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Diamond Resorts enormously increases the cost of Maintenance/Reserves on their resorts.
Looks like the shills for Berkshire are here again. It's a scam. They lure you in with promises and false testimonials like these and then they set the hook. All of a sudden they want fees for this and that. Once they have you on the " sucker list " they continue to drain money from you until you wise up. Save your money and deal with a licensed real estate broker not the scammers.
Don P.
Diamond Resorts International took over ILX and since then the maintenance fees on my timeshare have increased over 40%. I am expecting another increase next year. It is no longer worthwhile and they will not release anybody from ownership, they just continue to bleed them.
DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH DIAMOND RESORTS INTERNATIONAL!
Robert R.
Unfortunately, timeshares have been vastly oversold and the value of them has dropped to almost nothing. But, the maintenance fees keep rising. I recently hired an attorney who got me out of my timeshare ownership when I realized I was on a sinking ship. It's just higher and higher maintenance fees and harder access to properties, because they have been oversold. Anyone wanting my attorney's name, feel free to e-mail me at jockwood@hotmail.com. I will be happy to pass my attorney's name along. My deal is done, I am out, and no more massive annual fees.
John B.
johnb2353 wrote:Unfortunately, timeshares have been vastly oversold and the value of them has dropped to almost nothing. But, the maintenance fees keep rising. I recently hired an attorney who got me out of my timeshare ownership when I realized I was on a sinking ship. It's just higher and higher maintenance fees and harder access to properties, because they have been oversold. Anyone wanting my attorney's name, feel free to e-mail me at jockwood@hotmail.com. I will be happy to pass my attorney's name along. My deal is done, I am out, and no more massive annual fees.
John, I have a couple of questions about your comment:
1. Is there a correlation to over selling a timeshare and an increase in maintenance fees? I am just not making the connection. 2. What was the legal basis for cancelling your contract/ownership with Diamond?
Thanks, Dan Bowman
Dan B.
Don,
I cannot answer whether there is a correlation to overselling timeshares and an increase in maintenance fees. It would seem to me that more owners means more revenue, and that the opposite should be the case -- that the fees would not have to rise. The legal basis for deeding back my timeshare was that I could not access it. The property was so oversold, I would call many months in advance and even then, would not find availability. They were also renting the units on the open market which reduced availability even more. My timeshare was not with Diamond. But these problems are throughout the industry.
John
John B.
John, If you had been with Diamond, you probably wouldn't have gotten out! We own with DRI and also a development which is run by the board of directors through a manager whom they hired and a staff which is directed by the manager. It is a COMPLETELY different world. The operation exists to provide service and comfort to a self-sufficient resort and its clientele, NOT to create enormous profits for a management company intent on crushing customers under their boots. Time share isn't bad. Greedy management companies give it a bad name.
David L.
davidl712 wrote:John, If you had been with Diamond, you probably wouldn't have gotten out! We own with DRI and also a development which is run by the board of directors through a manager whom they hired and a staff which is directed by the manager. It is a COMPLETELY different world. The operation exists to provide service and comfort to a self-sufficient resort and its clientele, NOT to create enormous profits for a management company intent on crushing customers under their boots. Time share isn't bad. Greedy management companies give it a bad name.
David, The management company is there to sell the time shares, manage the operation and maintain the property for the benefit of the owners.
They do not make money off the maintenance fees. I personally want the management company to keep my timeshare properties in good condition and not let them get run down like many properties are.
No, I don't like increases in maintenance fees anymore than anyone else but I do want my property to remain in good condition.
I think the main issue with maintenance fees is that owners don't take an interest in the Board of Directors and fail to run for the board and fail to vote.
Dan B.
The other property where we own puts our DRI resort to shame for maintenance. If you look at the budget at a "management company" resort you will find huge amounts of the collected fees go to cover fees not associated with anything on property. Those skyscrapers and private jets don't pay for themselves.
David L.
