Wyndham buying shell [merged]

[CO skier]

I just do not understand how people can think that shell owners will not be given the chance to upgrade to Wyndham points and unsold or returned inventory at the shell resorts would not be sold as wyndham points. Is there something in the shell documents preventing this?

It is a certainty that Wydham will offer an opportunity for Shell owners to upgrade to "something" at some unreasonable cost. (I own Club Wyndham Select points and do not think that a conversion from Shell to Wyndham points would be considered an "upgrade":rofl: ) This, and some unsold inventory will provide the minimal trading opportunities with the other two systems. (Some, probably not all) Shell locations will just be "Affiliated Resorts dots" on the Wyndham and WorldMark maps. History repeats.

 

[CO skier]

It's late at night, and I was dreaming that I was a Wyndham executive. I added Shell vacations to WorldMark, but only as part of the TravelShare program. "You can only access our NEW resorts by upgrading your (WorldMark) ownership to TravelShare." Sales opportunities galore.

And, for Wyndham, "Introducing our new Executive Club Wyndham Access program. Enjoy front-of-the-line access to our NEW resorts only by upgrading your timeshare ownership. (Current Club Wyndham Access members receive a discount upgrade opportunity, but only for a limited time)." Sales opportunities galore.

The Shell locations weren't just dots on a map, anymore, they were large stars (in red, because everyone knows that red sells more than other colors).

Then I got a promotion.

 

[ronparise]

I just do not understand how people can think that shell owners will not be given the chance to upgrade to Wyndham points and unsold or returned inventory at the shell resorts would not be sold as wyndham points. Is there something in the shell documents preventing this?

Why do I think that...because thats not the way Wyndham works

Wyndham owns over 15 different hotel brands and offers hotel and motel owners the opportunity to operate under any of their flags. Each one has a different market niche and different franchise rules.

I think the same with their timeshares. They will grow each one on its own

I do think that we will probably see more shared resorts like Daytona, where all three systems may have inventory under the same roof, along with fixed week and floating weeks owners and perhaps even some whole condo ownership...I dont think Wyndham will go the same route as Europe did with their currencies and create a new super currency like the Euro that will work in all three systems

 

[am1]

The hotel brands are to differentiate each other in the market place. I do not see the timeshares needing to do that. Unless the sales people want to trash the other. Get two chances at selling people.

I do not see Worldmark getting the inventory. It seems the documents/owners give management a lot more trouble.

 

[NHTraveler]

Today I heard Shell inventory will go to Access. It will take about a year to complete it. That said, not sure how accurate this info is.

 

[ronparise]

The hotel brands are to differentiate each other in the market place. I do not see the timeshares needing to do that. Unless the sales people want to trash the other. Get two chances at selling people.

I do not see Worldmark getting the inventory. It seems the documents/owners give management a lot more trouble.

Which is exactly the same point Im trying to make. Shell will appeal to a different buyer than Worldmark, or Wyndham... and now Wyndham will be able to get their money too

 

[Maple_Leaf]

Maybe

I just do not understand how people can think that shell owners will not be given the chance to upgrade to Wyndham points and unsold or returned inventory at the shell resorts would not be sold as wyndham points. Is there something in the shell documents preventing this?

Shell has different memberships, therefore different membership agreements. For example, Direct Members do not have a pre-set number of points. Instead, Shell Vacations assigns points to direct members when they request an exchange. The number of club points will vary depending on Shell Vacations' estimate of the value of the vacation experience for the direct member's use rights. However, Premiere and Founding Members have club points per their membership agreement. Shell apparently has a lot of different moving parts and who knows how they will fit into Wyndham?

 

[ptkkmmm1]

Shell owner just wanting to keep track of the Wyndham changes

Wyndham sounds really complicated. We have about 11,600 SVC points. I can do all we need or want with that and the two weeks we own in a different system. Still, I am hopeful we will have some kind of priority booking into other Wyndham properties but concerned it will degrade what we can do within the Shell properties. Anyway, I hope to remain on top of the changes that are coming. This website has been really good for that and remains that way.

 

[JanB]

What about Shell Property Management Resorts?

We are owners of several weeks at the Kona Coast Resort. Shell is our property manager and has been a great partner to our HOA. Our maintenance fees have been one of the lowest in Hawaii compared to many other Hawaii resorts. With Wyndham taking over the management, what will happen now? Mfs only go up, but by how much now?

We also own Wyndham points and have enjoyed the flexibility of the points and the many properties and locations to choose.

 

[am1]

Wyndham sounds really complicated. We have about 11,600 SVC points. I can do all we need or want with that and the two weeks we own in a different system. Still, I am hopeful we will have some kind of priority booking into other Wyndham properties but concerned it will degrade what we can do within the Shell properties. Anyway, I hope to remain on top of the changes that are coming. This website has been really good for that and remains that way.

