Vrbo Application

🇳🇱 Nederlandse vertaling

The Vrbo App gives you the opportunity to connect Booking Experts to Vrbo and thus offer your accommodations in a targeted and international way. In this article we explain how you can install it for your own administration(s).

1. Installing the application

2. Connecting administration(s)

2.1 Master brands

2.2 Cancellation policy

3. Linking types to an administration

3.1 Pushing information

3.2. Minimum content requirements

4. Restrictions

4.1 Discounts

4.2 Coupons and packages

4.3 Cost items

4.4 Types

5. Change in reservation

6. Deleting data


Sign up for Vrbo

Register your organization with Vrbo using this link

Please note! If your administration already has an existing Belvilla or Interhome connection, you cannot connect to Vrbo until these parties stop synchronizing data with Vrbo! As an organization, you will first have to communicate this to Belvilla/Interhome. Only after the synchronization between Belvilla/Interhome and Vrbo has been turned off your administration can be directly connected to Vrbo. 

The entire set-up will be requested by Vrbo daily (1x per day) and the availability will be updated every hour.


1. Installing the application

In order to install the application you need to have access to the App Store, in this case there will be a market stall at the top of your Booking Experts menu bar. If you don't have this yet, ask Support to activate the App Store for you.

1. Click on the icon for the    App Store;
2. Then choose the  Vrbo  Application;

3. Click on  +Install within the application;

4. Here you see an overview of what the application can see in your administration(s); 5. Choose the administration(s) for which this application is to be installed and click on  Install;

6. The application is authorized. Click  OK to continue.

The application was installed successfully! 🎉


2. Connecting administration(s)

A Vrbo advertiser contains one or more linked Booking Experts administrations. Each advertiser is assigned to a specific Vrbo master brand, and has a unique advertiser ID.

1. Under Commands, choose Manage advertisers;

2. Click on + Add;

3. Choose whether the advertiser should be active or inactive; 4. If desired, modify the Vrbo advertiser ID;

Please note! Only adjust the 0 if you want all administrations of your organization to have a separate ad at Vrbo.

5. Choose the desired master brand; (You can find a list of all master brands here);

6. Create the advertiser; 7. Click on the number under linked administrations;

8. Click + Add; 9. Enter the information; (an overview of the choice in cancellation policy can be found here); 10. Add the administration.

2.1 Master brands

Below is a list of all Vrbo master brands. A master brand determines the country in which you will be advertised, in which language and with which currency, based on this the check of data is done. Your offer will continue to be placed on all other Vrbo websites.

Master brand Country Language Currency
abritel.fr France French EUR  
fewo-direkt.de Germany German EUR  
vrbo.com/de-at Austria German EUR  
www.vrbo.com/en-nz New Zealand English NZD  
vrbo.com/en-gb England English EUR  
vrbo.com United States English USD  
www.vrbo.com/en-au Australia English AUD  
vrbo.com/es-es Spain Spanish EUR  
vrbo.com/it-it Italy Italian EUR  
vrbo.com/pt-pt Portugal Portugese EUR  
vrbo.com/en-sg Singapore English USD

2.2 Cancellation Policy

Vrbo offers the following cancellation policy.
Please note! the percentage applies to the amount paid by the traveler at the time of cancellation, and not the total amount of the reservation. So it is task to adjust your down payment policy for the Vrbo channel accordingly.
No refund: No refund is offered for cancellations.
Strict: For bookings cancelled up to 60 days before the start of the stay, the traveler will receive a 100% refund.
Firm: For bookings cancelled up to 60 days before the start of the stay, the traveler will receive a 100% refund. For bookings canceled up to 30 days before the start of the stay, the traveler will receive a 50% refund.
Moderate: For bookings cancelled up to 30 days before the start of the stay, the traveler will receive a 100% refund. For bookings cancelled up to 14 days before the start of the stay the traveler will receive a 50% refund.
Relaxed: For bookings canceled up to 14 days before the start of the stay, the traveler will receive a 100% refund. For bookings cancelled up to 7 days before the start of the stay, the traveler will receive a 50% refund.

3. Linking types to an administration

Active linked Booking Experts types are offered as listings to Vrbo.

1. Go to the linked administration for which you want to set up a type link; 2. Click on the number under linked types;

3. Click + Add; 4. Enter the data; 5. Add the linked type.

3.1 Pushing information

It is possible to manually push the current price and availability information if you want to immediately process changes for a particular type.

Please note! All rent and costs marked as rent will be passed along to Vrbo as being rent.

1. Go to the linked type; 2. Click on the name of the type;

3. Then click on the button of the desired action.

3.2 Minimum content requirements

Within Booking Experts we have the possibility to control the different content requirements, these control points can be found in the following places:

At the type:

After this you need to make the choice for which master brand you want to perform the check. Based on this choice you will get feedback from the app.

