Was told I could rent multiple units with the Discovery program, found out too late that you actually can't

[lan]

Yes, they told me I could rent multiple units at a time, and yes that's why I signed up. But when I called to reserve 3 units for my large family, I was informed that I could only book 1 unit at a time.

The kicker is this: To catch them in their "lie", my mom later called the Sales department, stating that she was interested in enrolling in the Discovery program. She spoke to the Sales Manager himself and asked specifically if she could rent out multiple units at a time. He told her yes. Just to be doubly sure, she asked the Sales Manager to confirm that. So he called up Reservations and was told that no, that is in fact not the case. He was quite surprised to hear that because, in his own words, “it’s not even in the contract”.

Upon hearing this, I checked my contract and the salesman was correct. Nowhere in the contract does it mention this restriction. So I called up Reservations and spoke to a supervisor. I asked her to point out to me where specifically in my contract does it say I can only book one unit at a time. She put me on hold for a long time, and came back with a single sentence stated in the contract: “Only the Member may book reservations and the Member must be present at check-in.” And that’s it. How does that even remotely apply? With that kind of wording, how could I (or even their own Sales department) know that there is this restriction?

It's pretty insane to me that there is a rule that not even the Sales department is aware of. There is a major disconnect in communication between the Sales department and the Reservations department. So



So what I want to know is… Do I have any options here? Is that considered breach of contract? Does that wording actually protect them from this bullshit?

 

[bnoble]

Yes, it probably does. Any time an owner (in this case, discovery program member) is not checking in to the resort, they must obtain a guest certificate. If the terms of the Discovery program forbid guest certificates then you are SOL.

 

[lan]

I was already aware when signing up that I have to be present when checking in. Sorry I wasn't clear; I do intend to partake in these vacations with my family. So yes, I will be there, but I wanted to be able to rent out more than 1 unit at a time.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Wyndham is very strict in that you can ONLY stay in 1 room at a time. Any additional rooms require a Guest Certificate. If discover program does NOT allow GCs, then in fact you can ONLY book 1 room at a time.

 

[lan]

That's the thing though, it's not mentioned at all in the contract. Which is why even the sales manager didn't know that. Nowhere does it say it disallows Guest Certificates, nor does it say that I can only rent 1 property at a time, nor does it say that I can't rent multiple units at a time.

If someone can point me to where/how this is implied, I would be satisfied with my regretful purchase and take the loss. What bothers me is that I can't see how anyone could have known that, even if I had read through every single line of the contract when signing up.

 

[tschwa2]

That's the thing though, it's not mentioned at all in the contract. Which is why even the sales manager didn't know that. Nowhere does it say it disallows Guest Certificates, nor does it say that I can only rent 1 property at a time, nor does it say that I can't rent multiple units at a time.

If someone can point me to where/how this is implied, I would be satisfied with my regretful purchase and take the loss. What bothers me is that I can't see how anyone could have known that, even if I had read through every single line of the contract when signing up.

The term isn't rent multiple units. That makes it sound like you want to rent it out to someone else. Wyndham will not let any of their owners reserve and stay in more than one unit at a time. If there are two owners present then they can put a unit in each of their names. If anyone other than the owner will be staying in the unit then it needs to have a guest cert even if the owner will be in a different unit. If you have 2 people on the discovery contract, rather than asking to rent multiple units, you might want to check if you can reserve 2 units, one in the name of each of the contract holders.

 

[paxsarah]

That's the thing though, it's not mentioned at all in the contract. Which is why even the sales manager didn't know that. Nowhere does it say it disallows Guest Certificates, nor does it say that I can only rent 1 property at a time, nor does it say that I can't rent multiple units at a time.

If someone can point me to where/how this is implied, I would be satisfied with my regretful purchase and take the loss. What bothers me is that I can't see how anyone could have known that, even if I had read through every single line of the contract when signing up.

I'm guessing that what's more important is where it *does* say that a guest certificate can be used with Discovery membership. And if that's nowhere, then you're probably SOL. Not every feature that a program doesn't have can possibly be documented.

 

[HitchHiker71]

Yes, they told me I could rent multiple units at a time, and yes that's why I signed up. But when I called to reserve 3 units for my large family, I was informed that I could only book 1 unit at a time.

The kicker is this: To catch them in their "lie", my mom later called the Sales department, stating that she was interested in enrolling in the Discovery program. She spoke to the Sales Manager himself and asked specifically if she could rent out multiple units at a time. He told her yes. Just to be doubly sure, she asked the Sales Manager to confirm that. So he called up Reservations and was told that no, that is in fact not the case. He was quite surprised to hear that because, in his own words, “it’s not even in the contract”.

Upon hearing this, I checked my contract and the salesman was correct. Nowhere in the contract does it mention this restriction. So I called up Reservations and spoke to a supervisor. I asked her to point out to me where specifically in my contract does it say I can only book one unit at a time. She put me on hold for a long time, and came back with a single sentence stated in the contract: “Only the Member may book reservations and the Member must be present at check-in.” And that’s it. How does that even remotely apply? With that kind of wording, how could I (or even their own Sales department) know that there is this restriction?

It's pretty insane to me that there is a rule that not even the Sales department is aware of. There is a major disconnect in communication between the Sales department and the Reservations department. So



So what I want to know is… Do I have any options here? Is that considered breach of contract? Does that wording actually protect them from this bullshit?

The sales and marketing division of any timeshare entity makes used car salesman look good in reality. They will say or do just about anything to sell the product. So it's not at all surprising that they told you something that wasn't accurate - this is the case for almost every timeshare sale made on some level - just look at the predominantly negative feedback online for timeshare sales practices that tend to leverage various deceptive methods to sell the product. It's not so much that the Sales dept isn't aware of it - it's that they don't really care - they'd just as soon tell you the product can do something it can't if you're even remotely likely to buy it - even when they know it won't do it. Since Member is a capitalized term that you quoted - that denotes that Member is explicitly legally defined somewhere - likely in the underlying trust documents that the Discovery sales contract is based upon. We'd have to dig up the definition of the term Member to see how this term is defined explicitly - but overall - that sentence indicates that only the Member can book reservations (rentals as you are calling them), and you must be present at check-in.

Everyone here on TUG who is a Wyndham timeshare owner knows that all reservations made with any overlapping dates must have a unique Member name assigned to each reservation. This is explicitly outlined in the Member Directory - which is the rulebook - and this document is also likely explicitly referred to in your contract as a source of truth. So merely reading your contract - without also reading the various documents that the contract explicitly refers to legally - isn't enough. If you want to make multiple reservations with overlapping dates - you must have more than one Member name on your Account (which means that member is also legally responsible for contract ownership). If you don't have enough Member names, then you must use a Guest Confirmation (GC) for any additional reservations with overlapping dates. The online system does not support making multiple reservations with overlapping dates using the same member name. Last I checked, Discovery members don't have Guest Confirmations available - though I cannot say for certain.

How long has it been since you purchased the Discovery package?

 

[Sandi Bo]

Tough pill to swallow. Sorry @lan, I hope you can figure something out. It's tough to fight Wyndham. Maybe email Michael Brown's office - they seem to be able to help sometimes. michael.brown@wyn.com