# Diamond now taking over Sunrise Ridge Resort in Pigeon Forge



## Kozman

As an owner at this resort I was shocked to receive a letter from the association announcing that Diamond has introduced itself as the management company. The letter included a request to return a proxy for a special election where 3 new board members were running. There was no customary biography on the candidates. I suspect they are all Diamond employees which might pack the board and place the resort squarely under their control. They even offered to give a $50 gift card to the first 400 who returned the proxy. They also agreed to take over the foreclosed and bad debt units which would give them even more votes on issues. I just got rid of two Diamond resorts in Williamsburg. After Diamond took over there the maintenance fees and management fees skyrocketed. Here I thought I was divorced from their clutches but here we go again.


----------



## T-Dot-Traveller

Agree - that becoming the management company is the trojan horse .


----------



## Egret1986

Kozman said:


> As an owner at this resort I was shocked to receive a letter from the association announcing that Diamond has introduced itself as the management company.



You have my condolences.  Wicked bad news.  The only thing worse than Diamond for me is their ability to come in and acquire resorts, along with their unsuspecting owners.  It happened to me and I, unfortunately, didn't see it coming.  Now to extricate myself from their clutches.


----------



## pedro47

Thanks for sharing this information; when will Diamond become the management company?
Are there other resorts involved in this management movement?


----------



## Kozman

According to my conversation with employees at Sunrise it's already a done deal. The rec building is being cleared out for sales. Employees are fearful of their job. I'm not aware of any other resorts involved.


----------



## DanZale2000

Kozman said:


> There was no customary biography on the candidates. I suspect they are all Diamond employees which might pack the board and place the resort squarely under their control.



Yep, they are all three Diamond employees.

https://www.ambervacations.com/pdfs/SunriseProxyPackage.pdf


----------



## Kozman

DanZale2000 said:


> Yep, they are all three Diamond employees.
> 
> https://www.ambervacations.com/pdfs/SunriseProxyPackage.pdf




Thanks for the bio. I do not recall getting it in the mail. They are all Diamond employees so what is the use sending in the proxy other than getting the $50. I don't recall getting anything asking for interested parties who might have wanted to run for these positions. I've been out of town a lot and it's a chore reading and catching up on the stacks of mail when I get home so I might have missed the notices. Same result. Diamond is in.


----------



## moonstone

We are away for the winter so not getting any mail. Our DD, who is checking our mail, advised us earlier this week that there are 2 letters (1 is a thicker large size envelope) from Amber there for us. We own 77K EOY Points associated with Sunrise Ridge Resort in TN. Last evening she said now there are 3 messages from them on our answering machine asking if we received the mail and stating it was urgent that we open and read what they contain. I guess that is what is in the 'important mail'.  We wont be home until Easter so I don't know if that will be in time to vote -not that we can do anything about the takeover!


~Diane


----------



## Talent312

For those of you who, when away from home, want to know what mail you're missing:
USPS has a service that will email you a scan of each day's regular-sized envelopes.
Check-out: https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action

.


----------



## lindaswain

I’m a Diamond owner, too, two (!) timeshares in Sedona, but once you’ve bought in, you hate to “get rid of” your units. I’m curious how you made the decision to dispose of your DRI timeshares.


----------



## overthehill

Talent312 said:


> For those of you who, when away from home, want to know what mail you're missing:
> USPS has a service that will email you a scan of each day's regular-sized envelopes.
> Check-out: https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action
> 
> .


Thanks for providing the information and link to the USPS service. This is a terific link for anyone who travels away from home for weeks at a time.


----------



## pedro47

overthehill said:


> Thanks for providing the information and link to the USPS service. This is a terific link for anyone who travels away from home for weeks at a time.



I also must agree this is an excellent link to a USPS service. Now we can kept track of our mail while we are away from home.


----------



## pedro47

Talent312 said:


> For those of you who, when away from home, want to know what mail you're missing:
> USPS has a service that will email you a scan of each day's regular-sized envelopes.
> Check-out: https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action
> 
> .


 Thank you for this link and information.


----------



## avad88

I agree that it is not good for owners. Diamond bought one of our resorts 3 years ago and we were hit with a high special assessment and our yearly maintenance continues to rise. In their defense, they did improve the resort, but we paid dearly for it.


