Using Your Second Home for Good: How to Donate a Private Stay for a Silent Auction This Holiday Season

By Jonathan Luster · November 14, 2025

Using Your Second Home for Good: How to Donate a Private Stay for a Silent Auction This Holiday Season

The holiday season is peak fundraising time, and silent auctions are already underway. If you own a second home, donating a private stay is one of the most meaningful—and most popular—auction items you can offer. It’s a high-value contribution that doesn’t require writing a check and gives organizations a unique, sought-after experience to raise money for their cause.

Whether you’ve donated a stay before or this is your first time, here’s how second-home owners are using Twimo to share their homes safely, privately, and on their terms this holiday season.

Why Donating a Stay at Your Vacation Home Is One of the Most Valuable Silent Auction Gifts

1. It Raises More Money Than Typical Auction Items

Vacation home stays consistently rank among the highest-bidding items at silent auctions. A clean set of photos, clear rules, and a simple booking process can raise hundreds or even thousands of dollars for a nonprofit you care about.

You support a great cause without affecting your cash flow or selling securities — and the organization gets a premium item bidders love.

2. It Lets You Give Back With Ease

If your home is already set up for guests, donating a stay requires very little work. It’s one of the easiest ways to make a real impact using something you already have.

3. Give Back to the Organizations You Care About

Silent auctions fuel the causes people care about most—whether that’s a local school, an arts program, youth sports, or a nonprofit that has personally touched your life. Donating your home is a powerful way to give back to those missions and create a meaningful, one-of-a-kind experience for the winning bidder.

How Easy It Is to Donate a Stay With Twimo

One of the biggest barriers to donating a vacation home is the logistics — how to share details securely, coordinate dates, and manage expectations. Twimo removes all of that friction.

1. Create Your Private Listing

Add a few photos, set your available dates or blackout periods, and include any house rules or details. There’s no need to create a public listing on a large marketplace. Your home stays private.

2. Send a Single Secure Link

Email the organization, or the winning bidder, one private link along with the password.
That’s it. They see a polished, password-protected booking page and can submit their date request within a few clicks.

3. The Winner Sends a Booking Request

No coordinating calendars. No emailing photos. The winner simply chooses dates and sends a request through your Twimo page.

4. No Back-and-Forth

All your preferences are already set. Twimo handles the structure, so you skip long email chains and manual coordination entirely.

5. Everything Stays Private

Only people with your link and password can access your page.
Your home never appears publicly, in search results, or on any marketplace.

How Twimo Makes Donating a Stay Simple, Safe, and Private

Twimo gives you a secure, password-protected booking page, a polished space where the winning bidder can redeem their stay without exposing your home publicly.

With Twimo, you can:

  • Share a private link with the organizer or winning bidder
  • Set available dates or blackout periods
  • Add house rules, instructions, and check-in details
  • Accept booking requests directly, no middlemen
  • Keep your home visible only to the people you trust

Twimo also gives you flexibility in how you share your home:

  • Fully private (password-protected)
  • Private link shared publicly (for previews without sharing your direct home address)

It feels like a personal invitation, making the auction item all the more special.

This Season: Turn Your Second Home Into a Meaningful Gift

A stay at your second home may be one of the most memorable and impactful donations an organization receives this year. Twimo makes the experience easy, private, and seamless for both you and the winning bidder.

If you’d like to set up your private booking page for a silent auction, sign up at Twimo.com and create your private listing page in minutes.

Spread generosity this season — with Twimo. 

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