I just looked at my statement from Diamond Resorts and I am not a happy camper at this point. The fees increased $42 from 2012 to 2013.. that isn't so bad. But today the fee is $1975.44 for 2014, an increase of $117 on 11,000 points. This is bad, very bad. They didn't warn me of this huge spike in fees when I was listening to the "Owner Update" in April. The salesperson asked us how we liked our timeshare. We said we loved it, and that we were very happy with the Club. I told her I could rent a week to someone else and have points left over to reserve our own vacation. She was not happy about that at all!! She gave me a remark of "oh, so you're a little travel agent at your kitchen table", etc. Then she basically threatened us, and said renting to others was against the rules, and that we could be kicked out of the Club and Diamond Resorts if we continue to rent out our timeshare weeks. (Yeah, we could be so lucky). And now our fees have increased.. I guess they want to be sure to get part of the rent money I'm raking in.. RedWeek.. did you know it's against Diamond Resorts rules to rent out our timeshare on your website? What a load of horse hockey.
Joyce B.
joyceb120 wrote:I just looked at my statement from Diamond Resorts and I am not a happy camper at this point. The fees increased $42 from 2012 to 2013.. that isn't so bad. But today the fee is $1975.44 for 2014, an increase of $117 on 11,000 points. This is bad, very bad. They didn't warn me of this huge spike in fees when I was listening to the "Owner Update" in April. The salesperson asked us how we liked our timeshare. We said we loved it, and that we were very happy with the Club. I told her I could rent a week to someone else and have points left over to reserve our own vacation. She was not happy about that at all!! She gave me a remark of "oh, so you're a little travel agent at your kitchen table", etc. Then she basically threatened us, and said renting to others was against the rules, and that we could be kicked out of the Club and Diamond Resorts if we continue to rent out our timeshare weeks. (Yeah, we could be so lucky). And now our fees have increased.. I guess they want to be sure to get part of the rent money I'm raking in.. RedWeek.. did you know it's against Diamond Resorts rules to rent out our timeshare on your website? What a load of horse hockey.
Yes, you can rent out units to recover maintenance fees and costs. The Club rules state that you cannot rent out for commercial use. They just don't want you making a business from their business.
Charles S.
joyceb120 wrote:I just looked at my statement from Diamond Resorts and I am not a happy camper at this point. The fees increased $42 from 2012 to 2013.. that isn't so bad. But today the fee is $1975.44 for 2014, an increase of $117 on 11,000 points. This is bad, very bad. They didn't warn me of this huge spike in fees when I was listening to the "Owner Update" in April. The salesperson asked us how we liked our timeshare. We said we loved it, and that we were very happy with the Club. I told her I could rent a week to someone else and have points left over to reserve our own vacation. She was not happy about that at all!! She gave me a remark of "oh, so you're a little travel agent at your kitchen table", etc. Then she basically threatened us, and said renting to others was against the rules, and that we could be kicked out of the Club and Diamond Resorts if we continue to rent out our timeshare weeks. (Yeah, we could be so lucky). And now our fees have increased.. I guess they want to be sure to get part of the rent money I'm raking in.. RedWeek.. did you know it's against Diamond Resorts rules to rent out our timeshare on your website? What a load of horse hockey.
Indeed that is the case. You can only rent to friends and family. The Club rules don't state how close the friends have to be but it does say friends. Dan Bowman
Dan B.
Anyone renting from me is my friend or family member. She had no right to threaten us, that they would kick us out if we continue to rent our weeks. My Husband finally had to tell her, "We're done here".
dan825 wrote:joyceb120 wrote:I just looked at my statement from Diamond Resorts and I am not a happy camper at this point. The fees increased $42 from 2012 to 2013.. that isn't so bad. But today the fee is $1975.44 for 2014, an increase of $117 on 11,000 points. This is bad, very bad. They didn't warn me of this huge spike in fees when I was listening to the "Owner Update" in April. The salesperson asked us how we liked our timeshare. We said we loved it, and that we were very happy with the Club. I told her I could rent a week to someone else and have points left over to reserve our own vacation. She was not happy about that at all!! She gave me a remark of "oh, so you're a little travel agent at your kitchen table", etc. Then she basically threatened us, and said renting to others was against the rules, and that we could be kicked out of the Club and Diamond Resorts if we continue to rent out our timeshare weeks. (Yeah, we could be so lucky). And now our fees have increased.. I guess they want to be sure to get part of the rent money I'm raking in.. RedWeek.. did you know it's against Diamond Resorts rules to rent out our timeshare on your website? What a load of horse hockey.Indeed that is the case. You can only rent to friends and family. The Club rules don't state how close the friends have to be but it does say friends. Dan Bowman
Joyce B.
johnb2353 wrote:Don,I cannot answer whether there is a correlation to overselling timeshares and an increase in maintenance fees. It would seem to me that more owners means more revenue, and that the opposite should be the case -- that the fees would not have to rise. The legal basis for deeding back my timeshare was that I could not access it. The property was so oversold, I would call many months in advance and even then, would not find availability. They were also renting the units on the open market which reduced availability even more. My timeshare was not with Diamond. But these problems are throughout the industry.