----------



## DanZale2000

After poking around the Internet, it appears that Diamond has acquired Amber Vacation Club. "Amber Vacation Club and Amber Resort Management provide central reservations, owner services and resort management to 15,000 owners at three resort locations as well as two additional affiliate sites." The five combined resorts are:

Sunrise Ridge Resort, Pigeon Forge, TN
Tree Tops Resort, Gatlinburg, TN
Oakmont Resort, Pigeon Forge, TN
Casa del Mar Resort, Ormond Beach, FL
Alhambra Villas, Kissimmee, FL

Sunrise Ridge Resort is Amber managed and will become DRI managed.

Alhambra Villas is also now controlled by DRI. A slate of DRI employees are candidates for HOA board. All are running unopposed.

Casa del Mar is managed be Bluegreen and the Bluegreen Vacation Club owns 56% of the intervals.

Amber Vacation Club guidelines suggest all members own deeded intervals, there is no trust fund for pooled points. It seems likely the vacation club will be dissolved. Diamond might substitute a version of their mini-club system, as they did after acquiring Island One Resorts and its Club Navigo in 2013.

https://www.ambervacations.com/


----------



## CPTKellyG56

Kozman said:


> As an owner at this resort I was shocked to receive a letter from the association announcing that Diamond has introduced itself as the management company. The letter included a request to return a proxy for a special election where 3 new board members were running. There was no customary biography on the candidates. I suspect they are all Diamond employees which might pack the board and place the resort squarely under their control. They even offered to give a $50 gift card to the first 400 who returned the proxy. They also agreed to take over the foreclosed and bad debt units which would give them even more votes on issues. I just got rid of two Diamond resorts in Williamsburg. After Diamond took over there the maintenance fees and management fees skyrocketed. Here I thought I was divorced from their clutches but here we go again.



It happened to us, too.  Diamond snapped up our resort which was actually a "collection of resorts" (5 or 6), took control of the board, raised maintenance fees, etc.  They DID improve the resorts.  Wanted us to ALSO join THEIR "Owners Club", but we declined.  It would have been an extra $300-$400 a year (I think) so that we could then trade (use their points) internally into their OTHER resorts. 

We were an every other year owner of a week, but Diamond changed everyone to a points based system. If you don't join THEIR Diamond Owners Club (name?), we could only trade into Interval or the other resorts that were in the original collection.  The points system did allow us some flexibility.  We were able to get a great "Presidential" suite in Mexico because we used our points less than 30 days before the check-in and got a significant discount.

Unfortunately, my wife had a severe stroke a couple of years ago and is unable to travel.  I asked Diamond to release us from our "deeded week" because of her inability to travel.  They agreed to it. For a small fee (<$250), they did a deed transfer of our unit from us to them and let us go our way.


----------



## CPTKellyG56

One other point...I'm pretty sure they will change your timeshare to Diamond Points.  If you don't also join their Diamond Owners Club, you will probably only be able to use your points at the resort (or the collection of resorts if more than one) you previously owned. You should also be able to "bank" your unit with Interval if you don't want to use your points.


----------



## pedro47

DanZale2000 said:


> After poking around the Internet, it appears that Diamond has acquired Amber Vacation Club. "Amber Vacation Club and Amber Resort Management provide central reservations, owner services and resort management to 15,000 owners at three resort locations as well as two additional affiliate sites." The five combined resorts are:
> 
> Sunrise Ridge Resort, Pigeon Forge, TN
> Tree Tops Resort, Gatlinburg, TN
> Oakmont Resort, Pigeon Forge, TN
> Casa del Mar Resort, Ormond Beach, FL
> Alhambra Villas, Kissimmee, FL
> 
> Sunrise Ridge Resort is Amber managed and will become DRI managed.
> 
> Alhambra Villas is also now controlled by DRI. A slate of DRI employees are candidates for HOA board. All are running unopposed.
> 
> Casa del Mar is an affiliate. It is managed be Bluegreen and the Bluegreen Vacation Club owns 56% of the intervals.
> 
> Amber Vacation Club guidelines suggest all members own deeded intervals, there is no trust fund for pooled points. It seems likely the vacation club will be dissolved. Diamond might substitute a version of their mini-club system, as they did after acquiring Island One Resorts and its Club Navigo in 2013.
> 
> https://www.ambervacations.com/


Thanks for answering my question.


