Step 5: Price and availability

In integration with Vrbo, the pricing model is selected for the whole account (not per property) and the Daily price model is the default option. This means that we will always send your daily prices to Vrbo unless you request to change it.

However, if you decide not to use Daily price model any more, you can switch to LOS pricing or FSP pricing any time. You can read how to do it here.

LOS pricing model

Vrbo supports LOS pricing. If you use LOS pricing model, it will be fully sent to Vrbo.

Vrbo supports stays up to 180 nights long. Note that the price calculation logic is different for shorter stays (up to 30 nights) and longer stays (from 30 to 180). When calculating prices for shorter stays, a full LOS pricing is used (it takes into account both the number of guests and the number of nights). For longer stays, the price calculation will disregard the number of guests in the reservation. The final price will be the same for any number of guests.

• In case client uses the FSP pricing model, the base price will be taken from the FSP defined price.

• In other cases the base price will be taken from Daily price in the respective season.

• Fees and taxes will be calculated based on 1 night and 1 guest.

In this integration, it is Vrbo that performs the price calculation. In case of LOS pricing, the order of applying charges is the following: 

1. The sum of rent and all fees and taxes that are unmapped or using calculation type different from percentage and per stay are sent to Vrbo within one node. This means the price components cannot be distinguished.

2. Cleaning value is sent.

3. Percentage and per stay charges are sent to the channel.

   Tip: A Per person & per stay charge is not calculated in the end, even though its name suggests it is a per stay charge.

FSP pricing model

Vrbo supports FSP pricing. If you use FSP pricing model, it will be fully sent to Vrbo.

Daily price model

In this integration, it is Vrbo that performs the price calculation. In case of Daily price model, the order of applying charges is the following: 

1. Rent.

2. Cleaning value is sent.

3. Only percentage and per stay charges are sent to the channel. Note that unmapped charges and charges of different calculation type are excluded from calculation.

Daily price

Daily price is the standard way of setting prices. It indicates the base price per night for the Standard number of guests.

The Daily price value which is eventually available for the potential guest depends on the data introduced in the following fields:

• Standard number of guests,

• Extra guest price,

• Weekend pricing,

• LOS discount,

• Last-minute discount.

Standard number of guests

Standard number of guests refers to the maximum number of guests included in the Daily price for whom the price does not change. If more guests than specified book a stay, the extra guests will be charged with the price set in the Extra guest price element.

For Vrbo, Standard number of guests is used for the calculation purposes. Rentals United performs the calculation itself and only then shares the final price with Vrbo.

Extra guest price

Extra guest price is the price for guests that are not included in the Standard number of guests. In other words, if the overall number of guests exceeds the Standard number of guests, Extra guest price is applied for each guest above the specified standard.

Extra guest price is also used for the calculation purposes. Rentals United performs the calculation itself and only then shares the final price with Vrbo. If you want to set prices for different numbers of Extra Guests, please see Occupancy pricing.

Minimum stay

Minimum stay indicates the minimum number of days a reservation can be made for. Guests will be not be able to book your property if they want to book stays shorter than minim stay. This value is mandatory to provide. The Minimum stay value is used for the availability check, yet it will also be displayed in Vrbo.

Weekend pricing

Weekend pricing refers to a specific type of pricing rules that are applied on selected weekend days only. If the weekend-specific pricing is set and the reservation matches specified criteria, then the Weekend pricing will be applied instead of the Daily price.

Occupancy pricing

In Occupancy pricing, it is possible to specify pricing plans for different numbers of Extra Guests (not included in Daily price). The difference between Extra guest price and Occupancy pricing lies in fact that with Extra guest price the same price is applied for each Extra Guest. On the other hand, in Occupancy pricing it is perfectly possible to specify different prices for different numbers of Extra Guests. Note that Occupancy pricing takes precedence over Extra guest price.

Complimentary topics

Discounts

Discounts are applied in order to deduct certain amount from the price, provided the specified requirements are met by the reservation. Currently, there are two types of discounts:

LOS discount may be applied when criteria specified for the length of stay are met. For example, LOS discount may apply only for 3-days stays. Last-minute discount on the other hand is applied if the reservation is made within the specified time before the check-in day. 

