Resale Presidential Reserve - Would I get Presidential Reserve Benefits?

[VacayKat]

What are presidential reserve benefits? Do you need presidential reserve benefits to reserve presidential suites? We stayed in one recently at Wyndham Palm Aire, rented thru airbnb. I have wondered how the person who rented it to us could do it so cheap! We spent $1500ish for the week. I'm trying to figure if it would make sense to pick up a resale somewhere. But it seems like I'd be paying way more than $1500 in MF alone, for the points needed to do a week at that same resort (unless I own at a lower MF resort, correct?) Hope I'm not throwing this too far off topic...I know I'm really asking different but related questions here.

I have been using the magic # of $8/1000pts to make my break even cost. It’s a bit higher than MF but there is still the program fee to account for. It’s where I decided I was comfortable(and may be lower than I should charge) Depending on the location and expiring points etc, it could be higher or lower for what I’d rent it. PR perks are perks that you get as a presidential owner staying in a presidential suite booked as presidential reserve. [lots of rules] But search for ‘presidential reserve’ in wyndham threads and you’ll see what known perks there are. For e.g. we got wine, chocolates, robes and a few random other things when staying at Canterbury recently. As was mentioned in that thread upgrading for the perks is probably not cost effective, but if you can find a resale it might be something worth considering.

 

[cbyrne1174]

What are presidential reserve benefits? Do you need presidential reserve benefits to reserve presidential suites? We stayed in one recently at Wyndham Palm Aire, rented thru airbnb. I have wondered how the person who rented it to us could do it so cheap! We spent $1500ish for the week. I'm trying to figure if it would make sense to pick up a resale somewhere. But it seems like I'd be paying way more than $1500 in MF alone, for the points needed to do a week at that same resort (unless I own at a lower MF resort, correct?) Hope I'm not throwing this too far off topic...I know I'm really asking different but related questions here.

If you don't care to book large presidential units during the times of the year when kids are off school, just get a deed where the maintenance fees are low. 2 bedroom presidentials are usually available 10 months out, except for major holidays. Clearwater is bookable 10 months out in the summer, but not spring break. About 95% of inventory is honestly available at the 10 month mark. You just miss out on the top 5% most demanded units. I would just go with lower maintenance and decide if you need 13 month booking ability once you're used to the online system. Only pay extra maintenance if you need to book 13 months out at the particular resort. If not, any cheap maintenance fee deed will do.

Also, I wouldn't even bother with looking up the diff between retail and resale. Wyndham made changes last year that completely made retail purchases useless for the educated buyer. The discounts you get with retail purchases make it so you will run out of housekeeping credits using them, so you will still end up paying more.

What size unit did you book at Palm Aire? I usually stay in a 1 bedroom for like $50-60 a night on weeknights with resale.

 

[chamel]

Thanks for the info! We had a 4 BR. Big family.

If you don't care to book large presidential units during the times of the year when kids are off school, just get a deed where the maintenance fees are low. 2 bedroom presidentials are usually available 10 months out, except for major holidays. Clearwater is bookable 10 months out in the summer, but not spring break. About 95% of inventory is honestly available at the 10 month mark. You just miss out on the top 5% most demanded units. I would just go with lower maintenance and decide if you need 13 month booking ability once you're used to the online system. Only pay extra maintenance if you need to book 13 months out at the particular resort. If not, any cheap maintenance fee deed will do.

Also, I wouldn't even bother with looking up the diff between retail and resale. Wyndham made changes last year that completely made retail purchases useless for the educated buyer. The discounts you get with retail purchases make it so you will run out of housekeeping credits using them, so you will still end up paying more.

What size unit did you book at Palm Aire? I usually stay in a 1 bedroom for like $50-60 a night on weeknights with resale.

 

[Jan M.]

What are presidential reserve benefits? Do you need presidential reserve benefits to reserve presidential suites? We stayed in one recently at Wyndham Palm Aire, rented thru airbnb. I have wondered how the person who rented it to us could do it so cheap! We spent $1500ish for the week. I'm trying to figure if it would make sense to pick up a resale somewhere. But it seems like I'd be paying way more than $1500 in MF alone, for the points needed to do a week at that same resort (unless I own at a lower MF resort, correct?) Hope I'm not throwing this too far off topic...I know I'm really asking different but related questions here.

There are only 18 Presidential Reserve resorts and the PR units are out of commission at Emerald Grande until sometime this fall. Palm-Aire isn't a PR resort. Some resorts that aren't one of the 18 PR resorts do have presidential units.

