A fee just to look on Red Week decreases the number of potential renters

angelac572 wrote:

I am looking at this site without paying a fee. Yes I am interested in buying and all I had to do is sign in as a guest.

Anyone can LOOK at the entire RedWeek site at absolutely no cost, but in order to actually RESPOND to any sale (or rental) ads posted on RedWeek you must first become a RedWeek member. The cost is $18.99 per year, if I'm not mistaken.

This paid membership requirement to respond to RedWeek ads goes a long way toward effectively discouraging and repelling scammers, spammers and insincere "tire kickers", who won't "pay to play" and who don't want to be able to be traced. I fully support RedWeek's paid membership requirement to respond to RedWeek ads, as I personally have no interest or any desire to waste ANY of my time dealing with ANY scammers, spammers or insincere people just "kicking the tires".

I am browsing without paying a fee - I even found a property I am interested in renting! BUT - there are no access to pictures (how do I know the place is decent?) or noway to email the owner to ask about what additional fees there are (how do I know if I even can afford this)? To me it's ridiculous to charge a fee in order to get access to the basic info. Ok, if I decide to go with the process, I am happy to pay a "transaction fee" but I don't think I will pay a fee to just get basic info on offered rentals, especially considering I am a first-time user and really don't want to spend $19 for I don't know what, so I will explore other sites.

There is no fee "just to look". Personally, I support requiring paid membership of anyone who wants to respond to ads. It helps advertisers to repel scammers, spammers and insincere tire kickers, all of whom are just a waste of time. In my experience, there are still plenty of interested (and sincere) renters entirely willing to pay the RedWeek membership fee to respond to ads. I have never failed to promptly get a renter whenever I've advertised on RedWeek.

Frankly, I cannot even comprehend someone being willing to pay $1,000 or $2,000 for a rental, but not $19 for a full year of direct access to rental advertisers. In my opinion, that is just “penny wise and pound foolish”, but to each their own choice. You can of course choose to limit yourself to sites like Craigslist and eBay for free, but "free" comes with exposure to plenty of scammers and spammers and, more important, you may or may not even find rentals there comparable to offerings on RedWeek. It's your decision and your prerogative to "shop" wherever you wish, but “free” has its’ own costs of a different sort.

I just made a rental deal on TUG, only b/c I was able to contact the owner and reach a compromise on price. This site is unusable for that, and I'm reluctant to pay a fee when I don't know if an owner even is open to negotiating the price, so my $19 could just go down the drain. I can understand a $19 surcharge on completing a transaction, but currently the up front charge just prohibits price discovery and impedes deal making. Maybe there could be a refund of the charge if no transactions result from membership.

Muni S.: If you purchase a membership in order to contact an owner, then are unable to arrange a transaction, just let us know within 30 days and we are always happy to fully refund your membership fee.

If you have any further questions, please use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of any page. Thanks!

One critical thing folks are missing on this thread. You cannot see pictures without paying the 18.99. As somebody who is looking to rent a timeshare, this is a major deterrent to use this site. I'm disappointed that folks are not mentioning this above that know better. Sure - you can't contact somebody without being a member. But you also can't see the photos which is key in determining if I even want to contact an owner.

If RedWeek wants to proclaim that you can 'browse' for free, you should make the photos viewable for free as well.

Aaron B.: With a free guest account you are able to view the resort photos on all the resort pages. If you click on the smaller photos, it will enlarge them. Most owners do not put photos on their postings, since the resort photos we provide show the interior of the units, as well as the exterior and resort amenities.

If you have further questions, please use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of any page. Thanks!

I've been using Redweek for long time now. I've always been happy until this year. I'm multi-week owner and like to rent my units out. It's almost always been very quick and without incident. Now though I can seem to rent them. My pricing is one of if not the lowest for my dates. It doesn't help that I can't state that I have an ocean view. It's true Marriott can't guarantee it, but I've always gotten an ocean view for 20 plus years now. I state this, and it's up to me to deal with the client. I'm not happy Redweek did this. I may be moving on.

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

We're sorry to hear that you don't agree with our standardizing the Newport Coast Villas views. We've had many conversations with the management, front desk and Owner Services and they have very clearly advised us that they will not guarantee any guest an Ocean View. Because of this, we chose to standardize the view choices at Newport Coast Villas, and several other resorts.

Keep in mind that because renters want to be protected, the demand for RedWeek Payments is very high. We have given all of our Newport Coast owners the option of accepting RedWeek Payments when they have fixed dates posted. If you remove RedWeek Payments from your posting, this may be the reason why you're not seeing the same interest as you had before its launch.

Thanks for being a part of RedWeek.com!

andrews207 wrote:

I've been using Redweek for long time now. I've always been happy until this year. I'm multi-week owner and like to rent my units out. It's almost always been very quick and without incident. Now though I can seem to rent them. My pricing is one of if not the lowest for my dates. It doesn't help that I can't state that I have an ocean view. It's true Marriott can't guarantee it, but I've always gotten an ocean view for 20 plus years now. I state this, and it's up to me to deal with the client. I'm not happy Redweek did this. I may be moving on.

Andrew

To be honest, I'm not positive what Redweek Payments is and I know for a fact I didn't turn anything down. I'm guessing it's a secure way for clients to pay us.... and it comes with even more additional fees we can pay you.

Please help me to get caught up. I already failed to rent my spring week and my two summer weeks are almost out of time. I almost always have them rented the same day, and this year I may lose thousands.

Andrew

I also am a multi week owner with Marriott (Aruba). Normally I receive multiple queries for my units. NOT THIS YEAR. NO Interest. I have been watching the number of units being renter and the list is not growing in the 3 weeks I have listed. Red Week is losing its value! I am seriously considering a different approach next year!

