Your dog’s so cute. What breed is she?
And thus begins the tale of how we ended up at a Wyndham timeshare presentation.
My wife (Shae) and I were visiting Myrtle Beach for a few days and decided to check out Broadway At The Beach with our dog one morning. While walking along, a woman at the Information Center called out to us and asked that question about Truffles.
We’re used to people asking about Truffles, so we went over to chat to her. She then asked what brought us to Myrtle Beach, so we told her about our 50 state road trip.
Given that she was chatting to people who obviously like to travel, she sensed her opportunity and asked us if we’d like to have a free lunch or breakfast. By this point, we were inside the Information Center and saw all kinds of Wyndham branded posters, flyers, etc.
Knowing what we were letting ourselves in for, we listened to her pitch and what we’d get out of it. There were two offers if we went to a timeshare presentation – either 45,000 Wyndham Rewards points or a certificate for a 7 night stay at a timeshare resort.
Seeing as we weren’t jumping on the offer, she came back with an additional option. We could get both those rewards if we paid $150 and attended the timeshare presentation. I’m sure you’re thinking what I was thinking: why would anyone pay $150 to attend a timeshare presentation?
After chatting to each other outside though, Shae and I decided to do it. Even if the 7 night certificate turned out to be worthless, 45,000 Wyndham Rewards gives you three free nights at any Wyndham property (or even better value than that.) Effectively paying $50 per night to stay at any Wyndham brand meant we wouldn’t – in my opinion – be losing out.
Still, it was probably a little naive on my part to accept that offer. In hindsight, I wish I’d tried to get both sets of rewards for free. If it’s any consolation, we paid with the Chase Sapphire Reserve and it coded as 3X, so we also earned 450 Ultimate Rewards.
With that, we dropped Truffles back at our Airbnb and headed to Plantation Resort which is where the Wyndham timeshare presentation would be taking place, arriving shortly before 1pm.
Just before going inside, we practiced our ‘No’ faces in the car. I call mine ‘Angry & Unshaven Blue Steel.’ Shae was a middle school science teacher, so she already had her ‘No’ face perfected.
Seeing as we were in Myrtle Beach on a dreary January day, Shae and I figured we might be the only ones there.
Nope.
There were at least two dozen couples there, including a couple who were on their first anniversary.
This was our first timeshare presentation, so we hadn’t been sure if we’d be in a large group getting the hard sell or if there’d be a rep for each couple.
After a few minutes, they started calling up each couple pair-by-pair and introduced them to their own timeshare rep. Uh-oh, they were going for man couple coverage rather than zone.
We were introduced to our rep whose name was Eric. He brought us through to the lunch area and waited for us to fill up our plates before showing us to our table. Each couple was seated at their own small table, with their timeshare rep sitting opposite them.
The lunch consisted of mac & cheese, pulled pork, chicken tenders, green beans, etc. It was OK, but hardly a Ruth’s Chris.
The bread rolls were the worst though. If I’d realized how rock-hard they were, I’d have grabbed a few extras in case we needed to throw them to make a quick getaway if it turned out they were immune to our ‘No’ faces.
We’d been told ahead of time that the presentation would last two hours. The paperwork made a vague reference to “about two hours” or something like that. Still, we didn’t want to get stuck there and so Shae set a timer to go off after two hours.
The only thing is, she’d turned her phone on silent which also apparently silenced her timer when it went off two hours later.
While we were eating, Eric asked us a few questions to get to know us and learn about our general travel patterns. Shae’s super-chatty (as in she always makes friends while in line at a store, even if it’s a 1 year old in a cart who can’t talk yet), so I’d warned her not to divulge too much info to our rep so that it wouldn’t give them anything to ambush us with.
We therefore didn’t tell him about the fact that we’re on a 50 state road trip for the next five years. Imagine the ammunition that’d give him.
Once we’d finished our food, Eric left us with a form to complete about our travel experiences and hopes for the future. We answered the questions truthfully, albeit in a way we hoped would stop him from getting a foothold.
How much did your last vacation cost? ~$3,000 for a month in Australia & New Zealand, including business class flights for two each way.
What trip do you most want to take? Kayaking in Antarctica (we doubted Wyndham have timeshare properties there.)
What was your favorite travel experience? Hiking to see the Susa group of mountain gorillas in Rwanda (we couldn’t imagine Wyndham had properties in Kigali or Musanze. Besides, it was genuinely our favorite travel experience.)
Once we’d answered all the questions, it was time for the actual timeshare presentation to begin. The starter pitch was given by a guy called Jordan whose father, father’s father, father’s father’s father, etc. had all owned Wyndham timeshares.
We also quickly found out that this wasn’t a timeshare presentation but a chance to participate in “Vacation Ownership.” After all, you only rent hotel rooms, but you can own your vacation with Wyndham 🙄
I think all the timeshare Vacation Ownership reps chat before the main presentation to discuss who has the most outgoing person. That’s because they ask one of the guests to help write stuff down on a whiteboard during the presentation.
Unsurprisingly, Eric asked Shae if she’d be Jordan’s Vanna White. This worked out perfectly for them as a) Shae makes everything more fun and b) she was a teacher so she’s part of the 1% of the population who can write legibly on a whiteboard.
The purpose of this initial section was to find out where people most wanted to go on vacation and how much they expected it to cost.
It was jokes. Not because of Jordan or Shae, but because of the answers people gave. Being so focused on points and miles, it’s easy for us to forget that many people pay huge amounts of cash for vacations. People said they expected to spend $15,000+ on a trip to Hawaii, $8,000 on a week in Italy, $6,000 to visit Scotland.
My eyes were wider than that scene in A Clockwork Orange.
After ascertaining that people like to drop large sums of money on vacations, Shae’s glamorous assistant job was done and the timeshare Vacation Ownership pitch continued.
The presentation was extremely interactive, with Jordan getting the crowd involved as much as possible. He asked how much the average amount we spend per night at hotels was. I wanted to answer 4,500 points, but restrained my British cynicism and allowed others to answer.
Their answers allowed him to complete the vacation calculator which put the 25 year hotel cost in excess of $110,000.
With this huge figure in mind, it was time to find out how Wyndham could fulfill our travel dreams and more. After all, look at what 400,000 Club Wyndham Plus points (for an undisclosed cost) can get you!
After a couple of short videos showing off Wyndham properties and some timeshare vacation owners extolling its virtues, Jordan finished his presentation.
To be fair, it was an interesting enough presentation and he explained the whole concept in a way that it was easy to understand. There were disingenuous aspects though which I’ll come on to later.
With the initial hour-long presentation over, it was time for Eric to try to work his magic. First up, he told us about all the free things we’d get if we signed up for Timeshare Vacation Ownership that day. I’ll admit – I was a little disappointed when he didn’t say “But wait! Buy now and we’ll send you an additional Vacation Ownership for free (just pay separate shipping and handling.)”
Apparently RCI are used by companies like IHG and Hilton for their Timeshare Vacation Ownership. However, they’re actually owned by Wyndham which is why that benefit’s offered for free.
We were also told about the great value we could get from our points if we booked our accommodation within 30 days of travel.
By this stage, we were upfront with Eric that we had absolutely no intention of becoming timeshare vacation owners. He didn’t seem dissuaded though, saying that no one came in expecting to say yes.
Still, I think he knew he was on to a loser with us. So much so that Shae had to ask him how much their packages actually cost as he hadn’t told us. This was a dangerous move – and possibly the angle he was working – but to be fair I was curious too.
He went out for a minute and came back with a laminated sheet, always the sign of something being official.
Yep, with a down payment of more than $15,000, we could be the proud (vacation) owners of a $642 payment for the next ten years. Even our old mortgage wasn’t $642 per month (although we did live in what many regarded as the New Jersey part of Virginia.)
That wasn’t the craziest part though.
Look at what’s in bold at the top of the sheet.
200,000 Club Wyndham Points.
Now think back to the presentation. I’d mentioned I thought some of it was disingenuous and here’s why. During that, Jordan showed how many nights (20) you could get for 400,000 points. (That turned out to be misleading too – more on why later.)
That meant for our $15,000 down payment, $642 monthly payment and 200,000 points, we could only expect 10 nights per year. From what I gathered, you get these points every year for as long as you live. If you live 20 years, that’s $460.20 per night. If you live for 40 years, that’s $230.10 per night. Even if you live for 60 more years, that’s still the equivalent of $153.40 per night you’ve paid.
The per night cost obviously goes down if you don’t finance the $35,664 balance. That’s because the interest adds more than $40,000 to the final total. Still, even without financing I doubt it’d be a great deal for most people.
I think Eric sensed our incredulity, so he went out back and returned with some “better” offers. I say “better” in that the effective cost was halved, but still nowhere near being worth biting on. Unfortunately I didn’t get photos of those offers, as I’d taken the other photos above when he’d gone out back.
Something important to note is that he also mentioned that there’d be additional maintenance fees payable every year. They were likened to HOA or condo fees as the resorts needed upkeep. However, it meant you’d be getting an even worse deal than expected and unavoidable (and presumably increasing) fees every single year.
By now, our two hours were up. Eric knew he wasn’t getting a sale, so by 3:20pm his pitch ended.
But that’s not all…
Next up was his sales manager. She came over to chat to us, ostensibly to get some feedback on our experience, but it seemed like it was a last chance to get us to bite on something. She was friendly though and didn’t give us a hard sell either. With that final obstacle out the way, we were done at 3:35pm.
The sales manager gave us a form to hand to the front desk where we’d get our rewards. That process was painless too, so by 3:40pm we were 45,000 Wyndham Rewards points and a 7 night certificate richer. We got a better deal than some, as Shae overheard the couple ahead of us only getting a gas card.
With that, we went out to our car, breathing a sigh of relief that we’d said no.
Redeeming The Rewards
The 45,000 Wyndham Rewards points were easy to redeem. We simply entered a code on their website along with my Wyndham Rewards account number and they were credited to my account immediately.
The 7 night certificate isn’t going to be as easy to redeem. We created an account at Resort Vacation Certificates and entered our certificate number. We now have 12 months in which to use the certificate.
They have a decent enough search functionality on their website, allowing you to filter by continent, country and state / city. I filtered to include all the states we’ll be visiting this year (Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, Vermont and Wisconsin – they didn’t have any resorts in Alabama or Ohio) and there were 76 resorts listed.
The wrinkle for us is that we’re traveling with our dog. When filtering for pet-friendly properties, this is what we’re left with:
Yep, a grand total of three properties.
The good thing is that their filtering might not be correct. When researching some of the 76 properties on the original list, some of them are definitely pet-friendly, so it looks like they might just not be tagged correctly on the Resort Vacation Certificates website.
I’m therefore hopeful that we’ll still be able to use our 7 night certificate before it expires. I’m also hoping we’ll be able to do so at no further cost.
The reason why is because not all the locations seem to have ‘No Charge Accommodations.’ Those are properties where we can use our certificate for what’s presumably a studio suite.
Instead, many of the properties only list ‘Upgrade Accommodations starting at $xxx‘ and which appear to be 2 bedroom suites or larger. Some of the upgrades don’t seem to be too unreasonable, such as $149 for 7 nights.
Having said that, there are more than 20 costing over $400 for 7 nights. If we wanted, we could even drop almost $8,000 on a week at Beaver Run Resort in Breckenridge, CO
The other thing to be aware of is travel dates. It looks like we’re only able to book up to 10 weeks ahead of time, so that makes it harder to redeem the certificate.
We’re visiting Vermont in May, Wisconsin in June/July, Illinois in July/August, Oklahoma in September, Texas in October and November and Colorado in December. We can’t properly check our options for those as we can only book up to mid-April right now.
We’ll therefore likely book the first resort we can, simply so that the certificate doesn’t go to waste.
Behind The Scenes Info
After attending the presentation, we mentioned what we’d done to the Airbnb owner where we were staying. It turns out that he did Wyndham Timeshare Vacation Ownership sales pitches for a short amount of time but didn’t stay too long.
He shared that some of the examples they give aren’t particularly truthful. For example, in the presentation Jordan had a slide showing how 400,000 Club Wyndham Plus Points could get you 20 nights at all kinds of wonderful resorts.
Our Airbnb host explained that although that’s possible mathematically, you’d never be able to get those redemptions in real life. Your 400,000 points would therefore likely get you closer to 10-15 nights.
That means the 200,000 point offer we saw (the one requiring a $15,000 down payment and monthly payments of $642) would more realistically get you 5-7.5 nights per year.
It’s easy to see why sales reps earn good money if they can get people to sign up.
Final Thoughts
The Wyndham Timeshare Vacation Ownership presentation was much less painful than we expected. It was interesting enough and it didn’t go over two hours by too far.
Our rep Eric seemed genuinely nice and although he was a bit sales-y, it wasn’t in a sleazy way. I was glad we didn’t get the rep at the adjacent table as he was incredibly obnoxious.
Overall, it was worth attending the presentation for the points and (hopefully) the 7 night certificate. It’s also good to know that we’re able to stay firm with saying no. We’ll therefore probably check out IHG, Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt & SPG timeshare presentations in the future to get more free nights. If we do, I’ll try to see what we can get without having to spend anything for the rewards.
As for the timeshares themselves, I’m sure that there’s some kind of value there for the right person. The more that I’ve thought about the offer and calculated the numbers though, the harder it is to find that value.
With the high upfront cost, unspecified maintenance fees every year and property availability issues, there’s no compelling reason I can see why you’d choose to invest so much money in a timeshare.
One of the key selling points mentioned in the presentation was the benefit of having access to a larger space with more bedrooms so that families can travel together. That might have been useful in the past, but Airbnb would be a better option for most people nowadays.
Question
Have you ever been to presentations like this? What was your experience like? Let us know in the comments below.
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Hello. I am a Wyndham timeshare owner and it would be pretty nice except that every time we check in, there’s a second counter we have to go to to get our activity/pool wristbands or parking passes where there are sales pitch pushers who try to get you to go to an “Owner Update” lol, where they try to get you to by more points and they can schedule you while you are there, on your vacation. I literally said no ten times at the last one before they said have a good day after I told the gentleman next to me he could go online and find people getting rid of what there trying to sell for 10 or 5gs for like $100.00 and that is true too.
