Looking to buy a timeshare [Wyndham]

[apinksweater]

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where? Orlando, or Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg TN

2) Do you want to visit your home resort at least half the time, or do you want to trade more than half the time? We fell in love with Bonnet Creek. We would go there everytime we travel to Florida, but would like to go other places as well.

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?Florida. Hawaii. Yellowstone Park, Caribbean, Europe

4) How many people do you usually travel with? If without kids, just the 2 of us. With the whole lot? There are 6 of us.

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule? We like to stick to a school schedule, but if we get a decent deal, we will pull those kiddos out!

6) Can you make firm plans 12 or more mos. in advance? Yes

7) Can you vacation for a full week at a time? Yes

8) What level of accommodations do you prefer on a scale of 1 to 5 stars? I think wed be ok with 3? Bonnet Creek was 4, and that was well beyond our expectations

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing? Im having a hard time figuring out the terminology. I think wed be good with a Wyndham Club Access, and I think we need in the 150k-170k points (thats likely 2 one week vacations with 1-2 Bedroom accommodations). That being said, Id like to be all in under 1k for initial cost, and no more than 100.00 a month

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year? Depends. Like I said, Id like to keep it around the 100.00 a month area. We can afford inflation.

11) Are you a detail oriented planner?Yes

12) Do you understand that once you buy a timeshare, it may be very difficult to sell or give away, and you are responsible for all fees, until you do? Yes.

We were looking at:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/168-000-WY...059716?hash=item3b1e939844:g:BnsAAOSw8m5btnT4

or

https://www.ebay.com/itm/154-000-CL...m=392137189428&_trksid=p2047675.c100009.m1982

As far as I understand, as long as you buy into the Wyndham club access, you can use the points anywhere- so the home resort is not the issue? Id love it if someone pointed me in the right direction for a stickied post on the terminology or could help walk me through the purchasing.

 

[DeniseM]

Moved to the Wyndham forum where you will get expert help from Wyndham owners.

 

[puppymommo]

Yes you can use any Wyndham points (not just Access), at any other Wyndham resort (not Wyndham hotels). Where your points are deeded only matters if you want to use ARP (Advance Reservation Priority). ARP allows you to book only at your home resort (or at any Access resorts if you own Access) at 13 months out. At 10 months out you can use any points at any resort. For example, if you want mostly to go to Bonnet Creek, you might want to buy there. I own 4 contract each at a different resort and I have never gone to any of my home resorts.

Quote: "I think wed be good with a Wyndham Club Access, and I think we need in the 150k-170k points (thats likely 2 one week vacations with 1-2 Bedroom accommodations)."

Usually this is not enough points for 2 week of vacations unless you are traveling in the off season for that resort. For example, at Bonnet Creek in "prime" season (spring break, summer, Christmas) it takes 166k for a week in a one bedroom and 224k for a week in a 2 bedroom. In "value" season it is 84k for a 1 bedroom and 112,000 for a 2 bedroom. On the other hand, if it is just the 2 of you, you can get some really good deals in off season in a studio. For example, at Fairfield Glade in Tennessee you can get a week for 28k. Generally the older resorts (called "legacy" resorts) take less points and the newer resorts (like Bonnet Creek) take more. You can also stretch your points by staying Sunday-Friday, as Friday and Saturday nights take a lot more points.

You can view the points chart for all resorts here:
https://www.myclubwyndham.com/mycw/resorts.page? You don't have to be an owner to view this.
You can view a timeshare weeks calendar (what week 1, 2 etc means) here:
https://www.redweek.com/calendar?year=2019

Good luck! I am a very happy Wyndham owner (all resale).

 

[Avislo]

"Yes you can use any Wyndham points"

Just to clarify Wyndham has a number of different point types. Wyndham Club Plus/Access points, at the 10 month point can be combined to make a reservation. There are exceptions to this also.

 

[Jan M.]

Ron Parise and bnoble patiently corrected me enough times to finally get it through my head, deeded points are Club Wyndham Select points. Club Wyndham Access point are not deeded, you own nothing, but have a contract with Wyndham for x number of points. Both are Club Wyndham Plus points. At 10 months you can use your points to book other resorts.

If you are somewhat flexible about when you can go then I highly recommend owning at a resort with low maintenance fees. There is a sticky at the top of the Wyndham forum page about maintenance fees at the different resorts. There are enough resorts with lower maintenance fees that there is no need to saddle yourself with something that has high maintenance fees. It is important to remember that you will owe those maintenance fees for as long as you own. When you see something being offered for free but it has higher maintenance fees vs paying a couple hundred dollars for something with lower maintenance fees do the math and see for yourself how many years it will take to recover your money on what you save in maintenance fees. I

Another thing to keep in mind is that If you don't own at least 231,000 points you will pay a minimum program fee of $131 instead of .58 per thousand points.

