• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 31 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 31st Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $23,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $23 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    Tens of thousands of subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

TripAdvisor Reviews of Wyndham Properties

kewldog4

newbie
Joined
Oct 20, 2013
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Location
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
A couple of years ago I started a spreadsheet of the average TripAdvisor review score for every Club Wyndham Plus resort. The spreadsheet shows the reviews from the summers of 2011, 2013, and 2015. All of the review scores are out of 5. Unfortunately, there is no way to pull out the reviews on TripAdvisor for a range of dates. So, the 2015 review score might have a review even from the old Fairfield days. But, the spreadsheet is a good representation if a resort is improving or declining. It also shows how each resort compares to each other. If you have any questions about it, let me know.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RXObMhc9V-Cbn7cqdhnUg07WNOcMvIN1MtBJcFuOCuQ/edit?usp=sharing

Enjoy!
Chris
 

paxsarah

TUG Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2010
Messages
3,952
Reaction score
3,096
Location
Athens, GA
Resorts Owned
Wyndham Ocean Boulevard, Grand Desert, Kingsgate, Bali Hai, Oceanside
This may be the most helpful first post ever! :)
 

spackler

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2014
Messages
587
Reaction score
247
Location
US
Resorts Owned
Quarter House, Jean Lafitte House, Bali Hai
Looking thru some of the reviews, the one constant that can bring down a rating is the Wyndham sales staff.
 

ronparise

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
12,664
Reaction score
2,134
Good job and obviously a lot of work but I don't see the value (for me)

So one resort gets better reviews than another. Does that mean I should go to the higher rated resort in one city, when I really want to go to another city with a lower rated resort)
when i go on vacation I'm more interested in the surrounding area than I am the condo. I mean when I go to Orlando, I go for the mouse not for bonnet creek

My experience (with one exception) has been that Wyndham delivers an acceptable experience on a consistent basis. I've been happy and expect to continue being happy with the Wyndham resorts
 

CruiseGuy

TUG Member
Joined
Nov 27, 2012
Messages
384
Reaction score
100
Location
Central Florida
Resorts Owned
Wyndham Panama City Beach, Bonnet Creek, and Royal Vista
What I remember from Trip Advisor reviews of timeshare properties is that many people don't understand that it's not a hotel and get upset that the rooms aren't cleaned daily and that they don't get fresh sheets each day, or more importantly to them, fresh towels each day. So they give the resort a lousy rating because of this and ignore the suite they had and the amenities available to them.

This could be more evident at resorts that are more likely to have availability that is rented out by Wyndham. I think the mega-renters probably do a fairly good job of setting expectations because it affects their bottom line.

(I go to Bonnet Creek because I enjoy the resort, it's not Prime season when I want to go, and it's in an area that is relatively warm and we can find things to do when its cold back home. I really don't go there for Disney.)
 

Bigrob

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2011
Messages
2,099
Reaction score
141
Location
Centreville, VA
as a counterpoint, I can see several values out of this:

1. for those having flexibility in travel plans and locations, the quality of the Wyndham offering may have some influence into the decision.

2. within a location, it may help identify which of the resorts to make your first choice. This would be important in Orlando, Branson, and Myrtle Beach for sure.

3. if I'm trying to figure out what is most appealing to rental customers, both the quantity of reviews of a location and the scores might be helpful indicators. Unfortunately, the spreadsheet doesn't show number of reviews - that I think would be a useful addition.

Thanks for putting it together!
 

Bigrob

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2011
Messages
2,099
Reaction score
141
Location
Centreville, VA
This could be more evident at resorts that are more likely to have availability that is rented out by Wyndham. I think the mega-renters probably do a fairly good job of setting expectations because it affects their bottom line.

I'm not sure that's the case. I haven't noticed many recent comments regarding the lack of daily housekeeping. What DOES turn people off is the hard-core attempts to get them to attend a timeshare presentation (and even worse if they actually attend it).

Wyndham/Extra Holidays also alerts renters that daily housekeeping is not included and can be included "for a nominal fee". Which is interesting because when guests ask me about daily housekeeping, and I've then asked the resorts, they've indicated it would be a full "turnover" charge which runs close to $100, less for a 1BR, more for a 3BR. Not quite nominal, but Extra Holidays is probably paying (and charging) a much different rate.
 

Ty1on

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2015
Messages
5,129
Reaction score
1,961
as a counterpoint, I can see several values out of this:

1. for those having flexibility in travel plans and locations, the quality of the Wyndham offering may have some influence into the decision.

2. within a location, it may help identify which of the resorts to make your first choice. This would be important in Orlando, Branson, and Myrtle Beach for sure.

3. if I'm trying to figure out what is most appealing to rental customers, both the quantity of reviews of a location and the scores might be helpful indicators. Unfortunately, the spreadsheet doesn't show number of reviews - that I think would be a useful addition.

Thanks for putting it together!

The OP did a great job putting together hundreds of data points, so this isn't mean as a criticism as his work at all:

If I were looking at something like this, there are two other things that would be helpful:

An indexing of the resort's average rating to the destination location's average ratings among all resorts....TripAdvisor does this by ranking resorts within a market, but only overall.....you can't track trends.

An indexing of each rating to the average rating the reviewer has given in all his reviews. Some people will never be pleased, and others seem to think the Motel Patels are 5 star.
 

kewldog4

newbie
Joined
Oct 20, 2013
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Location
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
I originally put this together for two reasons. The first was to figure out what resorts people generally liked the most. So when my wife and I plan our vacations, we tend to focus our attention on the higher ranked resorts (not saying the others aren't worth it either). While the spreadsheet shows San Francisco at the top or close to the top, we decided to make that a priority. It was probably not our favorite vacation but we certainly enjoyed the overall experience of that trip... no pushy sales, great location, great room, great service, etc.

