Vrbo review widget —How do I embed all my VRBO ratings and reviews on my own website?

Vrbo (previously Homeaway) is a platform that you can’t afford to ignore if you’re a host or vacation rental property manager. You will already be aware that it is one of the biggest international property management platforms in the world, with more than 2 million property listings. Millions of people use Vrbo every year to find an apartment, villa or rural lodging for their getaway or vacation.  

In fact, its wide range of available listings and offerings has become one of its strongest features. There are precious few sites such as Vrbo that offer every single visitor to their website the possibility of finding the accommodation of their dreams. This, along with confidence and security, make them an excellent choice for consumers. 

How does Vrbo generate confidence amongst its future guests and its hosts? 

Confidence and trust are fundamental in the success of platforms like Vrbo. For this reason, they have created various mechanisms to achieve this.  

Naturally, their website offers secure payment and protection against fraud. But they have also implemented other mechanisms so that future guests can make reservations with complete confidence. Amongst them are ratings and reviews, but there is also the option to speak with the owner or property manager before the start of the stay, in order to clarify any details or specifications.  

The importance of comments to allow Vrbo to generate confidence  

Vrbo wants to ensure that confidence is created, via the leaving of comments, not only amongst future guests in relation to the state of the accommodation, but also for hosts in terms of the people that are going to be staying in their properties.  

The platform makes sure that both guests and owner reviews are real. As a result, they can ensure that guests find accommodation that meets their needs and that hosts can rent them without fear.  

After the stay, both guests and owners are invited to comment on the overall experience. To ensure fairness and honesty, neither party can view the others´ review until they have both submitted. As a result, Vrbo can ensure that the comments by both sides left are truthful and sincere.  

How comments on Vrbo can be a source of confidence  

Vrbo has over 7 million verified guest comments at their disposal to help ensure that new customers find accommodation that meets all their needs and expectations. 

As well as verified guest ratings and reviews, customers have available to them the option to speak to the host or property manager to resolve any questions or doubts they might have when choosing accommodation and making a reservation.  

It is therefore of paramount importance to property managers in the quest to obtain new customers that their listings receive positive ratings and reviews from previous guests. They must therefore provide accurate descriptions of what the guest will encounter when they arrive, as well as being proactive when it comes to responding to any questions or issues raised. 

How scores awarded on Vrbo can result in more bookings  

Each time a guest checks-out of their accommodation, hosts are able to award them a score evaluating them in terms of cleanliness, communication and respect for the rules of property. Scores received by guests are shown to the owners of listings whenever they try to make a future booking. 

Owners can also read the comments left for guests to understand a little bit more about them before accepting them into their properties.  

To enable this system to work effectively, Vrbo emphasises the importance of setting ground rules so that guests know what is permitted and what is not. 

These house rules can include such stipulations such as a time after which no loud noises can be made, whether parties and events are permitted at the property, age restrictions or the maximum number of people allowed to stay overnight. Guests must then accept these rules before confirming a reservation.  

Why should we collate all our Vrbo reviews on our own website? 

Appearing on Vrbo provides hosts and property managers with the possibility to grow their business. This is especially true if they manage to achieve a large number of high scoring reviews from previous guests.  

However, what would happen if we also transferred all these reviews to our own website?  The answer is simple: the benefits are multiplied exponentially.  

It has been proven that people have more confidence in ideas that are expressed across various platforms (Convertize – Travel Pulse). The grouping of your own reviews with third party reviews is the most effective strategy in generating authenticity for your brand, demonstrating that previous guests have given your listing their stamp of approval and obtaining more direct reservations. 

The main reason why we should group together our ratings and reviews on our website is that the users that arrive without any intervention from any other third-party platform are probably going to be our best customers. Even from the very beginning, we won’t have to pay anybody any commission in order to attract them to our site.

In addition, the concentration of reviews in one place has further advantages: it boosts your visibility, enhances your profile, increases the possibilities of converting the potential customer visiting your website into a reservation and benefits the global positioning of your website. In summary, they can help your vacation rental business can grow.

How can we fully utilise all of the dispersed ratings and reviews currently spread across Vrbo and similar sites?  

70% of consumers consult various reviews sites when choosing a company to book with.  Vrbo customers are no different. By showing the consumer all of this information on your website, you can help to avoid them leaving for another site. As a result, your direct reservations will increase significantly.  

The best way to compile all of the ratings and reviews scattered across different websites and combine them on your own website in order for them to add real value to your rental vacation website is through a review aggregator, such as Revyoos, using an embedded widget.  

What is a widget?  

For those not yet versed in the use of widgets, it is a component that can be shown wherever you would like on your website. It is normally a visual component, therefore once added and configured, you’ll be able to see the result on the front-end of your webpage.  

There are many varieties of widgets: widgets to add image galleries, widgets to add buttons or links and in our case, widgets to add ratings and reviews from Vrbo, as well as those from other verified third parties.

Vrbo ratings and reviews widget  

With Revyoos it’s easy to add all your disparate ratings and reviews from Vrbo and other sites to your website, helping you to take full advantage of them, thanks to our specially designed widgets. As well as displaying your verified Vrbo ratings and reviews, these widgets allow you to improve your SEO positioning on Google and other search engines. Thanks to Rich Snippets (structured data), you can show the number of stars awarded to you by your guests on the list of Google search results.  

With Reyvoos, in just a few minutes you can include all of your external reviews on your website, generating more confidence amongst its visitors and obtaining more direct reservations. Our widgets allow you to embed your reviews not only from Vrbo, but also the other main vacation rental platforms such as Booking, Airbnb, Expedia, TripAdvisor as well as other platforms such as TrustPilot, Facebook and Google My Business. 

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Learn more about the widgets you can integrate with Revyoos.

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References:

«Study Shows Hotel Price and Ratings More Important Than Brand Name». TravelPulse, 2019.