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Diamond Resorts Points devalued again

I share your pain. I sent DRI a complaint about the 30 day, last month. Finding the exchange resort in the right city at the right time is challenging enough and when it shows available, book it or lose it. 30 Days isn't enough time for anyone to be able to coordinate and confirm a stay. Coordinating vacation schedules and approvals at work for yourself and significant other or traveling buddies, plus then getting a hard confirmation the reservation is good, then logically booking airfare afterwards--at sky high short notice prices? I don't think Interval is offered for free to us, so if it's only 30 days, then just get rid of it, or change it back to 60 days. Why should I risk losing the fees and points and pay high short notice airfare. DRI's 30 day is not in line with the other time share companies 60 days. It was an UNFRIENDLY MOVE of an executive at DRI to make. That's like Clark Griswald in the movie Christmas Vacation, who's Boss decided to give everyone the Jelly of the Month Club as a Christmas bonus after he decided to cut costs by eliminating cash bonuses. Not knowing that his Scrooge of a Boss made this change, Clark had already made a down payment on a new in ground swimming pool. Other than this, I don't have too many complaints about DRI except that Silver members can't use points to pay towards maintenance anymore. Glitches can occur no matter what one is planning, but I like everyone tries to avoid those in vacation reservations. Prices continue to increase in all aspects of living. Having access to resorts is a luxury. Even before Sunterra went bankrupt, they had already started raising maintenance fees, and were no where near as customer friendly and transparent as DRI. However, it seems that DRI has stopped taking a step forward with customers and has actually started to step backwards. We're not in a recession. During the recession Marriott Hotels decided to reduce costs temporarily by eliminating the hair conditioner amenity. Now that travel has been better than ever, the hair conditioner bottles are back. They haven't cut costs when it comes to customer service, customer experiences and quality. DRI might be trying to grow and accumulate properties at too fast of a pace and we will take the brunt of it thru reduced services and increased fees. I understand it takes money to run the whole thing. I am very impressed with their web site. I can see an audited financial statement on my deeded property in Scottsdale, whereas with Sunterra, they were not forthcoming. I sincerely believe that just before DRI bought them at a clearance price, they were experiencing a lot of owner foreclosures. Hence with fewer owners paying the maintenance and property taxes, our rates skyrocketed. If it was deliberate to make themselves look better on the selling block, I don't know. I have a suspicion their financial statements were not accurate anyway. The maintenance fees have leveled off but I won't be surprised to see a larger increase than usual for 2017 using health care costs and minimum wage increases as the reason. I hope you took a minute to send them an email through their web site to express your disappointment about the 30 day exchange rule and how it is unfriendly, unrealistic and not competitive with others. Unfortunately, I never received a reply to my complaint. It probably never makes it to the right person's desk. Why they feel they don't have to respond to a complaint is beyond me. Just more unfriendliness.