# Diamond resort with new managment



## ccwu (Jun 13, 2015)

I was in Kaanapali Beach Club owner's update last month.  I was told by the sales person that there is a lots of changes since Guggenheim Capital LLC paid Cloobeck 1.2 Billions for DRI and retired Cloobeck in 2015. New CEO is David Palmer now.  They intended to do a lots of changes to compete with Hilton. They are buying back inventories from the old owner who were not using them and sell it higher price due to lack of inventories in Maui.  They were talking about the cost per point structure was going to change for demands and supplies and definitely would raise the price in Hawaii.  They said that they were even trying to pay higher than the old purchasing price for certain older owners who do not use them anymore.  

They said that they put 5% of the inventories to travel network for rent for most of the DRI properties.  They could only put up to 2% of KBC to travel net work for rent and usually is much higher than maintenance fee ($400-$700 per night) and sold out shortly after it was putting out.  

Of course, I think most of the claims is hyped and trying to emphasize the value and scarcity.  But some of them may be true.  

The sales people were much busier than last time I visited.  I guess they got some buy back points or deeds.  

Also, I asked about if I wanted a specific unit, do I have privilege as before  when Cloobeck was the CEO for being platinum elite.  They said "NO"  The new policy all depends on the time reserved and confirmed and not elite-ship.  He said that after my reservation, I needed to call to confirm my room request (per owner's manual that you only have certain number of fixed unit request per level of elite ship.)  I further asked if I got a confirmation of a unit in a resorts that has a lot of fixed week owners, do I actually get that unit over the fixed owner.  They said that if they could confirm for a unit for certain week interval, that was because those were not owned by fixed week owner for the unit in the interval.  They said that there were very few resorts had more than 5% fixed week owners and the points owner definitely had more choice and flexibility if reserved early.  They were also watch the market and internet for sale site to buy back the DRI points and deeded week.


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## mtforeman (Jul 8, 2015)

ccwu said:


> I
> Also, I asked about if I wanted a specific unit, do I have privilege as before  when Cloobeck was the CEO for being platinum elite.  They said "NO"  The new policy all depends on the time reserved and confirmed and not elite-ship.  He said that after my reservation, I needed to call to confirm my room request (per owner's manual that you only have certain number of fixed unit request per level of elite ship.)  I further asked if I got a confirmation of a unit in a resorts that has a lot of fixed week owners, do I actually get that unit over the fixed owner.  They said that if they could confirm for a unit for certain week interval, that was because those were not owned by fixed week owner for the unit in the interval.



Thank you for sharing!  This is interesting.  Of course, how much is true, LOL.  I'm still not sure why a salesperson would want to downplay elite perks, though, since that is what they use to sell more points, so perhaps that is true.

I can't fathom why a points person would ever "get that unit over the fixed owner."  I mean, if you are a fixed week owner, that is one of the benefits...you are guaranteed that week.  You don't have flexibility, but you have security.  Perhaps if the resort requires some sort of early confirmation and it isn't received?

Again, thanks for sharing.


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## nuwermj (Jul 29, 2015)

ccwu said:


> I was in Kaanapali Beach Club owner's update last month.  I was told by the sales person that there is a lots of changes since Guggenheim Capital LLC paid Cloobeck 1.2 Billions for DRI and retired Cloobeck in 2015. New CEO is David Palmer now.  They intended to do a lots of changes to compete with Hilton.



David Palmer replaced Cloobeck as CEO on 1 January 2013. He has had two and a half years to make changes. Have you seen any of them yet?

http://vegasinc.com/community/press-releases/1615/


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## friedshrimp (Oct 4, 2015)

As an FYI, Cloobeck is not retired and still sits on the DRI Board of Directors. He is just not the CEO anymore.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Oct 4, 2015)

I have to say that I have a somewhat biased positive impression of Cloobeck. 

When Diamond first took over Sunterra, I sent him an e-mail, as he had made his e-mail address available.  After he got my e-mail, he actually set up a real user account at Timeshare Forums, and posted over there. What CEO of any similar timeshare has ever cared enough about the ordinary users like us to get personal and direct input?