----------



## bluehende

We just stayed there last summer.  A very nice resort and the people there were amazing.


----------



## Kozman

lindaswain said:


> I’m a Diamond owner, too, two (!) timeshares in Sedona, but once you’ve bought in, you hate to “get rid of” your units. I’m curious how you made the decision to dispose of your DRI timeshares.


Maintenance fees too high.


----------



## dgganott

lindaswain said:


> I’m a Diamond owner, too, two (!) timeshares in Sedona, but once you’ve bought in, you hate to “get rid of” your units. I’m curious how you made the decision to dispose of your DRI timeshares.


We got rid of ours by "giving" it back to DRI and it cost us $250 to do so, but we had to meet their requirements, which are to have it paid off, and be up to date with the Maintenance fees.  Our worst investment ever.  We only had it for less than 3 years, and put way more money into it, than we got in usage.   We also own Beachwoods, in NC, and now they are owned by DRI.  Our maintenance fees have skyrocketed to more than $1000 per year, so that'll probably be next for us.   There's a point where the M. fees,  exchange fees,  special assessments, etc. cost way more than you'd pay to just rent a place, for vacation, and go.  We have a timeshare with Wyndham, in Bali Hai, Hawaii, and the maintenance fees haven't moved much at all,  since 2010.  There are no HVAC systems there and none needed, so it's cheaper.   We can vacation anywhere with our points from Wyndham and exchange points from Beachwoods.  We certainly don't need a 3rd timeshare, and DRI cost us the most, so we "gave" it back.


----------



## dgganott

Kozman said:


> Maintenance fees too high.


DRI is noted for that.   They were our worst investment ever.


----------



## JeffDH

Another poster suggested that your ownership is a deeded week; if that is the case I'm not convinced that they could force you to switch to points.  

If you have a choice, my suggestion would be to stick with your deeded week ownership rather than converting to points.  The developer and management company for our TS (Monarch Grand Vacations) went bankrupt and assets were acquired by Diamond, placing them as the mgmt company for our points system.  They offered to convert us into the Diamond points system, but insisted that we'd have to double our ownership stake at substantial cost, of course.  We declined, but the policies have gradually gotten less and less favorable and we are thinking about dumping it.  The last straw for me is that they switched from deposit first to request first with II, which means I can't bank the unused points I have.  Too make it worse, I had reserved a week using my points and had a nice exchange set up through SFX for Park City later this year which fell through because Diamond wouldn't confirm the reservation to SFX.  If I'd owned a fixed week that reportedly wouldn't have been a problem.  

Not sure exactly how the finances actually work, but there seems to be layers of mgmt fees...  My MGV ownership association still has substantial ownership percentages in several resorts and the 2017 budget (latest available to me) indicates that only about 65% of the MF's actually go towards MF's at the underlying resorts.  The other 35% goes to bad debt (unpaid association MF's?), management fees, and 'general and admin' expenses.  It would be interesting to look at an individual resort HOA budget and see what percentage of that budget also goes to Diamond in return for them managing the property and running the reservation/exchange system.  

I also learned just yesterday that Diamond has a separate private exchange program of their own for weeks owners called Destination Exchange, with its own membership and exchange fees of course.  The available inventory in that program does NOT appear to be identical to the Diamond Points inventory I can access, although there is some overlap in availability and a lot of overlap in the resort list.  My guess is that many of those resorts have ownership split between weeks and points, and that there is at least some isolation between the pools of inventory.  

Good luck!


----------



## moonstone

Talent312 said:


> For those of you who, when away from home, want to know what mail you're missing:
> USPS has a service that will email you a scan of each day's regular-sized envelopes.
> Check-out: https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action
> 
> .



Yes, we have friends who use this service. We live in Canada so no USPS, our Canada Post doesn't offer any such or similar service. Heck we don't even get home delivery! For well over a year we and all our neighbours (+100 people) had to drive to the next town (~10 miles) to get our mail when CP took our mailboxes that were located in a closing corner store away.

