How do you book vacation rentals?

[ivinsfan]

Reopening a discussion from 5 years ago.


I have used VRBO and been satisfied except for one catastrophic rental. I have not used Air BnB.


My last couple rentals I have found what I think is a good alternative to both sites.


I started noticing 3 or 4 years ago many more owners were using rental companies to fill their units on VRBO. They listed on VRBO but you talk to and book on a 3rd party agency. You never actually interact with the owner at all.


In a rental situation I think eliminating one of the parties makes things a bit easier. Also the rental agencies will give you quotes for longer stays, including discounts and don't seem to have as many mandatory fees as VRBO.


My last rental was a unit in large golf course complex. I emailed the on site agency and asked for 30 day quotes for a certain type of rental. Since it was a little off season the broker had some owners bid for my rental. I got a list of 10 properties with a price for each one. The office was on site and I walked there to get my keys, saw a real person who said they have regular office hours and I should feel free to contact them with any issues.



At this point I would put rental agencies at the top of my list for vacation rentals. In busy rental areas there should be a lot of agencies to work with.


I go to VRBO check my area and see what agency some of the owners are using and make that my first contact.

 

[AzDreamer]

I prefer rentals managed by the owner.

Questions about the property are answered by someone that knows what's what, not by someone that hasn't spent any time at the place.

Problems that have to be resolved by a management company seem to drag on longer.

 

[ivinsfan]

I prefer rentals managed by the owner.

Questions about the property are answered by someone that knows what's what, not by someone that hasn't spent any time at the place.

Problems that have to be resolved by a management company seem to drag on longer.

A decent company will be able to answer questions, after all they don't make money if they don't rent units. I had some trouble finding desirable units they were actually rented directly from an owner. There seems to be less every year

 

[cbo111]

A decent company will be able to answer questions, after all they don't make money if they don't rent units. I had some trouble finding desirable units they were actually rented directly from an owner. There seems to be less every year

I used VRBO for many years with consistent quality. Most of the owners provide tons of pictures so you know what you are getting. The biggest shortfall for VRBO is how much they have increased their "management fees." Not sure exactly what they are managing, but VRBO often tack on an additional 30-40% of the actual rental rate.

 

[ivinsfan]

I used VRBO for many years with consistent quality. Most of the owners provide tons of pictures so you know what you are getting. The biggest shortfall for VRBO is how much they have increased their "management fees." Not sure exactly what they are managing, but VRBO often tack on an additional 30-40% of the actual rental rate.

I did too. Like you I noticed increased fees, add that to more owners going with management companies and not as desirable. We rented our first VRBO for 5 years straight and became friends with the owners.

 

[Bamaman]

I used Air BnB a few times. I realized that not only was I asked for comments on the propertt owners--but the property owners were asking for ratings on me, the renter.

We most often have used Booking.com in the past. But my wife needs a second knee replacement and she's currently mobility challenged. We're having to use hotels with elevators.

I often search for places to stay on Google Maps. I'll Control ++ to magnify a map on where we want to stay and all the available properties pop up on the map. Double click on icons and you can click on their direct website or booking address.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I agree with you Ivinsfans, but I did not know about that possibility before. In the fall, I found a place to rent on VRBO, and booked it. I was satisfied by everything about the transaction. However, I eventually learned that the property was managed by a rental company. The company both had their own booking site, AND listed the properties on VRBO. So it cost me ~$400 more than it would have if I had just gone to the rental agency directly.

But the thing is that I did not know about that rental company beforehand. If I ever go back there, I will know to cut out the middleman. But in the first instance, VRBO was a convenient "front door."

PS: I tried to cut out the middleman by going to Craigslist. I nearly fell for a convincing scam operation. At that point, I was happy to throw my dollars at VRBO.

 

[f35phixer]

we are staying in Englewood this year in a singlewide. It is fine, close to beach etc etc.

There are some other places on Manasota key we are looking at.
Been in touch with the realty company, people staying this year have first dib's on 3 month seasonal yada yada yada....

Have friends over in Lake Worth area, they are keeping eye out, Also have Naples area in mind. Searches bring up nice places in all the different websites VBRO, AIRBnB, Vacasa.

A bit frustrating, I get it. If this places we are staying satisfied a few more things we would stay here!

I have upped our budget from 6k to 20K for 3 months ;-(

Any hints of finding a NEW location, where you are the new guy coming into town and want to rent for three months?