I personally have not taken a timeshare vacation as an adult but I remember that’s how we vacationed a couple times when I was a kid. We went to Branson and stayed in a 2br Fairfield inn when I was a kid. My mom stayed in the hotel room with me and my (at the time) stepdad went to the meetings. I did have to go ride around on a golf course for a tour in the sun and heat (gag). I guess we all had to go on that part. I do remember seeing a cool magic show with real white tigers, and getting to ride a duck (a boat that drives on land, into the water) ans we went to this restaurant that served prime rib with aujue served over a candle to keep it warm. idk how much any of these things cost, just that it was a deal bc of the timeshare meetings.
Had to put a $45 refundable deposit to go to the seminar. Got there signed in and immediately got the money back. They said they ran out of representatives to give us a tour so they gave us $100 meal card (which has like no realistic place to eat) and our 8 day 7 night voucher. Hard to find places but looks good if we really only have to play $199 in taxes and fees.
Scheduled for a 3 night stay in Sandestin in October and are required to attend the sales presentation. As part of my package, we are to receive AmEx cards, but the find print says they will begin assessing a fee if the card isn’t used within a few months. Are the cards able to be used in restaurants, gas stations, etc. or is this a set-up to give me a card I can’t use and then assess the fee?
If it’s an Amex card, you should be able to use it anywhere that Amex is accepted.
I use their cards and go to my local chain grocery store and buy a gift card for the same amount. They don’t expire.
In July 2023, I was milling about National Harbor in Maryland, when someone at a kiosk offered me a 7 night stay at a resort and a 3-5 day cruise for 2 people if I pay $75 and attend a two hour seminar with Wyndham.
I agreed, and came back the next day for the seminar. There was another individual and a couple. The couple seemed very ignorant. I really cannot imagine that they have the money and the time to make this in any way logical.
After the group presentation, I met with an individual salesman. He asked for an initial payment of $54k, which sounded outrageous and of course I declined. Then another salesperson came and said, “Someone just left the group, you can have hers for $24k.” This went on and on, I kept seeing new salespeople with better and better deals. I also toured a three bedroom unit, which is fine, but that is just not something I could fully utilize. I still go to bunkbed hostels, lol.
The 7 day trip seems easy to redeem. I think I will go to the Canary Islands with some friends, including one who previously dropped me, and now we are back in touch. We have to buy our own airfare. I might just try to sell the cruises.
Pay to hear a timeshare presentation. Red flags everywhere, hard to miss!
Thanks for the write up. I didn’t read it before going to my sales presentation today but I prepared in a similar way. All in all I was out in maybe 15-20 minutes more than the assured 120 minutes. I didn’t let them run my credit even though they kept saying it was a soft inquiry and it was so they could give me actual numbers – it was suggested at least 10 times but my no face (aka “too afraid to make a commitment and don’t want to leave my comfort zone because it gives me anxiety” face). After the initial presenter to the group, I’d say I experienced three rounds with three different people where they kept bringing out better offers and finally ended with a “try before you buy” option I think was a final attempt to try and run my credit and get me in their system.
Another technique I used was dressing super casual and seemingly anxiety driven near 40 year old single woman. Some of the comments and assumptions were quite insulting but I didn’t let knock me off my game.
Now, I’m at the stage of redeeming the two travel vouchers I got out of the deal. I didn’t get points like y’all. Did you ever redeem that voucher and have to pay any fees? Was it worthwhile in the end or did they get the last laugh with the vouchers?
Hope to get some feedback from you on the voucher before I enter any payment info to book the trip on http://gocrv.com/ and “Grand Incentives inc”
Their search system has gone backwards in terms of user-friendliness. I feel like I’m on some website from the early 2000s. And as I try to search there’s ZERO availability at any location that I want to actually go for any time during the next 12 months.
Why the F would I ever think to buy the actual timeshare if my experience with the voucher is a complete failure.
Your experience at least seems better so far than mine – since you were going to some more mundane states.
I now have PTTD from Wyndam’s timeshare pitch…Post traumatic timeshare syndrome.
So do I. They dont let you go. The bring on the next level of manipulators.
All this despite the presenter assuring us that no one was going to force us to buy.
Dressed up yuppy hustlers. Give me the honesty of a mugger!
I just went on a vacation credit tour!!! I read this in advance of it. I used the 20 year plan with the maintenance fees to find a cost for each day to be $176 per room.
I asked about cleaning fees as we left. They told me it was included. I went to their website only to find I needed housekeeping credits to move In. (Memberships after 2020 only) if you didn’t have them the cost was $159.
I could take the same trips I do now and arrive same day. Does that mean it would cost me my points plus the housekeeping credit?
They put a piece of paper in front of us and said they wanted to see what we qualified to buy. My wife started to fill it out and I stopped her when it was asking for Social security numbers. It was a credit app in disguise with the explanation that they just wanted to “quality us”.
We indicated our cost on average per night in a hotel was $120. They doubled it for our costs of a vacation as we felt we were frugal on a trip. Remember doing the math at 20 years their cost was $176. That’s around 30% more with an up front payment.
A single (or 2 room suit) was going to cost us 10,000 points or(the next salesman said 77,000 points for a week) can be used or borrowed from next year. Looking at the Wyndham website I would need to rent these credits at $12 per 1000 points rented. My math says it would cost me $120 to rent my future points per day if it was 10,000 points for a room. At 11,000 points (from the 2nd salesmen) my cost would be $132. Can we take their word on the cost? Probably not.
There are lots of hidden fees and misleading tactics used to sell timeshares or vacation rentals. If someone rushes you into a purchase, it’s never in your favor.
The final offer was $3900 for a 2 year test run without monthly maintenance fees. (I used them as an example of my problem with the purchase of this plan) I wouldn’t be paying the $200 monthly fees. (@ $200 per month in maintenance fees, that’s $2400 per year. Figuring out the math 20 hotel stays @ $120 average.) The maintenance fees alone can pay for my hotels.
OMG!!! As I write this I see the costs of my vacation wouldn’t go down in any way. They would at least double and maybe triple. With all the fees. Wait I can cut them by using their credit card. By their statements theres a saving grace! Get and use the Wyndham credit card. I can earn the maintenance fees using this program.
Doing the math at 3% cash back. I don’t actually see where they are willing to pay 3% but let’s run with it. You would need to spend $6700 to earn $201 in cash back to cover the maintenance fees. A random website told me the average American household spends $5111 per month. To come close to earning enough cash back on their credit card to pay the maintenance fees (they offer between 1% and 5% cash back without paying a card fee) every bill and payment you made would be short around $1600 in bills each month. Further the mortgage company won’t accept credit cards for payment. They don’t want to lose 3% in fees.
You will never win in a fast paced, high pressure, sales environment like a timeshare. Ok I understand it’s a vacation rental service today. I now don’t own anything. I just pay the maintenance fees for the right to stay there and employ the housekeeping staff. Wait, I pay the salary of the salesmen(all 6 of them tryingtopressure us, maintenance personnel, ceo, and even ay for all the gifts given out to the hundreds of thousands of people each day to give the next payment and cover all the extra expenses taken to find a new vacation rental owner(sucker).
Check out the eBay listings of owners trying to get out of their timeshare responsibilities.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l2632&_nkw=timeshares+for+sale&_sacat=15897
Wow that’s incredible. TIL people are so desperate, they’re re-selling timeshares for $1 just to get rid of it.
Also, here’s a dirty little secret the timeshare companies don’t want you to know. If you are paying attention on many of the highways to these destinations where timeshares get built, you will notice lots of signs promoting “getting out of your timeshare.”
If you truly think this is the way to a better vacation, people are reselling their packages for a fraction of what they paid for them. In fact, eBay has a huge listing of people trying to get out of their time share for pennies on the dollar.
You will note on eBay ads, they will disclose what the monthly maintenance fee is. One I just looked at is $311 per month. That’s reason enough for me to avoid the lure of a cheap timeshare, since I can vacation in a nice condo without any timeshare connection for an entire week for less than $3000 in places we like to go.
There is a good time of the year to commit to the presentation. In the off season, they often offer actual money from $100 up to a $200 (the most I have heard of) to sit in on the presentation. Considering a $200 payout, that’s $100 per hour of your time if you know how the play the game and hold them to the two-hour agreement.
ARE THE SALES PRESENTERS AND SALES ASSOCIATES PROUD OWNERS OF THE WYNDHAM TIME SHARING PLAN?
IF THEY DIDNT BUY THEIR SALES PITCH, WHY SHOULD WE?
We have gone through a number of presentations. We own at Hilton as well as a small timeshare in Florida. To learn more about timeshare, read information on TUG, timeshare users group. If you buy on the secondary market, you can get Hugh quality timeshare very cheap and then only worry about the annual fee. This fee is usually far less than a week at an equivalent resort. If we cannot use our points in a yea, we have sold them to friends to cover annual dues. You must be very organized and be able to plan far ahead. Stick to very high quality products. We went to one Wyndham presentation and it was the worst one we have ever endured. Never buy retail. Stay with high quality and the lowest annual dues possible for the highest points. Read up about them and then decide. Good luck
My wife and I had a offer from a girl in a mall, if we went to the time share presentation we will have to pay $200 each but would get 60,000 points each. We went individualy, got the points, claim them in the same account and bought a 4 nights stay worth $2000 in TRS Playa del Carmen México All Inclusive. Our 4 nights trip was les than $800 with plane tickets included and we had a blast in a 5☆ All inclusive Hotel. Next time they offer points say that you are single and go at difrent times. And if you want more value for your points visit caribbean territories that have All Inclusove Hotels since the maximun points you going to spen per night is 30,000.
My ex-wife and I were offered a chance to go while attending a Mariner’s game. The experience was about the same with the guy saying his father, father’s father, etc and then it went to a 1-on-1 sales pitch. Before going we we agreed that we would NOT be buying. But, I’ll have to admit, they almost had me (cuz it just seems like such a good deal! lol), and thankfully my wife reminded me with a stern look, lol. Sadly, this was right before she left me and I although I still had the vacation voucher, I never got around to using it due to it being such a turbulant time in my life. Funny enough, I had originally chosen to go to a spot in northern Utah to visit my cousin & family, and I now live here with them as a full-time “manny’. ^_^
My husband and I have owned a timeshare at Patriot’s Place in Williamsburg VA for 33 years. Our initial investment was $6000 for 2 weeks a year. We also belong to RCI to be able to exchange to other places. The yearly maintenance fee started at $149/yr and is now $960/yr. Then if we do an exchange to somewhere other than our time share we have to pay a $249. And we own weeks not points. They tried to get us to switch to points and wanted us to pay $20,000 to change to points and they were going to give us some amount of points. It was crazy!!! And they can never make us change to points. I even asked the salesman why I would pay $20,000 to switch to points when I only pay $1600 a year for 2 weeks now? He was speechless. We went to that sales meeting because we got 4 free – 3 day passes to Williamsburg which would have been around $600.
Wyndham took over our time share about 12 years ago. The gentleman that sold ours to us in 1989 is now the CEO of Wyndham. Yes, the sales tactics are absolutely brutal and not honest. I can’t say that about our purchase but every time we exchange they want us to attend a sales meeting and we have become experienced enough to decline. We currently are sitting in a Hilton time share that we booked through RCI and they charged us $100 for amenitities (using the pool the dishes, soap and tiles in the unit) which has never happened before. Then when they directed us to the concierge at check-in he told us we could get our $100 back if we attended the sales meeting. I absolutely refused and I’m going to contact the AG of VA to see if this is a legal tactic. Some of the sales people are so rude when you don’t buy that it’s crazy. We also talked to people that have worked for the timeshare companies and they said to never give up your weeks. That is how they used to sell timeshares. You were assigned the weeks you could go to your time share or trade of through RCI on any week.
Now, I have to say, we have had very nice vacations and when you figure what we pay a year with exchange fees and our maintenance fee we go away for 2 weeks each year for about $1600 a year. I’ve rented houses for a week for twice that. The extreme down side of all this is you can’t sell them. You can pass it on to your family or donate it for a tax deduction to a charity such as make a wish. And then only if they want one. But it is very difficult to sell them We have a friend that paid $1000 to get rid of his. Hope this helps anyone out there that is looking at time shares – don’t get hooked!
Me and my cuzn attended a timeshare presentation Fri 9/30/22 after filling out information on the monitor at the Dodgers on 9/24/22. We had to secure our tour by leaving 40 dollars with the rep that we would get back the day of the presentation. We did get it back but the presentation was over 2 hours. False advertisement we were told just a 2 hour presentation. Luckily my cuzn who travels often told the rep that the deals she found for traveling were cheaper than what the timeshare offered and she didn’t see the point. The rep agreed with her when my cuzn presented her with 2 examples. We didn’t get suckered into buying anything, thank god. We mostly went because the rep at the Dodger game promised us 4 free tickets if we attended plus a 100 dollar dine in card. Which we also received at the end with the 40 dollar deposit. However, the rep failed to tell us that the tickets would be emailed within 5 days of the presentation. We thought we would get them the same day. We could only attend a Sunday 10/2/22 game for that week being that the season would end 10/5/22. I contacted our rep today 10/1/22 to let him know about the situation and he said their office would email our tickets. It’s 9:34pm I keep checking my email and there is no email. Tomorrow is an early game and we live 1.5 hours from the stadium. I’m hoping we get them by the morning but I don’t expect anything, they’re making me think it’s a scam. So if you’re in Cali and attend a Dodger game DO FILL the monitor to get free stuff.
If you don’t get them, contact your Attorney General of your state. Most states have a form on line to register a complaint. I have those $%^&ing time share sales people. They are the scum of the earth!
In June 2 – I went to a presentation in Orlando at the Club Wyndham Bonnet creek. I left without purchasing a timeshare. Got my $300 AMEX gift card but it doesn’t work online or in Canada so I’m the one who lost and wasted time I can’t get back. Called at least 10 numbers this morning and they keep giving me the run around and numbers to call and take no accountability that the gift card is getting declined everywhere. My bad for buying the package and thinking I’d walk away with a $300 got card. Big scam.
Hi, I actually Work for a Worldmark by Wyndham Resort, we do host presentations, I can 100% assure that we do actually give the gift cards with the intention of guests being able to use them. I would ask to speak to a Marketing department supervisor, as the person who booked your presentation only has so much power over the gifting specifics
Hi Lauren, I spoke with 10 people yesterday and no one, other than Phil or possibly Will at the bonnet creek marketing who has disappeared said he put a note in my file for a refund (or another RCI award) and to call the US marketing to handle it. I spoke with Michelle at the number he gave me and there is no note in my file. He also told me the gift card is for use in the US only and not for online shopping and to come back to the US to shop. . Such a frustrating experience and I’ve filed a complaint with the BBB due to all this runaround and no accountability. Brutal and I will never recommend or book anything Wyndham ever.
