Discussion about Last Minute Rentals forum

[wjappraise]

[This thread was split from someone rental request on the LMR Forum, so as not to hijack their thread.]

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And . . . it wasn't. That's the frustration for me with the "across the board" limitation to the $100 maximum. It is the same for a studio unit as it is for a four bedroom Presidential, and from what I recall hasn't changed in over a decade. The limitation means no one is in a position to help someone get the two bedroom unit the OP clearly wants.

I know I am fighting a losing battle, but someday logic will prevail. Wouldn't it make sense to have "tiered" limits to the room costs? It could be as simple as $100 per night per bedroom. This forum is a perfect example that the upper limit doesn't have to be reached. . . plenty of smaller rooms are offered for less than $100 a night. So, a two bedroom unit would not necessarily be offered for $200 a night. The room in question would likely have been feasible to offer at $150 per night, and the OP would likely have been thrilled (no additional hotel taxes, fess, etc.) to get a room for about the same cost as staying in a hotel room at LaQuinta, and a lot cheaper than staying in a tiny hotel room in the adjoining Bonnet Creek hotel.

Anyway. . . now I can rest, feeling like Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

 

[DeniseM]

As explained many times: This forum is not designed as an advertising space for rentals for a profit.

It is provided for owners to recover some of their cost on reservations that they can't use, and are too late to cancel.

 

[wjappraise]

As explained many times: This forum is not designed as an advertising space for rentals for a profit.

It is provided for owners to recover some of their cost on reservations that they can't use, and are too late to cancel.

But this posting is in the forum of ones looking to find a room, not ones who are stuck with a room they cannot cancel. So, there is no advertising involved, simply a request for help . . . that went unanswered, due to pricing limitations that go back to the Great Recession. Try renting a hotel room for the same price you did in 2008 - not gonna happen. Shouldn't a standard inflation rate of increase be given at least an honest consideration? The

Cue Wes (me) doing his best Jimmy Stewart "I hate to stand here and try your patience like this, but either I'm DEAD RIGHT or I'm CRAZY"

 

[DeniseM]

wjappraise - You want to use this forum for for-profit-rentals. There is nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that that is not the purpose of this forum.

 

[chapjim]

I have commented at least a couple of times about the asymmetry of the two sides of LMR. You can request the Presidential Suite at the Ritz-Carlton but can only offer Motel 6. The argument, while sound in my mind, has been rejected. I haven't argued the point (very much) because it ain't my message board and, all things considered, Brian runs an outstanding BBS.

But for the fact that I would have had to borrow points from 2020, I would have booked OP's reservation and sent him a PM. In that respect, my response to OP was a bit disingenuous.

 

[Sandy VDH]

We have been beating a dead horse with this discussion forever. The LMR forum is not going to be allowed to change any time soon. So leave it as it is.

So I purpose a NEW forum. Don't know what to call it but it is akin to "Discussions on rental or exchanging inventory" as these are two areas that are NOT met by the Ads or the LMR.

1) Those looking for help with finding something that they know is outside the $100 a night limit, but someone on TUG might have access to inventory that could help. I myself at times am looking for this. I have looked at Ads, but that does not always work as I am not looking for a full week or at a time period that someone has an Ad for. I put in a LMR, but no one responds because we both know it is outside of the $100 day limit. But I am still looking and perhaps someone might be able to help, provided I can ASK.

2) I would like to find a way to better enable EXCHANGES between two TUGgers. (Any way to circumvent the exchange companies.) I would really love to exchange more, but I find the format for searching the Trade Request ads cumbersome. They are a mixture of what people have and what they want and they are not searchable across both. Not to mention they are somewhat limited, as I don't think a lot are posted. I don't post myself as there is too many things I own that I could offer or I am just trying to be opportunistic. So I think there is something that posting can assist with.

So I think both of these discussion should be completed off the board, but the discussion needs a place to post and start introductions and possibilities, and we are NOT providing a forum where that kind of discussion could happen.

