Instead of Booking a Vacation Rental Online — Try This!
5 Awesome Alternatives to VRBO, Homeaway & the Rest
Before we talk about the alternatives to VRBO, let me explain how Vacation Rentals have become such a big thing!
Vacation rentals are one of the most popular ways to travel these days because of how convenient and affordable they are!
Because of the huge increase in popularity, the Internet has become clogged with Online Travel Agencies (OTA’s) like VRBO, TripAdvisor and Airbnb, that clamor for your travel dollars.
Several years ago, HomeAway, VRBO and Airbnb started allowing property managers of vacation rentals to advertise on their family of sites.
So now, instead of talking to the owner of vacation rentals, you might be dealing with a property manager that has an inventory of hundreds of properties. Any questions that you have are answered off a description sheet instead of chatting with an owner who loves their property!
You might be wondering what’s so special about booking a vacation rental directly with an owner?
Booking Fees and Service Fees for North Conway Vacation Rentals
Helpful reasons to rent a vacation rental directly from an owner and not a property manager or an OTA such as Airbnb, VRBO or Homeaway.
- NO Service Fees or Booking Fees
- You can set up a payment schedule instead of paying 100% up front
- You get to experience the area like a local
- Rent from locals and get the benefit of their experience
- Owners can describe and help you enjoy the property like no-one else
- NO middle man when it comes to customer service·
- MORE and FREE amenities
In December 2016, VRBO and HomeAway were both purchased by Expedia for 4 BILLION dollars.
Now, Expedia is on a mission to earn back that money. Do you know where it’s going to come from? YOUR pockets!
Service Fees and North Conway Vacation Rentals
Expedia introduced a Service Fee in February of 2016 of 4–12%.
These fees are applied to your payment when you complete the booking online on any of sites owned by Expedia.
Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Booking.com and other OTA’s charge similar fees, except theirs are higher. Expect to pay 4–15% when using these sites.
Most folks are looking for one stop, vacation rental shopping, but is that the BEST way to book a vacation rental?
I’ll let you decide if up to a $499 Service Fee from VRBO/HomeAway and up to 15% from TripAdvisor/Flipkey, tacked onto your credit card is worth using their sites.
There is talk industry-wide that those fees are headed higher in 2017!
Don’t Despair! You don’t have to pay Service Fees and there are alternatives to VRBO and the rest!
5 Awesome Ways to Find Alternatives to VRBO
You don’t have to be a computer geek to use these quick tricks and find a great White Mountain cabin rental.
My personal favorite way to find great vacation rentals is using google to do an image search.
Follow along and I’ll show you how…
Imagine renting a vacation rental house and getting a ski lift ticket free or being able to take your entire family out to dinner at a gourmet restaurant for free?
You CAN if you book directly with a vacation rental owner.
Consider These When Renting a North Conway Cabin Rental
- What city or town would you like to vacation?
- Lodge, cabin, condo, house or villa?
- How many guests in your group?
- Will you bring pets?
- Are there child-friendly amenities?
- Flexible with dates of travel or do you need an exact match?
- What luxury amenities do you need?
And then…
Pull up your favorite search engine (Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) and in the search box type in something like [town, vacation rental, amenity].
Refine the search to fit your group’s needs and hopefully, you will have a list of vacation rentals that meet your needs to choose from.
Read out blog on Safe Rental Tips!
Happy vacationing!
Teena
PS I love to talk about North Conway and my horses so fire away!
About Teena, the Author: I have owned Four Seasons Lodge in North Conway, NH for over 20 years and have welcomed almost 12,000 happy guests to my Lodge.
I receive so many thank-you’s for wonderful and fun suggestions, taking lots of family photos for them, and providing them with a spotlessly clean and meticulously maintained vacation rental!
www.FourSeasonsLodge.com Teena — 603–662–5391
