Diamond Resorts is a

timeshare A timeshare (sometimes called vacation ownership) is a property with a divided form of ownership or use rights. These properties are typically resort condominium units, in which multiple parties hold rights to use the property, and each owne ...

company headquartered in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

, Nevada, with regional offices in Orlando, Florida and Lancaster, United Kingdom. The company has a network of more than 379 vacation destinations in 35 countries around the world and sells vacation ownership points. The company sponsors numerous celebrities, including LPGA professional Brittany Lincicome,

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also ...

professional

Brian Gay Joseph Brian Gay (born December 14, 1971) is an American professional golfer who currently plays on the PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions. Early years A military brat, Gay was born in Fort Worth, Texas, but was raised primarily at Fort Rucker, Al ...

and

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

Hall of Famers

Gaylord Perry Gaylord Jackson Perry (September 15, 1938 – December 1, 2022) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a right-handed pitcher for eight different teams from 1962 to 1983. During a 22-year baseb ...

and Reggie Jackson. The company also pairs with country music artists, including

Cole Swindell Colden Rainey Swindell (born June 30, 1983) is an American rock music singer and songwriter. He has written singles for Craig Campbell, Thomas Rhett, Scotty McCreery, and Luke Bryan, and has released four albums for Warner Bros. Records Nashvil ...

Lauren Alaina Lauren Alaina Kristine Suddeth (born November 8, 1994) is an American singer and songwriter from Rossville, Georgia. She was the runner-up on the tenth season of ''American Idol.'' Her debut studio album, ''Wildflower,'' was released on October ...

and

Jana Kramer Jana Rae Kramer (born December 2, 1983) Gives birthplace as Detroit, Michigan, of which Rochester Hills is a suburb. is an American country music singer and actress. She is known for her role as Alex Dupre on the television series '' One Tree H ...

to host private concerts for its members.

History

Diamond Resorts launched the Diamond Resorts Invitational in 2013 to benefit Florida Hospital for Children. Through the golf tournament, the company has raised a total of more than $3.1 million to the children's hospital. In March 2018, the company announced it was sponsoring a new golf tournament, the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions, with the LPGA as an official season event. In October 2015, DRI bought out ''Gold Key Resorts'' for $167.5 million. This acquisition added five vacation ownership resorts in

Virginia Beach, Virginia Virginia Beach is an independent city located on the southeastern coast of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The population was 459,470 at the 2020 census. Although mostly suburban in character, it is the most populous city ...

, and one in the

Outer Banks The Outer Banks (frequently abbreviated OBX) are a string of barrier islands and spits off the coast of North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, on the east coast of the United States. They line most of the North Carolina coastline, separating ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

. That same month, Diamond Resorts pledged to match all new donations made to the Diamond Resorts International Foundation, a recognized 501(c)(3) organization, in 2017 up to $1 million to support

Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread destruction across its path in September 2017. Irma was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Maria two ...

relief efforts. Diamond Resorts acquired

Intrawest Intrawest Resorts Holdings, Inc was a developer and operator of destination resorts and a luxury adventure travel company. The company was founded in 1976 as a privately funded real estate development company. In 2006, Intrawest was purchased by ...

Resort Club Group in November 2015, adding nine resorts and 22,000 members. After the acquisition, Diamond Resorts re-branded the Intrawest Resort Club Group as Embarc Resorts. On June 29, 2016, Apollo Global Management made a successful offer to purchase Diamond Resorts International. On December 23, 2016 Arizona Attorney General

Mark Brnovich Mark Brnovich (born 1966) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 26th Attorney General of Arizona from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he was an unsuccessful candidate for its nomination in the 2022 U.S. Senate ...

announced a settlement of $800,000 with Diamond Resorts. As part of the settlement, customers who bought their timeshares under false pretenses could relinquish them. Michael Flaskey was named chief executive officer of the company in March 2017. On January 18, 2018, the company underwent a brand refresh, updating its logo and officially dropping International from its name to be known as Diamond Resorts. Diamond Resorts announced in March 2018 that the company was partnering with the LPGA to launch the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions. The tournament begins the LPGA's 2019 season and features tournament winners from the previous two LPGA seasons, along with celebrity participants. The Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions replaces the golf tournament the company previously sponsored, the Diamond Resorts Invitational. That same month, acquired Amber Vacation Club in March 2018 and will assume operations at Amber's managed resorts, Sunrise Ridge Resort in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Alhambra Villas and Alhambra at Poinciana in Kissimmee, Florida. In April 2018, Diamond Resorts announced it had acquired The Modern Honolulu, a boutique hotel in

Honolulu, Hawaii Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island o ...

