I agree. I have seen stuff below their 50% off cost and that $99 Guest Certificate fee.
Just look at our LMR thread - and get out your Wyndham Owners Directory. Just to get any dollars.
In my rather simplistic way of looking at the world, there are three kinds of timeshare landlords
Accidental landlords. These are the folks that bought too much or use too little themselves. I hate to make generalizations, but these folks dont know what they are doing and dont care if they make any money or not. They just want to recover some of their maintenance fees...Find one of these guys and you can get a really good deal on your vacation accommodations...but its tough to find them...remember they dont know what they are doing.
Wanna Be rental business owners or hobby shops Small time operators learning as they go. Most of them wont be around in a few months or years, but some will
Business owners These are the guys that have figured out how to turn a buck as a timeshare middleman, ie, renting vacation accommodations at a small premium to mf. There are I think two types of business owners here. the small, part timers and the big guys...the so called Mega-Renters
I agree with bnoble that Mega renters are few and far between.
Speaking only for myself, (and Im not telling you where I fall on my scale) I try to make as many reservations as I can at low supply locations at high demand times. I rent these at a significant premiun to mf. With the rest of what I own Im happy to break even or even lose a little. (so far this year Ive moved about 2 million points at about $4/1000 points but now Im "sold out"). By this time next year I expect to have a Platinum account so then you can probably get a real deal on the last minute stuff