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Koala fills a niche that others may not see quite yet, but I see it as a great alternative

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rickandcindy23

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In the age of Airbnb and VRBO, timeshare rentals can be lost in the vast offerings of these big websites. There are some negatives with VRBO and Airbnb like the people who inquire about a Tuesday-Tuesday rental, when most timeshares are Friday, Saturday or Sunday check-in. A renter inquires about those weekdays, then your listing goes to the bottom of the list because you cannot accommodate that request. You lose points somehow. So the system automatically puts you on the bottom of the pile.

I always hoped for a site that would provide timeshare owners with an alternative that would not cost anything to list; would be cost effective for fees charged; and would fit the timeshare world perfectly. With Koala, I think we have the perfect option.

The only cost to timeshare owners is the 8% commission, which covers the credit card fees. You can choose how strict you want to be with refunds. I like that because I need my Wisconsin Door County reservations to be cancellable at 60+ days out, so I don't lose my Shell points. Sixty-two days is an option.

I found it very easy to list my weeks, but there are some that aren't included on the site, including Door County Little Sweden resort. I found that odd because it's a very popular resort. All they need to do is go through the RCI directory to add more resorts.

What I am wondering is how successful you have been with Koala? Redweek is so popular but I have had weeks that didn't get a single inquiry, and I was renting pretty cheaply. When I told Redweek that my Summit County ski weeks didn't even receive a single inquiry, I was not offered an extension of my listing or an opportunity to get a refund or offered any compensation. I realize this is not really something that do regularly, it was just my expectations not being met, but I would bet Breckenridge listings did just fine during the ski season, and I was able to rent my Frisco weeks via Craig's List for the price I was asking on Redweek, and I rented the weeks very easily that way. So I think my listings got lost on the site somehow.
 
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emeryjre

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I have put up listings with Koala. The process of validation takes some time for the first listing. The site validates the owner putting up the listing as legitimate. The listings are validated by reservation number and do not go live immediately. They notify you once the vetting of the listing occurs.

They have instituted various cancellation policies to implement with the listings.

I have had one rental from my listings. The renter checks in on Saturday March 20 and funds are released on March 21. So I will see how the deposit process works.

If you as an owner want to retain control of your listing, then this is not the site for you. With the pandemic and the problems of last March cancellations behind us (I hope). I will list my units there.

It is my believe that at this time, timeshare people are not looking to rent. I believe that their travel discretionary funds have been spent on maintenance fees and in many cases lost for 2020 and in many cases the early spring of 2021.

When normalcy returns, I thing redweek will be OK, but this point the redweek site listing's are pretty dead unless you have or had a highly sought after week in a highly sought resort.
 

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I am really liking Koala. I have rented 3 units in the last couple of months. No bites on Redweek because it was flooded w/ my resort.
 

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I am really liking Koala. I have rented 3 units in the last couple of months. No bites on Redweek because it was flooded w/ my resort.
That is great news. I am glad to see that others are successful. So glad for you. This could be big for those of us who rent quite a bit. I have a bunch of Shell points to use, and with Disneyland closed, I couldn't rent anything in Anaheim that I used to be able to rent. Now I am looking at booking some Peacock Suites and at least get my MF's back from last year. I also have Dolphin's Cove to rent.
 

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I think they are a great option. No upfront fixed cost like Redweek and many of the other options that are out there. Even if you are renting through other channels, why not still list on KOALA since it only costs you your time. It never hurts to broaden your reach and get your weeks out in front of a different and larger market. By offering better cancellation terms, you may also be able to charge more for your reservation as renters may be willing to pay more when they have more flexible terms.

I found it very easy to list my weeks, but there are some that aren't included on the site, including Door County Little Sweden resort. I found that odd because it's a very popular resort. All they need to do is go through the RCI directory to add more resorts.
From what I understand, you can request your resort to be added when starting your listing. I am not sure that adding thousands of resorts, some of which may never see a listing, is the best use of resources for a startup. Adding a property when the need arises should work out well in the beginning and over time more resorts will be available.
 
