Waitlist expansion?

[paxsarah]

Did I miss this? Waitlist extension from 10 months to 14 days (previously, 60) in mid-September, according to the website.

I am very surprised. Even as a non-VIP this seems uncool to VIPs.

EDIT: on 9/3/2026 it was updated to 15 days.

 

[Floridaman76]

Yeah I do not like this. Basically there goes any VIP upgrades.

 

[CO skier]

Even as a non-VIP this seems uncool to VIPs.

Do the various VIP discounts apply to waitlist bookings by VIPs within 60 days?


Regardless, it does put a parenthetical emphasis on this post from 2016

VIP discounts within 60 days are a nice benefit. I think the idea is fine when it is used to reserve genuinely unloved units within 60 days.

Anything on the waitlist 15-60 days before arrival is not "genuinely unloved."

... and why should owners willing to pay "full price" not retain some chance to book their waitlists more than 14 days in advance? That is how the waitlist works in WorldMark.

 

[paxsarah]

Do the various VIP discounts apply to waitlist bookings by VIPs within 60 days?


Regardless, it does put a parenthetical emphasis on this post from 2016


Anything on the waitlist 15-60 days before arrival is not "genuinely unloved."

... and why should owners willing to pay "full price" not retain some chance to book their waitlists more than 14 days in advance? That is how the waitlist works in WorldMark.

The uncoolness I was referring to was intended in reference to automatic upgrades, not discounts. Even a VIP who did pay full price points-wise many months in advance is now competing against a much larger pool of owners for an upgrade they opted in for.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Yeah I do not like this. Basically there goes any VIP upgrades.

I’m not really sure the waitlist gets used all that much, other than by VIP owners. The necessity of making 10 month bookings and the fact that resale owners can only bank points in the first 3 months of the use year means that I bet most people don’t have spare points lying around hoping to get a waitlist fulfilled. I could be wrong I guess.

 

[StarSailer]

Will it be possible to make 3-month waitlist request using borrowed points? That would be nice.

 

[Floridaman76]

Will it be possible to make 3-month waitlist request using borrowed points? That would be nice.

I've never tried to do that, but I assumed you could borrow points to make a waitlist booking.

I’m not really sure the waitlist gets used all that much, other than by VIP owners. The necessity of making 10 month bookings and the fact that resale owners can only bank points in the first 3 months of the use year means that I bet most people don’t have spare points lying around hoping to get a waitlist fulfilled. I could be wrong I guess.

Maybe i'm an outlier but I have ~600,000 points ish in resale points and almost exclusively use them for bookings far in the future that I know I won't get VIP discounts or upgrades on. In fact I already have my entire allotment of resale points for next use year already booked. And never carry any points past the deposit end date. I would rather pay the extra ~$35 to move points twice (because I have 2 different deposit timeframes being hybrid VIP) than risk losing points, but it rarely comes up that I have to move my resale points, I always use those first. But regardless, I had always assumed you could borrow points to make a waitlist booking, so that would be a moot point about having excess points lying around. At least if you are trying to waitlist something inside the 90 day window.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Will it be possible to make 3-month waitlist request using borrowed points? That would be nice.

IIRC the waitlist request itself doesn't look at your points buckets - that comes into specific focus if/when the waitlist request actually becomes available - at which point you have 48 hours to decide whether you want to take it or not - at which point - the normal points processing rules apply.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Maybe i'm an outlier but I have ~600,000 points ish in resale points and almost exclusively use them for bookings far in the future that I know I won't get VIP discounts or upgrades on. In fact I already have my entire allotment of resale points for next use year already booked. And never carry any points past the deposit end date. I would rather pay the extra ~$35 to move points twice (because I have 2 different deposit timeframes being hybrid VIP) than risk losing points, but it rarely comes up that I have to move my resale points, I always use those first. But regardless, I had always assumed you could borrow points to make a waitlist booking, so that would be a moot point about having excess points lying around. At least if you are trying to waitlist something inside the 90 day window.

As a fellow hybrid VIP owner - this is exactly what we do as well. For prime season bookings - I almost universally use my resale points since I'm booking right at ten months out - like when we go to TOTG annually in late spring/early summer for example. Almost all if not all of my resale points are burned up pretty far in advance as a result - so having to move resale points is not a circumstance I'm faced with all that often fortunately.

