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Suggestions on a good Wyndham/Fairfield TS

Dave55123

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I'm new to TSing but really find it interesting and want future vacations via TSing.

Basic information - family 2 adults & 1 - 2 toddlers, traveling from Midwest - MN. I'm interested in Wyndham/Fairfield plan as it appears flexible, # days, locations within Wyndham/Fairfield program, and RCI options.

I know, I've read to look for 154k points annually to get the best options/avoid frustrations for booking, but I'll be looking to take advantage of Last Call, etc.

I see us trying to take 1 - 3 vacations a year, some driving/some flying, destination Midwest and FL (retired in-laws) to start.

Any suggestions on a good TS based on trading power/resale cost/# points vs. MF(low)?

I appreciate your feedback. Thanks.
 

jercal10

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Trading power is equal (unless you plan to go to a certain resort evey year, and then you can get a one month booking advantage at your home resort.

For low MF don't buy a beach property, buy an old one like Fairfield Glade or FF Bay.


Watchem on ebay for a couple of weeks to see prices and MF's.

You really need more than 154,000 pts!
 

Timeshare Von

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I disagree with the comment about "needing" more than 154k points.

It is possible, once you own points, to rent more from other Wyndham owners to supplement what you own and you should be able to do so for a fraction of the cost of owning the points. Why own more than you will use and then have points to spare or get rid of yourself?

I recently rented points to supplement my 77k points for less than what my own points cost on a per thousand MF basis.

Depending on where you want to go in Florida, using your Wyndham points may not be the least expensive way to get there. That would be especially true of Orlando.
 

BillandSusan

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It is possible, once you own points, to rent more from other Wyndham owners to supplement what you own and you should be able to do so for a fraction of the cost of owning the points. /QUOTE]

I've rented points from Wyndham, but never from other owners. How is that done?
 

lprstn

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It is possible, once you own points, to rent more from other Wyndham owners to supplement what you own and you should be able to do so for a fraction of the cost of owning the points. /QUOTE]

I've rented points from Wyndham, but never from other owners. How is that done?

You can rent points from owners (like me...I've done this for people before) by agreeing on a price with that owner, paying them through paypal or other sources, and they just call Wyndham and transfer the points to your account. Its VERY easy.
 

Timeshare Von

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You can rent points from owners (like me...I've done this for people before) by agreeing on a price with that owner, paying them through paypal or other sources, and they just call Wyndham and transfer the points to your account. Its VERY easy.


So easy a cave (wo)man can do it :) I was doing my first rental of my ownership points within 48 hours of having the account transferred into my name at Wyndham. I had no idea it would be so easy.

The rental of points I did this year for a trip in 2009 was only complicated by trying to find availability of where I wanted to go and coordinating the transfer once I knew it was good to go. The person I rented from had scads of points and gave me her phone number so I could call when it was time to do the deal. It was done in about 10 minutes total!
 

Republiman

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I have 10 Ffld weeks bought resale, and while I didn't do it myself, I think that besides the maintenance fee differences I would look to determine if you want to purchase at a resort with converted fixed weeks or UDI points.

With a converted fixed week (the resorts in Newport, RI, for example), your only ARP option is to reserve that week at the resort. With UDI, you can ARP any time 14 months out.

So for instance if you think every 4 years you might want to go to Orlando during your kids February vacation, you might need ARP for that because everyone in the world want to go there that same week.

Otherwise "points are points", as we all have heard a bazillion times.

Fred
 

GregT

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Marriott: Maui Ocean Club Lahaina Villas (3BRx5), Ko Olina, Shadow Ridge II, Willow Ridge, Aruba Ocean Club, DC Points HGVC: Flamingo, Sea World, I-Drive, Starwood Bella (x4), SDO, TradeWinds, Worldmark
Timeshare Von raises an interesting point -- that you can rent points for less than your equivalent cost per point (from paying MF).

Is that common, or do they usually rent for more than an average MF per point?

Thanks!
 

bookworm

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About 2 years ago, the prices people rented points at were much higher. A good number of those renters are folks who use the points to rent out weeks to others. The rental market was overrun with people renting out their points which has driven the prices down considerably in my opinion. As a rule now, I would say that it is possible to rent points for about what the MF costs, so as long as you are comfortable renting from others, your best bet is to buy a small points package with about 154K at a reasonable MF which includes 2 transactions per year (others can be purchased at $30 each) and then rent the rest. You could actually go with a very small points package and rent almost everything you need, but the smaller packages tend to have higher fees. Bottom line - save your purchase price. If I were starting again, this is probably what I would do.
 

bnoble

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Nominally, current-year points rent for right around $5, unless they are in distress. The rental prices tend to be a bit higher (10-20%) for future-year points. But, say you need an extra 200K points per year, and want the full 10-month booking window, that's still only an extra $100. Not a big deal.

You can find deeds with MFs below $5/K, and sometimes significantly so. I have a deed that's about $3.70/K. But, amortzing my purchase cost at 8%, that brings my total cost of ownership up to about $4.85/K. Given that, I'm happy to rent to augment my needs as necessary.
 

bookworm

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Bnoble makes a good point. Given the recent steady drops in points rental prices, I would add that I tend to think rental prices may not go up while the MF most certainly will. One of my low MF ownerships last year had a 9% increase in MF. It is not so low anymore. If it goes up again like that, I will soon be just as well off renting. For someone buying now, it makes sense to keep it simple.
 

ausman

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With points rental prices, there is a big dog in the room, WYN/FF.

Their pricing policy and implementation of rules to a large extent seem to govern pricing by setting a floor limit, or a year or two ago restricting supply.

Prices for rental points from other owners for all periods now seem to be within the $5 - 6 range.

With the average MF's creeping upward now I would expect at some time an upward adjustment in the WYN/FF rental price. I would think a dollar rise to $6 would be the point.

Agreed, that a good course of action can be to buy a smaller points package and augment it by renting points from others.

I don't need more but would have thought of renting some and pooling what I could as done in the past.
 

ace2000

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Being able to easily rent your points is a HUGE benefit of owning FF points. In my opinion, that is what makes Fairfield/Wyndham the BEST timeshare to own!!!! (purchasing resale of course) :)
 

Debbyd57

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Every resort has a different maint. fee. Some are lower and some are higher than what you can rent points for. We looked for the resorts with the lowest maint fee when we purchased. One thing you need to watch for, is that the new resorts are subsidized by Wyndham at first, so their maint fees start low and go up. You can get a lot of information on Wyndham by joining the forums at http://forums.atozed.com/index.php. They have a lot of great information including information on all the maint fees at the different resorts. We personally own at the TN resorts because we enjoy going there and they have low maint fees. Debby
 
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