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This is more a a venting from me than anything. At first I thought there was something wrong with VRBO and that guests weren’t seeing my rules before they send booking requests, but at this point I am sooooooooo close to either removing my listing due to frustration, or just upping the price high enough that potential guests search for me on other sites like Air to book through.
We get many, many requests from VRBO. 95% of them are from people with kids. We don’t allow kids, and it says so in several spots in our listing. We kept getting requests for kids even though the listing said no, so we decided to move “House Rules” up to the very top of the description because would be impossible for people to miss it, right? No, people are still completely ignoring what is written and sending through requests.
I received a request this morning that says “I was so excited to book a getaway with my husband, but then I saw there is no children allowed. My lovely daughter is 3 years old, would this be OK”. My blood boils every time I have to reply explaining the many, many hazards of a farm (a lake, goats with horns, honey bee hives, heavy machinery, and the list goes on), and these people just keep asking as if they will be exempt from my rules.
I was excited 2 days ago when I received a VRBO request from 2 adults who wanted to book for 2 days. I accepted the reservation, they arrived, and within an hour I got a text about the house rule I have inside saying no guests allowed other than those who were on the booking. It says right in my rules that we have a strict policy on the number of approved guests and they accepted it in their booking, and in the rental agreement. They told me they already invited someone else to come for the day, and didn’t read the rules.
I don’t have these problems with Airbnb. I don’t understand why this keeps happening with VRBO and I am probably just going to delete my listing. I guess when you navigate to Vrbo.com and you can see the main photo they have of the family of 4 arriving, and the little son on the left is photographed in mid “break apart” from his parents grasp, ready to go climbing on all the furniture and destroying the beautiful listing. Maybe VRBO just targets these sort of groups.
Yes, this is extremely annoying! I am on Airbnb only, but I am also flummoxed by the people who DO NOT READ.
On July 31 I got a same-day booking request from someone local that started: We would like to book your listing for a week. I know your listing says only 2 people, but can you take us 3, father, mother and 14-year old daughter."
Uh, no. There is a king-sized bed in the room and no place else to sleep. Is the 14-year old going to get in bed with Mom and Dad? Also, I have a 21-and-older only policy.
Since they were local and it was the last day of the month, I think they got booted from their previous living situation and were desperately trying to find housing. Sad for them, but NOT AT ALL what I am providing on Airbnb. Plus, can you imagine that they probably have tons of personal items, more than the usual traveler, and will want to settle in. No, no, no and no. Did I mention no? Well, no.
The worst part is that I have to waste Declines on idiots like this, and then all I have is a bunch of Declines in a row but no good bookings. Ok, venting over!
VRBO definitely creates a shotgun approach from the guest side so you will get many inquiries from people who don’t fit your listing (although I recognize that this woman was directly writing in response to your listing). Maybe if you had a “no kids” response to just cut/paste, these inquiries would be less aggravating. You could implement a standard response for all VRBO inquiries that includes house rules which they must acknowledge before you’ll book.
Maybe change your listing title to something fun but clear “No kids goat farm cottage” then in the first line of the description “The only kids allowed here are the goats, no human children. This will allow for a relaxing time for all the adults, including me.” I’m kind of kidding, or maybe not. Puns intended.
Very good idea, but I really wish I didn’t have to do that. I feel bad because I know that they see pictures of our goats and automatically want to bring their kids to see the animals but its just not something we are comfortable with… Not to mention that our second bedroom is a converted den, with an entry door in it. If I were a parent I wouldn’t be comfortable with my kids sleeping in a room with an entry door, and as the property owner, I am not comfortable with others kids sleeping in a room with an entry door.
I do have nieces and I love them dearly, but I don’t love stangers kids and its just not possible to us to allow the majority of kids. We have accepted 2 groups with children who were absolutely perfect and the kids were great and polite, but we don’t want it opening the door to accepting everyone with kids. The reason we accepted the previous 2 groups is because they were weekly rentals and they paid us $1500 each for it, with a good security deposit.
