All Forum Posts by: Kenny McCarty

We had guest leave us a 3 star review because she said our house was unsafe for children. I called her to get some more detail since obviously that is a pretty serious matter. She told me it was because her child got stung by a bee while outside…. Our house is in the mountains surrounded by wild flowers…

Is this still happening for all of the management sites? IGMS still has this problem and it is really frustrating....makes me look like I am incompetent to my guests when they receive my check in message with an empty door code (door code is generated from their phone number).

@Dan George I never had any random calendar blocks although if I get a cancellation I usually have to go in manually and unblock it because VRBO keeps reblocking it for some reason...  I set my rates manually.  I had an account at PriceLabs but they consistantly were underpricing my houses by up to 50%.  Mainly because almost all the owners in my area use the same PM and she WAY undercharges but tacks on all these fees to make sure she is getting paid.

I am considering switching to a different PMS as my business is growing too large to have to deal with the various issues that keep popping up with iGMS.  I am looking for one that can automatically set door codes to a Schlage Encode, allow multiple cleaners to see their schedule and have a head cleaner assign cleans/or auto assign.  Text alerts would be a nice feature too for schedule/assignment changes but is not critical.  Any suggestions would be welcome.

I use iGMS to run my STRs and recently VRBO stopped sending the travelers phone number when syncing up. I use the phone number to set my door codes. Is anyone else having that happen with the software they are using or is it isolated to iGMS?

Wanted to get some feedback on anyone using this feature within iGMS.  When I assign the Head Cleaner role to someone I noticed they have access to the Property tab which then gives them access to a whole bunch of stuff that I really don't want them messing with, like pricing and channel editing.  I don't really think my employee would ever do anything malicious but they really shouldn't be able to edit any of these things or even be able to see them for that matter.

My current workaround is to just give them the Cleaner role and then they manually send out assignments to the rest of the cleaning staff.  Seems very inefficient and defeats the purpose of even using this feature.  What do you guys do?

STRs need to be bulletproof. Replace the fireplaces with new ones that turn on with a wall switch. Newer one will also automatically light the pilot. I had a similar problem and got a new one. Looks better, zero headaches, and guests are happier.

This applies to everything in your house. If it’s confusing or a problem for a guest then it’s a problem for you and needs to be replaced. Guests don’t read…treat everything as if it is being done by a 3 year old.

@Colleen F. Airbnb is only charging 3% on payments made directly to me and nothing else. Another irritation point for me is that when I reconcile my bookings with payouts I can never gets VRBOs to reconcile exactly. There is always a few cents discrepancy. With Airbnb it is always exactly what it should be. This is what led me to discover this issue in the first place.

I am extremely obsessive about my accounting and have been known to waste hours tracking down an errant penny…it’s a problem haha.

@Collin Hays so it's ok for us to pay a fee on VRBO's revenue?  I still don't understand how this makes sense...

Rent: $1000
Tax on Rent: $50

I am fine paying the CC fee on the above

VRBO Service fee: $100 - we don't pay the CC fee on this
Tax on service fee: $5 - we DO pay the CC fee on this

Clearly I am missing something here.  Please explain it to me in baby terms because I am really confused on how this makes sense.

@pa 

@Paul Sandhu definitely a glitch in the matrix.  This week I replaced a completely melted dishwasher and another with water pouring out of it from no discernible spot.  Every time I touched the leaking one I got electrocuted but I have so much nerve damage from football that it took me a while to figure out why my arm felt weird haha.  Good times!

@Paul Sandhu @John Underwood Yes I understand that...but why are we footing the bill for CC fees on their revenue?  Does that make sense?

Just in case you aren't aware, we are being charged a 3% processing fee on the taxes that are collected from VRBO's traveler service fee.  This has been happening for years.  I have been on the phone many times with support explaining why this is wrong.  They all think it is just fine.  Let's do some quick math here...

Here are my assumptions:

1 million listings - I know the number is higher
bookings/year per listing: 20 - I get 60/year
average traveler service fee $150 - mine average $400
tax rate: 5% - mine is 11.2%

How much money is Expedia making by not fixing this bug:

1 million listings x 20 bookings x $150 service fee = $3,000,000,000
Taxes on that revenue @ 5% = $150,000,000
Service fee on those taxes (3%) = $4,500,000/year

My assumed numbers are VERY conservative....so the overall amount is likely significantly higher. So this BUG is providing $4.5 million to Expedia's bottom line....likely much more. I wonder why they won't fix it?

Am I incorrect in thinking this is wrong?  Would love for someone to explain it to me.