John
There is definitely a correlation - and that is that as they oversell the properties, they run into the problem that you can not stay when you want to. This leads to disgruntled owners who stop paying the maintenance fees, and in some cases, their mortgages. This then leads to shortages in the funds needed to maintain the property, so they raise the maintenance fees to the owners who are paying. --You are being punished for the overselling by the Time Share.
It is worse with point system units, as they can sell far more points for usage than they can ever accommodate in any way. Some resorts sell more points than there will ever be rooms to use them, which should be illegal, but isn't in some states. But it is equivalent to selling the same house to three different people and walking away with the money.
Unless they are breaking the law in most states, you will find that the units being rented are not effecting the availability of rooms. While this sounds illogical, the simple fact is that the rooms that were not sold by the developer, are not part of the time share float systems, and therefore were never available to you to use, with or without rental programs. The developers rent out the rooms to cover the cost of maintenance fees they owe to the HOA for those unsold units. Where the real scam comes in on this is that when the developer sells you a unit that is floating or on points systems - they nearly always will give you a deed to a low or middle season unit, not the high season unit that they are teasing you with. That leaves them the higher demand rooms in high demand weeks to rent out, increasing their asking price and profit. You then find out that while those higher season weeks may be theoretically available to you, you will seldom be able to use them, unless you book the first week of the year. If your resort has time shares that renew each month, instead of on one fixed day each year; then it will prove impossible to ever get the high season weeks, unless you are lucky enough to renew the week after you want, and book a year in advance.
Having said all that - I am in a points system, with three units. I have been able to book most, if not all of my stays each year, but do so by planning a year in advance, and making my reservations the same month I pay the fees, so that I have a better chance of booking the room and week I want. When necessary, you may be able to prepay next year fees, and book the stay before it is available to any other owner.
Steve M.
joyceb120 wrote:I just looked at my statement from Diamond Resorts and I am not a happy camper at this point. The fees increased $42 from 2012 to 2013.. that isn't so bad. But today the fee is $1975.44 for 2014, an increase of $117 on 11,000 points. This is bad, very bad. They didn't warn me of this huge spike in fees when I was listening to the "Owner Update" in April. The salesperson asked us how we liked our timeshare. We said we loved it, and that we were very happy with the Club. I told her I could rent a week to someone else and have points left over to reserve our own vacation. She was not happy about that at all!! She gave me a remark of "oh, so you're a little travel agent at your kitchen table", etc. Then she basically threatened us, and said renting to others was against the rules, and that we could be kicked out of the Club and Diamond Resorts if we continue to rent out our timeshare weeks. (Yeah, we could be so lucky). And now our fees have increased.. I guess they want to be sure to get part of the rent money I'm raking in.. RedWeek.. did you know it's against Diamond Resorts rules to rent out our timeshare on your website? What a load of horse hockey.
Regardless of what Diamond may tell you - you need to go back to the deed and see what it says. My deed in a Resort that Diamond has since purchased, gives me the right to allow anyone to use my stays. The only restriction is that I have to be using the stay to get some owners perks, and that if I am not there, the usage has to be a full week.
Read you deed and see if such rights are spelled out. If they are, Nothing that Diamond tries to change will hold up. The deed is the final authority, and when they purchased the property, they had to accept the deeds along with it.
Also be watchful for the scam Diamond tried to pull on me. They gave a big presentation about how I should sell my points in the current system to them, and buy Diamond points instead. This was to give me access to hundreds of resorts, instead of the 20 in my current system. But the price to convert the ownership points to Diamond points was extreme.
