Airbnb vs VRBO

I just clicked on a TUG ad for VRBO that said you could list your rentals for free. However, in looking at the details, it appears VRBO charges the owners 5% of the total collected plus a 3% credit card fee or a total of 8%. I've been using Airbnb with excellent results and they charge owners a total of 3% including credit card fees. Question is why would anyone use VRBO on a pay per transaction when they charge owners 2.6 times Airbnb's fee? Am I missing something here?

Because of their cancellation policies - I would not use either one for timeshare rentals.

Did you see the recent thread in which a Tuggers (paid for) timeshare rental was cancelled by AirBnB (who refused to explain why) even though both parties wanted to proceed?

I have not seen that thread but I've rented a lot of condos using Airbnb and never had a problem. I saw some comments on TUG about the fact that Airbnb was very renter friendly when it came to cancelling and I talked to an Airbnb regional manager who helped me get set up about it and it said it's extremely rare where they will let a renter cancel after the cancellation period. He said he had only heard of it happening once and he's been there for several years. The thing I like is they generate business from renters that are not on the other sites where I advertise plus they have a huge worldwide audience. I think many of these renters will rent from me directly in the future saving the fees on both side.

There's got to be more to the story about Airbnb arbitrarily canceling a transaction for no reason. They get paid when the transaction gets consummated so it's not in their interest to cancel them.

I used VRBO a few times and found it difficult to use for timeshare due to the limited time we have the property available and VRBO would count against your performance if you get inquiry and did not complete transaction. Their theory is you probably did something directly with the renter. On the positive side, I can rent for more than I could on craiglist or redweek. So I really don't mind paying their fee which I thought was 10% not 5%.

I am very interested in finding out how airbnb work for timeshare. Do you have to pay a fee upfront? How do you handle limited availability? What is the total fee when you have a reservation?

You don't have to pay Airbnb anything upfront and their fee is either 3% or 5% of the total transaction, depending on your cancellation terms. They have 5-6 cancellation terms to choose from. If you use the super strict 30 or 60 day cancellation, then the fee is 5% and you get paid 60 days before check-in. If you use the other cancellation terms (strictest is 50% refund if the renter cancels one week before check-in), the fee is 3% and you get paid one day after check-in. Last year was the first time I'd used Airbnb and I did the super strict 60 day cancellation. My experience was so good that this year I'm mainly doing the one week cancellation and saving the extra 2% fee. The weeks I'm renting are high demand and I feel I can rerent them for at least 50% if someone cancels a week out.

There's a calendar in your listing and you indicate on the calendar when your condo is available to be rented. The site is very good and user friendly. You can vary the price by night or season, and can specify a specific check-in day and minimum night stays.

I never used VRBO because I thought you had to pay a fee of $400-500 per year to list on their site but when I saw the TUG ad that you could pay by transaction, I took a closer look. But, when I noticed they charge 5% plus a 3% credit card fee for a total of 8%, I decided to not use them. I'm surprised that they charge more than Airbnb which seems to have a larger audience. VRBO is owned by Home Away which was bought by Expedia earlier this year.

As a renter I think the reviews on VRBO are more accurate and reliable than those on AirBnB

VegasBella said:

As a renter I think the reviews on VRBO are more accurate and reliable than those on AirBnB

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Well, I hope not! I just booked my first Airbnb reservation.

Ken555 said:

Well, I hope not! I just booked my first Airbnb reservation.

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Was your booking for a timeshare resort or for a private rental home?

pacman777 said:

Was your booking for a timeshare resort or for a private rental home?

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The previous comment about reviews didn't distinguish between those types of rentals.

I was talking about rental homes and rooms, not timeshares. Timeshare reviews can be found lots of places whereas homes are really only reviewed on the site that the ads are listed on.

More "hidden" fees for HomeAway, VRBO, Expedia, VacationRentals.com

Expedia bought all the Homeaway sites, so there are new "service" fees that also impact advertisers and renters.. On top of the high percentages that they now charge the timeshare owner, they also add a "service" fee to the renter's price that ranges from around $100 to $200 on top of your advertised price. To add insult to injury, those advertisers who have prepaid for ads (up to $1,800 for a yearly subscription) are still getting hit with the other fees as well.

