Sunterra sold to Diamond Resorts LLC

Letter received:

On March 12, 2007, Sunterra announced that its Board of Directors has approved an agreement pursuant to which Sunterra will be acquired by an affiliate of Diamond Resorts, LLC. We expect the acquisition, which is subject to certain conditions, including the acceptance of 90% of Sunterra's shareholders, to be completed in the second quarter of this year.

There is no need to call. Members and guests do not need to take any steps as a result of this announcement to confirm their existing reservations. There will be no changes to procedures for making future reservations. The same friendly people you know and trust will continue to provide you the same high level of customer service at our resorts and over the telephone.

We look forward to seeing you soon. If you would like additional information, please visit www.Sunterra.com and www.diamondresorts.com.

Best Regards,

Sunterra Corporation

We were just at the Ka'anapali Beach Club aka Ka'anapali Beach Vacation Resort aka Embassy Vacation Club at Ka'anapali Beach over Christmas week 2007. During this time we met with a salesperson, and salesmanager for the "Owner's Update" - during this time, Stephen J. Cloobeck, the CEO of Diamond Resorts International was there, observing the sales operations and doing a detailed review of the resort. The following is my analytical interpretation of what their strategy is.

Under the new Diamond Resorts International (DRI) management, they are intending to transform the resort into the much higher premium and cost category as seen in the neighboring expanding Westin Vacation Club complex and the nearby Marriot Vacation Club converted from the old Marriot hotel. At these two resorts, the developers have been able to sell their units for approximately twice as much; while controlling their inventory through the variable and much more developer-controlled 'currency' of the vacation club points system. Like Sunterra previously, Diamond International is only allowing the purchase of the KBC units via their point system in "The Club". In order to drive the prices higher, by making sure they control the inventory of the best rooms during the most desirable time the following is occurring: 1) DRI is currently exercising 1st right of refusal for many resale KBC weeks to return these deeded week properties back into The Club Points inventory. This effectively reduces buyers' ability to buy outstanding weeks on the open market at prices competing with DRI's Points; akin to when corporations buy back shares to increase share prices. As the developer is able to offer extra weeks and other bonus incentives to new purchasers while eliminating low price secondary market sales, the majority of potential buyers will end up having to going through the developer.

Note that DRI points are only transferrable through "inheriting" the deeded property underlying the points, or other legal mechanism that does not involve a monetary "sale", since all deeded properties are placed into an IRREVOCABLE TRUST (per the contract with DRI) held and controlled by the DRI management company in exchange for the participation within this particular Points-based club. When the current owners of these points desire to sell their deed, they are unable to extract the deed from the irrevocable trust. Of course, neither are 'owners' able to externally sell their points since these are the non-transferrable currency created and usable only within the DRI system. DRI can more closely control access to KBC within the RCI and IntervalInternational system based upon the actual underlying exchange value of the property. If Points owners (including those who have inherited the deed) try to end their ownership, they will find a much smaller buyer base to the point where sustained non-payment of maintenace and special assessment fees result in the owner defaulting and the underlying weeks reverting to back to the developer-controlled trust (for sale to another easily pressured and convincable person at their high prices).

This greatly reduces the marketability of our fee-simple property ownership; and enables the developer to hold a large voting block of deeded weeks to create an unfair monopoly of the owned shares, such that DRI controls all valuation of our property rather than allowing market forces to set the fair-market value. Since so many deeded weeks are held by the developer, the block of these shares end up controlling both the Vacation Owners Association and the Club Vacations Hawai'i Members Association.

Furthermore, this gradually reduces the number of floating (and fixed) weeks that are available within our owned inventory; which then leverages the ability of DRI to eliminate availability of weeks to the non-point owners; especially at the most popular times of Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, and Spring Breaks. This allows DRI to charge more points for the holiday high season weeks, thereby shutting out non-point owners who want to book at the high holiday weeks. At some point in time, even though owners have a contract for 1-52 weeks of floating timeshare usage, they may NOT be able to ever book into those weeks. We were told by the DRI Sales Manager (Shawn) that Steven Cloobeck wants the holiday weeks to be ONLY available to those who have points!

