Redweek or Koala

[Tacoma]

I have placed 2 or 3 ads on Koala in the past few years and no interest at all. In fact I only ever get check your listing emails from Koala. I assume if I get interest they would email me details. I hate to pay the redweek rental fee unless I think they will rent. I only rent reservations that I make for myself where something else comes up so maybe once a year on average. Next year I have 2 because of a change of plans. WIll prime reservations get interest on Redweek do you think if I pay the fee? I know you need more details but I'm not allowed to advertise so I am purposely keeping this general. My price range per night is generally between $225 and $300 a night. TIA

 

[The Colorado Kid]

Do some research on Redweek to see what others have listed their weeks for rent for the properties/ numbers of bedrooms and time periods you can reserve. Successful rentals on RW are greyed out but even the live listings give a good idea of market value as if you take a bit of an average My most successful rentals are on both RW and Koala for school break periods, Summer/Christmas/Spring Break. Then you will have a good idea of what you could expect for a rental.

 

[pchung6]

I just removed my listing on Koala. I wasn't too happy Koala will charge me 8%, then Koala turns around to charge renter another 8%. Not to mention Koala will hold the payment for many months with 5%+ interest to their benefits. I currently use Redweek $39.99 ad, supplementing with Craigslist, Facebook groups/marketplace, or maybe eBay ads, it's working very well.

 

[dioxide45]

I just removed my listing on Koala. I wasn't too happy Koala will charge me 8%, then Koala turns around to charge renter another 8%. Not to mention Koala will hold the payment for many months with 5%+ interest to their benefits. I currently use Redweek $39.99 ad, supplementing with Craigslist, Facebook groups/marketplace, or maybe eBay ads, it's working very well.

Koala is a better comparison to Redweek Full Service. Not DIY.

 

[pchung6]

Koala is a better comparison to Redweek Full Service. Not DIY.

I am really not too sure what else Koala will do and can do in their services. They don't rent my week quicker. I will still be the one to make change of reservation to guest name. I will be the one making sure everything goes ok. I will be the one taking responsibilities and risks as Koala will hold my payment and can screw me of anything, remember Maui fire. I might be wrong, but Koala is basically doing the same as Redweek $49.99 service at much higher fees.

 

[dioxide45]

I am really not too sure what else Koala will do and can do in their services. They don't rent my week quicker. I will still be the one to make change of reservation to guest name. I will be the one making sure everything goes ok. I will be the one taking responsibilities and risks as Koala will hold my payment and can fxxk me of anything, remember Maui fire. Koala is basically doing the same as Redweek $49.99 service, but at much higher fees.

But you don't need to talk to renters or communicate with them. Redweek Full Service is $79 upfront plus $99 when rented. Redweek Full Service is also "protected" so they collect and hold the money and with that Redweek also tacks on a big booking fee paid for by the renter. If you want to do DIY, then do $39 Redweek DIY. If you want verified you can pay the extra $10. Some people prefer not to have to bother dealing with renters and would rather go the full service and protected route and that is what I was comparing Koala to, Redweek Full Service. Koala is not equivalent to Redweek DIY in the same way that Redweek Full Service is not the equivalent to DIY.

 

[grupp]

But you don't need to talk to renters or communicate with them. Redweek Full Service is $79 upfront plus $99 when rented. Redweek Full Service is also "protected" so they collect and hold the money and with that Redweek also tacks on a big booking fee paid for by the renter. If you want to do DIY, then do $39 Redweek DIY. If you want verified you can pay the extra $10. Some people prefer not to have to bother dealing with renters and would rather go the full service and protected route and that is what I was comparing Koala to, Redweek Full Service. Koala is not equivalent to Redweek DIY in the same way that Redweek Full Service is not the equivalent to DIY.

If you use the $49.99 Do-It-Yourself option verfied and protected you don't have to deal with renters either. If someone wants to rent your week, you recieve and text/email that you have a booking request. Once you accept the request, they send you the name to be added to the reservation and you proivded them the updated confirmation. Totally time invested is usually less than 5 minutes.

There is the option for the renters to contact you through you ad and ask questions or make offers. Those are usually people who want to avoid the credit card or other fees. You can chose to work them or just tell them the must book through redweek.

 

[dioxide45]

If you use the $49.99 Do-It-Yourself option verfied and protected you don't have to deal with renters either. If someone wants to rent your week, you recieve and text/email that you have a booking request. Once you accept the request, they send you the name to be added to the reservation and you proivded them the updated confirmation. Totally time invested is usually less than 5 minutes.

There is the option for the renters to contact you through you ad and ask questions or make offers. Those are usually people who want to avoid the credit card or other fees. You can chose to work them or just tell them the must book through redweek.

This is certainly cheaper than Koala's 8% commission (depending on what you are renting), but it would still leave one exposed to "screw me of anything" since Redweek also holds the funds until after checkin. The renter is also paying a large booking fee to Redweek when they make a payment for something that is Verified and Protected. I guess the main consideration is that Koala doesn't charge anything upfront. So if your week doesn't rent, it costs you nothing. With Redweek you pay the $49 dollars no matter what and you don't get refunded if your week doesn't rent. It is good to have choices and clearly identifying the differences so people can make informed choices is a good thing.

 

[rickandcindy23]

My best rentals are through RW, but Koala has rented several recently for me. I see it as a startup, even though it's been around for about 3 years. RW is a monster of a company and worthy of my advertising dollar for sure.