Did you ever get a reply in regards to your situation from the BBB?
I did. It was a gong show and I will never stay at a Wyndham property again. Not the best experience and they need to get their crap together.
I have worked in timeshare for 8 years. Y’all do realize us sleazy timeshare workers and owners are traveling to foreign countries, Hawaii, and fabulous ski resorts for about $250 a week. So what u have to buy it. U bought ur car and maintain it right??? U also buy another car and another. So how much have u wasted on cars? It’s not our fault most of u are too cheap to wanna experience amazing vacations in ur life and would rather spend $100 a night and take ur kids to a roach motel. I work with owners only and they all love it and buy more. So while they’re at the 6 star resort in Maldives u enjoy ur amazing hotels where ur microwave is next to ur toilet!
Ooof, you’ve really drunk the Kool-Aid. Comparing vacation to a necessity like a car? That right there shows me the twisted false narrative that has become so ingrained that you are spewing it in your personal time.
I decided I don’t want to do the presentation after all of the bad reviews I find, but I am trying to get my deposit back and they won’t tell me how to do that. Any advice?I only have the number of the rep and he said I have to go get it in person which I don’t believe.
I’m there now at the Grand Wyndham Bonnet Creek. They politely asked if I wanted to pay $75 to attend the presentation. All I did was laugh… I told them I prefer the book things myself and find deals on my own. .
I am wydam “owner” . Every time we use our points (a vacation) we have to waste 2-3 hrs. Going over all the “new perks” and make it sound like your Entitled to them! Well unless you buy in again? No you aren’t. It is very frustrating to deal with. But, being in sales for 25 years. They will not get a penny more. The accommodations are always nice. They always upgrade us to a huge room. But. I’m actually checking out tomorrow and had a meeting at 11am. They just called and said oh no that was a mistake! It’s at 830am
Wasn’t my mistake and I just sat through one 4 days ago at another Wyndham property. Pray for me I be arrested tomorrow!
And I might add we received no compensation for closings due to covid and loss of 2 years points. Not Even a sorry there is nothing we can do…
Have you heard if any time travel or timeshares were compensated?
No I haven’t and I even complained to RCI that we couldn’t travel and there should have been some refunds or compensation and they said they weren’t doing that.
I bet Wyndham didn’t close down their hotels during that entire two-year period.
You don’t have to go to their presentations – just tell them no sales calls when you check in or just tell them no when they try to talk you into a sales presentation. I’m a Wyndham owner and that’s what I do.
I noticed that when I briefly worked for them. Every body on there including members are potential customers. They had a whole section of tiered salespeople who were responsible for the existing owners so they would invest more in their ownership. I felt bad for them as this is not what they signed up for when Wyndham was tugging on their emotions through quality family time.
It’s a horrible model!
Just left one in Myrtle Beach and they kept us there for over 3 hours. It was a painful experience. Our rep was fine until we said no and then he became upset and started trying to make us feel guilty. So thankful we finally said No! Leaving with a 7 night stay for $75.
I actually work for a Wyndham resort, my job is to book the presentation tours, being that I work at a small resort, we do not have the representatives to hold the guests past the time stated- which is 90 minutes for non-owner guests. For my self and my other co-workers, we do try to give our guests great gifting options for their time.
Hello, I have one of these gift certificates and I cannot get a hold of ANYONE that can help me. I was provided a voucher for a 7 night stay but the certificate number doesn’t work and I apparently have to “register” it before 6 months and we are nearing the 6 month cut off. I have called about 8 different phone numbers to be given another phone number from Wyndham staff. No one seems to know what voucher I am
Talking about or a number for marketing/promotions. Please if you know anyone who can help I am desperate,
Where did you find your certificate number? We were given a piece of paper that headlines Consumer Acknowledgement.
I’m afraid I don’t know as it’s been a few years – I think it might’ve been included in an email, but I’m not sure.
[…] timeshare presentation or, as they like to call it, “Vacation Ownership”. My wife and I attended a Wyndham timeshare presentation in Myrtle Beach, SC early on in our road trip and it wasn’t as painful as I thought it would […]
[…] presentation before, you’ll want to read this post to get a general idea of what to expect: Wyndham Timeshare Presentations Survival Guide: Get Your “No” Face On. Expect high-pressure sales tactics, though if you’re comfortable with dealing with two hours […]
Hey Stephen, wish I’d seen your superb write up on this before wife and I recently suffered through a covid-era presentation — also at Myrtle Beach WR. Substance of recent presentation was quite similar to what you spell out nicely, though due to covid, no audio visual anything, just talk, talk, talk, and walk around the towers…. If I’d read your well done report before going, we might have been able to cut a lot of the crap short…
I’m glad you made it out without a timeshare though 🙂
[…] so it’s up to you as to how much that time spent saying no is worth (and you should read Wyndham timeshare presentation: Get your “No” face on in preparation to know what to […]
Did you ever redeem the 7 night vacation certificate? How did it go?
We didn’t in the end – we just couldn’t fit it into our plans.
What were the terms for the 7 night cert? Was it only valid at specific properties/locations? And within what time frame did you have to book and travel by?
It was valid at a bunch of different properties, but only on set weeks. Our travel dates never lined up, plus we travel with our dog which meant some properties weren’t available to us because of them not being pet-friendly.
Thanks for answering. I was wondering if it is worth all the effort.
Do you still do this to get the points? Have you redeemed others? We have before, but they all are so different! Some are easy and some are hard to make the redeem. Any other articles on this?
I feel like it was worth the effort, but we’ve not actually made the effort to do any more timeshare presentations since this one.
Scammed us out of $23,000 dollars and everything they presented to us at North Myrtle Beach was nothing but lies after trying to use it on their website. DON”T BUY THIS CRAP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They won’t even buy it back after salesperson (supposedly on the level) told us that they would. Floating the idea of a class action suit.Might get back on here and contact a bunch of you.
[…] I’ve done a couple of timeshare presentations before, but it’s been quite a few years since my last one. Luckily, I can read Stephen Pepper’s post to prep myself: Wyndham Timeshare Presentation Survival Guide: Get your “No” face on. […]
If it is not an on the spot presentation – i.e. call in for Orlando/Vegas/Hawaii later in the year year – google Wyndham / Bluegreeen / Hilton timeshare resale values or 2nd market.
Another out is say that you need to see what Hilton /Bluegreen XYZ Timeshare deal/offer is first, before you can commit or make an informed/intelligent decision – it is next week / next month – or your booking when you get back home for later this year. – This is almost an impossible objection for them to overcome.
I’m glad someone else took the time to explain exactly what Wyndom is doing.
We had the exact same experience. We didn’t pay anything but were still supposed to receive 2 nights at a Wyndom Resort. Well, long story short, we might get two nights somewhere at a Holiday Inn or Comfort inn or who knows for sure.
Sad people fall for these.
17.99% Interest
Anyone considering one should look at the Resale market.
People giving them away for pennies on the dollar.
And a cottage industry of scammers who prey upon those stuck with them, knowing they have a sucker already who can be taken again.
Do the Math people, do the math.
We got suckered in by Wyndham and actually bought. We have regretted it ever since! Hard to use, we feel lied to and we have yet to speak to our sales rep who promised he would help us every step of the way. My wife had just finished chemo from having breast cancer. They totally played on this and sold us something that they said would help us make memories after cancer. LIES!!! This has been a horrible and stressful experience. We are now hoping to sell this back to Wyndham. Even if we take a loss, we will be free of this headache for good. We were also lured in during a family vacation in Myrtle beach. Never ever again! So disappointed and disgusted.
So sorry for all you have been through. I bought in a well. I’m at point it is what it is. But, I wish they would leave me alone while on the vacation.
I’m so glad you took the time to write this detailed review. A sales rep used the same tactic to get my best friend and I to sign up for a presentation. We initially wanted to say no but he offered to pick us up from our hotel in NJ, bring us to the presentation in NY city and provide transportation back. In addition to a 250 dinner voucher and a 3 night free stay. We figured what the heck? Even if we don’t get the vouchers, the transportation into the city and back will be worth it . So we signed up and already gave out all the info you said not to give before I stumbled on your article but I have already survived 2 of these presentations and came out unscathed so I’m practicing my NO face now and will keep you updated afterwards
Hey Married People,
I just want to say you and your wife are just too cute. Thanks for the info. Just got back from a Wyndham ‘teatime talk, it went down exactly as you described. But I’m really leaving this comment because YOU TWO ARE SO CUTE. I love it!
Sincerely-Engaged
P.S. Should I even bother with this ‘free vacation’?
They tried to get me on Broadway on the Beach this morning. It upsets me that they are set up to look like an information booth. I stopped by just to grab a map and then the last started asking me where I was from, how long I plan, etc… I thought she was being hospitable. Then she asks where I was staying (which wasn’t a Wyndham) and if I’d be interested in hearing what Wyndham had to offer. First, I was like, “sure, why not”. She said, I take a tour of one of the resorts, have some lunch and get tickets and gift cards to any attractions or restaurants I’d like but I’d have to pay $20. I thought what a deal but the more she talked, I realized it was probably a sales pitch for something. I called her on it. She said, “no, we just want you to stay with us when you travel.”. I politely told her I’m not interested and left. After reading your post, I am so glad I did! I would’ve wasted my time (and their’s)..
Excuse my misprints. I should have proofread. Lol
I will be attending one of these this November in San Francisco. I paid $299 for 2 nights at the Hotel VIA, and then I have the option of receiving 15,000 Wyndham points or a $150 prepaid credit card and a $100 off voucher for a future Wyndham stay, (for which the terms and conditions will be revealed when I receive the certificate). This same room would have been about $350 a night through Hotel.com, Expedia, etc., so even assuming the $100 off voucher will be next to worthless, with the $150 prepaid card, this is not a bad deal. Last time I went to one of these presentation I was brash 20 something and repeatedly said loud enough for the entire room to hear “Sounds like a BURN to me!” After about 15 minutes I was escorted out, given my reward (a $100 gift card if I remember right) and asked never to return. While my demeanor may have mellowed, my attitude has not, I will have no problem and in fact look forward to saying NO to these people.
Hi I need help. We sat thru the presentation said not but paid for the 8 days 7 nights but now I can’t find the card with the website to claim my vacation. Is there a number I can call or do you happen to have site?
I think it was resortcerts.com
Awesome information ! We attended today…and said NO No No…lol I was curious to know about redeeming the 7night certificate your information was very helpful!
My husband and I did the Branson trip, and had a great time. We got a free show with a meal. Free two night stay at a nice hotel. No pressure at the presentation. Just say NO. NO. and NO. Not so hard for a free weekend. We drove there were from MO. Another time we went to Myrtle Beach on a Time Share presentation. The hotel was on the beach. WE had our own kitchen living room and bedroom. Nothing fancy but we just needed a place to sleep. The people that were there were so nice. Again, did the presentation and said NO, NO and NO. Done. Finished our nice weekend. We have friends that do it for the free nights. Short nice vacation. I guess it’s how you can handle pressure. You know you can’t afford it or believe in it. Which we don’t. We go to a lot nicer places when we want without penalties. Soooooo…… enjoy your days there and say NO ! I also have friends that have them. So it’s your personal opinion on what you think.
Wonderful post. I must say me and my family have actually had ease and enjoyment in our ownership. It’s a shame you didn’t keep an open mind. You might actually be on some great vacations rather than spending that time writing “opinion reviews”. -A Bery Happy Wyndham Owner
We just went through this today. VERY unlike Plantation Resort. We have been owners here over 40 years but today a PR employee of 28 years was part of the 4 tier tag team of intense sales and numbers manipulation. NO we didn’t fall for the okeydoke. Thanks for your warning.
[…] 45,000 Wyndham points or a 1-week stay certificate for attending a Wyndham presentation (See: Wyndham Timeshare Presentation Survival Guide: Get your “No” face on.), I’d be less enthused about paying them to attend (though you’ll note that Stephen […]
You do realize you are taking food off the table from families of commissioned sales reps that are dedicating 2 hours of their time to you? Don’t attend a presentation unless you are legitimately interested in getting more information. If not stay away and keep spending your money on crappy hotels.
Did they refund your $75 deposit u paid when you made agreed to do the presentation
If we aren’t promised free things when we are blatantly telling the person we aren’t interesting, why are we the bad guys? We told our guy upfront that we were not interested in a time share and only there for the free gifts, but he still tried to sell us timeshares and then was a butt head when we said no like 10 times at the end. So, that’s his fault, we warned him that we weren’t interested, they need to rethink their sales strategy because this one sucks.
You do realize the sales pitchers are targeting children and having them “spin for a prize” what child says no to this? Then they promise a week for $75 and that’s somehow offensive to you when we go and say no thanks? Get real.
I was also caught by the place at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach. My sister and I were vacationing with 2 of her grandchildren and looking for some discounts to any attractions. At first we thought this was just a visitor center. The girl was offering us a great deal on the Pirate show and waterparks. Then came the catch. We decided to do it and went early the next day, leaving the teenagers to sleep in late. I was sure I could say no and even though this was my first presentation I have always heard these things were never a good deal. My plan was to be completely honest and act very interested until the end. I completed all the paperwork which was a credit application but said I didn’t feel comfortable giving out my SSN, so he let me leave it blank. The presentation was almost exactly as you described,. It was very entertaining and the resort tour was beautiful. All of that took the 2 hours. Then it was another hour for the sales pitch. When I said no, the salesman seemed so sad, as if he had failed to do his job. I gave him some constructive criticism , told him about the terrible reviews I had read about the process and then said no again. He agreed and said he would put me in the waiting list for the exit interview…. in the meantime the manager came over and gave us the hard sell. And kept making better offers. I was tempted but still said no. If you ever think you might be interested definitively say no at least 3 times. At that point I wasn’t even looking at the offers before saying no so they finally gave up. The exit interview and getting the vouchers were pretty easy. I will say the seats at the Pirate show were not the best but we could see everything and really enjoyed it. The waterpark was great but we thought we were getting an all access pass that included mini golf and go carts but it was just the waterpark. We saved over 300 dollars so we think it was worth it.
So true. I did buy years ago. But we went in at 9am and didn’t walk out till 630pm. For what I bought in at I don’t think I could have done better. But, as I said several times on this post. It’s the constant sales pitch every time we go on vacation. Grrr
Omg after reading this I want to cancel my ownership I just signed yesterday
It looks like you should have 3 days after purchasing a timeshare to cancel it with no penalty, so that might still be an option.
