New to club Wyndham

[ShawnH]

We recently bought a club Wyndham access contract and am doing catchup to figure out how to maximize, to the best of my ability, the timeshare.

First I want to preface this on I understand how timeshares work mostly. The parts I’m having trouble navigating is all the terms associated with the timeshare and the web site.

I do have a bit of a sour taste in my mouth about the sales speak I got when we purchased, they virtually lied to me about the amount of points to have vip status, sure I have it for a couple of years then will have to buy more points to be bronze level. Had they told me that to begin with I might have bought the minimum required points, or opted to pass and go with DVC like I wanted however my wife liked this option better since it offered more choice without having to trade points. If I didn’t care about the vip status I’d just have bought (been given) a resale contract which would have met my needs just as well as the contract I ultimately ended up with. But that’s my fault for not taking the time to check.

One last thing, are owner updates required? I found out an acquaintance I have where we live claims that they were told they are “required” yet I didn’t see that requirement anywhere in my documents. And to be honest I’m not sure they want me to attend an update anytime soon since I have issue with a few of the sales “promises” that turned out to be not true or mostly false. If it’s not required I have no issue telling them no thanks. And even if I did buy more points to reach vip, do I have to do it at an owners update?

I think I’ll be ok with what we bought even if I have a slight bit of remorse. Mostly the product will serve me and my family well for the way we vacation assuming the MF don’t triple next year.

 

[jwalk03]

owner updates are never required when you are using your ownership! (They will lie and try to say they are and have some thinly veiled threats. Don't fall for it!)

The only time an updated is required would be for a first time discovery owner or an owner that books a marketing package stay that requires one.

 

[paxsarah]

One last thing, are owner updates required? I found out an acquaintance I have where we live claims that they were told they are “required” yet I didn’t see that requirement anywhere in my documents. And to be honest I’m not sure they want me to attend an update anytime soon since I have issue with a few of the sales “promises” that turned out to be not true or mostly false. If it’s not required I have no issue telling them no thanks. And even if I did buy more points to reach vip, do I have to do it at an owners update?

They are not required in your situation.* The parking pass concierge may say something like, "Well, you really have to go because we have to set your account up for X and otherwise you won't be able to do Y," but neither X nor Y are ever true.

And if you do eventually want to reach VIP, you do not have to do it at a sales meeting/update at a resort. Wyndham has a phone sales division that usually has the best deals, lower pressure, and recorded calls for quality assurance. But you may also find that VIP benefits aren't worth the cost - and you can take all the time you need to research that and decide.


*The only people who are required to attend a sales meeting are Discovery (trial) members one time during their Discovery contract, and anyone who attends a "Party weekend" or other cash trip where it's made quite clear upfront that a sales meeting is required.

 

[ShawnH]

What good does it do them to make veiled threats if an owner doesn’t want to attend? Makes little sense to me. I guess I’ll be prepared to ask them to show me in writing where it says I’m required to attend.

 

[altiste1]

I guess I’ll be prepared to ask them to show me in writing where it says I’m required to attend.

No need. Just say "no thank you" when they say anything at all about you attending an 'owners update' or whatever else they may call it (they're all sales presentations - don't be fooled). Don't offer any explanations why, and give no response whatsoever other than "no thank you." If they press, say "I'm not interested." And if they continue to press, state simply, "I will not be attending." It's best to politely but firmly say no and otherwise don't engage. My presentation days are behind me, and I'm much happier!

 

[ShawnH]

They are not required in your situation.* The parking pass concierge may say something like, "Well, you really have to go because we have to set your account up for X and otherwise you won't be able to do Y," but neither X nor Y are ever true.

And if you do eventually want to reach VIP, you do not have to do it at a sales meeting/update at a resort. Wyndham has a phone sales division that usually has the best deals, lower pressure, and recorded calls for quality assurance. But you may also find that VIP benefits aren't worth the cost - and you can take all the time you need to research that and decide.


*The only people who are required to attend a sales meeting are Discovery (trial) members one time during their Discovery contract, and anyone who attends a "Party weekend" or other cash trip where it's made quite clear upfront that a sales meeting is required.

