COVID-19 Related Cancellations

They did change the trade of POINTS to be used within 120 of the said calendar year...and if it was a WEEK...then is deposited into Interval...but...as I did (for the week I WAS to be traveling) and did the deposit inside of 30 days..I have to wait 30 days before trying to reserve..but I do have 2 years. But then have to PROBABLY pay the $99 fee

Redweek's Arbitration panel - As I read these postings, it seems the arbitration panel makes and imposes decisions on the owner without consultation. Further, we are subjected to this process only if we run our transactions through Redweek's contract and collection process. Is this true?

I'm starting to think I may be better off as an owner to revert back to working directly with the renter. This more personal approach has always worked well for me and I have gained new friends and renters. With respect to verification, I usually include a copy of the reservation as an addendum to the simple contract. The renter can then determine the validity of the reservation with a call.

Any thoughts?

This is a reasonable consideration of refund to the renter. I will seriously consider that route to refund the renter. Unfortunately, my rental rate was not considerably higher than our maintenance fees, with dropping the rate to assure the rental to be selected. My newest problem is to see how to make this transaction take place.

Would be nice to hear more if this is happening for many other resorts. Orlando does not have Hawai’i’s mandates this time , but I am sure a request was made to cancel my rented week. I plan to refund the renter the excess of my maintenance fees but will be surely miffed if not informed by Redweek soon enough that they are refunding and no time for me to bank the week. Crazy times

Same for all of us (Vistana owners):

See Section 7 of the rental agreement updated to March 5, 2020:

"Owner is not responsible for an inconvenience or interruption of services, etc.etc. or for any other reason beyond Owner's control".

This is exactly what travel insurance is for. RedWeek blew it for those of us who are owners.

One approach for our beach timeshare rental - I have a renter who accepted the "moderate" cancellation policy under the Redweek lease which gives them the option to terminate the agreement with notice 60 days out and forfeit 50% of the rent. The rental is about 105 days out.

I reached out to the renter and we had a call. We both expect the resort to be back to normal by the July check-in date. However, I offered to allow cancellation of the rental agreement with just over 90 days notice and full refund of the rent (rather than 60 day notice). The renter has an out and I feel good about the compromise. We are in communication.

Should the renter cancel, I will then determine what to do with a longer 90 day period for rental, Interval deposit, or possible use by our family.

I expect Redweek will enable the refund and allow continuation of the original listing.

We will see what happens.

decoratingplus wrote:

Would be nice to hear more if this is happening for many other resorts. Orlando does not have Hawai’i’s mandates this time , but I am sure a request was made to cancel my rented week. I plan to refund the renter the excess of my maintenance fees but will be surely miffed if not informed by Redweek soon enough that they are refunding and no time for me to bank the week. Crazy times

Deborah Don't expect to be informed by Redweek soon enough. I was expecting my renter to cancel and even checked at Midnight eastern (3/21/20) the night before check-in: Not A Whisper! At 2:00 PM on day of check-in I was informed of a "Dispute" that was filed and ruled in renter's favor for full refund, this despite only having rented less than 3 weeks before...well into the pandemic. I lost my usage and maintenance fees; had I been informed 15 hours earlier, I would have been allowed to cancel with restrictions on usage and re-booking.

I'm trying to be proactive and positive through all this. However, I see weak spots that enable renters to take advantage of the situation. It seems Redweek may be the invisible enemy with super powers to the disadvantage of the owners.

I suggest Redweek "slow down" this perceived bullying effort by the so-called arbitration panel. The arbitration panel should share information with both owner and renter before making a decision which might be viewed as arbitrary. There is a big difference between an "arbitration" panel and an "arbitrary" panel.

I would like to have a chance to approve any "give away" actions by Redweek before a decision is rendered. Redweek can at least call me to discuss.

The same thing happened to me only 5 days before the renters were to check in at the Waiohai in Kauai. I was never contacted by Redweek or the renter to try to work something out. Instead I got the same message about a dispute having been opened, Redweek deciding in the favor of the renter to return the full cost.

I am now too late to get my week moved to a later date with Marriott. Instead they are giving one week at Interval International, which I have found virtually impossible to book/use. I will definitely NOT list my rentals on Redweek again.

True arbitration takes both sides into account.

According the rental agreement Section 7 they were not allowed to cancel any reservation without owner's consent. I don't expect to get my money back because it's already gone but I won't use RedWeek again without demanding that they require their renters to take out insurance.

I am confused on where to go to cancel the reservation with the renter. Suggestions?

REDWEEK 'S "ARBITRATION" TEAM REFUNDED ENTIRE RENTAL AMOUNT TO MY RENTER WHO MADE NO EFFORT TO CONTACT ME. MARRIOTTS WAIOHAI WAS OPEN AND MULTIPLE AIRLINES WERE FLYING TO KAUAI WHEN MY RENTER WAS CONTRACTED TO CHECK IN. REDWEEK UNILATERALLY DID THIS WITHOUT ANY INPUT FROM ME. I LOST THE USE OF MY UNIT AND PAID THE EXPENSIVE MAINTANENCE FEES. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU WERE SIMILLILARLY TREATED BY REDWEEK. THE ARBITRATION LETTER SAID MY UNIT WAS "UNINHABITABLE". IF MY RENTER HAD NO INTENTION OF SHOWING UP THEY SHOULD HAVE CANCELLED. THIS PANDEMIC DIDN'T START YESTERDAY. VERY DISAPPOINTED IN REDWEEK. I WANT TO APPEAL. RENTER SHOUD HAVE GOTTEN HALF OR NONE. IMO REDWEEK FAILED IN THEIR FIDUCIARY DUTY AS THE GO BETWEEN BETWEEN ME AND MY RENTER. I REQUESTED HIS PHONE NUMBER SO I COULD CALL AND SEE WHAT HIS INTENTIONS WERE AND I WAS TOLD SINCE THEY WERE THE INTERMEDIARY IN THE TRANSACTION THEY WOULD NOT GIVE ME THE RENTERS NUMBER. VERY DISSATISFIED WITH REDWEEK. NO EVIDENCE THEY MADE ANY ATTEMPT TO SAVE ME FROM LOSS OF USE AND PAYMENT OF FEES.

