$70 Assessment to TheClub Members - "Club Special Fee"

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

10 minutes on hold and my wait time is now 32 minutes

15 minutes on hold and my wait time is now 30 minutes

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

15 minutes on hold and my wait time is now 30 minutes

25 minutes on hold and my wait time is now 24 minutes

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

25 minutes on hold and my wait time is now 24 minutes

16 calls ahead; 35 minutes on hold; wait time 21 minutes

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

16 calls ahead; 35 minutes on hold; wait time 21 minutes

54 minutes.

[NICKY Member Find all posts View Profile Close NICKY]

wow...54 minutes..

[Schooner Member Find all posts View Profile Close Schooner]

54 minutes.

I had similar experience this morning at start-up. I have often wondered if there really is a dedicated team for "elite" service ... if this is it, the regular service must really be bad!

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

Since Diamond has taken over, I have seen nothing but service go down hill. We use to get prompt confirmation of our reservations, now frequently have to call and have them E-mailed. We took a tour the first part of Decemeber for which we were to get 1000 points. After numerous calls, we finally got in in May. Now we are fighting a maintenance credit problem.

Sometimes I did have trouble understandin the customer service person when they were in India. Same thing now since some speak with a heavy hispanic accent. I am one of those that don't use all the bells and whistles; so don't care about them but am now forced to pay for them.

It seems like they just pull excuses from a hat for increasing their fees. Unfortunately, unlike maintenance fees, there is no accountability of where the money goes. I can not believe that they missed their budget for relocating by 50%. If so, then that person should be fired.

[1950bing Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close 1950bing]

The famous "SA" ! When a contract to purchase is signed you somewhere agreed to pay extras without any input or the right to challenge the whole mess. This is like a signed blank check. No way would I pay for something and then find out about it later. Who is in charge ? Doesn't sound as if the board has smart people handling your money. Ask them for figures and bids on the projects. Ask for copies. Ownership should be advised of pending costs long before sending out bills. There should be input and discussion by all owners. Each owner should have a vote as to who will be doing the type work needed, if needed at all. It could be just a way to get more money out of you. Put an end to the timeshare cash cow and demand from the board complete facts. Do not pay the extra till you have a full understanding of what you are askd to pay.

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

Sound like we are starting to pay for all the new hires in upper management.

Now, someone has gotten it!

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

The famous "SA" ! When a contract to purchase is signed you somewhere agreed to pay extras without any input or the right to challenge the whole mess. This is like a signed blank check. No way would I pay for something and then find out about it later. Who is in charge ? Doesn't sound as if the board has smart people handling your money. Ask them for figures and bids on the projects. Ask for copies. Ownership should be advised of pending costs long before sending out bills. There should be input and discussion by all owners. Each owner should have a vote as to who will be doing the type work needed, if needed at all. It could be just a way to get more money out of you. Put an end to the timeshare cash cow and demand from the board complete facts. Do not pay the extra till you have a full understanding of what you are askd to pay.

Bing, It's even more complex than that. Stephen Cloobeck is in charge and has hired quite a few new to DRI people. There's no say in the 50% increase in Club Fees, I guess if you don't want to pay you have to drop the Club. As far as boards go, if you own the most common new product, that is the DRUSC Diamond Resorts US Collection (fka Florida Trust) it has a board with four DRI employees and a 'regular' owner voted onto the board by DRI this past Fall who couldn't even be troubled to make it to the annual meeting. Now the MFs for DRUSC is an average of the property owned in the 19 resorts in that Trust. Each of those 19 resorts has boards, too, mostly heavily filled with DRI employees as far as I can tell.

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

I remember telling Sunterra owners back when DRI bought out Sunterra that this wasn't going to be the greatest thing in the world. Mr. Cloobeck will hold control and keep control just like he did with Polo Towers, even after it was sold out. Now he has the DRUSC trust and that will completely eliminate any owner control and give DRI complete control.

We better hope that we like his product because owners are not going to have the final word. I will say that communication has been better than when DRI only had Polo Towers. On the other hand, all I'm seeing in the future is buyout's a affiliation agreements but not much in the way of new builds. It's still early. We'll just have to wait and see.

