Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2016 · 565 posts · 391 votes
Bad news announced today. The new release is removing the ability to contact guests by hiding their emails and phone numbers and filtering them in the messaging.
Given the fact VRBO is awful in vetting the guests, this is going to make them less desirable.
I guess I was lucky to use my last "long stay" (3 weeks) out of vrbo just 2 weeks ago for this August. Now longer stays are going to be hurt, since the fees and %s become unacceptable on longer stays and bigger amounts. New opportunity for those "corporate housing" websites? Maybe.
There are other changes, but this one seemed the most important to me.
Rental Property Investor · Chatham, MA · Member since 2015 · 75 posts · 65 votes
9y
VRBO keeps rolling out "new coke" moments since the Expedia takeover. Airbnb innovates, VRBO copies.. poorly.
They are moving to onlne booking only, which makes sense. But I am sure the next push will be for instant booking. I love the explanation for restricting communication. It is all for the sake of "protecting users from phishing". Insert big belly laugh here.
Rental Property Investor · Tucson AZ / Nice FR / Washington DC · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
9y
As a booking user of HomeAway and AirBnB, I think these features are long over due.
The entire thing where they let customers book outside of the platform is crazy from the get go, I'm for one glad it's stopping.
I've had home owners tell me to bring cash or pay outside of the platform, which just opens me and others up to scammers, cons, and no recourse if something goes sideways as HomeAway is out of the picture.
More than once I've been told to bring $10,000 in cold hard cash to pay for rentals as they don't do instant booking or take CC... yet you can rent the same house on AirBnB and pay with CC.
I've had one lady contact us pre-booking saying she would rent her mansion to us, only if we purchased the home. There's a lot of crazy out there. It's good they are stomping down on it IMO.
I don't have none of these side deal type events or crazy schemes by home owners on AirBnB, because they force everyone to follow a set platform process.
They own the platform and will always have the traffic. They need to keep things within control of their platform and quit letting scammers and low quality owners run side hussles on their brand.
Specialist · Nashville, TN · Member since 2017 · 6 posts · 1 vote
9y
@William Leahy You mentioned other 3rd party pricing tools. Would you mind sharing the ones you're aware of? I am looking at Airbnb's and as everyone else has mentioned, it's too low. Right now, I constantly look at my competition and utilize smartbnb.io for daily market updates but curious what else is out there for pricing. Would appreciate it!
@John Underwood You are obviously a big VRBO fan so I thought I would ask for your guidance if you wouldn't mind. :) I have had my listing on VRBO since September. I have had a total of 4 inquiries... 3 of which inquired on days that were not available on my calendar (my calendar was updated yet they still inquired on them) and then one was a booking. 31 days prior to their stay, they cancelled. It was actually a young group coming for a bachelorette party. Many of my fellow short term rental counterparts in Nashville do anywhere from 10-30% of their bookings on VRBO. I maintain about an 85% occupancy rate and usually even higher via Airbnb. However, it is rare for me to get a week- long booking or bookings past a month or two out. I feel like VRBO is a better spot for that and then Airbnb could help me fill the gaps. I have contacted VRBO and they keep telling me my listing is great, that I am doing everything right. Any tips or suggestions? Thanks in advance!
You need Great Pictures, max out your pictures, respond to people in less than an hour. You can set up VRBO so they text you after an inquiry. Lower your price slightly below your competition. I update my calendar almost every day. Once you start getting reviews your bookings should increase.
I just learned that on Airbnb that you can set your daily rate low and it will you higher in the search results. You just need to set higher prices for events and such. This just cost me $1000.00. Someone reserved what should have been a $500/ night, 3 day minimum weekend for my low rate. I immediately changed Airbnb so that people can only book 6 months out to give me time to put in more specific pricing.
VRBO just added some really great analytic tools to see what your competition is getting in pricing and availability. I like it better than what Airbnb has and it is completely free unlike Airbnb. I signed up as a Beta tester to get the new software first so not sure if everyone has access to this yet.
