travelexpert

I have a bunch of Wyndham Rewards points--and this past June stayed at the Kauia property which requires 50K points per night (it is excellent).

Am just wondering whether Wyndham has any other spectacular (WOW!) properties where I could use my points--could be resort, city, or even airport.

And ideally must have at least 4 dots on Tripadvisor--I get a sense that far too many Wyndham family of brands hotels are 3.5 dots or worse.

Apologies if there is already a thread that covers this--tried searching words such as "best" (no good--must be 5 letters), "aspirational", "honeymoon", "resort" without success.

travelexpert

Knock Knock. Anyone home?

Or is everyone lounging at a Wyndham super duper gorgeous luxury five star aspirational property, way too relaxed to check FT?

Doc Savage

If you want a pleasant beach....

http://www.daysinn.com/hotels/hawaii...hotel-overview

sdsearch

I stayed at that one. Didn't seem one bit "aspirational" to me, given that (a) it's the cheapest brand name hotel on all of Maui, and (b) that other than being on the beach, it's nothing special. I didn't even like the food at the restaurant (no, there's no breakfast at all). And even its beach is nothing special, certainly not as nice as the beach at the Marriott Wailea Resort where I stayed one night just before my two nights at the Days Inn. (I stayed at the Marriott resort only because I had one night which I had to book at the last moment, and the Courtyard Maui was already booked up and I wanted to use points and the Marriott resort was the cheapest.)

There are cheap (relative to everything else) beach motels all around Hawaii, and so I don't see why being a cheap beach motel in Hawaii makes it "aspirational".

sdsearch

Here's one I drove by (while staying at the very non-apsirational Comfort Inn just west of San Juan). It looked fancy from the outside, but it doesn't even get a full 4 dots on TripAdvisor:

http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/puerto...hotel-overview

No, quite the opposite, I bet no one can think of a Wyndham super duper gorgeous luxury five star aspirational property (that also meets your four full dots at TripAdvisor requirement), so no one bothers to post.

I've not used my Wyndham points for aspirational properties, I've used them for where they are the only ones with properties that I can get on points, or where everyone else charges too many points, because everyone else around is aspirational "resort" properties. (And I have points with Best Western, Choice, Club Carlson, Hilton HHonors, IHG Rewards Club, Marriott, and Starwood, in addition to WyndhamRewards.) Thus I've only done WR redemption stays so far at the above-mentioned Days Inn on Maui, plus at a Travelodge in Golden BC near Banff/Jasper parks.

Meanwhile, you could just transfer your points to an airline (if you're trying to use them up), and have a super duper gorgeous luxury flight to somewhere later on...

uggboy

Here's one aspirational Wyndham property:

http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/turkey..._date=&rooms=1

Full 5 Stars on TA rated. Cheers.

milestraveler

First, thanks for asking the question. I've been wondering that, too. Wyndham Rewards 2: any suggestions?

I have stayed at this property (the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar). It is quite passable, but I can see why it doesn't get better tripadvisor reviews - it doesn't "wow". It is a mid-grade beach resort, not a spectacular beach resort. Mrs. MT describes the on-site restaurants as "overpriced" and "tolerable, I suppose". She also recalls the concierge doing everything in his power to keep us on-property, specifically not recommending off-site dining choices. And they couldn't provide any feather pillows, which is the most critical failure in my book.

We would not actively avoid the property, but if we were looking to burn some Wyndham points, we would look for other options first. And if we were going back to Puerto Rico, we would look at other resorts first. In both cases the Rio Mar would be, at best, our fallback choice. How's that for praise?

milestraveler

Has anyone been to the Wyndham Koloa Landing at Poipu Beach on Kauai? That's a property that looks like it might fit the description.

http://www.wyndham.com/hotels/hawaii...hotel-overview

http://koloalandingresort.com/

I have an upcoming trip where I'm planning to stay at the Grand Hyatt Kauai, about a mile and a half down the road - I may see if I can swing through and take a look.

Another property that may be worth consideration is the Westward Look resort in Tucson. I last stayed there years ago. At the time it seemed nice, though the memory is now fuzzy. Wyndham just took over management of it in 2012, so maybe they haven't ruined it yet. The previous owner supposedly dumped $14M into the property for renovations. For a 241-room property, that is a pretty reasonable renovation budget.