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Midtown 45 different take on update

vanillabean

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2013
Messages
17
Reaction score
4
Location
Mississippi
Resorts Owned
Orlando International Resort Club, Massanutten Regal Vistas, Wyndham Resort at Fairfield Glade
I'm in NYC now. We checked in late last night, and a very nice guy named Paul gave us our wristbands and resort info- discounts and sightseeing tips, and great information about the resort for our stay. He was low pressure because he said he is also an owner and did not want to subject other owners to horrible experiences that he himself experienced before he began working at Midtown 45. He said as Priority Owners he knows that we are not interested in hard sell high pressure lying salespeople. He said Wyndham got rid of the rude and horrible sales staff at Midtown 45 since our last visit pre-COVID19, and they are trying to rebuild their reputation and clear out the bad reputation the salespeople gave the resort. He asked if we remembered the names of the people, and we did not.
He gave us this card and promised that if we were willing to sign up during our stay and give feedback, we would receive the gift up front and the promises on the card would be honored. He also said that if the meeting went past 60 minutes all we had to do was pull out the card and they would not pressure us.
Has anyone stayed here recently and received a similar offer and gone to the appointment? I don't think he called it an update, I don't remember if he called it anything. If so, how did it go? Did they do what was promised?
I do not intend to sign up.
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Except they held my physical credit card hostage for some reason at Midtown. I didn't see any difference

Daniel
 
I'm in NYC now. We checked in late last night, and a very nice guy named Paul gave us our wristbands and resort info- discounts and sightseeing tips, and great information about the resort for our stay. He was low pressure because he said he is also an owner and did not want to subject other owners to horrible experiences that he himself experienced before he began working at Midtown 45. He said as Priority Owners he knows that we are not interested in hard sell high pressure lying salespeople. He said Wyndham got rid of the rude and horrible sales staff at Midtown 45 since our last visit pre-COVID19, and they are trying to rebuild their reputation and clear out the bad reputation the salespeople gave the resort. He asked if we remembered the names of the people, and we did not.
He gave us this card and promised that if we were willing to sign up during our stay and give feedback, we would receive the gift up front and the promises on the card would be honored. He also said that if the meeting went past 60 minutes all we had to do was pull out the card and they would not pressure us.
Has anyone stayed here recently and received a similar offer and gone to the appointment? I don't think he called it an update, I don't remember if he called it anything. If so, how did it go? Did they do what was promised?
I do not intend to sign up.
8cc2dd9e731275fcbf167e73269c69d8.jpg


Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk
 
I received the same handout at Wyndham Shawnee Resorts 5/19/2022. I had said no to an update ( sale team meeting). They gave me the handout and asked again to attend with the right to use the sheet as my stop the meeting escape. I said No.
 
I received the same handout at Wyndham Shawnee Resorts 5/19/2022. I had said no to an update ( sale team meeting). They gave me the handout and asked again to attend with the right to use the sheet as my stop the meeting escape. I said No.

Yes these cards are becoming more popular at various resorts from what I've seen. We've received these at OTA, NH, Shawnee on Delaware (Poconos), and GG in Williamsburg over the past six months or so. We were just at Wyndham Shawnee from 5/22-5/29 ourselves. What section were you in? We were in Crestview for the week in unit 270 (an accessible unit).
 
I seen one of these at Worlmark on the Boulevard in January. I never give my credit card or drivers license to a salesperson. Becarefull if they want your Social Security number.
 
Yes these cards are becoming more popular at various resorts from what I've seen. We've received these at OTA, NH, Shawnee on Delaware (Poconos), and GG in Williamsburg over the past six months or so. We were just at Wyndham Shawnee from 5/22-5/29 ourselves. What section were you in? We were in Crestview for the week in unit 270 (an accessible unit).
We were in Crestview #271, a 2nd floor unit. Funny right. We arrived 5/19 and left 5/22 back to the Hudson Valley of NY.
 
We were in Crestview #271, a 2nd floor unit. Funny right. We arrived 5/19 and left 5/22 back to the Hudson Valley of NY.
We were in Crestview 5/23-25 on way to Newport RI. 4br Presidential upgraded from a 2br. Can't remember the unit number. 2nd floor, last building on the left in the area of the higher(?) numbered units. The units on the left as you go up the road.
 
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We were in Crestview 5/23-25 on way to Newport RI. 4br Presidential upgraded from a 2br. Can't remember the unit number. 2nd floor, last building on the left in the area of the higher(?) numbered units. The units on the left as you go up the road.

If it was an accessible 4BR PR unit on the left in the last building with a raised walkway into the second floor unit - I've been in that same unit in the past. Nice! :cool: Small world - we were actually there at the same time - missed an opportunity to meet in person LOL.
 
Just had a sales pitch/update at Midtown 45. We were on a marketing weekend that cost $295 for two nights in a studio there with an incentive of $100 AMEX + 15K Wyndham Rewards. Sales pitch lasted 90 minutes and I figure the lower cost for the stay plus the incentives compensated for our time.

On the good side, we were able to get in earlier than scheduled so we could make it to a broadway play matinee. Also, they gave us the incentives before the sales pitch and we’re typically polite-ish.

On the other side, there was an awful lot of misinformation and warping of truths/assumptions relying on cherry picking phrases from old directories, etc. For example, they were pitching an upgrade into a product they were calling the “Avenue Collection” in reference to that description in the 2013-14 directory grouping of urban resorts, in order to get to VIPP and use Global Access through Bluethread Rewards to book any inventory we want for 50% off with Prime booking priority and use the saved points to pay all our flights and maintenance fees. Meaningless buzzword city.

