Extra Holidays Experience

[WManning]

But with the success rate as low as it seems, I would think they only get an owner to try it ‘once’. I am thinking you need repeat business to be ‘viable’.

Bob

They do count on owners returning free inventory to sell over and over again. Very similar to repeat business. EH dosent have to compete with free enterprise now that they eliminated the abuse of renting.

 

[spackler]

...especially with the rampant FRAUD that existed ...

I don't think that word means what you think it means.

 

[timesharetraveler316]

I had a listing agreement with Extra Holidays for Club Wyndham Midtown 45 March 10-12. After EH accepted listing agreement about a week ago, I started searching sites such as extra holidays.com, booking.com, Expedia etc but found no availability for those dates. I called EH and was told that resort is at limit based on some restriction or overbooking and that mine would not be rented even though they had my reservation. This doesn’t make sense?


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[Jan M.]

I had a listing agreement with Extra Holidays for Club Wyndham Midtown 45 March 10-12. After EH accepted listing agreement about a week ago, I started searching sites such as extra holidays.com, booking.com, Expedia etc but found no availability for those dates. I called EH and was told that resort is at limit based on some restriction or overbooking and that mine would not be rented even though they had my reservation. This doesn’t make sense?


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The more we hear the shadier it gets!

So if you hadn't checked all those sites and called would someone from EH have contacted you to cancel your reservation in time to get your points back? Based on the recent experiences of two other owners I know the answer is no they wouldn't have and you'd be out the points. If you'd been able to use the reservation for yourself you'd have missed out on that opportunity too.

While your points were tied up with that reservation how many other reservations did you miss out on being able to book with those points? How long was it from the time you first contacted EH about giving them the stay until you found out they had no intention of renting it?

When owners talk to Extra Holidays about getting reservations listed with them they sure give the impression that they're very selective about the reservations they'll accept. If your reservation wasn't eligible either from the start or at a later date, it's an entirely reasonable expectation that they would notify you. And do so at least somewhat promptly!

This seems as fishy as another owner's experience with EH. How does a two bedroom presidential at Avon not rent over Martin Luther King weekend or Presidents Day weekend? That's prime ski season at a highly sought after ski resort over two long holiday weekends! Of course that owner never found those reservations listed anywhere. They made sure to have EH cancel the stays in time to get their points back. Owners who have experience with renting know those are prime rentals that would have sold quickly. No cancellations or refunds either.

 

[chapjim]

Some of you complaining about not being able to make money renting your timeshare might have a legitimate complaint if Wyndham Vacation Ownership / Club Wyndham was a program you bought into for the purposes of selling timeshares or renting timeshares, instead of... you know, a timeshare for you to use when on vacation.

Every single one of you bought in before Extra Holidays even existed, and we've beat the dead horse about "not for commercial use" being in the directory for decades, so I kind of chuckle when I see the same bad actors complaining about "losing money" on your vacation ownership...

You knew the music would stop eventually and you would be without a chair, the question was never IF, but WHEN...

Troy -- ever think about being a preacher?

 

[chapjim]

I had a listing agreement with Extra Holidays for Club Wyndham Midtown 45 March 10-12. After EH accepted listing agreement about a week ago, I started searching sites such as extra holidays.com, booking.com, Expedia etc but found no availability for those dates. I called EH and was told that resort is at limit based on some restriction or overbooking and that mine would not be rented even though they had my reservation. This doesn’t make sense?


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Guy used to be a timeshare salesman but decided to try something honest!

 

[chapjim]

I have two weeks listed on EH -- Bonnet Creek 2BR units April 22-29 and April 29-May 6. Both are el cheapo season, 112,000 points each, and not in a restricted period. I made those reservations at the recommendation of an EH rep on a phone call some time ago.

I called yesterday to ask about status with an eye toward withdrawing both from EH. The rep said one week had four nights reserved and the other had five nights reserved. Assuming no cancellations, I should about break even, maybe make a buck or two.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I had a listing agreement with Extra Holidays for Club Wyndham Midtown 45 March 10-12. After EH accepted listing agreement about a week ago, I started searching sites such as extra holidays.com, booking.com, Expedia etc but found no availability for those dates. I called EH and was told that resort is at limit based on some restriction or overbooking and that mine would not be rented even though they had my reservation. This doesn’t make sense?


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I'm not at all surprised by this really. All companies in the travel, entertainment and hospitality sectors are leveraging software that runs sophisticated data heuristics analysis to attempt to glean every bit of revenue out of their respective inventory as is possible. I'm sure Wyndham and every other hotel and timeshare company is doing the same thing - and the larger the company the more likely they're doing this. Airlines are legendary for overselling seats, hotels often oversell room inventory, so is it really that surprising to see a timeshare company doing the same thing? It's more complex in that timeshare companies have a mix of owners, renters, and other third parties involved - which makes it even more likely they would use software solutions to help increase occupancy rates and charge as much as the market will bear for rental inventory. I'd bet dollars to donuts that Extra Holidays overbooks the resorts based upon cancellation heuristics data over time for example.

That said - it would be nice if the resort has crossed over a certain threshold - that EH would alert the owner so that they could recover their committed reservation.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I have two weeks listed on EH -- Bonnet Creek 2BR units April 22-29 and April 29-May 6. Both are el cheapo season, 112,000 points each, and not in a restricted period. I made those reservations at the recommendation of an EH rep on a phone call some time ago.

