[ 2007 ] SVO Rental Thread

[DavidnRobin]

One thing to discuss in this thread is how to actually refund money. I might be inclined to help someone out if they were truly in this situation. As businesslike and cold as I can be, I also want to think I could have a heart. I guess the only thing to return money safely would be to wait three or more weeks to be sure whatever money you got has indeed cleared. No amount of urgency on the other parties part should change how fast you can return the money without the risk of being scammed.

PayPal lets you refund money easily and reverses the fee charged. I did this with the person that sent me rental money before confirming the terms (they wanted to re-rent...).

 

[RLG]

Renting through Starwood

If this is to be a reference thread on how to rent your Starwood weeks I would think it should discuss the how to and the pros/cons of having Starwood rent out your week.

(I vaguely recall that I've seen discussion of this before, but unfortunately, couldn't find it using search.)

I have two ski weeks at Sheraton Mountain Vista that are currently listed on Redweek and on Myresortnetwork (exact weeks not mentioned to avoid being construed as an ad.) I'd be happy with 50% of Starwood's retail price. It's not clear to me whether I should list with them and if so, how I do it.

 

[DeniseM]

Starwood take half the rental fee and you pay any costs - like commission to a Travel Agent, out of your half.

They do not guarantee that they will be able to rent it, and if they don't, you are just out of luck.

Starwood does not offer rental service to owners at some of the resorts - like WKORV for example.

If you go to www.mystarcentral.com and log in, there is a link for more info.

 

[RLG]

Starwood take half the rental fee and you pay any costs - like commission to a Travel Agent, out of your half.

They do not guarantee that they will be able to rent it, and if they don't, you are just out of luck.

Does Starwood require an exclusive or do they let you try to rent it out yourself as well?

If not, and if I'm happy with 50% of Starwood's price, is there a reason not to list it with them as well as directly?

 

[DeniseM]

Once you turn your week over to them - it's gone. Whether it rents or not.

 

[RLG]

Wow, Denise, you're a 24 hour a day information source.

That sounds like a pretty one-sided arrangement with Starwood. Do they provide any info on their track record of getting the weeks rented?

 

[DeniseM]

Starwood is pretty closed mouth about the whole rental thing. You will notice that there is very little info. online about it. I am sure their success rate varies from resort to resort and season to season, but I would hesitate to accept any figures that aren't published.

Have you tried renting your week yourself? A popular season may rent for half of what Starwood charges at many resorts. If you email Starwood, please let us know what you find out.

I'm off today so I was up late last night - don't expect 24 hour service all the time.

 

[DavidnRobin]

Time is running out for SuperBowl renting - and luck by anybody here?

 

[LauraS93]

Does Starwood require an exclusive or do they let you try to rent it out yourself as well?

If not, and if I'm happy with 50% of Starwood's price, is there a reason not to list it with them as well as directly?

I used Starwood's rental service and I was very disappointed. They sent me a document with a check showing that it rented 5 of the 7 nights for *well below* rack rates. So much so, that I don't believe they only charged someone $390 to use our two bedroom villa. Easily, they charge that for a motel room.

Securing a renter directly is much, much better. And the money gets in your pocket a heck of a lot faster!

 

[DeniseM]

IThey sent me a document with a check showing that it rented 5 of the 7 nights for *well below* rack rates. So much so, that I don't believe they only charged someone $390 to use our two bedroom villa. Easily, they charge that for a motel room.

Are you saying that you only got $390 from Starwood for your 2 bdm. WSJ week?

That's criminal! Thanks for letting us know!

 

[Transit]

I hope thats 390 a night!

 

[DavidnRobin]

I recall this event. I have found a few people on short stays at WSJ in a 2Bd TH. I asked on how they got it and they said that they were upgraded from the Hotel because of some status (e.g. SPG). Two woman that we meet by the upper pool said that they were going to stay in the standard WSJ hotel and were upgraded because her sister was in the hotel biz. This was during a mid-June week (similar to LauraS93's week). I do not know the rate they were paying.

As I have before - they are a alot of short-stays in the studios and 1 Bds when we are there (week 24) - and empty units. Alwayes seems strange since it seems so difficult to exchange into. I have always felt that if you want to get to the 'shady' side of how SVO moves units/$$$ to their advantage (outside of the balance sheet) that WSJ would be the place to look.

 

[DavidnRobin]

I hope thats 390 a night!

I'll let Laura clarify - but nope - not $390 per nite for sure - she would have loved to get that much.

 

[Transit]

I'll let Laura clarify - but nope - not $390 per nite for sure

I don't want to be seen here as a cronic Starwood complainer but this it the kind of stuff from starwood that drives me crazy.

