It’s safe to say that everyone loves to get a deal. I know I do. And having been on the inside of the Vacation Rental industry for the last 10 years, there’s ONE THING I always tell my family and friends when they ask me for advice on booking a vacation rental.
Whenever possible AVOID booking your vacation rental through websites such as AirBNB, VRBO, HomeAway, TripAdvisor and Flipkey.
“Whaaat? But that’s where all the homes are listed! How do you expect me to find a home with out VRBO?!?” is usually the response.
I totally get it. Plug any search phrase with the words “Vacation Rental” into your favorite search engine and advertising sites like AirBNB, VRBO, HomeAway, TripAdvisor and FlipKey are going to be the top search results. And the sites themselves seem to be offering a way to “one stop shop” your entire vacation. There’s so many vacation homes to choose from, all in one place, ready and waiting for you to click on that reserve button and be done. Why not just do it?
Because you are going to pay extra – sometimes $300-500 plus – for the convenience.
When these advertising sites began, their primary means of income came from charging the vacation home owner for each home listing on the site. A few years ago, these companies realized that, while they had hit a ceiling on how much they could charge home owners for a listing, they could facilitate reservations and charge the person making a reservation a percentage for the privilege of doing so, to the tune of 5-20% of the reservation’s cost. Or more.
Yes, the cost of advertising on these sites has flipped from the home owner to the person making the reservation. And while the service fee percentage tends to go down as the reservation cost increases, these service fees can easily add $300-500 to your reservation’s bottom line.
Huh. Definitely not the best deal.
The upside of this switcheroo, is that you have the potential to save yourself up to 20% with minimal effort.
The easiest way to take advantage of the savings is to book directly with a Vacation Rental Property Management company you already have a relationship with or have been referred to. If you are looking for a place to stay in the Lincoln City/Bella Beach area, we are happy to help! Give Lisa a call at 541-921-8885 or go to our homes page to see all the options.
If you don’t have a good sense of the area, you can also use the advertising sites as research tools:
- Find a vacation home (or two or three) that you like using a major advertising site such as VRBO.
- Look at the owner/manager information included on the home’s advertisement.
- Google the name of the company or the owner
While there are exceptions, often you will find a website with plenty of ways to reserve – either completely without or with only minimal service fees.
And that sounds like a much better deal – at least to me. What do you think? Any other tips or tricks for making vacation rental reservations? I’d love to hear your thoughts – please comment below!