Unless Hawai'i has legal rulings or timeshare policies that require resorts to always provide the units to the owners despite these grand-fathered owners NOT giving into the pressure sales tactics to PAY to convert their deeded fee-simple weeks into the irrevocable trust to get the floating currency of Club Points (of which I suspect will be affected by "new-resort" inflation, so the current points will not get you as much in the future as new resorts are built or old are remodeled).

2) Under the sales pitch, the Points valuation offered for our two floating weeks (one oceanview, the other scenic view) was equivalent only to the non-high weeks. Thus, if we converted to the Club Points, we would NOT be able to get the holiday weeks we are currently able to get now with our fee simple deeded weeks, that have still have an available supply.

After we pointed this out, Shawn the sales manager came back and improved the Club Points offer and reduced the "conversion" price they were asking us to pay from $12,000 to $8,650. (The points offered for the weeks were still insufficient for us to reserve the same holiday weeks we were then enjoying - up to the point of their pressure sales tactics.)

3) The sales conversion offer is only available to those who purchased their week directly from the develop in the 1st place.

The sales rep and Shawn, the sales manager, continued going on and on how the Point program was so much better than the 1-52 floating weeks we currently have; but when we mentioned that we actually purchased our weeks on the secondary market; Shawn immediately said no point conversions are to be offered to the resale purchasers.

However, that's when he went back to presumably talk to the CEO of the situation we were presenting, and came back to sweeten the previous price "reduction", with an added increase of one-time points of 3500 to the non-holiday points (which were still insufficient to allow us to still book our current holiday weeks). Using pressure tactics, he said, "this is a one time offer, and Stephen Cloobeck, our CEO just told me you never be able to book your weeks during the Christmas and New Year's week again if you don't accept this offer! Only those in the Club will be able to book these weeks with their points. The only other way you'll be able to get points is if you buy points here from us for a new purchase." (There is NO resale market of Club points outside of DRI; not like Worldmark, etc.) This set my wife off crying, as he was essentially saying that DRI was not going to honor the existing contracts we owners have with our grand-fathered deeded fee-simple weeks.

Bottom-line, if the owners are unable to sever all but the essential links with DRI and prevent DRI from eroding our ownership in KBC to the point Cloobeck can make good on his threat to us to shut out the holiday weeks to anyone but those who bought the expensive develop floating Points currency. These points, like any floating currency, can be inflated at their whim in order to increase the price of entry to the levels seen at the other high end Westin and Marriot timeshare resorts. Just see the other listings and posts throughout the public bulletin boards, online auctions, etc. You'll generally see a dearth of property transactions being successfully completed; and very few even being listed. So if you are interested in trying to lock in the lower purchase price to this resort through the secondary market; it may be greatly worth your efforts IF you can sneak it past DRI's Right of 1st Refusal.

My other recommendation is resist the sales pitch to convert your existing deeded week that you own into their DRI Club point system, especially when their offer will result in you paying them money so you are not able to book the week and level of room you are currently able to get.

My final recommendation to you, should you be unable to find a buyer for your week you are trying to sell, try to post it for rent on this board or other board to at least get your maintenance dues covered instead of giving it back to DRI as a defaulted property.

Ok, so if i understand this correctly, if we simply do NOT give in to the pressure to convert to points, we will be able to retain our fee simple timeshare? And we can still get any of the 52 weeks? Because that is the exact reason we bought it when it was Embassy. It seems totally unfair to sell us something with the benefit of something attractive like that and then yank it away. We had gone to a LOT of timeshare presentations for a lot of different companies, and that's what sold us on Embassy in the first place!

When we went last year, we were pressured very hard at our "owner update" to buy another week and said if we upgraded our ownership by adding another week, we could upgrade to an ocean front for either or both weeks by purchasing points to make up any difference for $90 a week, I believe it was. What they didn't tell us was that, of course, that was only if an ocean view was available and of course they are quite limited in supply on this property. In fact, they offered to get us an ocean front for our current stay if we bought the other week. Unfortunately, when they checked with the registration desk, none were available. That was a pretty good indication of what we were likely to encounter-- and most telling is it was not a prime summertime week or holiday week that we were there-- kind of in-between whale season and summertime and the resort was not very full-- except apparently the ocean front rooms!

