Trendwest and Worldmark

[happyrebster]

Hey all,

Does anyone here own through Trendwest/Worldmark? I am considering adding them as our next timeshare (DVC being my primary). Seems reasonably priced and good for west coast vacations. If you have had any good or bad experiences with them, esp. relative to DVC, I would love to hear about it. Thanks!

 

[bigsmooth]

I've seen posts from Worldmark owners before, so they'll probably fill you in with better details. But I'll chime in since I've stayed at and looked at a few Worldmark properties. We don't own, but my mother and MIL/FIL own at Worldmark. So we've stayed at a few of them. The quality ranges from the moderate/high to low. We stayed in Oceanside CA twice, and enjoyed it. We also stayed in one on the WA coast near Bellingham. Great location on the water, but very worn down and old. Paper thin walls that allowed you to hear everything above and beside you. We've also scouted their locations in Cabo, Maui and Ocean Shores. I believe they have two in Maui, one in Kihei that is new. Not directly on the water but across the street from the beach. And also one in Kannapali, that is pretty worn down. The Cabo one looks new and nice, have not looked at the rooms directly. Ocean Shores is pretty worn.

DW's parents just got back from Worldmark Fiji, and loved it. I also work right across the street from the Camlin hotel that Worldmark converted to a timeshare. I'd love to tour it, because that is a great property in a good downtown Seattle location. But I'd never stay there.

DW and I would like a good west coast/Hawaii option. So far we've resisted the urge to look at Worldmark. I've thought about Marriott for their west coast options, and have heard good things about it. But we are not ready to add any other vacation options right now.

 

[bwvBound]

Does anyone here own through Trendwest/Worldmark? I am considering adding them as our next timeshare (DVC being my primary). Seems reasonably priced and good for west coast vacations. If you have had any good or bad experiences with them, esp. relative to DVC, I would love to hear about it. Thanks!

We own WM and have stayed at 25+ WM resort locations. We've used normal "credit" reservations, bonus time, exchanges through II, exchanges through RCI and inventory specials. Happy all the way around.

A few WM differences:

• Vocabulary: WM credits vs DVC points. For comparison, a 1BR summer week at WM's Pismo Beach runs 8000 WM credits vs a similar week at DVC's Saratoga Springs at 243 DVC points.
• WM has more resort locations and new locations come online nearly every year.
• WM's credit tables show only three seasons (red, white and blue) vs DVC's five (Premier, Magic, Dream, Choice and Adventure). For WM, red is the period of high demand, white is moderate demand and blue is low demand.
• Banking/Borrowing is easier in WM. No action is required on your part for either banking or borrowing and there are no banking deadlines to worry about.
• WM does not use a "home resort" model. All owners have the same booking windows across all WM properties (13 months from check-in). Note: WM affiliate properties (WM South Pacific, Fairfield, and other affiliates) offer different booking windows.
• WM offers on-line booking via the web for most reservation types. This system allows owners to view resort availability (by resort, unit type, date), book credit and bonus time reservations, view reservation history, cancel reservations, etc.
• WM's reservation call-center has longer hours.
• WM's dues use a tiered structure. DVC assesses a flat rate per point per home resort -- WM uses a tiered dues structure. Study WM's dues structure before purchase. Consider buying at the top of any 5k-increment in order to pay-less-per-credit than an owner at the bottom of the same step.
• WM accounts (contracts) are easier to re-size than DVC. WM allows owners to buy/sell credits in 1k increments unlike DVC's route of buying/selling entire contracts at their original purchase size.
• WM charges housekeeping for each stay. This is tricky to describe -- but know that you may encounter housekeeping fees depending on your vacation usage habits. Each WM owner receives one free housekeeping token per year for each 10k credits owned. If you own 10k credits and book only one reservation each year (example: a 2BR summer week near DL in California) you will use your free housekeeping token along with the reservation and not pay any additional housekeeping charges. However, if you use the same 10k credits to book a few days at one location and a few days at another ... you will pay housekeeping fees on the second reservation. (Rate varies depending on the unit size.) A WM owner with 20k credits receives two free housekeeping tokens, 30k receives three, and so on.
• WM has restrictions on short-stay reservations. DVC allows owners to book 1 or 2 night stays anytime. WM requires a 7-night stay for any RED season reservation booked more than 60 days from check-in. Note is applies only to RED season reservations - and there are workarounds.
• Some WM resort locations charge Transient Occupancy Taxes (TOT). Depending on the resort's location (county enforced) -- you may encounter taxes on your reservation. Most do not charge -- but I've paid $4-$60 on top of my WM credits for my stay.
• WM owners may choose direct membership with RCI and II. Optional -- I maintain memberships with both exchange companies. Related note: WM owners may book "last minute" exchanges at a reduced number of credits. RCI offers any exchange booked w/in 45-days at 4k WM credits and II allows up to 59-days for the same.
• WM owners may perform reverse exchanges. WM owners may trade other resort weeks back to WM through either RCI or II for WM credits. This year I traded one of my other timeshares (a 2BR high-season week in South Africa) for 8000 WM Credits.
• WM offers Bonus Time reservations and Inventory Specials. Both are tools for booking reservations via cash instead of credits. The cash rate is roughly equivalent to dues for a similar reservation. (Limited availability ...)
• Dues increases are capped differently. DVC governing docs allow up to 15% annual dues increase, WM at 5%.