Cant you just instruct the renter to say no, I didnt rent it, the person is a friend of mine?
Not if someone reports it to II and sends them the Redweek or Tug link.
Last year I traded into Crystal Shores and come to find out my plans changed and I could not go. (Just like they have now for my 2013 vacation plans). I contacted II and asked if I could trade my week with another person into another resort and was told 'yes'. Well, instead of running an exchange only ad, I ran a rental ad as well.
Slap slap, II sent me an email telling me that it was not legal rent exchanges, and promptly put a hold on my account until my Tug and Redweek ads were removed. (Truthfully, it's not legal to barter for outside exchanges either.) Since I had no history of guest certificates, II was very diplomatic in the way they handled things and simply explained the rules to me while asking that I not do it again.
It was simple enough for II to see that I do not own at Crystal Shores and that I traded into Crystal Shores. CS is so small, I may have even been the only person who had an exchange for those dates that I did.
I had no problem with anything that happened. All in all, it's better for the entire system to work this way so that all the premium weeks do not get scooped up by scalpers.