Redweek - do it yourself vs Full-Service

[luv_maui]

so considering renting out a home resort reserved week. Is it worth the extra money to do “full-service” or better to “do-it yourself”?

Would love to hear if the full service is really worth it or if you’ve been successful with do it yourself, including drawback if do it yourself.

 

[brianfox]

I asked the same Q. Here is my experience. Go to start of that thread.
Bottom line is - rent it out yourself.

 

[brianfox]

I wanted to bump this thread with a bit of followup on Redweek Full Service rental service.
I just rented out one of my weeks using the service, and while I do appreciate being able to be very hands-off for the process, I discovered yet another reason why you as an owner are at a severe disadvantage in trying to rent out your week through Redweek full service (as compared to non full service listings)

Disadvantage #1: I mentioned this in my thread above, but will repeat it here. Redweek generates the wording for your listing directly from the reservation confirmation provided by your resort. In the case of Marriott, all owner confirmations have - confusingly - always stated that there is a parking fee, yet no owner nor their guest has ever paid that parking fee. Redweek insists on stating that clearly on your advertisement THEY generate for you. This puts you at a $200+ disadvantage to those looking at ads, because none of the (non full service) ads mention a fee a renter will not have to pay. I had to fight with Redweek to add a statement to my own ad stating as much.

Disadvantage #2: I had no idea this was a thing, but a renter accepting your full service week will have to pay a service fee. I presume this is because they are using an escrow service, and they pay their share. But this was NOT stated to me what I signed up for full service. Or I missed it. So I am renting a $2800 week and the renter needs to pay $140 "service fee" to use the full service. This fee is not a credit card processing fee; it's a service fee I assume based on rental price.

That being said, Redweek has been very responsive. One rental occurred during President's Day: Renter answered ad. I was contacted to accept. Renter deposited funds. Contract was signed. All on a holiday. That was a good thing.

But to me the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. When my rental is done, I will let Redweek know I will not be using their Full Service again.

 

[MOXJO7282]

I wouldn't recommend using RW's full service because the DIY service works so well I just don't see the value. I also don't see that they do anything special with the ad. For instance at some resorts with fixed units the unit number should be referenced especially if it's a good unit but they never list the unit #. Just generic ads that i don't think help sell the week.

 

[tschwa2]

They do consider the processing fee to cover the credit card fee. As recently as 3 months ago they added the 3% to the fee the owner had to pay in addition to the $79 upfront and the $99 upon rental. This is now changed to $79 upfront and $99 upon rental with the renter/buyer paying a 5% (or $50 minimum) processing fee which covers the credit card fee. So it is a 2% increase for rentals over $1000 (more for less expensive rentals) but the fee is paid directly from the renter not the owner.

 

[Saintsfanfl]

They do consider the processing fee to cover the credit card fee. As recently as 3 months ago they added the 3% to the fee the owner had to pay in addition to the $79 upfront and the $99 upon rental. This is now changed to $79 upfront and $99 upon rental with the renter/buyer paying a 5% (or $50 minimum) processing fee which covers the credit card fee. So it is a 2% increase for rentals over $1000 (more for less expensive rentals) but the fee is paid directly from the renter not the owner.

That is another example of the waste and inefficiency of RW Full Service. I do not add a surcharge for a cc payment because it has more negatives than positives. I just know that it is coming out. With RW fs you could tell the renter they can pay x less in order to cover the fee but what an annoyance.

 

[Cropman]

I listed an ad and paid for the verified (figured it would make renters feel better). After a while, couple of weeks maybe, Redweek sent me an email saying that I was part of a test group. "You have been hand-selected to participate in a new trial, just for owners of Verified rental postings. We are opening up RedWeek Payments - so you can now accept credit card payments and finalize bookings completely through RedWeek.com! Best of all, it's completely free to you." I thought nothing of it, wasn't even sure how it worked. And then yesterday they say they have a renter and the amount net to me was what I was asking! No fuss, no muss.

