How to rent your unit at the last minute

Any suggestions about how to advertise or drop the price to rent a few weeks before the rental period?

maryr9 wrote:

Any suggestions about how to advertise or drop the price to rent a few weeks before the rental period? I would like to rent my unit in Puerto Rico for $500 but also I would be interested in renting from others at discounted prices at the last minute

Hi Maryr, i have the same problem. I have a unit for rent on Sanibel Island FL for first two weeks of MArch. (Interested? Take a look at my posting!) I had it rented on Redweek but the deal feel through for personal reasons on renters side. I had it off the market for crucial weeks. Now I am adding local ad in Sanibel paper, local ad in our Pennysaver etc. There is also another sight called VRBO that some on REdweek have recommended. Hope this helps. I will check out your rental! mary

You can go to Craig's List free and list and it works great and I have used it few times! I would go to Tug site(www.tugbbs.com) and use last minute listing free! You can list 45 days and under and only for $100.00 per day which would be $700 for the week.

I believe you only register as a guest free to use the Tug last minute forum!

You can drop it as time gets short and I have seen top Hawaii units available for under $500 but use was like two weeks away.

Mary from your post it sounds like you only want $500.00 so this might be perfect for you at no cost. Same time you can move around Tug and see how great it is free and join later if you decide to.

This seems to be the most active site for last minute that I have seen.

I find that newspaper advertising gets very expensive compared to the boards like here, vacationtimesharerentals.com and myresortnetwork.com.

The TUG2 is an OK posting site. Does your owner's association have a web site with postings, often that is the best, about 1 in 5 resorts have them.

phill12 wrote:

maryd108 wrote:

maryr9 wrote:

Any suggestions about how to advertise or drop the price to rent a few weeks before the rental period? I would like to rent my unit in Puerto Rico for $500 but also I would be interested in renting from others at discounted prices at the last minute

Hi Maryr, i have the same problem. I have a unit for rent on Sanibel Island FL for first two weeks of MArch. (Interested? Take a look at my posting!) I had it rented on Redweek but the deal feel through for personal reasons on renters side. I had it off the market for crucial weeks. Now I am adding local ad in Sanibel paper, local ad in our Pennysaver etc. There is also another sight called VRBO that some on REdweek have recommended. Hope this helps. I will check out your rental! mary

A very good place and it is free is Craig's List. List it in your area and also on CL in area of the timeshare with good price. We have rented off the Sacramento Ca CL before and also sold daughters car when we gave her new car. Remember first rule on any of these sites is be careful and do your homework! Make sure you mark for e-mails to go through CLand they will forward to you. This way you can contact only the ones you want.

GOOD LUCK!

floridaparadisenetf wrote:

Travel > Lodging > Vacation Rentals > Other

Mary it is to bad about not renting your timeshare. This is one of the down sides to owners trying to rent their week when there are so many owners trying to also rent.

Now its to late for you to bank your week and go enjoy a vacation. I do hope you have the time and money to just go enjoy your home resort. You know the reason you hopfully bought your timeshare.

It would be sad if after all this expense you get no use out of your unit. I feel this rent wave will slow down soon because there are 1000's of owners going through your same problem every week. Maybe this will get owners back to banking their units. PHIL

I paid to have an add placed in the Islander and never found the ad...would like to know a better way of making sure the ad actually is going to appear and know where to find it. I also paid for the ad and when I did I was charged again for Redweek.com membership when my current one had not expired yet. How do I contact them to let them know this happened.

Marty checks all the new posts. She will note your rquest, and post here or maybe e mail you.

Phil above has already suggested a few ideas. Even if you are having a $$ problem with RW....put the ad in anyway, you need to rent, and time is too short to wait for problem answers...you might lose the rental to someone who could have used it. Pretty sure you will get the RW problem resolved.

