Collecting payment off-VRBO. Logistics.

[Nancy Bachety]

I’ve read some of you collect payments for reservations outside of VRBO. How do you amend your guests reservation so it doesn’t cancel when you do it this way? 

[Paul Sandhu]

I don't use VRBO.

[Chuck Masters]

If a returning guest contacts me outside of VRBO for a stay I send them a quote and ask for 25% down then I block my VRBO calendar. I currently collect the payments with a Palpal business account, but Paypal recently has become screwy and wants to hold the money for a period of time unless you can provide a tracking number for the transaction. Yea Right! So I'm giving up on Paypal and moving to Square.

Chuck

[John Underwood]

I typically get a mailed check. Older crowd with money. I do up a one page agreement. I get a deposit and 30 days before their stay I get the balance.

I have done PayPal for a couple, but Zelle and Venmo are fine too.

[Nancy Bachety]

I’ve done contracts too, and checks and Zelle for returning guests but what I’m trying to do now is a guest who paid half on VRBO and now we both want to pay/collect the second half with a check and a contract. Would you 1) cancel on VRBO (not me, the guest) and block off the dates or 2) something else. 
@John Underwood Are you talking about off-platform guests? I just don’t know how guests can pay me off-platform without having vrbo cancel their reservation as “unpaid”. I know it’s shunned but aren’t guests able to pay off platform on VRBO?

[Chuck Masters]

You need to be careful attempting to execute the second payment off platform, it's against the terms of service and VRBO can deactivate your listing. You may get away with it once by saying that you messed up and didn't realize the second payment was made but twice or more, don't think so. 

Chuck

[John Underwood]

Quote from @Nancy Bachety:

I’ve done contracts too, and checks and Zelle for returning guests but what I’m trying to do now is a guest who paid half on VRBO and now we both want to pay/collect the second half with a check and a contract. Would you 1) cancel on VRBO (not me, the guest) and block off the dates or 2) something else. 
@John Underwood Are you talking about off-platform guests? I just don’t know how guests can pay me off-platform without having vrbo cancel their reservation as “unpaid”. I know it’s shunned but aren’t guests able to pay off platform on VRBO?

 Yes, I was talking about off platform bookings. 

[Brian Schlosser]

I use owner reservations property software to manage all of my properties on VRBO and Airbnb. With the VRBO properties I use my own payment processor (stripe). Airbnb must handle all of the payments themselves so I can't use my own for them.

[Bruce Woodruff]

Quote from @Nancy Bachety:

I’ve read some of you collect payments for reservations outside of VRBO. How do you amend your guests reservation so it doesn’t cancel when you do it this way? 

I have a good and growing number of what I call 'private bookings'. The majority of these are returning guests, but not all. When they call, I block off the dates they want, and when they arrive they give me cash or a check. Simple.

I would not work around the existing platforms, you will likely get in trouble IMHO. I've had guests book the visit and then decide to go 'private'. I have them cancel the reservation and then I block my calendar for them.

This is not illegal or even sneaky...we pay these platforms very good money to find us guests for the initial visit. Then we work our magic to make them love our rentals and make them want to return. After this, they belong to us....

[Nancy Bachety]

Thank you all. I’m not trying to got shut out of either platform. This guest was having difficulty logging into her VRBO account while traveling and using the app and her final payment was due. She’s mailing me a check. It’s not possible to mark her reservation as paid and it will auto cancel if she doesn’t pay on the app. 
It seems like she’ll be able to cancel without penalty and mail me a check for the full amount and I’ll mail her the contract. Problem solved.

[Chuck Masters]

@Nancy Bachety your guest could always call VRBO and they can assist with the final payment. The guest really should have access to the account for other reasons. One would think they could take it over the phone.

P.S. Make sure the check is for the correct amount and not over with the guest asking for a difference. 

Chuck

[Nancy Bachety]

@Chuck Masters True. I made it for a bit less then her payment and sent her the contract. I wouldn’t make a habit of this but off platform with solid contract works too. 

[Chuck Masters]

@Nancy Bachety and speaking of contract, I have each guest sign my terms and conditions (it's a contract but terms and conditions sounds more inviting) within 24 hours of their booking using a service similar to Docusign called SignNow. It costs me $60 a year and I have the document prepared where I fill out the Name of the guest and the dates of the booking and send to them via the email provided in VRBO. I also capture a government ID in this document. If they refuse and or don't communicate then I will contact VRBO to have them cancel the booking.

Chuck

[Bruce Woodruff]

Quote from @Chuck Masters:

 If they refuse and or don't communicate then I will contact VRBO to have them cancel the booking.

Does VRBO penalize you for cancelling the booking this way? They (and AIR) do not usually like owners cancelling bookings.....

[Chuck Masters]

@Bruce Woodruff They can penalize you for cancelling. I have in my house rules that the terms and conditions have to be signed with 24 hours so I have VRBO do the cancellation. No penalty yet. But they change the rules so often so who knows how long I can go penalty free. My issue is if a guest refuses to sign the terms and conditions or don't communicate at all after the reservation is accepted then I don't really want them in the property.

Chuck

[Bruce Woodruff]

@Chuck Masters I understand. Curious why you have every guest sign your own contract? I just use the agreement that AIR or VRBO have the guest agree to and that's worked fine for me. Have you had issues where the booking platform's agreement with the guest was inadequate?

[Chuck Masters]

@Bruce Woodruff my lawyer recommended a separate agreement off platform. You hear stories where the OTA's can suspend your property for a variety of reasons with little recourse to the owner (the customer is always right and the OTA's have to protect their reputations) and that info may then not be accessible. We all know how we all read any terms of service for anything, we select the agree button and move on, my document requires a signature so if there is an issue the guest can't say they never saw it. The OTA agreement is the guest agreeing to the house rules when they elect to book, there is no legal basis that they even saw it or know it was there. Can't prove it.

Chuck

[Bruce Woodruff]

Got it. I've either been good or lucky so far, but if things head south I can always do something like this I suppose.....Thanks.

[Nancy Bachety]

Guest cancelled and mailed the check. No penalties, contract signed. 
vRBO couldn’t help her access her account, she was on hold way too long, she couldn’t understand agent. My contract was an easy fit for her.

Good to hear about your extra contract @Chuck Masters. 

[Bruce Woodruff]

Quote from @Nancy Bachety:

she couldn’t understand agent.

One of my big complaints with both platforms.....

[Kenny McCarty]

@Nancy Bachety. VRBO won’t cancel a reservation for being unpaid. I had a guest check out and when I was reconciling my spreadsheets a week later I discovered they had actually never paid their second installment.

Usually I am more on top of these things but it was a perfect storm of events that caused my lapse. I called the guest up and they paid immediately though.

Anyway long story, short VRBO doesn’t do anything to protect your reservation and I would suggest just canceling the second payment request and doing it directly. I use Venmo myself.

[Nancy Bachety]

@Kenny McCarty That’s a really good point you bring up. How many people would don’t notice that? That’s BS on VRBO’s part. I wonder if they take the full service fee anyway. Probably do, from the first payment. 
You can’t cancel the second payment.