All Forum Posts by: Christina B.

I've been living a separate tax nightmare (another post for another time) but curious if anyone else is seeing that starting 2025, VRBO began taxing not just nightly rate total + host fees (e.g. cleaning, pet, extra guests), but their own Guest Service Fee? It's possible mine is an isolated issue and VRBO is supposedly escalating this with their Billing Department. This is on top of their amended 1099s for 2024 (amended is correct now). I did start checking 2024 to get a baseline for when this became an issue but looks like they were calculating it correctly (the taxes were applied after each item- e.g. after the nightly rate, then after the cleaning fee, etc.).

Is anyone else seeing this? (For me, it's not just one booking, it's all my 2025 VRBO bookings.)

Correct formula (I think): nightly rate total of $2500 + cleaning fee of $400 = $2900 x .102 (10.2% total taxes for my area in Colorado)

VRBO 2025 formula: nightly rate total of $2500 + cleaning fee of $400 + Guest Service Fee of $400 = $3300 x .102

FWIW, Airbnb is still using the first formula.

Love this case study @James Carlson! Thank you for sharing it. Genuinely impressive solid returns. May they last as things feel somewhat chaotic currently. Congrats to your clients for their choice to create something so unique.

Thanks, @Collin Hays. I appreciate the different perspective. What I could also use- if you ever talk to your detective friend again, is how do we protect against our properties being used in this way? That's the practical info I'd really like. The only thing I can think of- and again, there's a balance, is the use of exterior cams (disclosed upfront) on the property and hope that's somewhat of a deterrent to those who don't want their license plates captured, etc. Lots of cars going to the house, etc. Different individuals coming and going. All can be red flags. But further takeaways would be helpful.

We do what @Lisa Graesser does and charge cost of shipping along with our cleaner's time (she quotes us). Once I have approval from the guest and payment, our cleaner texts me a photo of the tracking info which I pass along to the owner. One thing to be aware of is that if you do this on the same platform the guest booked on (e.g. VRBO), VRBO still charges both a VRBO commission fee and a payment processing fee. Those fees were irritating as even though I should have known better, our cleaner charged $50 for both postage and her time (heavier items) and while I still had to pay her $50, I actually only received $46 from VRBO as a result of those fees. Great question. I do recommend checking with the guest what their preference is as we've had guests pass on having things such as glasses (!) returned to them. (Someone should start a post here on the funny things guests leave behind, some deliberately because they don't want to cart home beer, mead, etc.!)

Another vote for Minut (which supposedly detects pot smoking on top of cigarette smoking as well). In addition to sending real-time alerts when noise exceeds your set decibel level (and also lets you know if things calm down after 10 minutes), I like the additional info of temperature levels because it's another data piece on top of the thermostat reading. I've only had to reach out a few times to guests but being able to cite the data/report- is useful.

@James R. I know there's a reason so can you share why you set the threshold higher for number of 5-star reviews on AirBnb vs. VRBO? (Love the added value of your Cemetery tours! Genius!!)

@Nick M. Congrats on your first booking!!! And a high in high season! The forum will be here (and honestly, I use the Search function a LOT). With the growth mindset you clearly have, you're building a solid foundation for success. Scams will still come your way but you'll build experience and confidence. Crappy stuff happens. You'll learn from it and do better. (And hopefully, you'll share it here so we can all continue to learn.) Congrats again!

@Joe McLaughlin Interesting timing- as of this morning, I have a new interface on my Schlage Home app which is a little annoying (because the redesign is tweaked enough that I can't quite auto-pilot it and took a few minutes to figure out how to get to my most used features- setting access and history). But I can see how the new design is an improvement for those who manage multiple properties / locks.

To answer your question, there is no "group code" feature (which would be nice) so for now, you have to enter the same code for all 3 locks.

As for the AirBnb integration, I'm curious what others do but I don't use it, intentionally, because I prefer to provide that code no earlier than 24 hours in advance of arrival. I've seen some hosts not provide it until one hour before check-in (and that makes sense to me, too). Perhaps this can be programmed in AirBnb but for now, having my own process that works independent of any one platform (VRBO, etc.) makes me feel better/less reliant on just one path for success.

*I did snort at the Schlage integration with Alexa, Google Assistant, etc. because while those can absolutely be useful, I'd be paranoid about accidentally locking out a guest via unintentional voice command or glitch. (I know that might be rare but still.)

@Jeff Chisum That's such a smart idea! I have tons of those moisture absorber packets (from supplements, etc.) and will bring different sizes to see what works next time we swap out batteries. Hopefully, someone else can chime in if there's been a redesign.

FWIW, we have a physical back-up in place in case of smart lock failure (maybe at -44F?) so our guests have options. (No joke: on Jan. 21, a low of -44F was recorded in our same county, Grand County, for a nearby town called Fraser Flats. The weather service noted it might end up being the coldest temperature nationwide for Jan. 21, including interior Alaska!)

@Rob Hilton Thank you for those clarifications. Wow, you're not even in the areas impacted by the fire and yet, VRBO has contacted you with (it would appear) a severe misunderstanding of your pricing. Given all your data on historic pricing, average length of stay, and pricing at the 25th percentile, please let us know if you're able to push up the VRBO chain to speak to a Supervisor (or equivalent) and have them verify the data that supports your position.

I can share that calling the VRBO support line: 877-202-4291, identifying yourself & property ID, and requesting a Supervisor politely and repeatedly, can lead to different outcomes. If that call fails, try calling again (hopefully you'll get someone more competent). I'm sure you're documenting everything. It's interesting that there's something in the VRBO algo that's "tripping" this (and not in the AirBnB algo, etc.). Do you also offer direct booking?

Hang in there through this frustrating nightmare!