The RCI renter

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

This past weekend while I was on the OBX I visited with either the manager or HOA president at four resorts. When I arrived at one, it was changeover day and one of the handful of cars in the lot really stood out - at least twenty years old (beater not a classic), faded paint, rust, wheelcovers/hubcaps missing. It had an out of state plate but looked more like one of those ''$200 and guaranteed to drive off of the lot'' specials. Two people were just sitting inside. When we walked back out, it was still there, and the manager, noting my glance, made the comment that they had arrived a couple of hours earlier, with RCI paperwork, and apologized that they did not know that much about timeshare as it was the first time they had rented.

That immediately made me think of the comments on various t/s boards wondering whether renters would take as good care of our resorts as owners / exchangers. It also made me think that not only were the timeshares already essentially full this week, but so were even many of the motels, judging by the ''no vacancy'' signs. I am sure that there were potential exchangers who were told ''nothing is availible''.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

You seem to be characterizing a renter as someone who owns a beat up and run down car. I was just at the Four Seasons Scottsdale and the renters there drove Mercedes Benz, Rovers and wore Rolex and Patek-Phillipe watches.

Ownership status is not the main driver of whether or not a guest will damage a resort unit. Age and children are a much higher factor.

A 54 year old married couple with no kids renting a unit will do far less damage to a resort than a young 30-year old owner with a spouse and 3 kids. That's a fact.

[chemteach Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close chemteach]

You seem to be characterizing a renter as someone who owns a beat up and run down car. I was just at the Four Seasons Scottsdale and the renters there drove Mercedes Benz, Rovers and wore Rolex and Patek-Phillipe watches.

Ownership status is not the main driver of whether or not a guest will damage a resort unit. Age and children are a much higher factor.

A 54 year old married couple with no kids renting a unit will do far less damage to a resort than a young 30-year old owner with a spouse and 3 kids. That's a fact.

Boca,
Are you suggesting that when my 15 month old dropped all his wet food all over the carpetting that we couldn't vacuum up because there was no vacuum in the unit, and my 2 daughters jumped back and forth between the two twin beds in the second bedroom and the 15 month old later proceeded to break a remote control, that we weren't taking the best of care of the unit even though we drove up in a new Honda Pilot?

Edye

[BoardGirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BoardGirl]

I believe they deserve some credit for keeping a 20 year old car running.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Funny thread.

But it does strike out at the exclusivity that was part of the original sales presentation, that fear of loss of belonging to the club that was used to get our name on the bottom line.

After all, not many of us would want to pay serious money to belong to a club that had a parking lot full of broken-down cars. We would want them to pay us to join, to add a little class to the place!

Still, funny comments!

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Sorta like keeping a 20-year-old resort running, so it seems fitting.

I believe they deserve some credit for keeping a 20 year old car running.

[Nancy Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Nancy]

Old Car

I find this thread interesting/disturbing. We own timeshares, but sometimes rent. We have more than one car, but often drive our now 17 year old van when we go to timeshares. How are we perceived?

Nancy

[4ARedOctober Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close 4ARedOctober]

I don't know if I would call it a fact......there are all different kinds of people with all sorts of different values and appreciation for others property.

I have a spouse and two young kids and we do not damage property........yet we see smokers smoking in their units or just outside on the balcony with the smoke blowing back into the unit...now I would say they do more damage to the unit than my young kids are capable of.....I didn't see what kind of car they drove though and yes they were renters.

A 54 year old married couple with no kids renting a unit will do far less damage to a resort than a young 30-year old owner with a spouse and 3 kids. That's a fact.

[T. R. Oglodyte Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close T. R. Oglodyte]

Some very famous people who drive only the most expensive automobiles are notorious for creating the most damage to hotel rooms.

****

There is, I believe, more than a bit of snobbery in Carolinian's commet.

I grew up in a family where money was extremly tight - sufficiently tight that there were times when my parents sat us down for dinner with almost no food on the table. I remember having pancakes for dinner as the main course because we only had flour and baking soda. In the late summer we often had corn on the cob from our garden as the main course.

Our cars were certainly nothing spectacular; some of them might have even fit the description provided.

*****

I can as easily say that a person driving a car such as Caroliniann describes is a person who probably needs to watch their money very closely.

That is exactly the type of person who is not going to damage a unit, because that peson knows they can't afford to pay anything extra. Folks who have money to burn are the ones most likely to not care if they abuse the property.

[opkansas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close opkansas]

This past weekend while I was on the OBX I visited with either the manager or HOA president at four resorts. When I arrived at one, it was changeover day and one of the handful of cars in the lot really stood out - at least twenty years old (beater not a classic), faded paint, rust, wheelcovers/hubcaps missing. It had an out of state plate but looked more like one of those ''$200 and guaranteed to drive off of the lot'' specials. Two people were just sitting inside. When we walked back out, it was still there, and the manager, noting my glance, made the comment that they had arrived a couple of hours earlier, with RCI paperwork, and apologized that they did not know that much about timeshare as it was the first time they had rented.

