Any problems with booking/availability with DRI?

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

Hello!

I am in the process of buying annual DRI points from a private seller. I was told that my points would be limited to their 19 US resorts unless I purchased a separate membership into "The Club" which costs around $3,000, which would then give me full access to the other 100 or so clubs, plus other benefits.

Does this information match up with what you folks are familiar with? If so, I think I'm ready to buy in.

However, I was told by a couple of folks that it is very hard to get a reservation with DRI. You have to book months and months (sometimes years) in advance to get a reservation. That you're always told, "no availability", etc.

Is this criticism valid?

Thanks! I look forward to your feedback.

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

Not that easy

Hello!

I am in the process of buying annual DRI points from a private seller. I was told that my points would be limited to their 19 US resorts unless I purchased a separate membership into "The Club" which costs around $3,000, which would then give me full access to the other 100 or so clubs, plus other benefits.

Does this information match up with what you folks are familiar with? If so, I think I'm ready to buy in.

However, I was told by a couple of folks that it is very hard to get a reservation with DRI. You have to book months and months (sometimes years) in advance to get a reservation. That you're always told, "no availability", etc.

Is this criticism valid?

Thanks! I look forward to your feedback.

While they do the best they can to keep any real inforamtion secret (and seemingly changeable at whim) DRI does not, as far as I know, allow you to join THE CLUB by simply paying $3000 (too much) in addition to your resale poin purchase. They demand you give up your deed/ownership AND buy more retail priced points. In the end simply not worth it.

As far as availability that seems to be OK with a minimal amount of pre-planning. But the cost to buy in now along with the non-deeded nature of the purchase and lack of resale viability makes it a non-starter IMO.

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

DRI does not, as far as I know, allow you to join THE CLUB by simply paying $3000 (too much) in addition to your resale poin purchase. They demand you give up your deed/ownership AND buy more retail priced points.

Yikes!

I better get clarification on this because I was told differently but the folks who gave me this info weren't from DRI itself, just other owners.

What do you mean by "give up your deed/ownership"?

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

Yikes!

I better get clarification on this because I was told differently but the folks who gave me this info weren't from DRI itself, just other owners.

What do you mean by "give up your deed/ownership"?

If you own a deeded week or a deed to the Trust they make you turn that (and your ownership/voting rights) to them in return for a Trust membership which is way too easily terminated IMO. No foreclosure required.

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

DRI is a confusing and complicated system, so I'll try to sort some things out for you.

To start, you need to understand is that THE Club is an add-on to your basic ownership. You only get into THE Club is you buy some additional ownership increment from DRI. When you do that, you can join your current ownership and the new slice you buy into THE Club. The key point here is that you don't buy an ownership in the Club; THE Club is not something you can own and sell.

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Now let's set THE Club aside for a moment and focus on what you ''own" in the DRI system. In the DRI system you can own either a deed at an individual resort or an interest in a trust that in turn holds deeds.

A deeded interest is just an ordinary, conventional timeshare deed. We own one of those at Poi'pu on Kaua'i. When you own a deed, you have reservation rights at that DRI resort and only that DRI resort.

A Trust is an entity that holds a bunch of deeds for various units at various resorts. When you are a Trust owner, you have rights to make reservations against the deeds held by that trust in accordance with the size of your ownership in that Trust.

The Trusts are generally organized so that holdings in specific resorts are assigned to certain trusts. For example, it appears that the ownership you are considering is an interest in the DRI's US Collection trust. That particular trust has ownerships in 19 different resorts; ergo, when you own in that trust you have reservation rights at those 19 resorts. You don't have reservation rights at any other DRI resorts that are not part of that trust.

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Now let's add THE Club into the picture. When you join THE Club, you "surrender" your ownership interest to THE Club. (More on "surrendering" in a moment.) You can now make reservations at any DRI resort. There is a "Home Resort Advantage" period, during which only people who own at a particular resort (either through a trust interest or a deed) can reserve at that resort. When there is less than 10 months before check-in, however, any member of THE Club can reserve at any DRI resort, subject to availability.

So if you join THE Club, you have access to all DRI resorts, subject to the Home Resort Advantage limitation and availability of inventory.

To join THE Club you need to buy something from DRI at DRI prices. That can be a deeded ownership, but most likely would be a slice of ownership in one of the Trusts. At that time you can attach all of your ownerships to THE Club - including any "unjoined" ownerships you have (whether those be deeded ownerships or Trust interests).

