Community: Message List

Re: Ever thought of auctioning your unsold weeks?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 03:45:16 GMT

Alan/rentmoreweeks.com,

I read your original article in which you were referring owners to wayhay.com and planetvacationrentals.com which you indicated are vacation rental sites that allows potential guests to bid auction-style on stays at a vacation home. I think that's an intriguing idea, but when I go to either web site or click on the links in your blog post, they go no where or just to a domain sale site so something is clearly amiss there. Many commenters here have veered off topic toward the very different idea of charity auctions of donated vacation rental time - which is worthy of a separate thread of discussion. (Since I just donated a week to a local charity, I could use some advice about blackout dates, accounting and tax considerations.)

I know lots of people like to vet their guests carefully before renting, but it seems like the future of our industry is to move toward a blended model - between what we do today and what hotels do (which is to do no screening except to validate the credit card charge). A booking site like Airbnb can do some kind of automatic validation (via registering and validing a cell phone, credit card, or bank account), and then allow the guests to automatically book on-line. I would let a site like that auction unsold weeks as long as I could set a silent floor price, like eBay lets you do. It seems that one downside to this mdoel is that some people might not book in advance at list price, if they thought they had a decent chance at getting a last minute auction deal. Food for thought...

Re: Has anyone used Criagslist successfully for renting?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 03:23:51 GMT

I had used Craigslist regularly for over 1 year in addition to VRBO and Homeaway, but 2 bad things happened in a row so I stopped using it. I rented to someone who had just lost $500 by sending a deposit in on a fake CL house posting and then shortly thereafter, I saw another Craigslist ad where they had stolen my ad copy and pictures, except it was listed at a much lower price (undoubtedly to increase the number of inquiries and thus increase the chance of getting a victim). I was always very careful to not respond to any obviously suspicious inquiries, but this still happened to me. Luckily, I started advertising on Airbnb and was easily able to replace the bookings that I had been getting from Craigslist. If you proceed in using CL, I strongly recommend that you proceed cautiously with your all your scam sensors on alert. Good luck to you.

Re: VRBO calendar not updating.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 03:03:55 GMT

Im having the same problem. I updated my vrbo calendar (300861) yesterday to enter a July booking and that booking shows up in the owner view, but the guest facing public view says it hasn't been updated since 3/8/13.

Re: Listing Not Appearing

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 02:43:50 GMT

the same thing happened to one of my Homeaway listings. it took them nearly a week to fix it, and they didn't even offer to credit my account for the downtime until I complained about that later. maybe they're getting too big for their own good.

Re: How many of you screen prospective guests by phone at least once before booking to them?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Wed, 02 May 2012 22:18:55 GMT

I prefer email to live phone 90% of the time because

1) it results in a complete audit trail of the conversation (btw, gmail makes it super easy to see the conversation history and to archive it - and you can bring it all back with a super simple search.

and 2) i can reply asynchronously at my convenience instead of playing phone tag with someone.

The 10% of the time that I want to talk with a prospective guest is 1) when I am suspicious for any reason or 2) when there is a larger group and they don't proactively explain the nature of their group - e.g., 6 could be "gram and pop, and their 2 adult children with spouses" or 6 could be "me and my 5 best buds who are also graduating high school and need a place to chill and party."

The trend in the industry is to move toward fully automated bookings on-line which would prevent you from checking out the prospective guest in advance. I would love for there to be a way to accept fully automated bookings for returning guests in good standing, but not random new guests without some kind of conditional review/approval step which could involve a phone call, if that's what you wanted to do.

Re: Suggestions for a guest who finds every bed in the house is too firm?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:51:03 GMT

Nancy,

thanks for sharing your story. There are a handful of unreasonable guests out there who will never be welcome back to our homes.

I second the opinion that you should get the garage door repair company to reduce their bill. You will need to be sure you are negotiating with the owner/manager, which may not be the person who performed the repair. Since it was a repair and not a replacement, I'm guessing most of the cost was labor, so the repariman should be able to cut the price substantially if threatened with the possibility of having to try to collect from the guest who had the "unauthorized" repair conducted. I do not suggest you follow-through with the bluff to pass the bill on to the guest, though. That is just asking for a negative review.

As for "beware of guest" lists, Airbnb does just that. You have the opportunity to review every guest, but not that they will be hounded to leave a review for you, too. That would not be a good idea in this situation! I think it would be nice if Homeway/VRBO would require inquirers to register and then allow us to review them - reviews of guests should not be publicly displayed, of course, but would be available to those whose listings that guest inquires about in the future.