Specialist · Nashville, TN · Member since 2017 · 6 posts · 1 vote
9y
@John Underwood Thanks, John. We have professional pics and they're maxed out. My response time has been within minutes but since I've only gotten 4 inquiries my dashboard is saying I need more responses to calculate. :( I also update my calculator daily + its synced with Airbnb so every new booking I get there (usually a few a week) gets added on top of me just updating the calendar. My pricing is in line with or lower than what I am booking at on Airbnb so I hate to lower it so much that I lose money. Though, maybe that is what I should do so I can get some reviews going. I am really thinking it's because I've had to decline the bookings for the inquiries that requested dates that were already booked - even though my calendar was updated and reflected that. I've also got instant book turned on, too which I know is their big push. On that note, one last question- do you still use a rental agreement in conjunction with instant book or are you just letting their acceptance of house rules now be enough?
Yes, familiar with Airbnb pricing- that'll get ya! That ALMOST happened to me with a really long booking as I didn't know I could set specific filters + it was for a 6-month booking which I didn't want to do. Luckily I didn't have instant book on at the time and it was my first booking so I was able to decline it. The Airbnb community pages have been super helpful with tips, tricks, etc. so I feel like I've got Airbnb pretty well down (minus getting longer bookings + further out- though I think that's just the nature of that platform and why I so want VRBO to work for me)! :)
Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2016 · 565 posts · 391 votes
9y
@John Underwood not sure if I followed "I just learned that on Airbnb that you can set your daily rate low and it will you higher in the search results." . If I get it correctly you would put your base rate lower than your "standard rate" and manually put back your standard rate on the calendar days? If so I am pretty sure they'll change this, since it's totally ridiculous on the guest side; they see homes available at a x price and when they click they see 2x price. Not very cool. But I may have mis read you.
Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2016 · 565 posts · 391 votes
9y
on the vrbo/airbnb comparison, as I had mentioned in the past, in my experience, in the beach house vrbo beats airbnb. Now in a new property in LA city, I was convinced airbnb beats vrbo, and I actually observed this last year and early this year. But I am seeing progressive growth of vrbo for this property (LA city condo), month after month. My airbnb part of business was 77% in April, 71% in May, 60% in June, and forecast is about 50-50 for July. Amazing. Probably a coincidence, not generalizing with just one property, but very impressive to see how vrbo is growing its market share in the city. Maybe they are pushing on ads (I see my own property ad on my facebook feed lol). Still in many regards vrbo is a pain to deal with, but if it's bringing business, ...
You got exactly what I was saying. I read on some blog that Airbnb will place you higher on the search results when you have a lower base rate. I have no reviews yet on Airbnb yet I am coming up first the last time I checked and I have gotten 2 recent reservations. It is the only possibility I can think of.
Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2016 · 565 posts · 391 votes
9y
@John D. thanks for sharing your experience. Not concentrating in any one city sounds wise. On the other hand, it's a pity not to capitalize on what we have learned in a market or the network we have built. When I think of having to find the right maid, the right gardener, the right handyman and then run the market analysis and learn the demography of your guests, etc. Despite the risks of changes in LA, I may go for another LA property to have a faster startup and a more streamlined business because of the "partners network". I hope large cities will always do some STR regardless of the regulation. (like NY). I think the risky investments will be on un-hosted MF condos. SFRs may stay safe.
Rental Property Investor · La Quinta, CA · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 779 votes
9y
@Kevin Lefeuvre even though my properties are in different cities, they are max 20 minutes or so drive from each other, so most of our resources (cleaners, gardener, pool, pest, etc.) are the same between homes. I agree it would be a big pain if things were otherwise.
My next project is 45 minutes or so from the bulk of our existing homes though, so I may be starting over with regards to service people. With that said, it will be a large enough project to where I can probably hire someone full time to stay on site and handle many of these tasks him/herself....which I am very much looking forward to, being able to afford a full-time site manager and maintenance person, without it killing the returns.
Peoria, IL · Member since 2015 · 99 posts · 52 votes
9y
I have a Facebook page called Branson Quality Vacation Rentals. Whenever someone inquires about us on AirBnb, I tell them the name of my FB page, and they find me that way. Then from Facebook, I give them an email address or phone number so that they can contact me. I haven't had an issue with this so far, and I plan to start doing this through VRBO once their platform changes. I noticed tonight that I still was able to see someone's email address even though they just sent an inquiry.
Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2016 · 565 posts · 391 votes
9y
@Jen Faulkner hmmm that's weird. My contact's are hidden since a few days after I posted this. It says something in the lines of "will be disclosed when the guests books" !!! Interestingly I see more and more guests trying to get around the site's filters (try to send their email info or ask for the address, etc...)