This weekend Kauai residents reported receiving a letter from the homestay organization Vacation Rental by Owner and Homeaway that stated if homeowners listed their homes as a vacation rental by Dec. 1, they would earn $1,000 guaranteed in January.
TGI Reporter Bethany Freudenthal called VRBO’s customer service line listed on the letter and said she had more questions about the letter. She did not identify herself as a reporter.
Richard, who could not give out his last name, said the $1,000 could be earned by bookings made to the account.
“By accepting reservations from the leasing. That would be the way to get money on your account,” he said.
The benefits of listing a property with VRBO, he said is that there are different options for advertising on their website.
“Just posting the account on Homeaway or VRBO, you’re going to have the exposure on three different websites and you can go ahead and set up the prices that you consider are appropriate for your site,” he said. “You can go ahead and upload everything, you can go ahead and write down a great description from the account and as well you’re going to have two options to advertise on our site.”
The property, he said, would be added to the search results, which would also assist in earnings.
Renting VRBOs for many is a nice option because it feels more like home than staying at a hotel.
“The whole point in creating a property with us is to provide to the renter the same feeling like being on their own properties, on their own homes with their families,” he said.
When asked about how many VRBOs are operating on Kauai, Richard could not answer.
“We do not have access to the exactly number to how many properties on in that specific location,” he said.
When asked if it was legal to operate a VRBO on Kauai, Richard suggested creating the listing.
“Once again, I didn’t have like the informational rules and policies for that specific location that where you have that property,” he said.
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The Garden Island
…what exactly is the point of this ‘article’??
VRBO and Airbnb (and many others) are just advertising web sites. Airbnb does not charge an up front fee like VRBO does (mine is around $400 a year). Airbnb takes a percentage of every rental both from the renter and from the owners. The owner does not see the amount change the renter. Only the amount charged the owners is shown. If you end up using more than one web site (e.g., airbnb and vrbo/homeaway), you need to cross reference your calendars so that bookings on one site are recorded on the calendar of the other site). This is not that hard to do. The results you get from both sites are dependent on how much you charge and whether you have openings on your calendar. Potential guests do not even see you property if it is already booked for the potential dates they enter. We have been using vrbo (later to be bought out by Homeaway) for various rental properties since 1992. We knew the original owners of VRBO – a very nice couple to developed the concept of rental by owner. They sold out some many years later to Homeaway. Until VRBO came along, it was very hard to find an economic way to advertise your vacation rental. Now there are many options out there but from our perspective VRBO/HOmeaway and Airbnb are the best.
I received the letter from VRBO. I tried to call the number given in the letter but was asked to leave a message. I did not. I want to speak to them at my convenience, not theirs.
I wanted to ask them about county permits and a GE State business license. I wanted to ask them if they knew that a vacation rental on Kauai had to be situated in a Visitor Destination Area (VDA).
I wonder why the County doesn’t call them and ask them these questions. Anyone want to call?
The number is (512) 599-8471.
Ask to speak to Glen Spitzack. He’s listed as the “Owner Success Consultant”
VRBOs are ruining this island. They are sometimes in nice calm quiet neighborhoods away from the tourist population and end up completely change the character of the area. We had an idiot who is from a foreign country completely disobey the rules here on island and chop up his home into little rooms and rent out to whomever would pay. People would come at all hours of the night up and down our quiet street looking for his house that wasn’t marked properly. They would knock on everyone’s doors at 2 am and such trying to find his place. He didn’t care because he was pulling in so much money. Finally the county came in and fined him and tiny amount and shut him down after we complained, and complained for months!!!