Gold Key to Diamond Acquisition - Week 1 deeded week

[malmit]

I bought 2 different weeks on the resale market (26 & 27 to cover July 4th) for a 2 bedroom oceanfront unit at the Boardwalk Resort in VA Beach and paid 11K for one and 16K for the other. I have attended the "owner update" meetings just for the heck of it and this last time the rep told me to stop attending because they are losing more money because of my gifts. They keep trying to convert me to points but I am not dumb and would never give up my peak weeks and pay 5-7 times more in maintenance fees to be a points member. Converting to points is a scam for DRI to earn more money and you lose control over your deeded week. The rep tried to scare me this last time that a big "assessment" for all gold key properties will be happening due to the major remodel happening at Beach Quarters. I told him that I don't own at Beach Quarters and if they had maintenance that caused a big assessment that it would only affect Beach Quarter owners not all "gold key" owners. This is a flat out lie.

 

[RLS50]

I bought 2 different weeks on the resale market (26 & 27 to cover July 4th) for a 2 bedroom oceanfront unit at the Boardwalk Resort in VA Beach and paid 11K for one and 16K for the other. I have attended the "owner update" meetings just for the heck of it and this last time the rep told me to stop attending because they are losing more money because of my gifts. They keep trying to convert me to points but I am not dumb and would never give up my peak weeks and pay 5-7 times more in maintenance fees to be a points member. Converting to points is a scam for DRI to earn more money and you lose control over your deeded week. The rep tried to scare me this last time that a big "assessment" for all gold key properties will be happening due to the major remodel happening at Beach Quarters. I told him that I don't own at Beach Quarters and if they had maintenance that caused a big assessment that it would only affect Beach Quarter owners not all "gold key" owners. This is a flat out lie.

Just speculation on my part, but when you look at Diamond's history, they appear to largely be an M&A creation (mergers and acquisitions) versus a home grown and internally developed company (like Marriott, Sheraton/Westin, etc). It appears that Diamond in the past bought out systems that were under duress or in various states of disrepair or in or nearing bankruptcy.

But in the case of Gold Key, Diamond did not buy out a system that was collapsing or buying a system were owners were desperate for new ownership or direction. I think most Gold Key owners were satisfied, maybe even happy, with Gold Key ownership and management. So most ex-Gold Key owners did not need any company like Diamond to sweep in and "save them." Gold Key owners didn't need Diamond. Diamond needed them to find another system where they could inflate their fees and dues to keep projecting the growth figures they needed to report to Wall St and find another pool of potential buyers for their points system.

In addition to Gold Key owners, this appears to also be true with the Club Intrawest purchase. That was another system owners seemed to be generally happy with.

Diamond has made this situation much worse with their heavy handed and unpopular policy and process changes and total lack of communication. Have you ever taken the time to read the Trip Advisor reviews of the ex-Gold Key properties since Diamond took over management of them? It's not that every review is bad, but it's the volume of extreme inconsistency that highlights the problem. Well run and well managed resorts do not have wild swings back and forth and back and forth between excellent customer reviews and mediocre to terrible ones.

And of course the average 10% increases in maintenance fees the last 2 years were almost entirely related to the big raise Diamond gave themselves to manage the property over what Gold Key was charging owners. Almost none of those increases went to increasing Front Desk staff, Maintenance, Housekeeping, or Maintenance. It did not go to improving WiFi infrastructures or increasing reserves. So another factor in what seems like growing animosity towards Diamond by ex-Gold Key owners is that they are now paying Diamond a lot more for less service, less communication, and many specific examples of surprising dysfunction inside Diamond's operational matrix.

I can tell you that many ex-Gold Key members are so frustrated with the glacially slow pace of seeing real improvements in the situation they are on the verge of organizing like Club Intrawest members did and getting their own owner representative voted in on the HOA Board.

 

[NeptuneGarden]

Just speculation on my part, but when you look at Diamond's history, they appear to largely be an M&A creation (mergers and acquisitions) versus a home grown and internally developed company (like Marriott, Sheraton/Westin, etc). It appears that Diamond in the past bought out systems that were under duress or in various states of disrepair or in or nearing bankruptcy.