Stupidly, because of the fast-talking salesperson (Charles) and pressure from the VP or whoever supposedly had the authority to offer us more benefits, we bought a second week. It was LOTS of pressure like a car salesman-- and no offense meant to used car salesmen because I used to be one and I know some places can be brutal (which is why I didn't work in T.O. house). When we got home we talked about it and thought about it and decided it wasn't really what we wanted and we used our right to cancel within 7 days. Of course we got a call from the salesperson telling us what a mistake we'd made after we sent in our form, but I know we made the right decision. I think this year we're going to look at Marriott and Westin. Anyone have any recommendations there?

Yes, as long as we 'weeks' owners maintain a sufficient inventory of weeks, we will be able to keep going to our favorite location. From your description jleeg, Diamond Resorts International is still a bit on the short end of offerable oceanfront inventory. Thus the strategy for DRI to exercise their Right-of-1st-refusal to expand their inventory at 'discounted' rates and then resell these as non-transferrable extremely inflated points to existing owners using sleazy pressure tactics. Too bad we'll never be free of the sleazy developer as other developments have eventually were able to achieve with the complete purchase of all the available weeks. We will be forever saddled with the likes of DRI and the former Sunterra that are in the business to make money by continuing to skim $$$ from those who are not used to dealing with these types. Jleeg, I'm glad you exercised your right to cancel. I'll be very interested to hear how your Marriott and Westin experiences compare; should you go that route. DRI is a "wanna-be" to these operations; but I suspect the Marriot and Westin sales experience will be much, much different than the ridiculous pressure tactics DRI is currently using.

The truth is, if you own a deeded week, you still have the ability to book any week you want, including the holiday weeks, up to 12 months in advance. Once it gets below 10 months in advance, anyone who owns points through DRI will have access to any weeks as well. By having points within the system, you have the freedom to books weeks (or days) in any view category you want instead of being restricted to the view category you bought. In addition, you can use your points to book at any one of DRI's 112 resorts (and growing) for any number of nights you wish (not limited to just a week) and you pay no exchange fees. Also, the point value of the 1 bedroom deluxe ocean view unit (11,500)is such that when you do exchange through Interval International, you can get 2 weeks at a 1 bedroom at the Marriott or the Westin or any other 5 star resort as each 1 bedroom exchange is only 5500 points. You can also search availability at any resort in Interval International through the DRI sebsite and do not deposit any points until you make an exchange. You can also exchange into any size unit and any season through Interval for a fair amount of points, more points for bigger units (8000 for a 3 bedroom 5 star red week, 3500 points Studio red week and less points for 4 or 3 start resorts and less points for middle and slow seasons. The Marriott weeks start at around $50,000 per week and the Westin next door, although more expensive than Marriott is already sold out. They also only exchange for 1 week through Interval and only for the same size you own. When you go to the Westin presentation, they will offer to sell you time at their new Kauai property but there is no more (or very little) Maui available to buy. The right of first refusal simply keeps owners from selling their weeks at ridiculous prices to others and helps to maintain the value of of the inventory for the owners who do not wish to sell. If you do choose to upgrade into the Club (points) you do not have to give up your deed into the trust, you can choose to retain your deed and by doing so, can still book into the holiday weeks without paying the higher holiday point values. People who retain their deeds pay the same amount of points 52 weeks of the year, and if they do book 10 to 12 months in advance, can still get virtually any week they want. It's a shame that a few misunderstandings have people feeling they are being taken advantage of. For the money, their is no better value on Kaanapali Beach. I have personally owned timeshare weeks for over 10 years, but my 50,000 points at Kaanapali Beach Club gets me whatever I want and works better than anything I've ever experienced in the timeshare world. I hope that helps people feel a little better about the direction that Diamond is taking the company and in particular, this resort. Most of the owners I have spoken to are very happy, and there only seems to be a few who are not, it's just that those few seem to be a lot more outspoken than the happy ones.

