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So my 3 bd 2 bath sleeps 6 mountain town destination listing is 250 a night on air, 275 on vrbo and Bookingdotcom and 265 on my own site. most of my bookings lately have been VRBO I have been building a second unit, lots of construction and have blocked out weekdays until January and often block weekends because of the mess. Air has been punishing me for not being available. My VRBO bookings have increased and my direct booking inquiries have all of a sudden been coming in almost daily after 3 month campaign of Google PPC.
Moral of this story: Diversify.
Our rates are as much as twice on VRBO as on AirBnB, and 70% of our bookings are from VRBO. But AirBnB fills gaps, and helps fill low season. We get nothing from TripAdvisor or Booking, although we are listed on both. Our direct site gets around 10% of our bookings, but I suspect that most of them start on VRBO.
I agree - diversify!
Keep in mind that VRBO/HomeAway will not accept shared living spaces.
I dont like booking. they take 15% off the bat and they dont do the accounting for me. I am not a corporation, im a landlord. i cant handle the money. I dont know how to pay local taxes, occupancy taxes. They dont say that on their website so I had to cancel my first guest. I didnt cancel myself but I asked her to cancel - just like ABB. The same day I put my listing on “dormant” stage since the customer service told me they were working on the accounting part to get the money from the guest for you and now guess what, booking asked me to pay 105$ as penalization for canceling the lady! I dodnt even make any money out of them, they lack training for future hosts thir website is difficult to use and they penalize me? I deleted my entire listing.
The fees are in their T and C’s. The scary one is if your property is unavailable you have to pay the difference for them to rebook somewhere else.
They also allow 3rd party bookings and where I am - tour groups to book! These are the one that cause me the greatest issue as they squeeze more in, have little of the local language and expect you to be at their beck and call…one of them texts me at midnight to come and fix a car issue ( I was 3 hours away and they had put petrol in a Diesel engine )
I have now blocked the festival month next year because of the amount of stress, work and anxiety dealing with these groups give me…the money is not worth it!
The bus drops them off.
They have very limited English.
They don’t read or understand the house rules or follow them.
The tour group squeezes in more than the booking and refuses to pay for the extras. B.com do not assist when this happens.
The house is usually much much dirtier than normal bookings.
The kitchen is usually disgusting and traces of food through out the house.
There is no one responsible for the guests actions.
I am the only place that can sleep up to 12.
They expect me to arrange transport to get to events.
Much needier than other groups - multiple phones a day from someone I can’t understand and need to visit to sort out the issues.
Complain that the house is old ( 130 years, schedule 1, heritage listed)
Well you have a long list, but this one is easy. If they show up with more than booked do not let them in or kick them out. Fuck the tour group saying they will not pay.
And this is my peak season and they have booked well in advance.
No way to refill the days that close.
I can’t cancel the booking as the penalties are financially huge.
Situation fixed by blocking off the entire month as these guests only come through one booking site.
You would not be cancelling the booking, you are enforcing the booking by only allowing the number of people on the reservation. I do not understand what difference it makes what platform they come from? If 14 people show up and booked for 12 say 2 of you will have to go sleep on the bus you are not sleeping here!
Regardless of platform it’s up to the host to do the heavy lifting.
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