Thinking of Buying

[phenixdragon Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close phenixdragon]

So this past weekend my wife an I were in Vegas and got suckered into one of those presentations form Wyndham for a free show ticket. About 6 years ago I had a timeshare from Worldmark, but filed Ch. 7 soon after and included it so now I don't have it. I never used it and never learned really if it was worth it. Anyway, I always thought about getting one again now that I am way more stable off and can really afford it. The presentation of course all makes sense on what they are selling you, but they are selling to you and I know I can buy points way cheaper. Their 308,000 points they sell are over $60,000 while on eBay and other sites can be found for just a few grand. But I am wondering a few things.

Does it matter where the places is deeded?

Are maintenance costs just based on how many points you have or are there other factors?

If I buy one off of eBay with 300,000 points, can I still get the VIP membership with Wyndham? Not saying it's worth it but just curious.

And if I buy one, can I always add more points to is? Or do you buy separate deeds with various points? Or when buying separate deeds, can you total all those points as 1 pool of points when booking?

I also did speak to someone who resells these and he suggested I buy the WorldMark points since we live on the West Coast, Seattle, instead of the Fairfield Wyndham points. The reason being not just because of living on the West coast but also the maintenance fees are lower and have a 5% increase cap The numbers he was quoting showed that the the equilvant points from Fairfield to WorldMark was about half the maintenance cost. But the downside is that some of the places for Fairfield isn't available to WorldMark. Can anyone give me a suggestion about this?

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

Welcome to TS4MS. I'm not an expert on this group, but we have people who are. Please be patient and your questions will be answered, I'm sure.

Sue

[aliikai2 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close aliikai2]

Wyndham

So this past weekend my wife an I were in Vegas and got suckered into one of those presentations form Wyndham for a free show ticket. About 6 years ago I had a timeshare from Worldmark, but filed Ch. 7 soon after and included it so now I don't have it. I never used it and never learned really if it was worth it. Anyway, I always thought about getting one again now that I am way more stable off and can really afford it. The presentation of course all makes sense on what they are selling you, but they are selling to you and I know I can buy points way cheaper. Their 308,000 points they sell are over $60,000 while on eBay and other sites can be found for just a few grand. But I am wondering a few things.

Does it matter where the places is deeded?

The only real factors are the annual cost per 1000 points, that and the ARP advanced reservation priority if you plan to book hard to get times at a certain resort.

Are maintenance costs just based on how many points you have or are there other factors?

The prices per 1000 vary as much as $3. so it does matter.

If I buy one off of eBay with 300,000 points, can I still get the VIP membership with Wyndham? Not saying it's worth it but just curious.

Nope, not available without a major investment in developer full price points.

And if I buy one, can I always add more points to is? Or do you buy separate deeds with various points? Or when buying separate deeds, can you total all those points as 1 pool of points when booking?

Too much to cover here
please read this primer WYNDHAM INFORMATION and ADVICE ARTICLES - Timeshare Users Group Online Community Forums

I also did speak to someone who resells these and he suggested I buy the WorldMark points since we live on the West Coast, Seattle, instead of the Fairfield Wyndham points. The reason being not just because of living on the West coast but also the maintenance fees are lower and have a 5% increase cap The numbers he was quoting showed that the the equilvant points from Fairfield to WorldMark was about half the maintenance cost. But the downside is that some of the places for Fairfield isn't available to WorldMark. Can anyone give me a suggestion about this?

There is no single system that covers all your possible requirements, living in the west the conventional wisdom is buy WM, but only you can decide how/where/when you are planning to travel.

fwiw, Greg

[bigrick Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close bigrick]

So this past weekend my wife an I were in Vegas and got suckered into one of those presentations form Wyndham for a free show ticket. About 6 years ago I had a timeshare from Worldmark, but filed Ch. 7 soon after and included it so now I don't have it. I never used it and never learned really if it was worth it. Anyway, I always thought about getting one again now that I am way more stable off and can really afford it. The presentation of course all makes sense on what they are selling you, but they are selling to you and I know I can buy points way cheaper. Their 308,000 points they sell are over $60,000 while on eBay and other sites can be found for just a few grand. But I am wondering a few things.

