| “A one-time only discount…” That’s what the Wyndham Destinations agent promised. And that’s what Ludwig and Joan believed when they were sold 200,000 “Club Wyndham Plus” points. But… was it really such a big discount? If Wyndham can afford such a drastic discount, what are those points really worth? So, Ludwig did the math. And as he told the Florida Attorney General, here is what he found: “The Wyndham market staff claimed: The current value of 200,000 points in ‘Club Wyndham Plus’ is $50,600. However, if we were to agree to make such a purchase on that exact date, before departing the premises, Wyndham would offer a one-time only discount in the amount of $21,600 towards that purchase, thereby reducing our cost to $29,000, well below the ‘market price’ for that number of points.” When he got home, Ludwig decided to research the “market price” of Wyndham Club points. He found, “In fact, the market value, as reflected by then current sales of identical Wyndham Club pointsthrough Florida licensed real estate agents, was in the neighborhood of $500 per 200,000 points.” Wyndham “deceived us, knowing full well that the discounted price offered to us for the purchase of 200,000 points ($29,000) was in the neighborhood of 50 times greater than the known market value of its product, even when one included the value of the discount…” It got Ludwig to wonder… what exactly does 200,000 points buy? “Contrary to the presentation we have found the cost of points paid by Club members to obtain accommodations significantly exceeds the cost for non-members to obtain similar accommodations at the same facilities.” Here’s how THAT math works. Ludwig and Joan financed $29,000 for 200,000 points over 10 years, so…“200,000 points should carry an annual fair value for our points of $2,900 per year. We then add the other annual costs of club membership ($1,350) to arrive at a value of $4,250 to reflect the annual value of 200,000 points available to be used to acquire Club accommodations.” But the Wyndham website shows “the cost of a 2-bedroom condo offered to the general public for a seven day stay (February 9 to 16, 2020) at Wyndham Oceanside (California) Pier Resort at $245.98 per night or a total cost of $1,721.86 for the seven days.” The Wyndham website also “shows the same booking at the same hotel for the same time period but requiring Club members to provide 238,000 Club Wyndham points.” “No matter how one approaches the calculation to arrive at a realistic value for Wyndham Club points, it becomes clear that the price at which Wyndham’s marketing staff offers these points to consumers is outrageously inflated.” I myself, at 88 years old and my spouse at 84 years old, feel we were fraudulently led to believe we were purchasing a different product than we actually received.” Thank you for doing the math, Ludwig! Wyndham Club points seem a bit like Monopoly money when you do the math. Do you have a complaint about Wyndham points? A good person to tell is Mike Brown, the CEO of Travel and Leisure, which owns Wyndham. You can email him at Michael.Brown@travelandleisure.com. The American Resort Development Association (ARDA) represents timeshare companies in Washington, DC. Jason Gamel is the President and CEO of ARDA. Maybe he should hear how these sales tactics impact the lives of real people, not just the bottom line of timeshare companies. Let’s email him at jgamel@arda.org. Or… here is a list ARDA published of its VIPs across all its member companies. Maybe you can find your timeshare company executive and share your story with them too! Tell us your timeshare horror story, too. Send it to us at info@timesharefacts.com. PS: Follow us on social media. Twitter Facebook Instagram |
