Welk Rental Program

[rhoads77]

Hello Everyone,

My wife and I own 420,000 points yearly through Welk. We were recently approached by Welk to use their rental program to give them, say, half our points which they then rent out. My wife and I planned for the future and the growth of our family when we bought that many points and really only have the time off to use about half so one way or the other we want to try and make some money back to at least cover maintenence fees for the year.

The Welk rental program will keep 40% off what the room sells for. After reading up on renting our timeshare on this site , I'm not clear on how renting points works because most info shows designated weeks. Even then, the process of renting on my own seems risky and like a hassle.

So what my wife and I want to know is, is the convenience and security of having Welk rent our points for us worth the 40% loss? If I take the proper steps and do it on my own, can I realistically make more than my 60% cut from Welk?

40% seems steep, but the steps are basically:
-Tell them how many points I want to rent
-they do all the leg work
-my wife and I confirm before any rentals are final (it's in their interest to make the most profitable exchange as well)
-we get a check in the mail

Any help is appreciated. Please let me know if any other info is needed to help answer my question.

Thank you

 

[mjm1]

We are Platinum Point Program owners as well and have used the rental program on occasion. My understanding is that you have to make a specific reservation using your points and then submit the unit to the rental program. I have dealt directly with the rental program manager, who can provide the rental agreement for you. Contact them at 760-749-7485 or villarentals@welkgroup.com. Johanna was the person, but that could have changed.

I have asked myself if I should just try and rent them myself on TUG, on redweek.com or another site rather than through Welk, but found this to be easier. We have done OK and covered part if not all of our MF's. The key is to find a good week that will rent. One thing to note when using Welk is that they it you in a que based on first in first rented, which makes sense. However, they may rent your entire week or just part of it. If more than one renter rents your days, Welk charges a cleaning fee of $75 for each renter after the first one that happened to us once. One thing I haven't tried is to reserve a week in Cabo and rent that. I have focused on Escondido in the summer.

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do, and how it turns out.

Mike

 

[uscav8r]

Hello Everyone,
...
So what my wife and I want to know is, is the convenience and security of having Welk rent our points for us worth the 40% loss? If I take the proper steps and do it on my own, can I realistically make more than my 60% cut from Welk?

40% seems steep, but the steps are basically:
-Tell them how many points I want to rent
-they do all the leg work
-my wife and I confirm before any rentals are final (it's in their interest to make the most profitable exchange as well)
-we get a check in the mail
...

We are Platinum Point Program owners as well and have used the rental program on occasion. ...
I have asked myself if I should just try and rent them myself on TUG, on redweek.com or another site rather than through Welk, but found this to be easier. We have done OK and covered part if not all of our MF's. The key is to find a good week that will rent. ...

The key word here is "easier" but each person needs to determine how much that is worth to him/her. A decent rental week can go for $1000-2000+. So it is worth $400-800 in costs for a route that is easier? A dog (or a last minute rental) will probably not rent for much at all, but the cost to list will be much less as well.

Also, if it is anything like the Wyndham rental program, I would guess there is some caveat that you are not guaranteed that the unit/points will actually be rented, or that you will get a minimum amount of rental value. It sounds like if you are going to go down this route, put it into the program sooner rather than later.

If one is picking a good week (probably had to be reserved early in the booking windows), then there is an automatic rental market on those sites mentioned. You can avoid much of the risks by requiring full prepayment and following some of the TUG Rental advice. But to each his own.

Good luck in your decision and outcome!

 

[mjm1]

I agree with you. I should have added that I tried renting a prime summer week on my own and wasn't happy with the result. Perhaps it was that particular year. Based on my experience with Welk in Escondido, if you can cover your MFs that is pretty good. That's why I mentioned Cabo as maybe a more exotic location would provide better results.

Mike

 

[uscav8r]

I agree with you. I should have added that I tried renting a prime summer week on my own and wasn't happy with the result. Perhaps it was that particular year. Based on my experience with Welk in Escondido, if you can cover your MFs that is pretty good. That's why I mentioned Cabo as maybe a more exotic location would provide better results.

Mike

It would seem Northstar would be a great location for Presidents or MLK week bookings (Christmas might be too early for the snow). Cabo and Palm Springs for T-giving/Christmas/Spring Break. San Diego all year around. Just spitballing here...

...
40% seems steep, but the steps are basically:
-Tell them how many points I want to rent
-they do all the leg work
-my wife and I confirm before any rentals are final (it's in their interest to make the most profitable exchange as well)
-we get a check in the mail
...

As I revisit this and Mike provides even more excellent experiential info, it struck me as to the OP's expectations in bold print (emphasis added).

It appears the actual "leg work" being paid for with the commission is to advertise, deal with the contract details, and handle payment. I would call this mostly administrative work.

The OP will apparently still have leg work to do on his own, namely to do some research as to available weeks/locations(hopefully ones with high rental potential... what does this mean... how does he find this out). Then there are the issues of how many points are available, when they expire, etc., that factor into what is feasible to book.

This is not as fire-and-forget as one might think, but it could still be an option if this is going to be a recurrent issue over a few years as opposed to just the near term. As in all things timeshare-related, thorough research and early planning are essential.

 

[rhoads77]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

I think I will continue to read up on selling and try it myself. I want convenience but those couple hundred dollars may be worth it especially if I'm still going to have to do some work anyway. Might as well go all in. Still, I may give Welk a shot another year or for part of the points.

I'll update after my first sale.

Thanks again!

 

[mjm1]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

I think I will continue to read up on selling and try it myself. I want convenience but those couple hundred dollars may be worth it especially if I'm still going to have to do some work anyway. Might as well go all in. Still, I may give Welk a shot another year or for part of the points.

I'll update after my first sale.

Thanks again!

Good luck. I agree, try different avenues and see what works best for you. Please do let us know how it goes.

Mike