Most all of us didn't buy nearly enough points when we started out. My recommendation would be to start with 308,000 points. It isn't hard to find listings at Grand Desert for that number of points and the maintenance fees are pretty good. We own in building 3 which has a little higher maintenance fees than buildings 1 and 2. They are $4.66 per thousand and that is without the .58 per thousand program fee. So with the program fee $5.24 per thousand. That would make it $1613.92 a year or $134.49 a month for 308,000 points vs $1933.70 a year or $161.14 a month for the same number of points with CWA points. In 5 years the difference adds up to $1598.90. We can take a pretty nice vacation or even two for $1598.90. After a while the maintenance fees become just like any other bill you owe and you stop thinking of the lodging as part of your vacation expenses.

If you are willing to pull your kids out of school to go to Bonnet Creek and Disney or Universal that is the absolute best use of your family's vacation money and time. When our son was growing up we found that it was easier to take him out when he already had a day or two off that week. Quite often on partial school weeks there isn't as much going on. His district did a semester break over Martin Luther King week so he had three days off that week. We continued vacationing in Orlando and Pompano Beach that week even when he went off to college as airfares were cheaper, I was able to find the stays I wanted and crowds were low. The crowds at the Disney Parks during Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter weeks are unbelievable.

The best ticket prices I've seen are through tickets2you.com. You can set up a My Disney Experience account, get the app on your phone too, link the tickets and make your three Fast Pass picks for every day you will be at a Park. Make those picks for as early in the day as you think you can get to the Parks. If you won't get there in time to use them make sure you go into your My Disney Experience account on your phone, tablet, or to a kiosk at the Park to modify any of all of your picks to a later time or even a different ride so you don't lose any of them. After you've used the last of the first three picks you can pick one at a time. But you can also go to a different Park and do a pick for that Park. I can't think what the app is called so hopefully someone else knows and you do pay for it but it is under $10 I believe. It will tell you the wait times at the different rides so you can figure how to make sure you aren't wasting your time standing in long lines. We can do more in 3-4 hours than some people manage to do all day with smart use of the fast pass picks.

 

[Avislo]

"finally get it through my head, deeded points are Club Wyndham Select points"

Wyndham Destination deeded points can also include Shell Vacation Club, Presidential Reserves, among other deeded properties that may not be part of Club Wyndham Select designation.

 

[Avislo]

Maybe people that are interested in the different point types within Wyndham Club Plus/Access, maybe they could post the types that are showing under the ownership section on their website.

I am showing Select, Access. and Pic Plus.

 

[Richelle]

Ron Parise and bnoble patiently corrected me enough times to finally get it through my head, deeded points are Club Wyndham Select points. Club Wyndham Access point are not deeded, you own nothing, but have a contract with Wyndham for x number of points. Both are Club Wyndham Plus points. At 10 months you can use your points to book other resorts.

If you are somewhat flexible about when you can go then I highly recommend owning at a resort with low maintenance fees. There is a sticky at the top of the Wyndham forum page about maintenance fees at the different resorts. There are enough resorts with lower maintenance fees that there is no need to saddle yourself with something that has high maintenance fees. It is important to remember that you will owe those maintenance fees for as long as you own. When you see something being offered for free but it has higher maintenance fees vs paying a couple hundred dollars for something with lower maintenance fees do the math and see for yourself how many years it will take to recover your money on what you save in maintenance fees. I

Another thing to keep in mind is that If you don't own at least 231,000 points you will pay a minimum program fee of $131 instead of .58 per thousand points.

Most all of us didn't buy nearly enough points when we started out. My recommendation would be to start with 308,000 points. It isn't hard to find listings at Grand Desert for that number of points and the maintenance fees are pretty good. We own in building 3 which has a little higher maintenance fees than buildings 1 and 2. They are $4.66 per thousand and that is without the .58 per thousand program fee. So with the program fee $5.24 per thousand. That would make it $1613.92 a year or $134.49 a month for 308,000 points vs $1933.70 a year or $161.14 a month for the same number of points with CWA points. In 5 years the difference adds up to $1598.90. We can take a pretty nice vacation or even two for $1598.90. After a while the maintenance fees become just like any other bill you owe and you stop thinking of the lodging as part of your vacation expenses.

