hello hello youtube this is richard
founder of short-term rental secrets
.com and Airbnb super host. I named this
channel short-term rental secrets
because the same techniques and tools
and methodology that I apply on Airbnb
personally I also apply on home away
which is the founder of VRBO and they
do basically the same thing
so I list on multiple sites I encourage
you to as well
and now let's get into some of the
things about VRBO in particular so VRBO
stands for vacation rentals by owner
and was launched in 1995 some twenty
plus years ago and almost 15 or 20 years
before Airbnb so they were definitely
the first mover and they created this
whole category you will of Home Sharing
although nobody called it Home Sharing
back then it tended to be much more second
home or vacation home so people that had
a spare place that they weren't really
using they might go ahead and rent it
out for the week or something like that
during spring break and that was a basic
origin of VRBO so true to its origin it
tends to do real well in second vacation
home type locations and that's largely
because people are going there and used
to renting so if you think about it if
your family's gone to the same place and
wherever colorado to ski every single
winter and you always rented a home on
VRBO
that's the natural place where whoever
is booking the trip is going to go to
first now in many cases those exact same
homes are on Airbnb and that's the case
for me but the newer generation that
maybe never got started on VRBO might
look on Airbnb and that's why you want
to list it there but if you're appealing
to people to come every single year and
they've been doing so for a period of
time
chances are they're going to be stuck in
the routine of going to VRBO
so my personal experience both as a
guest end of the host I tend to like the
user experience more on Airbnb and I
think that's probably the big thing that
Airbnb does better it's got a better
user experience it's a little slicker
it's got better video and the layout is
better home away which is the parent of
VRBO
doesn't do that quite as well they also
have very different business model
insofar as Airbnb charges a small
percentage of the fee to the host and
the guest VRBO also charges the guest of
booking fee but they charge the host a
flat rate they just move to that I think
it's 499 dollars for a year of listings
whether you get zero bookings or a
thousand bookings so if you're not going
to list a lot maybe that $500 annual fee
is a deterrent and you can't do it but
conversely if you're going to list and
book a lot that could actually be really
cheap relative to Airbnb the other thing
about Airbnb versus VRBO or harmless
we've got on Airbnb by design you're
sort of part of a community and what I
mean by that is you're expected to leave
a review both the guest is going to
leave a review as is the host and both
parties know that going into it I still
encourage you to ask for and ask for a
five-star review but it's pretty much
sort of like understood that that
happens on VRBO and HomeAway that's not
the case the review isn't really part of
the culture of the site and so as a
consequence I probably get half the
number of reviews on my properties and I
also review about half the guests so I
know home away in VRBO or addressing it
they're encouraging people and now I get
emails reminding me hey you can review
your guests but since it's not part of
that fabric or the culture even I don't
do it as much as I should and I really
need to improve on I think the best
practice for any post is doing a search
for income is to list on multiple sites
I personally use Airbnb I use home away
which again is the parent of VRBO I'm
looking at another one called booking
.com
which I understand is really serious for
people that really want to do this a lot
but the future is incredibly bright in
fact Expedia the travel platform just
bought home away last year for 3.9
billion dollars and if you fast-forward
and think about what that means in all
likelihood when you go to search Expedia
for your flight and hotel in addition to
being you know shown the Marriott and
the Hilton and so on you're probably
going to start seeing VRBO listings on
that Expedia page for you to consider so
you definitely want to get started you
want 5-star reviews you want as many of
them as possible because if you were
Expedia who would you show the brand new
person with no listings and no stars and
no trust or if you're competing with the
Hilton I'd rather show Richard the host
with you know 37 five-star reviews so in
the future there's plenty of opportunity
for multiple platforms to work and when
you want to be on as many of them as
possible
I'm not brand loyal and you shouldn't be
either again I created this channel
called short-term rental secrets not
Airbnb secrets not VRBO secrets I don't
really care where the guest comes as
long as they're good quality people and
they can take care of my place and they
paid me the right amount so the goal of
this channel is to have you increase the
number of nights that you rent to
whatever your desired number is and
increase the amount that you get average
nightly revenue in your pockets so don't
be brand loyal experiment it could be
that there's something in your little
neck of the woods in England that owns
that space keep your eyes open try
anything again it's a business so
experiment in the meantime go ahead and
leave your feedback in comments I really
appreciate your time and interest like
this video and subscribe because our
goal here at short-term rental secrets
is to make you a better host and put
more money in your pocket thanks so much
and have a great day
thank you