Some Clarifications for a Newbie [Club Wyndham Prefer Hawaii]

[rjrusek]

In April of 2024 we purchased a timeshare in Hawaii, it is part of the Club Wyndham Prefer Hawaii. We ended up with the 154,000 point package and 246,000 addition temporary bonus points. We also received a 2 night 3 day stay at a Wyndham resort.

Upon claiming the free 2 night 3 day stay we were required to attend an owner update meeting. This is where the issues and uncertainties come into play..

We go to the required meeting and are given a 30 minute video presentation for new owners. After the presentation we sit down with our representative and he starts going over the VIP plans mentioning that once we use of the 246,000 bonus point we will drop out of the Bronze VIP program. He continues to go over all the Bronze VIP benefits (for about 2 hours). Once his presentation is over he offers to sell us 146,000 points at the rate of $197 per 1000 points. Considering that about 3 months ago I dropped a significant amount of money for the initial purchase I am apprehensive about spending any additional money.

He continues claiming that if we do not make the purchase today then the low new owner introductory price (only good for 90 days from original purchase or on the first owner update meeting) of $197 per 1000 points will go up to $300+ with a minimal of 300,000 points. He said that he would be able to lock in the price of $300 per 1000 points with minimum of 300,000 points for up to a year. At this point my wife and I have been there 5+ hours, seeing that things are not going anywhere he comes back with an offer of 64,000 points, saying this way he would be able to lock into the lower prices. My wife really liked all the Bronze VIP benefits so we initial the offer and proceed with the purchase. After about another 45 minutes they call us back to the office to do the paper work on an iPad with someone from the corporate office. We are rushed through initialing and signing the documents without really getting a chance to do a full review of each document.

The following day we receive the signed documents via DocuSign. After reviewing the documents and doing the math it turns out that the 64000 points where sold to us at $230 per 1000 points instead of the mentioned new owner, 90 day price of $197 per 1000 points. I contact the representative via email and he sends me back a copy of the offer that we initialed, upon examination of that document the points are being offered at $230 per 1000 points. Then he explained that the more points that you purchase the bigger the discount can be offered.

The lesson learned here is to read and understand every document you are signing or initialing

To the point of this post. Is any of the above things that the representative claimed accurate?

1. Is there 90 day window after initial purchase to be able to get points at discounted rates without a 300,000 point minimum?

2. Did we get a decent deal for what we purchased from him?

3. Buying additional points toward a VIP membership, is there a 300,000 point minimal requirement?

4. What is a good price for buying points towards a VIP membership.

Your input and comments are greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Robert.

 

[rickandcindy23]

$197 X 146,000 points =$28,762. Wyndham is not worthy of that investment. What do you hope to accomplish with that spend? What you ought to buy is something that is worthy of the price you paid, not something that can be had resale for $0.

What do you think a Bronze membership will do for you? What discounts were they talking about?

 

[chapjim]

Look through your contract documents and find the section about Rescission. Read it carefully and do exactly what it says. Write a letter saying that you (and whoever else signed the contract) are exercising your right of rescission. All signers of the contract must sign the letter. Get proof of mailing. That's all you need. Don't even think about talking to the sales staff.

Take $15 of the $28,762 that you just saved and join TUG and become a voracious reader of the various forums. Do some searches on eBay and RedWeek.com and see what Wyndham contracts are being sold for.

I don't exactly agree with Cindy. Wyndham might be worthy of a $28K expenditure but you need a lot more points than 146,000 to make it so. Losing Bronze VIP isn't something to lose sleep over.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I gave away a bunch of Wyndham contracts, even paid the transfer fees myself. FREE, absolutely no cost at all. The money you spend on that small number of points would never give you the discounts worthy of that expense.

Rescind, Rescind, Research, Resale. Best advice ever.

Maybe buy something resale that will make you feel like you actually own something that you can sell it for what you paid.

What is your dream vacation? Maui? Wyndham doesn't have a thing on Maui. Hilton does, Westin does, Marriott does, Hyatt does.

Big Island, Hiltons are better than Wyndham's Kona Village and in a nicer location by a golf course.

