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DRI Negativism

dlferree

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Hi all,

I have been reading this site for a few years and officially joined the site 2 years ago so I could read reviews of resorts from people who are timeshare owners, which I think would give better reviews then people who are not ts owners. My opinion only.

As a happy DRI owner I wonder why their is so much negativism towards DRI. I agree with the comments regarding the high maintenance fees and high pressure sales tactics. I have been in some relatively pleasant owner updates, but have also been in some very high pressure and what I would consider unprofessional presentations.

That said, the resorts we stayed in have been nice and we really enjoy our membership. I also initially bought resale, so may not have as much invested as someone would bought at developer prices.

Not trying to start a war, but just wondering if I am in the minority as to being a happy DRI owner.

Thanks,
Dave
 

AwayWeGo

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If you like it, that's all that matters.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 

harveyhaddixfan

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The biggest negative for me is all the “corporate” costs they add to HOAs where smaller independent resorts don’t have these. Ex: the $500k almost $600k “Corporate overhead allocation” & doubled management fee of over $500k at Beachwoods. That’s money out of our pockets straight into an investors (or other corporate employee’s) pocket.
 

davidvel

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Hi all,

I have been reading this site for a few years and officially joined the site 2 years ago so I could read reviews of resorts from people who are timeshare owners, which I think would give better reviews then people who are not ts owners. My opinion only.

As a happy DRI owner I wonder why their is so much negativism towards DRI. I agree with the comments regarding the high maintenance fees and high pressure sales tactics. I have been in some relatively pleasant owner updates, but have also been in some very high pressure and what I would consider unprofessional presentations.

That said, the resorts we stayed in have been nice and we really enjoy our membership. I also initially bought resale, so may not have as much invested as someone would bought at developer prices.

Not trying to start a war, but just wondering if I am in the minority as to being a happy DRI owner.

Thanks,
Dave
My bet (from your post) is that the negativity comes from:
  • the high maintenance fees,
  • the high pressure sales tactics,
  • unprofessional presentations
As noted above, if you are still happy, then that's great.
 

pedro47

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Good news about DRI / Greenspring Vacation Resort, Williamsburg,VA next year 2018 M/F have been reduced by $100.00. I will confirm this information by 10/27/2017.
 

dlferree

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My bet (from your post) is that the negativity comes from:
  • the high maintenance fees,
  • the high pressure sales tactics,
  • unprofessional presentations
As noted above, if you are still happy, then that's great.
Thanks, I agree that the most important thing is that I like it and feel that I get a benefit from it. We have taken some nice vacations that we wouldn't have taken if we didn't have the ts.
 

dlferree

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Good news about DRI / Greenspring Vacation Resort, Williamsburg,VA next year 2018 M/F have been reduced by $100.00. I will confirm this information by 10/27/2017.
That's great news. I'm a points only member, so I don't know if my M/F we decrease or increase. I won't get my notice until the latter part of November, if I remember correctly.
 

DeniseM

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This is the deal: Most regulars on TUG love/like their timeshare property - but many times we dislike/despise the management company. They are 2 completely different things.
 

geist1223

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We bought into DRI 2.5 years ago. We bought in the Hawaiian Collect. We primarily bought in for the easy access to Europe, Asia, and of course Hawaii. We have spent 2 weeks in France and 2 weeks at the Point at Poipu. We are happy. We bought from DRI so that we have direct access to all of their Resorts. We also have Club Select/Club Combination. One of the down sides of buying DRI resell is that you are likely limited to you Home Collection. We have toured Cabo Azul when we were staying next door at Royal Solaris. It is a beautiful Resort. When we go to Cabo we like to stay for 3 or 4 weeks at 2 to 4 different Resorts. This gives us another option for Cabo. Next year we hope to stay in New Orleans for 3 weeks in October.
 

dlferree

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This is the deal: Most regulars on TUG love/like their timeshare property - but many times we dislike/despise the management company. They are 2 completely different things.
Hi Denise,

I have read many of your comments and you are always very informative. I really appreciate you and all the other posters who share you wisdom with others. I agree that the timeshare property and management company are two different things.

Thanks,
Dave
 

clifffaith

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We had a one hour group presentation with a great lunch and lots of good information today at DRI at Villa Mirage in Scottsdale. During the one on one, saleswoman #1 was low key and pleasant, we were done with her in 30 minutes. I sent the Sampler guy on his way in 5 minutes. I thought we were done, but no chance.

