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 
Sales Channel supports LOS pricing. If you use LOS pricing model, it will be fully sent to Sales Channel.
Note: LOS prices for more than 10 guests
If you have LOS prices for more than 10 guests, you need to be aware that Vrbo has a limitation on their side and allows only for 10 occupancy levels. It means your prices for more than 10 guests may have slight discrepancy on the Vrbo website.
- 1 - 10 guests: All prices are sent
- 11 - 19 guests: Initial prices are grouped together, so that we always send prices for 10 occupancy levels (for example, if you have prices for 11 guests, we will send prices for 1-2, 3, 4 ... 11 guests). For prices that are grouped together, we always take the highest.
- more than 20: We divide the number of guests by 10 and provide Vrbo with prices for every few guests (for example, if you have prices for 34 guests, we will send prices for every three guests: 1 - 7 guests, 8 - 10, 11 - 13, 14 - 16, 17 - 19, 20 - 22, 23 - 25, 26 - 28, 29 - 31, 32 - 34. For prices that are grouped together, we always take the highest.
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:
- 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.
- Cleaning value is sent.
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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
Sales Channel supports FSP pricing. If you use FSP pricing model, it will be fully sent to Sales Channel.
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:
- Rent.
- Cleaning value is sent.
- 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 / Maximum 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. Maximum stay is an additional setting (optional), which ensures that your guests will not be offered stays longer than a particular number of nights.
There are two types of stay restriction in Rentals United. The default stay restriction type is stay-through. You can choose which model you want to work on and your selection will apply to both minimum and maximum stay restrictions at the same time. If you want to change the stay restriction type, see here.
Stay-through - the booking must meet the minimum / maximum stay requirements on each day of the booking
Arrival-based - the booking must meet the minimum / maximum stay requirements on the arrival day only
Your listing in Vrbo will be available according to the selected minimum and maximum stay type.
Example: You have the stay-through stay restrictions:
11-05-2021 to 16-05-2021: MS is 5; MX is 7
17-05-2021 to 20-05-2021: MS is 7; MX is 7
Some of the stays:
5-night-long stay (11 - 16 May) is possible
5-night-long stay (13 - 18 May) is not possible (as the minimum stay on 18th May is 7)
6-night-long stay (11 - 17 May) is possible
7-night-long stay (11 - 18 May) is possible
8-night-long stay (11- 19 May) is not possible (as the maximum stay on 19th May is 7)
Example: You have the arrival-based stay restrictions:
11-05-2021 to 16-05-2021: MS is 5; MX is 7
17-05-2021 to 20-05-2021: MS is 7; MX is 7
Some of the stays:
5-night-long stay (11 - 16 May) is possible
5-night-long stay (13 - 18 May) is possible
6-night-long stay (11 - 17 May) is possible
7-night-long stay (11 - 18 May) is possible
8-night-long stay (11- 19 May) is not possible (as the maximum stay on 11th May is 7)
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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 guests. 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 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 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 18:00 of the day of arrival, after 18:00 the calendar will be closed. If the PTBA is set to 24 hours, bookings will be accepted until 23:59 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.
Example: PTBA calculation for Vrbo
PTBA in Rentals United: 24 hours
Vrbo: 24 / 24 = 1 day
PTBA in Rentals United: 32 hours
Vrbo: 32 / 24 = 1.34 days ~ 2 days
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 |
Note: Optional taxes
We do not send optional taxes to Vrbo.
Note: Tax names
Vrbo requires the tax name to be maximum 64 characters long. If your taxes have longer names, note that we will cut them to match this requirement.
Note: Taxable fees
Taxable items are partially supported for Vrbo. Percentage taxes will be applied to fees based on the order in which they were defined in Rentals United.
- Rent always comes as first in the order of items.
Taxes will always apply to the flat and percentage fees defined before the tax.
- Taxes will never apply to other taxes (both flat and percentage).
Example: VAT is defined as the last item, so it will apply to all items defined before.
Order 1: Rent
Order 2: Cleaning fee
Order 3: Environment fee
Order 4: VAT (8%)
Example: VAT is defined as the second item, so it will only apply to rent. If you do not want some taxes to apply to other fees, you should define them first.
Order 1: Rent
Order 2: VAT (8%)
Order 3: Cleaning fee
Order 4: Environment fee
- Percentage
- Amount per stay
- Amount per person & stay
- Amount per person & day
- Amount per person & week
- Amount per week
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.
Note: Percentage fees handling
- For clients that joined Rentals United before 2021-07-31, if a fee is calculated as Percentage, then it is calculated from the rent value only.
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For clients that joined Rentals United after 2021-07-31, if a fee is calculated as Percentage, then its value is calculated from charges with lower orders (rent and fees, but not taxes) and applied in order it has.
Note, it is not possible to send a Percentage fee if it is calculated from the tax value (even if it is a flat).
Note: Pet fees are sent to Vrbo only if they have the following calculation types.
- Amount per stay
- Amount per week
- Amount per person & stay
- Amount per person & night
Bear in mind that Rentals United reservation processing does not handle pets in reservation, therefore if pets are passed in the booking request, this fee is not calculated by Rentals United or sent to PMS while checking the price.
Note: Calculation types supported for Vrbo
- CumulativePercentage (API)
- Percentage
- Amount per stay
- Amount per person & stay
- Amount per person & day
- Amount per person & week
- Amount per week
- Amount per day
- Amount per usage
- Amount per usage and hour
Note: Collection times supported for Vrbo
Regardless of the collection times set in Rentals United, all fees are sent to Vrbo as charged upon booking except for fees which calculation types are:
- Amount per usage
- Amount per usage and hour
These fees will be sent to Vrbo as charged on arrival.
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 in new design procedure, you are prompted to select one of the available Down payment policies.
- Down payment policy can be specified any time in the Channel Settings.
In Channel 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.
- Log in to White Label Channel Manager and go to the Channels tab.
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Select Sales Channel from the Your sales channel section. Please, see an exemplary view below.
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Select the Channel Settings tab on the top.
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In Rentals United platform, go to the Services tab.
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Click the My services tab.
- Type the Sales Channel name in the search box or scroll down through the list of available channels.
- Unfold the Sales Channel section by clicking the Down arrow button.
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Click the Account Settings button.
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Select the Custom Payment Schedule option. By default, the setting is disabled.
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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. -
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. - 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 in new design.
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 chapter.
