Telesales

[Rich2699]

Hi,

I've seen posts occasionally that refer to telesales. Does anyone have a number for that? What kind of pricing should I expect?

I did an owner update the other day and was offered trading in CWA contracts of 126K, 154K and 476K and a 182 select deed (938K total) and buying 210K of PR in Atlanta for about $47K. I'm currently VIP-platinum.

Would that be at all wise? Could I get a better deal from telesales?

 

[Jan M.]

The number I have is: 800-786-6764.

Afaik telesales doesn't or maybe can't sell PR. Also unless things have changed buying into PR for the first time requires a minimum purchase of either 224k or 226k points regardless of how many points you have for an equity trade.

If they're letting you buy into PR as a first time PR owner for $47k/210k points it's a darn good deal! PR at Atlanta has lower maintenance fees than CWA points so that will save you money on your maintenance fees.

Something to be aware of is that if all you own are PR points you can't book anything except PR inventory before 10 months. That could be a problem for you. What you could do as part of a purchase is to enroll one or two PIC Plus weeks. Not PIC Express. It has to be a week that exchanges in RCI as a week, not RCI points. We recommend something that's a gold crown resort with RCI. A one bedroom week will get you 105k Wyndham points, a two bedroom week will get you 154k Wyndham points and a three or four bedroom 254k Wyndham points. You must already own those week or weeks at the time of your purchase; they cannot be added later. You will pay the program fee on those points and an $89 fee when you deposit the weeks each year with Wyndham to get the points. And of course you will pay the resorts maintenance fees on those weeks.

 

[Rich2699]

Thanks Jan!

I also have 2 154K resale deeds and a 70K PIC Plus. Most of my bookings tend to be within 60 days. Lack of availability is my biggest issue, and one that I'm hoping having my points in one bucket might help with.

 

[bnoble]

Lack of availability is my biggest issue, and one that I'm hoping having my points in one bucket might help with.

Can you say more about why you think this purchase will help with the problem of availability inside 60 days? I don’t really follow this part.

 

[Rich2699]

Can you say more about why you think this purchase will help with the problem of availability inside 60 days? I don’t really follow this part.

I've been told that because my ownership is spread across multiple deeds that some inventory isn't available because it's not in one "bucket".

 

[Jan M.]

I've been told that because my ownership is spread across multiple deeds that some inventory isn't available because it's not in one "bucket".

While it's true for inventory that's more than 10 months out, it's not true when you're looking at availability less than 10 months out.

You can't book Margaritaville Pigeon Forge at any time unless you own Margaritaville points. There may be another Margaritaville resort like that but you can book the rest at 10 months or less out without having to own points at a Margaritaville resort. If you own PR points you can use your RARP to book PR units at the Margaritaville PR resorts.

Deeded points cannot be combined at resorts other than where they're deeded for reservations more than 10 months out. CWA points however can be combined.

What you were told is the typical twisting, misinformation and half truths that sales routinely spouts.

 

[bnoble]

I've been told that because my ownership is spread across multiple deeds that some inventory isn't available because it's not in one "bucket".

As Jan writes above, being PR isn’t really going to help with <60 day reservations. If your biggest problem is that it is hard to use points because availability is thin, buying more points is not the solution!

Remember that Sales’ job is to identify something that is ”wrong” that can be fixed by buying more points—and that’s independent of whether or not buying more points will actually be helpful. They aren’t really trying to solve problems. They are trying to manufacture problems to which selling you something is the solution.

 

[paxsarah]

As Jan writes above, being PR isn’t really going to help with <60 day reservations.

On paper, there would be an advantage in booking from the 75% of PR units at PR resorts that are held back for PR owners until 30 days out. In practice, I don’t know how many units would actually be available at all in that timeframe (60-30 days out) - I would guess for prime time the answer is probably very little, with maybe a better opportunity to catch other PR owners’ cancellations and upgrades - and of course only at a very limited subset of resorts.

 

[bnoble]

I thought about that, but like you, suspect the advantage is very marginal. Either way I don't think it is a $42K advantage. You can rent a lot of very nice private homes through AirBnB for $42K.

 

[paxsarah]

PR at Atlanta has lower maintenance fees than CWA points so that will save you money on your maintenance fees.

Do you know what the rate is? I remember seeing the MF rate for non-PR at Atlanta (and now I can’t find where I saw it anywhere!) and not being impressed and thinking is was only a bit below CWA - and of course PR would be higher than non-PR. But I could be misremembering.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Do you know what the rate is? I remember seeing the MF rate for non-PR at Atlanta (and now I can’t find where I saw it anywhere!) and not being impressed and thinking is was only a bit below CWA - and of course PR would be higher than non-PR. But I could be misremembering.

@Richelle would know the standard MFs at Atlanta - she recently was quoted on points from Atlanta IIRC.

 

[Jan M.]

Do you know what the rate is? I remember seeing the MF rate for non-PR at Atlanta (and now I can’t find where I saw it anywhere!) and not being impressed and thinking is was only a bit below CWA - and of course PR would be higher than non-PR. But I could be misremembering.

