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I live in a popular tourist destination and am going to list my personal house on VRBO during weeks where my own family is vacationing. I’m wondering if it’s better to use possessive language (e.g. “our home,” “our location,”) or neutral language (e.g. “the home,” “the location”).
I was thinking that possessive language may emphasize that this is an owner-occupied home, so people aren’t shocked to discover some personal items left behind in the freezer, and some locked doors throughout the home (owner’s closet, pantry – just a few spaces where we can store personal things that aren’t necessarily valuable, but guests don’t need to access).
@arialvetica - You should CLEARLY state that this is your full-time home. And state that on the first line or two of the listing (remember, most people don’t read the listing).
VRBO is supposed to be people’s second vacation homes, not their main homes they rent out while they are gone for the weekend. If I rented a place through VRBO and arrived to find clothes in the closets, food in the closets or refrigerator, and anything else that made it look like the person lives there full-time, I’d leave a bad review.
State, “our house”. As a guest who has frequently rented units on vrbo for almost 20 years, this definitely makes a difference regarding how I approach the property. I’m much more accommodating about “personal stuff” and house issues and I feel I treat the place with additional consideration (like I tell the kids, “this is so and so’s house and they’re very nice and letting us stay here”) as opposed to places that are owned/run by commercial managers.
I also make requests/complaints much more readily with commercial managers since I feel they don’t take anything personally and it’s their business to run the place.
I love when people leave food items in refrigerator: mustard, mayo and other similar products. And coffee, tea, sugar, milk. Items that I can use. I think it’s a total waste of food to throw away perfectly good food if someone can use them. I had tho that guest’s like you that were shocked that they saw condiments in refrigerator and actually threw away not even opened bottles without telling me. So I put in my rules do not throw away these things and tell
Me ahead of time so I can remove it from fridge and cabinets.
I rent often apartments and houses with closets full of clothes . If i have a shelf for myself I don’t care if owner keeps her/ his clothes there. I know I am not in hotel but in someone’s house and for me it matters zero whether it’s a spare house or the house a host lives in as long as it is clean and affordable .
I did not even know that VRBO does not let people to rent out their own houses because most of the time I see lots of personal items in houses I rent and I assumed that people just left for a weekend to make some extra money
To be clear, I would not leave a bad review if the person clearly stated this was their main home and not a second home. I just probably would not rent it, but that is me. I would leave a bad review if they had not been very clear this is their main home and I arrive to find personal things.
I list my vacation/retirement home on VRBO, and I refer to it as “my home” in order to encourage people to treat it with respect. But my listing is clear that my main home is in Houston, and my rental is my vacation/retirement home.
Just be very clear what it is. Unlike AIrBnB, where people (should) know to expect personal things, VRBO guests do NOT expect personal things.
A ok, i did not know, thanks for telling. I have a rental property that we dont live in and i also rent 3 bedrooms in my house. I removed personal items from these bedrooms completely. I only store there extra set of sheets. But most Airbnbs that i stayed in have personal items all over. For example toothbrushes in shared bathrooms. With the case of toothbrushes or other personal bathroom items such as towels i ask 2 guests that share one bathroom to take it in their room after showers. I let them leave shampooes and shaving creams in there but not toothbrushes.
