Im just repeating what Ive said before..there is no difference between the points from one resort or another when used as currency to "buy" reservations at another resort within the system
Ron, I pondered you evaluations of Points being Points and have to respectfully disagree. If points were pure currency and the currency was the same then the same amount of currency should get you the same item. So if I work in Illinois and you work in Florida (or where ever) and we both earn $224. We both can take that $224 rent a room at Bonnet Creek. Because I earned this currency in Illinois I have to pay an extra tax on it, $86 But by virtue of you earning that money in Florida you do not have to. This make the value of the currency I have less that the value of the currency you have but his extra taxed amount. Points are no longer Points.
Now you could argue that there difference in maintenance fee (which there are) but if you earn currency there are difference in hourly wage. If you make 100K a year or you make minimum wage, you still can use the same dollar to get a Sweet Tea at Micky D’s that currency is the same, you are not charge an extra tax for going to Micky D’s outside the state you earn your dollar in or because it took you more or less time to earn it.
VIP discount can be argued too, but VIP discount does not change the published rate a resort gets for a room. The discount is off of the published much like a coupon. If you have the coupon you get the discount.
Now Kingsgate has been brought into the conversation. They charge the fee to all who use the resort; this is a tax on all. This is a more far tax because it does not single out a class of ownership it still is a tax and does not make point equal.
It can be argued that ARP makes points unequal. You get a change to book a room before me and vice versa. ARP is does not make point unequal. Say we are both working at two different companies where points are currency. We can ask our bosses of an advance. So I ask for the advance. The boss says ok but you have to use it at the at the company store. I can then book in at the company store. There is no upcharge in the posted rates to book there, no is there a fee on the advance. You could do the same of your company.
CWA is much the same. If could be looked at as a corporation where the privileges and benefits are given to an employee at one location and can be used at another.
Any additional requirements on the use of points from one resort to the other no longer make them equal. The fee changes the playing fee for the Wyndham Points exchange system.
As the president of the HOA at Wyndham Glacier Canyon, if someone purposed a waterpark surcharge to all NON-owners, I would consider it because it would save the owners millions of dollars a year on maintenance fees. I don't know what the MOU between Wyndham and the parks developers says about it. I guess I need to ask that question...
Jim thanks for serving on the board.
My first impressions were that was a good idea to do the same is my knee jerk reaction. Why should someone come here from Bonnet Creek and enjoy what my maintenance fee pay for. After all, our maintenance fees are more so we should get more for our bang. But much like the response to Ron above, I had to think about it. It takes away what we all bought into the Wyndham Points system for, the ability to use our points to trade as currency from one resort to the other. I don’t think anyone was told at the sales meeting that your points will only be good at your home resort.
By imposing taxes on non-owner we are devaluing the system as a whole. If Glacier Canyon charges say $15 a day, which would be a bargain, and then owners at Tamarack look at their maintenance fee and says we are we paying so much more that everywhere else. Then they decided to charge $8 dollars a day. After all if Glacier Canyon could get $15 dollars were are just down the road, we are worth at least $8. Now the owners at Branson decided to charge a fee too because they don’t like staying in the Dells and getting charged a fee. It then becomes a snowball effect. People would then tend to stay at only their home resorts. They system would breakdown.
And maybe this is what Wyndham wants, to keep owners going to their home resorts or to just sell CWA contract.
Or maybe it is just a way for Wyndham to impose more fees on the owners without directly raising the maintenance fees.
I am just an observer it but that what I think.
Steve