I know many of you use cross platforms. How do you sync the calendars. Are the nightly prices the same for both platforms? I understand that AirBNB is usually less $$per night than VRBO. Is that correct? Why?
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Even using a channel manager, unless you have five properties or more, you cannot use the XML synch between Airbnb and HA (VRBO).
The only alternative is the iCal synch, and it is notoriously unreliable.
You cannot send price to HA unless you have the five or more properties. You need to do your prices manually.
Caveat. I’m in Europe, other regions may vary.
JF
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@JohnF summed up the important parts. I charged more on VRBO because they take more of a cut when credit cards are used (I can’t remember the number now, maybe 5%?).
We just use the iCal sync between platforms. We set prices higher on non-airbnb sites.
As @MelissaMH states, VRBO platform has higher fees, so I charge more on their site. I use the VRBO calendar and synchronize to Airbnb. I find the VRBO calendar easier to track my direct bookings.
You can easily sync your calendars yourself between VRBO and Airbnb for availability. It will block days booked. It will not sync pricing. You would need to pay for a channel manager to sync pricing.
Not quite that bed, but still a chunk. It’s 3% on the gross (including damage deposit), but they do refund the payment charge element when you refund the guests deposit. We simply factor it in to the price, along with their commission.
If you chose Payments by Booking (on BDC) it was free up till last year, now they charge 1.09% on EU card payments and a slightly higher rate for non EU card payments. It’s prob the inverse if you are outside EU!
EDIT: Sorry, BDC is a flat 1.1% of the total guest payment. Means they also charge that fee on the commissionable element of the guests payment also. Buggers.
JF
I have been using Google Calendar layers to sync bookings between Airbnb/HomeAway. I have been doing it for about 8 years now. It creates a master calendar layer that shows all bookings including my own time at my cottage. I use Beyond Pricing for price syncing.
And I still reckon you must have nerves of steel!
My paranoia of getting double booked just would not let me do that.
JF
The only time there was a conflict was when Airbnb changed their iCal formula and it broke the iCal URL imported by HomeAway. It just wasn’t syncing at all and I hadn’t noticed. I guess I just don’t have the kind of volume you have. Never been a problem. Works perfectly for me.
OMG! This just happened to me last night. At 9:03 p.m. I had an Airbnb booking and then at 9:04 p.m. I had a VRBO booking for the exact same dates! I freaked out, ran to my laptop to figure things out. My saving grace was the Airbnb booking was a newbie and requested the dates instead of an instant booking. Sadly I had to decline his request since the VRBO booking was an instant booking. I may have been dinged for declining the guest on the Airbnb side, but I had no choice. It looks like I am on Page 3 of the search engine now when I used to be on the 1st or 2nd page. Coincidence? I don’t know.
I have only been in business for 6 months and I have over 45, five star reviews. It’s a little frustrating but I think it’s important to have more than one booking vendor so I guess I will have to live with this. I do use iCal for the update of the two calendars as I can’t find another option.
The funny thing is that when I looked into setting this up, they said the odds of having a double booking on iCal was very remote. 6 months later… Oh well. C’est la vie.