Diamond Resorts CEO to be on Undercover Boss

[ChicagoRobert]

Should be interesting to see the CEO of Diamond Resorts International on the season premier of "Undercover Boss" Sunday, January, 15th.

It would be more interesting to see a timeshare CEO have to deal with timeshare owners than their housekeeping employees. :hysterical:

 

[jlwquilter]

I agree. I am sure that most of the rank and file employees are regular hardworking folks just living their lives, doing their jobs. Of course there's always the slacker or 2 mixed in.

Now if he goes to a call center where reps are indeed dealing with owners, that would be good. Or to a sales center where a sales person is uncomfortable with all the lies they have to tell in order to make a sale. That would be interesting too!

 

[pgnewarkboy]

Some on this board have said that kloobeck has personally responded to posts on this board about DRI problems and had their issues resolved.

Nothing is gained by making blanket statements about salepeople being told to lie. It is just mean.

 

[ChicagoRobert]

My post was not to imply at all that Mr. Cloobeck is not a good CEO, simply an acknowledgement that it would be interesting to see "a" CEO responding to a lot of the issues that get addressed here in this forum all the time by timeshare owners. "That" I was assuming would be far more interesting tv fodder. And likewise I dont think jlw was meaning to single out Mr. Cloobeck.

Can you feel the love?

 

[dioxide45]

Reminder. This is on now.

 

[Mel]

Just saw the lead-in. He will be in a call center, and blown hiscover he is s
o upset!

 

[shagnut]

well, I was impressed. He about fell out at the call center but instead of yelling at her he told her she needed more training. I think he got a real eyeful at the call center.Now, how he thinks he can make a ressie when there are no rooms is beyond me. He wasn't happy at the Powhatan when the first thing he saw was a front door needed repair. His getup was hilarious. what a bad wig!!.

He is sure used to the lap of luxury and if he does everything he wants to do I can see higher mf's or assessments. You could tell he's never done any maintenance in his life , I had to laugh.

I was impressed at what he did for the 4 people he went undercover with. Very generous.

shaggy

 

[l2trade]

It is easy to be generous when everyone is watching. The true test will be to see what lasting improvements DRI can make for all owners, guests and employees.

 

[carl2591]

It is easy to be generous when everyone is watching. The true test will be to see what lasting improvements DRI can make for all owners, guests and employees.

true.. guess MF are going up to cover the generosity.

 

[Passepartout]

Um, you don't think any of the regular employees were suspicious about this 'new guy' with a camera and sound crew, and mikeing them do ya?

I gotta call 'Bull!'ony

Boooooogus!

Jim

 

[DeniseM]

This show always has some kind of a cover story that the employees are told, but by now, you'd think that most people would have heard of Undercover Boss.

 

[AwayWeGo]

The Guy Came Across As A Saint On Prime-Time TV.

This is on now.

Compassionate bonuses to needy employees, insistence on better equipment & fuller staffing, promising to conduct call-center training himself, in person -- what a prince of a guy.

No doubt his exemplary character will result in a big jump in full-freight timeshare sales.

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

 

[artringwald]

No doubt his exemplary character will result in a big jump in full-freight timeshare sales.

And a big jump in maintenance fees!

 

[hvsteve1]

Couple of observations of the show.

A corporation will never allow an episode that reflects badly on the company. Though there were several mentions of "timeshare", the whole hour was on hospitality and the sales end of the company never came into the picture. Can you imagine a sales segment? "You need more training, you didn't call them 'stupid" when they refused to buy!"

I'm a Powhatan owner and was rather dismayed the segment on that resort, while making it look beautiful, was focused on disrepair such as the trashy looking door, ceiling fixes and water leaks in a unit. It sounded as though they were fighting to keep up with maintenance with a much too small crew. As this is a resort that has been badmouthed for years as being in disrepair, this episode certainly didn't help.

I've seen some episodes of the show and can't think of another CEO, even of much larger companies than DRI, who flaunted their wealth like Cloobeck. A British commando bodyguard who drives him around and searches hotel rooms before he checks in? The trophy wife? Flying from location to location in a private jet ? And, finally, using the excuse that the corporate headquarters is too intimidating so you can do the final segment at your mansion. The final shot of the hour is Cloobeck walking from his multi thousand square foot mansion into an infinity pool on the ocean while what is, presumably, his million dollar boat is anchored in the background.

