# DRI adds Rancho Manana



## nightnurse613 (Oct 18, 2011)

They added what?   Who?  They must be picking these up cheap.  Unfortunately I am pretty confident that they will not reach their obvious intent to own all the timeshares in Arizona.  How about picking up a nice California coastal resort for your members?    Of course, I guess when California falls into the ocean......


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## Bill4728 (Oct 18, 2011)

Rancho Manana was a great resort just north of phoenix.  IMHO you're lucky it is now part of the DRI resort families.


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## LynnW (Oct 19, 2011)

Bill4728 said:


> Rancho Manana was a great resort just north of phoenix.  IMHO you're lucky it is now part of the DRI resort families.



I agree! We stayed at Rancho Manana  twice before all the problems. I would love to stay there again.

Lynn


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## dwojo (Oct 19, 2011)

Bill4728 said:


> Rancho Manana was a great resort just north of phoenix.  IMHO you're lucky it is now part of the DRI resort families.



DRI has to many resorts in Arizona. They do not diversify the areas of availability enough.


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## unavailable55 (Oct 19, 2011)

How many points will it take for a week there?


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## dougp26364 (Oct 19, 2011)

Personally, this resort intriques me with it's location. While we have plenty of access into AZ resorts, we've not always fans of being in town so much as out in the scenery. Yes DRI has a lot of resorts in AZ but, if it offers a slightly different location then to use it's another option. DRI also offers a ton of options in Orlando but, each resort offers something a little different than the others from what I can see. I guess we can tend to be a little more particular than other owners. 

I am curious as to the problems this resort has had that has been mentioned in previous posts. In my mind, I believe it's sometimes best to give DRI a couple of years to work on the quality of newer resorts to their collection than to jump right in at the begining.


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## post-it (Oct 19, 2011)

We just returned from a stay at San Luis Bay where we attended a DRI owner update.  Apparently DRI has a few Ca Coast properties in the beginning negotiating process, so we'll have to see if these transpire.


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## dwojo (Oct 20, 2011)

dougp26364 said:


> Personally, this resort intriques me with it's location. While we have plenty of access into AZ resorts, we've not always fans of being in town so much as out in the scenery. Yes DRI has a lot of resorts in AZ but, if it offers a slightly different location then to use it's another option. DRI also offers a ton of options in Orlando but, each resort offers something a little different than the others from what I can see. I guess we can tend to be a little more particular than other owners.
> 
> I am curious as to the problems this resort has had that has been mentioned in previous posts. In my mind, I believe it's sometimes best to give DRI a couple of years to work on the quality of newer resorts to their collection than to jump right in at the begining.


My issue is that they continue to add in Arizona and ignore many other places. New York anywhere in the state or Pennsylvania, Maryland or even West Virginia would be a great change.


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## LynnW (Oct 20, 2011)

dougp26364 said:


> Personally, this resort intriques me with it's location. While we have plenty of access into AZ resorts, we've not always fans of being in town so much as out in the scenery. Yes DRI has a lot of resorts in AZ but, if it offers a slightly different location then to use it's another option. DRI also offers a ton of options in Orlando but, each resort offers something a little different than the others from what I can see. I guess we can tend to be a little more particular than other owners.
> 
> I am curious as to the problems this resort has had that has been mentioned in previous posts. In my mind, I believe it's sometimes best to give DRI a couple of years to work on the quality of newer resorts to their collection than to jump right in at the begining.



We exchanged into Rancho Manana twice through DAE and on our second stay we had a feeling all was not right at the resort. The units are beautiful and it was part of ILX who had closed the sales office on the property. I believe the original units were sold as fractional ownership. The story we heard was that the developer stole monies from the HOA and the owners were all locked out. The golf course is still very busy and the onsite restaurant is great. We drove out to eat last year and it was so sad to see the place sitting empty.

Lynn


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Oct 20, 2011)

dwojo said:


> My issue is that they continue to add in Arizona and ignore many other places. New York anywhere in the state or Pennsylvania, Maryland or even West Virginia would be a great change.


I think they're deliberately staying away from locales that have long periods of low demand.   A place like Rancho Mañana has about three months of low demand, with good to high demand throughout most of the rest of the year.  There are a lot of places that are in very high demand for three or four months out of the year, and have low demand other times.  I would be surprised, for example, if DRI added any affiliatins in Cape Cod, for example.

Where they have added affiliations in such settings, it's been a situation in which the resort had some other draw that sustains year round attractiveness - such as the water slides at Great Wolf Lodge.


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## pgnewarkboy (Oct 21, 2011)

In this economy it is amazing that DRI is able to expand at all.


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## dougp26364 (Oct 21, 2011)

pgnewarkboy said:


> In this economy it is amazing that DRI is able to expand at all.