Just a prime example of how price gouging can occur when one business is allowed to gobble up the majority of the competition..

Robert D said:

You don't have to pay Airbnb anything upfront and their fee is either 3% or 5% of the total transaction, depending on your cancellation terms. They have 5-6 cancellation terms to choose from. If you use the super strict 30 or 60 day cancellation, then the fee is 5% and you get paid 60 days before check-in. If you use the other cancellation terms (strictest is 50% refund if the renter cancels one week before check-in), the fee is 3% and you get paid one day after check-in. Last year was the first time I'd used Airbnb and I did the super strict 60 day cancellation. My experience was so good that this year I'm mainly doing the one week cancellation and saving the extra 2% fee. The weeks I'm renting are high demand and I feel I can rerent them for at least 50% if someone cancels a week out.

There's a calendar in your listing and you indicate on the calendar when your condo is available to be rented. The site is very good and user friendly. You can vary the price by night or season, and can specify a specific check-in day and minimum night stays.

I never used VRBO because I thought you had to pay a fee of $400-500 per year to list on their site but when I saw the TUG ad that you could pay by transaction, I took a closer look. But, when I noticed they charge 5% plus a 3% credit card fee for a total of 8%, I decided to not use them. I'm surprised that they charge more than Airbnb which seems to have a larger audience. VRBO is owned by Home Away which was bought by Expedia earlier this year.

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Robert,

Do you list your timeshare on VRBO as week only?

Thanks,

Jane

Robert D said:

You don't have to pay Airbnb anything upfront and their fee is either 3% or 5% of the total transaction, depending on your cancellation terms. They have 5-6 cancellation terms to choose from. If you use the super strict 30 or 60 day cancellation, then the fee is 5% and you get paid 60 days before check-in. If you use the other cancellation terms (strictest is 50% refund if the renter cancels one week before check-in), the fee is 3% and you get paid one day after check-in. Last year was the first time I'd used Airbnb and I did the super strict 60 day cancellation. My experience was so good that this year I'm mainly doing the one week cancellation and saving the extra 2% fee. The weeks I'm renting are high demand and I feel I can rerent them for at least 50% if someone cancels a week out.

There's a calendar in your listing and you indicate on the calendar when your condo is available to be rented. The site is very good and user friendly. You can vary the price by night or season, and can specify a specific check-in day and minimum night stays.

I never used VRBO because I thought you had to pay a fee of $400-500 per year to list on their site but when I saw the TUG ad that you could pay by transaction, I took a closer look. But, when I noticed they charge 5% plus a 3% credit card fee for a total of 8%, I decided to not use them. I'm surprised that they charge more than Airbnb which seems to have a larger audience. VRBO is owned by Home Away which was bought by Expedia earlier this year.

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I've never used VRBO but looked at it earlier this week but their fees are too high for me. I can definitely recommend Airbnb. I own quite a few weeks at some resorts and I just include in the calendar the weeks I have reserved for rentals. For some resorts that's just one week and for others it's several. The other thing I like is that you can split up the week and charge higher prices for the weekend (can actually specify a different price for any day listed on the calendar) and specify the minimum number of nights that have to be rented. It's a lot easier to rent shorter stays vs. a full week. I don't offer this until we're inside of 30 days to check-in unless I can get enough for a three day weekend to cover almost all the week.

Robert D said:

I've never used VRBO but looked at it earlier this week but their fees are too high for me. I can definitely recommend Airbnb. I own quite a few weeks at some resorts and I just include in the calendar the weeks I have reserved for rentals. For some resorts that's just one week and for others it's several. The other thing I like is that you can split up the week and charge higher prices for the weekend (can actually specify a different price for any day listed on the calendar) and specify the minimum number of nights that have to be rented. It's a lot easier to rent shorter stays vs. a full week. I don't offer this until we're inside of 30 days to check-in unless I can get enough for a three day weekend to cover almost all the week.

