More luck renting with Tug, Craigslist or Redweek?

Hi,
I have a week to rent in Nashville during the CMA's next year. Do you generally have better luck using TUG, Craigslist, or Redweek? We generally only rent to friends so have never really advertised before. Any tips appreciated!
Thanks,
Deb

I have my best luck on Redweek
Dave

Since TUG, and Craigslist are free - the best practice is to list on all 3 sites. The more exposure, the better.

On a recent rental, I received fairly quick responses on both TUG and Redweek.

Art

Redweek, definitely. TUG I think I only ever got maybe one inquiry. Redweek, you'll get lots of inquiries, and eventually get it rented for your ask, IMO.

Craigslist--too many scammers.

Just my opinion of course.

I would use all three however I have had most success the last 2 years for my Maui unit by using Redweek.

As a person who looks to rent occasionally from an owner, I always look on TUG and Redweek.

For me it's not even close, it's Craigslist and Airbnb. CL generates over 5X what TUG and Redweek combined generate for me.

Robert D said:

For me it's not even close, it's Craigslist and Airbnb. CL generates over 5X what TUG and Redweek combined generate for me.

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Interesting. Although it's rare that we advertise a rental, when having done so never received so much as a single reply to a craigslist ad, yet have rented (same place, same week, same price, same ad) almost immediately via RedWeek. TUG didn't produce much response either. Can't speak to Airbnb, having never considered it.

Going to try Redweek and TUG

I had not been back to the Redweek site for 8 years. Had almost forgotten about them. But we will be renting our XMAS 2017 Paniolo Greens week on the Big Island and think we will list on both sites. First time renting.

Do you 'do it yourself' or use the 'full service' on Redweek?

thanks for the info

Do it myself, I don't like someone else in control , not getting the money till after they use the place. It's not that hard.

If you 'do it yourself' with Redweek

I liked the idea of being able to accept credit card payments via Redweek using their full service option. And having the rental 'verified' - seemed to me that would give people a bit more confidence in renting from a private party.

I know I have rented via TUG and sending off that check to someone in CA or Canada and just 'not knowing for sure' that all will be well was a bit unnerving - especially the first time.

thanks for response.

For $14.99 you can have your add verified giving them the information needed, it is pretty easy.

I except PayPal payments, You send them a bill to there PayPal account, they use a credit card to pay you. Pretty safe and painless.

PayPal charges about 3%, figure this into your asking price.

Dave

DeniseM said:

Since TUG, and Craigslist are free - the best practice is to list on all 3 sites. The more exposure, the better.

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TUG is free? Really? It's cheap, but not free.

chapjim said:

TUG is free? Really? It's cheap, but not free.

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Free assuming you already have a membership, and do <25 per year (most people). Having a Tug membership is good value just for the reviews if you exchange, imo.

chapjim said:

TUG is free? Really? It's cheap, but not free.

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Sorry - I wasn't very clear - I was talking about the cost of "Ads."

TUG Ads are free if you are a TUG member.
Craigslist Ads are free.
Redweek charges for membership + a fee for each Ad.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've had zero luck with CL. Just kooks. I've gotten a little action from TUG but most of my rentals have come from Redweek.

For me Craigslist works well for reservations under $500. I get lots of legitimate inquiries. For ones from $500-1200 I get a lot less inquiries but the ones I get still seem legitimate and for locations that aren't traditional timeshare areas, Craigslist still leads to more rentals than redweek for me.

For a traditional TS location during a high demand week, like Orlando over New Years Eve, or Summer/Ski during Platinum time in a name brand timeshare than Redweek is going to be the place to go.

Redweek and TUG

I let my membership drop on Redweek when I joined TUG - but will likely re join and use both when I place my rental ad. Thanks for all the tips and suggestion. Very helpful for someone who has never rented before. :0)

My top generator of rentals has been Craigslist the last two years.

Robert D said:

For me it's not even close, it's Craigslist and Airbnb. CL generates over 5X what TUG and Redweek combined generate for me.