The second was to figure out what resort people generally consider to provide the best experience in that market. I see this a lot on TUG - members asking for recommendations for a particular destination.

I know I could have gone deeper into the numbers - total number of reviews, standard deviations, etc. but it would take considerably more time and I don't know that I was going to get that much more information from that data for our vacation decisions.
 

Ty1on

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2015
Messages
5,129
Reaction score
1,961
I originally put this together for two reasons. The first was to figure out what resorts people generally liked the most. So when my wife and I plan our vacations, we tend to focus our attention on the higher ranked resorts (not saying the others aren't worth it either). While the spreadsheet shows San Francisco at the top or close to the top, we decided to make that a priority. It was probably not our favorite vacation but we certainly enjoyed the overall experience of that trip... no pushy sales, great location, great room, great service, etc.

The second was to figure out what resort people generally consider to provide the best experience in that market. I see this a lot on TUG - members asking for recommendations for a particular destination.

I know I could have gone deeper into the numbers - total number of reviews, standard deviations, etc. but it would take considerably more time and I don't know that I was going to get that much more information from that data for our vacation decisions.

If you haven't already, you should pay the $15 to become a TUG member. There is a Resort Reviews section available that might give you a better idea of the various resorts from the perspective of timeshare owners and exchangers. The ones I have read have focused more on the units, amenities, area, and overall service levels, and you seem to find far fewer disgruntled guests with axes to grind over petty BS. And even the glowing reviews will often give feedback on any challenges they encountered.

And I agree on taking considerably more time. Again, my comment wasn't a dig on you. Pulling together all the statistics that would be helpful would be time-prohibitive, since TripAdvisor doesn't make it easy to copy/paste or download information in a readily manipulable format.
 
Last edited:

Ty1on

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2015
Messages
5,129
Reaction score
1,961
I originally put this together for two reasons. The first was to figure out what resorts people generally liked the most. So when my wife and I plan our vacations, we tend to focus our attention on the higher ranked resorts (not saying the others aren't worth it either). While the spreadsheet shows San Francisco at the top or close to the top, we decided to make that a priority. It was probably not our favorite vacation but we certainly enjoyed the overall experience of that trip... no pushy sales, great location, great room, great service, etc.

The second was to figure out what resort people generally consider to provide the best experience in that market. I see this a lot on TUG - members asking for recommendations for a particular destination.

I know I could have gone deeper into the numbers - total number of reviews, standard deviations, etc. but it would take considerably more time and I don't know that I was going to get that much more information from that data for our vacation decisions.

I was actually surprised to find South Shore Zephyr Cove at the top. I think Canterbury may be more a beneficiary of location than anything else.
 

Bigrob

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 9, 2011
Messages
2,099
Reaction score
141
Location
Centreville, VA
I was actually surprised to find South Shore Zephyr Cove at the top. I think Canterbury may be more a beneficiary of location than anything else.

Me too. I would suspect there are relatively few reviews there. Maybe the pushy sales desk is hurting Grand Desert and Bonnet Creek in the ratings?
 

JimMIA

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2010
Messages
955
Reaction score
10
Location
Miami,& EVER (Everglades National Park)
Looking thru some of the reviews, the one constant that can bring down a rating is the Wyndham sales staff.
Wow! Who knew?

If I can be serious for a moment, this is an important point to keep in mind. The sales weasels DO drive down ratings, especially in something like TripAdvisor.

My experience with these types of ratings is that negative experiences tend to be reported far more often than positive, so I take them with a grain of salt. If -- on top of that negative-report bias -- you have an especially sleazy sales operation offending guests, a resort is likely to get a lower rating than it deserves.

That said, I found the spreadsheet to be helpful. We recently stayed (in the same week) at Wyndham Sedona and Wyndham Flagstaff. When I sorted the spreadsheet by the 2015 values, Sedona rated very slightly higher, which was exactly our experience. Both were great; we thought Sedona was just a tad better.
 

RandyM

TUG Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2015
Messages
13
Reaction score
3
Location
Buffalo, MN
I have seen many threads on here where people are asking which property to stay at when there is more than one in a city. I say well done and thank you.
 

Ty1on

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2015
Messages
5,129
Reaction score
1,961
Wow! Who knew?

If I can be serious for a moment, this is an important point to keep in mind. The sales weasels DO drive down ratings, especially in something like TripAdvisor.

My experience with these types of ratings is that negative experiences tend to be reported far more often than positive, so I take them with a grain of salt. If -- on top of that negative-report bias -- you have an especially sleazy sales operation offending guests, a resort is likely to get a lower rating than it deserves.

That said, I found the spreadsheet to be helpful. We recently stayed (in the same week) at Wyndham Sedona and Wyndham Flagstaff. When I sorted the spreadsheet by the 2015 values, Sedona rated very slightly higher, which was exactly our experience. Both were great; we thought Sedona was just a tad better.

Sales weasels are one of the major reasons I take more stock in the TUG reviews.....TUG reviewers are accustomed to the attempted kidnappings, and generally know how to say no to either the presentation or the sales offers. They are much less likely to respond emotionally to sales attempts, and let that emotion color their reviews.
 

comicbookman

TUG Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2013
Messages
977
Reaction score
322
Location
Dillwyn, Virginia
Me too. I would suspect there are relatively few reviews there. Maybe the pushy sales desk is hurting Grand Desert and Bonnet Creek in the ratings?

Just came back from grand desert. It is wonderful, the resort staff is excellent, but the sales staff is the worst I have encountered in many years.
 
Top