New Website worldmarkbywyndham.com - January 2022

[Eric B]

Just got the invitation to register for the new website by email. I didn't get a prior email, but registered in response to this one. First impressions:
1. It's nice that it's set up for multifactor authentication
2. Still a work in progress - the resort information displayed on individual resort pages is incomplete:
a. Specific room types are missing, but do show up on availability searches.
b. The information presented is not as good as that on the Club Wyndham site for the resorts - I didn't look too far, but couldn't find any floorplans. The Wyndham side is spotty in this area, too, though.
3. Search function is spotty at the top of the site.
4. Availability Calendar function for individual resorts is inferior to the Club Wyndham site availability calendar.
a. You have to select a specific room size to get a display of availability
b. The resulting display has less information on it regarding number of units available than is currently on the WorldMark site - it only shows particular days with at least one room available
c. Once you select a check in and check out date, the result shows only the room size you selected but does include the number of units available to the same extent as the current WorldMark site
5. Searching for availability from the map functions similar to how the Club Wyndham site function does and returns a list or room sizes available for the various resorts in the area you've searched along with the credits required for the dates selected. This seems an improvement to the current WorldMark site in that it provides results from all resorts in a map region rather than being limited to a single resort or a preset region - that is, you can limit it to an area you want to go to that is reasonably related like Texas rather than all of the midwest or an area that crosses region borders like New Mexico and Colorado.
6. Registering for the website for one ownership resulted in having a grouped log in for all my ownerships (I have two resale WM contracts) with an option to switch between them without logging out. This was a bit unexpected, but a nice attribute.
7. There is still some missing functionality - for example, I was unable to locate the Exchange Plus forms or the spot for transferring credits to other WM accounts; although I didn't look for terribly long.

Feedback I would provide (and did on the give feedback tab):
1. The availability calendar should be modified to display all room sizes rather than just one size. This could be through including an option to "Display All Suite Types"
2. They should continue to populate the resort information. It's not clear why the amount of information is different between the Club Wyndham and the WorldMark by Wyndham sites.
3. Missing functionality such as inter-account credit transfers should be implemented before the old site is sunset.

@HitchHiker71, is anyone providing feedback to Wyndham for the WorldMark side of things? I've seen some sporadic comments about the new site, but nothing as well organized as what you did for the Wyndham side of things.

Your new owner website, worldmarkbywyndham.com, has officially launched! You should've received an invite last month, but we noticed you still aren't registered. (If you registered recently, you can ignore this email.) Create your online account right now, in just a few minutes.

A few tips for registering:

Have your owner number handy. Be prepared to create a secure username and password. Bookmark the new web address, worldmarkbywyndham.com, on all of your devices.

Your old owner website, worldmarktheclub.com, will soon be discontinued. Visit your new site and create an account by Jan. 31 to keep searching, booking, and — most importantly — vacationing.

​

Please note: You may encounter issues with certain features over the next few weeks. We appreciate your patience as we work behind the scenes to fix these bugs ASAP.

 

[DaveNV]

Did the email say the new site is now finished? I got an invitation email about a month ago and explored things, but details on the site were spotty, as you have described. I had trouble logging into the old site yesterday, so went to the new site to try and log in. It still seems very minimal, compared to the greater data shown on the old site. So to my mind, it doesn't look like it's much better than it was a month ago.

Dave

 

[Eric B]

Did the email say the new site is now finished? I got an invitation email about a month ago and explored things, but details on the site were spotty, as you have described. I had trouble logging into the old site yesterday, so went to the new site to try and log in. It still seems very minimal, compared to the greater data shown on the old site. So to my mind, it doesn't look like it's much better than it was a month ago.

Dave

It didn't come out and say it's finished and included the disclaimer that they're working behind the scenes to fix bugs ASAP, but they did say the old web site will be discontinued soon and I should register by the end of this month. I agree that it's a step back in a number of ways from what the old site provided; that's why I posted my initial thoughts on it, hoping others would chime in with what they notice. For the latest iteration of the Club Wyndham site, @HitchHiker71 and @Richelle acted as a great conduit for the feedback provided by folks in the Wyndham forum on problems we encountered there. Don't know if we have any IT savvy folks on the WorldMark side, but I'm pretty good about complaining about things I find wrong in the hopes we can get them fixed.

