Diamond Resorts International (DRI) "THE CLUB" Points Program & Converting your Week to Points

Mona, From the time you joined the club, can you please provide me with a history of your increasing annual costs for being a member of the club? I'm trying to put a lot of pieces together regarding DRI and it would sure help. Thank you.

Bill

We have been "weeks" owners at Kaanapali Beach Club for many years. We have resisted converting to points because doing so would actually offer us fewer options in returning to our home resort. Example: we would only get about 11000 points in conversion but it would require more than that to stay during some of the peak times where we can stay now. I have also been unhappy with exchange clubs because they offered me no more than a week in a much less desirable place in exchange for my week in Maui. RCI has changed that. They now rate your week when you bank it with them. Our week in Maui this year got us 4 weeks in Gold and Silver Crown resorts in locations we wanted to go anyway. For the first time I feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of my time share.

Tom

FYI...if you converted to points, read this... We purchased points a few years ago (DRI Hawaii collection) so we could be in the points system. We decided we wanted out of the whole timeshare thing and got rid of our deeded week, but still had the points to deal with. In the mean time we had filed a complaint with the BBB, and didn't expect much from that. Not long ago we got a call from a DRI big wig (who obviously received that complaint) saying they would refund all of the money we payed for the points, as well as water intrusion assessment fee and MF's for 2012, and be relieved of all future obligations for the contract. I said great, but I'll believe it when I see it! Well, I just received the check and signed the 2 page contract (which was read by my lawyer and completely legit)! Now I have the refund, and no more timeshare!! I'm still out all the money we payed for the deeded portion, but at least we got something back from this whole mess, and will never pay another MF or assessment ever again!

I'm not a timeshare owner, but got the sales pitch for the Club at Powhatan. I am interested in purchasing a points based system. I have two kids 6 and 9, so 2 bedrooms are best. We want to go to Disney, Williamsburg, etc. We are stuck traveling during the High Season because my kids are in traditional school. It seems like this point system (DRI) or RCI would be good for us. I want to buy on the resale market.

Before you decide to do business with DRI, search through ALL of the Redweek threads. I think that will make your decision process easy!

I own with DRI and I like it a great deal. However, you need to be aware that maintenance fees increase annually. Next Disney is with RCI and DRI points are with Interval International. However, you do have access to Marriotts, Westins and Four Seasons and other great resorts in the Interval International system. Secondly, if you get points resale, you are not automatically entered into the Club. With resale purchases, DRI will limit you to only the resorts in the collection of points you belong. For example, if you buy resale points to the US Collection in which Powhatan is then you will only have access to those 20 or so resorts which includes Powhatan. You cannot go to resorts in the Hawaii Collection like Ka'anapali in Maui or The Point in Kauai. If you buy resale from two different collections you will have to pay two separate administrative (the are included in the maintenance fees) fees, one for each collection. You still would not have access to the European or Mexican resorts. The bottom line is if you want to have access to all of DRI's resorts you will probably need to some points from DRI first to join the Club. I am sure you saw that buying just a few thousand points cost quite a bit. However, if you buy 3,000 to 5,000 points and you have kids, you will have very little latitude to really enjoy the Club accommodations.

I just want you to know the facts. Remember, you are talking with a happy owner.

And THEY have your deed. That is what they really want...

Why not just go to this site or another one and just rent someone elses week and this way you have no obligation to pay maintenance fees the rest of your life if you decide down the road that you don't want it anymore.

Here is the announcement for which we have all been waiting! The lawsuit has been filed! It was filed Friday in Federal District Court in Hawaii. COPP will be mailing out a note with the lawsuit attached. It will also be going up on our website. I think that we will have DRI's attention now! What did Mr. C say? Yes, that's right, there are "10" unhappy customers. We'll see

scotts686 wrote:

Overall, we like the DRI program. But we also havn't had a chance to use our points yet. However, we too got scammed into giving up our deed from PoiPu and put into the Hawaii collection just 15 days ago while we were in Maui. We purchased an additional 10,000 points for $28,000 and were told by our salesman, ( I won't mention his name ) that putting our deeded week into the collection trust was the best thing to do...for us. But, like many others have speculated, DRI is trying to take more control over voting powers and this deed transfer does help that cause. It's a shame that DRI can actually recruit so many, what I consider, dishonest real estate agents to do and say what they do just to get your money. And yes, we too got hit with the $3000 Poipu Water Intrusion fee in October and were told that we had two months to pay it. Rediculous. I've since written and heard back from the Hawaii Attorney General and RICO who investigates Timeshare activities. They say they are aware of the complaints and are investigating it. A lawsuit was to be filed by today's date. If Mr. Cloobeck or his assistant, Linda, were to call me right now and refund my full $33,000 that we've invested in his company, I'd gladly give them back my points. Stupid me...I should have just kept my deeded week the way it originally was back in 1998. We paid $13,000 back then and got plenty of good use out of it. I just hope Mr. Cloobeck can live up to his reputation that he presented the other night on Undercover Boss. So far, after reading so many complaints and hearing so much discord about DRI, I feel sometimes that my wife and I just may have made a poor decision in purchasing additional points and quick claiming our deed to the DRI trust. I guess the next few months will tell the true story. What would be good to see, is an undercover reporter from 60 minutes or another organization go to one of these sales presentations to confirm what's being said and done is on the up and up. I don't mind paying the money if it is in fact a good value. We as owners just demand honesty and BETTER, MUCH BETTER, CUSTOMER SERVICE. There have been way too many complaints that I've heard while on vacation that DRI doesn't do enough to assist their owners. I've sent several written complaints to Mr. Cloobeck, but he never returns my calls. His assistant Linda has, but nothing is ever taken seriously. I believe they are just courtesy calls to say that they received my letters. But like I said. We'll see what happens over the next year. DRI is still a young company. Hopefully they improve dramatically. As I write this, I noticed that for some unknown reason my saved points in my DRI account is 5,000 points shy than it was 10 days ago. I had 10,000 saved, but not now. I'm waiting the required 72 hours to hear back as to where my points went. Because really, good business is all word of mouth...right?

I do hope that you are not holding your breathe while you are waiting for DRI to the honorable thing... They are far from being an honorable organization...

toml93 wrote:

We have been "weeks" owners at Kaanapali Beach Club for many years. We have resisted converting to points because doing so would actually offer us fewer options in returning to our home resort. Example: we would only get about 11000 points in conversion but it would require more than that to stay during some of the peak times where we can stay now. I have also been unhappy with exchange clubs because they offered me no more than a week in a much less desirable place in exchange for my week in Maui. RCI has changed that. They now rate your week when you bank it with them. Our week in Maui this year got us 4 weeks in Gold and Silver Crown resorts in locations we wanted to go anyway. For the first time I feel like I'm getting my money's worth out of my time share.

Tom

I have now read the Federal Class Action lawsuit filed by the lawyers on behalf of COPP and its members... Congratulations, this is a well thought out complaint, very well documented as to the claims of all of those concerned.. I want to publically thank Kieth Paulsen and the COPP board of directors for a job very well done... I believe that if you have the staying power, you will be successful as the truth will support its success... It will be a long struggle as DRI will stall and obfuscate, they will delay and challenge at every junction of this journey, but in the end this will shed a huge light on the Time Share Industry... Thanks from all of us who doubted

My friend and I converted to points in Nov. Between us we have banked 48000 points for 2013.We can't reserve a place in South Carolina in Aug.,Sept.,or Oct.2012.We can't get into Hawaii anywhere-between Jan1 and Apr.20, 2013. What good are the expensive Diamond points if you can't use them when you wish?? We used to be able to go directly to II,but now we are stopped at Diamond.Very frustrating.Siver status isn't helpful either. dianas232

debrab313 wrote:

I'm not a timeshare owner, but got the sales pitch for the Club at Powhatan. I am interested in purchasing a points based system. I have two kids 6 and 9, so 2 bedrooms are best. We want to go to Disney, Williamsburg, etc. We are stuck traveling during the High Season because my kids are in traditional school. It seems like this point system (DRI) or RCI would be good for us. I want to buy on the resale market.

Be warned that many of the points systems do not honor the same usage that the selling owner had. You may be stuck with limited weeks or limited resorts that you have access to.

You need to do some research into the methods and fees for banking weeks into either RCI or II at the resort you are considering buying into. Personally, I would never buy a Right of Use membership, as this is mearly a promise to allow you to use the resorts. Only as good as the resorts and the points system. I would always buy a deeded property at a resort that looks like it is well managed and well maintained. You likely can even book a stay at the resort you are considering, for a drastically low fee - in return for taking the tour and presentation from the developer. Just don't buy what THEY are selling, go instead to the secondary market for pennies on the dollar.

