If you’re only listing on Airbnb, you’ve handed one company complete control over your bookings, your policies and your income. All your eggs are in the “Airbnb basket”.
This is a risky strategy, especially when you are faced with changing terms and conditions from Airbnb, as has been happening particularly over the last 12 months.
This is why I recommend a multi platform strategy to my clients, so you hold your eggs in many baskets, and limit your risk, and increase your online visibility. Platforms such as VRBO, Booking.com, Google vacation rentals, and of course your own direct booking website are the most popular platforms with hosts and property managers.
In this guide, I will concentrate on VRBO, as it has it’s own peculiarities re integrations.
VRBO is one of the simplest ways to break free from that single-platform risk — but only if it’s connected properly. Get the setup wrong and you’re trading one risk (over-reliance on Airbnb) for another (double bookings, mismatched pricing, or a listing that quietly falls out of sync).
This guide walks through the four ways hosts typically connect VRBO to the rest of their tech stack — from the simplest option to the most robust — so you can choose the right one for where your business is today.
Listing on VRBO Alongside Other Channels: How iCal Calendar Syncing Works
iCal is usually the first thing hosts reach for when they add a second channel. Every major platform, including Airbnb and VRBO, generates a unique iCal link for each listing. You export the link from one platform and import it into the other, and each platform blocks off the dates that are booked elsewhere.
It’s simple, it’s free, and it stops the same night being sold twice — in theory.
The pros:
- No cost and no new software to learn
- Quick to set up — most hosts can do it in a few minutes per listing
- Works between almost any two platforms, not just Airbnb and VRBO
- A sensible starting point if you’re not yet ready to invest in a property management system (PMS)
The cons:
- iCal only syncs availability, never pricing, minimum stays, or listing content — you’re still updating rates manually on each platform
- It isn’t real-time. Most platforms only refresh iCal feeds every few hours, which leaves a window where a guest could book the same dates on both channels. You can manually sync calendars once a booking comes in from a platform to help block calendars quicker, but you cannot do this when you sleep!
- There’s no guest data, messaging or booking detail flowing between platforms — everything else stays siloed
- It’s a manual process to maintain. Add a third or fourth channel and the admin (and the risk of human error) multiplies fast
- Many hosts report VRBO iCal sync to be glitchy, and at times not updating, which has led to double bookings – the last thing a host wants to deal with!
iCal is a genuinely useful stepping stone, but it’s exactly that — a stepping stone. As soon as you’re managing more than one or two listings, or you want pricing to move automatically with demand, you’ll want more than a one-way calendar block.
Keeping Pricing and Availability Aligned with a dynamic Pricing tool
This is where dynamic pricing tools like PriceLabs earn their keep. PriceLabs pulls in live market data — demand trends, competitor pricing, local events — and uses it to recommend and automatically push nightly rates, minimum-stay rules and availability settings across channels you’ve connected, including Airbnb and VRBO.
Once your accounts are connected, a rate change happens once and lands everywhere — no manual updates, no forgetting to change VRBO after you’ve changed Airbnb, no gaps where your pricing is inconsistent across platforms. Rates can be set up to 18 months in advance, so you can plan revenue strategy well beyond the next season. Availability is also updated from your dynamic pricing tool – the platform reservations come into your pricing tool, and the availability is blocked off on all connected channels.
Note that PriceLabs now uses the Chrome extension to connect to VRBO, which does have some limitations (see the next section)
One thing worth knowing: if you manage your listings through a PMS or channel manager, PriceLabs connects to that system rather than to Airbnb or VRBO directly. Which brings us to the real question underneath all of this — how solid is the connection between your PMS and VRBO in the first place? That’s where the next two sections come in.
3. Connecting a PMS to VRBO via Chrome Extension or Session Login
Before full API access became the norm, a number of PMS providers connected to VRBO using a browser extension that essentially logged into your VRBO account on your behalf and pushed updates through that session — no formal integration required.
It is generally done via a chrome extension on your web browser. Hospitable and Hostex are 2 PMS that do offer this functionality.
