Renting Vacation Homes (not VRBO or AirBnB)

[Christine]

So, looking for advice on renting a vacation home and NOT using VRBO or AirBnB. The fees using those sites are outrageous. I used to extensively use VRBO but I feel like I'm getting fleeced. A house I'm looking at on AirBnB has a $500 AirBnB fee. I was able to find the house on the company that owns the house and that took care of that, but it's time consuming doing that with everything.

It's been awhile since I've done a vacation home (looking in California) so is there a better way that I don't know about? Just trying to rent more direct I guess.

 

[dvcgirl67]

So, looking for advice on renting a vacation home and NOT using VRBO or AirBnB. The fees using those sites are outrageous. I used to extensively use VRBO but I feel like I'm getting fleeced. A house I'm looking at on AirBnB has a $500 AirBnB fee. I was able to find the house on the company that owns the house and that took care of that, but it's time consuming doing that with everything.

It's been awhile since I've done a vacation home (looking in California) so is there a better way that I don't know about? Just trying to rent more direct I guess.

The only other way that I know to rent vacation homes was the way that people used to do it, and that was through local realtors. My parents had a house in the Florida Keys for years (pre-AirBnB) and they rented it out by the week through one of the realtors in town. You might google for the area you're interested in and look for local realtors.

 

[ncc1701]

Same as PP use a local realtor. My family did that going to the Jersey shore.

 

[dvcgirl67]

Same as PP use a local realtor. My family did that going to the Jersey shore.

This is the way it was in the "old days". I wonder if we'll be heading back in this direction a bit. I know Hawaii passed a law that gives every county in the State the framework to eliminate AirBnB/VRBO rentals. I think it's just so easy that it's gotten out of control in many areas and has made housing very expensive. I'm conflicted, because I'm hoping to spend a lot of time in AirBnbs in retirement. I don't mind using realtors though, but would be a bit gun shy renting from strangers without some kind of middleman.

 

[cvjw]

I just go to VRBO and search there first. When I find a house I am interested in, I go directly to the rental company to book. You can dodge the extra fees that way. Everyone seems to put their rentals on VRBO, so there are always lots of choices for rentals.

 

[Threehearts]

When our real estate agent was unable to find us an oceanfront(right on the beach) single family home, summer rental in a new area, we flew to that area for a long weekend. We rented a car and drove up and down the streets looking for For Rent By Owner signs out in front of the houses. We ended up finding several fabulous rentals. No fees. Just a standard contract to sign.

If you can't get to your desired location, you might consider offering a paid night away to a friend in the area and see if they can scout out something for you.

 

[disykat]

Once we found a vacation rental for our Hawaii destination in the want ads in our home town paper. They owned a home there and we just happened to see it and were in the process of planning a trip. It was a little risky since we didn't know them, but it worked out great. I suppose the equivalent now might be Craig's list or something like that?

 

[Christine]

I just go to VRBO and search there first. When I find a house I am interested in, I go directly to the rental company to book. You can dodge the extra fees that way. Everyone seems to put their rentals on VRBO, so there are always lots of choices for rentals.

Do you have any easy way to find the rental company associated with the house? There’s not a lot of information to readily find it in some cases.

 

[White Cat]

We rent a house out in Maine and New Brunswick several times each year and have always used a realtor. I would never care to use VRBO. Or air b n b

 

[Genie+]

We recently tried booking AirBnB and it was a fiasco. DH made a booking, they took the money then sent an email he needed to upload his license within an hour. Well he didn’t check his email that hour and they locked his account and kept a sizable amount of money for a week before returning it. Shouldn’t a business NOT take the money until they validate the transaction? So we booked in my name, they took that money and then said not valid because close connection to DH. He had tried for days to get his account fixed to no avail.

Probably for the best anyway. Found 3 amazing bookings over 9 nights thru VRBO. Fingers crossed all goes well. So far every owner has been prompt and helpful and we’ve had no issues finalizing transactions and everything pre-arrival was completed quickly.

I should add we saved $1k on a potential 4th VBO booking. They had it listed at $2.5k and we found the same exact accommodation thru Apartments Italy for $1.5k. That’s not a bad method… look thru VRBO and then enter the address you like into google and see if it is offered elsewhere without the crazy fees.

 

[HeatherC]

Lately I have found going through Facebook groups has led me to many of the same owners who list on VRBO and AirBnB. For example, we travel to Hilton Head Island a lot so I joined a few HH groups on FB. One is a rental group and many of the posters are owners looking to rent out their units without using VRBO and ArBnB. Many of them are not happy with the fees either and are willing to deal direct. As usual, you have to do diligence to make sure it isn’t a scam but the ones I have come across have many people respond with comments saying they rented from these people and would use them again, etc.. Hope this helps! Those fees are ridiculous for sure!

 

[cvjw]

Do you have any easy way to find the rental company associated with the house? There’s not a lot of information to readily find it in some cases.