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I've thought about Airbnb in my planned move away from "timeshare rentals". Timeshare rentals was once a great thing, but I'm finding many of my renters from Craigslist are simply looking for a vacation rental. Most know nothing about timeshares or they have a negative impression about timeshares. It wasn't always this way. I used to get more business from my rentals being timeshare related and business came from the timeshare-related listing sites.

tschwa2 said:

For me Craigslist works well for reservations under $500. I get lots of legitimate inquiries. For ones from $500-1200 I get a lot less inquiries but the ones I get still seem legitimate and for locations that aren't traditional timeshare areas, Craigslist still leads to more rentals than redweek for me.

For a traditional TS location during a high demand week, like Orlando over New Years Eve, or Summer/Ski during Platinum time in a name brand timeshare than Redweek is going to be the place to go.

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I agree with this, though I don't ever have reservations under $500. For most of my Craigslist renters, they have have no idea about TUG, RedWeek or MyResortNetwork. MyResortNetwork used to be bring me most of my rentals. Unfortunately, that seems to have dropped off dramatically over the last two years.

MLR said:

I had not been back to the Redweek site for 8 years. Had almost forgotten about them. But we will be renting our XMAS 2017 Paniolo Greens week on the Big Island and think we will list on both sites. First time renting.

Do you 'do it yourself' or use the 'full service' on Redweek?

thanks for the info

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I do think your property and the holiday time frame will do very well on Redweek. Certain property types do extremely well on Redweek and I believe Hawaii resorts do very well.

I list my Summer beach weeks on Redweek with below average results. I don't believe that I have the property types that do well on Redweek. I wish they did. It would make things a lot easier than Craigslist. But Craigslist is where the bulk of my rentals are finalized.

As far as "do it yourself" or "full service", I'm comfortable with handling things myself. However, you may not be comfortable going that route and factoring in the additional cost in your rental pricing may be the best route for your circumstances.

I will think about it a bit more.........

I am familiar with PayPal so that isn't a problem. I will decide which direction to go in a while. ONE MORE QUESTION:

Our rental will be Xmas week 2017. When should be post the listing? Now or later? How long does the 'do it yourself' listing last on Redweek vs TUG?

thanks again :0)

Tank said:

For $14.99 you can have your add verified giving them the information needed, it is pretty easy.
......
Dave

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Agree this is an option, but I hate to pay yet one more fee in trying to rent my unit, so I passed this year. I figure I'm sending them a copy of my confirmation, which is about all Redweek would do in verifying from me (or they'd call the resort directly, which the renter could also do).

MLR said:

I am familiar with PayPal so that isn't a problem. I will decide which direction to go in a while. ONE MORE QUESTION:

Our rental will be Xmas week 2017. When should be post the listing? Now or later? How long does the 'do it yourself' listing last on Redweek vs TUG?

thanks again :0)

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Redweek ads only last 6 mos. until you have to re-up and pay another fee.

I'd probably wait at least until after the holiday season, around a year before check-in.

Funny thing--I've seen a lot of activity for holiday rentals at only 2 mos. before check-in, in October time frame. Quite a few don't or can't pre-plan vacations like we do.

MuranoJo said:

Redweek ads only last 6 mos. until you have to re-up and pay another fee.

I'd probably wait at least until after the holiday season, around a year before check-in.

Funny thing--I've seen a lot of activity for holiday rentals at only 2 mos. before check-in, in October time frame. Quite a few don't or can't pre-plan vacations like we do.

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I have had good expierence renting and exchanging with TUG. Everyone I have dealt with has been very nice. I have bought and sold with Tug members and feel happy with the deals we have made.
Silentg

I think an easy way to see if Redweek.com will be a good resource for a particular resort is to look to see how many of your resort's units are listed on the site. I think if you don't see a lot of activity or the rentals are very low then you can assume RW is probably not the best site for your resort.

For instance I only see one resort in Nashville, the Wyndham and if Paniolo Greens is the xmas 2017 unit being mentioned, I don't see a lot of activity there either, only a handful of listings and the highest is $1050 for a Feb week and $750 for the other listings.