This pandemic is a one in a hundred year event that nobody could have imagined would happen . Redweek has to make a difficult decision based on the information in each contract . One of the parties is going to lose obviously . There might be a little light at the end of the tunnel . Contact your home resort and ask if you can bank your week due to the health emergency and hopefully rent it out after the emergency ends .

Put yourself in Redweek's shoes . You're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't . Let's work together and see if there is a solution that most people can live with . I also stand to lose my week this year due to the shutdown . That might be the price I have to pay and I have no control over it .

The fair thing would have been to split the cost between renter and renter.

Regardless of the virus, I would be better off by letting the renters out of the existing contracts and have Redweek return their money. I could then relist for rent without having Redweek in the middle and reach a fairer solution with the renter, if necessary.

I liked the idea of having Redweek take on the contracting and collection and hope Redweek will rework the program.

Redweek, please listen and help us protect ourselves. If you are willing to make changes, please tell us what changes you will make. The first change should be that there are no refunds without owner consent. Also, slow down these refunds, make the renter justify the refund to the owner.

***Solution for weeks not rented - Go to the listing and edit the contract section to use your own contract and have the rent come directly to you. It works.

Soooo....I am thinking go and cancel the week now with Marriott. It will go into Interval with the lousy 30 days before rescheduling a stay, but at least not lost. Creative re-usage of this week will be for like Orlando, Hilton Head or some other place with a plethora of resorts to select from at the last minute. Will just have flights planned for the area and grabbed what we can.

markh501 wrote:

decoratingplus wrote:

Would be nice to hear more if this is happening for many other resorts. Orlando does not have Hawai’i’s mandates this time , but I am sure a request was made to cancel my rented week. I plan to refund the renter the excess of my maintenance fees but will be surely miffed if not informed by Redweek soon enough that they are refunding and no time for me to bank the week. Crazy times

Deborah Don't expect to be informed by Redweek soon enough. I was expecting my renter to cancel and even checked at Midnight eastern (3/21/20) the night before check-in: Not A Whisper! At 2:00 PM on day of check-in I was informed of a "Dispute" that was filed and ruled in renter's favor for full refund, this despite only having rented less than 3 weeks before...well into the pandemic. I lost my usage and maintenance fees; had I been informed 15 hours earlier, I would have been allowed to cancel with restrictions on usage and re-booking.

Communication is the key. Redweek should have sent out notices to all involved 3-4 weeks ahead of the start of rental to allow flexibility, if any, to occur. Eliminates a lot of problems. As they are handling, or not in my case, there will be ill will by owners. Continued lack of response to past reservations will make it worse.

Owners all received the exact same letter. It was done across-the-board with no special consideration was given to any owner regardless timeshare or hotel chain. None of us was contacted by RedWeek prior to the receipt of the letter. Please refer to line no. 7 in their contract with you: "Owner is not responsible, etc., etc.," Renters should have purchased insurance just as many of us do for most trips we pay in advance for. RedWeek illegally returned money (or so they say) that belongs to the owner. My guess is that renters have yet to receive that pay out and if enough owners complain via separate email rather than on this venue, we may be able to recoup something. Meanwhile, we all out a great deal of money.

toddh230 wrote:

REDWEEK 'S "ARBITRATION" TEAM REFUNDED ENTIRE RENTAL AMOUNT TO MY RENTER WHO MADE NO EFFORT TO CONTACT ME. MARRIOTTS WAIOHAI WAS OPEN AND MULTIPLE AIRLINES WERE FLYING TO KAUAI WHEN MY RENTER WAS CONTRACTED TO CHECK IN. REDWEEK UNILATERALLY DID THIS WITHOUT ANY INPUT FROM ME. I LOST THE USE OF MY UNIT AND PAID THE EXPENSIVE MAINTANENCE FEES. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU WERE SIMILLILARLY TREATED BY REDWEEK. THE ARBITRATION LETTER SAID MY UNIT WAS "UNINHABITABLE". IF MY RENTER HAD NO INTENTION OF SHOWING UP THEY SHOULD HAVE CANCELLED. THIS PANDEMIC DIDN'T START YESTERDAY. VERY DISAPPOINTED IN REDWEEK. I WANT TO APPEAL. RENTER SHOUD HAVE GOTTEN HALF OR NONE. IMO REDWEEK FAILED IN THEIR FIDUCIARY DUTY AS THE GO BETWEEN BETWEEN ME AND MY RENTER. I REQUESTED HIS PHONE NUMBER SO I COULD CALL AND SEE WHAT HIS INTENTIONS WERE AND I WAS TOLD SINCE THEY WERE THE INTERMEDIARY IN THE TRANSACTION THEY WOULD NOT GIVE ME THE RENTERS NUMBER. VERY DISSATISFIED WITH REDWEEK. NO EVIDENCE THEY MADE ANY ATTEMPT TO SAVE ME FROM LOSS OF USE AND PAYMENT OF FEES.

phyl21 wrote:

Susan: I could not find any communication from the owner of your rental in our system. The owner would just need to send us an email (support@redweek.com) stating he will be canceling this rental and has agreed to provide the renter with a full refund. We will handle it from there.

Redweek: The owner has emailed and tried contacting you. Can you please proceed with the cancellation ASAP?