 

[MC Rider]

I've used AriBnB twice and cancelled 1 other time and was happy with the places and all. Only for a few nights though. Other times have used Orbitz, but then you are looking at motels and hotels, mostly. Good for picking a last minute room while on a road trip.

 

[Sojourner]

I have used VRBO and been satisfied except for one catastrophic rental. I have not used Air BnB.

IMHO, if you don't use Airbnb to take a look at what's available in your destination area, you are probably missing out on a lot of options. Airbnb is by far the most popular platform for owners to list their rental properties on, so you're generally not seeing a fait bit of the available rentals by ignoring it.

 

[ivinsfan]

IMHO, if you don't use Airbnb to take a look at what's available in your destination area, you are probably missing out on a lot of options. Airbnb is by far the most popular platform for owners to list their rental properties on, so you're generally not seeing a fait bit of the available rentals by ignoring it.

Maybe but it's pretty location dependent IMO. It's not a given that VRBO has fewer listings.

 

[2017ish]

Traveling mostly internationally, airBnB has served us well for the past 5 years (2-3 night stays generally). Domestically, we tend to use it for those 2-3 night stays, with cheap hotels for overnights, and VRBO for family gatherings that require houses, versus rooms...

As with most things, we like to explore our options. On our present trip, about half our stays have been booking.com or hotels--especially in smaller Colombian towns without much airBnB inventory.

 

[Sojourner]

Maybe but it's pretty location dependent IMO. It's not a given that VRBO has fewer listings.

That's true. But personally I always tend to check both Airbnb and VRBO when looking for anything other than a hotel room. I like to know that I'm seeing all the options, and you can never really know in advance if a particular location/area will have more listings on one platform vs. the other.

 

[Markola]

We find the house we like on whatever platform, then one hack is to Google the photo, because sometimes you can get a better price (and more information and pics) for the same house on a different vacation rental platform.

All else equal, we go with the platform that lets us pay with our 2% cash back credit card vs. a check, which is usually AirBnB.

 

[walkinwood]

I often search for places to stay on Google Maps. I'll Control ++ to magnify a map on where we want to stay and all the available properties pop up on the map. Double click on icons and you can click on their direct website or booking address.

Excellent idea. I checked my area and entered "Vacation Rentals" in the maps search bar and a whole bunch of properties showed up. I'll be sure to try it on our next trip. Thanks.

 

[WhenIsItTime]

I use VRBO and AirBNB to find properties. I then try to find a direct property website to avoid the VRBO/AirBnb fees. Sometimes if you email the manager first, they will point you in the right direction. If you can communicate with them directly and are staying more than 7 days, you can also sometimes negotiate a better rate. I use Google Earth, google search, anything I can to try to verify the property, reviews, legitimacy. I've had good luck with properties managed by local outfits. I've probably rented 20 houses up to the $1.5k a night range in U.S. and across Caribbean and had good luck.

Biggest issue happened this past holiday season. Got ghosted on arrival in St. Croix. Was supposed to be met at airport. Chaperone didn't answer phone/text. After about 2 hours (wait for baggage, rental car, stop for dinner, drive to house) we arrive at property and still no contact. A long day of travel and being out the full payment, made it an easy decision to let ourselves in. Fortunately, we found a door unlocked. About 30 minutes later I got a very apologetic call from the property manager that they simply forgot about us. It worked out fine.

 

[wearefinishedworking]

We just rented (through AirBnB) a 1 BR apartment in a Florida beach town for 8 days. It was a great experience and trip. Of course it was our first flight post-Covid so ANYwhere would have been wonderful. We are so ready to get back to traveling.

 

[bearkeley]

We list our beach condo for rent on VRBO and it has resulted in more leads than a realtor. However, with the excessive fees to tenant and us, decided to pull it off VRBO and pay a realtor…cheaper for us and the tenant by a lot.

We are also finalizing a 90 day trip to Spain and Portugal and although we normally prefer to stay a few weeks at one place, it just didn’t make sense this summer…maybe it’s the post Covid itch we need to scratch! So…27 different reservations using mostly points. With Chase Sapphire’s Pay Yourself Back Offer for AirBNBs, we definitely took advantage and booked several apartment stays. Interestingly, Marriott now has a Homes and Villas site….their version of an AirBNB / VRBO. Booking.com has also been great with booking apartments not on Airbnb.

 

[2017ish]

...

We are also finalizing a 90 day trip to Spain and Portugal and although we normally prefer to stay a few weeks at one place, it just didn’t make sense this summer…maybe it’s the post Covid itch we need to scratch! So…27 different reservations using mostly points. ...

