Timeshare

Timeshare

antoinettea7 wrote:

This is my experience renting from Peter Sejna. We rented a unit at the Aruba Marriott Surf Club that was being offered by Peter Sejna. Although the travel ban into Aruba from the U.S. due to the Coronavirus Pandemic made the unit uninhabitable as we were not allowed to fly into Aruba, he refused to give us back our money or EVEN A PORTION OF IT. We even tried to make things fair and asked if he would split the amount - (not his fault unit couldn't be used; not our fault Aruba closed borders to U.S. Citizens) he would not budge and kept the entire amount! Told us we knew the risk!!!! Redweek said there was nothing they could do as we dealt directly with him. Word to the wise - Always use Redweek Vertified as they will refund your money in this type of situation. EVERY PERSON I KNOW WHO RENTED A UNIT DURING THE ARUBA BORDER CLOSING (there were 6 families) RECEIVED THEIR MONEY BACK FROM THEIR OWNER - EXCEPT FOR US.

Interesting - Did you know of any travel restrictions when you rented the week? How far in advance of check-in did you request to cancel? Did you buy travel insurance and would it have covered your loss?

Insurance - One advantage of using Redweek Verified is access to the travel insurance. Unfortunately, it seems most renters do not purchase it and then expect the owner to make up for it by refund or adjustment.

We requested a refund when we knew for sure that Aruba was closing the country until after our expected check-in. The point is the other owners my family rented from (Which were not Redweek verified) gave partial (if not full) refunds because of this pandemic. Meeting somewhere in the middle would have been fair and beneficial to both parties. Instead he and the “owner” chose to keep the full amount.

Sad this happened to you.

I try to be fair in our couple of rentals but sometimes renters make it impossible. For example, some delay raising the issue and exhaust or limit alternatives open to the owner such as a change in the reservation, an interval deposit, etc. If it gets down to only one option - a cash settlement, it becomes really tough.

Redweek has a feature on full service rentals that encourages communication between the renter and the owner and even tracks them on the site. Ultimately, I think delaying recognition of issues is a big problem.

Hi I'm new here but read this and wanted to let everyone know that even if you buy travel insurance it doesn't cover a PANDAMIC! I had a business trip scheduled for the end of April to Ireland, I purchased travel insurance that did not matter! The lesson is no point in buying insurance they wont cover it. :(

The above post is simply not correct. In point of fact, there are CFAR (cancel for any reason) travel insurance policies which do NOT exclude pandemic related closures or restrictions from coverage. Such policies are expensive, to be sure, but it would be inaccurate to claim that they do not exist.