Realtor · West Michigan · Member since 2017 · 105 posts · 53 votes
Has anyone seen a list comparing the fees (if any) for each of the top direct booking sites? Does it pay to be on every single one at the beginning? Or, should I just focus on Air BnB and HomeAway at first? Can you really integrate the calendars between them so as to avoid double-booking? Thanks!
@Rachel Kokosenski Yes I would focus on HA/VRBO and Airbnb to start with. I advertise on Craigslist also but just point them to my HA site. Yes HA/VRBO and Airbnb calendars can easily by synchronized to prevent cross bookings.
Most people tend to get most of their bookings from one or the other site. I get 98% of mine from HA/VRBO, but someone else will say it is the opposite for them for their area.
I think that if you are a true VRBO that people want to go to for vaction then HA/VRBO is were its at. If you are catering to downtown areas or renting a room then AIRNB has the upper hand.
Try out both HA/VRBO & Airbnb and see what works best or do as I do and keep both.
A lot of people are increasingly unhappy with HA/VRBO and their ridiculous fees. I can’t imagine why anyone would give money away by advertising on Craigslist and then turn around and direct guest towards VRBO where it costs both guest and owner???
Check out “say no to vrbo service fee” group on Facebook. Lots of reasons to stop working with them and ideas for booking your place in less costly areas.
I say this as someone who’s used VRBO for multiple properties for 4 years. I’m just tired of them and will be fazing them out soon.
A lot of people are increasingly unhappy with HA/VRBO and their ridiculous fees. I can’t imagine why anyone would give money away by advertising on Craigslist and then turn around and direct guest towards VRBO where it costs both guest and owner???
VRBO advantages over Craigslist that I can think of:
- Insurance
- Advertising
- Website/Photo hosting
- Payment processing
- Guest communications
- Calendar sync
Disclaimer: I am brand new to hosting and you have much more experience. But clearly CL can't replace these features by itself. I'm not saying she can't drive traffic from CL to a cheaper platform - she can. But something has to replace those features if not VRBO.
Do you have any suggestions on where to drive that traffic to (besides ABB of course)? I am in a similar situation as the original poster.
I'm not suggesting that Craigslist is a substitute for VRBO. I've never used Craigslist. There are alternative sites like Tripz, Bookings, etc. There are local STR sites in a lot of area that have gained traction. A lot of people have had success creating their own website and driving traffic there, although it is difficult to get any relevance with all the big guys.
Hey @Rachel Kokosenski, here is a nice article Evolve put out a while back showing comparisons along with pros and cons of each platform. I found it fairly informative from a high level perspective.
@John Underwood I have found in my own experience that the lines between the big 2 (HA and Airbnb) continue to blur. I am in as traditional a seasonal vacation market as they get in Cape Cod, yet my gross receipts have now swung to 80/20 in favor of Airbnb. That could be a result of being so close to a major metropolitan region (Boston) , where one would expect to find more Airbnb users. But I also have noticed a profound lag in Homeaway's performance since the Expedia takeover. Either way, sound advice given to @Rachel Kokosenski in listing with both platforms. The game continues to evolve.
@Rachel Kokosenski I am a customer only so my perspective is less about cost and more about what services I prefer. From my perspective I only use AirBNB. I would NEVER rent from Craigslist. Just way too many scams and I wouldn't trust anyone on there. As a landlord I rent houses from Craigslist, but the difference is I am physically meeting people at the property. When I am traveling I don't have capability to go look at the property, so I want AirBNB to be in the transaction to protect me.
@JoeSplitrock - I totally agree. Craigslist is a very scary place and I would not list my property there or look for a rental there! I also appreciate the built-in vetting process that AirBNB offers to both the guest and the owner.
Tim, drive it to your own web site. My web site does all the things that you mentioned, including insurance, security deposits, rental agreements... everything that VRBO does and some things that AirBNB does not.
