Rental Advice

torontobuyer · Jan 10, 2015

I'd like to open up the conversation about the posted advice about renting a timeshare (verify).

And don't want this thread to go with no comments for over a year.

Here's what bothers me. If I only do #3 and #5, as suggested as a minimum. Seems to me I can get scammed for $100 very easily. Because #3 can easily be fabricated, and you won't know that until you've already sent the $100 and move onto #5.

What about only offering to pay that $100 (or more, or even the whole rental) to the TS location onto the account of the owner? They aren't getting cash in hand, but they won't have to lay out that cash in future. At least this way I'd be sure it's not a scammer and the owner can confirm the money was really paid.

Seems to me, while there will always be owners that will balk at this, but if they take the time to look at the renters point of view, it does make sense. As there is nothing about doing a transaction this way that an owner should be afraid of.

Thoughts?

tschwa2 · Jan 10, 2015

It doesn't work that way. The resort isn't managing your rental so they won't take deposits for you. If you use paypal, you can open a dispute if there is a problem and you don't get your reservation.

If you don't trust the owner, insist on using escrow. Many owners won't rent to you because of the added expense and time to get their money. It doesn't mean that they are scammers. Some will accept the request to use escrow. So if that is what you need than do it or rent directly from the resort.

Sicnarf · Jan 10, 2015

I offer to reserve the unit in the renter's name and have them verify the reservation with the resort before sending me money via PayPal. This way they have some guarantee that a valid owner made the reservation before sending any money.

DeniseM · Jan 10, 2015

What about only offering to pay that $100 (or more, or even the whole rental) to the TS location onto the account of the owner?

Resorts do not get involved in an owner's private rental - at all.

If the resort provides a rental service, the owner turns their week over to the resort, and the resort handles is completely. However, that means that the resort takes a high percentage of the rent, and they may not rent your week at all.

The consumer who rents the week, pays the resort the full market rate for the rental, so they lose the advantage of renting from a private owner at a discount.

Honestly, a legitimate timeshare OWNER is not going to rip you off, because there is no way for them to get away with it.

The people you have to worry about are pure scammers - they don't even own a timeshare and they are simply stealing money from people. However, they are very easy to spot, because once you start checking them out - they don't pass muster.

Someone else asked about the "dangers" of private rentals just a few days ago:

DeniseM said:
I wrote the article: "How to verify that a rental is Legit, when you are the renter." That article has a list of 8 things you can do, to make sure the rental is safe. If you follow those suggestions, you shouldn't have any problem.

*You can use a credit card with Paypal, and that gives you the double protection of Paypal and your Credit Card.

I suggested not asking for escrow because:

• It's expensive

• Many owners (including me) will not accept escrow, because it means they must wait until after the rental to get paid. (That usually means I have to pay the maintenance fee months before I get paid.)

• When someone requests escrow, I politely decline the rental and move on to someone else.

• There are owners who will accept escrow, but many of them will not, and requiring escrow will limit your rental options, because of that.

The reason it's safer to rent from Tuggers is that you have to be a registered and paid TUG member to advertise here. In other words, you have to provide all your contact info. to TUG, and usually a credit card/debit card number or Paypal Acct., to make the payment. Scammers will not provide that kind of info., because they don't want to get caught, so they post on sites where you can post without registration.

stgermainparis said:

I've read horror stories of folks getting confirmation from the resort and then showing up to find out that the owner changed the name on the reservation. So I'm paranoid now. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Honestly - I have never heard of this happening, and believe me, if it was, we would hear about it on TUG. The reason this doesn't happen is that it would be a stupid thing for an owner to do, because they couldn't get away with it:

• The resort has all of their owner's info. and certainly would not look kindly on criminal activities taking place on their property.

• You, as the renter, should have all of the owner's info., making it easy to take action.

• It would ruin the owner's reputation in the timeshare community, and they would never be able to rent again.

• It makes no sense to steal from one person, and ruin your opportunity to rent many times in the future.

This is what I suggest to my nervous renters:

-Call the resort and confirm your reservation before making your final payment.
-Call again once a month to be sure the reservation is in your name.
-Call again one week before check-in.
-Call again the day before check-in.

