Stephen Holmes admits stealing from Wyndham owners

You know what? When I started composing this blog a few weeks ago, I had all intentions of just sort of monitoring what Wyndham owners were doing and keeping everyone updated about it.

As a result of that, I have spent a lot of "surf time" trying to research what this company has done. It is insane just how many complaints there have been over the years. It seems that Fairfield was a great company and that the company that bought them in 2002, Cendant, started off on very rocky roads right from the start (they've got former executives in jail today!). But, Cendant fought to regain their balance for many years as they tried to keep their integrity among customers (and owners in the timeshare sector). When they had done a reasonable job of this, they split. Of course, shortly after that, they did the bogus name-change switcheroo with the purchase of the Wyndham-name (and just about nothing else). This was a pretty successful move for Cendant. In fact, as I search around, the only real losers have been the timeshare owners. Other brands seem to be doing well.

A friend of mine approached me recently about bidding on a very large townhouse renovation project north of Miami. He has a contractor's license and I can do just about any type of carpentry. This would be a perfect job for a couple of old retired farts, so we drove down to Miami this morning to put in a statement of work and bid. During the drive, I tried to sleep (no, I wasn't driving), but my friend (let's call him Steve, because that is REALLY his name), asked me how things were going with that "crooked timeshare company" I was having problems with? Steve is the FIRST human being that I've confessed to so far that I had started this blog. I explained what I've done so far. He told me to quit being a $@*&$%#! and take some real action. I laughed it off.

He dropped me off about an hour ago. I kissed my wife and turned on the computer. Those words kept ringing in my ears. I’ve known Steve for over 20 years and he actually called me a $@*&$%#!. I simply couldn't believe it. I knew I needed to take more action.

So, I will stop these silly passive actions. I'm going to press the envelope a little bit. Since this company was happy enough to take my hard-earned money, then (after Cendant bought them) started screwing me and all the owners, so I thought maybe it was time I fought back a bit more than I have so far. I don't have any money to file a lawsuit and I'm not smart enough to write a letter (I didn't even finish school and have nobody who can help me spell things correctly to keep me from looking like a fool). So, what non-passive action can I take as my little part to "fight back". So, my new contribution will be to get my hands dirty and try to expose Wyndham's corruption.

I mean, anyone who spends thousands of dollars on a timeshare ownership and just let's some corporate criminals take it away is one of four things: 1- very rich, 2- scared, 3- getting kickbacks, or 4- an idiot. I'm obviously not rich, or I wouldn't be writing this; I'm not scared of rich assholes in ties; and if I were getting kickbacks, I obviously wouldn't be doing this website; and if I were an idiot, I'd be working for Wyndham and would be contractually forbidden from doing something like this. So, that means that I have lost a lot of money to this company and should do something to protect my interests.

So, tonight I'm going to start using non-passive activism against this corrupt company, by talking about the guy at the top, Stephen Holmes, the CEO of Wyndham Worldwide. He used to make a lot of money, but Forbes says his pay has dropped quite a bit in the last two years. Well, of course, Steve has had personal issues on his mind and has not been able to waste his effort trying to save a company in the failing travel-industry. Consequently, during a poor economy (travel commodities dropped nearly 50%, he was able to BEAT that record. He led Wyndham's stock from nearly $40 a share down to $3 a share!!! What a focused and brilliant leader!!!

So, what does a CEO of a Fortune 500 company do when he has led a proud and successful company to the absolute bottom of the barrel? What else? STEAL! All of Steve's subordinate CEOs gave him counsel on how he could steal from their customers. The most convincing on his staff of butt-kissers was Franz Hanning, the CEO of the Wyndham Worldwide subsidiary, Wyndham Vacation Ownership. Franz took credit for the development of the FairShare Plus Program in 1991. In reality, he just inherited this from the very tired former founder of the brilliant Fairfield brand. Franz was just a salesman at the time the FairShare Plus Program was created. But, the best thing for an up-and-coming "pretty boy" executive to do is claim credit for everything someone else does around them (if successful) and pass blame for everything that's not successful.

