# Diamond and Island One



## AmexBlack (May 8, 2013)

Whoever said anything about Diamond and Island One was correct.  

https://www.diamondresorts.com/pdf/5.7.13.Q1-2013-Diamond-Press-Release.pdf


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## dougp26364 (May 11, 2013)

In some ways I'm surprised because, in my mind at least, these didn't seem to be DRI quality resorts or in an area of need. On the other hand they are additional management contract brining in additional income and offering members more choices, even if it is in a heavily available area. 

Florida has a lot of demand so having a lot of supply isn't necessarily a bad thing. If it's difficult to get into an area, members complain. If it's easy to get into an area, members complain. There's not really a good way to satisfy everyone except that with more options it's easier to always say YES.

I really would love to see more availabiliy in Colorado. Our stay in Estes Park was wonderful and the supply there is limited, so it's not easy to get in. Additional supply in New Mexico would be great but, right now it's not that difficult to get a 1 bedroom at the Villa's De Santa Fe so it's not really on the front burner for availability for us.


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## timeos2 (May 11, 2013)

The resorts are considerably below what has been stated as the Diamond standard. If they are going to be brought up it would mean some hefty fee increases for the owners I'd guess.


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## post-it (May 13, 2013)

I'm happy about the possibility of more resorts, but I'm with Doug on different areas.  I would love more resorts in the west.  We just returned from a wonderful stay in Santa Fe. Less travel time was great and this makes short stays very doable.


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## pedro47 (May 13, 2013)

I wish they would add more resorts in North & South Carolina.


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## csalter2 (May 13, 2013)

*If you're in Europe...*

We complain about resorts, but on our Facebook DRI Members group, the Europeans, particularly the English, complain that there are not enough resorts there. They feel that since we are Americans and DRI's run by an American company, we get far more than they do over there. They want more resorts over there in more places than Spain and England. They have an assortment of affiliates and cottages that they can use that are DRI managed.                               

They feel like stepchildren who are not being served well with their membership.


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## pgnewarkboy (May 13, 2013)

I am confident these resorts will be upgraded. The company has lofty and admirable goals.


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## gjw007 (May 14, 2013)

Where to have more resorts is always a problem.  I would like to have more resorts in the east coast such as in western virginia (shenadoah valley).  All the new resorts in Mexico and Greece didn't do anything for me.


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## dwojo (May 14, 2013)

Northern Virginia, the Poconos, and Europe would be great places for more resorts.


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## dougp26364 (May 14, 2013)

csalter2 said:


> We complain about resorts, but on our Facebook DRI Members group, the Europeans, particularly the English, complain that there are not enough resorts there. They feel that since we are Americans and DRI's run by an American company, we get far more than they do over there. They want more resorts over there in more places than Spain and England. They have an assortment of affiliates and cottages that they can use that are DRI managed.
> 
> They feel like stepchildren who are not being served well with their membership.



I guess there are is just a greater number of mismanaged resorts in the US, creating more opportunity for DRI to assume management contracts. Opportunity has to exist before expansion. European laws could be making expansion more difficult as well. 

One thing is certain, don't expect DRI to build any new resorts. Their expansion plans only include assuming management contracts and converting current owners of those resorts.


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## dougp26364 (May 14, 2013)

timeos2 said:


> The resorts are considerably below what has been stated as the Diamond standard. If they are going to be brought up it would mean some hefty fee increases for the owners I'd guess.



While I enjoy our. DRI ownership, I don't think most owners of these resorts will be very excited about what's likely to happen to their MF's. 

I'd say right now is a dangerous time to own a cheap, low quality resort with the intention of exchanig into higher quality resorts. Those inexpensive resorts seem to be constantly absorbed by management groups with higher fees.


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## dwojo (May 14, 2013)

dougp26364 said:


> While I enjoy our. DRI ownership, I don't think most owners of these resorts will be very excited about what's likely to happen to their MF's.
> 
> I'd say right now is a dangerous time to own a cheap, low quality resort with the intention of exchanig into higher quality resorts. Those inexpensive resorts seem to be constantly absorbed by management groups with higher fees.



  The fee shock I felt when Diamond took over from Sunterra was bad, but the improvements were more than worth the added expense.


