How Do "Points" work?

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

In reading posts and threads on this site, I have learned that timeshares are not an investment. It is something to enjoy. It may be a hedge against future vacation costs. Hum. Okay, understood. BUT,

There are different business models. One is a point system (WorldMark). How does this work, exactly? I don't fully understand what I would be paying for (or inheiriting). If not property, is it the right to use properties? Why is the resale value of the points as low as for deeded property?

PG

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

I own Wyndham. So I will address Wyndham points. First of all it is a deeded property. I own a deed at Bonnet Creek which is within the gates of Disney World and a deed at Kingsgate which is in Williamsburg, Virginia. Your deeded property allots you so many points per year to vacation. I have a total of 500,000 points which allows me about 4 vacations per year. I own this for life and I can leave it to whomever I want in a will. It is not a right to use but an actual ownership in the case of Wyndham.

I really love Wyndham. It is very user friendly. I am not quite sure what you mean when you say "Why is the resale value of the points as low as for deeded property?" If you mean to say that it is more expensive when you buy it directly from the timeshare company or if you buy it resale then...the difference is that if you buy it resale it is obviously a lot cheaper. I bought mine from Wyndham. It does have it's advantages, but if I had to do it over again I would buy it resale. Resale vs. the company is another discussion.

I hope this helped a little!

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

There are a lot of different point systems, plus point systems offered by the exchange companies. Each is different, but with a similar basic concept of more options than just trading a week for a week.

There are so many point systems that the major exchange company decided last year to make their remaining, original non-point system (Weeks) a point system.

If you real want to study and learn the different points systems, you should probably google.

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=...w=1259&bih=568

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

I have points for DVC. It isn't a deed and will expire when I am too old to use it. What I like about their point system is that I can use them to stay for as little as one night at a time. I do a lot of shorter trips and rarely take a full week anywhere.

I'm not sure how the points work for other places. I'd be interested in knowing more about them. Can you bank/borrow from other years? Can you use points for several small stays instead of a long stay? Those were things I like about DVC.

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

You need to cost out those other ''options'' as many of those ''points partner'' arrangements will cost you more than just paying cash. They are often an illusory ''benefit''. The same is often true of stays of less than a week when you factor in the extra fees.

An exact number system can also make trading very aggravating compared to a clean one-for-one exchange, especially for someone with only one week.

Anything whose value is primarily for trading rather than for use at the resort is depressed in value these days.

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

There are pros and cons to points. With DRI, I can save up to one-year of my points and borrow from the following year (MFs have to be paid ahead of time to borrow). Though I can use my points to stay for two to six nights (instead of a full week), it costs more points/night than it would to stay for a full week. On the other hand, I have often used my points to extend a week's vacation to nine or ten days. You use fewer points for off-season and low demand weeks, but more for peak season/high demand weeks. If you can only travel during high demand season, you may not have enough points to get a reservation. On the other hand, if you can travel off season, you may be able to stretch a low number of points into two or more weeks. You need to think about where you want to go and when you can vacation.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

There are different business models. One is a point system (WorldMark). How does this work, exactly? I don't fully understand what I would be paying for (or inheiriting). If not property, is it the right to use properties? Why is the resale value of the points as low as for deeded property?

PG

I did not own WorldMark, but my understanding of it system is that the clubs owns all the properties, and you own a certain share of the club. So, at certain time, everyone can start make reservation. There are some ways if you have a lot of points to make continuous reservation so you can make a few weeks erlier reservation. But basically, if you don't look at holiday and you make reservation at exact time, you have very good chance of get it. The club is intended forever, thus it is intended as good as deed.

Most point are similar in that it defines how many point you will need to make certain reservation, usually, the holiday week, the week that people want to vacation will have higher point, the larger unit or better classified unit will take more point.

WM has house keep credit, I believe it is certain points you will get 1 credit and each credit allows you to stay 1 week. Some accounts has unlimit HK credit.

WM probably still allows you to transfer points between owners.

If you have few resorts in WM very close to you, and you like to spend time there, than you can take great advantage of it.

WM does has some laws that government its club, I believe the club MF is limited to max 5% increase or something like that per year.

Not sure, but I believe its points is 2 year live time, so you can eaily combine or save 2 year worth points.

The easiest way to get know the system is just log in to their on-line, and try to get an unit. 1st time you probably just try to get someplace not that crowd (that means avoid holiday season). It has one of the 1st best on-line system as I know 4 years ago.

The club itself also yearly report its unit occupancy rate, you can look at them and get a feel which unit you can eaily get which is hard (usually California one is harder since most of them are around city).

It also very strong in trading few years ago, not sure if it still the same now, since a lot of companies has changed their way of doing exchange, but you will not need to worry about that for at least few years down the road until you know how to get any inventories inside the WM system.

If you have more questions, I believe WM owners has serveral user groups forums on the internet that are very active. Something like wmowners in the forum name.

Enjoy the ownership.
Jya-Ning

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

Thank you, syseitz for your reply. As to my question, why is the resale value of points as low as for deeded property, my assumption was that there was no deeded property, and that points represented only a right. Thank you for setting me straight on that point.

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

Thank you for the help, everybody

You all have provided me with helpful information, and I thank you for taking the time to answer my query.