10 Important Details that vacation rental hosts need to know about listing on VRBO

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Airbnb has quickly become the stand-out brand name of the vacation rental marketplace, but VRBO has been around longer and has a few unique features (and cautions) all hosts should be aware of.

VRBO (the now abbreviated name of the Vacation Rental by Owner website) is now 25 years old and when it started out, it was the first web based platform for owners of Vacation Rentals to rent their properties.

The VRBO platform has not evolved at the speed that Airbnb has to meet current market and host needs and still has work to do to address some of the challenges that have arisen from the now overwhelming popularity of vacation rentals.

The most important difference to note is that VRBO does not offer any free host protection or insurance, in contrast to Airbnb that offers hosts up to *1 Million Dollars Host Protection. Guests have the Option to buy a small “accidental damage” insurance policy upon booking on VRBO, but it’s a far cry from the coverage offered by AIrbnb and hosts have no way to require guests to make the insurance purchase. However, Airbnb is known for not always being timely or effective in their processing of claims, so hosts still need to ensure they have their own proper homeowners insurance for liability and damages.

VRBO does offer the unique bonus of being owned by Expedia, so all VRBO listings are automatically funneled through Expedia for more visibility and booking opportunity.

Here’s our TOP 10 List of Important Details that VRBO hosts need to know

1. VRBO does not currently allow hosts to write a review about guests, only a star rating.

Guests can write reviews about their stays and hosts can respond. On VRBO there is much less emphasis on reviews and hosts are not stressing about getting that 5 star essential review like airbnb pushes for.

2. VRBO allows hosts to charge a refundable damage deposit through their booking.

You should include a nominal damage deposit amount which VRBO holds on your behalf as part of the guest payments. As VRBO does not offer damage protection for free to hosts, this may be your only opportunity to claim damages from a guest outside of going through legal means or a claim on your personal property insurance.

3. VRBO does not offer host protection guarantee or damage & protection insurance

If a guest damages your property, throws a party, or causes any other issues that cost you money as a host, unfortunately VRBO does not offer any host protection. Most new hosts just assume that Airbnb and VRBO are the same and that they have damage coverage, but are surprised to find out later that VRBO does not have any damage or liability protection for hosts. You must have your own insurance coverage.

If you call their customer service to ask for compensation, the only thing they will help you with is a claim against the damage deposit amount held (if you include one on your listing). If the damage is “accidental” and the guest purchased VRBO’s accidental damage protection you may be able to make a claim through that option.

Otherwise you are on your own to make a claim through your own property insurance. If you are a host, you should always have your own liability and personal property insurance coverage, and you may need business insurance as well depending on how you property and income is set up for your vacation rental

4. What are the VRBO Owner and Traveller Fees

VRBO travelers pay a 6-12% user fee at the time they book.

The Host also pays 5% commission (host fee) on the gross booking total including fees, and a 3% credit card processing fee.

As Airbnb has put so much emphasis on fees (and wanting hosts to cover them for guests) guests are paying attention to fees and VRBO doesn’t yet offer an option for hosts to pay the service fee in full. I don’t personally think hosts need to cover the cost of these fees for guests, but its good to be aware of what your guest is paying and why they might try to reach out to you to direct book and avoid fees.

5. VRBO Does not allow for co-hosts or two names on your account.

Unlike Airbnb, where you can have a co-host or manager invited to your account to act on your behalf and help manage your vacation rental, VRBO restricts this option. Hosts can only have the account in one person’s name (the host/owner) and has to provide their personal login details to their cohost to sign in and act on their behalf, but under the owners name. There is no option to have another person respond to messages or have their name on file.

VRBO does offer a “property manager” hosting option but you must be a manager of several properties and be set up as a commercial property manager to use this option.

If you have a co-host helping you out, just be aware that the co-host will have to have full access to login to your VRBO account to manage it, and can see your personal info.

Co-hosts need to be aware that if you are managing a property for a host, you should not be putting the listing directly in your name. You then become responsible for the income tax, VAT taxes and potentially any legal concerns related to the property if the revenue is coming to you instead of in the homeowners name. VRBO reports all revenue directly to the IRS (US only).

For more info on how to keep track of your revenue and expenses for your vacation rental, check out this Quickbooks Article

6. VRBO Cancellation Policies are limited to 14 days advance notice for guests to cancel for free, in contrast to Airbnb that wants hosts to offer up to 24 hour free cancellation.

VRBO has a limited, stricter policy when it comes to free cancellations, and hosts cannot override it.

This was a big deterrent for our guest bookings during the pandemic and we saw almost a 100% decline in VRBO bookings of our properties because of the stricter cancellation options. There were zero inquiries and bookings coming in.

For almost 2 years, most of our bookings came exclusively through Airbnb, which allowed multiple cancellation flexibility options for guests that was highly important due to ever-changing government travel restrictions and closures, often with less than 24 hours notice.