What is the appetite for something like this?

 

[hurnik]

We have been beating a dead horse with this discussion forever. The LMR forum is not going to be allowed to change any time soon. So leave it as it is.

So I purpose an NEW forum. Don't know what to call it but it is akin to "Discussions on rental or exchanging inventory" as these are two areas that are NOT met by the Ads or the LMR.

1) Those looking for help with finding something that they know is outside the $100 a night limit, but someone on TUG might have access to inventory that could help. I myself at times am looking for this. I have looked at Ads, but that does not always work as I am not looking for a full week or at a time period that someone has an Ad for. I put in a LMR, but no one responds because we both know it is outside of the $100 day limit. But I am still looking and perhaps someone might be able to help, provided I can ASK.

2) I would like to find a way to better enable EXCHANGES between to TUGgers. (Any way to circumvent the exchange companies.) I would really love to exchange more, but I find the format for searching the Trade Request ads cumbersome. They are a mixture of what people have and what they want and they are not searchable across both. Not to mention they are somewhat limited, as I don't think a lot are posted. I don't post myself as there is too many things I own that I could offer or I am just trying to be opportunistic. So I think there is something that posting can assist with.

So I think both of these discussion should be completed off the board, but the discussion needs a place to post and start introductions and possibilities, and we are NOT providing a forum where that kind of discussion could happen.

What is the appetite for something like this?

Completely agree for #1 and #2.

As an example, a few years ago I was needing/wanting Maui for a very specific week and I wanted specific resorts (I'm picky).
I was willing to exchange a variety of my weeks (with Hilton it's not so much a set week), but there was no "easy" way really to say, I need A, B, or C, for such a date, and I'm willing to do THIS (ie, no way for other people to easily search for "this").

Ironically another TUGger read my interesting in MVC and we worked something out privately, but I doubt it would've been able to be accomplished via the (then) design of the rentals wanted system.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

+1 Last minute is not about profit. It is about recovering MF when life happens and an owner cannot use. Most MF, especially hotel branded, are more than $1000 which means that owners are taking at least a $300 to $1400 loss which gets worse every year with inflation and 3% MF increases.

Is it fair that renters get more benefit every year while owners take a greater hit? This provides yet another devaluation to owners (FWIW...isn't TUG about supporting timeshare OWNERS?). And people with MF that are $2000 or more have nowhere to go. (I am looking at you Marriott, Westin, and premium property owners)

Tiering would probably be too complicated and difficult to enforce e.g. how do you compare a NYC studio with a MF of $1700, to an Orlando 2 bdrm with $1200 MF?

However there are two simple options:

1) Set up a separate "LM Premium MF Recovery Forum" where you cannot charge more than your MF. These amounts are publicly available via TUG and Redweek and abusers could risk being banned from the board. (BTW...I wouldn't mind paying a TUG advertising credit to post in order to support extra efforts by @TUGBrian to manage. Also TUG could require that anyone renting from the LM boards must join TUG for $15. A small price to pay to get a screaming deal on TSs.)

2) Set the rate cap to simply increase the amount to $150 or $175 a night +3% every year, this will enable those who can justify that rent to get that and those with lesser properties would ask less because that's what the market will bear.

Either of these would be a good simple compromise without a large burden of enforcement.

I am in favor of creating a new "Last Minute Premium MF Recovery" Forum with #1 above. This would incent more owners of premium properties to post. And renters would gain access to premium properties for a fair price

 

[Tank]

It's been $100 since it started, never changed.

Serves a different purpose today than it did 25 years ago.

Give up trying to "help"
Just get the

How dare you contact me privately for over the $100 a day deal.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Give up trying to "help" Just get the

How dare you contact me privately for over the $100 a day deal.

That is why I am suggesting a different forum with different expectations.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Increasing the LM board rate is easily justified too. The average daily rate for hotels in the USA has risen from $100/night in 2011 to $125 - $135 a night in 2018 for a hotel room without a kitchen. (Remember this average includes non-branded roadside motels in the middle of nowhere.)

