Membership requirements for potential renters ($9.99 fee)

I am not currently a member of redweek.com but found the website to be very user friendly and helpful. However, as a potential renter, I was floored to find out that I had to PAY to discuss a possible rental with a fellow timeshare owner. I was interested in many postings on this website but was not willing to pay to discuss a rental. I read the fine print with Redweek.com willing to reimburse my $9.99 fee if my exact week was not avalible - but what a hassle for potential customers! My sympathies with the "members" who missed out on our offers - we ended up renting with myresortnetwork.com for FREE!

I think most members of Redweek are Timeshare owners and want to rent their week to recoup some of their costs such as maintenance fees etc. or they would like to exchange with other timeshare owners to avoid paying exchange fees. It is very difficult to find weeks to echange on this site. It would be nice if we could do a search just for exchanges. The other problem I think is because non members cannot contact owners who have paid for an ad unless they become members. They should be able to contact us without charge. I would even be willing to pay an extra $10 to cover their fee if my week is rented. There are a lot of classified ad sites on the internet that are free. Most timeshare owners don't want to pay rental fees, that is why they bought timeshare in the first place. Our best prospects are those who usually rent hotels or maybe are considering timeshare. But I don't think these people want to pay a membership hoping to find something to rent. I know I wouldn't. I think if Redweek could drop the membership fee to contact owners we would get better results.

darcy54 wrote:

I think most members of Redweek are Timeshare owners and want to rent their week to recoup some of their costs such as maintenance fees etc. or they would like to exchange with other timeshare owners to avoid paying exchange fees. It is very difficult to find weeks to echange on this site. It would be nice if we could do a search just for exchanges. The other problem I think is because non members cannot contact owners who have paid for an ad unless they become members. They should be able to contact us without charge. I would even be willing to pay an extra $10 to cover their fee if my week is rented. There are a lot of classified ad sites on the internet that are free. Most timeshare owners don't want to pay rental fees, that is why they bought timeshare in the first place. Our best prospects are those who usually rent hotels or maybe are considering timeshare. But I don't think these people want to pay a membership hoping to find something to rent. I know I wouldn't. I think if Redweek could drop the membership fee to contact owners we would get better results.

I now own and use Redweek to rent but I have in the past ponied up and rented through this site. I could be wrong but I think charging for the privledge keeps tire kickers away. If they are serious they will pay - you get alot for your money with reviews & how to's. Redweek has always worked for me.

palmtre2 wrote:

darcy54 wrote:

I think most members of Redweek are Timeshare owners and want to rent their week to recoup some of their costs such as maintenance fees etc. or they would like to exchange with other timeshare owners to avoid paying exchange fees. It is very difficult to find weeks to echange on this site. It would be nice if we could do a search just for exchanges. The other problem I think is because non members cannot contact owners who have paid for an ad unless they become members. They should be able to contact us without charge. I would even be willing to pay an extra $10 to cover their fee if my week is rented. There are a lot of classified ad sites on the internet that are free. Most timeshare owners don't want to pay rental fees, that is why they bought timeshare in the first place. Our best prospects are those who usually rent hotels or maybe are considering timeshare. But I don't think these people want to pay a membership hoping to find something to rent. I know I wouldn't. I think if Redweek could drop the membership fee to contact owners we would get better results.

I now own and use Redweek to rent but I have in the past ponied up and rented through this site. I could be wrong but I think charging for the privledge keeps tire kickers away. If they are serious they will pay - you get alot for your money with reviews & how to's. Redweek has always worked for me.

I agree that Redweek.com is a valuable resource, However, I would be interested in looking at the percentage of people who succeed in renting their week throug Redweek vs. those who list through a free agency. Serious renters take the time to research resorts at Redweek but are not informed about the fee they must pay until they actually go to make an offer/contact. There is nothing more frustrating than having our time wasted.

Members paid to join Redweek and paid more fee's in hope of renting or selling their timeshare. All people are window shoppers or tire kickers until they find what they want to spend THEIR money on. Its not a privlidge to pay Redweek a fee to see your ad.

What a sham for Redweek to make anyone pay them money and become a member just so they can rent or buy a members timeshare that has already paid!

First a timeshare owner has paid to become a member then paid a ad fee on top of this to Redweek. Then someone has to pay Redweek to become a member even though they may not want to. They are forced to if they want to or not just to rent or buy a timeshare from one of the ads on here. Talk about a scam this is totally ridiculous. Even over paying to run your ad in a newspaper doesn't require the reader to become a full time customer so they might answer a ad in the paper.Every move Redweek pulls on here is to nickel and dime everyone who comes on here.