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## dougp26364 (May 15, 2013)

dwojo said:


> The fee shock I felt when Diamond took over from Sunterra was bad, but the improvements were more than worth the added expense.



For those who own in and want to use the system it's a good thing. If you're an owner who bought to have an inexpensive unit to exchange into more expensive systems like Marriott, Westin, Hyatt et.....it will change your plans.

This is why I recommend buying weeks were you enjoy the resort for personal usage or have an exit plan when things change. Since 1998 we've seen a lot of changes with timesharing in general, at the resorts we own and within the systems we own in.


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## pgnewarkboy (May 15, 2013)

When will these resorts be available?


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## dougp26364 (May 15, 2013)

pgnewarkboy said:


> When will these resorts be available?



My guess would be to give it a few years before you begin to see significant availability. Even if they were available today it takes time to get enough owners to either convert to a trust based ownership or join THE Club to make a difference what's available to book. The Historic Craggs Lodge in Estes Park still doesn't have very good availability for THE Club members and it's been in the system for a couple of years now. 

Now if these resorts aren't sold out and have a good supply of developer owned units, availabilty could come online pretty fast. It seems to me that this is an older system and I would suspect there's not a lot of unsold inventory that could go into THE Club. 

Another thought for me is I want to wait until DRI has had a chance to upgrade the resorts and put their touches on them. Some of these resorts are below DRI standards and might provide less of the experience I expect until after DRI has a chance to get things done.


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## avelox (May 22, 2013)

*These Units are Available Now!*

The TUG BBS had better get busy. All the "adopted" Florida Resorts and California Resorts are showing up right now on the Diamond Resorts Web Site. DRI has gone wild and looks to be targeting older resorts with troubled balance sheets and managements that were either unwilling or unable to market successfully and/or improve occupancy. It will be a classic East Coast and West Coast (and Hawaii) thing, with classic laws of supply vs demand in play and economies of scale in effect. Shows you what having a TV celebrity at the helm can do! Of course, the effect all this will have on member's MFs remains to be seen.  
I just returned from a week at the Grande Villas in Orlando and I was very impressed. The landscaping was beautiful. Security was everywhere yet somehow not obtrusive. Maintenance responses were fast and housekeeping had our 2 BR villa in great shape. Almost nobody spoke English but so what? Everybody seemed to have gotten the message that being polite and smiling at the customer is a good thing! And I need to work on my Spanish anyhow. Now, what to do about those tiny twin beds in the 2nd BR?


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## amycurl (May 22, 2013)

Didn't Island One also own a resort or two on Hilton Head? Or am I making that up? (Just in response to the person who wanted more locations in the Carolinas...)


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## simply (Jun 11, 2013)

Why is it that owners are the last to find out?

I've had no end of problems with Island One/Club Navigo since December 2012.
All communications were ignored, I couldn't get reservations, nothing. It took me going to BBB to get anywhere!

At no point was I told about Diamond Resorts, just a footnote on their response on BBB..........._"I am copying Patricia Rosado of Diamond Resorts on this response. Diamond Resorts has assumed operational control of Island One and its affiliates. Going forward, Patricia will be responding to all complaints on Island One's behalf."_


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## post-it (Jun 12, 2013)

amycurl said:


> Didn't Island One also own a resort or two on Hilton Head? Or am I making that up? (Just in response to the person who wanted more locations in the Carolinas...)



I'm just seeing Florida locations online.


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## friedshrimp (Jun 20, 2013)

avelox said:


> The TUG BBS had better get busy. All the "adopted" Florida Resorts and California Resorts are showing up right now on the Diamond Resorts Web Site. DRI has gone wild and looks to be targeting older resorts with troubled balance sheets and managements that were either unwilling or unable to market successfully and/or improve occupancy. It will be a classic East Coast and West Coast (and Hawaii) thing, with classic laws of supply vs demand in play and economies of scale in effect. Shows you what having a TV celebrity at the helm can do! Of course, the effect all this will have on member's MFs remains to be seen.
> I just returned from a week at the Grande Villas in Orlando and I was very impressed. The landscaping was beautiful. Security was everywhere yet somehow not obtrusive. Maintenance responses were fast and housekeeping had our 2 BR villa in great shape. Almost nobody spoke English but so what? Everybody seemed to have gotten the message that being polite and smiling at the customer is a good thing! And I need to work on my Spanish anyhow. Now, what to do about those tiny twin beds in the 2nd BR?



