In 1995, VRBO introduced a new way for people to travel together, pairing homeowners with people looking for places to stay. VRBO's purpose: To give people the space they need to drop the distractions of everyday life and simply be together.
VRBO has grown into a global community of homeowners and travelers, with unique properties in 190 countries. The channel offers homeowners and property managers exposure to over 750 million visits to Expedia Group sites each month.
Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO) is part of the HomeAway family.
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Calendar Based Channels only support: availability updates, booking downloads, and automatic adjustments.
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They do not support rates! Enter rates directly into the HomeAway extranet.
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They do not support rates! Enter rates directly into the HomeAway extranet.
- Even though VRBO is owned by Expedia, it is not possible to make the connection to this channel through Expedia.
- Cloudbeds does not control how frequently calendar channels poll us for availability, so it can take 0.5 to 2 hours for availability to reflect on the channel. Please confirm this interval with your HomeAway Account Manager.
How to connect VRBO/HomeAway to myallocator
If you do not have an account on HomeAway:
- Create an account on HomeAway.
- Once done, proceed to Step 2.
If you do have an account on HomeAway:
Proceed with Step 2
- Go to Manage
- Select Channels
- Click on Add Channel
- Search for Vacation Rentals By Owner / HomeAway channel and click on Not Setup
- Check to enable the channel
- Click Next to proceed
- Choose the first room type that you want to sync and click on copy link
Calendar-based channels do not provide the number of guests in a reservation, so bookings for shared/dorm rooms will be imported as 1 bed by default, even though there could be more. It's safest not to update/sell dorm rooms on this channel.
In another tab, log into your HomeAway dashboard and follow the steps below
- Click on Calendar
- Select Import & Export
- Click on Import a Calendar
- Enter the calendar URL from your myallocator account that you copied on Step 3
- Choose how calendar events import
- Click Next
In order to block availability, the event must span at least one night
- Name your calendar
- Select a color for your imported calendar
- Click on Import
It may take up to 20 minutes to see your imported calendar events.
Repeat the steps above for ALL of your HomeAway rooms you'd like to sync with myfrontdesk.
On your HomeAway dashboard, obtain your HomeAway export calendar URL:
- Click on Import & Export tab
- Click on Export Calendar
- Uncheck the option Include Tentative Reservations in the calendar export.* This will stop all guest inquiry reservations coming through the iCal.
- Click on Copy URL to copy the HomeAway calendar
*Calendar-based channels work differently than normal distribution channels, and this type of connection does not support cancellations. Also, all inquiry reservations are considered as "confirmed bookings" and not tentative.
When the guest books the room on HomeAway, even if it's only a tentative, the system will send this reservation as confirmed to myfrontdesk - it means that this reservation will close your availability. Then, the property needs to cancel the existing reservation in myfrontdesk, so they will be able to clear it in the HomeAway calendar allowing the guest to book.
If the guest decided not to make the reservation, the request would expire after 24 hours on HomeAway side, but the reservation remains on myfrontdesk because the property needs to manage cancellations manually.
Leaving this option unchecked will prevent this situation.
- Paste the HomeAway URL in your myallocator account
Repeat the steps above for ALL of your HomeAway rooms you'd like to sync with myallocator.
Once you finish all your room types
- Click NEXT
HomeAway has several brands such as - Stayz.com.au, FeWo, Abritel, VacationRentals.com, Toprural, Bookabach, Alugue Temporada and others. Currently, within myallocator, we only accept HomeAway or VRBO URLs, but it does not mean that you can not connect the listings from other brands. Please follow the steps below in order to connect other HomeAway's brand.
Let's suppose that you want to connect your 'Alugue Temporada' listing and you have the following URL:
When you paste 'Alugue Temporada' URL, you will probably see the error message below
To fix this, replace the highlighted part from 'www.aluguetemporada.com.br' to 'www.homeaway.com' and keep the rest of the URL exactly the same.
Cancellations from a calendar channel cannot be transmitted to any 3rd parties (including myallocator).
Since myallocator is unaware of any Calendar Channel cancellations, you must manage your inventory manually.
Example:
- Guest books your property and the booking is sent to myallocator
- Guest cancels the booking
- Myallocator is unaware of the cancellation
- You must log in into myallocator and add the Availability back for the canceled booking (if desired)
Check this article for more details on How should I handle cancellations?