The drawbacks for some people is you don't get paid until two days after check in. Second, up until 60 days, the renter can cancel. Redweek gets their fees, and you get nothing. Inside of 60, I believe you get 50% of the fee. If/when I rent again, that wording will have to be changed, or I will do it on my own.

 

[brianfox]

So I started the Full Service over 3 months ago. At that time all fees were on the owner. They changed something, and neglected to let me know. Why am I complaining about it, if my fees are being reduced?

1) They didn't notify me.
2) They are making it harder for me to find a renter when my full service ad costs a renter $150 more than the next guy's standard regular ad.

When I signed the deal with Redweek to pay 3% fee, I understood exactly the hit I was taking, and I was accepting it. But I also knew that I had a LEG UP on other ads because prospective renters could pay by Credit Card at NO COST to them and the rent they saw is what they would pay. Very clear for all parties. In a way, I was paying for that valuable perk which was a benefit to prospective renters.

Now they change the rules, shifting the fee to the renter. Now renter has to pay his own Credit Card fees - even if he pays by cashier's check. If I was a renter, all I would be seeing is a hidden fee associated with Full Service.

 

[brianfox]

I just checked my mail - nothing from Redweek talking about any changes. And when I go to Redweek site as an owner looking to rent out my week, NOTHING on the site talks about renter having to pay hidden fees. None of the FAQs mention it.

I sent off an Email to Redweek asking how Full service ads are supposed to compete with regular ads when full service ads have a hidden fee to the renter. I wonder how they will respond?

 

[mla]

> I sent off an Email to Redweek asking how Full service ads are supposed to compete with regular ads when full service ads have a hidden fee to the renter. I wonder how they will respond?

We think they'll compete because renters will prefer them. The feedback so far as been very good. We're getting renters contacting customer service asking how they can use RedWeek Payments with DIY rentals they're interested in.

I know a lot of you have rented successfully through RedWeek over the years and it might seem like we're breaking things for no good reason. But what we're trying to do is give the renter a consistent experience. For all rentals with RedWeek Payments, we have:

• A consistent rental agreement that's generated automatically and signed by both parties online
• Immediate payment through the website by credit card (the charge isn't actually made until the owner confirms availability and accepts the booking)
• Status updates on the process (when the owner has accepted, when the reservation name change has occurred, when our team has verified the confirmation, etc.)
• Holding of funds until the renter checks in
• A defined dispute resolution process. Disputes can be submitted online and immediately put the owner payment disbursement on hold pending resolution.

We think making the process as turn-key as possible will attract more travelers, and that will translate into more successful rentals. The old way works, no doubt. But you have to find a renter who's willing to contact a bunch of strangers and then negotiate a rental. It's a pain and is esp. cumbersome when owners don't take down their postings (I see renters sometimes contacting a dozen owners just asking each one "is this unit still available?").

The full-service rental service has been far from perfect. Our original transaction processor decided to go out of business, which was a huge mess.
@brianfox, I really apologize if you didn't receive a notice about the changes. We did send notifications out but maybe something was missed. We do still have the ability to only charge the owner and not the renter, I believe, so if you want that changed, I think it can be done. But I also told the team to issue you a refund if you prefer.

We did originally "embed" the fees into the full-service rentals. But starting in mid-December, I think, we started rolling out the ability to offer RW payments (all the stuff listed above) on DIY rentals that are verified. To keep everything simple, we moved to the renter-pays-a-service-fee model, which is pretty common now and we haven't seen many negative responses. The fees are presented at the point of booking, so nothing is hidden. And the renter can always "ask the owner a question" to negotiate a price reduction or an alternate payment process.

And yes, the service fee includes the credit card processing fees. The remainder goes to us, which covers the processing we do (verifying the name change confirmation, handling disputes, disbursing payments, etc.) and hopefully some profit.

Also, I saw this comment:
> Second, up until 60 days, the renter can cancel. Redweek gets their fees, and you get nothing. Inside of 60, I believe you get 50% of the fee. If/when I rent again, that wording will have to be changed, or I will do it on my own.

