Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
A class action lawsuit says that Wyndham aggressively markets its timeshares and unfairly profits from customers by requiring them to assign their timeshare interest to a trust, from which Wyndham benefits.
Plaintiffs Carolyn Nolen, Windy Kelley, Cara Kelley, and Paula Litton claim that they all have timeshares with Wyndham.
Allegedly, these customers, along with every timeshare purchaser, are required to assign 100 percent of their timeshare interest to Club Wyndham Plus, a program governed by the terms of the Fairshare Trust. In turn, the trust is reportedly controlled by Wyndham.
The Wyndham class action claims that Wyndham does not disclose to customers that the Fairshare Trust is the Fairshare Vacation Owners Association, a corporation controlled entirely by Wyndham. The terms allegedly indicate that the only beneficiaries of the Fairshare Trust are the individual timeshare owners and Wyndham.
Because the trustee is reportedly controlled by Wyndham, and Wyndham profits from the trust, the trustee — Fairshare Vacation Owners Association — profits from the trust, in violation of Arkansas law.
According to the customers’ timeshare trust class action lawsuit, Wyndham violated Arkansas Trust Code, which requires a trustee to administer the trust solely in the interest of the beneficiaries, and dictates that a “trust and its terms must be for the benefit of its beneficiaries.”
The Wyndham class action claims that the Trust Code states that trustees cannot profit from the trust, even if they did not breach the trust in profiting from it.
The timeshare holders argue that the Fairshare Vacation Owners Association’s Board of Directors has the right to change any program or feature of the trust at will, even if these changes are against the best interest of the customers.
During the time period at issue in the Wyndham lawsuit, all three members of the Board of Directors were Wyndham members, and they were able to make changes to the trust even if those changes were not in the best interest of the timeshare holders.
In the words of the timeshare owners, “to gain control over the Fairshare Vacation Owners Association and the Fairshare Trust, [Wyndham] or its affiliated entities appointed its own executives and employees to control the actions of the Trustee.” Allegedly, this led to “tremendous” financial benefits for Wyndham and affiliates.
The Wyndham timeshare class action lawsuit argues that Wyndham’s control of the trust is absolute, and that the company is violating their fiduciary duty to timeshare owners.
The timeshare owners go on to argue that Wyndham requires timeshare owners to pay fees that cover the costs of administering and operating the trust, which only financially serves Wyndham, not the timeshare holders.
Wynham has previously faced claims that the timeshare company misled consumers about its services, and unfairly profited from consumers.
Do you have a timeshare? Tell us about your experience in the comments below.
The timeshare holders are represented by John A. Yanchunis and Patrick A. Barthle II of Morgan & Morgan Complex Litigation Group; James M. Terrell and Rodney E. Miller of Methvin Terrell Yancey Stephens & Miller PC; and Bradford D. Barron of The Barron Law Firm PLLC.
The Wyndham Timeshare Trust Class Action Lawsuit is Carolyn Nolen, et al. v. Wyndham Vacation Resorts Inc., et al., Case No. 6:20-cv-00330-PGB-EJK, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Read More Lawsuit & Settlement News:
Mass. Car Dealership Wage & Hour Class Action Settlement
Aseptic Loosening Can Cause Pain Years After Knee Replacement
Gospel for Asia Charity Accused of $100M Donor Fraud in Class Action Lawsuit
Study Suggests Neocate Formula Side Effects May Include Broken Bones
ATTORNEY ADVERTISING
Top Class Actions is a Proud Member of the American Bar Association
LEGAL INFORMATION IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE
Top Class Actions Legal Statement
©2008 – 2024 Top Class Actions® LLC
Various Trademarks held by their respective owners
This website is not intended for viewing or usage by European Union citizens.
337 thoughts onWyndham Class Action Lawsuit: Hotel Unfairly Profits Off Timeshare Owners
Club Wyndham Avenue Plaza, New Orleans
My parents bought the timeshare in 1995 or 1996 when it was Fairfield Timeshares. They then sold to Wyndham. My parents used the resort 1 time before I took it over in 2007. The maintenance fees were too high for the 77,000 points I had and finding a resort to use was nearly impossible due to the 2-3 night min, and the points. I still made it work because I be dang if I was paying that monthly fee then not use the timeshare. In 2020, I entered into the limited ovations plan with Wyndham. My monthly main ended and we’ve been able to use the 77,000 for 3 years. That was the best decision I made. This is our final year to use it and I am can not wait to be done with this scam of a company. The resorts are nice but I can rent a room online with them less than paying those fees.