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I'm fascinated by your experience. My weeks are dying over on Redweek. I had to remove a very high value Marriott week from Redweek because there was zero interest, even at a very reasonable price (basically my maintenance fees)

How do I get started with AirBnB?

The problem with Redweek is that it has a very limited audience. If you're not pretty experienced in timeshares, you've never heard of redweek. I still use redweek because I'll get a couple rentals a year off of it. I've found it to be more effective in selling timeshares than renting.

I also decided not to pay another Redweek fee. Several years ago, I was able to rent my week out from the redweek. Recently I got almost no inquiries for a long time. A few weeks before check in time, I got several inquiries from brokers. I did rent out my week through a broker. I am going to keep the contact information of the brokers.

I don't mind paying a higher fee as long as I can complete a transaction. I don't like the red week model.

Hi Robert,

Do you have to submit W-9 form to Airbnb in order to avoid tax withhold? I read the related help but I am still confused. I don't think VRBO had such requirement.

Thanks,

Jane

janej said:

Hi Robert,

Do you have to submit W-9 form to Airbnb in order to avoid tax withhold? I read the related help but I am still confused. I don't think VRBO had such requirement.

Thanks,

Jane

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I don't remember if they require a W-9 but I think they do. Also, the more verifications you submit to on Airbnb, the higher your status with them. I did all of the verifications that I could when I started using them. Renters can see what type of verifications you've done which gives them more confidence to do business with you.

Robert D said:

... Last year was the first time I'd used Airbnb and I did the super strict 60 day cancellation. My experience was so good that this year I'm mainly doing the one week cancellation and saving the extra 2% fee. The weeks I'm renting are high demand and I feel I can rerent them for at least 50% if someone cancels a week out....

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Thank you for your very detailed information, Robert!

I thought Airbnb only allowed Super Strict cancellations for certain very high demand holiday and festival time periods. Did you have to do something special to qualify for Super Strict cancellation?

You have to be approved for the 30 and 60 day Super Strict cancelation policy but I had no problem getting approved for it. I've had a lot of rentals on Airbnb and have had no problems with cancelations and so I'm now using the Strict policy which means the renter will receive a 50% refund if he cancels one week before check-in. The fee for super strict cancelation is 5% vs. 3% for all other cancelation policies. Under super strict, you get paid when the reservation becomes non cancelable (i.e. 30 or 60 days before check-in) instead of the day after check-in for the other ones. Since I've had no problems with cancelations, I don't think it's worth the extra 2% fee for super strict.

Robert D,

Thanks so much for making this post. I have some July and August weeks I need to get rented, and this post helped me get 1 week rented -- hurray! I had one ad up for an end of July SoCal beach week on Redweek.com that is languishing. I also have a SoCal beach condo that has several July and August weeks that never got booked.

Yesterday after reading this thread, I decided to place an Ad on AirBnB for the beach condo. Things were going fine until I got to the part about importing a calendar. (I don't use Google or Apple calendar.) I spent a lot of time trying to figure it out, then I noticed that it said you could import a calendar from VRBO. I've never placed ads on VRBO, but they have a good looking calendar. I saw that I could list my weeks for free, and only pay VRBO fees when weeks were actually rented. Fine by me, I can just bake that into my price.

So, I loaded up my pictures, my ad, and all the "stuff" needed for setting up a VRBO listing. Before I finalized my ad, I was able to load up the calendar with all the dates that were already booked and not available. This was extremely important because we have a renter with a 2-year lease that will occupy the beach condo starting September 1st. I thought the VRBO calendar format was great. It allowed me to block off nights already reserved, AND block all weeks after Sept 1 thru til December 2017. But even better, just 1 hour after the ad was up I got a hit from someone who booked 5 nights starting this upcoming weekend, which nets me the same amount as our normal weekly rate. SWEET!

