All Forum Posts by: Lauren Kormylo

It sounds like you don't need a co-host, you need a Virtual Assistant, as @Alex F. says.

You are not being overly overcautious. I see the same, a lot of STRs without much pool safety at all. 

I live in Phoenix AZ, where we take our pool safety very seriously, as kids die every year in pools because it's warm and they swim much of the year.  Because of that, the laws here are very strict.  But the thing you'll have to do is call insurance companies and find out what their requirements are for pools, and treat that as the minimum you'll do.  You might want to look up the pool requirements for Phoenix and Scottsdale AZ if you want to be the safest you can be, despite the lax laws in other localities.  Besides the financial liability, I would not want the mental trauma and anxiety of knowing a kid had died in my pool. 

I think it would, depending on the celebrity of course.  And if you had it themed or had memorabilia of theirs.  

Quote from @Josh Ball:

We do about 85% of our rentals on AirBNB. I'm surprised by some of the responses here about how people like VRBO more than AirBNB. I find AirBNB from a host stand point much more user friendly & advanced. I'd list them simultaneously & just getting bookings no matter which platform it's from.

There's also the fact that during Covid, Airbnb, going against hosts' cancellation policies, cancelled bookings and refunded any guest who said they had Covid, or their grandmother had Covid so they'd been exposed, or any other ridiculous excuse.  With no proof required.   Hosts lost tens of thousands of dollars. Vrbo did not do that, they kept to the hosts' policies as they should have.
@Karina Busch It's not automatic, you have to synchronize the calendars yourself. Google it and you'll find instructions.  It's not hard, just takes a few minutes.

Like everyone else, I don't provide it.  Anyone who has Netflix at home can sign into their account on my TVs.  Anyone who doesn't have Netflix isn't going to miss it.  Roku TV in Guest Mode, the way to go.

I'm questioning the wood burning fireplace in the great room when it comes to a rental.  Gas or electric would be a much better option, safety wise, from a house fire standpoint, CO danger, or danger to children or pets from the open flames.  Most people don't know how to use a wood burning fireplace correctly - operating the damper, not closing the damper until the fire is completely out, going to sleep with the fire or coals still burning.  Then you'll have to supply a lot of expensive wood for that fireplace and the outside fire pit.  And your cleaners will need to clean out the fireplace ashes each time, make sure the damper is closed, bring wood in or have a pile near the door, whatever.  

Quote from @Nick M.:

@Michael Baum

I asked them (via vrbo) what specifically they would like to joke about after thanking them for the inquiry and that we would be happy to answer any questions they may have - and no response from them after 8 hours of me responding to them. I marked it spam as I saw the time on the inquiry ticking.

Is there a specific duration I should be pre-approving an inquiry within? 24 hrs maybe

Also noticed they were a member since 2025 - and no feedback.

I am new also but their lack of response and cryptic message was a bit concerning…so I sent it to spam.

Thanks for your input

You don't need to ever pre-approve an "inquiry".  There is no advantage to that, only disadvantages. Vrbo used to block your calendar for 72 hours when you did that.  Now I've heard they will leave it open to other bookings from Vrbo, but block other platform calendars that you have synced to yours, so they will block your Airbnb calendar for that time.  You don't want your calendar blocked at all, you may lose a booking from someone else.
 
With inquiries, you're only required to respond to them with a message. So just do that.
With booking requests, you do have to approve or disapprove.
Since you're new, you should familiarize yourself with the platforms' penalties for cancellations, because there are hefty charges.  You don't ever want to double book and have to cancel one of them.

And the guest giving a phone number in the first message like in your original post is against the rules and the guest knows it.  That's why they wrote it they way they did.  It automatically needs to be reported to Vrbo, not after waiting 8 hours to see if they respond.  You can't send a prospective guest your number either (until after they book and pay).  You can't tell them to find you outside of Vrbo another way, like telling them to Google a name.  Vrbo and Airbnb do not play around when they see you taking direct bookings from guests who found you through their platforms.  They will ban you and you'll never be allowed back on the platform. 

Just so you know, Vrbo and Airbnb will not allow you to receive an inquiry through their platforms, and then take the booking off-platform, they want their cut of the money.  If they find out you've communicated off-platform with a guest like this one is requesting, they may boot you off their platform.  Always communicate with guests on the platform, at least until they book and pay through there.  After they book, it's still a good idea to use the platform app for communication because then the platform has a record of what you and the guest have said, in case you need it when a guest does damage and admits it to you, but later denies it to the platform.  

Agree with the others, it's definitely a scam, so report it to Vrbo as such through the app, no need to call them.  You will get others too, since you're new.  It's likely a scam anytime they sound like AI or the grammar is weird or they use the word "kindly", if they ask for you to respond to them off-platform, if they say their employer will pay for it, if they ask if the dates they've specified are still open (when they can clearly see they are open on your calendar), if they ask for a video of your property (they probably want to set up a duplicate listing with your photos and video and scam others out of money), or if they want a long term booking and they have just joined the platform and have no reviews (could have been evicted from somewhere else, and hope a newbie will let them in with no background check, they'll end up not paying or credit card is bad).  

Avalara does remit it for you.  Here's their page called My Lodge Tax, for STRs. https://www.avalara.com/mylodgetax/en/index.html

Process returns, Save time and hassle.

Automates lodging tax returns based on your monthly transaction data

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