Redweek listings are just sitting online, not many are renting, a new phenomena and a waste of money for owners at $59 for verify/ protect

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Just rented another one on David's Rentals. I am losing count. I had four nights I listed on Sunday at Polynesian (studio) for February. Rented it for $20 PP and very happy.

I think that's five now for DVC Rental Store, one for Koala, one with my own RW ad.

David’s and DVC Rental Store are two totally different companies. Which one are you renting on? Or are you using both?

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Does David’s or any of the others require exclusive listings. Or can you list in more than one place. Another one out there is DVCShop.

My memory from when I used David’s is that there was an exclusivity clause.

 

[Cyberc]

The problem using David’s is if ANY thing happens like war, hurricanes, Covid etc and the buyer can’t checkin then the owner is left holding the bag.

David’s expect owners to fully refund but only provides a limited voucher to the buyer.

Buyers should instead be expected to take out an insurance to cover any and all things.

 

[montygz]

The problem using David’s is if ANY thing happens like war, hurricanes, Covid etc and the buyer can’t checkin then the owner is left holding the bag.

David’s expect owners to fully refund but only provides a limited voucher to the buyer.

Buyers should instead be expected to take out an insurance to cover any and all things.

If David's is putting the owner at risk of losing money, shouldn't the owner be the one to take out the insurance to protect their gains?

Any third-party site, like David's or Redweek, needs to keep its customers coming to rent units. A policy that screws over renters will put those sites out of business.

I sympathize with owners who lost money due to some disaster, but how often do these happen? These are extremely rare. The various timeshare systems also work with owners during such events. I was able to cancel an RCI reservation during a hurricane, for example. And I didn't have insurance.

If owners don't like the rules of David's and Redweek, they don't have to use those sites.

 

[dioxide45]

If David's is putting the owner at risk of losing money, shouldn't the owner be the one to take out the insurance to protect their gains?

Any third-party site, like David's or Redweek, needs to keep its customers coming to rent units. A policy that screws over renters will put those sites out of business.

I sympathize with owners who lost money due to some disaster, but how often do these happen? These are extremely rare. The various timeshare systems also work with owners during such events. I was able to cancel an RCI reservation during a hurricane, for example. And I didn't have insurance.

If owners don't like the rules of David's and Redweek, they don't have to use those sites.

The problem is finding such a policy as an owner. There is a plethora of trip insurance options as a guest but nothing really for owners. Especially on a one off rental situation.

Perhaps this is something that companies could procure for owners to purchase when they list?

 

[rickandcindy23]

David's doesn't pay enough. I won't use them again.

 

[Cyberc]

If David's is putting the owner at risk of losing money, shouldn't the owner be the one to take out the insurance to protect their gains?

Any third-party site, like David's or Redweek, needs to keep its customers coming to rent units. A policy that screws over renters will put those sites out of business.

I sympathize with owners who lost money due to some disaster, but how often do these happen? These are extremely rare. The various timeshare systems also work with owners during such events. I was able to cancel an RCI reservation during a hurricane, for example. And I didn't have insurance.

If owners don't like the rules of David's and Redweek, they don't have to use those sites.

I would say its the other way round.

Renters/buyers need to take out the insurance or maybe David - David needs owners points to rent to buyers, if owners are left holding the bag then they won't come back. I don't think I as an owner can find an insurance to cover only my points for a trip I'm not taking but renting to someone else. The way that Davids operates he makes a lot of money with zero risk - only renters and owners take all the risk.

Maybe Covid and wars are extremely rare, but hurricanes are certainly not. I know that DVC have a hurricane policy, in which owners can cancel without penalty but the points still expire when they normally would. If you rented a September reservation using October or December points then it's extremely unlikely at least for the October points that you can find something else before they expire. If you do, then you can't rent at normal price as renters would expect a deal when it's short notice. Either way you are out of some money.

 

[wmgjr]

My prices are $100 lower per night than most anyone on RW. I am renting studios only. I tried the one bedroom but will likely just use it ourselves for October school break. I guess it depends on how many Sheraton weeks I can get rented. I have reserved a lot of later summer and early fall weeks and reduced the price to my cost. I have never rented anything past Labor Day. We will see if anything rents for cost. I really cannot have all of these weeks banked to II.