Also, I would attempt to have a pleasant, but direct, conversation with the guest soon to 1) apologize for the beds not meeting their expectations, and let them know that you really want them to have an enjoyable stay, 2) to clarify that you are unable to pay anything towards their mattress purchase, especially after spending $200 on a pillowtop that did not meet their expectations, and lastly, 3) let them know that you would appreciate it if they would contact you FIRST if anything should need maintenance like the garage door.

Good luck in your dealings with this guest for the rest of the month.

Re: To install or not install Bathtub Safety Bars?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 22:58:20 GMT

When I remodeled the bathrooms in my vacation rental, my goal was to make them more stylish AND SAFER. I found grab bars that not only matched the finishes I was using, but also performed a dual function.

I installed one in a bathtub area that doubles as a shelf for shampoo and soap. See this link:

http://www.amazon.com/Moen-LR2356DBN-18-Inch-Brushed-Nickel/dp/B004TSYJSI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333839256&sr=8-1

I also installed a combo toilet paper holder/grab bar. See this link:

http://www.amazon.com/Moen-LR2352DBN-Toilet-Holder-Brushed/dp/B004TSUA6S/ref=sr_1_fkmr3_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333839256&sr=8-1-fkmr3

Re: How much deposit do you take

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 22:33:52 GMT

I find that different geographic markets have different norms, so be sure to check your competition. In Palm Springs, home owners with similar homes to ours tend to collect $300-$500 security deposit. A few charge as much as $750-1000, but they are the exception. We collect $300 for weekend and weekly rentals, and $500 for monthly rentals. We call it a "refundable security/damage deposit" to clearly differentiate it from just an advance payment-type deposit. We don't charge the deposit to their card until shortly before their check-in date (see details below). That's because we use Paypal's credit card processing system. One benefit of using Paypal versus Homeaway's credit card processor is that a refund processed within 60 days results in the credit card processing fees being reversed, too. We rent our 2 vacation homes enough that that those credit card fees add up to real money after a while. Further, usually we lump the security/damage deposit in with the second of their 50% payment (see below) onto one card charge, and Paypal makes it very easy to do a partial refund of just the security/damage deposit amount later; some processors don't support partial refunds. I don't think Homeaway's credit processor supports partial refunds, and like I said, I think they keep the original processing fee charged for any refundeds.

As for collecting money, we get a subtotal = base rent + Cathedral City (next to Palm Springs) wants 12% tax collected on the base rental amount + all the non-taxable fees (cleaning fee, pool heat fee, dog fee). Half that amount is due at the time of booking. We then invoice them (via Paypal) for the 50% balance + the refundable security/damage deposit 3 weeks before their check-in date - and that invoice is due 1 week before they check-in. In two years, we've never had anyone miss their payment due date. In Paypal, it's easy to send them an email reminder a day or two before the due date if they haven't already paid.

In the event that we are taking a booking that starts within 3 weeks, we'll usually require the entire amount including security/damage deposit up front. Because we include the security deposit in the second payment which is close to their check-in date, we're always refunding the security/damage deposit with the 60 day window so the fees get reversed, too.

Just FYI, in our fine print, we state that the security/damage deposit may be used to cover "excessive cleaning and excessive utility use". That discourages people from leaving the house too dirty and it discourages them from turning up the pool heat too high. We don't use deposit insurance-type products because (1) they usually exclude things like excessive cleaning/utility costs, and (2) we think it's unfair to charge the vast majority of our guests for something they typically won't need since they go out of their way to take care of our home.

In three years, with 2 houses, and tons of rentals, we have only had a handful of incidents where we have actually wanted to deduct something from the security/damage deposit. We don't bother with stuff that results from "normal wear and tear"; we just consider that the cost of doing business. In each, more serious case I have a phone conversation with the guest and it's my goal to get them to agree to a charge that is fair and reasonable. Sometimes I'll even ask them what they think I should charge them for something after explaining what I think it would cost to fix. After being "pleasantly/calmly confronted with the reality of the situation", I don't believe anyone has ever thought that I was unfair. Knock on wood -- we've never had a retaliatory/negative review as a result of those situations. In fact, a couple of them still left 5 star reviews partly because they were impressed with the professional and reasonable way things were handled. I would never just deduct money from a security deposit, send the balance with little to no explanation, and expect the matter to be closed - but I know a couple of my peers do just that! You never know how someone will react in a vacuum of information, and your reputation is riding on the line.