@Garry C. I’ll be the first to ask you questions about your website. Do you use a Wordpress site with a real estate/vacation theme? I’m playing around with one now and want to build out the options, or widgets, that allow for collecting funds, offering insurance and rental agreements. But then do you also list on Airbnb and VRBO in addition to your website?
@Garry C. I’ll be the first to ask you questions about your website. Do you use a Wordpress site with a real estate/vacation theme? I’m playing around with one now and want to build out the options, or widgets, that allow for collecting funds, offering insurance and rental agreements. But then do you also list on Airbnb and VRBO in addition to your website?
I tried WP with plugins for a long time. It's a nightmare. Some people do it and claim to make it work well, but I'm IT savvy and found it to be nearly impossible. My current web site is hosted by OwnerRez, who makes the backend booking software (you can find a link in the footer at my site). You could conceivably use OR as a plugin on your WP site. I'm sure it would work great and their support is awesome so they would help you get it up and running in no time. But I decided to go with OR hosted, since I was having other problems with my GoDaddy hosted WP site.
I absolutely list on AirBNB and VRBO. Although I probably don't need AirBNB, as 90% of my business comes from VRBO. You kind of 'need' to be there regardless. But some rentals are the exact opposite, with most of their business coming from AirBNB and very little on VRBO. It all depends on where you are and what you offer, as there are distinctly different types of people that use the different OTAs. You won't find that you can use just one and be as successful as if you were to use both. With that said, I don't think you need the others. But as they are incorporated into OR, I'll likely fire them up and use those too. It was just too hard to manage and sync more than two before I found OR.
Thanks for sharing Garry. It flows seamlessly. I can see the attraction. I often wonder if the monthly cost of running my own website, like yours on OwnerRez is cost effective. We get 90% of bookings from Airbnb and I'm not sure how my website would compete with either of them. Who do you use to offer travel insurance from? Thanks for your information. (I want to go to Colorado Springs and Denver again!!!)
@Rachel Kokosenski In my opinion it really matters what kind of property you are listing and where. Yes, paying high fees is a pain and we we all prefer not to do it. But if you have a choice between a low-fee site that gets you nothing and a higher-fee site that brings in bookings, well, you know the answer. My personal experience is the Emerald Coast of Florida. For vacation rentals on the beach here VRBO/HA is the primary site. So, yes, I pay the fees and so do the guests. And I actually try to explain to the guests the advantage of booking through VRBO even if they have to pay a fee (insurance, security, a third party mediation in case of disagreement with owner, etc). We, as owners get penalized if we book "off platform". I also list on Aibnb where I fill in "reservation gaps". Airbnb brings in about 20-30% of my business and it is usually not advance bookings like VRBO. That said, in some other markets around the country Airbnb is king and that is 90%+ of where business comes from. You just need to figure out what is the best fit for your property and location. As for Craigslist.... I don't mean to offend people who list there... Again, there are property types that do well in different market situations.... I never use Craigslist. In fact, I had a situation where someone was fraudulently copying one of my VRBO listings and posting it on Craigslist for a lot less money and with fake info. They even defrauded one person making them send a paper check to the "elderly owner who does not accept credit cards". I felt really bad for those people but could do nothing to help them. I use this story actually to caution guests against sending paper checks anywhere. In summary, don't sweat the fees. If you are getting good business from a particular site, then the fees are worth it. On the other hand, just cuz something is free does not make it good. Free garbage is still garbage, lol. Good luck!
@Garry C. I’ll be the first to ask you questions about your website. Do you use a Wordpress site with a real estate/vacation theme? I’m playing around with one now and want to build out the options, or widgets, that allow for collecting funds, offering insurance and rental agreements. But then do you also list on Airbnb and VRBO in addition to your website?
I tried WP with plugins for a long time. It's a nightmare. Some people do it and claim to make it work well, but I'm IT savvy and found it to be nearly impossible. My current web site is hosted by OwnerRez, who makes the backend booking software (you can find a link in the footer at my site). You could conceivably use OR as a plugin on your WP site. I'm sure it would work great and their support is awesome so they would help you get it up and running in no time. But I decided to go with OR hosted, since I was having other problems with my GoDaddy hosted WP site.
