I have been using friend's Diamond membership, with Hilton's merger, what should we do?

[pedro47]

Have not rec'd Club dues statement for 2022. Not yet posted in My Account. The 2021 Club dues were $530.00. However, the MFs are 9% higher. The HOA budgets show an increase of 6% and 6.7% respectively for my two DRI holdings. The explanation given is that the increase is due to labor costs secondary to COVID. On examination, there was also the usual increase in management fees - no surprise.

Thanks you, my son have received his 2022 MF; But not his 2022 DRI Club . I find this very odd.

I hope the new owners Hilton will do a much better job in the management fees areas and the Club Fees areas. I hope Hilton will improve all the Diamond properties with current amount of dollars collected from owners and each resort reserve accounts.

 

[Arusso]

Thanks you, my son have received his 2022 MF; But not his 2022 DRI Club . I find this very odd.

I hope the new owners Hilton will do a much better job in the management fees areas and the Club Fees areas. I hope Hilton will improve all the Diamond properties with current amount of dollars collected from owners and each resort reserve accounts.

I also noted that the portion of the MF called "Reserve" are also up. In the explanation, the increase is associated with plans to refurbish several units. I would anticipate Club dues to either stay the same or increase modestly - but not by the same proportion as the MFs.

As to your comment, I certainly hope so as well. Hilton is a serious player in the international hospitality world. It was one of the first international hotel brands and has properties in almost every country on the planet. For the DRI brand to disappear and its "former" properties be rebranded either as HGVC or HVC - I believe this is a good thing. The new ownership representing Hilton has a reputation to uphold and this should immediately translate into a more perceptible and professional style as to how the resorts are managed and how the membership is treated. It's no secret that some TS brands, including DRI, have acquired a tainted reputation when it comes to higher than average MFs and the unpleasant experiences with which they have "churned" members / owners.

To be sustainable, any hospitality brand's challenge today, whether the are involved in interval ownership or vacation club, is to garner the faith and trust of new entrants into the marketplace. It has been commented that these entrants, mostly the "millennial" era persons and families are not likely to enter into long=term commitments yet they are willing to pay for quality service and experience. At the same time, current owners who have had skin-in-the game deserve to be treated with dignity and respect as well.

 

[Arusso]

Have you been billed for The Club 2022 fees?
I do understand DRI have sent out 2022 MF Fees to DRI Owners.

FYI: DRI Club fee just posted -> $552.00. Up $22.00 from 2020 representing a 4.15%.

DRI dumped II at the end of last year as the preferred exchange partner creating instead a new exchange alternative., DirectXchange. DX is fueled by inventory sourced from RCI. I read somewhere that the reason given by DRI in anticipation of the acquisition this year with Hilton was that II was charging too much money for the affiliation with DRI. So, to save money, DRI affiliated with an exchange company (with, IMO, lesser quality resorts to offer), to save money - shouldn't the Club fee, have, at a minimum, remained the same???? Of course the answer is that they can raise fees so they do.

 

[ccwu]

Disclaimer: I have no special insight into the innerworkings of the TS industry except to have observed that the developer will surely find creative ways to increase the price to current owners to participate. There are many Tuggers that are far more knowledgeable with regard to industry operations. That said, and s you have noted, there is a quality gap between the two companies that merged. With the exception of a couple of resorts in the DRI inventory that are on par with Hilton resorts, the rest are not.

Common sense dictates that Hilton just needs to score the entire DRI inventory and assign a point value that could be used to exchange across all merged inventory. But then again, this may run counter-current to sales strategies. Would it make sense to have a two tiered Hilton TS model? maybe, maybe not. They could keep the inventory segregated and allow exchanges through a internal exchange mechanism that they would call a "Vacation Club." This keeps the current HGVC owners from feeling that their ownership was devalued.

As I mentioned in a prior post, of equal concern is the effect that Hilton ownership will have on the HOAs. Currently, DRI dominant HOA Boards have been a cash cow for DRI extracted increasing management fees year after year. My MFs for 2022 have increased by 9% with one of the largest increases due to the DRI management fees.