 

[DavidnRobin]

I don't want to be seen here as a cronic Starwood complainer but this it the kind of stuff from starwood that drives me crazy.

No doubt - but also why it is important to know that if you plan to rent - then do it yourself as correctly as possible (thus one reason I started the Rental Thread) - and that takes effort. She had attempted to rent without success - and... not to speak for her - likely wishes she would have lowered her price considerably (obviously). The SVO rental program is not a benefit (and another reason to buy resale).

semi off-topic:
So far - renting ourselves has been beneficial, but has certainly taken effort and I have listed as what I consider to be very fair prices. I have rented our WKORV OF studio twice and the 1Bd WKV once. We have always planned to rent the OF studio (or have someone go with us) from the beginning (and why we bought OF). We have always felt that you can easily rent our WSJ if we had to - but it does take balance between what you can get and what you think it is worth. That is a important consideration with renting.

With the internet (and Google) so much used nowadays - people can go to the resort's webpage and find out what the going rates are (including rack rates) Hopefully with some smart searching - they can find ours for a lot less - and very fair compared to other rental prices. It can also be used to establish the optimal rental rate.

 

[LauraS93]

To clarify

We aren't seasoned landlords. We only own one unit in the world of timeshare.

Our unit has rented twice: once in 2006 for $4500 and this year for $3800.
Since they rent for all 7 nights, that averages $543 to $643 per night. And the cash for all of it hits my bank account more than 90 days before the beginning of their rented week.

Last year, it was May and there were no apparent takers. So we signed it over to the powers that be to rent for us just for 2007. In July, we got a check for approx. $989. Thats 50% of the amount they claimed they collected, or $1,978. The paperwork sent with it said they rented it 5 of 7 nights, and interesting, I remember Saturday night was one of the dates it wasn't rented. So basically the Westin charged whomever $395.60 for use of our villa, but if you go to their website, I don't think you can touch a basic hotel room for that amount, let alone a two bedroom condo?

 

[LauraS93]

As I have before - they are a alot of short-stays in the studios and 1 Bds when we are there (week 24) - and empty units. Alwayes seems strange since it seems so difficult to exchange into. I have always felt that if you want to get to the 'shady' side of how SVO moves units/$$$ to their advantage (outside of the balance sheet) that WSJ would be the place to look.

Shady - that is for sure!!!

 

[Henry M.]

How about adding a section here or in a separate thread about successful rental prices? Something like:

Resort:
Unit rented:
Check-in date:
Ad placement date:
Total rent:
Where renter found your listing:
How long did it take to rent:

I think people sometimes shortchange themselves when renting and selling their timeshares. Many come here to find the lowest possible price, but that sometimes helps depreciate what we own. Sure there are some people that sell/rent in desperation, but if you know the market and are patient, you can do better than give away your unit either on a sale or a rent for just the maintenance fees.

Sales prices should also be higher than they are, at least at some locations. For example, WKORV units should really be worth more than $40K based on the real estate value alone if people didn't just fire-sell their property. A 2BR condo of the caliber of these units is surely worth at least $2,000,000. They go for more than that at the Ka'anapali Alii near Whaler's Village. That divided by 52 is close to $40K. A bare 1 acre lot next to WKORV sells for $10,000,000.

I'll post my recent rental experience:

Resort: WKORV-N
Unit rented: IV Studio
Check-in date: May 21-28 (mid week check-in possible within 90 days)
Ad placement date: Feb 22
Total rent: $1,800
Where renter found listing: craigslist.com
How long did it take to rent (from posting to finalizing transaction): 5 days

 

[Henry M.]

E-Mail Confirmations

When assigning the rental to someone else I learned the following two things from Starwood Reservations:

1.) If the reservation is in someone else's name, they can't get any of your Elite benefits. like early check-in or late check-out.

2.) If you leave your name on the reservation, then the renter can't check in without you.

3.) They have a problem with their e-mail confirmation system because many ISP's have blackmailed their server. This has been going on for a long time. It gets fixed temporarily only to happen again.

In my case, my home e-mail (Road Runner) never received the confirmation but when they mailed the confirmation to my gmail and work accounts I got the e-mails with no problem. All were mailed within seconds of each other. They can also try to e-mail your renter while you have them on the line but there are no guarantees it will arrive!

 

[TheUnitrep]

...They have a problem with their e-mail confirmation system because many ISP's have blackmailed their server. This has been going on for a long time. It gets fixed temporarily only to happen again.

Why then, do I receive all the other crap Starwood sends to my email account (special owner-only offers -- you know the ones that are priced as high as any travel agency would offer to someone walking off the street; SVO newsletters; and the announcement of new and exciting benefits -- translation: price increases and benefit reductions).

