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Re: Rental Escrow (by Phil L.):

John you are right about the cost difference for Atlantis. You are staying in one of the highest price timeshares.

I'm the one that posted about renting direct from the resort in many cases because of safety and many owners asking for to much money to start with so difference not that much.

You mention couple reasons of why many owners will not rent to you if escrow included no matter who pays it.

I know many owners are using the rental fee's for their vacations or maintance fee's or other uses and will not wait for two weeks after renter has their vacation to get the money. It is even harder for a owner of a resort that everyone wants and they will not waste all that time waiting for the money.

Another important reason and I don't mean you but you brought it up in your post. There are scammers who own but there are also scammers who rent and will try and screw the owners after enjoying the timeshare.

There have been many stories on these forums from a renter that wouldn't leave the unit after the week or renters enjoy their week and then leave day early and complain of major problems and reason they left early and want their money back and many other possible excuses just to get the money back. I read one last year that after five days this lady complained of smells on carpet,of coarse it took five days and resort sprayed even though they smelled nothing.

You stated that what if you show up and you have no reservation in your name. First you get proof from owner that they are the owners and have your week to rent. This is simple as a copy of the reservation for that years use showing its in the persons name. This can be faxed or mailed to you with a contract for you to sign and pay the fee.

Many owners want half the rent now with signed contract and final pay payment with proof of reservations.Also owner in most cases will state no refunds because in this rough time many renters will rent a timeshare then watch for better deal as dates get close and want to cancel or restructure the rent so many owners have to play hard ball and will not refund the money or cancel your reservations.

Always be sure you are going before paying your fee.

Next owner calls resort and puts reservations in your name and has paperwork from resort stating everything in your name. Owner should send this to you with resort phone number and maybe name of person in the office so you can verify this information yourself. You should already have the owners address and phone number and talk to them about your agreement. Only after all this do you send final fee's to the owner.

You need to remember that you are saving a bundle of money as long as things go right and this is reason for renting from a owner.

If you do not feel right about this owner then you should just forget it and like I said rent from the resort and spend the extra money.

Remember this is a two way street and owner doesn't know you any better than you know him so trust has to be on both sides of this deal.

Hope this helps! PHILL12