Diamond Resorts review: maint. fees 23

This company is outrageous. Bad customer service. I guess my experience is not unique.

Art,

Good luck with that even if they provide you with some numbers there is a good chance they would be cooked. I have looked at our Maui Resort budgets from when we purchased back in the late 90's and compared to the ones from after the death of Sunterra's reign. First off DRI's budget adds several new line items like Administrative Support Fees at over a million and Admin Fees and management fees (on top of salaries for these "ADMINS"). Really how many times you gonna put your hand in the cookie jar, it is all a big money grab. Things such as reserves went from less than a million per year to 3.6 million over a 4 year period. (to sick to my stomach to look at it this year)

I would love to see where the all the "reserves" money is going each year. I'll bet there are lots of DRI hands in that cookie jar, but none of this information is made public (another reason SJC made this a private corporation was to reduce the public financial reporting requirements needed for a public corporation-IMO). Face it we got sucker punched and now the big bully is kicking us while we are down and asking how we like it.

How can tell Diamond Resorts International is lying, cheating and stealing your money... same as a politician, check for a pulse!

Cloobeck if your innocent then show us your books (the REAL ONES)

CVO

I have been requesting actual Financial results on which the current budgets for Los Abrigatos resort were based. Ihave been given the run around by custoer service personnel who have no idea or refuse to give out any inforation as to how I can obtain same. Please advise who Ican contact to get the inforation
Art Meehan

bananaana

Diamond Resorts Standard Answer will be;

DIE, file for BANKRUPTCY or call again in 2054... except they will probably be rude about it.
I really do not think they care about your family or your situation, "just send MORE MONEY and SHUT UP... STOP MAKING WAVES"

Good Luck

CVO

Mr. Duffy,

I don't want my timeshare anymore. I cannot afford to pay for these rising maintenance fees while trying to heat my home, put food on the table, and help my children through college. Yes, it all sounded wonderful back when we bought it, when the maintenance fees were manageable. Now that I have children and the economy is not as strong as it was, vacationing is not my family's priority.

Mr. Duffy, please point me in the right direction. How can I unload this "wonderful opportunity"?

I would guess their Bags are packed, new identities and an offshore acct. with all of our excess fees paid to DRI (notheld in St. Maarten's that is for sure). I just wish they would get caught red handed with their grubby paws in the cookie jar (MF, special assessment and other junk fees imposed on clubs and resorts). my guess (IMO) they have bought too many politicians/law makers to get caught at this point. I must give credit where credit is due, they are smart enough to not get caught so far...

The only other consolation is unless they repent from their evil, greedy, wicked ways there will be a special 90 minute presentation they will need to attend in HELL... and that contract has no expiration and "NO" is not an option, much like the presentations they force down members throats.

CVO
Concerned about the 2012 DRI MF invoice expected in a few weeks... I usually get hosed by these clowns in October.

With regard the St Maarten's thing where Cloobeck and co tried to sue someone for slander and the case was thrown out it appears they have now lost the appeal as well! Oddly Cloobeck and Duffy still remain very quiet on the sites that are criticising them these days!

Mr Askins the reason you have to be bothered by a salesperson is because it is a numbers game! The more people they speak to the more chance there is that someone will say yes! I also would like to congratulate you on being able to find availability at DRI resorts!
It is now becoming apparent that the reason Cloobeck has put the MF's up with DRI is so he can continue to fund his political contributions! This is despite being caught out using fees in St Maarten to back a politician under investigation on the island!

I have just paid my annual maintenance. I have 6000 points and barely use that many. My dues this yeara were in the area of 1100.00. At the current price for maintenance, I am almost paying half the cost of my monthly mortage payment on the resort. This is a bit crazy on the high maintenance prices. I have been a member for 6 years now and have been seeing annual increases in the 100-300 range every year.

People that I know that have time shares with other resorts with the same amount of points are paying 500-750/year. The big difference is that Diamond automatically enrolls you in II and the other companies do not. In my opinion, Diamond should offer you the option of the II enrollment. I never use II, as the Diamond resorts are the only ones that I use, so I feel that is just throwing money to the wind.

Also, when a member shows up at a resort, you should investigate the usage. In my case I use [protected] points a year. Why should I be bothered by a sales person on selling me more points. In the 6 years that I have had my membership, I believe that there has only been 1 year that I didnt carry points over.

Thank you for your time on this issue.

Mr. Askins

Perhaps if he is still reading these posts Mr Duffy would like to put a positive spin on this story!

Lawsuit vs Diamond Resorts Proceeding in St. Maarten;

http://www.tstoday.com/members/magaz...rts%20suit.pdf

Makes very interesting reading!

