How to increase Vrbo Bookings?

Question

I've read quite a few posts about other hosts receiving the majority of bookings through Vrbo and that is just not the case for me and I'm curious as to why. I started off using Lodgify as a pms system and now I'm using Hostfully. My airbnb and booking.com bookings have always been 90% of my bookings and I've only had maybe 4 Vrbo bookings this year. What am I doing wrong? The listings were imported from my pms system so they weren't manually entered in Vrbo. The units are doing great on Airbnb and Booking.com but I've had no success with Vrbo all around.

How can I change this? How can I get more bookings with Vrbo?

How can I change this? How can I get more bookings with Vrbo?

Sarah Kensinger · Answer

Many people don't realize this, but your location has a lot to do with what percentage of bookings come from Airbnb and VRBO. Do a quick check on the OTA's and see who holds the most listings for your area, if it's a bit lopsided that would be your answer.

Also, what is your guest avatar and who would be looking to book your property? The younger generation prefers to spend less for a STR and shop on Airbnb, while the opposite of that tends to gravitate VRBO.

Hopefully that can help you figure out why your bookings are lower on VRBO.

Michael Baum · Answer

Hey Account Closed, there are a lot of variables but one question, are you staying all booked up on AirBNB?

We used to be 90% VRBO with the occasional AirBNB guest. Right now we are more 60/40 AirBNB/VRBO. Not really sure why.

Maybe it's the huge slate of advertising AirBNB does. AirBNB used to be younger folks and VRBO more mature users. I think that is changing.

If you are getting all your places filled up on AirBNB and don't have an issue, it probably isn't a big deal. It is always nice to have a more bookings coming in from different sites, but it isn't the end of the world.

How often do you update your listing? Add/change photos? Add amenities? Change the text of listing? All that helps boost the listing.

Account Closed · Answer

@Trent Reeve I have 20+ listings in Ohio. Majority are in Columbus and all over Cleveland. They range from 1 bedroom/1 bath apartments to 5 bedroom/3 bath houses and are all performing the same on Vrbo.

Ryan Moyer · Answer

The market is part of it, but even within the same market you'll see huge variation from host to host.

My experience has been that VRBO's algorithm is EXTREMELY momentum driven compared to Airbnb's.  When it's quiet, it's dead quiet.  But if you get it rolling, it gets ROLLING.

You can try committing to it.  Shut the other stuff down for a bit.  Or lower the prices lower on VRBO.  Anything to get a few VRBO listings rolling, then there's a decent chance they'll start pouring in.

Trent Reeve · Answer

as Sarah mentioned, can you view some of your competitors and see if they are booking mostly thru AirBNB also? that may show a trend.

Trent Reeve · Answer

can you give us more information about your listing? what area? how big?

I will say, im a beach property and a townhome. im about 80% VRBO, 10% Airbnb and 10% direct bookings. done nothing special, i just think my normal type of renters are ones that use VRBO, maybe because i have a 3/3 property.

Andrew Steffens · Answer

I agree with above that it depends on your location.  We operate primarily in the greater Tampa Bay area which is essentially 2 submarkets; beaches and urban.  The beaches are primarily larger homes that attract families.  The properties get a significantly higher percentage from VRBO than the urban submarkets of Tampa/St Pete which are smaller, cheaper and primarily booked by younger people using Airbnb.  At least that is my experience!

Travis Timmons · Answer

I'll second what everyone else said - it's market dependent. We, and the rest of our STR market is about 80-90% airbnb. I have a good friend that manages cabins in the Lake of the Ozarks, he's 95% VRBO. When I asked him why he thinks that is the case, he said the consensus in rural Missouri is that Airbnb is a "liberal" platform and their crowd doesn't like them. Not saying it makes sense, but one platform tends to gain steam and it just becomes the go to for that particular market.

If you check airdna for your market, you should be able to see the percentage of property listings that are on airbnb, vrbo, and those that are on both. If you seem to be under market % for VRBO, and it matters enough for you to care, you may want to update the listing and lower the prices to get bookings. I wouldn't give away money to gain traction on VRBO, but I get it if you do.

How to increase Vrbo Bookings?

Most Popular Reply