Skift Take
When online travel agencies trot out statistics on their numbers of properties, is it a vanity thing or something more strategic? If you take Vrbo at its word, it's going for quality over quantity.
Vrbo has recently severed ties with "a large number" of its vacation rental hosts who have cancelled too many guest bookings without valid reasons.
That was the word this week from Tim Rosolio, vice president of vacation rental partner success at Expedia Group, as he addressed Vrbo's moves to penalize hosts who cancel too frequently. One of the little-known parts of the new strategy is that Vrbo, an Expedia Group brand, has essentially been firing hosts, and cleaning out bad actors from its ranks.
"There are a large number of partners that we've looked at their cancellation history. And we've called them over the past two months," Rosolio said during a panel discussion at the Vacation Rental Management Association conference in Orlando on Monday. "And we've told them that we're not going to work with you anymore. We've done that pruning of the marketplace. It's mostly individual owners."
Vrbo SupplyRosolio sai