So WorldMark has finally changed the status of credits in their system to reflect how your contract was purchased. If you were an owner of record prior to November 2006, your credits are designated as WM+A, meaning you have access to all WorldMark owned inventory and the affiliate units that WYN has contracted through the TEN (timeshare exchange network). If you purchased on the aftermarket after November 2006 you have WM credits, good for all WorldMark owned properties (approx 97% of all available units in the WM Reservation system are WorldMark owned). If you purchased from the Developer, WYN, after November of 2006, and opted into the Travelshare program, you have WMTS credits, good for the WorldMark owned properties, affiliates, and a handful of WYN hotels, and trade properties (very poor trade value to date, nearly 3-4 times the normal cost of WorldMark units). WMTS credits pay additional maintenance dues on top of normal WM dues, and have access to the RCI points program as well. Call for more clarification.
Mike
http://www.timeshareliquidationservice.com/
Showing posts with label Wyndham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wyndham. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Been Awhile
Hey,
I have not updated as much as I have wanted to in awhile...it is going to be a hard fought discipline to get myself conformed to blogging. I mean, I don't even facespace, or mybook, or any of that other stuff, haha.
Anyways, since we attended ARDA, a few things have happened at TLS, we have gotten endorsed by a friend and Former CEO of Trendwest, Bill Peare. He has given TLS credit for providing honest and reputable service for over 15 years. Thanks Bill!
Other than that, we are still waiting to see how the Class Action lawsuit will turn out with the CA WM Owners and WYN, and if any changes will occur with the TEN agreement. It has been hinted at for some time, that WYN would change the current format of the TEN agreement which WM owners access, although very limited, into affiliate resorts on the East coast, as well as the South Pacific AUS properties. So far nothing has occurred, but I will let you know if it does.
Thanks for reading, and I will try to keep the updates coming.
I have not updated as much as I have wanted to in awhile...it is going to be a hard fought discipline to get myself conformed to blogging. I mean, I don't even facespace, or mybook, or any of that other stuff, haha.
Anyways, since we attended ARDA, a few things have happened at TLS, we have gotten endorsed by a friend and Former CEO of Trendwest, Bill Peare. He has given TLS credit for providing honest and reputable service for over 15 years. Thanks Bill!
Other than that, we are still waiting to see how the Class Action lawsuit will turn out with the CA WM Owners and WYN, and if any changes will occur with the TEN agreement. It has been hinted at for some time, that WYN would change the current format of the TEN agreement which WM owners access, although very limited, into affiliate resorts on the East coast, as well as the South Pacific AUS properties. So far nothing has occurred, but I will let you know if it does.
Thanks for reading, and I will try to keep the updates coming.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Timing the Bottom of a Market
Most of you reading this message are either long-time WorldMark owners or prospective owners trying to “get the lay of the land” before making the plunge into ownership. Regardless of your owner status, the reality is we are in a bear market for WorldMark credits as of this writing. In other words: This is perhaps the best time in many years to make take the jump into the market for more credits because the pricing and selection of memberships available has never been better.
“What’s going on?” you might ask. The portfolio of properties you can vacation at is continually expanding as are the amenities of the newest resorts coming on line. This seems like a good thing, (it is) and it seems as if this that would cause prices to rise (it has-but only at the retail end of the game.) Membership is above 261,000 members and climbing, so more and more people are coming to understand WorldMark is for real and Ownership really does confer some outstanding vacation opportunities to the traveling public. These demand indicators suggest pricing should be going up, yet prices seem soft and there appears to be a lot of sellers in the market.
No question about it, many of our prospective buyers are monitoring our website, some of them every day, looking for that deal of all deals. We get tens of thousands of folks looking at our site every month, and over half of them are repeat viewers who came directly to the TLS page. They know who we are and what they do. They weren’t searching; they came right to our door. While we try to make our website informative and fun, I know better than to think these folks are just reading up. They’re shopping, but aren’t ready to commit until they sense the bottom is at hand.
Here’s the deal: In early November, 2006, Wyndham modified (very slightly in our view) the WorldMark program as it is offered at their retail sales offices. This modification, called Travel Share, has, in a word, devastated the after market for WorldMark credits. I don’t say this lightly, nor do I say it judgmentally. The nature of business is to seek profits, and Wyndham is chasing profits by incrementally changing the nature of its retail offerings to discourage their customers from becoming mine.
