Renting a Timeshare

Renting a timeshare works in two directions. As an owner, you can rent out a week or points you are not using, though many contracts limit or ban it, and the income rarely turns a profit. As a traveler, you can rent a timeshare stay from an owner, often for less than a hotel, if you verify the booking is real first. For the full owner-side guide on rules, realistic earnings, platforms, taxes, and scams that target owners, see how to rent out your timeshare.

Can you rent out your timeshare?

Sometimes, but not always. Check your contract and resort rules first. Many limit or ban commercial rentals. The average annual maintenance fee is $1,550 average annual maintenance fee in 2025, up 4.7% from the year before. Renting can offset part of it in good cases, but treat it as a partial recovery, not a full solution. The dedicated guide covers the details.

How do you rent out a timeshare the right way?

Confirm rules, reserve the dates or points, list on a legitimate marketplace, and use protected payment. Rental income is generally taxable on Schedule E (see IRS Topic No. 414). This is only a summary. For the complete steps on pricing, where to list, taxes, and avoiding upfront-fee rental scams aimed at owners, read the full guide: how to rent out your timeshare.

How much can you realistically charge?

Less than most owners hope. In practice a rental often covers only part of the annual maintenance fee rather than turning a profit, because you are competing with many other owners renting the same resorts, and because travelers compare your price against hotels and discount rental sites. Popular resorts, prime weeks, and holiday dates command more; off-season weeks at ordinary resorts command much less, and some weeks are hard to rent at any price. Treat renting as a way to offset cost, not as an income stream, and do not count on it to cover the full fee every year.

Renting also does not fix unwanted ownership. If the real problem is that you no longer want the timeshare at all, renting only postpones the decision while the fees keep coming. Our guides to how to sell a timeshare and how to get out of a timeshare cover the exit paths, and our timeshare resale value guide explains why selling so often returns very little.

How do you rent a timeshare as a traveler?

From the traveler's side, renting a timeshare means paying an owner to stay in their reserved week or unit instead of buying anything yourself. It can cost less than a hotel for the same resort, because the owner is trying to recover a maintenance fee rather than earn a hotel-room profit, and timeshare units are often larger than a standard hotel room with a kitchen and separate bedrooms. You take on none of the long-term ownership and none of the annual fees.

Before you pay, verify the booking is genuine. Confirm the reservation actually exists and is held in the owner's name, ask the platform or the resort to confirm it where possible, use a marketplace that offers payment protection, and never wire money or send gift cards to a stranger. If a deal is far below every comparable price, treat that as a warning sign rather than a lucky find.

Where can you rent a timeshare safely?

Several established marketplaces handle timeshare rentals. These are examples, not recommendations; we do not endorse any company, and you should compare fees and protections yourself:

• RedWeek is a long-running, do-it-yourself listing site where owners set their own price and arrange the rental, with an optional verified-and-protected service for an added fee.
• Koala is a managed marketplace that lists the stay, vets the renter, and processes payment, taking a commission only after a completed rental.
• Owner communities such as the Timeshare Users Group (TUG), an independent owner forum and classified marketplace running since 1993, let members list rentals directly and share advice.

Whichever route you choose, the protection comes from a confirmed reservation, a written agreement, and a payment method you can dispute, not from the platform's name alone.

What are the timeshare rental scams to avoid?

Timeshare rental fraud targets both sides of the deal, and the Federal Trade Commission has documented the patterns. The most common is the upfront-fee scam: someone contacts an owner, claims to already have a renter or buyer ready, and asks for a few thousand dollars up front for taxes, closing, or paperwork, often promising to refund it later. The FTC is blunt that only a scammer asks for money before doing any work to rent or sell your timeshare, so a request for an upfront fee is itself the red flag.

On the traveler's side, the danger is a fake listing for a week the scammer does not own, designed to take your payment for a reservation that does not exist. The shared warning signs are the same: a demand to wire money or send gift cards, a price that is too good to be true, pressure to pay immediately, and a refusal to put terms in writing. Enforcement is real and ongoing. Enforcement actions have returned money to defrauded owners and permanently barred upfront-fee scam operators from the business. Our timeshare scams guide lists every red flag, and how to report a timeshare scam explains exactly what to do, including reporting to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, if you have already been targeted.

Does renting solve an unwanted timeshare?

No. Renting can offset a year's maintenance fee when it goes well, but it does not end the ownership, the annual bills, or any loan balance, and a week you cannot rent leaves you paying the full fee anyway. If you are weighing whether to keep the timeshare at all, our are timeshares worth it guide lays out the full cost and value picture so you can decide between renting it, selling it, or exiting altogether.

Sources

Reviewed by Reid Calloway. U.S. Federal Trade Commission, consumer guidance on timeshares and related scams, including "If you have a timeshare, scammers might target you" and "Timeshares, Vacation Clubs, and Related Scams" (consumer.ftc.gov), reviewed June 2026. Internal Revenue Service, Topic No. 415, Renting Residential and Vacation Property (irs.gov), reviewed June 2026. ARDA, State of the Vacation Timeshare Industry (2026 ed., 2025 maintenance-fee data). Platform details (RedWeek, Koala, Timeshare Users Group) drawn from each provider's own public service descriptions, June 2026, named as examples only. Last reviewed June 18, 2026.