Important notice from Club Sunterra

[JoeMid Banned Find all posts View Profile Close JoeMid]

Received today by email.

Dear Member,

As you know, since Diamond Resorts International® purchased Sunterra I have been conducting a review into the member usage and relative costs of the European Resort Collection with two purposes in mind: to reduce, if possible, the operating costs; and to increase member choice.

It is therefore with great pleasure that I am now able to offer Broome Park Mansion House apartments, situated within the Grade I listed hall, for reservations. Broome Park has always been an immensely popular UK destination, especially for the golfers amongst the membership, and so having more availability here will be a great benefit. Further information about the apartments, their facilities and the points values will be made available to you in the very near future.

In addition, during the company-wide recent review, it became evident that one resort in particular was more expensive to operate than others, and furthermore was not as popular with members as our other locations. This resort is Carlton Court in London which, as you can imagine, is expensive to run because of its city location. Analysis of a number of years’ reservations established that the resort was not well utilized by members, possibly because of the myriad of hotel choices in such a large city and the related costs involved in such a stay. It was therefore proposed that this resort be taken out of the Club Sunterra Trust and European Resort Collection.

Please let me assure you that this decision has not been taken lightly and has involved a strict process to ensure that the proposal is fair. FNTC, the Trustees of Club Sunterra, was consulted and agreed that the proposal was in the members’ best interest. There followed a Club Sunterra Board meeting attended by all Board members, including your elected member representatives John Davey and Harry Taylor. After what I understand was a lengthy and considerable discussion there was unanimous agreement by the Board to sanction this proposal as well as to include the new rooms at Broome Park Mansion House.

In recent months I have written and spoken with many of you, explaining how I am committed to improving resorts and services for the members. The addition of the Broome Park Mansion House apartments to THE Club is just one example, while the withdrawal of Carlton Court will help facilitate some of the initiatives planned for the future of Diamond Resorts International®.

In terms of booking, the Broome Park Mansion House apartments will be available for your reservations later this year. All existing reservations for Carlton Court will be honored and those members will be contacted individually.

I hope you are happy with the new addition to the UK Resort Collection, and that you can understand why the decision has been made to withdraw Carlton Court. I am looking forward to new and exciting times with Diamond Resorts International® and am committed to keeping you informed of future changes.

Yours faithfully,

Stephen J. Cloobeck
Chairman & CEO
Diamond Resorts International

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

Rats! Carlton Court, while expensive, was one of only two resorts we were really interested in with Club Sunterra's European collection. Now I guess we'll just have to go to London via the Marriott Rewards route.

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

. . . and saying it was underutilized is just nonsense. London would always have far more demand than supply. This guy is just not truthful with his membership.

And doesn't Broome Park expire as a timeshare in a few years?

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

I'm disappointed with the loss of London, I agree, it doesn't make sense. I can't believe they don't have full occupancy year 'round. I have reservations there in March.

Sounds to me like they must have acquired or leased a new building/phase at Broome Park.

Greetings from Flamingo Beach St. Maarten!

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

...Now I guess we'll just have to go to London via the Marriott Rewards route.

Great to have choices, doesn't it? The Sun joker I spoke with yesterday claims the value of the Marriott MVCI system is overstated/estimated. His exact words "a big name does not mean big benefits to users". I politely disagree as this is one good example where CS and Marriott can supplement one another beautifully for a dual-system owner like yourself.

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

In addition, during the company-wide recent review, it became evident that one resort in particular was more expensive to operate than others, and furthermore was not as popular with members as our other locations. This resort is Carlton Court in London which, as you can imagine, is expensive to run because of its city location. Analysis of a number of years’ reservations established that the resort was not well utilized by members, possibly because of the myriad of hotel choices in such a large city and the related costs involved in such a stay.

I find this extremely difficult to believe. Since when is London an underutilized timeshare location? It probably has the highest demand in the world! I suspect this is an outright lie.

This makes me glad that I don't own Sunterra.

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

When deciding whether to send a family member as a guest to London or Paris for March next year, I said Paris. With 12000 points, my cousin can spend 2 weeks in Paris but 1 week only in London.

I have had too many opportunities to book into Carlton Court, but hesitated because Carlton Court is too expensive, SunOptions wise.

I feel bad to see it goes, but can't image I will be there. With 12000 points, I can book myself into a 2 bedroom for 4 weeks in a Royals or Marriotts property, within the 59 day window.

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

Great to have choices, doesn't it? The Sun joker I spoke with yesterday claims the value of the Marriott MVCI system is overstated/estimated. His exact words "a big name does not mean big benefits to users". I politely disagree as this is one good example where CS and Marriott can supplement one another beautifully for a dual-system owner like yourself.

Options are what it's all about. We also own at Hilton giving us a few more options to deal with.

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

Options are what it's all about. We also own at Hilton giving us a few more options to deal with.

Yes, however more options comes at a premium both monetary and time spent needed to keep everything straight in your head (includes plus planning out what options best to use to maximize your asset). It's all good in the end, however, if you are anything like me - who loves to find/squeeze value out of something!

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

I'm disappointed with the loss of London, I agree, it doesn't make sense. I can't believe they don't have full occupancy year 'round. I have reservations there in March.
...

Greetings from Flamingo Beach St. Maarten!

From the US membership perspective, isn't it a tough trade into London anyway as Europeon owners have a 2 or 3 month jump in priority since they own in Europe? As Doug says, I have not set high expectations of doing Europe via Sunterra, rather thru Marriott pts and/or MVCI resorts.

Think about us while you are sipping some good stuff on the white sandy beaches, spence!

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

Europe is the reason I love Sunterra. Though it is impossible to book London, Paris and Tuscay in the summer months, they are accessible during off season.