But if you ever thought you'd have control over MF's or cost at the resort those days are gone. You're just along for the ride and you'd better hope you enjoy it.

Had I know that DRI would have reportedly been offering Polo Towers owners $7,500 per week to buy them out, I quite possibly would never have converted my weeks into THE Club but would have sold them and looked for a Marriott week to replace what I previously owned at Polo Towers. Unfortunately I played my hand wrong and decided to protect my ownership by having points to exchange with I.I. rather than remaining a weeks owner and trading week for week. Plus it appears the desirablity of Polo Towers may be on the decline with the newer Marriott and Planet Hollywood right next door. Then there's this issue of DRI having the right to sell out the height restriction in front of Polo Towers for cash paid to the developer.

If there's one word to describe what I'm thinking about DRI right now it would be Westgate. Only time will tell if that thinking is correct.

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

THE Club fees are, as Doug notes, completely out of our control. How high they can go before they become of no value I'm not sure but a 80% rise in a year along with a retroactive surcharge has this owner wondering if its worth hanging in. At least we held on to our deeded weeks and merely opt to place them with Club. We can revert to our "regular" ownership by simply choosing not to pay the Club fees at anytime. At worst we loose our $1250 fee we paid in 1999 to join. Not much risk.

Those who get into the non-deeded trust are far more exposed. They paid more and stand to lose everything if they drop out as they no longer hold a deeded property as the base. Whatever they paid for the original property plus the switch to Club trust would be gone. Its why I didn't like the new system - along with the fallacy that somehow a "blended" group of resort fees - plus management overhead - will be lower than the single resort would be. That might be true for a year or two but as all resorts need work all fees will rise (plus any SA's ) plus the overhead. I'll almost guarantee the fees will be higher on average than at a single resort in most cases.

Finally there are the triple whammies of Club, Trust AND RPM (Diamonds Management Firm - formerly run by Sunterra) managing the resorts. Of all the things Sunterra did wrong RPM was the poster child for poor operations and excessive fees. The list of resorts they "managed" from Gold Crown to unranked should be legendary. Plus they never seemed to grasp the idea of reserves for future needs and when they did do a renovation it was also mismanaged into the ground. Since many of the Trust resorts are still under RPM it is very likely they will see massive fee increases and Special Assessments. Overall Diamond inherited problems and even if they do a great job it is going to cost owners money to correct them. From what Doug and others say they didn't do much better than RPM at Polo so that also may not bode well.

I don't see where we Club owners have any choice but to watch this play out and hope Diamond gets it right. At least on the surface they have made positive moves and also managed to step on a few toes. Only to be expected. The next couple years will really tell where this is headed I think. As a type 1 Club owner we can get out so I'm interested but not overly concerned. If I was in group three I'd be very nervous.

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

The increases in Trust fees have always been more than the increases in fees at resorts that I own that are also in the Trust!

They do know what Reserves are but that boosts annual fees and that detracts from sales. Special Assessments are under the radar for the clueless retail buyer.

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

The increases in Trust fees have always been more than the increases in fees at resorts that I own that are also in the Trust!

They do know what Reserves are but that boosts annual fees and that detracts from sales. Special Assessments are under the radar for the clueless retail buyer.

IMO, DRI does not know how to handle and properly bill for reserve's. I've been with them since 1998 and, while my ownership with Marriott, Hilton and Southwind Management have increased reserve fee's to reflect the increasing cost of necessary repairs and renovations, DRI has LOWERED their reserves . I am paying fee's in line with Marriott and more than Hilton but putting less than half what those companies put into their reserve funds. Something isn't right!

My last Polo Towers statement reflects a reserve fee of less than $50 for a two bedroom unit. This past year we did have an increase in the MF but, for the last 3 or 4 years the MF did not go up. DRI managed to not increase the MF by continuing to lower the amount going into the reserve. What was the net result of this continue lowering of the reserve to keep the MF the same? I think most that have read these forum's knows that answer. One very large SA that was over $1,000 per two bedroom unit.

