Wyndham wants me to convert my fixed week into a UDI, need information

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

I am at Wyndham Great Smokies Lodge....IT IS AWESOME! My sixteen year old daughter was really impressed! The rooms are very chic and the water parks are reallly nice!

This morning someone came to the unit to talk to me about changing my fixed week into a UDI. I am at the moment not understanding the whole situation. Can anyone shed some light on my situation and what they are trying to get me to do?

I was also told that it is cheaper to have all of my points in the same resort. Can anyone confirm this or negate this? Please explain details if you don't mind.

Thanks!

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

WARNING: USUALLY NOT A DEAL! b

What fixed week do you own now? How did you get into the resort? What price are they talking about? How many points?

Plenty of background needed to know what tis may be wort

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

I am at Wyndham Great Smokies Lodge....IT IS AWESOME! My sixteen year old daughter was really impressed! The rooms are very chic and the water parks are reallly nice!

This morning someone came to the unit to talk to me about changing my fixed week into a UDI. I am at the moment not understanding the whole situation. Can anyone shed some light on my situation and what they are trying to get me to do?

I was also told that it is cheaper to have all of my points in the same resort. Can anyone confirm this or negate this? Please explain details if you don't mind.

Thanks!

I will leave it to others who know details of the Wyndham program to fill in the details.

What I would like to stress is that you should not do anything until you understand the Wyndham program and can make an informed decision. The decision to convert is a one-way decision. You can't undo it once it's done and the rescission period is over. So no matter what, it doesn't make sense to convert until you are sure you understand the details.

And, frankly, it could easily take a couple of years for you to get comfortable with a decision. It isn't just a matter of knowing the mechanics of the program; it's often a matter of coming to an understanding of what your vacation plans and interests will be and how those can best be accommodated. You might even come to a conclusion that perhaps some other ownership might fit you better.

****************

The sales staff almost assuredly will try to pressure you to make a conversion (i.e., buying) decision while you are there. They rely heavily on non-factual persuasion to get you interested. When someone leaves the sales floor, the emotional component fades, and that makes a sale less likely.

They know that if people take time to go away and think it over, they will usually decide against spending that money. The fact that going away and thinking it over makes people less likely to buy instead or more likely to buy is as strong a signal as you can get that the sales rely much more on emotional persuasion than factual persuasion.

The sales person will likely tell you that there is a special deal going now, but the deal won't be available if you decline to purchase now. Ignore it, no matter how persuasive it sounds. Any time you go to a presentation, there will always be some special deal available to you only if you purchase at that time.

They will always be happy to take your money to do a conversion whenever you might decide to do it.

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

Well, he is telling me that it's a fixed week so then in the long run I'll pay so many assessment fees and fees to remodel the room etc. He tells me that it won't be worth keeping and that it is in my best interest to convert it into points.

He says that Wyndam is working towards turning all of their fixed weeks into UDI...is this true? Anybody had anything like this come up?

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

If you are deal with sales, to convert your fix week, you need to buy at least 77k developer point to start with. It is a sale scheme.

You can directly contact the corp. and try to convert, the 1st week is 2395, the next is 995, upto 4 weeks. But it usually very hard to find one person that actual do it.

Since you do own points, you will know if you like it enough to worth the 2395 for the flexibility.

If you go with corp, you will still get your week. If you go with sales, there is no guarantee of that.

Jya-Ning

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

I will leave it to others who know details of the Wyndham program to fill in the details.

What I would like to stress is that you should not do anything until you understand the Wyndham program and can make an informed decision. The decision to convert is a one-way decision. You can't undo it once it's done and the rescission period is over. So no matter what, it doesn't make sense to convert until you are sure you understand the details.

. . . .

If this is a traditional week conversion, it can be reversed and undone. The assignment that is used to assign the week to Wyndham gives the week owner the right to cancel the assignment at any time. Now, if the week conversion proposal is to have you deed the week to Wyndham in exchange for a new UDI deed at that resort or another resort, that is a situation that Steve has correctly described.

