Polo Towers - conversion questions

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

Hello,

My husband is a founding member of Polo Towers. We have a deeded one bedroom unit. He can only remember using it twice since 1993. When we were in Kauai last September we went to a TS presentation at a Sunterra resort just after DRI acquired them.

I seem to remember a quote of about 9K to convert the Polo Towers 1 bedroom unit to DRI. After reading this forum it sounds like joining 'Club' would be part of conversion.

The unit is already in our IntervalWorld.com account list of exchanges. The current 2008 even mentions it qualifies for an accommodation certificate. If we don't reserve the week number on the original contract, we can only reserve 59 days or less from check-in. We can use the week as seven different reservations subject to only two weekend nights per week (Fri/Sat).

http://DiamondResorts.com states: THE ClubSM affords you the opportunity to travel when you want, where you want and how you want by simply providing you with an annual allocation of points that can be used as "currency" for resort stays, airline tickets, cruises and other travel purchases. Your points can also be exchanged for frequent flyer miles with leading airline partners and, as a member of THE ClubSM, you will receive a variety of discounts on resort stays throughout the year.

Do must Club members find the benefits in the paragraph above to be compelling enough to convert a week to Club?

Thanks for any advice.

Georgeann
Worldwide Vacations Reservations

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

You'll need to contact DRI to see what the offer is now. Supposedly they were trying to contact all owners. If you haven't kept your phone contact information up to date they might have missed you but, you'd think you would have received something in the mail.

We converted our Skyview unit and our Villa's unit back in September of last year. DRI was allowing conversions for $2,995 for all units. It did not matter whether you owned a 1 bedroom unit or 10 two bedroom units. The cost was still $2,995.

By converting you will add a membership fee of $225 to your MF's. We converted to protected our exchange value for Polo Towers. The current owner of the land in front of Polo Towers has stated in a newspaper interview that there is a buyout of the height restriction for the land in front of PT's. If the height restriction is in fact bought out and someone builds another mega-resort that blocks PT's view, I can see the exchange value going down. I was also considering the fact that the new Marriott and Planet Hollywood Towers will add around 3,000 units within walking distance of PT's. That HAS to have an affect on the exchange value.

With THE Club, points are points as far as I.I. is concerned. They have a set value that's an average of what units DRI gives I.I. as exchange units for those points. Right now the exchange value if pretty good. Since we aren't really considering Polo Towers as a place to stay while in Vegas our plans are to exchange. The points program appears to fit our needs better. The other option was to sell our units and buy something somewhere else we'd be more inclined to use. We purchased into THE Club before I knew DRI would have a repurchase program. Originally they were buying 2 bedroom units back at $7,500 and 1 bedroom units around $5,000. If I'd have known that I may have elected to sell them back my units.

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

Thanks for your informative reply

We purchased into THE Club before I knew DRI would have a repurchase program. Originally they were buying 2 bedroom units back at $7,500 and 1 bedroom units around $5,000. If I'd have known that I may have elected to sell them back my units.

Thanks for your very informative reply. If the repurchase program is still available, I would prefer to sell it back or sell it privately. I don't want to incur an additional ANNUAL membership fee for the Club.

My husband purchased Jockey Club across the street about the same time. I understand JC has construction all around right now. They don't guarantee using Jockey Club's parking lot. You have to park elsewhere and take a shuttle.

I used to go to Las Vegas for the computer industry's COMDEX show every year but haven't been for years. We might stay at either JC or PT as we drive South to Mexico this year.

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

Thanks for your very informative reply. If the repurchase program is still available, I would prefer to sell it back or sell it privately. I don't want to incur an additional ANNUAL membership fee for the Club.

My husband purchased Jockey Club across the street about the same time. I understand JC has construction all around right now. They don't guarantee using Jockey Club's parking lot. You have to park elsewhere and take a shuttle.

I used to go to Las Vegas for the computer industry's COMDEX show every year but haven't been for years. We might stay at either JC or PT as we drive South to Mexico this year.

The last I heard the offer had been reduced to $3,000 for 2 bedroom units. To low IMO to consider. If it were still at the $7,500, I'd be considering selling out despite the fact I've already paid to join THE Club.

The contact info posted on a thread at Tug2.net is:
888-250-6135
devbuyback@diamondresorts.com (note; direct link does not work for E-mail on my computer. You may have to put the e-mail addy in yourself. I have NOT personally attempted to contact DRI about their buy back program.)

Those that have contacted customer service directly have reported that they don't seem to have a clue the DRI even has a buyback program.

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

I converted around the time Doug did. I've owned our PLT 1bd for about 10 yrs at that point and was considering giving it to my sister or cousin until I found out DRI just purchased Sunterra and offering conversion into the CLUB which utilized a point system. Then I discovered Ts4Ms and it's been a blast so far. I think the question as to convert or not depends on your needs and budget. For us, it has worked out just fine - ability to use pts to book short trips and book into internal system resorts with NO exchange fees is 10x better than just having the 1 week II exchange option (aside from taking our fixed PLT week). This system supplements our Marriott ownership! Best of both worlds, not to mention owning Marriott points and access to their worldwide hotels.

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

Wingers Quote "and book into internal system resorts with NO exchange fees is 10x better than just having the 1 week II exchange option"

Isn't the fee 139 to exchange with II?

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

yes but I avoid the fee by booking DRI resorts. this is considered booking withing the CLUB system/family of resorts. no charge.

Wingers Quote "and book into internal system resorts with NO exchange fees is 10x better than just having the 1 week II exchange option"

Isn't the fee 139 to exchange with II?

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

DRI has approx. 100 resorts with units in THE Club (it does not manage all of these resorts and all units in each resort are not necessarily available to DRI THE Club members). Units which are included in THE Club are available for Club members for internal exchange without an additional exchange fee. THE Club membership also includes Interval Gold membership, which has savings of it's own built in.

So, if you only make internal exchanges you can save the I.I. exchange fee and, if you don't own any other resorts that require you to have a personal membership, THE Club membership also saves you the I.I. Gold membership fee.

An arguement can be made that, even though THE Club has a $225 yearly membership fee that you can save more than that on the cost of I.I. membership fee's and external exchanges through I.I.

Of course, if you do not want to exchange internally through DRI, you still have the option for external exchanges using the I.I. system. Doing this you will still pay the I.I. exchange fee of $135 for domestic exchanges.