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dioxide45

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I have had one rental from my listings. The renter checks in on Saturday March 20 and funds are released on March 21. So I will see how the deposit process works.
@Sandy VDH posted her experience related to a completed reservation and deposit timeline;
 

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I think they are a great option. No upfront fixed cost like Redweek and many of the other options that are out there. Even if you are renting through other channels, why not still list on KOALA since it only costs you your time. It never hurts to broaden your reach and get your weeks out in front of a different and larger market. By offering better cancellation terms, you may also be able to charge more for your reservation as renters may be willing to pay more when they have more flexible terms.


From what I understand, you can request your resort to be added when starting your listing. I am not sure that adding thousands of resorts, some of which may never see a listing, is the best use of resources for a startup. Adding a property when the need arises should work out well in the beginning and over time more resorts will be available.
Yes, that is all I had to do was request my listings be added, but they have not been added yet. It's been a few days. They may be overwhelmed with listings. I have a couple of Little Sweden to list but they haven't gone live quite yet.

My Resort Network used to work for me, but I tried a few rentals and didn't get any hits. Somehow, that website has lost its presence on the internet.

I have high hopes that Koala will serve our timeshare community well. I hope they are able to drive renters to the site. Redweek charged for membership. I think they may have to rethink that choice, if Koala becomes a competitive site for rentals.
 

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I have had only 1 of my 6 rentals listed inquired and rented. I have removed the non-rented units and added a few others. It remains to be seen. But with NO upfront charges, I can easily live with the 8% commission.

I am surprised I have not had a single inquiry about July 4th week yet, but people may be taking a wait and see attitude.
 

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Yes, that is all I had to do was request my listings be added, but they have not been added yet. It's been a few days. They may be overwhelmed with listings. I have a couple of Little Sweden to list but they haven't gone live quite yet.

My Resort Network used to work for me, but I tried a few rentals and didn't get any hits. Somehow, that website has lost its presence on the internet.

I have high hopes that Koala will serve our timeshare community well. I hope they are able to drive renters to the site. Redweek charged for membership. I think they may have to rethink that choice, if Koala becomes a competitive site for rentals.
I do like their business model, it seems to be a better method than Redweek. Redweek right now just has more of the critical mass. I haven't rented out weeks on KOALA, so I can't speak to how easy it is to list once you are verified, but I had read it is pretty easy. So if listing a week can be cut to a few minute long process, I see no reason not to list your timeshare there too since there is no upfront fee. WIthout weeks listed, renters will come along and leave when they don't find what they want. The more listings they can get, the more they have to offer potential renters that find the site.
 

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I do like their business model, it seems to be a better method than Redweek. Redweek right now just has more of the critical mass. I haven't rented out weeks on KOALA, so I can't speak to how easy it is to list once you are verified, but I had read it is pretty easy. So if listing a week can be cut to a few minute long process, I see no reason not to list your timeshare there too since there is no upfront fee. WIthout weeks listed, renters will come along and leave when they don't find what they want. The more listings they can get, the more they have to offer potential renters that find the site.
And that is why I feel compelled to tout this site to all TUG members who rent timeshares. I don't want to put Redweek out of business, but also list with Koala and see what comes through. If it's a $1,000 rental, add $80 to it. I am just adding $50.00 because I use Paypal at 3%.

People talk about Vacation Candy, and I sort of like what they have to offer, but Koala doesn't make as much profit as Vacation Candy. Keep your profit.

I was considering the listing of my Disney points with David's Rentals. He is now paying $14.50 per point. I can get more for my DVC points with Koala by listing my studios for $17-18 per point during Food and Wine. That is what I am going to do. If I can make what David's Rentals makes, I can keep all of that profit for myself. And so easy to list. We will soon see how it pans out for me.
 

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Oh, and I want to add that it's important to ask them to add your resort to the website. Koala doesn't know what they don't know, you know? They really need to review the RCI and II directories, but maybe what they are doing is better because I know there are resorts in both directories that are Getaways and Extra Vacations exclusively. Case in point, Dawn Beach Club in St. Maarten. Pretty easy to get via Getaways, but there are no rentals available, and that resort limits how many Getaways you can get, too.
 

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And that is why I feel compelled to tout this site to all TUG members who rent timeshares. I don't want to put Redweek out of business, but also list with Koala and see what comes through. If it's a $1,000 rental, add $80 to it. I am just adding $50.00 because I use Paypal at 3%.

People talk about Vacation Candy, and I sort of like what they have to offer, but Koala doesn't make as much profit as Vacation Candy. Keep your profit.