That SA took a vote of the owners that was not easy to get passed. In the end I still feel it was somewhat shaddy how the voting took place and was handled. With a trust DRI won't have to worry about owners voting. They'll just do it themsleves. Much like Polo Towers attempted to do with their first SA when an upgrade was necessary to the water handling systems, security and when they wanted to remove the tennis courts and put in a family water play area. It appeared that after owners challanged their ability to just bill for an SA without a vote there was suddenly a retroactive vote of the owners on the SA. This was after I had been billed and payed the SA.

I recoginze that DRI has been making upgrades. I also recognize that my reserve fund billing went down yet again this past year despite an increase in my MF's and this new retroactive SA (without a vote of owners) on THE Club dues. I am not against maintenance, upgrades and improvements. They are necessary. I am against mismanagement of funds and, when a management company does no collect adaquate reserves for future needs there is definately a problem IMO. I am also against management making decisions for owners without a vote of the owership and having the HOA/BOD's stacked with management right hand men. Timeshare's should be run by those that own the timeshare and the management team should be responsive and responsible to the owners. Otherwise it's just another Westgate situation.

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

IMO, DRI does not know how to handle and properly bill for reserve's. I've been with them since 1998 and, while my ownership with Marriott, Hilton and Southwind Management have increased reserve fee's to reflect the increasing cost of necessary repairs and renovations, DRI has LOWERED their reserves . I am paying fee's in line with Marriott and more than Hilton but putting less than half what those companies put into their reserve funds. Something isn't right!

My last Polo Towers statement reflects a reserve fee of less than $50 for a two bedroom unit. This past year we did have an increase in the MF but, for the last 3 or 4 years the MF did not go up. DRI managed to not increase the MF by continuing to lower the amount going into the reserve. What was the net result of this continue lowering of the reserve to keep the MF the same? I think most that have read these forum's knows that answer. One very large SA that was over $1,000 per two bedroom unit.

That SA took a vote of the owners that was not easy to get passed. In the end I still feel it was somewhat shaddy how the voting took place and was handled. With a trust DRI won't have to worry about owners voting. They'll just do it themsleves. Much like Polo Towers attempted to do with their first SA when an upgrade was necessary to the water handling systems, security and when they wanted to remove the tennis courts and put in a family water play area. It appeared that after owners challanged their ability to just bill for an SA without a vote there was suddenly a retroactive vote of the owners on the SA. This was after I had been billed and payed the SA.

I recoginze that DRI has been making upgrades. I also recognize that my reserve fund billing went down yet again this past year despite an increase in my MF's and this new retroactive SA (without a vote of owners) on THE Club dues. I am not against maintenance, upgrades and improvements. They are necessary. I am against mismanagement of funds and, when a management company does no collect adaquate reserves for future needs there is definately a problem IMO. I am also against management making decisions for owners without a vote of the owership and having the HOA/BOD's stacked with management right hand men. Timeshare's should be run by those that own the timeshare and the management team should be responsive and responsible to the owners. Otherwise it's just another Westgate situation.

I am pretty much in total agreement with your post. People like BCZ think that I am somehow blood brothers with DRI while I think that I am quite critical of them and of the former company. He claimed in one of his 'edited' posts that I had deleted a 'factual' post of his insinuating that it had been critical of DRI and that's why it disappeared. I went back and found the only post of his I deleted back on 12/12/07, it only contained information about me that I had told him in confidence.

Anyway, if DRI is doing the 'right thing' in their management, they need to be more forthcoming in their communications. I hope they are trying to do this. They announced that they had an Owner Advisory Board but we haven't heard anymore about it.

I had a year of free Interval Gold when Sunterra first joined II, never used any of the benefits, now I'm paying 50% more this year with no notice (not 80% as noted above) for these same benefits I chose not to renew. Also blamed for the increase was the new U.S. Members Call Center, and things like the RainTree association and ResortOptions. I tried to book Anaheim in December for three nights and they wanted almost 5000 points for the cheapest unit for three nights. Cash directly to the hotel worked better.