S0, Franz explained to Steve that the FairShare Plus Program was built to save. Steve had him explain what this meant. Franz said the FairShare Plus Program was riddled with so many loopholes they could knit a quilt big enough for both of them crawl under together and stay warm in Parsippany, NJ. Steve was quite desperate by this point, so he told Franz to go ahead and screw as many owners as possible and get everything they can from them. He promised Franz a "promotion" to New Jersey and bigger bonuses after they completely destroyed the company and put it in bankruptcy. Well, I think it's about time to start packing, Franz, you have been highly successful at making your boss look good (he doubled the stock and brought it upt o $6 per share), while simultaneously DESTROYING the FairShare Plus Program beyond all recognition.

Don't worry Franz, Steve will let you fly in the Wyndham jet....so no worries. Why would you have loyalty to the 360,000 owners who trusted your leadership? Don't worry, this is capitalism, it's ok for you to destroy these owners who trusted you - that is how the strong survive. Enjoy your success, Franz. Isn't it good to be the king? (…until there's a coup, King Franz!)

Before I continue on, I must caveat that I have no personal evidence of what I'm alleging. It is simply one possible scenario (that personally makes sense to me) for what Steve and Franz have done to this company and our ownership. Since they don't share the real facts through open disclosure (this is not an opinion) I can't draw an unbiased conclusion. So, I want to make it clear now that I have the journalistic, First Amendment right to share my opinions about these crooks. They are welcome to send an email with further factual information if they can disprove my opinion.

Anyway, with the 2nd quarter earnings last year, both Steve and Franz realized they might lose millions of dollars in performance bonuses if they didn't take action quickly. So they sold their souls to the devil. They systematically took away all benefits from the 360,000 owners of the FairShare Plus Trust. In addition to stripping them of their benefits, they implemented 100-500% fee increases on EVERYTHING. What a great plan, even though they are using the current FairShare Plus Plan Manager, Deanne Gabel, as their fall guy. She will be fired under mysterious circumstances before mid-2009, then Franz will hint and suggest that she was responsible for the destruction of the FairShare Plus Trust. Knowing these guys, they might even try to put her in jail and call her a crook. Why would they care, as long as they can still fly their jets and live the American Dream (reserved for less than 1% of Americans). They will never be held accountable for their criminal acts, especially when hundreds of owners have proven that they are taking from the owners and using their inventory and ownership to bolster their corporate endeavors in rentals, through Extra Holidays.

On November 19, 2008, Steve made an appearance at geek-fest "PhoCusWright 2008". He revealed his desperate plan to reverse the company's losses by stealing from the timeshare owners. Check out the following press release, where he admits this will be where the company makes up for their losses due to the slowing economy:

Click here to read the press release

Below is another example of Steve's flagrant displays of stealing from the FairShare Plus owners. He is a little more shrouded here. He mentions that Wyndham Worldwide expects growth from their rental side. Of course they do, they take 100% of owner's inventory at 30 days (90% at 60 days) from the FairShare Plus Program, without paying for it, and give it to their rental wing, Extra Holidays. Of course they are going to expect growth, when they have appointed their own Board of Directors to this non-profit corporation and instructed them to divert all owner's benefits to the profit corporation (Wyndham). My favorite part of this video, is where Steve talks about brand loyalty. It's so cute how he says, "let the loyalty come to you". Seriously, either he's DUMB as a rock, or has no morals at all. See for yourself - check out this video where Steve shares his plans:




In this video, Steve is trying to be honest - he explains that "timeshares sell very well during good and hard times". Yes, this is true, but only on the resale market, where timeshares sell for pennies on the developer's dollar! I hope you haven't been lying to any prospects though Steve. Have you even checked the THOUSANDS of sales scam allegations your employees have out there? Of course you have, these people probably got the highest bonuses! Check out this video while this crook smoothly lies to another reporter:

Sweet dreams......

Wyndham Screws Employees Too

What a beautiful and sunny day here today. It got up to 82 degrees!!!! Don't be a hater though.... in seven months, when I'm dealing with hurricanes, those of you in the COLD north get your payback for all the times Floridians rub in how hot it is when you are freezing! The weather has actually been very cold this year. I think it actually got down to freezing earlier this month. Unbelievable!

