I am providing a link to the DRI website. This lists all the resorts currently owned or managed by DRI. The Embassy resorts in Lake Tahoe and in Maui have had their names changed but I have seen both resorts before when they were managed by Embassy.
https://www.diamondresorts.com/index.aspx
This controversy affects me because I am considering an exchange into these resorts and possible exchange into the Sahara Sunset Club in Malaga.
I really don't think you'll have issues exchanging into these resorts as an internal exchange. The only issues I see are reports that internal exchange availability seems to be less than in the past. Since I've not been a member of THE Club very long (less than 1 year), I can't comment on how easy, or hard, internal exchanges were before DRI took over Sunterra. I have read posts that seem to indicate availability is less than a couple of years ago but, I've seen no hard proof of that as of yet.
I can say that, I looked at last minute internal exchanges into the Suite's at Fall Creek in Branson both this year and last year. Last year, there was plenty of availability for standard units. This year there was nothing available for the dates we we wanted to go. Now DRI has made changes to their web site and it is possible that I could have called and found that the web site wasn't accurate and that units were actually available. Since I really wasn't that interested in exchanging into the Suite's at Fall Creek, I didn't take the extra step of making that phone call. Instead, I made exchanges through I.I. into Horizon's by Marriott.
DRI is a lot of things but, I don't seem them as intentionally canceling confirmed reservations to get back at those that speak out against them. I can see them having issues with acknowleding that MF's have been paid, crediting the account properly and, canceling an exchange because they don't show the MF's as paid. I've personally had that happen to me more than once when making exchanges through I.I. and DRI refusing to release my unit week because they can't keep up with the bookeeping on their end of the deal.
I recently had an issue with DRI over a $155 overcharge. When I converted to THE Club, part of the deal was the first years club dues were to be waived. In the middle of the year, they added the $70 assessment to THE Club dues, which I paid. Then, they hit me with an additional $155 charge because I hadn't paid 2008's membership dues.
Knowing their past and how trigger happy they can be to cancel memberships, I paid the $155 fee and proceeded to protest through the correct channels at DRI. I believe I still have all the E-mails that ensued and you'd be surprised at the number of excuses they would come up with trying to convince me that, despite what I had in writing from them, I owed them that $155.
Finally, they acknowledged that they had agreed to waive that 2008 fee but, they still did not refund the money. It took another 2 or 3 e-mails to get them to understand that I had paid the fee and they needed to refund that money. They agreed to refund the money but, they didn't do it. After another couple of e-mails I was informed that the refund would show up as a CREDIT on my account.
Hmmm, I give them the money that I did not owe them but, they refuse to give it back to me. All they would have had to have done was issue a credit to the credit card I used to pay the fee. This was to inconvenient for them to do so I was issued a credit. It took several weeks but the credit did finally show up on my account.
I supose I could argue the loss of interest on that $155 but, it really wouldn't have been a lot of money to me. What makes me wonder is how many other Polo Towers owners that converted to THE Club found themselves in the same situation. I also wonder how many of them were not as peresistant as I was an just gave up, allowing DRI to keep the money. I've learned the hard way to keep the paper trail with DRI to prove my point when necessary and I wasn't going to let them off the hook.
Now, if this falls into the catagory of crook then so be it. I personally feel it just falls into the catagory of incompetence. I don't believe it was intentional. I do believe they just don't have the ablitity to run their operation in an efficient manner. IMO it's been an ongoing problem and, with larger size comes larger mistakes.
You have to pay for all those take overs some how. I mean how else do you expect them to be the biggest company in TS sales.