It’s still around in some form today, usually as a fallback rather than a first choice, and it’s worth understanding both sides of it.
The pros:
- Quick to set up, and doesn’t require your PMS to have been formally accepted onto VRBO’s Connectivity Partner Program
- Can be a useful stopgap if your preferred PMS doesn’t (yet) have a full API connection to VRBO
The cons:
- It’s fragile. Because it relies on simulating a browser session rather than a proper data connection, it tends to break whenever VRBO updates its own website, and sessions can expire without warning
- VRBO restricts what can be pushed this way – updates are done in batches as VRBO cannot accept a large bulk in one go.
- It is pricing and availability and restrictions only – no content can be pushed.
- Only one system can be logged in and pushing updates at a time, so you can’t run it alongside another connection method
- It’s being phased out. Most established PMS providers are moving their VRBO connections away from browser-based methods and onto certified API integrations, because it’s simply more reliable
If your PMS still relies on this method, it’s not a red flag on its own — but it is worth asking your provider what their roadmap looks like for a full API connection.
Full API Integration Between Your PMS and VRBO
This is the gold standard, and the one I recommend hosts work towards. Instead of simulating a login, your PMS connects to VRBO through a certified, two-way API. VRBO ranks its software partners into tiers — Integrated, Preferred and Elite — based on the depth and reliability of that connection, so not every PMS offers the same quality of integration even when they both say “integrated with VRBO.”
To see a full list of partners and status click here
Who can integrate, and what you’ll need
Not every host can simply flip a switch. Your PMS needs to already hold certified partner status with VRBO — this isn’t something you can arrange yourself as an individual host. And in Europe, VRBO requires you to provide business or VAT registration details before the connection can be completed. If you’re operating as a registered company, this is usually straightforward; if you’re a very small operation without that registration, it’s worth checking with your PMS provider what’s needed, as requirements vary by region and continue to evolve. VRBO also states that its European onboarding process may involve verification of a VAT ID or company registration number.
You will need to complete an onboarding form, which asks for details of your business, plus it asks you for a credit card in order to collect host commission fee payments. As the merchant of record transfers from VRBO to you the owner / property manager / your PMS (see below), you take payment from the guest, so VRBO invoice you retrospectively, the beginning of the month following the guest stay, and take it automatically from your credit card on file.
Note that for hosts and property managers in Europe, VRBO moves you to the host only fee of 12-15% (depending on country) when you integrate. Hosts and Property Managers elsewhere remain on the 5% host fee, plus 10 – 15% guest fee. The payment fee of 3% no longer applies as they are not merchant of record. VRBO charges the guest fee direct to the guest.
VRBO integration is completed manually by the IPM team – Integrated Property Managers Team. This takes up to 2 weeks currently, and they will contact you just before the integration goes live to explain that you need to make any changes in your PMS as soon as integrated, and not in the VRBO Owner Dashboard. In fact, you can no longer access a lot of the owner dashboard once integrated.
Your whole account will be integrated. If you have listings on VRBO that you choose not to integrate, they will archive them.
Once integrated, make sure you check everything over, as sometimes, not all information is transferred, and sometimes a listing can disappear once you integrate – contact the IPM team if this happens and they can resolve.
Not all PMS offer all options for the VRBO integration eg some amenities may not be offered on your PMS that you would like to show to guests on VRBO. In this case, you can ask to access the System of Record on VRBO, so you can alter information directly on VRBO
Click here to see this article
Note that bookings that were made pre integration must still be managed directly in vrbo for messaging and cancellations / amendments.
Instant data vs a little patience
Not everything updates at the same speed, and it helps to know that going in. Rates and availability and restrictions typically sync within a couple of minutes. Listing content, on the other hand — photos, descriptions, amenities — can take VRBO 24 to 48 hours to reflect, even on a full API connection. That’s normal, not a fault, so don’t panic if your new photos don’t appear immediately.
