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Acquisition News [Gold Key Resorts] [MERGED]

johnrsrq said:
Why did I decide to do that.
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I fully understand why you decided to do that. I might have done the same thing had I been in a similar situation.

It will be interesting to see whether DRI offers Gold Key owners the same kind of arrangement as you have. My impression from other recent DRI acquisitions is that deeded ownership with Club membership is not on the table.

Michael
 
Since DRI is in the process of buying Gold Key Resorts, I inquired about a deed back for my week 39 at Beachwoods. At first I got a response that they weren't doing it. Today I get a voicemail from Cacey Brown at Gold Key about it. I tried to call back and it went to voicemail so I'm guessing that DRI is instructing them to get back as many weeks as they can so they have inventory to add to the club and sell more points. Hopefully?
 
Smart move

harveyhaddixfan said:
Since DRI is in the process of buying Gold Key Resorts, I inquired about a deed back for my week 39 at Beachwoods. At first I got a response that they weren't doing it. Today I get a voicemail from Cacey Brown at Gold Key about it. I tried to call back and it went to voicemail so I'm guessing that DRI is instructing them to get back as many weeks as they can so they have inventory to add to the club and sell more points. Hopefully?
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I hope you're successful, Chris.
 
I saw a couple of references in this thread about the resorts being in good shape and MF's should not have to increase significantly to bring the resorts up to Diamond's quality. Out of curiosity, I did a quick Google search and saw a reference to the Beachwoods property in Kitty Hawk, NC being run down and needing a "special assessment" to maintain the property. So, what's the real story?
https://www.google.com/search?q=gol...oid-sprint-us&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8
 
The real story on Beachwoods is it was run down. Then Gold Key bought the developer rights (Sept 2014) and immediately planned and started a renovation and refurbishment. So each interval had to pay about an $1800 assessment. This comes to about $90,000 per unit (50*$1800). With $50,000+ going into each unit with the additional going to the property in general plus the $10,000,000 pledged by Gold key in general common area upgrades there shouldn't need to be a whole lot more done to get the place up to the so called "DRI standards". The assessment was on top of a $100 MF increase to fund future reserves.

The refurb started in late 2014 but units didn't start to get completed until late spring and summer of this year. So the conditions in the reviews are primarily pre-gold key.
 
I went through a buyout with another Timeshare with Holiday Inn Vacation Club. They offered a free conversion to points, and I still did NOT convert. I didn't want to pay a membership fee and pay to exchange within their system. I use this resort to exchange with Interval and have no problems.

I own 2 summer weeks with Gold Key, 1 week at Beach Quarters and one at Turtle Cay. I will not convert to a point system and risk not being able to use my summer week, since we always stay and I will not give them up to get them back to Diamond Resorts. It only helps the developer. If I wanted to, I can do this in Interval.
 
Woot woot! This was a week 39 that was in weeks. It pulled 17 & 16 TPU for $710 a year. They are also waiving the remaining $1240 on the special assessment!
 
harveyhaddixfan said:
Woot woot! This was a week 39 that was in weeks. It pulled 17 & 16 TPU for $710 a year. They are also waiving the remaining $1240 on the special assessment!
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congrats!

Remember if you ever wanted to stay there in the future or others, maybe Diamond owners will be able to have you as our guests. That way you have no more strings but if you still wanted to go there particularly that timeframe, it probably would be possible. We shall see. Glad you had this option. Best to you.
 
johnrsrq said:
congrats!

Remember if you ever wanted to stay there in the future or others, maybe Diamond owners will be able to have you as our guests. That way you have no more strings but if you still wanted to go there particularly that timeframe, it probably would be possible. We shall see. Glad you had this option. Best to you.
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Thanks, but don't worry. I'm not going anywhere. I bought a week 22 that is in points so I had been looking to dump the week 39. We went that week this year and it was a lot better than the end of September. It was really nice weather and daylight till 9 instead of 7!
 
The new trend in the timeshare industry is to do completely away with all deed ownership. This is my opinion only.
 
pedro47 said:
The new trend in the timeshare industry is to do completely away with all deed ownership. This is my opinion only.
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No more pesky "owners" that developers have to pretend to allow to run the HOA and set the budgets and assessments. No more costly foreclosures to have to deal with. They wouldn't have to have licenses to sell since they are selling memberships and not deeded property. They could re-write the governing rules whenever they wanted to without having to get a 2/3's vote or a super majority. They can strip whatever they want upon resale because there would be no "deeded" rights. All that sounds like a win-win for the developer.
 
tschwa2 said:
Gold key resorts are fixed week and for the most part float units within a view category. Nothing really that they can fool with. While not Marriott quality, I think they are already nicer than the two DRI resorts less than an hour away in Williamsburg that have had Marriott type MF's for at least the last 5 years. Unlike many of the DRI acquisitions Gold Key wasn't distressed. It wasn't go bankrupt or have an org like DRI to save them. The developers probably wanted an immediate payday unless there were problems that weren't evident. Gold key not only had the timeshares but also were the developer/manager for at least 2 full time condos, about 4 hotels plus shops and restaurants associated with the hotels and the ground floor block of shops/restaurants around the condo development. I wonder if those assets will go to DRI or if Gold key wanted out of timeshares but is keeping everything else.