Kauai, Shearwater is great, expensive to get without a big discount, but the Marriott resorts have much more in the way of amenities. We are at Shearwater now, and I love it here, but for kids, the pool is very small. No activities or anything here, but they do have activities at Bali Hai and Ka eo Kai. Bali Hai is nice, but Wyndham overbuilt in that tiny footprint. Bali Hai was nicer as a PAHIO resort. It was just pretty and quaint. The new pool and clubhouse is really nice at Bali Hai. Shocked me to find out years ago that we couldn't use the Bali Hai pool as Shearwater guests. No pool hopping.

Oahu? Hilton has a lot of nice resorts, but Wyndham's is pretty nice. The best one for us is Marriott's Ko Olina in Kapolei, where Disney's Aulani is located. Southern California? Marriott's Newport Coast is outstanding. Disney World? Hilton has some great resorts. Wyndham's Bonnet Creek is very nice. I prefer the Marriott brand, personally, in Disney World, if I cannot get Disney Vacation Club resorts.

I am pretty negative on Wyndham right now, as you can tell. We have owned since 2007. The company mindset has changed toward some owners. Definitely don't listen to the "you can rent what you don't use" speech. That is baloney.

 

[paxsarah]

1. No
2. No
3. No. The lowest VIP level is 300,000 points, but no requirement that you buy that many at once.
4 I think around $150 per 1,000 points. But my question in response is what it it about the VIP program that makes it seem worthwhile to spend that much, especially at the Bronze level? I’m going to guess the salesperson misled you on those benefits.

 

[Lsfinn]

I am pretty negative on Wyndham right now, as you can tell. We have owned since 2007. The company mindset has changed toward some owners. Definitely don't listen to the "you can rent what you don't use" speech. That is baloney.

Also pretty negative on Wyndham: consistently bad experiences with the company over several years now. And, strongly emphasize the advice to not listen to the "you can rent what you don't use" spiel. Wyndham's "ExtraHolidays" might - if you are able to make the right arrangements at the right time with the right resort - allow you to recover your MF. Most likely, however, you will recover at most part of your MF and may not recover anything at all.

 

[chapjim]

While most of the badmouthing of Wyndham is well-deserved, it should not be lost that the resorts are pretty nice. Other than problems with the concierge at check-in, stays at Wyndham resorts are very likely to be pleasant.

 

[HitchHiker71]

1. No
2. No
3. No. The lowest VIP level is 300,000 points, but no requirement that you buy that many at once.
4 I think around $150 per 1,000 points. But my question in response is what it it about the VIP program that makes it seem worthwhile to spend that much, especially at the Bronze level? I’m going to guess the salesperson misled you on those benefits.

Agree with @paxsarah on all counts. Here's a couple of articles to help you navigate next steps:

Is timesharing right for me?

The purpose of this article is to establish what we consider to be a few hard and fast rules to live by when attempting to determine conceptually if timeshare ownership is a good match to meet your…

wyndhamexperts.wpcomstaging.com

I did the wrong thing. What do I do now?

So, you’ve read our ‘Did I Do the Right Thing?’ blog article, and you’re pretty sure you fall into the category of ‘I did the wrong thing.’ What do you do now? B…

wyndhamexperts.wpcomstaging.com

Short answer - RESCIND NOW, then do your homework and buy resale. Oh, and never again attend an "owners update" meeting, they are always sales meetings and almost always a hard sell especially for those not very knowledgeable about timesharing - newbies in other words. 90% of what they say is lies, and the remaining 10% are half-truths specifically used to get owners to buy more points. The reps in those meetings are 100% commission based sales people, their only goal is to get the people across the table from them to buy more product - and they will say or do just about anything to make that happen.

 

[jp10558]

Personally, aside from the fight to not do a sales presentation - when bought resale for your own use, Wyndham is quite a good value proposition IMO. You just have to know what you're getting, and not plan to rent it at all. The resorts I've been to are nice, and there's good availability at 9-10 months out, and some closer in. There's a lot of locations which makes it pretty flexible, and there's no problem booking less than a week. You get HK credits for every 70k pts I think? And when you're booking yourself within the HK credits you get, there's no extra fees.

