Timeshare Rental, Airbnb

27 March 2024

When you own a timeshare, you get a certain amount of time to use it. That may be 1 week every other year at your home resort, or a number of points that you can use to stay at any resort in the developer's network of properties.

And the amount of time you purchased will be renewed every year when you pay your maintenance fees. 

Now, 2 things could happen:

1. You use up all of your points or time in a given year. If so, then you need to wait until the next time you pay your maintenance fees before you can use it again,

2. Or, you may not be able to use it in a given year. In this case, you run the risk of losing those points or weeks because they will expire.

The timeshare understands that if you are paying for something you aren't able to use, it doesn't make sense to let your time go to waste.

So they have a mechanism where you can let a friend or family member stay in your place. 

When timeshare owners offer to let their friends stay in their timeshare that they aren't using that year, they often ask for a nominal amount to cover their costs. 

Because timeshare owners pay as little as $129 for a week-long stay at a beautiful resort, it is an easy sell to ask the guest to pay a small amount to offset the owner's costs. That way, the proceeds can be used to pay the maintenance fees so they at least break even...and the time and maintenance fees don't go to waste.

But in some instances, the timeshare owners aren't able to find a family member who is willing or able to take a vacation within the given time frame. So, rather than risk losing the time, there are several places where a timeshare owner can post a listing on the internet to let other people know that this time is available.

The most popular places are Facebook groups and RedWeek.

These are great websites to find other timeshare owners who would be interested in staying at your resort.

Then ther are the online travel agencies (O.T.A.s) like Booking, Expedia, VRBO and Airbnb.

First of all, there are a couple of disadvantages to posting on websites dedicated to timeshare rental such as FaceBook, RedWeek, TUG, Go-Koala, Timeshare Nation, etc.

1. If you are offering your timeshare to another timeshare owner, they know that you are paying very little. As a result, they tend to take advantage of that knowledge by asking for discounts.

2. If you are posting a timeshare listing on a website dedicated to timeshare owners, only people who are in the timeshare world will find your listing, which is only slightly better than reaching out to your immedate circle of influence.

However, if you use an online travel agency like Airbnb, VRBO or Expedia, you will be reaching a much larger audience. This is important because it will increase the chances of finding someone to stay in your timeshare before your time expires.

And the other advantage is that they are willing to pay you a fair price, so you can cover the cost of your maintenance fees.

Of all the websites to post a timeshare for rent on, my favorite is Airbnb and this is why...

1. They let you create as many free listings as you want. And they only get paid when you get a booking. What could be more fair?

2. Airbnb only takes 3% from every booking that you get, which is an incredibly low price for everything they give you.

3. They process the guest's payments for you, so you don't need to set up a separate merchant account. This service is worht 3% by itself!

4. They also do an incredible job of marketing. They use A.I., algorithms, email and retargetting marketing strategies to drive as much traffic to your listings as possible.

5. Their platform is very easy to use, once you know what ll the settings are for.

6. They give you all the tools you need to create a beautiful listing, communicate with the guests and make sure everything goes smoothly.

I've been using Airbnb to rent my timeshare since 2011. After trying all of the different websites to post my timeshare listings, Airbnb is the only one that has delivered consistent results. 

If you would like to learn how to create high-converting timeshare listings on Airbnb, click the button below to schedule a free 30-minute timeshare rental training Zoom call with me.