Diamond Resorts raises maintenance fees again!

We were owners with ILX who went into bankruptcy and DRI took them over. We opted out of participating in DRI properties and opted to be grandfathered into the ILX properties. We own our property in Sedona Arizona at Los Abrigados. We have contacted DRI multiple times most often without response. We have asked why the maintenance fees have increased (in fact we received the answer to our question addressed to the Board as to how much our fees would increase for 2014. Today they chose to answer us.) We repeatedly asked for contact information for the non Diamond Resort Board members and were finally told that the new board members did not want to be contacted until they had a board meeting where they could"get the experience of a board meeting" before they could talk to their fellow owners. We were told that they only hold board meetings as necessary. It would be interesting to find out what the law is in the State of Arizona in regards to associations. In Nevada for example they are required to hold 4 board meetings a year and owners are notified in advance. We don't know what the law is in Arizona...yet! There has to be something owners can do. I've now been on Yelp, Trip Advisor, Better Business Bureau, Trust Pilot and another one I can't remember and they are ALL very angry comments about DRI. I can't imagine what will happen when owners start receiving their maintenance fee notices in the mail.

I have a floating week at Los Abrigados and just received my bill for 2014. It is $959.52, which is an 8.94% increase over this year. I was up there for a couple of days at the beginning of Aug and when I got there sent them an email complaining about the lack of improvements since DRI took over, while drastically increasing the annual fee.

Their SW regional mgr happened to be there and he invited me in to discuss these issues. His explanation was very enlightening. In essence, as he explained things to me, the members of Sedona Vacation Club (deeded owners) have to cover the cost of maintenance/improvements to the property. DRI only covers this to the extent of the portion of the deeded property they own, Also, when an owner walks away from their TS and stops paying maintenance fees, this is also covered by the remaining owners. Thus we, the deeded owners, are paying for fixing what ILX neglected for years. This does not seem entirely fair to me, inasmuch as DRI still uses the property as a hotel and as a resort for their points-based members to use.

The $959 annual fee for 2014 comes out to $137 a night. For this amount one could go down the street to a Hampton Inn and get a room where your bed would be made every night and you would receive a nice breakfast every morning. It also computes to some small change less than $50,000 annually for the upkeep and expenses connected with what is essentially a 600 sq. ft efficiency apartment. In today's market you could almost buy a condo of that size for that much.

Companies marketing timeshare properties should be required to disclose that the property may have little or no resale value and that the annual maintenance fee can be raised without limitation by the HOA, which is almost always majority-held by the management company.

I am a DRI owner since 1999. Switched from a Deeded ownership in Hawaii, to the points system, ( Stupid Move )after getting hit with a double maintaince fee for the so called refurbishment. 2014 maintenance $2,500, up from $2000. USD for 2013. ( IS THEIR, NO WAY OUT ) Seriously considering stopping paying, and taking cridit hit, at 70 what can they do? Any thoughts??????????????????/

My Sedona Vac Club/DRI 1 BR week only went up similar to yours which was not as outrageous as previous years. We did visit this year and although the grounds seemed fair-good maintenance-wise. I was alarmed when a lamp/light outlet malfunctioned and gave my daughter a scary jolt. Reported it & took the lamp (lamp replaced days later). Big concern is over the building's electrical system safety not only can harm guests from shocks but also fire hazard potential. Upgrades poor internal & systems - only can get internet in lobby area-not in rooms. We were very pleased with the DRI upgrades in the Sea of Cortez Beach Club facility (except Jacuzzi)-this is our Platinum Premier Vac Club/DRI "points" ownership-I don't know the Maintenance Fee damage this year yet - have not gotten the paper bill yet & required to go online. Hotels.com has the 2-BR at $278/night but we have the Penthouse as Platinum which is much larger so as of last year we did not overpay for the Points property.

was just there again this week. Be careful at their "owner updates". They hang on to you like pit bulls for at least 2 1/2 hours and high pressure is on to get you to convert to DRI points. Same old lies and distortions. These people are scum.

We are going in December and will certainly decline the "update." I no longer go to any timeshare sales presentations as a direct result of my experiences with DRI. I don't care what they offer. Their salesmen and women are so good, and they hone their skills every day. They could sell snow to the Eskimos but nobody will ever sell me a timeshare again.