The presentation drew to a close with me repeatedly telling salesman #3 that we were happy having given 27,000 US points back, were ok with "paying maintenance fees at gold levels while being silver in the Hawaii Collection (??)" and that we were happy. After he tried repeatedly to show me the error of our ways I stood up and said we were done at the two hour mark of our 55 minute sit down. He turned to Cliff and said "She doesn't let you talk much, does she?". We trailed behind him to the gift counter. He turns to me and says "Go with God, BUT JUST GO!" To which I replied FU,AH. He about tripped over Cliff who was busy crawling under the rug and in a shocked voice said 'What?!" I said "you said go with God but just go to me, and I say again FUAH". My voice was raised and I hope his boss asked him what he had done to cause a customer to react that way.

THAT is why there are so many negative comments about DRI. Can't wait for January's annual Deluxe Ocean View room at KBC!
 

dlferree

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We bought into DRI 2.5 years ago. We bought in the Hawaiian Collect. We primarily bought in for the easy access to Europe, Asia, and of course Hawaii. We have spent 2 weeks in France and 2 weeks at the Point at Poipu. We are happy. We bought from DRI so that we have direct access to all of their Resorts. We also have Club Select/Club Combination. One of the down sides of buying DRI resell is that you are likely limited to you Home Collection. We have toured Cabo Azul when we were staying next door at Royal Solaris. It is a beautiful Resort. When we go to Cabo we like to stay for 3 or 4 weeks at 2 to 4 different Resorts. This gives us another option for Cabo. Next year we hope to stay in New Orleans for 3 weeks in October.
Hi geist1223,

I originally bought resale and had a fixed week in Sedona. Living in Arizona, I didn't want to vacation every year in Sedona. At the time of my purchase DRI was using RCI and I traded one year and was unsuccessful at trading the second year. Base on reading here, I didn't start looking for a trade early enough. I didn't like the trading so upgraded to the point system, so now I have access to all the sites you have. I also have club select and have used it to purchase additional vacation weeks. I recently used it to purchase a March 30, 2018 week in Mississippi. Thanks for your review of Cabo Azul. We want to take a trip there and will probably stay at Cabo Azul.

Thanks,
Dave
 

dlferree

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We had a one hour group presentation with a great lunch and lots of good information today at DRI at Villa Mirage in Scottsdale. During the one on one, saleswoman #1 was low key and pleasant, we were done with her in 30 minutes. I sent the Sampler guy on his way in 5 minutes. I thought we were done, but no chance.

The presentation drew to a close with me repeatedly telling salesman #3 that we were happy having given 27,000 US points back, were ok with "paying maintenance fees at gold levels while being silver in the Hawaii Collection (??)" and that we were happy. After he tried repeatedly to show me the error of our ways I stood up and said we were done at the two hour mark of our 55 minute sit down. He turned to Cliff and said "She doesn't let you talk much, does she?". We trailed behind him to the gift counter. He turns to me and says "Go with God, BUT JUST GO!" To which I replied FU,AH. He about tripped over Cliff who was busy crawling under the rug and in a shocked voice said 'What?!" I said "you said go with God but just go to me, and I say again FUAH". My voice was raised and I hope his boss asked him what he had done to cause a customer to react that way.

THAT is why there are so many negative comments about DRI. Can't wait for January's annual Deluxe Ocean View room at KBC!
The closest we had to your experience was at Lake Tahoe. After the Salesperson was unable to convince us to buy more points to reach the silver level, her comment was "have a good life", which my wife immediately responded with "you have a good life too". It wasn't necessary what she said, but the tone that she said it in. I personally and in agreement we the many comments I have read in these posts that the best solution is to never attend another presentation again.
 

geist1223

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Oh I forgot we also spent a week at Sea Mountain Resort near Black Sand Beach and a week at Paniolo Greens Resort. This second on was through Club Select. So 3 good trips of 2 weeks each in 2.5 years. If you go to Cabo Azul do not get a 1 bedroom even if there are only 2 of you. The view from most of the 1 bedrooms is of an alley and a parking lot.
 

geist1223

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Two lessons I have learned with DRI. You can roll your Points over 1 year. I do this is January. You can still use those Points in the current year but it is better to be safe than sorry. You have until June 30 to roll over all your Points. After that you are only allowed to roll over part of your Points. I also tend to deposit my 2 WM Weeks (costs me 14,000 WM Points for 15,000 DRI Points) with Club with Select/Club Combination very early in the year. Unless they have fixed the Computer System in the past 4 months you have to call to roll over DRI Points you get through Club Select/Club Combination.
 