For many months after the introduction of Travel Share our listing inventory grew. Historically, we’ve maintained around 300,000 credits in inventory and turned that in a 30 day cycle. Our challenge was to be able to secure enough credits in inventory to offer to our many buyers. Post Travel Share, we reached a peak inventory of just over 1,100,000 credits. Price softening was one way we could manage that inventory back to today’s level of 424,000 credits in inventory. Knowledge was another. As more prospective owners see through the fog of Travel Share to the core value of WorldMark credits, credits sales in the aftermarket have begun to pick up again.
Frequent visitors to our TLS website can see this plainly; prices are lower today than they were 5 years ago. For the cautious among you, I encourage you to abandon your quest to buy at the bottom of the cycle, BECAUSE YOU CAN’T TIME IT ANY BETTER THAN FINANCIAL FOLKS CAN TIME THE BOTTOM OF THE STOCK MARKET!
Be content with a great deal and top off your WorldMark account before you plan your next vacation.
Let us help! To spur sales upward and to provide liquidity for your fellow WM owners who need to sell, we’re offering FREE CLOSING COSTS, a value of $250, on all purchases thru the end of 2007. Help us close out another great year by setting yourself up, at bargain prices, for a lifetime of vacation memories.
“What’s going on?” you might ask. The portfolio of properties you can vacation at is continually expanding as are the amenities of the newest resorts coming on line. This seems like a good thing, (it is) and it seems as if this that would cause prices to rise (it has-but only at the retail end of the game.) Membership is above 261,000 members and climbing, so more and more people are coming to understand WorldMark is for real and Ownership really does confer some outstanding vacation opportunities to the traveling public. These demand indicators suggest pricing should be going up, yet prices seem soft and there appears to be a lot of sellers in the market.
No question about it, many of our prospective buyers are monitoring our website, some of them every day, looking for that deal of all deals. We get tens of thousands of folks looking at our site every month, and over half of them are repeat viewers who came directly to the TLS page. They know who we are and what they do. They weren’t searching; they came right to our door. While we try to make our website informative and fun, I know better than to think these folks are just reading up. They’re shopping, but aren’t ready to commit until they sense the bottom is at hand.
Here’s the deal: In early November, 2006, Wyndham modified (very slightly in our view) the WorldMark program as it is offered at their retail sales offices. This modification, called Travel Share, has, in a word, devastated the after market for WorldMark credits. I don’t say this lightly, nor do I say it judgmentally. The nature of business is to seek profits, and Wyndham is chasing profits by incrementally changing the nature of its retail offerings to discourage their customers from becoming mine.
For many months after the introduction of Travel Share our listing inventory grew. Historically, we’ve maintained around 300,000 credits in inventory and turned that in a 30 day cycle. Our challenge was to be able to secure enough credits in inventory to offer to our many buyers. Post Travel Share, we reached a peak inventory of just over 1,100,000 credits. Price softening was one way we could manage that inventory back to today’s level of 424,000 credits in inventory. Knowledge was another. As more prospective owners see through the fog of Travel Share to the core value of WorldMark credits, credits sales in the aftermarket have begun to pick up again.
Frequent visitors to our TLS website can see this plainly; prices are lower today than they were 5 years ago. For the cautious among you, I encourage you to abandon your quest to buy at the bottom of the cycle, BECAUSE YOU CAN’T TIME IT ANY BETTER THAN FINANCIAL FOLKS CAN TIME THE BOTTOM OF THE STOCK MARKET!
Be content with a great deal and top off your WorldMark account before you plan your next vacation.
Let us help! To spur sales upward and to provide liquidity for your fellow WM owners who need to sell, we’re offering FREE CLOSING COSTS, a value of $250, on all purchases thru the end of 2007. Help us close out another great year by setting yourself up, at bargain prices, for a lifetime of vacation memories.
Wyndham’s Development and the Cost of Credits
On Monday, October 6, 2008, Associated Press announced “Shares of Wyndham Worldwide, Corp. plunged with the broader market on Monday after the hotel company announced changes to its timeshare business and restructuring charges. Wyndham shares dropped 87 cents, or 6.9%, to $11.83 in afternoon trading. They hit an all-time low of $11.05 earlier in the session. Wyndham plans to refocus its timeshare business beginning in the fourth quarter. The Parsippany, N.J.-based company will shift its sales and marketing efforts to consumers with higher credit quality…AND CUTBACK ON TIMESHARE DEVELOPMENT.”
