Daily Getaways Breakdown For May 29th: Diamond Resorts

daiDon’t forget to check out my Briggs & Riley giveaway for a brand new TORQ suitcase and $100 Amazon gift card.

In case you’re not familiar, Daily Getaways are daily deals sponsored by the US Travel Association.  Some are better than others, so you need to think about whether you can take full advantage of the offer before buying.

For the more popular offers, they will sell out quickly, which means being around right when they go on sale each day at 1:00 pm EDT.  Some offers will sell out in hours, some in minutes.  It’s also important to be patient.  If you click shortly after an offer becomes available and it shows sold out, keep trying.  Someone may have an offer in their shopping cart but change their mind or have their computer crash.  When that happens, their bad luck or change of heart can be your good fortune.

Finally, make sure you pay with an American Express card to save an additional 10%.  Any AMEX card will do.

Since my new daily newsletter format has my notification coming to subscribers between 7 and 10pm EDT, I’ll summarize today’s and tomorrow’s offer so you can plan ahead if reading in the evening.  Feel free to e-mail me or post questions in the comments section.  Good luck chasing the deals you’re looking for!

Thursday, May 29th:  Diamond Resorts

Purchase a 5-night stay at one of a selected list of Diamond Resorts property worldwide for $540 (with 10% discount for paying with an AMEX card).

Diamond Resorts has a lot of properties (something like 300+) and covers all the major destinations.  However, the list of participating properties is significantly smaller, numbering about 50.  They do cover some foreign countries along with a few properties in places like the Caribbean, Hawaii and Cancun.   You can find a full list of participating properties here.

I don’t like that the vast amount of properties are excluded for this offer.  That surely means some folks will buy this offer thinking they’re getting access to the full slate of resorts.

They also reserve the right to “select alternative accommodations, such as hotel, motel or condominium”.  Finally, your purchase is subject to “high season, holiday and other blackout periods.”

But, don’t worry, those blackout periods aren’t defined anywhere in the terms and conditions.

To be fair, I have a mental block about Diamond Resorts.  I wouldn’t have known about them at all if it wasn’t for the CEO appearing twice on the TV show Undercover Boss.  The TV show is meant to increase exposure for the companies that appear on it, and I’m sure it did.  But, maybe not in a good way.  I’m happy to admit this is what I call “sleeping television” for me.  I like to fall asleep with the TV on, and Undercover Boss is one of those shows I keep on the DVR for just such an occasion.  But, his appearances were so comical, I had to sit up and watch, like a bad accident on the highway.

He and Diamond Resorts aren’t the most loved folks in the hospitality industry, especially by some of their timeshare owners.

Bottom Line It For Me, Ed

Diamond Resorts is a timeshare company that has plenty of unhappy members (not a rare thing in the timeshare business).  They have some properties that look nice, but they didn’t really show well on multiple TV appearances of Undercover Boss.  If you’re not going to show up well on TV the second time you agree to expose your business to an undercover camera crew, it’s not my kind of place.

Couple that with the fact that there’s a limited selection of resorts and a bunch of disclaimers, and I’d pass on this one.