We are lucky enough to have our DD check on our mail (& scan & email important stuff to us) while we are away for the winter. Now if we could just get her to pay some of the bills! Haha! (just kidding, they're all set up with auto pay from our bank account or credit card)


~Diane


----------



## moonstone

We are confused about this whole situation.  We purchased (resale) 77K EOY RCI points from Vacation Village many years ago. We have a 2/2 unit for week 26 at Sunrise Ridge Resort on our deed.  We have a special Vacation Village RCI tel number to use when/if we need to call RCI. We also have special rates and a bonus week (similar to a Last Call) each year that allows us to stay at any Vacation Village resort (that has a vacancy) when booked less than 90 (or maybe 45?) days in advance.   We pay our maintenance fees to Amber, but that's about all we have to do with them.

So if Diamond is taking over - what will that do, or how will it affect, our association with VV?


~Diane


----------



## jackjill629

Kozman said:


> As an owner at this resort I was shocked to receive a letter from the association announcing that Diamond has introduced itself as the management company. The letter included a request to return a proxy for a special election where 3 new board members were running. There was no customary biography on the candidates. I suspect they are all Diamond employees which might pack the board and place the resort squarely under their control. They even offered to give a $50 gift card to the first 400 who returned the proxy. They also agreed to take over the foreclosed and bad debt units which would give them even more votes on issues. I just got rid of two Diamond resorts in Williamsburg. After Diamond took over there the maintenance fees and management fees skyrocketed. Here I thought I was divorced from their clutches but here we go again.



Everything I have read about this company (DRI) has been awful.  I own four deeded weeks at Sunrise Ridge and never fell into the RCI points trap, as I purchased specifically to use my time in Pigeon Forge, TN.  I do not plan to join the DRI point system and give up my deeded property as many have done in the past.  They are also taking over a portion of Alhambra in Poinciana, FL and probably Tree Tops in Gatlinburg, TN and possibly a portion of Oakmont in Pigeon Forge.  If necessary, I will just use my deeded weeks, but am hopeful they keep the Amber internal point system for Sunrise, but am quite doubtful.  Hoping to get my allotted points reserved for the remainder of 2018 before this terrible company takes over completely.


----------



## GeorgeJ.

Kozman said:


> Thanks for the bio. I do not recall getting it in the mail. They are all Diamond employees so what is the use sending in the proxy other than getting the $50. I don't recall getting anything asking for interested parties who might have wanted to run for these positions. I've been out of town a lot and it's a chore reading and catching up on the stacks of mail when I get home so I might have missed the notices. Same result. Diamond is in.


My reading of that page says not that the first 400 that vote get a $50 gift card. It says that if you're one of the first 400 you QUALIFY to win the $50 gift card. Maybe only giving ONE away?


----------



## JohnPaul

DanZale2000 said:


> After poking around the Internet, it appears that Diamond has acquired Amber Vacation Club. "Amber Vacation Club and Amber Resort Management provide central reservations, owner services and resort management to 15,000 owners at three resort locations as well as two additional affiliate sites." The five combined resorts are:
> 
> Sunrise Ridge Resort, Pigeon Forge, TN
> Tree Tops Resort, Gatlinburg, TN
> Oakmont Resort, Pigeon Forge, TN
> Casa del Mar Resort, Ormond Beach, FL
> Alhambra Villas, Kissimmee, FL
> 
> Sunrise Ridge Resort is Amber managed and will become DRI managed.
> 
> Alhambra Villas is also now controlled by DRI. A slate of DRI employees are candidates for HOA board. All are running unopposed.
> 
> Casa del Mar is managed be Bluegreen and the Bluegreen Vacation Club owns 56% of the intervals.
> 
> Amber Vacation Club guidelines suggest all members own deeded intervals, there is no trust fund for pooled points. It seems likely the vacation club will be dissolved. Diamond might substitute a version of their mini-club system, as they did after acquiring Island One Resorts and its Club Navigo in 2013.
> 
> https://www.ambervacations.com/




We own at Oakmont which has ridiculously low MF.  Never stayed there as we use our RCI points from there elsewhere.

Have not gotten any notification about DRI having any role there.


----------



## Kozman

JohnPaul said:


> We own at Oakmont which has ridiculously low MF.  Never stayed there as we use our RCI points from there elsewhere.
> 
> I own there as well and have not heard of any change there either. Hopefully Diamond won't find Oakmont attractive and leave it alone!
> 
> 
> Have not gotten any notification about DRI having any role there.


