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Worldmark rooms avail on VRBO but not owners dashboard

Keith Nelson

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Was thinking of a trip to Pinetop AZ in a couple weeks, and just checked for availability thru our owner dashboard. There were NO units of any kind avail for the days we considered. In fact, there was nothing for the couple days before or after.

Not easily giving up - decided to see what might be avail on VRBO. We really like the area of Pinetop that's by the Worldmark, so clicked a corresponding dot on the map. The Worldmark Pinetop popped up as avail ? I clicked book now, and it guided me all the way thru to where I would put in my credit card.

I haven't used the timeshare in a while - can someone tell me - is this how it works now? VRBO has rooms set aside that are not avail to owners?

Thanks for your thoughts.
 

presley

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People will put their timeshares for rent on VRBO sometimes. Some timeshare owners buy excess points/timeshares with the intention to rent out for a profit.
 

geist1223

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Megarenters continue to be a problem with WMTC. However each time the WMTC BOD try things to restrict Megarenters it hurts the small Owners even more.
 

Keith Nelson

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Ahhh, I understand what's going on. I don't like it, but I understand. I suppose these landlord style owners are using (abusing) the easy booking and cancellation system to maximize profit and minimize loss. I did notice a couple years ago that the bonus time rules changed, probably because of this. I don't know the rules incredibly well, but I wonder if they actually restricted bookings under non-owner names for dates less than 2 weeks out?
Probably trite to say, but when random people rent on VRBO or AirBNB, they must be more likely to not care for the property the way owners/family/friends would. Perhaps a fee imposed for bookings under a different last name? Not to make things more complicated, but the focus on the initial intent of timeshares - for owner families to take vacations with friends.
 

bizaro86

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Ahhh, I understand what's going on. I don't like it, but I understand. I suppose these landlord style owners are using (abusing) the easy booking and cancellation system to maximize profit and minimize loss. I did notice a couple years ago that the bonus time rules changed, probably because of this. I don't know the rules incredibly well, but I wonder if they actually restricted bookings under non-owner names for dates less than 2 weeks out?
Probably trite to say, but when random people rent on VRBO or AirBNB, they must be more likely to not care for the property the way owners/family/friends would. Perhaps a fee imposed for bookings under a different last name? Not to make things more complicated, but the focus on the initial intent of timeshares - for owner families to take vacations with friends.

They do restrict bonus time usage booked at 14 days to the owner only. The system won't change the name to a guest.

Also, there is a guest fee already to change the name on the reservation. Its $99 each time after a nominal amount of free ones - anyone who is doing lots of rentals on vrbo would use out their free ones quickly.
 
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