So, tonight's blog topic is in response to a comment I received earlier today (regarding yesterday's blog entry about Wyndham screwing owners). The comment was once again posted by someone with no return link, email address, or any way to respond, except for me to leave another comment. That didn't work very well the first time I tried it, so I thought I'd address this new comment/question directly in my blog.

Here is the comment/question:

Was wondering if anyone out there know if its legal to pay sales
employees hourly wage and then take it all back. You are not
the only one being screwed, we as employees are also.

Hi Mr/Ms Anonymous,

First of all, thank you for finding my blog about FairShare Plus owners trying to get Wyndham's attention and make some changes. You are only the second person to comment so far, so I really do appreciate you taking the time to let me know that you're out there. Your special reward for being part added to my "top-five most favorite comments of all time list" is that I will dedicate today's blog topic to you.

This is certainly an interesting comment you posted. Are you seriously talking about Wyndham sales employees who were being paid hourly wages that had their money taken back?

{Aspirin time. My head is kiling me, I'm going to have to finish this after a short break. Please check back.}

516% Fee Increase!

So, on Thursday night I talked about the new fee structures for the FairShare Plus Program. Last night I talked about my "first comment". Forgive me, I must have been sleep-typing, because that seemed very strange, even for me, when I just went back and read it. Haha. But I did locate that misspelled tag and correct it. I hate when something I wrote has errors in it -- but it rarely bothers me when I read typos from others. Remember, I've got adult children - they STILL don't know how to spell anything. Unbelievable!

So, lets talk about those fees.

To recap; Wyndham gave owners under a week's notice about new fees for all who own within the FairShare Plus Program. Increased fees are always a bummer, but these are double-bummers at 100% jump and, and in one instance, a quintuple bummer!!! Here’s what I mean:

Referring back to the chart in Wyndham’s letter, which I received in my mailbox on October 13, 2008, they notified me that two days later the following fee increases would take effect for all owners:

Reservation Transaction went from $25 to $49 – a 100% increase.
Points Credit Pool went from $30 to $39 – a 33% increase.
Express Window Point Rentals went from $5 to $10 – another 100% increase.
PIC deposits went from $50 to $89 – a 78% increase
Guest Certificates went from $25 to $129 – a fricking 516% increase!!!!!

Can you imagine two days notice to tell owners about a 516% price increase? Since then, we’ve also learned that if it takes two reservations (they call it a split-reservation), then the fee is doubled. This sometimes occurs when you have to book over weekends. You might have to book two nights in one unit and one night in another to get a three-night stay. So, now to do that, it is $258 to add a guest’s name, which is a 1032% increase from prior to October 15, 2008.

“Bargain hunters beware….. this is one blue-light special from hell. Thank you for your patronage with Wyndham, where your money is now ours!”

So, you’ve watched the video about the cessation of transferring excess points…and you’ve seen the fee increases from October. I wonder what’s next! They'll just want me to turn over my American Express Card number and randomly charge whatever they feel. Same difference, there's just not much I could do about it either way.

Bed time for me again….it seems like I have to do that every night!

My First Comment

Ok, I'm very excited. I know I'm not very good at spelling since I never went to school and still don't know how to read or write.... So, I was going through my blog from the start and fixing typos. Ouch, some were pretty bad! And what did I find, a comment. My very first comment.

I must say this was a very emotional moment for me. Ok, maybe it wasn't THAT emotional, but I was slightly excited about it. I have done nothing to promote this blog at all. I haven't even told my priest about it! Maybe I'll have to, but I usually only go to confession in Easter and Christmas, so I have some time before I have to confess what I've been doing late at night...

So, there I was, noticing that one of my tags on a previous blog entry had the word "fare" on it. Don't even ask me where the hell that came from - I have NO idea. So, I didn't even correct the error yet (mostly because I don't know what tag it was supposed to be and I don't just want to delete it, since it might have been of international importance!). So, I passed up a great typo correction (which was my primary mission) due to the excitement about my first comment. Here it is:


Pretty awesome isn't it? Somebody actually found me and took the time to comment. Ok, so they basically called me a naive idiot, but that means one of two things: 1) they know me, or 2) they actually read my incessant banter here. Since I haven't even told my priest about this, I have to assume someone actually read what I had to say!!!

