Hi fellow travelers! I hope you all are exploring! I have been asked by a friend to blog about property rentals for vacation homes. I’m talking Airbnb, VRBO, Houfy.com and the endless variations of these companies. I personally want to go on an Inspirato vacation, the commercials make it look amazing, but I am sure they are expensive. So, when choosing a property rental to vacation at, in a luxurious location, which one should you pick? I have always gone straight for VRBO, it’s one I know well, but, when I looked at the price per night and then saw the total, I knew my math was off. Now, I am not good at math, but I know that $151/night for 5 nights does not equal $2500. So, I became confused, only after I looked at their pricing layout, I realized there were several fees that were added on. A cleaning fee, a service fee, an owner’s fee, taxes, it just went on and on, well, I am not going to pay for all of that, so, I never stayed at a property advertised by them, but I wanted too! Airbnb is similar and Inspirato, well, they are just on a different level.
I am currently searching for a property for my parents, who want to vacation in a rental with several people and they want to pay as little as they can, my friend told me about a new site called www.Houfy.com. So, I looked them up, they are actually housed right here in Breckenridge, CO. After looking at their website and reading a little bit about their company, I found out that they do not charge service fees, some owners ask you for a deposit, which, you can get back if the home is in order, some properties have a cleaning fee, which makes sense and some do not. So, in reality all you are actually paying for is the price per night and if your property asks to cover cleaning fees and taxes. It’s a lot less expensive and you are not paying an owner around $400.00 of the money you could be spending on vacation, so that they can make a little extra off the place. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that renting out your vacation property is a way to earn extra income, but, it also means that you are asking vacationers to pay around $500-$800 extra for fees, fees that you don’t need to pay for on Houfy.com. It seems like this market has become big business and so people who want to get a rental on the beach vs. a hotel, which, is small and at times expensive, can’t, because the rental is just as much, if not more. I just want to pay for the nights that I am staying there and obviously taxes, but everything else is asking too much.
Houfy.com let’s you message the owner directly, which means, that if you want to address something about the property you can, I have contacted several owners regarding their properties and they have responded quickly and are very helpful. However, because the company is fairly new, there are only two people who work there and getting them to call you back has taken some time. Hey, it’s a work in progress right? So my tip? Check out Houfy.com and stop paying fees!
I am currently searching for a property for my parents, who want to vacation in a rental with several people and they want to pay as little as they can, my friend told me about a new site called www.Houfy.com. So, I looked them up, they are actually housed right here in Breckenridge, CO. After looking at their website and reading a little bit about their company, I found out that they do not charge service fees, some owners ask you for a deposit, which, you can get back if the home is in order, some properties have a cleaning fee, which makes sense and some do not. So, in reality all you are actually paying for is the price per night and if your property asks to cover cleaning fees and taxes. It’s a lot less expensive and you are not paying an owner around $400.00 of the money you could be spending on vacation, so that they can make a little extra off the place. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that renting out your vacation property is a way to earn extra income, but, it also means that you are asking vacationers to pay around $500-$800 extra for fees, fees that you don’t need to pay for on Houfy.com. It seems like this market has become big business and so people who want to get a rental on the beach vs. a hotel, which, is small and at times expensive, can’t, because the rental is just as much, if not more. I just want to pay for the nights that I am staying there and obviously taxes, but everything else is asking too much.
Houfy.com let’s you message the owner directly, which means, that if you want to address something about the property you can, I have contacted several owners regarding their properties and they have responded quickly and are very helpful. However, because the company is fairly new, there are only two people who work there and getting them to call you back has taken some time. Hey, it’s a work in progress right? So my tip? Check out Houfy.com and stop paying fees!