While the resorts show up on the DRI website, they cannot be booked at this time. BTW, does anyone know which of the two US Collections these resorts will be going into??


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## csalter2 (Jun 22, 2013)

*They can be booked!*



friedshrimp said:


> While the resorts show up on the DRI website, they cannot be booked at this time. BTW, does anyone know which of the two US Collections these resorts will be going into??



Not true. I booked Riviera Shores in Capistran Beach, CA about 2 weeks ago for family. I checked into it for them. It's near my house and in a great location near. The 1 bedroom has a great ocean view.


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## Bill4728 (Jun 23, 2013)

Riviera Shores is one of the Monarch Grand resorts (MGV).  Some limited availability at those resorts will be seen in DRI. BUT since several of the MGV resorts have a significant number of owners which owned those resorts as a "stand alone" resort even the MGV owners find limited availability.


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## stevetimeshare (Jun 24, 2013)

post-it said:


> I'm just seeing Florida locations online.



Hello there - I own / owned in Island One's point system that is/was called Club Navigo.   You are correct that the only resorts they owned were in Florida.


I recently attended a VERY hard sell by the DRI sales people to try to get me to convert my ownerships over to DRI.   And I toured the one Resort the DRI owned in the Daytona Beach area prior to the acquisition.

While the Regency is very nice, it is not what I would call Familiy Friendly.   And the rooms at my resort, Cove on Ormond Beach - South Tower, are certainly as nice in my opinion as those at the Regency, and are considerably larger from what I saw.

Having said that, a few of the other Island One properties were far less nice than the Cove is, and may well need some heavy TLC to get up to par.  That may not be a surprise when you consider that Island One went through Chapter 11.  

The long and short of it is that MF may be the least of current Island One owners problems - and I own three time shares with Island One.    The conversion contract basically was asking me to repay for the three units I own, at an even higher price than I originally paid.   Where as the MT fees that they were asking were less per point than I am currently paying - slightly.

What I don't understand is why if I own two Daytona 500 Week units, why I should be expected to REPURCHASE them, just because Island One sold out it's interests.   I hold a deed on each property that guarantees me those two rooms every year on the week of the Daytona 500 race.   Tell me what the points value of those two units are the week I am guaranteed, and convert me over to that many points in the new system, with the same guarantee - or give me more points if you want to void the guaranteed usage.

I also worry about many, many comments on other sites that DRI is being sued for claiming assesments for damage that seem more aimed at updating the property at the owners expense.   I have no problem paying for the upkeep of the properties.   That is why you hire a management company in the first place - to keep the property up to par.   But keeping a property in good repair, and using special assesments to finance upgrades and improvements - is two decidedly different things.

That is my two cents.


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## stevetimeshare (Jun 24, 2013)

Hi,

As a potential DRI member, in that I own three time shares in the Island One system that I expect will have to be converted at some point over to DRI units - could someone please explain a little about the "collections" and how that works.   If you own in one, can you book in others?   Are there home resorts, like many other systems have, or just points that float from one resort to another?   I have seen auctions selling DRI points that seem to being run by DRI itself, and they say there is no home resort in those auctions.  Begging the question - what is your deed for if there is no property securing it?

Any information would be welcome -- as I just figured out all the intricasies of the Club Navigo System that Island One ran, and now it seems I am to start over in a new system.

thanks,
Steve


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## Rent_Share (Jun 24, 2013)

stevetimeshare said:


> What I don't understand is why if I own two Daytona 500 Week units, why I should be expected to REPURCHASE them, just because Island One sold out it's interests. I hold a deed on each property that guarantees me those two rooms every year on the week of the Daytona 500 race. Tell me what the points value of those two units are the week I am guaranteed, and convert me over to that many points in the new system, with the same guarantee - or give me more points if you want to void the guaranteed usage.
> 
> .


 
IMHO if you own two fixed week deeds to an event week you would be crazy to convert, and there is nothing DRI can do to make you convert.