Glad to see I’m not the only one who has been harrassed! These people.made me cry & I’m not the crying type. My family & I were staying at a friend’s timeshare in New Orleans through this company. I attended the presentation so I could get a discount on a excursions. I told then up front, I’m a single mom, can’t afford it at this time, etc, etc… I said when I travel, I travel very cheaply. The first sales guy was great. Then he brought the manager. He literally told me I was lying and didn’t travel as economically as I told him. I was doing everything wrong. He had the attitude of “I am a man & I know everything & you are a single woman & I will belittle you until you bow down to me.” I started crying because of the insults but also because I was so angry! When I was done & had enough, in order to get the discounts, it was a 2 step process. The first guy offered me a free year or something but I was done. I said NO. He was professional about it. The 2nd person was rude as hell! She was all talkative & friendly to the people who said yes . Then when I checked out with her, she wouldn’t look at me, was very short with me, & only had one word answers. There was no, “Have a good day,” or “thank you for your 3 hours of time even though we said it was only going to be 1.5 hours!”
I didn’t even get through the whole article, it was so excruciating. If you’ll go through all of that, and tell lies, and play games just to get a free gift, you two probably deserve each other. #douchebags #NoFreeLunches
Every one in here is a trip. you all get what you deserve. you went on a presentation to waist someones time for some free gifts. Then you got online to waist even more time complaining about how bad you were treated. How funny and ironic is that. Maybe just maybe you should have bought the package that whomever it was offered ya so that you could have been on some really nice vacations making some really nice memories with your love ones instead of wasting your life doing cheap petty things and not taking full advantage of what life has to offer. I am sure you instead you will lash out at this response and or keep making the same excuses that you have made through out your life so far.
You must be one of the sales reps
or Somewhere a million people want to go like Time square for New years or New Orleans for Mardi gras. You can go to Hawaii for 126K points for a week (which is always prime season BTW) Also, you mentioned you were in Myrtle Beach in January? So that is most definitely quiet season and would have required the lowest amount of points. Many of the places that are HIGH point values are places that have almost no other Timeshare there. So Wyndham has a monopoly on them like Washington DC or New York City. in those cases I use Wyndham rewards points and stay for FREE. There is NO cheaper way to stay in nice places other than getting points on a credit card. Which incidentally are not Free. We love our Timeshare and get $20,000 out of it every single year. It has paid for itself many times over. And my kids will inherit it and their vacations will be paid for. All they have to do is pay the HOA or maintenance which I offset with Wyndham Visa credit card points. Too bad you missed out on an opportunity for a great vacation experience. The man who you said worked for Wyndham only a short time, the Air BNB guy, He must not have been too good. seems like he did not know the product. Cheers!
Attended sales breakfast in Sevierville, Tennessee. After we had already agreed to purchase additional points, the female sales rep literally followed me into the women’s restroom (she was wearing a red dress and high heels, which I could see throw the crack in the stall door). Felt like she was stalking/spying on me! She left before I came out. She was NOT there to use the restroom. She and her partner also stopped my husband and I at the door when we were trying to leave, accusing my husband of recording the sales pitch on his cell phone. He was just playing video games while the sales people were out of the room. We had already purchased more points at that sales breakfast. On our way back to Kansas, we decided to cancel the purchase as soon as we got home. We had three days to accomplish this…We love traveling and have stayed at some wonderful places, but no more sales pitches. Just say NO!
I have! But I ended up buying over 11 yrs ago with Wyndham and I have done the math on my vacations with my Wyndham ownership and above the memories I have built with my children ,I have had a 200% return on my money in that time. My background is investment real estate,business,and ministry. I love my ownership
Dad has been a member for years. We kids have enjoyed the use of these 2-3 bedrooms off and on. I used it in new Orleans twice and once at Disney world. I couldnt of gotten a cheap hotel room at either place for what I paid in housekeeping for these units.it was great to use and I am already booking next year. Love it! Thanks dad!
So glad I read this! Going to cancel my pacjage within the 7 day period!
So is it true you can cancel within 7 days
I just did this same presentation sat. Exactly spot on. Seems tempting. But dang that’s allot of dough to spend. I spent 30k points to stay for weekend and did the presentation and got 45k points so my weekend was free. Oh I also won drawing for Chee’s block n cutter..
At a property as a guest of an Owner… Owner has told us numerous times how these folks have ruined their stay.
Our sales guys was very friendly until I told him that we would not make a decision today… then he turned on the sleazy sales deal… direct quotes…
“It’s like an annuity that always pays.”
“Yes, I’m trying to scare you into buying one.”
After taking some low blows at me, I shut it down but was willing to finish the presentation. He knew he made a mistake as he attempted to apologize to me on our walk over to the property.
I told him that I do not make financial decisions of this magnitude on the spot.
“Did you not ask your wife out for a second date after the first… didn’t you just know?”
My response… “I didn’t ask her to marry me after the first date… it took time… you’re asking me to marry you…. no thanks!”
_________________________
“I have an MBA” – that was funny… and you’re selling timeshares… gotcha!
I showed the sales manager the contract they made me sign and told them that if these are legal and binding documents, they better hold up their end of the deal.
I am here 7 more days and if I see him with another couple, I’ll say something to them.
I’m in sales and here’s the deal… If I realize I’m in a position where I can’t make a sale, I hope I’ve been respectful enough to the clients that they would be willing to do two things for me….
1) Call me if a decision is made in the future.
2) Hope they would refer someone to me in the future.
I don’t ask for it, but hope that I treat my clients with a level of respect that would earn more those things.
This guy is a scum sales rep!
Just had this experience last week in Orlando. Started out nice but quickly turned south. Once they said it would cost $51,000 I said no. We where nice in the being but keep getting the line. Also during the presentation J said it would cost $295 to book your trip. The maintenance fee is now being call property taxes. So at $842 a month for 10yrs I still said no. They didn’t have any resorts in the UP. So finally after all there pushing another guy came to us. His name was Steve and Steve was so professional that is name badge was hanging vertically. Well Steve started talking and ask my wife to sit down but my wife has bad knees and had been sitting for over 90 minutes. Steve said she had to sit or he wouldn’t talk to us. Well my wife sat down and he returned and asked some simple questions. Was a complete jerk and that is being nice. Accused us of not being able to finance the money which is a joke. Then asked if we have been to other timeshares which we have not. This was our first. After his interrogation we went down a and he kept asking simple questions like what do you do and were are you from. Just a complete A-hole. Also the sales guys was lying to us. We told him where we lived and he said he was there in September of last year and there was a big forest and it was cold. Well we don’t have a big forest and we had record highs in September. Just lie after lie. Worst 2 hours of my life. We did get the gift of $135 amex card
Were you able to use the amex card while on your trip? I want to make sure I can use it at restaurants, etc. while on my trip because the fine print says they begin assessing a fee after 6 months if it isn’t used.
My wife and I had been married in Las Vegas. We.enjoyed going back, and on our next trip we had actually talked about looking at a timeshare. I know it’s hard to believe, but we did not escape from a looney farm. As a note at the time, Wyndham was not who we bought from, but Fairfield Resorts which later became Wyndham Vacation Ownership. We calculated what we would use on a realistic annual basis, and went from there. We also are members of RCI, and do not have a fee, because they were under the same company banner as Fairfield Resorts, and Wyndham. We have now owned for 18 years. We will be going back to Las Vegas in about three weeks. Neither one of us has ever regretted our decision to buy.
Thank you so much for writing this article & including all of the details. I got cornered by a fast-talking Wyndam rep at a food service trade show. Before I knew it I had handed over my credit card for a (hopefully) refundable $40 presentation fee. Reading your article has helped me understand what to expect when I go to the meeting.
We went 2 nights and 1 day to Nashville. Tennesee and saw a deal for 2 nights and a show for around $200. We thought that was a good deal and did not see anywhere that we would be pressured to go to a presentation in order to get the deal. However when we picked our hotel tickets and show tickets we were “encouraged” to listen to a 90 min presentation that turned out to be 3 hours. It was 3 hours of pressure from 4 different people. This was a total waste of time! We lost a big part of our only day in Nashville, and were treated horribly by the fourth person who was insisting that we could afford the last offer of a 2 year “guest trial and that we should take our grandchildren to Disney World as any good grandparents should do. When I stood up and said “no” was our final answer he got very mad but finally got to leave. Anyone listening, do NOT get locked into this-there are so many gray area’s it is ridiculous and all we got out of this is a waste of time and disappointment in how people go about doing their jobs.
We recently experienced a similar situation in Nashville only our presenters were rather “high pressure” and condescending. Our adventure started at noon and ended at 5PM with us receiving absolutely nothing. After stating multiple times that we weren’t buying because of the RCI fee policy, concerns regarding the maintenance fees and the similarity to the Hilton program. Additionally we explained that we had show tickets and had a time constraint but the pressure continued. When I inquired if after four plus hours and listening to their “pitch” if we could please get our voucher and be on our way. The closer very abruptly stated “you’ll get the voucher when I FINISH AND ESCORT YOU TO CHECK OUT”. We left empty handed and disgusted.
I went…It is a total scam in every aspect.
Really enjoyed reading this
Wife and I went to Myrtle Beach. They offered some free tickets for attractions for family. Supposed to be a two hour presentation we were there for nearly three hours. They kept on trying to get me to say yes but I wouldn’t budge. They fed us nasty lunch. Almost like a car dealership mentality all about making a sale. This story was true in every faction.
I’ve been a finance manager for 30 years at the same dealership. I can tell you I have never treated prospective buyers why way they do.
Why would you go on a timeshare presentation during your vacation? If you can’t afford to vacation why beg for discounts? When I am on vacation I would not waste my time begging for handouts?
It’s not about the people begging, it’s the wyndham people who are talking people into it. Maybe you should not assume things before you comment.
I just did the timeshare presentation yesterday in Las Vegas. and it was painful!!! First of all, the timeshare lady offered me a reallly nice free breakfast for all 4 of us and free 4 show tickets. I told her that I did not have time to spare bc we were own vacation with 2 kids. She then said you can also get a $50 gift card to spend on Wyndham. My husband said No bc he does not believe in free stuff. She then said they are not gonna hold you long bc you come with 2 kids and insisting in a really nice fancy breakfast and the show value of $100 +. I then decided to ask what kind iof show that my kids can watch bcmy little boy is 4. She said magic show. So we agree to try. Then she asked me for a deposit of $40 cash. What!!!! You bothered me to see your sale and asked for deposit!!! Well it might we worth if we gonna get those things at the end. Ok so we showed up on time. Then they had us lined up to get a breakfast with turn out to be waffles, sausages and fruit cup and that’s it!!! No refill bc you just eat and fill out the questionare at the same time. Once you done eating in 15 mins. The sales rep statred to talk all that stuff. It took us 3 hours to actually said No. I told him that I would not rush into making decision now. I really need time when I buy big thing. He said if I come back later then it would not be this price. It will up to normal. So then his manager came to offer if I want to lock in this price I need a deposit of $1000 to come back and say yes or no. At this point my husband was really mad and said No and he started walking out. Then the other guy came in to check me out but instead he was trying to sell me another option saying that he understand that I needed more time so he was gonna have me try it out without owning the prpperties for free. Then I was kind of interesed. Then he asked me to fill out a form and it says I need to pay 36$ for 2 years to stay at the prpperties. It was too tricky !!bc My husband and the kids alredy waiting outside crying.Then I absolutely said I am sorry, stood up and walk. Then he had us sign No papers. I sign No and walked out . Now I was not sure that is a No paper bc you was rushed in everything.
Yes we got our 4 show tickets but when we got there they did not allow our 4 years old to see the show bc he is under 5. At this point I am so mad that my day just gone waste!!! The $50 giftcard we already used for $9 parking fee to come to the show.
Summary we lost all our morning 4 hours to listening to time share. Then lost almost 2 hours to come and did not see the show and waste $9 on parking. Now we have $41 left for all those time.
Hubby and I just finished the presentation at the Desert Blue Las Vegas . The new tactic is ask you fill out this form to see what program we qualify for. I look at it closely it was a credit appreciation. I refused to fill it out with out an offer that i agreed with. Kathy was very anger and claimed she could not make and offer untill out the form so we were at an impasse. The room was very noisy im hard of hearing and when i told her i could nor hear her she mocked me. I expected hard sale but not to be bullied. At that point i would not stay or buy a Wyndham vacation ownership ever give me my gifts see you later by.
Ann, I have had the same experience at Wyndham. My Wife and we’re told that we could simply give back or Ovate one of our timeshare deeds. Then they offered us a similar property for 20K. Because we were losing the maintenance fees from the deed that we had “given back “ we were told that the 20K for the “new” property was a “wash”. We would be saving so much on maintenance fees that it would not cost us “anything “. He still wanted a check for 20K ! After telling him NO for several minutes he abruptly “stormed “ out of the booth, we demanded our gift, from the concierge, they reluctantly gave our $100 visa gift card. Our sales rep was obviously very upset that we didn’t purchase.
Got me in Vegas resort, am age 62. Same speel. Caved under the pressure and handed over 14 thousand cash for vacation ownership 2017 84 thousand points plus 200 thou sign up bonus points…and won 7 day rci free vacation but had to pay 300 plus for it…sorry salesman lied to you they said…then, suckered into 16 thousand credit card..their credit card deed ownership preferential for ownership at oceanside pier silver upsell thingamabob.. I am single 62 year old retired on social security and small 401k… said i had great credit score.. hoa fees for both ownerships now 88 a month and monthly oayment another 228 for two weeks a year.. what the heck was I thinking? My gosh… kept me there for hours and the pressure selling and my head spinning with how great a deal i was getting and how wonderful to pass on to my kids… i tried to find out what was actual value if i sold it right now.. the salesman in oceanside tried to sell me a platinum upgrade last july 2018 said was worth 52 thousand..and thank goodness through tears I said no to the 552 a month payment.. Just found out the 14 thousand I paid deed ownership wyndham vegas 2017 is now worth 300 dollars…. stay away from these sharks
For what it’s worth these presentation are good actually Learning experience if your legitimately want to get info on their point system. With that said, there’s such a negative rep on timeshare that the sellers market (resale that is) is flooded with owners literally giving away their points on eBay.
I paid a whopping $404 + $299 (transfer fees) for my initial costs and $67/mo Maintenence (hoa/club fees) for 225,000 points (biennial or every other Odd year) at Bonnet Creek – Orlando FL…. Which really translates to a 3bd Presidential Suite for a week (non peak season) at Disney world… Every other year… Or roughly $230ish per night for 3bd room + kitchen + yaddadayadda.