At this point I want to just use the service and see how we like it at our point level. I will say that since I was upfront from the very beginning I wasn’t subject to some of that sales tactics and pressure I’ve read about. In fact they asked what resorts I might be interested in and they showed me points charts, which after opening up our online portal matched what we were shown. And it appears the initial offer me were given was half what another couple was offered in the same meeting upon talking in the pool that evening. They weren’t happy, and I suspect they rescinded their contract.

I kinda wish they were more clear about certain aspects. I’ve even watched all the online tutorials but they answered virtually no questions. I’ll keep scouring these forums as I have time and will ask for guidance if I’m stuck on something I’m unclear about.

One final funny aside, the free 3 night stay they “gifted” us at the end of our presentation does have a mandatory 120 minute owners update attached to it. So we’ve decided to not accept that generous offer.

 

[HitchHiker71]

We recently bought a club Wyndham access contract and am doing catchup to figure out how to maximize, to the best of my ability, the timeshare.

First off - welcome to TUG!!! Please feel free to ask any/all questions here - we are all here to help in any way that we can. How recently did you buy?

First I want to preface this on I understand how timeshares work mostly. The parts I’m having trouble navigating is all the terms associated with the timeshare and the web site.

Here's a link to the typical terms and abbreviations sticky for reference:

Sticky - Commonly used Wyndham acronym and abbreviations [LAST UPDATED 9/28/2022]

The following is a list of Wyndham specific acronyms and abbreviations commonly used in this thread. This is intended to supplement the larger list of general timeshare terms that can be found here https://tug2.net/timeshare_advice/timeshare_glossary.htm: ARP Advanced Reservation Priority...

tugbbs.com

I do have a bit of a sour taste in my mouth about the sales speak I got when we purchased, they virtually lied to me about the amount of points to have vip status, sure I have it for a couple of years then will have to buy more points to be bronze level. Had they told me that to begin with I might have bought the minimum required points, or opted to pass and go with DVC like I wanted however my wife liked this option better since it offered more choice without having to trade points. If I didn’t care about the vip status I’d just have bought (been given) a resale contract which would have met my needs just as well as the contract I ultimately ended up with. But that’s my fault for not taking the time to check.

Everyone who has purchased developer experiences some level of buyer's remorse for the most part, especially given the entire timeshare industry is built on the premise that very few people are knowledgeable about the timeshare resale market and just how easy it is to obtain timeshare contracts for little to no money on the secondary markets. Chances are you received a bonus points contract along with your actual CWA or CWS contract and that is why you have temporary VIPB for the first two years. What did you actually end up purchasing?

One last thing, are owner updates required? I found out an acquaintance I have where we live claims that they were told they are “required” yet I didn’t see that requirement anywhere in my documents. And to be honest I’m not sure they want me to attend an update anytime soon since I have issue with a few of the sales “promises” that turned out to be not true or mostly false. If it’s not required I have no issue telling them no thanks. And even if I did buy more points to reach vip, do I have to do it at an owners update?

I think I’ll be ok with what we bought even if I have a slight bit of remorse. Mostly the product will serve me and my family well for the way we vacation assuming the MF don’t triple next year.

Owner updates, or what are really sales updates - are never required except for Discovery owners and even then - only a single sales update is required. Our across the board recommendation is to avoid sales updates as a best practice. FOMO sales tactics are almost universally employed at these update sessions so unless you are pretty knowledgeable about how Wyndham timesharing actually works - it's easy to get duped unfortunately. As others have already said, if you want to buy developer points, you can either purchase at a local resort sales center (like you likely just did), or via telesales - though telesales primarily sells CWA which dependent upon your vacation patterns and usage criteria - may or may not be the best option for you.

Expect MFs to increase 1-2% over annual inflation rates on average. There are always exceptions - but this is the expected macro rate of annual MF increase.

 

[ShawnH]

No need. Just say "no thank you" when they say anything at all about you attending an 'owners update' or whatever else they may call it (they're all sales presentations - don't be fooled). Don't offer any explanations why, and give no response whatsoever other than "no thank you." If they press, say "I'm not interested." And if they continue to press, state simply, "I will not be attending." It's best to politely but firmly say no and otherwise don't engage. My presentation days are behind me, and I'm much happier!