It may be more difficult for Sunterra to sell their developer points, without London, thus a bad management decision.

I hope Paris is not the next one on the list.

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

From the US membership perspective, isn't it a tough trade into London anyway as Europeon owners have a 2 or 3 month jump in priority since they own in Europe? As Doug says, I have not set high expectations of doing Europe via Sunterra, rather thru Marriott pts and/or MVCI resorts.

Think about us while you are sipping some good stuff on the white sandy beaches, spence!

Actually, I had planned on using Sunterra to visit London, Scotland and St. Maarten rather than spending expensive Marriott Rewards points for those locations. I'd much rather make a timeshare exchange and stay in a timeshare residence than a hotel room. Even if it does only have a mini-kitchen in it.

If DRI/Sunterra continues to get rid of it's European holdings it will definately be a dissapointment for me. I noticed that the E-mail has what appears to be an active return address. I'm wondering if enough people who get this E-mail object if they'll change their minds.

On the other hand, it could very well be that Carlton Court is to expensive to keep. I'm not certain if they're talking $$ expense to keep in the club or points expense. It seems to me that 12,000 points for a week in a city location such as London isn't to expensive. Especially when you condier they just awarded the Villa's at Polo Towers 14,500 points for a week in a 2 bedroom unit!

While everyone here professes interest in this resort, how many of us have actually exchanged into the resort? While I was planning on exchanging into Carlton Court I know it wouldn't have been before 2009 and possibly as late as 2011 before we would've managed to go there. Traveling in shoulder season in Europe is fine with me. I'd rather avoid the crowds and the weather is perfectly fine as far as I'm concerned March - May and Sept/Oct. Off peak airfare tends to be a little better as well.

I'm hoping they don't get rid of the St. Maarten resorts as well. I'm seriously considering a weeks vaction either there or Hawaii in 2009. I'll possibly do one in 2009 and the other in 2010.

Likewise with the Scotland location. We've been to Scotland before and I'm familiar with where that area is. I'm comfortable enough driving in Scotland and the train system can get us just about anywhere we want to go for a day of exploration. If they can that one I'll REALLY be upset.

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

If DRI/Sunterra continues to get rid of it's European holdings it will definately be a dissapointment for me. I noticed that the E-mail has what appears to be an active return address. I'm wondering if enough people who get this E-mail object if they'll change their minds.

I don't think that they are continuing anything. Cloobeck has stated his intention to stay a Global company and his direction, I think, is what staved off the whole of Europe being sold off. Europe (the former GVC) is a 'Trust' and all owners own points in that Trust. The management can add to the Trust to have more points to sell and they can delete from the Trust if they replace with a like amount of points based product. In this case they are deleting Carlton Court and addin more inventory at Broome Park.

On the other hand, it could very well be that Carlton Court is to expensive to keep. I'm not certain if they're talking $$ expense to keep in the club or points expense. It seems to me that 12,000 points for a week in a city location such as London isn't to expensive. Especially when you condier they just awarded the Villa's at Polo Towers 14,500 points for a week in a 2 bedroom unit!

It's not the number of points it takes to book that is the problem, it's the annual cost. In the Trust, the maintenance fee is all added up and divided and spread across all the owners. Carlton Court may be driving overall MFs up so much that they find it hard to sell their product.

While everyone here professes interest in this resort, how many of us have actually exchanged into the resort? While I was planning on exchanging into Carlton Court I know it wouldn't have been before 2009 and possibly as late as 2011 before we would've managed to go there. Traveling in shoulder season in Europe is fine with me. I'd rather avoid the crowds and the weather is perfectly fine as far as I'm concerned March - May and Sept/Oct. Off peak airfare tends to be a little better as well.

I've not been there (yet). I sent my Uncle there a few years ago and I have a Spring Break reservation there next year.

I'm hoping they don't get rid of the St. Maarten resorts as well. I'm seriously considering a weeks vaction either there or Hawaii in 2009. I'll possibly do one in 2009 and the other in 2010.

St Maarten is one of their Flagships as far as I can tell. I doubt if they'll dump it unless government regulations force them out or there's a major catastrophe like the one that forced Pelican to sell to Sunterra.

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

OK, that explains the "cost is to high" part. If it's trust based then I can see one resort forcing the cost to all owners above what is acceptable. Especially if hotel accomadations are available at reasonable prices to trust members. This would appear to be viewed more from the European side than from those of us in the U.S.

Glad to hear that the resorts in St. Maarten are "flagship" resorts. Spending a week in the islands has some dergree of appeal to me even though my wife would rather spend that week on St. Thomas.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

It's not the number of points it takes to book that is the problem, it's the annual cost. In the Trust, the maintenance fee is all added up and divided and spread across all the owners. Carlton Court may be driving overall MFs up so much that they find it hard to sell their product.

Yep. In the Hawai'i Trust, Ka'anapali "owners" are "subsidizing" Po'ipu "owners". Hawai'i trust owners should hope the most of the Ka'anapali inventory winds up in the Trust, with little of the Po'ipu inventory making it to the Trust.

Po'pu was almost entirely sold out before the Trust was created and Ka'anapali is continually converting hotel inventory to TS inventory (and selling that new inventory primarily as Trust). Since there will always be a group of deeded Poi'pu owners who remain out of the Club, I expect that over time, the percentage of Trust inventory represented by Ka'anapali will continually increase, meaning that Trust annual fees will simultaneously become closer to (cheaper) Ka'anapali rates than to (more expensive) Po'ipu rates.

So far, that - and the 13-month HRA reservation window - are the only good reasons I can think of why someone would surrender a Po'ipu deed for a Trust ownership.