greenban Poll: OWNERS Rental Experiences

[greenban]

Dear DVC OWNERS:

Given the recent concerning threads about bad rental experiences, I felt a poll to categorize Owner's rental experiences might be informative. This poll is for Owners only, I will link a Renters poll later.

Please name *NO* names. This is not a witch hunt, nor a praise board.

Thanks,

-Tony

Please feel free to post details about the good, bad or ugly of your experience, just please no naming of names!

 

[browniemtb]

I must say this is a hard poll to participate in. My first rental experience was not so good, being strung a long for 6 weeks waiting for a deposit. Finally when I cancelled this ressie I rented the points again to a great family. Communicated well and was very prompt with everything. I voted excellent just because of my last rental.......renting will be like space mountain..lots of up and downs and sometimes you just can't see where you are going....
Brownie

 

[nucpharm29]

Our rental experience was pretty good--but ended up making me feel like the bad guy. The people we rented to were prompt to pay, and we had specified in our rental agreement that to get a refund that they would need to cancel 31 days or more before the ressie was to start so we wouldn't have any points in a holding acct. Well, 1-2 days before the start of the reservation I got an email stating that the family needed to go out of the country and could they cancel--luckily for us, he was extremely understanding and kept up his end of the bargain b/c of the contract we had agreed to. I felt bad b/c they lost their money, but sometimes business is business.

 

[mama03]

We use our points, so do not rent too often. The first time we rented out points, with much nail bitting, the transaction went smoothly. I was paid by cashiers check half when rental was confirmed and the rest 30 days before their trip. If I ever rent again I will get full pay 60 days ahead.

 

[CarolA]

RENT?? I use all those points. LOL!

 

[Starshine]

I've only rented once, but it went wonderfully. I did cancel and rebook twice for my renter due to hurricane season, but she was great about it (knowing there might not be availability), and the entire process was very smooth.

 

[Allan]

I've rented 3 times with no problems at all.

 

[RichAyers]

Actually one small transfer of roughly 20 points - went off without a hitch to another owner........Then two rentals to the same family over two years....Went perfect for both sides!

RichAyers

 

[skibum]

Transferred points to another new owner. Great communication, and went off without a hitch. Will do it again.

 

[Happy Birthday Cat]

Even though it's been a couple of years since I last rented out my points, every time I did, it was a terrific experience. Met quite a few nice people.

HBC

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

All three of my completed rental experiences were great. I took personal checks all three times.

 

[Tamar]

I've "met" some very nice people and everything's gone smoothly. My rentals were mostly banked points that came with resales, not sure that we'll be renting very much now that we don't have those extra points to play with.

 

[Granny]

We had to rent some of our points this year...ended up with four different reservations for four different people to use up the 250 points were were offering. That number includes one cancellation early on that I think was due to point rate shopping.

I would rate the whole process somewhere between "good" and "fair". We had no problems, but frankly it's a bit of a hassle and required a lot of ongoing communications and follow up. Still, it is nice to have the avenue for times like this year when we really needed to rent out some of our points.

I'd do it again if we have to, but hope that we never are in that position again. The people we dealt with were all nice, but the process itself is a hard one due to the mutual trust issue. We had no payment problems.

 

[BillM]

I've done one transfer without any problem.

 

[Tine731]

I did not vote because I have rented 4 times but it was to family/friends. I did have them sign a contract and pay in full 60 days out. I dont think I will ever use the dis to find a renter.

 

[mouse4ever]

We rented at BVC for the first time in September. The person I rented from was wonderful and I would rent from her again in a heartbeat. She called me a couple of times to see if I had any questions and she called just a couple of days before we were leaving (there was a potential hurricane headed to FL at that time) to let me know that if I wanted to change my reservations to a different time to avoid the hurricane I could do it!!! I can't say enough good things about her and what a great time we had!


Oops!!! Sorry, I just realized I put this under the wrong poll! Thank you to those owners who allowed us to have a great vacation. Someday I will be an owner too (I hope!).

 

[mmmcq]

I have rented when I have had to cancel a personal reservation and knew we couldn't use the points in that use year....so there were a lot of points. We tend to use 200-300 every other year on one long vacation. So I had 3-4 renters in one year. Most of the transactions were seamless and the renters were prompt in payment, great with communications and generally I had none of the problems that have been described recently on this board. I did have one renter, however, who moved the reservation 2-3 times and required a lot of maintenance. After all was said and done, I thought it was way too much work for $10pp.

Given the recent rules changes, however, and the situation experienced recently by Dani, Stacy and perhaps others....I'm honestly not sure that I will ever rent again. Our points are just too precious to risk. We didn't buy the points with renting as even a remote possibility, but experience on these boards gave us that option.

I think I'm really okay with that decision.

 

[DVCJones]

I voted good because I have only rented my points once. A HUGE 12 points

The first person to contact me sounded really interested. we agreed to a price. I made the ressie. I emailed her the conf# and sent her the paperwork. Two days before our agreed payment day she asked if I could wait 2 more weeks. She said she was getting paid in two weeks and could make the payment then. (remember we're talkin 12 points here)

I agreed. 2 weeks came. She asked me to hold the reservation for two more weeks. I politely said "no thank you" I did tell her that I would keep her reservation in the system until I could find someone else to rent them. I also told her if her finances changed, I would still honor her reservation.

I never heard from her again and I did find someone to rent my points. The 2nd transaction went very smoothly

 

[DBBN]

I Voted "Excellent".

Like others have mentioned I too have "met" very nice renters while managing our rentals. I've had only one cancellation and was very happy to refund their deposit and final payment even though my rental agreement clearly states NO RUFUNDS for cancellations. The points from the cancellation did go into holding but as it worked out we were able to reallocate them to a reservation we would be using ourselves, so no points were lost. Keeping their money just didn't feel right.

I've found the two most critical elements of a successful rental are communication and expectations. We get the renter's address, home phone number, mobile number(s) and email. We provide the same information to the renter. I've never had a situation when I couldn't communicate with a renter or they with me. We let our renters know when we'll be out of town or out of the country and provide them with an alternative means of contacting us. Trust between the parties builds as we proceed through the process.

I have refused to rent to individuals who I get a "bad" feeling from and I make no apologies for making that decision.

It does take some time to do it right but I believe you get out what you put in. I couldn't be happier with our renters or my experiences while managing our rentals.

 

[champagne27]

I did a transfer 1x time and it was only for 9 points that we could not use but it went extremely smoothly.

Not sure if it is valid but I feel safer transferring rather then renting.