VRBO ruined my business. Need advice!

[Troy Ritter]

I’m a 21-year active duty military guy who started renting my home after being transferred out-of-state. The home is in Anchorage, Alaska and I live in Atlanta.

In 2014, I began doing short term rentals from May-August and then I’d find a long term tenant for September-April. Until recently this worked very well. I averaged $16,000 cash flow the first 5 years.

About a year ago, VRBO changed how they rank properties in guest searches. My home used to appear in the top 15 and now I average around 180. I only get a handful of views and I only have 2 bookings for the upcoming 2020 summer season. In past years I’ve been about 70% booked by New Years.

The problem is that the new VRBO ranking method is heavily weighted towards volume. Because I only rent 4 months per year, I get fewer bookings and reviews than other properties who rent year-round. Renting short term year-round isn’t an option for me and the monthly rental rate still just covers the mortgage.

Does anyone have suggestions for getting my business back on track? Any suggestions will be appreciated!

[Luke Carl]

@Troy Ritter  Your subject was so dramatic I was very excited to read your post. Turns out its boring. If your rankings aren't good enough for you.... try harder. 

Have you looked in to airbnb? It's a 3 billion dollar per year vacation rental website. 

My 5 VRs are 90%+ occupied year round. I have never once taken the time to look at what number I'm ranked on VRBO. In fact I question the validity of said rankings. It's not like there's a magical wizard in Austin, Texas (VRBO headquarters) that said "this house shall be number 168 until further notice." 

If you're not getting as many bookings as in the past -try something new like hiring a professional photographer. I have not seen your listing but I can take an educated guess that you only have like 12 photos. Max out your photos at 50. And good ones. Just one place to start. If you have 50 excellent photos, don't say "Lucas is a jerk he told me to get 50 photos and I already have 50 photos he doesn't know what he's talking about."  

Finding the solution is a trickle down effect. Next place to look would perhaps be your price per night. Minimum night stay. Cancellation policy, or any number of factors where your neighbors may have an edge over you. Or maybe your property is just in Alaska and there's a limited amount of traffic? 

You could post your listing here and we'd be happy to give you some tips.