The specific words of the sales manager who said he was quoting Stephen Cloobeck who was in the sales office at the time was "when we have converted enough owners to the Club [points], any of the weeks owners who have not converted will not be allowed to book the high holiday weeks as you have done this time, so either take this one time offer, or look forwards to only using your weeks during the non-peak periods." This is the statement that sent my wife running from the sales office crying.

I suspect when you actually read the details of what you were sold when you spent the $$$$ to convert your weeks to points, you will read you put your deed into an "irrevokable trust" in which you can only transfer your deed via inheritance; you may NOT sell it on the open market to an outside party.

Based on the fact DRI is currently reneging on their next years $150.00 maintenance dues credit for 2008 (this was the incentive for us to sit through their hardball sales tactics for the "owners update" during Dec. 2007); and have suddenly sent us a "30 day final notice" that is attempting to repossess our deeded weeks (for which we paid our complete maintenance dues at the beginning of Jan 2008 to allow us to book our two weeks during Christmas 2008); despite their repeated phone reassurances that they were going to fix their errors on their incorrect $150 maintenance dues credit certificate for 2009 (attributed to our Scenic View rather than the Ocean View unit we stayed in when we sat through the 'Update') - I get the uneasy feeling DRI may be making deeded ownership a miserable affair that flies in the face of their motto of "Relaxation - Simplified".

I have sent Steven Cloobeck, the CEO an email explaining the misbilling situation, and am looking forwards to see if these are all part of a hardball strategy originating from the top to force the original deeded week owners to pay the extravagant extra $$$$ to convert our "gold standard' deeds into the "fluctuating point currency" of the Club; or just poor communication and coordination between their departments.

Further, when we spoke at length with the sales rep and the sales manager; when we asked if our current floating weeks for the standard Ocean View and Scenic View allocated points would allow us to book the same Christmas holiday weeks we are now capable of using with our floating weeks contract; they both clearly said NO; we would have to buy even more additional NEW points to add to that what they were offering - even under their "sweetened" deal. See item (2) of the my initial post.

So according to all my math, in order to have the "priviledge" of tranferring our timeshare ownership from the current floating week Owners Association to the Diamond Resorts Club Points Association, we would be paying them beaucoup bucks to give up our ability to make use of our weeks during the holiday time period. Given that the Club point currency is like any other floating currency around the world, the value of a point today may not be the same in the future for other resorts. I'd like to know how many people have actually successfully exchanged their 8500 (regular Oceanview) or 11,500 (deluxe Ocean View/Ocean Front) Club Points for the Maui Marriot or Westin resorts for only 5000 points (are these Club Points, or another currency of points requiring a conversion?). Given the shortage of weeks or Westin or Marriot Point rooms at the Maui Resorts; I would bet you may be on a long list of others attempting to do the same; as those who paid the $50,000 or more will necessarily expect to see their premium to allow them 1st choice to book into their home resort. NOT an outside timeshare owner who paid a fraction of what they paid.

This is the end goal DRI would like to achieve - controlling the supply of limited room availability of the Club Points Association to be able to drive up the price or number of points one has to buy at KBR so the same week will sell at similar high prices to the Westin or Marriott. They will be in the business of recycling those weeks or points that naturally turn back to them to continually resell at more and more inflated prices.

This is in comparison to the conventional timeshare model at resorts such as the Lawai Beach Resort on Kauai where there IS NO MORE DEVELOPER OWNED WEEKS; as the weeks have been fully bought out by the Owners. Any weeks that naturally become available are either resold through a foreclosure auction in February of each year at very reasonable costs; or the deeds are sold directly by the owners or the estate of the former owners to new purchasers at a market rate. At Lawai, the prices are NOT artificially elevated to achieve profits; as the Owners Association is a Non-Profit organization; and any appreciation of the properties go back to the individual owners when they sell their deed to another person on the open market. Try selling your Club Points - oh wait, you contractually cannot! And you paid how much for this "priviledge".