I'm sick of Starwood saying they are working on solving the email confirmation problem. I have not received an email confirmation for the last three reservations I've made (the last being more than 18 months ago).

And yes...I did log onto mystarcentral.com to file this complaint (as suggested in another thread). That was on Friday. I did receive a response today saying they had their IT department working on a way to outsmart the spam filter. Still no email confirmation.

As I said previously, while I love the SVN resorts we've traveled to, I'm very disappointed with the customer service I received since first purchasing in 2004.

I really don't believe they care about keeping existing owners satisfied. They already have our money, so they concentrate on chumming the water to attract their next catch.

Jerry

 

[ascarborough]

Resort: WKORV
Unit rented: Ocean View
Check-in date: 7/26/08
Ad placement date: 3/3
Total rent: $3500
Where renter found your listing: Craigs List
How long did it take to rent: hours

Used my free classified ad on TUG around Oct/Nov of 2007 and had zero responses. I believe was asking $3800 at the time. Placed an ad on myresortnetwork for $3500 and received zero responses. Put an add on Hawaii CraigsList and got a response almost immediately. It happened so fast I was very suspicious, but turned out legitimate. Called them, got a check for the full amount, waited two weeks to make sure it cleared, called Westin and forwarded the renter the confirmation email. I downloaded a rental agreement from one of the sites listed in the "how-to" rental thread. Chose the $3500 amount based mainly on Denise's rental messages (thank you). Having it all done early is well worth the few hundred dollars I might have been able to get extra.

This was our first time renting. Purchased in 2006. Went December 2006 and July 2007. We love it at WKORV, but decided to take a break from the airfare this year.

 

[ciscogizmo1]

Okay.. here's my experience... However, I wasn't as successful money-wise.

Resort: WKORV
Unit rented: Ocean View Studio
Check-in date: July 27 to Aug 3
Ad placement date: Nov 28th
Total rent: $1,375
Where renter found listing: Redweek
How long did it take to rent (from posting to finalizing transaction): 4 months a lot of inquires but no takers..

Reposted on Craigslist in mid February
Found a renter within a week

I had a couple of problems with my rental. Originally, I was doing a trade from Maui to Princeville. However, when I called at 8 months the only thing available was a one bedroom. So, I accepted and decided to rent out the studio. The rep then told me that I loss my view because she had to cancel and re-book. I fought with Starwood on this issue for many months. Finally, last week they decided to give me my view back. Because the view was island view technically, I got a lot of people not interested. Most wanted ocean view. So, it was very difficult to advertise since, I didn't know what the view would be.

The other thing is that I really dislike Craigslist. It is a personal thing even though my unit rented quickly I have problems with the company morally. I think next time I'll wait it out on Redweek longer. After I rented to the Craigslist person, 2 people came back saying they wanted to rent from Redweek.

 

[ciscogizmo1]

Resort: WKORV
Unit rented: Ocean View
Check-in date: 7/26/08
Ad placement date: 3/3
Total rent: $3500
Where renter found your listing: Craigs List
How long did it take to rent: hours

Used my free classified ad on TUG around Oct/Nov of 2007 and had zero responses. I believe was asking $3800 at the time. Placed an ad on myresortnetwork for $3500 and received zero responses. Put an add on Hawaii CraigsList and got a response almost immediately. It happened so fast I was very suspicious, but turned out legitimate. Called them, got a check for the full amount, waited two weeks to make sure it cleared, called Westin and forwarded the renter the confirmation email. I downloaded a rental agreement from one of the sites listed in the "how-to" rental thread. Chose the $3500 amount based mainly on Denise's rental messages (thank you). Having it all done early is well worth the few hundred dollars I might have been able to get extra.

This was our first time renting. Purchased in 2006. Went December 2006 and July 2007. We love it at WKORV, but decided to take a break from the airfare this year.

Good job...

I agree with you regarding TUG. I've placed two ads on TUG and got zero responses. I don't even bother anymore.

 

[GrayFal]

Resort:Sheraton Broadway Plantation
Unit rented:1BR 'shotgun'
Check-in date:6/28/08
Ad placement date: February 15
Total rent:$895 - renter paying paypal fee
Where renter found your listing:Redweek.com
How long did it take to rent:1 month

With 'drive to' locations, people tend to wait until 4-6 months out to rent.
I hade several inquiries on Craigs List but nothing firm.

 

[Henry M.]

The other thing is that I really dislike Craigslist. It is a personal thing even though my unit rented quickly I have problems with the company morally.

I don't have much information about craigslist other than I rented my unit through them quickly, based on inputs here on TUG. What problems are there with them? Why are they morally objectionable?