Does anyone have anything GOOD to say about DRI?

Something good

It makes me sad that it's so hard to find people with good things to say. We are gold owners who picked up 20k resale points and bought 10k developer points at 2.50/pt to "clean" them and bring them into the club. They say the price per point now is $8 and that foreigners put themselves on waiting lists to have the chance to buy. Please. The sales presentations really are horrible. I don't wish them on anyone. But we have really enjoyed the resorts. All of them actually. As someone else said, their website is pretty good. You can do a lot without having to talk to a person. And if you learn the system you can get some great deals. We are happy and are even thinking about trying to get to platinum (I'm going to post the scenario and ask for advice separately).
Unfortunately I didn't do a lot of research into other companies before engaging with DRI. We started with the sampler like you. I could share in more detail how I would do it differently if I could do it over, but the bottom line is that I would still do it.

dougp26364 said:

Anything good to say? They have a good system using points to reserve timeshare units in a great variety of places. Overall they have consistent quality that can be relied on. They're online owner site is one of the better sites making it easy to search for and book reservations.

Now the bad: they're maintence fees rival those of the top brands without giving owners the same quality. Their resorts are in great destinations but, aren't typically located in prime locations. To use their internal system you have to pay their club dues, which is a pure management fee and is possibly the most expensive in the industry. Because of their trust ownership system, they control virtually all the resort HOA's, meaning owners have no say in the management/direction of the resort. They have a poison pill for resale points making this value nearly ZERO on the open market and making it difficult to rid yourself of your ownership when the time comes. Once you buy in, you re at their mercy.

Enjoy the sampler, then stay away from buying anything more from DRI.

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I too should have mentioned how DRI takes over HOA's. Sadly, few owners even vote for the elections or attend the annual meetings. HOA's that are truly controlled by the owners are hard to find.

geist1223 said:

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booked a week in Normandy and a week in Royal Regency in Vincennes, Paris. We bought for easy access to Europe, Asia, and Africa without having to do a trade through RCI or II. We also have the ability to trade weeks in our primary timeshare Worldmark for DRI Points for substantially less than a Trade Fee
through RCI or II. I have spend time learning how to do this and I can trade 14000 WM Points and end up with 15000 DRI Points.....

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American timeshare systems that give good access to European timeshares are rare. I can see how this would interest many people. Americans usually want to stay near cities, though, and often just for a few days in one place. Is this possible with DRI? Also, do the resorts listed on this DRI map have good availability, or are some of them "affiliate locations" where DRI holds little inventory?
www.diamondresorts.com/destinations

awa said:

...We are gold owners who picked up 20k resale points and bought 10k developer points at 2.50/pt to "clean" them and bring them into the club. ....

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So, 10k developer points @ $2.50 would be $25,000. Is that the minimum buy-in to convert resale points to Club points, or have some people here done it for less?

We are happy. Also we rescinded a DRI Sampler probably 2 years ago. As others have said, do your research. The maintenance fees are high but there are ways to minimize those.

Sorry if I am a little late to the party!

I really enjoy my DRI ownership. I bought at Greensprings when it was Sunterra and before points were a big deal.

Sunterra went belly up and DRI bought them and convinced me to convert to points. I didn't really understand the point system so for a few years mismanaged my points but once I learned the system it is working out great.

DRI PROS:
A LOT of properties - and the number is growing all the time.
If you are flexible with your travel times and learn the system you can get a lot of weeks for your points. 15,500 points gets my 7-9 weeks a year.
Properties seem to be well cared and staff is usually friendly.

DRI CONS:
Obviously their sales tactics, but if you know what to expect I don't imagine it is any worse then other companies.
MF are a little on the high side - especially if you are in the Trust. (We kept our deeded week).
Initial purchase price retail is NUTS! Over $8 a point and you would want at least 15,000 points for more then a couple of weeks a year.

I like DRI a lot, but it came at a price and it took some time learning...

mbinpa said:

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Initial purchase price retail is NUTS! Over $8 a point and you would want at least 15,000 points for more then a couple of weeks a year...

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$120,000! Where I live, you can buy a decent house for that money! Has anyone here spent anything like that much on DRI?

JudyS said:

$120,000! Where I live, you can buy a decent house for that money! Has anyone here spent anything like that much on DRI?

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Redweek has plenty of listings for people trying to sell DRI points.

http://www.redweek.com/timeshare-companies/diamond-resorts-international/points-for-sale

Looking at the asking prices, some must have paid big $$$ and think 50% or 75% off should be a great bargain.

Just a quick clarification - $8 a point is what points are retailing for now. That is not what I paid many years ago.

At my last "owners update" (sales pitch) we were told that DRI is going upscale. This includes a program of luxury home rentals and other relatively useless (to us) benefits such as having units pre stocked with groceries, luggage forwarding and the like.

I like my DRI ownership but don't plan on buying any more points.

mbinpa said:

Just a quick clarification - $8 a point is what points are retailing for now. That is not what I paid many years ago....

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Right, I didn't think you had paid $120,000. I just wondered if anyone here had.

Anyone here willing to say what they've spent on DRI developer purchases? I wonder what the highest amount is.