----------



## DRIless

Talent312 may want to start a new thread in the appropriate forum.  I found this several months ago after finding my mail ripped in half on the ground on the side of the road.  Great way to see what's MISSING from your mailbox!





Talent312 said:


> For those of you who, when away from home, want to know what mail you're missing:
> USPS has a service that will email you a scan of each day's regular-sized envelopes.
> Check-out: https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action
> 
> .





overthehill said:


> Thanks for providing the information and link to the USPS service. This is a terific link for anyone who travels away from home for weeks at a time.





pedro47 said:


> I also must agree this is an excellent link to a USPS service. Now we can kept track of our mail while we are away from home.





pedro47 said:


> Thank you for this link and information.


----------



## JohnPaul

https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/informed-delivery-by-the-postal-service.271324/

Here is a discussion of this USPS service.


----------



## crowmg

JeffDH said:


> Another poster suggested that your ownership is a deeded week; if that is the case I'm not convinced that they could force you to switch to points.
> 
> If you have a choice, my suggestion would be to stick with your deeded week ownership rather than converting to points.  The developer and management company for our TS (Monarch Grand Vacations) went bankrupt and assets were acquired by Diamond, placing them as the mgmt company for our points system.  They offered to convert us into the Diamond points system, but insisted that we'd have to double our ownership stake at substantial cost, of course.  We declined, but the policies have gradually gotten less and less favorable and we are thinking about dumping it.  The last straw for me is that they switched from deposit first to request first with II, which means I can't bank the unused points I have.  Too make it worse, I had reserved a week using my points and had a nice exchange set up through SFX for Park City later this year which fell through because Diamond wouldn't confirm the reservation to SFX.  If I'd owned a fixed week that reportedly wouldn't have been a problem.
> 
> Not sure exactly how the finances actually work, but there seems to be layers of mgmt fees...  My MGV ownership association still has substantial ownership percentages in several resorts and the 2017 budget (latest available to me) indicates that only about 65% of the MF's actually go towards MF's at the underlying resorts.  The other 35% goes to bad debt (unpaid association MF's?), management fees, and 'general and admin' expenses.  It would be interesting to look at an individual resort HOA budget and see what percentage of that budget also goes to Diamond in return for them managing the property and running the reservation/exchange system.
> 
> I also learned just yesterday that Diamond has a separate private exchange program of their own for weeks owners called Destination Exchange, with its own membership and exchange fees of course.  The available inventory in that program does NOT appear to be identical to the Diamond Points inventory I can access, although there is some overlap in availability and a lot of overlap in the resort list.  My guess is that many of those resorts have ownership split between weeks and points, and that there is at least some isolation between the pools of inventory.
> 
> Good luck!


----------



## crowmg

We purchased 3 timeshares from second party sellers and they are all deeded weeks and they are for the weeks that we want for Bike Week in Daytona Beach and Bike Week in Myrtle Beach and another for Biketoberfest in Daytona Beach.  If we gave these up for points, we would  not be able to get these specific weeks for these events.  We intend to keep our weeks units because we use them every year, we do not turn them in for trade or bank them.  Has anyone been forced to convert their weeks to points in any of the companies that have taken over management of their resorts.


----------



## nuwermj

Looks like Diamond purchased the Amber Vacation Club (a five resort exchange company) and the developer's rights at Sunrise Ridge (Pigeon Forge) and Alhambra (Kissimmee). Diamond's goal is to convert current deeded owner to THE Club for lots of money. Twitter posts say the Sales Center at Sunrise Ridge is opening April 16. 

https://www.insidethegate.com/2018/04/diamond-resorts-completes-acquisition-of-amber-vacation-club/


----------



## Kozman

nuwermj said:


> Looks like Diamond purchased the Amber Vacation Club (a five resort exchange company) and the developer's rights at Sunrise Ridge (Pigeon Forge) and Alhambra (Kissimmee). Diamond's goal is to convert current deeded owner to THE Club for lots of money. Twitter posts say the Sales Center at Sunrise Ridge is opening April 16.
> 
> https://www.insidethegate.com/2018/04/diamond-resorts-completes-acquisition-of-amber-vacation-club/




One phrase in particular sticks out in this article....'while establishing adequate operating reserves in the resort budgets'. Translation...we think they are too low now and your maintenance fees need to go up a lot!


