Before you start connecting your individual Vrbo listings, you will need to ensure your global Vrbo settings are setup. These settings will feed through to each Vrbo listing where required, however if you change any of this information (excluding Features and Safety Features) on the individual Vrbo listing level, that change will override these global settings.
These settings can be accessed as per the following steps:
- Click Channel Management > Connections from the Homhero side menu
- Click the Vrbo Spanner Icon
- Click the Green Pencil Icon (Edit Options)
Details
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Features (Property Features) - Set any Property Features that apply to all Vrbo listings.
e.g. Beach view, Fishing, Hiking, Marina, Swimming
Note: You can have values set on both the global and listing level, which means the individual OTA listing Features will not override the Default Vrbo Setting Features. We will merge them together to form a complete list before we send this information to Vrbo.
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Safety Features - Add any Safety Features that apply to all Vrbo listings. To add one, click the Active checkbox and enter some Details regarding the location, instructions or description
Note: You can have values set on both the global and listing level, which means the individual OTA listing Safety Features will not override the Default Vrbo Setting Safety Features. We will merge them together to form a complete list before we send this information to Vrbo.
Click here for more information on VRBO Safety Features
Booking Settings
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Cancellation Policy - Select a default Cancellation Policy to apply to all Vrbo listings.
Vrbo recommends the Relaxed or Moderate cancellation policy as this allows IPMs to show up in search filters and have higher conversion rate.
Guests are booking properties with a Relaxed (42%) or Moderate (28%) cancellation policy about 70% of the time.
Listings with the Firm (13%) Strict (11%) or No refund (6%) are booked at a much lower rate.
No refund policy's should be a thing of the past. You also have the ability to create a Custom Cancellation Policy instead.
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Booking Policy - Select a Booking Policy as per below:
Instant: This will make all Vrbo listings by default as 'Instant book' for Vrbo only
Quote: This will make all Vrbo listings by default as 'Request to book' for Vrbo only
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Events Allowed - Are Events allowed for all Vrbo listings? Yes or No.
Leave blank if each Vrbo listing differs
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Minimum Guest Age - Select a minimum age that a guest can be in order to book. If you leave this field blank, the minimum age will default as 18.
Note: You can only enter ages 18 years and above.
Pricing
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Rate Lift - This is where you will need to setup a Rate Lift to cover any commission charged from Vrbo
Click here for our article on How to setup your Vrbo Commission
Click here for our article on How to Calculate the Right Rate Lift for your OTA Rates
Availability
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Minimum Advanced Booking Days Lead Time [minPriorNotifyDefault] - The minimum number of days in advance that the room can be booked. This is also known as your Booking Lead Time.
If your minPriorNotifyDefault for Vrbo is set to 1 day, it's currently possbile to receive bookings within 24 hours of checkin. This is due to the differences in timezones between Homhero and Vrbo and it is a known issue that has not been resolved yet.
The simplest way to work around this is to add an extra day to your lead time. In this case, we recommend setting the minPriorNotifyDefault to 2 days.
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Maximum Advanced Booking Days - The maximum number of days in advance that the room can be booked
- Click Save when complete