The scam is that they take the price they would currently sell my units for. (These are ocean from, guaranteed event week units in Daytona Beach. The highest priced units in the Resort.) They then subtracted what I had paid for the units, and expected me to pay the difference. By doing so, they were saying that they intended to STEAL the equity that they said had built up in my units. To my mind, if the units are now worth twice what I paid for them, then they are still worth twice as much when I sell them back to Diamond.
And just as an extra kicker - the icing on the cake so to speak - after paying Diamond for what I already own - they offered no guarantee that I would ever be able to use my event week, after the exchange. This would then make the ownership worth $15,000 less - the difference between a high season event week, and just a high season week in the old system.
My response to a similar threat from the Diamond rep at our meeting about rental of my units - If you don't like it, pay me the developer's price for the unit and I am out of here. Otherwise, shut up, as you can't do anything about it without me suing your but off. The deed is the deed, and they can't change that. --- I now have an appointment in Las Vegas to talk to Diamond about either converting or selling to them. INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT.
Steve M.
stevem532 - I got a presentation from hell on Christmas Eve. One thing they said to me regarding purchasing on the secondary market was the fact that they were nearly sold out at my resort and my weeks/points were not consecutive. That I would have to come at the assigned dates on my original deeds. The weeks were scattered throught the year and I could not afford all those flights. I believe they were bridging the gap between what I purchased on the secondary market like you said above. I said to my agent, Diamond had the first right of approval and they waved it. Now, I am being penalized for purchasing on the secondary market; they basically told me this was so. Now bear in mind the fact that they are nearly sold out; then he goes on and told me about all the grand/unnecessay modifications Diamond had planned for our resort. I said, who approved that? The reply was, the board. I said, they are basically friends that sit on each others boards. They are not a timeshare owner. We, timeshare owners, would never have approved these modifications knowing we are going to have to pay big money for them somewhere down the line along with our "maintenance fee". BTW now they call maintenance fees an assessment fee. To many of us must have asked why such high yearly increases to maintenance or what is the maintenance fee was for? I asked, if you are nearly sold out why is Diamond basically redesigning this resort? Tell me all this is not being done to attract new buyers because the present timeshare owners here are happy. They went on and warned me that if I didn't put my points into the club and a special assessment was called for that there are more people to spread out the cost in the club so they would have to pay less; that the people with original deeds or the original deeds/points that were not in the club would be hit hard. Putting my points in the club would protect me. But are we not now responsible for all the special assessments for several resorts?
I watched other presentations to see how they double team them. One sells and the other acts like they are going to help lock in a price for you. Then some people explode, some cry and....then they come back with a lower fee and with a story. I wanted my contracts back because I still felt like I was being extorted. I wrote Steven Cloobeck basically hitting on all the above points. My salesman came back and asked me what I could afford. I named a number not too low but not high either. They took it. SO THE MORAL OF OUR STORIES IS, DON'T BE APATHETIC VOTE TIMESHARE OWNERS ONTO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND DON'T GIVE YOUR PROXY OVER; DIAMOND USES THEM TO VOTE A DIAMOND MEMBER ON THE BOARD. VOTE!!!
stevem532 wrote:joyceb120 wrote:I just looked at my statement from Diamond Resorts and I am not a happy camper at this point. The fees increased $42 from 2012 to 2013.. that isn't so bad. But today the fee is $1975.44 for 2014, an increase of $117 on 11,000 points. This is bad, very bad. They didn't warn me of this huge spike in fees when I was listening to the "Owner Update" in April. The salesperson asked us how we liked our timeshare. We said we loved it, and that we were very happy with the Club. I told her I could rent a week to someone else and have points left over to reserve our own vacation. She was not happy about that at all!! She gave me a remark of "oh, so you're a little travel agent at your kitchen table", etc. Then she basically threatened us, and said renting to others was against the rules, and that we could be kicked out of the Club and Diamond Resorts if we continue to rent out our timeshare weeks. (Yeah, we could be so lucky). And now our fees have increased.. I guess they want to be sure to get part of the rent money I'm raking in.. RedWeek.. did you know it's against Diamond Resorts rules to rent out our timeshare on your website? What a load of horse hockey.Regardless of what Diamond may tell you - you need to go back to the deed and see what it says. My deed in a Resort that Diamond has since purchased, gives me the right to allow anyone to use my stays. The only restriction is that I have to be using the stay to get some owners perks, and that if I am not there, the usage has to be a full week.
