Redweek Scams?

How does Redweek monitor scams?

If I engage with a member that has a long history (let's say 10 years), does that pretty much mean they are legit? If a renting member makes a complaint (ie is scammed) by an owner - does the owner get banned and kicked off the website?

I wish they had ratings of the owners (and renters) to help develop trust.

annbelangerw wrote:

How does Redweek monitor scams?

If I engage with a member that has a long history (let's say 10 years), does that pretty much mean they are legit? If a renting member makes a complaint (ie is scammed) by an owner - does the owner get banned and kicked off the website?

I wish they had ratings of the owners (and renters) to help develop trust.

Because only paying, identified people can participate in RedWeek listings, either as advertisers or buyers, scams are extremely rare on RedWeek (if ever attempted at all). Scammers never want to pay any money out of pocket (not for membership, not to place ads, not for anything) and scammers also never want to be easily identified — and both of those requirements exist on RedWeek. Not “scammer friendly” at all.

In essence, I respectfully submit that your concerns about "RedWeek scams" are unfounded. Not so on sites like Craigslist, of course, where people pay nothing, never actually become identified and where they can (and where they do) easily operate and hide in complete Internet anonymity.

I have utilized RedWeek for many now years as a buyer, advertiser, renter and landlord. In my opinion, RedWeek is probably the safest site on the planet for anyone on any side of a timeshare transaction.

P.S. I personally think that "ratings" would be essentially worthless on RedWeek. Advertisers could (and would) always give themselves wonderful ratings. People who had bad travel experiences might “bad mouth” advertisers, despite the fact that their travel problems had absolutely nothing to do with the actual timeshare transaction. Both situations (among numerous other problematic examples) would only provide false and inaccurate (and therefore useless) "reviews". Just my personal opinion. YMMV.

This was super helpful information. I only just learned of this site yesterday as I was searching, very unsuccessfully, for vacation rentals in Florida for this upcoming spring break. I have used sites such as VRBO and Airbnb often, but never heard of Redweek and was wondering if it's a safe way to book. The above response gives me confidence so thank you.

On any site, including RedWeek, just beware of people trying to rent out weeks they don’t even actually own at all, but have instead obtained as an “exchange” for their own one-time personal use from either RCI or Interval International. Both of those exchange companies very specifically prohibit the renting out of any weeks obtained from them as an “exchange”, but some people still try to do it anyhow.

Ads on RedWeek that indicate “RedWeek verified” have been confirmed as being weeks actually owned by the advertising party. My personal recommendation is to only consider rentals that have been “RedWeek verified”. Since it only costs $14.95 for an owner to get their ad “RedWeek verified”, I would be (and in fact, I am) suspicious of any advertiser who does not obtain that ownership verification for the very small cost and effort required to do so. Just my own personal view and opinion.