I think I'll wait for much, much improved terms before I convert; maybe if the current deeded week owners resist their pressure sales tactics, either DRI will improve their offers to the point they pay US money to convert; or get the heck out of the resort that would otherwise become a really nice fully Owner occuppied resort and we would trade point using Red Week points that we voluntarily contribute weeks year by year rather than entering into draconian Point Club contracts made with a Devil-like Profit-driven corporation whose profit model is entirely dependent upon the used-car sales paradigm.

This has been very interesting to read. We own both here at Ka'anapali and the Point at Poipu. We recently vacationed at Poipu and also experienced pressured sales personnel but more by the sales manager than by the rep. It was obvious that the sales reps were uncomfortable with all our questions and concerns with regards to converting points. We also were given the pitch that we would become "secondary" owners with regards to our requests. We felt like they were "discriminating" and they quickly changed their approach! We have one property in points (not in the trust) and kept two out. So far I am grateful that we kept our two ocean deluxe rooms out of the club. Will continue to monitor this situation.

We have owned since 2005 and were happy with Sunterra- they resolved problems are I was able to get the answers I needed. However, since Diamond took over, service has gone down the tubes!! Did you know that if you want info about a property with Interval International, all inquiries MUST go thru Diamond? It seems Diamond wants to control all the info that we receive. The problem with getting info from Diamond about II properties is two-fold: 1) Actually talking to someone is next to impossible. I wanted some info about going to Disney and called 4 times. The first 2 times I was on hold for over an hour. The third time I hung up after about 30 minutes. The fourth time I got to talk to someone after being on hold for about 15 minutes. After the first 2 times of calling, I sent an e-mail to the worthless CEO of Diamond explaining how disappointed I was. The website said that he would personally respond within a week. Well, apparently a week in Diamond's world is different that a week in reality- it took a month before I heard anything from Diamond... absolutely horrible service. 2) If and when you can talk to someone, they aren't very knowledgeable about II properties. The person I finally spoke with at Diamond couldn't tell me when the slower times were at Disney- and that's all over the Disney website. Before Diamond took over, I had good service from II... If this is how DRI is going to run OUR resort, we may just sell and be done with them...It seems they are only out for themselves and not looking out for the good of the resort and owners. Also, a big thanks to Bill Burns for his updates and hard work!!

I really enjoyed youR information. we just left maui and and a timeshare presentaion from diamond resorts (the old embassy suites).

we really like to travel alot and the points thing seem like it had a ton of benefits. they said there were tons of resorts and the travel service for cheap airfare etc, included. the resortime.com was the place i thought would be good to get good deals on vacations that you just paid cash for.

But we walked away. my husband was interested but very smart. He said he would check into this stuff before we just throw down our money.

so what do you think? is it worth it? how would we buy the best deal?

we can go anytime and be spontanious. we just need some help from someone that knows. are all the other perks worth it.? and do you get all those when you buy from someone PRIVATELY??? Our thing is we are recent empty nesters and our job is very flexible. we can go at anytime. and at short notice. we are very unfamiliar with traveling cheap. so we just were looing for someone that speaks so we can understand. those presentations sound clear but after reading your messages theya rent all clear. thank ou for your time!!

No, you don't get any of the perks when you buy from someone privately and I personally own 190,000 points here. I have exchanged into the Westin on Maui on numerous occasions, the Marriott on Maui numerous times, for several weeks at the Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas and the points system is the only way to go in my opinion. The only way to get into "The Club" (the points system) is to buy from the developer, it is not available on the resale market. I have never seen a system that works as smoothly and easily as this one and feel very badly that a few uninformed individuals are costing many others the opportunity to find out the benefits themselves using inaccurate information to scare them. I'm sorry you did not purchase while you were there as that is the best time to get the most advantageous deal. You are not bound by the usual restrictions of the old weeks ownership when in The Club and that's the only way I would consider owning here.

The principle behind the currency of money that makes up the US $, the European Union Euro, the Japanese Yen, etc., is that it is easily exchanged for an infinite number of goods and services - in other words, "liquid". The highly limited availability and restricted use of Club "Points" to only the Diamond System within Interval International greatly restricts the liquidity of these points.