Phil also mentioned the Last Minute Rental forums on the www.tugbbs.com This COULD work, it is free, but the rules must be followed exactly, or the post will be removed. You have a time limit, and a price limit, as it is a distressed forum for those who really need to try to get SOMETHING back...maybe not even their maintance fees. Warning on the rules indicate no exchanges from II or RCI should be rented. This appears to have begun to happen with the independent exchange companies as well....but not sure.

kekouri wrote:

Phil also mentioned the Last Minute Rental forums on the www.tugbbs.com This COULD work, it is free, but the rules must be followed exactly, or the post will be removed. You have a time limit, and a price limit, as it is a distressed forum for those who really need to try to get SOMETHING back...maybe not even their maintance fees. Warning on the rules indicate no exchanges from II or RCI should be rented. This appears to have begun to happen with the independent exchange companies as well....but not sure.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to be a paying member of Tug to post and view the last minute rental forum.

maryd108 wrote:

i have the same problem. I have a unit for rent on Sanibel Island FL for first two weeks of MArch. (Interested? Take a look at my posting!) I had it rented on Redweek but the deal feel through for personal reasons on renters side. I had it off the market for crucial weeks. Now I am adding local ad in Sanibel paper, local ad in our Pennysaver etc. There is also another sight called VRBO that some on REdweek have recommended. Hope this helps. I will check out your rental!mary

Sanibel Island is a very popular location and I would be very surprised if you don't rent that week. March is spring break for most high schools and colleges. I would definitely keep the ad here on Redweek as I can almost assure you that you'll rent it as popular as Sanibel is.

brendak71 wrote:

I paid to have an add placed in the Islander and never found the ad...would like to know a better way of making sure the ad actually is going to appear and know where to find it. I also paid for the ad and when I did I was charged again for Redweek.com membership when my current one had not expired yet. How do I contact them to let them know this happened.

Hi Brenda,

It looks like you have also contacted support about this and your request was replied to. Please continue to correspond with Jamie if things aren't correct.

Thanks, Marty

Cindy (NTHC) does it all the time & her profile says guest. I also see PLL posting & that profile says guest:

http://tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=56835

I was pretty sure the committee said the LMR boards for distressed weeks would be open to all...no charge. The sighings board is closed to non members in an attempt to avoid the management companies from seeing the lists off the exchange boards, but I don't think that works...anyone on the management companies & developers can pay the fee and join.

jayjay wrote:

kekouri wrote:

Phil also mentioned the Last Minute Rental forums on the www.tugbbs.com This COULD work, it is free, but the rules must be followed exactly, or the post will be removed. You have a time limit, and a price limit, as it is a distressed forum for those who really need to try to get SOMETHING back...maybe not even their maintance fees. Warning on the rules indicate no exchanges from II or RCI should be rented. This appears to have begun to happen with the independent exchange companies as well....but not sure.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have to be a paying member of Tug to post and view the last minute rental forum.

kekouri wrote:

Phil also mentioned the Last Minute Rental forums on the www.tugbbs.com This COULD work, it is free, but the rules must be followed exactly, or the post will be removed. You have a time limit, and a price limit, as it is a distressed forum for those who really need to try to get SOMETHING back...maybe not even their maintance fees. Warning on the rules indicate no exchanges from II or RCI should be rented. This appears to have begun to happen with the independent exchange companies as well....but not sure.

Oh, you're right, it's the Sightings forum that you have to be a member to access, not the last minute rental forum ...... my bad.

maryd108 wrote:

floridaparadisenetf wrote:

Travel > Lodging > Vacation Rentals > Other

Thanks, I tried Ebay last year but my lisitng was pulled a day or so later. Something about not being allowed to list real estate ??? I don't recall. HAs that changed and now it's okay? Thanks for your help.

Ebay makes you buy a "Square Trade" symbol to list under the vacation category. You can avoid the fee by listing it under a generic category. I've had decent luck at this, but don't get much in the way of rent. You can start out with a high minumum bid, then lower it in subsequent auctions.

Whenever I had to rent something fast, I usually send a mass email to friends and family and only charge the lowest price I paid for it. Then it goes really fast.