Take a look in the stickies, the pink threads at the top of the Wyndham page, to find a link to the most recent directory, 2018-2019. Then look at the point charts for the PR resorts. If you aren't a platinum or founders level VIP to get the discount and upgrade at 60 days booking PR units is going to be very expensive for you. PR units are a lot more points to book. Also read pages 232-235 in the directory to learn more about Presidential Reserve.

There are a certain number of PR units that are available to anyone to book. Not all the PR inventory is held exclusively for PR owners until 30 days out.

As a PR owner you pay a higher maintenance fee rate than on Select points at the same resorts. You also pay a higher program fee on the first 1M PR points you own, $0.74 per thousand points. Then you pay the standard program fee of $0.64 or $0.66 per thousand points for anything over 1M.

These are the PR resorts and the maintenance fees without the $0.74 per thousand points for the first million points for the program fee.
Avon - $4.69
Bali Hai - $4.48
Bonnet Creek - $6.50
Canterbury - $3.97
Clearwater - $6.20
Desert Blue - $4.46
Dye Villas - $3.84
Emerald Grande - $4.98
Great Smokies Lodge - ?
King Cotton Villas $4.34
Margaritaville Rio Mar - $7.13
Margaritaville St. Thomas - $7.13
Midtown 45 - $5.15
National Harbor - $4.90
Panama City Beach - $4.82
Park City - ?
Smuggler's Notch - ?
Sundara - $5.67

 

[chamel]

There are only 18 Presidential Reserve resorts and the PR units are out of commission at Emerald Grande until sometime this fall. Palm-Aire isn't a PR resort. Some resorts that aren't one of the 18 PR resorts do have presidential units.

 

[chamel]

Very informative, thank you for clarifying that "presidential reserve" doesn't have anything to do with booking a "presidential suite". That helps a lot. I'm still trying to figure out what would work best for our large family, if we decide to buy, as we would almost always want at least a 3 BR, possibly 4. But it's also hard to imagine what life will be like a few years down the road as our kids get bigger etc.

 

[chamel]

If I found a seller willing to do this, would the VIP status be conferred to any future resale contracts I might pick up, or just the one? For example, I buy 150k from a seller who is willing to keep their name on the deed for a period of time, and I buy 150k more down the road from a reseller on eBay. Would I end up with VIP on all 300k points that I own, or just that original purchase?

We did that through LT Timeshares. readylegal@gmail.com Very cheap.

 

[rickandcindy23]

If I found a seller willing to do this, would the VIP status be conferred to any future resale contracts I might pick up, or just the one? For example, I buy 150k from a seller who is willing to keep their name on the deed for a period of time, and I buy 150k more down the road from a reseller on eBay. Would I end up with VIP on all 300k points that I own, or just that original purchase?

150K points is not worth anything VIP. You would want to buy 1,000,000 points to do this and make it worth your while. I wouldn't take on anything for any price that is not at least 1,000,000 points with that founder's level attached to the purchase. If that is too much timeshare, you need to know 150K doesn't get you much, except off-season. That is not enough to get a Bonnet Creek 2 bedroom for most of the year. So no, do not do that. There are too many 1,000,000 point packages out there that would be very valuable with my method.

There is just a general misunderstanding of the system without being in the system and using it, and it's a learning curve. If you want to buy Wyndham, you need to ask questions and tread carefully in a purchase.

 

[troy12n]

If I found a seller willing to do this, would the VIP status be conferred to any future resale contracts I might pick up, or just the one? For example, I buy 150k from a seller who is willing to keep their name on the deed for a period of time, and I buy 150k more down the road from a reseller on eBay. Would I end up with VIP on all 300k points that I own, or just that original purchase?

I'm not really understanding what you are trying to do here. And have some questions

1. Are you an existing Wyndham owner? If so, are you already VIP?
2. Did you actually find an owner with 150k PR willing to sell? I didn't know they sold PR in such a small increment of points. I can't imagine 150k of PR points would be useful for much, if anything in terms of PR inventory... I don't think you can even get a week for a 1BR Presidential for 150k anywhere, but i'm not positive. 150k can get you a week at some other resorts, but probably not a 2br, and not in prime.
3. In regards to using the process that was explained here. I don't think many people even know/knew this was possible. Even fewer have probably actually done it.
4. Going through this process multiple times with small contracts seems very silly and tempts Wyndham to discover what you are doing and nullify the VIP rights because it is, in fact, a loophole... getting away with it once sounds like a gift. Expecting to do it multiple times seems like a fools errand
5. If you are not an existing VIP owner (with grandfathered unlimited housekeeping), and are attempting this process, I don't think any of us know (and you can't ask Wyndham...) if, if this process is even successful, if you would retain the unlimited HK


A lot of this is uncharted territory for most people. If it was me, and it was just a resale contract you are getting for pennies on the dollar, I would only even attempt this with a large enough contract to get me to platinum. If it didn't work, dump it through ovations.

