Have you rented out your cabin using VRBO?

Hi,

I’m looking at potentially purchasing a cabin. I was wondering if anybody here has rented properties out to people using VRBO, and what your thoughts on the experiences were. I am not looking to rent it 100% of the time, but if I could rent it half of the weekends (and some weeks) from May to October, I’d be pretty happy with that. I guess, I figure that any extra money coming in when I’m not using it would help pay it off earlier. My wife would be available to clean the cabin after rentals, which was one of our primary concerns.

I would expect having to take out some extra insurance, and bank a few grand for repairs (which we would be doing anyway). Any experiences would be appreciated.

You will also need to check with the municipality and county about licensing and health inspection. You may have to pay a room tax to the municipality. Talk to your accountant about paying sales tax too.

Good info, thanks

Some guys rented one last fall that I joined, super nice house up north.

Well one night after the entertainers left, I was talking with one outside and they said they went to that particular house about 2-3xper year.

Now I’m not saying that’s what your primary demographic to rent out to will be, but let’s say in the event some chick breaks her leg dancing on a table? Or someone ODs in the bedroom, or passes out on your neighbors lawn only for their children to find the next morning. It COULD happen, make sure your insurance is adequate and know upon cleanup the FW may find more than she bargained for.

But then again, for what we paid just for a weekend they could’ve done a slight remodel and still came out ahead. Good luck!

We haven’t rented out our cabin on VRBO. But we did donate the use of it for a week to be auctioned off for a benefit. We didn’t bother with changes to our insurance. It was a ton of work to get it ready for people we don’t know to stay in it. It would be much easier if it were a full time rental. You will have stuff you will want to put away when your not there (alcohal, food, valuables, etc). Our cabin has a holding tank so you want to make sure it is pumped before the stay and if they don’t conserve water, you could have an 80.00 pump charge off the top. You will probably want to have the yard mowed, firewood available, boat lift available, etc before stays. Do you leave your good bedding for the renters, or switch it out when your not there? Will you let them use your boat? Most renters would be good, but it only takes 1 ahole to trash your stuff. No matter what you charge for a security deposit, it will be a PITA whenever you charge anyone for damages. Will you rent it for 1 night? 2 nights? Or only by the week? It can take alot of effort to get ready to only rent for 1 or 2 nights. How much money would you need to get to make it worth while?

Sorry to raise these negative comments. We’ve thought about doing this also but after doing the donation realized how much work it would be. Granted, if you did it more often, it would get easier.

I have rented VRBO all over the US and never had a bad experience !!!

Dave Koonce wrote:

I have rented VRBO all over the US and never had a bad experience !!!

X 2

I know this isn’t what what you were asking , but on the renters side , I have used vrbo for years , never had a bad experience , always treated the cabin like it was my own

We rented a house with another family about 3 years ago using VRBO. We currently rent a cabin. We always rent from Saturday to Saturday. Already reserved it for next summer. We always clean up after ourselves before we leave. The owner also hires a cleaning crew to clean it and change the bedding for the next renters. We have to bring our own towels and buy our own toilet paper. I don’t mind bringing our own towels but having to buy toilet paper? You think that would be included in rent. Otherwise we’ve had a good experience as renters.

I have rented off of vrbo several times and so have my children all with excellent accommodations. The one we are renting next week I hope is just as good as the previous houses. That being said I had a little difficulty lining this house up using vrbo. I ended up dealing with the owner directly and so far it is going like clockwork.
After doing some research vrbo was sold last fall and is now owned by Expedia. Checking the internet almost all the complaints I found are from the owners of the rental properties. Expedia is trying to get all bookings done online and adding a hidden booking fee or something that shows up after the initial quote. They don’t want you talking to the owner of the property. Myself I can get a lot more questions answered by a phone call to the owner than by trading emails with a third party.
Back to winwuen OP. Just look over everything and probably have a lawyer check it out.

Hmm, I’m going to have to check this out. Is it better than the other sites like airbnb? I assume this is a peer to peer renting site?

I don’t think the cabin culture or “going up north” culture exists down here.

done on both sides of the fence. great experiences as the rent or. I manage a couple upscale properties that rent in the 750 to 1200 per night. few customers that have been difficult, but not where they were destructive.

cover yourself with your liability insurance and collect the tax/room fees in addition to the rent. remember, your running a business and treat it as such

My wife and I rented out our log cabin in the Cloquet area for several years using vrbo. It allowed us to keep the cabin as long as we wanted. We made extra money, never had a problem with a renter (well, one small weird one) and the tax benefits were enormous. We put the cabin into an LLC.
I would highly recommend it. It paid about half our mortgage.

My wife and I own 2 rental cabins on the Turtle-Flambeau Flowage. We have been doing this for 16 years and live about 20 miles from our cabins. To answer the question about why you need to bring your own toilet paper, the answer is that the owner is not on sight to replace it daily like in a motel. We start people out with what is in the holder and 2 fresh rolls and a new roll of paper towels. We have no way of knowing how much will be used over the week and to leave a case of it will result in replacing the case each week as people think its what they paid for with the rent like the little shampoo in the motel. Also, where do you store all that TP and paper towel? None of our guests seem to have a problem with this system and most every other cabin rental owner that we know uses this system.

VRBO is my first choice when looking to stay somewhere.

How does the process work? Michelle was “approved” for a place and she has 24 hours to reply.

Can you get an exact address before putting a down payment on a property? We want to make sure we don’t have to walk across a street to get to a beach.

mplspug wrote:

How does the process work? Michelle was “approved” for a place and she has 24 hours to reply.

Can you get an exact address before putting a down payment on a property? We want to make sure we don’t have to walk across a street to get to a beach.

Send a message to the owner. Ask any and all questions you have. I doubt you will get the address from everyone, some may give it out, but they should be upfront about any of your concerns. Also the spot on the map should be very close to the exact location.

Thanks! We booked it. It’s supposed to be 50 steps from the beach. Close enough even if we have to cross the road.

It’s on Anna Marie Island, so I can’t imagine it being really busy and crowded. All the reviews were 5 stars including someone who works in the hotel industry.

After reading this thread I decided to look at VRBO for a place to stay in Florida this coming winter. I found a place that would meet our needs perfectly.
I am now afraid of using VRBO after reading this site. https://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/vrbo.html.

Any comments from IDO members are welcome.

As stated in a previous post , I have used vrbo for years , and been very happy . My most recent experience, the owner wanted me to bypass the website and work directly with her to avoid extra charges, which I did and everything was fine as usual. After reading some of theses posts , now I understand . I will have to start taking a different approach to renting cabins from now on .

I’ve rented from VRBO 4 or 5 times. In fact, heading out again in August at a VRBO rental in NW Wisconsin next month.

Always had a very good experience. Owners have generally been very helpful. I have always tried to look at comments left by previous renters as that seems to give you an idea of owner/property.

shockers wrote:

I have always tried to look at comments left by previous renters as that seems to give you an idea of owner/property.

This

And it goes for anything I plan on buying that has comments and reviews online.