Has anyone tried www.scenicrentals.com?  They advertise $10 (yes, I said 10) per year and give 12 pictures for free.  They currently limit only 60 properties per city so it's first come, first serve.  I cannot see why you wouldn't want to spend $10 to give it a shot.  I'm only looking at other alternatives because VRBO has gone against it's original philosophy of only allowing owners to advertise.  I have no relationship with the above-mentioned web site.  Just curious to see if anyone has used them with success.  Thanks.

I am extremely pleased with the new icon designating owner management.  I requested this almost a year ago.  Maybe I'm in the minority, but I have never had a malicious review.  The only review less than 5 stars said the living room furniture was not comfortable (not enough back support).  I responded to this on the site saying that though we'd never had a complaint about the furniture, I would immediately buy more throw cushions.  The cushions on our living room furniture are only a few years old and were very expensive, so replacing them is not an option, especially since there has been only one complaint out of over 40 reviews.

As far as what VRBO "should be" is IMO HomeAway's concern since they purchased it from its founder.  Mergers and acquisitions happen all the time.  I'll admit I was unhappy to find management companies advertising right along side my new (as of Aug, 2010) listing because it seemed that they were violating VRBO's TOS.  My best remedy to this was to add "Rent directly from owner" to the title of my listing. I haven't looked at the TOS recently, but I do hope those have been changed accordingly so that new listers know what the rules are.  We were totally booked for the summer months by March 1.  From the conversations I've had with renters, most of ours were looking specifically for owner managed cottages, so the new icon should be a great advantage.  Many of those renters told me that they search exclusively those sites that offer owner managed rentals.  Others have said that this was their first time renting directly from an owner and that they found VRBO because of recommendations of friends.     I still think VRBO gives us the best exposure.

Linda

The logo is automatically there.... but it isn't working quite right yet.  Ours currently shows as by Manager... but we are trying to change it to show as rented by Owner ...

Vrbo says they are working on the problem.

Hi Laura,

I think Home Away is missing the point, again... The icons don't address 

the fact that VRBO was originally for Vacation Rentals By Owner. When we

first  started there were 16 listings. Now there's 3 times that. So my home is

rented  less than it used to be. I understand that it is your best interest

to get as  many subscribers as possible, but that may not be in the best

interest of  "Owners".

Laura,

I really appreciate what VRBO has done with the "owner managed" icons.  I know it means a lot to the folks who found our cottage in Duck, NC, who didn't want to deal with an agency.  However I'm afraid the search function as it is is totally useless.  Not a person in 10,000 would know to enter owner magnaged in the search field.  It would be very helpful if you could do the following on VRBO's home page, very easy to implement since it would be on only one page. I know that even I, with just a bit of web design experience, could handle that in a matter of minutes.

Have 3 search fields, one right under the other:

Search homes managed by agencies only

Search homes managed by owners only

Search all

IOW, there would be a built in filter in the first two.  For example the first one would have a NOT owner managed filter, the second would have an owner managed filter, and the third would have no filter.

Thanks for your help,

Linda

Magman,

Homeaway is a business.  Yes, they want to make the most profit they can.  Any business that doesn't won't be around for long.  Consider banks....we dealt with the Bank of Powhatan (one branch in our very small rural county) starting in 1977.  They were terrific and everybody there knew all their clients by name, most of them knew the names of our children.  Then they were sold to some larger bank.  The same employees were at our branch and all was well.  There might have been another sale at some point, but THEN it was sold to Wachovia.  Even though many of the employees were the same, their "policies" were different.  We were NOT happy, but there was absolutely nothing we could do.  Now we've been taken over by Wells Fargo.  The old employees are gone, and we're nothing but a number, policies are one size fits all.  Yes, we could go elsewhere, but we'd just be chasing small banks who would eventually be sold to the behemoths.  Fortunately we're senior citizens and don't really need anything from banks any more.

Homeaway can change the rules all they want.  I for one really appreciate the new icons.  VRBO/HomeAway probably has more hits than any other vacation rental web sites.  I don't consider agencies to be any competition at all.  I figure that I'm competition TO THEM.  I can equip my cottage with expensive kitchen goodies and lots of supplies that I couldn't do when I used an agency.  Why?  Because it's not the renters who steal, it was the employees of the rental agency.  Now, after almost one season of VRBO under our belt, we've had no theft, no damage, and total control over who rents our cottage.  I can compete because I can offer our cottage for a little less than an agency does and provide ammenities that won't "go away".  Our agency charged us approximately $235/week plus 20% of the rent.  We were fully rented for the summer months through VRBO by March 1....AND we haven't lost any sleep worrying about what's being stolen or damaged by employees or renters over which we had no control.

Linda

Chatterbox Too in Duck, NC

Hi Jensdisneyvilla,

Currently, there is a defect preventing VRBO from making an icon change for you, but I've ensured there is a case with your name on it, and as soon as the defect is resolved, VRBO will change your icon from Property Manager to Owner.

All the best,

Laura