That's not exactly right. The renter can cancel up until 60 days before check-in *with a 50% penalty* which goes to the owner (contingent on our ability to secure the funds). Inside of 60, there's no refund. We're open to suggestions on that. We could offer different cancellation levels. Offering absolutely no refund regardless of how far out the check-in date is seems a little draconian to me though and I worry we'll put off renters.

Best.

Maurice

 

[brianfox]

The response you read from mla is direct from the president of Redweek, Maurice Aubrey.

A bit of background, as I believe the response was mainly due to me:
I had two Ko Olina weeks that I put up for Full Service rental. In parallel, I placed a Marketplace ad here for each week. A TUG user contacted me about one of my Marketplace ads. He is a newbie. I suggested we use my Redweek avenue to close the deal (at that time I was not aware Redweek shifted fees to renter). I told him the benefit of using Redweek as it offered protection and peace of mind to renters - and that it would not cost him any extra money. Because he was not a Redweek user, I even lowered my price by $20 to PAY for his Redweek account - bringing Redweek a customer who didn't know they existed.

We get started with Redweek and he tells me he now has to pay an extra $144. I had no idea what he was talking about, and revived this thread. I was disgusted to learn that the rules were changed without me knowing and that I had to smooth things over with the renter. Fortunately he agreed to continue with the deal. Had I known my renter would have to pay a service fee, I would have finished the rental deal outside of Redweek using my own contract. I would have also cancelled both Redweek ads.

I contacted Redweek yesterday requesting cancellation of my remaining Full Service ad and requested my Email be directed to to the top. The gist of my comment to them was the two preceding paragraphs. I also strongly suggested that Redweek take a look at TUG postings as of late that are complaining about Redweek practices. We are seeing too many of these lately (this thread, and this and this). I suggested they respond directly to these.

Redweek should be commended for a quick response (actually, ANY response). Whether we agree or disagree with their policies, it was good of them to do this. Further, their response seems to indicate they are open to suggestions from the community.

With regard to the Full Service terms, I still do not see how the new policy is a plus, but my opinion is tainted by being blindsided and embarrassed in front of my renter. If you go to Redweek right now (as an owner) and look at the terms of Full Service rental there is absolutely no mention of renter paying anything. And if you go there as a renter, there is no mention of any fee until it is time to pay for the rental. That is the very definition of a hidden fee, folks. And that needs to change. Redweek's Service Fee is reasonable considering it includes both an escrow and credit card fees. Just stop hiding it.

What I think is a fair and honest way of handling the service fee is as follows: Let the person placing the ad decide whether the owner pays or the renter pays. Redweek should clearly show every full-service rental price as $XXXX Rent + $YYYY Service Fee - directly in the listing. If the owner pays, Service Fee should be shown as $0. That shows the honest-to-God out of pocket price to the renter. Nothing is hidden. Every ad can be compared to the next based on the total out of pocket cost.

I should also repeat that my week that is in the process of being rented has proceeded lickety-split; Redweek has been very responsive, even during a holiday.

 

[Cropman]

Also, I saw this comment:
> Second, up until 60 days, the renter can cancel. Redweek gets their fees, and you get nothing. Inside of 60, I believe you get 50% of the fee. If/when I rent again, that wording will have to be changed, or I will do it on my own.

That's not exactly right. The renter can cancel up until 60 days before check-in *with a 50% penalty* which goes to the owner (contingent on our ability to secure the funds). Inside of 60, there's no refund. We're open to suggestions on that. We could offer different cancellation levels. Offering absolutely no refund regardless of how far out the check-in date is seems a little draconian to me though and I worry we'll put off renters.

I apologize. I should have said I wasn’t sure. I was going off the top of my head, I didn’t go back and look at the contract. As the guy renting the property, I can live with those terms. Still wish we got the money a little quicker but I can live with it.

 

[mla]

A bit of background, as I believe the response was mainly due to me:

Yes. How do I get you your referral credit? I wasn't sure of your username when I purchased my TUG membership.