In doing a bit of Research on Diamond Resorts CEO Stephan Cloobeck I found an interesting quote;

The setting;
During an interview after a very heated board meeting with regents for the Navada University system regarding instate tuition fee. The article is interesting and gives more background on THE MAN himself, but the quote tells the story of the man...

Direct quote from an online article from the Las Vegas Sun.
Heather Rawlyk
Friday, Jan. 30, 2004 | 11:14 a.m.
...
In the hallway Cloobeck told a small group that if his business had overcharged people and refused to pay them back, there would be a criminal complaint from the attorney general's office.

Where's the criminal complaint against them? Cloobeck asked. This is so wrong and incorrigible that we would have elected officials acting like an (expletive) circus. Its simple, give all of the people their money back...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2004/jan/30/regents-reduce-in-state-tuition-standard/

see the article yourself, just want to share with everyone what a great man they have running Diamond Resorts hypocrisy and self importance.

CVO

This thread looks like DRI Public Relations rhetoric who in their right mind wants to pay 2100 in maintenance fees to some resort re-renter. Oh we like the Diamond Resorts blah blah blah you might think we are Diamond Employees or Family blah blah blah.

People it is simple just Do the math and a quick search on the Internet

2100.00/7nights =$300 a night unless my math is wrong mr puffy...

Search Expedia or Orbits or whatever you like and see what you can book for $300 per night and tell me how much better it is to try and book using magic points you bought, from what I hear many folks have a hard time booking the time and place they want. On Expedia it has never been a problem finding a room when and where I want (300/night) is not my usual rate except for an all-inclusive, but I can find a room just about anywhere.

If you have the magic puffy points from DRI and your happy with them, then why the hell did you come to a complaints board just to tell everybody what a wonderful travel deal you have with Diamond Resorts? Is that your mommy mr. puffy?

Good Luck your gonna need it (Just an opinion)

CVO

My wife and I purchased a timeshare in 2004 in Hawaii from Sunterra(11, 500 pts). The maintenence fee at that time was $600 and just went up from there. In 2007 Sunterra contacted us and want us to attend a timeshare seminar with a sales associate in sedona, az. We were to go over how to use our points better etc. and also changes taking place in Sunterra. Well we went over all that stuff and then the sales associate got into how sunterra was changing to Diamond resorts(being bought by them). He told us that it would be wise to upgrade to silver status, purchasing 4, 000 more points, because it would stabilize your maintenence fee at around 1, 400 to 1, 600 dollars per year. I remember it so vivid to this day. The sales associate left us alone to talk about it and both my wife and i looked at each other and said this is a no brainer if this stabilizes our maintenence fee. We made the purchase. Also, our sales associate told us that those that did not upgrade to this club silver status they would be paying for most of the maintenence fees company wide. When you pay per point it doesn't make sense to upgrade to silver, gold or platinum status if your maintenence fee is not going to stabilize. I know what was said because we were not even using the entire 11, 500 points we already had. Last year our maintenence fee was 2, 100 dollars and this year we just got the bill for 2, 300 dollars. We are very disappointed with these maintenence fee charges. They are ridiculous and I used to tell all my friends about this timeshare but not anymore. Our friends that referred us have stopped paying because their maintenence fee is also through the roof. We have spent almost 35, 000 dollars for 15, 500 points, plus all the maintenence fees per year. I would love to here other peoples stories on this maintence fee matter.

Gavin Costley

Mr. and Mrs. Gush,

Please do contact Patrick Duffy. Patrick and his team are a great help, and they are willing to do anything possible to help all the members.

They have helped me a couple of times regarding to the membership.

I am not sure whether they can help on the HOA (dues) as it is a different entity. I am kind of stuck myself regarding to the increase every year. I pay around $2000 for the 10500 pts. My guess 2011 will be a lot higher which is crazy.

I know many of us are in tough times because of the economy, and we have been the more fortunate people staying above water levels.

Hang in there. Try keep smiling!

Jack

Dear Mr. & Mrs. Gush,

Thank you for your post, information and experience. Please feel free to contact me to assist you in the usgae and multiple benefits your memberhip has associted with it.

Yours truly,

Patrick Duffy
Chief Experience Officer

patrick.duffy@diamondresorts.com

We too are owners of Diamond Resorts. We were originally told our maintenence fees would run about $200.00 a year, we have 3000 points. Our fees have never been below $750.00 and we have never even used any of our points. Now we are told that 3000 points is just not enough to do anything with and they are tying to sell us more. The one time we tried to use the timeshare first they told us we couldn't because we owed 97 cents which I had to put on a credit card before they would talk with me. Then because the only week we could come came up unexpectedly but was linked with a holiday there fore absolutly nothing was available. It's been a frustrating couple of years having to come up with so much in maintenence fees so high we cannot afford to take the vacation. I am looking to sell my points if anyone is interested.