----------



## nuwermj

Kozman said:


> One phrase in particular sticks out in this article....'while establishing adequate operating reserves in the resort budgets'. Translation...we think they are too low now and your maintenance fees need to go up a lot!



Absolutely!


----------



## DRIless

crowmg said:


> We purchased 3 timeshares from second party sellers and they are all deeded weeks and they are for the weeks that we want for Bike Week in Daytona Beach and Bike Week in Myrtle Beach and another for Biketoberfest in Daytona Beach.  If we gave these up for points, we would  not be able to get these specific weeks for these events.  We intend to keep our weeks units because we use them every year, we do not turn them in for trade or bank them.  Has anyone been forced to convert their weeks to points in any of the companies that have taken over management of their resorts.


They will use scare tactics but they can't/won't force you.


----------



## Kozman

Funny but I just received a letter from Sunrise indicating I had to reserve my week before xxxxxxx or it will automatically go into my Amber points account!!!!? Wonder if they will honor points already banked?


----------



## DRIless

Kozman said:


> Funny but I just received a letter from Sunrise indicating I had to reserve my week before xxxxxxx or it will automatically go into my Amber points account!!!!? Wonder if they will honor points already banked?


They'll use scare tactics like:
"All your fellow owners are converting to THE Club, if you don't, your ability to book what you want will constantly dwindle."

You _should_ be able to continue as you did before and your Amber Points _should_ be there.


----------



## Kozman

Both Oakmont Resort and Tretops Resort are listed as Diamond properties. Bad news for owners.

https://www.diamondresorts.com/destinations/filter/united-states/tennessee


----------



## johnnythatsmyboy

We are RCI points owners @ Treetops. Could you please elaborate on the "bad news" comment and what we should be expecting other than an increase in our maintenance fees.


----------



## kwelty

Kozman said:


> Both Oakmont Resort and Tretops Resort are listed as Diamond properties. Bad news for owners.
> 
> https://www.diamondresorts.com/destinations/filter/united-states/tennessee


It is listed as an affiliated property, I don't believe it is controlled by DRI.


----------



## pedro47

How many resorts does DRI manage?

How many affiliated properties does DRI have in The Club.


----------



## Maple_Leaf

pedro47 said:


> How many resorts does DRI manage?
> 
> How many affiliated properties does DRI have in The Club.


DRI owns Sunrise Ridge in Pigeon Forge and Bent Creek Golf Village in Gatlinburg.

DRI owns affiliated units at Gatlinburg Town Square, Gatlinburg Town Village and Tree Tops in Gatlinburg.  They also own affiliated units at Mountain Meadows and Oakmont in Pigeon Forge.

DRI affiliation is like a case of the shingles for other owners. DRI can lie dormant for years and strike with ferocity when you least expect it using your own timeshare governance against you.


----------



## nuwermj

pedro47 said:


> How many resorts does DRI manage?



About 111 resorts are managed by Diamond, including the nine Embarc resorts which are not available to Club Diamond members.



pedro47 said:


> How many affiliated properties does DRI have in The Club.



The number is always changing, but something in the neighborhood of 350 are "affiliated." There are four types of affiliates in the system.


----------



## nuwermj

Maple_Leaf said:


> DRI owns affiliated units at Gatlinburg Town Square, Gatlinburg Town Village and Tree Tops in Gatlinburg.  They also own affiliated units at Mountain Meadows and Oakmont in Pigeon Forge.



I don't think this is correct. Diamond has no ownership affiliations with these resorts.

Oakmont and Tree Tops are part of the Amber Vacation Club. When Diamond purchased Amber, they took over management of that Club. Amber members can still exchange among the five club resorts. But Club Diamond members have no access to Oakmont, Tree Tops or Casa del Mar.


----------



## nuwermj

Kozman said:


> Both Oakmont Resort and Tretops Resort are listed as Diamond properties. Bad news for owners.
> 
> https://www.diamondresorts.com/destinations/filter/united-states/tennessee



But availability for Club Diamond members is zero. Oakmont, Tree Tops and Casa del Mar are listed because Amber Vacation Club members have access.


