vrbo, flipkey or craigslist to find a vacation rental?

[mtquinn]

I own a home in Ocean City, NJ that I rent out. I use vrbo and craigslist to market it, and it filled up nicely last summer with those alone.

This year, I also tried out Flipkey, connected with Trip Advisor, and have gotten some good traffic. Now I will need to decide which paid service to use after the spring.

I know vrbo/homeaway are the biggies, and craigslist is a keeper since it is free, but Flipkey is sort of new and only has one page of listings for Ocean City, NJ so far.

Cape May and Wildwood have tons of listings, but OCNJ? Not so much, for whatever reason. So, my house gets lots of hits

Vrbo is so loaded with listings that I have to pay the highest fee to be among the first 80 properties shown. It's a lot. Flipkey is much less.

I don't know which to use...Flipkey or Vrbo. Give me your thoughts.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

I own a home in Ocean City, NJ that I rent out. I use vrbo and craigslist to market it, and it filled up nicely last summer with those alone.

This year, I also tried out Flipkey, connected with Trip Advisor, and have gotten some good traffic. Now I will need to decide which paid service to use after the spring.

I know vrbo/homeaway are the biggies, and craigslist is a keeper since it is free, but Flipkey is sort of new and only has one page of listings for Ocean City, NJ so far.

Cape May and Wildwood have tons of listings, but OCNJ? Not so much, for whatever reason. So, my house gets lots of hits

Vrbo is so loaded with listings that I have to pay the highest fee to be among the first 80 properties shown. It's a lot. Flipkey is much less.

I don't know which to use...Flipkey or Vrbo. Give me your thoughts.

As a house renter, I only use vrbo. I've never heard of Flipkey before, and I'm more comfortable using a long established service. I will check Flipkey out online now that you've mentioned it, but would probably still not use it till it's more popular.

 

[mtquinn]

Thank you for the input! I know, it is a newer service, but I figured it may catch on within a year due to the established name of Trip Advisor, with which it is connected.

It's really just the same thing as vrbo in every way. Looks like they copied vrbo's online model almost exactly. What differs is that when someone searches a place on Trip Advisor, there is a link to Flipkey to find places to rent in that location. Kinda neat.

 

[Darcy03231]

I'm a house renter and never use VBRO. I always use either www.vacationrentals.com or www.vacationhomes.com.

 

[mtquinn]

Thank you, Darcy. vacationrentals.com is a division/partner of vrbo. vacationhomes is new to me, so I will have to check that out.

Thanks!

 

[Chelley00]

We use vrbo or homeaway. I've seen some stuff for FlipKey through Tripadvisror while looking for a place for spring break but I haven't used them.

 

[Pigeon]

When we rent, we use one that is specific to the region where we want to rent, Adirondack by Owner. Perhaps there is something similar to that where your house is located?

 

[keenercam]

We used homeaway. They seem to police their site very well. They immediately contacted me after I sent an email to an owner. Homeaway had just determined it was a fraudulent listing and if we'd given credit card or check information, we would be at risk - fortunately, it hadn't gotten that far. But just their diligence in that particular circumstance (when I'd contacted owners on about 20 properties) was enough to reassure me that it was a good site.

 

[wiigirl]

Did craiglist once...worst experience.

Used vrbo....really good experience.

 

[jgreco]

Craigslist is full of scams in Florida. I saw photos of my neighbors house on there for rent and asked them about it. Someone had stolen old photos off a realtor.com listing and made a fake post using their pictures.

 

[mtquinn]

Yep. craigslist is full of fraudulent listings. I will continue to list because it served me well last year, and it's free, so I like it. But you do have to be wary.

I guess it's between vrbo and flipkey. Flipkey is more up and coming, while vrbo is more established. But, it's much more expensive that Flipkey if you want to be on the first couple of pages in search results.

A listing can get buried in the last pages. It takes a determined type of renter to really go through over seven or so pages of search results. Most people stop after two or three pages, tops.

I guess Ill stay with vrbo, but Flipkey is a good site, too.

 

[3boymthr]

I usually find my rentals thru the local chamber of commerce, but I always check out VRBO/Homeaway. This year I also checked out flipkey.

I will say that I check ALL the listings for all the places that suit my needs (size and availability) as you never know when you are going to find a bargain, such as the listing that had the week we wanted at half price but the discount was buried in the listing and not showing in the rates.

Since we tend to go on the swing weeks which most real estate rental agents discount and private owners don't I usually end up going that route (I will find the real estate agents thru the Chamber website). However; two years ago we rented a cottage that we had found that was listed directly by the homeowner. I found the link to the homeowner's personal website thru the local chamber of commerce website. It was a great place at a great price and I never would have found it otherwise because they weren't showing up until page 10 on a google search

 

[Lucille1963]

My first thought was www.airbnb.com
I have friends that use it to rent out their properties and they love it.

 

[NJtoATL]

I only rent from vrbo.... craigslist.... not me. flip who? no thanks.

 

[foreUT]

I have a rental on VRBO and added HomeAway in January. I have been very pleased w both. I use the Reservation Manager and I think they make it easy to handle to your own rentals, as opposed to needing a Management Company. As far as responses, I have March through August booked straight except for a couple of weeks.

 

[Lisaren]

I have used VRBO for about four vacation rentals in a few different locations. I get email alerts from flipkey, but have never looked into them much. The emails are for places I am not interested in. I just found my Disney rental for two weeks through VRBO - sent the check yesterday.
I once booked a hotel through one of the travel sites (don't remember which one) and when I arrived, even though the travel site had charged my credit card, I did not have a room and had to go searching. That has soured me on TripAdvisor, Travelocity, and the like. I did get credit back on my card immediately.

 

[js]

Did craiglist once...worst experience.

Used vrbo....really good experience.

As a vacation renter, I have used VRBO and I would NEVER use craigslist for my vacation.

 

[mtquinn]

I have a rental on VRBO and added HomeAway in January. I have been very pleased w both. I use the Reservation Manager and I think they make it easy to handle to your own rentals, as opposed to needing a Management Company. As far as responses, I have March through August booked straight except for a couple of weeks.

Where is your rental located?

Did you notice much more traffic with the addition of homeaway? Did you pay for the listings in the top tier of search results, in the first few pages? If not, which level did you purchase, located where in the results?

Thanks.

 

[foreUT]

Where is your rental located?

Did you notice much more traffic with the addition of homeaway? Did you pay for the listings in the top tier of search results, in the first few pages? If not, which level did you purchase, located where in the results?

Thanks.

I just added HomeAway last month, but it has added a couple of rentals already. I paid to move my listing to the top tier late last year and when I renewed kept it. I definitely think it makes a difference. I also think that having good reviews is a big positive. I just listed last year and this year has been much easier to rent. I sent you a pm w more information.