And who cares if they think I'm a blithering idiot for trusting Wyndham to look out for my interests? Opinions are like onions...... all of them are a little different and most of them STINK (and make you cry). Except for vidallias though, those suckers usually don't make you cry and smell sort of pleasant.

In actuality though, this comment means something important. The reader (by the way, thanks a lot for posting an email address or link to where I can contact you, Mr/Ms "Another Owner") agrees with my basic premise that Wyndham is not to be trusted. By this point I obviously know that too Mr/Ms Owner! That's apparently why I decided to blog about it. Geez, and you call me naive! How about you pointing out the obvious! Oops, the only thing you really pointed out that I was naive. I'll give you that. I did truly believe the company would do more to take care of owners. Not so much because I thought they were an ethical, great company, but more because keeping their owners happy is how they make money. So, I would think they would try to keep owners happy, so they keep paying maintenance fees and spread the word to friends and family to buy from them. I guess I was naive for thinking they made money by having a good reputation! Stupid me!

Here's an interesting thought. I wrote that blog entry around midnight or so on January 21st. They found it and responded by 7pm the next day --- 18-19 hours later. That makes me wonder if Mr/Ms Owner has read my blog more than once or if they just stumbled on it yesterday, READ IT (haha, I like that), and commented??? So, what is it, Mr/Mrs Owner, are you my first loyal, dedicated fan? I thought I was talking (writing) to myself here and now I am a bit nervous that I might have a voyeur out there. Do you have any idea the pressure you are putting me under? Now I actually have to spell-check as I go!!! Damn!

Anyway, Mr/Ms Owner, if you are really out there (as in coming back more than once), please let me know what you think about what I'm writing about (not how naive I am). Obviously you agree with me about Wyndham screwing over their owners. If you think I have any contribution to the huge effort of owners out there that are fighting Wyndham, please share my blog information with them. In case you can't see the top of your window, it's http://windhamownersfightback.blogspot.com/. I hope you didn't see all my misspelled words and decide not to come back again. I wish I'd been more diligent from the start!

So, anyway, I was going to write about a YouTube experience I had today, but got caught up in my elation about my first comment. It's about bedtime, so I will try to explain the main point of tonight's blog in under 200 words:

Remember the video (below) titled "Wyndham Timeshare Owner Tells All"? Well, I posted on there in response to a lady who was clearly very confused. She took my comments a bit personally for some reason. No, I didn't call her "naive", that would be rude. Just kidding. Actually, I admitted after the fact I was wrong and apologized. I should not have attacked the person, but the point. I have a lot to learn about the online world. When you are face to face with a person they can see from your body language if you are sort of teasing or using sarcasm. That is certainly more difficult with just typed words on a computer from 100s or 1000s of miles away. So, anyway, I pissed her off, she pissed me off, and the video author was sort of pissed at me too I think. Eventually it all worked out and I deleted all of my comments and the fine, upstanding young lady (who was completely uninformed and WRONG) deleted her comments. So all is fine now and I've learned my lesson to not call people stupid, just because they are talking about something they have no clue about. There... I'm glad I've learned a lesson today.

(Sorry, I went over - that was 207 words) Better luck next time.

Peaceful and warm vacationing thoughts to all. Good-night.

The YouTube guy was right!

I am sorry. I seriously intended to blog every day about what owners are doing to fight against Wyndham and their disgusting, nasty, corporate greed. Tonight I will not be able to say a thing. I did call to verify that the guy from yesterday with the video was correct. Once again, I have lost something else from my ownership. And, this time, I didn't even get notified about it until I ran across a video on YouTube. What a great way for a major resort developer to deal with their owners!

So, anyway, tonight will be a break for me. I'm fairly disgusted with this company, even though I do see a very organized effort among owners against them.

For me though, I'm going to go to bed for now and ponder this.........

Wyndham Owner's Video

One last thing - while I was searching for the amount of "Fairfield Scam" and "Wyndham Scam" links in Google, I ran across an interesting video. It actually pretty much pissed me off, because it taught me a couple of new things, which, if true, have destroyed my ownership EVEN MORE than I thought when I started this blog.

