Made every mistake!

Hi, I am new to TUG,
Browsing the site I see that I have made about every mistake that I see warned about in the messages and like you have heard before, "I wish I knew this existed before I bought!"

BUT here I am & I'd like to make the best of it.

We bought at Marriott Surf Watch on Hilton Head last year, and we are happy with that decision. As an incentive gift they threw in a week at one of their Aruba resorts, and this is where we get into trouble!!
We were approached on the street by a lady inviting us to the Occidental Aruba for a sales presentation the next day (Free Breakfast! $75 in casino chips! She makes her sales quota! Everybody happy!)

Long story short, we end up with a week at an all-inclusive every other year for a price that I now know was too much, but seemed OK at the time. They threw in 4 bonus weeks, which seemed to me a good way to pay for the deal....
The bonus weeks are studio rooms that sleep two, ocean view, and flexible times.
Questions: 1. renting an all-inclusive should I add in the price of the food plan($95/day/person includes alcohol)
2. should I schedule them myself & advertise the specific week, or advertise them as flexible, and try to do the scheduling for the renter?

I did not see any past threads addressing those issues, so I thank you for any info/advice, etc., that you have.

I would state the amount of the all-inclusive in the Ad, but I believe the renter will pay it directly to the resort.

I would reserve popular holiday weeks and advertise them. 1) People are more likely to be looking for specific dates. 2) If you wait until you find someone and they request a holiday, holiday reservations are likely to be gone.

I am sorry to be discouraging, but I think these will be difficult rentals because of the high all-inclusive fee, and the depressed rental market, because of the economy. Many people actually avoid resorts with AI fees. Most people can eat quite well for less than $1,400 a week per couple. You need to look at several websites to determine what other owners are asking for rent and price yours just a tad lower. If you match the rental rate from the resort, they will never rent.

www.redweek.com and the TUG Marketplace (linked in red bar) are good places to look for Comps.

For lots of info., see the "How to rent your timeshare" sticky at the top of the main page of this forum.

Don't sweat making a mistake...trust me, you are not alone...

That said, never make the same mistake twice...:hysterical:

Still, you're in...wander this site and see what you are missing. Honestly, the earlier advice sounds spot on. Aruba is fairly popular locale with some folks so you should be able to find folks to use it. Have you considered doing an ebay search to see if someone has already trod this path?

Good Luck and glad you found this place.

thanks

Thanks for sharing your experience.....I see I have a LOT to learn, but feel I've found a good place - Thanks a million!