Community : All Content - Policies & Procedures

Solution To All These Scams?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:17:58 GMT

It's not really my field of expertise, but I just came across this article http://blog.myvr.com/2013/05/16/catch-craigslist-scammers-with-this-digital-net that offers a way to track down when your property is posted illegitimately. While this has never happened to my rentals (at least that I know of), I know I've read a lot of threads on the subject here in the Community and I bet these alert tools like Craisglist RSS and and IFTTT and List-Alert would be useful to owners who are having problems...

- Matt

Help! Full refund or none?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 23:54:07 GMT

We rently had a guest that wanted to check out within 4 hours of arrival. Original contract was for six nights. The problem here was the city water pressure was very low, making it difficult for the showers/toilets to properly function. We do understand this to be an inconvinience. However, this guest was very irritated and immediately wanted to check out and break our contract. Additionally, he expects a full refund for his rental fee (~$1500), and wants to be compensated for food and laundry during his hotel stay since he did not have a kitchen and wahers & dryer.

Our contract states that "The owner shall assume no responsibility for any interruption of service (electricity, water, etc) beyond his control". This is clearly a situation beyond my control. Water pressure was fully restored by the morning.

So do I stick to the contract and politely let him know there will be no refund or do I give the full refund or do I meet him somewhere in the middle?

Your advice in this situation is much appreciated.

Augusto

property id# 148220

How to ask guests to eat at the table?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Wed, 08 May 2013 17:05:14 GMT

Wondering if anyone has a polite way to ask guests to eat at the table and not on the couches or beds. Last year we had a set of guests who ate pizza on our bed and got grease and sauce all over our expensive duvet cover. Luckily I was able to get the stain out after a couple of washes but it is really frustrating that they did this when there is a table less than 20 feet away. Personally I have eaten on hotel beds because there isn’t a table but I don’t like to eat in a bed I am going to sleep because of crumbs. Also we have put a new sleeper sofa in the cabin and I would like to keep food stains off of it.

I'm having a problem with a neighbor that went to the city and is trying to have vacation rentals in our zoning area changed to 30 day rental or longer. Has anyone ever dealt with something like this and if so what did you do?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 18:28:52 GMT

I'm having a problem with a neighbor that went to the city and is trying to have vacation rentals in our zoning area changed to 30 day rental or longer. Has anyone ever dealt with something like this and if so what did you do?

Determining and adhering to maximum occupancy limit

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:33:04 GMT

I am new to the world of renting out our vacation home. I am fortunate to have had a great response to our listing, but have some questions regarding occupancy. Our home has a rental license and I believe has been determined by our county to have an official maximum occupancy of 10 persons (we have 5 queen beds). We also have two sleeper sofas, so perhaps it could accomodate 14?? When I created our listing, I stated our occupancy as 10-14. Since I've been up and running for the past 48 hours, I've had groups of 12, 15 and 17 inquire about renting our home. I have kids, so I get that you can squeeze little ones together, use sleeping bags in a pinch, or perhaps co-sleep or use pack n plays. How strict should I adhere to the license occupancy limits? Is it ok to take an occupancy up to 14, knowing that we have the sleeper sofas to accomodate that? Any legal considerations to be aware of for going over the license limit? And if a couple kids push the limit of the occupancy, is that worthy of saying no to the renter? Thanks so much for your help! I've already learned so much from all of you...

Is our Rental Agreement and security deposit turning people off?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 18:52:13 GMT

So we have been in the home rental business for over 15 years and we are having one of our slowest years in terms of bookings. At this time last year we had most of the May-September booked (only a couple of short stays were open), but right now we only a have a couple of weeks booked total (we haven’t raised our priced or changed anything)! After having a couple of issues last summer we now have had a Rental Agreement and security deposit for the first time. I took HomeAway's basic Rental Agreement and changed it slightly to fit our rental. Is the Rental Agreement and Security Deposit turning people off from our cabin when they first inquire? Although I feel like I have not received as many inquires this year, I feel like a smaller percentage of them respond after I initially contact them and tell them about the Rental Agreement and Security Deposit.

