, Vcation Village Extra Week for $239? with no points needed.
1/14-21/22 - Disney's Animal Kingdom Kidani Village Lodge, Orlando, Florida, 1 bedroom savana view, 42,500 points
3/11-18/22 - Worldmark New Braunfels, New Braunfels, Texas, 2 bedroom, 34,500 points
3/18-25/22 - Wyndham Austin, Austin, Texas, studio, 29,000 points (I purposely picked the studio to save some points because they're basically a 1 bedroom. I would book a studio again.)
3/25-4/1/22 - Worldmark Marble Falls, Marble Falls, Texas, 1 bedroom, 30,000 points
4/1-8/22 - Worldmark Hunt Stablewood Springs, Ingram, Texas, 2 bedroom, 34,500 points
4/8/15/22 - Wyndham La Cascada, San Antonio, Texas, 1 bedroom, 33,500 points
4/16-23/22 - The Wharf, Hot Springs, Arkansas, 2 bedroom, 28,000 points
4/22-29/22 - Worldmark Lake of the Ozarks, Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, 3 bedroom, 6500 points (I asked them to put us in a 2 bedroom the entire time and they did)
4/29-5/6/22 - Worldmark Lake of the Ozarks, Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, 2 bedroom, 6500 points
5/6-13/22 - Worldmark Lake of the Ozarks, Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, 2 bedroom, 6500 points
10/9-16/22 - Wyndham Inn on Long Wharf, Newport, Rhode Island, 1 bedroom suite, 26,500 points
10/16-23/22 - Wyndham Inn on Long Wharf, Newport, Rhode Island, 1 bedroom suite, 20,000 points
10/22-11/5/22 - Vacation Village in the Berkshires, Hancock, Massachussetts, 1 bedroom, 43,200 points (2 weeks booked in one reservation. $309 before the fee another $10 on 8/21. Platinum upgrade for a larger unit requested but I'm guessing not likely with a 2 week stay at this time of year.)
11/18-25/22 - Oyster Point, Sebastian, Florida, 2 bedroom, 28,000 points
11/25-12/2/22 - Oyster Point, Sebastian, Florida, 2 bedroom, 28,000 points
12/25/22-1/1/23 - Caribe Beach Resort, Sanibel Island, Florida, studio, 30,500 points
4/22-29/23 - The Wharf, Hot Springs, Arkansas, 2 bedroom, 28,000 points
4/29-5/6/23 - The Wharf, Hot Springs, Arkansas, 2 bedroom, 28,000 points
5/6-20/23 - Lodges at Timber Ridge, Branson, MIssouri, 1 bedroom, 103,600 points ( 20 night stay booked in 1 reservation with a $319 exchange fee. Platiunum upgrade for a larger unit requested but it's not likely with such a long stay.)

RCI POINTS PLATINUM BENEFITS

** indicates the platinum benefits I use the most.

Annual RCI Points Platinum Fees	Total Cost	Price Per Year
RCI Points Platinum® 1 Yr	$89
RCI Points Platinum® 2 Yrs	$155	$77.50
RCI Points Platinum® 3 Yrs	$221	$73.67
RCI Points Platinum® 4 Yrs	$279	$69.75
RCI Points Platinum® 5 Yrs	$322	$64.40

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Car Rental
Use as little as 1,000 Points + Cash to save big on car rentals – all on top of Platinum member-exclusive pricing and a Best Price Guarantee. Find the perfect fit for your week-long road trip or weekend escape.

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**10% Off Extra Vacations℠ Getaways and Last Call℠ Vacations
Take an additional 10% off your Extra VacationsSM getaways and Last CallSM vacation – even those already on sale.*

**Platinum Points Extension
Get more time to enjoy your Points. As an RCI Platinum member and RCI® Points member, you are eligible to extend your unused Points for two Use Years, as compared to standard RCI members who can extend their Points for only one Use Year when they pay the same applicable fee. While extended Points expire at the end of a third Use Year for standard RCI members, RCI Platinum members enjoy a fourth Use Year with no additional fee.

**Free Ongoing Search
Start an ongoing search and RCI will do the 24/7 legwork to find the right trip for you. Plus, you won’t be charged an exchange fee until a match is found.

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**Complimentary Unit Upgrades & Changes
Book your confirmed Exchange Vacation and have the opportunity to receive complimentary Unit Upgrades and Resort Changes. Simply share your interest in a unit upgrade or resort change. If a specified resort (or larger unit within said resort) becomes available within two weeks of check-in, your reservation will be updated and you will be notified.

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[Jan M.]

There's a reason I posted the list of our RCI stays on this thread instead of starting a private conversation with @JWM2021. All too often I see people saying they can never find anything in RCI. Clearly I've had no problem.

One reason for that could be that those people have a weeks RCI account, not a points RCI account. There's a lot more inventory available with a points account than a weeks account. Another reason could be that they only get one or two weeks of vacation a year. In that situation I don't blame them for being very selective about where they want to go. Before DH retired he set his own work schedule so we were able to go a lot more than most people who are still working. Now we can go any time I find something we like. Lastly it could be that we're more open to trying resorts and areas we haven't been to before. We've had wonderful experiences staying at some older and smaller resorts that other people might stick up their noses at.

