TERRIBLE news for Eagle Crest Owners who trade into Worldmark

A letter arrived today announcing that the "special trade arrangements" Eagle Crest owners have with Worldmark is ending. I have a 10-week fractional at Eagle Crest which I used to trade for Worldmark credits (for a fee of $35, and we got 10,000 credits for each red week).

Now they are switching to the regular trade credit program. This is a triple whammy:

1) The fee is increasing from $35 to $129. That part I could live with, but...

2) There is a limit of 4 weeks per calendar year. I have 10 weeks I usually trade. I'm not sure if I could trade 4 more if I had a 2nd Worldmark membership (does anyone know?) And worse yet...

3) The value of the trade has now gone down by 2000 credits per week. So for a red week 2 br instead of 10,000 we get 8,000.

And, this starts June 1, 2009 so we didn't even have much notice this was happening! (I haven't been keeping up with the timeshare boards; maybe people knew about this before?)

I own a lot of timeshare weeks so I'm used to changes in timeshare programs, and expect them, and know they are usually not for the better. But that doesn't soften the blow on this terrible change.

Anyone else in this situation?

That sucks. The only good news is that the 4 exchange plus limit is per account. You can have a second account and get 4 more deposits.

Thanks, Boca. That's good to know.

BocaBum99 said:

That sucks. The only good news is that the 4 exchange plus limit is per account. You can have a second account and get 4 more deposits.

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Bocabum: What do you suppose is the advantage to Worldmark to make this change?

Cathyb said:

Bocabum: What do you suppose is the advantage to Worldmark to make this change?

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My guess is that they are no longer selling fractionals at Eagle Crest. So, there is no need to continue to have such a program in place. It hurts owners who bought for this specific purpose, but WordMark by Wyndham probably decided that it wasn't many people and they could get away with it without much vocal opposition.

Did we just get screwed ? Can Eagle Crest and Wyndham change the rules when ever they want ? jeez

Welcome to the world of Wyndham!

This is just another tactic by Wyndham Corp. to help their bottom line. They have managed to charge WorldMark owners outrageous amounts of credits for their newer properties. (ie. To stay at a 1BR at the WM San Diego owners are charged 15K credits!)

Now they are rewriting the rules re. Eagle Crest deposits!

I am sure they are looking for the next thing(s) to screw WorldMark owners.

It is time to get the developer out of the WorldMark board and put real owners make decisions that actually helps the owners!!

easyrider said:

Did we just get screwed ? Can Eagle Crest and Wyndham change the rules when ever they want ? jeez

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I am sure this change is from Wyndham's side, as far as I can see Wyndham's bottom line is the only thing that will benefit from this change.

The reason is simple, For wyndham, 20-33% less credits given out, 360% more money coming in. For a red week, Wyndham got .35 cents per credit, now they get 1.6 cents per credit, 450% more profit, not bad.

I think Wapato Point and Schooner Landing are under the same program as Eagle Crest (with some restrictions for Wapato Point). I wonder if they are changing at the same time. Did the letter come from Wyndham or Eagle Crest?

LLW said:

I think Wapato Point and Schooner Landing are under the same program as Eagle Crest (with some restrictions for Wapato Point). I wonder if they are changing at the same time. Did the letter come from Wyndham or Eagle Crest?

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Wapato Point is in RCI, at least the Lakeside association is. I just got a letter from my association that they will be switching to II. I am concerned about what will happen to my unused points. I hope I don't lose them.

Our leter from Eagle Crest came from Worldmark by Wyndhan. 8000 credits instead of 10000 credits and an additional $100.00. What a rip off. Is there anything anyone can do about it ?

easyrider said:

Our leter from Eagle Crest came from Worldmark by Wyndhan. 8000 credits instead of 10000 credits and an additional $100.00. What a rip off. Is there anything anyone can do about it ?

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It may already be a done deal, but you could at least email the wyndham executives (who probably initiated this) who are also on the Worldmark board (and supposed to represent owners' interest). Peggy Fry is VP Owner Services and a WM board member. Her email is Peggy.Fry at wyndhamvo.com. She is also up for re-election this year.

Please report back.

I agree that it is a terrible thing. I have thought about buying an Eagle Crest week for awhile.

But it could it be something as simple as their is a supply/demand imbalance on the supply side, and WM is taking steps to manage the supply?

Obviously Eagle Crest in the summer is not the problem. But what about off-season/shoulder weeks. Is WM receiving a significant number of those type of weeks due to this program?