Before an 'active' type is shown on Vrbo, it must meet the following requirements:

  1. Address information must be complete and accurate, including zip code and geolocation. If it is a caravan or bungalow or similar, the park address may also be used, otherwise not;
  2. A description of at least (without counting HTML tags) 400 characters;
  3. Short description of at least 20 characters. The short description is used as a headline on the Vrbo site, instead of the name of the type;
  4. Minimum of 6 sharp photos of at least HD size (1920x1080). Watermarks are not allowed;
  5. All relevant translations must be available in the language of the master brand anyway.

Please note! that some of these restrictions are checked when creating a link type, but it is not checked that the type continues to comply with them.

For payment providers:

After this you need to make the choice for which master brand you want to perform the check. Based on this choice you will get feedback from the app.

  • Only prices and bookings etc. in the currency of the chosen master brand are supported. The park itself has to support the currency of the chosen master brand;
  • At least 1 (active) payment provider has to be set up, that can handle payments in the currency of the chosen master brand. This payment provider should not only support credit cards;
  • Only complex prices are supported.

Please note! that some of these restrictions are checked when creating an administration link, but it is not checked that the administration remains compliant.

For the administration: (To be carried out by Support only)

After this, Support needs to make the choice for which master brand you want to perform the check. Based on this choice, Support will get feedback from the app.


4. Restrictions

The Vrbo application has several restrictions, because of this you will have to adjust some parts within your administration before linking can be done. Below an overview of these restrictions:

4.1 Discount actions

  • Discount actions with guest group limits are not supported, and should therefore not be set for a Vrbo channel. Any discount actions with guest group limits will be ignored;
  • Only discount actions for complex prices can apply to the Vrbo channel.

4.2 Coupons and packages

  • Coupons is not supported, neither are packages.

4.3 Cost items

The cost items in Booking Experts are synchronized with Vrbo. Then Vrbo itself calculates the resulting price. Vrbo applies some restrictions on the cost items, in order to make a proper price calculation. Below is a list of settings in cost items that Vrbo does not support. 

Solution: Do you have a cost item that is not supported by Vrbo? Then you can exclude the Vrbo channel from the cost item. You do that by editing the cost item and going the applicability tab. There you set that the cost item applies to specific channels and then you uncheck the Vrbo channel. Save the changes. Do you still want to charge additional costs? Then create a new cost item for just the Vrbo channel. This new cost item will be priced to match the original cost item as closely as possible, but in a way that Vrbo supports it. 

For example: for a cost item that is normally in the all-in price, you create a cost item for only the Vrbo channel where it is not in the all-in price. 

Below is the list of restrictions for cost items that apply to a Vrbo channel:

  • Vrbo has 2 age groups, children are all ages up to 8 years and anyone 8 years or older is an adult. So if you set a cost for adults, Vrbo will also grab it for a child of 9 years old;
  • Vrbo only asks for the presence of pets and not the number of pets, therefore cost items of type 'Per pet' or 'Per pet per night' are always applied if pets are present. 
  • All cost items must be included in the all-in price;
  • Cost items related to cleaning must have the type 'Cleaning fee';
  • Cost items relating to deposits must have the type 'Deposit' and be calculated per stay or per piece, or must be percentual;
  • Costs related to tourist tax should have the type 'Tourist tax'. This is important because the Vrbo 'traveller service fee' and commission is calculated on the total amount minus deposit and tax (incl. VAT); 
  • Cost items with a negative amount are not supported if they are mandatory. These can be excluded in the link;
  • Cost items cannot have a 'price per period' and must have one price, example: it is not possible to increase the price of bed linen from €10 to €11 from 01-01-2022;
  • For the rest, the type should be as accurate as possible. For example, a cost item related to an early check-in possibility should not have the type "Cleaning costs" but the type "Early check-in". Preferably, 'Other' should be chosen as little as possible. 

4.4 Types

  • Description and short description must be filled in and meet the minimum content requirements; 
  • All accommodations are directly bookable;
  • The rent should always be invoiced;
  • If specified, the number of bedrooms must be greater than 0. Vrbo requires that each accommodation offered has at least 1 bedroom. If the number of bedrooms is not specified, a number of 1 will be passed to Vrbo;
  • If the number of bathrooms is not specified, a number of 0 will be passed to Vrbo;
  • The synchronized check-in time for a type is the maximum of all check-in times for the entire week;
  • The synchronized check-out time for a type is the minimum of all check-out times of the entire week;
  • Only features with linked channel tags are synchronized. Tags are synchronized at the type level. Tags on accommodations are thus ignored;
  • Pet restrictions are also synchronized at type level. However, if one of the underlying properties does not allow pets, then the entire type is excluded for pets.
  • If the address is different from the park, then a postal code must also be entered. 

5. Change in reservation

Do you change a reservation that came through Vrbo, for example a different departure date, accommodation or channel? Then an update is automatically sent to Vrbo. So they are aware of the change.


6. Deleting data

It is not possible to delete an advertiser when there are administrations linked to it. It is also not possible to delete an administration when there are types linked to it. It is also not possible to delete type links when there are reservations on them via the Vrbo channel.

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