Holiday Rental Post-mortem

[PerryM]

hey perry
thanks for the great info. where on ebay do i find the place to sign up for this?
thanks

EBay has a klutzy way of doing this - you simply set up a normal auction and one of the options is for the classified ad - they use another term for it.

Great news. I was beginning to hate eBay with passion. Do you still need to be Sqare Trade verified for this? Do people want to complete transaction via ebay after going to your website?

I'm ST verified and just automatically use it but I believe you are NOT under the same classification as a normal timeshare rental. Give me a day and research this.

50/50 split as to completing the rental on eBay or my site. Doesn't really matter since the renters CAN NOT submit feedback on a classified ad.

 

[SharonD]

Good and bad

Summer weeks in domestic locations rented very well (but that was probably before the worst of the economic downturn). Cabo Christmas rented well for the "normal" price (price I've gotten last few years) -- but again that person locked in the rental back in the spring.

Cancun weeks always rent within a few days of posting them and this year was no exception (although again it was early in the year that the rentals were completed).

Hawaii Christmas was horrible. I've rented this week for a number of years and it's always rented by March of that year for a good price. This year, I had to let it go for the price of the m/f about a month before check-in. I probably jumped the gun too soon -- the same day the renter paid by PayPal I had another call from a woman who was desperate for a unit for her son's honeymoon -- she probably would have paid a few hundred more than I had let it go for.

I'm still hopeful about the 2009 summer rentals (domestic destinations that people can drive to), even if I have to lower the prices a little bit. But I'm not optimistic about Hawaii Christmas. If it doesn't rent by next summer, I think we will plan to go use it ourselves.

 

[neash]

Cancun weeks always rent within a few days of posting them and this year was no exception (although again it was early in the year that the rentals were completed).

Where do you list your Cancun weeks?

 

[funtime]

I will say that myresortnetwork has not come through for me after I posted four weeks there. Not one inquiry. Neither has bidshares. Redweek has had some response. Craig's List and ebay have had good response - but caveat -- those folks are always looking last minute and for cheap deals!! Funtime

 

[tombo]

I have 2 renters for March at Daytona Beach who have rented from me for 3 straight years who are not renting this year. One gave me a 50% deposit and they are just losing that money since they can't go and I have no other serious offers. I have a 50% deposit on St Maarten, and they have backed out due to loss of a job. These deposits were given to me early 2008 before the economy tanked.

I have 2 repeat renters for 2 beach front Panama City Memorial day weeks, and one might rent from me this year and the other renter has told me that they won't make it this year. I have 2 summer Gatlinburg weeks listed with no responses so far. I have 3 more summer panhandle beach weeks and a North Carolina summer mountain week listed with no responses yet, and I have advertised on both my resort network and Redweek. I might have to try e-bay to rent some, but unlike Perry most weeks I see for rent on e-bay are auctions with few if any bids.

I have never had this many weeks for rent in January so I am getting very worried. I normally make enough money renting some of my weeks that I can vacation 5 or 6 weeks for free. Hopefully the economy will pick up and rentals will resume at close to last year's prices. If they do not start renting or only rent at prices near or below MF's, I might sell off some of my inventory for any price I can get before next year's MF's are due.

 

[DeniseM]

eBay has a new way to rent timeshares – you pay $10 for a month and run a classified ad – you can reference your own web sites and folks just flocked to my site and this is much superior to an auction. Not one person haggled over my rates – they asked a few questions and then rented.

I ran the classified ads for 2 months or $20 for each destination and I didn't act like my life is one nickle and dime auction.

Could you put 2 or 3 rentals in the same Ad and just use key words so people could find them? (Yes, I'm CHEAP!! )

 

[PerryM]

Could you put 2 or 3 rentals in the same Ad and just use key words so people could find them? (Yes, I'm CHEAP!! )

Sure - list ALL your rentals for $10 per month. Next year that's exactly what I'm going to do. Total cost will be $20 to rent 10+ units. (2 months) Redweek and MyResortNetwork are not recommended by me anymore; at least until I try a random listing and see what happens.

Funny how things change so fast.

 

[Carlsbadguy]

This year was also tough renting out a Sundance week in Park City. Most people only wanted a few days. Rented for the least in 4 years.

 

[Michael]

Cibola Vista Thanksgiving Rented

I was able to rent a 1BR/1BA junior suite at Cibola Vista for Thanksgiving week. Took a while and had to lower my price but I did get it rented a couple of weeks beforehand on a TUG last minute rental ad.

- Michael

 

[dms1709]

I have looked to rent various places and TUG is the first place I look, but the rents are so much higher than other places I look. We do travel during the holiday season. I will keep looking though as I prefer to rent from a TUG member.

Donna

 

[SharonD]

Where do you list your Cancun weeks?

Redweek. Redweek still works the best for my rentals. I also list some rentals on myresortnetwork, and usually get at least one rental a year from there.

I've sometimes had successful rentals on E-bay in past years but not recently. I might try the new format, though.

Craig's List has never worked for me -- not sure why.

 

[alwysonvac]

For those who decide to create their own webpage, don't forget to add a link to your homepage under your TUG member name.

Some of us, like renting from other members

 

[PerryM]

Redweek. Redweek still works the best for my rentals. I also list some rentals on myresortnetwork, and usually get at least one rental a year from there.

I've sometimes had successful rentals on E-bay in past years but not recently. I might try the new format, though.

Craig's List has never worked for me -- not sure why.

I tried Craig's list this past season and I can't tell you all the ooey gooey folks that contacted me. I had all kinds of proposals - not a wedding proposal but with the same benefits.

I've read that there are teams of con artists that make big bucks contacting Craig list folks with all kinds of scams. I had one offer to rent my unit but the English they used was so bad for a guy from "Illinois" that the huge check he had to send me and the check I was supposed to send back had me a little suspicious - just a little.

I'll never list on them again.

 

[dms1709]

Perry,

Your comments made me laugh. Thanks

Donna

 

[HenryT]

I had good luck with my rentals for 2008 but I rented them in late 2007 and early 2008. I don't think I would have been so lucky if I had anything to rent near the end of the year.

For 2009 I have received a lot of inquires on my 2 high demand Starwood timeshares but everyone is asking for a big cut in the rental price because of the economy!

I am using 5 of my timeshares for a family reunion this summer at Wyndham Ocean Walk so I did not have to rent those 5 out this year.http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/images/smilies/whoopie.gif

Henry

 

[BeckyG]

We rented our Ridge Tahoe Tower unit for a total of $1600 for New Year's week. We listed it on craigslist the week prior and got lucky due to all the snow. We actually rented it to 3 different parties -- 2 seperate renters in the lockoff and 1 renter in the 1-bedroom side. All the renters rented it at the last minute (1-3 days before the week started).

That was our first experience in renting ever...

 

[DeniseM]

For those who decide to create their own webpage, don't forget to add a link to your homepage under your TUG member name.

Some of us, like renting from other members

That's a great idea, but make sure the link is something like "Visit my webpage" and not "My timeshare rentals," to follow TUG guidelines.

 

[wa.mama]

We had 2 Christmas weeks at Waiohai up for rent. Posted on Redweek.com in June. Only one inquiry (asking how low I would go). Started lowering the price in October, then posted on Craigs list in November and rented it to a lady who said she googled "Waiohai" and "Christmas" and the craig's list listing was at the top; the redweek listing never showed at all. The second week I couldn't rent at all and ended up giving it to a family member.

 

[alwysonvac]

...... rented it to a lady who said she googled "Waiohai" and "Christmas" and the craig's list listing was at the top

Thanks for the tip