 

[WaikikiFirst]

lesson learned here is to

Have a HARD time limit you'll waste listening to their trash & never NEVER sign anything in a room with a TS salesperson. This ain't hard peeps.
If it were Mexico, I'd ask how many bottles of tequila were involved

 

[WaikikiFirst]

never again attend an "owners update" meeting

Bingo.

90% of what they say is lies, and the remaining 10% are half-truths specifically used to get owners to buy more points

Bingo. or buy whatever the sales strategy is pushing that year

 

[RENTER]

While most of the badmouthing of Wyndham is well-deserved, it should not be lost that the resorts are pretty nice. Other than problems with the concierge at check-in, stays at Wyndham resorts are very likely to be pleasant.

I 100% agree. Others may say otherwise. but I think the staff outside of sales is terrific.

 

[TUGBrian]

In April of 2024 we purchased a timeshare in Hawaii, it is part of the Club Wyndham Prefer Hawaii. We ended up with the 154,000 point package and 246,000 addition temporary bonus points. We also received a 2 night 3 day stay at a Wyndham resort.

Upon claiming the free 2 night 3 day stay we were required to attend an owner update meeting. This is where the issues and uncertainties come into play..

We go to the required meeting and are given a 30 minute video presentation for new owners. After the presentation we sit down with our representative and he starts going over the VIP plans mentioning that once we use of the 246,000 bonus point we will drop out of the Bronze VIP program. He continues to go over all the Bronze VIP benefits (for about 2 hours). Once his presentation is over he offers to sell us 146,000 points at the rate of $197 per 1000 points. Considering that about 3 months ago I dropped a significant amount of money for the initial purchase I am apprehensive about spending any additional money.

He continues claiming that if we do not make the purchase today then the low new owner introductory price (only good for 90 days from original purchase or on the first owner update meeting) of $197 per 1000 points will go up to $300+ with a minimal of 300,000 points. He said that he would be able to lock in the price of $300 per 1000 points with minimum of 300,000 points for up to a year. At this point my wife and I have been there 5+ hours, seeing that things are not going anywhere he comes back with an offer of 64,000 points, saying this way he would be able to lock into the lower prices. My wife really liked all the Bronze VIP benefits so we initial the offer and proceed with the purchase. After about another 45 minutes they call us back to the office to do the paper work on an iPad with someone from the corporate office. We are rushed through initialing and signing the documents without really getting a chance to do a full review of each document.

The following day we receive the signed documents via DocuSign. After reviewing the documents and doing the math it turns out that the 64000 points where sold to us at $230 per 1000 points instead of the mentioned new owner, 90 day price of $197 per 1000 points. I contact the representative via email and he sends me back a copy of the offer that we initialed, upon examination of that document the points are being offered at $230 per 1000 points. Then he explained that the more points that you purchase the bigger the discount can be offered.

The lesson learned here is to read and understand every document you are signing or initialing

To the point of this post. Is any of the above things that the representative claimed accurate?

1. Is there 90 day window after initial purchase to be able to get points at discounted rates without a 300,000 point minimum?

2. Did we get a decent deal for what we purchased from him?

3. Buying additional points toward a VIP membership, is there a 300,000 point minimal requirement?

4. What is a good price for buying points towards a VIP membership.

Your input and comments are greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Robert.

hopefully you were able to rescind this deal and save yourself nearly 30 THOUSAND dollars?

 

[HitchHiker71]

I 100% agree. Others may say otherwise. but I think the staff outside of sales is terrific.

100% agree as well - Wyndham does quite well at resort maintenance and operations while keeping MFs relatively low - especially when compared to most of the larger timeshare companies out there like MGVC, HGVC/BG, etc. While Marriott is higher quality and generally offers a better/higher end resort experience, you pay more for it as a general rule. We are quite happy owning our Wyndham timesharing points and really enjoy our vacations taken.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

100% agree as well - Wyndham does quite well at resort maintenance and operations while keeping MFs relatively low - especially when compared to most of the larger timeshare companies out there like MGVC, HGVC/BG, etc. While Marriott is higher quality and generally offers a better/higher end resort experience, you pay more for it as a general rule. We are quite happy owning our Wyndham timesharing points and really enjoy our vacations taken.

