Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2016 · 565 posts · 391 votes
Those on VRBO know there was a mess with the payouts for months. It got fixed in January and they sent an email out apologies etc... I was receiving my payouts on time in February.
The past 2 payouts are not coming though. Now on customer support waiting since an hour for a rep to pick up the phone. Is everyone else seeing the delayed/frozen payouts issue back again?
Side note: Premier Customer Support has never been this slow, but I guess that's the covid-19 effect. But Payouts? They should not be that busy these days, right?
Update: After raising the tone over the phone, I finally got billing department sending an explanation email earlier this week, basically saying they are unable to do better and hoping to pay in a couple weeks. Extract of their email:
"... We have found that the payment for this reservation is delayed due to the unprecedented and unusual volume of transactions to process in the context of COVID-19. Delays can currently take a few weeks. We understand the expected date of disbursement shown in your dashboard may have been updating to a new date daily. We apologize for the confusion this has caused. We can see that it is eligible to get processed on [a date in May] due to the known delays and the cancellation. Unfortunately, we are unable to expedite the processing of any payment. We hope that the situation will stabilize soon. I understand your frustration regarding the payout delay and sincerely appreciate your patience during this time....".
In other words: - They admit they are aware they are lying by posting a date on the payout dashboard that they know they will not honor.
- They lie about the volume of transactions. What a BS. Everyone knows they have almost no transactions these days.
I could perfectly understand if they had written something telling honestly that due to the crisis, they have some cash issues, but they'll end up paying us and apologize, etc...but I have no tolerance for lies this big.
I guess they will got (or already got) their PPP loan which will indirectly ease the tension on cash they are suffering from, even though those funds are not supposed to be used to pay us, but since they used our funds to pay their charges (payroll is probably their largest line), with PPP they'll put back that cash to the hosts.
They now have pushed my Pay date to May 15th and in my Beta Reservations screen a message now asks me if I am willing to refund more money to that guest. I already talked with that guest before he made the choice to not pay his other payments. He also had no issue believe it or not waiting till last minute to cancel. Many chances to cancel but rode it out so now I didn't book those dates so I do expect the full amount. I always tell my guests they need to cancel if they want but I do not do it for them. Looks like things are picking up again. May/June getting busy at discount rates
They now have pushed my Pay date to May 15th and in my Beta Reservations screen a message now asks me if I am willing to refund more money to that guest. I already talked with that guest before he made the choice to not pay his other payments. He also had no issue believe it or not waiting till last minute to cancel. Many chances to cancel but rode it out so now I didn't book those dates so I do expect the full amount. I always tell my guests they need to cancel if they want but I do not do it for them. Looks like things are picking up again. May/June getting busy at discount rates
Correction June/July so far getting some traction. After getting May destroyed I thought maybe to get some bookings. Now it appears the Ban was extended with no expiration date. Enough is Enough especially when Hotels and Motels are exempt. I am looking at Long Term 31 day Rentals and Agreements to try to stop the loss. My friend who does TurnkeyVR says they use a 31 day lease and add all the short term rental periods under it. So far he said no legal challenges. AIRBNB/Homeaway and some of these organizations should be filing lawsuits at this point. I believe this is a Violation of rights and not applied equally in the Industry. I know some demand letters have been sent to the Governor. We need a class action
Well after a email from VRBO telling me to wait till the 13th today the system changed to the 14th. It appears to me the only delays I have received are in cancellations. I was due this money a full month ago. Looks like we are back on the endless day changes.
VRBO (Homeaway) does not have a history of honesty. There would be no reason to expect an honest answer regarding late payments. They will make up b.s. and feed it to you. When the noise gets louder they just break out a bigger shovel.
My assumption is that they are cash strapped and they are delaying making payments for as long as they have to in order to maintain whatever goals they have. I would expect this to get worse for the next few weeks. We are at the end of the quarter and they have to report their financials. It would stand to reason that they will want to preserve as much cash as they can until we get into June.
UPDATE 7/8/2020: They finally caught up around end of May with the late payments only to get worse now.
Also they have now removed the payout date which used to appear on the dashboard for the reservation even though it was no longer reliable. I called them today to know when I am supposed to receive the new delayed payouts and they are talking about 3 weeks minimum. I guess they took the PPP funds and now they are out of cash again. These payouts I am waiting for are due since end of June for money guests paid them and they are supposed to have put in escrow for me since Jan 2020.
How are VRBO payouts working for everyone else here?
Get on OwnerRez or another PMS that integrates payments with VRBO. We have OwnerRez set up with Stripe. Whenever a guest books thru VRBO, they forward the payment to our Stripe account and we get the funds immediately. VRBO doesn't handle the transactions.
Similarly, we set up a direct booking site thru OwnerRez and we get those funds immediately as well.
AirBnb still handles payments on their site which is fine by us.
I've only had 1 VRBO guest and the payout was notably slower. A solid week+ after check out. Whereas with AirBnb they send the payment the day after check in and I usually have in my account a few days later.
@Kevin Lefeuvre. Switch to a PMS and handle payments yourself from VRBO. When guests book the system changes 50pct via stripe (not my favorite but staying with stripe) and I get the the money 3 days later. Then 45 days before guests arrive they pay the other half.
The draw back is of a guest cancels with more than 45 days then I offer a full refund. Stripe doesn't refund their fee.....but the positives outweigh the negatives and you are on full control.....