I need help with Airbnb and Club Wyndham Verification

[Cmoult04]

I have a timeshare membership with Club Wyndham. I want to post a week and rent it out. I reserved a 4 day stretch at my home resort, Bonnet Creek in Orlando, but that's still a 4 hour drive for me. This is a problem because they are asking me to "verify" the location. I have to be on site confirmed via GPS and take videos and pictures. I get verifying a house i own that I'm renting time at but verifying time at a resort doesn't work the same way. It's like booking a hotel, you verify the booking not the place. The place has its own verifiable reputation.

So me having to drive 4 hours to stand in their lobby because I won't have access to the actual room that I'm renting is dumb. I sent an email to some airbnb entity that confirmed that a reservation does in fact exist with a screen shot and confirmation number, but for some reason this isn't enough. When i started the process of making the post, airbnb said they had a relationship with Bonnet Creek. So, it stands to reason that they know the building exists. I can't verify anything other than that. I tried explaining to customer service, but the people I've spoken to have been obstinate or ill- informed or just stupid.

So my question is, since I can't have been the first person to rent out time at a resort, how do other people verify without going on location? Is there a person with an airbnb account near these resorts who does it for you? Someone help me out here.

I'd also take any general advice about renting timeshare time in general. This is my first attempt at this and only vaguely have any idea what I'm doing.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I suppose you bought developer, and the salesperson told you how easy it is to rent to pay off your loan and your MF's. The fact is that Wyndham Corporate is against rentals, unless you use their own rental arm, whatever they call it now. It used to be Extra Holidays. The risk of renting through Extra Holidays is truly not worth the stress. Renters can absolutely cancel last-minute, you lose the points. It's disgusting.

If you just want to rent something a time or two, you may not get the nasty letter.

 

[magmue]

Welcome to TUG. You will get more useful advice if this post is moved into the Wyndham-specific forums. There has been extensive discussion there about rentals - @rickandcindy23 is correct that Wyndham the corporation will not make it easy or simple for you.

 

[SaltyCdnVet]

This is an AirBNB issue, not Wyndham. Verification is across the board. You can ask someone that is there to take some geotagged photos for you. I'm sure soon enough, it will be a paid service by people.

 

[HudsHut]

Welcome to TUG @Cmoult04

Read this thread. Especially, the post by @RENTER which described the details which Wyndham requires that you have in your description.

[ 2023 ] How to Airbnb on Wyndham?

You are really comparing lies told by a salesman to verbal and physical abuse by a person in position of authority? Unacceptable behavior is unacceptable behavior. Sure you have to draw a line somewhere. But why is it acceptable for Wyndham to continue to lie and deceive people? I've trusted a...

tugbbs.com

Once you enter those tips, then you submit your actual reservation confirmation to airbnb@wyndham.com and they will verify it in a few days.

Yo do not need to go on site. It's not your photos which are causing a problem.

Most important tip.
Under Calendar > select your listing > Availability,
select "Dates Unavailable by default" (so none of the days on the calendar are open, until you open the days that you have. in your reservation.)

Just so you are aware, be sure that your dates are not part of Wyndham's prohibited dates. See below:

New Recent Reports of Wyndham Rental Crackdowns

Just as a PSA, over on disboards, there are several posts in the Bonnet Creek thread that Wyndham is undertaking another rental crackdown. Here's a recent example: I’m renting from VacationUpgrades for the week before Easter and got a phone call from Ken. Apparently Club Wyndham is...

tugbbs.com

 

[HudsHut]

@Cmoult04

FYI :
go-koala.com is a much easier site to use. It's free to set up the ad. They have all the photos/descriptions set up on their site. Your listing can be ready for their review in about 2 minutes.
Then you send your reservation to them so they can check the resort / dates match what you entered on their site.

Also, if you have a NextDoor Community forum in your area, you may post there. It's free.
Also, create an ad on Facebook Marketplace

Redweek.com is the best known timeshare rental site, but it costs money to set up the ad. There is no guarantee that your listing will rent. Use it for comps to see that your listing price is reasonable.

