booking.com and vrbo on top of AirBnB?

[Ohana-Yoon0]

Hi AirBnB, I've been hosting on AirBnB for awhile and it's been great. I was thinking to expand listings onto booking.com and vrbo, but was wondering what that experience is like. In the very beginning I've tried booking.com on top of AirBnB, but I remember it was pretty hard to juggle and booking.com customers tend to cancel a lot, so I stuck with AirBnB. For those of you who are using these platforms at the same time, what went well, and what didn't go well? 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ohana-Yoon0 we gave up on VRBO because we got hardly any bookings compared to Airbnb. I suspect the algorithms work similarly between the two such that once one is successful the other drops down the search rankings. It would be interesting to hear from those who achieve a 50/50 split between the platforms

[Lorna170]

@Ohana-Yoon0   Unlike @Mike-And-Jane0 , we currently get 85-90% of bookings through VRBO and very few through AirBnB -- just enough to stay in view on the website.  We have had years where AirBnB bookings surpassed VRBO. We have had no operational issues with using both AirBnB and VRBO.  We do sync the calendars as soon as a booking has come in from either OTA.  We prefer VRBO guests as we get more information about our guests (REAL phone numbers and email addresses) and the guests also tend to be more communicative.  Major difference -- VRBO charges an annual (advertising) fee to the host, but with the number of bookings that we get through that platform, the cost is negligible. 

I also like the fact that we can post the legally required North Carolina rental agreement on the VRBO website where the guest can read it before booking.  On AirBnB I have to figure out how to get the guest to send me their email address so I can send them the agreement within the free 24-hour cancellation period.  Total PITA.

I used booking.com years ago and would not use them again.  Just my opinion.

[Greystone0]

Hi   - we are in very similar circumstances as @Lorna170  . VRBO is a better sales channel for us than AIRBNB and the VRBO policies are more sensible for us via VRBO (lease, better cancelation terms for a large single home rental, and more).

We have three main sales channels: VRBO, AIRBNB, direct. For us, AiRBNB is in a distant third place, despite offering same dates and often at a lower price as VRBO, to try and gain more traction here. We get better guests and more per night via VRBO, despite having same content, photos, etc for each listing.

We operate with the idea that we don't want all our reservation eggs in one basket as it only takes one wayward guest to ruin a reputation or cause a serious issue as this platform leans exclusively toward guests in terms of overall support.