Now that you know a bit more about the wide world of timeshares that exists out there, you may find it hard to believe that there is no great demand for rental units. After all, most people would prefer to spend their family vacations in two- or three-bedroom villas than in sardine-can hotel rooms where they don't even have a separate bathroom from the kids. That, plus the fact that timeshare rentals can cost the renters significantly less than a hotel room in the same city, would make you think that everybody and their brother's cousin would be scouring the newspaper classified ads and World Wide Web sites for timeshare rental units.

So why aren't more people clamoring to get in on timeshare rentals? The main reason seems to be that the majority of the vacationing public simply does not know that they are an option. Think about it: Less than 10 percent of vacationing Americans own a timeshare unit. The other 90 percent is composed of people who either do not want to buy a timeshare, or who do not realize that they even exist.

In either case, the majority of people out there planning vacations are predisposed not to think about timeshares at all. They either do not like them as investment properties or do not know about them in the slightest. Why on earth, then, would they ever think of renting a timeshare unit? A hotel or motel is likely to be the only place they look when deciding where their vacation accommodations will be — and popular reservation Web sites such as www.hotels.com, www.expedia.com, and www.orbitz.com do not even offer timeshare rentals as an option.

Still, there is a bevy of timeshare units available for rental at any given time during the calendar year. On a single day in late 2005, for instance, the Timeshare User's Group Web site, www.tug2.net, had about 1,265 classified ads that had been posted by members looking to find renters for their timeshare units. The available timeshares were all over the world, including popular locations such as Hawaii, Orlando, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Las Vegas.

On the very same day, the TimeSharing Today magazine site, www.tstoday.com, had more than 130 classified ads that had been posted by subscribers looking to find renters for their timeshare units. And again, they were all over the world, including the hot spots mentioned above as well as in Mexico, Colorado, and New York City.

The problems with these figures, though, are twofold if you are a timeshare owner. For starters, there is far more supply than there is demand, and you may have a hard time making any decent money by adding your unit to these lists. The other concern is that these popular venues for timeshare rental listings are frequented mostly by fellow timeshare owners — who aren't as likely as non-owners to be in the market to rent a timeshare in the first place. There are other places that timeshare rentals can be listed, including the popular auction Web site eBay, where you are more likely to find non-owners looking for bargains on vacation accommodations. On that same day that there were close to 1,500 total listings posted on the Web sites of the Timeshare User's Group and TimeSharing Today magazine, for instance, eBay had about eighty-five timeshare units listed for rent in many of the same destinations.

So, with market demand far less than supply in the timeshare rental arena, what can you do to increase your odds of finding someone to take your week of vacation off your hands? As with the timeshare resale market, the key typically lies with savvy pricing and smart advertising. And the best way to figure out how to beat your competitors is to look at exactly what they are already out there doing.