I nearly posted a link back to my blog, but I already promised I wouldn't do that. And since I am talking about the unethical behavior of a lying, cheating, stealing company, it would not be too cool for me to not keep my promise. I did leave the following comment though:

WyndhamNemesis (1 hour ago)
It is so sad that so many people fall for this crooked company, that used to be
the best in the industry. So sad... Want my Platinum of 1,000,050 points, that
has been degraded to being nearly worthless??? Let me know what you'll pay - I'd
love to get rid of it and get rid of this thieving company!

So, for all of the insomniac timeshare owning late-night blog-surfers that might accidentally stumble across my silly blog - DEFINITELY check out this video from an educated Wyndham timeshare owner.



I am going to research this a bit. If I am really as screwed as this guy says (and he certainly looks serious), then I am really screwed. And if I'm really as screwed as he says, I will probably turn this blog into a "FOR SALE" blog.

More later - might not be having such sweet dreams now!

Platinum turns to coal..

Yesterday I discussed my brilliant plan to purchase timeshares to a high enough level that I could actually recoup much of my annual maintenance fees --- and have enough ownership that upon my retirement I could travel more extensively with my ownership. After spending $$,$$$ to obtain Platinum status, I was able to spend 30 days a year vacationing for about $50 a day. Not too shabby!

... until the Platinum turned to coal!

The parent company for Fairfield Resorts was Cendant. In 2006, Cendant purchased the brand name Wyndham and spun off "Fairfield" as Wyndham Vacation Resorts. Now don't get confused with the upscale hotels named "Wyndham". Most of those reverted to high class management and NONE of them are actually owned by the company that now holds the name Wyndham. Talk about confusing!

So, this company called Wyndham, that owns nothing named Wyndham, decides to rename all of their resorts (formerly called Fairfield) to Wyndham. Wow! I wonder why the great charade of musical name changing? Perhaps it was because the name Fairfield shows up 36,300,000 times when you type it into Google. And, most of those entries are not very favorable for Fairfield's great name. For instance, if you add the word "fraud" to the search, there are 871,000 hits. If you add the word "scam", you'll get 381,000 hits.

Now, I obviously have some extra time on my hand, but I certainly can't look at these millions of entries to itemize the major complaints against this company, but they were certainly extensive. So, it is no wonder Cendant came up with the brilliant idea of confusing the hell out of everyone and making the public think that these timeshares are part of the luxury hotel brand - Wyndham. Let me repeat though - Wyndham does not own even ONE Wyndham hotel! Damn, this corporation is good! Now, if you go back to Google and type "Wyndham and fraud" you only get 174,000 hits - and with "scam" it's 111,000. So, in a year, just by buying a reputable name and dumping their tarnished name, they were able to go from 1,252,000 negative reports to only 285,000. That's 1/4 as much bad publicity overnight, with deniability of even being part of the bad seed - Fairfield.

In truth, the product was 1000 times better under the leadership of Fairfield, prior to Cendant's involvement. Even before they came up with the scam of changing names to Wyndham, they were killing the benefits of ownership of the Fairfield timeshares. The founder of Fairfield must be rolling over in his grave as he watches these heavy hitting corporate thugs destroy an innovative idea and perfect vacation ownership concept.

I don't even know where to begin to discuss how much this company has taken away from owners in the last few years. I guess one of the main problems is that the company decided to start renting out units themselves. If you think this hurts my ability to rent the handful of rentals I do each year, you are mistaken. I am still able to rent a few weeks and recover some of my maintenance fees, but I'm not really able to go on my own vacations anymore, because now the company is renting off the very weeks that I have been able to reserve previously. I questioned how they are able to do this. You won't even believe this if I told you, so I'll show you instead. Here is what the Trust Agreement for my timeshare ownership says:

11.08 Wyndham Use. In addition to the right of Wyndham, as a Member and owner of Points, to make reservations using those Points at any time, Wyndham, in its
capacity as the developer of resort communities and Vacation Plans, may
reserve available Accommodations up to 60 days in advance of the first day
of anticipated occupancy, for its own purposes, including renting to the public,
provided it pays or otherwise causes a third party to pay the occupancy related
expenses of such Accommodations for each night to be used. All such occupancy
related expenses shall be determined by the Trustee. As a result of Wyndham's
use there will be less space available for Member use; however, Wyndham may not
reserve the last 10% of available occupancy for a type of Accommodation until 30
days prior to the first day of intended use. In addition, to the extent more
points are available in the Plan than are allocated to Members other than
Wyndham, Wyndham may sell or lease Points on such terms as Wyndham and the
Trustee deem reasonable. The purchasers or lessees of such Points shall have
such Membership rights as Wyndham and the Trustee deem appropriate.