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

Well, he is telling me that it's a fixed week so then in the long run I'll pay so many assessment fees and fees to remodel the room etc. He tells me that it won't be worth keeping and that it is in my best interest to convert it into points.

He says that Wyndam is working towards turning all of their fixed weeks into UDI...is this true? Anybody had anything like this come up?

What he is telling you is true for BOTH fixed week owners AND points owners. He failed to tell you that the UDI owners at that same resort will have to pay the special assessments just like the fixed week owners. Everybody pays, not just fixed week owners.

I am sure that Wyndham would like to have as many point owners as possible. For the older resorts that started with fixed and floating weeks, there is no way to convert those deed into an UDI deed. However, assignment of fixed weeks into the points program works just as well for Wyndham because it increases its available inventory for vacations.

A converted fixed week is limited in the ARP period to the actual fixed week that you assign to Wyndham. However, as a converted fixed week owners you can ARP 3, 4, or 7 days of that week, a choice you probably don't have as a plan jane fixed week owner. The points you don't use for ARP can be used anywhere else in Wyndham during the standard reservation period (10 months to check in date).

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

Well, I didn't mention and it was important that my fixed week has already been converted to points. So, I do have the points for that week.

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

The salesman wants me to convert it to a UDI....is it already a UDI if I have points for it?

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

UDI's also tend to give the developer, not the members, an absolute lock on control of resort governance.

Remember that with any timeshare salesman, the best way to know if he is lying is to look to see if his lips are moving. Points conversion salesmen are one to watch in particular.

As to the intergrity of Wyndham running timeshares, you should look at the mess they made for the owners at Bluebeards Castle in the US Virgin Islands back when they were called Fairfield. The lawsuit by the homeowners there revealed Fairfield (now Wyndham) to be an aggressive, domineering, and dishonest bunch, until Fairfield bankrupted their USVI affiliate to escape liability. While I have never owned at Bluebeard's Castle myself, after reading about Fairfield's scam there, I would never own at one of their resorts, even if somebody gave me a week free.

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

The salesman wants me to convert it to a UDI....is it already a UDI if I have points for it?

Yes, it is already converted. So he means for you to give him the deed and buy more points.

jya-Ning

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

Okay....I do not want to do that. My deeds are paid in full and I don't own anything except maintanace fees! I am happy with what I have and have not have any problem with it.

Unless anyone out here tells me that having a fixed week that has been converted to points will be a horror in the long run then I will stick with what I have.

Are you happy with your fixed week that has been converted to points?

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Okay....I do not want to do that. My deeds are paid in full and I don't own anything except maintanace fees! I am happy with what I have and have not have any problem with it.

Unless anyone out here tells me that having a fixed week that has been converted to points will be a horror in the long run then I will stick with what I have.

Are you happy with your fixed week that has been converted to points?

If you are happy with what you own, there is no reason to pay money to change it.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Stick with what you got and keep your wallet closed to Wyndham sales

Okay....I do not want to do that. My deeds are paid in full and I don't own anything except maintenance fees! I am happy with what I have and have not have any problem with it.

Unless anyone out here tells me that having a fixed week that has been converted to points will be a horror in the long run then I will stick with what I have.

Are you happy with your fixed week that has been converted to points?

Points are points in Wyndham for use. The only difference is how they "spend" at the home resort. It is different if you have UDI or weeks based but ONLY at the one resort you own the points UDI/week at. Unless you have problems with the use at that resort there is no reason to pay far too much (applies to any retail purchase from Wyndham) to convert what you already own.

Plus you do hold a minimum amount of control over the management/opertion / fees as a weeks owner that you give up to even more Wyndham control (the LAST thing you want) if you go UDI.

So overall you should fine where you are. I wouldn't pay a nickle to change a thing now.

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

I did call to cancel my appointment. I simply told him that I did some research and decided that I am perfectly happy with what I have and would like to cancel my appointment.

I got his voicemail..