artringwald

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We're not fond of DRI the company, and have heard many horror stories about their sales people, but we love several of their resorts. When we bought at the Point at Poipu from DRI in 2004 (which was then Sunterra), they were selling deeded weeks with membership in The Club. We use the Club points from that sale to stay at several of the other DRI properties, and later bought 2 more deeded weeks at the Point at Poipu, since we want to go there every year. I suppose if we wanted to spend more time at other DRI properties than our current Club points allow, we'd buy collection points on the resale market, even though that limits bookings to the collection properties. Buying points from DRI does have other benefits, but hardly seems worth their highly inflated sales prices.
 

nuwermj

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My bet (from your post) is that the negativity comes from:
  • the high maintenance fees,
  • the high pressure sales tactics,
  • unprofessional presentations

I'm a member of DRI and Bluegreen, and I actively follow various internet forums for members of both system. From the many many stories of sales presentations by these two companies, I have a very hard time finding a difference. As bad as DRI's tactics might be, Bluegreen's sale force does the same. Nevertheless, there is a very noticeable difference in the two memberships. Bluegreen members are a lot more satisfied with their memberships than DRI members. I don't fully understand why this is the case. But here are a few possibilities.

Bluegreen recently released data that one-third of it's club members own only resale points. From what I read in the DRI member forums, literally no one in DRI is a resale only member. In the Bluegreen system resale point owners have access to all the resorts in the points system (about 66 of them). DRI has about 100 resorts but maintains seven different pools or collections. DRI resale points can be used only in their home collection. (The US Collection is the largest with about 45 resorts, other collections range from 1 to 15 resorts). It seems like resale points are attractive in Bluegreen but not DRI and that might affect member satisfaction.

A member who owns both developer and resale points: Bluegreen holds both in one account and the points can be combined for reservations. DRI holds the points in separate accounts and they cannot be combined.

Both DRI and Bluegreen offer loyalty (or tier) benefits like travel services and proprietary exchange programs. In both cases resale points do not qualify. No difference there.

The two developers have very different marketing strategies. DRI buys new members. It acquires a small system like Gold Key, and focuses on "converting" those owners to DRI points. Rules and benefits are structured so as to create incentives to convert. Only 20% of DRI sales are made to new members, that is, a family that does not already have a points or deeded relationship with DRI. Bluegreen makes about 50% of its sales to new members. Additionally, the average transaction is noticeably different. DRI=26K; BG=13K. Perhaps DRI's overwhelming focus on converting existing owners generates a history and pattern of bad taste from the start.
 
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pedro47

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Confirmed: 2018 MF for a 4bedroom villa will be reduced by $101.36 at Greensprings Vacation Resort, Williamsburg,VA.
Now lets wait and see on their maintenance fee statement for 2018.
 

Almond123

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I own a resale week in Maui and got a letter from BOD that they were pleased to announce the reduction of my annual maintenance fee by $108 to $137 dollars depending on type of unit owned. I own a I bedroom and the MF was reduced by a little over a hundred dollars. I thought that was pretty good for a Hawaii week. There is also beach erosion where we own and the letter stated that the cost of shoreline repair is substantial but funds have been set aside in the capital reserve account to cover the current temporary repair and future long term repair.

We were there last month and did do a "owner update" and of course we were told that the MF would go up and there would be a SA to pay for the erosion problem. Of course if we upgraded we wouldn't have either increase to be passed on to us. I didn't believe a word of it but didn't argue because I was glad to say we were not interested and get out of there. We at least got a dinner cruise for our trouble but wont do another update again.
 

harveyhaddixfan

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I own a resale week in Maui and got a letter from BOD that they were pleased to announce the reduction of my annual maintenance fee by $108 to $137 dollars depending on type of unit owned. I own a I bedroom and the MF was reduced by a little over a hundred dollars. I thought that was pretty good for a Hawaii week. There is also beach erosion where we own and the letter stated that the cost of shoreline repair is substantial but funds have been set aside in the capital reserve account to cover the current temporary repair and future long term repair.

We were there last month and did do a "owner update" and of course we were told that the MF would go up and there would be a SA to pay for the erosion problem. Of course if we upgraded we wouldn't have either increase to be passed on to us. I didn't believe a word of it but didn't argue because I was glad to say we were not interested and get out of there. We at least got a dinner cruise for our trouble but wont do another update again.

