VRBO issues with accepting request to book

[Christina B.]

TLDR: VRBO hangs when I try to accept a booking (no need to read the rest if short on time)

The last time I posted about serious issues I was having with accepting a booking, I seemed to be the only one, lol. Well, maybe it's happened again! VRBO freezes when I try to accept a request to book, after I've personalized my response and clicked "accept". This has happened to me at least 3 times in the past 3 months and the VRBO rep I spoke with today, confirmed it's a known problem. When she tried to accept the booking just now, she couldn't. So she has escalated the issue. She also expressed a finer-grain understanding of the impact on the host's metrics (if it looks like I'm not accepting the booking) as she said she had to place a separate request for me not to be penalized.

A few months ago, I could "push" through the acceptance by switching to the VRBO app on my phone (vs desktop- which is my preference). However, in doing that, it didn't allow me to personalize the accept template which is a little more generic but has fields such as X adults, Y kids, Z dogs (which is why I do it manually). So the guest would see the acceptance but with "X adults" etc. (which looks unprofessional).

I feel bad for the CSRs who have to answer phones, know there's an issue that hasn't been fixed (3+ months??), and then have to offer poor work-arounds. For example, she proposed trying pre-approval (which I dislike because it ties up my calendar for some hot seasonal dates). When I explained to her that this requires extra work on the guest's part (which isn't very hospitable), she seemed to understand that the guest has already provided all their personal and credit card info, and that Pre-Approval requires them to re-enter it another time. (FWIW, the last time we tried Pre-Approval as a fix, it didn't work either which was even more frustrating. I honestly cannot believe how much work and time wasted on the phone, both the guest and I- had to put in to push the reservation through but I estimate it was at least 4 hours!)

I do have a direct booking site (and yes, very tempted to steer people that way but I do not want to jeopardize our relationships, etc. with the major platforms which understandably, control the communication channels- and yes, I'm looking at you Airbnb now that you're not even allowing access to guests' or hosts' phone numbers except via a mask!).

This was my previous VRBO debacle:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/530/topics/1258250-vrbo...

Going to take my deep breaths and enjoy the fall colors later in the day...

[Andrew Steffens]

I have not yet had this issue with VRBO but I have had other issues in the past that lingered.  To be fair Airbnb has glitches, and their CS sucks for hosts but the issues are always resolved in 24-48 hours in my experience.  If you have the time keep complaining, but at least you are still able to accept the bookings and therefore not experiencing revenue loss.  Have you considered switching to instant book?