New Maintenance Fees

[xymox9 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close xymox9]

So I just got my maintenance fees for this year and they went up "only" another 5% to .12 cents a point!

This timeshare is killing me! The economy has been in the toilet the past 3 years with no inflation and yet the maintenance fees have gone UP by nearly 15%. How is that possible?

I understand they have a big deficit they are trying to pay off but does anyone know when that's supposed to end? Is there any end in sight to them raising the fees each year?

I often wonder how this current model can sustain itself. I don't think it can. It reminds me of the house market bubble where prices kept going up by 5% each time you turned around. It has gotten to the point where my maintenance fee costs could actually get me a pretty nice hotel room in most cities without all of the contraints and requirements of a timeshare.

I'm assuming most of you DRI members feel the same way but let me know if you don't for some reason.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Not defending DRI in particular but as a consumer / home owner what has gone down lately despite the poor economy? Prices for the most part are on the rise especially in high cost areas like insurance of all types, fuel and even labor to name only a few. Prices for virtually everything except electronics are rising. So why - when you're effectively running 100's of "homes" plus all the common areas and amenities that make up a resort, labor like a hotel and putting money away to pay for future repairs/maintenance & upgrades do you think costs would go down? Unfortunately most resorts are under billing - not over charging - owners and will face additional assessments in a few years if not sooner.

It is nice to talk about hotel costs but they really aren't the same product or quality. I'll gladly pay a premium - hopefully small - for a 1-2 or more bedroom timeshare over most hotel rooms. And in many cases the better units at timeshares are actually cheaper than cramped hotel rooms. And certainly under costs for hotel suites.

Timeshare - bought correctly (non-developer resales) remains a great value for vacationing on the cheap. Just not as cheap as it was a decade ago.

[dcwojo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dcwojo]

I am not a fan of the fee increases. But seeing the improvement in many resorts since DRI took over softens the blow a little. The mainenance fees I pay on my other timeshares are comparable to DRI without the same amount of choices.

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

DRI had a big hill to climb from the hole Sunterra had left it's owners in as far as current and future maintenance issues. Sunterra kept fee's low but, they didn't keep up with required maintenance, bought furnishings on the cheap and didn't look to the future when collecting cash reserves. In a couple of years DRI has caught much of this up, erased a large amount of the deficits and is looking towards the future. The fact they've been able to hold the line on MF's this year is a good sign.

We own 8 timeshares. For 2012, DRI's increases were the smallest of the bunch. As mentioned in John's post, costs continue to rise and, so long as costs go up, MF's will follow. Home ownership isn't getting any cheaper either. For the last several years I've had to make up a deficit in escrow collections because either our property taxes, homeowners insurance or both of increased significantly. That's not even taking into consideration replacement of items such as washer's and dryer's, carpeting, roof repairs/replacement, hot water heater replacement, deck repair/replacement, concrete repair/replacement, painting, lawn maintenance et..... It just never gets and cheaper and sometimes I feel like the cost of home ownership is killing me.

I think the biggest mistake timeshare buyers make is believing that the cost of ownership will always remain the same as when they purchased. My issues are when the inflationary cost of timeshare ownership outpaces the inflationary cost of everything else. If MF's go up 6 or 7 % every year, that appears to outpace the normal rate of inflation, especially when income, and causes concern for all of us as defaults will begin to rise in future years.

[singlemalt_18 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close singlemalt_18]

I am not a fan of the fee increases. But seeing the improvement in many resorts since DRI took over softens the blow a little. The mainenance fees I pay on my other timeshares are comparable to DRI without the same amount of choices.

... Sunterra kept fee's low but, they didn't keep up with required maintenance, bought furnishings on the cheap and didn't look to the future when collecting cash reserves. In a couple of years DRI has caught much of this up, erased a large amount of the deficits and is looking towards the future. The fact they've been able to hold the line on MF's this year is a good sign.

...We own 8 timeshares. For 2012, DRI's increases were the smallest of the bunch...

... It just never gets cheaper...

...I think the biggest mistake timeshare buyers make is believing that the cost of ownership will always remain the same as when they purchased.

Wow! Be careful guys or you run the risk of being accused of heresy!

(Overall I agree. As I have said, timeshare ownership is a love/hate thing.)

Happy Thanksgiving!

[xymox9 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close xymox9]

Thanks for the replies!

I appreciate your quick and candid replies! I do not own any other timeshares so don't know what it's like other than being a DRI member. I agree that they are doing a good job in upgrading some of the hotels that weren't looking so good in years past (like Tahoe and San Luis Bay Inn).

