# DRI clones RCI



## hvsteve1 (Oct 31, 2009)

I have been attempting to exchange through the Club into a DRI property in Orlando for the first half of December. Looking on line and calling, they have absolutely nothing unless I wish to check in one place for three days, check out for a day, and check into another place for another three days. Really attractive proposition!   At the same time they have something like 60 or 70 weeks available for rental on their web site. Didn't RCI just settle a suit over this nonsense. What I paid for a timeshare plus $1,200 per year in fees and I can't get a unit in one of the most available timeshare markets in the country unless I want to rent.  At the same time II has tons of availabllity those weeks, including many weeks at top-rated Marriotts.


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## Jennie (Nov 1, 2009)

hvsteve1 said:


> I have been attempting to exchange through the Club into a DRI property in Orlando for the first half of December. Looking on line and calling, they have absolutely nothing unless I wish to check in one place for three days, check out for a day, and check into another place for another three days. Really attractive proposition!   At the same time they have something like 60 or 70 weeks available for rental on their web site. Didn't RCI just settle a suit over this nonsense. What I paid for a timeshare plus $1,200 per year in fees and I can't get a unit in one of the most available timeshare markets in the country unless I want to rent.  At the same time II has tons of availabllity those weeks, including many weeks at top-rated Marriotts.



I am not a DRI owner but have been helping an elderly couple try to figure out how to make some reservations. They have owned it for years and took only a couple of vacations. 

My understanding is that you can deposit some or all of your points into I.I. and then reserve weeks through them I.I.. I know that when I search with this couple, those DRI Points pull a lot of great weeks. It will cost you and exchange fee, though. Your I.I. membership is free as a DRI owner. Have you tried doing this? It may be too late for this year but could work well for some of your future vacation plans.


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## Jennie (Nov 1, 2009)

hvsteve1 said:


> Didn't RCI just settle a suit over this nonsense.



Not yet. We're fighting hard to get a better settlement. Please pass the word on to any RCI members you may know.
http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=100107


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## dougp26364 (Nov 1, 2009)

hvsteve1 said:


> I have been attempting to exchange through the Club into a DRI property in Orlando for the first half of December. Looking on line and calling, they have absolutely nothing unless I wish to check in one place for three days, check out for a day, and check into another place for another three days. Really attractive proposition!   At the same time they have something like 60 or 70 weeks available for rental on their web site. Didn't RCI just settle a suit over this nonsense. What I paid for a timeshare plus $1,200 per year in fees and I can't get a unit in one of the most available timeshare markets in the country unless I want to rent.  At the same time II has tons of availabllity those weeks, including many weeks at top-rated Marriotts.



I have noticed with DRI that, so long as you're booking DRI owned/managed resorts you're booking 6 months in advance, you'll almost always see a very good selection for exchange. However, when looking at 6 months or less for the Branson, MO area (also over developed) that the pickings are pretty slim. 

I wanted to add a unit for our December trip for our son who decided to go with us. All that was available was studio units. I don't know if this is a new policy or if it was a practice continued from the days of Sunterra. All I know is that if there's something I want and I need/want a unit bigger than a studio, it appears I'd better make up my mind well in advance of the need. The 59 day or less window and being able to snag an exchange for half price doesn't seem like it will work very well for us.

With RCI it doesn't seem to matter when you want to book be it 1 month or 24 months. They never seem to have exchanges available but they always seem to have plenty of rentals ready for you to buy.


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## csalter2 (Nov 1, 2009)

*Reserve Earlier*



hvsteve1 said:


> I have been attempting to exchange through the Club into a DRI property in Orlando for the first half of December. Looking on line and calling, they have absolutely nothing unless I wish to check in one place for three days, check out for a day, and check into another place for another three days. Really attractive proposition!   At the same time they have something like 60 or 70 weeks available for rental on their web site. Didn't RCI just settle a suit over this nonsense. What I paid for a timeshare plus $1,200 per year in fees and I can't get a unit in one of the most available timeshare markets in the country unless I want to rent.  At the same time II has tons of availabllity those weeks, including many weeks at top-rated Marriotts.



There are also units that DRI owns. Those are the weeks that you see available. They have to make some of their money back when the units are not used. If not, then the loss will be placed on us owners. 

If you just started looking for December reservations and really expect to get them, you need to change that habit.  However, I would also suggest that you go through I.I. because you can get very good exchanges. Yes, I know that it costs, but you will use less points and it may be very much worth it.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Nov 1, 2009)

hvsteve1 said:


> I have been attempting to exchange through the Club into a DRI property in Orlando for the first half of December. Looking on line and calling, they have absolutely nothing unless I wish to check in one place for three days, check out for a day, and check into another place for another three days. Really attractive proposition!   At the same time they have something like 60 or 70 weeks available for rental on their web site. Didn't RCI just settle a suit over this nonsense. What I paid for a timeshare plus $1,200 per year in fees and I can't get a unit in one of the most available timeshare markets in the country unless I want to rent.  At the same time II has tons of availabllity those weeks, including many weeks at top-rated Marriotts.


