The Diamond Resorts International is a timeshare company based out of Las Vegas, Nevada and they either own or manage more than 200 resorts. They are located in 25 countries, and own some 70 resorts and 130 affiliated resorts. For a complete list of Diamond resorts you can go to their website. They have over 400,000 owners, making them one of the biggest timeshare companies– and they are continuing to grow.
We had the pleasure of staying at one of their resorts recently, that being Sedona Summit in Sedona, Arizona– if you are interested, view our post about that resort. We took time to attend a sales presentation given by Diamond Resorts International and thought we would share some information about the Diamond system in this post.
We also bought a discovery package of some 10,000 Diamond points to use in the next 18 months. These points will give us a chance to stay at a couple more Diamond resorts and, more importantly, allow us to book a Maui Diamond resort for our up-and-coming trip to Hawaii. We have found it very hard to get to Maui with our current timeshare ownerships. We also plan on using some of those points to stay at a Diamond resort in Avila Beach, California on another future trip.
Diamond Resorts International bought out the Sunterra Corporation, a timeshare company which has had many financial difficulties over the years. They have since been buying other struggling timeshare companies and bringing those resorts along with their owners under their wing. These owners have the option of keeping their deeded weeks, or coming over to “The Club” of Diamond Resorts International.
It might be helpful to look at the differences between ownership in a Trust/Club or the typical deeded week of a timeshare resort or timeshare company. If you own a deeded week, you have a given week at a resort and typically own a given unit number. This affords you ability to go to that resort at that time or to trade your week. A number of resorts or companies have assigned your deed so many points and, again, you can vacation during your week or use your points to trade into their system or into other timeshare trading companies.
Once the resort is sold out, then the Homeowners Association has that responsibility for running and maintaining the resort. You have a chance to become involved in the resort by running for the board or in voting for board members. Also, based on the bylaws, you sometimes have to vote on other issues concerning the resort. One should consider this a real estate purchase with responsibility. Some resorts or companies are well-managed and keep maintenance fees low. Others have struggled with high maintenance fees and poor management.
The other approach is the Club/Trust arrangement where the resort is deeded to the developer or to a non-profit Trust that the developer has created. In this case, decisions about fees, upkeep and amenities are made by the developer. Since owners are not real estate owners, the fees are calculated as a part of the upkeep and running of the resort. This keeps the resort operation in the hands of the developer. They tend to keep costs under control and maintain nice resorts with good amenities to attract new owners into the Club/Trust. But in the real world, reviews have been mixed: some owners are happy to have less responsibility in the running of the resort, and others are upset about excessive maintenance fees.
Clearly Diamond Resorts International is of the Club/Trust variety and any new purchases in the resort are tied to the Club. Older owners have the choice to keep their deeds, add new points in the Club, or convert their deeds for a cost into the Club. You do not acquire the Club status if you buy a resale.
If you wish to trade into other Diamond Resorts, you must be in the Club, and the only way to be in the Club is to buy from the developer. They also say that you can only buy from the developer at the time of your Diamond timeshare presentation. This is their way of locking out re-sale purchases. This also prevents people from attending Diamond sales presentations over and over again and getting more freebies. You can buy a “Discovery Package” (like we did), in which they give you 10,000 points to use within 18 months. They also lock in the price for that time period.
If you end up buying, you get points in the trust and you can use those points like cash to stay at Diamond resorts or to trade them for other vacations. They are tied into the Interval International timeshare trading company and have made the trading into II much easier by dealing directly with Diamond folks.
Like any timeshare system, they have a number of ideas that you would need to understand if you bought into their system, such as reservation times based on home resorts ownership, discounts in points with last minute reservations, ability to rent rather than use points 21 days out, and usage of points for cruises, rental cars, etc.
Diamond Resorts International seems like a good system with a number of excellent resorts. They have figured out some of the resale problems, at least from the developer’s standpoint. But think carefully before buying, and do your research. We have written a number of posts about buying timeshares and suggest you read some of them. Also the Timeshare User Group (TUG), on their timeshare community forums, has some information about the Diamond system that would be good reading before you buy. We will keep you posted as we stay in two more Diamond Resorts. If you are an owner, let us know what you think of the Diamond system.
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Your article was informative, yet it seems to exclude the fact that Diamond Resorts has used numerous unfair business practices to maintain control of Home owners Boards and as such award Diamond Resorts as Resort management and pay excessive fees for management and administration fees which are shown as special assessments year in and year out we are gouged as deeded owners to run that mega company. There is a serious breech of ethics and conflict of interest. Literally the fox is watching the hen house.
Don P.