I have lost some money with rentals that never rented with RW, and Koala is free to list. No risk to me.

Ironically, I had an ad on RW, not a verified/ protected ad, and the renter inquired about it, and I told them my terms. Then I said, "I also have it listed on Koala, just FYI." They booked it with Koala and then sent me a note of apology because they didn't "rent from" me. They still rented from me, but with Koala. I didn't correct her.

 

[Venter]

This is certainly cheaper than Koala's 8% commission (depending on what you are renting), but it would still leave one exposed to "screw me of anything" since Redweek also holds the funds until after checkin. The renter is also paying a large booking fee to Redweek when they make a payment for something that is Verified and Protected. I guess the main consideration is that Koala doesn't charge anything upfront. So if your week doesn't rent, it costs you nothing. With Redweek you pay the $49 dollars no matter what and you don't get refunded if your week doesn't rent. It is good to have choices and clearly identifying the differences so people can make informed choices is a good thing.

Remember that Redweek also charges $100 when your week rents if you use full service. And if they have an enquiry and for some reason you cannot rent it they will still charge the $100.

 

[dioxide45]

Remember that Redweek also charges $100 when your week rents if you use full service. And if they have an enquiry and for some reason you cannot rent it they will still charge the $100.

So their +$99 when rented really isn't when rented. It is when rented or if we have to facilitate an inquiry.

 

[dioxide45]

Okay, here is a nifty chart I created comparing the different options. I understand Koala may have some memberships on the owner side, but I don't know if that impacts any of the fees;

 

[vol_90]

So their +$99 when rented really isn't when rented. It is when rented or if we have to facilitate an inquiry.

I use Redweek Full-Service and can confirm they do not charge $99 for an inquiry when a reservation does not rent. You are only deducted $99 if the reservation rents and the amount is deducted from the rental proceeds. I have had a few inquiries (i.e. lowball offers) where I have declined the offer, the reservation ultimately doesn't rent, cancel the posting / reservation and not charged $99 by Redweek. You only lose your $59.99 Full Service posting fee in this situation.

Not one bite over a 6 month period when I tried to use Koala for several rentals.

 

[Ianneyan]

I've only recently (last couple years) started renting out weeks if I can't use them. This year, I listed 2 different weeks on Redweek, Koala, and TUG. Zero inquiries on Koala, and I was able to rent both weeks through Redweek after a couple months (listed in like August and rented out in October/November for March reservations) . I paid to have both weeks verified and offered the full service route in the unit's description if preferred by renter, but both preferred to not pay the additional fees and went directly through me. No bites on TUG before they were rented.

Mind you, I listed a week last year on Redweek that didn't rent out in time (prior to 60 day reservation window) so I cancelled the res and deposited the week with Interval. II had not pulled the listing right away out of curiosity to see if there would be last minute interest. And sure enough, I ended up getting got multiple inquiries (5 comes to mind) shortly after I cancelled the res (within the 60 day window). That was a bummer, but I like to play it safe and save those points without penalty.

 

[Ianneyan]

My best rentals are through RW, but Koala has rented several recently for me. I see it as a startup, even though it's been around for about 3 years. RW is a monster of a company and worthy of my advertising dollar for sure.

I have lost some money with rentals that never rented with RW, and Koala is free to list. No risk to me.

Ironically, I had an ad on RW, not a verified/ protected ad, and the renter inquired about it, and I told them my terms. Then I said, "I also have it listed on Koala, just FYI." They booked it with Koala and then sent me a note of apology because they didn't "rent from" me. They still rented from me, but with Koala. I didn't correct her.

Wow, that's awesome! I like your strategy of giving them the option to rent your week on another platform in case they find it more appealing. Good thinking! It's funny that they didn't make the connection that it was the same exact week, just cross-posted.

 

[DeniseM]

Please be aware: It's risky to rent exchanges, because it violates the exchange companies published TOS. The exchange companies do monitor this, and they can confiscate your exchange(s) and close your Acct, so it's a risk for you and a risk for your renter. If you quietly rent to a friend or family member, that is somewhat safer, but advertising on the internet is a good way to get caught, and making a cottage industry out of advertising exchanges is very likely to result in getting caught.

 

[AJCts411]

I also use both RW and Kola. Nothing shady about Kola, all you have to do is read the terms and conditions. RW, I use DYI and use my own rental agreement and collect the payment. There is a cost to this, about 6.5%. (Credit card and PP fees). Kola is 8%. Not a huge difference. Only negative I can think of, as I have not rented via Kola yet, is someone else holding the money, with payout after check in. IMO leaving plenty of room for unethical renters to deceive, cheat, try to get a free vacation. I suppose the same could be true for RW full service.

 

[rickandcindy23]

There are those of us with such high trading power in II (you might be as well) that we could snatch up a lot of great weeks and leave nothing for exchange. If you had 100 people who were in the exchange rental business, this is a very likely scenario. II used to crack down hard on people who were renting exchanges.

I remember when Disney was with II before, II's fraud department stopped every single rental of an exchange on RW and on ebay. Now there are more venues to rent. I would guess it's tough for the fraud department to keep up with it today.

I do know someone who was blocked from adding guest certificates because he was renting Westin and Marriott Hawaii exchanges with cheap traders. He was using ebay only.

You can retrade your week. If you didn't add retrade, you could pay an additional exchange fee. Or you could keep it on Koala, but you pretty much announced what you are doing here on TUG, so you outed yourself.