----------



## Maple_Leaf

nuwermj said:


> I don't think this is correct. Diamond has no ownership affiliations with these resorts.
> 
> Oakmont and Tree Tops are part of the Amber Vacation Club. When Diamond purchased Amber, they took over management of that Club. Amber members can still exchange among the five club resorts. But Club Diamond members have no access to Oakmont, Tree Tops or Casa del Mar.


Diamond claims all these resorts as "Club Affiliated." 

https://www.diamondresorts.com/destinations/property/Oakmont-Resort

That DRI would generate disinformation about these resorts doesn't surprise me.


----------



## nuwermj

Maple_Leaf said:


> Diamond claims all these resorts as "Club Affiliated."
> 
> https://www.diamondresorts.com/destinations/property/Oakmont-Resort
> 
> That DRI would generate disinformation about these resorts doesn't surprise me.



My point is that Diamond does not "*own* affiliated units at ... " as you stated. They clearly define an "affiliated" resort in public documents.


----------



## Maple_Leaf

nuwermj said:


> My point is that Diamond does not "*own* affiliated units at ... " as you stated. They clearly define an "affiliated" resort in public documents.


Diamond presents these resorts as "Club Affiliated" on their corporate website. Thank you for the clarification that there are multiple types of affiliation. Whether their corporate henchmen actually own intervals at these resorts or their marketing lackeys just claim "Club Affiliated" doesn't matter to me. DRI is presenting to the public that these are Club Affiliated resorts, the same public to which they pitch membership in The Club.


----------



## DRIless

Maple_Leaf said:


> Diamond presents these resorts as "Club Affiliated" on their corporate website. Thank you for the clarification that there are multiple types of affiliation. Whether their corporate henchmen actually own intervals at these resorts or their marketing lackeys just claim "Club Affiliated" doesn't matter to me. DRI is presenting to the public that these are Club Affiliated resorts, the same public to which they pitch membership in The Club.


Though, in the multitudes of documentation that no one ever reads, it has how many 'affiliated resorts' unit-weeks are in Club inventory .... In most cases it is negligible!!!  And just boosts the hopes and expectations of the new Club Member, only to find that it can almost never be booked.


----------



## Kozman

I just recently attended one of my owned weeks at Oakmont Resort. All indications are that Diamond will not be taking over Oakmont and Treetops to the same extent as Sunrise Ridge. They appear on the Diamond website as affialiated which means very little at this time. Maintenance fees have been announced as having a 4.5% increase at Sunrise Ridge. I was expecting much worse from Diamond.


----------



## Kozman

jackjill629 said:


> Everything I have read about this company (DRI) has been awful.  I own four deeded weeks at Sunrise Ridge and never fell into the RCI points trap, as I purchased specifically to use my time in Pigeon Forge, TN.  I do not plan to join the DRI point system and give up my deeded property as many have done in the past.  They are also taking over a portion of Alhambra in Poinciana, FL and probably Tree Tops in Gatlinburg, TN and possibly a portion of Oakmont in Pigeon Forge.  If necessary, I will just use my deeded weeks, but am hopeful they keep the Amber internal point system for Sunrise, but am quite doubtful.  Hoping to get my allotted points reserved for the remainder of 2018 before this terrible company takes over completely.




The recent mailing I got from Sunrise listed an approximate 4.5% maintenance fee increase for 2019. I was expecting a lot higher increase based on past experience with Diamond.


----------



## Biomedbob

I also got the proxy showing the 4.7% increase in the maintenance fee.  I've started looking into options for getting rid of this bad choice on our part.  What a tangled web!  I already received a bunch of sales calls for all sorts of companies because of a simple inquiry I made yesterday.


----------



## Kozman

Biomedbob said:


> I also got the proxy showing the 4.7% increase in the maintenance fee.  I've started looking into options for getting rid of this bad choice on our part.  What a tangled web!  I already received a bunch of sales calls for all sorts of companies because of a simple inquiry I made yesterday.



That's probably a good idea. Now would be a good time. I fear Diamond hasn't yet got their claws into the resort long enough to establish their master plan for 'improvements' and don't want to scare the resident wallets away just yet. I owned at Greensprings in Williamsburg when Diamond took over from Sunterra. It was a year or two into the change where they raised the MF by 23% in one year! When I bought it was $485. When I disposed of it the MF was $1600! I took advantage of their buy back offer for $250 per unit. That offer is now $750!


