Airbnb VS VRBO

[Sharon1336]

I was a part of VRBO for seven years and rented my house by the week, weekend, or month, Year round. With that website I received bookings months in advance. They were not necessarily in order, by that I mean that (If it were October, for example) I would get a booking in January for a month, June for a week, May for a weekend, September for a month, etc. The software did not wait until one or two weeks before my home was empty, to fill it with a new guest. And the bookings did not come in calendar order. That seems logical. People looking at the website we're not all thinking about the end of October 2021. I am sure that many are thinking about other months in 2021 or even planning for 2022. Airbnb keeps me in suspense, never booking in advance, and never letting me know that I have a secure income for the future. When it gets close to the end of a current booking, I start to panic and lower my prices. That is what I think the software is designed to make me do.  

I would like to know how to share my booking with VRBO so that I can have a more secure, year-round booking schedule. Do you have any thoughts about why Airbnb books the way it does, or how to have my listing shared with VRBO?

[Sarah977]

@Sharon1336 "Airbnb keeps me in suspense, never booking in advance, and never letting me know that I have a secure income for the future. "

I don't understand your issue. Guests can book on Airbnb as far into the future as your calendar availability allows. If it's set for 3 months guests can only book 3 montths into the future. If it's set for a year, they can book for a year from now.

This sounds like you just haven't got your availability set correctly.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sharon1336  I don't know how is it on VRBO now, but since the beginning of Covid guests tend to book at the last minute. We were getting bookings 1-2 months in advance and now it's allways 1 week or a few days before check-in

And guests become more critical, all my friends say they are getting lower ratings for the same listing.

And they don't read anything anymore, just instant-book and then cancel when they realize it's not as they thought it will be. Our cancelation rate skyrocketed this year, mostly bc they can't find well-hidden house rules which Airbnb placed on the very bottom of the page and hide behind the "show more" link. This is the worst change they made in years.

[Sarah977]

@Branka-and-Silvia0  Maybe hosts should start out their listing description by listing the house rules. Just cause Airbnb wants to bury it, we could override that.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Sarah977  Unfortunately the description is also hidden behind “about the space /show more” links so they dont read that either . We could literary copy paste The weather forecast there and most guests would book anyway without noticing 😄

[Kia272]

@Sharon1336  Are you not aware that you can be listed on both platforms? I'm truly not understanding what the problem is here. 

[Brian2036]

@Sharon1336 

For the past couple of years we had a management agency who promised to promote our listing on “every major platform available.”

We had mostly guests who booked through VRBO, Expedia, probably others as well although I think Expedia now controls nearly everything.

The management agency was unsatisfactory and we ended our relationship.

 I spent a very frustrating three days trying to list with VRBO, then Booking.com, and couldn’t complete the process with either one. Their host websites were horrible, slow, and full of bugs.

After I calmed down I tried Airbnb and the listing process went smoothly and quickly. 

About a month ago I listed with TripAdvisor and we have seen zero action there. I can’t even find my own listing on their website so I don’t suppose anyone else can either.

 I guess I’ll try to list with VRBO again soon but I’m dreading it. 

I think I remember seeing something that indicates that you can import your listing details from Airbnb, and if that works maybe it won’t be as bad as it was before.

[Elaine701]

In terms of the website, I find VRBO to be similar to Airbnb. In terms of support, also similar (both poor). 

In terms of bookings, Airbnb runs circles around VRBO. We get about one booking per year from VRBO. I suspect that's at least in part due to the fact that VRBO isn't a known name in Europe, we have many reviews on Airbnb but very few on VRBO (all good though). 

Also, Airbnb books it up so quickly that VRBO never gets the chance, hence, few reviews on VRBO because we get so few bookings from them. 

I'd love to get more bookings from VRBO, but they just don't seem to have the same reach that Airbnb does. 

Booking.com is all instant book. You're obliged to accept all bookings from anybody, and have no chance for dialogue with guests prior to booking. Needless to say we dropped booking.com pretty quickly. 

But booking.com does have an "Airbnb import" feature that simply copies your Airbnb listing to booking.com. It was pretty amazing, in my opinion. 

[Emilia42]

@Sharon1336 

Are you sure this isn't a sign of the times? I could book a weekend stay in February on either Airbnb or Vrbo but do I really feel comfortable doing that? Who knows what could happen between now and then? It would be best, for me, to wait until closer to February to see what travels restrictions are like or if cases have increased/decreased. I can't be the only person who thinks this way in the current world.