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Reserving and then renting weeks to pay fees

JCBOSS76

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Resorts Owned
Marriott's Kauai Beach Club; Marriott's Grand Vista in Orlando FL; plus Vacation Club Points (Presidential Level)
I am a Presidential level VC owner and some years I am unable to use the points for our vacations. I would like to reserve several weeks (13 months in advance to get the best availability) and then rent those weeks using VacationCandy or VRBO. This seems very risky since there is no guarantee that they will actually get rented.
Please give me suggestions, based on experience, of the best locations and time of year to be assured that the weeks will actually be rented and I won't just lose the whole year of points and still have to pay the maintenance fees.
What sites are best - Colorado (Vail, Aspen, Brekenridge), Aruba, Hawaii, ???
How do you determine what price to ask?
What times of year are best at that site? (Thanksgiving, Christmas, ski season, spring break) And how do you determine this?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
 

Fasttr

TUG Review Crew
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Marriott's Grande Ocean (Enrolled)
MVC Trust Points
Do you realize you can also just rent the points. There are a couple peer to peer sites for this, run by TUGgers.

www.vacationpointexchange.com and www.ownertrades.com

Less risk, and quicker/easier likely to just rent out the points..... but you may get more income via your week approach. Depends what you are looking for.
 

TXTortoise

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San Antonio, TX
Resorts Owned
Maui OC Lahaina Fixed (3+)
Kauai Waiohai
Vail Streamside Birch
I suppose the obvious is Maui Christmas, in Feb, Easter Week, early-mid July; HHI July.

I'd just reserve three 2BR OF President's Weeks on Maui and declare victory. Easy to rent in January at $4500-$6000 on VC, depending on old vs new buildings.

Pricing is what you find on VC now. Keeping in mind they will take $500, +10% over $5000 and usually ask 'for the buyer' if you can lower your price.

I would only do this for prime week and prime room location.

Selling points directly is much easier, but you won't get 2x MFs as they are a pure commodity....but way easier to rent I expect.
 

luvgoldns

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Marriott's Grande Vista
Marriott's Maui Ocean Club
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

When we've been unable to use our Maui week, we've rented it by letting Denise (TUG moderator) take care of everything and she has. It's the most painless experience ever; she is wonderful to work with! https://www.denisetravels.com/ Lots of great info on her website. Since our ultimate goal is to get it rented, the price point we use is just what it takes to cover all fees.

- ilene
 

MOXJO7282

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When we've been unable to use our Maui week, we've rented it by letting Denise (TUG moderator) take care of everything and she has. It's the most painless experience ever; she is wonderful to work with! https://www.denisetravels.com/ Lots of great info on her website. Since our ultimate goal is to get it rented, the price point we use is just what it takes to cover all fees.

- ilene
I know DeniseM does a great job assisting with rentals but if you're just asking for MFs for a Marriott MOC unit, especially a 2BDRM OV/OF you are leaving alot of money on the table. If it a 1BDRM or GV then not so much but probably still leaving some money that you could easily secure.
 

JCBOSS76

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Marriott's Kauai Beach Club; Marriott's Grand Vista in Orlando FL; plus Vacation Club Points (Presidential Level)
Thanks for your suggestions. I would like to get more than just maintenance fees for my points. As my wife and I get older I would like to develop a plan for using a portion of my points say 5000 to 6000 points to generate enough income to offset all my maintenance fees and still use a week plus some points for my vacation.
I don't know what $/Point return is reasonable to expect.

Thank you TxTortise for your suggestion that I rent a 2BR unit Maui Ocean Front at Christmas week but that would cost 9050 points. That could work if I wasn't taking any vacation that year but other years I wouldn't have enough points left for my own vacation. Also 4500-$6000 wouldn't even cover my Maintenance fees.
My total maintenance fees this year are $7277.

Are there any opportunities out there to make $1.25 to $1.50 per VC point so I can pay my maintenance fees and still take a vacation? I am worried that if acquire weeks to rent that I run the risk that they don't rent or I will have to give the weeks away for practically nothing to rent them. If I choose the wrong resort or wrong time of year I will lose all those points and still have to pay maintenance fees.
 

TXTortoise

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Maui OC Lahaina Fixed (3+)
Kauai Waiohai
Vail Streamside Birch
I'm sure StevenTing or GretT will weigh in, but DC points are commodities and rarely rent for much more than the MF. Just too many people giving them away.

A choice week narrows the market of renters, but also allows you to charge for that market and not a commodity. And yes, I guess Christmas is a stretch. ;-)
 

jimf41

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I'm sure StevenTing or GretT will weigh in, but DC points are commodities and rarely rent for much more than the MF.
I assume you are referring to the MF of a trust point. If you have enrolled weeks that generate a decent amount of points you can earn a decent profit on them. I turn in my weeks at Ocean Pointe every year to use them at other locations or at different seasons but if I sold them my profit would be $1120 yearly if I only got .50 per point. Not going to get rich on that but it's a positive cash flow.
 

JCBOSS76

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Resorts Owned
Marriott's Kauai Beach Club; Marriott's Grand Vista in Orlando FL; plus Vacation Club Points (Presidential Level)
Hi jimf41,

Thanks for your feedback but I don't see where you get your profit numbers from?

I have 2 (2 Bedroom) weeks at Orlando Marriott's Grand Vista which can be traded for 2175 VC points each with maintenance fees of $1391 each week,
I have 1 week (1 BR Ocean Front) at Kauai Marriott's Beach Club which can be traded for 3375 VC points with maintenance fees of $1930 and
4000 VC Points with $2565 maintenance fees.

For the Grand Vista weeks I would have to get $.64 per point just to break even and to get a $1120 profit, I would have to get $1.15 per VC point.
For the Kauai Beach Club week I would have to get $.57 per point to break even and to get $1120 profit, I would have to get $.90 per VC point.
For the Vacation Club points I would have to get $.64 per point to break even and to get $1120 profit, I would have to get $.92 per VC point.

I don't know what your VC point value is for Ocean Point or what your maintenance fees are, but I assume they are similar to mine.

I am trying to discover a formula for using up to 6175 VC points to reserve weeks at a high demand location and time of year, and then rent those weeks to pay for a significant part of my maintenance fees and still have 1 week at the Grand Vista and 1 week at Kauai Beach Club for my vacation. The Grand Vista 2 BR week has been good for trading through Interval International for additional weeks at KBC or other places.

If I used 6175 VC Points and earned NET (after taxes? and fees) $7277, I would have to get $1.18 per VC point. This may be unrealistic but perhaps I can at least offset a significant part of my maintenance fees.

My biggest worry is that I will acquire weeks using VC points for some location and time that loots like it should be a good investment, but then I will not be able to rent it. I see many listings that appear to still be available when the arrival date has arrived so I assume they must have lost their investment.

So with all that said, I am looking for locations and dates that have the best chance of actually being rented. This isn't easy to research since I don't have access to any of the databases from these rental sites. It would be great if I could mine their data and find location/dates that have the highest success rate and what price they rented to achieve that success but all I have to go by is the feedback from other owners who have been successful in acquiring and renting a VC week using VC points. I just don't know how to get ahold of them or if they would be willing to share their insights.
 
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