The we loooooove Club Wyndham Bonnet Creek Part 4

I live in Panama City Beach and we are reopened for business for just about everything. Beaches are already packed heading into Memorial Day weekend. There is definitely pent up demand for tourism and travel again. I think once the parks and WBC reopens, reservations will skyrocket. Florida has very favorable reopening conditions.

Hopefully the parks will get their acts together soon and open up! All the condos/hotels are waiting for them to make announcements with definite dates so they can then adjust their own timelines for reopening.
 
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I'll be honest, without use of the pools, I don't see the appeal of staying at WBC. Hopefully, they open them up soon. I'd love to take the kids in June or July.
 
@KristinU any owner updates/news to share? I saw that the Grand is implementing reserved pool chairs and capacity restrictions, wondering how they will administer that at the ownership side. CAN I GO BACK NOW :sad:
 


@KristinU any owner updates/news to share? I saw that the Grand is implementing reserved pool chairs and capacity restrictions, wondering how they will administer that at the ownership side. CAN I GO BACK NOW :sad:
Not too much new to report, @pepperandchips , just phased arrivals that started 5/26/2020 and reservations will be taken starting 7/31/2020.

From what I understand, a couple of the pools are open, but no tubes at the lazy river.

The phased opening includes reduced occupancy and they have shared the following:

"Owner reservations are being prioritized above all other reservations. Guests, exchange, and rental reservations will be canceled in order to give owners sole access to resorts during this initial reopening phase.

There are some instances where owner reservations may be cancelled in order to remain within the limited occupancy guidelines and practice safe social distancing measures. Several factors are being taken into consideration as we identify reservations to cancel such as when the reservation was booked and reservation dates. We are doing everything we can to ensure owners on-site will have a safe and enjoyable vacation during their stay."


We have reservations as owners for July, but they were just made in April after an initial rescheduling then some points shuffling, so we'll see if we end up getting cancelled or not. The big question marks are how reduced the occupancy is, for how long they'll keep it reduced, and when they'll start ramping up occupancy again.
 
Not too much new to report, @pepperandchips , just phased arrivals that started 5/26/2020 and reservations will be taken starting 7/31/2020.

From what I understand, a couple of the pools are open, but no tubes at the lazy river.

The phased opening includes reduced occupancy and they have shared the following:

"Owner reservations are being prioritized above all other reservations. Guests, exchange, and rental reservations will be canceled in order to give owners sole access to resorts during this initial reopening phase.

There are some instances where owner reservations may be cancelled in order to remain within the limited occupancy guidelines and practice safe social distancing measures. Several factors are being taken into consideration as we identify reservations to cancel such as when the reservation was booked and reservation dates. We are doing everything we can to ensure owners on-site will have a safe and enjoyable vacation during their stay."


We have reservations as owners for July, but they were just made in April after an initial rescheduling then some points shuffling, so we'll see if we end up getting cancelled or not. The big question marks are how reduced the occupancy is, for how long they'll keep it reduced, and when they'll start ramping up occupancy again.
Thank you! Fingers crossed for your trip so you can tell us firsthand how awesome it is! ... And I need someone to check on the bins 😆
 
Hey everyone! I don't really post on here, but I felt the need to give you a heads up if you don't know. I have connections in the rental agency industry, and I've been hearing some alarming things that bothered me--I was aware of Disboards because of those connections.

Wyndham has told owners, from what I understand, that they will not be accepting guest reservations through 2020; 2021 is still unknown. I don't know how this affects people who booked through sites like Expedia, Booking.com, what have you--but the small rental agencies cannot apply the guest's names to the reservations that they've made on owners' accounts. (This is how rental agencies work, obviously; you're traveling as the guest of a Wyndham owner.) This means that you will not be able to check in, and the reservation will not be honored.

If you booked a 2020 reservation at Bonnet Creek through a rental agency like Tripbound, Vacation Strategies, or Shelby Resorts, I recommend trying to get in touch with whoever you booked through as soon as possible. I do not have any professional connections to this realm anymore, but from what I understand one of those agencies has already shut down all social media, the phone lines, etc. I've heard that the recommended route for customers will be initiating chargebacks to get your money back, because the agency does not have the money to refund you. This very much bothers me on a moral level, which is why I'm posting here. I don't know which agencies are shutting down entirely but I'm worried about the refund situation for 2020 travelers.

Best of luck; I'm sorry this is happening to anyone who had a trip planned for 2020.

Editing to add: now I'm hearing that these agencies will probably not tell you to try to chargeback . But that will probably get you your money back faster than going after them for a refund would, unfortunately.
 
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Hey everyone! I don't really post on here, but I felt the need to give you a heads up if you don't know. I have connections in the rental agency industry, and I've been hearing some alarming things that bothered me--I was aware of Disboards because of those connections.

Wyndham has told owners, from what I understand, that they will not be accepting guest reservations through 2020; 2021 is still unknown. I don't know how this affects people who booked through sites like Expedia, Booking.com, what have you--but the small rental agencies cannot apply the guest's names to the reservations that they've made on owners' accounts. (This is how rental agencies work, obviously; you're traveling as the guest of a Wyndham owner.) This means that you will not be able to check in, and the reservation will not be honored.