PHILL12

I agree. I am researching whether or not to invest in a timeshare, but it seems without that "niggly" little fee, I am brickwalled as far as being able to delve into the real details. I am not a tire kicker, but unfortunately, I am also not someone who will waste my time and money when there are other "free" avenues to be able to travel to do my research and ultimately, get my timeshare, either for sale or rent.

I sold 1 timeshare within 15 minutes of posting and rented another timeshare on Redweek. My renter like it so much decided to buy the timeshare. I have been lucky with Redweek.

myip wrote:

I sold 1 timeshare within 15 minutes of posting and rented another timeshare on Redweek. My renter like it so much decided to buy the timeshare. I have been lucky with Redweek.

I have no doubt that REDweek is a useful tool to some, however, I am interested in knowing how many renters/buyers were already members of Redweek because they too have a timeshare listed with the company and are looking to invest again. I never knew my original message describing my frustration about that little pain of a fee would be shared by so many! Thanks for your responses. I only hope that someone in the company will ready all of our emails and actually do something about it! I did received a respose from the company when I emailed them directly, yet they were not willing to even look into the possibility of changing the "fee/membership" requirement to see if this would increase the number of renters for their customers. Redweek's website is so easy to use and navigate that if it were not for the $9.99 fee, I bet their sales, renters, and participation of timeshare owners would be dramatically increased. Unitl that happens, I will be advertising with other "free" companies.

kathyd122 wrote:

I am not currently a member of redweek.com but found the website to be very user friendly and helpful. However, as a potential renter, I was floored to find out that I had to PAY to discuss a possible rental with a fellow timeshare owner. I was interested in many postings on this website but was not willing to pay to discuss a rental. I read the fine print with Redweek.com willing to reimburse my $9.99 fee if my exact week was not avalible - but what a hassle for potential customers! My sympathies with the "members" who missed out on our offers - we ended up renting with myresortnetwork.com for FREE!

In my opinion, the small fee Redweek charges is not that important when surfing for a rental or a sale that includes personal contact information. Also, the fee charged is a safety net for the person listing the rental. It insures that the prospective interested renter/buyer contacting the listing owner IS a certified member of Redweek and not someone with a scam up their sleeve.

Redweek is so much more than just a listing site. This site includes pictures of the resorts, reviews and discussion. Also, with many sites you cannot list all the amenities about a resort (re: myresortnetwork.com). They require just so many words and the site includes no photos or reviews.

Sites such as redweek employ people who have to be paid, the software is not free, and the updating of the site has to be done by someone.

myip wrote: I sold 1 timeshare within 15 minutes of posting and rented another timeshare on Redweek. My renter like it so much decided to buy the timeshare. I have been lucky with Redweek.

Yes you have been very lucky on here and that is a great story.

Problem is for your story there probably is a few hundred that did same as you and ended up with nothing but wasted time and money on here.

I guess I can try to clear up a couple of misconceptions here. We actually have data that you don't have.

First, 40% of the people that are PAYING for membership on RedWeek.com do not own a timeshare. They are here to buy or rent from the owners. Those that own timeshares are also renters and buyers, of course.

Secondly, we measure the number of inquiries sent to our posting members. Our posting members receive more email inquiries than the most popular "free to contact" site... over three times as many. So, it's wrong to assume that our posting members aren't getting results.

Third... yes... "tire-kicking" and fraud are less likely on our site. Most crooks are pretty lazy. They'll go where they can make free contacts too. If they pay to access members on our site they must use a credit card or a check, giving RedWeek a traceable link back to them. We did once shut down one member that used a stolen credit card within a couple of days of the purchased membership. And we contacted those that he emailed to warn them of the potential trouble. Can we catch all scams? No. But our paying members make up a much better community to work with than the free-for-all approach. We are concerned with fraud and even invented the Vacation Escrow provided now by a top-rated escrow company, First American Title.

We have regular posting members who have used us for years. Some are professionals. Some are creating small businesses in a growing "cottage industry" of people buying resale timeshares and renting them out for a profit. They don't waste their money. They use RedWeek.com. In some cases, they use us exclusively after trying all other sites.

Having been in eCommerce for over a decade now I've heard from plenty of people who are convinced they know a better way for me to do business. Most often this better way means giving them something for free.

Finally, the last person that made an especially persistent complaint about our business model is one of the small businessmen. He recently left us in a huff because we wouldn't change to the BETTER model... the one everyone else uses. Last month he quietly returned and posted over a dozen properties on RedWeek.com. We're happy to have him back. We're happy to be of service to this community of owners and travelers.

The forums have been provided as a new service to you all. We have more coming... much more.