 

[keno999]

It didn't come out and say it's finished and included the disclaimer that they're working behind the scenes to fix bugs ASAP, but they did say the old web site will be discontinued soon and I should register by the end of this month. I agree that it's a step back in a number of ways from what the old site provided; that's why I posted my initial thoughts on it, hoping others would chime in with what they notice. For the latest iteration of the Club Wyndham site, @HitchHiker71 and @Richelle acted as a great conduit for the feedback provided by folks in the Wyndham forum on problems we encountered there. Don't know if we have any IT savvy folks on the WorldMark side, but I'm pretty good about complaining about things I find wrong in the hopes we can get them fixed.

Hmmm, draft @HitchHiker71 ?

 

[geist1223]

This new site sucks. It appears they went for fancy Bells and Whistles vice simple functionality. Miss the old 4 months calendar and the ability to search different sized Units and Resorts quickly.

 

[Eric B]

Hmmm, draft @HitchHiker71 ?

I've been trying to drop some subtle hints in the hopes that he would volunteer....

 

[markb53]

Just got the invitation to register for the new website by email. I didn't get a prior email, but registered in response to this one. First impressions:
1. It's nice that it's set up for multifactor authentication
2. Still a work in progress - the resort information displayed on individual resort pages is incomplete:
a. Specific room types are missing, but do show up on availability searches.
b. The information presented is not as good as that on the Club Wyndham site for the resorts - I didn't look too far, but couldn't find any floorplans. The Wyndham side is spotty in this area, too, though.
3. Search function is spotty at the top of the site.
4. Availability Calendar function for individual resorts is inferior to the Club Wyndham site availability calendar.
a. You have to select a specific room size to get a display of availability
b. The resulting display has less information on it regarding number of units available than is currently on the WorldMark site - it only shows particular days with at least one room available
c. Once you select a check in and check out date, the result shows only the room size you selected but does include the number of units available to the same extent as the current WorldMark site
5. Searching for availability from the map functions similar to how the Club Wyndham site function does and returns a list or room sizes available for the various resorts in the area you've searched along with the credits required for the dates selected. This seems an improvement to the current WorldMark site in that it provides results from all resorts in a map region rather than being limited to a single resort or a preset region - that is, you can limit it to an area you want to go to that is reasonably related like Texas rather than all of the midwest or an area that crosses region borders like New Mexico and Colorado.
6. Registering for the website for one ownership resulted in having a grouped log in for all my ownerships (I have two resale WM contracts) with an option to switch between them without logging out. This was a bit unexpected, but a nice attribute.
7. There is still some missing functionality - for example, I was unable to locate the Exchange Plus forms or the spot for transferring credits to other WM accounts; although I didn't look for terribly long.

Feedback I would provide (and did on the give feedback tab):
1. The availability calendar should be modified to display all room sizes rather than just one size. This could be through including an option to "Display All Suite Types"
2. They should continue to populate the resort information. It's not clear why the amount of information is different between the Club Wyndham and the WorldMark by Wyndham sites.
3. Missing functionality such as inter-account credit transfers should be implemented before the old site is sunset.

@HitchHiker71, is anyone providing feedback to Wyndham for the WorldMark side of things? I've seen some sporadic comments about the new site, but nothing as well organized as what you did for the Wyndham side of things.

Your new owner website, worldmarkbywyndham.com, has officially launched! You should've received an invite last month, but we noticed you still aren't registered. (If you registered recently, you can ignore this email.) Create your online account right now, in just a few minutes.

A few tips for registering:

Have your owner number handy. Be prepared to create a secure username and password. Bookmark the new web address, worldmarkbywyndham.com, on all of your devices.

Your old owner website, worldmarktheclub.com, will soon be discontinued. Visit your new site and create an account by Jan. 31 to keep searching, booking, and — most importantly — vacationing.