Atlanta CWS points 2022 maintenance fees are $5.79 without the program fee. I'd guess that PR points would be about $0.30 more. On the 756k CWA points they'd be using for the equity trade that would be a savings of about $635 a year using the 2022 figures and my guesstimate.

 

[paxsarah]

Atlanta CWS points 2022 maintenance fees are $5.79 without the program fee. I'd guess that PR points would be about $0.30 more. On the 756k CWA points they'd be using for the equity trade that would be a savings of about $635 a year using the 2022 figures and my guesstimate.

That makes sense. I think the vibe in my mind as someone always on the lookout for the next resale contract was "higher than I'd want to pay" so I lumped it in near CWA in my head. But if you're trading out of CWA, it's not insubstantial (though not on its own enough to make up for a $47k purchase).

 

[Rich2699]

Thank you for all the feedback. I've decided to not do anything at the moment. If the deed would have been at Avon, I would have been more tempted as the maint. fees are almost a dollar lower than Atlanta and 2 bucks lower than CWA, plus it is a place that I try to book fairly often, living in Denver.

It sounds like PR is probably better than my current VIP-Platinum ownership, but not $47K better - at least right now. For those PR owners, do you see much benefit beyond being able to book PR units? There seem to be several additional benefits available for a fee, which I'm guessing that I would ever use either zero or maybe one time. The Registry Collection sounds like it might be an intriguing option for a splurge - anyone use that?

 

[Jan M.]

Thank you for all the feedback. I've decided to not do anything at the moment. If the deed would have been at Avon, I would have been more tempted as the maint. fees are almost a dollar lower than Atlanta and 2 bucks lower than CWA, plus it is a place that I try to book fairly often, living in Denver.

It sounds like PR is probably better than my current VIP-Platinum ownership, but not $47K better - at least right now. For those PR owners, do you see much benefit beyond being able to book PR units? There seem to be several additional benefits available for a fee, which I'm guessing that I would ever use either zero or maybe one time. The Registry Collection sounds like it might be an intriguing option for a splurge - anyone use that?

We've been PR owners for about ten years and have never used the registry collection. I wasn't particularly interested the few times I've looked into it. To be fair that could just be me.

I didn't get the PR survey that Wyndham recently sent out but a friend did. My take on the survey is that Wyndham recognizes the PR program is sadly lacking. Hopefully they will make a concerted effort to improve it. They definitely need more than 19 PR resorts. But even more so they need to seriously step up their game for the "special benefit" PR owners get when staying In a PR unit at those resorts. Barely 1/3 of the PR resorts have a "special benefit" worth having.

In 2022 we've stayed 233 nights in resorts through Wyndham and RCI. Our Spring trip was 110 nights, 14 resorts, 8 states. A whole 2 nights of that trip were spent in a PR unit at a PR resort. Our Fall trip was 75 nights, 8 resorts, 8 states. This time we had 4 nights in a PR unit at a PR resort. Of the other 48 nights at various other times of this year at 6 resorts only 6 nights were in a PR unit at a PR resort. So altogether we stayed a total of 12 nights in a PR unit at 3 PR resorts out of 233 nights at 28 resorts.

For our summer family trip to Glacier Canyon I usually book 2 nights at Sundara so all the adults can use the spa. To accommodate my nephew's family I changed the reservations and we all went a week sooner than I'd planned. Nothing was available at Sundara that week. DH wanted no part of staying at National Harbor because of the $30? a night to park. We like being close to the Metro stop at Old Town Alexandria (not a PR resort) and liked our 3 bedroom presidential unit there. On our 2 stays in Myrtle Beach we had no interest in staying at Dye Villas as we don't golf. DH says it's Myrtle BEACH, and wants to be on the beach with an ocean view not a golf course view. Our 3 bedroom presidential at Ocean Boulevard (not a PR resort) was beautiful. I suggested a 2 night stop at the new Atlanta resort which is PR to break up one of our drives and check out the resort but that $55 a night to park was a deal breaker. We agreed that it would be better to grab a cheap flight out of Fort Lauderdale, our home airport, some other time and stay longer so we could do more while we're there.

This isn't a great recommendation for the PR program.

 

[WyndhamBarter]

This isn't a great recommendation for the PR program.

I'd have to agree in (almost) disrecommending the program. We've been in it for well over five years.

(1) The robes are comfortable. The refrigerators are larger. The free wine tends to be terrible, but *not* always. Think of it as a game!

(2) We've had two very enjoyable Registry Collection splurge stays.
(2a) El Corazon de Santa Fe (a Hyatt timeshare)
(2b) Northstar Lodge at Lake Tahoe (a Welk Resort)

They were both *extremely* comfortable. Worth what we paid for them thru Registry? Probably not.
But as referrals to pleasant stays? We were happy. Think of it as slightly overpriced RCI...

(3) The held-inventory-till-30-days-out seems to actually help for Midtown 45 and a couple of other locations.


Your mileage will undoubtably vary.