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I thought I would share with everyone what happened when I listed my house on VRBO for the first time, yesterday.
We are transitioning one of our property to 30 day only rentals (STRs are technically against city code and I’m sick of fighting with the city), and figured I needed to branch out from ABB. I’ve never used the VRBO platform before because I thought it was archaic and clunky. I diligently listed my house, added photos, etc. I added the rate of $200 per night with 30 night min (so I thought!) Was proud of myself it only ate an hour of my life, and went on with my day.
One hour later…I have 35 email requests to book, but the requests dates are all 4-5days during a local music festival (ave rates are $1000/night). Being very confused I log back on and see I have $200/night with 1 night min. I quickly change it to 30 days and send very apologetic emails to the 35 people who thought there was a chance they would be able to rent my house for $200/night during one of the busiest weekends.
The responses ranged from trying to negotiated, utter contempt for me, calls of discrimination and fraud, threats of ‘reporting me to VRBO’, and a a few very nice people that understood my gigantic blunder.
To add insult to injury I had sent out review requests to friends that had recently stayed with us over the holidays (apparently you don’t have to book via VRBO to leave a review), to try and bolster my add. Well, the angry belligerent mob of people I declined used the review against me in their tirades, that there was ‘no law’ and I just didn’t want to host them, bc my review was clearly from someone who stayed for less than 30 days. Double Whammy!!!
Thought I would share my blunder for everyone to enjoy and get a good chuckle
As someone who has thought they “won” something and then didn’t really, I understand the frustration of the disappointed applicants for the accommodation. I’m also sorry you had to spend your day dealing with their emails. What flabbergasts me is that so many people are online looking to book a house. Does VRBO send alerts to people when a new property becomes available? Or is demand for a place during this festival that astronomical?
I totally get the disappointment, and thank you for giving me some perspective.
I do think VRBO sent out and email to everyone that had performed a search for “May 25-30” to let them know a new property was available. So, I do believe all these people knew $200 was unreasonably low for a 3 bedroom house (last year during the festival we were at $1500/night), given they most likely had been looking previous to my house being listed. They were hoping I screwed up or didn’t know about the festival (which is kinda like DUH) and take advantage of the absurdly low rate. The few nice responses I got even said ‘we figured there was some mix up’.
Yes, the demand is INSANE as there are not enough hotel rooms in the city to accommodate the festival goers (or regular tourists for that matter, another story) and the city code enforcement is really cracking down on STR. The current code allows for 30 STR permits in the city limits(all were issued in 2009), so not exactly enough to house a huge music festival clientele. Plus that doesn’t even account for the people just ‘visiting Wine country’ during the long Memorial day weekend, so there are a lot of factors going on.
I don’t list there in part because I don’t have an entire place, just a private room. I did sign up to find a place for my Costa Rica trip. One person never bothered to answer my inquiry, the other one I have a signed contract but no money down yet. No basis for judging yet.
I am on VRBO/HomeAway and I do find folks there a bit more brusk, but frankly I am surprised they bother to reply to you at all. That’s my main problem with them - not great communicators. I get the majority of my booking from VRBO/HA these days. The upside - they are usually a bit older than my average Brooklyn Hipster on Air … and they don’t balk at prices.
This is the complete opposite as to what happened to me. When I sent out my ‘apology’ email, that explained my blunder,that local laws did not allow STR, but they could book for 30 days, and leave early if they wanted (monthly price is what some people are charging for the weekend). I got a bunch of you advertised for $200 you have to honor the price, etc.
I think my demographic may be a bit different bc these people were trying to book for a music festival, so all were 20s-40s.
One thing to keep in mind is that HA/VRBO really don’t insert themselves into the Host/Guest contract that much. They don’t play big brother like Air. Remember, they don’t hold the money. It is different business model altogether.
I know! I just felt bad bc it was my screw up. I was trying to be nice. Lesson learned.
Yes, I get the different business model, which I’m totally happy with.
Is there and isn’t book option on VRBO? Like I said I have literally never used VRBO before. It wasn’t on, atleast to my knowledge, bc all the request needed me to accept/decline.
Speaking for myself, if I’m not nice it bothers me. It’s always me, me, me! So taking the time to apologize if I made a mistake would not be so much for their benefit, but mine. If they are nasty in return I just chalk it up to disappointment on their part while enjoying a smug sense of satisfaction that such boors don’t deserve my place.
I am on VRBO but I pay the annual subscription and am no longer enrolled in any sort of their online booking. The guest books directly through me and pays me directly. Of course in turn, I am buried in the search results.
For my market (in general) VRBO guests seem to go with the flow better. Of course I still get that every once in a while finicky VRBO guest. But they seem to be used to self-catering properties and don’t expect more than the basic supplies to get them started. So if you do provide things like all the toilet paper they will need for their stay, plentiful kitchen supplies, etc - basically everything except for their food…they seem to really appreciate it.
I tend to attract more older couples celebrating their anniversary, and the families tend to have older children. My Airbnb families tend to have very young children.