This makes multi-bedroom TS with a kitchen at a resort on the LM board a screaming hot deal!

Is this devaluation fair to TS owners?

https://www.statista.com/statistics/208133/us-hotel-revenue-per-available-room-by-month/

 

[rickandcindy23]

It's not like there is a shortage of units in the LMR board.

What I don't like is when I offer a deal to someone who wants a rental, a person who asks in that forum for a rental, and my offer is more than $100 a night, and they get nasty about it. You don't have to take my offer. Just say, No, I am sorry, that is over my budget. Don't tell me I am breaking some sort of rule.

There was a member named Holy Smokes, I remember this person well, and I offered a deal on something for the exact dates he needed, and he was a jerk about it. I mean nasty, mean, and abusive.

 

[Sandy VDH]

I have been pestered via an Ad. For 6 months. He wanted me to just give it to him for $100 since "in the end that was exactly what he was going to get it for anyway", his words. And he been doing it that way for years. Perhaps but NOT from me.

The main reason I generally do not participate in LMR wanted or offered.

 

[Tank]

Our system actually costs us more to reserve a last minute reservation than at the 10 month window.

The nasty comments are always on holidays / prime times when pickings are slim and hotels would cost out the Ying yang.

Same people all the time.

 

[Sandy VDH]

Same people all the time.

We have trained them well. Now they demand it in advance of the LMR period.

 

[bizaro86]

I used to sometimes PM people who had posted requests worldmark availability. I would often do so on cash rates at cost, which was often > $100/night (because people always want big units on weekends...)

After many times when people tried to dicker me down (on something I hadn't booked and was offering at cost, so no gain for me if they booked and no loss if they didnt) I just don't do that anymore.

I would very much like to see an "exchanging" forum. Maybe put it under sightings to make it a Tug member perk.

I often want something specific, and would be willing to offer anything I can book with Worldmark/Shell, or one of my other ownerships directly.

The exchange marketplace has a very low rate of success. It takes at least 5x as long to post an ad as it would to make a forum post. It also takes at least 3x as long to search. You basically have to click and load each ad to see what it is, and it's quite a bit slower than the forum. I've done lots of exchanges with people I've connected with on Tug, but I think they were all from conversations in the forum. Usually where someone said they were looking for something I knew I could get and offered it to them.

I think a new exchanges forum would be a significant benefit to Tug membership. What would it hurt to try it for 6 months and see if there is interest? Worst case nobody uses it and shut it down. Best case it's popular and drives Tug membership purchases/renewals.

 

[Sandy VDH]

I agree, members only would be my suggestion too.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

We have trained them well. Now they demand it in advance of the LMR period.

I'll bet they are such cheapskates that they don't even pony up $15 to join TUG. Perhaps all renters on the LM board should at least be required to join TUG. This would hopefully remove some of the annoying bottom-feeders.

The LM board benefits renters the most. Becoming a TUG member should be table stakes.

 

[bizaro86]

If people resources are an issue, I'd be excited enough about an exchanging forum to volunteer to moderate it. (No pressure on that one, obviously, I might not meet the current very high standard for TUG mods...)

I would suggest a format like what is used in Flyertalk's coupon connection for titles, where both what you want and what your offering is in the title.

Examples:

W: S Calif 3/23/2020 H: worldmark, shell

Or

W: MVC Maui summer H: HGVC Kohala wk 51

That way users can skim the titles quickly and see if they have a match. I think the number of happy traders would go up by a factor of 10x under this system compared to what is used currently.

**just examples, not actual offers...

 

[DannyTS]

i do not think the $700 per week is fair to the owners of the high end condos/resorts and that limits or eliminates the listings that would be the most interesting to the renters.

 

[WVBaker]

I'll bet they are such cheapskates that they don't even pony up $15 to join TUG. Perhaps all renters on the LM board should at least be required to join TUG. This would hopefully remove some of the annoying bottom-feeders.