I know DRI doesn't care for exchangers other than potential bodies that may become owners but my experience with DRI from their sales group who instead of letting me go when I said my husband wasn't with me and I was travelling with 96 year old grandmother and kids, still called multiple times to try to get my 96 year old to agree to a presentation. The second part I didn't like is despite the higher MF than equivalent resorts in the area for owners, still charges exchangers for things like internet and other rec items that are included in other resorts in the area. The third part is that to this day 3 years after an exchange, they still insist that since I did business with them, they can call and email trying to get me to come for a discounted weekend. I pretty much tell them every time they call to take me off their list and unless they are the only resort in the area that I want to go to when I want to travel, I could not imagine choosing DRI. It doesn't hurt that in Williamsburg there are at least 6 I like better. The calls are thankfully way down to less than one every other month. VB is going to be harder because the combo of location and amenities are much better at gold key then the other resorts and that includes Ocean City and the Delaware Beaches as well.

Sorry for my DRI rant, I know some people really like their product but they really turned me off in a big way with a fairly average resort to back it up.
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They can fool easily with the Maintenance fees. 15% maintenance fee increases for each of the next 5 years will screw everyone. I own two weeks at Ocean Beach Club.
 
I'm seeing this everywhere now

tschwa2 said:
No more pesky "owners" that developers have to pretend to allow to run the HOA and set the budgets and assessments. No more costly foreclosures to have to deal with. They wouldn't have to have licenses to sell since they are selling memberships and not deeded property. They could re-write the governing rules whenever they wanted to without having to get a 2/3's vote or a super majority. They can strip whatever they want upon resale because there would be no "deeded" rights. All that sounds like a win-win for the developer.
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And don't forget unilaterally increasing the points requirements for resort stays over time to inflate away the "owner investment."
 
No Response from GoldKey

I own a fixed week, fixed unit summer interval at Beach Quarters Resort. When I received notice of the sale to DRI, the letter included an email address to submit questions. I sent an email asking them to confirm that there would not be any changes to my right to use my deeded week and unit and that I would continue to receive the same amenities, including parking. I received a quick response, which had attached a number of FAQs that they had dreamed up, none of which addressed my issues. I immediately emailed them back, requesting that they address my issues. Five days have passed without a response. This is not encouraging!
 
In general DRI includes parking for owners (whether deeded owners or points owners). What they do do is charge exchangers for parking even if that is an amenity paid for and owned by the HOA. I would probably still expect it for free if exchanging back into BQ but you may be charged if you exchange into other former gold key properties or other DRI properties. Those kind of "perks" extend to all properties if you are a points owner but only at your home resort for deeded owners.
 
Great timing as always

New to this site, but enjoying the education I am receiving from reading all the comments from the timeshare veterans.

After years of never buying a timeshare and having a generally negative attitude towards them, we bought from Gold Key at Ocean Beach Club in May (long story). I now realize that I overpaid significantly and could have gotten the same thing here for less than 1/2 of what we paid. Unfortunately I found TUG after we bought.

I can say in Gold Key's defense, that their sales tactics were nothing like what I am reading about DRI. Most of what Gold Key told us has proven to be accurate and they have been very helpful and responsive since we have purchased. We just paid a lot for what we got.

Of course 60 days after our purchase Gold Key sold out to DRI. I am quite concerned about possible changes in the level of service we have received so far. I hope DRI keeps most of the Gold Key people. And while I am concerned about increases in the MF like everyone else, I can handle that (within reason) as long as DRI keeps the properties in top shape and if they kept the great service that Gold Key has given us so far.

One thing I know for sure is that I have no desire to convert my deeded week into points.

We'll see.
 
Rumor has it that DRI has acquired a time share resort somewhere in the state of New York.
 
New York

pedro47 said:
Rumor has it that DRI has acquired a time share resort somewhere in the state of New York.
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I see that there are 4 DRI Affiliates you can book in New York. You mean an actual new purchase? I can't find anything on the internet about this.:)
 
kalima said:
I see that there are 4 DRI Affiliates you can book in New York. You mean an actual new purchase? I can't find anything on the internet about this.:)
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This will be a new addition.
 
Keep your deeded week with Gold Key Resorts. It is recorded in Virginia Beach's courthouse. You will have every right to use your deeded week. Sounds like DRI system is a bad deal. If there is a year, you can't use it, use Interval or rent it out for the week through redweek.com or here on the marketplace or ebay. There is a real estate agent in Virginia Beach call Timesharing2000.com that will take 20%, but seems to be a decent deal.

During the summer, I see a lot of the same people returning year after year, so I don't think they will be giving up there week. There are few exchanges made into these resorts in the summer.
 
When will DRI list these new resorts to their web site?
 
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