Sounds crazy, but it's true. They started this a few years ago in small batches, noticeable to some, but not too devastating to owners, who were still able to make reservations.

But, let's keep in mind what I discussed yesterday - this company sold thousands of owners on buying up to the Platinum level (which I already explained is more vacation time than any normal family can use) on the promise of booking inventory at a 50% discount at the 6o day window and renting out what you can not personally use. By the way, they call this inventory "distressed", because nobody has booked it yet. Most timeshare owners book months, sometimes years in advance. So, they offer this distressed inventory at a discount to Platinum owners because they would rather have "heads in beds" than an empty room. Remember, every warm body that walks through the doors is a prospective buyer, so they were quite happy to have Platinum owners use our excess inventory to rent out reservations within the 60 day window.

Until their business started getting a bit shaky. Of course the economy took a toll on the hospitality industry. So what, I don't own a hotel room - I own a condominium timeshare. Why should I care? Well, since the company was failing, they decided to step up their tempo of pulling out this free inventory and renting it. Lots of it ---- nearly all of it. They even worked some system loopholes so they could get it at 62-63 days before check-in, just to make sure no legitimate owner was able to book it before them.

No way! That would be theft. Nope, not when they wrote it in the Trust Agreement that they were able to have it without paying a dime back to the owners of the timeshare interests. So, 100% of the rental money goes in the greedy corporate executives bank accounts. Wow, why didn't I think of that?

Come to think of it, who did think of that? I checked my deed and ownership information and found out that I belong to the FairShare Vacation Owners Association (VOA), which is a non-profit corporation established in 1991 and based out of Arkansas. I don't even belong to anything called Wyndham. Oh, wait, just saw in that Trust Agreement for the VOA that Wyndham appointed themselves to run the VOA - FOREVER - and allowed themselves to make, change, modify, whatever to the terms and conditions of the Trust. In fact, it turns out that when I signed that I agreed with what was written in the Trust Agreement back in the 1990s, all I really signed was that I agree that they can do whatever the hell they want, whenever they want, and for whatever reason they want, without me or any other owner ever being able to stop them, challenge them, or even have their decisions justified.

Wow, my mother always told me to read the fine, fine print. I guess I should have listened better. But, it really was a great ownership until these greedy crooks decided to start robbing inventory from the owners and renting it on their own.

In fact, even after they started robbing this inventory, I was still able to go on vacations - I just had to plan it a bit better and pay more points than usual. Oh, or I always had the choice of going to the company's rental department, called "Extra Holidays" and renting from them some of the inventory that should have been available to me as an owner. In fact, they sold me to my current ownership level on the promise that this inventory would be there for me. They sort of didn't lie. It's still there, I just can't book it with my ownership anymore. Now, if I want to use the inventory that belongs to me (in the VOA that I belong to), all I have to do is pay them and rent it from them. Great deal, eh?

Sorry about the tangent. As I was saying, everything was still ok at this point. I'm tired again, so will have to wait until tomorrow to finish up about how Wyndham Vacation Resorts went even further than just stealing our inventory. In fact, I'll share with you how they knocked the owners to the ground, then stabbed each and every one of them right in the back.

Happy dreams to all.... Good-night.

It's good to be "Platinum"

It was a great surprise for me to log back in here today and not see a huge fan club gathering in response to my highly suspenseful first post! What a major disappointment. I should call my family and have them log in and write how interesting this is.

Seriously, I have decided to not promote this blog in any way at all. If it gets discovered through search engines, that is fine. If not, that is fine too. Sometimes talking to yourself can actually be healthy, so maybe this is just therapeutic for me. We retirees sometimes need therapy!

So where was I when I fell asleep last night? I was telling you how great my timeshare ownership was and how it brought my family much closer together. The last point I made was that we continued to purchase more ownership in the FairShare Plus Program until we owned enough to spend about 30 days a year in timeshares.

