Thank you so much for sharing. Your name did come up from others. I’m curious, how do you manage payment of maintenance fees (do all contribute)? Does everyone book their own stuff and there is no concern about equity? Or does one person handle all the day to day stuff?
Lots of good thoughts from Jan. Yes, the more you spell it all out, the better.
For us, the 1st thing was recognizing that the true value in the account was keeping it together. Splitting 1.4M points 5 ways = nothing worth hanging onto. It was 'are you in or not'. If not - they got nothing. All wanted in (one almost didn't, probably the smartest of us 5, btw, lol). Down the road, the same offer was made to my nieces and nephews (my father's grandchildren) with about 75% participation. I realize the pyramid effect of this - and that when I'm ready to quit someone has to take it over or we dissolve. I have one nephew I suspect may do what I do, I'm not sure. At that time, those on the account will need to decide again, if they are in or not (and trust him to do what I do).
I manage the account, I pay the maintenance fees. Anyone that uses the points, pays me. There were times my father wanted to pay for a family reunion or times when siblings have done me a favor or they take my Mom somewhere or I chose not to charge my Dad. I decide if I want to 'comp' a vacation for them. I have a sister who pays for her daughter sometimes (her choice, her responsibility). Otherwise they pay for the points used by paying the maintenance fees for what they used (no fancy calculations, our number of points divided by the total I pay to Wyndham). All understand that it is only because I manage it that we still have it (barely rescued from a post card company that my father sold it to to take it off his hands so it would not a burden to his children).
I have not had to be concerned with usage. It's all over the map, many don't use it at all. People pay as they go. My sister is at Bentley Brook right now, she'll send a check within a few days. One brother-in-law pays the day he books something (or as soon as he knows it's final). Everyone is beyond good at paying for their usage. I realize how lucky I am that this is not at all an issue.
Everyone that's on the account, that wants one, has their own login. Yes, that's risky. Everyone is acutely aware of the ramifications. They can see all reservations. They could cancel something. The nice thing about the new system, is you have the audit trail and you can tell who booked a reservation (and call to find out who cancelled one). Years back, on the old system, when we only had one login (and a 2nd person really messed you up if you both logged in at the same time), only I had access. I did not share it whatsoever. But with voyager and multiple logins, it's been nice to let others look for reservations. About a year ago, I started saying.. sure go ahead and book it. It could easily get out of hand, except for the agreement we have that I always know what is going on.
It is exceptionally nice to be platinum and be able to point deposit excess points the end of December. You can point deposit any time in the last quarter, since you can borrow them back if you need them for new reservations. So you could do that as soon as you know you don't have any reservations the remainder of the year, that you won't be cancelling. Paranoid me, I do wait til after December 16th, if I have reservations in December so I'm only paying one time to deposit my excess points.
I have purchased several million extra points (resale) that augment the renting I do. Original plan was to cover maintenance and allow family usage. I had more rental business than points and thus expanded. 100% of anything added is my points. Having so many points also makes it easier to not be concerned about how much each person is using. If over usage by one becomes an issue, I'll have to address it (there is a soft number - this is your share of points, followed up by - if it becomes a concern, we'll talk). I know plenty of ways to get more points if I need to, I just haven't had to worry about it.
I think you have to have one person manage it. Even if we were sharing the maintenance fees, I would want to be the one that pays Wyndham and have people pay me. I would want the visibility - because the consequences of something not getting paid are too high and lord would that get messy.
My exit plan is in my head (shame on me). I need to get it documented. Ovations, last I checked, would take every contract we have. However, I think they are worth more on the resale market (not much, but better than giving it away). The easy exit plan is Ovations. But I also need to make sure any current reservations aren't cancelled, and ideally we'd get some return on the initial investment (by selling the contracts on the resale market). My thoughts are to have an agreement with someone that can handle reselling the contracts - I have more homework to do on that.
I'll add, too, everyone is highly aware that things with Wyndham can change at any time. They have several times already. We are prepared to divest if there comes a time it's not worth hanging onto. So far, sure am glad to have it.
Interested if anyone has other thoughts or ways they do things. Best of luck to you ljc50, from all your questions, etc, I'm sure you'll do just fine
