Are Diamond Resorts the Worst of All in Providing Internet Service?

[bobpark56]

We are currently at DRI's Lake Tahoe Vacation Resort, and this has got to have the poorest internet service I have found anywhere. Last week we were at DRI's San Luis Bay Inn in Avila Beach, and the internet was almost as bad. A year ago at Greensprings in Williamsburg, it was same-same. On top of that, each of these resorts charges $30 extra per week for this poor service (think AT&T). Not even in Mexico or Europe has my internet service been so slow. My most recent speed test here produced .06 mbps download and .03 mbps upload speeds, with a solid F rating on the ping test.

Are all DRI resorts this way? Is DRI doing anything to address the issue?

And why does DRI charge extra for this 'service?' I have never had to pay extra at Marriott of Westin resorts, and rarely at others.

If it were not for the internet, I would say I really liked the DRI resorts I have stayed in. Funny how one thing can sour the experience.

 

[dougp26364]

I haven't had the issues you're having when we've stayed at The Suite's at Fall Creek in Branson. I did have an issue at Villa's De Santa Fe and I went to the front desk. They gave me the number of their provider, I called them and there was a minor issue that was easy to fix. Maybe you should check with the front desk next time your having an issue.

 

[pgnewarkboy]

I never had an Internet problem. It is free for elite members.

 

[Margariet]

We are currently at DRI's Lake Tahoe Vacation Resort, and this has got to have the poorest internet service I have found anywhere. Last week we were at DRI's San Luis Bay Inn in Avila Beach, and the internet was almost as bad. A year ago at Greensprings in Williamsburg, it was same-same. On top of that, each of these resorts charges $30 extra per week for this poor service (think AT&T). Not even in Mexico or Europe has my internet service been so slow. My most recent speed test here produced .06 mbps download and .03 mbps upload speeds, with a solid F rating on the ping test.

Are all DRI resorts this way? Is DRI doing anything to address the issue?

And why does DRI charge extra for this 'service?' I have never had to pay extra at Marriott of Westin resorts, and rarely at others.

If it were not for the internet, I would say I really liked the DRI resorts I have stayed in. Funny how one thing can sour the experience.

You suddenly remind me how I was struggling for days with the internet connection in Sedona (The Ridge, DRI). Horrible! They had a company who was 'supposed' to help me but their service was so slow, it took days and then it still didn't work. We had to sit in the lounge to get connected.

 

[classiclincoln]

We were there over July 4th. and the internet was crappy. I thought it was a problem with the AT&T connection. Never stayed at any of their other properties (but will in the future since it was a great resort), and never had that kind of problem anywhere else.

 

[nightnurse613]

As an owner and frequent visitor to some of the properties you mention, I can say it's probably a matter of location. My husband and I both use the internet connection and find it loads in a (generally) acceptable manner. More DSL than dial up!! We were at Avila this past summer (third floor) and set it on the kitchen table for everyone to use and it seemed to work fine. Of course, since Avila is NOT a DRI owned property, we ended up paying $30 - for which I want some respect-and DSL quality. (Both of which I didn't get).

 

[pgnewarkboy]

I used Internet at dri in Paris for one week for free. Streamed music and! Video all week flawlessly.

 

[dougp26364]

I am typing this responce from our unit at The Suite's at Fall Creek. The internet is working fine with a reasonably fast connection.

We own with other management companies as well as with DRI. Even with the other companies, WiFi at the resorts varies in quality and speed.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

We were just at Poipu. The rooms have wired internet (free for elite owners; daily charge for others) as well as wi-fi in the lobby. I think the lobby wi-fi is free; there are also two terminals and a printer in the lobby, which are free.

I brought along a spare router, connected the DSL cable to the router, and set up our own wireless network in the resort. Useful because among the five of us there were four of us who had to stay in contact with clients and projects while we were there.

 

[dwojo]

We are currently at DRI's Lake Tahoe Vacation Resort, and this has got to have the poorest internet service I have found anywhere. Last week we were at DRI's San Luis Bay Inn in Avila Beach, and the internet was almost as bad. A year ago at Greensprings in Williamsburg, it was same-same. On top of that, each of these resorts charges $30 extra per week for this poor service (think AT&T). Not even in Mexico or Europe has my internet service been so slow. My most recent speed test here produced .06 mbps download and .03 mbps upload speeds, with a solid F rating on the ping test.

Are all DRI resorts this way? Is DRI doing anything to address the issue?

And why does DRI charge extra for this 'service?' I have never had to pay extra at Marriott of Westin resorts, and rarely at others.

If it were not for the internet, I would say I really liked the DRI resorts I have stayed in. Funny how one thing can sour the experience.

I was at Greensprings in may and the internet was reasonably fast with no connection issues.