Peter: Our website traffic and rentals are higher than they have ever been. What you might be experiencing is that more renters are now looking to book postings that are RedWeek Verified and Protected. We have found renters feel secure knowing that RedWeek has verified all the details of the week and the money is not distributed to the owner until two days after they check in. You might want to try adding the verification to see if that improves the number of inquiries you receive. It runs $14.99 for rental postings.

Another thing to check is your pricing. I noticed there were several studio units priced lower for the same week. If you haven't already, I would also recommend signing up to be notified as new postings are added so you can keep track of the competition. Just go to the Posting Alerts link at the bottom of the rental list to sign up.

you are wrong. there is no fee to browse. only a fee if u want to contact the owner and maybe negotiate a better price, etc...

I am considering our first family trip to Hawaii. Redweek comes highly recommended by friends who vacation there regularly. I have looked at it. I simply CANNOT understand why photos of specific units are not viewable for free. To say that people can BROWSE for free, but then not allow them to view photos is simply disingenuous. Viewing photos is part of browsing. I am used to the VRBO model where I can always see photos of potential units. To have to pay nearly $20 just to be able to see if I MIGHT be interested in a potential unit, seems like a rip off to me. I have never rented timeshares. Having a $20 barrier to entry does nothing to entice me to want to consider this approach. I agree with the original poster - I don't see how this fee would not decrease the number of potential renters. You have lost me.

annier62 wrote:

I simply CANNOT understand why photos of specific units are not viewable for free. To say that people can BROWSE for free, but then not allow them to view photos is simply disingenuous. Viewing photos is part of browsing. I am used to the VRBO model where I can always see photos of potential units. To have to pay nearly $20 just to be able to see if I MIGHT be interested in a potential unit, seems like a rip off to me. I have never rented timeshares. Having a $20 barrier to entry does nothing to entice me to want to consider this approach. I agree with the original poster - I don't see how this fee would not decrease the number of potential renters. You have lost me.

There are not necessarily an abundance of "unit photos" to look at for every resort --- with or without RedWeek membership. Such photos may or may not be provided by a resort and some may also get uploaded by owners or past visitors.

If $18.99 truly stands between you and inquiring about and / or conducting a rental, you probably will not want to pony up what it would cost you to rent a week in Hawaii anyhow. As always however, to each their own choice and preference. I personally like the RedWeek membership fee, which very effectively repels most scammers, spammers and other bothersome parasites.

Fwiw, I have quite promptly rented out any and every week that I have ever advertised on RedWeek over the past 10 years or so. If there is a "decreased number of potential renters" as a result of the paid membership requirement to contact owners, any such "loss" has certainly been completely invisible to me.

Annie: With a free guest membership you are able to view photos of the resort. Just click on the smaller photos to enlarge them. Unlike the condos and homes on airbnb or homeaway, timeshare resort units have identical furnishings and layout, so the photos you see of the units on the RedWeek resort page are most likely how every unit will be furnished (unless the resort is undergoing a renovation). You can also go to the timeshare resort's website if you would like to see any additional photos of the grounds or the units.

The $18.99 membership, in order to contact an owner, helps us prevent scammers or spammers from contacting our timeshare owners. Most scammers/spammers are not going to pay a fee to make the contact.

If you are unable to arrange a transaction after purchasing a membership, just let us know within 30 days and we are happy to fully refund your membership.

And as Ken mentioned, we have certainly not had any decline in website users. The number of people posting and renting timeshares on our website is at an all-time high for the 18 years we have been in business.

If you have further questions, please use the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of any RedWeek web page. Thanks!

I *would* be willing to pay to stay in Hawaii for a week and I can afford to do so. It’s the principle of the thing. It’s inconceivable to me that I would have to pay money to just see photos so that I would know whether or not I’m even interested...

I’m glad that it’s working for you. I really am. I just think there is a pool of people who aren’t going to want to potentially throw away $20 just to see what the possibilities are. But it sounds like there are plenty of people who are willing to pay it. As for me, I just don’t like the model...

I agree that it's a deterrent. I'm looking at options in Aruba right now and see that lots of places list prices without the fees and taxes added on. I cannot contact the owner of the place I was looking at to ask questions.

Part of renting out a place involves dealing with customers that are interested, so the owners here that love the fee as a way to lessen the interaction they have to have with potential customers are simply doing a disservice to themselves.

I can see how this model may have worked in the past when options for renting were limited. But now there are so many other online models that I don't see how Red Week will be able to sustain in the future. I'm moving on. I can look on VRBO, Air BnB, TripAdvisor, Booking. com, etc. I can see pictures, I can read reviews, I can ask questions without having to fork over 20 bucks to do so.

Good luck.

tinam571 wrote:

I'm moving on. I can look on VRBO, Air BnB, TripAdvisor, Booking. com, etc. I can see pictures, I can read reviews, I can ask questions without having to fork over 20 bucks to do so.

That's certainly your prerogative. You're free to look on other sites if you wish. Just keep in mind a couple of things. For one, a number of owners here have said that they have rented out what they advertised here on RedWeek so the membership fee has not been a deterrent for the owners. In fact, many owners like the idea of the fee to keep flaky inquirers, spammers, and scammers at bay.

Secondly, sites like VRBO, AirBNB, and Trip Advisor do not have as many resorts advertised from renters as RedWeek does. Those sites usually have owners of homes and condos renting them out.

Also, as the moderators have pointed out repeatedly, if you buy a membership but, within 30 days you are dissatisfied with what you have or have not found, you can get a refund.

Finally, and this is my personal opinion, if the $19 membership is too steep for you, you should not be traveling anyway. Nineteen dollars is a pittance of what trips cost nowadays. Heck, it costs more than that to bring a carry-on suitcase on some airlines.