With regard to the Full Service terms, I still do not see how the new policy is a plus, but my opinion is tainted by being blindsided and embarrassed in front of my renter. If you go to Redweek right now (as an owner) and look at the terms of Full Service rental there is absolutely no mention of renter paying anything. And if you go there as a renter, there is no mention of any fee until it is time to pay for the rental. That is the very definition of a hidden fee, folks. And that needs to change. Redweek's Service Fee is reasonable considering it includes both an escrow and credit card fees. Just stop hiding it.

What I think is a fair and honest way of handling the service fee is as follows: Let the person placing the ad decide whether the owner pays or the renter pays. Redweek should clearly show every full-service rental price as $XXXX Rent + $YYYY Service Fee - directly in the listing. If the owner pays, Service Fee should be shown as $0. That shows the honest-to-God out of pocket price to the renter. Nothing is hidden. Every ad can be compared to the next based on the total out of pocket cost.

We did debate that quite a bit.

This is becoming a very standard way of handling additional fees for hotels though. I just went to Expedia, for example, and they listed a hotel at $137/night. When I went to actually pay, they have an additional $21.55/night in taxes and fees. So what should have been $959 (137 x 7) is actually $1,123.30.

Forget about the full-service dimension for a second though. What we want to allow is for "RedWeek Payments" (online rental agreement and payment, etc.) to be added to *ANY* rental posting, regardless of whether it's full-service or not. We'd really like any renter to be able to say, "Hey, I'll take this as long as I can use RedWeek Payments to pay." We don't support that fully yet, but we're on our way.

So in that sense, it's a service fee for that method of booking. If you want to work it out directly with the owner and receive a check (or whatever), then fine.

And really, it's a case of optics, right? The owner paying the service fee is equivalent to the renter paying it with a lower rental price. It's just a question of what is more effective. So far, renters don't seem to have a problem with it.

I can see adding the ability for an owner to take on the rental fee costs. But we'd want to make that available to any owner whether it's on a full-service posting or a DIY. We'd like the postings to work roughly the same way, since for most renters, they won't really understand the difference anyway.

We've also dropped the membership requirement for new users who book through RW payments, BTW. We figured a major point of our membership is screening our users, which we accomplish through a rental booking anyway. So we're just giving them a free 1 year membership.

 

[md8287]

Yes. How do I get you your referral credit? I wasn't sure of your username when I purchased my TUG membership.



We did debate that quite a bit.

This is becoming a very standard way of handling additional fees for hotels though. I just went to Expedia, for example, and they listed a hotel at $137/night. When I went to actually pay, they have an additional $21.55/night in taxes and fees. So what should have been $959 (137 x 7) is actually $1,123.30.

Forget about the full-service dimension for a second though. What we want to allow is for "RedWeek Payments" (online rental agreement and payment, etc.) to be added to *ANY* rental posting, regardless of whether it's full-service or not. We'd really like any renter to be able to say, "Hey, I'll take this as long as I can use RedWeek Payments to pay." We don't support that fully yet, but we're on our way.

So in that sense, it's a service fee for that method of booking. If you want to work it out directly with the owner and receive a check (or whatever), then fine.

And really, it's a case of optics, right? The owner paying the service fee is equivalent to the renter paying it with a lower rental price. It's just a question of what is more effective. So far, renters don't seem to have a problem with it.

I can see adding the ability for an owner to take on the rental fee costs. But we'd want to make that available to any owner whether it's on a full-service posting or a DIY. We'd like the postings to work roughly the same way, since for most renters, they won't really understand the difference anyway.

We've also dropped the membership requirement for new users who book through RW payments, BTW. We figured a major point of our membership is screening our users, which we accomplish through a rental booking anyway. So we're just giving them a free 1 year membership.

I like the RW payment concept for all a lot and like even more getting more eyes on listings and removing the membership requirement with RW payment. Anything you do to build volume will go far for all.