Wyndham did the exact same thing to me with the credit card. I never gave them permission to open.
Please add me to this lawsuit. I had requested Wyndham to just have it and they said they couldn’t unless my maintenance fees were paid. They were. They since have given my deed back to the resort. Why wouldn’t they just close it and resale it!? Makes no sense.
I want out of this club wyndham. It has been a horrible experience and I have lost so much money. They are impossible to deal with.
We first viewed the Wyndham concept in December 2021 at Bonnet Creek in Florida. They gave the presentation, and afterward, we met with the sales rep, Souraya. She tried to get us to purchase the Bronze level at 300,000 points, but I insisted I did not make big decision purchases and would have to take the information home and think about it. She informed us that we had to make the decision during our meeting, and I understand that. It is better to close the deal than to let us think about it. She said that the 300,000 points was the minimum allowed. I declined the 300,000 point option, so they then offered us 126,000 with 174,000 bonus points, and a temporary Bronze level for 3 years. She said the 126,000 points were a Wyndham buy-back from a client that wanted to upgrade, and that we were getting a good deal. She said that if we declined the offer, we would have a declined status on file with Wyndham, and we could not reconsider joining in the future. I decided to accept the offer since it was low in points and the maintenance payments were manageable.
In January or February 2022, we got a call from Wyndham welcoming us to the Club, and offered us a weekend getaway down in Myrtle Beach, SC. We decided to go and again, sat through a sales pitch, and afterwards met with Eli William, a salesman of 12 years. He reviewed our contract and asked us why we didn’t sign up as Bronze. We told him that we wanted to try it out first. He said he didn’t know why Bonnet Creek sold us 126,000 points since we did not have access to all the resorts during all seasons. He said that the way Wyndham works, they look at our total use year points, and if they are less than the Full week points for that resort, we could not have access to that resort. For Myrtle Beach Ocean Blvd, a week stay during the High season varies from 175,000 to 400,000. Since our use year points were only 126,000, we could not even consider staying there during the high season. For example, if we wanted to stay at Ocean Blvd for June 8-11, in a 2-bedroom Deluxe Ocean view, the total points would be 107,000 (well within our 126,000 points). But since the week’s stay from the 8-14 would be 188,000, we could not consider staying at the Ocean Blvd resort because Wyndham looks at the total use year vs the full week stay amount. Since Myrtle Beach is close to our home, we were disappointed because we had planned on staying at Myrtle Beach at least once a year. I asked him if we could forward our points for a future use year and he said we could not. The only way to be able to stay would be to upgrade to Bronze and purchase more points, to get a total of 300,000. I asked why Bonnet Creek did not tell us this, and he said they may have forgotten. Since Bonnet Creek did not tell us this, Eli would put in a ticket to Wyndham corporate and see if they could fix our contract. So based on his expertise and presumed integrity, we decided to upgrade. I recently found out that this is not true.
One of the things that ALL of the sales rep did was give us their cell phone numbers, and told us to text or call anytime, and they would help us however possible. After leaving Myrtle Beach, my partner texted Eli with some questions, and he never returned the text.
We did take a trip to St. Thomas in August 2022. When we talked to the sales rep there, she was VERY helpful. She explained to us how the Rewards program worked. She said, other than that, she couldn’t really look at our contracts because she was with the Margaritaville-side of the business.
