Diamond now taking over Sunrise Ridge Resort in Pigeon Forge

[jackjill629]

As an owner at this resort I was shocked to receive a letter from the association announcing that Diamond has introduced itself as the management company. The letter included a request to return a proxy for a special election where 3 new board members were running. There was no customary biography on the candidates. I suspect they are all Diamond employees which might pack the board and place the resort squarely under their control. They even offered to give a $50 gift card to the first 400 who returned the proxy. They also agreed to take over the foreclosed and bad debt units which would give them even more votes on issues. I just got rid of two Diamond resorts in Williamsburg. After Diamond took over there the maintenance fees and management fees skyrocketed. Here I thought I was divorced from their clutches but here we go again.

Everything I have read about this company (DRI) has been awful. I own four deeded weeks at Sunrise Ridge and never fell into the RCI points trap, as I purchased specifically to use my time in Pigeon Forge, TN. I do not plan to join the DRI point system and give up my deeded property as many have done in the past. They are also taking over a portion of Alhambra in Poinciana, FL and probably Tree Tops in Gatlinburg, TN and possibly a portion of Oakmont in Pigeon Forge. If necessary, I will just use my deeded weeks, but am hopeful they keep the Amber internal point system for Sunrise, but am quite doubtful. Hoping to get my allotted points reserved for the remainder of 2018 before this terrible company takes over completely.

 

[GeorgeJ.]

Thanks for the bio. I do not recall getting it in the mail. They are all Diamond employees so what is the use sending in the proxy other than getting the $50. I don't recall getting anything asking for interested parties who might have wanted to run for these positions. I've been out of town a lot and it's a chore reading and catching up on the stacks of mail when I get home so I might have missed the notices. Same result. Diamond is in.

My reading of that page says not that the first 400 that vote get a $50 gift card. It says that if you're one of the first 400 you QUALIFY to win the $50 gift card. Maybe only giving ONE away?

 

[JohnPaul]

After poking around the Internet, it appears that Diamond has acquired Amber Vacation Club. "Amber Vacation Club and Amber Resort Management provide central reservations, owner services and resort management to 15,000 owners at three resort locations as well as two additional affiliate sites." The five combined resorts are:

Sunrise Ridge Resort, Pigeon Forge, TN
Tree Tops Resort, Gatlinburg, TN
Oakmont Resort, Pigeon Forge, TN
Casa del Mar Resort, Ormond Beach, FL
Alhambra Villas, Kissimmee, FL

Sunrise Ridge Resort is Amber managed and will become DRI managed.

Alhambra Villas is also now controlled by DRI. A slate of DRI employees are candidates for HOA board. All are running unopposed.

Casa del Mar is managed be Bluegreen and the Bluegreen Vacation Club owns 56% of the intervals.

Amber Vacation Club guidelines suggest all members own deeded intervals, there is no trust fund for pooled points. It seems likely the vacation club will be dissolved. Diamond might substitute a version of their mini-club system, as they did after acquiring Island One Resorts and its Club Navigo in 2013.

https://www.ambervacations.com/

We own at Oakmont which has ridiculously low MF. Never stayed there as we use our RCI points from there elsewhere.

Have not gotten any notification about DRI having any role there.

 

[Kozman]

We own at Oakmont which has ridiculously low MF. Never stayed there as we use our RCI points from there elsewhere.

I own there as well and have not heard of any change there either. Hopefully Diamond won't find Oakmont attractive and leave it alone!


Have not gotten any notification about DRI having any role there.

 

[DRIless]

Talent312 may want to start a new thread in the appropriate forum. I found this several months ago after finding my mail ripped in half on the ground on the side of the road. Great way to see what's MISSING from your mailbox!

For those of you who, when away from home, want to know what mail you're missing:
USPS has a service that will email you a scan of each day's regular-sized envelopes.
Check-out: https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action

.

Thanks for providing the information and link to the USPS service. This is a terific link for anyone who travels away from home for weeks at a time.

I also must agree this is an excellent link to a USPS service. Now we can kept track of our mail while we are away from home.

Thank you for this link and information.

 

[JohnPaul]

https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/informed-delivery-by-the-postal-service.271324/

Here is a discussion of this USPS service.

