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Diamond Resorts (Formerly Sunterra) Information

Call Peter 714 – three two eight -7121 to rent ANYWHERE a timeshare is located!  Based on availability

This page is under construction

As of Oct-07 I have not corrected names and terms which DR has modified

The information below is not necessarily accurate.  I have compiled my data through conversations with Sunterra Sales, Corporate Member Services, other Sunterra members and owners, other websites, and my personal experience buying, selling and renting Sunterra units.

 

For those of you in California, there is no sales office in San Diego.  Sunterra says sales offices are only at resorts.  See below for some numbers

- CA San Louis Obispo (805) 595-4040 x14

- CA Lake Tahoe (530) 541-6122

- CA two locations in the Palms Springs area

 

There are a lot of people selling Sunterra properties with poor information and poor representation of what they are selling.  After re-reading the SunGlances brochure and speaking with Sunterra, here is what I understand:

Sales Information

*      Goals for buying direct

*      Buy at a popular resort

*      You will generally pay more for a unit at high demand resorts.  Two benefits are being able to buy a fixed week (not as possible as it used to be, Sunterra is pushing the SunOptions concept now), and home resort advantage (HRA).  HRA allows you to reserve your time up to 12 months in advance at your home resort.  Other members and owners who do not own at your resort can only reserve 10 months in advance.  If you vacation during the most popular travel periods, the HRA can make the difference between having a place to stay and not!

*      Buy at a resort which is not in demand.

*      A low demand resort must work harder to sell units.  They accomplish this by selling for a lower price, giving you better perks when you buy, and allowing you to convert re-sale units under more favorable terms than at higher demand resorts.

*      Buy at a resort participating in the CSV program

*      One advantage is the HRA is 13 months rather than 12.

*      Another is that when you sell, the new buyer has access to 21 resorts rather than one if they don’t pay Sunterra to rejoin Club Sun.

*      Participate in Sun Options for nightly stays rather than weekly stays

*      By owning higher levels of Sun options, receive unit upgrades and other perks for reduced and eliminated fees.

*      Goals for buying re-sale

*      It costs a lot less money!

*      You interact directly with the resort.  Owners in Club Sun are not supposed to interact directly with the resort.  The corporate member services is your interface.  As it turns out, most of the resorts take better care of owners than the corporate services.

*      Strategies for converting back into Club Sun

*      This very interesting section is under development!

Your “timeshare” is either a deeded ownership or a membership:

*      Deeded ownership is either

*      A fixed week / fixed unit

*      A fixed/float combination

*      Some deeded ownership is actually RTU (Right to use), where you have the right to use the unit until a certain year.  So far I have seen the St Maarten units are in this classification.

*      A deeded ownership to a specific unit and week where you have an undivided interest (UDI) in the resort and no actual right to use the deeded week and unit.  This configuration utilizes a SunOptions membership where your portion of UDI is ALWAYS measured in SunOptions.  If you buy directly from Sunterra you will pay a Club Sun annual fee and Sunterra will allow you to use your SunOptions at all Sunterra resorts, not just the resort you are deeded to.  If you sell this ownership the person purchasing it will still have to pay the annual membership fee for using SunOptions, but will not be allowed to participate in Club Sun (access to other resorts and a few other perks).  The new owner may choose to pay Sunterra to rejoin Club Sun.

*      Membership is:

*      Purchase in the CSV or CSVH program.

*      CSV (as listed in the SunGlances Guide) and Club Sun Vac 1 (as listed on my member page when I log into the Sunterra website) have been called CSV1, CSV2, CSV II, and the Florida Trust.  Some older contracts list it as UDI, but UDI can apply to more than the CSV memberships now.

*      I still don’t know the entire history, but CSV began as a group of resorts in Florida.  When Sunterra acquired EPIC and other resorts, they were added into the Florida Trust (or something like that).  There may have been more than one CSV at one time, but all Sunterra agrents have denied this.  If there were more than one, they appear to have been consolidated into the CSV / CSV1 designation.  It is my understanding that anyone originally in a non CSV1 designation was converted, and when they sell what they have, the new owner is set up as CSV1.

*      There are 19 resorts in CSV1, two of which have two phases.  Thus, it can appear there are 21 resorts in CSV1.

*      CSVH is newly created and sales have either just begun or will begin in 2007

*      Currently the Ka’anapali and Poipu Pointe are the only resorts in CSVH

Concepts to be aware of:

*      If you buy the ClubSun for a specific resort, you always use SunOptions and have no rights to use the deeded unit and week.

*      If you didn’t buy a ClubSun from the resort, what you have is what you sell.

*      If you bought a ClubSun from the resort, you can’t sell it.  When you sell, you sell the ownership of a floating week, floating unit for that specific resort, or in newer cases the SunOptions to be used at that specific resort without participating in Club Sun.  The new owner has no rights to the deeded unit and week and may choose to use the floating ownership (sometimes with season and unit restrictions) or pay Sunterra to convert back into ClubSun.  Many people claim the fee is $2,995 but there are Sunterra Sales Agents who will deny this and only agree to convert you into Club Sun if you pay for a new timeshare.

*      If you are a direct buyer

*      You are in the ClubSun program

*      When you sell this to another

*      The new owner only has access to the resorts in the CSV1 or CSVH until they pay Sunterra to join ClubSun.

*      ClubSun Membership perks

*      ANNUAL FEES

*      Fixed/Float owners pay an annual maintenance/tax fee

*      SunOptions members pay an annual maintenance/tax fee based on the number of SunOptions, an annual Club Sun fee, or in some cases a “base” fee.

*      Resort owners in UDI contracts pay a hybrid of the two fee methods listed above.

*      When transferring

*      -$250 fee for St Maarten Properties

*      -CSV1 no transfer fees

*      -CSVH, is new, shouldn’t have a fee

*      -FL Trust will be transferred to me as CSV1, I will not have the full club benefit.

*      -Powhattan Plantation and Greensprings $50

*      -Plantation at Fall Creek $100

*      -Poipu Point $250 Kaanapali $250

*      -The only reason full club benefit is transferred is between family, Parent child and sib sib.

*      -If I reserve a person’s unit and name, it can be done anytime up to the checkin date, but recommend at least 48 hrs, no fees.  Only when using II is there a $39 fee.

*      Special Inventory request

 

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Updated: February 19, 2007