That sounds great! We did 5-6 weeks in Spain and southern Portugal (less than a week there) in September/October and really enjoyed it. The driving was easy, the food was to die for, and the history/architecture was everything we hoped for.

 

[CoolRich59]

I used to love VRBO, but stopped using it when they added the "service" fee.

I only used AirBNB once and had a bad experience with the owner. I won't use them again.

Now, I try to find properties using other websites or, if possible, contacting the owner or property directly.

 

[travelover]

I use VRBO and AirBNB to find properties. I then try to find a direct property website to avoid the VRBO/AirBnb fees...........

This is a great idea. I was checking out a place we rented in the past and I could have saved a considerable amount by either renting through AirBnB vs VRBO or going directly to the rental agency.

The fees are ridiculous. For 2 nights the rent was $400 and $200 of that was fees above and beyond taxes.

 

[laurence]

I use VRBO to "find" the place, but a little googling afterwards helps me contact the owner directly and it's always cheaper that way. Staying in Cabo in June and saved over a thousand using that method.

 

[jerryo]

My wife and I travel a lot both domestically and internationally and, depending on our needs and where we're going have used a bit of everything for booking!

We've used both Airbnb and VRBO for longer term rentals in the U.S. and abroad...this has included three 1-2 month stays in Paris, a month in Santa Fe, three or four 1-2 month stays in Charleston, a week or two several times in Seattle, etc. Generally we've liked what we got, though a couple of the apartments in Paris (which were well located and relatively spacious) were a bit more threadbare then we expected. I will say that many of the rentals in larger cities (particularly NY and Paris) seem to be run by pretty hard nosed management companies out to make a profit. We were also lucky to get all our money back (from an accommodating individual owner) for a two-month reservation in Nice for spring 2020 that we had to cancel due to COVID and which VRBO wouldn't automatically refund.

When we're traveling for shorter stays, particularly to places like NY or Philadelphia or Chicago, and particularly when we want to stay right downtown, we'll usually book hotels. We'll often book directly with the hotels (which sometimes gets you perks like free wifi, etc., particularly if you're a member), unless the rates are significantly lower on search engines. That said, on a three week trip to Rome, Florence and the Amalfi coast a few years ago, we booked almost everything on Booking.com or Hotels.com or Expedia or Travelocity (because it was cheaper and easier and because the package wholesalers (like Vacations on Foot) couldn't meet our needs) and didn't have a problem. We also did have a one week stay in Florence that we booked directly with the owner, I think through Airbnb, and that also worked out fine.

We do try to stay away from some of the smaller, foreign booking engines, since we don't fully trust them and find the bigger players like Expedia hard enough to deal with when you have a problem (which has happened once or twice).

For short term stays on the road, we'll often just check on google maps and call ahead to particular properties or to central booking numbers for the larger chains...

When we're staying in a resort area, we're more likely to book with a local real estate or rental agent. We've done this three or four times in the last few years, for example, renting in Canaan Valley, West Virginia. We've also stayed two or three times for a couple of weeks at the YMCA of the Rockies near Estes park. And when we're car touring with 2-4 days stops, we'll look for local bed and breakfast or small hotels that we check out on TripAdvisor (a great source for assessing properties anywhere). Trip advisor was how we located a wonderful resort property in Bariloche, Argentina for a one week stay and a two week condo rental in Buenos Aires a few years ago.

In general, all of these sources are good. But you really have to check out the reviews and ratings carefully (lots of games are played) and should err on the side of caution when dealing with unknown booking engines or for deals that seem to good to be true!

 

[rodi]

I start by looking at VRBO and airbnb... I'll also sometimes google "Vacations rental < insert city name here >" Once I've identified the place I want (or a short list) I look at the listings for descriptions - putting in the description text to a search engine often turns up the owners direct website - or other sites the property is listed on. I shop for overall prices (inclusive of fees and taxes). Usually it's cheaper if I can contact the owner directly.

I've had conversations about this with one of my husband's cousins in Sicily. She manages a family vacation house for the 48ish weeks they don't use it. She has her own website, but also uses booking.com, expedia, tripadvisor, etc... She said VRBO was too hard to work with. It was funny because on that same trip we were, totally coincidentally, renting a week at one of her good friend's homes in Modica for the week after we visited her and her family. We'd booked through VRBO... so it had worked for him. LOL.