I've been wondering what developer prices are during the current recession. My wife and I went to a presentation in Vegas recently expecting developer prices to be in the low $20,000s but were quoted an offer at $30,000 plus MFs of $1800. I'm not interested at that price!

I'm even more surprised that developers are offering initial deals of $60,000. I guess there's more available money out there than I realized.

[phenixdragon Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close phenixdragon]

Thanks for the replies. Been doing a lot of reading the past few days and honestly, with the maintenance fees, I don't know if it's even worth it even if I get a timeshare for next to nothing. Looking at the Wyndham resort in Vegas. Great looking place, but for a week I need at least 300,000 points and honestly, I'd rather have 600,000 points so I can stay another week somewhere else, or maybe a bit longer then a week, or maybe a few smaller trip. But if I am correct, maintenance fees just for 400,000 points is about $130 a month, and double that for 600,000 points. That's a lot.

So lets say with costs of 300,000 points and I decided I wanted to go to Vegas. Instead of having a timeshare, I can take that $130 a month for lets say 5 nights, and go to pretty much any hotel on the strip. Yes some are higher, some are lower, but $130 after taxes and fees isn't too bad. Maybe I spend a few bucks more but I can go to any hotel at any time. It seems like the maintenance is just way too much on these things. My buddy was saying with his WorldMark he's paying about $40 a month for 12,000 credit which isn't too bad. Actually pretty good I think, but I would want maybe about 30,000-40,000 so I can get to go to some higher end resorts. Again, it's a lot of money in maintenance and so many limitations.

Maybe I am missing something here? Maybe I am wrong?

[Nitram Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Nitram]

Can't imagine playing over $1K/year for Vegas

I'm going to Vegas in June. Got the Hilton at Flamingo (near the Mirage and Cesars) for 24 TPU (Weeks unit). I got 32 TPU from my Woodstone summer lockout that I paid $540 MF. So I have 8 TPU left over and after paying RCI, the cost is about $700 for the week.

In 2009, I traded my Woodstone unit for two weeks in Hawaii. Each of the Hawaii units had MFs over $1K. In 2010, I traded half (a one bedroom) for a three bedroom at Orange Lake in Orlando. It cost me $440 which I split with a friend who came along.

And you can buy weeks with much better TPUs and lower MFs than Woodstone.

There's excellent resorts available with MFs under $1K, and strong trading power.

[phenixdragon Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close phenixdragon]

I ended up not buying. When calculating the cost of maintenance fees, cleaning fees, and whatever fees there are, plus the cost of buying even resale price, it's not worth it to me. Plus also the hassle, or at least the potential of the hassle of trying to find openings in places. All in all it looks great but what we spending on hotels and whatnot, it costs us much less then a timeshare would.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

You could do a try before you buy.
I did that before I took the plunge into TS's.

You can rent from Wyndham and Worldmark owners and see how you like it.
It might make sense for you and it might not. I think if you don't do alot of travelling and don't care if you stay in hotel rooms then it's probably not for you but if you tried renting a 2 bedroom with a full kitchen you just might decide that you like it better than staying in hotels. And if you stay in a Presidential suite then you might just get the TS bug.

[phenixdragon Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close phenixdragon]

I used Wyndham many times in the past. It's great and all but when I look at being in Vegas. Yes, the resort they showed us in Vegas was great and I would love to have stayed there. But adding up the costs it would take for me to stay 3 or 4 nights there, and if I could get in, I honestly would have rather taken a hotel room at the Venetian or Paris. I would have paid less and could go any time I wanted to. I'm sure at some point I will buy into one of these because they can be nice, but everything I have added up on how I travel, it would cost me more with more restrictions.