DRI - current numbers

DRI managed - 93

Total resorts - 333

source: investor day charts

Which means you have a 28% chance of picking a resort that you can actually book with points. I've never been able to book at a non-managed resort.

It's usually not to hard to book Gatlinburg Town Square but, it was once managed/sold by Sunterra and DRI appears to have control of enough inventory at that particular affiliated resort so they can offer good availability.

The problem, it's usually an easy exchange and may cost less to exchange in from outside vs using expensive DRI points. On the plus side you might have a better chance of booking the exact dates through DRI vs an I.I. exchange.

It varies

i have booked at affiliated resorts, for example cypress pointe is not that hard to book. In the material that you get when you buy it lists the number of units that they own at each resort. affiliated resorts simply extend the brand and that is still a good thing.

stephen

I have booked using US collection point at affiliates and for points using II very effectively.

DRI points are easily used for within the system and if you are a silver/gold/platinum or if you upgraded your II from the corporate, the exchange points required for many II destinations can be more effective than other Vacation Point systems.

artringwald said:

Which means you have a 28% chance of picking a resort that you can actually book with points. I've never been able to book at a non-managed resort.

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I have had a fair amount of success seeing inventory at affiliated resorts, and have actually had success booking.

The bigger issue is the point values involved, and that depends on the relationship. For example, DRI gets Vacation Internationale inventory because during the days when Sunterra had the VI management contract, they sold Club Sunterra memberships to VI members. So DRI takes in VI inventory for those memberships, and makes those properties available to Club Members at the same point values as are awarded to the VI owners who are tied into Club Sunterra.

That's usually a pretty good deal. I've used DRI points to reserve at Whiski Jack resorts and at Sea Mountain on the Big Island.

The situation is greatly different where there is simply an inventory sharing relationship. In that setting I think the prices charged by DRI are pretty outrageous. I am a member of Raintree as well as DRI. When I look at the cost for DRI points charged for Raintree Inventory and compare that with what I would pay for the same inventory via Raintree the difference is stunning. To use DRI points to reserve seven nights at what is essentially a hotel room at a Club Regina resort would cost over $1000 in maintenance fees. Meanwhile for the same check-in and check out days, I can reserve a full one-bedroom unit for about $700 in maintenance fees.

Similar observations apply for the other situations where I have investigated a resort that is affiliated with DRI but where the inventory isn't obtained through a DRIClub type of obligation. I've always concluded that I would be better off making the same reservation outside DRI than I would using DRI points. The only rationale I've even been able to develop for using DRI points at an affiliate resort is if the points are expiring and they are in a use them or lose them situation.

DRI lately has a lot of inventories with hotels and affilitate resorts. I have used a few of those, some with higher points but some not.

Just booked a hotel room in Beijing, China. Points required cost wise is below the fair market price from e.g. hotels.com.

In this week's financial report DRI said they are getting out of hotel/resort management and focussing solely on selling vacation ownership timeshares, where they make their money.

???

dontfret said:

In this week's financial report DRI said they are getting out of hotel/resort management and focussing solely on selling vacation ownership timeshares, where they make their money.

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can you provide a link i did not see that. they like to highlight their cost plus contracts.

stephen

RuralEngineer said:

can you provide a link i did not see that. they like to highlight their cost plus contracts.

stephen

Click to expand...

http://tinyurl.com/mgesmeq

dontfret said:

In this week's financial report DRI said they are getting out of hotel/resort management and focussing solely on selling vacation ownership timeshares, where they make their money.

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I didn't see anything about that in the link that you provided.

dontfret said:

In this week's financial report DRI said they are getting out of hotel/resort management and focussing solely on selling vacation ownership timeshares, where they make their money.

Click to expand...

You may have been confused by the wording "we entered into agreements to eliminate our external management structure with Hospitality Management & Consulting". This is the press announcement they released in January.

http://investors.diamondresorts.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=251836&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2004411

They used to hire Cloobeck's company, Hospitality Management & Consulting, which was external to DRI. They acquired the company and now it is a subsidiary.

????

artringwald said:

You may have been confused by the wording "we entered into agreements to eliminate our external management structure with Hospitality Management & Consulting".

They used to hire Cloobeck's company, Hospitality Management & Consulting, which was external to DRI. They acquired the company and now it is a subsidiary.

Click to expand...

That structure was just a legal entity to provide Cloobeck with certain legal, and tax benefits. The change in structure does not change anything in DRI business model. Cloobeck is just getting more detached from DRI's day to day operations.

I was wrong

The previous posters were correct, I misunderstood the change in hotel/resort management. BTW, in the financial report they compensated Cloobeck ~$15 million in the deal, and he also sold around $16 million of DRI stock this year. They did say elsewhere there big money is sale of TS inventory, and they spent a bit to acquire low-cost inventory. Hopefully mine included as a pending voluntary surrender - that's $0 to buy back (they actually charge a $250 transfer fee) and they charge perhaps $50,000 to resell. What a great business model!! They show around a 15% closing rate, that means of every 100 people who take a tour, 15 but a TS.