Well since we plan to keep and use the timeshare for at least 10-15 years we don’t want to be put on a naughty list so I want to be as prepared as possible. My point of view is I’m not buying more points until A) I’ve used the time share a bit and know how the resorts are and B) won’t finance a second note until the one I have is paid. The only reason I financed the one I have is I got 0% for 6 months. I’ll either roll it into a lower interest loan or pay it off. I always take advantage of 0% when I can and I never over leverage my available liquidity. They can make what ever assumptions they want based off my credit score and financial statement but ultimately I choose what path I take financially.

The only real regret I have is last time I explored DVC they used RCI. I didn’t move forward with DVC at the time because of the pandemic uncertainty and at the time minimum required buyin was higher then I wanted which Disney has since lowered to what I’d like. Now I find out after they said I could trade into Disney that Disney moved to II and the truth in the statement they made is leftover inventory DVC owners reverted to RCI, which isn’t much left. Not a deal breaker but certainly a bummer and the only reason in agreed to move forward with club Wyndham. Not to say that the club Wyndham is worthless, but worth less to me since there are certainly DVC resorts I want to enjoy. I still may at some point but it’s kicked down the road at this point.

 

[HitchHiker71]

What good does it do them to make veiled threats if an owner doesn’t want to attend? Makes little sense to me. I guess I’ll be prepared to ask them to show me in writing where it says I’m required to attend.

The people at the concierge desk are monetarily incented to ensure a certain percentage of people checking in sign up to attend the sales updates. They get a monetary bonus in addition to their base pay - and if they aren't making their expected quota - they are likely to pressure owners quite a bit to attend sales updates as a result.

 

[Rolltydr]

What good does it do them to make veiled threats if an owner doesn’t want to attend? Makes little sense to me. I guess I’ll be prepared to ask them to show me in writing where it says I’m required to attend.

No, don’t ever give them an excuse for not attending. Just say NO! You may have to say it 2 pr 3 times but just a firm no is all you should say. If you give excuses, you’re continuing the conversation and they will continue talking and pressuring you. Also, I’m on ”the naughty list”, better known as the do not sell list and you do want to be on it. It means when you check in, they give you what you need and don’t ask you to attend anything. It’s very pleasant. It doesn’t mean you can’t buy more points. You can still buy resale, which I have, and through telesales. It just means they don’t waste their time and yours while you’re on vacation.

Good luck.

 

[ShawnH]

First off - welcome to TUG!!! Please feel free to ask any/all questions here - we are all here to help in any way that we can. How recently did you buy?



Here's a link to the typical terms and abbreviations sticky for reference:

Sticky - Commonly used Wyndham acronym and abbreviations [LAST UPDATED 9/28/2022]

The following is a list of Wyndham specific acronyms and abbreviations commonly used in this thread. This is intended to supplement the larger list of general timeshare terms that can be found here https://tug2.net/timeshare_advice/timeshare_glossary.htm: ARP Advanced Reservation Priority...

tugbbs.com

Everyone who has purchased developer experiences some level of buyer's remorse for the most part, especially given the entire timeshare industry is built on the premise that very few people are knowledgeable about the timeshare resale market and just how easy it is to obtain timeshare contracts for little to no money on the secondary markets. Chances are you received a bonus points contract along with your actual CWA or CWS contract and that is why you have temporary VIPB for the first two years. What did you actually end up purchasing?


Owner updates, or what are really sales updates - are never required except for Discovery owners and even then - only a single sales update is required. Our across the board recommendation is to avoid sales updates as a best practice. FOMO sales tactics are almost universally employed at these update sessions so unless you are pretty knowledgeable about how Wyndham timesharing actually works - it's easy to get duped unfortunately. As others have already said, if you want to buy developer points, you can either purchase at a local resort sales center (like you likely just did), or via telesales - though telesales primarily sells CWA which dependent upon your vacation patterns and usage criteria - may or may not be the best option for you.

It’s been a few weeks, and honestly if I were able to access the web portal and then get access to RCI I may well have backed out since I paid exactly what I would have paid for the DVC package I wanted and about the same maintenance fees. We bought 200k points which fits how we would use the timeshare, example small weekend stay someplace odd years and a larger week long vacation even years.

How we were approached was we booked a stay at a club Wyndham in San Antonio on air bnb and they asked us to attend a timeshare sales pitch. Of course there were the free gifts which I kinda didn’t care about since we were kinda ready to buy but my wife wanted to compare club Wyndham against dvc. I will say the Resort we stayed at was quite nice, right on the river walk, and at a level I expected for the price we paid.

