Any Advice to Protect RENTER?

[KHolleger]

When renting a timeshare week from an owner, what advice would you give to make the transaction go smoothly? (Renting a week from Redweek.com)
Thanks!

 

[DeniseM]

Use a TS rental contract and ask owner to get his signature notarized. There are 3 sample rental contracts on this page under RENTING:
http://www.tug2.net/tugadvic.shtml

Call resort and confirm that the week has been reserved for you.

Ask owner to have resort send you a confirmation in your name.

Don't pay the full amount up-front.

 

[rickandcindy23]

The people who rented a week from me used an escrow company

It cost the renter another $100, but everything is FOR THE RENTER. I would not have let them use the week until I had all the money in hand a week or so before, plus I would have insisted on a 50% deposit, but the escrow company will hold all of my $850 until 11 days after the rental is over and the tenant is satisfied with the rental.

That bothered me a little, but the money will come just in time to pay next year's maintenance fees.

The company they chose was the one that advertises on redweek.com on every page, First American Title Insurance Company.

 

[PerryM]

Free advice

After making 50+ rentals here is some advice to both parties:

Renter:
1) The most secure way to rent is to use an escrow company that holds the money until AFTER the check-out date. Realistically many landlords will tell you to take a hike – there are so many folks who want to rent and have no problem paying the entire amount up front and without an escrow agent.
2) Ask to get a copy of the reservation BEFORE you pay money. Ask for a phone number to the resort and verify the reservation. Unfortunately the landlord can easily call up and reassign the renters name to someone else. Word processors and ink jet printers can duplicate just about any document and have it looking real. Getting someone to pose as the resort takes just a throw away cell phone. So if someone wanted to scam a bunch of folks out of a lot of money wouldn’t be hard.
3) Get a rental agreement that spells out what’s involved. However, if something goes wrong are you going to hire a lawyer at $200 per hour to fight a $1,000 rental – of course not.
4) Pay with PayPal – no lost checks in the mail and proof of payment. Can use credit card to make time payments.

Landlord:
1) Get 100% of the money up front – there are so many flakey renters out there who change their mind that taking a deposit and finding out 30 days before check-in that the renter is not going forward means a loss of a lot of money.
2) Get a rental agreement and make sure that the person supplies a copy of their driver’s license and prove that they are at least 21 years old. Many resorts require the person checking in to be at least that old.
3) Get a 10% security deposit returnable 14 days after check-out. You would be surprised how folks want that deposit back and don’t trash the place.
4) Call the resort 14 days before check-in and double check the reservation and ask for special handling like no smoking rooms or rooms that face a certain direction, etc.
5) Call the resort 1 day after check-out and confirm that there were no problems. The renter has to put up a credit card when checking in but if they max out and there is damage the resort will come calling on you. Find out before you return the security deposit.
6) Always ask for PayPal payment – the renter thinks he has some protection when paying with PayPal and Credit Card – the truth is he does not; but he feels much better and you get paid instantly. The 4% process fee is small compared with a renter who sends a Cashier’s Check AND the carbon copy and then it gets lost in the mail – what a disaster – you don’t get paid and he thinks you stiffed him and he has NO proof of payment and must go thru a 90 day refund period with the bank and put up a bond.

I’ve never had a renter request escrow and would not go along with it if they did. Folks so scared always turn out to be a pain in the butt.