Be aware, that the Daily price model uses data from two types of discounts: LOS discount and Last-minute discount. For LOS pricing model, only data from LOS discount is shared with Vrbo.

Calendar

Calendar stands for the property's availability to rent. You can check here the availability of your property in the selected time frames. Once a reservation is inserted in Rentals United, the availability in the calendar gets blocked for this period. The calendar is updated automatically every time the availability of the property changes or at predefined times to remain up-to-date.

For Vrbo, however, with each availability change, new availability is sent for the next 1096 days. For more information on the frequency, please see Data synchronization.

Preparation Time Before Arrival

PTBA stands for Preparation Time Before Arrival. It is a general keyword to describe the minimum time a booking has to be made in advance in order to be accepted by the PM. The dates restricted by PTBA are normally set as not available already in the calendar. Hence, the PTBA data is already applied in availability and sent to the channel within the ARI data. The PTBA in Rentals United blocks the availability x hours from 23:59 PM of the day of arrival on the property's local timezone. For example if the PTBA is set to 6 hours, bookings will be accepted until 6:00 PM of the day of arrival, after 6:00 PM the calendar will be closed. If the PTBA is set to 24 hours, bookings will be accepted until 23:59 PM before the day of arrival, after that the calendar will be closed.

The PTBA-blocked period is shared with Vrbo in a dedicated field. Then, Vrbo is responsible for applying the PTBA restrictions on top of the availability they receive from Rentals United. Note that Vrbo requires PTBA in the day format, hence Rentals United needs to do some calculations. The PTBA might be slightly different in Vrbo comparing to Rentals United.

For detailed description of how PTBA works, please see the chapter in Rentals United: User Guide.

Changeover restrictions

Changeover restrictions specify whether check-in or check-out is allowed for a given day. This is a great option if you need the guests checking in and out to fit your schedule and it will help you avoid unexpected guests. If some days are restricted from changeovers, then your guests will simply not be able to select such a stay if the start or end day falls on a changeover-restricted day. If some days are set not to allow guests to Check-in or Check-out, then this information is pushed in the ARI data. Any booking that has a changeover selected for the blocked days will be rejected.

Tax

Tax refers to mandatory charges legally levied on particular types of goods, services and transactions, paid as a contribution to the state’s revenue, for example VAT or city tax.

Rentals United tax type	Vrbo tax type
Unknown	Administrative
Local tax	Administrative
VAT	Administrative
Tourist tax	Administrative
Goods and services tax	Administrative

Fee

Fee refers to mandatory or optional charges paid in exchange for particular services. These include:

• Charges for additional services, for example Internet access or shuttle.

• Fees defined by local governments that do not fall into the tax category, for example environmental fees.

After being reviewed, charges are mapped between Rentals United and Vrbo.

Table 1: Fees mapping for users who joined before 2021-07-31

Rentals United fee type	Rentals United ID	Vrbo fee type
Air-conditioning Fee	16	Air-conditioning
Airport Shuttle Fee	19	Transportation
Bed Linen Fee	8	Linens (bed)
Booking Fee	35	Administrative
Children Extra Fee	40	Administrative
Cleaning Fee	41	Administrative
Club Card Fee	26	Club
Conservation Fee	27	Administrative
Credit Card Fee	28	On-site payment method
Destination Fee	37	Administrative
Electricity Fee	7	Electricity
Environment Fee	39	Administrative
Extra Bed Fee	38	Additional bed
Gas Fee	9	Gas
Heating Fee	15	Heating
Housekeeping Fee	18	Administrative
Insurance	32	Administrative
Internet Fee	30	Administrative
Kitchen Linen Fee	17	Linens
Linen Package Fee	14	Linens
Oil Fee	10	Oil
Parking Fee	31	Parking
Resort Fee	34	Resort
Sea Plane Fee	21	Transportation
Service Fee	33	Administrative
Shuttle Boat Fee	20	Transportation
Ski Pass	22	Administrative
Tourism Fee	36	Administrative
Towels Fee	6	Linens (bath)
Transfer Fee	13	Administrative
Visa Support Fee	24	On-site payment method
Water Park Fee	25	Administrative
Water Usage Fee	12	Administrative
Wood Fee	11	Wood
Wristband Fee	23	Administrative