I bought two 3Br units in the Club Navigo Points System, which were deeded at Liki Tiki Village, close to Disney in Orlando, Fl. I only paid $3000 with closings on the secondary market, and recieved 16,000 points annually with MF of $2500 annually. With this system, I can reserve a Studio Ocean Front unit in Ormond Beach, which is another of their resorts, for only 800 points for a week. Do the math, and you can reserve up to 20 weeks in an Ocean Front Studio. These I bank into the II system, to travel to almost any resort in the world. Yes it sometimes takes 2 or 3 reservations to trade into another resort in a larger room, but I have never had less than double the reservations that the deed allowed, and usually have upwards of a dozen reservations a year. I rent about half of these to friends, and usually recoup my entire MF for the year.

You could try a similar method, and end up staying for free each year. I mearly front the fees so I can make the reservations, and then recoup the money when I rent the weeks.

Good Luck.

Tom- I wonder how we could get our points transferred to another exchange company as we have banked them in Diamond for 2013.We do not have deeds any longer. dianas232

I suspect that there is no way that you can transfer those points to another exchange company. They SELL points. I would not expect them to work with you on this. Somebody else made the money off of those points. They didn't.

dianas232 wrote:

My friend and I converted to points in Nov. Between us we have banked 48000 points for 2013.We can't reserve a place in South Carolina in Aug.,Sept.,or Oct.2012.We can't get into Hawaii anywhere-between Jan1 and Apr.20, 2013. What good are the expensive Diamond points if you can't use them when you wish?? We used to be able to go directly to II,but now we are stopped at Diamond.Very frustrating.Siver status isn't helpful either. dianas232

I am not sure when you tried to make your reservations. The times you have listed are prime time for those areas. I just looked just now and saw availability for January, February and March at two Kauai resorts, The Point at Poipu and the Grand Pacific Alii Kai Resort.

You must make your reservations early for the early months in Hawaii because it's whale watching season and those who live in cold areas go to Hawaii.

charless345 wrote:

dianas232 wrote:

My friend and I converted to points in Nov. Between us we have banked 48000 points for 2013.We can't reserve a place in South Carolina in Aug.,Sept.,or Oct.2012.We can't get into Hawaii anywhere-between Jan1 and Apr.20, 2013. What good are the expensive Diamond points if you can't use them when you wish?? We used to be able to go directly to II,but now we are stopped at Diamond.Very frustrating.Siver status isn't helpful either. dianas232

I am not sure when you tried to make your reservations. The times you have listed are prime time for those areas. I just looked just now and saw availability for January, February and March at two Kauai resorts, The Point at Poipu and the Grand Pacific Alii Kai Resort.

You must make your reservations early for the early months in Hawaii because it's whale watching season and those who live in cold areas go to Hawaii.

It is not as simple as that, they have an allocations system between "deeded Owners' and "Points Members", then the undisclosed group they hold for those they are trying to sell points to, who are not members at all, and for a very cheap price of less than half of what our annual daily costs,... I have even seen units for rent by DRI "14 days oceanfront $9,450" while they told me there was nothing available...

Yes, for those who have the time to spend learning the system, and can book 13 monthsfor 'Points' & 12 for 'Deeded', in advance the system works for them... But the annual fee's are still over 300$ a day and now with the assessment for water damage over $ 600 a day, and I bet that will be the fee permanently... With the unlimited selling of 'Points' the pressure will only grow, availability will be difficult and more people will feel ripped off..

I just returned from our home resort(Kaanapali Beach Club), we are deeded owners and members of The Club. We still have our deeded weeks, but we get points every year. We were pressured at a presentation to join the Hawaii Collection and put one our deed in the trust( we have an every year and a every other year). We signed to just buy 2500 pts for $7000, and not put a week in the trust. we just recsinded the offer. I hope we made the correct decision. I am leary of the "membership". Any comments? Thank you.

You couldn't pay me enough to get involved in another timeshare membership. Isn't this company being sued right now by the owners in Poipu? I read a post about a class action lawsuit that was filed last month. I personally think you did the right thing....Buyer beware!