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## fluke (Jun 24, 2013)

*Don't do anything rash*

Unfortunately it is DRI's salesman's tactic to start immediately hard selling new aquisitions owners.  They are probably trying to sell you points that you don't need.  If you are in the club Navigo at some point, I suspect,  there will be a conversion factor much like the MGV people now see.  I think it took a year for MGV owners to get that access.  It will take some time for DRI to assimilate the properties.  

So be patient and avoid the onsite sales people.  Eventually corporate DRI will put out real info.  You may want to look at the MGV owners and see how DRI transitioned that group - I suspect it will be very similiar.


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## Bill4728 (Jun 24, 2013)

Well I also own at a TS system that was bought out by DRI last year (Monarch Grand Vacations - MGV)   What happened in my case was that DRI made a separate "collection" for MGV owners. So now we go to the DRI website and reserve our units online just like we would have done if MGV had online reservations. The only change is that to adjust to DRI higher pt requirement so we get 60 DRI pts for every MGV pt. 

SO unless you "upgrade" to DRI, you will basically continue to do exactly what you used to do. If you have fixed weeks at your home resort for the Daytona weekend you'll still have the same week with DRI running the resort. 

You will not be able to reserve at any other DRI resorts without paying HUGE amounts of money So IMHO do not upgrade!


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## csalter2 (Jun 24, 2013)

*Saw a lot*



Bill4728 said:


> Riviera Shores is one of the Monarch Grand resorts (MGV).  Some limited availability at those resorts will be seen in DRI. BUT since several of the MGV resorts have a significant number of owners which owned those resorts as a "stand alone" resort even the MGV owners find limited availability.



Bill, 

I am not sure how limited the inventory is that DRI has, but when I looked back in May, there were a LOT of units of time available.  I just happened to be cruising the site a couple of weeks ago and was able to book a 1bedroom for family. The room is nice and clean with a nice ocean view.  It works out very, very well.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Jun 24, 2013)

stevetimeshare said:


> Hi,
> 
> As a potential DRI member, in that I own three time shares in the Island One system that I expect will have to be converted at some point over to DRI units - could someone please explain a little about the "collections" and how that works.   If you own in one, can you book in others?   Are there home resorts, like many other systems have, or just points that float from one resort to another?   [snip]



Let me take a whack at this.  It's easier if you work your way up from the bottom, instead of trying to come in from the top as is done in a sales presentation.

First a "collection" is a trust that owns deeds in various resorts.  The members of the trust thus have an indirect ownership in the deeds that are held by the trust via their ownership in the trust.  The bigger the ownership, the bigger the commensurate interest in the deeds that are owned by the trust.  The main point here is to understand that "collection" is DRI-speak for a trust.

DRI has been built almost entirely by acquiring other timeshare operations.  When DRI acquires another timeshare they are really only acquiring the operating interest. All of the owners in that organization have the rights that they had before the sale, and the fact that the operating interest was acquired doesn't change the rights of the owners. Of course each of the organizations will have created it's own ownership rights and privileges, which have to remain intact.  So they can't just merge the organizations. Logistically it won't work, and legally it's probably also impossible as well.

Thus, one big purpose of the Collections is to keep manage and track the various ownership interests.  When DRI acquires an operation such as Monarch, those resorts simply become a DRI Collection.  As a distinct collection, that group of resorts can continue to operate as they did prior to the acquisition, as a distinct collection of resorts with the owners having the same rights and privileges that hey had previously.  Ostensibly, an owner who simply goes along for the ride should be in the same situation as they were prior to the acquisition.  Having observed that process in action, it generally seems to work that way.

******

I think that's all pretty straightforward, and if you come into Collections from that bottoms up direction, I think it makes things a lot clearer.

Where people get confused is when the DRI Club comes into the picture, because that is often not presented well.  That's because it usually comes up in the context of a sales presentation, and not in the bottoms up perspective I'm employing.

So the key to understanding the Club is to see that as something that sits astride the Collections, and which a Collection owner can choose to join if they wish. If you choose not to join, you simply exist as a member of your Collection with all of the rights, privileges, and obligations you had previously.  If you do choose to join The Club, then *for as long as you are a Club member* you transfer to the Club the reservation rights you have in your Collection.  From that point on you make your reservations through the Club, not through your Collection.  Since the Club has members from all of the Collections, then you now have access to the reservation rights of all of the Collections.  

