Rental ageements

I am corresponding to the owner of a rental listing. We have agreed on dates and a price, and the owner wants me to send a sizeable deposit. I am not comfortable sending money to a stranger without assurance of a legitimate rental contract and confirmation from Ko Olina. How best can we safely proceed?

You can use the RedWeek service and pay and be paid thru them, they charge $100 total to do that service. It is a title company. Or just ask the owner to tell you the reservation number then you can verify thru Marriott that the reservation exists. After you pay the owner all he needs to do is call Marriott and add your name to the reservation. Marriott will send a confirmation email to the owner which he can forward to you. You could also pay thru PayPal.

I just left Ko Olina, having rented a 3BR Ocean View from a Redweek member. It was fantastic. I was nervous because she was asking for full payment up-front. It was within 2 months, otherwise she would have accepted a partial payment. I called Redweek to see if there were any complaints about her. The only thing they could tell me was that she had rented her units out quite a few times with no complaints. I called Ko Olina, and she did indeed have that week reserved. I sent the money via PayPal. She listed me as a guest, and we received confirmation from MVCI. She even requested a high floor ocean view for us. It was incredible. We were on the 15th floor, and the view was amazing. We were in 31524, which is tower 3, floor 15, unit 24. It may have been the best vacation week I have ever had.

Did MVCI charge you a fee for renting out your unit?

I'm not sure if your question was directed at me. I was renting the unit from the owner. However, I do know that MVCI did not charge her a fee. She just listed me as a guest, she didn't actually transfer anything over to me. It all worked out great though, and I had no trouble checking in.