# Diamond Resorts International conversion to trust



## bkahoona1 (Jun 8, 2008)

[_Text of this post has been removed at the request of the poster, as a condition of a legal agreement with Diamond Resorts._ - Makai Guy, BBS Administrator]


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## timeos2 (Jun 8, 2008)

*No trust or RTU based for me, thanks*

Be aware that when you give up your deed(s) you are no longer protected by real estate law and instead become completely dependent on the existence and continued operation of the Trust.  Plus you no longer have a vote(s) for things like fees, Special Assessments or Board members. The Trust and its operator has total control on fees assessed and rules. While they tend to tout the "blending" of fees from multiple resorts that "will be lower than any one resort as they are spread out over more owners" that ignores the administrative costs tacked on AND the fact that almost all resorts have increasing fees and many special assessments that you as a Trust owner will pay (plus that pesky Administration overhead).  And if you should fall behind on any payment due by as little as 90 days under the rules (and lack of deeded property that requires drawn out and costly foreclosure) the Trust can simply close your membership and any money you paid is gone.  

Far too risky for my taste. But you have to decide what works best for you.


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## dwmantz (Jun 8, 2008)

*Makes little sense to me*

You're already in Club!  Any of the trusts buy you nothing more.  If you want another Hawaii week or more points, then buy them on the used market.


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## bkahoona1 (Jun 9, 2008)

*From DRI trust deal post*

[_Text of this post has been removed at the request of the poster, as a condition of a legal agreement with Diamond Resorts._ - Makai Guy, BBS Administrator]


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## Bill4728 (Jun 11, 2008)

IMHO, the trust (the reguler trust not the hawaii trust) is great if you're looking to buy into DRI. You can buy into the 19 resorts for a low price (and unless you really want to) and get access to those 19 resorts. Buying into the "club" is IMHO, too pricey.


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## tjnevers (Apr 22, 2009)

*Sedona Ridge Diamond Pts. conversion offer*

Just went through an exhausting presentation re: my 1 BR at the Sedona Ridge. Bottom line: buy an additional 1500 pts. for $5200 plus give them a Santa Fe Otra Vez timeshare (purch. on Ebay for $1000). MF on th 1500 pts. will be $566 + $545 MF on 1 BR = $1,111. So end up with 8,000 pts + can get 8500 ClubSelect pts. for Australia ts if pay the $119 yr. & keep up with the mf on that one.
Their pitch is that weeks at the Ridge will become less useful as more folks convert to Diamond pts. i.e. more availability through the Club. Also, big pitch on booking 59 or less days for 50% off. Also trashed RCI pts. and said II was waive of future.
Any input/thoughts on whether to rescind or not will be appreciated.
Thanks,
Tom


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## Werner (Apr 22, 2009)

You already own a week at one of the Hawaiian trust resorts, Poipu.  You are already in the club with access to its 100 or so resorts.  Your home resort advantage lets you make reservations at Poipu and Tahoe 12 months out.  Have you ever had trouble making reservations 12 months out?  You can make reservations at KBC, Sedona, and anywhere else in DRI 10 months out.  KBC, Sedona are easy to get 10 months out.  You already have enough points to be elite status so you can upgrade one level twice per year for $99.  I heard the same speech a month ago and could not fathom why DRI thinks conversion from deeded weeks/points to trust/points is a saleable idea. 

What did the sales presentation say was the benefit of transferring to the trust?  Our version of the pitch was that the maintenance fees in the trust were less than for Poipu alone.  After a long, long computation the savings was a grand total of $100 / wk, less than last years increase in MF.  

DRI should pay us for conversions, not get paid.


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## dougp26364 (Apr 22, 2009)

Unless you just want more points, this makes very little sense to me. I guess you can always sit down and look at what you'd gain vs what it will cost you.

The gain/add column would include the additional points, gold Elite status, 13 month reservation window for the trust resorts.....anything else?

Cost would include additional MF's, trust fee's on top of THE Club fee's, trust MF's may be higher than your deeded MF's (they're approx $600 higher in our case), and giving up your deeds.

This is just off the top of my head so if anyone else can come up with benefits or cost, feel free to jump in.