I own both Hilton and DRI. I just can not see point conversion. Average Hilton studio peak season is 2200 points while DRI is 4500 (double). Average HGV one bedroom is 3400. Dri is 5500 to 8500 (KBC). Average Hilton two bedroom is 5000 and DRI is 8000-22000(KBC). Yet the MF per point is about the same (in my case). Do the best equitable exchange is reserve a room in week to exchange a similar room (since point are not equal) as RCI week exchange.


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[ccwu]

Thanks you, my son have received his 2022 MF; But not his 2022 DRI Club . I find this very odd.

I hope the new owners Hilton will do a much better job in the management fees areas and the Club Fees areas. I hope Hilton will improve all the Diamond properties with current amount of dollars collected from owners and each resort reserve accounts.

My HGV HOA fee average remain the same or 1-2% higher. My DRI average goes up 5.6%. Not sure if Hilton will take of managing the maintenance. I don’t know why Dri is doing so bad keep fee in line. But I do hope some change will occur.


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[Arusso]

I own both Hilton and DRI. I just can not see point conversion. Average Hilton studio peak season is 2200 points while DRI is 4500 (double). Average HGV one bedroom is 3400. Dri is 5500 to 8500 (KBC). Average Hilton two bedroom is 5000 and DRI is 8000-22000(KBC). Yet the MF per point is about the same (in my case). Do the best equitable exchange is reserve a room in week to exchange a similar room (since point are not equal) as RCI week exchange.


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At a recent Owner's Update in FL, I was told by the salesman that Hilton will cut DRI's points in half in an attempt to bring them in line with HGV points. We have no way of knowing whether this is true or pure speculation. except to note that CEO Wang is on record as saying the two systems will remain separate. HGVC and HVC - but will this be forever? Or, is there a future plan to reassign some resorts to the two systems just created? If there is a plan to integrate in the future, it most certainly will depend on the acceptability, future marketability and profits generated of having two lines of inventory. with disparate cost and quality. I would rather have an integrated system with cross-exchange availability based on a common currency determined by resort quality (raking, desirability, etc).

On the issue of increasing Maintenance Fees ........yes, DRI controls (most ??) HOAs. So, other than increasing Reserves, it has padded the budgets with increasing management fees since the Cloobeck era. Will this change? My fees went up 6% and 6.7% while the Club dues went up 4.15% with respect to last year.

 

[ccwu]

At a recent Owner's Update in FL, I was told by the salesman that Hilton will cut DRI's points in half in an attempt to bring them in line with HGV points. We have no way of knowing whether this is true or pure speculation. except to note that CEO Wang is on record as saying the two systems will remain separate. HGVC and HVC - but will this be forever? Or, is there a future plan to reassign some resorts to the two systems just created? If there is a plan to integrate in the future, it most certainly will depend on the acceptability, future marketability and profits generated of having two lines of inventory. with disparate cost and quality. I would rather have an integrated system with cross-exchange availability based on a common currency determined by resort quality (raking, desirability, etc).

On the issue of increasing Maintenance Fees ........yes, DRI controls (most ??) HOAs. So, other than increasing Reserves, it has padded the budgets with increasing management fees since the Cloobeck era. Will this change? My fees went up 6% and 6.7% while the Club dues went up 4.15% with respect to last year.

HGV owners update did not mention much about DRI even on the website or calling listed DRI. It will take years before we know. But most HGV member were not thrill about the move. A few were opened to be able to go to Maui KBC and Virginia Beach two ocean front properties next to Hilton garden Inn. They think most other needs to bring to the standard of HGV.

If HGV going to cut half the points of Dri (say use Dri points 4400 to trade for studio, Dri 7000 for one bedroom and 14,000 for two bedroom, they need to figure out a way to lower Dri MF under their management. In HGV we pay MF per size of the room. 2 bedroom could be 3500 to 9600 points (depends on season and view. But MF is the same. You want lower MF, you need to pay higher in the front to get 9600 point. So this is deviated from DRI that was just per points. But you do used more points in peak season and prime view the same as Hilton. But if I buy the 9600 points, I paid say 1000 MF the same as 3500 point in low season it may cost $89,000 for 9600 points and $26,000 for the 3500. The MF won’t be $0.10 per point of 0.29 per points. We always prefer pay more in the front. Resale owners are treated the same as retail other than points can not use tower elite status. But you only have one account. We are elite premier. Our additional resale purchased get group tickets our EP account enjoying the same treatment that no fee for whatever transaction. I know DRI don’t do it. If you have retail and resale, it is two separate accounts.