My main worry was that there has been almost no inflation the past 3 years and yet costs still went up quite a bit. But if they are nearing the top of the "fix what Sunterra screwed up" hill then I'll feel a little better in knowing that it should settle down and just rise with the rate of inflation in the future, which makes sense to me.

But even with all of that said, I look at how much a new DRI owner is paying per point, plus the cost of the maintenance fees, and wonder how in the world they can afford it in this economy. Most probably can't and I'm guessing DRI is having trouble selling new points which would explain why they aren't "buying back" points that are fully "owned" by members now. It's just not a good thing when owners can't easily sell their ownership to someone else because the company is competing for your business and doesn't want any competition because they lose money. And if they also won't "buy back" your points then we are truly stuck with something we can never "get rid of" if we ever decide the maintenance fees are more than we can afford. It's quite a scary feeling.

[dcwojo Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dcwojo]

Look at the hit the owners at Point at Poipu got hit with this year. Sunterra let many of their resorts decline and we have paid the price over the last 5 years. None of the other resorts were in that bad a condition but some would have been soon if the neglect had continued. I hope that DRI's fees will level out now. A slight increase like this years is acceptable. Hopefully we have seen the worst of the increases.

[Carlos Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Carlos]

Still some advantages

I too have had my maintenance fees increase at my other timeshare, Marriott. They increase every year. With DRI I have actually come to expect it. The question is how much are they going to increase. I am paying over $3000 for my maintenance fees. Yes, I have got quite a few points.

I just want to say that I realize that I don't believe the hotels have totally caught up yet. Remember, you can get more than one week for a set of points depending how you use them. I can get a few months out of 30,000 points depending on the size of the units and when I travel to them. Last summer I traveled 3 weeks and used just under 10000 points and I had two bedrooms and one bedrooms at the various DRI properties I stayed at. So just remember there are still some benefits that we can experience despite some of the costs.

[timeos2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close timeos2]

Overall the primary reason I remain a timeshare / DRI Points member after nearly 20 years is that we still see good value from owning. It is far from universal - we dumped 6 ownerships we liked for years including RCI & Wyndham Points along with our one mistake - a resale Wastegate - as we adjusted things to the realities of timeshare today. Those realities are that owning a resort that isn't under the control of the independent owners is a big risk. Overpaying for any timeshare at purchase is money lost. Owning too many weeks/systems isn't cost effective as it is now extremely easy to rent even the best resorts and most demanded times at or below the costs of annual fees.

We kept the points system - DRI - that represents the best value for the annual fees (despite a shocking increase in cost from only a few years ago but offset by a distinct improvement to the member resorts) and two weeks at resorts we, at least for the foreseeable future, like to visit each use year. The rest are now replaced by rentals. It is far easier and much cheaper to obtain exactly the week/resort/unit size we desire renting than it ever was using trades or ownerships. While that may not last forever it certainly isn't going to change soon. Take advantage and enjoy great vacations for tiny costs.

DRI maintenance fees aren't the cheapest - but far from the highest - and as I said we find them to provide a good value. As our "investment" to obtain them, only $1000 over 10 years ago, was low we can drop it at anytime we feel things change without feeling we lost anything. I probably wouldn't "invest" (no timeshare or system is a real investment in the traditional sense) what they want to join today ($2900 +/-) and I certainly wouldn't give up my deeded ownership/vote to join a trust system. But the voluntary membership in the Club has given us great use & trades. Hard to beat that.

As a bit of an aside I have also been pleasantly surprised that DRI, as a major holder of time at at least one of our remaining resorts, has been extremely supportive of the Association and isn't afraid to support proper funding. That does lead to those higher fees but represents a great investment to ensure our resorts stay competitive in the markets they reside in. By keeping things up to snuff and allowing upgrades/improvements all owners benefit. Far better to accomplish that with relatively small annual increases than a monster (see the Hawaii issues) special assessment. Being proactive is a plus in this case.

[wilson22447 Member Find all posts View Profile Close wilson22447]

Without repeating what has already been well-said, I agree that after 12 years of ownership of Sunterra and then DRI, we are well satisfied with DRI. When they took over and upped the fees, I was more than a little concerned. Since then with all the physical and program improvements, I feel the quality is worth the price. Early on I sometimes wished we had gone with Bluegreen or Wyndham. Although these are good companies, I don't have any regrets about DRI. Steven Clubeck is great, and I am one of the many who have received personal phone calls from him. He listens.