In this economy, it's the perfect time to expand. You always want to buy when the market is depressed, not when it's at the height of demand. It's the same with stocks. Buy low and sell high. Unfortunately, most people do both stocks and real estate backwards, buy high and sell low.

Marriott provides a good example of how not to buy real estate. Their Marco Island project, bought at the height of the real estate boom, ate their lunch. I'd assume that Marriott's new beach front property on Singer Island in FL probably hurt some as that land was bought towards the height of the real estate bubble. 

DRI sold the branding rights to Marriott for the Grand Chateau project in Vegas when the market was high. DRI sold Carlton Court in London when the Market was high. DRI has sold high and is now buying low. Sounds like a very good plan to me.


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## nightnurse613 (Oct 21, 2011)

It looks like they have several 2 bedroom units listed - one is only 4 occupancy? Some have golf views, some are listed as family so I am not too sure about the differences.  They are listed in the 10-11,000 pt range for a seven day reservation which, I think, is about average for DRI average properties. Cave Creek is a unique little town north of Scottsdale with a nice Lake not too far away.  I didn't mean to disparage the resort but as DWOJO said, (and as an Arizona resident I say), how about ACQUIRING some more California coastal property?  Not necessarily something big-there are a couple of smaller resorts.  It's nice to have access to Napa and Avila Beach but there never seems to be much availability. :zzz:


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## dwojo (Oct 21, 2011)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> I think they're deliberately staying away from locales that have long periods of low demand.   A place like Rancho Mañana has about three months of low demand, with good to high demand throughout most of the rest of the year.  There are a lot of places that are in very high demand for three or four months out of the year, and have low demand other times.  I would be surprised, for example, if DRI added any affiliatins in Cape Cod, for example.
> 
> Where they have added affiliations in such settings, it's been a situation in which the resort had some other draw that sustains year round attractiveness - such as the water slides at Great Wolf Lodge.


For people who fish, ski, hike, mountain bike, of love fall scenery those are wonderful places, and with the population density in those areas demand for rooms would be good. My wife and I go on 4 or 5 long weekend trips of 4 to 5 days every year in those areas as well as a vacation for a week or more. Not having exchange fees or paying for hotels as much would make acquiring more points attractive to me.


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## pgnewarkboy (Oct 23, 2011)

As a dri owner I am glad to see that they continue to expand their resort options while some other companies are getting out of timeshares or just going out of business.   With rising airfares and unrest in Europe investment in the United States seems smart.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Oct 23, 2011)

dwojo said:


> For people who fish, ski, hike, mountain bike, of love fall scenery those are wonderful places, and with the population density in those areas demand for rooms would be good. My wife and I go on 4 or 5 long weekend trips of 4 to 5 days every year in those areas as well as a vacation for a week or more. Not having exchange fees or paying for hotels as much would make acquiring more points attractive to me.



If the demand is that great why aren't developers building timeshare resorts in those locates?

The reality of the market is those are not viable markets for timeshares.  Most of the projects that are in those locates are in those locates date to the early days of timesharing, when developers were often converting motels and failed projects.  

The only exception that I can think of is Trendwest (developer for Worldmark), and IMHO Trendwest has built in the Midwest because that's the cheapest place to build and they sell points for the same price no matter where the project happens to be located.  (So they make more money by building in marginal locations).


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## LynnW (Oct 23, 2011)

nightnurse613 said:


> It looks like they have several 2 bedroom units listed - one is only 4 occupancy? Some have golf views, some are listed as family so I am not too sure about the differences.  They are listed in the 10-11,000 pt range for a seven day reservation which, I think, is about average for DRI average properties. Cave Creek is a unique little town north of Scottsdale with a nice Lake not too far away.  I didn't mean to disparage the resort but as DWOJO said, (and as an Arizona resident I say), how about ACQUIRING some more California coastal property?  Not necessarily something big-there are a couple of smaller resorts.  It's nice to have access to Napa and Avila Beach but there never seems to be much availability. :zzz:



I thought that the units at Rancho Manana were all the same  They have two separate master suites with walk in showers and king beds. Because there was only the two of us I didn't notice if there was sofa beds in the living room. Maybe some do and some don't so that's the difference.

Lynn


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## wolfie (Oct 26, 2011)

*Rancho Manana*

Used the spa there when it was still ILX...it was one of the best I've ever been too.  I am making it my life's work to go to as many spas in AZ as I can.  I hope now that DRI has Rancho Manana the spa will be as great.  The units were wonderful.


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## flyguy (Mar 14, 2012)

*Some information about this resort and DRI*

I was recently in Cave Creek and visited with DRI personnel at this resort. There are some 14 units (all two bedroom) that Diamond has taken over. The units were empty for some three years but have been cleaned up and made ready for guests. The location is next to a golf course and Tonto Restaurant that are managed separately from the resort. Currently the exercise room/spa and small "restaurant" near the pool are not being utilized. The location is beautiful and the rooms appear to be very comfortable and clean.


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