Here's what I wrote to respond to someone's HGVC forum post. I didn't really know what a HGVC "home week" is but I thought the question was general enough to respond with what I knew about renting:
-----------------------------
Curious as to what services you all use to rent your home week and your experience with that service. Thanks in advance.
Since you make mention of your "home week", I think one of your inquiries to your home resort should be whether or not they will allow you to split the week up into multiple stays. For example, a 3 night stay and a 4 night stay. Or a 5 night stay and a 2 night stay. If you are allowed to do so and can do so via paying for a "midweek cleaning" (which, for me depending on the resort, has ranged from $70 to an outrageous $250), that increases your chances of successfully renting using sites like airbnb and VRBO.
Ideally, of course, you'll be able to rent the full 7 nights to a single renter. Dedicated timeshare rental sites like Redweek, Koala, and the recently identified vakaymood may work for you. Redweek will charge to list. Koala and vakaymood will not. Redweek generates a good number of responses. I have never been contacted via koala or vakaymood.
Another timeshare rental site that used to be OK but has all but disappeared and that I, personally, would like to see resurrected is myresortnetwork. How nice it would be to have a viable competitor for Redweek, particularly in light of all the games Redweek has started playing recently. $19.95 per rental ad which compares very favorably to Redweek's $59 plus $99 "if it rents". But we'll all have to support that site in every way we can in order for it to possibly be able to better compete with Redweek.
You can also rent 7 night rentals via airbnb and VRBO but you need to be careful when you set up the ad. Make sure you set up your calendar to allow for the rental of only your week. I would also be hesitant to allow anyone to "instant book" because if you've made even the slightest mistake and can't deliver that which was instantly booked, you'll pay beaucoup bucks as an airbnb and/or VRBO penalty.
But where Airbnb and VRBO shine is in partial weeks' and last minute rentals. Most people don't want to rent for seven nights. They expect a quick getaway of a few days. So you can set up your ad with a minimum stay of three days and then perhaps adjust it after you get your first renter. For example, I rented via Airbnb my Palm Beach in Orange Beach, AL for 5 nights initially (with my ad requiring a minimum stay of three nights) and then simply changed my ad to then allow for a minimum stay of two nights...and the latter got rented same day. All seven nights were then rented. I had to pay for a midweek cleaning of $70. The per night charge was much higher than what I tried to get for a full seven nights via timeshare rental sites.
There's no reason not to try to rent on TUG. Just recognize that, in my experience, TUGgers will expect to pay next to nothing for any rental. But isn't that the nature of TUG? Timeshare owners comparing notes on how to get things dirt cheap, how to circumvent this or circumvent that, how to beat out anyone else in getting the best exchanges. That mindset will make it difficult for you to get what you might prefer to get as a person renting out your timeshare on TUG.
--------------------------------
As to airbnb and VRBO, where listing is free, I always like to "turn off" instant book. To me, most important. In that way, I can get away with mistakes I make in my listing (even if deliberate mistakes...see the next paragraph) and can simply tell the respondent, "I don't have those dates. My calendar was incorrect" (or whatever similar message) without him/her booking and paying for a week I don't have. I always want to respond to inquiries without there being an automatic booking.
The second thing that is important is "blocking" (i.e., making unavailable) most of the entire year and even the next year so that the only week that will be available is just your week. Maybe, in order to capture all nearby date searches, add a few dates before and/or after your week in case the person may have some flexibility in potential travel times.
Most of my rentals (about 80%) have been over the years Airbnb rentals. And you get the benefit of $3 million in "Aircover" insurance coverage if the tenant damages your place. In that regard, better than Redweek which has zero insurance for the owner.