I am waiting to see how much they jack up the maintenance fee this year.

My maintenance fees increased by 4.6% in 2014. That is not as bad as the 23.9% increase in 2013, but is still above the rate of inflation.

I can compare my 2014 maintenance fees at Los Abrigados to my fees at Paradise Village in Mexico. They are comparable ownerships. DRI, Los Abrigados $1162.58 Paradise Vacation Club $422.81

Diamond continues to bleed its owners dry with exorbitant and ever increasing maintenance fees.

We simply refuse to attend! They try to book you at the check in desk when you are tired from the day of travel. I told them no and said that if I received calls in the room requesting that we book, I would say yes and not show up. I told them that I felt that we could play that game for our entire vacation. They left us alone...

Aren't there any lawyers who are owners in ILX/Diamond Resorts mix that can advise and/or start a class action suit or something? We were not given the opportunity to "return" our time shares (even at a loss to us, the owners) when we were dumped from ILX to Diamond. ILX had one class action suit that the owners won that had to do with locking out owners from their weeks & selling to the public instead.

robertr558 wrote:

My maintenance fees increased by 4.6% in 2014. That is not as bad as the 23.9% increase in 2013, but is still above the rate of inflation.

I can compare my 2014 maintenance fees at Los Abrigados to my fees at Paradise Village in Mexico. They are comparable ownerships. DRI, Los Abrigados $1162.58 Paradise Vacation Club $422.81

Diamond continues to bleed its owners dry with exorbitant and ever increasing maintenance fees.

This effort to tackle DRI would be a task of sizable time and expense. Looking for an attorney within the group means looking for an attorney willing to shoulder those expenses wits likelihood of no compensation. Not exactly a fair expectation. The best advice is to look for a law firm willing to press over SPECIFIC grievances as defined BY YOU. If you give them full latitude, they will settle as soon as DRI makes even the most vague of magnanimous gestures and collect their fee. You will have gained NOTHING. Research your law firms carefully!

@bobc402: we have to find a way to contact other SVC deeded owners. email me at gnuroticdesigns@yahoo.com

FYI: when we got the notice from SVC about their board meeting and asking for prospective board members, I submitted myself (along with a short qualifications summary) as a candidate. NEVER received anything back from them indicating who the other candidates were, never received a ballot, never received any info on who was elected to the board, never rec'd any info period.

The "update" I went to a few wks ago consisted of two separate segments - an informational presentation and then the high pressure sales. If I understood what was said in the history/background part of the info presentation, the following can be inferred:

1) ILX sold out all of its SVC inventory in the mid '90s. When I bought in '93 they told me they were close to sold out, and once that happened my TS would be worth more than I paid for it. Instead, when they sold out they just started selling PVC (Premier Vacation Club), which was essentially a non-deeded week at whatever might be available at any of their properties. Since SVC was theoretically sold out, they were in essence double-selling our deeded units.

2) When ILX went bankrupt, some bank/finance Company (forgot which) prevailed upon them to "take it over" by assuming the ILX debt on the non-deeded "ownerships" such as PVC. Supposedly 60% or so of the property at Los Abrigados was owned by the remaining deeded SVC owners.

My suspicion, which I really am unable to prove, is that DRI uses us SVC deeded owners as a cash-cow to subsidize their operation of Los Abrigados. I doubt that any of the "points" revenue connected with stays at the resort are directed towards the upkeep and management of the resort. We deeded owners are probably paying the whole bill, and anything DRI gets (including what SVC pays them for management) goes straight into their pocket.

bobc402 wrote:

We were owners with ILX who went into bankruptcy and DRI took them over. We opted out of participating in DRI properties and opted to be grandfathered into the ILX properties. We own our property in Sedona Arizona at Los Abrigados. We have contacted DRI multiple times most often without response. We have asked why the maintenance fees have increased (in fact we received the answer to our question addressed to the Board as to how much our fees would increase for 2014. Today they chose to answer us.) We repeatedly asked for contact information for the non Diamond Resort Board members and were finally told that the new board members did not want to be contacted until they had a board meeting where they could"get the experience of a board meeting" before they could talk to their fellow owners. We were told that they only hold board meetings as necessary. It would be interesting to find out what the law is in the State of Arizona in regards to associations. In Nevada for example they are required to hold 4 board meetings a year and owners are notified in advance. We don't know what the law is in Arizona...yet! There has to be something owners can do. I've now been on Yelp, Trip Advisor, Better Business Bureau, Trust Pilot and another one I can't remember and they are ALL very angry comments about DRI. I can't imagine what will happen when owners start receiving their maintenance fee notices in the mail.

