Anyone had Luck Renting out their Condo on this site?

Part of the reason why we can't find buyers for our weeks is that Redweek's internet marketing is bad.

I would guess that most people looking for a place to stay in say Orlando, FL, would google "orlando vacation rental" or "orlando accomodations". However, if you try googling these obvious search phrases, you'll see that Redweek is a) not paying google for a sponsored link and b) doing a poor job at search engine optimization because they do not appear in the organic listings for either of these phrases.

In fact if you search for a more targeted phrase like "orlando timeshare rental", they do come up, but under the fold at the bottom of the non-paid organic listings.

Perhaps they are optimizing or paying for other phrases, but they are certainly missing a lot of potential internet traffic for top timeshare destinations like Orlando.

Redweek is a timeshare ad site .... you have to google 'orlando timeshare rentals' ..... Redweek is the 6th listing .

JayJay, Joel has a valid point. I have several eCommerce sites so can testify to the point that forcing potential buyers/renters to sign up for an account just to look at what's available or read reviews drives folks away. In this time of credit scams & identity theft unless folks feel very comfortable with a site (e.g. SSL enabled) they are reluctant giving up any information. I myself the first time I came to this site was looking for a rental, browsed until I found what looked like a nice resort, clicked Read Reviews and was immediately informed that I had to create an account. Click and I was outta here. I'm not giving you my contact info just to read a review.

That said, once a potential buyer wishes to go further and contact an owner then yes it is appropriate to ask them create an account.

Joel, you are welcome to use the myriad free sites to advertise. I find leads from those to be time-consuming dead ends most of the time where people don't understand there is no maid service, don't understand that there is a kitchen, don't like checking out at 10am, etc etc etc

I am very glad to have a model like Redweek in order to save my time to spend on only the serious leads.

Both of mine (rental and sale) expired without action. I think Joe has a valid point. I di appreciate the forum, though, warning about timeshare scams.

I get more than enough inquiries for my RW rental ads, just no bookings. I don't think their failure to do optimizing is the primary issue right now, it's owners who rent units below maintenance and owners who split lockoff units and secure larger units then rent them for less than the maintenance for the larger units. It's customers still searching for deals. Until owners can collectively hold their prices higher, customers will continue to lowball and wait for the deals.

Having said that, it would be nice if RW spent more to increase traffic even more. While I agree charging users to communicate with owners appears questionable, you all paid to join RW. Don't pay to join, then complain how everyone has to pay to join and you think this affects the traffic. Yeah, it affects the traffic. But that's not what's keeping rental priced low.

This is my first time on this site and I came here via a banner ad on a travel forum. I just want to point out that I am now going elsewhere (I hate to say it, but yes, CL will be my next stop), simply because as a person looking for a rental for late summer, I refuse to sign up and pay $14.99 in order to obtain contact information for rental properties. I don't have any information or statistics to share on advertising, rental rates, etc, but it seems like common sense that in today's economy, when every dollar counts, paying $14.99 for information one can obtain elsewhere for free, doesn't make much sense. I'm not much of a web surfer and I don't have the time or patience to check 50 some odd sites to get an outrageously good deal,and I honestly would have most likely booked something from this site had I not had to pay the sign up fee. Just sharing this on the off chance it may make a difference to the owners of the site. Perhaps consider giving a new member a first timer trial? I might feel more inclined to sign up as a customer who had a wonderful experience having rented from this site. Good luck and I wish all of you a happy and healthy year.

siaf2 wrote:

I refuse to sign up and pay $14.99 in order to obtain contact information for rental properties. I don't have any information or statistics to share on advertising, rental rates, etc, but it seems like common sense that in today's economy, when every dollar counts, paying $14.99 for information one can obtain elsewhere for free, doesn't make much sense. I'm not much of a web surfer and I don't have the time or patience to check 50 some odd sites to get an outrageously good deal,and I honestly would have most likely booked something from this site had I not had to pay the sign up fee.

You say you don't have the time or the patience to check 50 some odd sites, but you refuse to pay Redweek a mere $14.99 member fee for contact information. The fee is to protect the ad owners from spam, tire kicks, email lifters, scammers etc. I would not want my email address listed on any site without paying a membership fee for the privacy and protection.

The spammers, scammers, tire kickers and email lifters peruse free sites for such information.

This is my first year on RW as a paid member & I think it is way too costly. Therefore a deterent to seekers. Pay to become a member. Pay to advertise, pay to search. Why? Members pay to list, why do renters have to pay to search. The BEST site for me for Royal Resorts in the past was MEXICONDO. A very successful model. Unfortunately the owner got ill & it was discontinued. BUT excellant & worked everytime, both both parties. A fee to list the property should be enough. & yes, they do have to advertise more.

I think the guy is involved with red week. He knows for certain that Red week will not change their policy. I to have failed to renew my membership because of a lack of sucess. \

Paying a membership maybe fine, but after that there is another fee to list a property...the length for listing also has diffrent charges. I wanted to list for late rental & certainly found it too much money for each week, so rented it without listing on RW! I thought the membership covered listing as well...

I have never had a problem with spammers on craigslist postings because Craigslist uses an anonimyzer system that doesn't show your real email address.

To Red Week management: if you are concerned about spam, why not implement something similar to craigslist's anonymous email. Like the other people said, I think it's reasonable for advertisers to pay a listing fee but to ask potential searchers to sign up is getting in the way of sales.

Just came back and read all of the replies to my original post here. Many have confirmed everything I stated, but still no action from RW to eliminate, or maybe as one of the posters suggested 'give a trial and if successful will be glad to sign up'. Now THAT is a GREAT Idea Red Week!

Please Help us Rent Our Units in order to HELP with Our Maintenance Fees. PLEASE!?

Thank You in Advance! Sincerely, Joe L.

I will repeat a previous post I made.

The fee (to contact ad owners) is to protect the owners from spam, tire kicks, email lifters, scammers etc. I would not want my email address listed on any site without potential customers paying a contact fee in order to protect my privacy. If you were an ad owner you'd feel the same way.

Spammers, scammers, tire kickers and email lifters peruse free sites for free information ..... Craigslist is a happy hunting ground for those people.