What should I buy? Thank you!

[Link]

Hello! Longtime reader deciding to take the next step and get more direct advice. From the research I have done on here and elsewhere, I think a Wyndham points resale around 230K would be a good fit. Before exploring that anymore I want to see if we are heading in the right direction. Thank you!

1) Is there a vacation destination you wish to visit most of the time or on a regular basis? if so where?

Yes - Orlando, Myrtle Beach every 2-3 years.

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?

Trade more than half.

3) What are your 5 top trade destinations?

Orlando, Hawaii, Myrtle Beach, Caribbean, Southern California

4) How many people do you usually travel with?

4 (2 Adults, 2 Kids)

5) Can you travel any time, or are you locked into the school schedule?

Locked into school schedule because of kids and my career.

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?

3-4

9) How much can you afford to spend upfront, without financing?

Up to $5,000. Although I am more concerned about the long term costs of maintenance fees.

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?

Up to $2,000

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.

 

[WinniWoman]

I don't own a points system, as I own fixed (but exchangeable) summer weeks in Vermont and NH that we can drive to from NY, but I will go out on a limb and say maybe a Wyndham ownership might be a good fit, since you live on the East Coast. Trading into Orlando and Myrtle Beach should be fairly easy and also maybe the Caribbean to a lesser extent.

Hawaii is always challenging to trade into, but can be done.

But when you are limited to the school schedule it can make exchanging challenging as the vacation weeks you need are the same ones everyone else needs.

Others can chime in as to what kind of or level of Wyndham- resale of course.

On the other hand, since your traveling is tied into a school schedule, purchasing a deeded, summer week or other prime week in an RCI points ownership or an exchangeable (through RCI, for ex), fixed week ownership at a destination you can easily drive to is also a good idea. I say a summer week because it looks like you want to travel to warm places. You can also buy a XMAS week as a prime week.

Don't bother buying in Orlando. You can rent those just the same. Florida is overbuilt with timeshares. I do not know enough about Myrtle Beach to comment on that one.

Do you prefer to travel at XMAS or in the summer? Or do you like to travel during spring break? That all matters, too. Points will give you flexibility.

That said, a good, prime fixed summer week on the East coast also can give you good trade value to go elsewhere and at another time of year if you decide to change it up.

Don't know the age of your kids, but Smugglers Notch in Vermont might be a place to consider if you can get a prime summer week. It is a Wyndham resort, but there are resales available that are not in the Wyndham system. (The one I own is not either).

If for some reason you can't do airfare, at least you know you can take a drive up there in the summer. Great place for families.

 

[louisianab]

The Wyndham points based system will definitely make it easy to pick your resorts, there is not internal trading - whatever you have has points and you can book wherever. You've gotten to the right place, read a bunch of the forums and then watch the bargain bin for what you end up wanting.

 

[Passepartout]

Welcome to TUG,
You shouldn't buy ANY timeshare without spending at least 2-3 months on TUG reading about the various systems. They all have their own idiosyncrasies. Some are pure points, some have you buy a deeded property then pay to exchange it if you want a different resort or time of use.

For flexibility and to keep costs down, a point system with internal exchanging (like Wyndham) makes some sense. Use WorldMark if you live in the West.

Look in the TUG Last Minute Rentals when you have a vacation out about 45 days. These are max $800 for a full week, and there is no buy-in or requirement to attend a sales presentation. Those can get brutal! You might just find that you don't need to buy after all.

You mention Orlando & Myrtle Beach as favorites. Those are overbuilt but will fill during school holidays and summer vacations. Other overbuilt locales are Las Vegas, Williamsburg, VA, Branson, MO. Southern California beaches are a difficult exchange anytime, and Hawaii is not difficult, just expensive.

Happy reading and vacationing!

Jim

 

[Link]

Thank your for the advice! To add some more details, we live in CT and would be willing to drive as far as 10-15 hours to our “home” resort to ensure we always have a vacation.

We generally vacation in the summer because we have a lot more flexibility then. The prices usually jump for Christmas and April vacation also. The reason we are looking at Wyndham is due to the (apparent) flexibility of the points as we want to try many different places. We stayed at Bonnet Creek once and loved it, and are intrigued by the Wisconsin Dells resort, Smuggs, and one of the Myrtle Beach properties.

With an allotment of points, it looks like we could take one “big” vacation a year, or 2-3 vacations at resorts with smaller point requirements (off-season, or 1B instead of 2B). Is this equally true/easy with a traditional deeded week?

I will definitely follow the advice above and read more into each of the systems. My initial take is that Marriott is considered to be at the higher end of quality vs Wyndham, but also comes with a higher buy-in cost and maintenance fees. Am I right in thinking that the maintenance fees are the biggest piece of the cost long-term, assuming I buy resale of course!

