Original Message:
Re: Diamond Resorts International (DRI) "THE CLUB" Points Program & Converting your Week to Points (by Charles S.):
coryj wrote:Are your maintenance fees in the point system based on your home resort maintenance fees or are they averaged out over all the resorts in the respective collection? What about the poipu special assessment? How was that apportioned? Which resorts are in the Hawaii collection? Is it just Poipu and K beach or are any of the others included? Does it include some from the US too? This deed grab by DRI is concerning since it gives them more control over the condo associations. I'm assuming that is why they manage some resorts and not others. Although I will say that so far they've done a pretty good job with Grand villas. It actually appears to be managed better than VRI does at CP. That's just my observation. I stay at both yearly. Others, perhaps with more insight, might disagree.
Coryj, you are fortunate to have bought into the Club when you did because you cannot do so in the same manner today. If you have all of your points based upon your deeds then you would pay based upon your deeds. The Hawaii Collection includes The Point at Poipu, Ka'anapali Beach Club, Polo Towers and Sedona Summit. Folks who own this collection get to make reservations there 13 months in advance. You probably can make reservations there at 10 months out. If you are in the US Collection part of the Club and are not deeded you pay Club dues, a collection fee and for 2013 Club members paid .1227 per point. So if you were to add about $450 to $6257.70 you get about $6700 in total Club maintenance fees for points for the year.
I am a Gold level member with DRI's points program. I have stayed at Cypress Pointe and Grande Villas. It is a very nice resort. I like flexibility which is why I like the points system. I would not want to go to Orlando every year. I can really make my points stretch into months which one can do if they use points but not with weeks. For example, did you get the DRI email with the 50% and 75% points discounts they are offering? I like that. I look forward to retirement so I can take full advantage of those discounts. Only those at silver, gold and platinum receive free internet and newspapers at specific DRI resorts.
The lawsuit was resolved and the owners are still paying the nearly $6000 maintenance fees. Those who owned points paid less than those with deeded weeks. This is because the assessment is spread amongst all of the points owners. Remember unlike weeks owners, points owners do not own at that specific resort but participate at several resorts. Weeks owner own exclusively at one resort and thus the price difference.