Read you deed and see if such rights are spelled out. If they are, Nothing that Diamond tries to change will hold up. The deed is the final authority, and when they purchased the property, they had to accept the deeds along with it.
Also be watchful for the scam Diamond tried to pull on me. They gave a big presentation about how I should sell my points in the current system to them, and buy Diamond points instead. This was to give me access to hundreds of resorts, instead of the 20 in my current system. But the price to convert the ownership points to Diamond points was extreme.
The scam is that they take the price they would currently sell my units for. (These are ocean from, guaranteed event week units in Daytona Beach. The highest priced units in the Resort.) They then subtracted what I had paid for the units, and expected me to pay the difference. By doing so, they were saying that they intended to STEAL the equity that they said had built up in my units. To my mind, if the units are now worth twice what I paid for them, then they are still worth twice as much when I sell them back to Diamond.
And just as an extra kicker - the icing on the cake so to speak - after paying Diamond for what I already own - they offered no guarantee that I would ever be able to use my event week, after the exchange. This would then make the ownership worth $15,000 less - the difference between a high season event week, and just a high season week in the old system.
My response to a similar threat from the Diamond rep at our meeting about rental of my units - If you don't like it, pay me the developer's price for the unit and I am out of here. Otherwise, shut up, as you can't do anything about it without me suing your but off. The deed is the deed, and they can't change that. --- I now have an appointment in Las Vegas to talk to Diamond about either converting or selling to them. INTERESTING DEVELOPMENT.
Kathleen F.
I completely agree. We experienced the same treatment. However, after a year of fighting, our deeded week was finally returned to us by Diamond.They seem to forget the "Meaning of Yes"
marilynj41 wrote:Our family bought a number of timeshares from Sunterra. Their time share fees were stable and moderate. Sadly, they sold to Diamond resorts... an organization with an aggressive sales force that unmercilessly browbeats time share owners with schemes designed to gain ownership of individual time shares in return for points. Of course... you still pay a maintenance fee on your now... non-existent timeshare.In 2008 they increase fees From $788 to $1100 dollars a year... an increase of about 35 percent. In 2009... more hefty fee increases were executed. As a result... at Powhatan Plantation, Green Springs and other Diamond Resorts locations... people are selling their time shares for $0.00. If one pays the yearly maintenance fees... you can get a time share free. I feel sure Diamond Resort is gobbling up these units to increase the number of units available for rental. After all... they can forgive the yearly charges.
This is a dishonest/high pressure company. I would advise anyone never to do business with Diamond resorts.
Chris M.
dan825 wrote:joyceb120 wrote:I just looked at my statement from Diamond Resorts and I am not a happy camper at this point. The fees increased $42 from 2012 to 2013.. that isn't so bad. But today the fee is $1975.44 for 2014, an increase of $117 on 11,000 points. This is bad, very bad. They didn't warn me of this huge spike in fees when I was listening to the "Owner Update" in April. The salesperson asked us how we liked our timeshare. We said we loved it, and that we were very happy with the Club. I told her I could rent a week to someone else and have points left over to reserve our own vacation. She was not happy about that at all!! She gave me a remark of "oh, so you're a little travel agent at your kitchen table", etc. Then she basically threatened us, and said renting to others was against the rules, and that we could be kicked out of the Club and Diamond Resorts if we continue to rent out our timeshare weeks. (Yeah, we could be so lucky). And now our fees have increased.. I guess they want to be sure to get part of the rent money I'm raking in.. RedWeek.. did you know it's against Diamond Resorts rules to rent out our timeshare on your website? What a load of horse hockey.Indeed that is the case. You can only rent to friends and family. The Club rules don't state how close the friends have to be but it does say friends. Dan Bowman
I was just told by a DRI rep that the rooms rented out as hotel rooms on Hotels.com and every other on-line travel site were being given over by OWNERS, not put on travel sites by DRI !!! Update: now told by a person in DRI's exchange department that DRI owns a block of points/weeks/whatever and can rent them out any way they want to. Obviously they choose to turn the "owners only" resort into a hotel. Are our fees covering the wear and tear from hotel guests? Duh...
Susan I.
Last edited by susani67 on Mar 06, 2014 03:10 PM