It will say hosted by. If it is just a person’s name, I just skip it. Don’t want to pay the VRBO fees. I always find a rental that is hosted by an actual rental company. Then go to their website directly and book. It is always cheaper because the VRBO huge fee is gone. And I deal with an actual company that I can call for help if needed.

 

[Christine]

It will say hosted by. If it is just a person’s name, I just skip it. Don’t want to pay the VRBO fees. I always find a rental that is hosted by an actual rental company. Then go to their website directly and book. It is always cheaper because the VRBO huge fee is gone. And I deal with an actual company that I can call for help if needed.

All the properties I've looked at, for now, say they are hosted by a person. One property in particular that I liked was "hosted by John" but the house was named. I did a search on that name and then the property came up under a corporation that seems to own 4 different properties. So it actually wasn't "hosted by John" but was owned by company.

I think VRBO/AirBnB are getting more clever at hiding things.

Back in 2020, I found a beach house in Delaware on VRBO. The beach house has a name as most large vacation homes at the beach seem to. I searched on the name, found the owner/agency who had the house and saved about $700 on the week.

Where I'm going this time has proven to be a bit more difficult but this will give me something to do with my downtime this weekend!

 

[mjkacmom]

Same as PP use a local realtor. My family did that going to the Jersey shore.

We rent every year through Airbnb and VRBO, back in the day we used rental agencies but now that’s rare. We were contacted by our last VRBO rental owner saying that we could rent this year directly through him and save $4000, so we did.

 

[Christine]

We rent every year through Airbnb and VRBO, back in the day we used rental agencies but now that’s rare. We were contacted by our last VRBO rental owner saying that we could rent this year directly through him and save $4000, so we did.

That's just amazing!

 

[mjkacmom]

That's just amazing!

We’ve been renting at the Jersey shore for close to 10 years, have never rented the same house twice, we really liked this house besides the fact that there is a motel between us and the beach, but the 8 “kids” loved the location (point pleasant), they were putting in a pool and backyard kitchen, it came with linens and towels (huge for me, my sister’s family of 4 flies in so it’s all me, 6 bedrooms, usually about 15 people), and there are two big master bedrooms for my husband and I, and my sister. Public beach it is! Prices skyrocketed after COVID. I loved the VRBO/airbnb at first, but the fees are crazy!

 

[can'tgetenufofwdw]

After reading this thread I cancelled my reservations through VRBO and booked directly through the rental company that VRBO was using and saved $520. Thank you for educating me, I love learning new vacation tips especially those that save money

 

[Christine]

After reading this thread I cancelled my reservations through VRBO and booked directly through the rental company that VRBO was using and saved $520. Thank you for educating me, I love learning new vacation tips especially those that save money

I'm glad this thread helped. I'm not having as much luck finding the properties I'm interested in. But my stay is not till August so I'm going to put my search on hold a bit. I know in the past, as you get closer to a trip, while property choices might shrink, people start cutting prices on unrented properties. I'm going at a time when kids are getting back to school so I'm hoping my strategy works, lol!

 

[_19disnA]

Regardless of how you go about finding a place to rent, there are clearly costs involved for the owner. If the owner lives hundreds of miles away, there are costs involved to have someone who is local (likely a realtor) arrange to greet the visitors, provide keys, etc. There are costs associated with having a cleaning crew after the guests leave. If any sort of maintenance is required, it is much more difficult to coordinate that from hundreds of miles away and someone local has to be available to let the maintenance people in when the repairs are being done inside the home.

Not sure how much difference there is in charging a higher daily rate vs. adding on a 'fee' to the total price. Renting a vacation place usually results in more wear/tear. I would expect the owner to want to cover the cost of their mortgage as well as build a reserve for upkeep.

Friends of ours rent their beach condo on VRBO and their price has always seemed competitive to what others in the area are charging regardless of which specific method they use to find potential guests.

 

[mjkacmom]

Regardless of how you go about finding a place to rent, there are clearly costs involved for the owner. If the owner lives hundreds of miles away, there are costs involved to have someone who is local (likely a realtor) arrange to greet the visitors, provide keys, etc. There are costs associated with having a cleaning crew after the guests leave. If any sort of maintenance is required, it is much more difficult to coordinate that from hundreds of miles away and someone local has to be available to let the maintenance people in when the repairs are being done inside the home.

Not sure how much difference there is in charging a higher daily rate vs. adding on a 'fee' to the total price. Renting a vacation place usually results in more wear/tear. I would expect the owner to want to cover the cost of their mortgage as well as build a reserve for upkeep.

Friends of ours rent their beach condo on VRBO and their price has always seemed competitive to what others in the area are charging regardless of which specific method they use to find potential guests.

Before VRBO we rented through property managers who were local, it was cheaper with fewer fees. I wouldn’t mind the cleaning fees so much if I didn’t have to clean so much. We rent larger properties, many which don’t include linens or towels. Having to run the dishwasher, empty it, empty every garbage can (got dinged once for missing a bathroom garbage can), vacuum, clean out the fridge, and pay $200 for cleaners. We pay around $1700 a night before taxes and fees.