DRI now charging $25/day resort fee

[AKE]

I just found out that effective Jan. 1, 2012, all RCI exchangers into Kaanapali Beach Club on Maui are being charged a $25/day resort fee. This is in addition to the $32-$48 Hawaii transient tax per week. Does anyone know if DRI club members also pay this fee or is it just for exchangers? Does this apply to other DRI-managed resorts as well or is it limited to Kaanapali. Clearly it is no longer worthwhile to exchange into a DRI resort when all the costs are factored in (i.e. maintenance fee, exchange fee, transient tax, resort fee etc)... even 4 or 5 * hotels are / will soon be the same or cheaper and they come without all the strings of timeshare ownership (i.e. as an example I just booked the Sheraton at Kaanapali (Black Rock) for $205/night for a few additional nights).

 

[linsj]

Don't forget daily parking and Internet fees too. I was still considering this property for next year, but another $25/day makes it too expensive, so it's now off my list for sure.

 

[winger]

$25 covers things like parking, internet, and workout facility. This applies to exchangers (II, RCI, etc.) but NOT owners and Diamond CLUB members.

I think this fee is not out of the ordinary given some hotels I have been to (e.g. Marriott) charge upwards of $20+/day only for parking...internet is another charge...that sort of thing.

 

[AKE]

According to the RCI website parking is an extra $16/day and I would not equate Kaanapali with a Marriott having stayed here many times over the years. All a resort fee does is make the resort less attractive for exchangers and reduces the number of potential buyers for DRI's club. Airfares to Hawaii are the cheapest I have seen in years so it seems that there is not that much demand for Hawaii.... add resort charges and surcharges and you will drive the timeshare market into the ground. I just saw an ad for 17,000 DRI club points for free. The person very clearly explained why they no longer wanted them with the bottom line being that owning a timeshare was way more expensive than renting or staying in hotels.

 

[abbekit]

Is it only RCI and II? We exchanged into this resort last year via DAE. Are they charging the extra $25 per night now for all exchanges?

 

[dougp26364]

We paid $24/day for self parking at Hilton Hawaiian Village last week plus the occupancy tax and we're owners in the HGVC system. Marriott's Beachplace Towers charges a parking fee for exchangers that's pretty high. I think Marriott's Timber Lodge in Lake Tahoe also has a parking fee.

I'm not certain if this is a DRI fee or if the HOA of KBC decided to charge this fee. It very well could be the HOA that's decided to charge the fee rather than DRI. HOA's are always looking at ways to keep MF's down for their owners. In Scottland we were charged an energy fee based on how much electricity we used during our stay.

 

[robcrusoe]

$25 covers things like parking, internet, and workout facility. This applies to exchangers (II, RCI, etc.) but NOT owners and Diamond CLUB members.

I think this fee is not out of the ordinary given some hotels I have been to (e.g. Marriott) charge upwards of $20+/day only for parking...internet is another charge...that sort of thing.

jfyi
NCV and Lake Tahoe are not co-located on July 4th 2012

 

[robcrusoe]

We paid $24/day for self parking at Hilton Hawaiian Village last week plus the occupancy tax and we're owners in the HGVC system. Marriott's Beachplace Towers charges a parking fee for exchangers that's pretty high. I think Marriott's Timber Lodge in Lake Tahoe also has a parking fee.

I'm not certain if this is a DRI fee or if the HOA of KBC decided to charge this fee. It very well could be the HOA that's decided to charge the fee rather than DRI. HOA's are always looking at ways to keep MF's down for their owners. In Scottland we were charged an energy fee based on how much electricity we used during our stay.

isn't KBC's HOA controlled by DRI?

 

[pedro47]

To the OP so DRI is not charging $25 per day to owners and Club members.

 

[winger]

jfyi
NCV and Lake Tahoe are not co-located on July 4th 2012

Lol for us it is - Jul 4th week with a beautiful ocean view at NCV, THEN exchange beach stuff for mountain stuff at home and head off for the second week at Tahoe for some nice high Sierra summer fun!

 

[AKE]

A parking fee or an internet fee is a choice whereas a resort fee is imposed on everyone, whether the services are used or not. A person should be able to choose what services they want, either as bundled into a resort fee or paid separately (i.e. I can choose to pay an all-inclusive fee or I can choose to pay separately for the services that I want).