. In January 2020, Diamond Resorts partnered with Highgate to rent units in two properties in New York City. In March 2021, Apollo Global agreed to sell Diamond Resorts to Hilton Grand VacationsHilton Grand Vacations to Acquire Diamond Resorts, Creating the Premier Leisure Operator With the Broadest Offering in the Vacation Ownership Industry
PRESS RELEASE for $1.4 billion. The acquisition was completed on August 2, 2021.

''Undercover Boss''

The company's founder,

Stephen J. Cloobeck Stephen J. Cloobeck (born October 26, 1961) is an American businessman and substantial donor to the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. He is the founder and former chairman and chief executive officer of the timeshare company Di ...

, was featured in the fourth season premiere of the American reality television series ''

Undercover Boss ''Undercover Boss'' is a reality television series franchise created by Stephen Lambert and produced in many countries. It originated in 2009 on the British Channel 4. The show’s format features the experiences of senior executives working u ...

'' on January 15, 2012, marking the first time the head of a company previously featured in an earlier episode went undercover a second time.

Properties

United States

International

Criticism and controversy

Sales tactics

Diamond Resorts is notable for high-pressure sales tactics used to close sales and generate fees for consumers. Club members are charged yearly maintenance fees (including management fees), which are set by Diamond Resorts and which the FTC warns are likely to rise every year. Diamond Resorts's official 2014 SEC filing states that club members do not have the right to terminate membership, except in certain areas where consumers are protected by state law. Jeff Weir, a Diamond timeshare owner and journalist covering the timeshare industry, told ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', "In my experience, Diamond is much more ambitious, aggressive and downright nasty in their sales presentations compared to Marriott and Westin. Diamond just has an amazing reputation of being tough on people." Mike Flaskey, the company's current chief executive officer, spoke on Fox Business about how the company is shaking up its sales and marketing model to better meet traveler's desires.

Legal issues

On December 23, 2016, Arizona Attorney General

announced a settlement of $800,000 with Diamond Resorts over accusations that Diamond Resorts had violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act. Of the settlement funds, $650,000 were used for customer restitution. Under the settlement, customers who had purchased timeshares in Arizona between January 1, 2011, and July 23, 2017, could be released from their timeshare, provided they gave a detailed description of deceptive statements or false promises made by Diamond Resorts employees during the sale. The Attorney General's website states that alleged misrepresentations were related to:

Similar programs

Bluegreen Corporation Bluegreen Corporation is an American private vacation ownership company based in Boca Raton, Florida. Currently a wholly owned subsidiary of BFC Financial Corporation with around 4,500 employees, the company provides vacations at 60 company-mana ...

Disney Vacation Club The Disney Vacation Club (DVC) is a vacation timeshare program owned and operated by Disney Vacation Development, Inc., a subsidiary of Disney Signature Experiences, a division of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products, a segment of The Walt Disn ...

Hilton Grand Vacations Company Hilton Grand Vacations Inc. is based in Orlando, Florida, United States, with regional offices located in Las Vegas, Nevada, Oahu, Hawaii, New York City, Marco Island, Florida and Sanibel Island, Florida. It was formerly a wholly owned subsi ...

Marriott Vacation Club International Marriott Vacation Club is the primary timeshare brand of Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation. The brand comprises around 70 Marriott Vacation Club properties throughout the United States, Caribbean, Central America, Europe, and Asia. Marriot ...

Westgate Resorts Westgate Resorts is an American timeshare resort company founded by David A. Siegel in 1982. The company first expanded from Central Florida to Miami and Daytona Beach. As of July 2021, Westgate Resorts has 29 locations across the United States ...

WorldMark by Wyndham WorldMark by Wyndham (formerly Trendwest) is the developer and marketer of WorldMark, The club, a vacation ownership program and part of the Wyndham Worldwide Corporation. The original development partner of the club was Trendwest International (T ...

* Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia-Pacific

References

External links

* {{Authority control Timeshare chains Hospitality companies established in 1992 Hospitality companies of the United States Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies based in Las Vegas