All Forum Posts by: Carlos H DeOliveira

VRBO/Homeaway isn't as popular as Airbnb but it is definitely a viable platform, I have 3 properties that are rented year-round with 95% occupancy. About 70% of my reservations come from Airbnb. I notice the key difference is the platform used to make the booking, most people using cellphones/tablets to make their reservations use Airbnb, when they are using their computer the ration is more like 55/45. Also Airbnb is far more successful at achieving last minute bookings. I usually get longer reservations, 90 days in advance.

I use a channel manager to manage my properties, and since Airbnb started hurting hosts with their policies that in my opinion are completely one sided, I have adjusted my prices. I increased prices on Airbnb by 8% and reduced my prices on VRBO/Homeaway by 7%. 

All properties are available on both platforms, but I'm giving homeaway a competitve advantage.

@Joey Morea - I totally agree with what you just said, my houses are also in Champions Gate and my community is very strict about street parking, in the last couple of days I've seen random people simply parking their cars in our driveway. We've blocked our calendar and haven't been taking any bookings but we were accepting bookings at our regular rate for 1 guest (my houses accomodate 8 guests) and I asked the guests to confirm that they were essential workers.

As it always happens, some guests lied and also lied about how many people they were bringing. We contacted airbnb to try to cancel any upcoming reservations and they wouldn't do it, even after showing them the governors letter.

They said guests booked at their own risk and they had to cancel it themselves. 

The Florida governor declared a temporary ban on short term rentals, initially through April 11th and then extended it to the end of the month. 

I have 3 homes in Davenport FL that are short term rentals, one of them is rented to someone that we believed to be an essential worker, but apparently they are not. My HOA sent me an e-mail saying that one of the neighbors noticed the house had a guest and was thinking about calling the sheriff.

The guest checks out in a few days and I'm trying to avoid asking them to leave early and risking a 1 star review on Airbnb which will hurt our Superhost status.

My question is, has anyone been in this situation before? If the neighbors do call the sheriff, is it common to get away with a warning first? 

I'm just not sure how serious of an offense this is, is it a fine, warning or do I lose my hotel license right away?