Community : Discussion List - Advertising your Rental(s)

Tiered Subscription Pricing: Your worst enemy or your new best friend?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:16:14 GMT

Much has been made of the relatively new pay-for-position (pay-for-ranking, pay-for-performance) Tiered Pricing model that has now been introduced to the big sites on the HomeAway network… and much of it bad!

Many people hate change and this is certainly a massive sea change in what had historically been such a simple pricing model. And yes, as many owners point out, it’s clearly there to cause an uptick in revenues for HomeAway otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it. But just how bad is it for you as an owner or does it potentially offer savvy owners a huge opportunity to increase their bookings?

It all comes down to a simple cost/benefit calculation to determine whether a relatively small increase in your annual marketing budget could in fact have a massive positive impact on your revenue. I mean going back to basics I think it’s hard not to agree that in the old days a regular subscription on HomeAway provided good value for money in terms of the exposure that it gives your property. And providing you do the basics right such as having the right number of quality photos, good descriptions and an up-to-date availability calendar you will generally get a good number of enquiries and hence bookings.

So herein lies the crux of the problem.

Owners that were used to getting good enquiries year after year in popular regions can suddenly find themselves shunted down the search rankings by a bunch of other listings where the other owner decided it was sensible to invest a little more money to guarantee their higher search position.

So as an owner (and a marketeer!) you need to decide how much the 50 or 200 enquiries per year that you were previously getting are worth to you in yearly bookings and whether your likely to get them anywhere else for cheaper. True your enquiries may have dropped off a bit of a cliff as you got pushed lower compared to the properties on higher tiers and you are still paying the same subscription fee as pre Tiered Pricing. This isn’t good. But consider you could now guarantee a certain position in the search rankings for a relatively small fee, rather than relying on the other complicated ranking algorithms which are often beyond your control.

Feel free to read more at http://blog.rentaltrips.com/

Lawn care/Sprinkler system, etc.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 23 May 2013 20:13:13 GMT

Hi everyone:

Now that it is grass mowing season again, at least at my Vacation home. I would love to hear what othesr are doing.

My lawn gets mowed at the very minimum every 10 days at $35.00 per cutting. In addition, I have a sprinkler system and so while the neighbors (who don't have this system) grass stays shorter because it is more dry...I still have to mow at least every 10 days. Should I cut the watering down a bit? Should I consider going more zero landscaping?? If I go zero, is there more work to keep weeds at bay....if so that could be more work (cost) than just mowing.

I find that the weeds are very aggressive even with a weed barrier. They tend to grow in the mulch above the weed barrier. My lawncare guy, sent me a picture this spring and I was "shocked". I even used preen before winter hit so that it would prevent said weeds.

I would love to have any feedback for folks that have had successes with the yards......PLEASE!

my property is in Missouri...if that helps with helping with what I need.

Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

Just a guy who has a problem. (Answers for you all)

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 23 May 2013 17:28:01 GMT

I'm just a guy with a problem who sleeked out the "Community" for a platform to voice my concern to motivate Support to help me. That is it. My only goal... to get my Homeaway listing to work.

I realize HA and VRBO have a system, image and brand to protect. You guys do a great job of jumping on every post, discrediting what may be perceived as a "threatening" or non brand friendly message, burying a valid point and concern. Obviously your not about to disclose that you have countless bias posters weather they work for or are contracted by "Community" or "Jive" or whoever compensates them to defend the brand with bias spins, and outright belittling and discrediting of legitimate concerns.

I realize this message too will either have a "technical difficulty" and won't post or it will be ripped to shreds by the relentless, unusually limitless free time "posters" on the forum. There is no need to gather the proof as the observant individual can see it with plain common sense.

I'm not a trouble maker or paranoid or out to get anyone. If one message gets out there, I'm just a guy with a legitimate problem with my listing and I found that Support was not helping. Hopefully that will get better. Please, I just want my listing to produce inquiries and carry on with business.

We asked you yesterday to test this before you put it out to the public!

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:50:45 GMT

BOOK IT NOW IS NOT WORKING!

At $156 a night for 2 nights please tell me how this equals $1940 for two nightst. If you wonder why we are hesitant to work with an automatic system, then this is only one of many reason why?

Also, the customer should be able to see what dates are booked when they make their input. Currently they are having to hit and miss a date or finally realizing that they must hit the "View Full Calendar" which is in very little letters.

HomeAway should NOT send my guests to other listings

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 23 May 2013 16:03:30 GMT

I have a few rentals and HOMEAWAY seems to think its okay to send my guests (TRAVELERS who found me on-line) to other rentals. I don't even have a chance to respond! Why do they do this? One reason only: to increase the number of inquiries we receive. Does anyone find this disturbing? Give me a chance to respond!