----------



## Maple_Leaf

Kozman said:


> That's probably a good idea. Now would be a good time. I fear Diamond hasn't yet got their claws into the resort long enough to establish their master plan for 'improvements' and don't want to scare the resident wallets away just yet.


Does Diamond control the board? If not, Diamond will start attending the board meetings with scary Vegas guys in tow. Some board members will decide they've had enough of the nonsense and retire, then DRI will run their henchmen for the open seats. Once DRI controls the board the fees will accelerate upward. Owners will default and DRI will take over the defaulted intervals for The Club. They've done this many times before with only a handful of resorts able to withstand the pressure and retain owner control.

Try searching on combinations of Diamond and:

Tahoe Beach and Ski Club
Cypress Pointe
Royal Dunes


----------



## Kozman

I just attended the owners annual meeting at Oakmont Resort. There were rumors Diamond would be taking them and Treetops. Charey Anderson President put an end to that rumor. Diamond will NOT be coming. That is great news.


----------



## nuwermj

Kozman said:


> I just attended the owners annual meeting at Oakmont Resort. There were rumors Diamond would be taking them and Treetops. Charey Anderson President put an end to that rumor. Diamond will NOT be coming. That is great news.



Kozman, was anything said about the future relationship with Amber Vacation Club? Will the club continue? Can current members continue to convert their home resort week into AVC points? And most importantly, can new owners join AVC and trade their home resort week for other AVC locations?


----------



## Sandy VDH

I rescinded a Sunterra in 1997.  Lucky #1.  If I would have kept it, it would have become a Diamond.  Lucky #2.

Been a TUGger ever since.  Lucky #3.


----------



## Kozman

nuwermj said:


> Kozman, was anything said about the future relationship with Amber Vacation Club? Will the club continue? Can current members continue to convert their home resort week into AVC points? And most importantly, can new owners join AVC and trade their home resort week for other AVC locations?



That question was posed at least in one form or another. The answer is Diamond took over Amber so all answers have to come from them. I doubt new Amber members would be allowed. Diamond wants you to buy Diamond points. Since I own at both Oakmont and Sunrise Ridge I will have to contend with Diamond to use my Amber points. I haven't tried to book my week for '19. The rumor I heard was that Amber people will only get to use the bottom floor while the top floors would be reserved for Diamond owners.


----------



## Kozman

Sandy VDH said:


> I rescinded a Sunterra in 1997.  Lucky #1.  If I would have kept it, it would have become a Diamond.  Lucky #2.
> 
> Been a TUGger ever since.  Lucky #3.




I owned with Sunterra at Greensprings and Powhatan. That was about 2000. After that my maintenance fees doubled and tripled from about $485 to $1600. A couple of years ago I deeded my Diamond properties back at $250 per week. Now you will need to pop for $750 to get Diamond to take the deed back. If possible stay very far away!


----------



## pedro47

How much are The Club dues  for 2019 ?


----------



## nuwermj

pedro47 said:


> How much are The Club dues  for 2019 ?



For Diamond point owners dues are $181 plus $0.00518 per point, with a minimum dues of $245 (the cut off is about 12,300 points)

For deeded week assigned to the Club, dues are $285 plus $0.00988 per point (no minimum amount)


----------



## pedro47

I did not know that DRI have taken over Royal Dune on HHI, SC.


----------



## Kozman

I visited Sunrise recently only to find out that the recreation department has been eliminated. But I have not heard anything about my maintenance fee being lowered by the comparable amount.


----------



## DRIless

pedro47 said:


> I did not know that DRI have taken over Royal Dune on HHI, SC.


DRI has not "taken over" Royal Dunes, it's a _Club Affiliate_ with limited inventory and is not under DRI management unless you have new news not reflected on DRI website.


----------



## moonstone

Kozman said:


> I visited Sunrise recently only to find out that the recreation department has been eliminated. But I have not heard anything about my maintenance fee being lowered by the comparable amount.



Wow!  Yes if Diamond is taking departments and staff away our maintenance fees should be going down -not up!  


~Diane


----------



## bluehende

Kozman said:


> I visited Sunrise recently only to find out that the recreation department has been eliminated. But I have not heard anything about my maintenance fee being lowered by the comparable amount.



That is such a shame.  We were there a while ago and had lovely interactions with them.


----------