I have nothing but positive things to say about Wyndham’s resort-side staff.

 

[ShawnH]

In April of 2024 we purchased a timeshare in Hawaii, it is part of the Club Wyndham Prefer Hawaii. We ended up with the 154,000 point package and 246,000 addition temporary bonus points. We also received a 2 night 3 day stay at a Wyndham resort.

Upon claiming the free 2 night 3 day stay we were required to attend an owner update meeting. This is where the issues and uncertainties come into play..

We go to the required meeting and are given a 30 minute video presentation for new owners. After the presentation we sit down with our representative and he starts going over the VIP plans mentioning that once we use of the 246,000 bonus point we will drop out of the Bronze VIP program. He continues to go over all the Bronze VIP benefits (for about 2 hours). Once his presentation is over he offers to sell us 146,000 points at the rate of $197 per 1000 points. Considering that about 3 months ago I dropped a significant amount of money for the initial purchase I am apprehensive about spending any additional money.

He continues claiming that if we do not make the purchase today then the low new owner introductory price (only good for 90 days from original purchase or on the first owner update meeting) of $197 per 1000 points will go up to $300+ with a minimal of 300,000 points. He said that he would be able to lock in the price of $300 per 1000 points with minimum of 300,000 points for up to a year. At this point my wife and I have been there 5+ hours, seeing that things are not going anywhere he comes back with an offer of 64,000 points, saying this way he would be able to lock into the lower prices. My wife really liked all the Bronze VIP benefits so we initial the offer and proceed with the purchase. After about another 45 minutes they call us back to the office to do the paper work on an iPad with someone from the corporate office. We are rushed through initialing and signing the documents without really getting a chance to do a full review of each document.

The following day we receive the signed documents via DocuSign. After reviewing the documents and doing the math it turns out that the 64000 points where sold to us at $230 per 1000 points instead of the mentioned new owner, 90 day price of $197 per 1000 points. I contact the representative via email and he sends me back a copy of the offer that we initialed, upon examination of that document the points are being offered at $230 per 1000 points. Then he explained that the more points that you purchase the bigger the discount can be offered.

The lesson learned here is to read and understand every document you are signing or initialing

To the point of this post. Is any of the above things that the representative claimed accurate?

1. Is there 90 day window after initial purchase to be able to get points at discounted rates without a 300,000 point minimum?

2. Did we get a decent deal for what we purchased from him?

3. Buying additional points toward a VIP membership, is there a 300,000 point minimal requirement?

4. What is a good price for buying points towards a VIP membership.

Your input and comments are greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Robert.

All I will say is that I learned pretty quickly that the sales staff are out for one person, themselves. When we purchased I had assumed we were purchasing enough points to be at the bronze level because i stated thats the amount i would have liked. Thats not what happened. Instead they were pretty quick at detailing our new contract and we had purchased 200k points with 300k bonus points instead of the other way around. However I did get a "good" deal (for direct cwa) per thousand points and we paid in the neighborhood of 160 per thousand points.

I had temporary silver VIP, and honestly it wasnt that big of a deal, especially since we tend to plan our vacations several months to a year in advance. However if the discounts booking within 60 days, the extra month to bank points, and maybe getting an upgrade or worth that much to you then it might be worth the expense but it honestly wasnt for me, but everyone vacations differently. I also have discovered for the amount of time we typically vacation that so far 200k points is working pretty good for us. and i decided if i want more points ill consider another timeshare that has more resorts in places that Wyndham has sparse coverage, and the sales team hates that line i found out.

And finally once i learned how cheap resale club wyndham contracts are resale, I was embarrassed to have paid what i did. even with the restrictions imposed on resale contracts the massive savings are quite tempting. I do not regret my purchase, i was about ready to buy DVC for the exact same amount I paid for the club wyndham contract and to be honest i think i would have been unhappy with being stuck with only Disney properties. I do wish i had dont more due diligence before my purchase, and first update. My advice if you havent already done so is recend and try the points you have for now and if you want more points seriously consider resale.