I’ve addressed the value of credits before in this column. As a general rule, timeshares of ANY type represent poor collateral value. That is, they are not generally pledged as security for a loan due to the difficulty and cost associated with selling them. Despite this fact, I’m fascinated by the role reversal of WorldMark vacation credits and financial instruments which have (historically) served as a store of wealth. Consider:
October 20, 2007
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,806
Standard and Poors 500: 1535
Nasdaq Composit: 2804
WorldMark Credits: Based on TLS “adjusted value” index: 54 cents per credit
October 20, 2008
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 9,033 (Down 35%)
Standard and Poors 500: 955 (Down 38%)
Nasdaq Composit: 1696 (Down 40%)
WorldMark Credits: Based on TLS “adjusted value” index: 47 cents per credit (Down 13%)
That’s right. An investment in credits, while worth 13% less than if purchased one year ago, lost SUBSTANTIALLY less value than the 3 main gauges of financial health noted above. This data, along with the news from AP that Wyndham is curtailing development goes to the heart of the issue. NOW IS THE BEST TIME EVER TO INVEST IN WORLDMARK CREDITS.
Holding cash is a comfort for many of us in challenging economic times, but staying on the sidelines can be very costly if you miss a substantial move in the markets. A combination of factors suggests to me that after-market pricing for WM credits has hit the bottom:
1. Restricted supply of new credits (see AP quote above) means Wyndham retail sales units may get squeezed for inventory…and reselling credits which might otherwise have entered the secondary market would be one way Wyndham can keep its sales lines open.
2. TLS margins are getting squeezed as we must pay more to sellers for credits than we’ve had to historically.
3. If brokers don’t pay more, they can’t find sellers willing to sell, which means less inventory of credits on the aftermarket.
4. Financial data suggests credits, previously considered poor collateral, are holding up well against non-cash alternatives such as stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
5. Due to many factors, including softening in the broader economy and the introduction of “Travel Share,” the market for WorldMark credits is as soft as I’ve seen in my 14 years of making a market for WorldMark credits. The prices sellers receive, net of sales expenses, are approximately the cost to Wyndham of development. This factor, along with the planned reduction in development of new resorts, suggests a future shortage of used credits.
If you and your family have considered more credits, I sincerely believe this is the best time in 14 years to make the investment. Plus, have you ever enjoyed a stock, bond, or mutual funds as much as your vacation with WorldMark by Wyndham?
I’ve addressed the value of credits before in this column. As a general rule, timeshares of ANY type represent poor collateral value. That is, they are not generally pledged as security for a loan due to the difficulty and cost associated with selling them. Despite this fact, I’m fascinated by the role reversal of WorldMark vacation credits and financial instruments which have (historically) served as a store of wealth. Consider:
October 20, 2007
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 13,806
Standard and Poors 500: 1535
Nasdaq Composit: 2804
WorldMark Credits: Based on TLS “adjusted value” index: 54 cents per credit
October 20, 2008
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 9,033 (Down 35%)
Standard and Poors 500: 955 (Down 38%)
Nasdaq Composit: 1696 (Down 40%)
WorldMark Credits: Based on TLS “adjusted value” index: 47 cents per credit (Down 13%)
That’s right. An investment in credits, while worth 13% less than if purchased one year ago, lost SUBSTANTIALLY less value than the 3 main gauges of financial health noted above. This data, along with the news from AP that Wyndham is curtailing development goes to the heart of the issue. NOW IS THE BEST TIME EVER TO INVEST IN WORLDMARK CREDITS.
Holding cash is a comfort for many of us in challenging economic times, but staying on the sidelines can be very costly if you miss a substantial move in the markets. A combination of factors suggests to me that after-market pricing for WM credits has hit the bottom:
1. Restricted supply of new credits (see AP quote above) means Wyndham retail sales units may get squeezed for inventory…and reselling credits which might otherwise have entered the secondary market would be one way Wyndham can keep its sales lines open.
2. TLS margins are getting squeezed as we must pay more to sellers for credits than we’ve had to historically.
3. If brokers don’t pay more, they can’t find sellers willing to sell, which means less inventory of credits on the aftermarket.
4. Financial data suggests credits, previously considered poor collateral, are holding up well against non-cash alternatives such as stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
5. Due to many factors, including softening in the broader economy and the introduction of “Travel Share,” the market for WorldMark credits is as soft as I’ve seen in my 14 years of making a market for WorldMark credits. The prices sellers receive, net of sales expenses, are approximately the cost to Wyndham of development. This factor, along with the planned reduction in development of new resorts, suggests a future shortage of used credits.
If you and your family have considered more credits, I sincerely believe this is the best time in 14 years to make the investment. Plus, have you ever enjoyed a stock, bond, or mutual funds as much as your vacation with WorldMark by Wyndham?
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