As points ownership grows and weeks ownerships decline – and I’m not sure how rapidly that’s actually happening, but it does seem to be the long-trend – I think the “wine social” and similar events have less and less value. These events used to be about meeting your fellow resort owners, the people who, like you, own at the property where you are staying and probably visit every year or two or perhaps even more often. They were often billed as an owners event, though that probably wasn’t enforced. But most attendees had a vested interest in the property, its amenities and upkeep, and you may even run into people you’ve met before if you and they vacation around the same time each year.
If most guests are essentially “transient owners” who own points but have no attachment to a specific property, then a wine social is just a bunch of strangers with no real connection between them getting together to drink wine with their own little group. I like wine as much (or more!) than the next guy, but the wine served at these events is usually not of sufficient quality to motivate my attendance. I would attend to meet and chat with fellow weeks owners of the property, I probably wouldn’t attend or care about meeting points owners who just happened to be there. It’s a different dynamic.
What is the purpose of these events once a property is dominated by transient points owners? Maybe I’m the only one who feels there is a different sense of community (or lack thereof) in a points-dominated timeshare world.