 

[csalter2]

No Problems for Me except...

This summer I stayed at Los Abrigados, Scottsdale Links, Villas de Santa Fe, and Polo Towers. I had no problem with the internet in any of these locations. I did have a problem with having to pay for the internet at Polo Towers since I am an elite member. I wish they would get all of the DRI properties on the same page with this.

 

[bobpark56]

Follow-up

This is a follow-up. Brian Garavuso, Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Diamond Resorts International, contacted me today. He said that the issue of in-unit internet service in DRI resorts is a known issue and one that is being worked...but may take a while yet to be resolved, as long-term contracts are involved. They are not happy with the service as it exists today, and he promises that it will get better.

I had heard that DRI management is unusual in the industry in it's approachability, follow-up of issues, and attention to detail, and I am now a believer. This is good to know, as we are new members of DRI's 'The Club,' and there are always some misgivings when one starts a new relationship with a timesharing company.

--bp

 

[rickandcindy23]

We were just at Poipu. The rooms have wired internet (free for elite owners; daily charge for others) as well as wi-fi in the lobby. I think the lobby wi-fi is free; there are also two terminals and a printer in the lobby, which are free.

I brought along a spare router, connected the DSL cable to the router, and set up our own wireless network in the resort. Useful because among the five of us there were four of us who had to stay in contact with clients and projects while we were there.

We never did connect at Point at Poipu in February. We just went to the lobby to connect wirelessly. It was the only thing I would say negative about Point at Poipu. I loved every minute of our stay, except the lack of internet, and the lack of help to get the internet to work. The onsite people were not helpful, and they absolutely refused to pay the providing company to come and fix our service. But our answer to that was easy: Use the free service in the lobby, rather than pay for the non-service in the unit.

One day, internet will be easier to get. DRI resorts have been awful in getting internet that has any kind of speed, too. At Grand Beach, we couldn't do anything but check email and post on TUG. The internet was slow, so we couldn't use our new Slingbox Dish capabilities through their internet. The front desk and the provider were NOT helpful, and we were paying daily. Forget getting service from DRI for internet.

 

[dougp26364]

We never did connect at Point at Poipu in February. We just went to the lobby to connect wirelessly. It was the only thing I would say negative about Point at Poipu. I loved every minute of our stay, except the lack of internet, and the lack of help to get the internet to work. The onsite people were not helpful, and they absolutely refused to pay the providing company to come and fix our service. But our answer to that was easy: Use the free service in the lobby, rather than pay for the non-service in the unit.

One day, internet will be easier to get. DRI resorts have been awful in getting internet that has any kind of speed, too. At Grand Beach, we couldn't do anything but check email and post on TUG. The internet was slow, so we couldn't use our new Slingbox Dish capabilities through their internet. The front desk and the provider were NOT helpful, and we were paying daily. Forget getting service from DRI for internet.

This is a rather harsh statement. Even with Marriott, I have found that internet service can vary from resort to resort and, at times, even from unit to unit at the same resort.

I think it's already been posted that this holds true with DRI as well. We just returned from a DRI stay and had no issues with the internet at that resort in our unit. So to say forget about getting service from DRI for Internet is maybe a little on the harsh side.

 

[CalifasGirl]

It probably depends on how far you are from the check-in desk, i.e. wireless router. When staying at Scottsdale Links, we had a very strong signal, but we didn't use the AT&T internet. We have our own portable wireless device, so we used ours.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

We never did connect at Point at Poipu in February. We just went to the lobby to connect wirelessly. It was the only thing I would say negative about Point at Poipu. I loved every minute of our stay, except the lack of internet, and the lack of help to get the internet to work. The onsite people were not helpful, and they absolutely refused to pay the providing company to come and fix our service. But our answer to that was easy: Use the free service in the lobby, rather than pay for the non-service in the unit.

One day, internet will be easier to get. DRI resorts have been awful in getting internet that has any kind of speed, too. At Grand Beach, we couldn't do anything but check email and post on TUG. The internet was slow, so we couldn't use our new Slingbox Dish capabilities through their internet. The front desk and the provider were NOT helpful, and we were paying daily. Forget getting service from DRI for internet.

I don't know what your problem might have been. The last three times we have been at Poipu connecting in the room has been as simple as connecting the LAN to the jack on the computer, opening a browser, and clicking that we accept both the terms and conditions and the charges. That's good for 24 hours, after which you repeat.

As noted, I've also had no problem using that to feed a router to create a wireless network, and everyone with the passkey has then been able to connect seamlessly.

***

As far as connection speeds go, the in-room speeds that I've gotten have been about typical for wired LAN connections in almost any hotel room (Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, etc.) I've stayed in when traveling (i.e., ~ 500 kbps download), which is faster than I can get in almost any hotel wireless connection.