I was considering the listing of my Disney points with David's Rentals. He is now paying $14.50 per point. I can get more for my DVC points with Koala by listing my studios for $17-18 per point during Food and Wine. That is what I am going to do. If I can make what David's Rentals makes, I can keep all of that profit for myself. And so easy to list. We will soon see how it pans out for me.
Exactly. Also because Redweek requires a membership fee and KOALA doesn't, you may be able to add more than just the commission amount. Over time, KOALA should have more exposure, so a bigger market and hopefully more demand because Redweek tamps down demand with the membership fee. I do get that Redweeks fee may keep scammers and tire kickers at bay, but from what I know about KOALA's website, it doesn't look like you can simply inquire to the owner, so no tire kickers to worry about. They either want what they see or they don't. No haggle or negotiation issues.
 

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That is great news. I am glad to see that others are successful. So glad for you. This could be big for those of us who rent quite a bit. I have a bunch of Shell points to use, and with Disneyland closed, I couldn't rent anything in Anaheim that I used to be able to rent. Now I am looking at booking some Peacock Suites and at least get my MF's back from last year. I also have Dolphin's Cove to rent.
I wasn’t having luck w/ Redweek so I gave them a try. I do rent several weeks and I don’t want to put them in II.
VC is a no go for me after an issue over a Covid rental.
I agree about the breath of options you can post. My Independent San Diego wasn’t an option so I have to use other sources.
 
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Depends on the inventory I guess. For Atlantic City for example they only have Wyndham (Skyline Tower) listed currently. Same for Las Vegas: only Wyndham (Grand Desert).
 

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Depends on the inventory I guess. For Atlantic City for example they only have Wyndham (Skyline Tower) listed currently. Same for Las Vegas: only Wyndham (Grand Desert).
Yes, I think this is why others should start listing their weeks with Koala. I believe it's a great idea to get in on the bottom floor of a company that has the interests of timeshare owners in mind. The more listings they have, the more customers will be drawn to their platform. I just listed two more.
 

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Cool. At some point they obviously need to generate enough business to offset their expenses and turn a profit. TS' is a very difficult thing to market. There are so many restrictions and limitations compared to regular outright ownership like on VRBO and AirBnB.
 

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Exactly. Also because Redweek requires a membership fee and KOALA doesn't, you may be able to add more than just the commission amount. Over time, KOALA should have more exposure, so a bigger market and hopefully more demand because Redweek tamps down demand with the membership fee. I do get that Redweeks fee may keep scammers and tire kickers at bay, but from what I know about KOALA's website, it doesn't look like you can simply inquire to the owner, so no tire kickers to worry about. They either want what they see or they don't. No haggle or negotiation issues.
Redweek still has a lot of tire kickers. I know that Redweek has that standard line that comes through on an inquiry of my posting, something like, "I'd like to book this week..." And when you get back to that renter, they almost never are interested in the rental. They ask about other dates, or they don't answer my message back, even if I answer within a few minutes of the inquiry.

Same with TUG ads in most cases. I have rented maybe 3 on TUG over the years. TUG could be an awesome site for rentals, but it's hard to use and people always try to talk the price down. We are not talking last-minute rentals here, which I rarely have. We are talking about rentals that are months away.

I had one guy 3 weeks ago who kept trying to talk my price down on Redweek, too. I get tired of the back and forth, and he became abusive and said I would never rent for the price I was asking. He even called our daughter because she has a rental website and I told him he could pay through her website to make him feel better about the rental, but I was very clear that the rental was through me. Our daughter told him to never contact me again. She can be direct. I have a tougher time. The guy kept saying I would never get the weeks rented. I did. I rented both weeks to a nice lady who wasn't abusive.
 

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I'm always happy to see some competition in the market, but I think the commission is too high. I typically rent weeks for 2,000-2,500 - at 8% commission that's $160-$200 lopped off my rental for each week. I don't love Redweek charging up front, but at $30 for a posting, I'd only have to rent 1 out of 5 or 6 postings to be on equal footing with Koala. I also have more options and can choose to keep control of how I rent weeks (i.e. when I have an inquiry I can give the potential renter the option to rent direct with my own contract and pay via PayPal/Venmo/Zelle or I can offer to activate the Redweek online booking where they can use a credit card (which charges them 3% so I still get my full rental fee). I have had decent luck with Redweek - yes there are occasional looky-loos, but I have been fortunate not to have any overly aggressive renters after me.