 

[Dave*H]

Our resort recently installed port-a-potties in the parking lot. Now that using the toilets in the units is a choice, meters have been installed and a per flush charge is levied on all but the Super Gold Platinum Premier Members.

Seriously, my biggest complaint is treating exchangers different than owners. People who are exchanging in are indirectly swapping weeks with owners who are doing the same at another location. If everyone does this and the fees get out of line, the whole exchange system will break down, and everyone suffers.

 

[AKE]

Hey don't laugh but I have been at a GC resort where they only supplied one roll of toilet paper per bathroom per week and if you wanted more, you had to go to the front desk and buy it. Obviously a unit that slept 6 (or maybe 8?) would go through more than 2 rolls per week as there were 2 bathrooms. I won't name the resort but it is a huge one. I don't know if this still is the current practice or not as this was some years ago.

I should also note that when people ran out of toilet paper (and especially in the middle of the night and didn't want a long hike to the reception building) they used kleenex, paper towels etc with obvious results. It cost the resort many times more to then fix the problems that these created than if they had provided enough toilet paper at the start (or at least not charged for it).

 

[momeason]

Is it only RCI and II? We exchanged into this resort last year via DAE. Are they charging the extra $25 per night now for all exchanges?

Did anyone figure out if this is just in Hawaii? We are confirmed at Sedona Summit in April. $25/day would really piss me off.

After reading about the Poipu assessment rip-off I had pretty much taken DRI off my list.( We already had this confirmed exchange ) My sister in law owns at Poipu and last year converted to points with the developer. I told her about TUG years ago but she obviously did not take the time to learn. She owned before we bought a timeshare. We almost bought a package with her at Poipu in 2007. Sooooo glad we rescinded. I researched and found out how dishonest DRI is. That resort has had at least 4 owners and the ownership changes seemed very suspect.
We ended up buying Wyndham resale points.
Even after I told her to avoid buying any more from the developers, she did it anyway 4 years later.

 

[dougp26364]

isn't KBC's HOA controlled by DRI?

How many timeshare resort HOA's can you name that aren't controlled by the developer? I bet that number is less than the fingers you have on both hands.

While most have enough members that can be directly linked to the developer, it's still up to the individual resort how they handle the collection of fee's, either through MF's paid by all owners or by additional charges that are collected on usage basis or resort fee's paid by anyone who actually stays at the resort.

Some HOA's calculate the fee's into the total MF's paid by owners. Others charge usage fee's to everyone for select services such as internet fee's. Some, as is the case with many European resorts (as I understand it at least) charge either an energy surcharge or charge for actual energy used. Some charge parking fee's.

This is not something unheard of and is not unique to DRI. Extra fee's have been around in the timeshare world for many years now.

 

[dougp26364]

Our resort recently installed port-a-potties in the parking lot. Now that using the toilets in the units is a choice, meters have been installed and a per flush charge is levied on all but the Super Gold Platinum Premier Members.

Seriously, my biggest complaint is treating exchangers different than owners. People who are exchanging in are indirectly swapping weeks with owners who are doing the same at another location. If everyone does this and the fees get out of line, the whole exchange system will break down, and everyone suffers.

This is a concern of mine as well. As an exchanger, I do feel some resentment that I must pay for extra fee's at a resort when I'm paying enough in MF's to cover all those fee's at the resort I exchanged out of.

Example: Our Marriott ownerships include WiFi for everyone at the resort without charging and additional fee. I have a little resentment when I exchange out of the Marriott system into a resort system the subsidizes their MF's by charging me an ala carte fee for WiFi usage.

My resentment was stronger when this trend really started to emerge a few years ago. Now I've simply adjusted the way we handle our vacation planning. For the most part, we either use our home resorts or, we keep our exchanges to within a resort system.

We're fortunate in that we own in three different systems, DRI, HGVC and Marriott, so that we have a wide range of choices at quality resorts. We own only one resort that is not system based that we exchange on a regular basis. The resort fee, energy fee, parking fee and/or WiFi fee has essentially become a non-issue for us. It is a minor irratent that sometimes will cause us to choose a different resort but, overall it's not a deal breaker if the resort is one in which we really want to stay.