They pulled similar crap on me last year. Went on and on about how only the deeded weeks owners would be responsible for special assessments and increases in maintenance fees. DRI is responsible for the same costs for the weeks they own and they try to make it sound like these costs are spit only with deeded owners.

One thing that kills me is all the default owners at my resort. The bad debt allocation this year is almost 20% of the budget. As a management company, DRI doesn’t seem to be doing enough to rent out the weeks where owners haven’t paid the MF and nor are they doing enough to get people to pay. I’m guessing a lot of those weeks are off season so they don’t even want them for the Club.
 

Almond123

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They pulled similar crap on me last year. Went on and on about how only the deeded weeks owners would be responsible for special assessments and increases in maintenance fees. DRI is responsible for the same costs for the weeks they own and they try to make it sound like these costs are spit only with deeded owners.

One thing that kills me is all the default owners at my resort. The bad debt allocation this year is almost 20% of the budget. As a management company, DRI doesn’t seem to be doing enough to rent out the weeks where owners haven’t paid the MF and nor are they doing enough to get people to pay. I’m guessing a lot of those weeks are off season so they don’t even want them for the Club.

That's what we were told as well and I knew they were lying of course. They said that if we had points we would be immune from increases and special assessments. We were then told that "this is what all the smart people were doing...." That's when we were done and out of there. I think they will do or say anything to sell points. I am not interested.
 

tperez

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We love our DRI ownership and now that my wife and I are both retired, we get great value from booking within the last 60/30 days. Each year we purchase the cancellation insurance so after we make a reservation, we're almost always able to cancel and re-book for lower points later, which makes our ownership stretch even further. Also, we really like the properties and like all the different locations.

With all that said, we find the sales practices to be the worst by far of the three different timeshare systems we own. In Sedona, we had some 20-something just about yelling at us trying to give us a lecture about how we needed to discuss the offer she just gave us. It was pretty bad and I was so surprised, I almost started laughing.

So now, we rarely attend a presentation which makes the ownership much better. The only time we experience the bad part of DRI ownership is only during the VIP check-in after the "concierge" gives us all the discount coupons and then tries to get us to go to an update. That only lasts a few minutes and we know its coming so its not too bad.
 

AwayWeGo

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[triennial - points]
DRI doesn’t seem to be doing enough to rent out the weeks where owners haven’t paid the MF and nor are they doing enough to get people to pay. I’m guessing a lot of those weeks are off season so they don’t even want them for the Club.
If they rent out orphan weeks for peanuts, preferring to get at least a little something for them rather than have them go to waste, the owners & club members will be unhappy at seeing last-minute renters get big bargains while the owners pay in full for the same thing. It's a lose-lose proposition.

-- Alan Cole, McLean (Fairfax County), Virginia, USA.​
 

2turners

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Hi all,

I have been reading this site for a few years and officially joined the site 2 years ago so I could read reviews of resorts from people who are timeshare owners, which I think would give better reviews then people who are not ts owners. My opinion only.

As a happy DRI owner I wonder why their is so much negativism towards DRI. I agree with the comments regarding the high maintenance fees and high pressure sales tactics. I have been in some relatively pleasant owner updates, but have also been in some very high pressure and what I would consider unprofessional presentations.

That said, the resorts we stayed in have been nice and we really enjoy our membership. I also initially bought resale, so may not have as much invested as someone would bought at developer prices.

Not trying to start a war, but just wondering if I am in the minority as to being a happy DRI owner.

Thanks,
Dave
We have been owners of the Flamingo Beach Resort in St Maartan for over 20 years. After Diamond Resorts bought the Flaming we have seen our maintenance fees go thru the roof, a total change in the attitude of the staff and a downturn in the day to day upkeep. Not happy with DRI.
 

wilma

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Red Wolf Lakeside Lodge, Hanalei Bay Resort, Sweetbriar Lake tahoe, Marriott Canyon Villas, Hyatt High Sierra, Point at Poipu
We were turned off by the $8000 special assessment at the Point at Poipu and the high maintenance fees. The sales people at the Point are especially obnoxious once telling my spouse and me that if we were smarter we would realize what a great deal they were offering, and when we refused they claimed we were banned for life from future presentations! At check-in we tell the concierge that we are banned from owner updates.
 
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