I actually understated that slightly. We fell for the sales pitch that encouraged us to purchase MORE than we could actually use, so that we would get big discounts. Yah, sounds like going to the grocery store during a sale and buying six months worth of milk because it’s so cheap. Can you drink it all before it sours? With the timeshares, can you use all the vacation time before the end of the use year?

Well, let’s expand on this a little. Theoretically, what the sales folks told me was economically sound, considering I did want to travel at least a few weeks annually. An average week at one of these resorts gives you between 126,000 and 254,000 points in the FairShare program, which can be used to trade into other resorts in the program. If you purchased over 300,000 points you were given VIP status, which gave a small discount on future bookings and free daily newspapers while on vacation in the Fairfield/Wyndham resorts. That wasn’t too attractive to me though, I’m a southern boy and don’t even know how to read, let alone read newspapers!

The highest VIP level is called VIP “Platinum”. Now doesn’t that sound impressive? Platinum. Just say it a few times to yourself and you will get a small tingling feeling all about you. Platinum. Yes, that’s what I wanted to be. Platinum. Platinum owners need to purchase a million points, which works out to be about 6-8 weeks of vacation time annually. But, it doesn’t stop there. In addition, they gave us all sorts of other benefits, which were certainly fitting for the term “Platinum”. If we booked out of the leftover inventory at 60 days before check-in, we got our reservations for a 50% discount AND (yes, AND) we could also get free upgrades. So, for half the price of a one-bedroom condo, we would be able to book a two-bedroom or larger condo. Yes, it certainly does seem to be good to be Platinum.

Since we had purchased a total of seven weeks of ownership – or 49 days, in 2BR units, we now owned a whopping 1,000,050 points. VIP PLATINUM! Yippee! “Ladies and gentleman in the sales presentation room, I have a very special announcement – please join me in congratulating our newest VIP Platinum owners.” What an exciting time for me --- more exciting than having a daughter but not quite as exciting as having a son. Hahaha, that was a joke. I guess I can’t invite my family here now! But, seriously, it's good to be Platinum.

If you are a math-wizard, you’ve probably already figured out that if a Platinum owner books all of their vacations within the 60 day window, that they number of days of ownership doubles. So, to be a Platinum means we could have up to 98 days of vacation….even more if able to get upgrades from 1BR. And all of this for the great bargain of over $$,$$$. No, there are no decimal points there, just lots of dollar signs. Seriously, I don’t want to tally up the total amount initially invested, I might get sick and not be able to finish tonight’s topic.

And in addition to that alarming amount, we pay about $390.83 a month for maintenance fees (forever, and forever increasing). That sounds cheap, right? A mere pittance to pay for great family bonding vacations. Until you realize that for 12 months that totals to $4,689.96 and that my family is only able to use 30 of those 98 days of vacation that we pay for!

That was where the salesman had me hook, line, and sinker. He explained that almost all owners who purchase to the Platinum level actually could never use all of their vacation time. He lowered his voice, so as not to be overheard by lowly “non-Platinum” owners and said that the only reason to buy to this level was to reap the great discounts (50% is a great) and upgrades (I once got an upgrade from a 1BR to a 4BR!). He continued (even quieter this time) that Platinum owners generally rent out their extra vacation time to help defray the cost of their maintenance fees.

Wow, great idea, but how? “That’s simple, sir, these units rent for at least $1000 a week all over the Internet, or you can use any vacation rental company and pay a commission, but renting is easy.”

So, back to the math. For about $5K a year I get about 98 days (14 weeks). My family can use four weeks, which leaves ten weeks to rent out at $1000 a week. So, my net cost of vacationing works out to be -$5K a year for 30 days of vacation! Now, that is an easy sell and certainly encouraged me to spend the $$,$$$ to purchase much more ownership than I needed. Yep, a Platinum!!!! That’s me. Yes, it's good to be Platinum.

Ok, back to reality. Yes, renting turned out to be fairly easy, but unless you are talking about 4th of July on the beach, $1000 is NOT gonna happen, and it really worked out to be 7-8 extra weeks (due to prime season), so that was a bit of an exaggeration as well. But, the salesman was right. It was possible to cover a lot of the expense of my annual maintenance fees by renting out my excess ownership.

