At the end of the day, never invest in any timeshare that you anticipate a return of investment of less than 20%. Anything less than that, it's simply not worth the time or effort.
I would argue that 20% is a poor return on your "investment" if it requires hours and hours of work to make. In that case, it's not just "investing" but pay for all the work you did.
You gotta spend significant time in preparing the Airbnb ad. Describing everything in glowing terms. Downloading tens of pictures, preferably those you took yourself of your own hopefully desirable timeshare unit and its precise location in the resort with the precise view they'll get. And being ever so careful that you don't make a mistake.
Mistakes can include:
When you add up all the time you spend preparing the ad, making sure you've done everything right, editing and updating, responding to inquiries, setting up a guest certificate (or multiple guest certificates), setting up a midweek cleaning if necessary, etc, etc., etc., you've put hours and hours of work into making a pittance. $200 over a $1000 maintenance fee is a pittance. I'd rather drive uber for a day to make that kind of nothing compensation.
- Not correctly blocking off unavailable days on the "calendar". And you'll have to block off everything for years out because all you're offering is one single week.
- Mistakenly allowing someone to "instant book" so, if you had made a mistake on your calendar, someone will be able to book (via credit card charge) that random 2020 or 2021 week which you don't own
- Without checking with the resort, accepting people's booking for only a partial week, then booking another person for some other days, only to find out the resort does NOT want to keep accepting and giving out keys, nor do they want to do a separate cleaning. For some resorts, it's no problem. For others, no just no.
And that's if you succeed at all. If not, you're out the MF. Gone. Poof.
So, no, don't think you'll become rich by just sitting back and letting the money roll in by "investing" in timeshares.
Seems you have your definition of time well spent and I have mine and I'm not going to debate that. Understanding not only what a ROI is and what a good ROI is, is key.
For most investors, a 15% ROI is good. I always expect more.
I've never spent "significant" time in preparing any Airbnb, VRBO/Homeaway or Trip Advisor listing. After the first few, most people understand the platform and I'm certainly not saying
that there's not a few, such as yourself, that struggle. Downloading photographs, with any basic computer knowledge, isn't a problem. Both Airbnb and VRBO/Homeaway offer easy
to understand directions for even the novice. Same goes for the calendar. Even in the beginning, I've never "put hours and hours of work" into any of my listings. Perhaps you're right, if listing on any site is that much of a struggle for you, you may want to look to Uber.
Investing some time and understanding risks involved are part of any investment and most people, apparently not all it seems, understand no investment will guarantee you become rich
while "just sitting back and letting the money roll in".
I'm sorry you didn't understand the sites but hey, good luck with that whole Uber idea.
In 2019 I was 9 for 11. For the 2 that did not rent I turned down a reasonable offer on one week (mistake on my part) and the 2nd was a posted Marriott Holding point reservation at Oceana Palms that did not rent in the 50 available days for the posting (received low ball offers that I turned down). Just redeposited the points back into my account and was able to get a reservation within 60 days at the Marriott Phuket Beach Club used for a vacation last October.I just looked at the poll results. Somebody claims that they rent out 6+ timeshare units annually with a 70 to 100% success rate. On Redweek. Care to share?
Thank you for that. It seems that those resorts, just by looking at the rates of weekly rent, are among the most desirable in the world.In 2019 I was 9 for 11. For the 2 that did not rent I turned down a reasonable offer on one week (mistake on my part) and the 2nd was a posted Marriott Holding point reservation at Oceana Palms that did not rent in the 50 available days for the posting (received low ball offers that I turned down). Just redeposited the points back into my account and was able to get a reservation within 60 days at the Marriott Phuket Beach Club used for a vacation last October.
For 2020 I am 18 for 20. I have 2 postings (highlighted below) still active which were reserved using 2021 borrowed points. If they do not rent I will redeposit the points at 61 days so they don't go into the holding account.
All Marriott properties. All reservations were booked with points using the full service option as I don't want to deal with the paper work. I'm netting ~$0.66 per point after Redweek fees which is close to the going rate for Marriott point rentals. My maintenance fee's per point are calculated actuals based on my portfolio except for 2021 which are estimated.
The key is good properties, competitive pricing, early bookings (give 10 months advertising time as I plan to pull any reservations before the 60 day window to avoid points I the holding account) and using Redweek Full Service listings which will normally rent faster than those that are not.
I'm only renting now because we have more points than we can use until retirement. I treat it as a hobby and enjoy the time spent managing the Marriott Vacation portfolio along with rentals. I did not do this as a way to make money on an investment although it is nice to see some small return of capital.
Selective information from a spreadsheet I maintain for tax purposes.
