Owner must rent out - how???

[RichCD]

I've recently been laid off, and while I've debated it in my head over and over, it probably isn't the best time for my family to take the vacation we have booked. I'd like to rent the reservation, but have no idea how to do that. Here are my questions:

How easy is it for the owner to put the reservation in someone else's name?
There lots of tips for potential renters to make sure they get a contract from the owner...is there a contract anywhere online to download?
If I decide not to rent, how much of a pain is 'holding.'

Thanks for the help!

Rich

 

[JimMIA]

You have several options, depending on where you are in your Use Year and how soon your ressie is.

The simpliest option would be to just cancel the reservation and bank the points if you don't plan another trip by the end of your UY. That assumes, of course, that you are more than 31 days from checkin and have more than four months left in your UY.

The only situation where you can list an existing ressie for rent on the DIS DVC Rent/Trade board is within 30 days of checkin.

However, if you are more than 31 days from checkin, you could cancel the reservation and just list the points for rent, and then book whatever dates the renter wants.

For contracts, see Granny's excellent DVC rental contract thread: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=895654

How big a pain is holding? That depends -- when do you want to use the points? If you want to book during a busy time, obviously not being able to book until 60 days out is a problem.

However, if you have a lot of UY left, and you are flexible on your dates, you may not have much of a problem at all. One of my daughters recently got into a holding account problem, but within a couple of weeks they'd booked two short-notice ressies and used up all the holding points.

 

[RichCD]

...as I violated a rule in this forum by posting the details of my reservation. Suffice it to say, I am within the 31-day window, and would still like to know what information needs to be given to MS in order to rent a reservation, and if there are any problems to look out for.

Thanks!

 

[JimMIA]

...as I violated a rule in this forum by posting the details of my reservation. Suffice it to say, I am within the 31-day window, and would still like to know what information needs to be given to MS in order to rent a reservation, and if there are any problems to look out for.

Thanks!

Okay, so if you cancel, your points will be in holding account. That means you can only make ressies 60 days out.

You have two options, and your Use Year will be very important even though you can't bank the points.

One is to rent out a ressie within 30 days of arrival. There are several problems in doing that:

1. You have to find a renter who wants exactly the same dates, only a couple of weeks from now.
2. You have to go through establishing trust with that renter, and then developing a contract you both can live with.
3. The renter has to pay you in full for the rental, and there is only one option at this late date -- paid in full almost immediately, no refunds, no rescheduling, no changes.

That's not intended to be a comprehensive list, just a start.

The other option is to cancel the ressie and then try to rent the points between now and the end of your Use Year.

If you have several months left in your UY, you have a good deal of flexibility. That flexibility allows you to take your time to learn the rental game, it allows you time to develop trust with a potential renter, it allows time to set a more flexible payment schedule for the potential renter, and lots of other things. It even allows time for your situation to change to the point where you can take a trip and use the points yourself.

If you are close to the end of your Use Year, you lose some (maybe most) of the flexibility. But you still have a lot more options than trying to find someone who needs exactly those dates and can wire you the money overnight.

As far as MS, you don't really have to tell them anything except the guests names. If they ask, tell them what happened; you're not doing anything wrong. If you end up renting your existing reservation, you don't cancel and rebook -- you just change the names on the ressie. It's no more complicated than that.

 

[RichCD]

Thanks, Jim. Very helpful!

Rich