Book Amazing Vacation Rentals (Part 2)
Tips and tricks for Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com from a host’s perspective
Yesterday, we posted the first part of our tips & tricks for booking a vacation rental on the big three Online Travel Agencies (Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com – OTAs).
If you haven’t read that post, it gives you a host’s guide to saving money on these OTAs. You can read it here .
Today’s post focuses on travel protection, cancellation policies, staying with experienced hosts, guest experience, and the rise of Google as the next big OTA.
Protection Comparison
Each OTA offers its guests different protections and insurances when booking a vacation rental.
Airbnb has Aircover, which is included in every booking at no added cost. It provides a booking protection guarantee, so if a host has to cancel your booking within 30 days of check-in, Airbnb will find a similar or better option. If you can’t check into your vacation rental and the host can’t resolve the issue, Aircover’s check-in guarantee will find you a similar or better option or provide a full refund.
Vrbo offers its Book with Confidence Guarantee that comes with a dedicated team to answer questions before and during your trip. The guarantee also protects you against fraudulent listings and will provide assistance if the host misrepresented their vacation rental. You can also purchase additional trip protection through Vrbo’s insurance partner Generali.
Booking.com’s Trust and Safety Resource Center is a one-stop-shop for guests and travelers who need help before, during and after their stay.
Cancellation policies
As a host, one of my biggest pet peeves with the OTAs is their cancellation policies. Each OTA has its own policies, and the host, not the OTA, chooses how generous they will be with cancellations.
We try to stay as consistent as possible with Lizzy’s Landing across platforms, but Airbnb’s cancellation policy is a bit more lenient than Vrbo and Booking.com simply because we can’t fully align them.
If you are worried that you may need to cancel vacation rental for any reason, try to find the property on each OTA and compare their cancellation policies. You may get a few extra days for a full refund.
Finding Experienced Hosts
Each OTA has their own programs to help guests find experienced hosts. Airbnb has Superhosts, Vrbo has Premier Hosts, and Booking.com has its Preferred Partner Program. Each program has specific criteria for earning and maintaining status.
For a host to earn Superhost status on Airbnb, they must have a review score of at least 4.8 / 5, maintain a 90% response rate to inquiries and messages; host at least 10 stays or 3 stays totaling more than 100 days, and maintain a cancellation rate less than 1.0%. Airbnb evaluates all hosts quarterly based on the past 12-months of performance. We quickly earned Superhost status with Lizzy’s Landing and have maintained our status since earning it.
Vrbo’s Premier Host program requires hosts to maintain a 90% acceptance rate, cancel less than 5% of stays, have an average review rating above 4.3 / 5, have at least 3 completed reviews, and have 5 accepted bookings or 60 accepted booked nights. We are not a Premier Host with Lizzy’s Landing because we haven’t hosted many guests through this platform.
The Booking.com Preferred Partner program is the most stringent of all three. Only the top 30% of all properties on the platform are eligible for Preferred Partner status. Additionally, the property must maintain at least a 7 / 10 review score. We recently earned Preferred Partner status with Lizzy’s Landing, and we’re excited to keep it going!
In my opinion, it is not hard for a host to earn Superhost or Premier Host on their Airbnb and Vrbo vacation rentals. Good hosts know to ask for good reviews from their guests, and do everything in their power to provide the best possible experience. We have some work to do on our Vrbo listing to make it more appealing to Vrbo guests, but once we get it sorted out, I’m sure we’ll hit Premier Host status!
In my opinion, Booking.com’s Preferred Partner program is a more impressive achievement simply because it is limited to the top 30% of properties. Not many of the requirements are tied directly to guest experience though, so it isn’t necessarily an indicator of an experienced vacation rental host.
While these programs will help you identify experienced hosts, there are many experienced and excellent hosts who aren’t in these programs. Many very experienced vacation rental hosts get a lot of bookings directly from repeat customers, leaving less opportunities for guests to book through the OTAs. This can cause them to drop out of eligibility because they don’t meet the booking requirements.
If you are looking for an experienced host to stay with at your next vacation rental, these three programs are a great starting point, but don’t eliminate a nice listing just because the host doesn’t meet the eligibility criteria.
Reviews are THE best way to determine whether or not a vacation rental listed on the OTAs is worth your hard earned money. Experienced hosts know that reviews are the lifeblood of their business, so they work extremely hard to provide the best quality service, and they ask their guests to leave them a 5 / 5 or 10 / 10 review on the OTA after their trip.
On Airbnb and Vrbo, take a good look at all the reviews on any vacation rental rated lower than 4.5, and on Booking.com double check reviews on properties lower than an 8. These can still be great vacation rentals for your next family vacation, but you need to make sure there isn’t something problematic coming up in all of the negative reviews before booking. If there is something consistently noted, ask the host about it and see if they’ve fixed or tried fixing the issue.
Guest experience
Having stayed at vacation rentals on each of these OTAs before, I can say that your post booking experience will be fairly consistent. Outside of the reminder emails you’ll receive ahead of your trip, each OTA does a good job of handing off the guest experience to the host.
We haven’t had any negative experiences at any vacation rentals, so I can’t speak to each OTA’s customer support.
The Rise of Google Vacation Rentals
Google is the looming giant on the horizon ready to further disrupt the hospitality industry. It already has a popular hotel rental tool integrated directly into its search results (just google “hotels near me”). They have been working on a vacation rental tool for the past few years that is starting to pick up traction.
Just like the hotel tool, you can search for vacation rentals, compare listings, and book without ever leaving your google search.
The issue right now is the barrier to entry. While anyone with a direct booking site can integrate with google, the technical requirements typically prevent smaller operators from listing on Google Vacation Rentals. However, Google has steadily been working with property management and channel management software providers to create direct integrations. As more PMS & CM systems get on board, Google’s platform can easily become the largest OTA.
Why is this important for you?
Well, hosts will WANT to be on Google. They currently offer a variable commission structure which allows hosts to choose their commissions, and the experience will be more in line with a direct booking giving the host more control over the booking process. All of this translates into lower nightly rates!
You likely won’t get the same level of guest support from Google, but if you are staying with the right host, that won’t matter!
So which is the best OTA!?!
I don’t have a strong opinion on which is best. You should have a great experience on any of these platforms, so brand loyalty will likely be your biggest decision. That shouldn’t limit your options though because most vacation rentals are listed on multiple OTAs.
If I had to choose, it would be Booking.com simply because there are more vacation rentals to choose from and so many different ways to save money on your next family vacation. Still, Airbnb and Vrbo are great platforms, so it is a very close tie for second.
Next week, we’ll be talking about large vacation rental operators (like Evolve & Vacassa) and the benefits of booking direct!
Until then, happy travels, and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