As some have said, given no up front cost other than time, you have little to lose with Koala. But for a new site with much lower site visitors (and still building out their site with resorts) I would think they'd offer something a bit more enticing to get owners to post. In the long run, if people simply increase their listing rates to cover the higher commission, I don't know how they get a leg up on Redweek. Redweek already has much larger critical mass and if their advertised rental rates are consistently lower, Koala isn't going to get an keep visitors.
 

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It's still just 5% for me, if I am using Paypal to have them pay me.

It wouldn't hurt to list your weeks and add in that 5-8% and see how that works for you.
 

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The site has to improve though for the 7 day listings and offer a range of check in days rather than the exact check in/check out days. The search should be similar to RCI/Interval (find any check in day within a range) rather than like Expedia.




This is searching Cancun with December 25 - Jan 1 and you find a 2 BR at Westin Lagunamar.
1615675347627.png



This is what you find expanding the period, the week 52 at Lagunamar is not there even if one may be interested. This is a major problem if a potential renter has to stumble upon the exact days to find the existing inventory.

1615675547396.png
 

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If you pull up the resort by name, you can scroll down and open to see a calendar view....and it shows green dots for check in days.....

1615676710202.png
 

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KOALA is very open to feedback on the usability of their website.
 

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If you pull up the resort by name, you can scroll down and open to see a calendar view....and it shows green dots for check in days.....

View attachment 33399
I think the Tuggers may know the resort they want to go to but not the general public who may only have a vague idea where they want to go. I much prefer the searches in RCI for example. You want Cancun in February 2022, you will find all the weeks during that period at all the resorts. I find even Redweek easier.
 

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KOALA is very open to feedback on the usability of their website.
I listed a couple of weeks, I will get in contact with them. The whole idea is to translate the dream (something nice on the beach or ski or a certain area during a certain period of time) into something bookable with the minimum number of clicks and at a good cost. They are trying that if you click Destinations but it is not well implemented, the order seems to be chaotic to me. I think it is copied from how the developers present their resorts BUY those usually have a lot less destinations so their pages do not look so disorganized and random. Once you click on a destination the real work starts and it should not be that way. I am not trying to be negative, just to maybe help them them improve what the potential renter would experience. Their success will depend on that and the more customers they have the more owners will list, it is a win-win.

I like the experience on the owner side, easy to list. The fees... I do not know. They maybe high compared to Redweek but I will just factor that in. If they find a renter at that price, fine, if they do not, I am not losing anything.
 
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If you pull up the resort by name, you can scroll down and open to see a calendar view....and it shows green dots for check in days.....

View attachment 33399

The fact that this is the ONLY way to see dates available, other than to click on each individual listing, is a big flaw in my view. I don't find it particularly user friendly.

I spent some time perusing around after this thread....I had looked at the site briefly before, but the high commission fee had put me off. I am still not convinced.

It's certainly more "fresh" looking than Redweek but I feel like the approach is fundamentally flawed. Timeshare's are rented "weeks" at a time. While the proliferation of points systems makes it possible to to reserve (and thus rent) shorter stays, the effort required doesn't make it worthwhile. In addition, it's harder to amortize the cost of things like guest certificates across short reservations and still garner a decent profit (or even just cover your maintenance fees). With that in mind, I don't understand why they've spent the effort on a booking engine that mimics something like Expedia or Orbitz. I think something with a list view makes more sense.

They also have conflicting information on their site - in some places they confirm to renters that the rental "prices you see on Koala include all taxes and fees, including resort fees. Nothing hidden, no surprises." Yet then (as to be expected) on certain bookings they indicate additional fees will be due on-site and collected by the resort. I think it could be a bit confusing to renters....

Finally, they appear to have been operating for three years, but the number of resorts in their directory and the number of listings is quite paltry....and they've got what appears to be a pretty big staff of people. I'm not sure how it all computes. Are they just surviving off investor seed money?

I may post a week or two just to see how it pans out, but by the time I add in the costs of additional commission they charge, I'm not sure my rental prices will be competitive.
 
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