 

[crowmg]

Another poster suggested that your ownership is a deeded week; if that is the case I'm not convinced that they could force you to switch to points.

If you have a choice, my suggestion would be to stick with your deeded week ownership rather than converting to points. The developer and management company for our TS (Monarch Grand Vacations) went bankrupt and assets were acquired by Diamond, placing them as the mgmt company for our points system. They offered to convert us into the Diamond points system, but insisted that we'd have to double our ownership stake at substantial cost, of course. We declined, but the policies have gradually gotten less and less favorable and we are thinking about dumping it. The last straw for me is that they switched from deposit first to request first with II, which means I can't bank the unused points I have. Too make it worse, I had reserved a week using my points and had a nice exchange set up through SFX for Park City later this year which fell through because Diamond wouldn't confirm the reservation to SFX. If I'd owned a fixed week that reportedly wouldn't have been a problem.

Not sure exactly how the finances actually work, but there seems to be layers of mgmt fees... My MGV ownership association still has substantial ownership percentages in several resorts and the 2017 budget (latest available to me) indicates that only about 65% of the MF's actually go towards MF's at the underlying resorts. The other 35% goes to bad debt (unpaid association MF's?), management fees, and 'general and admin' expenses. It would be interesting to look at an individual resort HOA budget and see what percentage of that budget also goes to Diamond in return for them managing the property and running the reservation/exchange system.

I also learned just yesterday that Diamond has a separate private exchange program of their own for weeks owners called Destination Exchange, with its own membership and exchange fees of course. The available inventory in that program does NOT appear to be identical to the Diamond Points inventory I can access, although there is some overlap in availability and a lot of overlap in the resort list. My guess is that many of those resorts have ownership split between weeks and points, and that there is at least some isolation between the pools of inventory.

Good luck!

 

[crowmg]

We purchased 3 timeshares from second party sellers and they are all deeded weeks and they are for the weeks that we want for Bike Week in Daytona Beach and Bike Week in Myrtle Beach and another for Biketoberfest in Daytona Beach. If we gave these up for points, we would not be able to get these specific weeks for these events. We intend to keep our weeks units because we use them every year, we do not turn them in for trade or bank them. Has anyone been forced to convert their weeks to points in any of the companies that have taken over management of their resorts.

 

[nuwermj]

Looks like Diamond purchased the Amber Vacation Club (a five resort exchange company) and the developer's rights at Sunrise Ridge (Pigeon Forge) and Alhambra (Kissimmee). Diamond's goal is to convert current deeded owner to THE Club for lots of money. Twitter posts say the Sales Center at Sunrise Ridge is opening April 16.

https://www.insidethegate.com/2018/04/diamond-resorts-completes-acquisition-of-amber-vacation-club/

 

[Kozman]

Looks like Diamond purchased the Amber Vacation Club (a five resort exchange company) and the developer's rights at Sunrise Ridge (Pigeon Forge) and Alhambra (Kissimmee). Diamond's goal is to convert current deeded owner to THE Club for lots of money. Twitter posts say the Sales Center at Sunrise Ridge is opening April 16.

https://www.insidethegate.com/2018/04/diamond-resorts-completes-acquisition-of-amber-vacation-club/

One phrase in particular sticks out in this article....'while establishing adequate operating reserves in the resort budgets'. Translation...we think they are too low now and your maintenance fees need to go up a lot!

 

[nuwermj]

One phrase in particular sticks out in this article....'while establishing adequate operating reserves in the resort budgets'. Translation...we think they are too low now and your maintenance fees need to go up a lot!

Absolutely!

 

[DRIless]

We purchased 3 timeshares from second party sellers and they are all deeded weeks and they are for the weeks that we want for Bike Week in Daytona Beach and Bike Week in Myrtle Beach and another for Biketoberfest in Daytona Beach. If we gave these up for points, we would not be able to get these specific weeks for these events. We intend to keep our weeks units because we use them every year, we do not turn them in for trade or bank them. Has anyone been forced to convert their weeks to points in any of the companies that have taken over management of their resorts.

They will use scare tactics but they can't/won't force you.

 

[Kozman]

Funny but I just received a letter from Sunrise indicating I had to reserve my week before xxxxxxx or it will automatically go into my Amber points account!!!!? Wonder if they will honor points already banked?