None owners or regular rate would cost about $330/night for the same type of room.
I think the main thing to get out of it though is the quality of your vacation and the prepaying of it (in terms of monthly maintenance fees). For me and my family it works out since it only feels like a utility bill vs a car payment. And we usually take a super vacation every other year anyways so it’s jot like we needed 225,000 points every year. I would never however buy them directly from the developer or salesman… As resale market is a buyer’s paradise…. At least for those who can honestly harness a timeshare system properly.
I think the proper formula to see if it’s worth it:
1.Being a long term vacation planner ( you need to look out more than 10 to a year to get what you want)
2.If the montly maintenance fees (annually or biennialy) divided #of days at your preferred (my e even the average since they vary from location to location) < a standard night cost (for the similar room type)
3. Need the extra space or prefer resort amenities over airbnb and standard hotels.
Then yes it makes sense.
Just be sure to know what you CA. Realistically and reasonably afford in the long run. And just be aware that it may be impossible to get rid of (so buy resale with the mentality of keeping it forever)
Yes maintenence fees will rise just like property ta, ES raise your escrow or fixed monthly mortgage payments. So be dynamic enough to account for fluctuations in monthly fees… But at least no financing of the initial buy in cost.
The investment here is quality time with family in a -'boojee' resort.
And I know the argument can be made that you just save up for the vacation and not own.. But owning forces me to actually take a vacation, that I would've probably put off anyways had it be an option. But thats subjective and only applicable to my bad habits.
You made the most realistic comment when you said that it makes me take a vacation. It really does, my wife , and I would have never taken as many vacations if we were not owners. When we bought 18 years ago, we were not aware of the secondary market, but we paid it off over ten years ago, and are still glad we bought. Just a thought, if you are ever going to the Grand Canyon, look at Wyndham Flagstaff. It’s a hair over an hour’s drive to the Canyon. And, when we stayed in a two bedroom deluxe at the time, it was bigger than our home. My youngest son went with us, and he was blown away by the size. And, if you go in October, the changing leaves are beautiful.
Sounds like a Wyndham points salesman response to me. Don’t get scammed
I agree with your reasoning. We purchased the the Discovery package. It gives us the 400k points and two years to use them. We will have done two sales presentations in one yr and will be fetching 90k in points towards the non Wyndham Club side which will get us 6 nights where we wanna be on our 4th vacation down the road. We paid the Discovery Club fee off before the 6 weeks of no payments and thus incurred no interest. Therefore with everything combined our 6 nights from the 90k in Wyndham points, 7 days in Hawaii and 7 days in Branson MO accommodations for 6 from the 400k Discovery Club points, will average out to about $179/night. That’s a fair price for resort/middle end hotel stays over the next two years. I probably would not buy the life time package now knowing that other options are and will be available. I’m certain after my Discovery package expires, I can attend another sales camp and get a like or better deal. Even Diamond resorts made us a decent offer but it was almost 3X the Wyndham price so we passed. In fact Wyndham changed their policy and you can attend these almost 10x a year. If you’re a good negotiator and say no at all presentations you can rack up a ton of points and freebies. Be in the know about resort fees, taxes and parking. People nickel and dime you from the top down, the top being the government(taxes), owners(resort fees) and very bottom people who work for tips(parking/valet). These are all fine print cost in addition to rates of any kind when it comes to staying anywhere with a corporate name.
They almost got us as well..
I felt like i was in some sort of a spectacle ..
Especially when they came in with a bottle of sparkling juice to congratulate!
They are scaming people on a big scale!
How is this even allowed!
Fortunately was able to read some reviews
T(hank you google) and run away!
Want to sell?
Started as a Trendwest client then it changed to
Wyndam. Not Happy as a 1 night stay in Vegas for a
Studio was $75. Supposedly housekeeping fees!!
Fell for the presentation line.. They never mentioned it was 2 hours… Was furious!!! So I told them I was NOT buying anymore shares and I only wanted the $100 gift card. Wanted to get on the road!! Overall I managed to come out ahead but Am Not Happy with this organization. Annual maintenance fees and then having to pay a housekeeping fee is BS
A scam all the way around. My wife and I visited Myrtle beach Jan 19-21 2019 for a quick get away. Upon checking in we was approached by a lady at the hotel saying we could get 150 gift card and 2 dinner show tickets. After going to the long boring session we didn’t received nothing
Very unprofessional. Don’t invite someone to a event promising gifts but truly it’s a scam.
Thank you Stephen and Shae for sharing your experience. My wife and I attended a presentation this morning and the process was the same as you described. Our sales rep was very nice, and asked only that we keep an open heart and open mind (I get the feeling this is a company tag line). We listened, considered, discussed how the program would not fit our preferences. Listened some more and then declined. We had to decline 3 more times, and only once felt pressured. I think it’s like eveything else in life. You get Good people and bad people in every aspect of life. We have family who love their vacation ownership. I don’t think they’re stupid, or suckers. For them it’s was right….for us it was not. Your post helped us feel prepared, and I appreciate it very much.
Thanks – I’m glad it helped 🙂
Curious…
How hard was it to redeem the 7 day vacation? Was kt costly?
Curious… did u ever redeem the 7 day vacation? Was it easy? Costly?
We didn’t, although that was because it didn’t fit in with our travel plans. If we’d decided to base a vacation around using the certificate, I think we could’ve used it pretty easily.
I would advice everyone to stay the hell.away from wyndham! They are a basically scammers who lie about everything you are “supposedly” getting and the amount of money it actually costs! Dont fall for any BS like I unfortunately did with then saying oh will put the money down for you! Then 6 months later you are getting Bill’s and when you call asking the place why they are sending Bill’s when u never took a loan from them they state Wyndham took line for us and now we have to pay! I could go on and on of the lists of lies that we were told. I just hope that other people dont fall for there lies!
Timeshare works for plenty of owners. Lol A corny article that attempts to devalue timeshare and its perks because of some confused understanding you believe you have reached. Get a life and stop wasting time. I hope you completed your 50 state trip in 5 years.
Lml this article is a waste of time.
Me and my husband went thriugh the same thing and now we regret we have the timeshare and trying to sale ours. I wish we would have kept walking.
Please don’t if you dont intend to buy, that’s our livelihood. And a lot of times we onlt get one shot a day. This next week Im off 4 days. And you get unlimited vacations with us through last calls. I am an owner. We have almost a million owners now and over half of them upgrade, because it is a WONDERFUL DEAL! I’m sorry if it was not explained to you correctly. As for the guy who worked there for a short time, apparently he didn’t understand it either. Otherwise he would still be with the company. We win the “Most Ethical Award” every year. And the only company allowed to build on Disney’s land in Orlando. I think that speaks volumes. Enjoy your stay!
I have attended, purchased, referred tgen became kucensed to sell. I absolutely believe in the vacation plans, but PURCGASE CLOSE TO HOME…so tgat it becomes a ciu try club membership with vacation privileges….. priceless when your day trips brings memories that your day to day life cannot match. Childrens memories, laughter and smiles will make you pay the maintenance in advance. CLOSE TO HOME FOR THE BEST VALUE. Thanks guys for sharing your point experience… I was looking to understand that
NEW ORLEANS. DO NOT SiGN UP!
I’m a professional timeshare presentation Junkie … I take about two weeks of vacation a year for free on average and usually get some sort of a bonus on top of it … if I’m not averaging $150 per hour to sit through the presentation I don’t waste my time… my objections can never be overcome.. and usually end up with frustrated sales managers… my best comeback to an insult about me taking advantage of the program and the sales people here just to get a free vacation was …DUH..??… why did it take you two hours to figure that out..?
My story from Hilton Hawaii (Big Island) King’s Land. Took the offer for 4 Nights $695 in exchange for attending during stay. Upgraded to a 2 Bed and brought another couple to Hawaii with us. Had a Grand Stay for 6 nights in a top floor luxury unit for about $1500 out of pocket. Doing this talk was well worth it in my opinion.
The talk: I kept thinking “Are you kidding me!” snice the deals offered were terrible value. Sales rep calculated we’d spend over $160,000 in 20 years and this would only cost $120,000 for same. Major caveat 1: he included maximizing perfect usage of the annual points every year. 2: Did not factor in the maintenance fees. Sad truth was the 7 night Hawaii ownership package came with $1475 in annual maintenance fees. With peak pricing, your 7 nights of points will only get you 5 nights. I can easily stay at properties in Hawaii of my own choice for $1475 for 5 nights. That’s just the annual fee! the big money is $20,000 down PLUS a $100,000 Vac Ownership mortgage over 10-15 years.
I have Wyndham and I’m very disappointed in them!
You guys are the poster child for the trailer trash scrounges that rip companies off for freebies.
I don’t know if you actually read the post, but we paid $150 so it was hardly a freebie.
This article is absolute garbage. Vacation ownership is not for everyone. If it’s not for you why waste someone’s time and effort. This isnsomebodys job you’re playing with. “The food was not Ruth Chris”? What do you expect? Tons of people use these presentations as a way to save money for vacations they cant afford. Jumping from presentation to presentation getting discounts is a sad life. Jumping from resort to resort and playing with peoples livelihood is not okay just so you can get some “free nights”. Dont be like this couple thinking they can one up the system. You win the battle by saying no, i get it. But who is really winning? This deplorable couple who brags about being cheap, rude and has to drag his wife every time they go out on vacation for a presentation because they simply cant afford the lifestyle they want. Who is having more fun on their vacation, the people by the pool/beach spending time with their families or this couple having to sit through another presentation because they simply cant afford the lifestyle and are playing with peoples livelihood. H
Shame on you. These are peoples careers you a playing with. I implore anybody that reads this. Dont be like this pathetic couple. This is a sad life to live.
If someone can afford a timeshare, they can likely afford a vacation given that ultimately the cost of a timeshare seems to be far in excess of what you’d pay otherwise once you take into account the maintenance fees that many other commenters have referenced above.
You appear to be mistaken about me and my wife though. We don’t jump from resort to resort – this was the first and only (so far) timeshare presentation we’ve attended. I also don’t drag her to a presentation every time we go on vacation – I’ve no clue what makes you think that. We’re on a 5 year road trip and spent two hours of it going to one of these presentations. My wife was actually the one who was more keen on doing it than I was.
Given that you appear to be more concerned with the people that sell timeshares rather than those they prey on, I’ll assume you sell timeshares.
The timeshare concept is built on understanding and use. It is as simple as that. We are part of Wyndam ourselves. If you are the type that vacations in cheap hotels, then the math will not add up. If you are the type that enjoys, let’s say sitting on the balcony or by the pool and relaxing you would look for something more. The justification takes about ten years. It is a long term commitment. Even with maintenance fees, the cost easily justifies itself over time ( but longer durations). Everyone vacations different. For some it makes sense. For others it does not. I would say it certainly has the potential to work for some, which your post appears to directly contradict. I would recommend to go to a meeting and take notes. Slap a quick Excel sheet together and see how it fits for you over a year. Then multiply that by five and then by ten. See if the benefit is there.if not, simply keep doing whatever you were doing. Final note, if you are not a consistent yearly vaction type, they are probably not for you.
After we said no they refuse to let us leave 3hrs wasted never again.
Good
If anyone know someone that want to buy a Timeshare I have one I’m trying to sell with Wyndham 154000 points I don’t get to travel at all so that’s why I’m trying to sell it because of my health.
Did you ever use the 7 day certificate? What was your experience with that? We are signed up to attend a presentation in Chicago and I’m already only there for the 7 day certificate that I paid $50 for!!
We haven’t used it yet and there’s only a couple of months until it expires. It’s unlikely we’ll end up using it as it doesn’t look like available locations will match up with where we’ll be in January and February. If you’re fairly flexible though and are happy to base a vacation on what’s available, you should be fine.
I used mine for a 2 bedroom at Cypress Palms in Orlando in September. Nice unit. I go to Orlando alot so it worked for me. The only ts I own is Disney which I bought on the resale market in 2011 and could sell for double what I paid for it even though there is less time on the contract as they sell 50 years only.
Listened to alot of ts presentations, lots of bull.
Anything that takes a 3 hour “mesmerizing ” sales blitz pitch to entice you to sign cannot be a good thing. I bought a time share privately 25 years ago for about 1/3 the price at the time. Even at that price I realized it was a bad deal. But I made the deal and I made it work for me and my family. Still own it, still use it.
Our society is getting a lot of this cheapies , even for free is not enough , disgraceful people , of course if u are traveling with a dog , there is going to be very few options , the wyndham properties are usually from decent to nice .
I have had worldmark for 20yrs. Im a rancher now and flat dont travel. Anyone want to buy- give me a email, I have 33k points which is about 3 weeks. My plan is 11k a year with a sept renew date. Just not using and my kids dont want to travel! . Weve loved it and have done Maui 12 times and even Kenya!
Wyndham presentation at smugglers notch vt was very rude. Tactics were to brainwash you into there timeshare occult. Do not everror accept or go to a presentation unless you enjoy abuse.
Lmao brainwash timeshare occult? Sounds like you cant afford it.
The best part about timeshare “offers” is their interest rate. They are not in the hotel or vacation industry, they are in the financial loan industry. I wonder how this is even legal to charge 17%+ interest for anything, my credit cards offers a better rate than that.
In life you pay interest for everything. Credit card, housing, car. If you dont want to pay interest then pay it off and dont finance…
I guess you missed my point. Mortgage rates are around 5%, a timeshare costs 17% interest, my credit card has 16%. You are buying a piece of “real estate” at credit card interest rates. If you look at the amortization table you will end up paying wingham hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest alone. They aren’t in the resort or real estate business, they are in the lending business.
did you have to show your ID when you did this?? my husband can’t go anymore and i want to ‘replace’ him with someone else….wondering how easy this would be to do. any tips would be so helpful as i already have my flight booked!
I think we might’ve had to show ID when we arrived and before the presentation started, but I’m afraid I can’t remember for sure.
This seems like quite the way to spend time on your 5 year road trip. Don’t you have anything else to do? I feel as though if you put some time and energy into something that actually matters you could do some good in the world. People who attend timeshare presentations for the free gifts have a special place in hell.
I’ll hazard a guess that you sell timeshares, as that’s the only reason I can think why it irks you that we spent 1/21,912 of our road trip that way. We got 3-10 free nights by attending the presentation, so that frees up our budget to spend money on other travel.
Really, we were performing a public service because attending the timeshare presentation with no intention to buy ensured no one else got suckered into buying one.