 

[dougp26364]

I enjoyed the show but, I saw a definate disconnected between Mr. C and the common employee's. Not knowing how things are happening at the basic level can be a common issue for any CEO. I see the same disconnect where I work. How things will change in the future I can't say for certain but, knowing Mr. C, things will change.

 

[beejaybee]

I've seen some episodes of the show and can't think of another CEO, even of much larger companies than DRI, who flaunted their wealth like Cloobeck. A British commando bodyguard who drives him around and searches hotel rooms before he checks in? The trophy wife? Flying from location to location in a private jet ? And, finally, using the excuse that the corporate headquarters is too intimidating so you can do the final segment at your mansion. The final shot of the hour is Cloobeck walking from his multi thousand square foot mansion into an infinity pool on the ocean while what is, presumably, his million dollar boat is anchored in the background.

I enjoyed the show but, I saw a definate disconnected between Mr. C and the common employee's. Not knowing how things are happening at the basic level can be a common issue for any CEO. I see the same disconnect where I work. How things will change in the future I can't say for certain but, knowing Mr. C, things will change.

There was a definite disconnect between me & Mr. C when he refused to stay in the "everyman" kind of motel that all other Undercover Bosses have stayed in, but his generosity was greater than that of other CEOs.

Given the low pay of call-center employees which certainly limits ability to travel, it's not surprising that Sarah had no idea of how to pronounce Lihue! At least he gave her a chance to travel there. And where is the Diamond Resort timeshare that he offered the front desk gal a transfer to in Ireland?

 

[glenmore]

Anyone else get an email from Diamond Resorts this morning?

Chairman and CEO, Stephen J. Cloobeck went UNDERCOVER, what did you think? (shows a picture of him)

Click here to take our short survey.

We hope you enjoyed the season premiere of UNDERCOVER BOSS featuring our Chairman and CEO, Stephen J. Cloobeck. If you did get to watch the episode, we would love to hear what you thought. Please take a moment and click here to take our short survey. We’ll be giving away an iPad to one lucky survey respondent!

Thanks again! The Diamond Resorts Hospitality Team

We had no problem responding to this survey. We don't expect the ipad though! We had said much of what you all said. Mostly that the show seemed to be all about his image - no real connection with the employees - and one upsmanship when rewarding the employees. Where was the sincere thank you and the recognition that he had forgotten what it was like to be a "regular person." The final shot seemed to say it all - it was all about Stephen.

 

[Sandy VDH]

That hair was so bad, there is no way someone should not have known who he was, or at least challenged him on the getup.

I think he thinks pretty highly of himself. That is for sure. If you stay at Diamond they have a TV station with just him talking about Diamond. Not the products as much as him IMHO.

I recently stayed at a Diamond resort over Christmas. Although it was not bad, it was not the 5 star level he was striving for. Maybe a 3.5 to 4 but no way a 5.

 

[Larry]

Anyone else get an email from Diamond Resorts this morning?

Chairman and CEO, Stephen J. Cloobeck went UNDERCOVER, what did you think? (shows a picture of him)

Click here to take our short survey.

We hope you enjoyed the season premiere of UNDERCOVER BOSS featuring our Chairman and CEO, Stephen J. Cloobeck. If you did get to watch the episode, we would love to hear what you thought. Please take a moment and click here to take our short survey. We’ll be giving away an iPad to one lucky survey respondent!

Thanks again! The Diamond Resorts Hospitality Team

We had no problem responding to this survey. We don't expect the ipad though! We had said much of what you all said. Mostly that the show seemed to be all about his image - no real connection with the employees - and one upsmanship when rewarding the employees. Where was the sincere thank you and the recognition that he had forgotten what it was like to be a "regular person." The final shot seemed to say it all - it was all about Stephen.

Got the same thing this morning but haven't responded yet.

 

[Passepartout]

It will be interesting to see here how the 'personal training' of call center people improves the experience of booking a vacation, and how maintenance improves- especially at former Sunterra properties.