Randy Conrads President RedWeek.com

Dear Randy, As President of Redweek.com I can only guess that you are a busy man. As stated before, I found Redweek to be efficient in matching my needs with renters and very easy to use. However, after reading your statement that "40% of your members do not own a timeshare" brings other questions to mind , how are these numbers calculated (simple survey?), and how many of those people are returning customers? Also, could you share where you found the number of "three times as many people" make inquiries to Redweek as compared to free sites? And what is the percentage of these "inquiries" that actually turn into rentals. How many inquiries turn into successful buyers? I am interested in researching more information about this topic. I am also, somewhat concerned with the statement that paying members make up a much better community to work with. WOW! I am alarmed that a President of a company would make such a statement. I understand your thought behind the statement, yet am puzzled as to why you would so easily lump everyone who does not want to pay a fee as potential scamers. What a shame - there are millions of people out there who are honest and forthright! Afterall, couldn't this be resolved by allowing the potential renter to at least email the owners and only then, if an agreement is made, require membership from the potential renter? Or, how about not allowing people access to view what is posted for rent or sale until they pay a membership fee? - that way people wouldn't be upset from spending hours researching listings on Redweek only to find they must then pay a fee to get the final contact information. Again, personal time wasted on behalf of a potential customer! After one week, I am still amazed that my one forum question has created such a stir! Maybe the topic requiring people to be a member to even discuss renting options with owners is bigger than Redweek wants to admit!

randy wrote:

I guess I can try to clear up a couple of misconceptions here. We actually have data that you don't have.

First, 40% of the people that are PAYING for membership on RedWeek.com do not own a timeshare. They are here to buy or rent from the owners. Those that own timeshares are also renters and buyers, of course.

Secondly, we measure the number of inquiries sent to our posting members. Our posting members receive more email inquiries than the most popular "free to contact" site... over three times as many. So, it's wrong to assume that our posting members aren't getting results.

Third... yes... "tire-kicking" and fraud are less likely on our site. Most crooks are pretty lazy. They'll go where they can make free contacts too. If they pay to access members on our site they must use a credit card or a check, giving RedWeek a traceable link back to them. We did once shut down one member that used a stolen credit card within a couple of days of the purchased membership. And we contacted those that he emailed to warn them of the potential trouble. Can we catch all scams? No. But our paying members make up a much better community to work with than the free-for-all approach. We are concerned with fraud and even invented the Vacation Escrow provided now by a top-rated escrow company, First American Title.

We have regular posting members who have used us for years. Some are professionals. Some are creating small businesses in a growing "cottage industry" of people buying resale timeshares and renting them out for a profit. They don't waste their money. They use RedWeek.com. In some cases, they use us exclusively after trying all other sites.

Having been in eCommerce for over a decade now I've heard from plenty of people who are convinced they know a better way for me to do business. Most often this better way means giving them something for free.

Finally, the last person that made an especially persistent complaint about our business model is one of the small businessmen. He recently left us in a huff because we wouldn't change to the BETTER model... the one everyone else uses. Last month he quietly returned and posted over a dozen properties on RedWeek.com. We're happy to have him back. We're happy to be of service to this community of owners and travelers.

The forums have been provided as a new service to you all. We have more coming... much more.

Randy Conrads President RedWeek.com

kathyd122 wrote:

I am not currently a member of redweek.com but found the website to be very user friendly and helpful. However, as a potential renter, I was floored to find out that I had to PAY to discuss a possible rental with a fellow timeshare owner. I was interested in many postings on this website but was not willing to pay to discuss a rental. I read the fine print with Redweek.com willing to reimburse my $9.99 fee if my exact week was not avalible - but what a hassle for potential customers! My sympathies with the "members" who missed out on our offers - we ended up renting with myresortnetwork.com for FREE!

You state that millions of people are honest and forthright. That is a truism, but on the other hand millions of people are scammers, criminals and crooks, and many of those people live to surf the net to lift email addresses from FREE sites in order to send their scams and spam. Once they get those email addresses they can sell them to other scammers. The required fee to communicate with renters and sellers on Redweek is to protect those listing ads from fraud. As a lister, that makes me feel much better to be a paying member of Redweek.

As he stated Redweek has records (email addresses and credit card numbers) in order to track down those committing fraud.

Randy put it very well below:

Third... yes... "tire-kicking" and fraud are less likely on our site. Most crooks are pretty lazy. They'll go where they can make free contacts too. If they pay to access members on our site they must use a credit card or a check, giving RedWeek a traceable link back to them. We did once shut down one member that used a stolen credit card within a couple of days of the purchased membership. And we contacted those that he emailed to warn them of the potential trouble. Can we catch all scams? No. But our paying members make up a much better community to work with than the free-for-all approach. We are concerned with fraud and even invented the Vacation Escrow provided now by a top-rated escrow company, First American Title.

kathy I used to feel the same way, and here's why: I know as a timeshare owner I was not savvy enough to buy resale AND the first few years is about being hit up for money.

