Rentals through Bidshares

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

I currently have a rental listing on Bidshares so have been keeping an eye on all rentals for the past couple of weeks. Everyday I look at the auctions expiring on that day.
In 99.9% of cases the Opening Bid and Reserve price, both set by the renter expire without a bid.
Bidshares is a free site but is there a reasonable chance of renting from there.

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

I have made several rentals thru Bidshares, but never thru the actual auction process. Generally a potential renter contacts me and we arrange for the week and price offline.

Sometimes more traffic than others...

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

My $0.02 worth...

I currently have a rental listing on Bidshares so have been keeping an eye on all rentals for the past couple of weeks. Everyday I look at the auctions expiring on that day.
In 99.9% of cases the Opening Bid and Reserve price, both set by the renter expire without a bid.
Bidshares is a free site but is there a reasonable chance of renting from there.

I'm certainly not "plugging" ANY site or company, but my subjective opinion is that Bidshares is likley a much better site for selling than for renting. While there is a $20 ad cost involved in each of the instances following, I personally think that MyResortNetwork and RedWeek are both far superior to Bidshares for effectively advertising weeks for rent. Bidshares is indeed free, but sometimes "...you get what you pay for". Just my opinion, based upon my own limited personal experience.

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

Thanks Theo - I'm actually advertised on both those sites as well. I have had a couple of enquiries from MyResortNetwork but as yet nothing with Bidshares or Redweek.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

Thanks Theo - I'm actually advertised on both those sites as well. I have had a couple of enquiries from MyResortNetwork but as yet nothing with Bidshares or Redweek.

My suggestion is to look at the pricing other people have on redweek and myresort network for your same resort/similar week - and then price at the low end..... I currently have two weeks listed on redweek that I KNOW won't get rented until 90 days before because they are drive-to locations and people generally don't plan that far ahead. I have one European rental that I feel could get rented soon after the holidays - people just have a lot going on now...if that one doesn't rent, I can always deposit it. I am competitively priced on all 3.

I have sold and rented on bidshare but like BoardGirl, people contacted me thru the site - they didn't actually bid on the auction.

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

Hi GrayFal - I just checked, and my floating week in Cancun is the cheapest on both Redweek and Myresortnetwork. My fixed week in Vegas is competitive with the rest on the page, and the only timeshare in that fixed week.
Fully agree that the current economic climate is having a big affect on peoples travel plans, I'm sure people are setting up vacations on much shorter notice. I've only been advertised up, for about 3 weeks, so haven't given up hope yet.

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

IMHO, the reserves on most of them are so high I wouldn't bother bidding at all. Does anyone really get rents that high?

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

I have tried renting a couple of units for good weeks at good resorts on Bidshares. There were lots of looks at the ad (400 to 700 views), but no bids or other contact.

I quit using bidshares for rentals.

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

There are those renters/sellers whose starting bid and reserve bid are the same price, making them appear pretty inflexible.
Where the starting price is much lower than the reserve price (both set by the renter/seller) that indicates to me there is room to negotiate.
I know in my case I would listen to offers providing it was on or above my starting price.

[GrayFal Silver Contributor and supermoderator Find all posts View Profile Close GrayFal]

There are those renters/sellers whose starting bid and reserve bid are the same price, making them appear pretty inflexible.
Where the starting price is much lower than the reserve price (both set by the renter/seller) that indicates to me there is room to negotiate.
I know in my case I would listen to offers providing it was on or above my starting price.

I think that is the rub with this site.
Say I want $1500 for my aruba studio - yes, I would negotiate with someone for a all cash upfront payment of $1400 but I don't want to list it at $1,000 starting with a $1,500 reserve - because I don't want $1,000 - I want $1,500.
And I think it would be off putting to list the start at $1,500 and reserve at $1,800 ????

I know it is suppose to be an 'auction' but I just don't feel that the format is helpful for rentals - I want to say $1,500 because that is what I want..I will negotiate a bit from that price but feel it would be misleading to list an auction I want $1,500 for with a start price of$500....

[dmbrand Member Find all posts View Profile Close dmbrand]

I agree with you Pat. As a potential renter, I don't even want to bid on a rental if the reserve is considerably higher than the opening bid. I feel that the renter won't even acknowledge my bid, since I am only interested in it for their "lowest" listed price. Hope that makes sense. DawnB