Try thirdhome

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

The problem using David’s is if ANY thing happens like war, hurricanes, Covid etc and the buyer can’t checkin then the owner is left holding the bag.

David’s expect owners to fully refund but only provides a limited voucher to the buyer.

Buyers should instead be expected to take out an insurance to cover any and all things.

Eh, those are real black swan events (I understand that Covid did just happen, but that doesn’t make it any less of a black swan event), and hotels have to eat the cost of the trip if they close, so I don’t see why owners wouldn’t. A renter should expect that the resort they are renting at will be open for their trip and if it is not, they should be entitled to a refund. DVC resorts don’t close for a hurricane (although the parks might).

Edit: And if the DVC resorts in Florida close due to a state of war, we’ve all got bigger problems.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

The problem is finding such a policy as an owner. There is a plethora of trip insurance options as a guest but nothing really for owners. Especially on a one off rental situation.

Perhaps this is something that companies could procure for owners to purchase when they list?

There really aren’t a plethora of trip insurance options that cover third party timeshare rentals though on the renter side either. Maybe one or two, that MAYBE will pay out, but that’s a big maybe. Mixed results posted over on disboards, with some recent posts indicating that the few insurance agencies who did cover this sort of thing really tightened up the last few years.

 

[dioxide45]

There really aren’t a plethora of trip insurance options that cover third party timeshare rentals though on the renter side either. Maybe one or two, that MAYBE will pay out, but that’s a big maybe. Mixed results posted over on disboards, with some recent posts indicating that the few insurance agencies who did cover this sort of thing really tightened up the last few years.

How is this any different than renting and covering accommodations rented through Airbnb which several companies indicate they cover?

 

[jp10558]

One big difference here is - the other 2 that @rickandcindy23 seem to like are Disney Vacation Club specific right? To my limited understanding, DVC is both more expensive to buy and rent because of basically Disney fanatics.

Redweek is "everyone else", though I suppose there's no reason you couldn't rent DVC there, just that it's likely that it won't rent at the prices it would in a special "fanatics" group. So is the issue just that Redweek doesn't have appealing rental prices now for the masses?

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

How is this any different than renting and covering accommodations rented through Airbnb which several companies indicate they cover?

I think because Airbnb is a huge company that some of these companies specifically allow. Person to person and small company rentals (like the dvc only brokers) would present a significantly larger risk upside of fraud to the insurance companies.

 

[Cyberc]

One big difference here is - the other 2 that @rickandcindy23 seem to like are Disney Vacation Club specific right? To my limited understanding, DVC is both more expensive to buy and rent because of basically Disney fanatics.

Redweek is "everyone else", though I suppose there's no reason you couldn't rent DVC there, just that it's likely that it won't rent at the prices it would in a special "fanatics" group. So is the issue just that Redweek doesn't have appealing rental prices now for the masses?

Actually redweek has a lot of DVC rentals. Ballpark is more than 1,000 available rentals. If they actually rents I don’t know but my guesstimate is that since there are so many and one DVC broker having the vast majority of them I guess they do.
This particular broker is listing BWV standard view studios at approx $40 per point. Hands down I haven’t checked all per point prices but the ones I did was at or close to $40. On top you pay tax too

Fanatics or not most owners don’t charge anywhere near that in the “fanatics groups” <— to use your wording

 

[jp10558]

Actually redweek has a lot of DVC rentals. Ballpark is more than 1,000 available rentals. If they actually rents I don’t know but my guesstimate is that since there are so many and one DVC broker having the vast majority of them I guess they do.
This particular broker is listing BWV standard view studios at approx $40 per point. Hands down I haven’t checked all per point prices but the ones I did was at or close to $40. On top you pay tax too

Fanatics or not most owners don’t charge anywhere near that in the “fanatics groups” <— to use your wording

Hmmm, I was more thinking the non Disney stuff, but then I guess I really don't understand the rental dynamics of Redweek cause they (non Disney) all seem way too expensive to me lol. Well, then I guess the other possibility is Redweek somehow is promoting this broker more than the people trying to rent are reporting here. Or they just have much more desirable weeks I guess.

