Balancing use between Airbnb & VRBO for STR's 🔥

[Wilson Vanhook]

I went live with my first STR just a few weeks ago. Bought a 1 BR cabin in Broken Bow, OK. Since going live I've been doing everything I can to try and 'dominate the algorithms,' considering I'm both a new owner and new host on the platforms with 0 reviews. I would say the launch has been pretty successful to this point but I'm always looking for ways to improve.

To try and take off with the new listing I did some really low introductory pricing for August. Goal was to show the platforms that people have interest in my property, and try to get as many reviews as possible within the first month.

Immediately bookings started rolling in on Airbnb. I have a total of about 30 bookings made so far from August-December on Airbnb. In the month of August I've already had quite a few Airbnb guests and every one of them has written me a review. However, on VRBO I've only gotten 6 bookings from August-December so far. My first VRBO guest is currently there, meaning I still have 0 reviews on VRBO right now.

My question is this: Should I start focusing efforts on pushing my listing harder on VRBO? I could potentially do very low pricing for the remainder of September I have open, just for VRBO, to try and gain more traction there. But does it matter? If I'm doing okay on Airbnb so far should I even try to focus my attention on VRBO at all? From what I can tell it's not that people visiting Broken Bow are using Airbnb more than VRBO. I believe overall traffic for the area is split pretty well between the 2, maybe even favors VRBO slightly.

Does it even make sense to try and split traffic between Airbnb & VRBO? From an algorithm standpoint isn't it better to have most of your bookings on 1 platform? For instance doesn't Airbnb's algorithms view you as more 'loyal' when your calendar is filled mostly by them and thus push your listing up in the search results?

If the latter doesn't seem to be much of an issue should I try to get more VRBO traffic and create a more balanced calendar so I have popularity on 2 channels? Might enable me to raise rates and make more dollars in the future.

Let's go bring in the hot takes!! 🔥🔥🔥

[Travis Timmons]

I find myself in the same boat. We launched a property on July 1st, have filled up 100% of July & August, 90% of September, and 70% of October. 100% of bookings have been Airbnb. We've been up on VRBO but it just doesn't get the traffic for the market that we are in. I expected an 80/20 or 90/10-ish mix between platforms; it's been a little surprising to see zero come from VRBO. 

Our plan is to leave it alone and let the market decide. As stated above, filling the calendar is the goal. Congrats on your success.