How
to Rent
Your Timeshare
Updated 8/8/06 by Dave M.
Want to rent your timeshare
week out? Don’t know where to start? Don’t
know how much to ask or where to advertise or whether to pay an
up-front listing fee? Check the TUG Advice section (link at the top of
this page) for pertinent articles and read the info that follows:
Note that although you can generally rent a week that you own at your
own resort (a very few resorts restrict rentals), the rules for most
exchange companies prohibit rentals of weeks obtained through the
exchange company, whether obtained as an exchange, Bonus week, Getaway,
Last Call, One Plus One, etc.
Start by
determining how much rent you should ask for your week.
- Call
the resort and, acting as though you want to rent a unit for your
use, ask how to find a rental and what the rates are for the week you
have in mind. The resort may have a rental program and may be able to
give you a $$ amount.
- Also
ask your resort for rates for weeks in other seasons or ask them
to fax you a rate sheet, showing rental rates for all seasons. You'll
soon see why you need that info.
- Ask
the resort if they know of any realtors or other entities that rent
out weeks. Follow up on these leads.
- Check
the Sunday newspaper for the resort area for “timeshare rental”,
“vacation rental” or “short-term condo rental” classified ads of
realtors or individuals that list weeks available for rent at your
resort or at other nearby resorts. Call realtors that have ads, even if
such ads are not for your resort, and ask what rates would be at your
resort (for your week, of course).
- Next
do a Google.com search, using the name of your resort (in quotes
if more than one word), and various words such as timeshare,
rent or rental, and the name of the state
in which the timeshare is located. Mix and match these terms to come up
with different sites that might list rentals for your resort. Here, as
with some other sources, you'll need to do some interpolation of rates,
because (for example) that week 27 on the beach listed for rent will
fetch a much higher rent than your week 20 in cooler weather before
school gets out. That's what the rate sheet that you get from the
resort is for - to make comparisons.
- Search
TUG and the other rental sites in this
list of rental and resale sites frequently mentioned positively by
TUGgers for rentals at your resort.
- Search
current and closed auctions at eBay for rentals at your resort,
using some of the same search terms as in your Google search.
- Check
the Getaway or Bonus week inventory at II or RCI for the location
and dates for your planned to rental. If there are such weeks available
for rent in the same general area as your resort, you might have
trouble renting your week, even if your week is at a different resort.
Take those rental prices into account in setting your price.
After you have gathered as
much evidence as you can on what similar
weeks at your resort rent for, consider that you likely don't have the
same advertising clout that the resort and some other listings do. If
you choose to use any or many of the sources you have searched to
advertise your week, you should be able to get as much rent as anyone
else on that site. But if you really want to rent it, price it below
what others are asking and definitely at least 25%-40% below what your
resort asks for similar rentals.
Where should you advertise?
The work you will have
done above should provide all of the info you need to determine the
best places to advertise.
To enhance your chances for a successful rental experience, here
are three additional suggestions:
- Never
ever pay an up-front fee (except for a nominal
$15-$30 classified ad fee) to list your week for rent.
Success rates after making such payments are between poor and
non-existent!
- Read
the entire article on How to Sell Your Timeshare
The principles in that
article for (1) up-front fees, (2) where to list your week, (3) scams
to avoid, (4) timely and accurate information, and (5) cold calls from
those asking for a fee to sell your week for you all
apply equally to rentals.
- There
are three sample rental agreements in the TUG
Advice section under "Renting Timeshares". Also, Timesharing
Today has sample rental contract documents (and instructions
for closing your deal) that you can order or download for about $10.
Some would suggest listing
your week for rent for the amount of your
maintenance fees. Unfortunately, there is rarely a direct correlation
between such fees and the fair rental value of your week. If you really
want to rent it, offer it at a price that will get it rented!
Here is some additional advice posted by PerryM in November 2005 on one
of the BBS forums:
After making 50+ rentals here is some advice to both parties:
Renter:
- The most secure way to rent is to use an escrow company
that holds
the money until AFTER the check-out date. Realistically many landlords
will tell you to take a hike – there are so many folks who want to rent
and have no problem paying the entire amount up front and without an
escrow agent.
- Ask to get a copy of the reservation BEFORE you pay money.
Ask for a
phone number to the resort and verify the reservation. Unfortunately
the landlord can easily call up and reassign the renters name to
someone else. Word processors and ink jet printers can duplicate just
about any document and have it looking real. Getting someone to pose as
the resort takes just a throw away cell phone. So if someone wanted to
scam a bunch of folks out of a lot of money wouldn’t be hard.
- Get a rental agreement that spells out what’s involved.
However, if
something goes wrong are you going to hire a lawyer at $200 per hour to
fight a $1,000 rental – of course not.
- Pay with PayPal – no lost checks in the mail and proof of
payment.
Can use credit card to make time payments.
Landlord:
- Get 100% of the money up front – there are so many flakey
renters
out there who change their mind that taking a deposit and finding out
30 days before check-in that the renter is not going forward means a
loss of a lot of money.
- Get a rental agreement and make sure that the person
supplies a copy
of their driver’s license and prove that they are at least 21 years
old. Many resorts require the person checking in to be at least that
old.
- Get a 10% security deposit returnable 14 days after
check-out. You
would be surprised how folks want that deposit back and don’t trash the
place.
- Call the resort 14 days before check-in and double check
the
reservation and ask for special handling like no smoking rooms or rooms
that face a certain direction, etc.
- Call the resort 1 day after check-out and confirm that
there were no
problems. The renter has to put up a credit card when checking in but
if they max out and there is damage the resort will come calling on
you. Find out before you return the security deposit.
- Always ask for PayPal payment – the renter thinks he has
some
protection when paying with PayPal and Credit Card – the truth is he
does not; but he feels much better and you get paid instantly. The 4%
process fee is small compared with a renter who sends a Cashier’s Check
AND the carbon copy and then it gets lost in the mail – what a disaster
– you don’t get paid and he thinks you stiffed him and he has NO proof
of payment and must go thru a 90 day refund period with the bank and
put up a bond.
I’ve never had a renter request escrow and would not go along with it
if they did. Folks so scared always turn out to be a pain.
********* this live article is available on the TUGBBS online forums
here:
http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43
