Does anyone use EVOLVE?

[Gino26]

I get alot of e-mails from a company called EVOLVE,,, another vacation booking company that uses multiple booking companies            ( homeaway, airbnb, VRBO, etc) to list your property and to hopefully generate more reservations for the homeowner.  Has anyone actually done this ?  How did airbnb get involved with these people ?

[Valarie18]

As a guest, I rented a house in Punta Gouda FL for a training I was attending there locally and I prefer a home when I travel (rarely use hotels any longer). There were many issues - no info sent on how to get into the house, no welcome packet to tell us about Wi-Fi and house info, dirty dishes in sink upon arrival, filthy tub and the hot water ran out in like 5 mins, they left left-over bar soaps in the bathroom for use (not sanitary), the home was not in good condition (hardwood floors buckling up, ants in the home, general maintenance needed), and the kitchen was not stocked with basics (sauce pot, measuring cups/spoons, etc.). Their customer service is NON EXISTENT. Don’t waste your time with this company - I will never rent from them again. Renters - beware! This company is a scam. They also clearly don’t care about sanitary practices, safety or presenting a clean and properly maintained home.

[Chris21375]

One bad experience and they are a scam? I hope not 

[Breanna87]

I use them for my property,  they are not a scam. Your situation indicates that the homeowner has not been involved. Even though Evolve handles the booking and cleaning, it is still the homeowners responsibility to know when a guest will be in the home and make sure everything is flowing smoothly.  We get email notifications that someone has booked the home. 

[Mary419]

All you get is the bookings then you have to manage all else… meaning post booking communications including how to use thermostat etc… and the cleaning stocking and repairs too.

all Evolve does is Book up your calendar then pass you the Baton. 

While answering inquiries and questions prior to booking is a pain, it hardly seems like half of the work yet they get half of the pay a real manager usually gets. 

I have a client who uses this in Missouri and I get solicitation mailers sometimes. 

[Shawn649]

I actually found this thread as I am looking for an option to move both my properties from Evolve.   My Breckenridge CO house link here: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/41621667?source_impression_id=p3_1650247433_etrr5SpEUnV0t%2FLR has had a few last minute cancellations that Evolve kept the money with ZERO going to me the host.  They used that their was a change in the guests travel plans and since they compete against hotels that they could not give me any of the money even though it was 8 days out during spring break and I lost over 1k due to this.  Evolve used the excuse they compete against hotels.  There are ZERO 3bed, 2 bath hotels in Breckenridge CO!  Just last week, I received a 2 star review from a guest that said they had a communication from the owner and when they reached out, he only received automated messages and never got a response.   Besides Evolve, I am the contact and my cell phone does not have automated messages.   Evolve put it on me for Evolve not answering the phone and I should give a thoughtful response.   When it was probably something very simple that I could of fixed with the client over the phone.  Please look at the reviews.  The only bad reviews come from guests just trying to get free nights (which Evolve is always on the guests side) and from cleaning (which I had to use an approved Evolve partner that was connected to their network).   

I bought a property this year in Branson MO with 87 5 star reviews on VRBO but had not used Airbnb and I know that Airbnb reviews do not transfer over but Preferred partners of VRbO ( Evolve is one of them) can transfer over:  Here is the airbnb link: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/582490274520952636?source_impression_id=p3_1650248030_gs2YcDFMDVoNLzOu.   I overpaid for the property for the reviews and Evolve promised multiple times (I have the emails and texts to prove it) that the reviews would be ported over but it takes time.   Well there are not 87 5 star reviews ported over on that sight.   Evolve also fought me on a 4 star review:  here is the link to VRBO https://www.vrbo.com/9669019ha?adultsCount=4&arrival=2022-08-11&departure=2022-08-14.  The guest claimed that the property is great but wish I would of listed all the amenities including pool, hot tub, etc.   I did not list it as we do not have any of those amenities at my condo.   It took 2 weeks and many emails back and forth to get them to agree to write what I wanted.   

Evolve doesn't give 2 craps about their hosts and I have plenty of emails and texts to prove that.   

That is actually why I was doing some research on Airbnb.  To see if it would be better to get rid of Evolve cause the bad service to their hosts.

Also they just took more investment money so their platform will be even more about making them money and screwing their hosts over.

Shawn 

[Lisa7027]

Same. Exact. Experience. I want to pull my listings from Evolve and go directly through ABB. Have you been successful at transitioning? 