View attachment 16480
Details in the link below:Thank you for that. It seems that those resorts, just by looking at the rates of weekly rent, are among the most desirable in the world.
Of course, under those circumstances, I would expect that you would be able to rent at significantly higher dollar amounts than your maintenance fees. But I'm assuming there was a pretty big upfront capital investment...no?
Lastly, you offered for rent 11 properties in 2019 (successfully renting 9) and 20 properties in 2020 (successfully renting 18). You seem to really be picking up the pace of offering timeshare units for rent. Indeed, 2020 has barely started and you've already offered 20 for rent!!! Did you just recently buy many, many more timeshare units....or was it that you were able to use past accumulated points (as well as future points as you described) to trade into/reserve more 2020 weeks?
Again, many thanks for being forthcoming.
are any upfront costs considered in your calculations?In 2019 I was 9 for 11. For the 2 that did not rent I turned down a reasonable offer on one week (mistake on my part) and the 2nd was a posted Marriott Holding point reservation at Oceana Palms that did not rent in the 50 available days for the posting (received low ball offers that I turned down). Just redeposited the points back into my account and was able to get a reservation within 60 days at the Marriott Phuket Beach Club used for a vacation last October.
For 2020 I am 18 for 20. I have 2 postings (highlighted below) still active which were reserved using 2021 borrowed points. If they do not rent I will redeposit the points at 61 days so they don't go into the holding account.
All Marriott properties. All reservations were booked with points using the full service option as I don't want to deal with the paper work. I'm netting ~$0.66 per point after Redweek fees which is close to the going rate for Marriott point rentals. My maintenance fee's per point are calculated actuals based on my portfolio except for 2021 which are estimated.
The key is good properties, competitive pricing, early bookings (give 10 months advertising time as I plan to pull any reservations before the 60 day window to avoid points in the holding account) and using Redweek Full Service listings which will normally rent faster than those that are not.
I'm only renting now because we have more points than we can use until retirement. I treat it as a hobby and enjoy the time spent managing the Marriott Vacation portfolio along with rentals. I did not do this as a way to make money on an investment although it is nice to see some small return of capital.
Selective information from a spreadsheet I maintain for tax purposes.
View attachment 16480
No upfront costs included in the calculations. Rental Amount less Redweek Fees less Maintenance Fees = Return on Capitalare any upfront costs considered in your calculations?
Thanks again. I never learned anything about Marriott so some of what you wrote is not clear to me. There seems to be an upfront expense involved for (1) purchase price and (2) unless I'm mistaken, "enrolling". Am I right about that? I noticed that you wrote that you had learned all about this via TUG so a link to an article would be much appreciated.Details in the link below:
2019 Enrollment Resale Weeks and our Marriott Timeshare Journey
Completed enrollment of 7.5 resale weeks purchased in Q418 via the purchase of 5,500 Destination points. The process was initiated through the Marriott Vacation Club website dealing directly with the Corporate Sales team in Florida beginning March 26th. Signed the contract on March 29th and...tugbbs.com
Yes always an initial purchase from Marriott to enter the Destinations Program. In the past Marriott has run an “enrollment” special that allows one to enroll purchased resale week(s) in the Marriott Destinations program. If available (not currently) the enrollment special requires one to purchase from Marriott additional Destination points, a week or 2 at Marriott prices or a combination of the 2 called a hybrid package. This effectively gives one the option to convert a low cost resale week(s) into points allowing more flexibility and access to other resorts in the Marriott Vacation Club portfolio without having to deposit and go through Interval. It is expensive anytime you purchase directly from Marriott. Combining the Marriott purchase with resale purchases can significantly lower your per point costs. Still a big financial commitment for vacationing.Thanks again. I never learned anything about Marriott so some of what you wrote is not clear to me. There seems to be an upfront expense involved for (1) purchase price and (2) unless I'm mistaken, "enrolling". Am I right about that? I noticed that you wrote that you had learned all about this via TUG so a link to an article would be much appreciated.
I'm not planning on "investing", and I recognize that that's not what you did, either. I understand that the rentals are just "tiding you over" until you can enjoy the weeks yourself. Dem's a whole bunch of vacations!
But I do find this fascinating. And the whole "after retirement" lifestyle choice is fascinating.
And what about Phuket? I know that they had a horrific tsunami, that the tsunami was featured in the movie "The Impossible", but it's apparently an amazing resort town/city to which people from all over the world travel. I'm assuming, however, that it offers much more than a beach vacation. What might that be?
Be Aware with redweek, when they find a renter you have 1 full day to respond back to them or they will cancel the rental. AND they still expect their fee