Owners question

[sympatico]

Why don't some of the owners keep their availability calendars up-to-date? Some of them have no bookings at all designated. Is it just so people will email them to find out or is it that they don't bother to do it ? If it's just so people will email then it has the opposite effect on me. I would put that as my last resort. I would rather see if my dates were open before contacting the owner.

 

[JANNYANS]

I agree but the trouble is some sites won't let you have a calendar that has links to other homes on them and some sites have their own calendars and it could mean that an owner is having to update several calendars and it is time consuming .It really comes down to either not having one at all or making sure they are all kept up to date if you do have one.

 

[isla bonita]

I do not know why they wouldn't keep one up to date unless they are concerned about illegal entry.

It is to much work for both guests and for me to answer all inquiries IMHO.

 

[5mins2disney]

I've spoken to several owners recently who intentionally don't publish their calendar, they want every person to contact them and see if they have an opening.

 

[staceywj]

I think they should because as a prospective renter, I would like to see how frequently the home is being rented. If it does not receive much activity, I may wonder why.
Just my 2 cents.
Stacey

 

[sympatico]

I have found some owners who don't keep the calendar up to date on the listing site but when you go to their own website the calendar is updated there, but some don't do it at all. For our trip in Nov. those that didn't have a calendar got put at the bottom of my short list and before I got to them I had rented from someone else.
I agree that it's good to see how often the home is being rented. That would give me an indication that they must be doing something right.

 

[CoralCayTownhome]

I think they should because as a prospective renter, I would like to see how frequently the home is being rented. If it does not receive much activity, I may wonder why.
Just my 2 cents.
Stacey

I totally agree - in the past when we have rented I didn't even consider homes that had nothing on their calender - like Stacey I wondered why?

New developments, like ours, will obviously not have much in the way of rental activity until it gets established (hopefully very soon) but I certainly will be keeping my calender up to date There is nothing worse for a renter to find the home they want and then be told that it is already booked when the calender was showing availability.

 

[4eyedbuzzard]

From my experience many of the owners are involved in referral pools with other owners and will forward your request to other owners in their group(s) if they don't have availability or meet other criteria. In return they receive referrals from the others in their group. It has plusses and minuses. For the owners they benefit by getting referrals from other advertisers/owners, but may lose out due to people seeing empty calendars and being suspect. For renters, you may find the property you inquire about is booked but receive e-mail from other properties that do have availability and meet your criteria. The downside is that you get a lot of e-mails often without references to vrbo or other property #'s etc, wonder where they came from, and sometimes receive more e-mails than you might wish for. One such inquiry netted me some 30 e-mails one day. Personally I like seeing the availability right out front and would prefer an "opt-in" link to the owners group referral as an option. Something like a link with "If we don't have availability on your dates, click here to receive info on other properties that may meet your requirements."

 

[UKDEB]

If I found a home I really wanted to rent and the calendar indicated it was already booked, I'd still email in case there had been a cancellation or it was inaccurate for some other reason. I like to rent new properties so the fact that the calendar wasn't showing many bookings wouldn't bother me one jot. In fact, most times, I don't even check the calendar.