Please note: You may encounter issues with certain features over the next few weeks. We appreciate your patience as we work behind the scenes to fix these bugs ASAP.

One of the things I think needs major work is Bonus Time on the new site. The old site was pretty great for booking bonus time reservations. On the new site it is very cumbersome to find bonus time availability. I have left a lot of feedback messages including about all the items you mentioned. Hopefully they a listening.

 

[Eric B]

This new site sucks. It appears they went for fancy Bells and Whistles vice simple functionality. Miss the old 4 months calendar and the ability to search different sized Units and Resorts quickly.

That functionality does exist if you search from the resort map rather than the availability calendar. It's actually a bit of an improvement because you can search multiple resorts across the region boundaries rather than limiting it to the set regions.

 

[Eric B]

One of the things I think needs major work is Bonus Time on the new site. The old site was pretty great for booking bonus time reservations. On the new site it is very cumbersome to find bonus time availability. I have left a lot of feedback messages including about all the items you mentioned. Hopefully they a listening.

That's where having someone with connections with Wyndham's IT department like @HitchHiker71 helps immensely. (One more subtle hint....)

 

[jaima]

It didn't come out and say it's finished and included the disclaimer that they're working behind the scenes to fix bugs ASAP, but they did say the old web site will be discontinued soon and I should register by the end of this month. I agree that it's a step back in a number of ways from what the old site provided; that's why I posted my initial thoughts on it, hoping others would chime in with what they notice. For the latest iteration of the Club Wyndham site, @HitchHiker71 and @Richelle acted as a great conduit for the feedback provided by folks in the Wyndham forum on problems we encountered there. Don't know if we have any IT savvy folks on the WorldMark side, but I'm pretty good about complaining about things I find wrong in the hopes we can get them fixed. cps counter chatib

My issue is OLD vs NEW. To basic you know

 

[Eric B]

One other item of interest for the new WorldMark site - it allowed me to make a reservation prior to 9:00 am EST/6:00 am PST today while the old WorldMark site won't even let me log in. I had logged into the new one this morning to take a look at a couple of things and was a bit surprised that I was able to, so I tried reserving a week then canceling it. Not sure why they have it set up that way - I haven't tried the 13-month point yet to see if that's available earlier.

 

[Eric B]

Yep; it gave me access to the 13-month point reservations prior to 9:00 am EST.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I’m not aware of anyone collecting and disseminating this type of feedback to Wyndham specific to the Worldmark website rollout - but I think it’s a good idea. I do know the product owner for the Worldmark website - or at least I did assuming he is still there - so I will broach this topic with him and see what type of response I get back.

Specific to the actual work involved, the scope of effort isn’t as simple as collecting feedback and sending it along - it requires some familiarity with testing and documenting test cases endemic to IT QA type experience - which is what Richelle is especially good at given her IT background. This means that we need to identify a trusted resource that is an actual Worldmark owner with this type of background ideally and that has access to the new website to run through test scripts/cases. Neither of us are Worldmark owners though, hence the first hurdle to getting this off the ground. I will also float this to Richelle and reply back with additional feedback at that time.

FYI I’m actually down in Wyndham OTA this weekend for a short getaway so my responses will be delayed.


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[Eric B]

I’m not aware of anyone collecting and disseminating this type of feedback to Wyndham specific to the Worldmark website rollout - but I think it’s a good idea. I do know the product owner for the Worldmark website - or at least I did assuming he is still there - so I will broach this topic with him and see what type of response I get back.

Specific to the actual work involved, the scope of effort isn’t as simple as collecting feedback and sending it along - it requires some familiarity with testing and documenting test cases endemic to IT QA type experience - which is what Richelle is especially good at given her IT background. This means that we need to identify a trusted resource that is an actual Worldmark owner with this type of background ideally and that has access to the new website to run through test scripts/cases. Neither of us are Worldmark owners though, hence the first hurdle to getting this off the ground. I will also float this to Richelle and reply back with additional feedback at that time.