 

[hyperjewl]

Welcome to TUG,
You shouldn't buy ANY timeshare without spending at least 2-3 months on TUG reading about the various systems. They all have their own idiosyncrasies. Some are pure points, some have you buy a deeded property then pay to exchange it if you want a different resort or time of use.

For flexibility and to keep costs down, a point system with internal exchanging (like Wyndham) makes some sense. Use WorldMark if you live in the West.

Look in the TUG Last Minute Rentals when you have a vacation out about 45 days. These are max $800 for a full week, and there is no buy-in or requirement to attend a sales presentation. Those can get brutal! You might just find that you don't need to buy after all.

You mention Orlando & Myrtle Beach as favorites. Those are overbuilt but will fill during school holidays and summer vacations. Other overbuilt locales are Las Vegas, Williamsburg, VA, Branson, MO. Southern California beaches are a difficult exchange anytime, and Hawaii is not difficult, just expensive.

Happy reading and vacationing!

Jim

We tend to look for Gold Crown resorts with units that are at least 2 bedroom sleep 8. How many Wyndham points would be needed to do this? Between RCI points and Wyndham points is one better than the other, or have greater flexibility or offer more bang for your buck than the other? We own weeks but are looking into points systems, just not sure which route to take. We're not looking for another high maintenance fee, but would love the additional flexibility for our family.

 

[WinniWoman]

Thank your for the advice! To add some more details, we live in CT and would be willing to drive as far as 10-15 hours to our “home” resort to ensure we always have a vacation.

We generally vacation in the summer because we have a lot more flexibility then. The prices usually jump for Christmas and April vacation also. The reason we are looking at Wyndham is due to the (apparent) flexibility of the points as we want to try many different places. We stayed at Bonnet Creek once and loved it, and are intrigued by the Wisconsin Dells resort, Smuggs, and one of the Myrtle Beach properties.

With an allotment of points, it looks like we could take one “big” vacation a year, or 2-3 vacations at resorts with smaller point requirements (off-season, or 1B instead of 2B). Is this equally true/easy with a traditional deeded week?

I will definitely follow the advice above and read more into each of the systems. My initial take is that Marriott is considered to be at the higher end of quality vs Wyndham, but also comes with a higher buy-in cost and maintenance fees. Am I right in thinking that the maintenance fees are the biggest piece of the cost long-term, assuming I buy resale of course!

Yes. You are right on that one. In addition to the inventory of where you want to vacation and when, you want to look at the usage value for the maintenance fees you have to pay each year.

Points gives you more flexibility- at least that is what people always say- but with weeks your weeks are also allotted points (called TPU's) and you can conceivable get a bit extra "points" towards another vacation as well. When you own a weeks timeshare, each resort has a TPU value so if you use less TPU's you will have some left over for another time.

With weeks (or RCI points ownership) you have to belong to RCI (or II- if a II timeshare) for exchanges. Using the smaller exchange companies (like Platinum Interchange, for ex.) is limiting since they do not have a large inventory.

Just keep in mind that this all requires a bit of jumping through hoops and advanced planning every time you want to exchange so there is a learning curve.

Weeks are simpler if you plan to go for a full week anyway most of the time. You just exchange a week for a week. In our case, because we usually always go to Smuggs and Pollard Brook, we just show up each year for our same week and same unit. We like this as we have made some "friends" there that we see every year. When our son was young each year he would make friends and they would see each other every year as well. Everyone came up the same time each year so it is always nice to see the familiar faces.

But when our son was in school, we exchanged our floating week we also own at Smuggs through RCI and went all over the country with those, in the summer and sometimes spring break. We did use our fixed summer week and floater to go to Hawaii once for 21 days on two islands (with a few days rental in between).

So- keep on learning and good luck!

 

[Panina]

I would also take a look at the HGVC system. I have easily booked Myrtle Beach during school breaks.

If you purchase one of the HGVC affiliates that are members in Interval International it will give you access to HGVC, Interval and RCI for trading.

 

[jjking42]

Wyndham or Hgvc are good choices and have properties where you want to go
Wyndham will have lower MF and lower purchase price
Wyndham points includes RCI account

 

[Link]

Thanks everyone! I’m going to spend some more time looking at Wyndham and HGVC systems. Two more questions have come up in my reading of some older posts.

I have seen a lot of reference to Spring/Summer as a sellers market with higher prices, with the fall/winter having lower prices on resales. Is this the case?

We also might be interested in exchanging into DVC one year (limited availability and all). Is it correct that you cannot do this if you try to trade a week or points at a resort within 20 miles of Orlando?

Thanks again!