The mortgage company gets their monthly loan payments ($350), the resort gets their annual maintenance fees ($800), the exchange company gets their ANNUAL fee ($150)...

When you're done paying the hefty loan, you still get to pay the annual $800 and rising, then the $200 to record the deed, and an ADDITIONAL $150 EXCHANGE FEE every time you rent it out.

AND THEN, YOU GET TO PAY $10 to read this site? AND PAY $20 to list? BUT, IT'S WORTH IT because this seems like the sanest, least criminal of all things timeshare to me, anyhow. Anyone with a timeshare has probably been approached by at least one scammer (hello, people offering to rent your place for an upfront fee?)

Anyhow, email us owners with whatever offers you want to pay and we can accept or decline your bid. Just try and you might be surprised. You can even try low-balling just to see the response.

Actually, my response to low-balling is this: When I get a lowball, I go on vacation instead of you going on vacation. As simple as that.

Here's my take on pricing. When I have someone offering a paltry $400 for something that normal would rent for $2000+ and I'm charging $1000 I'm not making a profit (see my out of pocket above), I'm just renting it because I'm not using it.

Good luck with whatever site you go with, kathy. Hope you post some more in the future. You certainly woke people up.

As a paying renter who uses this site at least a few times a year I don't mind the small fee. I don't own a timeshare and have no desire to. I come here first when looking to rent a week. It is because the fee is charged. I've used other sites and ended up with my mailbox full of spam email but have never had a problem here. I've probably rented a dozen or more times from this site and (knock on wood) never a problem. I know what I'm looking for....I check it out....see if the dates I want are available and feel pretty confident that the people I email are legit renters. I even have a few that I look for first due to positive experiences.

Anyone can throw together a "for sale/for rent" site but to keep it a good one it cost money. We as the consumers are the ones paying that money. Not such a big deal. If you walk into any company the cost of running the business is passed on to the ones using it.

I for one am willing to pay my 10 bucks and keep this a good site and hopefully keep some of the scammers out.

Nancy

Charging "renters" a fee to look at whats available seems to be absolutely out of line. If my unit is rented I would pay the $10. as a charge back to me. The charge more than likely has dettered many to look elsewhere.

Secondly--

I recently wrote to Red Week as to why there are no "counters" on listing so that I would at least know how many people looked at the listing. Otherwise I have no idea as to whats actually happening. I was told that no one had called me because my price was too high compared to others. It isn't. The point is, if I knew X amount of people looked at the listing and I got no calls then maybe I have a problem.

Maybe there is and maybe there isn't anyone looking. The only one in the dark here is the lister. Red Week needs to move into the 21st century and make it easier for those wishing to rent their units or a renter to rent a unit.

Enough said.

vacationman2 wrote:

Charging "renters" a fee to look at whats available seems to be absolutely out of line. If my unit is rented I would pay the $10. as a charge back to me. The charge more than likely has dettered many to look elsewhere.

Secondly--

I recently wrote to Red Week as to why there are no "counters" on listing so that I would at least know how many people looked at the listing. Otherwise I have no idea as to whats actually happening. I was told that no one had called me because my price was too high compared to others. It isn't. The point is, if I knew X amount of people looked at the listing and I got no calls then maybe I have a problem.

Maybe there is and maybe there isn't anyone looking. The only one in the dark here is the lister. Red Week needs to move into the 21st century and make it easier for those wishing to rent their units or a renter to rent a unit.

Enough said.

As has been explained on this thread numerous times, Redweek charges a fee in order to protect their renter's and seller's personal info (re: email address, name etc.) and that's certainly NOT OUT OF LINE. If you are a renter/seller you should better understand Redweek's privacy concept in preventing any/everyone from retrieving your personal information. The vast majority of timeshare sites charge a fee for retrieving personal information. Redweek is not alone in that endeavor.

I do agree that it would be nice if Redweek offered a counter.

vacationman2 wrote:

Charging "renters" a fee to look at whats available seems to be absolutely out of line. If my unit is rented I would pay the $10. as a charge back to me. The charge more than likely has dettered many to look elsewhere.

Secondly--

I recently wrote to Red Week as to why there are no "counters" on listing so that I would at least know how many people looked at the listing. Otherwise I have no idea as to whats actually happening. I was told that no one had called me because my price was too high compared to others. It isn't. The point is, if I knew X amount of people looked at the listing and I got no calls then maybe I have a problem.

Maybe there is and maybe there isn't anyone looking. The only one in the dark here is the lister. Red Week needs to move into the 21st century and make it easier for those wishing to rent their units or a renter to rent a unit.

Enough said.