FYI I’m actually down in Wyndham OTA this weekend for a short getaway so my responses will be delayed.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for helping out getting things set up so we can provide feedback! I do have some familiarity with testing and evaluation, but it's related to blowing up stuff rather than IT, otherwise I would have volunteered to take a lead role....

 

[bizaro86]

Like Eric, I have a second WM resale account. I registered for the new website this week, and made a test reservation. The site put the reservation in the other account.

 

[Eric B]

Like Eric, I have a second WM resale account. I registered for the new website this week, and made a test reservation. The site put the reservation in the other account.

I had just done it as a test and immediately canceled it, but that might have happened with mine as well. In the end, the credits and HK token wound up in the proper account after that. It's definitely got some bugs in it.

 

[bizaro86]

I had just done it as a test and immediately canceled it, but that might have happened with mine as well. In the end, the credits and HK token wound up in the proper account after that. It's definitely got some bugs in it.

That was my plan as well. But when I went to the reservations list it wasn't there. So I read the confirmation email more closely and saw it was in the other account, and then canceled it from the other account.

 

[timpatmc]

I have an IT background and have two WM accounts and one CW account. I got familiar with the look and feel of the new WM site because it looks like it uses the same code base as the CW website. That makes sense, from a maintenance perspective. But there are still differences that need to be fixed on the new WM site, in addition to what @Eric B listed:

- New WM site doesn't allow one night stays, and it should. CW doesn't allow it, so that is probably a crossover function they haven't fixed
- The Bonus Time with the dots on the calendar was just added within the last few weeks, as it wasn't there in mid-December. But it doesn't have Fun Time or South Pacific search
- There is no direct RCI link, which is important, because with WM, your credits are taken with you into the RCI search for on the fly searches and booking. With CW, you have to deposit them first
- One thing I liked about the CW site is on the list of your existing reservations, it shows you the unit type on the reservation. With the new WM site, you have to click into each reservation to see it. The overall list of reservations should show at a glance the number of credits you used plus the unit type you reserved
- The CW site is painfully slow, and the new WM site has a bit of that too. Of course, it looks like they've throttled down the number of servers that are serving the old WM site as it errors out almost every other click...really unprofessional way to force people over to a new site as it pisses off owners and overwhelms the call center.
- I do like the dashboard view on the new site, as it puts most everything about your account in one screen, with the option to click on

I've sent a bunch of feedback in, but I'd love to be involved directly as I've been in IT for 30 years and know how the SW dev and test process work. I wonder if they have much of an IT department, or if they outsource it all out for maintenance and big projects.

 

[DAman]

Where is the Save Search on the new website?

I guessing there isn’t one. There should be as it was a time saver.

I’m not a fan of the new website It is slow.

 

[Richelle]

I would be happy to help as much as I can, but as @HitchHiker71 said, it involves more then just feeding the IT folks feedback. We need to actually be able to log into the website to replicate the issues being reported, and try to find details that might narrow down the issue. Without access to the site, we are limited to how much we can help.

 

[DaveNV]

The one thing I don't see, and wish it was available, is an account history. When were credits last deposited, what did I use, what was taken from the account, and when? That sort of thing. Whenever there is a problem, it requires calling in and explaining to a person with ZERO experience about four times why you're calling. I went through this the other day, and after nearly two hours, and speaking with two different people, I finally got an investigation case opened to search for my missing credits. It's extremely frustrating.

Dave

 

[Eric B]

That was my plan as well. But when I went to the reservations list it wasn't there. So I read the confirmation email more closely and saw it was in the other account, and then canceled it from the other account.

Ok, I went through making another test reservation to see what happens. Made a reservation for 13 months out at 7:53 am EST (4:53 am PST) this morning and the system indicated that it was making the reservation under the wrong account number and transferred me to the "My Reservations" portion of the site for that account when I clicked on the link in the reservation confirmation page, but the reservation was actually under the proper account. I was able to cancel the test reservation and it restored the credits to the proper account.