If you terminate your Club membership, then your Collection reservation rights simply revert back to you and you are in the same position as if you have never joined the Club.

****

Hope this helps.  For people who own deeds and are not part of a Club then simply substitute your deed ownership for the Collection ownership in the above discussion.


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## csalter2 (Jun 24, 2013)

*You Don't Have to Change Anything*



stevetimeshare said:


> Hello there - I own / owned in Island One's point system that is/was called Club Navigo.   You are correct that the only resorts they owned were in Florida.
> 
> 
> I recently attended a VERY hard sell by the DRI sales people to try to get me to convert my ownerships over to DRI.   And I toured the one Resort the DRI owned in the Daytona Beach area prior to the acquisition.
> ...



I would keep things as they are if you really want those Daytona weeks. If you're contract states you have them and you want to keep them, do so.  You are not obligated to join the Club. In fact, you may wish to negotiate a deal to keep your deed as is AND join the Club. That is the ideal. You don't want to have less than what you came in.  I like DRI benefits, but if you're not alert you could lose prime advantages you currently have.


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## csalter2 (Jun 24, 2013)

*Listen to him*



T_R_Oglodyte said:


> Let me take a whack at this.  It's easier if you work your way up from the bottom, instead of trying to come in from the top as is done in a sales presentation.
> 
> First a "collection" is a trust that owns deeds in various resorts.  The members of the trust thus have an indirect ownership in the deeds that are held by the trust via their ownership in the trust.  The bigger the ownership, the bigger the commensurate interest in the deeds that are owned by the trust.  The main point here is to understand that "collection" is DRI-speak for a trust.
> 
> ...



Thanks Steve. You saved me the extra time since I was going to address it.


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## Maple_Leaf (Jun 24, 2013)

*A couple of good resorts*

The Cove at Ormond Beach and the Charter Club of Naples Bay are the jewels of that deal.


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## timeos2 (Jun 24, 2013)

csalter2 said:


> Thanks Steve. You saved me the extra time since I was going to address it.



Another big fact is that if DRI also has management, as they often do, then they will push to upgrade the resort to Diamond standards. Nothing wrong with that, especially since many of these resorts aren't top quality places when DRI comes in.  The issue can be that doing those upgrades isn't cheap and it isn't DRI that's going to pay the bills it's the owners. So another shoe to drop is likely a sizable hike in fees and maybe even a special assessment if the needs are great enough. 

The standards aren't Marriott level (although they seem to feel they are) but they are reasonable.  Still getting that bill can be tough to take.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Jun 25, 2013)

timeos2 said:


> Another big fact is that if DRI also has management, as they often do, then they will push to upgrade the resort to Diamond standards. Nothing wrong with that, especially since many of these resorts aren't top quality places when DRI comes in.  The issue can be that doing those upgrades isn't cheap and it isn't DRI that's going to pay the bills it's the owners. So another shoe to drop is likely a sizable hike in fees and maybe even a special assessment if the needs are great enough.
> 
> The standards aren't Marriott level (although they seem to feel they are) but they are reasonable.  Still getting that bill can be tough to take.


That's very true.  In my post I was trying to stick with the essential points needed to understand the basic organizational structure.

*****

The other side of the coin from your comment is that most of the time DRI is acquiring resort operations because the developers/operators are in at least some degree of financial distress.  Also, it's not as if DRI takes over control from the owners; in all of the cases the developer/operator already controls the resort management, so that DRI simply supplants the previous entity.

When developers/managers are under stress and they control the management organization, the result is often underfunding of maintenance fees and reserves.  That's because they developer/managers are keeping annual fees down to enhance sales, since sales it what is keeping them afloat.  So when DRI enters the picture it's often in a situation where resort conditions are sliding and the resort has inadequate reserves for renovations and improvements.

Now, I'm not saying that DRI is the most efficient and cost-effective options for managing that problem.  In fact it's almost a certainty that they aren't.  But they do move to address the situation.  

And as John mentions, when they take over they do so with an intent to bring the resort up to what they consider to be a minimum level of quality that they want to have associated with the Diamond Resorts name.


