VRBO/HA's Marketplace Feed/MarketMaker/Ranking Metrics thoughts?

[Michael Greenberg]

For those of you that are proponents of VRBO / HomeAway (including me), and have worked with their new toolset, what is your opinion?  Personally, I am testing it and it seems to work very well and provides some very relevant information and help.  So what's the "gotchya" I ask myself?  My obvious thought is price erosion of our market.  While it's nice to know the details of a competitive landscape, could they be providing too much information and creating a commoditized marketplace?

On the flip side, is this in response to Airbnb's tools?  Are the rumors true about Airbnb, that your rankings suffer if you're listed on other sites?  My gut is telling me yes and yes to both.  I've seen a spike in VRBO/HA requests and bookings - including higher rates and returns - far too great to ignore.   in turn my Airbnb has gone a little silent and my rankings are down for no apparent reason.

Let me hear you BP community.  

Thanks,

Mike

[William Leahy]

The more analytics, the better. However, once again VRBO/HA seems to be copying Airbnb and faceplanting with the execution. The "premier partner" concept sounds like they were trying to follow the "super host" concept, But when I look at who has earned this designation in my area there is no ryme or reason. Professionally managed listings get it and I see other listings with no reviews or less than 5 star reviews who have it. when questioned,Customer service has scripted unsatifactory answers . I have read that they are penalizing listings who's prices on other sites don't line up with their HA/VRBO prices. Preposterous. My airbnb and VRBO pricing don't always align because airbnb meshes better with dynamic pricing. Sounds as if they are running scared, airbnb doesn't seem to care whats happening on my VRBO account.  My airbnb volume continually increases , pulling even with VRBO this year and I would expect that trend to continue.