Upgrade to DRI from MGV??

[NPetris]

Bill,thank you for the great info and research you posted about Diamond. I am a "Moanarch" owner with 288 MGV points (17280 DRI) points. I recently attended an owner "update" w/ DRI and would like to separate some of the fact from fiction told to me by the salesperson. I was told that some of the benefits I now receive with the Monarch ownership will be discontinued by DRI once they take over the management company that now runs Monarch. Can they do that? We live close to a couple of the resorts and have enjoyed the day use and bonus time over the years. Also I was told Monarch maint. fees will go way up. The DRI mf's seem to be higher than Monarch from the start. I pay 14.7 cents per point and the DRI if I join will be 17.3 cents per point.They tried to get me to believe that I will need to abandon the sinking Monarch ship and climb aboard the DRI club. It will cost me about 10k min or 20k if I wanted to go silver. I can be locked in at that price if I want to for 18 months. Should I try to "salvage" my Monarch ownership or ride it out and see what happens? I see DRI ownerships on the resale for the same price as Monarch - free!

 

[Bill4728]

Bill,thank you for the great info and research you posted about Diamond. I am a "Moanarch" owner with 288 MGV points (17280 DRI) points. I recently attended an owner "update" w/ DRI and would like to separate some of the fact from fiction told to me by the salesperson. I was told that some of the benefits I now receive with the Monarch ownership will be discontinued by DRI once they take over the management company that now runs Monarch. Can they do that? We live close to a couple of the resorts and have enjoyed the day use and bonus time over the years. Also I was told Monarch maint. fees will go way up. The DRI mf's seem to be higher than Monarch from the start. I pay 14.7 cents per point and the DRI if I join will be 17.3 cents per point.They tried to get me to believe that I will need to abandon the sinking Monarch ship and climb aboard the DRI club. It will cost me about 10k min or 20k if I wanted to go silver. I can be locked in at that price if I want to for 18 months. Should I try to "salvage" my Monarch ownership or ride it out and see what happens? I see DRI ownerships on the resale for the same price as Monarch - free!

In general MFs go up. So I see no benefit of going from 14.7 cents to 17.3 when both numbers will likely go up.
DRI really can not change a lot of the MGV ownership rules so IMHO I'd completely discount the salesmen's comments about losing your MGV benefits.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Bill,thank you for the great info and research you posted about Diamond. I am a "Moanarch" owner with 288 MGV points (17280 DRI) points. I recently attended an owner "update" w/ DRI and would like to separate some of the fact from fiction told to me by the salesperson. I was told that some of the benefits I now receive with the Monarch ownership will be discontinued by DRI once they take over the management company that now runs Monarch. Can they do that?

My usual response when a salesman says that is to first repeat back to him, with a touch of worry, that I might be losing some of those features that I've been enjoying. That's because I want it to be crystal clear that he is saying that there are going to be takeaways.

Once that is established, I respond why I should think about spending money with a company that takes away owner rights whenever they feel like it. Then watch the salesperson squirm. Usually they'll try to backtrack and say that there won't be any takeaways, but then I politely point out that's not what was just said. It can get pretty funny after that because there really is no place they can go. Most often they say they need to get some assistance from someone with more information, so they go get the sales manager. And the sales manager then comes by for damage control and says that the salesperson was wrong.

And once that issue is out on the table, you ask him to show the written guarantees are for those features that he has been selling. Because after the conversation just had you feel it very important to know that those can't be taken away.

 

[NPetris]

Thank you Bill! I am really glad I found TUG and the great information and posts I have seen. I definitely need to go from guest to member.

 

[TS user]

Don't convert to DRI

Monarch owners will make a huge mistake converting to Diamond. The cost in HOA's in Diamond is way more than in Monarch. What ever you own in Monach times it by 60 to equate equally in diamond. Even doing an exchange and paying an exchange fee will cost you less than using a diamond resort.
The Monarch system has the same points needed at every resort for a prime week. 155 points for a 2 bedroom and 133 points for a one bedroom. Off or non prime weeks are less. Some specialty units, ( like Cabo Azul oceanfront units) are more but EVERY resort has 133 one bedroom weeks And 155 two bedroom weeks ( including Cabo ). This has never changed by one point since Monarch started the points system. Diamond has continually raised the number of. Points needed. What better way to get more inventory than devaluation of the current owners points. The Monarch system is easy to understand while Diamonds with an inflated x 30 points allocation is totally confusing. Some weeks are 7,500 some are 15,000, it makes a nefarious salesman drool quoting the least amount only for the new owner to find he can't go where he wants. It is also a great way to force the guy into upgrading only to have his points devaluated at the whim of DRI's director, Stephen Cloobeck. Don't give them a penny. Just study the comments of those who have.

 

[dougp26364]

As a general rule, if the benefit is in writing, it's hard to remove and it stays. Typically benefits either aren't in writing or, it's written that those rules/benefits can change at any time. When that's the case things can/do change.

My bet is you'll find the wording in the rules allows the management company to change the rules. How valuable are those benefits to you? Is it worth $10,000 or $20,000 to keep those benefits?

 

[pedro47]

I would listen to some excellent given information/advice by some posters on this thread.

 

[dougp26364]

You have some sort of deed. Whatever the deed says is the rule. Things like day use and bonus time are not written into the deed, they can be made to disappear.

We learned this lesson the hard way back in 2001. The first timeshare we purchased was a fixed week/fixed unit deeded ownership. The salesman told us we could float the week to any week we wanted, so the week on the deed did not matter.

That worked for the first couple of years. Then the timeshare (DRI managed) neared sell out. At that point they began to, without any notice, enforce what was in writing. We could no longer float our week UNLESS: the week we wanted had already been released by another owners or, we were within 60 days of our travel date and that week was available. That's the way it was written, that's the way it was going to be done and that was the end of the discussion.

THE Club's benefits are not written in stone and, as I understand it, can be changed at managements discretion. It's not something to count on and it's not a strong reason to buy or pay big bucks to make a change.

Each individual must look at the facts in their own case, then make a decision if it's worth spending the money. Timeshare developers will always be making changes and will always be coming back to owners trying to get more money out of their pockets. Sometimes it's worth it. Most of the time it's not.

We have bought into upgrades through the years. For instance, we paid to join THE Club and we also paid to put our deeded weeks into Marriott Destination Club. We did not see enough benefit to covert our deeded weeks to a trust membership with DRI and we do not see enough benefit to purchase beneficial interests (trust ownership increments) with Marriott. It's always a case by case basis.