But in the case of Gold Key, Diamond did not buy out a system that was collapsing or buying a system were owners were desperate for new ownership or direction. I think most Gold Key owners were satisfied, maybe even happy, with Gold Key ownership and management. So most ex-Gold Key owners did not need any company like Diamond to sweep in and "save them." Gold Key owners didn't need Diamond. Diamond needed them to find another system where they could inflate their fees and dues to keep projecting the growth figures they needed to report to Wall St and find another pool of potential buyers for their points system.

In addition to Gold Key owners, this appears to also be true with the Club Intrawest purchase. That was another system owners seemed to be generally happy with.

Diamond has made this situation much worse with their heavy handed and unpopular policy and process changes and total lack of communication. Have you ever taken the time to read the Trip Advisor reviews of the ex-Gold Key properties since Diamond took over management of them? It's not that every review is bad, but it's the volume of extreme inconsistency that highlights the problem. Well run and well managed resorts do not have wild swings back and forth and back and forth between excellent customer reviews and mediocre to terrible ones.

And of course the average 10% increases in maintenance fees the last 2 years were almost entirely related to the big raise Diamond gave themselves to manage the property over what Gold Key was charging owners. Almost none of those increases went to increasing Front Desk staff, Maintenance, Housekeeping, or Maintenance. It did not go to improving WiFi infrastructures or increasing reserves. So another factor in what seems like growing animosity towards Diamond by ex-Gold Key owners is that they are now paying Diamond a lot more for less service, less communication, and many specific examples of surprising dysfunction inside Diamond's operational matrix.

I can tell you that many ex-Gold Key members are so frustrated with the glacially slow pace of seeing real improvements in the situation they are on the verge of organizing like Club Intrawest members did and getting their own owner representative voted in on the HOA Board.

Just speculation on my part, but when you look at Diamond's history, they appear to largely be an M&A creation (mergers and acquisitions) versus a home grown and internally developed company (like Marriott, Sheraton/Westin, etc). It appears that Diamond in the past bought out systems that were under duress or in various states of disrepair or in or nearing bankruptcy.

But in the case of Gold Key, Diamond did not buy out a system that was collapsing or buying a system were owners were desperate for new ownership or direction. I think most Gold Key owners were satisfied, maybe even happy, with Gold Key ownership and management. So most ex-Gold Key owners did not need any company like Diamond to sweep in and "save them." Gold Key owners didn't need Diamond. Diamond needed them to find another system where they could inflate their fees and dues to keep projecting the growth figures they needed to report to Wall St and find another pool of potential buyers for their points system.

In addition to Gold Key owners, this appears to also be true with the Club Intrawest purchase. That was another system owners seemed to be generally happy with.

Diamond has made this situation much worse with their heavy handed and unpopular policy and process changes and total lack of communication. Have you ever taken the time to read the Trip Advisor reviews of the ex-Gold Key properties since Diamond took over management of them? It's not that every review is bad, but it's the volume of extreme inconsistency that highlights the problem. Well run and well managed resorts do not have wild swings back and forth and back and forth between excellent customer reviews and mediocre to terrible ones.

And of course the average 10% increases in maintenance fees the last 2 years were almost entirely related to the big raise Diamond gave themselves to manage the property over what Gold Key was charging owners. Almost none of those increases went to increasing Front Desk staff, Maintenance, Housekeeping, or Maintenance. It did not go to improving WiFi infrastructures or increasing reserves. So another factor in what seems like growing animosity towards Diamond by ex-Gold Key owners is that they are now paying Diamond a lot more for less service, less communication, and many specific examples of surprising dysfunction inside Diamond's operational matrix.

I can tell you that many ex-Gold Key members are so frustrated with the glacially slow pace of seeing real improvements in the situation they are on the verge of organizing like Club Intrawest members did and getting their own owner representative voted in on the HOA Board.

POSTING
Newly back from an update with offer to convert to points. Basically, it means buying another timeshare if we don't want to change the status quo while adding points at a cost of $13K and a whole new sale. Thoughts out there? Still just feels like high pressure to us.

 

[RLS50]

POSTING
Newly back from an update with offer to convert to points. Basically, it means buying another timeshare if we don't want to change the status quo while adding points at a cost of $13K and a whole new sale. Thoughts out there? Still just feels like high pressure to us.

Are you talking about buying Diamond points or converting your deed to points?