Some PMS offer a near instant integration with all content with VRBO – Hostaway and Hospitable have recently brought in this new integration.
Who’s the merchant of record?
This is worth understanding before you commit to a channel strategy.
Currently, as soon as you integrate via API with VRBO, the VRBO account owner must collect guest payments themselves, acting as the merchant of record.
You need to setup a payment processor via your PMS to do this eg Stripe.
The merchant of record is the entity responsible for processing the payment and potentially dealing with related tax collection and remittance responsibilities.
This is not a small technical detail.
It can affect:
- Who charges the guest
- Where the guest sees the payment coming from
- Who processes refunds
- Who collects certain taxes
- Who remits taxes
- Your accounting records
- VAT and sales tax treatment
- Your financial reporting
- You become responsible for chargeback queries
You generally are responsible for collecting and remitting required taxes yourself.
Note that if you refund the guest, you are still liable to any credit card processing fees related to the original transaction. Therefore, you may want to review your cancellation policy on the platform. Many PMS offer you the option to add a custom policy for VRBO to cover the credit card fee.
VRBO has announced it will be rolling out VRBO Payments in the future, under which VRBO itself becomes the merchant of record for integrated partners — charging the guest, collecting payment, and paying you out on its own schedule, in exchange for a combined fee of around 8% (a 5% commission plus a 3% payment processing fee). Many hosts may prefer this as you will not have the burden of taking payment themselves, the risk of a chargeback, or the extra work of collecting and remitting taxes. This will be instead of the aforementioned host commission fees (eg 12-15% host only fee in Europe)
The upside of VRBO taking on this role is less exposure to chargebacks and disputes. The trade-off is less direct control over when and how you’re paid, and reliance on VRBO’s own dispute process rather than your own.
A small number of PMS providers can retain merchant of record status on your behalf instead. Hospitable is a great example of this, where they can be merchant of record, and they can also collect and remit taxes for you in most US states. This is ideal for cohosts that cannot, or do not want to be accountable for payments and remitting taxes.
The pros of VRBO full integration:
- Genuine two-way sync of rates, availability, bookings, guest messages and listing content, and able to manage all from your PMS.
- Far more reliable and lower-maintenance than iCal or a session-based connection
- Access to VRBO’s proper partner support channels when something goes wrong
- You are in control of the booking, and payment. As soon as the guest pays, you get paid.
- If your PMS supports it, you have access to messaging, and scheduled messages from your PMS via an integrated inbox. You can do this generally via channel message, email, SMS, or What’s app, depending on which features your PMS supports.
The cons of VRBO full integration
- Only available through PMS providers with certified partner status — you can’t set this up independently
- May require business or VAT registration depending on your region
- Content changes still take a day or two to appear, even with a strong connection
- You loose access to VRBO damage protection policy. You can take a security deposit yourself / via your PMS, or use another solution eg Truvi / Happy Guest etc
- The shift to VRBO Payments changes who holds the payment relationship with your guest, and the rollout timeline isn’t the same for every region
Bringing It All Together
The real purpose of a PMS is to reduce duplication, centralise your operations and allow your business to grow without every new booking channel creating another manual task.
If you are currently connecting Airbnb and VRBO with iCal, that may be perfectly adequate for where your business is today.
But if you are managing multiple properties or multiple booking channels, it is worth asking whether your current setup is helping you scale, and increase your online visibility—or whether you are simply becoming very efficient at doing the same work several times.
For most growing multi-channel hosts, moving from basic calendar syncing to a properly selected and configured PMS is the logical next step.
This is precisely the work I do with hosts through ACL Hospitality’s PMS setup and migration service, and it’s baked into the Break Free from Airbnb packages — understanding your business, recommending the right channels and the right PMS for how you actually work, and setting it all up properly so you’re not the one wrestling with Chrome extensions and iCal feeds at 11pm. Your property, your rules.
If you would like to see more about Property Management Systems and which one may be right for you, click here
If you’d like a hand working out which setup is right for your listings, get in touch — I’d love to help you take back control.