If you booked a 2020 reservation at Bonnet Creek through a rental agency like Tripbound, Vacation Strategies, or Shelby Resorts, I recommend trying to get in touch with whoever you booked through as soon as possible. I do not have any professional connections to this realm anymore, but from what I understand one of those agencies has already shut down all social media, the phone lines, etc. I've heard that the recommended route for customers will be initiating chargebacks to get your money back, because the agency does not have the money to refund you. This very much bothers me on a moral level, which is why I'm posting here. I don't know which agencies are shutting down entirely but I'm worried about the refund situation for 2020 travelers.

Best of luck; I'm sorry this is happening to anyone who had a trip planned for 2020.

Editing to add: now I'm hearing that these agencies will probably not tell you to try to chargeback . But that will probably get you your money back faster than going after them for a refund would, unfortunately.

I received an email stating what you posted. Thank goodness my reservation was through VRBO.
 
I’ve emailed vacation strategy three times this week for a Wisconsin dells rental and they keep saying no availability. The resort itself told me bookings are drastically down and summer is going to be a ghost town, I would think those two things trend the same??? I emailed a private owner and was told he couldn’t do anything in June, Wyndham wasn’t allowing new books in June. Even though the resort is open. I wonder if all this is related to comments above.
 
Got the email from Tripbound also. I am calling my credit card company now about the deposit i was charged
 
Did Tripbound tell you they aren't refunding your deposit?

The email doesn't say anything about refunds:

"It is with great sadness and regret that I write to inform you that Tripbound has been forced to close its doors due to loss associated with COVID-19. Despite the hardship that was caused by cancelled reservations since March of this year, we were enduring and feeling optimistic about the future of Tripbound.

Wyndham has now suspended guest of owner reservations for the remainder of the year in an effort to reduce occupancy levels. As a result of Wyndham’s decision, we have been forced to cancel all pending reservations.

This has served as the final blow to our operations and has effectively wiped out the last of our resources. Please know that this decision was made completely outside of our control.

We have poured our heart and souls into Tripbound for the last seven years having traveled over 30,000 families. From day one doing right by our customers has been the key to our success. For that reason, having to close in this manner is extremely painful and one I shall likely struggle with for a long time."
 
Also their Facebook page is gone, website down, and phone number no longer works. That basically means no refunds. This was the first time I was going to use this company and they had such great reviews.
 
From what I’ve heard, there was some discussion of Vacation Strategies being wiped out before Tripbound. Perhaps the idea was for Tripbound to take on some of their business prior to their closure. I don’t know anything about where Shelby Resorts is in all of this. I do not think that there will be refunds, hence the chargeback route, which nobody should have to deal with.
 
I was on hold with credit card company for an hour but they are opening a case. They asked me to save the email and confirmation as they may need them later.

I think I am more disappointed that my reservation is cancelled as I really was looking forward to staying at Bonnet Creek. We have AP’s this year and no more DVC points Available so thought this was a good option. Oh well, like everything else that has happened the past few months we just have to be flexible
 
Also their Facebook page is gone, website down, and phone number no longer works. That basically means no refunds. This was the first time I was going to use this company and they had such great reviews.

Oh great. We were set to go the week of May 2nd and changed it to Dec 5-12. I got the email too. I've basically already paid in full. I booked through VRBO/Homeaway so hopefully I'll get some money back. If not I'll have the hubs deal with the cc company.

It was our first time using them too, as Vacation Strategies got weird imo. They had great reviews. When I called to reschedule the woman on the phone was helpful and pleasant. What a bummer.

Edited to add that I was able to "cancel" through VRBO. I have cancel in quotes because they SAY they cancelled it but my refund could take 3-4 weeks and by then I feel like it might be too late to open a case with the cc company. Does anyone have any insight on that? Ive actually never had to dispute a charge in my life, lol.

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Oh no! Thanks for the heads up. I paid in full already with VS as we were originally scheduled to go in April and changed to late Oct, which I was planning to change again. I hope they didn't go out of business - not just for getting my money back but it was a great option being able to rent through these companies. :(
 
Thank you! Fingers crossed for your trip so you can tell us firsthand how awesome it is! ... And I need someone to check on the bins 😆
You bet, I'll check the bins if we get to go! If we do go, I'm thinking we'll have plenty of evening chillax time on our hands...I might be able to alphabetize the contents of both, LOL!

As for the rental thing, as an owner I haven't seen anything in writing as of yet indicating how long the owner priority/guest cancellation is going to last. I guess there are only 6 more months in 2020, so the rumor of through 2020 might be true and just not officially communicated yet. For reference, I believe the Wyndham COVID-19 Resort Update page is public and not password protected: https://clubwyndham.wyndhamdestinations.com/us/en/covid-19-information/list-of-impacted-resorts

Before we got our resale ownership we rented too, so I really feel for everyone who is impacted! We hadn't ever used Tripbound, but it still is sad to see businesses not make it :(
 

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