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As mentioned previously, when you join THE Club, you have to ''surrender'' your ownership to the Club. What happens is that when you join The Club you give up your individual right to make reservations at the resort or resorts in accordance with your ownership interest (deeded or Trust). That reservation right is now assigned to THE Club. You then make all of your reservations through THE Club instead of through the resort. For example, we have attached our Poi'pu week to The Club. Having done that we no longer make reservations through the resort as we did before. Instead, we have to make reservations through THE Club. If we try to make reservations through the resort, they tell us they can't help us and redirect us to THE Club's reservation operation.

"Surrendering'' your ownership if you own a deeded week can take one of two forms. First, you can simply assign your reservation right to THE Club. At any time you can terminate that assignment; if you terminate the assignment you return to your previous status as a deeded owner, and your membership in THE Club also terminates.

With a deeded week you can also convert your deed to an ownership in the Trust that your resort is part as part of the process of joining THE Club. In this case you actually give up your deed in exchange for an interest in that Trust. IOW - your deed now becomes added to the holdings of the Trust that you just joined. To complete the process of joining the Club you assign your reservation rights under the Trust to THE Club and complete your reservations through THE Club. You can also terminate that Trust assignment to THE Club if you wish. At that point you would revert to a Trust owner and would make reservations in the same fashion as any other Trust member not affiliated with THE Club.

Note that if you have a deed and you purchase an additional interest to get into THE Club without converting that deed to a Trust ownership, you will now have two distinct ownerships - your existing deeded ownership as well whatever additional piece you bought to get into THE Club. You will have surrendered reservation rights under both to THE Club, so when you log into your account you will see only one point total, but each ownership can still stand on its own.

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The final piece in all of this is that memberships in THE Club are not transferable and terminate if you sell a Club-affiliated ownership to someone else. Essentially, when you sell a unit you terminate the reservation assignment agreement. So the ownership reverts to whatever it is without the Club affiliation (deeded or Trust interest, as the case may be), and that defines what the buyer receives.

In your case, you are apparently looking at a Trust interest in the US collection. So you will have reservation rights in that Trust, with the size of your ownership quantified by the number of Points associated with that particular Trust ownership. A good part of the confusion arises because both THE Club and the Trusts use the same points system for tracking reservation rights, even though the two inventories are really not interchangeable.

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Availability for both Club members and non-Club owners is another topic, that involves inventory control procedures. Suffice it to say that inventory at a given resort is divided between The Club and non-Club owners in accordance with respective ownerships. For example, if 40% of the inventory at a resort is associated with interests that are joined to THE Club, then 40% of the inventory at the resort is assigned to THE Club and reserved for Club usage. That assignment is made on a straight line basis throughout the year. When that 40% of space is filled by Club reservations, then no more Club reservations can be made even though there might be remaining available space because non-Club owners haven't yet filled their allotment.

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

If you own a deeded week or a deed to the Trust they make you turn that (and your ownership/voting rights) to them in return for a Trust membership which is way too easily terminated IMO. No foreclosure required.

That's not correct. As a deeded owner you have the option of converting the deed to a Trust membership or retaining the deeded ownership. In either case, to complete the process of joining the Club you assign the reservation rights associated with your ownership (deeded or Trust) to THE Club. You may even have the option of purchasing a second deeded ownership to get into THE Club and avoid a Trust ownership entirely if you so choose.

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

T.R.

Thank you for your reply... you write so well

But could you expand on this point:

To join THE Club you need to buy something from DRI at DRI prices. That can be a deeded ownership, but most likely would be a slice of ownership in one of the Trusts. .

That "something" you are referring to is a bit of a concern. Since I'm already buying into the Trust (via my purchase from a private seller) would DRI make me buy additional points?

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

Depends who and when you ask

That's not correct. As a deeded owner you have the option of converting the deed to a Trust membership or retaining the deeded ownership. In either case, to complete the process of joining the Club you assign the reservation rights associated with your ownership (deeded or Trust) to THE Club. You may even have the option of purchasing a second deeded ownership to get into THE Club and avoid a Trust ownership entirely if you so choose.

Apparently depending on who you talk to at DRI AND how much they want to make a sale today you may or may not be able to hang on to your deed AND join THE CLUB. Last I heard, officially, it was no longer offered as an option (but these things change on a whim from what I see). I would never give up my deed and am very happy overall, with the exception of the seemingly never ending special fees and overall fee hikes in addition to the useless cost of "II Gold" or whatever nonsense they have added, with my DEEDED ownership and ongoing assignment to THE CLUB. If fees go much higher or if they ever try to require giving up the deeded ownership I will drop it like a hot potato. My $1000+ cost from 1998 has long since been written off in value returned.