A public service? Your perspective is so skewed. The best part about this article is the fact that you try to justify being the worst kind of people. Dont do presentations like this. You’re wasting peoples time and effort. This entire article is disguting.
I get the point your making. But, as an owner who uses all my points each year less the last 2 due to covid. Why do I have to sit through a hour update meeting (3x’s a year) it really puts a damper on the vacation and purchase we already made. I’m sitting in a wyndam in Daytona as we speak. This will be my second meeting in 10 days. That is ridiculous.
My boyfriend bought a Wyndom Resort’ timeshare. It was supposed to be $28,000 total. We can use it all over the world which is what attracted him to it. Ultimately he ended up paying &70,000 when all was said and done. That was a year and 1/2 ago and we have only used our points twice. Once for hotel stays on a our car ride to Florida and back. And once last July on. party weekend in Vegas which includes a Jennifer Lopez concert. I will say that was a very fun trip. However, what they don’t tell you is that rooms fill up fast and you need to reserve at least a year in advance for many places. And they keep raising the maintenance fees which is a rip off. And your points expire if you don’t use them! That failed to tell us that at the presentation Bottem line is, we are very unhappy with our purchase and wish we had said no!
My presentation wasn’t quite so much fun. I too had the single person approach, then the manager backup etc…
TL;DR: I have Aspergers and ADHD, couldn’t get away from sales person until I signed up. 15 years later, still can’t get rid of this damn timeshare and stuck paying loads of money for something I don’t use.
Full Story:
If you know of anyone who can help me get rid of my timeshare and maybe get some compensation from Wyndham, I’d love to get in touch with them. I’m based in New Zealand and was pressure sold timeshare for Wyndham South Pacific many years ago when it was called Trendwest South Pacific. I have Aspergers and ADHD and have recently started taking medication that is now helping me get organised and stop avoiding issues, and Wyndham are a major stressor that I need removed from my life but have been periodically avoiding.
So how do I get rid of Wyndham timeshare? I was missold it and never really wanted it. I’ve tried a few times to sell it over the years. I’ve used it a couple of times, but mostly it gets to a point where the credits are about to run out, so I offer a friends or family a week in Rotorua to use up the credits. I tried one year to rent the credits, but was told I couldn’t as they weren’t Wyndham US, and that Wyndham South Pacific aren’t allowed to be rented.
The original sales person told me that it would go up in value and that there is a market for selling them on at a profit, or that Trendwest would buy back at the price paid.They made me sign all these forms and documents, said that it was usable anywhere in the world (it isn’t), and overwhelmed me with pressure and paperwork. I was stuck at the ‘presentation’ for 4+ hours and couldn’t get away. I wanted to read the documents at home, but they make you sign there and then. I find it very difficult to read peoples’ intentions if they are lying or bullying, so prefer to read documents away from people to avoid being sold things I don’t want and definitely couldn’t afford, but they wouldn’t let me do this.
I’ve paid off the finance at long last, but am still stuck paying 700+ a year for something I don’t want and don’t use, and I can’t get rid of it. They constantly call trying to sell more credits and just don’t get the hint that I don’t want it. It’s made me very depressed and stressed out over the years, especially when I was out of work and still had finance and levies to pay. This albatross around my neck prevented me from buying actual property when I wanted to, I had to wait until the finance was paid off so that my income wasn’t being reduced by something pointless, by the time that happened, house prices in NZ were mental, so I’m paying a massive mortgage just because I delayed a few years. I just want it gone. Ideally I would like my money back, in a perfect world I would like compensation from Wyndham for all the stress over the years.
Is there anything that can be done to help me with this problem? I had recently moved to NZ when it was sold to me. I was on my own, my parents were still in the UK, and my brother was 200km away. So I had no support or anyone to discuss it with at the time. Do you know of any companies able to help people with Wyndham South Pacific and getting exit from their membership and some compensation for their appalling pressure sales tactics?
We bought a discounted stay at a fair and were not told we had to go to this presentation. Apparently many got free vacations but we paid for ours. I feared the rate would go up if I didnt go. I went and it was almost 4 hours!!! I tried to get out but they would not stop trying different angles. Our room was nice but we did pay for it and paid taxes and parking making it similar to any other rate plus they stole a half day of vacation when you figure you cant do anything mich before the presentation. I did get $100 master card and my friend I made go with me got a restaurant card. I would only go again if I were offered a free stay somewhwere not a discounted plus taxes and parking rate. The actual package sounds great but way too much money.
I am a Wyndham owner and I love it. We bought ours from an existing owner rather than through the developer/Wyndham for a great deal less (around $2500 incl title). We have been able to use our 300,000 annual points for large family trips, booking several rooms. To us it has value but maybe because we got ours for such a low price to begin with. And we always receive excellent service when booking our trips and during our stay
I have been a Wyndham Timeshare Owner since 2003. At that time it was Fairfield Vacations. We purchased a 154,000 point package which is equivalent to a 7-night, 2 bedroom Resort for $10,900. We also received a week stay in Hawaii, and extra points that we used to go snow skiing in Massachusetts.
Our Timeshare is a deed in Bonnet Creek, the only resort inside Disney World. Our timeshare is fully paid for. We pay monthly maintenance fees. We will give it to one of our children in hopes they continue the monthly maintenance fees.
Let me say, the various vacations are wonderful! We have taken family with us multiple times. The rooms resemble a 2-bedroom apartment with full kitchen and full living area. Always treated so nicely and lots of activities to partake in. It is perfect for our family. Wyndham is a blessing to our family. We have a trip planned in 2019 to take the kids and see the Mayan ruins. Everyone is excited. We attend the presentations always. The freebies are worth it!
Thanks for the great article! My husband and I were offered 4 round trip tickets to use in the next two years. Kind of hard to say no to a two hour presentation with that on the line! We have the tour/presents scheduled for this weekend and I just had one question. We were asked to bring a major credit card… is this typical? I am definitely doing this just for the free flights, and want to make sure it won’t come back to bite me in a few months.
We own timeshare w/Worldmark (which is now Wyndham) and Holiday Inn. Even after you own the sales teams never leave you alone we enjoy the timeshares – but hate the sales pitches. We now participate for the free gift , tell them no & go enjoy our vacation. Thanks for the free park passesAmex cards & shows! We will continue to say no. We have stopped inviting friends because the sales pitches are such an embarrassment !
I totally agree, we use to own Worldmark , Wyndham and a Marriott. But we thankfully got rid of them all. Got scammed 2 times in the process but finally found a good company the 3rd time. I don’t even remember their name and we moved and I lost the Papers. Your comment caught my eye because in the beginning we use to love bringing friends. And believe it or not we owed for 4 years without going on a 2nd presentation, not sure how we avoided them for so long because after our second one it was one after another. MAde us feel like we had to and humiliated us in front of our friends and said things like if we had more points we could put our friends in a nice room instead of the pull out in the living room. Such disrespect. They made my face red with anger and embarrassment the entire time. I don’t use the word hate and i hate them. I still have the number for the people they helped us under “ts exit people” we saw a sign when we got in Springfield leaving Branson. Don’t know if they are still in business but their number was 888 451 1756 . Good lucky to everyone, i am glad it’s over , just wish we had all the money back that we lost. Such nasty people
Hi Stephen. My experience with Wyndham Resorts in Oceanside. It did not float with me either. Call anytime. They seem perturbed I took notes. It was an interesting experience to do perhaps again. So meaty with psychology.
Your presentation was awesome. Thank you. Rex Harrisen.
Just did this in Destin (Wyndham Emerald Grand–a monstrous hotel). Hook was a photo in a restaurant…and my GF loves free stuff. The Wyndham booth was where you get your free photo, of course. Offer was $50 Boardwalk Dollars and a 7-night vacation voucher. They did want my credit card for a $50 deposit (it was declined–don’t ask). Anyhoo, the supervisor overrode that. We also were firm on our “No” going in. I would never do this, but again, GF loves free. Ours was one-on-one. All the good stuff, never cost. We see the property–beautiful condos. But something seemed weird. Place is only 10 years old and some parts we went through didn’t seem kept well. And kind of empty (we were off-season). Anyhow, numbers came up, like over $500/mo, all the other stuff. I was interested in the idea and I kinda wanted to see the sales progression. Sales manager pitch (some real casual, two-day beard shadow, short 30ish dude with long stringy hair and crazy black framed glasses) for less points, less money. I think they were down to around $150 a month for maybe 100K points? Nope, can’t do it. Salesman asks for “the 300. Somebody bring me the 300.” Last ditch sales commission I suppose. 300K points for like $2,395 or something. Nope. Done. We got our $50 certificates (2 @ $25, which was good cause no change) and the 7-day certificate, which is exactly as you describe: lots of upgrade costs and have to search for the free. Interesting to see the salesman’s demeanor change a bit when he knew it was a “no.” His last comment as we got our stuff was “you won.” I hated spending the 2+ish hours of vacation there, but hopefully the vaca certificate will work out and it’d all be worth it. I still hate those things and hopefully won’t have to do it again. Just a waste of my time. I did think the concept was great, but not great in the end. Oh, Wyndham also owns Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville resorts. There’s a Margaritaville on the boardwalk near the Wyndham in Destin and sho’ nuff, there are Wyndham reps out at a Margaritaville “info booth” near the parking lot hawking the same stuff.
Yes…you should check into Sapphire travel membership…not affiliated with your card. It’s the only one that didn’t sell out to all the “timeshare” companies . My husband and I received a 45 year membership for $5,000…no blackout dates, over 100 countries, and we can stay at Wyndham for a week at the cost a family would pay for one night. There are good travel memberships available, you just have to attend the right presentation. Sapphire is located at the Jockey club in Las Vegas.
Also this isnt a point system per say….you get points with Sapphire but because they partnered and didnt sell out, you get to use the other companies as well and never have to worry about points. Worth checking out!
Years ago I was unlucky enough to purchase a Wyndham vacation ownership. One of the worst days of my life. Every time you book a vacation you can expect to be pressured into attending an owner informational type meeting. The meeting goes from information to a high pressure sales confrontation. I actually dread going to a Wyndham resort.
What a nightmare!!! We just wanted to change from weeks to points!! Ended up costing $20,000 more dollars and after tiling us how easy it was going to be and we could use our points for hotels–3000 points and $30-$40 per night or 15000 points and stay a night free — we find out that it’s only for REWARD POINTS NOT YOUR RESORT POINTS!! TRYED TO USE THE RESORT POINTS AND NO PLACE AVAILABLE!! DIDN’T EVEN REALIZE THERE WAS DIFFERENT POINTS TO USE!!! We were also told we could use our points within 7 days of sign I g those papers and now 2mo. Later we are told we have NO POINTStill Jan. Oh we can borrow from those but my question would BE—-WHAT’S THAT GOING TO COST!!?? Also was told that for NO points– we could any time book a week for $200 and our kids could also do this whenever!! What a joke that is!!! They right all these nice things down on a piece of paper then when you move to next area they very quickly throw that paper in trash!!! We keep paying and we had a PD. For timeshare we used for past 18years–RED WEEK–3BEDROOM AND NOW HAVE A NIGHTMARE ON OUR HANDS AND PROBABLY NO VACATION!! TOOK US 11HOURS TO GET THROUGH–ONE WHOLE DAY OF OUR VACATION GONE–$20,000 MORE IN DEBT and we got $150 outback gift cards!!!! How these people sleep at night is beyond me!! Oh yea still have maintenance to come up with and NO TIME AWAY IN HOTELS AND CAN’T SEEM TO BOOK A VACATION EITHER!!! NIGHTMARE!!!
Thank ypu
This was a great article! My husband and I are current owners at Wyndham an it was one of the worse mistakes we have ever made (a long time ago when it was much cheaper than it is now) They used to be owned by Fairfield and it was much better. As an owner it’s hard to book any resorts, there are fees for EVERYTHING AND everytime we visit a resort they try to make us do another presentation and buy some more! GREAT JOB ON SAYING NO!!
Great article. We succumbed to it a few years ago. Now we are hounded by companies claiming they can get us out of them by paying a couple years maintenance fees. More high pressure. Has anyone successfully done this?
I am a wyndham timeshare sucker. Yes I fell for their speech on the great benefits of timeshare verses hotel stay. To be honest I should have stuck to my NO face. I’ve tried for months to figured out why after my initial payout of $6000.00 my remaining balance didn’t seem to be going down at all.
I figured out though once I called to request a new card. I ask what are my charges on my bill. She told me 253.00 goes to maintenance fees therefore out of my 292.00 I pay each month, I basically am only paying 39.00 towards my total cost per month of my timeshare bill. This is horrible. Total rip-off, especially since even my home resort is more points than I am allowed. Never again Wyndham. Keep your money in your pocket not theirs. Half of resorts are over points or you can’t get in at all.
Where does your wife teach?
Before we left on our road trip, she was a teacher at a school in Portsmouth VA.
My partner and I are signed up for a Wyndham timeshare presentation this weekend, and what you wrote about your experience is just GOLD. So many nuggets throughout, and I appreciated the detailed info, screenshots, and pics. Our no faces are on!
I just went to a presentation Memorial Day weekend in Myrtle Beach; like you, I was ambushed at the Broadway Beach info center. You forgot to mention that they screen out ‘undesirables’ by running your credit during the presentation, and then herd them to the side to get the lovely parting gifts. Surprise-I was and am still interested in a timeshare, but I won’t be selling a kidney to pay those prices!!!
Interesting – they didn’t run our credit and I didn’t see them do that to anyone else either, but that’s not to say that didn’t happen.
We have signed up for a presentation at the Wyndhan in Clearwater beach (near where we live)… Paying $99 which gets us 50,000 points. SUCH good tips.. Thank you so much
That’s a great deal – just remember to say no 😉
[…] for attending a timeshare presentation during our time in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Check out my post on Frequent Miler to find out what that was […]
I’d actually like to attend a presentation to see the point pavkages. Any idea how I can get signed up for one.
If you find yourself in Myrtle Beach, go to Broadway On The Beach and go to the information area which is where we found out about it. More easily though, join the Wyndham Rewards loyalty scheme and make sure you check the box to receive marketing materials – you should start receiving email offers.
Just say yes sign ur life away
Amazing! As I read your article, I thought perhaps we were sitting at the same presentation. Obviously a canned formula as our experience was the same in San Antonio.