 

[dougp26364]

Hey don't laugh but I have been at a GC resort where they only supplied one roll of toilet paper per bathroom per week and if you wanted more, you had to go to the front desk and buy it. Obviously a unit that slept 6 (or maybe 8?) would go through more than 2 rolls per week as there were 2 bathrooms. I won't name the resort but it is a huge one. I don't know if this still is the current practice or not as this was some years ago.

I should also note that when people ran out of toilet paper (and especially in the middle of the night and didn't want a long hike to the reception building) they used kleenex, paper towels etc with obvious results. It cost the resort many times more to then fix the problems that these created than if they had provided enough toilet paper at the start (or at least not charged for it).

Sometimes I buy my own TP anyway. We've been at resorts which supply the John Wayne brand of TP that is rough, tough and won't take stuff off of anybody. I actually OWN a resort week at a resort like this.

 

[dakotafamily]

We are Diamond Resort Club owners and I have made reservations for January in Maui (Kaanapali Beach Club) and February at the Point and both reservations using our points. We will be charged the $25 per day for both resorts for parking, internet, etc.

 

[artringwald]

We are Diamond Resort Club owners and I have made reservations for January in Maui (Kaanapali Beach Club) and February at the Point and both reservations using our points. We will be charged the $25 per day for both resorts for parking, internet, etc.

Thanks for the warning. We're staying in Maui (Kaanapali Beach Club) in February and March at the Point. I remember getting charged at KBC before, but not at the Point. Somebody has to pay for Cloobeck's Ferrari and his private jet.

 

[fluke]

Actually the fact sheet from the DRI website states the 25 dollar fee is only for renters and exchangers. I included a link to the fact sheet below. It is the "You need to know" section.


https://www.diamondresorts.com/Ka'anapali-Beach-Club-Factsheet

 

[winger]

actually as club members you should not be getting charged this fee. dusty is only 4 exchangers and renters. the only fees you should be paying As club members at these hawaiian resorts are the occupancy tax charged by the state.

 

[artringwald]

Actually the fact sheet from the DRI website states the 25 dollar fee is only for renters and exchangers. I included a link to the fact sheet below. It is the "You need to know" section.


https://www.diamondresorts.com/Ka'anapali-Beach-Club-Factsheet

Better double check your statement when you leave. They might forget that you're a club member and shouldn't pay for parking, internet, or local calls.

 

[Dollie]

Just returned from Ka'anapali Beach Club & Point at Po'pu

Just returned from 1 week at the Ka’anapali Beach Club and 2 weeks at the Point at Po’ipu. We are Diamond Silver Elite Club members with the Point at Po’ipu as our home resort.

Ka’anapali Beach Club – charged $6.29 per day tax on a one bedroom unit (no charge for internet access, parking, local phone calls, etc. and we did get a daily weekday paper by our door every morning which we requested stopped since we didn’t read it)

Point at Po’ipu – charged $6.98 per day tax on a two bedroom unit (no charge for internet access, parking, local phone calls, etc. and we did get a daily weekday paper by our door every morning which we requested stopped since we didn’t read it but it kept coming).

In both cases there were no charges that had to be removed from the bill. We have seen this previously but not this time.

 

[Margariet]

All these extra's: IMHO it's just because they want to keep the MF's low. Anything besides taxes is unnecessary and annoying. In timeshare is other areas of the world, like Asia, we never pay any extra's except low taxes, and receive twice a day cleaning service. It's getting typical for American timeshares to pay extra for everything: parking, internet, airco, cleaning, resort fee, services, housekeeping. I think in the future you will have to pay for your towels and linens or even bring your own.

 

[Kauai Kid]

How many timeshare resort HOA's can you name that aren't controlled by the developer? I bet that number is less than the fingers you have on both hands.

While most have enough members that can be directly linked to the developer, it's still up to the individual resort how they handle the collection of fee's, either through MF's paid by all owners or by additional charges that are collected on usage basis or resort fee's paid by anyone who actually stays at the resort.

Some HOA's calculate the fee's into the total MF's paid by owners. Others charge usage fee's to everyone for select services such as internet fee's. Some, as is the case with many European resorts (as I understand it at least) charge either an energy surcharge or charge for actual energy used. Some charge parking fee's.

This is not something unheard of and is not unique to DRI. Extra fee's have been around in the timeshare world for many years now.

The Maui Schooner is controlled by the owners thank goodness.

Sterling