DIAMOND RESORTS POINTS

[jimmyaclue]

When we were visiting Mallorca last week as an owner, we were invited to consider transfering to points. This has a certain attraction but we are undecided. The resort reps referred to the value of points currently being around UK£2.20 per point suggesting 5,000 points will cost circa UK£11,000.  Is there an offical price list?

The resale market appears to be around one tenth of this. We see reference elsewhere on the site to UK£20 for 100 points. Whatever the amount there is an admin fee of UK£299 to factor in which works against smaller amounts. We appreciate Timeshare should not be considered as a property investment, but we are looking to sell if only to get out of ever increasing maintenance fees (which in part are increasing due to other owners not paying!).  Has anyone had experience of 'selling' their week for points without having to top up with real cash? We have been unsuccesful with attempts to sell the week and thought points may be more "sellable".

Regards

Jimmyaclue

[Doggy50k]

Hi

Your best bet is to see what the minimum amount of points you will be allowed to buy in with (dont necessarily consider the week you already have as it's value is wholly dependent upon when it is and which resort).  Once you are a points member you can take advantage of the cross sale between members and pick up the points for a fraction.

You might want to find out how much your fixed week is worth retail to give you a better bartering point should you wish to trade it in.

Never accept their first (and probably second offer)

[jimmyaclue]

To follow up my earlier post, I did what Doogy50k suggested and went back to DRI to see if they would increase the offer for our fixed week. We have decided that the deal which requires us to pay UK£3,100 to give up our week and obtain a total of 4,500 points in return is just not good enough. What annoyed me was the lack of any transparency. The manager in the resort said he had to speak to HQ to increase the offer (it was declined) and when I followed it up on our return with HQ, I was told they would have to speak to the manager in the resort and, surprise, surprise it was declined. In the circumstances I've exercised my right to decline.

[Doggy50k]

Hi again

£3,100 and what is presumably an Easter Week (at least most years by the looks of it) for only 4,500 points???

How much did they want without the fixed week for 4500 points?

I still dont know which resort you have your week at.

Looking at the points calendar, a one bedroom unit in Cala de Mar in week 13 (high season) costs 4500 points...  You would be no better off at all, more like £3100 out of pocket.

If it were the other resort it is 3500 points for a one bedroom unit for the same week.  You would effectively be paying £3100 for 1000 points!!!

It seems a little one sided this "arrangement" that they offered you.

[daveandmaureen]

Evening Jimmy,

We went through the same procedure as you several years ago. We bought a resale Garden Lago week (1st week in July a 2 Bed Standard) and the first time we used it we had a visit from the Rep (Sales person).

I was offered the golden oportunity to swap my week (worth 4500 points) for that number of points upon payment of an Admin fee of only£1,699. ...or... I could have the 4500 points plus they would sell me another 3500 (to make 8000) for about £5.5K and if I did this the £1,699 admin fee was waived.

I declined both offers as both seemed to be rather expensiv, the  resale week had cost us about £2.2K including fees and guaranteed us a two bed every year at a nice resort very close to school hols.

Within a week of returning home I received a letter from S-unterra Spain and the Balearics HO at Malaga. They offered 5000 points (an extra 500 as an incentive) if I converted to points at a cost of the normal admin fee of £299. I snapped their hand off. Clearly the sales team at GL were looking for a very much more expensive deal.

I do believe the timing of my fixed week purchase was very fortunate, at that time I believe GL was owned by CDM (or some similarly named firm) and S-unterra had taken on the Management of the Resort in exchange for access to all unsold inventory. My very good offer represented S-unterras method of buying up CDM inventory, I suspect GL is now managed and owned by DRI although I am not sure.

The offer you were made was decidedly ungenerous, if I were you I would approach the Company again and ask them what quantity of points they are prepared to offer for your week plus the standard admin fee of £299. They may not take this bait at all, but if they offered say even 3000 points then you could easily and cheaply take your points upto say 9000 for little more than £1,000 (see recent ad for disposal of 6000 points on this site).

It is probably a good idea to always decline an initial offer, when buying timeshare, weeks or points operators can usually do much better when asked the second or third time.

Good luck

Dave K