For that matter, I wonder about the highest amount anyone on TUG has spent with *any*developer. Years back, didn't PerryM spend something like $100,00 on a single ownership at the Planet Hollywood Tower of Terror?

Haven't purchased from developer in a while

I'm retired now so my wife and I traveling much more. So, we've been to a number of DRI sales presentations in the last few years: Ka'anapali, San Juan Capistrano, Palm Springs, Sedona, etc. In every presentation they first state that the current price is $8+ a point with about an 8000 point minimum. Then quickly come back and say we have some long lost option or there is some developer's special, or something else which allows us to purchase at around $3.25-$3.50 a point and only 4000-4500 points.

tperez said:

I'm retired now so my wife and I traveling much more. So, we've been to a number of DRI sales presentations in the last few years: Ka'anapali, San Juan Capistrano, Palm Springs, Sedona, etc. In every presentation they first state that the current price is $8+ a point with about an 8000 point minimum. Then quickly come back and say we have some long lost option or there is some developer's special, or something else which allows us to purchase at around $3.25-$3.50 a point and only 4000-4500 points.

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We are DRI platinum member. Last time they tried to sell me DRI US collection for $2.75 for minimum 25000 points or $3.10 for 15000. It cost more per point with fewer points. We were very unhappy with their sales. We end up bought the 15,000 after 6 hours bombardment just to get out. Waited another hour or so for their paper work and rescind it two days later. (This is our new strategies now to buy it and rescind to waste their time for paperwork). We got a tablet (we have iPad and Kindle fire) and DRI never ask us to return. I think this is starting 2017 that if you buy direct, they gave you a tablet that is reprogrammed to access DRI with all the info of DRI

We do like the resorts and the staffs. Our home resort is Kaanapali Beach Club. We recently had a hard time to reserve 13 months in advance in 2017 February. I complained about it in the updates that they were trying to sell us more points. They told me as platinum member, I can do 5 on going pending search to grab my week. The problem is that I have more points than the 5 pending search so why they wanted to sell me more with out any added benefit. We are not happy with both the lies from sales reps and the system for reservation. In the past when HI collection has only two or three resort, I never have problem for reservation. Now they added so many resorts and every one wanted to go to KBC, I am having problem now. The MF is top of timeshare industry. My HGVC MF is considerably lower and with better resorts qualities.

I accepted points from someone who did not want to stay in DRI and not to pay the MF fees. We paid the $250 transfer fee. But when the points came to my account, it stayed in a separate HI collection account, charged a separate club fee and made the per point cost much higher than my platinum account. The separate account is not flexible. I can not even buy protection for my reservation. So I wrote to DRI to return it back the one from friend by paying $250.

We got a sampler from KBC due to what the sales person told us that we could use the sampler with 50% off points in HI collection in May 2015. It is non-refundable. It is less flexible than my existing account. We are not sure how to use it yet because when I called for reservation, there was no availability in either Kanapali Shore or Kanapali village and no discount either. The sales person lied to us. When I called DRI they said that samplers are for new person wanted to experience DRI and it had less privilege than platinum member, and wonder why we got it. I told them that the sales person lied to make us buy it. This is how they treat the loyalty members. I do not recommend any one buy into DRI now. There are other timeshare much better with less MF and better or equal qualities.

I do enjoyed DRI II exchanges. In the past, we used it to exchange into many Westin and Marriott resorts in Hawaii, Caribbean and other US locations. The cost is relatively lower than Westin and Marriott's MF. We can also us II to Point Poipu for half the points than thru DRI. The DRI MF is comparable with Westin and Marriott. I also own HGVC and I love Hilton. MF is relatively much cheaper with platinum season points. The Hilton resort quality is much better too. We bought DRI to supplement the location choices of Hilton. HGVC has fewer timeshare locations. Once you stayed in roomy timeshares, there is no return to hotel room. We use Hilton hotels only for short term stays if we could not find timeshares. We are also loyalty member of HGVC. They do treat us much better than DRI. At least the owner updates are less than a hour for true updates. If we do get resale HGVC points, they put the resale points in our club account and treated them the same as our elite points. (HGVC only have one club fee charge for world wide).

ccwu said:

We are DRI platinum member. ...

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This is an excellent summary of Diamond Resorts. Thank you for taking the time to produce it!

I went to the Point at Poipu HOA annual meeting last Feb. Their presentation is now available at:

https://www.diamondresorts.com/hoa/20160225/PoipuFeb2016.AnnualMtgFINAL.pdf

According to page 33, DRI fees aren't too much different from other Hawaii timeshares:

ccwu, thank you for the information!

ccwu said:

W...In the past when HI collection has only two or three resort, I never have problem for reservation. Now they added so many resorts and every one wanted to go to KBC, I am having problem now. The MF is top of timeshare industry. My HGVC MF is considerably lower and with better resorts qualities. ...

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This is called "points dilution" and it affects many timeshare systems, unfortunately. You buy points at a desirable resort, and then the developer devalues your points by selling points at less desirable locations. Timeshare systems with no home reservation priority are especially susceptible to points dilution.