I have been reading all your posts and I have a few responses. But first let me introduce myself. I guess I am one of those mega renters other owners hate. Except I do not have 50 million points. Less then 5 million. Yes I was one of those who took advantage of the resales being attached to my VIP points and rented out almost all my points to help pay for my loan and maintenance fees.
At the same time, I was creation a winning situation for all involved. Myself, other owners and Wyndham. First of all, I generally waited until 60 days to book and took what other owners left for me. That is so I can take advantage of the discounts. So I did not prevent those who planned ahead from taking vacations.
Second, I shared my discounts with other owners, renting my points to them at the discounted prices. So if someone did not have enough points for a weeks vacation, I would tell them use their points for the cheaper midweek and use my discounts for the weekends.
Third, I would introduce hundreds of people renting from me to the Wyndham system and recommend Wyndham to them because Wyndham allowed me the opportunity to do this with their system. Because I generally booked weekends I used a lot of guest passes which brought in additional thousands to Wyndham because of the $99 I paid. I normally would not recommend timeshares but this system works for the little guy who wants to hustle.
But now I am so disgusted with the last minute changes like that occurred on 6/18 with the guest pass bans and the rule changes without people in, I will no longer recommend this company. I am assuming my day is coming and my account will be frozen. I do not care anymore. I will let them buy me out or hire a lawyer to fight them if they choose not to.
This change of opinion on Wyndham is a sad change of events because I had put in my will to leave my points to the Make A Wish Foundation and an Animal Rescue Group.
Now my reply to your comments. Many of the rent haters keep bringing up the word commercial. The IRS does not consider renting a commercial business. Home Owner Associations have tried to shut down short term rental sites by declaring them a commercial business. They constantly lose because the courts have declared them a residential rental. The State of Texas has banned Home Owner Associations from banning short term rentals because they are not a commercial business. A commercial business is if someone uses the room for paid massage, parties, filming and stuff like that.
Then there was the contract and it was argued that the contract prevents renting. No it does not. The contract says IT SHOULD be consider for personal use and not business use. It does not SAY IT MUST.
This next point is the main point I am going to use, if Wyndham closed me down and does not offer to buy me out. The rent haters say that Wyndham says you cannot rent. I will gladly take my chances with a jury who I believe will find it unfair that while Wyndham will not allow me to rent, they will allow me to rent thru them as long as I pay them a 40% commission.
Now for you rent haters who think you are going to have more availability. Sadly you will find out your wrong. I have already adapted to the changes and it is not helping you at all. As I said before I generally booked 60 days out. Now I can no longer get discount on resale points, it makes no sense for me to wait and now I am booking a year ahead of time. Also as I mentioned before, I generally book weekends. I assume others like me are doing the same, so that will be less full weeks for non renter owners to book.
Thus my booking early, I will have no more discount points to share with other owners. Thus my using more points, I will have the need for less guest passes to use so less paying $99 to Wyndham.
As for those rent haters who think they are winning because mega-renters are dumping their properties, think again. They are dumping their resorts that have high maintenance fees. No longer worth having them if you cannot get the discount on them. So if you own at one of those resorts with high maintenance fees, you will have very few buyers because everyone wants the low maintenance fee resorts. With low maintenance fees, you do not need discounts.
Personally I have not been hurt by these new rules. I live near several popular resorts so the guest pass bans have no effect on me. Since I no longer use the discounts, I raised my prices. In fact I was even thinking about buying more resale points to rent out a year ahead of time. But I want no more of Wyndham.
I enjoyed my time being in this system. I was able to meet many interesting people including people from all over the world who rented from me. But now I want out and hope they send me a buy out letter. I was able to grab some free vacation time while helping others have low cost vacations using those discounts.
I am tired of Wyndham changing the rules and I can no longer trust them. I am tired of hearing other owners whine they cannot get into Myrtle Beach on June 15th for July 10th. I am tired of the whining from jealous people who think that those who learned the rules and worked them to their advantage, cheated them out of a vacation.
I am content with the Red Roof Inn where I can bring my dog. I would have never bought into this system if not for us being allowed to rent.