We were offered 7(?) nights but I steered clear because of an earlier “free” cruise offer from another timeshare presentation that was essentially unusable. Instead we got $100 in restaurant vouchers featuring several acceptable places, four boat tour tickets, a free night in a Wyndham ( haven’t read the terms, I suspect it’s straight forward) and 1000 points-whatever…
-We got the 200,000 point offer
-I said thanks but we’re way too far apart, I don’t think we could ever come together.
-Manager countered with 1/2-ish price offer
-Manager tried 400,000 points
-Manager tried 150,000 +/- with free points to make us 400,000 point VIP’s
-Manager tried free weeks and free membership for the international point trading system of some sort.
In the end we had a proposal completely amended in orange ink and I couldn’t get any clear answers on contractual terms or point values.
I wasn’t interested going in but was legitimately interested in learning more only to be turned completely against it when he insisted we couldn’t think about it, we had to buy today! He said it wouldn’t be fair to the others. I pointed out that our proposal and been completely amended already, how is that fair? What’s one more amendment. One conclusion-Scam! Outta here!
“We’re not prepared to spontaneously commit tens of thousands of dollars without doing any independent research. If we become interested we’ll contact you later but we’re not buyers today.” Finally, silence.
Then they pushed us on someone else for the coupons.
“I just have a few questions you need to answer, have a seat”
“No, I’ll stand”
“I’ll need you to sit”
“I’ve been sitting for a long time, I’ll stand”
“That’s not how we do this, it won’t take long. I just have some questions about your experience wi…”
“Loved it, everything’s great, looks wonderful, everyone gets ten’s! I’m going to the restroom. No more questions. Get my coupons!”
I did. She did. Used the boat tour and dinner coupons that day, still have the (unread) room coupon.
One last thought: I too have seen these programs selling on eBay for $1. Seems that there are a lot of people desperate to give away their points for $1 (and how much did they PAY a third party to help them get rid of those points for that requested $1). It also seems that there aren’t a lot of takers, if there were market pressures would demand $2,$5, $10 perhaps??
Hi! I’m from Brazil and a person ask me to join a presentation like this. I just don’t know what to do. For the 7 nights prize, do you have to pay anything or be part of a club? Or you just have to attend the presentation? I’m a little afraid to go, cause I don’t have money for that… Lol… Thanks for your help!
In theory you don’t have to pay anything or be part of a club – we just had to attend the presentation. If you do decide to attend one of these presentations, don’t sign anything.
Have you redeemed your 7 night stay yet? My girlfriend and I sat through one of these last month. I’m curious if people had any touble when they reserved, checked-in, and stayed for free.
We haven’t used it yet, although that’s mainly because we’ve spent the last few months either visiting friends or in places without any timeshare properties. We’ll be spending a couple of months in Texas later this year, so we’ll hopefully get to use it there.
That’s sad that most adults who work all year long and take time out of the only real quality time that they have to attend a timeshare sales presentation. Who do you guys think the real winners are the people going on presentation to pay for their cheap tickets or the families who do own and are taking their families on vacations all around the world.. ima going to pray for you
My husband and I attended a Wyndham presentation in Kona Hawaii where the info kept changing 1st the maintenance fees were $2400 then magically became $1200 per year wow! The initial offer was 405,00 points that “doubled” to 725,00 ( ?). Must be new math. On way out we could purchase 400,000 points for 3649$ with “ only 499$ down and 129$ for 24 months”. Hmmmm. New math again? What’s the better deal duh! We took our gift card and free snacks and smiled all the way to the car. Don’t fall for the snake oil
Omg… we just attended our first Wyndham presentation this morning. I told my husband that we were out of there in 90 minutes because we were heading to Virginia Beach for the day. Well….. we had a really nice salesman, but when he knew that we were not going to sign anything today before going back to our condo to talk about it and the pros and cons his attitude changed and he stepped out to get another higher up salesman. We were there for 90 minutes and I said to my husband….Lets go! We met him in the short hallway and thanked him for his time, he was not happy and the other guy was not either. They made us stop at another table to see if they could talk us in to purchasing a week or some days…. that was a big nope for us also, about 10 minutes more of our time… Needless to say, we stuck to our guns and headed to Virginia Beach and had an amazing day at the beach. Not sure I would do it again just to get the free stuff.
I’m getting ready to attend one in July for Hilton I’m ready to say NO when I called today to let them know my time for the presentation was wrong the girl was like you’re single correct I said yes
She’s like we need to validate that I was like excuse me how do you show you’re single?
That’s crazy
Just went through the Wyndham presentation last night. What a bunch of BS! First of all, the main reason we bothered with it is because we “won” a 7-night stay “at any Wyndham property including RCI.” Of course, we were pretty excited planning on using it in Hawaii so we figured we’d sit through a 90-minute presentation. We have done a few of these presentations in the past with other companies and gotten pretty great gifts like a free golf at a great course and a helicopter tour over a volcano. As it turns out, Wyndham only gives you a nearly worthless certificate for 7-nights. And you only have a 30-day booking window. We looked up a variety of dates and the ONLY place in California to stay is in San Bernadino. LOL! She originally offered us 15,000 Wyndham Reward Points instead of the vacation, which we should have taken so at least we would have had one night at a decent place.
At least you got your vouchers, we never did. I recently accompanied a relative, who owns a timeshare with Plantation, for an HOA meeting and (what she thought) a Wyndham presentation. Wyndham sales staff stated they were now co owners with Plantation (the signs do state Wyndham Plantation Resort) and when we told them we had to go to the HOA meeting. they said it was combined with the sales meeting; both of which were lies. The Wyndham Sales Staff did so many under handed tactics; trying to get lure me away from my older relative so they could get her to sign something; the co-ownership life; the combined meeting lie; not telling us how much money it would cost and how many points were needed to reserve any type of room (kept saying they were waiting on Joey to calculate- then we Joey joined us, she was waiting on someone else to do it); even saying they meet my relative before at previous meetings (a lie); my relative kept repeating she was not signing anything that day, that she wanted to think about it and they kept repeating “the meeting is not over yet and you will not get your free dinner tickets and vacation voucher if you don’t stay till the end of the presentation(which were promised if we attended, but It was obvious that unless she bought into Wyndham the presentation would never be over); having 4 additional sales staff (evidently each one was the manager of the previous one-up the chain of command/power I guess) try to talk her into signing over her property to Wyndham for points. The lady called Joey was so condescending for example she said “so what do you ladies do in your spare time, knit or make quilts?” There were 3 people gathering around her, pressuring my elder relative to take out a loan or at least let them run a credit check and the lady they called Joey, kept jamming her finger on a paper, saying over and over “just initial here; just initial here” when my relative finally had enough (I had already got up and was walking out). Finally after 3 1/2 hours of the most unscrupulous sales tactics I have even been a witness to we just got up and walked out as they shouted, “You’re not getting your vouchers” Really — No Lie! The ordeal left both of us so stressed out.
Wow, that sounds like a terrible experience – I’m sorry you all had to go through that.
We are going to one tomorrow! We have been offered $100 on an AMEX card! So good to hear what we have in store!
Excellent review. A couple things worth repeating. Like someone else who posted, we owned 1 million Wyndham points (total cost was probably about $950000) for 20 years.
The good was we took many family trips, and it’s ready to forget that years ago it was hard to find non hotel rentals. And we could book for half price with a free upgrade if under 60 days
The bad. In addition to this you spend $500 a month on maintenance fees. So even if you were given a free timeshares, it might still be a worse deal than Airbnb.
Many family events are not in a wyndahm location, so you have to spend on vacation anyway.
For several years I booked units at Daytona during races to rent out. But barely broke even after fees.
Then I found a profession timeshare rental agent who paid for my points. Again just broke even.
Wyndham has clamped down on that, but we had sold the next three years of points. So we gave them back to wyndahm for free. (But we have the $15000 we would have paid before getting more points).
The takeaway.
Never buy from a timeshare directly.
Research at https://tug2.com/Login.aspx before buying anything from anyone. At best free points are an ok deal. TUG (timeshare user’s group) is fantastic.
Instead of buying, just rent.
[…] For a little while there, I was interested in some resale timeshare points. The more I’ve learned, the less enthused I’ve become. The Frequent Miler gives a humorous account of an opportunity they entertained: Wyndham Timeshare Presentation Survival Guide. Get Your “No” Face On. […]
We just took the pitch after spending four nights in a Wyndham property that we booked via Airbnb. All we got was $150 AmEx gift card, but it took maybe 100 minutes, and was actually interesting enough that we didn’t mind it at all. I’ve been somewhat intrigued by the idea of buying points on resale for a tiny fraction of what they sell for new.
I contacted the guy who was our Airbnb host, who must have a bazillion points based on all the Airbnb reviews of his hosting at Wyndham properties. He said the VIP status, which you only get by buying directly from Wyndham gets you the best access and discounts to make it reasonable to earn money reselling high-demand bookings online.
FWIW, you can currently buy 692,000 annual points for $1,200 on Redweek.com (https://www.redweek.com/timeshare-companies/wyndham-vacation-ownership/points-for-sale).
Nice work on the No face. We were wearing ours, as well.
Cheers!
-PoF
PoF, we bought resale points for Wyndham pennies on the dollar a few years back, 308k points for less than $1,000. We have had pretty good use. A few recommendations, research things on TUG, timeshare users group, do this first. Lots of info on the timeshare world, gives you benefits and drawbacks that come with resale points. Also, you can put other family members on the title if you wish, we have my wife’s sister on there so we can “gift” timeshare weeks to her family and avoid any transfer costs (usually $350 or so).
considering timeshare advertising makes up 75% of the cost, anyone who buys a TS from a developer is a fool. Myrtle beach has $50K vacation rentals on the beach that you can own completely pay around 6k a year in taxes and HOA fees, rent out when your not using it (at roughly 40% management fee)…they are not good investment properties because of all the fees, but if you want to make a few grand in rental income and have a place to vacation on the beach for free then it is a much better deal than a TS…people mention TUG, but I haven’t seen anyone mention TUG2 which has a bulletin board with bargain TS FSBO….I have seen them go for $1 and the owner pays closing costs and/or first year maintenance fees…people that have a few and just want to get out from under the debt liability….If you have points you can vacation at hotels all over the world, when you want, at a fraction of the cost….some people like trading points on REI and playing the TS game, personally I think they are stupid…there is no logical argument that justifies their costs (no matter what the salesman with the free gas card tells you)
We purchased a timeshare at Smugglers Notch through RCI over 10 years ago, and then converted to Wyndham 4 years ago. You would probably be able to redeem your certificate to go there, even on short notice, as Spring is not a prime season for the resort. Unfortunately, they only allow homeowners to bring their pets, and they close for a couple weeks around the time you want to go there. It’s a beautiful area any time of year, and if you are hikers, I’m sure you’d love walking the trails around the Notch. You also have to look into when the road leading directly to the Notch reopens for cars. Quechee is also a beautiful area with much to do, as you are close to Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire.
We’ve attended many timeshare presentations, and now reached the point where the time spent isn’t worth the gift. (usually a gift card, reduced admission to a local attraction, or Wyndham Reward points for a free night). The salespeople we’ve encountered tell us “just enough” truth so legally, they aren’t lying. For example, they will tell you that you will be able to offset maintenance fees by purchasing a Gold membership. What they gloss over is the fact that it would require a huge amount of time and luck, by booking popular resorts during peak time periods, (such as New Orleans during Mardi Gras,) and then trying to sell them for a profit. When you go to one of the Wyndham owner pages on Facebook, you often see conversation threads with many comments about other unethical and borderline illegal practices. Every time, I get a survey from Wyndham, I say that it is unlikely I would recommend it to others.
I am a Smuggs owner and they are really putting the pressure on to switch. Are you happy with Wyndham?
As I stated in the last line of my previous comment, I am very hesitant to recommend a Wyndham purchase. When we’ve attended sales meetings. we’ve experienced sales people who have given us inaccurate information, as well as misleading half-truths regarding our benefits. I belong to a Wyndham Owners Facebook group, and frequently read conversation threads in which owners have related similar experiences. For example, the sales people emphasize that you would be able to reduce your maintenance fees by upgrading your membership, as if, this is an automatic benefit. The truth is, that upgrading your membership only allows you to book reservations three months sooner than lower grades, which then gives you the ability to sell those reservations at a profit. Obviously, in order to take advantage of this “benefit” there is the assumption that you will be able to make the reservation, and then find a buyer for it. My recommendation, based upon my own experience, and from what I’ve learned from others, is that if you truly want to become a Wyndham owner, purchase points on resale either on Ebay or TUGS.
I’ve never had a trouble saying no to anyone no matter how pushy or obnoxious they are. And if able the reap the benefits that many of the you mentioned from attending these presentations it seems like an easy way to get some extra points and cash.
I actually find it fun to say no to people pushing so hard to make a sale haha. Especially knowing they’ll never beat the rate at which I earn and redeem points 🙂
Love this article! Off topic – I’m curious about your Rwanda trek. I seem to recall it being extremely expensive to do the gorilla hike. Did you find a way to do this on points somehow?
We didn’t, although that was before I was as focused on points & miles. Back then I think we paid $500 per person which was expensive but completely worth it. That was back in 2008 though (I can’t believe it’s been 10 years), so it’s likely more expensive now.
The only way I can think of to do it on points as such would be to get a card like the Barclaycard Arrival Plus, but I don’t know a) if you can pay for the gorilla trek by card and b) if it would code as travel in order to use those points.
$1500 in Rwanda now. $400 in Congo, but also have to deal with Guerrillas there.
Whoa, I’m glad we went when we did.
Great read, including the comments. You’ll never see me at one of those sales events, though….
We own over 1,000,000 Wyndham Vacation Ownership Points we paid about $100,000 for 15 years ago. This makes one platinum owners which comes with points discounts and upgrades and a number of perks. Since that time prices have increased dramatically. We do our “owners’ updates” and they give us our gift and are always trying to get us to buy more points. I always tell them I would buy on EBAY if I need more points as they are almost free there at times it seems. In the end, we have gotten a lot of use from ours as we had flex with travel times (getting units when kids are out of school is limited and takes more points). We are avid points and miles collectors and users and are in the middle of a 50 day trip where we are staying almost all on points (including IHG Intercontinental this week in Monterrey for the Pebble Beach Golf Tournament. But we have stopped twice for short stays at Wyndham condos in Sedona and Oceanside to use the condo to do up all the laundry and have a change of pace. But I loved your review and think overall you nailed it!
We split maintenance fees with another couple for our timeshare that they bought for $1. We each pay about $360/year. Yes. Per year. We’ve gotten tons of value in Mexico, Florida, and the Caribbean.
