Choice Privileges has added 21 Westgate Resorts properties to Choice’s Ascend Collection and they can now be booked using Choice points. The resorts are primarily in the Eastern US, with nine located in Florida.
While the properties don’t have the same upscale appeal as what can be found through Choice’s partnership with Preferred Hotels, in the right context they could represent value for some folks (especially families).
List of Westgate Resorts bookable through Choice
Arizona
- Westgate Painted Mountain Golf Resort (Mesa, AZ)
Florida
- Westgate Cocoa Beach Resort (Cocoa Beach, FL)
- Westgate Towers Resort (Kissimmee, FL)
- Westgate Vacation Villas Resort (Kissimmee, FL)
- Westgate Town Center Resort (Kissimmee, FL)
- Westgate Lakes Resort & Spa (Orlando, FL)
- Westgate Palace Hotel /Universal /I-Drive (Orlando, FL)
- Westgate Leisure Resort (Orlando, FL)
- Westgate Blue Tree Resort (Orlando, FL)
- Westgate River Ranch Resort & Rodeo (River Ranch, FL)
Missouri
- Westgate Branson Woods Resort (Branson, MO)
- Westgate Branson Lakes Resort (Hollister, MO)
Nevada
- Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino (Las Vegas, NV)
- Westgate Flamingo Bay Resort (Las Vegas, NV)
New York
- Westgate New York Grand Central (New York, NY)
South Carolina
Westgate Myrtle Beach Oceanfront Resort (Myrtle Beach, SC)
Tennessee
- Westgate Smoky Mountain Resort & Water Park (Gatlinburg, TN)
- River Terrace Resort & Convention Center (Gatlinburg, TN)
- Wild Bear Inn (Pigeon Forge, TN)
Utah
- Westgate Park City Resort & Spa (Park City, UT)
Virginia
- Westgate Historic Williamsburg Resort (Williamsburg, VA)
Quick Thoughts
I’d never heard of Westgate Resorts before this announcement. It’s a timeshare company that was founded in 1982, and it bills itself as the “largest, privately held timeshare company in the world.”
Browsing through some of the locations, it doesn’t look particularly high end, maybe something along the lines of what you’d expect if Comfort Suites had timeshares. The locations that I looked at varied in nightly cash cost from ~$75-$500/night, while points prices ranged from 15,000 – 45,000/night. Many of the properties that I looked at required a 2 or 3-night minimum to be available for points bookings.
The value isn’t necessarily astounding at those rates, but given that both Wells Fargo and Citi ThankYou points transfer 1:2 to Choice Privileges, there could be some appeal, especially for those properties that have are condo-style with multiple bedrooms and a full kitchen.
As an example, I looked at a few random dates from the Westgate Cocoa Beach in January and February. Prices were fairly similar, with most dates with cash rates at ~$450/night once taxes and fees were taken into account:
Looking at award bookings for the same dates, that “luxury” two-bedroom suite is available for 45K Choice points per night:
Booking that with Choice points offers better than 1 cent per point value, well over our Reasonable Redemption Value for Choice points of .67 cents each. If you were transferring from Citi or Wells Fargo, you could book the same room for 22,500 points per night and get better than 2 cents per point value for your points.
We’d love to hear some feedback from anyone who’s either a Westgate owner or who has experience staying in Westgate properties. If that’s you, leave you impressions of both the property quality and value in the comments below.
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“I’d never heard of Westgate Resorts before this announcement.”
Tim recommend you google Queen of Versailles. Once you watch that you’ll never be able to “unknow” Westgate. Timeshares are a shady racket.
there doesn’t seem to be a single award night available at the NYC property
I didn’t see any at the Park City property
if you change the option to cash, select nights that are available and then change it back to points you can get some of them to populate. I got Feb 5-9 to show up at 45k/night, which would be 22.5k CITI/WF points. That pretty nice for peak season
As I was saying . . .
Okay for those dates, there’s a 3 night minimum on points. Can pay cash for one or two, but if you’re searching night by night, you won’t see points.
It will be interesting to hear reports on how well the booking process works.
It will be interesting to hear reports on how well the booking process works.
What process? They’re just properties listed on the choice website like any choice hotel…
If you listen to the podcast, you’ll find that actually using Choice points in these new scenarios is the hard part. The buttons are there, they might look like they’re doing the thing you want, but they might not end up with the real-world results you’d expect.