All Forum Posts by: Kevin Lefeuvre

Great observation Jerry for the length of stay. I see the same and it's not surprising. You could add younger average age for airbnb as well. At least by 10 years. My vrbo clients are in their late 40s (in average) while on airbnb the average is closer to mid 30s.

Now the interesting part about your observation is the fact that 2 similar units in the exact same location are more or less popular in a platform. I think this is related to the sites' algorithms. For instance airbnb penalizes you when they see another platform on your synced calendar (yes they do). Or even simply too many blocked days. 

Also you may have noticed that bookings come regrouped. It happens very often to me to have 3 or 4 bookings on the same day and then nothing for a week. This tells me their algorithm has pushed my property for a few hours for some reasons. There are a lot of factors impacting the ranking of a property. That's why 2 properties even identical, in the same building may perform differently. Now I expect the difference of occupancy not to differ by more than 5% for any 12 months period.

I think strategically it doesn't make sense for us to go the Yapstone way, because at the end of the day VRBO is the real partner (so to speak) and if they have problems with Yapstone, staying with Yapstone will most likely add additional issues later. As others mentioned this is yet another issue pushing us towards more diversified sources to get renters.

 You're welcome. 

Unfortunately they won't let you do otherwise and even though it's now in the contract, they used to do it before anyway. It was a footnote in the form you have to sign to assign your bank account. Nothing done professionally anyway. So most likely I will have to upgrade as well.

 No, security deposit on VRBO/HomeAway does not work this way. They don't debit your account. They keep it and release it either upon your order or after the 7/14 days period setup in your account.

You do have a point though, not for deposits, but for other type of refunds with your consent.

What they should do is to copy Airbnb's way of doing, which is debit your account until the next payment and deduct it.

 All very true for an established industry and established/stable market. 

The challenge with this market is novelty and immaturity. Not only the STR market is not yet mature it will always have some sort of instability for several reasons; cities regulation change making big increase or decrease in a location leading to new hosts. Also a large percentage of hosts are not professionals, they are just the grand-ma type doing this from time to time in one property, so they'll just follow the platform's policy, etc.... And also new hosts join because they have become homeowner or purchased an investment property. Just as a comparison to the hotel industry, you don't have the same frequency of change.

I have experienced a couple disagreed bank debits with VRBO last year or 2 years ago. What happens is that when you oppose it at your bank, the bank wants you to "oppose" them permanently to avoid future debits, which makes sense. This is ok, until you have a legitimate debit needed (for instance when you want to refund a guest partially or something similar). Then you have to re-authorize it again. As I always say, for all the technical matters VRBO developers not only lack creativity, but also are totally dumb since they can't even copy what Airbnb or other do well like in this example.

Those of you hosting with Homeaway and VRBO have certainly received 2 emails in the past few days; 

One email is from HA/VRBO telling us they are dumping Yapstone because Yapstone now wants to charge 3% additional for the "advanced payment" feature (paying us at booking instead of check-in time). VRBO invites use to "upgrade" to the new system for a vaguely better experience which will NOT include the "advance payment" anyway. (so how is this an upgrade anyway?). There is only one call-to-action button in their email UPGRADE which leads to acceptance of 2 new contracts. 1) Terms in which they introduce HYPERWALLET, as a replacement of YAPSTONE and enforcing some bad terms such as the authorization of "debit" (in addition to the normal "credit") into our bank accounts in a more formal way. 2) A new terms for HOMEAWAY/VRBO which among other things, removes hosts option to sue them in court (except for small claims), forces Arbitration and removes the ability for a class action. I Haven't accepted those 2 terms so I don't know what'es next, but I guess it means we allow them to get rid of Yapstone and we accept the new , more restrictive terms, thrown to us in the middle of this "payment partner" fight they have.

Another email from Yapstone who tells us that the "advanced payment" feature is no longer offered as a standard plan, and that from now on we will get paid at check in time. But they offer us the OPTION of keeping that feature for an extra 3%!! (total is getting more like 6% JUST FOR PAYMENT FEES). The call-to-action button at the end of this email is OPT-IN (we optin for the 3% more).

It looks like we are being given a choice between "worse" and "even worse".

Called VRBO and the rep wanted me to "upgrade" (first choice above) and said Yapstone is no longer the good guys. When I told him that the new terms talked about a new vendor called Hyperwallet, he didn't even know , never heard of them and thought it's their internal solution. What a mess! 

In fact Hyperwallet is simply a competitor to Yapstone. It looks like the decision has been made in panic mode. 

Any of the hosts here already made a choice between Yapstone and the new VRBO/Hyperwallet? Is it even sustainable to stay with Yapstone? What are your thoughts?

 Locks on bedroom doors? Seriously? 

20 extra loads for not managing your towels?🙄

Want my honest  reaction? I try my best to be selective and avoid guests like you.

Key is to have an honest listing.  If you book a house with queen beds, I can't understand why you would even think about King size beds.

On a side note, house hacking and professionalism are absolutely very compatible. Like in a Duplex or guest unit or ADU . And the fact the owner is on site has a lot of benefits for the guests.

Michael there is no deposit collected on airbnb.  Deposit on airbnb is a joke and that's the number one reason some tenants prefer airbnb. So you are not losing anything by not dealing with those ones. 

I think your challenge is a mix of both. Maybe you should adopt a softer language and avoid appartement rental vocabulary,  but not give up on background check and deposit.  Mid term rentals should be more flexible than the traditional LTR, but it's ok to have an agreement,  and a damage deposit.  I have it evenfor a 2 nights vrbo tenant and it has not been a reason to lose any client,  the type I want to see in my property. 

Very true Ronnie.

This is factual data . I really don't understand why, compared to Westchester, PDR is not performing.