In my personal experience, where our traveller base comes from out of the country or long distance travel with flights, VRBO didn’t keep up with the need to adapt flexible cancellation options, and as a result we had almost no bookings through the platform for 2 years for our two listings at a popular ski resort.

Now, our listings have rebounded and bookings are back to about 40% VRBO 60% Airbnb bookings.

Prior to the pandemic, our ski resort vacation rental listings were only listing on VRBO and were sold out every peak season with 95% occupancy or better, so we didn’t use airbnb until the pandemic hit.

VRBO offers a same day or free cancellation option to many commercial accounts using integrated property management software, but most hosts cannot access this setting.

The annoying part about the restricted cancellation policy, and that some hosts get better options, is that a guest can go in to do a rental search, see most host properties showing only a limited 14 day cancellation option, but then a few listings are promoted with free, 24 hours notice cancellation and they are all commercial property manager listings.

It’s hard to explain to a guest when they want to know why your listing has a strict cancellation policy, when they can clearly find others that have a shorter option that you can’t offer.

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7. VRBO is owned by Expedia Group. Do VRBO listings show up in Expedia search results?

Yes! As VRBO is connected to Expedia, this works as an added bonus. When you list on the VRBO platform, your vacation rental listings are pushed through to the Expedia Vacation Rental search results, giving you access to a larger network of travellers searching for accomodation.

The filters on Expedia and searches are similar, and guests can choose personalized travel settings such as LGBTQ welcoming or Business Friendly as part of their search filters.

8. VRBO has an interactive MarketMaker tool to actively monitor pricing of your vacation rental compared to your neighboring listings.

This tool is one of my favourite features of VRBO as it is a cut and dry analysis of the daily rates in my area, where my property sits vs empty and booked properties. It creates an easy visual to monitor and adjust pricing to help fill vacant days, and maximize revenue from potential peak days you might not be aware of.

There are also online tools such as Beyond Pricing that integrate to your listings and will actively manage rates for you by adjusting them. This is great if you prefer an automated approach. But, as a host with one property just starting out, the market maker tool is a great built in feature that VRBO has for hosts to get you started.

Just keep in mind the market rates are based solely on VRBO listings. It does not include stats from Airbnb, which may be the more popular listing platform in your area.

9. VRBO Offers Travel Insurance to guests at the time of booking

One thing we have all learned from the pandemic years, is that travel cancellations can come up for any reason, much more frequently than expected. Due to current world events and travel restrictions, airline cancellations, illness and more, cancellations are much more common than in the past. I feel all travellers should be booking their trips with Trip Cancellation Insurance and Travel Insurance in case of illness.

VRBO now offers travel insurance as an option for guests to purchase at the time of their booking. As a host, if a guest needs to cancel past our cancellation time frame, we refer all guests to contact their travel insurance provider or credit card company if the credit card includes travel insurance. We do not provide refunds for last minute cancellations, as the hosts we support do not have insurance or coverage for this lost income, but travellers have insurance options to recoup much their out of pocket costs.

VRBO also offers a dedicated support phone number for travellers to contact them for issues with their trip, and it’s not as difficult as other platforms that try to push you to use their articles or chat bots before you can ever reach someone.

Here is the current 2023 VRBO Traveller Support Phone Number for assistance

10. VRBO Offers listings only for full properties.

If you have seen the VRBO commercials lately then you may already know, there are no shared spaces or single room rentals available on this platform. Which is why airbnb is creatively challenging these with their ads saying “now is the time to rent out a room in your home” as this isn’t an option on VRBO.

VRBO is designed for owners with full homes, condos, or vacation rentals that are not shared during the guest’s stay.

When VRBO started out, it was focused on ski homes, as well other family oriented and destination vacation rentals. This appealed to a more specific travel market for groups that wanted a family or group vacation experience rather than just a hotel room.

I found that the ski resort and mexico beach destination properties booked really well through VRBO for the traveller base that was already in place, even though it is a smaller network overall for the amount of properties and travellers using the website.

VRBO’s website promotes the family travel theme with their quote

We believe that family is everything. No matter how it takes shape. We started pairing homeowners with families looking for places to stay in 1995, and Vacation Rentals By Owner (Vrbo) was born. Since then, we’ve grown into a trusted global brand with a unique selection of 2+ million holiday homes all over the world.

- VRBO

I hope this gives you a bit more insight into how VRBO hosting may differ from your experience with Airbnb. There are so many quirks and so much fine print, it’s easy to miss out on key details, such as host protection, unless it’s directly pointed out for you.

I encourage you to look into using both Airbnb and VRBO as a host.

You are able to link your calendars together so you can sync them and prevent double bookings, while still having your property rental available on both websites to reach the most potential travellers for booking.

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