Initially I was going to decline purchase at the sales pitch so I could research club Wyndham and it’s resale aspects when I got home, but my wife liked that it wasn’t just direct point use at Disney vacation club hotels. And when the initial price was inline with what we already decided we would have bought with DVC she wanted to move forward. My biggest mistake was not double checking right then that dvc still traded with RCI. Honestly had that been the case I’d have a lot less apprehension though I understand those things change and still could change again in the future.

I do know that they gave another couple that was in the same group as us a bunch of bs and they sold them the same contract we got, 200k annual points for double what they offered us out the gate. They were pretty miffed.

The only other issue I have with this timeshare is it’s in perpetuity, and vague exit strategy, maybe they will take it back once we are ready to relieve ourselves of it, it’s virtually worthless resale. At least DVC has a sunset date and has a fairly strong resale value compared to club Wyndham.

I’m sure it will be fine, and you might be right that I don’t need VIP. Only time will tell. I can see that most of the places we want to visit are doable with the amount of points we have assuming there is availability when we want to travel. Since we both are self employed we can be flexable and tend to visit big attractions in what is traditionally off season. The only exception is we plan a Hiwaii trip in a couple of years when the teenagers graduate. We really wanted to stay at Alulani, even if it was only a couple of days thru exchange and then the remainder at the club Wyndham it is a resort the family wanted to visit. Now I know if we want to do that we have to pay. I’m considering taking the hit and renting dvc points for it since it’s a major want to visit for the family.

 

[cbyrne1174]

It’s been a few weeks, and honestly if I were able to access the web portal and then get access to RCI I may well have backed out since I paid exactly what I would have paid for the DVC package I wanted and about the same maintenance fees. We bought 200k points which fits how we would use the timeshare, example small weekend stay someplace odd years and a larger week long vacation even years.

How we were approached was we booked a stay at a club Wyndham in San Antonio on air bnb and they asked us to attend a timeshare sales pitch. Of course there were the free gifts which I kinda didn’t care about since we were kinda ready to buy but my wife wanted to compare club Wyndham against dvc. I will say the Resort we stayed at was quite nice, right on the river walk, and at a level I expected for the price we paid.

Initially I was going to decline purchase at the sales pitch so I could research club Wyndham and it’s resale aspects when I got home, but my wife liked that it wasn’t just direct point use at Disney vacation club hotels. And when the initial price was inline with what we already decided we would have bought with DVC she wanted to move forward. My biggest mistake was not double checking right then that dvc still traded with RCI. Honestly had that been the case I’d have a lot less apprehension though I understand those things change and still could change again in the future.

I do know that they gave another couple that was in the same group as us a bunch of bs and they sold them the same contract we got, 200k annual points for double what they offered us out the gate. They were pretty miffed.

The only other issue I have with this timeshare is it’s in perpetuity, and vague exit strategy, maybe they will take it back once we are ready to relieve ourselves of it, it’s virtually worthless resale. At least DVC has a sunset date and has a fairly strong resale value compared to club Wyndham.

I’m sure it will be fine, and you might be right that I don’t need VIP. Only time will tell. I can see that most of the places we want to visit are doable with the amount of points we have assuming there is availability when we want to travel. Since we both are self employed we can be flexable and tend to visit big attractions in what is traditionally off season. The only exception is we plan a Hiwaii trip in a couple of years when the teenagers graduate. We really wanted to stay at Alulani, even if it was only a couple of days thru exchange and then the remainder at the club Wyndham it is a resort the family wanted to visit. Now I know if we want to do that we have to pay. I’m considering taking the hit and renting dvc points for it since it’s a major want to visit for the family.

Learn the PIC Plus strategy for aquiring more points if you want VIP. You can get 2 resale weeks at any RCI affiliated locations that doesn't have a points system and PIC it to permanent VIP Gold by purchasing another 105,000 points on top of the 200k you already have. Each resale PIC 3 bedroom week exchanges into 254,000 Club Wyndham points, so that will give you anothe 508,000 VIP eligible points that are basically free. You have to already own the weeks and enroll them WHILE you buy 105,000 points (using telesales, not the resorts). It will cost roughly $150 per thousand this way ($15,750), but will get you to 813,000 VIP eligible points (VIP Gold).