I absolutely list on AirBNB and VRBO. Although I probably don't need AirBNB, as 90% of my business comes from VRBO. You kind of 'need' to be there regardless. But some rentals are the exact opposite, with most of their business coming from AirBNB and very little on VRBO. It all depends on where you are and what you offer, as there are distinctly different types of people that use the different OTAs. You won't find that you can use just one and be as successful as if you were to use both. With that said, I don't think you need the others. But as they are incorporated into OR, I'll likely fire them up and use those too. It was just too hard to manage and sync more than two before I found OR.
I looked at OwnerRez but didn't proceed because they don't sync prices to VRBO. I like the idea of driving some business to my own site (via Facebook, advertising, repeat customers, etc) and let VRBO and AirBNB pick up the rest. But, I have to have something that let's me set prices in one place and trickle them down to the other sites. I guess I need a channel manager for this, just haven't had time to go through and research them all.
I used to rent on Airbnb and VRBO, but VRBO ticked me off back in 2016, and I ditched them. I went to a HomeAway conference in Austin, and no one who worked there could even FIND my listing--and couldn't explain why. Perhaps it was because I didn't pay the annual subscription fee (I actually paid 8% per transaction--much higher than Airbnb's 3%), so my listing was buried (and in my opinion, VRBO is saturated, plus their interface was ugly when I was using it - I don't know what it looks like now, and changing pricing was a struggle). Then I would get occasional emails from the VRBO bots whose algorithms told me I was "in danger of losing my listing privileges" because of my "low conversion rate" - as if somehow it was my fault that 1000 people looked at my property (which I did not believe), 5 people inquired, and only 1 person (if that) actually booked. I got 99% of my business from Airbnb, so I only rent through them now. (I have 3 properties in Panama City, FL--also part of the Emerald Coast.) When I started renting in 2015, I was one of only FOUR properties in the entire city of Panama City (NOT Panama City Beach, which is just 6 miles away), and 2 of those properties were boats. There are many more now, but I have been very successful and my income has gone up consistently each year.
I prefer Airbnb's interface and fee structure. Airbnb is much easier to use as a host, in my opinion. (I also used Trip Advisor for a short while, but I never got much business from there, and managing/syncing three calendars was just too much for me, so I scaled back to one.) The only thing I'm not in love with is the process to request money from guests for damages, missing items, etc. I have always been able to recover money, but it puts the onus on the host to "prove" damages and costs (I know this is a good thing, overall) and can be a little tedious. I'd much rather just be able to keep part of their deposit, but I realize that method would be ripe for host abuse.
I have never seriously contemplated renting via Craigslist for several reasons: It's rife with scammers; Airbnb's communication system "protects" me to some extent (I try to do all my communication with guests through their inbox); and I cannot secure reviews (or review guests) if I get them from Craigslist. Plus, I do not have a website set up to capture any of this info - why should I? Airbnb does all of that. Reviews are important to me as is my Super Host status on Airbnb.
I've rented to about 1200 people in the last 6 years. About 10 of them came from AirBnb or Homeaway or VRBO. About 600 came from Craigslist. The other 590 came from other offline methods (direct mailing, billboard, word of mouth).
I've rented to about 1200 people in the last 6 years. About 10 of them came from AirBnb or Homeaway or VRBO. About 600 came from Craigslist. The other 590 came from other offline methods (direct mailing, billboard, word of mouth).
Yes but isn't your rental model quite different from most on here? I believe you said you rent rooms to short-term industrial workers or something like that -- nothing at all like most vacation and STR rentals here on BP. Not meaning to be disrespectful or anything, just that your success from Craigslist is probably not going to translate well for the bulk of the users.
@Tim Schroeder Yes, I rent the entire house out to refinery contractors, not individual rooms. 95% of my renters are male, high school educated, from Oklahoma, Texas or Louisiana; and make about $2500/week while working here. The other 5% are from other states and have been to college.