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## micbob (Jun 27, 2013)

Currently own a floating week at Island one and just sat through a 3 hours of multiple sales people trying to get me to convert my deed to DRI? The current offer is $12000 for 5500 points and a $1150 MF. Right now I pay little less than $500 MF and happy with coming to same resort. They insist that under current program it will become tough for me to even get a week (other than the fixed one in my contract) as we move forward. In looking things over I'm not seeing the benefit of converting. They also offered 7500 points for $1250 that I can use and if I like it they would apply the $1250 to any deal that had been offered. Is DRI worth moving to or should I stick with what I have if I'm happy with same resort? Seems like I'm being squeezed.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Jun 27, 2013)

micbob said:


> Currently own a floating week at Island one and just sat through a 3 hours of multiple sales people trying to get me to convert my deed to DRI? The current offer is $12000 for 5500 points and a $1150 MF. Right now I pay little less than $500 MF and happy with coming to same resort. They insist that under current program it will become tough for me to even get a week (other than the fixed one in my contract) as we move forward. In looking things over I'm not seeing the benefit of converting. They also offered 7500 points for $1250 that I can use and if I like it they would apply the $1250 to any deal that had been offered. Is DRI worth moving to or should I stick with what I have if I'm happy with same resort? Seems like I'm being squeezed.


If you've got a fixed week and you like using that fixed week, I don't think it makes a lick of sense for you to convert.


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## micbob (Jun 27, 2013)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> If you've got a fixed week and you like using that fixed week, I don't think it makes a lick of sense for you to convert.



It is actually a floating week but the. Assign a week for accounting purposes. They say they are only obligated to honor the week in contract even though it's floating. I would not like having to stick with a fixed week every year but fine with same resort and with the floating season I have. Thanks


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## timeos2 (Jun 27, 2013)

robcrusoe said:


> Of course you're being squeezed, it's what they do.  As they squeeze more and more people the inventory moves from the 'pool' that you have access to to DRI's pool.  In time, if they are successful, your pool gets smaller and smaller, thus less choice of inventory.



Remember that as the number of weeks in the "weeks pool" goes down due to those conversions so does the number of owners with the right to reserve them. The overall availability should not change although the choice of varied dates might. If they were fixed sales then there has to be an exchange of some sort used to allow those owners to get use dates other than what they were deeded.  That ability might also be reduced as the owners willing or wanting to change dates are the ones that are most likely to be drawn to the DRI Points system where using flexible dates is an automatic part of the ownership. 

This is one of those cases where a bit of truth ("Many owners are moving to points and that will reduce availability to those looking for weeks") can be twisted to fit a sales pitch and ends up seemingly factual but actually false. You'll find this type of fact twisting throughout many timeshare sales presentations.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Jun 27, 2013)

micbob said:


> They say they are only obligated to honor the week in contract even though it's floating.



That's almost certainly an outright lie.  If the timeshare program documents that were included in the original sale say that you have a floating week, then you have a floating and they can't make it a fixed week without your permission.

Your rejoinder at that point should be that if they are willing to screw their existing owners, why in the world should you give them more money so that they can just screw you again in the future when it suits their needs?


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## miriam r (Jun 27, 2013)

*DRI and Premier Vacation Club*

Does anyone know how this works before I ask DRI directly:
We had a deeded property with ILX or bi-annual use, which became Premier Vacation Club when DRI acquired it.  DRI convinced us to switch to points and buy DRI points -- for which they would take one of our other timeshares into their inventory.  They charged us $8000 in the deal, giving us 3000 Premier Vacation points and 2000 DRI points.  They are comingled points in our account under one membership number, but billed separately for maintenance fees each year.  The 2000 DRI points cost $750+ (which includes $300 "The Club" fee.  The 3000 PVC points cost around $475.
I want to give these points away to someone since we are getting to the point where we don't travel very frequently.  

Do I need to offer two separate memberships to a prospective taker or will they get the whole 5000 points under a DRI contract?  I asked the person at DRI who answered the phone and he said they are two separate transactions.  I don't know how knowledgeable these phone personnel are.  If this is so, what will I have to do to transfer these 5000 points to someone willing to take them?

I am so grateful to have found this wonderful Users Group.  I wish I had known about you years ago.


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