Deluxe unit at The Suites at Fall Creek in Branson. WOW!

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

Standard 2 bedroom is 6,000 points while the deluxe unit is 7,500 points. As mentioned, the deluxe units are not lock out units so there is no 1 bedroom deluxe or studio deluxe. The floor plan on the DRI website is the floor plan for the deluxe unit. I could not find a floor plan for the standard 2 bedroom LO unit. I was looking for one to compare layouts.

but to be more specific
LOW 2500 vs 4500
MID 4500 vs 5500
HIGH 6000 vs 7500
PEAK 8000 vs 10500

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

Of the complaints that could have been addressed while you were there, did they take care of them?

I called maintenance for the dead light bulb, missing receptacle cover, screw in toilet bowl, and hot tub heating element. ALL were immediately taken care of and I was very happy with that.

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

I called maintenance for the dead light bulb, missing receptacle cover, screw in toilet bowl, and hot tub heating element. ALL were immediately taken care of and I was very happy with that.

I'm glad they took care of them quickly for you. It's unfortunate that you had to call to have it taken care of. It's also unfortunate to think there is the possibility that there were guests before you that just let it slide without notifying the office. In some resorts there seems to be a definate lack of communication between house keeping and maintenance. This will eventually have to be addressed by management. Either by inspections of the units after cleaning or by developing a way for housekeeping to let management and maintenance know about issues in each and every unit they clean.

DRI has owned Sunterra right at a year now. I believe there were 92 properties when they took over with many of them in need of attention. There have been other issues that needed immeadiate attention such as the very unhappy Scottish group driving around in the Scambulance to warm people off of buying Sunterra packages. There has also been the issue of intergrating or, in some cases removing old management and installing new management that can get things done the way DRI wants things done. I understand that the bigger issues had to be resolved first.

I've been pleased with the direction the resorts have been moving in and wish that things could move faster but, let's face it, it take some time to turn around a big ship and get it up to full steam again. It's going to take time to get every aspect of Sunterra turned around and up to full speed again. Fortunately it appears DRI is making that turn and building up a head of steam for the future.

If it had not been for this one exchange I had booked before DRI bought Sunterra, I would not have even set foot in an old Sunterra resort until sometime next year. I was impressed with the unit but, the resort itself still has a lot of work to do. There were signs it was beginning to get done. In 2009 I plan to begin to use our DRI ownership again and stay in at least two DRI resorts if not 3. Because of the positive experience we had at The Suites at Fall Creek we could expand on that number of vacations at DRI resorts. I don't believe that everything will be up to Mr. Cloobecks standards in every unit at every resort by then but, I feel that should be ample time for him to firmly have his stamp on the company and the majority of the resorts doing things the DRI way.

[NICKY Member Find all posts View Profile Close NICKY]

I went to Sedona Summit -Sunset Suites last year. Wow...I can say 8 stars resort...Very cool..

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

Wow is right! THANK YOU for some great pics. Just purchased with this resort (e-bay), and have been filling a little overwhelmed with all the new info. i am learning on this forum about DRI, but after looking at these I feel much better. Probably won't get that suite, but a girl can dream!

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

I don't understand the delux concept.

I bought my two bedroom unit in Sedona and joined the Club to receive 10,000 points. If Diamonds renovated my unit to become a deluxe unit and the source of funding is from the maintenance fee and then charge all members higher points, will I receive higher annual points? I guess not.

So, Diamonds is using my investment and my maintenance fee to upgrade the unit, but now I don't have enough points to enjoy my two bedroom for a week every year.

Did Diamonds put in more resources/investment upgrading these deluxe units?

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

I don't understand the delux concept.

I bought my two bedroom unit in Sedona and joined the Club to receive 10,000 points. If Diamonds renovated my unit to become a deluxe unit and the source of funding is from the maintenance fee and then charge all members higher points, will I receive higher annual points? I guess not.

So, Diamonds is using my investment and my maintenance fee to upgrade the unit, but now I don't have enough points to enjoy my two bedroom for a week every year.

Did Diamonds put in more resources/investment upgrading these deluxe units?

It appears to me that the only units being made into Deluxe units are unsold inventory. The inventory that has been sold as the old Sunterra plans will remain with the same point totals required to stay in them. At least that's my theory. It's much easier and more cost effective than just giving old owners points, upgrading their units and hitting them with a big special assessment to do the upgrade work.

There does seem to be an effort to buy back inventory at certain resorts. I believe (and it's just my opinion) at some resorts DRI wants to upgrade as many units as possible to "deluxe" units. Buying units back allows them the inventory to upgrade units already built to deluxe units rather than build new units. Resorts that are currently under construction may have all the new units built as deluxe units leaving all the older units as is. The Suites at Fall Creek, for instance, has another 3 or 4 buildings that have yet to be built. I'm betting these new buildings will all be deluxe units. I'm not certain that DRI will be wanting to buy back very many units in the old buildings just to convert them and resell them as deluxe. They should have plenty of inventory at The Suites at Fall Creek to sell as deluxe.

Another issue would be to get as many units into either THE Club or into the DRI trust. Units in the DRI trust will be voted along the line of whatever DRI wants to do, thus giving them complete control over the resort regardless of owner imput. If they're wanting to get more units into the DRI Trust, then it is possible they would be buying up some of the standard units to resell as standar units into the DRI Trust.

This would also give their sales force that less expensive fall back if someone turns down the price of the deluxe unit they were shown. Say someone turns their nose up at $18,750 for a 2 bedroom deluxe unit at Fall Creek. They could take another shot at them with the standard unit for only $15,000.

In this scenario DRI gets to sell units bought at resale pricing (currently less than $1,000 on E-bay), resell them at developer pricing, the sales force has a fall back price or DRI can convert more units to deluxe AND get the units into the DRI Trust where they have voting control for that resort. Looks to me like it's a win/win situation for DRI.

But, this is all idle speculation on my part.