Can you easily use these Club points outside the Diamond Resorts International system, including here at Redweek? NO!

What you CAN use in any of the exchange companies are the underlying basis of the points - the use of the timeshare property or properties - as long as the timeshare exchange market is able to make the time available to its members. The more difficult it is to exchange due to lack of availability, fewer number properties or slow service by the exchange representatives, then the valuation of your points become discounted versus that of competing point systems (eg RCI points vs Redweek points vs Club Points vs Westin Points, etc). This is somewhat similar to fluctuating exchange rates of various country's monetary units.

I suggest you read the Timeshare Users Group forum regarding the Diamond Resorts International points: http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89924

I'm glad we did the math and determined their proposal to have US pay $12000 to have our deeded timeshare and floating red weeks 1-52 forever and irreversably deposited into The Club's point system would have resulted in the loss of our ability to reserve our annual Christmas to New Years escape. Some unfortunately did not do the math and gave into their slick sales pitch.

Better for you to use exchange your week for Redweek points, or pay for RCI's "Right-To-Use" (RTU) points that do not lock you irreversably into something that is much more limiting and potentially expensive than a currently owned timeshare week (NOT Club points).

Whatever you do PLEASE do your due diligence and read about the points systems from as many diverse sources as you can. Certainly, for some, they can make use of the advertised flexibility of point systems in general. However, DO shop around on which point system is best, because they are NOT all the same! Then try to buy your points on the secondary market. By doing so, you know the points at least have an available market, versus the Club points for which only Diamond Resorts evidently can buy back from you. More likely, I suspect, DRI just gets the points back when owners default on paying the increasingly high maintenance fees - then they can just resell them again to some other poor souls who are not aware of the intricacies of the timeshare sales business.

So it's not just me who is saying this - there are broad groups of people who have actually experienced the negative elements of the DRI points experience. Whereas the views of Rickr99 seem to be greatly in the minority viewpoint.

Finally, I've now found out from other KBC owners that DRI reps are actually being sent to people's homes to try to talk them into paying $$$ to convert their deeded property into the artificial and exchange-limited Club points. I'd certainly look for more alternatives at the very least.

With hundreds of thousands of points owners having found exceptional flexibility of the Diamond points system, with myself using 1 weeks worth of Diamond points to exchange into the Westin and Marriott on Maui for 5 weeks, Having exchanged one half of 1 weeks worth of points to exchange into Atlantis in the Bahamas, it appears the people who are having challenges are very much in the minority and simply do not get it. Sorry there are so few attempting to create so much doubt for others when the vast majority of Diamond points owners are finding there is no system i timeshare that creates more value than this. If there are a few dozen people upset, it does not negate the fact that hundreds of thousands rave about the Diamond points system, the several dozen are just a little less informed.

Do your homework b4 you lay down your hard-earned cash. Salespeople are now DESPERATE for your cash and will paint outrageously fantastic pictures to entice you to pay exorbitant $$$ for what is essentially a floating currency of points. Just like the fact there are multiple monetary currencies in the world, there are also a whole spectrum of various types and variety of points, if this is the way you want to go. Which is best for you depends on your own needs and sophistication. Complex? Yes. The panacea for everything; especially at the price DRI's the Club is offering? Do NOT take just one person's sales pitch for it as your only input - READ what others who have actually experienced BOTH the +'s and -'s.

Bottom line - it's your money, it's your time and it's therefore up to YOU to do your own due diligence on how best to use it. MANY more than just a few dozen have less than stellar opinions of DRI Club points and the costs associated with them versus the exchange power they provide. The statistical sampling of the negatives reviews over the positive reviews would lead me to believe there is some substance to many claims that the Club points are NOT as gloriously satisfying as rickr99 is attempting to "sell" (?????).

Wow, thank you so much for responding to my reply! I really appreciate the time you took. I will in fact research alot further before we decide on anything. I too thought the response from rickr99 sounded like he worked for them. anyway again!! I will do my homework thank you for the link to look up further information and I really will research and see what people are saying.!! and what the companies are doing!

