DVC or Wyndham

[JimMIA]

Jim - wow look how much you are learning already. You say this makes your head spin but your have a good grasp on it already!!!

I'm still in the learning curve. What I know is mostly thanks to you and Brian.

RCI fees - is not a Wyndham fee thing. This is true regardless of what timeshare you are trading in RCI, I think to trade out of DVC you get this charge too? The $95 fee is a DISNEY thing not RCI, heck Disney charges DVC members $95 if you exchange your DVC pts into one of the non DVC WDW resorts. This $95 was true when DVC went through II, again Disney charges this - they claim it is to cover ME and MS type stuff. It has a lot of exchangers angry because most resorts don't charge this and most consider it BS.

Right. I was just trying to give a fuller view of fees that might pop up if a Wyndham owner used all of the features of their account...regardless of where the fees originate.

Also, for folks thinking about using Wyndham to exchange INTO DVC, you should know that Wyndham does not exchange terribly well into DVC. There are apparently other timeshare systems that have greater trading power, and I'm sure there are many who have less power.

 

[JimMIA]

I had someone who bought Wyndham from developer not have a clue of how to use her pts.

Fortunately, that could never happen with DVC!

 

[HHSTigerFan]

culli- You ever stayed at Glacier Canyon?? We are from Illinois, thats one that would appeal to us for 3-4 night stays..

 

[culli]

culli- You ever stayed at Glacier Canyon?? We are from Illinois, thats one that would appeal to us for 3-4 night stays..

Funny you mention that, that is why we bought Wyn in the first place. We stay there at least 4x's a year for 3 day type trips. I have a 4 br presidential suite in Oct coming when the kids are out of school. It about an hour drive for us so we went to the Dells and with 4 young kids it is SOOO much better to be in a spacious condo then 1 or 2 hotel rooms. To give you an idea of cost it is 73k pts so it is $348 out of pocket for me for 3 nights at a waterpark in a 4br. You can't get a small hotel room an avg of $116 a night. The waterpark that GC is attached to is the Wilderness, which is pretty nice.

 

[Brian Noble]

[ETA: The transaction credits (I think) are only used to pay for transactions by phone to Wyndham's MS. They have an excellent online booking system, and that's free.]

The online system also consumes transaction credits. However, once you are out of credits, online reservations are cheaper than phone reservations. The Directory that I linked to above lists the current fees, unless some have changed since publication. Finally, transaction credits are used "per day"---you can make more than one reservation in the same day, even at different times or during different phone calls, and still use just one credit.

 

[HHSTigerFan]

Funny you mention that, that is why we bought Wyn in the first place. We stay there at least 4x's a year for 3 day type trips. I have a 4 br presidential suite in Oct coming when the kids are out of school. It about an hour drive for us so we went to the Dells and with 4 young kids it is SOOO much better to be in a spacious condo then 1 or 2 hotel rooms. To give you an idea of cost it is 73k pts so it is $348 out of pocket for me for 3 nights at a waterpark in a 4br. You can't get a small hotel room an avg of $116 a night. The waterpark that GC is attached to is the Wilderness, which is pretty nice.

Did you buy at Glacier Canyon or elsewhere?

 

[culli]

Did you buy at Glacier Canyon or elsewhere?

I own at Kingsgate and Pagosa, I have not had an issue booking anything at 10 months so far but NYE booked fast this year once the 10 month opened up. Summer goes fast too and is their Prime season, off season is very low in pts and always seems to be availability. Rumor has it Wyn might be adding more units there and some other expansion. The nice this with what I call the "Waterpark Wars" or each one trying to out do the other in size etc is not owning there I don't have to pay for any of it!!! I beleive GC MFs a little on the high side and being a development they are still actively selling you don't see a ton of resales out there yet.

 

[JimMIA]

I went to the Member Directory Brian linked and got some info on transactions, cancellations, housekeeping, and guest confirmations.

Transactions: You receive one free Transaction credit for each 77,000 points. As Brian stated, one transaction credit is good for all transactions on one day...so if you made 3-4 reservations, cancellations, etc all in one day, it would only be one credit.

When you run out, you have to purchase transaction credits. Online credits are $30 and phone credits are $59.

Housekeeping: You receive one housekeeping credit for each thousand points you own. Your cost in housekeeping credits is determined by the size of the unit and the length of your stay (e.g. a one-week stay in a 2 BR is 77 credits). If you run out, you can purchase housekeeping credits for $2.25 each.

Guest Confirmations: You receive one free Guest confirmation per year, which is used for any booking other than for an owner of the account. If you need more, they are $99 for online guest confirmations or $129 for phone.

Higher levels of points, VIP status, etc. gives you higher numbers of free credits and some other priviliges.

Cancellation policy: If you cancel within 15 days of arrival, your points are returned to your account. There are some limitations on the use of those points, but they can be used for reservations any time within that UY.

If you cancel 14 days or less (with one exception), your points are forfeited. The exception is if you booked the reservation within 14 days and subsequently had to cancel. In that case, the Directory says you can cancel until the end of the same business day without forfeiting, but I'm not clear whether that means the business day on which you made the reservation or your arrival day. (?)

Most of the comments I've read, both here and on TUG, indicate that the allotments are adequate unless you do a lot of short trips, or don't plan well.

 

[Brian Noble]

unless you do a lot of short trips

Even then, it can work out if your short trips tend to be during Prime season. I usually end up paying a little something most years---the credit pooling fee, maybe an extra transaction, etc---but the overall cost of ownership is so low that I don't bother sweating the small stuff.

 

[JimMIA]

One other question for the Wyndham experts:

I just read (in a couple of authoritative places) that if you have more than one Wyndham points reservation in the same time period, you either have to pay a substantial extra fee for a Guest Confirmation or risk having one of the reservations canceled...with the points forfeited.