Not so good for Hawaii trips, however. Makes it easy to focus on just points and miles for airline tickets, and with kids we appreciate having access to gorgeous resorts with great pools and rooms featuring full kitchens, separate bedrooms, and living rooms.
Whrn done right as outlined by posters above, tim shares work great.
Good luck when you visit vermont in may. The snow should be gone from most places (but still accessible on the mountains depending on when exactly you get here). (Our first year here we had flurries on July 4th!). You may or may not hit black fly season depending on the weather, but the roads will be drivable, and the masses of touristas won’t have arrived yet. Happy to give you suggestions depending on what/when/where you want to go (I am an hour south of canada).
Sure – some suggestions for Vermont would be great as we haven’t done much research for there yet.
how long will you be here, where are you coming from, what do you like doing?
in northern vermont, where I live, the “classics” are shelburne museum, burlington and the waterfront and church street, and stowe with Trapp family lodge. And the ben and jerry museum of course. 🙂
After that..it all depends on what you like and where you’ll be. Bring your passport and swing up to montreal if you’ve never been there just to experience a nearby french speaking city.
Thanks for those suggestions. Our plan is to spent three weeks in VT, with about two weeks up near Burlington and a week near Rutland. We enjoy everything – we love visiting cities, hiking and finding weird and random places to visit too.
We used to live in Portsmouth VA but are now on a 5 year, 50 state road trip, so we’re due to be heading to VT after spending a month in OH.
We’d had someone recommend the Shelburne Museum already, so we’ll have to make sure we do that seeing as you’re recommending it too. Needless to say, the Ben & Jerry’s tour was the first thing on our list!
It’s funny that you mentioned visiting Montreal. A friend from the UK is considering visiting us in VT and would be flying into Montreal, so we’d be picking her up there. We might have to stay there a couple of nights as well then.
so definitely go to montreal if you have 3 weeks total, clearly you have the right documents to cross the border if you’ve been to africa. pick a nice night and do a cruise, and preferably a dinner cruise, on lake champlain from burlington. Drive through Smugglers notch from jeffersonville on route 108 to stowe (or vice versa of course) over our tallest mountain, Mansfield. Pick up desserts at Jana’s Cupboard in Jeffersonville (best selection in the morning, if/when we move from vermont, we’d go back just for here).
Rutland area..not my favorite spot. Having said that, head east on route 4 to Queeche Gorge and do a balloon flight if they are running when you are there. Woodstock – home to rockefellers and an interesting upscale village. Simon Pearce studios, world famous glassblower as well. Billings Farm is an interesting stop for a farm/museum of rural vermont agriculture. Lake Dunmore is a pretty and typical vermont state park nearby (mosquito warning if its been wet..ugh).
In the nearby area, Manchester VT is another town like Woodstock, and has the skyline Drive ($20) for a different experience driving up a narrow road to the top of a mountain for great views (note i’ve never done this, so i’m relying on others who have).
Vermont country store is in that general area (several locations), worth a stop if you are nearby. Drive route 100 for some pretty views and also you travel through “typical” vermont towns.
Food – i’m not a foodie, i’m not going to attempt any recommendations, nor do I drink beer, if you do, there are a zillion small breweries, some of international note.
Anyway, this will give you the highlights for a 3 week stay in those areas.
Thanks so much for all those suggestions – I’ve added them all to the VT tab on our spreadsheet.
We aren’t wedded to the idea of staying in Rutland – we’d just picked there so that we’d be within a two hour drive to anywhere within the southern half of the state. Based on your suggestions, we might look at staying in Woodstock instead when we’re down there.
i’m glad you are thinking woodstock instead of rutland. Other than skiing at killington/pico, and shopping big box stores in rutland..no one actually goes there.
If you end up driving up 89 towards burlington from woodstock, stop at the first rest top heading north from where route 4 comes in, at sharon, they have an interesting water recycling system complete with tropical plants, and a display honoring veterans with an eternal flame; check out the floating bridge in brookfield for a “quirky” thing, and stop by in montpelier to see the only state capital without a mcdonalds. 🙂
do find a maple museum of some kind to visit, there are a variety around the state.
anyway, I think that will do it for me.
Can you please make a post about how to get targeted for these offers?
I don’t mind sitting thru the presentation just to get the free stuff. I can say NO to everything… just pretend like I am poor and that’s it.
Last one we did in Pigeon Forge was great, we got 3 free nights at a hotel and $200 Amex gift card. The sales lady almost started crying when we refused… it was comical. She kept screaming “what did I do wrong? what did I do wrong?”
hahaha
The times I have been given a deal on a timeshare sales visit always involve me calling the reservations line of the hotel chain to do some business and being asked to stay on the line after the call for a “special offer.” With Hilton, I have been offered 500 points just to listen to the telephone sales pitch. It may be that I have some level of status as well, but I really do not know.
I’ve received emails from IHG, Hilton & SPG in the past offering discounted stays in return for attending a timeshare presentation. I think they’ve come simply from being a member of their loyalty schemes and having opted in to receiving marketing messages.
[…] Wyndham Timeshare Presentation Survival Guide. Get Your “No” Face On. by Frequent Miler. One of the most thorough run throughs of a time share presentation I’ve seen before. […]
[…] Wyndham Timeshare Presentation Survival Guide. Get Your “No” Face On. by Frequent Miler. One of the most thorough run throughs of a time share presentation I’ve seen before. […]
[…] play by play of a Wyndham Timeshare Presentation. Make sure you know what you are signing up […]
We’d like to read more about traveling with Truffles. Many more of us are traveling with our dogs these days. Did you consider bringing Truffles to the presentation. I always thought my dog would be a good excuse for saying no. Too few dog friendly properties.
We were planning on using her as a reason to leave after two hours if necessary…”Sorry, we have to get back to take our dog out…”
Truffles actually has her own blog telling about our 50 state road trip from her pawspective: http://trufflestravels.us/
I also write about some pet-friendly places to visit and stay at on our blog too: http://nohomejustroam.com/ Finding places that accept dogs (and aren’t too expensive) has definitely been a challenge.
Of course not the most desirable places to stay – but cheap. Motel 6 and 8 (I think), and also Econolodge allow dogs. When I was doing a camping drive around the country, I’d stop at one of those every now and then for a shower and the dogs could be there.
For a one night stay we’d consider those depending on their reviews, but most of our stays are 5-7 days. We stayed at a Red Roof Inn for three nights recently and it was better than expected. They’re pet-friendly and don’t charge any pet fee, so that’s another option.
La Quinta is also pet-friendly with no pet fee, but I’m not sure if that’ll change once Wyndham take them over.
As a former sucker who bought a Wyndham timeshare, I can without a doubt say that it was the worst financial decision in my life. Look on eBay and see how much they’re really worth. With annual maintenance fees increasing every year, they are a liability, not an asset. If a hurricane blows through and destroys the place, the cost of rebuilding is distributed to all the owners, sometimes astronomically (yes, this is worst case). Fees too expensive? Too bad, they will take you to collections and garnish your wages. However, the worst part is that you own it in perpetuity and your heirs inherent the liability upon your death. Sorry kids, here’s a monthly bill that you’ve got to pay until you die and then your kids will have to pay it. There are thousands of owners desperately trying to get out of their ownership and very few people looking to purchase. To get rid of ours, we bought another timeshare in Mexico with optional annual fees that we never intended to pay and they took ours as a trade-in. Turns out they didn’t want it either. They called us later to offer us a special opportunity to buy it back at sequentially lower prices. Finally, we could keep it for free! No thanks. We had to threaten legal action for them to finally process the transaction and rid ourselves of it for good. A TERRIBLE experience.
I am not a lawyer, but this is a very good point, that contracts can be “in perpetuity”, whereupon heirs have to specifically disclaim receiving them to avoid this mess, and then the TS company can go after the estate blah blah blah.
net – if you own one of these, make sure it is handled properly in the even of your death.
For myself, i have no plans to ever own one, even for $1 from ebay/tug, just due to the potential hassles. I’d rather rent weeks from owners or do airbnb
I don’t think you can force heirs to take something over on death. There is a fair amount of law in the United States to stop that from happening. You can accept something and the estate can inherit something, but you can’t force personal liability on someone after death.
its true you can never force heirs to accept something, but I was googling just out of interest, and state laws vary, but I think you have to actively disclaim an inheritance within a period of time or you’ll be deemed to accept it. again, IANAL and YMMV.
and in that case, the estate itself still has that legal liability, so its still a drag on heirs, even if indirectly
bottom line – timeshares can be deadly to your financial situation if not handled correctly.
I have had timeshares in Santa Fe and Sedona, but fees kept going up and especially in Santa Fe, I had to book two years in advance to get the dates when Santa Fe Opera was in season. Now that airbnb is available for about the same costs, I am so happy to be out of them!
OTOH, I have two weeks in San Francisco across the street from the Opera House in a one bedroom and a two bedroom. About $1200 per year and mostly available when I want it. It is certainly possible to find and airbnb for that price but the location and great suite makes this a good deal for me. Plus, at 74 I am thrilled to just walk across the street to my hotel when the performance is over!
I also have 200, 000 points in Royal Holiday, a much maligned TS company that deserves much of its bad reputation. However I can get into London, Paris, New York, etc for much less than hotels would charge and it is truly nice to have a kitchen or a suite when you are staying for awhile. I get such good rates for these places that I rent out about half of my points and go a long way toward making my maintenance fees. But I have spent a LONG time on the Tug bbs forums learning about how to use ts wisely. I also have walked away from two timeshares I couldn’t unload (I did not do that lightly but they doubled my maintenance). I got dinged on my credit but at my age, who cares?
I have attended some presentations – mostly too long, high pressure and unpleasant but I do like the various goodies. Depends if I am there for a week or just a few days….
We’ve been with Hilton Grand Vacation Club for 21 years, buying on the resale market then buying from the developer. Now we are Diamond forever, can trade our HGVC points into 800K Hilton Honors points each year if we wanted, and since they are in a trust, our kids will be able to keep them after we are gone. We’ve been very happy, but you have to learn how to game the system. We spent 4 months in Europe, between time shares, Hilton hotels, and RCI properties. We use our points every year and can borrow into next year.
Hey, do you need a guide/suggestions for Wisconsin? No one ever comes here so I’m always excited by someone who wants to!
Sure, that’d be awesome! We’ve already received some suggestions, but the more suggestions the better. We’re planning on visiting Milwaukee, Green Bay, Wausau, the Minocqua area, Ashland / Bayfield area, Eau Claire, Madison and the Geneva Lake area – that way we should be within 2 hours of anywhere in the state by the time we’ve visited all of them.
You have to go to Kopps custard in Milwaukee, it is the best and they have tons of old-time soda classics you couldn’t otherwise get.
Also, the safehouse in Milwaukee. It’s like a secret agent bar with a secret entrance and exit and lots of cool stuff inside.
Madison has great free museums and summer has a great thing called concerts on the square with free concerts by the Madison Symphony Orchestra around the Madison capitol building for free. People are encouraged to bring food and wine and just relax.
Tons more stuff. Please let me know if you want more details or someone to show you around at all.
Thanks for those suggestions, we appreciate it – the secret bar sounds especially interesting 🙂
I did a timeshare presentation in Vegas years ago. I was a single female and therby hit their targets. I kept saying no, I didn’t want to do it and they kept upping the offer. I didn’t get points but I got a delicious free breakfast, vouchers for two more meals, a bunch of show tickets and some gambling dollars at a specific casino. Not as great as some of the people here have done but I was really happy with what I got.
However, I did have the same issue with the how much was your last vacation? $25(I had to pay the taxes on a flight. Where do you most want to go? Tibet. There was a pause and “I’m sure we have places in Tibet” at which point a bunch of people were frantically trying to find a timeshare in Tibet. Still, the price was so low I was actually tempted to buy.
It also did seem like different people got way different offers. I got the best out of everyone who said stuff like, “I got the free breakfast” or “they gave me dinner tonight.”
May I ask of which TUG Groups you guys are talking about? If I google it, I find several of them…
Thank you in advance!
And nice article! Our family owns a timeshare in Park City, UT, and the first years we were pretty happy with at, as it is directly at the slopes and ski in/ski out, but management changed and things got more and more strange, especially the often mentioned maintenance fees.
We often did go to presentation at Canyons village to get free ski passes along with restaurant credits etc., so it was definitely worth it back then.
Sorry I wasn’t specific. It’s https://tug2.com/Login.aspx for the main site, http://tugbbs.com for the forum site.
Thank you very much
My general observation about nearly everything travel related is that having a level head and the use of a calculator to make decisions benefits you in the long run. Whether it’s a timeshare presentation or a promotional credit card offer, these companies feed on the heightened emotional state to offer something that doesn’t return great value in the long run. Most who read this blog will do the minimum effort possible to maximize any benefit. So if that means we are trapped for 2-3 hours to hear a sales pitch in exchange for points/gift certificates/free nights then we’ll run the cost/benefit analysis and do the minimum to reap the maximum. Same with applying for a new credit card: we meet the minimum spend, sock drawer the card (if it’s not worth additional regular category/daily spend) and then cancel or change the card after a year. We are above-average consumers of travel offers and we do it over, and over, and over again. Isn’t it great?!?!
Years ago, I attended a Wyndham TS presentation with my sister in law in order to get Disney Park tickets in Orlando. Same thing… it was supposed to be a 2 hour presentation. My sister in law brought along her son who is behaviorally challenged. SIX hours later, we were finally getting released after being told to wait, and wait, and wait… My sister’s kid was out of control and we were pretty pissed off that we were held hostage for SIX hours by Wyndham people. I reminded the Wyndham people that they had a much better chance of a sale if they would’ve kept their word and given us our tickets after TWO hours (for their presentation) like they promised!
That was wayyy too much aggravation for a couple of Disney tickets!
Wow, that’s terrible that they kept you for so long. I’m glad they didn’t try to pull the same thing with us.
My wife and I while in Waikiki attended the Wyndham time share presentation and received $125 Amex gift card. Then we went to Marriott presentation and received a $100 Visa gift card. After that we went to Hilton presentation and they apologized for taking to long and gave us $200 gift card.
Off to Maui, and Hyatt invited us, and we received another $100,
Not bad for a trip to Hawaii!
That’s got to add up to nearly a day of your vacation, times two people? For $500, I’d rather spend that day on the beach or hiking 🙂
Congratulations, you just flew to Hawaii to attend TS presentations, what a great way to spend your hard earned vacation days. You think it’s not bad, but others think you are just dumb…