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[Arusso]

HGV owners update did not mention much about DRI even on the website or calling listed DRI. It will take years before we know. But most HGV member were not thrill about the move. A few were opened to be able to go to Maui KBC and Virginia Beach two ocean front properties next to Hilton garden Inn. They think most other needs to bring to the standard of HGV.

If HGV going to cut half the points of Dri (say use Dri points 4400 to trade for studio, Dri 7000 for one bedroom and 14,000 for two bedroom, they need to figure out a way to lower Dri MF under their management. In HGV we pay MF per size of the room. 2 bedroom could be 3500 to 9600 points (depends on season and view. But MF is the same. You want lower MF, you need to pay higher in the front to get 9600 point. So this is deviated from DRI that was just per points. But you do used more points in peak season and prime view the same as Hilton. But if I buy the 9600 points, I paid say 1000 MF the same as 3500 point in low season it may cost $89,000 for 9600 points and $26,000 for the 3500. The MF won’t be $0.10 per point of 0.29 per points. We always prefer pay more in the front. Resale owners are treated the same as retail other than points can not use tower elite status. But you only have one account. We are elite premier. Our additional resale purchased get group tickets our EP account enjoying the same treatment that no fee for whatever transaction. I know DRI don’t do it. If you have retail and resale, it is two separate accounts.


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Thanks for the info. As you have noted, points in the two system seems to be allocated using similar but different processes. Regardless of historical perspective and ancestry we must deal with what comes down from Hilton executives notwithstanding the blabber that might emanate from self-serving sales people. In response to a fellow Tugger on this post, I mentioned that I was offered a sale of $10 per DRI point if I bought 6,000 points. No misprint here......

of course, this offer is preposterous. Ultimately, the final decisions made by Hilton execs is to accommodate existing Hilton owners while improving the quality of DRI acquired resorts - something that needs to be done in addition to keeping MFs in line with Hilton standards.

 

[pedro47]

HGV owners update did not mention much about DRI even on the website or calling listed DRI. It will take years before we know. But most HGV member were not thrill about the move. A few were opened to be able to go to Maui KBC and Virginia Beach two ocean front properties next to Hilton garden Inn. They think most other needs to bring to the standard of HGV.

If HGV going to cut half the points of Dri (say use Dri points 4400 to trade for studio, Dri 7000 for one bedroom and 14,000 for two bedroom, they need to figure out a way to lower Dri MF under their management. In HGV we pay MF per size of the room. 2 bedroom could be 3500 to 9600 points (depends on season and view. But MF is the same. You want lower MF, you need to pay higher in the front to get 9600 point. So this is deviated from DRI that was just per points. But you do used more points in peak season and prime view the same as Hilton. But if I buy the 9600 points, I paid say 1000 MF the same as 3500 point in low season it may cost $89,000 for 9600 points and $26,000 for the 3500. The MF won’t be $0.10 per point of 0.29 per points. We always prefer pay more in the front. Resale owners are treated the same as retail other than points can not use tower elite status. But you only have one account. We are elite premier. Our additional resale purchased get group tickets our EP account enjoying the same treatment that no fee for whatever transaction. I know DRI don’t do it. If you have retail and resale, it is two separate accounts.


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I do not feel legally Hiton can reduce DRI Clubs point, by Diamond Club owners when exchanging into the old Diamond Club System.

 

[ccwu]

I do not feel legally Hiton can reduce DRI Clubs point, by Diamond Club owners when exchanging into the old Diamond Club System.

No. I don’t think the points are comparable.

HGV always exchange thru RCI or register collection as follow: I assume the same points for HGV to Dri resorts.

UNIT SIZE. From low season to high season.
CLUBPOINTS OR BONUS POINTS REQUIRED PER 7-NIGHT STAY
CLUBPOINTS OR BONUS POINTS REQUIRED PER NIGHT
Studio
starting at 1,200 to 2,400
starting at 120 to 480 (per night)
1 Bedroom
starting at 1,700 to 3,400
starting at 170 to 680 (per night)
2 Bedroom
starting at 2,400 to 4,800
starting at 240 to 960 (per night)
3 Bedroom
starting at 2,900 to 5,800
starting at 290 to 1,160 (per night)


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