Quote:
Originally Posted by BocaBum99
Now that Bluegreen has signaled it's intent to be acquired by Diamond Resorts, I'd like to get an idea of what they are likely to do when they become the resort developer and club manager. Can current Sunterra/Diamond owners provide us some insight?
The Bluegreen Vacation Club operates a lot like the big Club trust of 14 or so resorts. In fact, I believe they are both created under the Florida Multi-site timeshare plan.
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Bocca,
I've thought about this a lot over the last few days. In short, I really don't know what DRI will do with Bluegreen other than incorporate it into their existing program. Since I know little about how Bluegreen actually works I haven't got a clue as to whether they plan to keep it seperated with recipricol benetis or intergrate it with DRI's THE Club.
What I suspect is that, initially (and if the sale even goes through), is that they'll be kept seperate with recipricole benefits between the clubs. I would look for them to eventually be merged, hopefully taking the best of both clubs and making them into one club.
Only time will tell what will happen. I remain optimistic but feel that it will be a good 4 or 5 years before things really come into focus as to the extent of how things will be. For now I'm happy with points reservation system DRI offers. It is more flexible than the weeks exchanging I was doing. It's only been a year but DRI has made imporvements to the old Sunterra resorts. Improvements that have been positive and necessary IMO. Of course, not everyone is happy about the cost of those improvements. Mr. Cloobeck does have a definate view of what he wants his resorts to be. I'm not always certain I understand his personal objectives and I'm not always 100% that their customer focused so much has his presonal preference and sales focused but I do expect quality improvements compared to what Sunterra had.
The only Bluegreen resort we've exchanged into has been Falls Village. I believe Bluegreen took over from a previous developer at that resort. We enjoyed the units we've had there but, the soft goods were not up to Mr. C's expectations. I could see him wanting to upgrade those items sooner rather than later. Keep in mind that upgrades with DRI come at a price and that price won't come out of DRI's pocket. I do not think that, from what little I've seen, that Bluegreen quality will be as much of a difference in what Sunterra quality was when Mr. Cloobeck bought out Sunterra. Sunterra was, IMO, a distressed company whereas Bluegreen appears to be a financially sound and well preforming company. I do not think there will be as much of a difference if DRI becomes the owner of Bluegreen as was the case with Sunterra.
At any rate, these are just my opinions. It's going to take a few years to really get a good feeling for changes if the deal even goes through. I'm certain that some things will change. With timeshare they always do. Even it there's not a merger.