What am I paying for? 33 Days 1 inquiry. Hello?! (Once busy listing) Support?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Tue, 21 May 2013 16:45:17 GMT

Background:

1) Busy listing. 15 inquiries per month on average for 2 years.

2) Last 33 days 1 inquiry from Homeaway.

3) Support's answer, "Your listing is working fine. Good rank."..... that's the best answer I can get?

So what am I paying for? Now what do I do?

Our VRBO listing has started up again. It stopped working for about 23 days and then it just kicked back on. This company thinks it is acceptable for listings to just turn off for a month or more? This doesn't concern anyone? To bad so sad Mr. Paying customer? All is well? This is how your operated your business? Really? Now what?

Flipkey & Trip Advisor there is a HUGE opportunity to steal lots and lots of listings from this disfunctional organization.

I found my rental on Craigslist being rented by someone else!

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:35:22 GMT

The ad had my text and pictures stolen from HomeAway. The only reason I found it was an inquiry on the property through HomeAway asked why the ad on Craigslist was asking so much less of a nightly rate. I searched the e-mail address listed in the Craigslist ad and found the person had done the same thing to 10 or so people here in my community; advertising their properties for half of the normal cost and asking for money orders and other methods of payment. I contacted all the property owners after finding them on HomeAway.

So, today... I find it listed again on Craigslist. This time with no pictures but ALL my text. I thought maybe someone is just copying and pasting because they're lazy and don't want to write their own text. But It can't be any other place because of some of the unusual amentities and features of the place are all listed as well. There is no way anyone else could be using this description to describe their own property.

This time the contact email address is traceable to a woman with an account on MySpace with dozens of face pics of her and her family. I have her home address and phone number as well. Based on what I'm seeing in the pictures I can't believe this family could afford a million dollar townhouse here in a prime neighborhood. Oh... and I see other listing she's placed online looking for sex partners and saying she lives with her dad although I'm seeing a husband in the pictures.

I have not contacted anyone concerning the removal of her ad advertising my property. Instead I've emailed her for pictures of the townhouse since she didn't post any in the ad. I'd like to see if she will send me pictures of my own place. I've asked availability and an address so I can google street view it... it will be interesting if she has my address. If she does, I'm in trouble. I can just picture people arriving from Europe with luggage looking for the keys and me having to tell them they've been scammed. My lawyer brother says that I am not entirely immune from a lawsuit in that type of situation!

I'm waiting for the womans response. I could just send her an email using her name, address and include a picture of her family and threaten her with legal action and shut this down right now. Any advice on how to handle this?

New calendar format does not work with iphone mobile version - beware!

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:12:37 GMT

I just want to give everyone a heads up. I just discovered that the new and improved calendar does not work correctly with the mobile version. I have several 3-night timeframe's available, yet only 2 nights show on the calendar. I have had to fake the calendar to show 4 nights available, when in fact, only 3 are available. The dates taken are shown as a solid color with no slanted line showing the check-in and check-out info. I have reported this problem from my iphone, but hope to also report it from my desktop. Stay tuned...

Where is HA & VRBO Support?

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:09:41 GMT

Is there a Support Department or is it all just a sales department?

For 21 DAYS straight our once busy listing has had zero inquiries! Yes, ZERO! Support claims that all is fine but they are happy to offer an up-sell suggestion.

We filed a complaint about plagiarism on a listing and they sent us to some lawyer who sent us back to support who didn't read the request about plagiarism but instead they wrote back to us as though we requested something else. They requested our passports, utility bills and other crazy requests. Passports to look into a plagiarism report?

Hello Support? Hello? You there?

Some Knucklehead Stole My VRBO Name!!

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Wed, 15 May 2013 21:52:03 GMT

I have been a pretty faithful & satisfied VRBO & Homeaway user for 9 years..might say I got in on the ground floor. Last fall in my little corner of the world another owner came onto VRBO and promptly stole the name I have used for 9 years. I have politely asked them to correct this. I have brought to the attention VRBO management. How difficult would it be for VRBO to show some loyalty and take some action??

The authentic Connors Lake Cabin VRBO 42500

Inquiries

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 17 May 2013 03:40:42 GMT

I have two vacation condos in Lake of the Ozarks and I have noticed a significant drop in inquiries over the past two weeks. Actually, my inquiries and bookings are down from last year. Is anyone else experiencing the same type of thing. I am a little frustrated by this!