When Cloobeck was CEO he made his personal e-mail address available. If you sent him an e-mail, you got a response from him. Personally. Letting you know that he got your message and how it was being handled.  Again, what CEO of any similar company ever made himself or herself that available?

I have to say that the customer service I have received from DRI to date has been excellent.  When I have had problems I have gotten help from senior staff people who are capable or resolving problems and issues. One specific example is that when they were first there were some glitches in recognizing deeded owners, as well as some bugs in the system.  I brought those to their attention and received personal communication (telephone and e-mail)  from a supervisor with superpower access who could override the system to get me the reservation rights and privileges I was supposed to have.  At the same time, the person filled out an IT trouble ticket and regularly kept me informed of progress on the trouble ticket.  

On several other occasions I have posted in their member forums about issues and have received personal contact - email and phone -with representatives who could solve the issues. 

Finally, I have had a couple of personal e-mail interactions with Mr. Cloobeck, most poignantly after Odile hit Cabo.  In our correspondence, Mr. Cloobeck's primary concern was the situation and well-being of the DRI staffers in Cabo Azul, particularly the housekeeping and maintenance staff.  After one of our e-mail exchanges Mr. Cloobeck asked for my phone number and called me, at 11 pm at night, to talk about what was going on at the resort and what DRI was doing. After Odile he was on the first flight into Cabo that he could arrange, and he met with as many staffers as he could.  You won't find that written up anyplace or being touted.  He just did it because he felt it was the right and proper thing to do. Maybe he was shining me on, but I really doubt it. 

****

I certainly get and understand the increases in maintenance fees.  It has been painful for us as well. But I also realize that Sunterra was less than a basket case when DRI took them over, and the increases were going to be needed.  I've been much more confident giving money to DRI than I ever was to Sunterra. (Especially since we kept our deed at Poipu instead of ceding it to the trust, so we had to eat the entire water intrusion assessment.)

But under Cloobeck there really was a "Diamond Difference". My judgement is still reserved as to whether that will continue to be the case.


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## Egret1986 (Oct 5, 2015)

*Thanks, Steve, for sharing your personal experiences.  It gives me optimism.*



T_R_Oglodyte said:


> I have to say that I have a somewhat biased positive impression of Cloobeck.
> 
> When Diamond first took over Sunterra, I sent him an e-mail, as he had made his e-mail address available.  After he got my e-mail, he actually set up a real user account at Timeshare Forums, and posted over there. What CEO of any similar timeshare has ever cared enough about the ordinary users like us to get personal and direct input?
> 
> ...



Our little ol' Gold Key Resorts in Virginia Beach and Kitty Hawk, NC were just swallowed by up by DRI.  There's a lot of negative out there on TUG, for the most part.  

As you said, it's a wait-and-see with David Palmer as CEO.

I'm impressed with the things you mentioned about Cloobeck and that issues were handled by staff that can really do something.


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## dwojo (Oct 5, 2015)

My wife and I just did updates in Hawaii. The update in Maui was horrible. They could answer no questions were a bit rude and did not even give us the right information in the sales pitch. On Kauai my wife was convinced to do another update. This one was much better and we were given much more accurate information. The person we dealt with on Kauai was very good and taught us quite a lot. DRI needs to get Mr Cloobeck more involved again. Updates were more like the one we did on Kauai with him in charge and that is what got us to buy.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Oct 6, 2015)

dwojo said:


> My wife and I just did updates in Hawaii. The update in Maui was horrible. They could answer no questions were a bit rude and did not even give us the right information in the sales pitch. On Kauai my wife was convinced to do another update. This one was much better and we were given much more accurate information. The person we dealt with on Kauai was very good and taught us quite a lot. DRI needs to get Mr Cloobeck more involved again. Updates were more like the one we did on Kauai with him in charge and that is what got us to buy.


I think it all depends on who you get.  A couple of years ago we did updates on Kauai and Maui on successive weeks, and our experience was the complete opposite of yours - Maui was helpful and informative; Kauai not so and verged on rude once it was clear that we weren't going to buy more and we had frustrations with our ownership that he couldn't address.


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