 

[Floridaman76]

@Cmoult04

FYI :
go-koala.com is a much easier site to use. It's free to set up the ad. They have all the photos/descriptions set up on their site. Your listing can be ready for their review in about 2 minutes.
Then you send your reservation to them so they can check the resort / dates match what you entered on their site.

Also, if you have a NextDoor Community forum in your area, you may post there. It's free.
Also, create an ad on Facebook Marketplace

Redweek.com is the best known timeshare rental site, but it costs money to set up the ad. There is no guarantee that your listing will rent. Use it for comps to see that your listing price is reasonable.

If you didn't get the jist of what people were trying to tell you, Wyndham has been cracking down on people renting their timeshares for the last few years. It's against the terms of ownership, so it's within their rights to do this.

Apparently there is a Wyndham approved loophole if you use AirBNB (or VRBO?). One of the people here RENTER can point you in the right direction.

Using other services, including Redweek if you get caught can lead to having your account frozen, apparently. At least that's what some people have posted.

The sales people lied to you about renting and you have no recourse...

 

[Synergy]

Welcome to TUG @Cmoult04

Read this thread. Especially, the post by @RENTER which described the details which Wyndham requires that you have in your description.

[ 2023 ] How to Airbnb on Wyndham?

You are really comparing lies told by a salesman to verbal and physical abuse by a person in position of authority? Unacceptable behavior is unacceptable behavior. Sure you have to draw a line somewhere. But why is it acceptable for Wyndham to continue to lie and deceive people? I've trusted a...

tugbbs.com

Once you enter those tips, then you submit your actual reservation confirmation to airbnb@wyndham.com and they will verify it in a few days.

Yo do not need to go on site. It's not your photos which are causing a problem.

Most important tip.
Under Calendar > select your listing > Availability,
select "Dates Unavailable by default" (so none of the days on the calendar are open, until you open the days that you have. in your reservation.)
...
Just so you are aware, be sure that your dates are not part of Wyndham's prohibited dates. See below:

New Recent Reports of Wyndham Rental Crackdowns

Just as a PSA, over on disboards, there are several posts in the Bonnet Creek thread that Wyndham is undertaking another rental crackdown. Here's a recent example: I’m renting from VacationUpgrades for the week before Easter and got a phone call from Ken. Apparently Club Wyndham is...

tugbbs.com

You're talking about Airbnb's 'property management' approval / verification process. That requirement is either being rolled out slowly or is only required at some properties (it wasn't required to list at Avenue Plaza in January) but it's dead simple at the properties that require it. I'm a Worldmark owner, but I'm nearly certain that the process is identical.

OP (and SaltyCDNVet) are talking about an additional 'verification' step that Airbnb sometimes (?) requires, which I just encountered for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I had no luck getting Airbnb to waive this additional verification process, nor were they willing/able to come up with a way for me to submit ownership documentation or have the situation reviewed for consideration under the 'Special Situations' method mentioned on their 'How Listings are Verified' page (https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/3542)

I had a reservation at WMSF for an upcoming conference a friend of mine will no longer be attending, and had hoped to list it on Airbnb because they handle the local taxes. After two weeks of various (worthless) support conversations, I got nowhere - my options to list with them are to fly to SF to handle the verification or find someone in SF willing to complete the process for me. At one point, they said I was at the highest escalation level of support, but that they can't see anyone's specific account / listing due to 'privacy concerns.' I find it hard to believe that their highest level of support is truly limited to general information - I suspect that if I did this more often and had SuperHost status, I at least would have been able to talk to someone who actually understood what I was talking about - but as I just do this from time to time when I get stuck with something I can't cancel, I gave up. I asked my friend to ask around with his fellow dorks instead, and he all but instantly found someone who was interested in my reservation.

In any event, OP, I think you're going to have to either have someone do it for you or make the trek yourself. If you somehow stumble upon a knowledgeable customer service representative who knows how to get you access to the 'Documentation' or 'Special Situations' methods of verification, please enlighten us all! I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything, but I would not be surprised in the least if Airbnb were flagging Wyn/WM properties for these verifications at Wyndham's urging.