I don't think VIP Gold is worth the roughly $40,000-$45,000 it costs to buy into, but since you already paid the bulk of the price, you may as well look into seeing if VIP Gold is worth $15,750 to you. You will never get back the price you paid for the retail Wyndham points unless you default and let it foreclose.

I like DVC too, which is why I'm adding on more II affiliated deeds (resale of course) and I got rid of some of my Wyndham. I use DVC points for the locations that I can't exchange into.

 

[rickandcindy23]

If you had come here when you signed, I would have advised you to rescind. Resale is basically free.

 

[Richelle]

we don’t want to be put on a naughty list

Many people have tried to be put on the naughty list so they would stop asking them to attend presentations. Unfortunately, and many have failed. Make no mistake though, if you want to buy points, they will sell you more points. Very few people are turned down. The ones that are usually have a lot of points (think 5-10 million or more), or on a naughty list for violating the commercial use rule.

I would recommend traveling on what you have for at least a few years (or more) before deciding to spend the money to be VIP. Also make sure you can use that many points without having to rent them out to people. Since you travel in the off season, discounts and upgrades would be more available then if you traveled during prime season, so you could get more use out of your points. You could stretch your points further to get more vacations. Unfortunately, they no longer have unlimited housekeeping, so you could potentially run out of housekeeping credits, especially if you do more long weekends. They cost $159 if you run out of your "free" ones. VIPs do get extra credits. How many extra depends on their VIP status.

Be sure to check out the owner travel deals on the website. Those point discounts are available to everyone (including resale owners), and a good way to get more vacation from your 200k points. Since you're flexible, you may be able to take advantage of those offers and may not need VIP.

Just to be clear, I am Platinum VIP and I have zero regrets. I just know VIP isn't right for everyone. I honestly think resale would do just fine for 90% of the ownership base.

 

[ShawnH]

Learn the PIC Plus strategy for aquiring more points if you want VIP. You can get 2 resale weeks at any RCI affiliated locations that doesn't have a points system and PIC it to permanent VIP Gold by purchasing another 105,000 points on top of the 200k you already have. Each resale PIC 3 bedroom week exchanges into 254,000 Club Wyndham points, so that will give you anothe 508,000 VIP eligible points that are basically free. You have to already own the weeks and enroll them WHILE you buy 105,000 points (using telesales, not the resorts). It will cost roughly $150 per thousand this way ($15,750), but will get you to 813,000 VIP eligible points (VIP Gold).

I don't think VIP Gold is worth the roughly $40,000-$45,000 it costs to buy into, but since you already paid the bulk of the price, you may as well look into seeing if VIP Gold is worth $15,750 to you. You will never get back the price you paid for the retail Wyndham points unless you default and let it foreclose.

I like DVC too, which is why I'm adding on more II affiliated deeds (resale of course) and I got rid of some of my Wyndham. I use DVC points for the locations that I can't exchange into.

I don’t think I really need 500k plus points unless my business situation drastically changes for the better, meaning I don’t have to be there, which I’m not sure will happen. I could see maybe using 300k points giving me bronze vip. But ultimately they lied saying I’ll be vip at 200k points. Had I known that I would have likely made different decisions. I’m sure had I known that dvc was no longer using RCI I wouldn’t have purchased right then, I’d have done my due diligence, and may have bought 300k club Wyndham or 200 dvc.

But I know much more then where we are will be a waste since my teenagers graduate in 2 years and then we will only have the little one at home.

 

[cbyrne1174]

I don’t think I really need 500k plus points unless my business situation drastically changes for the better, meaning I don’t have to be there, which I’m not sure will happen. I could see maybe using 300k points giving me bronze vip. But ultimately they lied saying I’ll be vip at 200k points. Had I known that I would have likely made different decisions. I’m sure had I known that dvc was no longer using RCI I wouldn’t have purchased right then, I’d have done my due diligence, and may have bought 300k club Wyndham or 200 dvc.

But I know much more then where we are will be a waste since my teenagers graduate in 2 years and then we will only have the little one at home.

You'd be suprised at how quick you can burn through points on the nice rooms. I use 39,000 per night almost every year staying in a Clearwater 1 Bedroom Presidential. 5 nights costs me 195,000. If you are making the trek out to Orlando, the Clearwater location is worth the 2Hr drive. The east coast beaches are having seaweed problems, so Clearwater and Panama are the best locations for FL beaches right now. I used to just have Daytona as my main beach resort, but now the seaweed issue has reached that far north.

