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Tips on Renting Out Timeshare (by Marie M.):

phill12

jennie wrote:

QUOTE frm daddyd "Bottom line is all the people trying to rent for some reason are hurting timeshare trading." ---------------------------------------------------------------------- First of all, how do you know for sure that your unit has top trading value? I hope it's based upon diligent research, and that you did not take the salesperson's word for it. So many of them swear that if you purchase the unit they are trying to sell you, you will be able to go anywhere in the world with just one phone call to I.I.

Jennie, I'm not sure if your responding to daddyd or myself with this post so I will explain my feeling on this!

AS far as knowing what trading power we have ,we owned timeshares over the years and know Florida and all the problems there but we rebought timeshare we owned years ago for many reasons and one was trading power with II.

Before we bought again I called and talk to a supervisor at II about the timeshare and what kind of power it has now. I know years ago we always received our first choice.

The supervisor who gave us her name and direct phone number so we could by pass the II agents worked well with us. We talked about three different timeshare and it came back to our first choice in Lake Tahoe. This is where we got our information and we were told this was still one of the top trading powers.

As one of other post stated last month II offered us anyone of our three choices in Maui plus bonus week to make a trade.

Next what I 'm stating about hurting trades and the timeshare world is true! Because for what ever reason for you or anyone renting out their units it is causing a shortage for trades.

Many owners with lockouts split the unit and try and rent both sides and this causes a shortage for two bedroom units for trade. The nicer the unit the more money it rents for. So if you work your way down the list from best to worse you will find not enough trades for people wanting to make a fair trade.

Because of this why will people want to buy really nice timeshare if they can't make a equal trade.

This is something that we all may see in few years., timeshares gone. Timeshares had and still have bad name because of all the crap going on with them and this is just another nail in the coffin!

Before all the renting if you didn't want to use your timeshare this year you would book it with II or Rci and take trade later or maybe take two weeks together next year.

Now because people want to rent and make little money the trades aren't there for other owners to trade for. This is why I would only belong to II because I will not give up my unit unless I get trade I want! IMO

Since most of our timeshares trade through RCI, I am not that familiar with I.I.. Almost all of our weeks are 2 bedroom/2 bath units at Gold Crown resorts. Some are lock-offs. Between 1995 and 2002, we did over 60 exchanges through RCI and were very happy with the results. But when Cendant acquired RCI, a lot of timeshare weeks started showing up on web sites as rentals, available to anyone, even if they did not own a timeshare or belong to RCI. The number of weeks and web sites increased every year. At the same time, the number and quality of weeks offered to me and other owners decreased.

There were endless discussions about this problem at the Timeshare Users Group web site. It wasn't just some "fluke" on my end. My resorts and the weeks we own were, and still are, just as "prime" as they were during all the years we would quickly receive almost any week we requested from RCI as an exchange. I would deposit them at the earliest possible date--two years in advance--and submit a list of numerous resorts and dates we wanted. Since around 2002 sometimes 18 months would go by without us being offered a single week we wanted. We were not being too fussy either. We were even willing to accept one bedroom units most of the time. The resorts we were requesting were comparable to what we own, or even lower in quality. Nothing that we didn't deserve.

Meanwhile the weeks we were endlessly waiting for would show up on a particular auction site. So I started bidding on them and "won" many times. I paid between $215. and $475. for the weeks. The confirmation papers had the RCI logo on it and looked exactly the same as the paperwork we would receive if it had been obtained via exchanges. So I stopped depositing our weeks with RCI. I would obtain what I wanted through these auctions and then rent out our weeks. Many other people have been doing the same thing.

A long overdue class action lawsuit has been filed against Cendant/RCI alleging that they are depriving members of fair trades by renting space-banked weeks to the general public. There have been several detailed articles about the problem in Timesharing Today Magazine (http://www.tstoday.com). Subscribers receive a very informative magazine bi-monthly. They also receive a password which allows them to access all of the articles in all past issues, at their web site.

Since the lawsuit was filed, I no longer see prime weeks appearing on the auction site or on the 4 other web sites which regularly posted prime timeshare weeks for rent. If the lawsuit forces RCI to return to giving members fair exchanges, many of us will consider space-banking our weeks instead of renting them. In recent years I have been renting our weeks and then using the money received to rent a comparable week directly from other owners. It takes more time and energy but it provides a better chance of receiving what RCI should be providing, but has failed to do, due to greed. Their behavior is considered to be immoral, probably illegal, and if allowed to continue, will have a very negative long-term impact upon the entire industry. Don't blame the dwindling supply of 2 bedroom units on the small number of people who have been astute enough to figure out a way to get around the problems created by Cendant.

With respect to your specific situation, if my recollection is correct, you are being offered the Maui weeks you want in 2008, but not in 2007. If this is correct, perhaps you did not deposit your week early enough with I.I. ??? The weeks you want may have been readily available at one time but were given to other members who put in their request before you. People planing a trip to Hawaii generally plan way in advance so that they can get reasonable airfare.

Many timeshare owners wishing to trade into Hawaii report excellent results from Trading Places International, a smaller independent exchange company http://www.tradingplaces.com

And also The San Francisco Exchange Company http://www.sfx-resorts.com/

Good luck!