Am I good enough for VRBO/HomeAway?

[Paul154]

I wish to reduce my reliance upon Airbnb. 

You see, Airbnb meets my needs and my level of service. Ingrained in Airbnb is this concept of amateur property ownership which matches who I am and what I offer.

But I can't rely on Airbnb. Should they or I fail, I will be without business.

I have 2 self-contained units, but they are units of a duplex. They share common outside areas. While they meet the needs of travelers, they are not posh.

I look at VRBOs advertisements and am overwhelmed at the grandeur of their offerings.  Large single resident houses with many amentities, surrounded by huge lawns and woods.

Question: Is this just advertising? Do people rent out plain old duplex units on VRBO? Is there a dramatic difference between Airbnb and VRBO' clientele?

Does anyone have experience with both? Thank you.

[Lisa723 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Paul154  definitely listings like yours are on VRBO. I offer three listings on both platforms. Our basement guest suite has been booked via VRBO exactly once in the two years it has been there. Our big lake house is rented probably two thirds via VRBO and one third Airbnb. Our small cabin probably the reverse ratio. Our VRBO guests are “better.” They are older, willing to pay more, lower maintenance, and cleaner. Mostly multigenerational family stays or older couples. A few who object to Airbnb on principle. You have nothing to lose by giving it a try!

[Lisa723]

Here’s a vrbo listing we stayed at recently. They are not on Airbnb:

https://www.vrbo.com/1402710

[Mark116]

@Lisa723  Thanks for the input.  We keep talking about listing on the other sites, but still haven't gotten around to it.  It's good to hear from someone who is familiar with both.

[Jody79]

We posted ours on Vrbo mostly just to get a Chicago registration number.  Our place was submitted as a multi-unit building when in fact it's a single family home, and therefore got rejected due to no unit number.  After multiple calls and messaging with multiple CS reps from ABB, I was unable to resubmit the application.  So went through Vrbo instead.  Within a week we had our registration number.  Now I'm having difficulty actually posting it on Airbnb, but that's a different issue.  

We haven't gotten any bookings from vrbo yet.  We also don't have IB on either because we don't want to inadvertantly double book from both ABB and Vrbo.  At some point we may make a better effort to try and obtain some bookings through them, but just not quite ready for that yet.

[Lisa723]

@Jody79 you can easily synchronize your calendars to avoid double-booking:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/99/how-do-i-sync-my-airbnb-calendar-with-another-calendar

[Jody79]

Thank you @Lisa723!  I'll definitely look into that once we are ready to go forward with really listing on multiple sights.  Hopefully soon. 🙂

[Sonia263]

I have a full house with backyard pool and hot tub.  I get an equal number of inquiries from VRBO and Air.  In summer my rates are higher and then I get more VRBO bookings.  Again, people who are willing to pay more and are overall very good guests but not as easy to get the 5 star rating.  I have received 4 stars a couple times even though people have left happy with no complaints and only positive things to say in the review.   I have often wondered how a suite would do on VRBO, not sure it would get as much activity.   Not sure how the half duplex would fair unless someone wanted to rent both sides simultaneously then I can see it being appealing to VRBO travellers.

[Shrii0]

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