Many clients have asked, what is the difference between buying a WorldMark timeshare at a presentation and choosing to buy on the secondary resale market? In this article, we’ll explore the the similarities and differences of WorldMark retail and resale. You can also read the Top 10 Reasons to Buy a WorldMark Resale.
Cost
WorldMark sells Annual Credits for about $2.00 per credit currently. On the resale market, you will be able pay somewhere around 30% of this figure , possibly even lower. Why is this?
At a presentation, it’s common for each attendee to receive a gift that is designed to entice them into sticking around long enough to hear a sales pitch. It’s estimated that it takes approximately 50-60% of the sales price of a retail timeshare to cover the marketing and sales costs incurred by the presentation model. An unfair side effect from this model is that the people who are pressured into the purchase, and buy without doing their homework, will pay all the expenses of the presentation model. These customers are forced to shoulder the expense of the gifts and other presentation costs that were given to the people that didn’t buy.
The benefit of buying affordably doesn’t only apply to your purchase. When buying resale, it’s also reasonable to expect that if you needed to sell, that you would forego taking the same huge loss in value that someone who purchased at a presentation would.
Travel-share
The travelshare program is a developer’s incentive membership that is designed to entice people to purchase at the presentation for a higher price than resale market value. As you can imagine, Wyndham has to offer some rebuttal to the question “Why would I pay 3x or more for a retail account, when I can buy an account from an existing owner?” The only thing they can really say is that if you buy resale, you will miss out on the travelshare program. So what are Travel-share’s benefits? What will paying 3 times more at a presentation be worth it’s feature? Read on to find out:
Fun Time Feature
The fun time feature is an extended Bonus Time program. All WorldMark ownerships, regardless of resale or retail, come with the regular bonus time program. Fun Time means:
Travelshare – Rather than booking within 14 days, you can now book up to 25 days in advance, but it is more expensive at 6 cents per credit rather than 4.8 cents per credit and you are limited to 5 days per reservation.
Resale – We can offer One-Time-Use credits to supplement your account. Generally the credits will cost about 6-8 cents per credit, but you can book 13 months in advance, book full weeks and you can use as many weekends as you’d like.
Use of Credits for Airfare, Cruises and Car Rentals
Travelshare – Wyndham will allow you to use any unused vacation credits toward other travel expenses, but the exchange rate is so unpreferrable, most owners will never elect to use these benefits. One example, is that a cruise averages 10,000-30,000 credits per person to book, which can be literally thousands of dollars of maintenance for a couple to go on a travelshare cruise. You are obligated to book through WorldMark and use their inventory.
Resale – We will buy back any unused available credits at a higher rate than what WorldMark will offer and send you a check for the sale upon the transfer completing. We can then help you either use your free, included SFX Diamond Rewards memebership to book your dream cruise, or you can book with any other cruiseline, airline, use the check however you see fit.
Included RCI membership (included travelshare fees)
Travelshare – Includes an RCI account that can be used to trade with other resorts. This memebership is not free, as you will have to pay a monthly travelshare fee. Wyndham owns RCI and has a vested interest into getting you to pay more for these benefits. Some owners will never use this trading feature, but still have to pay the fees involved and they are paid for the lifetime of the ownership, adding to maintenance liability.
Resale – We will walk you through how to become an RCI member after your purchase. You will not pay any reoccurring costs to us or WorldMark to keep the membership active, but RCI does charge $89.00 per year to become a member, which works out to be cheaper than what the Travel-share dues will cost you.
Use of RCI affiliated resorts
Travelshare – Wyndham offers access to affiliated resorts to those that purchase at full retail price.
Resale – Access affiliated resorts and many more through your self-paid RCI membership.
Free Movie Rentals
Travelshare – Reatil accounts get this benefit on 20,000 Annual credits and above.
Resale – You would have to watch a few lifetimes of movie rentals to offset the price of paying full resale price for your ownership.
Conclusion
That’s it! Everything else about your ownership is identical, and behaves exactly like you bought at a presentation. We look forward to helping you understand the benefits of buying resale! You can get up to the date news on this and many other topics in our online timeshare blog or by talking to one of our experienced agents.