The LM board benefits renters the most. Becoming a TUG member should be table stakes.

Very good idea.

 

[bluehende]

As a renter on the board I have no problem with a raise in the limit. The only caveat is that I worry we will be inundated with business' finding a new outlet for free advertising. This would clog up the board with junk and is not the intention of the board. I rent a lot of weeks that I was not considering at all because of the bargain aspect. Since tug is not in business as a rental outlet I also have no problem with no raise. If I am voting I would actually vote no so this board does not become redweek. If you want to charge more there are adds for that purpose.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

As a renter on the board I have no problem with a raise in the limit. The only caveat is that I worry we will be inundated with business' finding a new outlet for free advertising. This would clog up the board with junk and is not the intention of the board. I rent a lot of weeks that I was not considering at all because of the bargain aspect. Since tug is not in business as a rental outlet I also have no problem with no raise. If I am voting I would actually vote no so this board does not become redweek. If you want to charge more there are adds for that purpose.

Why would any business advertise if they cannot cover their MF cost? If they couldn't rent the unit, then it belongs on LM. But to your point perhaps advertising credits should be applied to level the playing field.

Perhaps if the cap is raised it should be the lesser of "$175 (+3% a year for inflation) or your maintenance fee for the week whichever is less. This would keep with the spirit that this is MF recovery, not a profit maker.

 

[DeniseM]

Based on my years of experience on TUG and experience with rentals:

-If prices were raised, the LMR forum would be inundated with for-profit rentals.

-Proposed LMR forum rules that require documentation of maintenance fees and formulas to calculate the allowable rate are completely unworkable. Everyone on TUG is a volunteer, and no one is going to do that kind of tedious work, so for-profit renters can post their Ads here.

-The people that complain the most about the $100 rule, are people who want to post for-profit rentals on the LMR Forum. I get that, but that is not the purpose of the forum.

I'm out.

 

[wjappraise]

wjappraise - You want to use this forum for for-profit-rentals. There is nothing wrong with that, except for the fact that that is not the purpose of this forum.

Denise - that is partially true. I do wish make a profit on rentals. But at other times I do not, instead I truly wish to help someone else out in a bind or in need. I know I have been helped that way. And I wish I would have been helped on a recent last-minute trip to the Florida Keys (for family wedding). None of my regular resources could help me find a timeshare to use in the keys. I posted on the last minute and got nothing at all, except a few PMs that said that the low level of $100 per night just would not cut it for the Keys. While I was not asked to offer more, the implication was there. I felt it was inappropriate to offer more, despite my misgivings about the $100 per night limit. But I would rather line the pockets of a fellow timeshare owner than a hotel.

I searched hotels and found that a mid-range hotel (LaQuinta, Marriott Courtyard, Holiday Inn Express, etc.) in the middle keys would cost me over $350 per night once I added the hotel tax, etc. to the cost. And this is for . . . a HOTEL ROOM. So, that is what we did, I rented a hotel room that was supposed to have to two double beds, but only had a king bed; we used an air mattress for our teen daughter to sleep on the floor. The room was not clean, was noisy, and had view of the dumpster (main floor). And I had to pay to park on top of that. . . my wife commented "we have grown accustomed to staying in timeshare units, and I am so disappointed in this stay."

Long story short, I got online and found a last-minute room at Wyndham Sea Gardens for the last two nights of our stay, and commuted the last two days. It was worth it to have a clean room with a separate bedroom (and bath!!) for our daughter and a kitchen, and laundry.

How I wish that I could have requested a true timeshare unit for the Keys for our stay, and paid an appropriate price for it.

Can consideration be given to altering this long-held tradition? Maybe keep at at $100 per night for the studios and one bedroom units. Or maybe allow the posters (such as myself in the Keys situation) to offer to pay a more reasonable cost per night for some of these situations?

Thanks for allowing an opposing viewpoint. I do appreciate this forum and venue.

Wesley