Table 2: Fees mapping for users who joined after 2021-07-31

Rentals United fee type	Rentals United ID	Vrbo fee type
Air-conditioning Fee	16	Air-conditioning
Airport Shuttle Fee	19	Transportation
Bed Linen Fee	8	Linens (bed)
Booking Fee	35	Booking
Children Extra Fee	40	Management
Cleaning Fee	41	Cleaning
Club Card Fee	26	Club
Conservation Fee	27	Consumption
Credit Card Fee	28	On-site payment method
Destination Fee	37	Administrative
Electricity Fee	7	Electricity
Environment Fee	39	Administrative
Extra Bed Fee	38	Additional bed
Gas Fee	9	Gas
Heating Fee	15	Heating
Housekeeping Fee	18	Daily cleaning
Insurance	32	Waiver damage
Internet Fee	30	Internet
Kitchen Linen Fee	17	Linens
Linen Package Fee	14	Linens
Oil Fee	10	Oil
Parking Fee	31	Parking
Resort Fee	34	Resort
Sea Plane Fee	21	Transportation
Service Fee	33	Administrative
Shuttle Boat Fee	20	Transportation
Ski Pass	22	Consumption
Tourism Fee	36	Administrative
Towels Fee	6	Linens (bath)
Transfer Fee	13	Transportation
Visa Support Fee	24	On-site payment method
Water Park Fee	25	Consumption
Water Usage Fee	12	Water
Wood Fee	11	Wood
Wristband Fee	23	Consumption

Down payment

Down payment is a mandatory or optional charge the guest needs to pay to confirm the reservation at this property. The outstanding balance will be charged upon the guest’s arrival.

For Vrbo, there are two ways to set the Down payment.

• During the Connecting to Vrbo or Establishing connection procedure, you are prompted to select one of the available Down payment policies.

• Down payment policy can be specified any time in the Account Settings.

In Account Settings, the you can decide whether Down payment should be enabled or not. If enabled, note that it will be identical for all your properties advertised on Vrbo. Then, it is possible to define at least minimum 2 and maximum 5 levels of Down payment policy.

1. In Rentals United platform, go to the Services tab.

   

2. Click the My services tab.

   

3. Type the Vrbo name in the search box or scroll down through the list of available channels.

4. Unfold the Vrbo section by clicking the Down arrow button.

5. Click the Account Settings button.

   

6. Select the Custom Payment Schedule option. By default, the setting is disabled.

   

7. Enable the Custom Payment Schedule option. Specify the percentage of the total price to be paid upon booking.

   

   Note: The outstanding percentage to be paid upon arrival is updated automatically.

8. If needed, add more levels to the Custom Payment Schedule. Click the Add another rule button. Provide the percentage and the number of days before the arrival when the payment must be made.

   

   Note: It is possible to have maximum 5 rules defined for Vrbo.

9. Click the Save button.

Security deposit

Security deposit is a mandatory or optional refundable charge the guest needs to pay to cover for potential property damages.

Security deposit information is sent to Vrbo, but Vrbo will not charge it. If you want the security deposit to be collected, make sure to charge the guest with the security deposit from the client outside the Vrbo connection, e.g. Stripe, transfer or other method.

Currency

Currency in Rentals United is a fixed value, usually established on the basis of the property location.

For Vrbo, however, the currency is fixed and assigned to your account. For all properties within one account, the currency will be converted to the one that have been chosen during the Connection Wizard completion. For more information, please see Establishing connection or Establishing connection.

If needed, the currency for Vrbo may be altered, yet this requires Vrbo participation. Please, contact Rentals United Helpdesk or Vrbo. Contact information can be found in the Contact details chapter.