Determining realistic rental prices

I am new to redweek and will be listing one or two Marriott 2BR timeshares for rent soon, one for 2008 Thanksgiving at St. Kitts and the other for 2008 PGA weekend in South Lake Tahoe. My question is how do I determine the market value for these locations during these time? I would like to pull up redweek.com history during these times, but it isn't intuitive ot me. Is it possible to do this, and if so, how?

Short of this, is what is the best way to determine prices for times that are in more demand than what is currently listed?

Any help would be appreciated.

kurtp8 asks, quoted only in directly pertinent part:

>> .....how do I determine the market value for these locations during these time? I would like to pull up redweek.com history during these times, but it isn't intuitive ot me. Is it possible to do this, and if so, how? << ====================================

To the latter point, the short answer is no, it's not possible to accomplish on Redweek what you have described (nor most other sites either, for that matter, since "history" is just exactly that --- yesterday's news and likely obsolete figures). All you can really hope to do on RedWeek is locate the respective resorts in the "Timesharees for Rent & Sale" section and see if there are any comparable weeks listed for rent there during the same period (unlikely, in my prediction).

What I would do, personally, would simply be to spend the short money of a few phone calls to contact the respective resorts directly by phone, simply to find out (as a faux prospective renter, not by declaring yourself an owner who is actually competing with them for rental business) what THEY charge for a weeks' rental for the same size unit in the exact same time frame you have in hand. Obviously, your subsequently advertised rent amount will have to be plenty enough *below* that resort rental figure to justify anyone even considering undertaking the risk and complexity of a private rental in the first place. Without a substantial savings over the resort rental pricing, smart renters will likely (and quite correctly) feel that's it's safer, easier and wiser to just rent directly from the resort, if that is indeed exactly where and when they MUST be there for some particular reason (event, holiday, etc.).

Good luck.

Ken gave you some good advice above about not listing your rental at a resort's rack rental rate. If people wanted to pay rack rental rates, they would rent straight from the resort with no hassles.

I believe people that pay a resort's rack rental rates are oblivious to all the discount travel and rental sites on the internet or they have money to burn and they don't care, or don't take the time, to research the best rates there are out there.

It sounds like you have two very good Marriott weeks at very popular times of the year at some very good locations (you have to take this into consideration).

Do some research (google Marriott timeshare owner rentals) to see what other owners are listing their rentals at those resorts. On Redweek, if a week has been rented it will have RENTED on the ad. However, you must realize that just because an owner is asking for a certain amount for a rental, doesn't mean he/she will get it.

You have to try and determine what would be a fair rate that would get the attention of a renter. After you post your ad on Redweek, and if you don't get any inquiries within a month or 6 weeks or so, I would lower the rental rate (it's easy to edit your ad on Redweek).

That's a good idea about a rental history listing for Redweek. Maybe Kylie and Marty will consider this. It would certainly help members determine what to ask for their rentals.

Thanks for your helpful comments.

I have asked what rack rates are for the Timberlodge in Tahoe, but it wasn't for a particular week. I will have to be more specific. Yes, the deal I offer has to be compelling enough to not drive people to use the rack rates of the property. The golf tournament will certainly drive down supply and drive up demand.

The ocean front 2BR each with sliding glass doors and balconies looking over the ocean during Thangsgiving week may be tougher to determine a price, as I have not been there, don't know the property and am not sure of the Thanksgiving demand. I think it is one of the most demanding times of that time of the year, but am not sure. The property looks completely unbelievable. It is connected to a large Marriott propery with their many rooms choices, but there are only 88 timeshare units there. One day I will go there.

Thanks again for your help.

Re: >> That's a good idea about a rental history listing for Redweek.<< =====================================

I'd much rather see a "search" capability implemented on RedWeek first --- before ANY other new feature. A lot of good info and sound advice currently just gets completely lost after just a few days.

One limitation to a "history" is that the history of listed pricing STILL doesn't really tell the true story on figures. My gut and limited experience with rentals both suggest that many (maybe even most) private rentals are finalized at a figure even less than that which was initially advertised --- and MUCH less as the clock ticks toward the reservation date. Then again, I guess it would still at least provide a benchmark reference for ASKING prices.

Just knowing what prices were asked and rented and what was asked and was never rented for various weeks for different timeshares would be great. This would give a guideline as to what one could and should ask for his rental.

Searching is dependent on Redweek keeping historical pricing. I would imagine that if past asking prices were kept, searching would certainly be added. Right now there is searching by resort name or by location, but only for active listings.

Final rental prices may have been negotiated to be lower than asked, but we don't know and, more importantly, we would know the asked price that generated a rental.

Ken, now it is making sense. I hadn't noticed that searching wasn't a feature in the forums. This is in dire need, as endless categories make it very challening to find what one needs. Yes, searching should be added to the forums. This would also allow me and other Redweek members to see what sort of discounts people might have needed to provide from their rental asking prices.

All great comments that I hope are implemented by Redweek.com.

I think most timeshare owners would go to their exchange companies getaway lists to see what a 2 bed 2 bath would go for first. Of course, these lists are not readily open to the non-member public....but migh be helpful in seeing a low ball pricing idea.

You can easily go to the MArriott hotel reservation website to see what the price is which I guess is rack rate....

Some Marriott 2 bed 2 bath rentals in Williamsburg (Manor Club), Ocean Point (Riveria Beach/Palm Beach Gardens section) and a bit later on Hilton Head are about $400 a week in the flextime ( or even later than flextime) period right now.

Go to www.myresortnetwork.com which can also give you a price idea.

You can see how many units in an area are available by checking the RCI or II government & retired websites.

RCI easiest to use is the $329 weeks at www.afvclub.com There are several other websites that use the same search engine.

Intervals and Trading Places site is www.govarm.com

And of course, you can check Dial An Exchange*, SFX, Timex, and the other independent sites, all may have some rental units. ( I used to post the trading places units available on the tug site that were under $99.00 a week for general info....but stopped when TP seemed unhappy. They were even studios in Hawaii.

(DAE just posted (last week) dozens of weeks in a LM mode (last minute) for $99.00 a unit a week.

So, check around all over so you don't get stuck.