My renter cancelled out, now what do I do?

I got an email that someone wanted to rent our unit and was in a hurry to confirm and send payment. I responded via email and phone to give my address to send check and had confirmed with the Resort that they would be there. Renter and I confirmed over the phone and she was sending the payment overnight as discussed. Then she didn't send the payment and called to ask if the renter could check out late, which I gave the check out time, but also said most people just use the brand new clubhouse and shower facilities if they want to later in the day. I also asked if this meant they were cancelling out and she said no. A day later and no response to my calls and no payment received. Finally an email was sent that said they were going to pass on the unit. By now it was less than 1 week before the rental period and we couldn't bank the unit without a charge of $75 per RCI.

How do other people protect themselves from being cancelled out on and taking a hit like this? This was my first experience at renting our unit and definitely not a good one...

You should have written up a rental agreement signed by both the owner (you) and the renter before confirming the unit in their name.

There's a sample rental agreement in the Buying, Renting and Selling forum, but you can word it to your liking.

Let this be a lesson to you to have a rental agreement in place for your future rentals.

BTW, why would RCI charge you $75 to bank your week with them. I've never heard of that.

jayjay wrote:

You should have written up a rental agreement signed by both the owner (you) and the renter before confirming the unit in their name.

There's a sample rental agreement in the Buying, Renting and Selling forum, but you can word it to your liking.

Let this be a lesson to you to have a rental agreement in place for your future rentals.

BTW, why would RCI charge you $75 to bank your week with them. I've never heard of that.

------- jayjay, I'm assuming the previous post had an RCI weeks resort to rent. If they also had a points resort, they can convert their weeks unit to points and deposit their additional points in their account. RCI charges a fee for that transaction, but I didn't think it was as high as $75. On top of that if you convert your weeks unit into points and it is less than 90 days before your usage date, you only get a percentage of the points.

Thanks for the explanation Mike :o) !

Thanks for the info. I don't know why the RCI person said they would charge the $75, but I've since called back and was told no charge and my week was banked. No need for further email replies, thanks again.