While Divi Corporation and the Cayman Islands Government argue over who is to blame for the closure of the Divi Tiara Beach Hotel on Cayman Brac, some Divi timeshare owners are not happy with the outcome and blame both entities.

Hugh and Margaret Huntzinger, who have stayed at the timeshare resort for two weeks since the closing of the hotel, told Cayman Net News that between fifty and sixty owners have so far got together online and created a website to discuss their next move.

In a letter to timeshare owners, Divi Corporation has offered them four options: The first is to exchange owners' remaining membership weeks for membership in the Divi Vacation Club.

As a second option, owners could exchange their Tiara units for units at Divi Flamingo Beach Resort and Casino in Bonaire.

Thirdly, Divi said it would be willing to discuss relocations to other resorts on a case by case basis. "In most cases, such exchanges will entail significant up-charges," it states in the letter.

The Huntzingers said the first option was "lousy", the second and third "worse", and the options as a whole "offensive".

"The Vacation Club is a timeshare inventory left-overs buyers group," they said. Owners must say whether or not they are using their units six months in advance.

Therefore, they would not be able to book further in advance than this for their vacation with this plan.

If they chose the Flamingo Resort, they would lose their "no go, no pay" option which was a deal offered to early buyers, meaning that they can opt not to take their units and not pay maintenance that year.

In addition, these timeshares are worth much less than they paid for Tiara timeshares and are not comparable in terms of square footage, they said. With the third option, decided by Divi on a case by case basis, they are given no rights.

"Obviously, they want to slot you in to their benefit," they said. The fourth option is to maintain ownership "as is", and Tiara would continue to supply resort check-in and twice weekly housekeeping service, as provided in owners' contracts.

Divi told owners in the letter, "In considering staying, however, you should bear in mind that Tiara cannot predict the extent of rise in maintenance fees in the coming years except to say that it will be very substantial because of loss of subsidy and expected loss of paying members."

Several reasons for this are cited: "Tiara can no longer afford to subsidize operating costs for the timeshare resort," and "most owners are not required to pay a maintenance fee if not using the unit."

Additionally, they said, "We expect most owners to choose other options, which will reduce the number of owners paying for the maintenance of the resort."

"This is purposefully intimidating news," said the Huntzingers, especially for those without the "no go no pay" clause. They pointed out that Divi has not attempted to give any kind of estimate for the maintenance.

The Huntzingers would prefer to continue to return to Cayman Brac, as, they claim, a lot of owners do. Many have grown to love the Island and the people here, and also enjoy reuniting with other timeshare owners.

However they said there were no checks and balances on what the maintenance would be.

"There is no breakdown of maintenance and no accountability," they said.

Divi claims that owners do not have the right to see the books and, in order to test this claim, they would have to go to litigation.

According to their contract with Divi, any disputes would have to be settled in a Cayman Islands court.
"Indies Suite was pretty ugly," said Mr Huntzinger, referring to timeshare units on Grand Cayman that went bankrupt after Hurricane Ivan.

"We don't feel that we can look to Cayman courts to protect us. We pay US$10 per night to the Government. What do we get for this? Where are the consumer protection laws in regards to timeshare owners?"

Divi also told owners they had to select one of the options by December 31, 2006.

"If we do not receive a return option form by such date, we will assume that you have chosen the Vacation Club option."

VP Sales and Marketing for Divi, Mark Steward, said that there were a total of three hundred and thirty-two timeshare owners, and they were receiving responses to their letter at a rate of eight to ten per day, and most were accepting the offer of the Vacation Club.

Mr Steward claimed that ninety percent of owners had stopped going to Tiara timeshares anyway, which he blamed on the Cayman Airways Limited air schedule. Plus, he said, some people had owned for a while and were happy to trade out.

"We want to make sure the owners are happy," he claimed. The Huntzingers have a different story to tell:

"The early years were fine, but then the units went downhill. In 1998, the owners had a rat-catching contest. We were second. We only caught four that week. The winners caught seven."

They pointed out that Divi was forced to close the timeshares in September 2003 because they were not up to Cayman hotel licensing standards, but they were unable to learn the details of this.

"In the US, we are used to being able to get records of inspection reports. Here, you can't find anything out," they said.

The Huntzingers stated, "Divi has not had a good customer focus. We have not been impressed with corporate administration over the years."

They added, "If their intention was to come off as a greedy American corporation, they've done quite well."

The timeshare owners website can be found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/D-TOG/

nicky@caymannetnews.com