 

[ShawnH]

Many people have tried to be put on the naughty list so they would stop asking them to attend presentations. Unfortunately, and many have failed. Make no mistake though, if you want to buy points, they will sell you more points. Very few people are turned down. The ones that are usually have a lot of points (think 5-10 million or more), or on a naughty list for violating the commercial use rule.

I would recommend traveling on what you have for at least a few years (or more) before deciding to spend the money to be VIP. Also make sure you can use that many points without having to rent them out to people. Since you travel in the off season, discounts and upgrades would be more available then if you traveled during prime season, so you could get more use out of your points. You could stretch your points further to get more vacations. Unfortunately, they no longer have unlimited housekeeping, so you could potentially run out of housekeeping credits, especially if you do more long weekends. They cost $159 if you run out of your "free" ones. VIPs do get extra credits. How many extra depends on their VIP status.

Be sure to check out the owner travel deals on the website. Those point discounts are available to everyone (including resale owners), and a good way to get more vacation from your 200k points. Since you're flexible, you may be able to take advantage of those offers and may not need VIP.

Just to be clear, I am Platinum VIP and I have zero regrets. I just know VIP isn't right for everyone. I honestly think resale would do just fine for 90% of the ownership base.

Well I’m sure what we have will be fine, and it will serve us for what we want to do mostly. I just know I don’t need a lot of points.

And I’ll say that the saleswoman we had was upfront, even showed us her club Wyndham account and what resorts we were wondering about and the points value to book, which I’ve since found to be totally accurate and true. It mostly was no pressure from her. It was the second guy that came over I had some issues with. He gave me the whole rent your points bit, and you can trade into dvc with RCI, ect ect.

Also they didn’t beat around the bush offering the price they did, which almost exactly matched the dvc product we priced including maintenance fees, which I’m guessing they did since they were well aware I was directly comparing the 2 products since I found out that evening another couple agreed to a 200k contract at basically twice the price….. which kinda seemed odd but upon reflection is obviously sketchy.

My wife and I bought this kinda to force vacations. We spent the last decade focused on building our respective businesses and right or wrong failed to take personal time. We knew we needed to do something to kinda “force” us to take vacations. We also are to a point in our lives where a hotel room is more than just a place to sleep. Nicer rooms cost more and with a time share most of the time the rooms are nicer then your typical super 8. And some of the escapes we want are simple get out of town and relax type.

I’m also fine with the exit strategy of giving the club the contract back, essentially that was what dvc is since every contract has a sunset date.

I’m sure you are also right that I might not need vip, but I’ll need to use the program to see what our needs are. And if indeed we do need or want more points I’ll seriously weigh the resale market. But I can’t see needing a lot more points really, if anything I see wanting to move on in about 15 years or so because that’s around my retirement goal date, which is a whole different set of plans that a timeshare kinda doesn’t fit into.

 

[Richelle]

Well I’m sure what we have will be fine, and it will serve us for what we want to do mostly. I just know I don’t need a lot of points.

And I’ll say that the saleswoman we had was upfront, even showed us her club Wyndham account and what resorts we were wondering about and the points value to book, which I’ve since found to be totally accurate and true. It mostly was no pressure from her. It was the second guy that came over I had some issues with. He gave me the whole rent your points bit, and you can trade into dvc with RCI, ect ect.

Also they didn’t beat around the bush offering the price they did, which almost exactly matched the dvc product we priced including maintenance fees, which I’m guessing they did since they were well aware I was directly comparing the 2 products since I found out that evening another couple agreed to a 200k contract at basically twice the price….. which kinda seemed odd but upon reflection is obviously sketchy.

My wife and I bought this kinda to force vacations. We spent the last decade focused on building our respective businesses and right or wrong failed to take personal time. We knew we needed to do something to kinda “force” us to take vacations. We also are to a point in our lives where a hotel room is more than just a place to sleep. Nicer rooms cost more and with a time share most of the time the rooms are nicer then your typical super 8. And some of the escapes we want are simple get out of town and relax type.

I’m also fine with the exit strategy of giving the club the contract back, essentially that was what dvc is since every contract has a sunset date.