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

Apparently depending on who you talk to at DRI AND how much they want to make a sale today you may or may not be able to hang on to your deed AND join THE CLUB. Last I heard, officially, it was no longer offered as an option (but these things change on a whim from what I see). I would never give up my deed and am very happy overall, with the exception of the seemingly never ending special fees and overall fee hikes in addition to the useless cost of "II Gold" or whatever nonsense they have added, with my DEEDED ownership and ongoing assignment to THE CLUB. If fees go much higher or if they ever try to require giving up the deeded ownership I will drop it like a hot potato. My $1000+ cost from 1998 has long since been written off in value returned.

As of last August in Hawai'i you did not have to give up your deed, and if you preferred a deed to a Trust ownership they would gladly sell you an additional deeded ownership. That does depend on them having deeded ownerships in inventory - in locations such as Poi'pu that means they have some repos or buybacks in inventory.

The lifeblood for them is selling ownerships, and if selling a deed is what it takes that's what they will do. But they certainly don't offer that as an option until they perceive that is needed to complete the sale.

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

That "something" you are referring to is a bit of a concern. Since I'm already buying into the Trust (via my purchase from a private seller) would DRI make me buy additional points?

You are not required to buy additional points just because you are buying resale. Buying resale you would have access to the 19 resorts in the US trust, using the number of points associated with your purchase.

You only need to purchase more points if you want to access the entire DRI inventory (i.e., more than the 19 resorts in your trust) without going through an exchange company. To do that you need to join THE Club, and you can only join THE Club by buying more points from DRI.

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Let's say the Trust ownership you are looking at is worth 7500 points. When you buy that resale you will have 7500 points, usable at the 19 resorts in the US collection and only those 19 resorts. To visit a a resort outside those 19 resorts involves an exchange through an exchange company, even though the resort be another DRI resort.

IIRC the minimum freight for getting into THE Club is 2500 points, bought from DRI. So if you go that route, you would then have 10,000 points, usable at any DRI resort via THE Club (and subject to the Home Resort Advantage I discussed above).

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

Interesting.

I was told that it would cost around $3,000 to join The Club... could this be in reference to the "additional points direct from DRI" requirement you are referring to?

If so, I would actually be more inclined to do it because I'm not just shelling out $3K for a membership card.... I'm actually getting more points to use.

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

Interesting.

I was told that it would cost around $3,000 to join The Club... could this be in reference to the "additional points direct from DRI" requirement you are referring to?

Yes. For a time if an owner knew whom to contact and how to do it, the owner could attach unconverted memberships to THE Club by paying about $3000. I think that option has been eliminated and now you need to buy some additional interest from a DRI sales center to get into THE Club. It will likely require more than a $3000 purchase, perhaps closer to $5000 minimum.

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

Thanks again.

Would you know if membership into the 19 US trust collection also includes the ability to exchange into RCI and/or II? Or... I'm guessing to participate in RCI/II you have to belong to The Club?

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

Thanks again.

Would you know if membership into the 19 US trust collection also includes the ability to exchange into RCI and/or II? Or... I'm guessing to participate in RCI/II you have to belong to The Club?

Now you're trying to make it too complicated!!!

Remember that just about the first thing I said is that THE Club is an add-on. That's all it is. If you're not in THE Club you're just an ordinary timeshare owner and THE Club totally doesn't factor in at all. If you're not in THE Club, don't try to make it more complicated than that.

Of course since membership in II is embedded into THE Club, if you're not part of the Club you have to have your own account in II (or RCI if you so choose), just as any ordinary timeshare owner would have to. Or, if you want you also can deposit your week with any independent exchange company as well.

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If you are interested in using independent exchange companies, you should be aware that if you join THE Club you may not be able to deposit with independent exchange companies. Remember that if you are in THE Club you have also assigned to THE Club the reservation rights for your week. If you try to make a reservation with THE Club, then deposit that week with an independent exchange company THE Club may refuse to validate your right to deposit the week with the independent exchange company.

The rationale here is similar to an exchange company's prohibition on renting exchanges; the week that you are trying to deposit is not yours to with as you please; when you assigned rights to use your week to THE Club, you also surrendered the "ownership" of the week.

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

... if you're not part of the Club you have to have your own account in II (or RCI if you so choose), just as any ordinary timeshare owner would have to.

Would you happen to know how a non-Club owner would obtain membership into II and/or RCI?