Community: Message List

Re: Deposit, no signed rental agreement

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 16:37:38 GMT

Thanks for your input, all. Appreciate it very much. The original deposit was sent by PayPal. No checks in the mail. The rental agreement was sent by email. People aren't always great about responding to emails immediately, so I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt, especially since she already paid.

Evan, without a rental contract, we don't give the keys. And it would be silly for someone to just show up without having the rental contract and full payment, because our cottage is overseas. If I was traveling overseas, I wouldn't want to take that risk!

We do most of our communication via email because our place is overseas and we get inquiries/bookings from everywhere - Italy, the UK, France, most recently from Qatar, and from the U.S. The booking I'm referring to above is from the U.S.

I sent a reminder email yesterday, and haven't heard anything. I think she was coordinating the trip with some friends, so perhaps she's trying to nail down the details before getting back to me. Not sure. But maybe I'll give it the weekend and then follow it up with a phone call on Monday.

Do you all send our rental agreements for their signature before receiving a deposit? Obviously I don't want to sign the rental agreement until I have a deposit - otherwise I would risk agreeing to something without having payment, and I don't want to do that. It would make sense to get the payment at the same time as the signed rental agreement, if it was done by mail. But if done electronically, I can't really dictate the order in which it's done (I'd like them to do both at the same time, but that doesn't always happen that way). So in this case, do I tell them I cannot accept their PayPal payment until I receive the signed rental agreement? I'm not even sure I can reject PalPal payments...

If someone pays the deposit and does not send me a signed rental agreement right away, how much time do I give the before I reject their initial deposit (assuming I can do that)?

Thanks!

Mac

Deposit, no signed rental agreement

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:08:45 GMT

Hi all,

I have a situation I'm trying to figure out. This is a first for me. We have a lovely cottage overseas. In March we received an inquiry, they filled out our reservation form when asked (it's our screening tool. The renter seemed ok) and then 50% of the total rent (we break our payments up in 2 payments) for the stay. We sent out the rental agreement and marked the dates on our calendar.

Over a month has passed, and payment #2 is due (2 days past due now). No signed rental agreement, no second payment. I haven't heard from the renter since the initial deposit was paid.

Perhaps I should have followed up with the renter sooner on the rental agreement, but I know people are busy and didn't want to bug them especially since they already paid for 1/2 of their stay. They paid so I figured they were serious/committed.

However, now I'm concerned because we're less than 30 days out, I still don't have a signed rental agreement, and I haven't heard from the renter. I will most likely try to reach them by phone today.

How would you handle this? Cancel the reservation? (technically, is there even one since they didn't sign the rental agreement)? I'm hesitant to just cancel and return the deposit, since we've turned down several inquiries for the same dates in the last 5 weeks since we received this booking.

Thanks for your input!

Mac

Re: Will my webpage gain more hits in google search by using "keywords"?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 22:39:01 GMT

Hi Anja, Yes, as far as I can remember (we are advertising on a couple different web sites). This was only 2 months ago. I'd like to be able to change our key wording slightly from "cottage" to "house" because cottage seems to be too specific for search results. That's why our friend couldn't find our house at first. But now I can't seem to be able to change this. And when my friend first searched (under "house"), she didn't find our house at all - after searching through 10 pages! When she searched under "cottage" she found it at the bottom of 4 pages.

Re: Will my webpage gain more hits in google search by using "keywords"?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 17:12:31 GMT

I'm surprised you're finding any key words in your listing. I can't find mine at all. Where are you finding yours? Does anyone know when this change took place and why? Why weren't we notified of this change? I paid for a subscription with VRBO and now am wondering what good that is if people can't find my home. This should not be related to the amount I paid for the subscription.

Re: Will my webpage gain more hits in google search by using "keywords"?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 17:09:14 GMT

Hi Anja,

Thanks for your thoughts. I also find it very strange that I can't find the key words anymore. A friend of mine was looking for our house using key words and couldn't find it at all! That just seems wrong, considering we're paying for this service. Someone should be able to find our house regardless of the subscription level we're paying. I just signed up for VRBO 2 months ago and filled out the key words. Was this removed in the last 2 months? Why can VRBO change the information we put into our advertisement (or remove it) without notifying us? Isn't this what we're paying for? Who do we contact about this issue?

anja wrote:

Hi m&jbosnia,

Recently, I noticed that the block of 'key words' in my listing were moved down from the top of the "description" section to the bottom of it.

A few minutes ago, I looked into my account but I could not find the field in which to edit existing key words. I also used the "help" for editing...nothing.... and I searched on the term -- key words -- and nothing, again.

So, I'm now wondering if HA-VRBO 'key words' will go by the wayside since the 'sort order' via Subscription Levels was introduced? Would that have anything bearing on this? Hmmm, I have to think about that one.
But, we really need to ask MODERATORs for an explanation.

Key words on VRBO

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:56:46 GMT

Hi everyone,

I'm trying to figure out how to change the "key words" on VRBO. I remember filling this out when I first joined VRBO, but now I'd like to make some changes to the key words, but can't find it on the Listing Editor. Can anyone tell me where I can find this?

Thanks!

Re: Will my webpage gain more hits in google search by using "keywords"?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 15:23:54 GMT

Hi Anja,

Can you tell me where I can find this feature? I remember filling out the key words when I first started with VRBO, but now for some reason I can't find it! I'd like to make some changes to mine.

Thanks so much!

Re: Change VRBO setting from property manager to managed by owner

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 17:16:21 GMT

Thank you, Travis and Sophie! I didn't realize it was so complicated. I thought it was something I could fix myself, since I made the initial mistake...thanks for your help!

Change VRBO setting from property manager to managed by owner

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 02:56:56 GMT

Hi,

This is probably a really silly question, but when I first set up our web site, I wrote in there that our property is being managed by a property manager (this is actually a friend of ours, taking care of the place while we're out of the country). I'd like to change the setting on VRBO to owner managed, but can't figure out how to do it! (although I'm sure it's really obvious). Can someone tell me how to fix this?

Thanks so much,

Re: Web-site critique game.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:53:58 GMT

Thanks so much for your helpful input, Sophie! And you're more than welcome to come visit, anytime! We will definitely take some more pictures next time we're out there. And that's a good idea about brightening the photos!

I guess I assumed that if we weren't there on a daily basis to run things, then it would be run by a property manager? We have a friend taking care of things while we're gone (including the logistics involved in having renters in and out, keys, etc). But, we are definitely the owners!

To answer your question, the kitchen does have a stove/oven. I thought we marked full-kitchen or listed it in the amenities section, but I'll double check to make sure.

Thanks again. Appreciate your suggestions!