An Honest Review of Redweek + Their 20 Most Popular Resort Condo Rentals
If you’re looking to learn about the resort rental website Redweek from a real person who has used it twice, then you’ve come to the right place for an honest take.
With so many booking sites out there, it is hard to know who to trust. Redweek is a 20-year-old, A+ Better Business Bureau-rated company. It’s a place for you to book condo and suite rooms at brand-name resorts like Marriott, Wyndham, Hilton, Hyatt at significant cost savings or when the resort is sold out.
Many people ask me, so what’s the catch? The thing is, there isn’t one! So here’s my real talk take, a summary of our experience, and why I think it should be a regular website in your vacation shopping rotation.
What is Redweek?
It is the largest online marketplace to connect individual timeshare owners to people looking to rent resort condo rooms. It was started by Randy Conrads, who loved vacationing in timeshares but didn’t want the long-term commitment of owning one. Years before Airbnb and VRBO, he created a reputable place for timeshare owners to rent out their unused weeks to people who didn’t own a timeshare but loved the properties.
And because you are renting from timeshare owners and not the hotel, those individuals set their own rental prices. And that’s why you can secure some great prices. While hotels may have rack rates that they won’t discount, a person may just want to cover their annual expenses. And that’s why you can score great deals. And as someone who has rented through them before, these types of discounts are real.
Wait, These Are Timeshares?
Yes. But these resorts aren’t what you think they are. Instead, they are beloved mega-resorts like Wyndham Bonnet Creek right next to Disney in Orlando and the condo section Harborside in the luxurious Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. Yes, that Atlantis!
I happen to be a happy timeshare owner of 15 years who loves traveling this way. And before you ask, Timeshare Presentations are NOT required. I can confirm that statement on their website, as we were not asked once to attend a presentation, talk with anyone, or hear about any promos during our rental stay in Florida or Hawaii.
Why Did I Pick It?
For our first rental, we needed to travel to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, for a family event. But, unfortunately, the event and decisions about traveling were made about two months in advance due to the pandemic. Well, that doesn’t bode well for Florida peak season travel.
See, we were traveling with a large, multi-generational group, and I needed accommodations for three adults and two kids. Being a timeshare owner, we often stay in condo resorts, so I immediately got searching in the area for timeshare resorts. Well, Marriott Vacation Club Beachplace Towers was really highly-rated, right on the beach, and had stunning all water view two-bedroom suites. It sounds perfect. But they were sold out!
While there are a lot of timeshare rental websites out there, only Redweek had the exact days that we needed for our family vacation. It connected me with an owner who had that week but who couldn’t use it. It was a win-win.
Their Booking Process
If you have used Airbnb to book rentals before then, you’ll be pretty comfortable with their booking process. If you haven’t done a rental of any kind like this before, you may not feel comfortable booking with a person instead of a company. Everyone has their own comfort level, and that’s cool. It may be worth the extra 25% to book directly with the hotel to you as it is more of a straightforward process.
They know that people have different comfort levels, and that’s why they have different rental types listed on their site.
- Verified means that they have confirmed key details of the offering. That being said, they can’t prevent the owner from changing their mind and not updating their listing. So if they decide to use the rental themselves, or also list it for rent somewhere else, it is possible that it could still be listed as as available, when it’s not.
- Protected means they will fully handle the online transactions vs. you working with the owner (or a third party rental company)
- If you don’t see these two terms on the listing, then the rental is just a “regular” connection between you and the owner and it’s up to the two of you to work out the payment processing and rental agreement. An owner ultimately does have the right to change their mind, just like with an Airbnb. People have their Airbnb request cancelled on them and that can happen here as well as you work through the process until everything is 100% confirmed.
With the verified and protected rental types, Redweek will hold your payment in escrow until you check-in successfully. Based on my experience with a “regular’ rental, this would be my preference in the future, but I would still book a regular rental again.
Redweek Rental Steps: My Experience
When you initiate the booking process of a regular rental, you get the above email. (yes, this is the actual email from my inbox). IMPORTANT: Please heed their instructions. When they say don’t make any non-refundable travel arrangement until final confirmation, it’s for a reason.
That’s because the reservation may not become finalized for a whole host of reasons. And I can say that because it happened to us. Our first reservation request didn’t make it to the final confirmation stage, and I had to start over finding another room to book.
But haters really shouldn’t hate. It’s really the exact same thing with Airbnb. You make a reservation request, and then you wait. So please wait. Be patient! As much as you want to make airline reservations, give it a couple of days.
So hoping forward to our second rental request; very quickly, after I sent through my request, I was contacted by a rental agency managing the owner’s rental. I signed a very formal (aka comforting) rental agreement over email, and we agreed upon a way to send the money.
Before I sent the money, I did request that the agency put the reservation in my name with the hotel. They did, and then I called the hotel front desk directly to confirm. After they had a reservation with my name and got a reservation number from them, I sent the money via PayPal.
Was it a little bit more back and forth? Yes. Did I thank my lucky stars that I got a two-bedroom condo room at my #1 resort choice during peak season even though the hotel was sold out? You bet ya!
So while booking with the hotel directly would have been a lot easier ( and prob more expensive) when you don’t have that option due to availability or your budget, I would definitely recommend using Redweek to others.
We were so pleased with our first rental, that we used them again in for our Hawaii family vacation and we saved 50 percent off the hotel price!
Top Redweek Resorts: Their Annual List
If I’ve gotten your attention and you’d like to learn more and perhaps daydream about scoring some resort deals at luxury properties, I got ya! For details on each of the most beloved resorts available, check out my full article on the Most Popular Redweek Rentals built with traveler requests and bookings.
Spoiler: Marriott resorts continue to be people’s favorites making up a majority of the list. They are a favorite of both renters and timeshare owners alike, especially in popular vacation destinations like Hawaii.
The Top 20 Redweek Rental Resorts are:
- Marriott’s Aruba Surf Club – Palm Beach, Aruba
- Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas – Newport Coast, California
- Marriott’s Aruba Ocean Club – Palm Beach, Aruba
- Marriott’s Grande Ocean – Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
- Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club – Kapolei, Oahu, Hawaii
- Marriott’s OceanWatch Villas at Grande Dunes – Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
- Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club – Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii
- Marriott’s Ocean Pointe – Palm Beach Shores, Florida
- The Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas – Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii
- Wyndham Bonnet Creek Resort – Lake Buena Vista, Florida
- Marriott’s Crystal Shores – Marco Island, Florida
- Marriott’s Barony Beach Club – Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
- Divi Aruba Phoenix Beach Resort – Palm Beach, Aruba
- The Westin Kaanapali Ocean Resort Villas North – Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii
- Marriott’s MountainSide at Park City – Park City, Utah
- Marriott’s Maui Ocean Club Lahaina Villas – Lahaina, Hawaii
- Marriott’s Desert Springs Villas II – Palm Desert, California
- Harborside Resort at Atlantis – Paradise Island, Bahamas
- Marriott’s Surf Watch – Hilton Head Island, North Carolina
- Hyatt Kaanapali Beach – Kaanapali Beach, Maui, Hawaii
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