Redweek? So many questions-I need help please!!!

[alohamom]

Hello my fellow Dis'ers.

I have always been adventurous with travel sites and have used many different methods in the past including Priceline, VRBO, renting DVC points and the list goes on BUT I have never actually used Redweek.

I am seeing some availability on Redweek where other sites are saying there is no availability for my time frame.

I know I would be renting from a timeshare owner and that I have to pay to join the site in order to rent from an owner.

That is about all I know LOL.

How is it that Redweek has owners posted with availability and no one else does? Is it just to get you to join only to find out that the owner posted has other weeks but not the exact one you want open?

How much can I trust the people posting there? I know it is always buyer beware but is there a rating system for posters?

Any info about this would be greatly appreciated...

What has been your experience with Redweek? Good or bad?

 

[MrO]

Hello my fellow Dis'ers.

How is it that Redweek has owners posted with availability and no one else does? Is it just to get you to join only to find out that the owner posted has other weeks but not the exact one you want open?

How much can I trust the people posting there? I know it is always buyer beware but is there a rating system for posters?

Any info about this would be greatly appreciated...

What has been your experience with Redweek? Good or bad?

I also looked into Redweek when looking for a place to stay for our trip but ended up going with something else.

I assume that owners either have confirmed reservation that they can't use so they sell them on RedWeek or they know which weeks are hot so they book them to try and make money by renting them out for double or sometimes triple the cost of their yearly maintenance fees.

 

[lynnfitz]

Hi, I did rent from them once, and it all went fine. It was quite a few years ago. A few years after that, I inquired about a rental, and I received an email directly from Redweek stating that this was a new poster who I was renting from (I forget actually what the "red flags" were with this person), but basically they told me in the email to be very cautious of this listing-again, sorry I forgot all the details, it was quite a few years back. It might have been that the person I was going to rent from, Redweek couldn't verify that he actually owned there.

 

[Upatnoon]

Hello my fellow Dis'ers.

I have always been adventurous with travel sites and have used many different methods in the past including Priceline, VRBO, renting DVC points and the list goes on BUT I have never actually used Redweek.

I am seeing some availability on Redweek where other sites are saying there is no availability for my time frame.

I know I would be renting from a timeshare owner and that I have to pay to join the site in order to rent from an owner.

That is about all I know LOL.

How is it that Redweek has owners posted with availability and no one else does? Is it just to get you to join only to find out that the owner posted has other weeks but not the exact one you want open?

How much can I trust the people posting there? I know it is always buyer beware but is there a rating system for posters?

Any info about this would be greatly appreciated...

What has been your experience with Redweek? Good or bad?

I've tried to use redweek, but found after contacting the owner that the listing was stale -- no longer available. So just because you see a listing, don't count on it really being there.

 

[alohamom]

I've tried to use redweek, but found after contacting the owner that the listing was stale -- no longer available. So just because you see a listing, don't count on it really being there.

Aha-this is exactly what I suspected!

 

[MrO]

I've tried to use redweek, but found after contacting the owner that the listing was stale -- no longer available. So just because you see a listing, don't count on it really being there.

That's brutal if they're not going to purge once a rental is gone, or is this up to the person that is renting to clear their listing?

 

[bankr63]

I would not just focus on the downside of Redweek. There is a difference in the "inventory" you see on there vs. other rental sites. Skyauction, for instance, is listing unused inventory that they get either from the resort developer/manager (i.e. unsold inventory) or unbooked dates from the big exchange companies (II or RCI). RW is showing you weeks that belong to timeshare owners and that have NOT been deposited for exchange. For those who are in flex/float systems, they will have access to inventory during the owner reservation period long before it gets posted to a site like SA (but you need to be planning a few months in advance). So the point made above about it being different inventory is completely valid; if you can't find a week on SA or similar, you can quite possibly find it on RW (or TUG) BECAUSE an it is an owner's week that hasn't been deposited.

RW is a bit like the classified ads. Listings come down when they have rented through RW, but an owner can post that same week on TUG, eBay and Craigslist all at the same time. If it rents through a different channel, the advertising owner should pull the listing, but not all do that. If it was a rampant problem, RW wouldn't be a very popular option however. I expect most listings are pulled quickly once rented; who wants to be saying "no" over and over again?

As to the comment about owners renting for 2-3 times their cost, I find that hard to swallow. Owners maintenance fees in Orlando average around $1000 per usage week (Hawaii fees are getting into an eye-popping $3K/yr range) . And for those owners who purchased retail, it goes nowhere towards recouping the cost of their heavily depreciating asset. Looking at Sheraton Vistana Resort right now on RW, there are 89 listings, about 50% are at or below MF, 40% are slightly more than MF, and 10% are stupid priced and will probably never rent (kind of like Amazon marketplace ). I don't think many owners are making a profit on there, or even covering costs. Actually, that is specifically why I prefer to deposit my unused weeks with an exchange company as I can't cover my costs by renting our Orlando TS myself through RW.

 

[TamaraQT]

I have used Redweek for the past 5 years and have NEVER encountered a problem. I thought Redweek requires their owners to provide proof of the week/points they own. If they don't require it, then I am surprised. Based on the owners I have been in contact with, it seems they undergo a little more scrutiny than ebay and craigslist but I could be wrong. I may be biased in my opinion because I've only had positive experiences with the owners I found on Redweek to rent from. Personally I feel more comfortable and confident renting from Redweek than I would on Ebay or craigslist. Now speaking of TUG....I am a member at TUG and I wouldn't hesitate a single second to rent from a fellow TUG member. However, I have always been able to find better bargains on Redweek. But as a member of TUG I have been able to score a few last minute rentals on TUG. This feature is offered to book/rent within a 45 day window and the rental cannot be above a certain dollar amount which is currently set at $700. So just imagine the last minute deals!!!

 

[alohamom]

@TamaraQT thanks for your input, I see there is a green bar against some Redweek listings that say "verified & protected" so I have been only looking at those, just in case