Meanwhile, with AirBnB I am still trying to get their calendar function to work for me. My ad is 90% done, but the VRBO calendar is not importing correctly, and I can't get the AirBnb calendar to accept all the dates that the unit is not available. Very frustrating, especially since AirBnb is very strict that if someone books a date, it's a done deal. There are hefty fines and penalties for the owners for not accepting/cancelling a booking that someone made. I think AirBnb can be a real challenge for the non-tech savvy, over-60 crowd such as myself, who are just trying to set up an ad. If anyone has advice for me, I would definitely appreciate it. I don't find their "frequently asked questions" to really be much help at all.

As for VRBO -- I am very very happy with their listing process. I was able to select the "strict" cancellation policy, so my rental weeks all have "no cancellation within 30 days of check-in". I started a 2nd ad on VRBO for my timeshare week, but my photos were lifted from the internet & not high quality enough. That is delaying getting my timeshare ad up, but I hope to get find my own photos, so I can get that one finished & up.

So, hopefully even more dates will get booked. We'll see. Thanks again to Robert and all the other helpful posters!

--- Rene

Rene, I've found the Airbnb calendar very easy to use. When you set up the ad, the best thing is to tell it that you don't know what dates are available and it blocks all dates. Then, you go in and open up the dates on the calendar that are available. Since I'm renting a limited number of timeshare weeks, this is easier than having to go in and block weeks not available. But even that is not difficult. You select the Start Date and End Date to change to Available or Block, and then click on Save Changes. Be sure to click on Save Changes or it won't make the change to the calendar. Also, you can enter a different price for each day if you want to, and specify a minimum stay and a check in day. If I split up a week, I increase the price on the weekends. One important thing is to review your cancelation terms after you set up a listing because it defaults to Flexible which means the renter can cancel anytime before check-in.

Thanks Robert, I will try that.

Just got another hit on my VRBO ad this morning. 3-nights at the end of July and I will net $600+ dollars. Happy dance!!!

This confirms for me that my price was not the issue, or the location, or the resort, or the economy -- the REAL issue is that Redweek is not the place to be for rental bookings anymore.

--- Rene

Robert D said:

You have to be approved for the 30 and 60 day Super Strict cancelation policy but I had no problem getting approved for it. I've had a lot of rentals on Airbnb and have had no problems with cancelations and so I'm now using the Strict policy which means the renter will receive a 50% refund if he cancels one week before check-in. The fee for super strict cancelation is 5% vs. 3% for all other cancelation policies. Under super strict, you get paid when the reservation becomes non cancelable (i.e. 30 or 60 days before check-in) instead of the day after check-in for the other ones. Since I've had no problems with cancelations, I don't think it's worth the extra 2% fee for super strict.

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Very helpful information, thank you!

Robert D said:

Rene, I've found the Airbnb calendar very easy to use. When you set up the ad, the best thing is to tell it that you don't know what dates are available and it blocks all dates. Then, you go in and open up the dates on the calendar that are available. Since I'm renting a limited number of timeshare weeks, this is easier than having to go in and block weeks not available. But even that is not difficult. You select the Start Date and End Date to change to Available or Block, and then click on Save Changes. Be sure to click on Save Changes or it won't make the change to the calendar. Also, you can enter a different price for each day if you want to, and specify a minimum stay and a check in day. If I split up a week, I increase the price on the weekends. One important thing is to review your cancelation terms after you set up a listing because it defaults to Flexible which means the renter can cancel anytime before check-in.

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Robert, what happens if an Airbnb host has several units available for the same time period, or for overlapping time periods? For example, suppose a host has a Christmas week with Friday check-in, and another Christmas week at the same resort with Saturday check-in. Or suppose a host has a one-bedroom available for Christmas and a two-bedroom at the same resort for New Year's. Can Airbnb handle that in one listing, or will the host need to make multiple separate listings?

Rene McDaniel said:

I was able to select the "strict" cancellation policy, so my rental weeks all have "no cancellation within 30 days of check-in".

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This liberal cancellation policy is a deal killer for me. This means that a renter can cancel 31 days before check-in. With most timeshare rentals, you are in big trouble if some can cancel 31 days before check-in.