Stuck with Vrbo Legacy Listing — Dynamic Pricing, Property Details & Direct Booking Issues

Hi there!

I've dealt with several similar situations, particularly with Vrbo Legacy connections, so I'd like to share a few things I've learned from my experience. Hopefully, these suggestions will help you get things moving.

1. Dynamic Pricing with Vrbo Legacy

We still have quite a few properties connected through Vrbo Legacy, and we've been using dynamic pricing successfully with them.

One thing I've noticed is that Vrbo pricing synchronization can take some time to kick in. Unlike Airbnb, where updates are generally much quicker, Vrbo doesn't always synchronize everything immediately.

If you're having trouble getting the initial prices pushed, here's something you can try:

• Open Hospitable Smarty and ask it to push pricing for a smaller date range. For example, ask it to push all pricing for October and November.

• You can even start with just one or two weeks to see whether the updates go through.

• Once the initial pricing is pushed, give it some time. The remaining dates may gradually synchronize, and subsequent dynamic pricing updates should continue automatically.

I've personally tried synchronizing a large number of dates at once, but not all the prices were pushed successfully. My suspicion is that this may be related to limitations with the Vrbo Legacy connection or Vrbo's rate limiting.

Pushing smaller date ranges through Smarty has worked better in my experience.

One important thing to check: Make sure you don't have Vrbo's own dynamic pricing enabled. If you're using dynamic pricing having Vrbo's native dynamic pricing enabled could override those rates. You want one dynamic pricing system controlling the rates, not both.

2. Property Details Not Syncing from Vrbo

This is something I've encountered as well.

Most of our properties have Airbnb listings, so we typically select the Airbnb listing during the Hospitable setup process, and the property details get imported.

However, with a Vrbo-only property, you may need to approach things differently.

You can manually configure the property details directly within Hospitable, including:

• Property description

• House rules

• Amenities

• Other property information

The important thing to understand is that you may end up managing the property information on both platforms independently. Changes made in Hospitable won't necessarily update Vrbo, and vice versa.

So, if you decide to go this route, make sure you keep both platforms updated.

3. Direct Booking and the Address Issue

Regarding the address issue, I'd first contact Hospitable Support to see if they can correct the address mapping manually. Since your physical street address has been imported into the apartment/unit field, they may be able to fix this on their end.

However, I have another workaround you could try.

I'm not entirely sure whether Hospitable currently allows you to create a Direct Booking-only property from scratch, but if that option is available, I'd suggest creating one and configuring it separately. You can then establish a parent-child relationship between your existing Vrbo property and the new Direct Booking property.

If creating a Direct Booking-only property isn't possible, here's what I'd personally try:

1. Create a new, blank property in Airbnb and leave it unpublished.

2. Add a few blank white photos and enter the correct property address.

3. Let the property synchronize into Hospitable.

4. Once it's imported, modify the property details and configure a fresh property for Direct Bookings.

5. Create the Direct Booking listing from that property and establish a parent-child relationship with your existing Vrbo property.

This is something I'd explore as a temporary workaround until Vrbo fixes the address issue or Hospitable Support provides a better solution.

Of course, make sure the parent-child configuration and calendar synchronization are working correctly to avoid double bookings.

4. Airbnb Duplicate Listing Issues

Lastly, regarding the Airbnb duplicate listing issue, I know you've already experienced some difficulties here.

There are a couple of approaches we've seen work in certain situations.

Option A: Demonstrate that it's a genuinely different listing

If the property has undergone a management or ownership change, contact Airbnb and explain the situation.

Provide supporting documentation where applicable, such as:

• Proof of a new management agreement.

• Documentation showing a change in ownership or management.

• An explanation of why this should be considered a separate listing rather than a duplicate.

We've had situations where, after communicating with Airbnb and reaching the right support agent, the listing was approved.

Option B: Create a genuinely new listing with updated content

If you're relaunching a property, consider taking an entirely new set of photographs from different angles, using different bedsheets, including fewer photos, and rewriting the property description. Sometimes this approach works. Make the address as vague(like avoid apt number, put the pin a litte farther) as possible on Airbnb, and provide the more precise address to guests through Hospitable automation. Guests are fine with 1 min extra work. 

These suggestions are based primarily on my own experience managing properties connected through Hospitable and Vrbo Legacy. Hopefully, some of these workarounds help you get the property up and running.

Good luck!