How To Make The Most Of VIP by Wyndham

Nine VIP tips — from your fellow owners. Learn how to live your bucket list to the max by making the most of the VIP by Wyndham program. These three owners with VIP by Wyndham benefits shared their best advice for booking, traveling, and, most importantly, taking full advantage of your VIP status and benefits.

Favorite VIP Benefits Of All Time

“I like the fact that we can get more bang for our buck. We stay longer. We can book sooner, and the fact that we can almost always guarantee an upgrade for the number of points that we've used. It's pretty simple to ask for upgrades. I do that every time we book, we put in a request to upgrade to a larger suite, or higher category.” — The Thalers, Gold VIP by Wyndham 

“I think I have two favorite benefits. One being to book your suite with 60% points off [15-60% off, depending on tier]. When you do a lot of different traveling to a lot of different places, this is a big value to me. So I've tried to use that 60-day window whenever I can now. And the second one is to be eligible for automatic upgrade if it's available during that timeframe.” — Patricia Cassimatis, Founders VIP by Wyndham 

Pro Tip: Check out the current Owner Travel Deals to stack savings upon savings. 

“My favorite benefit for VIP is the points and having the availability to go wherever I want to go. And a lot of times for more than just one week, if I choose. It also provides the availability to use your points to offset your maintenance fees, or to use your points for travel, for flights, for cars. I think that's probably my favorite.” — Debbie Gray, Founders VIP by Wyndham 

Pro Tip: Use the online VIP by Wyndham benefits chart to find your own favorite benefit.

Best VIP Travel Advice

“Well, depending on your ownership, you want to book as soon as your window of reservations are open. Certain times you can book 13 months in advance, sometimes 12, sometimes eight months. So you have to be on top of that, whether you do it on the phone or with your computer, to do that. Know your dates and your timeframes that come up, for you to call and to try to upgrade a room, or to book a room at discounted points, things like that. I try to write it down and keep it in the calendar, even in your phone and messages, so that you can take the most advantage of everything you can.” — Patricia Cassimatis, Founders VIP by Wyndham

Pro Tip: The Reciprocal Advance Reservation Priority benefit of the VIP by Wyndham program lets you book resorts outside of your home resort up to 11 months in advance — one month ahead of the standard booking window.

“I think we plan our vacations a little backwards from a lot of people. I usually start in July, that's our Use Year, and we plan for the next 12 months where we want to go, what we want to do, how long we want to stay. Most of that's dependent upon what we can get through Club Wyndham. So we'll sometimes go a place that may not have been at the top of our bucket list until we got there. We pick the accommodations, and then find things to do with the place we're going to. We sort of tailor our vacations to what the resort has, rather than trying to go the other way around.” — The Thalers, Gold VIP by Wyndham 

Pro Tip: Your flexible cancellation policy means you can plan out vacations for the whole year, worry-free.

“I think the most important thing to know is that if you can, use your points. But if you can't, Club Wyndham provides you the opportunity to roll those points over to the next year. So if something comes up you can use them the next year.” — Debbie Gray, Founders VIP by Wyndham

Pro Tip: If you can’t travel, save your points into your next year using the Points Deposit Feature — plus, VIP by Wyndham gives you more time to make the decision to bank them.

No. 1 Tips For New VIP Owners

“I think my number one tip is patience because it is a lot of things to learn. And so it just takes a little bit of time. But in addition to that, my tip would be book, book, book. Because I like to travel. So I use a lot of our points for that.” — Debbie Gray, Founders VIP by Wyndham 

Pro Tip: Check out the Owner Education Calendar to learn from a Club Wyndham education expert on how to maximize your ownership.

“Well, I think you should make sure you know all the specific rules and the timeframes you have to your advantage to use as thoroughly as you can.” — Patricia Cassimatis, Founders VIP by Wyndham 

“We would just tell you to utilize your computer, look at the VIP program. It explains all of the benefits, the restrictions, the rules. And then make sure every time you go, you go to one of the owner information programs. They're now tailored to whatever tier you're in, and they will go over the benefits that you're entitled to, based on the tier that you're in. And if you have any questions, just ask. Every year we meet somebody who doesn't use their benefits, doesn't use their points, and we go, ‘You know, you paid for that.’ Make sure you use it, make sure that you educate yourself, and make sure that you're getting the most you can out of a benefit that you've earned." — The Thalers, Gold VIP by Wyndham