OwnerRez Featured in PropTech Magazine, Airbnb IPO, Vrbo Pauses Subscriptions, California Stay At Home Order

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Happy Friday!

To start things off, PropTech Outlook magazine has published an interview with our CEO, Paul Waldschmidt. The article talks about OwnerRez and our vision for the future. Paul explains how OwnerRez is an engineer-led company that focuses on parameterization at every step, and does not follow any particular vendor specification or parameters. He states, “As OwnerRez is built in-house, we can offer the best prices and features to our users without compromising on the speed or quality.” Go check out the article to read more about your favorite vacation rental software.😉

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that Airbnb has gone public.  The share prices more than doubled on it’s first day of trading, from the $68 per share price set the day before IPO, to $146 per share.🤑 Did any of you Airbnb hosts get in on the early host-only share price?

Looking in the other direction, Vrbo has made the decision to pause any new participation in new subscription models. They say they understand the value partners get from using subscriptions, and they currently have no plans to stop those PPS from being able to renew. PMs that already have a subscription will be able to renew, add new subs or convert to PPB. At the moment, these are the countries that only offer PPB (no PPS at all):

  • Vrbo-CA
  • Vrbo-CAFR
  • HA Japan
  • HA Singapore
  • HA Turkey
  • HA Australia
  • HA New Zealand

If you have vacation rental properties in California, times are tough. On Sunday, December 6, 2020, the Stay-At-Home Order was put in place by the CA Department of Public Health and will last a minimum of three week. This prohibits short term lodging for recreational or leisure purposes, but they are still allowed for “essential purposes” such as pandemic response of critical infrastructure. Short term rental can also remain open for people who cannot return to their home due to displacement, stranded travelers, people who need isolation or quarantine, or for protection of the homeless.

3 Comments (add yours)

GetStay
Dec 14, 2020 1:55 PM
Joined May, 2020 20 posts

We've talked with VRBO and quite soon they're going to introduce 15% Host only fee. Awaiting an update since only VRBO Account Managers got that article regarding parameters and benefits.

Sarah H
Dec 14, 2020 6:14 PM
Joined Jul, 2019 109 posts

Interesting - seems like both AirBNB and VRBO will be looking passing different expense to owners.

Just to run the numbers on the $500.... if you rent more than $3300 on VRBO... the $500 is a deal. Currently paying much lower than 15% on even the smallest of properties.

GetStay
Dec 15, 2020 6:23 AM
Joined May, 2020 20 posts

This was their response.

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The professional offer is at this stage offered only for integrated partners selected by the account managers. Instead of 5% commission, the partner will pay 15%.

Marketing emails are sent to account emails when new features are introduced. Account managers are always informed about new features and can always be approached. Otherwise visit also check https://www.vrbo.com/discoveryhub for updates for more information.

My suggestion is to ask if the accounts you manage are eligible for the professional offer as account manager are trained to ask questions regarding strategies, new updates, and future planning. They can also tell you more about the pay out details and financial advantages.

There are no advantages over ranking on the website this still only depends on the quality metrics like:
-Reviews
-instant booking activation
-flexibility cancelation policy
-acceptance rate
-the amount of bookings
-response rate

A lot of IPM's prefer the performance offer to be able to globally control prices over different platforms.
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