[Yvette65]

I would copy and paste the pictures and the listing info, then edit it. They do a great job with the pictures. Filling in the blanks at Air B and B is very easy. I get more bookings from VRBO, and they pay half when I book. Beware of Booking.com. They will tell you they have a Guest wanting to book. There is nowhere to accept. Then, they start by asking for the number of a gift card. HANG UP.

[Breanna87]

I just started using evolve but prior to this, my property has been on airbnb and I had alot of success. I only switched to evolve because my work life got busier and I didn't have as much time to manage it myself. But I have not had any major issues with airbnb and I have used them for at least 3 years 

[Thuy122]

Are you still with Evolve? You said you are with Evolve for 3 years? 

[Emilie]

Hi @Thuy122, 

I'm just chiming in to tag @Breanna87 here for you, so they get a notification of your message and can hopefully come back to share more insights. 🙂

Quick tip: To tag someone, tap "@" and select the host's username from the dropdown menu.

[Barbara3796]

I have been with evolve since 2018 - first house and have added 2 more since then - true that the management basically falls on you but they keep my calendar booked  , inform me when there is a new reservation , gives me the  guest information  plus how much my payout will be — reminds me when  the checking date is approaching  and  also all the reports I need to file taxes .  I am okay  with them for now - until a company comes along that deals with all the guests communications , home repairs and  maintenance - no company out there has the perfect package - * main thing - find your own cleaning reliable person - not a company that sends a different person all the time .

[Helen3]

There are lots of cohosts and property management companies that offer the sort of services you describe. @Barbara3796 

One of the key failures of companies like Evolve is that you have no control at all over your STR business as Evolve refuse to allow owners to be added to a listing so you really have no idea how they handle guest communication or how your finances are working . 

then you have lots of guest complaints about their customer service.

what ratings do you have for your listings? What are your reviews like . Do they include maintenance issues within the fee that you pay? 

we can't see your listing so hard to comment further.

what do you mean when you say the management falls on you as the owner - surely that's what you pay them for? 

[Laomazi0]

Same. Horrible experiences with Evolve in less than one year.

[Nae369]

I literally flew from San Diego yesterday all day long-planes need to be filled-to Washington DC-spent 2 hours waiting as system issues to pick up rental car-only to get to the property and I can NOT get in-no light using my phone-AFTER MIDNIGHT-calling rental "person" from Evolve-in fact message is a woman for "Charles" and it is a name not connected to the account and/or Evolve-email them through Airbnb-bottom line I am ALONE, FEMALE-came by myself for the Women's March-DC is packed due to Police Officer recognition week in DC, Woman's March along with the United States Mobile Phone trade convention is also going on this week as well-quoted $499 for ONE night at the Pentagon Sheraton's (stayed here before and it was almost 1 in the morning at this point) sister property and this is all going on after midnight so trying to find a one night stay-bottom line found a hotel I paid for basically 9 hours-worse though neither Airbnb NOR Evolve returned my emails or calls until I reached back out to Airbnb at 11:30 in the morning-they resolved and paid $1000 towards my new place but I paid for 2 rentals-have to wait for the refund for the first rental to post-and am now trying to work out the difference of one less day, more cost out of pocket, my hotel I paid for-my new place I have to pay daily parking-the representative at Airbnb Char the bomb-but it took me calling them and today has been an utter waste-no to mention I had to find somewhere to "hangout" until the new place was available as of 4 in the afternoon-not happy at all-I just used Airbnb over all the other sites I have used as two months ago I rented in Oahu-NO ISSUE-easier and cheaper than any other apps I have used -have all documentation to support my claim-IN FACT first question I asked two times via to Evolve was new listing no reviews-nervous-how do I know you can handle any issues or how are the reviews-it is all documented in my account via the messages we exchanged.  The other main issue-health concerns so having a kitchen is a MUST-try finding all that at the last minute.  I am going to be filing a complaint with the BBB-they have had 154 complaints within just the last 3 years alone. Only 71 have been resolved; so more than half have not been.

[Z-2]

We used Evolve 10 years ago for about 2 years for my Kissimmee FL house (sold it). At that time, Evolve only do listing, get guest and customer service. They get 10% commission and also sold damage insurance to guest (guests have to buy). Everything was great. They didn't do property management, So I used management company to do that. Our management company got the guests too. Evolve handled guests pretty well and customer service was really good. Now the company has changed to try to cover everything and get higher commission. We talked with them and think it won't work out since they don't have their own people doing PM, they hire people like we do and much easier to mis-managed than us, especially in labor shortage place. So we decided to manage our own. Sometimes, I am worried the Airbnb will go the same way, try to cover too much and greedy, then thing will go worse.