 

[chamel]

150K points is not worth anything VIP. You would want to buy 1,000,000 points to do this and make it worth your while. I wouldn't take on anything for any price that is not at least 1,000,000 points with that founder's level attached to the purchase. If that is too much timeshare, you need to know 150K doesn't get you much, except off-season. That is not enough to get a Bonnet Creek 2 bedroom for most of the year. So no, do not do that. There are too many 1,000,000 point packages out there that would be very valuable with my method.

There is just a general misunderstanding of the system without being in the system and using it, and it's a learning curve. If you want to buy Wyndham, you need to ask questions and tread carefully in a purchase.

Thank you, yes! Definitely need to learn more! You're right, it is hard to understand the system without actually using it. So you're saying it would basically be pointless to try and retain the VIP benefits on a small purchase, but at a higher point level, the benefits are worth it? Am I understanding correctly? At what point level do VIP benefits really pay off, and what are those benefits?

 

[chamel]

I'm not really understanding what you are trying to do here. And have some questions

1. Are you an existing Wyndham owner? If so, are you already VIP?
2. Did you actually find an owner with 150k PR willing to sell? I didn't know they sold PR in such a small increment of points. I can't imagine 150k of PR points would be useful for much, if anything in terms of PR inventory... I don't think you can even get a week for a 1BR Presidential for 150k anywhere, but i'm not positive. 150k can get you a week at some other resorts, but probably not a 2br, and not in prime.
3. In regards to using the process that was explained here. I don't think many people even know/knew this was possible. Even fewer have probably actually done it.
4. Going through this process multiple times with small contracts seems very silly and tempts Wyndham to discover what you are doing and nullify the VIP rights because it is, in fact, a loophole... getting away with it once sounds like a gift. Expecting to do it multiple times seems like a fools errand
5. If you are not an existing VIP owner (with grandfathered unlimited housekeeping), and are attempting this process, I don't think any of us know (and you can't ask Wyndham...) if, if this process is even successful, if you would retain the unlimited HK


A lot of this is uncharted territory for most people. If it was me, and it was just a resale contract you are getting for pennies on the dollar, I would only even attempt this with a large enough contract to get me to platinum. If it didn't work, dump it through ovations.

Sorry for the confusion, I am not an owner, and topics migrated in the thread, so I wasn't referring to PR when I was asking about VIP benefits getting transferred. Trying to learn what I can before making any decision to purchase. My husband and I bought a timeshare 25 years ago (not Wyndham), and it was a huge waste imo. Ended up selling because we couldn't seem to go where we wanted trading through II. But the Wyndham points system seems appealing, and I want to be able to get the best "bang for our buck" if we decide to buy. Thanks for the input!!

 

[troy12n]

One of the things to consider is, as of this past November, Wyndham restructured their VIP program, and eliminated unlimited housekeeping. This was one of the big benefits of the VIP program. VIP levels used to start at 400k retail points for Silver, 700k for Gold and 1 million for Platinum (used to be 300k for Silver, not sure when that changed), but as of November it is now 500k for Silver VIP, 800k for Gold and 1.1 million for Platinum (there's also a lower level bronze which I dont know anything about). New VIP owners after November 12, 2020 no longer receive Unlimited Housekeeping. It's unclear that this process which has been described here would allow for a transfer of that unlimited housekeeping benefit or not. It's unclear if it's tied to the contract, or the owner, or some combination. This isn't something you could call Wyndham to clarify either, because you are in effect trying to skirt the rules by using an undocumented loophole.

Regardless, if you buy 150k of anything off the resell market, even if it's part of an existing VIP owner's portfolio, if you transfer if to you, it will not have any VIP status, because it's below the threshold for any VIP... if you were an existing VIP (above at least 400k points prior to Nov 12, 2020), and were able to buy, say 400k points using this method, you, in theory should be able to be Gold VIP. But you still have to work within the points framework of the VIP program AS IT CURRENTLY EXISTS...

If you just want a week of timeshare somewhere, I wouldn't even suggest this, as it's not going to matter, just buy a resell contract at the lowest maintenance fee schedule and be done with it. VIP benefits won't matter to you...

 

[Eric B]

If I found a seller willing to do this, would the VIP status be conferred to any future resale contracts I might pick up, or just the one? For example, I buy 150k from a seller who is willing to keep their name on the deed for a period of time, and I buy 150k more down the road from a reseller on eBay. Would I end up with VIP on all 300k points that I own, or just that original purchase?