As I read that, here's the effect it could have on my family (We would have three co-owners: myself and my two adult daughters.)

If two or more of us (all of who have school-aged kids) booked reservations that overlapped, we'd have a problem even though an owner was occupying each of the rooms. The only fix would be to purchase a Guest Confirmation for $99 or whatever it is.

Or, if all three of our families decided to go on a vacation together, we'd have to pay about $200 for Guest Confirmations even though each unit was occupied by one owner and their immediate family (spouse & kids).

This sounds nuts to me -- am I reading this right?

 

[culli]

One other question for the Wyndham experts:

I just read (in a couple of authoritative places) that if you have more than one Wyndham points reservation in the same time period, you either have to pay a substantial extra fee for a Guest Confirmation or risk having one of the reservations canceled...with the points forfeited.

As I read that, here's the effect it could have on my family (We would have three co-owners: myself and my two adult daughters.)

If two or more of us (all of who have school-aged kids) booked reservations that overlapped, we'd have a problem even though an owner was occupying each of the rooms. The only fix would be to purchase a Guest Confirmation for $99 or whatever it is.

Or, if all three of our families decided to go on a vacation together, we'd have to pay about $200 for Guest Confirmations even though each unit was occupied by one owner and their immediate family (spouse & kids).

This sounds nuts to me -- am I reading this right?

This is a good question as I also would like to know if this is absolute or not. I called once to Wyndham and they said if you have more than one ressie at the same time you need a GC or they will cancel. I didn't push it to much as I just got a larger unit. I think this is one for the real experts! I will post it on TUG for you and see what I get for a response.

 

[JimMIA]

This is a good question as I also would like to know if this is absolute or not. I called once to Wyndham and they said if you have more than one ressie at the same time you need a GC or they will cancel. I didn't push it to much as I just got a larger unit. I think this is one for the real experts! I will post it on TUG for you and see what I get for a response.

I got the info from the TUG Wyndham introductory info. The examples I gave are practically directly from that material.

It also appears in the Members Directory, but the wording is "may be canceled."

A lot of things may happen, but it would be good to know if they really do or if they make exceptions if you call and say, "Look, three families own this account; one OWNER is going to California and the another OWNER is going to Myrtle Beach. It's not a mistake, so don't cancel us."

 

[Brian Noble]

It is absolute and cancellations have happened. But, if you have more than one "owner of record" you can have a unit in each owner's name.

So, my wife and I can each book units concurrently, because both of us are on the deed. A third concurrent unit would require a GC.

It is commonly assumed that this Guest Certificate policy is one way Wyndham has tried to make life more difficult for commercial renters. That's why I usually add "be careful what you wish for" to those threads when everyone complains about all the spec renters in DVC.

 

[JimMIA]

This is the part I'm questioning, from the TUG Advice Articles on Wyndham, Article VIII:

"CAUTION: On rare occasions you may book overlapping reservations. This can involve the same resort or different Wyndham resorts during the same time frame. If the Wyndham computer detects that you have more than one unit reserved for dates that overlap, the extra reservation(s) may be cancelled and the involved points forfeited. Here are some examples:

1.Two owners of record (emphasis added) take separate vacations during the same time period at two different Wyndham resorts, i.e. one goes to Vegas and the other goes to the beach.

2.A week at Orlando could be booked with an overlapping stay at Daytona Beach, FL.

3.A ten night stay is desired; but only a seven and an overlapping four nights are available.

TIP: If you must book overlapping reservations, avoid cancellation and forfeiture of points by obtaining the required Guest Confirmation(s) well before the computer rejects the reservation. The Guest Confirmation must be in place at least 15 days before the check-in date."

I found similar language in the Owner's Directory reservation information.

#1 above sounds like it could be a minor problem for us. We get one free GC per year, so that helps and most years it wouldn't come up. If we rent a reservation to someone, we'd just factor the GC cost into the rental.

However, if we wanted to plan a family trip (3 families all co-owners, 11 people), we'd just have to add $200 to the cost for the GCs.

Not a big deal, but I'd rather know now than show up in Vegas with no reservation!

 

[Brian Noble]

I've always been under the impression that you can have concurrent reservations for different owners of record. But, I haven't ever done it, so I don't have first-hand knowledge. This is based on my recollection of discussions that high-point owners have had on the Wyndham Owners' board.

 

[culli]

Sounds like not a definitive answer but here is the link to the post if you want to follow:

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126015

 

[Doug7856]

We received our closing documents for our resale today. Does anyone know approximately how long Wyndham takes to process a change of ownership after settlement? Also, I was wondering how dues payments will be handles while Wyndham processes the transfer of ownership to us. The current owner pays monthly by CC.

Thanks!

 

[Brian Noble]

It can take quite some time.

Did you close through a professional company, or was the transaction completely private? Often, escrow companies will ask the buyer to pre-pay several months' fees, and then pay them out of the escrow account while the transaction is in process at Wyndham. If you have closed professionally, you might want to call them and see what they suggest.

 

[Doug7856]

It can take quite some time.

Did you close through a professional company, or was the transaction completely private? Often, escrow companies will ask the buyer to pre-pay several months' fees, and then pay them out of the escrow account while the transaction is in process at Wyndham. If you have closed professionally, you might want to call them and see what they suggest.

We are using JRA Services, Inc. I'll ask what they recommend.

 

[littlestar]

Our newest Wyndham contract just showed up in our online account Tuesday (haven't received the snail mail notification yet). We bought our latest contract the end of May so everything moved fairly quickly this time. Our first contract took over four months to be finalized and in the system.

I was able to change my Waikiki Beachwalk one bedroom to a two bedroom instead!