I’m sure you are also right that I might not need vip, but I’ll need to use the program to see what our needs are. And if indeed we do need or want more points I’ll seriously weigh the resale market. But I can’t see needing a lot more points really, if anything I see wanting to move on in about 15 years or so because that’s around my retirement goal date, which is a whole different set of plans that a timeshare kinda doesn’t fit into.

I hear ya. My first purchase was 182,000 points with a two-bedroom PIC. Back then, that was the right size package for us. It wasn't until families expanded that we saw a need for more points. We do a big family vacation every year, so I use the majority of our points on that. Right now, I am planning for retirement. I have quite a few more years before I can retire, but by the time I retire, prices will be higher. I would rather buy now because when I retire, I won't be making large expensive purchases. I plan on having a paid off house and zero debt. I am really looking forward to that retirement road trip followed by the retirement cruise.

 

[ShawnH]

You'd be suprised at how quick you can burn through points on the nice rooms. I use 39,000 per night almost every year staying in a Clearwater 1 Bedroom Presidential. 5 nights costs me 195,000. If you are making the trek out to Orlando, the Clearwater location is worth the 2Hr drive. The east coast beaches are having seaweed problems, so Clearwater and Panama are the best locations for FL beaches right now. I used to just have Daytona as my main beach resort, but now the seaweed issue has reached that far north.

I don’t know, maybe you’re right, but I know I’m going to see how well what we have works for us, plus we have 300k bonus points that don’t expire until 2025. So I think for the next couple of years anyways we might be fine, plus we have temporary vip silver which could save us some points booking inside the vip window. We contemplated a trip in a month of so but have highly limited free time and nothing is available within the time frame we have to work with but the savings I points seems significant if it did pan out.

It looks like we will try a bonnet creek trip for 7 nights and so far the weeks we are looking at only will take a bit over 150k points meaning we could roll those remaining points over and use them next use year or find a small 2-3 night stay before use year end.

Like I said we tend to do a small vacation for one or 2 years then a big one, but that didn’t happen like we thought for about a decade. We did manage to finally take our Disney vacation last September that we originally were going to take in 2020, and for what I spent on that I, embarrassingly, could have paid for this contract in cash and had change.

 

[ShawnH]

I hear ya. My first purchase was 182,000 points with a two-bedroom PIC. Back then, that was the right size package for us. It wasn't until families expanded that we saw a need for more points. We do a big family vacation every year, so I use the majority of our points on that. Right now, I am planning for retirement. I have quite a few more years before I can retire, but by the time I retire, prices will be higher. I would rather buy now because when I retire, I won't be making large expensive purchases. I plan on having a paid off house and zero debt. I am really looking forward to that retirement road trip followed by the retirement cruise.
I think my new endgame is finish paying for this contract and maybe add a dvc contract. Because there are dvc resorts I’d like to stay at, Polynesian being at the top on my bucket list.

 

[ShawnH]

Here is a question I have that maybe you all can answer, I was talking with some friends of ours that vacation to disneyworld every year. Typically they stay at one of the value Disney resorts like pop. Well I mentioned we were likely going and we had just bought a timeshare. They wondered if we could get one of the 3 or 4 bedroom suites and I said the only way is if we were able to somehow combine our regular points with our bonus points.

Is it possible to make one reservation combining bonus points and regular points? Or is it 2 separate transactions?

 

[Richelle]

Here is a question I have that maybe you all can answer, I was talking with some friends of ours that vacation to disneyworld every year. Typically they stay at one of the value Disney resorts like pop. Well I mentioned we were likely going and we had just bought a timeshare. They wondered if we could get one of the 3 or 4 bedroom suites and I said the only way is if we were able to somehow combine our regular points with our bonus points.

Is it possible to make one reservation combining bonus points and regular points? Or is it 2 separate transactions?

Yes. The system will do it automatically.

Just to add, it uses the points that expire first before dipping into the other points. So if bonus points expire first, it will use those first. If the user year points expire first, it will use those first.

 

[Jan M.]

If you aren't booking your stays with the 25% silver VIP discount at 60 days or less and hopefully getting the upgrade on the unit size at 30 days or less for silver, your points probably aren't going to go as far as you're thinking they will. That's almost always the case with new owners.