The way VIP benefits work with Wyndham is that only points you purchased from the developer count towards qualifying an account for them, but any points in an account that has VIP status can be used with those benefits. You will no doubt see a certain poster in this forum that believes this is an outrageous loophole and complains about it ad nauseum despite the fact that it doesn't really have any direct effect on his vacation experience (except, perhaps through improving his ability to obtain rentals from VIP owners that are willing to pass on their discounts and upgrades to him ). In any case, I would not recommend banking on being able to buy a Wyndham account from a VIP and have it transferred with the VIP status intact using this process. While others may have been able to accomplish it in the past, it is an example of things that the developer doesn't intend to allow and is likely to curtail and remove the resulting VIP status from the account if/when they figure it out. There were other methods folks had been able to use to get VIP status on resale accounts in the past (e.g., buying certain deeds that were improperly coded in the Wyndham system, buying at certain affiliate resorts) that this has happened to. YMMV, of course.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

The one undiscussed optional road to VIP is marriage.
*********
This came up in a TUG Wyndham thread a number of years ago.
One of the posting parties liked the concept - but said his wife might object.

 

[Eric B]

The one undiscussed optional road to VIP is marriage.
*********
This came up in a TUG Wyndham thread a number of years ago.
One of the posting parties liked the concept - but said his wife might object.

The other potential downside to that approach is being partnered with a spendthrift that blew a lot of money on retail purchases of timeshares....

 

[dgalati]

The way VIP benefits work with Wyndham is that only points you purchased from the developer count towards qualifying an account for them, but any points in an account that has VIP status can be used with those benefits.

You also can PIC to VIP with a minimal developer purchase. I personally believe if you want to enjoy VIP perks and benefits just rent from a VIP owner. Renting will give you the flexibility of booking outside the Wyndham system, is also without the sunk cost of buying developer or the burden of paying maintenance fees.

 

[jhoug]

There are only 18 Presidential Reserve resorts and the PR units are out of commission at Emerald Grande until sometime this fall. Palm-Aire isn't a PR resort. Some resorts that aren't one of the 18 PR resorts do have presidential units.

Take a look in the stickies, the pink threads at the top of the Wyndham page, to find a link to the most recent directory, 2018-2019. Then look at the point charts for the PR resorts. If you aren't a platinum or founders level VIP to get the discount and upgrade at 60 days booking PR units is going to be very expensive for you. PR units are a lot more points to book. Also read pages 232-235 in the directory to learn more about Presidential Reserve.

There are a certain number of PR units that are available to anyone to book. Not all the PR inventory is held exclusively for PR owners until 30 days out.

As a PR owner you pay a higher maintenance fee rate than on Select points at the same resorts. You also pay a higher program fee on the first 1M PR points you own, $0.74 per thousand points. Then you pay the standard program fee of $0.64 or $0.66 per thousand points for anything over 1M.

These are the PR resorts and the maintenance fees without the $0.74 per thousand points for the first million points for the program fee.
Avon - $4.69
Bali Hai - $4.48
Bonnet Creek - $6.50
Canterbury - $3.97
Clearwater - $6.20
Desert Blue - $4.46
Dye Villas - $3.84
Emerald Grande - $4.98
Great Smokies Lodge - ?
King Cotton Villas $4.34
Margaritaville Rio Mar - $7.13
Margaritaville St. Thomas - $7.13
Midtown 45 - $5.15
National Harbor - $4.90
Panama City Beach - $4.82
Park City - ?
Smuggler's Notch - ?
Sundara - $5.67

Park City PR - $4.90

 

[cyseitz]

Being able to reserve presidential reserve suites - though they can be available to regular owners as well, just not with the perks. There is a thread here that you can look up to see the perks, I started it because I was curious. Probably better to read that than have me try to summarize. Search "presidential reserve".

What is the link for the benefits?

 

[cyseitz]

Yep, that is the best way to insure you keep the benefits.

Are you saying that since I am already a VIP platinum member that I would have all of the Presidential perks and benefits?

Should I buy a PRESIDENTIAL account resale? I want to do it. Is it smart to do?

 

[WyndhamBarter]

What is the link for the benefits?

Here’s a list from the official website.

https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinat...ources/club-wyndham-presidential-reserve.html

Lots of discussions here on TUG about pros/cons. We did get a wonderful exchange in
Santa Fe once via the Registry Collection (think fancy RCI), but it did seem a bit pricey
even at last-minute booking rates.