What am I doing wrong with Vrbo???

[Reagen Natho]

I swear there is someone at Vrbo purposely torturing me with crazy guests and issues for their own humor! I have had my STR in Pigeon Forge since April and out of the 50 reservations I have hosted, 7 have come from Vrbo. And there have been issues wish almost every one of them.

One guest sent me a picture of every single pot and pan with any scratches noted in them. Another guest freaked out because they couldn’t get a side door to lock and I had to send a locksmith after hours just to have him tell them they weren’t locking it properly, as I had just told them how to do over the phone. I had a weird deal where someone reviewed my cabin that had never stayed there and Vrbo couldn’t figure out what to do about it. It was five stars so I didn’t really press the issue…

My current guest apparently made their reservation via a phone service. I didn’t even know that was an option with Vrbo/Homeaway. They didn’t make their 2nd payment on time and didn’t know how to do so when I called them with a reminder. She told me she has no online account and didn’t know she was supposed to call them to make the payment. I’m still wondering how the hell they have agreed to my rental agreement as the reservation states without having an online account. They just called me needing the address and wanting me to walk them through turn by turn how to get to the cabin from the Golden Corral. LOL. It’s almost humorous at this point.

What am I doing wrong with Vrbo??? I see so many of you have good experiences with them. Is there a way to set parameters of who can book the way there is with Airbnb? HELPPPPP!

[Nancy Bachety]

The interface on VRBO is cumbersome, or I haven’t mastered how it works best. It’s more expensive for us to use than Airbnb and I’m tired of figuring out how much we’re really netting from a VRBO guest, based on their calculations. Fees aren’t clear, and now with the extra 3% fee, I’ll have to figure out an even higher rate to adjust the nightly rate to. Guests are more needy in our area with VRBO.