Seems like their bottom line would do better if they just raised the fee to $129. Then I'd probably still exchange my weeks. With the lower credit value and 4 week limit I'll have to make other plans for the weeks, so they won't get any exchange fee at all.

Also, it's disconcerting that we got 3 weeks notice for this change. Surely they could have set the cut-off date to June 1, 2010, to give us time to adjust our plans.

SharonD said:

Seems like their bottom line would do better if they just raised the fee to $129. Then I'd probably still exchange my weeks. With the lower credit value and 4 week limit I'll have to make other plans for the weeks, so they won't get any exchange fee at all.

Also, it's disconcerting that we got 3 weeks notice for this change. Surely they could have set the cut-off date to June 1, 2010, to give us time to adjust our plans.

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I agree that they should have given more advance notice. But it appears that they are only dropping the special exchange rights, and taking the weeks in their ordinary exchange program.

If WM is making this change because they are getting more Eagle Crest weeks in the off-season and those weeks are not getting used, then as a WM owner I support this change.

ecwinch said:

But it could it be something as simple as their is a supply/demand imbalance on the supply side, and WM is taking steps to manage the supply?

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I would suspect this is the case. Finding Eagle Crest rentals, even for prime summer weeks, is not that difficult, especially in this economy. I own at EC, and found a week for my friends to join us this summer for $500. That's $100+ less than MF's for a bright red week.

Actually it has been pointed out to me on the wmowners site that the exchange rights that were modified were a change made by Wyndham (the developer), and not Worldmark the Club. In the trade, Wyndham is just paying the owner in WM credits, just as they could do in dollars or Wyndham points or travel shampoo's, or anything else they choose.

So if the letter (and I have not seen it), is stating that "special trade arrangements" with Worldmark are ending, that is a mis-nomer. I think it should accurately state that "Worldmark By Wyndham is ending their special trade program for Eagle Crest, but owners will still be able to exchange their week under the Worldmark By Wyndham Exchange Plus program."

To some it might seem a small distinction, but to others it is not. Just wanted to clarify that my previous posts should have said the Developer not WM or Worldmark. So it really is not - at least directly - an owners rights issue, or even a Worldmark the Club issue. I know the name similarities make it confusing, but they are two separate entities.

And to answer the other question, it would appear that this is a Developer program, and we all know how set in stone they are.

SharonD said:

2) There is a limit of 4 weeks per calendar year. I have 10 weeks I usually trade. I'm not sure if I could trade 4 more if I had a 2nd Worldmark membership (does anyone know?)

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ecwinch said:

...exchange rights that were modified were a change made by Wyndham (the developer), and not Worldmark the Club.

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I'll point it out since no one else has stated it yet. Anyone getting shades of deja vu in comparison to RCI's points for deposit program changes made last year? Makes sense why the similarities given it's the same parent company for both.

Guess you can have too much of a good thing.

Remember this program was an in house worldmark run deal from its inception, when Cendant took over developer control, the Cendant/Wyndham controlled Worldmark Board of directors sold the FAX and exchange plus program to Wyndham.Worldmark has no say over it because our Board of directors sold it, and for very little.

It almost sounds funny to say "our" board of directors

I am editing this, I should have said that I am guessing that Exchange plus will be a part of the TEN agreement.

cruisin said:

The exchange Plus program is eventually going to be a part of the TEN agreement, unless your account is TEN qualified, you will be locked out.

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What does TEN qualified stand for?

Schooner landing and Wapato are also out, only the fractionals at Seaside, Depoe bay, and Tahoe keep the same deal, they were sold that when they bought.

Regular timeshare owners book redweeks in their season to deposit, almost no blue weeks go into Exchange plus, Many fractional owners deposit all 10 weeks, so a couple blue weeks from them would end up there, better to deposit a blue EagleCrest week in an exchange than to space bank 6,000 WM credits for a lesser trader to be determined.

3 weeks left to turn every week you have into WM credits.

iconnections said:

What does TEN qualified stand for?

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It is a program put into place when travelshare was rolled out, eventually all new resell accounts will be locked out of the Wyndham affiliated resorts from WVO, all of the Worldmark South Pacific, probably the exchange plus program etc...

As long as you are willing to buy another $10,000 worth of credits from the developer it will not affect you at all

cruisin said:

It is a program put into place when travelshare was rolled out, eventually all new resell accounts will be locked out of the Wyndham affiliated resorts from WVO, all of the Worldmark South Pacific, probably the exchange plus program etc...

As long as you are willing to buy another $10,000 worth of credits from the developer it will not affect you at all

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Are previously purchased resale accounts grandfathered into TEN? (Mine was purchased in 2002).