The chance of an actual owner scamming you are extremely slim - actual owners have too much to lose. The people you have to worry about are not timeshare owners at all.

The people to watch out for are simply scammers who pretend to have rentals that don't even exist. Fortunately, they are easy to spot if you use my check-list because they don't really have any rentals, so they fail the verification test.

torontobuyer · Jan 18, 2015

tschwa2 said:
It doesn't work that way. The resort isn't managing your rental so they won't take deposits for you. If you use paypal, you can open a dispute if there is a problem and you don't get your reservation.

If you don't trust the owner, insist on using escrow. Many owners won't rent to you because of the added expense and time to get their money. It doesn't mean that they are scammers. Some will accept the request to use escrow. So if that is what you need than do it or rent directly from the resort.

I was suggesting the $100 deposit payment was being presented to the resort on the owners account (such as prepaid MF) not mentioning anything about a rental. Are you saying a TS would refuse this?

While I personally like Paypal for buying. There are tons of people that the very moment you mention paying with Paypal, they think they are getting scammed. Because if a buyer starts a charge back (which can be done within 45 days) the owner gets nothing.

Sicnarf said:
I offer to reserve the unit in the renter's name and have them verify the reservation with the resort before sending me money via PayPal. This way they have some guarantee that a valid owner made the reservation before sending any money.

I'd probably rent from you. However, again, as mentioned above, if someday someone does a charge back on you, I doubt you will continue this.

DeniseM said:
Resorts do not get involved in an owner's rental - at all.

Honestly, a legitimate timeshare OWNER is not going to rip you off, because there is no way for them to get away with it.

The people you have to worry about are pure scammers - they don't even own a timeshare and they are simply stealing money from people. However, they are very easy to spot, because once you start checking them out - they don't pass muster.

All agreed, was never suggesting otherwise. My point is you risk $100 just to ferret out this information. If the $100 could instead be paid to the TS, there's no risk, because like you said, a legitimate owner is not going to rip you off. And a scammer won't want anything paid to the TS, but a legitimate owner shouldn't have a problem with that.

DeniseM · Jan 18, 2015

I was suggesting the $100 deposit payment was being presented to the resort on the owners account (such as prepaid MF) not mentioning anything about a rental. Are you saying a TS would refuse this?

Toronto Buyer - The resort will not get involved in the owners private rental - period. They will not accept payments from a stranger, on an owner's account. There is no mechanism is place for this kind of payment. Not only that, but if the rental fell through, how would you get the deposit back? The resort certainly isn't going to refund money from an owner's account to a stranger. Sorry - but that is completely impractical.

There are much easier ways to verify that the owner, is the owner:

1. Talk to the owner on the phone - get a feel for who they are.
2. Request a notarized rental contract.
3. Ask the owner to email or Fax you a copy of their original reservation confirmation.
4. Ask the owner to set it up with the resort so you can call and confirm the reservation.
5. Ask if you can pay a $100 deposit, get the confirmation in your name, and then pay the Bal.
6. Ask the owner to send you a copy of their deed, with their personal info. blacked out.

CharlesS · Feb 28, 2015

What if owner is in a Vacation Club

DeniseM said:
You stated:
1. Talk to the owner on the phone - get a feel for who they are.
2. Request a notarized rental contract.
3. Ask the owner to email or Fax you a copy of their original reservation confirmation.
4. Ask the owner to set it up with the resort so you can call and confirm the reservation.
5. Ask if you can pay a $100 deposit, get the confirmation in your name, and then pay the Bal.
6. Ask the owner to send you a copy of their deed, with their personal info. blacked out.

How would you suggest using #6 if the "owner" belongs to a Vacation Club and their "deed" may be either for a different unit/week or even a different resort?

Charles

DeniseM · Feb 28, 2015

CharlesS said:
How would you suggest using #6 if the "owner" belongs to a Vacation Club and their "deed" may be either for a different unit/week or even a different resort?

Charles

Please note that I don't recommend doing ALL of these things - 2 or 3 of them should be sufficient, and that is just ONE of the options.

This statement appears right above that list:

Then - I would do no more than 2 or 3 of the following steps.... I do only #3 and #5 when I rent. If the person is not a TUG member, I would do one more step.

Rental Advice

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