ask-redweek-wyndham-guest-cancellations

Wyndham's Owner Care department couldn't care less about keeping owners happy and treating them fairly under their ownership

I hope someone class action sues - I'm in

is Marriott doing this?

As a Marriott owner, I am frustrated at the number of times I seem to be competing with robo callers or some other means of getting in very quickly for desirable times. Within seconds (it seems) I have been denied reservations and then have seen a rental available that very same day for the time that I wanted as an owner. In other words, owners have no desire to stay at their own resorts. Is Wyndham trying to honourably address this with some unintended consequences. This issue seems easy to resolve…

Take a look at the program benefits and see how they fit with your vacation style.

VIP BRONZE 300,000 - 499,999 points 15% discount on new reservations within 2 months of check-in Receive 3 guest confirmations per year to share with family and friends VIP SILVER 500,000 - 799,999 points 25% discount on new reservations within 2 months of check-in Receive 5 guest confirmations per year to share with family and friends VIP GOLD 800,000 – 1,099,999 points 35% discount on new reservations within 2 months of check-in Access to Reciprocal Advance Priority 3 times per year Access to vacation benefits of Club Wyndham and more... VIP PLATINUM 1,100,000 - 1,399,999 points 50% discount on new reservations within 2 months of check-in Access to Reciprocal Advance Priority 4 times per year Free reservation transactions and so much more... VIP FOUNDERS 1,400,000+ points 60% discount on new reservations within 2 months of check-in Access to Reciprocal Advance Priority 5 times per year Early access to book Margaritaville Vacation Club by Wyndham reservations Free reservation transactions and so much more...

https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinations.com/us/en/owner-guide/resources/reservations/owner-priority-reservations

This policy and the decisions corporate makes once again gives a bad name to the time share industry. It’s like Government “ Bait and Switch”. One gets fed up with making a decision on what Sales tells you then to find out the facts care not really the facts any more. I would think a good harsh “ Class Action” might nip this horrible action in the bud or is it butt !

How dare Redweek! You did this to us at the beginning of COVID. Our resort was open and you took our money and refunded it to the people that rented our week and we got screwed! Shame on Redweek.

Unbelievable and scary that they will take away owners rights. I hope other Time Share companies do not start this policy as it might start a mass exit from owning a Time Share.

It stinks like pig poop!!!

Crooks!

When I called I was told any illegal guest reservation would be cancelled within 24 to 48 hours of the reservation and I’m ok with that IF is truly is in the restricted dates. Depending upon where you read the website has conflicting information for sure. One place says one thing and another place says something different. I’ve printed out and saved what the website said the day I made a guest reservation although I doubt it would carry much weight if they decided last minute to cancel my reservation. It would take days or weeks to prove I was right. And as you said that doesn’t help the person with plane and Disney tickets and no place to stay.

Being able to rent out units to help cover maintenance fees was one of the major selling points in the last presentation that got us to upgrade to Platinum VIP. If we can’t do this, that would not be good for us or anyone we’ve decided to rent or give a reservation to AND we might end up getting stuck with points we can’t use. That’s not fair! It’s our points. What difference does it make if we’re using the unit or giving them away? We’re still using OUR points to reserve the unit. We should be able to use them any way we like! Not being able to reserve a unit is a common complaint with people who have fewer points. What ever happened to the “privileges” that are supposed to come with VIP ownership? They should have thought about that BEFORE they pushed the ability to rent out units to cover Maintenance fees.

I was threatened in a Owner's Update meeting which tried to upgrade me to their "points" system (for $14,000 and uptick of my maintenance fees to $3000 from $1090) that Marriott may restrict my floating weeks to fixed weeks in the next 2 years. It is no longer about keeping clients of many years happy but money, money, money.

Wow. Absolutely ridiculous. Potentially illegal & fraudulent. Is it explained at sales presentations & in ownership documents that you don’t actually “own” anything? That the week/point(s) you’ve purchased & paid maintenance fees for are not yours to do with as you please? Why on earth would ANYONE buy into this program? The real reason behind this is to shut down published owner rentals which prove that there is no advantage to owning. Lawyers & class action suits are unfortunately necessary at this point.

Marriott legacy weeks are better than points. You know you can use the week. Points does not guarantee you any reservation unless you want to go to a location you may not desire.

I want to thank Redweek for posting this article. I am a Wyndham VIP owner and wasn't aware of the extent of the restrictions on my ownership. I called owner care and on my third call was transferred to "'Owner Care" and spoke to someone who explained the "policy" not fully in writing, but still somewhat fluid. I understood having to cancel a reservation that I intended for a guest this summer. When I purchased, I was told I could recuperate some of my $2000/mo carrying costs by renting some of my ownership. I understood that some fellow owners were unable to get reservations for this opening of the travel/vacation period after Covid. I willingly sacrificed my reservation and potential income that would have slightly offset my costs of ownership. I learned that these restrictions have been extended and expanded going forward. This tells me that perhaps this timeshare giant I loved may have oversold itself and now owners are paying a price. I suggested to Owner Care that in addition to restrictions on owners, they suspend sales until they can truly accommodate all owner usage.

Without the ability to rent out my weeks in some years to cover maintenance costs, I'd be calling a time share exit service, and I'd certainly jump into a class action suit against the company. I also own at Welk properties, where they run an in-house rental service, which dependably returns more rental income than the maintenance fees.

I am so happy not to be a Wyndham owner after reading this post.

Does this affect Marriott owners as well?

Thanks greatly for this timely article. We are legacy week ( not points) owners in Kona Coast 2 in Hawaii. We have fixed weeks 52 and 1 and a floating week. Does any of this new policy really affect these weeks? Thanks for your help. John Rogerson