Tips for Renting Your Timeshare

Many timeshare owners know how difficult it is to sell a timeshare. But not many timeshare owners know how difficult it is to let your timeshare for rent. The truth is many owners do not take a right approach to rent their timeshares to interested people. A wrong approach can not only increase your net loss on renting but also in some cases your unit may remain unoccupied without being rented. But if you adopt a right strategy and approach you can minimize this liability to a great extent. Basically there are two approaches which are discussed in the following paragraphs.

One approach is to go to your timeshare resort and tell them to let your unit for rent. Although it looks like an easy option which saves us from the hassle of advertising. But timeshare resorts typically charge a fee for renting out the unit. The resort pools the rental income with other timeshare owners. The resort then splits the income if the unit was not rented for a whole week. This is the reality and timeshare resorts tell its owners before hand not to expect the unit to go for whole week of rental. It can be either 2or 3 days or 3or 4 days or rarely may be a week. And worst thing about renting through the resort is its whopping 30-40% commission which is a great loss for the timeshare owner. Let us do a quick calculation of numbers. If you rent out the unit for $150 per night and assume that someone is renting it for 3 days. So three day total rent should be $450. If the resort charges a commission of $150 then you are only left with $300, which is your net rent. Now if you pay $400 in annual maintenance your net loss will be $100. Now you got to question yourself is this really worth it? Obviously the answer will be no. Let us forget for a moment that you want to make a profit on your rental but at least you don’t want a loss also or to be practical, a minimum loss. 

Now let us look at other option of going through a broker to rent your timeshare unit. When I say broker beware, like any other industry timeshare industry is also susceptible to scammers and frauds. Make sure that the broker is a licensed broker and specializes in timeshare rentals and sales. A reputed name will be a safe bet in this regard. Ok now, you went to a licensed broker and he charges twenty five percent commission which is little better than your resort company. There was a huge rush of people to rent their units. You wait for a week, for two weeks and now months have gone by and still there is one to rent your timeshare. Now you have to pay your annual maintenance fee, you feel that you have not done enough to manage your rental property properly. You now consider other options.

The other option is to market your timeshare property by yourself which is the best and most reliable option. What are the available options? You can either put an advertisement for rent in classifieds of newspapers or through the classifieds run by Timeshare Resort which targets the right people i.e. those who are willing to rent a timeshare. The other option is to put your unit on auction sites such as eBay and bidshare.com. And keep in mind that your timeshare will be listed in travel section but not real estate. You have to be preapproved by square trade which can take up to five days. The square trade will also need a proof of the ownership of the timeshare unit preferable deed or the maintenance bill. After this the unit is placed on auction on the website. Remember to be cooperative to the bidders and answer all their queries and give them the complete information about the unit. Your timeshare unit could go as close as your maintenance fee and thus less loss. The bottom line of renting your timeshare is to never to expect a profit on the rent but only less loss.

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