That immediately made me think of the comments on various t/s boards wondering whether renters would take as good care of our resorts as owners / exchangers. It also made me think that not only were the timeshares already essentially full this week, but so were even many of the motels, judging by the ''no vacancy'' signs. I am sure that there were potential exchangers who were told ''nothing is availible''.

I wonder what would be the average age of cars of our people in the military would be. I would take trueblood American people anytime over the average SUV drivers who, for a large part, are thinktheyare's and/or wannabes who are destined to "lead' our next generation.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I could make general comments about personal appearance, cars, etc., based on my years of owning and managing rental property, but I suspect it may not set well with some, so I won't.

I can remember a business fraternity dinner I attended as a senior at Moo U, back in the age of drugs and hippiedom. I remember the old fogey business leader who was the keynote speaker. I remember when he talked about making a good first impression, to be neat and well-groomed, and how to always make sure your car was clean and presentable. He made a big deal about the car, how people judge you from the car you drive.

I remember how I scoffed at his comments.

I believe Carolinian is saying the same thing here, a truism that has carried down through the ages, and that we all understand what he is saying, and that he is not trying to be a snob.

Maybe an old fogey, but not a snob.

[swilshire Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close swilshire]

I have to admit that we usually drive one of our newer vehicles on vacation, but I just got rid of my 20 year old car and am driving one that's 9 years old. If my Dad were still alive, I'd probably have nothing new as he was an ace mechanic. DH is not. But that's another story.

Anyway, in spite of my old cars, I'm an OK kinda person and if I were to rent, would take care of the unit just like I do the ones I own. Most of my poor friends would also be respectful of the properties.

Sheila

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

I don't know if I would call it a fact......there are all different kinds of people with all sorts of different values and appreciation for others property.

I have a spouse and two young kids and we do not damage property........yet we see smokers smoking in their units or just outside on the balcony with the smoke blowing back into the unit...now I would say they do more damage to the unit than my young kids are capable of.....I didn't see what kind of car they drove though and yes they were renters.

Each and every situation is different. It is always possible to find an outlier case that disproves an absolute rule. I am not talking about absolutes. What I am talking about is risk management and rules of thumb. Over the entire population, the general case is that senior citizen renters are a better risk than are families with young children from a security and damage point of view. From a resort's perspective, that's how they should look at it. That is what we are talking about. If you have any doubts about my claim, call up your insurance company and tell them you want renters insurance for a condo you own. See which profile has the lower insurance premium. Lower insurance premium means lower risk. When I say fact, that is what I mean.

I own a rental condo in a senior citizen community. I have NEVER had any issues with damage to my unit in over 20 years of renting it. There are houses, owned by families nearby, which are very poorly maintained. I believe this to be the more accurate general case. And, I believe there is actuarial data to support my position.

As a corollary to this discussion, I also believe that home ownership is a good indicator credit worthiness and risk assessment. However, if you own your own home and rent a timeshare, I believe the risk is roughly the same as another person of similar age and demographic profile who owns at that resort. Moreover, an exchange into a resort is in my view equivalent risk to a rental. I don't buy the exclusivity argument. If anyone has any data to suggest otherwise, I'd be interested in hearing about it.

To me, the exclusivity argument was just another sales ploy by the resort developer to get someone to buy on the day of their tour.

[Jya-Ning Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close Jya-Ning]

As a corollary to this discussion, I also believe that home ownership is a good indicator credit worthiness and risk assessment. However, if you own your own home and rent a timeshare, I believe the risk is roughly the same as another person of similar age and demographic profile who owns at that resort. Moreover, an exchange into a resort is in my view equivalent risk to a rental.

This is just for argument sake. No data.

If assume that the one owns something will have better riskwise than the one don't, then exchanger guarantees the population is the one that owns, but rental does not provide that kind of guarantee. Therefore, riskwise, rental should have a little more risk then exchanger.

Consider from other view, most of TS retail sale will verify the income level and certain credit worthiness. But most of rental can not do that (although purchase from resell sometimes is more cheap then rental fee), therefore a TS owner should be less risky then a rental. (that does not mean one particular case will be better than the other).

Also, consider if you really has too much money to waste, then you probably will not try to buy TS to share with others, thus a TS owner in general probably don't have much resource to cover the damage if there is one without hurting his/her. They stand to loss most if they don't care and thus they may have lower risk factor.

Jya-Ning

[Carol C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Carol C]

I would assume the SUV owners would take poor care of the timeshare unit and squander resources. They'd leave the water running, they'd take extremely long showers, they'd set the thermostat for absolute comfort with no caution about wasting natural gas paid for via owners' maintenance fees. Which reminds me, I don't know how many times I turned off the outdoor beach shower faucet, after *other* guests' use, at Marriott's Grande Ocean over Labor Day week. It seems that many of the well off owners or exchangers there could care less about leaving the water running after they rinse sand off their bodies or feet. Oh well, why should I gripe right? At least they're rinsing and not tracking sand into the pools and into their villas.