If you are willing to pull your kids out of school to go to Bonnet Creek and Disney or Universal that is the absolute best use of your family's vacation money and time. When our son was growing up we found that it was easier to take him out when he already had a day or two off that week. Quite often on partial school weeks there isn't as much going on. His district did a semester break over Martin Luther King week so he had three days off that week. We continued vacationing in Orlando and Pompano Beach that week even when he went off to college as airfares were cheaper, I was able to find the stays I wanted and crowds were low. The crowds at the Disney Parks during Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter weeks are unbelievable.

The best ticket prices I've seen are through tickets2you.com. You can set up a My Disney Experience account, get the app on your phone too, link the tickets and make your three Fast Pass picks for every day you will be at a Park. Make those picks for as early in the day as you think you can get to the Parks. If you won't get there in time to use them make sure you go into your My Disney Experience account on your phone, tablet, or to a kiosk at the Park to modify any of all of your picks to a later time or even a different ride so you don't lose any of them. After you've used the last of the first three picks you can pick one at a time. But you can also go to a different Park and do a pick for that Park. I can't think what the app is called so hopefully someone else knows and you do pay for it but it is under $10 I believe. It will tell you the wait times at the different rides so you can figure how to make sure you aren't wasting your time standing in long lines. We can do more in 3-4 hours than some people manage to do all day with smart use of the fast pass picks.

Just a tiny correction. It's .56 per 1,000 for resale. I agree with everything you said. There is a 154,000 National Harbor contract up on ebay with a starting bid of $750. The maintenance fees on that one is $64 a month because of the minimum program fee. If he gets a second contract to take him over the 231 mark, it will be more like $60 a month. That contract should get them half way there. Plus, we are heading into a buyers market. Good time to buy.

 

[ecwinch]

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?Florida. Hawaii. Yellowstone Park, Caribbean, Europe

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule? We like to stick to a school schedule, but if we get a decent deal, we will pull those kiddos out!

10) How much can you afford to spend every year for a maintenance fee that will come due right after Christmas, and increase each year? Depends. Like I said, Id like to keep it around the 100.00 a month area. We can afford inflation.

Tackling these answers:

3) The Wyndham resorts in Florida and Hawaii are relatively easy to reserve. Caribbean a little harder as some of those resorts are in a separate Club that you dont get via resale. Yellowstone Park is also in a separate Club that you cannot reserve with resale, but that resort is almost impossible for Club Wyndham owners to reserve anyway. Europe is only possible via the RCI exchange, which offers resorts in the Caribbean also.

5) If you plan ahead summers are doable. The problem is that their are only 3-4 summer months, and everyone wants the summer. So plan ahead.

10) $100 a month would cover dues on around 175-210k pts.

 

[Jan M.]

Just a tiny correction. It's .56 per 1,000 for resale. I agree with everything you said. There is a 154,000 National Harbor contract up on ebay with a starting bid of $750. The maintenance fees on that one is $64 a month because of the minimum program fee. If he gets a second contract to take him over the 231 mark, it will be more like $60 a month. That contract should get them half way there. Plus, we are heading into a buyers market. Good time to buy.

We pay a higher program fee because we are presidential reserve. Another thing I need to remember, lol!

Does it make sense that we pay .58 per thousand on our deeds that aren't PR points? I would have thought we would only pay .56 on the deeds that aren't PR. When you look at your financial information each deed is calculated separately.

 

[Richelle]

PR program fee is 64 cents per 1,000. Regular points with plus partners is 58 cents per 1,000. I wouldn't think it's fair to charge normal points the PR fee of 64 cents per 1,000 because the normal points are not part of the program. However, if you can use those regular points for any of the benefits in the PR program, then maybe. Otherwise, they should be charged differently.

 

[Jan M.]

PR program fee is 64 cents per 1,000. Regular points with plus partners is 58 cents per 1,000. I wouldn't think it's fair to charge normal points the PR fee of 64 cents per 1,000 because the normal points are not part of the program. However, if you can use those regular points for any of the benefits in the PR program, then maybe. Otherwise, they should be charged differently.

View attachment 8586

So if you only own resale points you would pay .56 per thousand points for the program fee as long as you have at least 231,000 points because you don't get Plus Partners with resale?

 

[Richelle]

So if you only own resale points you would pay .56 per thousand points for the program fee as long as you have at least 231,000 points because you don't get Plus Partners with resale?

Correct. That's why i laugh, when a sales guy tries to say resale maintenance fees are higher then retail bought points. Retail actually has higher fees because of the higher program fee.