 

[Roger830]

This seems to be a negative to me.

At times in the past, I was able to obtain a prime reservation close to check-in.

While in Florida in January, because of a bad winter at home, I grabbed a week 8 that was a cancelation at Ocean Walk 22 days before check-in.
In the future, something like that might go to someone on the waitlist.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Did I miss this? Waitlist extension from 10 months to 14 days (previously, 60) in mid-September, according to the website.
View attachment 128938
I am very surprised. Even as a non-VIP this seems uncool to VIPs.

For my part it would all come down to who wins out. As a VIP owner, if I booked a reservation N days out - and asked for a room upgrade via the auto-upgrade process - which we all know doesn't work all that well to begin with really - and another non-VIP owner creates a waitlist entry for N-1 days out - should the VIP owner get the room upgrade before the waitlist entry processes? I could see if the waitlist owner creates their waitlist N+1 days out - they should win out - because essentially its first come first serve (who asks for that room the farthest out). That's the question of the day for me at least. Given we've seen VIP benefits being whittled away over time - I'd want to win out selfishly - but at the same time - if Wyndham is trying to get more heads into beds - and put more owners on vacation - then maybe not - I can see both sides. If VIPs don't win out - then give us something in return - another worthwhile benefit to make up for not getting priority on room upgrades. I've already got an inquiry into my Wyndham contacts on this item - more to come when I know more.

 

[HitchHiker71]

This seems to be a negative to me.

At times in the past, I was able to obtain a prime reservation close to check-in.

While in Florida in January, because of a bad winter at home, I grabbed a week 8 that was a cancelation at Ocean Walk 22 days before check-in.
In the future, something like that might go to someone on the waitlist.

It's likely all about putting more heads into more beds.

 

[Floridaman76]

This seems to be a negative to me.

At times in the past, I was able to obtain a prime reservation close to check-in.

While in Florida in January, because of a bad winter at home, I grabbed a week 8 that was a cancelation at Ocean Walk 22 days before check-in.
In the future, something like that might go to someone on the waitlist.

I agree 100%, I have regularly been able to book Ocean Walk last minute and get upgrades well inside the discount/upgrade window. I have been able to take at least 3 trips a year to Ocean Walk, every one of them booked with upgrades, this is going to destroy this ability I fear.

This seems VERY short sighted for Wyndham, how can they be pushing sales, then basically WEAKENING the entire premise / benefit of the VIP program. If you can't get upgrades or discounts, why the hell would anyone buy retail points?

 

[paxsarah]

I’m not really sure the waitlist gets used all that much, other than by VIP owners. The necessity of making 10 month bookings and the fact that resale owners can only bank points in the first 3 months of the use year means that I bet most people don’t have spare points lying around hoping to get a waitlist fulfilled. I could be wrong I guess.

I regularly use it but rarely succeed. But as a non-VIP, I could put a waitlist out for my spring break trip in early April and still manage my points using points deposit. When I have had waitlists hit, I placed them in the 9 month range and they hit in the 5-7 month range - so again, often plenty of time to meet the points deposit window. They can hit prior to the use year even starting, because my biggest trips are usually in April and June. And I usually have an alternative booked already - so in terms of points management, even after the points deposit deadline I'd be canceling my backup in order to free up the points to book the more desirable waitlist. With this change, although I think it further devalues VIP and they paid a lot for the benefits they have, it will help me as a 90-day borrower in the second half of the use year to have a 2.5-month waitlist window instead of a 1-month window.

 

[Sandy VDH]

I use the waitlist regularly and it works with various degrees of success. Their give you a tier likelihood, Level 1, 2 or 3. I have had good luck with getting level 1s, but level 2 are dogy and I've never gotten a Level 3 request.

But it is nice option to have to keep checking multiple times a day. I also suspect they are doing this to cut off upgrade opportunities, and also to align the dates on both the WM and the Wyndham sides, as WM waitlist runs until 15 days prior.

 

[paxsarah]

I could see if the waitlist owner creates their waitlist N+1 days out - they should win out - because essentially its first come first serve (who asks for that room the farthest out).

I'll just point out that an owner many years ago verified with Wyndham management (not sales, but the name isn't coming to mind right now) that this is the way it already works with VIP automatic upgrades - the earliest matching request gets the upgrade, regardless of VIP level. A bronze owner who booked at 10 months will win out over a Founders owner who booked at 9 months, if the upgrade they both want becomes available in the 15 day Bronze upgrade window.