It will be hard to have it both ways. Unless you make a developer purchase.

 

[Picker57]

Wyndham sounds really complicated. We have about 11,600 SVC points. I can do all we need or want with that and the two weeks we own in a different system. Still, I am hopeful we will have some kind of priority booking into other Wyndham properties but concerned it will degrade what we can do within the Shell properties. Anyway, I hope to remain on top of the changes that are coming. This website has been really good for that and remains that way.

Today's blurb from Shell proclaims there will be no changes for Shell members, that we're still in I.I., we'll continue the same fine service, yada yada. Hope it's true. I did query them on which of the Wyndham programs we might browse for available resort inventory. Dunno about priority bookings for Wyndham properties - that may be asking a lot, but I doubt that it's any worse than the RCI search results we were getting.

--------Zach

 

[mimi67]

Wynham acquires Shell Vacation Club

I am a current shell owner; we've just been told that Wynham has acquired Shell. I wonder how they will integrate points systems, etc. I don't know much about Wynham. Any input appreciated on what to expect from Wyham.

 

[simpsontruckdriver]

Scroll down, or do a search (above), there are plenty of posts about Wyndham's takeover of Shell.

TS

 

[lcml11]

A Wyndham Resort is finally talking about the takeover of Shell by Wyndham, the person indicated that they just got offically notified of the takeover a week or so ago. Only 16 of the Shell properties are being taken over. He said they also took over the Shell rental arm and that were strong and well managed. He also indicated that the Shell properties are going to be managed seperately. There was nothing particularly new with this information other than Wyndham is now permitting it to be said at resort level

 

[CO skier]

A Wyndham Resort is finally talking about the takeover of Shell by Wyndham, the person indicated that they just got offically notified of the takeover a week or so ago. Only 16 of the Shell properties are being taken over. He said they also took over the Shell rental arm and that were strong and well managed. He also indicated that the Shell properties are going to be managed seperately. There was nothing particularly new with this information other than Wyndham is now permitting it to be said at resort level

Maybe they should have read the press release of September 14th that stated WVO assumed property management operations at 19 Shell resort locations.

 

[Bill4728]

As of this week there is no sign at all that Wyndham is taking over at the whistler location "Mountainside Lodge" Per the front desk they have heard little to nothing from Wyndham and are still getting all their pay and instructions from Shell.

 

[Picker57]

I keep hearing from Shell that nothing's going to change. The following piece was in an article in Timesharing Today about the acquisition.

" Under the terms of the agreement, Wyndham assumes property management operations at 19 Shell resort locations in Hawaii, California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Wisconsin, Texas, New Hampshire and Canada. Wyndham will now also operate Shell Vacations Club and assumes management of all Shell marketing, sales and financial services activities."

Maybe I'm paranoid, but that doesn't sound to me like 'nothing's going to change'. Thoughts?

----------Zach

 

[ronparise]

I keep hearing from Shell that nothing's going to change. The following piece was in an article in Timesharing Today about the acquisition.

" Under the terms of the agreement, Wyndham assumes property management operations at 19 Shell resort locations in Hawaii, California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Wisconsin, Texas, New Hampshire and Canada. Wyndham will now also operate Shell Vacations Club and assumes management of all Shell marketing, sales and financial services activities."

Maybe I'm paranoid, but that doesn't sound to me like 'nothing's going to change'. Thoughts?

----------Zach

I read that and see "no changes" except that now Wyndham will manage the system instead of Shell

 

[lcml11]

I keep hearing from Shell that nothing's going to change. The following piece was in an article in Timesharing Today about the acquisition.

" Under the terms of the agreement, Wyndham assumes property management operations at 19 Shell resort locations in Hawaii, California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Wisconsin, Texas, New Hampshire and Canada. Wyndham will now also operate Shell Vacations Club and assumes management of all Shell marketing, sales and financial services activities."

Maybe I'm paranoid, but that doesn't sound to me like 'nothing's going to change'. Thoughts?

----------Zach

Other than resorts are now apparently allowed to confirm that Wyndham is taking control of 16 resorts and the rental arm of Shell. Apparently they wanted it for the management contracts and the rental arm. I wonder if Shell properties are going to start showing up in Extra Holidays.

http://www.extraholidays.com/member...=website_listing&utm_campaign=member_benefits

Extra Holidays is part of Wyndham Vacation Ownership.

http://www.shellvacationsclub.com/club/membernews.jsp

Shell Vacation Club is also now part of Wyndham Vacation Ownership with what appears to be a pledge to expand the members vacation opportunities.

It will be interesting to see what the expansion of the opportunites will be.