I called yesterday to ask about status with an eye toward withdrawing both from EH. The rep said one week had four nights reserved and the other had five nights reserved. Assuming no cancellations, I should about break even, maybe make a buck or two.

We attended an update while on vacation last week in Rio Mar. Our sales rep was rather savvy and had several of his own rental properties in the areas surrounding the resort - and he spoke openly about how he used EH for his MVC owned points and recommended, as a general rule, to only create 2-3 night reservations during demand times for the resort(s) in question - as those were much more likely to rent fully vs longer duration reservations - mostly because of higher costs. EH is expensive overall - so it's less likely someone is going to pay for a six or seven night reservation vs a 2-4 night reservation for example. YMMV. I'd be curious if you broke up those two weeklong reservations into four 1/2 week reservations - if you might have better luck selling all of the nights as opposed to only a subset.

 

[Jan M.]

The rep said one week had four nights reserved and the other had five nights reserved. Assuming no cancellations, I should about break even, maybe make a buck or two.

Some of those remaining 3/2 nights might still rent. From what a friend was told if any of those other nights are rented you aren't charged additional housekeeping credits.

"Assuming no cancellations" is the enormous downside to using EH. Extra Holidays and all the other travel sites they rent owners stays through have generous, no risk cancellation policies.

Here's hoping you don't end up out some or all of the about $1600 in maintenance fees on the 224,000 points you used if the renters cancel.

 

[WManning]

As long as the renter can cancel on a shorter window than the rentee could, I'm would be out.

Unfair advantage to the house.

Sounds like black jack odds going from 2-1 to 6-5. I don't know about most folks but I'd rather have the $10 pay out instead of the $6 pay out. But if Wyndham is the only game in town for rentals you have to play their game.

 

[chapjim]

We attended an update while on vacation last week in Rio Mar. Our sales rep was rather savvy and had several of his own rental properties in the areas surrounding the resort - and he spoke openly about how he used EH for his MVC owned points and recommended, as a general rule, to only create 2-3 night reservations during demand times for the resort(s) in question - as those were much more likely to rent fully vs longer duration reservations - mostly because of higher costs. EH is expensive overall - so it's less likely someone is going to pay for a six or seven night reservation vs a 2-4 night reservation for example. YMMV. I'd be curious if you broke up those two weeklong reservations into four 1/2 week reservations - if you might have better luck selling all of the nights as opposed to only a subset.

I've been thinking about that strategy as well -- weekend reservations at high demand places.

Gaming EH is kind of difficult. I tend to think that if someone is traveling to Orlando (Bonnet Creek) and checked in on Saturday, they'd want to stay the week. However, as you say, that's big $$ on EH. It may turn out that EH split my two weeks into parts. What I don't know is which nights has EH rented.

Does EH look at two consecutive weeks as fourteen days or two seven-day periods? My worst fear was EH would take the Friday and Saturday and leave me with twelve nights unrented.

I don't think it's possible to list with EH without some degree of trepidation.

 

[TheHolleys87]

I've been thinking about that strategy as well -- weekend reservations at high demand places.

Gaming EH is kind of difficult. I tend to think that if someone is traveling to Orlando (Bonnet Creek) and checked in on Saturday, they'd want to stay the week. However, as you say, that's big $$ on EH. It may turn out that EH split my two weeks into parts. What I don't know is which nights has EH rented.

Does EH look at two consecutive weeks as fourteen days or two seven-day periods? My worst fear was EH would take the Friday and Saturday and leave me with twelve nights unrented.

I don't think it's possible to list with EH without some degree of trepidation.

On DISboards, I see lots of reports from people staying only 3 or 4 nights or even less, both DVC and regular resort guests. Our millennial DD and DSiL take multiple short trips a year to various locations; it’s rare for them to be gone for an entire week. I think that just like the 2-week summer vacation of the 1950s went away, the 7-night vacation is on its way out too, at least for folks younger than us.

 

[HitchHiker71]

I've been thinking about that strategy as well -- weekend reservations at high demand places.

Gaming EH is kind of difficult. I tend to think that if someone is traveling to Orlando (Bonnet Creek) and checked in on Saturday, they'd want to stay the week. However, as you say, that's big $$ on EH. It may turn out that EH split my two weeks into parts. What I don't know is which nights has EH rented.

Does EH look at two consecutive weeks as fourteen days or two seven-day periods? My worst fear was EH would take the Friday and Saturday and leave me with twelve nights unrented.

I don't think it's possible to list with EH without some degree of trepidation.

Pedro and I actually brought up the monthly calendars on the EH site. In our case we were targeting MVC PR rental days - but let's do BC real quick since that seems to be your focus. Screenshot below of current rates for Apr/May 2023. I highlighting what he would have recommended for the date ranges and how to break them up. Basically - group the high cost nights that are typically heading into the weekend - into their own reservation - and perhaps add Sunday to round out the weekend - then create "cheaper" reservations for those types of folks looking for a lower price vacation (Sunday - Thursday type thing generally - but whatever the pricing on the calendar indicates works best). Just passing along what I've heard - never having actually done this before myself - so take it with a grain of salt of course. YMMV.

 

[RENTER]

18 months later, we being a group of owners are still refusing to rent thru them and are still renting on our own. This week I was approved by Wyndham to rent at Newport Long Wharf thru Airbnb. I read your responses but do not reply because I have no time to argue. Especially after receiving 18 more months of rental income because we did not roll over and give up by listening to people who told us we were a commercial business and Wyndham would stop us. Many who I think work for Wyndham. I will PM people who agree with me to give them advice on how we are doing it.