Homeaway Premier Partner Checklist causing to dump Airbnb?

[John Underwood]

Homeaway has published their Premier Partner Checklist and it is interesting.

I personally don't get much business from Airbnb but I have kept my Airbnb listing active because I pickup a few rentals per year there.

It appears to me that HA/VRBO is king for true vacation rentals and least in my area.

Notice item #1. I don't know if this means that if they detect you have an Airbnb or other platform listing that this could mean you don't qualify for the Premier Partner or not.

I'm also not sure if Premier partner does anything to your search placement. I am still getting more page views than 95% of my competition set. And I show up pretty high on search results. Maybe this status means nothing...currently?

I saw criteria for this before that mentioned you can't have lower pricing on another platform than on HA/VRBO, not sure if this is still criteria.

Thoughts?

How to qualify:

• Process all bookings through the HomeAway checkout
• Listing Quality
  • Add high quality photos that highlight all unique aspects of your home - ensure that your photos are well-lit and high-resolution.
  • Up-to-date amenities list
  • Competitive and accurate pricing
  • Up-to-date calendar
• High booking acceptance rate
  • Accept bookings and respond quickly to traveler requests with all bookings remaining on the HomeAway platform
• High average rating and reviews per listing
  • Give travelers clear and consistent expectations about your property and provide quality experiences that lead to great traveler reviews
• Low cancellation rates
  • Honor bookings and avoid cancelling on travelers. For tips on how to avoid cancellations, click here.

[Jared Higginbotham]

This really sounds like they just want you to process payments through home away checkout instead of whatever external processor you might use. Not really a big deal in my opinion.