Thank you for your response, Patrick.

My wife and I have been reading and have read a lot of comments and complaints by DRI owners, and we are stating one of the reason for the slow growth in DRI. As I mentioned before, paying dues is fine with us, BUT the amount needs to be reasonable and the increase definitely needs to be in the low single digit. The HOA at our permanent home in California is equal to the dues we pay to DRI, and we spend 11 months of the year in our permanent home. Does it make sense to you for paying $2000 HOA for less than one month of vacation on DRI properties?

We have enjoyed our stays on DRI resorts, but outside DRI resorts...not quite so much; one of most disappointing trip was to Bahamas (November 2009), and that was through Club Select, granted it wasn't DRI resort, but DRI had it through DRI system, and the quality should be the same. The second point regarding to the amenities is the quality and equipment should be the same or at least similar in all DRI resorts. What I mean is we have always love the full kitchens, but we had to bring our own knife to our vacations because the knives at DRI resorts are just a pain to use. Kaanapali Resort in Maui doesn't have much of a kitchen because it was converted from a hotel, and the owners will need to have 11500 points for the ocean view 1-bedroom condo. The view is beautiful, but the kitchen is just non-existence!

Patrick, we are hoping that you take our comments and response seriously, and action on increase on DUES slowed down starting from next year. This will at least give you another 9 months to have meetings with your senior management and a positive action be done immediately. I promise you that DRI owners will definitely be more happy and you can attract more potential new owners...because at this moment, I am not comfortable convincing my well-financed friends to join DRI family.

If you need my member account number, etc. Please do ask me and I can provide it to you in my personal emails.

Thank you for your understanding.
Jack

Hi Jack...

Thank you for your comments...Having acquired the former company 3 years ago. It was imperitive to create a business model that was keeping our owners/members expectations at the forefront. This required shoring up the former business model to keep the future both stable and healthy...Not an easy fix. We feel quite confident that you will continue to enjoy your timeshare, and the need for future financial drama reduced due to the action taken by your HOA board.

Curiously? Did Interval International (II) not have an impressive array of resorts and amenities for you to choose from?

Yours cordially,

Patrick Duffy
Chief Experience Officer

patrick.duffy@diamondresorts.com

I agree with the dues "HOA" for our Diamond timeshare, but increasing 10%+ each year is far too high! DRI needs to consider and calculate inflation, economy situation, and fluctuation in the world. We visited Marriott time share in Lake Tahoe in March 2010 and they only increase 4%, and I can tell you Marriott has better brand name and facilities than DRI. Another example is RCI only increase $10.80 each year, and because of this attraction and 6000+ resorts on their list, we have joined RCI instead of buying more points in Diamond Resort International!

RCI system is far more flexible and easier to use...meaning you can stay for only one night if necessary instead of 3 nights from DRI. Another main attraction is whatever DRI resorts has on the list...guess what...RCI has it has well...for lower points!

Now tell me...why the hell have we paid more for our points with far less resorts but still MUST pay higher dues which increase 10% each year!

Jack and Luwanna

We've been members of "The Club" since 2006, starting with 5, 000 points. We currently have 15, 000 points. We've been to many of their resorts and never had a bad experience.

Our HOA dues were $2100.00 this year. We also have a Diamond Resorts Rewards Chase Visa card. By using that card, we reduced the cost of HOA dues by 50%. HOA dues are for keeping up the resort so that it does not turn into a "shanty town". Our home resort, Scottsdale links is upgrading the property dramatically this year.

We will continue to spend most of vacation days at different Diamond Resorts in the future.

Some of you may think that we're related to management or another employee of Diamond resorts - we're not. We're just satisfied customers that expect the best service and we've received it.

If you have a complaint, call or e-mail Steven Coolbeck, the CEO. He'll pick up the phone or email you back.

Don & Liz Matzen

If Diamond Resorts can be of assistance to you in the usage of your timeshare. Or answer questions of features and benefits, please reach out to;

patrick.duffy@diamondresorts.com

Cordially,
Patrick Duffy
Chief Experience Officer

Why not try Patrick Duffy?...He took care of our situation straight away.
I called him at [protected]
He's a good bloke,
Terry

Funny Steve...we've contacted you ...and yet have not received any help in the matter.