In November 2022, we decided to take a trip to historic Williamsburg, VA. After attending an Owner’s Update on things that were happening within the Wyndham Club, we sat down with Mike Dunham, a sales veteran of 13 years. He reviewed our contracts, and asked us about our planning trends. We told him that we typically book about 4 months out. He asked us why we owned an Access contract vs a Select contract. I told him we were new and had only been in the Club for about 11 months, and honestly, did not know there was a difference. So he explained to us the difference as far as booking a vacation. He said Myrtle Beach and Bonnet Creek should have given us this option. He said the main reason to get into Select is that Access has blended maintenance fees, which are based on all the resorts, whereas Select is based on a home resort. He said typically, the maintenance fees for Access go up 13-15% per year, whereas Select, depending on the resort, only go up 4-6% per year. He said that since we had been with Wyndham for less than a year, and were not given that option, he would submit a ticket, and call corporate and see if he could get us into a better program (Select). We were thankful, and waited. He said we could go back to our room, and he would give us a call. We told him we had to check out by 11am, but he said not to worry about it, he would call the resort manager and get us an extension. While we were waiting, we decided to go into town and get some lunch. When we got back, we went to the resort front desk and asked if Mike had taken care of the room situation. The man at the desk said they were booked solid and no one told him about the extension. All of our items were in the room, and our keys no longer worked. So we had to get security to let us in, had to pack all of our things and go back to the sales center. When we got back, Mike said that he had taken care of our contract, but we would have to purchase another 126,000 points for a total of 426,000 points. We told him that we had not intended to purchase more points, so he sat us down and said over the long-term ownership, we would save money due to the maint. fees not getting out of hand. For example, I think our Bronze Access fees were about $190 per month. If we averaged only a 12% increase each year, after 10 years, our monthly fees would be around $600 per month. With the new contract, he offered Select for either Myrtle Beach, New York or Atlanta Margaritaville. New York and MB were out of our budget. Mike said Atlanta was fairly new, and the fees should be very low, considering it is a new building. Our fees would only be about $268 per month and over the course of 10 years, an average increase of 6% per year, would only increase to around $450 per year, or a savings of about $1800 per year vs Access. So our monthly fees would end up being less for more use year points. This made sense, so we trusted his advice, and upgraded to Select with ATL GA as our home base. I just got our 2023 monthly fee statement…it went up 23%!!!!!!….from $268 to $330 per month. I did some research, and if my sources are correct, Club Wyndham Access has averaged a maintenance fee increase, year-over-year, of about 4%, over the last 11 years. So what Mike said was not true! I texted and emailed Mike for the last two weeks, and he has not returned my correspondence.
Finally, we had some points left over for 2022, so we decided to spend a long weekend at Myrtle Beach. We again ran into Eli William. He asked how things were going, and I told him that I was having a hard time finding available bookings. He looked at our contracts and saw that we were still Bronze. He told us that 80% of Wyndham’s clients are either non-VIP or Bronze. We, as Bronze, were competing with 80% of Wyndham’s client-base. If we were Silver, we would only be competing with 20% of the clientele, because Wyndham reserves some of the inventory for Silver and above only. We would find it easier to book, and by being Silver, we could book in a 60 day window and save 20% in points. He recommended booking in advance, and then when the 60 day window comes into play, go and cancel the original booking and rebook at the 20% discount. We could then take our leftover points, and convert them at the end of the year to $$$ for maintenance fees to help offset the cost in fees. He said that the conversion ratio was $50 per 10,000 points. So if we had 200,000 points left over, we could convert them to $1,000 toward the maintenance fees. He said it makes sense to purchase more points, and with the 20% booking discounts, essentially use the points to pay the monthly fees. He said when we went in to sign the contract, the person presenting the terms would ask us if we were upgrading to use the points for maintenance fees. He told us to tell the presenter that, NO, we were not upgrading to use the points for the fees. I thought this was odd that Eli presented this to us, but told us not to say that is why we were upgrading. I later found out that what he said is wrong on several points. Last week, I called the VIP 1-800 number and talked to a woman named Kim. She was VERY helpful, and talked with me for about 60 minutes and answered all of my questions:
First off, we only have the first 6 months to convert our use year points to maintenance fees. Eli told us that we only needed to call once a year, and that we could call anytime of the year, but we need only call once. We had planned on calling in December, but I learned from Kim, as Silver, we only have until June, or the sixth month of our use year.
He told us the conversion rate was $50 per 10,000. This is not true. I learned from Kim that it is actually $0.0021 per point. So in the example above, my 200,000 points would only convert to $420, not $1000. She said Wyndham actually tries to discourage using points for maintenance, as this is not the most economical use.
We also found out that Silver and above does NOT get a benefit to resort availability over Bronze or non-VIP. Wyndham does a first come, first serve approach regardless of level or number of points. So I discovered after upgrading to Silver, I was still having issues finding resorts within the 60-120 day window.