I had no problem renting my 7-8 extra weeks out for about $500 a week. Minus advertising costs, I was able to recover a little over $3500 each year. Now, my four weeks of family vacation each year is down to under $1500, or about $50 a night for a 2BR condo at a first class resort. Yes, I was very happy with being Platinum. I even considered buying a Platinum-colored Speedo bathing suit to show off at these resorts during vacations. Just kidding.

If you disregard the $$,$$$ initial investment (at a high interest rate), this all seems like a genius way to get the best value for your vacation dollar and still be able to visit some quality destinations. That is what we did for several years.

Have I built up the suspense yet? Probably not, but at least you must think I’m pretty smart for figuring out how to travel and get paid back for most of it. You just have to forget about the $$,$$$ and it all does seem fool-proof.

Tomorrow I will tell you how this all changed. I’ll tell you some secrets about the seemingly physical impossibility of turning Platinum into Coal.

For those who were counting, I was able to use the word Platinum a total of 20 times. That is probably not the key word that I want the search engines to find. Let me try this instead:

Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks! Wyndham sucks!

There, I would much prefer for this blog to be discovered by someone typing in the above key words. You'll understand more later. Honestly, I'm a nice guy and don't use that sort of disrespectful language without real cause.

Have a great night and don’t forget to say a few prayers for our nation, since the Presidential Inauguration is tomorrow. It is going to take a bit more than some great theatrics to get this country back on its feet. I pray that Mr. Obama is up to the challenge.

Why Am I Writing About Wyndham Timeshares?

I'm a mostly normal, incredibly good-looking (humble too) retired guy. Wow, I love to say that I'm retired! I love to travel and have been a timeshare owner since the mid-1990s. My children are adults now and I am very thankful that we owned timeshares and were able to enjoy some fantastic vacations. Let me digress and explain how this all started.

In about 1993, my wife and I got pitched for a timeshare in Gatlinburg, TN, where we had just driven our motor home for a much-needed family vacation. I don't recall the resort's name, but we were immediately suckered into it - lock, stock, and barrel. I am very good at saying "no", but those timeshare sales folks were very convincing that if we didn't purchase from them at that exact moment in time, then we must not care about our family at all. How could we possibly say no when it would mean we were horrible parents?

Anyway, my better judgement set in (aka "buyer's remorse) on the drive home and we ended up canceling the contract, realizing that it was a spur of the moment purchase, made without any research or real thought about it (not to mention we probably couldn't afford it).

I did like the concept of having a guaranteed vacation each year and was a bit tired of hooking up sewer hoses to our motor home, so I spent the next year or so educating myself about the various timeshare companies, their programs, locations, costs, etc. I finally decided to purchase with the leading timeshare company at the time - Fairfield Communities, Inc.

Their program was innovative and flexible. It was called the FairShare Plus Program. Instead of having a set week each year at the same resort, we were given points, based on how much we purchased. These points could be used at any of their 30 or so resorts in the US, and could even be used for less than full-week stays (which was convenient, since my vacation time was usually limited to weekends). Their resorts were top notch and in close proximity to me in the southeast US.

So, we made our initial purchase. We found the program was very flexible and never once forfeited any of our vacation time. As we could afford it, we increased our ownership. We purchased from Fairfield several times, but eventually found that we could purchase from other owners and save a lot of money. So, we purchased to a level that eventually allowed us to travel to timeshares about 30 days out of the year. After enjoying the luxury of the Fairfield resorts for several years, we actually sold off our motor home, because we didn't want to "rough it" anymore.

You might be wondering, why in the hell is this guy telling me all of this? It's actually not a happy travel story that I wanted to share with you. I wanted to share with you what has happened in the past few years to make this great vacation ownership investment become a thorn in my side.
I'm tired now though (I did tell you I was retired, didn't I?), so what I really wanted to tell you (about how my timeshare company was bought out by greedy corporate thugs who systematically raped, pillaged, and burned my ownership) is just going to have to wait. Since I just started this blog tonight and there is nobody out there actually reading it, I think we won't have a major problem with suspense killing anyone before I get back to continue the saga.

Goodnight all...