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

I just found out that RedWeek charges people $18.99 just to look on the site, well I personally would not pay this to just browse, would you? As a result the volume of potential renters has decreased and this site is not as great as it once was. Pity greed will ruin your business, change it back the was it was before it is too late and you lose all your customer

Carol -

RedWeek does not charge to view our website. You are able to see the listings, prices, and our Forums pages without having a paid RedWeek membership. A membership is required only if you want to contact an owner; we have found that owners posting on free sites are more likely to be contacted by scammers or spammers. Most of these non-serious buyers won't pay a membership fee, so our owners' time is free to consider only serious inquiries. We have always required a membership fee, and the number of RedWeek users has been steadily increasing over the years.

If you have any further questions, please Contact Us .

Phyllis

Well Phylis this is wonderful information but just not true! You can go to Redweek.com but you cannot see any photos or make any contacts unless you pay the fee. You can no longer go to redweek to "look" for a deal on a terrific vacation. For looking it cost you $18.99 whew expensive just to browse. And yeah the fee decreases the number of people that will browse. As far as scammers are concerned, if you use Paypal it makes it pretty safe for everyone, since no credit card info is exchanged. Shame on you REDWEEK for being sooooo $&%#&%$#&% greedy.

Carol,

If you are not able to browse and see the listings on our website without paying a membership fee, then please contact us at Customer Support. We'll be happy to assist you and help figure out why you cannot see them.

You only need to pay the membership fee if you would like to make contact with an owner or view the details portion of a posting.

To contact us, you can either email support@redweek.com or click on this link: Contact Us

Thanks, Phyllis

I have paid the membership fee and I am a member. I am referring to the general public that would like to see properties for rental, they can not browse without paying $18.99. I believe you understand what I am saying, but just dancing around the issue. The fact still remains, the number of people looking at the site is down due to the fee charged to simply browse at vacation weeks available. Pitiful.

carolm683 wrote:

I am referring to the general public that would like to see properties for rental, they can not browse without paying $18.99.

Yes, people can browse without paying the membership. People just cannot contact owners unless they pay the membership. There is a big difference.

I like to look at it this way. Have you ever tried advertising your unit for sale or rent on a free website like Craigslist? Since many spammers and scam artists can contact timeshare owners (as well as owners of other items) without paying, many owners' inboxes are filled with robo-inquiries, spammers, scam artists and people who are not all that serious about renting. Many owners feel that this is a huge waste of their time trying to filter out such lame inquiries.

I also personally like this approach. If I am serious about inquiring and I plan to spend thousands of dollars on a vacation including around a thousand dollars for a week's accommodation, what's $19 in the big scheme of things, especially if I can find a good deal that an owner might not advertise elsewhere? Before I pay my membership, I will browse. And if I see something that looks like it will fit my bill, then I will gladly pay the $19 to contact that owner. Again, that's not much in the big scheme of things. Besides, if an inquirer cannot afford $19 for a RedWeek membership, he shouldn't be vacationing anyway.

I agree completely with lancec13 comments above. Contrary to an earlier (incorrect) statement, there is NO cost to BROWSE the RedWeek listings. For owners seeking to sell or rent out a timeshare, the $18.99 RedWeek membership fee required to RESPOND to listings discourages (and essentially eliminates) scammers, spammers, "tire kickers" and robo responses. Those annoying entities simply won't "pay to play" and I am happy to avoid ALL of those types of contacts. With RedWeek's $18.99 membership requirement, the only inquiries that reach me are generally knowledgeable and sincere people, usually already well aware of fair market rates and ready to do business --- I like that. I must also note that whenever placing an ad on RedWeek, I have usually wrapped up that rental very promptly, so I do not believe that the "pay to play" requirement reduces the pool of GENUINE potential renters for people advertising on RedWeek. Personal experience simply tells me otherwise.

For the reasons stated above, when I occasionally rent out a timeshare week that I own, I always use RedWeek to advertise . When, on occasion, I'm looking to rent a week from someone else, I also use RedWeek. In both instances, experience has demonstrated to me that the participants on both ends of a RedWeek transaction are usually well informed and honest and trustworthy and "up front" --- and I am grateful to be spared wasting time dealing with scammers, spammers, tire kickers, bottom feeders, "phishers", or assorted incoherent robo replies.