 

[DRIless]

Funny but I just received a letter from Sunrise indicating I had to reserve my week before xxxxxxx or it will automatically go into my Amber points account!!!!? Wonder if they will honor points already banked?

They'll use scare tactics like:
"All your fellow owners are converting to THE Club, if you don't, your ability to book what you want will constantly dwindle."

You should be able to continue as you did before and your Amber Points should be there.

 

[Kozman]

Both Oakmont Resort and Tretops Resort are listed as Diamond properties. Bad news for owners.

https://www.diamondresorts.com/destinations/filter/united-states/tennessee

 

[johnnythatsmyboy]

We are RCI points owners @ Treetops. Could you please elaborate on the "bad news" comment and what we should be expecting other than an increase in our maintenance fees.

 

[kwelty]

Both Oakmont Resort and Tretops Resort are listed as Diamond properties. Bad news for owners.

https://www.diamondresorts.com/destinations/filter/united-states/tennessee

It is listed as an affiliated property, I don't believe it is controlled by DRI.

 

[pedro47]

How many resorts does DRI manage?

How many affiliated properties does DRI have in The Club.

 

[Maple_Leaf]

How many resorts does DRI manage?

How many affiliated properties does DRI have in The Club.

DRI owns Sunrise Ridge in Pigeon Forge and Bent Creek Golf Village in Gatlinburg.

DRI owns affiliated units at Gatlinburg Town Square, Gatlinburg Town Village and Tree Tops in Gatlinburg. They also own affiliated units at Mountain Meadows and Oakmont in Pigeon Forge.

DRI affiliation is like a case of the shingles for other owners. DRI can lie dormant for years and strike with ferocity when you least expect it using your own timeshare governance against you.

 

[nuwermj]

How many resorts does DRI manage?

About 111 resorts are managed by Diamond, including the nine Embarc resorts which are not available to Club Diamond members.

How many affiliated properties does DRI have in The Club.

The number is always changing, but something in the neighborhood of 350 are "affiliated." There are four types of affiliates in the system.

 

[nuwermj]

DRI owns affiliated units at Gatlinburg Town Square, Gatlinburg Town Village and Tree Tops in Gatlinburg. They also own affiliated units at Mountain Meadows and Oakmont in Pigeon Forge.

I don't think this is correct. Diamond has no ownership affiliations with these resorts.

Oakmont and Tree Tops are part of the Amber Vacation Club. When Diamond purchased Amber, they took over management of that Club. Amber members can still exchange among the five club resorts. But Club Diamond members have no access to Oakmont, Tree Tops or Casa del Mar.

 

[nuwermj]

Both Oakmont Resort and Tretops Resort are listed as Diamond properties. Bad news for owners.

https://www.diamondresorts.com/destinations/filter/united-states/tennessee

But availability for Club Diamond members is zero. Oakmont, Tree Tops and Casa del Mar are listed because Amber Vacation Club members have access.

 

[Maple_Leaf]

I don't think this is correct. Diamond has no ownership affiliations with these resorts.

Oakmont and Tree Tops are part of the Amber Vacation Club. When Diamond purchased Amber, they took over management of that Club. Amber members can still exchange among the five club resorts. But Club Diamond members have no access to Oakmont, Tree Tops or Casa del Mar.

Diamond claims all these resorts as "Club Affiliated."

https://www.diamondresorts.com/destinations/property/Oakmont-Resort

That DRI would generate disinformation about these resorts doesn't surprise me.

 

[nuwermj]

Diamond claims all these resorts as "Club Affiliated."

https://www.diamondresorts.com/destinations/property/Oakmont-Resort

That DRI would generate disinformation about these resorts doesn't surprise me.

My point is that Diamond does not "own affiliated units at ... " as you stated. They clearly define an "affiliated" resort in public documents.

 

[Maple_Leaf]

My point is that Diamond does not "own affiliated units at ... " as you stated. They clearly define an "affiliated" resort in public documents.

Diamond presents these resorts as "Club Affiliated" on their corporate website. Thank you for the clarification that there are multiple types of affiliation. Whether their corporate henchmen actually own intervals at these resorts or their marketing lackeys just claim "Club Affiliated" doesn't matter to me. DRI is presenting to the public that these are Club Affiliated resorts, the same public to which they pitch membership in The Club.