That doesn't mean that this change will work exactly the same way, but it's probably easier for them to code. I would guess it's easier to keep first come/first serve across the board than to program something that gives some sort of priority to VIP upgrade requests over waitlist requests inside 2 months (and would sort of defeat whatever purpose they had in changing the waitlist period).

 

[jp10558]

For my part it would all come down to who wins out. As a VIP owner, if I booked a reservation N days out - and asked for a room upgrade via the auto-upgrade process - which we all know doesn't work all that well to begin with really - and another non-VIP owner creates a waitlist entry for N-1 days out - should the VIP owner get the room upgrade before the waitlist entry processes? I could see if the waitlist owner creates their waitlist N+1 days out - they should win out - because essentially its first come first serve (who asks for that room the farthest out). That's the question of the day for me at least. Given we've seen VIP benefits being whittled away over time - I'd want to win out selfishly - but at the same time - if Wyndham is trying to get more heads into beds - and put more owners on vacation - then maybe not - I can see both sides. If VIPs don't win out - then give us something in return - another worthwhile benefit to make up for not getting priority on room upgrades. I've already got an inquiry into my Wyndham contacts on this item - more to come when I know more.

It's all good for me as a resale only owner, but I think if waitlists and VIP upgrades were processed the same day for eligibility etc, I guess I think the waitlist should win out because it's a full booking. Upgrades are (I thought) "if the unit would otherwise go empty". It seems like Wyndham would prefer to get the full points applied? I suppose I could also see Wyndham giving preference to VIPs though for the upgrades. IDK, I've never used the waitlist so far, because if the waitlist didn't work, I'd have points I could only dump into RCI (which I probably have to do sometime to get enough points to make a booking or lose 70k Wyndham RCI points).

 

[jp10558]

I'll just point out that an owner many years ago verified with Wyndham management (not sales, but the name isn't coming to mind right now) that this is the way it already works with VIP automatic upgrades - the earliest matching request gets the upgrade, regardless of VIP level. A bronze owner who booked at 10 months will win out over a Founders owner who booked at 9 months, if the upgrade they both want becomes available in the 15 day Bronze upgrade window.

That doesn't mean that this change will work exactly the same way, but it's probably easier for them to code. I would guess it's easier to keep first come/first serve across the board than to program something that gives some sort of priority to VIP upgrade requests over waitlist requests inside 2 months (and would sort of defeat whatever purpose they had in changing the waitlist period).

This I agree with - first come first served assuming the period is valid is probably the most defensible if anyone complains.

 

[dioxide45]

I agree 100%, I have regularly been able to book Ocean Walk last minute and get upgrades well inside the discount/upgrade window. I have been able to take at least 3 trips a year to Ocean Walk, every one of them booked with upgrades, this is going to destroy this ability I fear.

This seems VERY short sighted for Wyndham, how can they be pushing sales, then basically WEAKENING the entire premise / benefit of the VIP program. If you can't get upgrades or discounts, why the hell would anyone buy retail points?

I don't see how this change is going to somehow magically create more demand. If there was already availability last minute, then people who would have wanted it wouldn't have needed waitlist.

 

[paxsarah]

If you can't get upgrades or discounts, why the hell would anyone buy retail points?

Ah, but you can get discounts. 75% of the discount window can now be accessed by the waitlist. The waitlist taketh away (potential upgrades that now may be snatched up by waitlist request) but it also giveth (reservations in the VIP discount window without the work of checking for cancellations multiple times a day).

I mean, I still actually agree with "why the hell would anyone buy retail points" as a matter of principle - I don't want the primary value of my ownership to be determined by what I'm able to book in the last 60 days before travel. But even if there's a loss of some automatic upgrades, there's a potential gain of discounted bookings for VIPs in that window.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I'll just point out that an owner many years ago verified with Wyndham management (not sales, but the name isn't coming to mind right now) that this is the way it already works with VIP automatic upgrades - the earliest matching request gets the upgrade, regardless of VIP level. A bronze owner who booked at 10 months will win out over a Founders owner who booked at 9 months, if the upgrade they both want becomes available in the 15 day Bronze upgrade window.