If I understand your comments correctly, you would not even consider converting to the points program. My wife and I were give the right to convert this winter and still have that option, because we bought the sampler package. I was thinking of converting to the points, but am uncertain after reading your comments.

My wife and I own two units, totaling potentially 12,000 points if we convert to the points program with Diamond. They offered us the opportunity to buy the additional 3,000 points for $10,170 to get enough for the Elite Benefits with Diamond Points. We are trying to determine if this would be worth it. The sales person, from what I remember, stated:

1. That we would be able to book their 1,400 plus resorts world wide using the points directly online using the points.

2. That with the Elite membership, we could reserve an Ocean View, and pay $99 more to upgrade to a Ocean Front, at any of these resorts.

3. That we could reserve as many days as we wanted, versus only weeks.

4. That with the Elite Membership, we would be able to reserve 13 months out, versus 12 months out, insuring the top units at all resorts at the peak times, if we reserved 13 months out.

5. That with the Elite Membership, we would be able to go Online directly with Interval International and "book" at any of their resorts, versus exchanging, as you need to do without the Elite Membership.

Can anyone confirm these potential benefits? Also,

1. How easy is it to sell your points if you ever wanted to sell these. Do you still own the units? Can you sell all 15,000 points, and do they get a premium? Could I buy the additional points on Redweek and convert my units this way?

2. What if Diamond Resorts is sold or goes bankrupt? What are the benefits and detriments of having units versus points? How solvent is Diamond Resorts?

3. Are there any other issues that we should consider of converting to points, and getting to the Elite level?

Thanks for your help,

Mahalo

Very good thread with lots of information. For those that would like to insure that Kaanapali Beach Club is run in the best interest of the owners, I offer this suggestion:

With the resignation of Bill Burns due to health reasons, we need to elect 2 new representatives on our boards. Bill Burns was genuine and was trying against some very big odds, to achieve some real say-so on the board of directors on behalf of the owners. It is imperative that we work together if we are to every have a voice in the management of our resort. The first step right now is to turn in our proxy ballots by the deadline which is 11:59:59 p.m. EST on Feb. 22, 2010. Ideally we should collectively decide who we want to represent us on the VOA board and the AOAO board. Two positions on each board are up for election. I have a substantial finacial interest in Kaanapali Beach Club as an owner of numerous weeks. I want to protect that interest. The only way we can achieve a voice is to agree on who we want to serve on the board. If we all vote for different candidates, we will accomplish nothing. Losing Bill Burns meant we took a big step backwards. As you have noticed, we have heard nothing from anyone since he resigned due to health reasons. As I read through all of the candidates, two stuck out to me as two who would work hard to see that we have a say on the board. I suggest that we vote for Kristen Kirkpatrick and Lawrence Woodford. I honestly do not know them from Adam, but they sound like two people that would represent my interests. If you have other opinions, feel free to share them. Let's work together and try to equalize the situation. Above all, DO NOT SEND IN YOUR BLANK PROXY!!!! Please fill it out and vote for who you think will do a good job represening us. If you send it in blank, you will no doubt be electing another Diamond Resorts employee.

When Diamond Resorts took over our points was when our maintenance fees climbed out of sight. We have 68,000 points and pay 7,500 for the maintenance fee. We have too many points to sell this property and they mixed two deeds into one without our consent and now we can't even give it away. We are getting to old to want to use this many points and our children do not want it. The only choice that seems apparent is to pay a large sum of money for a company to take it off our hands and we are not sure this is legitimate. Anyone out there have a problem like this one?

I would not buy more points, once you get into timeshares in this economy you cannot sell them and the maintenance keeps going higher and higher, now....another company will buy our timeshare at the high cost of a year's maintenance. We aren't even sure where these points are going and how they are going to be used! The people who want us to give them money to take our timeshares tell us it is worthless. Yet we are locked in and have to pay for the rest of our lives and also our family when we die, that you can never get out. very frustrated.

Heck if I paid $17,500 a year on maintenance for my points I'm sure it would be easier to get a few weeks at the Marriott or Westin....

I sure hope you have the right to vote.