one hell of a platform

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

How can they say this? Vacation Internationale has these resorts; Sunterra has nothing to do with their operations and has only limited access to their inventory through agreements from when SRM did hold the management of the limited rooms at each of the bolded resorts that VRI now manages.

The amount of self congratulatory puffery being tossed about such as Diamond being an industry "leader" in timeshare is troublesome. It reflects an inflated ego that would fit with the descriptions of Polo Towers operations posted here and may be best exemplified by Westhate's King David.

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

The amount of self congratulatory puffery being tossed about such as Diamond being an industry "leader" in timeshare is troublesome. It reflects an inflated ego that would fit with the descriptions of Polo Towers operations posted here and may be best exemplified by Westhate's King David.

Sort of what I was thinking. Lot's of bragging about how great a management company DRI is when they haven't done such a hot job maintaining the one building they own as compared to the other properties we own at. But, PT's is older than the others we own at so maybe I should cut them a little slack.

FWIW, here's a photo of the kiddie pool area at PT's. Not sure if that's what DRI has in mind but, if it takes DRI the same length of time to put another one in somewhere else that it took them to put this one in (3 or 4 years), I wouldn't get all excited about it.

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

The Daily Press in Williamsburg, VA reports that Cloobeck may build an upgraded kiddie water park at the Powhatan Plantation (nothing massive, but a nice addition anyway) as well as upgrading the amenities at both Powhatan and Greensprings Plantation.

This is a direct quote about the two (2) Willimasburg properties (Powhatan Plantation and Greensprings Plantation) from Cloobeck.

"They're very well put-together," said Cloobeck of the Williamsburg time share.

This whole article can be found under the dailypress.com web site.
The title of the article is Vegas-based company to buy Sunterra.
written by Chris Flores. 757-247-4738.

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

The plus side of this purchase by this person is that all of the Sunterra Europe resorts are still under one roof and all back taxes should be paid off.

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

This is a direct quote about the two (2) Willimasburg properties (Powhatan Plantation and Greensprings Plantation) from Cloobeck.

"They're very well put-together," said Cloobeck of the Williamsburg time share.

This whole article can be found under the dailypress.com web site.
The title of the article is Vegas-based company to buy Sunterra.
written by Chris Flores. 757-247-4738.

This is probably the best written article I've seen about this buy out.

One thing I can say that's positive is that Mr. Cloobeck is taking this company private. That should get Sunterra out of the spotlight, allow it to recover and might keep it out of some degree of trouble. The thing that worries me is the comment made that many smaller companies are going private because of new disclosure laws to protect consumers. I'm not certain that's something to be afraid of since a privately held company is all about making money and not just manipuliting the stock price to accomplish profits.

Still, it's an odd thing when someone has divested themselves of their timeshare interests, other than managing one property (two if you count the Villa's and Suite's at Polo Towers seperately) to suddenly jump back into the timeshare game in such a large way. Nothing like being out of the game for a few years to being the largest timeshare company in the world.

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

This is probably the best written article I've seen about this buy out.

Yeah, read it here, really good reporting. I'll quote The two local resorts offer vacation rentals and time shares. Powhatan Plantation has 50 rooms, and Greensprings Plantation has 35.

I don't think so.

[Ryne08 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Ryne08]

Question: Is the new CEO contacted indirectly or directly to any major hotel chain?

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

Question: Is the new CEO contacted indirectly or directly to any major hotel chain?

None what so ever.

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

Yeah, read it here, really good reporting. I'll quote The two local resorts offer vacation rentals and time shares. Powhatan Plantation has 50 rooms, and Greensprings Plantation has 35.

I don't think so.

I don't think that one typo should taint the entire article. While I know that both resorts have more rooms than that I'm not certain they have more buildings than what was listed as rooms.

I'm sure you've made one or two typo's but does that diminish the information passed on in your posts?

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

SA means what?

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

I do make typos, and lots of them, I can't spell either. But I'm not a professional reporter nor editor. If it were buildings they meant, that too, has little meaning. My opinion is that this article was nothing to be proud of.

I don't think that one typo should taint the entire article. While I know that both resorts have more rooms than that I'm not certain they have more buildings than what was listed as rooms.

I'm sure you've made one or two typo's but does that diminish the information passed on in your posts?

[Spence Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Spence]

SA means what?

In timeshare terms it usually means Special Assesment or South Africa.

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

In this case, Speacial Assesement. I don't see DRI making any improvements to the resorts that's going to come out of their pockets. If there's not enough cash in the resorts cash reserve fund, then I'd expect to see a special assessment for any suggested improvements DRI wants to make. At least that's been their history at Polo Towers.

Rather than put adaquate amounts of $$ into the cash reserve to be able to update units as needed, they elected to only put $50 into reserves and hit the owners with a special assessent of over $1,000 per 2 bedroom unit this year to update the units or, as was suggested, possibly lose it's I.I. 5 star status. Several years ago, when the developer decided to add a third tower, the family pool was taken out (room needed for 3rd tower). Then a couple of years later they hit the owners for a small SA (less than $200 I think) to replace the tennis courts with a family water park, upgrade security and upgrade the water treatment for the resort (had an outbreak of legionella). It took them something like 3 years to get the work done.

DRI might be better than what Sunterra owners have received in the past. For that matter, since Stephen Cloobeck looks like he's going to take a more active interest in managing the orginization, maybe things will be better. However, I wouldn't hold my breath. I guess at this point the only thing anyone can do is take a wait and see stance.

Personally I hoping that Polo Towers owners will be able to do internal exchanges with Sunterra owners/properties. It will give Sunterra owners access to a resort with a great location on the strip and recently remodled rooms (if DRI gets the work done) and it will give Polo Towers owners access to a large variety of locations without having to go through I.I.