That doesn't mean that this change will work exactly the same way, but it's probably easier for them to code. I would guess it's easier to keep first come/first serve across the board than to program something that gives some sort of priority to VIP upgrade requests over waitlist requests inside 2 months (and would sort of defeat whatever purpose they had in changing the waitlist period).

Agreed - if I were a betting man - waitlist will win out over auto-upgrades - more heads in beds.

 

[HitchHiker71]

It's all good for me as a resale only owner, but I think if waitlists and VIP upgrades were processed the same day for eligibility etc, I guess I think the waitlist should win out because it's a full booking. Upgrades are (I thought) "if the unit would otherwise go empty". It seems like Wyndham would prefer to get the full points applied? I suppose I could also see Wyndham giving preference to VIPs though for the upgrades. IDK, I've never used the waitlist so far, because if the waitlist didn't work, I'd have points I could only dump into RCI (which I probably have to do sometime to get enough points to make a booking or lose 70k Wyndham RCI points).

Yes, agreed, upgrades are not guaranteed - and getting more heads in beds is likely the primary end goal here - Wyndham wants to get more owners on vacation - particularly the non-VIP owners - who are potential upsells in the sales updates and likely not as knowledgeable about avoiding the sales tactics at the same time. I use the waitlist quite often actually - it's a nice feature as I dislike having to repeatedly manually search for inventory if it's not available at any one point in time.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Ah, but you can get discounts. 75% of the discount window can now be accessed by the waitlist. The waitlist taketh away (potential upgrades that now may be snatched up by waitlist request) but it also giveth (reservations in the VIP discount window without the work of checking for cancellations multiple times a day).

I mean, I still actually agree with "why the hell would anyone buy retail points" as a matter of principle - I don't want the primary value of my ownership to be determined by what I'm able to book in the last 60 days before travel. But even if there's a loss of some automatic upgrades, there's a potential gain of discounted bookings for VIPs in that window.

Yes, most TUGGERs are going to look at this as further whittling away at the value of becoming a VIP owner - fewer room upgrades means less value - less ROI - over time. Room upgrades are a key differentiator for VIP owners (myself included), and while I can understand the overall desire to get more heads in beds - VIP owners are also among the most valuable customers within the Club given they have spent the most to acquire those VIP levels in the first place. So, if waitlist is going to win out, then give us VIP owners something meaningful in return. Let's assume for a moment that the waitlist wins, what would VIP owners want in return for losing out on more frequent room upgrades? I for one want PIC contract amounts to become tiered. The maximum right now is two no matter what. What is VIPP could own three? VIPF could own four? Makes it easier and much less expensive to ladder upgrade over time - the ROI might actually end up being something within a human lifetime LOL. Or perhaps VIP owners could start receiving a tiered number of free Club Pass certificates. The higher the VIP tier the more free Club Pass certificates you get. Then, combine the GC and Club Pass certificates into one bucket - so for example - rather than VIPG getting ten complimentary GCs and say 3 complimentary Club Pass certificates - just create a bucket with 13 - and let the owner decide what to use them on annually. What would other VIP owners want in return?

 

[HitchHiker71]

I don't see how this change is going to somehow magically create more demand. If there was already availability last minute, then people who would have wanted wouldn't have needed waitlist.

I see your point. I actually think a part of this has to do with rentals that are cancelled closer to the 15 day cancellation window. Today, if renters cancel their reservations due to no takers, typically within the 60 day discount window most likely, then the inventory just sits because the waitlists have expired - so unless people go looking for last minute inventory - it will sit idle. Best guess, Wyndham looked at numbers and saw that if they allowed waitlists to stay intact right up to the 15 day marker - they would increase occupancy rates in the process. Otherwise they wouldn't do it toward your point.

 

[Floridaman76]

I don't see how this change is going to somehow magically create more demand. If there was already availability last minute, then people who would have wanted wouldn't have needed waitlist.

It's not going to create more demand, but how right now you cannot waitlist under 60 days (the discount window), someone who puts in a waitlist request outside of 60 days will get kicked off the waitlist AT the 60 day mark.

Right now inside of 60 days, finding inventory and getting upgrades puts the onus on a savvy owner who knows the system and hunts for inventory regularly.

With this change, the savvy owner will never have an opportunity to book that inventory because it's going to go to someone who waitlisted it. It will never show up online as even being available.

Now, that's not to say that everyone can't just do the waitlist, but there's a cost to that.