Squared by MF increases.

But frankly, the program was bogus. It was a showcase for Mr C's trophy job, trophy wife, trophy Ferrari, trophy jet, and trophy mansion, pool, and implied yacht.

IF I owned DRI, which I don't, I would be inclined to comment rather harshly at the next MF increase to help out the boss' lifestyle.

Jim

 

[l2trade]

Wow! Check out all the negative user comments from last nights episode:

Here - http://www.cbs.com/shows/undercover_boss/bios/80943/

And, here - http://newyork.ibtimes.com/articles...er-boss-cloobeck-diamond-resorts-season-3.htm

 

[hvsteve1]

While my post was kind of negative, let me say this in defense of Cloobeck. The producers of the show have control over what goes on the air. We don't know that CEOs of other big corporations didn't, when they were on the show, film segements at cheap hotels, then check into the Four Seasons. The producers apparently thought it was a cool segment to show the bodyguard deciding the room wasn't secure enough. Also, though I watch only a few episodes, my impression is most bosses stay in one location during the filming while Cloobeck moved around, creating the need for the jet. The show could have been edited to not show how he moved from place to place. I'm sure other bosses had drivers and private planes. They just weren't shown.

My big complaint is still how the show reflected badly on several resorts, impacting owners at those timeshares. At the first resort shown, he made a point of it being a takeover and still several years from being up to DRI standards. Would you want to book there? The segment on my home resort, Powhatan, focused on the units appearing to fall apart. I thought we had paid all the special assessments and MFs necessary to take care of this problem. To show him working on some of the oldest and most troublesome units and talking about the lack of manpower and equipment to keep up with maintenance, just reinforces some of the negative impressions of PP that I had hoped we were overcoming.

So far as his focus on customer service, my last contact with them was the end of the year, after this episode had been filmed. I was reserving my usual 2 BR unit at PP and was, as usual, booking one of the standard 2BR as I didn't have enough points left for anything else. The CSR told me that, for the amount of points I was using, she would upgrade me to one of the new "deluxe" units. While I still think our standard 2 over 2 lockout is still one of the best timeshare units around, I have toured the "deluxe" units and they are really among the nicest thing I have seen anywhere in more than 25 years of exchanging. Maybe offering a free upgrade is part of their new motto to always say "yes".

 

[AKE]

I agree in that the producers have final say of what segments to air and which ones not to. At the same time I would think that if the producers view an individual favorably then they are more likely to air the segments which make the CEO look good and if they get negative vibes from the CEO then what is aired will make the CEO look bad. So the question is what did Cloobeck do to have the producers portray him in this negative light?

Now from a corporate standards viewpoint, I would think that there should be some DRI standard re the number of units/maintenance person for PP. If PP has 800+ units and only 4 painters/drywallers which is obviously not workable (i.e. 1 painter/sander/200 units is way too low) then why has this not been escalated? DRI has been in charge for 4 1/2 years and as such they should have metrics readily available re what is required vs what they have.

 

[Tom T]

Diamond Resorts: [merged]

Saw the CEO on undercover last night, wonder why he didn't visit the sales department. I've never had trouble with the people he dealt with in all the years we have stayed in Time Shares!

 

[dougp26364]

Anyone else get an email from Diamond Resorts this morning?

Chairman and CEO, Stephen J. Cloobeck went UNDERCOVER, what did you think? (shows a picture of him)

Click here to take our short survey.

We hope you enjoyed the season premiere of UNDERCOVER BOSS featuring our Chairman and CEO, Stephen J. Cloobeck. If you did get to watch the episode, we would love to hear what you thought. Please take a moment and click here to take our short survey. We’ll be giving away an iPad to one lucky survey respondent!

Thanks again! The Diamond Resorts Hospitality Team

We had no problem responding to this survey. We don't expect the ipad though! We had said much of what you all said. Mostly that the show seemed to be all about his image - no real connection with the employees - and one upsmanship when rewarding the employees. Where was the sincere thank you and the recognition that he had forgotten what it was like to be a "regular person." The final shot seemed to say it all - it was all about Stephen.

Recieved it and responded. It's one of the few survey's I took the time to think about and write in comments I thought relevant.