The one thing I don't see, and wish it was available, is an account history. When were credits last deposited, what did I use, what was taken from the account, and when? That sort of thing. Whenever there is a problem, it requires calling in and explaining to a person with ZERO experience about four times why you're calling. I went through this the other day, and after nearly two hours, and speaking with two different people, I finally got an investigation case opened to search for my missing credits. It's extremely frustrating.

Dave

It's a pain in the butt, but there is a history of past reservations available going through the "My Reservations" page. You have to select the year in which you want to view the reservations and select the individual reservation to get that information. There's also an amazing amount of information that is provided on reservations that had existed before the account was transferred to me as a resale account that probably shouldn't be listed - who made the reservation, what name was used for the guest checking in, how much the cost was for any additional taxes, and the last four digits of the credit card and the credit card type that was used to pay those taxes. It doesn't strike me as enough information to be an illegal breach of data security since it's limited to the last four digits and doesn't include expiration dates, etc., but that's an awful lot of excess information for Wyndham to be providing to people that don't really have any good reason to have it. I've got their travel history with WorldMark going back to 2009; there are a couple of entries in 2003 that don't show the data but exist. If I were involved in any kind of policy making position for WorldMark by Wyndham, I would have this information stripped from resale contract accounts when they transfer - I'm willing to bet that I'm not listed as someone Wyndham shares information with on privacy disclosures and didn't see any warning about this in the paperwork I did to combine a couple of resale accounts.

 

[DaveNV]

It's a pain in the butt, but there is a history of past reservations available going through the "My Reservations" page.

I saw similar reservations history when I bought my account resale. And I'm fine with being able to go see those previous reservations, and whether they were cancelled, and so forth, even if they don't apply to me. My ask is for an accounting of the history on the overall account itself. Credits in and out, dates, who did it, and why. Maintenance fee billing and payment history would be a bonus. If the person on the phone can "look at the account," why can't I?

This is the second time this same thing has happened to me when I did an Eplus retrade through Interval. The first time, the only way I knew there was a problem was when WM sent me an invoice for the housekeeping fee - that I'd paid previously when I did the initial exchange. I discovered only when I got the credit back for the HK fee that I also got back the credits they'd taken. This time around, I haven't yet received a housekeeping fee bill, but the credits for the exchange are missing from my account. I fully expect to get that housekeeping bill any day. If there was a way to see the account history, it'd be a lot easier to point WM to where the issue happened, and get them to fix it.

Dave

 

[Eric B]

I saw similar reservations history when I bought my account resale. And I'm fine with being able to go see those previous reservations, and whether they were cancelled, and so forth, even if they don't apply to me. My ask is for an accounting of the history on the overall account itself. Credits in and out, dates, who did it, and why. Maintenance fee billing and payment history would be a bonus. If the person on the phone can "look at the account," why can't I?

This is the second time this same thing has happened to me when I did an Eplus retrade through Interval. The first time, the only way I knew there was a problem was when WM sent me an invoice for the housekeeping fee - that I'd paid previously when I did the initial exchange. I discovered only when I got the credit back for the HK fee that I also got back the credits they'd taken. This time around, I haven't yet received a housekeeping fee bill, but the credits for the exchange are missing from my account. I fully expect to get that housekeeping bill any day. If there was a way to see the account history, it'd be a lot easier to point WM to where the issue happened, and get them to fix it.

Dave

Well, if it's related to the difficulty with accounting for the credits used in II using Eplus, that's probably a feature, not a bug. IMHO, Wyndham won't be spending anything to correct speed bumps in using an exchange they don't own. I've only done deposit first trades with II using my WorldMark accounts, so haven't had the same issues, fortunately.

 

[DaveNV]

Well, if it's related to the difficulty with accounting for the credits used in II using Eplus, that's probably a feature, not a bug. IMHO, Wyndham won't be spending anything to correct speed bumps in using an exchange they don't own. I've only done deposit first trades with II using my WorldMark accounts, so haven't had the same issues, fortunately.

I understand there is only so much WM can do in advance. But if they had transparency in the account history, problems like this could more easily be discovered and resolved. Owners are more likely to know what is in their accounts (or should be) and a visible account history would make things a lot more manageable.

Dave