 

[Picker57]

Other than resorts are now apparently allowed to confirm that Wyndham is taking control of 16 resorts and the rental arm of Shell. Apparently they wanted it for the management contracts and the rental arm. I wonder if Shell properties are going to start showing up in Extra Holidays.

http://www.extraholidays.com/member...=website_listing&utm_campaign=member_benefits

Extra Holidays is part of Wyndham Vacation Ownership.

http://www.shellvacationsclub.com/club/membernews.jsp

Shell Vacation Club is also now part of Wyndham Vacation Ownership with what appears to be a pledge to expand the members vacation opportunities.

It will be interesting to see what the expansion of the opportunites will be.

Indeed! And was this referring to expanding the Shell members' opportunities or Wyndham's? If the latter, will this make it harder for SVC members to reserve spots? And should I be concerned about the management part? We recently saw a Wyndham property (Pahio/Shearwater) that appeared to have very dicey maintenance ....but maybe we caught it on a bad day (?).

----------Zach

 

[lcml11]

Indeed! And was this referring to expanding the Shell members' opportunities or Wyndham's? If the latter, will this make it harder for SVC members to reserve spots? And should I be concerned about the management part? We recently saw a Wyndham property (Pahio/Shearwater) that appeared to have very dicey maintenance ....but maybe we caught it on a bad day (?).

----------Zach

The press release cited was from the Shell Vacation Club Website and referring to changes coming for the Shell members.

The related Wyndham press release from Wyndham talked in terms of being an acquission under the assest light acquission program. It did not address very much or at all if availability was going to start showing up for the Club Wyndham Plus/Access and Worldmark the Club programs.

The only thing the Wyndham person indicated related to the issue of access for the Club Wyndham Plus/Access programs was to observe that Wyndham would be taking back Shell Club members interest through the re-possession processes. He did not actually say where the timeshare interests on the Shell Vacation Club members unit would go.

On the maintance contract issue, I do not have any experience with the Shell Management sytem. So I cannot really effectively talk to it other to observe, from what I have seen, Wyndham's overall maintance for properties is very good.

In the way of the world, there does not appear to be many Shell Vacation Club timeshares on E-Bay, but, the pictures from the outside look good.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/7500-SHELL-...90766859853?pt=Timeshares&hash=item2c6a97464d

 

[Cheryl20772]

I read that and see "no changes" except that now Wyndham will manage the system instead of Shell

I was told by a Wyndham rep today that we will see some Shell resports in the Wyndham Member's Directory for 2013. The relationship will be similar to the relationship between Wyndham and Worldmark. If Shell owners want to book into Wyndham, they will have to do it by exchanging. This person telling me this did not have any further details to share, but it does sound credible. Does anyone know when we can expect the 2013 Member's Directory to come out? I think that will help clear up the Wyndham owners' side understanding of the relationship. The complexities of sorting out the actual relationship is part of what's keeping it from being a straight announcement of how it will be.

 

[Picker57]

I was told by a Wyndham rep today that we will see some Shell resports in the Wyndham Member's Directory for 2013. The relationship will be similar to the relationship between Wyndham and Worldmark. If Shell owners want to book into Wyndham, they will have to do it by exchanging.

So Wyndham folks are "members" and Shell folks are "exchangers". As an SVC member, I'm still looking for the good news.
--------------ZK

 

[bnoble]

Well, for starters, it came from a sales rep, so it is probably wrong.

But, even if it is right, it will be next to meaningless---each system would have access to at most a handful of units in the other, next to no inventory. Just enough to list it in each system's directory and make the portfolio of resorts look much bigger than it is.

 

[timeos2]

Indeed! And was this referring to expanding the Shell members' opportunities or Wyndham's? If the latter, will this make it harder for SVC members to reserve spots? And should I be concerned about the management part? We recently saw a Wyndham property (Pahio/Shearwater) that appeared to have very dicey maintenance ....but maybe we caught it on a bad day (?).

----------Zach

Speaking in broad terms that will not apply to every case we noticed a disturbing trend in Wyndham general maintenance/housekeeping at the unit level has been in decline for a number of years. It seems extremely lackadaisical and hit and miss at best. Even when called on it and asked to specifically return and address shortcomings the end result we saw wasn't up to even the most basic standards of completeness that would be expected. And forget any extras or "spit & polish" - you're lucky if the refrigerator case got a cursory wipe - no way did the interior get a careful cleaning. Dirt under dressers/beds/sofas/chairs, dust on pictures, table tops, lack of overall feel of completeness is rampant it seems.

The cleaning staff appears to be trying to make or break strict timelines to get in & out of units rather than any type of rigorous cleaning goals. We long ago gave up expecting a sparkling clean Wyndham unit at arrival and, even after a special request, have learned to double check everything and watch carefully for ants, etc in Wyndham units. Too bad as the units themselves tend to be, in most cases, quite well designed & equipped. But not particularly well maintained or cleaned. So it goes.