Anyone can list and / or look on Craigslist for zero --- and get that same "value" as a result. If RedWeek's $18.99 membership fee is truly a "show stopper" for a FULL YEAR of direct (and unlimited) access to advertised travel vacations, then perhaps week long vacations should not really be under consideration at all in the first place, as lancec13 has already observed above.

We are interested in looking for point program timeshares. I have received Redweek emails for years. Now that we are looking, we can't distinguish the properties of interest. I am perfectly happy to pay the fee if we want to purchase but am not sure that if I do , we will get the information that we are looking for. I would think that this should be a search criteria.

You might want to be a bit more specific. There are RCI Points, Wyndham Points, Hyatt Points, Bluegreen Points, HIVC points, etc., etc. Some points are attached to "weeks" at a particular resort, some points contracts are just "pure points" with no associated "week". It all depends on the particular "system" involved. Folks here will be glad to try to offer input, but it might help to more clearly identify the "flavor" of points that you seek.

On the other hand, I definitely see your point (no pun intended). Even with paid membership access, you would find it difficult (maybe impossible) to specifically narrow down your search to "point program timeshares" on this site. I was asking myself (and I am a long time RedWeek member already) how I would go about conducting such a "point program timeshares" search on this site --- and I frankly don't know how (or if) I could even do so at all. The RedWeek site is clearly oriented more to geographic areas, and then to narrowing things down to resorts within "subsets" of geographic areas. For "pure points' contracts", geographic areas alone don't really allow that kind of search at all. Good observation!

lindaf220 wrote:

We are interested in looking for point program timeshares. I have received Redweek emails for years. Now that we are looking, we can't distinguish the properties of interest. I am perfectly happy to pay the fee if we want to purchase but am not sure that if I do , we will get the information that we are looking for. I would think that this should be a search criteria.

If you go to "Timeshare Companies" under the "Find a Timeshare" link (http://www.redweek.com/timeshare-companies), you will see all the timeshare companies listed. If you then click on any company with a red P, you will see a link to the points resales for that company.

Please feel free to Contact Us if you have questions, or need further assistance.

Phyllis

I never realized that particular feature existed on this site, even after years of membership. Live and learn. Thanks!

phyl21 wrote:

If you go to "Timeshare Companies" under the "Find a Timeshare" link (http://www.redweek.com/timeshare-companies), you will see all the timeshare companies listed. If you then click on any company with a red P, you will see a link to the points resales for that company.

I have successfully rented my timeshare on this site for the last 8 years. This is the first year I have not. I was wondering what happened to redweek.com and now I understand why I haven't been able to rent it out. Thanks for the memories Redweek.com, but I will not be renewing my membership and paying for a ad, as it is NOW a waste of money.

Diane -

Nothing has changed since you posted your first rental in 2010. We have always required a membership fee in order to contact an owner or view the details of a posting. Our membership fee protects owners from scammer and spammers who frequent the free websites.

The number of people using our website has continued to increase each year. I notice there are many rental listings at your resort for the week you are advertising. The amount of competition may have something to do with why you are not receiving inquiries.

If you would like further advise, or have any questions, please Contact Us.

Thanks,

Phyllis

Redweek got greedy by the charges to browse, unless you are already a member of Redweek, as a result the number of eyeballs looking at your listing has decreased. PITY this used to be a great place to rent your unused weeks.

As you are the original posting in this thread, it seems to me that your OP has been answered several times. In that it cost nothing to BROWSE and to contact an advertiser you pay the 19 bucks. I have both rented and sold on red week, and quite frankly I would much rather have a serious inquiry from someone who paid the 19 bucks, than some "tire kickers" that want to bargain with me, or hackers that wants even more.

carolm683 wrote:

Redweek got greedy by the charges to browse... PITY this used to be a great place to rent your unused weeks.

So where do you now plan to advertise your week(s) for rent? Please come back and let us know how those other sites have worked for you.

And I don't know how many times this has to be said but, RedWeek does not charge anyone to browse. It only charges if someone wants to post or respond to an ad. There is a huge difference between the two.

No fee to look at all. I have been viewing the rentals for years. Just became a member yesterday as I thought I had found a rental I was interested in and wanted to contact the owner.

There is a fee to email a owner if you are not a member. Welcome aboard to the Red Week family, it is really the best way to vacation. Generally you get a 5 star place for less than the hotel search engines advertise.

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 aa a guest.

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 aa a guest.

Yes, as a guest you can look. However, if you want to contact an owner about his unit for sale/rent, you have to pay the membership fee first.