Using Redweek to rent my week

[dioxide45]

It seems you're always pumping Koala for some reason (not sure if you have a vested interest in them) but you may already know that Koala gets most of their guests from re-listing your rental through them on Airbnb (just marked up). Basically playing middleman between an owner and Airbnb guests. Nothing against Koala as they are another good alternative to renting out timeshares and it's great to have diversity and competition (e.g Redweek, Airbnb, TUG, VRBO). It's great for those who don't want to hassle setting up an Airbnb listing and managing an Airbnb account as Koala makes it easy to list on their site, but let's not kid ourselves that the eyeballs they get for their website is probably less than 1% of Airbnb.

I am sure there was a time when Airbnb received less than 1% of the eyeballs of many other sites?

 

[Sandy VDH]

Koala is just way easier to set up and manage a rental on than AirBNB. Why, because Koala's model is about ONLY listing days available, whereas AirBNB is listing ALL DAY less what is already booked. That setup is not condusive to TS Rentals, as you have to block everything else and make the rental number of nights mandatory length of stay. Too complicated to remember to do all of that stuff.

I think that Koala is easy get setup and use, geared to TSs. Who cares where they get their eyeballs from, as long as it results in a rental.

 

[TXTortoise]

I've used VacationCandy.com for years. Once they get a renter, the contract is with them and you get paid. 50% at time of signing and balance 60 days out. 10% commission and they collect and pay the Hawaii GET/TAT taxes so you stay legal. Different demographic so you will gross more, but will likely net about he same as Redweek, but VC is painless and awesome customer service. Koala is too restrictive and after creating an account I was getting marketing calls from them to rent my house, apparently.

They collect 10% commission and have an option to extend your listings to VRBO and similar sites and pass on that cost of 5%. I've rarely had to use it.

I'd use any channel you can to market, but don't price the same in all markets as your buyer demographic will vary. Based on the fact that Redweek rents haven't risen much in the last 3+ years for Maui OF, I'm guessing few are paying taxes and just trying to cover MF, plus a bit.