As someone else pointed out, keep watching the website for the Owner Deals. You can sometimes get more than 25% off.

At this time the automatic upgrades you can get at a later date either aren't working at all or not working very often. Even if and when Wyndham's sub par IT team ever gets them working again, if you have a reservation keep watching the availability. Many of us find a smaller unit that we can upgrade to larger unit at the time of booking. Then we go back and cancel our original reservation. A word of warning, don't cancel your original reservation until you've secured another reservation. The website is often plagued with ghost inventory. Ghost inventory shows as available but when you try to book it you find out it isn't available.

There's a reason the parking pass/room key/wristband people pressure owners so hard to go to an update. I believe it was @HitchHiker71 who posted that Wyndham's sales metrics show that people who are already owners buy more often than people who aren't already owners.

Some people are bosses about being able to say "No!" in a way that ends it right there. Too many times owners find themselves caving, getting upset or angry when the person won't take no for an answer. Here's a couple of suggestions. Tell them that as of now your time is fully scheduled but if something changes you'll get back to them. Or try the good spouse/bad spouse approach. Tell them my wife/husband absolutely refuses to go and have the "difficult" spouse step back so Wyndham person can't engage them. Another good one is telling them you're a TUG member so if there's anything worth knowing you'll find out about it on TUG.

 

[lotus921v]

My husband and I are in a similar situation. We spent so long building our business that we needed to be forced to take vacations. We have reprioritized our life and now take a long weekend at the very least every other month. With this holiday weekend we will be at 22 days on vacation this year (counting weekends) and we will have prob another 33 or so additional days through the rest of the year. Our kids love it and it helps us get through the burn out of owning a business by always having something to look forward to.

 

[ShawnH]

If you aren't booking your stays with the 25% silver VIP discount at 60 days or less and hopefully getting the upgrade on the unit size at 30 days or less for silver, your points probably aren't going to go as far as you're thinking they will. That's almost always the case with new owners.

As someone else pointed out, keep watching the website for the Owner Deals. You can sometimes get more than 25% off.

At this time the automatic upgrades you can get at a later date either aren't working at all or not working very often. Even if and when Wyndham's sub par IT team ever gets them working again, if you have a reservation keep watching the availability. Many of us find a smaller unit that we can upgrade to larger unit at the time of booking. Then we go back and cancel our original reservation. A word of warning, don't cancel your original reservation until you've secured another reservation. The website is often plagued with ghost inventory. Ghost inventory shows as available but when you try to book it you find out it isn't available.

There's a reason the parking pass/room key/wristband people pressure owners so hard to go to an update. I believe it was @HitchHiker71 who posted that Wyndham's sales metrics show that people who are already owners buy more often than people who aren't already owners.

Some people are bosses about being able to say "No!" in a way that ends it right there. Too many times owners find themselves caving, getting upset or angry when the person won't take no for an answer. Here's a couple of suggestions. Tell them that as of now your time is fully scheduled but if something changes you'll get back to them. Or try the good spouse/bad spouse approach. Tell them my wife/husband absolutely refuses to go and have the "difficult" spouse step back so Wyndham person can't engage them. Another good one is telling them you're a TUG member so if there's anything worth knowing you'll find out about it on TUG.

Thanks for the advice. I think I’ve decided if I want more points I’ll seek them out when I’m ready and will seriously consider resale since it’s virtually free. But I think I’ve resigned myself to the fact I might just want to add dvc along with club Wyndham, then both I and my wife have lots to choose from.

For reference we have been to Disneyland several times, something like 7 times in the last 20 years, and had our first trip to Disney world last year. There was plenty at Disney world we didn’t get to see and enjoy due to capacity at the time we went, little did I know locals like to stay at disneyworld when hurricanes are coming and we left a day before Ian made landfall. We also still have a 4 year old at home and have a few more Disney trips left in us not counting grandkids, which we currently have 3, I know we spread out our kids. But my wife liked the idea of resorts non Disney related and that’s ultimately why we purchased club Wyndham. I think having both will suit our needs I just don’t want 2 rather hefty (subjective) purchases back to back.

I’m confident we can make club Wyndham work, and the LaCasida resort we’ve already stayed at was very nice. And I think you might be right, eventually we might want more but right now it’s kinda hard to make ourselves enjoy time off so with this we have financial incentive to do so, because my wife hates to waste money.