Bottom line offers were to sell us enough points at Midtown 45 to get to either VIPP or VIPF, trading in our developer purchased Bali Hai contracts but not our resale ones. Cost was about the list price for the amount of new points (~$250-275 per 1,000, IIRC). Would have been MF + program fee of ~$5.85 per 1,000, raising my MFs by ~20%, but the VIP benefits were supposed to be able to make up for the increased fees plus the cost of the points.

Lots of bogus accounting calculations comparing numbers they didn’t understand to compare our current apples to their proposed oranges. At that point they outnumbered us 3 to 2 and one of them was persistently annoying us for an explanation of why we didn’t believe it would be a fabulous deal. We declined their kind offers and were released, having already declined to let them run our credit reports.

The numbers might have worked out if they had been willing to take some resale contracts as trade ins; looks like Midtown 45 has halfway decent MFs and replacing resale points with developer ones could have some benefits. The overall impression I was left with is that they knew way less about using Club Wyndham from the owners side than I do and they have a thorough lack of imagination to come up with any mutually beneficial offer.

Got out in time for the free bottomless mimosas in the Owners Lounge and the young lady pouring them was kind enough to give me half a bottle of bubbly that was left when she closed up shop at the end of the hour.

Overall impression of Midtown 45 is that it’s a decent alternative to the Hilton ones, though I like the West 57th location a bit better. Haven’t run the numbers yet, but the per night cost at Midtown seems close to what it is for the Hiltons, probably better if booked in the discount window and it’s kind of nice having the limited kitchen facilities.

Ate dinner at Sicily Osteria e Vineria on 46th west of 8th after the matinee. It’s only been open for 2 months and has relatively few reviews on line. Highly recommend it for authentic Sicilian food before or after seeing a show.
 
Just had a sales pitch/update at Midtown 45. We were on a marketing weekend that cost $295 for two nights in a studio there with an incentive of $100 AMEX + 15K Wyndham Rewards. Sales pitch lasted 90 minutes and I figure the lower cost for the stay plus the incentives compensated for our time.

On the good side, we were able to get in earlier than scheduled so we could make it to a broadway play matinee. Also, they gave us the incentives before the sales pitch and we’re typically polite-ish.

On the other side, there was an awful lot of misinformation and warping of truths/assumptions relying on cherry picking phrases from old directories, etc. For example, they were pitching an upgrade into a product they were calling the “Avenue Collection” in reference to that description in the 2013-14 directory grouping of urban resorts, in order to get to VIPP and use Global Access through Bluethread Rewards to book any inventory we want for 50% off with Prime booking priority and use the saved points to pay all our flights and maintenance fees. Meaningless buzzword city.

Bottom line offers were to sell us enough points at Midtown 45 to get to either VIPP or VIPF, trading in our developer purchased Bali Hai contracts but not our resale ones. Cost was about the list price for the amount of new points (~$250-275 per 1,000, IIRC). Would have been MF + program fee of ~$5.85 per 1,000, raising my MFs by ~20%, but the VIP benefits were supposed to be able to make up for the increased fees plus the cost of the points.

Lots of bogus accounting calculations comparing numbers they didn’t understand to compare our current apples to their proposed oranges. At that point they outnumbered us 3 to 2 and one of them was persistently annoying us for an explanation of why we didn’t believe it would be a fabulous deal. We declined their kind offers and were released, having already declined to let them run our credit reports.

The numbers might have worked out if they had been willing to take some resale contracts as trade ins; looks like Midtown 45 has halfway decent MFs and replacing resale points with developer ones could have some benefits. The overall impression I was left with is that they knew way less about using Club Wyndham from the owners side than I do and they have a thorough lack of imagination to come up with any mutually beneficial offer.

Got out in time for the free bottomless mimosas in the Owners Lounge and the young lady pouring them was kind enough to give me half a bottle of bubbly that was left when she closed up shop at the end of the hour.

Overall impression of Midtown 45 is that it’s a decent alternative to the Hilton ones, though I like the West 57th location a bit better. Haven’t run the numbers yet, but the per night cost at Midtown seems close to what it is for the Hiltons, probably better if booked in the discount window and it’s kind of nice having the limited kitchen facilities.

Ate dinner at Sicily Osteria e Vineria on 46th west of 8th after the matinee. It’s only been open for 2 months and has relatively few reviews on line. Highly recommend it for authentic Sicilian food before or after seeing a show.
Midtown has a good location and the One bedroom presidential suite we stayed in was very nice. Breakfast across the street at Confort diner ok but I would recommend Johns coffe shop on 44th & 2nd. Sparks on 46th between 3rd & 2nd also serves a good steak plus there is some history I found interesting when we dined there. If you like beer and schnitzel the Beirhaus on 3rd & 45th is very close. What can you recommend ordering at Sicily?
 
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For drinks, I highly recommend the Basil Bocca, which my wife had (Hendricks Gin w/ muddled basil & lemon juice according to the menu - I'm positive they included a splash of simple syrup, too); I had the jalapeno margarita which was quite good, but not enough to write home about. For appetizers, the arancino was quite nice (saffron rice, 'nduja, mozzarella and peas), more like the size of a large grapefruit than an orange so it was easy to split. The polipo alla piastra was excellent - they know how to cook octopus there. We split their spaghetti alla chitarra verdi and a special of fettucine alle sardi and both were excellent. The couple we were with also loved what they ordered (ricotta al forno & polpette as apps and anatra agrodolce & cous cous pescatore as entrees) - I don't think you can go wrong with anything there if you like southern italian food. I would highly recommend the Mount Etna, a pistachio lava cake, for dessert - the cannolis were also very good though I felt not as good.

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Polippo alla piastra

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Arancino

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Fettucine alle sardi

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Spaghetti alla chittara verdi

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Mount Etna
 
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