We've been richly blessed by our ownership

Some pleasant comments for a change...

Bitter - bitter - bitter - what a bunch of complainers!!

My wife and I have been owners for 12 years. We purchased shortly after we got married to force ourselves to take family vacations annually. We now have 4 kids and absolutely love our ownership.

For those who have been misled - I'm sorry. My wife and I used to attend sales pitches all the time for the free gifts. We were good at saying no. We took the free trip to San Francisco for 2 nights and 3 days, paid an upgrade fee and were not impressed with the result, but we really enjoyed the free trip. We also did not purchase at that time.

A year later we were invited back for another presentation and another free trip. This trip was to Reno, which we decided not to upgrade and ended up staying in a 5-star resort/casino that was beautiful and luxurious. We had a blast!

We also ended up buying at this presentation. The things that made sense to us: Many local resorts within 2-3 hours drive (with children it is often hard to afford airfare)

Renewable credits every year with a one-year carryover and one-year borrowing power. We could skip a year or go twice in one year if we wanted to. The maintenance fees were a little high, but less than it would cost us to vacation at a similar place. By paying them monthly we could spread out the cost of our vacation over the year instead of trying to book something and having to stay home because we didn't have the money saved up. (If it's there it's spent most of the time)

We could rent our unit out if we wanted to and recover the cost of the maintenance fees. (Have done this on more than one occasion)

The bonus time and exchange opportunities are also attractive and useful. We have visited many of the resorts and have always had a positive experience. We have also added additional credits to our account over the years. Our goal is to will a portion of it to each of our kids. The credits required for a week have not gone up. A few of the resorts have a higher rate than others due to location or demand, but overall we are using the same number of credits for a week now that we used when we first purchased in the late 1990's. We also have the opportunity to use many more resorts than we did when we purchased, as Worldmark continued to build new properties over the years, all of which we have access to.

We also upgraded one time and decided the timing wasn't right. When you upgrade or purchase for the first time they are required by law to give you at least a 3 business day window to cancel. We returned on the 3rd day and canceled, telling them we needed to re-think the decision at that time due to budget constraints. We had no problems canceling and no bills were sent to us.

Finally, we have almost always gotten into the resort we wanted to when we wanted to by planning ahead. We book 13 months out because we can cancel at any time up to 30 days before with no penalty and no loss of credits. It makes for easy planning.
We do not work for Worldmark and would not want to work for them. My advice is get the information you need ahead of time and make an informed decision. Investing in vacation ownership is not a financial investment - you will not make money off it by re-selling it. But it can be an investment in your family, reserving time to spend together and create lifelong memories. We've been richly blessed by our ownership, despite occasional glitches the company has had with paperwork or other details that come with being a huge corporation. Remember that most of the people you deal with are just that - real people who have feelings and needs and are earning a paycheck. Some can be jerks - hope you can avoid them...

If you'd like to discuss any of this with me, please send an email to sotnasrd@yahoo.com. I'm happy to share my honest opinions, experience, and advice.

Thanks for reading - Dan

Good stuff! For many people, the value is there -- especially if you can buy those credits at half-price.

-- Fabbo
Tags: trendwest worldmark