The Rental Agreement is not too strict but it does lay out the basics, like that there is no cell phone service and that grilling is not allowed because of the bears and fire danger. Part of my reason for doing a Rental Agreement was because we had a couple of guests last year who did not understand (or their husband didn’t tell them) that they were going to a cabin in the woods of Montana and I wanted to make it clear to potential guests what they were getting from our cabin. I have only had 1 person who has decided to stay somewhere else once they actually saw the Rental Agreement and that was to actually stay in Yellowstone.

Any advice on how to handle telling potential guests about the Rental Agreement and a Security Deposit without scaring them off? I do say that the security deposit is refundable and will be returned within 2 weeks.

Would you give your banking details to this guest?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 11:56:48 GMT

We have been on the other side of the vacation rental business for a long time, but this is our first year as an owner. We have an apartment in the south of France that we're renting when we're not there. We've been fortunate to already have strong rentals in our first year, including quite a few people that we know or from word-of-mouth. But we have also now rented to several total strangers who found us on VRBO and will be staying with us this year. I feel my email approach helps me build a relationship with people, as our place in France is very much a special home to us. I was contacted two days ago by someone interested in one of our open weeks in June, just six weeks out. The person (Hanif) said they had children 17 and 8. In the second message she (or he... not sure) said they couldn't totally confirm right now because they were waiting for visas to be approved. I agreed to take a tentative booking and let them know if I got another serious inquiry... then they could decide if they wanted to take the risk with the payment. At this point, since it's within 60 days, the whole payment ($1000) would be due. She thought they would have their visas next week. I was a bit curious so asked for their name and address, and found they are from Pakistan. She then asked me for our banking details so they could begin to arrange for a bank transfer. At this point, I became a bit unsure. I responded that we'd prefer to handle through Pay Pal, since our bank fees are high. This morning I have a message back saying that they couldn't do Pay Pal from Pakistan and asking for our bank details again. I have another travel business (a tour business) and have occasionally given my bank details to clients, usually from Australia. And I've had vendors (usually small hotel owners) who have given me their details. But my antenna is now up on this situation, and I'm worried about a possible scam. I also feel terrible for potentially profiling... I did google on the email address... found one thing on a yahoo group -- maybe about a college assignment-- and the user name came up with a picture of a youngish man with a moustache. I've also googled on the name (that doesn't match the user name) and found too many people (many in the USA) and nothing on the mailing address. We'd like to have a rental for this week, but not enough to risk our bank account. Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Would you give your bank details for a wire transfer in this situation? Is there any other way to ask for payment? I hate the thought that this may be a legitimate family, but something now doesn't feel quite right. Kathy

Who can recommend an insurance carrier that specifically offers Vacation Rental Insurance?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 18:20:31 GMT

Our insurance company just told me that vacation rentals might not be covered under their general "renters insurance", so I was wondering if anyone knows of an insurance carrier that offers specific Vacation Rental insurance.

THANKS!

Our we Commercial Rentals????

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 19:45:01 GMT

We have a home in a lake oriented community in Kentcuky. We have been renting home going on 5 years now.

Most homes in the neighborhood are vacation homes. About 30% of the homes have full time residents.

The Home Owners Association has brought a suit against us last year stating that our home is being utilized as a commercial property and that all rentals must stop. There is not verbage in the HOA documents stating that rentals are not allowed but only that the home cant be used as a commercial property. In fact it states that the home can be rented and used as a single family home.

This is the second home we have rented in this neighborhood. We have sold the original home now but before we built the first one we were given written authorization from the developer stating that it was ok to to do short term rentals for that home. Unfortunately that was back in the early 90's and that house has been sold and along with it the letter of authorization.

The same developer is part of the currnet HOA and acknowleges that the letter existed but they continue with their suit against us.

They are claiming that by using HomeAway and VRBO that we are using this home as a commercial property.

Anybody else run into this or have any concrete advise????

Very frustrated any worried. We really don't want to sell our home right now.

Beth, Anyway to remove some of these posts?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:02:23 GMT

Beth, I know that you give us owners a large amount of leeway on what we want to discuss here, but I have noticed an increase in posts such as, "How to watch the masters,' on your computer for free, or "click here to watch the entire season of one show or another." These clearly have nothing what so ever to do with the topic of VR. My main problem with them as that (you or we) seem to get several of these types of posts in a row and they push down and out some of the post that I was truly interested in learning about. I am not talking about any form of censorship of what is posted here, but these are blatant forms of advertising that interfere with the reason for having these forums in the first place. Just my thought and thanks for listening to me vent.