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

phill12

jayjay wrote:

Most people bought timeshares for only one reason and that is to enjoy your vacations for many years. Not to rent their unit out and then go rent someone else's timeshare. This was set up to trade and no matter what we think of these companies it still is the safer way to do things

I stick with my statement in other post that if you need someone to rent your unit to cover your mf then you shouldn't own a timeshare!

Now greed has set in and every body wants to rent for small profit and some try for large profit...Pick up your phone and bank your unit so other owners can use it. Then next year you may be able to take a very good vacation or two weeks together.

Buying timeshares to make a living is a bad investment and I doubt many people would disagree with me.

You are correct when you state that most people bought their timeshares to enable them to have nice vacations every year. I still advise people to buy a unit at a resort that they would like to return to most every year. Six of the timeshare weeks we own fall into that category. We look forward to spending two weeks in our 2 bedroom lock-off unit in southeast Florida in Febraury each year. We enjoy our week in July at the Jersey shore. And we love our 3 weeks in August on Cape Cod.

We used to space-bank (deposit) our high quality prime season weeks on a frequent basis because we wanted to use them "to see the world." Through exchanges we have stayed at timeshares on the four major Hawaiian islands, and in Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, Paris, London, Rome, Assisi, the south of France, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, Aruba, Nassau and Freeport in the Bahamas, Canada, San Francisco, Escondido, Las Vegas, Sedona, Williamsburg and Vrginia Beach and Alexandria, Virginia, the Manhattan Club, Atlantic City, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and all over Florida. And many more places than I can't remember at the moment.

Hubby and I were so happy with the wonderful vacation exchanges we received that we kept buying more weeks to use for exchange purposes, for ourselves and family members.

But over the past 7 years or so, the exchanges we have been offered have become increasingly less desirable, and the amount of time we have had to wait before anything becomes available has grown longer and longer. Meanwhile RCI has been renting weeks we are waiting for to the general, non-timeshare owning public. Experienced owners believe the weeks have been "raided" from the "weeks exchange bank." By this I mean, if I deposit one of our prime two bedroom units, it may never be given to another timeshare owner as an exchange. It will quite possibly go to someone who has rented it from one of the many web sites RCI uses to increase their profit, at our expense! You and I have paid thousands of dollars to acquire the weeks we own. We pay annual maintenance fees, real estate taxes, special assessments, and RCI or I.I. membership fees. RCI turns around and makes our week available to "any Tom, Dick, or Harry" at a fraction of the price an owner pays for the right to use the same week. Since RCI has acquired the week for free, and will make less than $200. in exchange fees if they assign it to another ts owner, they make a better profit it they rent it out or auction it off for an average of $300. to 600. .Thank God a major law firm has finally brought a class action lawsuit against Cendant and RCI attempting to stop this practise.

Until RCI and other exchange companies are better regulated and held accountable for the way in which they have been doing business in recent years, I refuse to be a "sucker"or "victim" and give them my precious weeks. It is they who are greedy, not the timeshare owners who, out of anger and frustration, have to find other ways to get the "exchanges" they desire and are entitled to. And not have to wait an inordinate amount of time (e.g. 12-28 months) to find out which "crumbs" if any RCI will throw our way. I miss out on a lot of airfare sales during the endless wait.

So please do not feel that we are renting our weeks to make money. There is too little profit, if any, to make it worthwhile for the average person. But if I want to vacation this year or next at a different timeshare, I'd rather rent one of our weeks and then use the money to rent directly from another owner who has the same "issues" with RCI. I have done so many times. You have the same opportunity. Why don't you try it? You may like it much better, especially if you own a week that is truly desirable.

Beware of relying upon the opinon of an exchange company employee. There is often times a "incestuous" relationship between the excahnge company and some resorts (especially if they are owned by the same parent company such as Cendant). It's amazing how many mediocre (or worse) Cendant owned timeshares have a "Gold Crown" rating. But that's a whole 'nother story.