 

[rickandcindy23]

David’s and DVC Rental Store are two totally different companies. Which one are you renting on? Or are you using both?

Yeah, that was a typing error. DVC Rental Store is great. No hassle, get a check in the mail in about 5 days for most of it, then the rest of the money comes after the guest checks in.

 

[dioxide45]

Hmmm, I was more thinking the non Disney stuff, but then I guess I really don't understand the rental dynamics of Redweek cause they (non Disney) all seem way too expensive to me lol. Well, then I guess the other possibility is Redweek somehow is promoting this broker more than the people trying to rent are reporting here. Or they just have much more desirable weeks I guess.

There has to be some type of agreement between them and Redweek providing no listing fees. The number of listings would certainly eat away at any revenue given the cost to list full service and the likely rate of successful listings. They probably also have access to a back end API to push listings to Redweek automatically. When rented, Redweek's profit is likely made from the booking fee paid by the renter. This is of course all just speculation.

 

[elaine]

I am glad that Dvc has a very generous Canx policy. 30-1 day prior to check in gets points back, albeit into holding account that can only make reservations 60 days out. The key is having at least a few months left in use year to rebook something. I’ve had to Canx and can almost always find something to book. I’ve “ditched” studios on on leftover points on tug last minute rentals that at least covered a decent chunk of annual fees.
For private rentals, my renters understand, in writing, that I’ll try to rebook them, but that it’s a final transaction otherwise. Harder/impossible to do on commercial rental sites.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I am glad that Dvc has a very generous Canx policy. 30-1 day prior to check in gets points back, albeit into holding account that can only make reservations 60 days out. The key is having at least a few months left in use year to rebook something. I’ve had to Canx and can almost always find something to book. I’ve “ditched” studios on on leftover points on tug last minute rentals that at least covered a decent chunk of annual fees.
For private rentals, my renters understand, in writing, that I’ll try to rebook them, but that it’s a final transaction otherwise. Harder/impossible to do on commercial rental sites.

That is true. Unless you are coming up against a banking deadline, you can always use the points.

I reserved some dates for next year and have lots of time to rent. I am skipping Redweek entirely. No point throwing even $30 away on a listing fee. Stupid is as stupid does.

I did just rent my Westin Desert Willow for Presidents' Week next year on Redweek. That was a huge thing for me because I decided after the big drop in trading power, I need to rent my SDO and Westin Desert Willow instead of banking them. Plus, I have so many deposits of Sheraton Broadway for this year. Nothing is renting for late summer and fall, so I am in a bad place with those.

For 2026, I will be attempting to rent my Shadow Ridge weeks as well. I will have a lot of SBP deposits to use by the end of 2026.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I just received another 135 point booking from DVC Rental Store @ $20 PP. Disney's Riviera is a very popular rental, apparently. I just book studios and it took just one day for that one to rent.

Too bad Disney's website is not working currently. I get computer nonsense when I try to copy/ paste proof that I added names to the reservation:

 

[kq2mtx]

Yeah. I've eaten a couple of $59 this year. So I've decided to stick with tug and whatever doesn't rent I use. I book my flights with Southwest early while they're cheaper and I can cancel at the last minute if it rents

 

[rickandcindy23]

Yeah. I've eaten a couple of $59 this year. So I've decided to stick with tug and whatever doesn't rent I use. I book my flights with Southwest early while they're cheaper and I can cancel at the last minute if it rents

Good plan.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Redweek did rent one of my units at Westin today. That was a nice surprise. I listed these weeks 5 months ago, so I about gave up.

 

[Bailey#1]

I just received another 135 point booking from DVC Rental Store @ $20 PP. Disney's Riviera is a very popular rental, apparently. I just book studios and it took just one day for that one to rent.

Too bad Disney's website is not working currently. I get computer nonsense when I try to copy/ paste proof that I added names to the reservation:

View attachment 98528

You may have to update your browser or use another browser, I use chrome when I do anything with DVC. Otherwise I get the same results!

 

[rickandcindy23]

It's working today, but honestly, DVC told me all I had to do was delete my browsing history, and that Chrome is one of the best to use for DVC. I deleted browsing history way before I made the phone call. Disney cast members are taught to lie when the website is wonky.