For the folks that don’t watch US cable TV, CNBC is a business/stock market channel. This is a good discussion about Expedia’s attempts to lure AirBnB hosts into listing with VRBO/Homeaway. A video worth watching.
Are you being poached?
Nice find and a different perspective from the article JohnF posted a couple days ago.
The other only talked about recruiting hosts that are discouraged due to Airbnb policies, but this one is really talking about a race to revenue as pandemic restrictions are lifted and VRBO seeing a unique opportunity to increase their market share. This one also only mentions Superhosts, but the other does say there was a minimum rating of 4.5 to be eligible.
Both articles mention that hosts who joined VRBO’s “Fast Start” got an average 25% increase in bookings, and both fail to mention that boost is likely due to a 90-day search ranking boost so the increase could be short-lived. Still, it could be a fast-path to maximize income for hosts just getting back in the game after a year, especially if it’s timed with the lifting of travel restrictions in the host’s area.
BTW, do people really pronounce VRBO as “ver-bow”?
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I still call it Vee aRe Bee Oh
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I have heard it pronounced like that.
No one I know—only on commercials
I guess they are trying to get people to use the verbow term. Easier to say than V R B O. I don’t use it myself and haven’t heard anybody use it.
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Last year V-R-B-O Changed permanantly to VERBO. The underlying reason was to eliminate the consumer concept of “owner”. V-R-B-O means there is an owner involved who cares about the property and controls it, and has the autonomy to make decisions without the interference of a corporation. VERBO changes it to an “uber” concept name that means nothing. No owners / no personal ownership or face behind the door.
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