At most DRI resorts, the deeds can be put into three pools:

Deeds that have been added to one of the DRI Trusts
Deeds that are owned by individuals who are not part of a Trust
Deeds that the developer owns - i.e., unsold inventory.

Now, I'm not sure what you're getting at in your post.  Are you saying that:

DRI is taking for itself more inventory than it is entitled to based on the amount of inventory that DRI itself owns?
DRI should make unsold inventory available to Club members (even if that means that Club owners get a larger portion of the inventory than they would be entitled just based on the number of deeds that are owned by the Trust).
it is inappropriate for DRI to rent out weeks that it owns.
other ?????
If I knew exactly what your basic concern is, I might be able to respond more on point.


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## drivable (Nov 2, 2009)

Sounds like the concern is that DRI is using its points block (developer controlled points that are in THE Club) to reserve what it thinks is the best rental inventory to the detriment of the rank and file Club members.  They control the reservation system, they get what they want.


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## dougp26364 (Nov 2, 2009)

drivable said:


> Sounds like the concern is that DRI is using its points block (developer controlled points that are in THE Club) to reserve what it thinks is the best rental inventory to the detriment of the rank and file Club members.  They control the reservation system, they get what they want.



I'm not sure that would be accurate. If it were, I'd expect Hawaii to be a tough internal exchange and it hasn't been. For that matter, so long as it's been a DRI managed resort rather than an affiliate resort and so long as I've searched far enough in advance (6 months or longer) I've seen availability.

At issue is the fact the OP has waited until the last minute to make a reservation. It is highly likely that DRI allowed owners to reserve, in advance, what they wanted and have kept for rent what hasn't already been reserved for owners. If this was 6 oto 12 months in advance I might feel differently but we're talking less than 8 weeks before the date of travel. If DRI has waited that long to take inventory to rent then I feel they've given owners/members plenty of time to select what they want first and rent what was left over.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Nov 3, 2009)

drivable said:


> Sounds like the concern is that DRI is using its points block (developer controlled points that are in THE Club) to reserve what it thinks is the best rental inventory to the detriment of the rank and file Club members.  They control the reservation system, they get what they want.





dougp26364 said:


> At issue is the fact the OP has waited until the last minute to make a reservation. It is highly likely that DRI allowed owners to reserve, in advance, what they wanted and have kept for rent what hasn't already been reserved for owners. If this was 6 oto 12 months in advance I might feel differently but we're talking less than 8 weeks before the date of travel. If DRI has waited that long to take inventory to rent then I feel they've given owners/members plenty of time to select what they want first and rent what was left over.


I agree with Doug.  The information presented here does not support that presumption at all. Even if DRI had no developer inventory at a resort, during peak times you wouldn't expect availability eight weeks before check-in.


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## Bill4728 (Nov 3, 2009)

Since this thread has nothing to do with RCI, I'm moving this to the other TS board where Diamond issues are posted.


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## dougp26364 (Nov 4, 2009)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> I agree with Doug.  The information presented here does not support that presumption at all. Even if DRI had no developer inventory at a resort, during peak times you wouldn't expect availability eight weeks before check-in.



For giggles I did a check last night to see what availability looked like for Orlando in Dec. It's pretty thin but, I did see a 1 bedroom available for the first week of December for a 7 night stay.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Nov 4, 2009)

dougp26364 said:


> For giggles I did a check last night to see what availability looked like for Orlando in Dec. It's pretty thin but, I did see a 1 bedroom available for the first week of December for a 7 night stay.



Only one week available, for the first week of December.  Hmmm .... from that info, should we now presume that DRI is skimming most of the off-season weeks for rental????


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## dougp26364 (Nov 4, 2009)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> Only one week available, for the first week of December.  Hmmm .... from that info, should we now presume that DRI is skimming most of the off-season weeks for rental????




Probably.   DRI does rent a lot of off season weeks. When our son decided (last minute) to go with us to Branson for December, all I could reserve online was a studio unit. Now if I wanted to rent a week in a larger 1 bedroom unit for him, I believe there was plenty of low cost rental units available. Since we waited until last minute there wasn't much available to reserve with our points. It doesn't upset me because it was a last minute thing. DRI needs to do something with excess inventory and they can't wait until the last minute for owners that haven't planned ahead. If they did that, there would likely be a lot of DRI owned points inventory that would go to waste. That would undoubtedly increase costs and in turn increase fee's to owners. There has to be a point where DRI says that's it, we need to get our inventory into the rental system. Both to cover costs and to provide their sales staff with potential warm bodies for preview tours. 

This is all fine by me as we plan well in advance. I just made our two fall reservations this morning for Sept. and Nov. of 2010. Yea I know I'm a little late making the Sept. reservation but, that location and resort doesn't fill those weeks very fast and it just kept slipping my mind. So long as THE Club shows good availability for their owned/managed resorts in advance I don't really care what they do with the short notice and shoulder/off season weeks.

For that matter, when I can I'll reserve the short stay we have planned for Branson in 2010 as soon as the booking window opens for THE Club members. We really enjoy/prefer staying in their Deluxe units and there aren't that many of them available. So it's first come, first served and since I can plan that far in advance I'll make the reservation at the ealiest possible opportunity. It helps avoid dissapointment that way.


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