One thing I do and recommend is to read the reviews about any resort you're considering. But try to keep in mind when you're reading them that some people who post reviews have no idea how timeshares work or prior experience in staying at them. I also call the resort to ask questions if we've never stayed there before. Call at a time they aren't busy with check ins and they're usually great about telling you about the units, the resort and the area.

We've owned a resort that gave us RCI points since 2005 and there's only been one resort we've stayed at that we wouldn't go back to nor recommend due to our experience there. RCI did refund us. There's other resorts we like in that area so we've never seen the need to give that resort a second chance.

 

[HitchHiker71]

There's a reason I posted the list of our RCI stays on this thread instead of starting a private conversation with @JWM2021. All too often I see people saying they can never find anything in RCI. Clearly I've had no problem.

One reason for that could be that those people have a weeks RCI account, not a points RCI account. There's a lot more inventory available with a points account than a weeks account. Another reason could be that they only get one or two weeks of vacation a year. In that situation I don't blame them for being very selective about where they want to go. Before DH retired he set his own work schedule so we were able to go a lot more than most people who are still working. Now we can go any time I find something we like. Lastly it could be that we're more open to trying resorts and areas we haven't been to before. We've had wonderful experiences staying at some older and smaller resorts that other people might stick up their noses at.

One thing I do and recommend is to read the reviews about any resort you're considering. But try to keep in mind when you're reading them that some people who post reviews have no idea how timeshares work or prior experience in staying at them. I also call the resort to ask questions if we've never stayed there before. Call at a time they aren't busy with check ins and they're usually great about telling you about the units, the resort and the area.

We've owned a resort that gave us RCI points since 2005 and there's only been one resort we've stayed at that we wouldn't go back to nor recommend due to our experience there. RCI did refund us. There's other resorts we like in that area so we've never seen the need to give that resort a second chance.

For those who may not know - how does a Wyndham owner determine what type of RCI account they have? When Wyndham automatically provisions an RCI account connected to their Wyndham login - is this an RCI points account or an RCI weeks account? I'm assuming it's an RCI points account since Wyndham deals in points as a general rule - but this is just an assumption on my part. I don't see anywhere in my Account area when logging into my Wyndham RCI account that tells me what RCI account type I have for example, other than my "Available Points" section which again, leads me to believe that Wyndham owners receive an RCI points login by default. For those who happen to also own RCI weeks, must they have a separate login for their RCI weeks? Again my assumption is yes.

 

[paxsarah]

For those who may not know - how does a Wyndham owner determine what type of RCI account they have? When Wyndham automatically provisions an RCI account connected to their Wyndham login - is this an RCI points account or an RCI weeks account? I'm assuming it's an RCI points account since Wyndham deals in points as a general rule - but this is just an assumption on my part. I don't see anywhere in my Account area when logging into my Wyndham RCI account that tells me what RCI account type I have for example, other than my "Available Points" section which again, leads me to believe that Wyndham owners receive an RCI points login by default. For those who happen to also own RCI weeks, must they have a separate login for their RCI weeks? Again my assumption is yes.

It's always an RCI points account if there's an initial retail purchase. If there's no retail purchase (i.e. resale only), it's weeks only. Wyndham should have some way to move the rare owner who purchased resale first but then purchased retail to a points account, but I don't know if they automatically do that or if it requires some prodding.

I would guess the easiest way to tell is if you have access to nightly stays in RCI. If you have nightly stays, you have a points account. I don't, so I can't tell you what it looks like.

EDIT: If someone has an actual fixed week they want to deposit in RCI, then they do log in separately to RCI.com (though it can be the Wyndham-provided account - but there's no flow between the RCI direct side and the portal side). But the portal RCI account for those who don't have PlusPartners/nightly stays is a weeks account (that is, it only has access to RCI weeks inventory and not RCI points inventory) even though the currency is Wyndham points.

 

[markb53]

For those who may not know - how does a Wyndham owner determine what type of RCI account they have? When Wyndham automatically provisions an RCI account connected to their Wyndham login - is this an RCI points account or an RCI weeks account? I'm assuming it's an RCI points account since Wyndham deals in points as a general rule - but this is just an assumption on my part. I don't see anywhere in my Account area when logging into my Wyndham RCI account that tells me what RCI account type I have for example, other than my "Available Points" section which again, leads me to believe that Wyndham owners receive an RCI points login by default. For those who happen to also own RCI weeks, must they have a separate login for their RCI weeks? Again my assumption is yes.

If you own 100% resale, your RCI account that is attached to your Wyndham account is a Weeks account. If like me, you started with a developer purchase then added resale then you have a weeks and points account. Plus you pay an extra $.02 per 1000 points. No separate login, the weeks and points availability show up together when you are in your RCI account.

 

[markb53]

If we lived on the West Coast I would have been interested in owning Worldmark points. I've seen OP post about bonus time with Worldmark. I think you only get that with a developer purchase. Not sure if its still being offered.

You get Bonus Time, Inventory Specials, and Monday Madness. Which are all cash reservations that cost less then then what I am paying in MF. Much less since the cost of the housekeeping is included in the cash price. No developer purchase required. Resale get those benefits also.