That appears to be straight out of their play book.

davidl712 wrote:

This effort to tackle DRI would be a task of sizable time and expense. Looking for an attorney within the group means looking for an attorney willing to shoulder those expenses wits likelihood of no compensation. Not exactly a fair expectation. The best advice is to look for a law firm willing to press over SPECIFIC grievances as defined BY YOU. If you give them full latitude, they will settle as soon as DRI makes even the most vague of magnanimous gestures and collect their fee. You will have gained NOTHING. Research your law firms carefully!

Excuse me!! I was only asking a question because I knew there was suit before against ILX. Didn't know who/what where/when/how it came about. It was only a question-tone uncalled for.

Maryann, I wasn't intending to be "heard" that way. In the conflict which we faced against DRI, we had a number of attorneys and judges in our group. As I understand, they weren't even willing to step up and give us advice with regard to finding a law firm. I did some digging into our group's history. They originally contacted an attorney near the resort. The attorney then went about locating a firm which seemed a good fit for the type of litigation needed.

From Los Abrigados Resort:

We are packing to leave after spending a very nice week here. The unit we got had old furniture and carpets, and smelled bad. A communication from DRI tells me that $6.5 million is budgeted this year for improvements at the twelve resorts in our collection (former ILX.) I think Los Abrigados needs a couple of million alone. They did fix the pool, and put in wireless internet. But both jacuzzis in the spa were out and the mens' sauna and steam took turns going out. This place is old and needs work. I now pay over $1,000 for one week of one bedroom a year. How much are they collecting? DRI said they sent me the budget but must have forgotten to attach it to the email. We did not attend the "update" and tell everyone how disgusted we are with Diamond. We met other ILX owners who fell the same way.

They give the same old excuses about the reasons for the fees going up, mainly that it was the fault of those ILX scoundrels. Well, Steve Cloobeck is a smart guy. I'm sure he investigated the financials of the deal. I guess he figured he had the right to squeeze the owners as much as he wanted. Unfortunately, that's the deal we signed.

As I am getting up in years, I am no longer able to do much traveling and therefore cannot use my timeshare points every year. In the past couple of years, I have used my points to pay part of my maintenance fees. However, this year, without any advance warning, when I called to do that, I was told that feature is no longer available!!! So I had to pay the full fee, which has of course gone up again. When I asked why the feature was no longer available, I was told that members complained that it was not useful!! That makes no sense to me at all!!! It sounds like just one more way of making sure they get more money!

PS from Los Abrigados:

Outside our room on the ground I found a note that said, "These are for the show suites only Do Not Touch". I don't know what it referred to specifically because it was a Post-It note that appeared to have fallen off.

I would like to see how the show suites compare to my room!

Based on conversations I've had with staff at Los Abrigados as well as reading between the lines of the info presented at the "update", it is apparent to me that improvements to the property will be largely funded by maintenance fees. DRI's game is keep squeezing the costs of its properties from the timeshare owners while reaping the rewards of selling more and more points as well as bringing in some hotel revenue.

Until the kind of "free" enterprise which is based on the cozy relationships between politicians and real estate developers is dismantled, we will continue to be screwed. So far it does not seem like there are any great legal minds willing to step up to the plate and at least attempt to bring these crooks down.

Maintenance fees fund operations as well as maintenance. So what happened to the $14,000 I paid to buy into this timeshare? Pure profit, I guess. What a deal. I give you a big pile of money and then you get the right to raid my pocket book for life!

robertr558 wrote:

Maintenance fees fund operations as well as maintenance. So what happened to the $14,000 I paid to buy into this timeshare? Pure profit, I guess. What a deal. I give you a big pile of money and then you get the right to raid my pocket book for life!

and raid the pocketbooks of your descendants for all eternity.