Finally, Kim had never heard that Access year-over-year maintenance fees average an increase of 13-15%.
That was exactly my story too. My maintenance fee went up before 6 months. They had me finance through citizen for initial deposit and affter six months jumped from $139 to $183 . Each time we go on vacation the salesrep is always forcing us to buy more. I just have to find a way to give this up. Its draining my finances.
We went to Dayton Florida on 12/28/22 and when checking the normal go see the Concierge for your parking pass. When we got our pass was told need to attend a 30minute presentation just to update things and no sales pressure. Well trapped 2hrs finally got up and told a manager we were leaving since they were way over 30minutes. Went to Orlando 12/30/22 again told need to get parking pass and told no record of attended presentation. So mad at this point we finally said OK to 1/1/23 at 10am. With being a holiday the systems were down and trapped there 5hrs and so tired and hungry at this point they offered a blackout offer sounded good but I think it was cause we were exhausted so we agreed. Gave info and they came back to tell us our card didn’t have enough room on it which was weird so they opened a new card. By 4pm back in room to see our card had plenty of room. So when we got home 1/2/23 we sent a resend letter to close account and refund money. Still today after Fed Ex overnight with signature, several faxes, every day emails. We have yet to see our money back and they keep playing games like put money showing it is coming back than take it back. We are accruing interest on 2 cards for something we shouldn’t be.
The last 3 times I have stayed at a Wyndham property with my legacy Fairfield points, I have been subjected to increased sales pressure to change my membership. The trust was specifically mentioned at the last one. When I asked to conclude the meeting because the hour I promised them was up I was asked to wait so his boss could sign me out. He started another pitch. I said I needed to go and walked from the table. Another man walked up to me and asked if I was okay. I said yes and kept walking. The original sales guy chased me down the hall calling my name. The place was a maze to leave so he caught up to me. In the coarse of the conversation, I had commented that if I buy a car I get a period of time that a deal would be honored and another period of time to return the car. I was concerned that everything these presentations insist on a commitment right then and there. The guy that chased and told me that they knew consumer rights rules too and they weren’t forcing me into anything. I said that now he was just trying to cover something. They are for sure a sleazy company. I was happy in the 90s and early 2000s before Wyndham made a mess.
We’re embarrassed that we succumbed to their hours long tag team hard sales tactics. It’s an incredibly bad deal. You could just invest the contract amount and vacation with the earnings. Instead you’re out that high amount plus pay $1000 a year in maintenance fees for one or two weeks a year depending on where you go. You could stay at nice hotels for no more and keep that contract money in your bank! Passing on the “deed” to your contract is a farce. You might not get 1% of what you pay trying to sell it. Wyndham’s plan to get out of your contract is another ripoff. Say goodbye to what you paid for the contract and get three years of maintenance-free points – maybe 5 weeks. Hell of a price to pay for 5 weeks! We want in on a class action lawsuit that’s way overdue.
Hi, I’m a Wyndham Worldmark Diamond. I would be happy if Wyndham (Worldmark) would lower the amount of their ‘ownership’ fees (which is around $50k) in half, or lower their maintenance fees that they keep raising (making it harder to pay off the $50k with their high interest rate that should be 0%). With the combination of the 2, membership is extremely too high. On top of that, Wyndham is charging for parking (at some resorts) and guest fees (making it harder to sell points).. knowing full well, they are lying about calling their sucker members “owners”, I don’t think (at least Diamond) real owners should have to pay for either. Don’t get me wrong, I love THEIR resorts, but they are extremely pricey and verging on being a scam because of their sneaky parking, guest, and over priced maintenance fees (because their initial membership fee is so damn high already).
Thanks
Add me to this Wydham action law suit , I have 15 pages of notes of how they did myself and my retired mother on fraudulent accounts !
Please add me to this law suit and aive had whyndom give a key to my room to sumone wile I was asleep….I’ve been trying to find someone to help me with my issues with them for quite some time now but since I don’t have money upfront nobody would help me ,but I was assaulted cops were called and the owner admitted to the cops he gave the guy a Kay to my room knowing I didn’t check in with anyone but my dog