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## tjnevers (Apr 23, 2009)

*DRI conversion*

Thanks for the comments. I'm going to do the math & see what I come up with. Also, I posted on www.timeshareforums.com under the thread "decided not to convert"
For those of your who are DRI Club members, I would like to know whether you are happy & what experience you've had with making DRI reservations both inside the 59 days & longer.
Thanks,
Tom


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## dougp26364 (Apr 23, 2009)

tjnevers said:


> Thanks for the comments. I'm going to do the math & see what I come up with. Also, I posted on www.timeshareforums.com under the thread "decided not to convert"
> For those of your who are DRI Club members, I would like to know whether you are happy & what experience you've had with making DRI reservations both inside the 59 days & longer.
> Thanks,
> Tom



My experience with reservations in THE Club has been positive. I reserved a 5 night stay in Hawaii as a honeymoom gift for the daughter of a co-worker. The 59 day window has been seen mixed results. I've shopped but have not booked. DRI offers occasional deals for shoulder season at selected resorts. We were able to book an upcoming trip for 50% of what it would normally cost us but, those deals are intermitant and not to be relied upon. 

I have had some issues with customer service but, I expect that as DRI gets better control of a system they took over only a little over 1 year ago, those bumps will be worked out. 

The online reservation system could use a little tweeking IMO. I would like the ability to look at all resorts for a certain timeframe rather than only looking at each resort indivicually. It's time consuming to go through each resort to see availability before deciding where to vacation. I really like to put in dates and then have the option of "see all resorts" and pick from a selection offered. 

I feel that the DRI web site is maybe a little more difficult to navigate than others. It's not overly difficult but, it's taken me longer to get a good feel for finding information quickly than other sites I use. For the most part, once you learn where everything is, it's an easy web site to use. 

The system is good and resort availablity at DRI managed resorts is usually very good. Availability at DRI affiliated resorts (not managed by DRI) can be a mixed bag for results. Using other options such as saving points seems to be pretty simple. Overall this is one aspect where I have very few complaints with DRI lately.


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## tjnevers (Apr 23, 2009)

*DRI & the Ridge*

Thanks for the input. I'm still trying to find out if the $1,100 MF for the 8,000 pts. includes the membership fee for THE Club. Spence at the other site didn't think it did. The high MF may be the deal killer for me.


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## dougp26364 (Apr 24, 2009)

tjnevers said:


> Thanks for the input. I'm still trying to find out if the $1,100 MF for the 8,000 pts. includes the membership fee for THE Club. Spence at the other site didn't think it did. The high MF may be the deal killer for me.



I've been thinking about this quite a bit and trying to stay away from any knee jerk reaction I might have. I always try to consider that each individuals circumstances are different from my own. While I can't tell you what is right for you, I can try to offer you advice and give you a little insight to what we own and how we manage it. With those thoughts in mind, this is what I can tell you.

IMO, you need more points to justify the MF's. We have 26,500 points and pay $2,200/year in MF's and THE Club dues. We do not have our units in one of the DRI trusts because the cost of MF's would jump almost $700/year. We don't need the 13 month resrvation window and we don't need DRI to get to Hawaii. Therefore, no trust account for us. Our units would be eligable for the Hawaiian trust if we wanted them to be in a trust.   

If you can get them to allow you to bring more resorts in and, if those resorts provide you with a good points to MF ratio, then it might be worth it to you. I would look for resorts that have a high number of points per unit to make it worth it. In our case, we have two units at Polo Towers that provide all out points. The Suite's at Polo Towers uints provide 12,500 points while the Villa's at Polo Towers provide 14,500 points. 

If you bought additional points from the developer and, you could find a reasonalbe price for a resale unit at Polo Towers and if DRI would allow you to bring that unit into your trust account and THE Club account without paying any additional fee's, it might work out for you. Polo Towers units have been selling for less than $1,000 on E-bay and, I've seen some go for less than $500. 

Start shopping, start comparing and start looking at the cost to decide what is best for you. IMHO, anthing less than 15,000 points probably isn't worth the yearly fee's. I wold try to push my total points up over 15,000.


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## tjnevers (Apr 25, 2009)

*Ridge - DRI conversion*

Thanks Doug:
     Your advice is similar to Spence's. However, at this time in my life, I don't think I need more TSs, in fact I would like to get rid of my 2BR Otra Vez in Santa Fe. The only other justification for more pts. would be if using pts. to pay MFs is a good (economic) alternative.
     Thanks again, have to go vacation now. My wife is tired of my obsessing on this.
Tom


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