Use this guide to connect Vrbo to Hostaway, understand the onboarding flow for different account types, and complete the required setup steps before listings go live.

Use cases covered in this guide

• IPM/integrated property manager: You have a Vrbo account, and it’s already connected to a channel manager/PMS

• PPM/platform property manager: You have a Vrbo account, but it’s not connected to any channel manager/PMS

• Net New: You don't have a Vrbo account yet

Onboarding User Flow

General considerations

• It’s crucial to have the Stripe account configured on Hostaway before connecting Vrbo and Hostaway; otherwise, you will not get paid for the reservations. We will show a banner at the top of the Vrbo configuration screen if we identify that there is no Stripe connection for the Hostaway account.
  
  
  

• If you need it, you can still configure iCal to sync the calendar availability with Hostaway while the API connection is in progress. This connection becomes irrelevant once the API connection is established, so iCal links can be removed after successful onboarding.

• When you already have an account on Vrbo, we will automatically import reservations after the listing mapping is submitted to Vrbo. 

  • If preferred, you can create reservations via CSV import with basic data. Once the API connection is finalised, the reservations will be fully imported via API.

IPM Onboarding Flow

You have an active Vrbo account that is connected to another PMS, and you will migrate the connection to Hostaway. There are listings to be mapped, reservations to be reassigned (from previous PMS to Hostaway), and reservations to be imported.

1. Go to your Hostaway Dashboard > Channel Manager

2. Find Vrbo and on the right side, click on Activate

3. You will be prompted to enter your Company Name and Vrbo Email address (The Company Name will be the default name for the Vrbo account)
   
   ⚠️Important: Be careful to correctly enter your Vrbo Email address and not your Hostaway email address. In case of failure, you can restart the same process with the correct email, so it's not blocked.
   
   
    
4. Click Connect to Vrbo
5. Then you will be redirected to Vrbo to complete the SSO form
   • Log in to your existing Vrbo account
6. Once the integration is active on the Vrbo side, Hostaway receives a notification and activates the API connection

7. Before the listings are active, you should map listings and import reservations (see detailed process below)

8. Once the mapping/archiving process is completed on Hostaway, you can submit the configuration to Vrbo

   • While under review, it’s not possible to change the listing mapping or archiving

9. Vrbo will review and accept or reject the configuration

   • If the connection is not accepted, you should try again after reviewing the issues

   • If the connection is accepted, Hostaway imports future and past reservations, reassigns future reservations to Hostaway, and you can move on to the next step

10. You can now go to the Vrbo configuration screen and export listings

    • Listings with the warning icon (⚠️) miss some required information to export listings to Vrbo, so you should complete the listing before exporting. Clicking on the warning icon allows you to fill in the information directly from the channel manager

    • You can choose to enroll in the New Listing Discount, which offers a 20% discount on the first three reservations. It’s a great way to secure the first reservations (and reviews) on Vrbo!

11. Once the listings have been exported to Vrbo, you will be notified, and the listing will show as active on the channel manager

PPM Onboarding Flow

You have an active Vrbo account that is NOT connected to another PMS, and they will connect it to Hostaway. There are listings to be mapped, and reservations to be imported (no reservations to reassign to Hostaway).

1. Go to your Hostaway Dashboard > Channel Manager

2. Find Vrbo and on the right side, click on Activate

3. You will be prompted to enter your Company Name and Vrbo Email address (The Company Name will be the default name for the Vrbo account)
   
   ⚠️Important: Be careful to correctly enter your Vrbo Email address and not your Hostaway email address. In case of failure, you can restart the same process with the correct email, so it's not blocked.
   
   
    
4. Click Connect to Vrbo
5. Then you will be redirected to Vrbo to complete the SSO form
   • Log in to your existing Vrbo account
6. Once the integration is activated on the Vrbo side, Hostaway receives a notification and activates the API connection

7. Before the listings are active, you need to map listings and import reservations (see detailed process below)

8. Once the mapping/archiving process is completed on Hostaway, you can submit the configuration to Vrbo

   • While under review, it’s not possible to change the listing mapping or archiving

9. Vrbo will review and accept or reject the configuration

   • If the connection is not accepted, you should try again after reviewing the issues

   • If the connection is accepted, Hostaway imports future and past reservations, and you can move on to the next step

10. You can now go to the Vrbo configuration screen and export listings

    • Listings with the warning icon (⚠️) miss some required information to export listings to Vrbo, so they should complete the listing before exporting. Clicking on the warning icon allows them to fill in the information directly from the channel manager

    • You can choose to enroll in the New Listing Discount, which offers a 20% discount on the first three reservations. It’s a great way to secure the first reservations (and reviews) on Vrbo!

11. Once the listings have been exported to Vrbo, you will be notified, and the listing will show as active on the channel manager

Mapping/archiving listings

The mapping process for Vrbo works in a batch tool (it's not possible to map listing by listing), so if you are onboarding and have properties already in Vrbo, you can choose to map all of them before submitting the mapping file for Vrbo to review.

Important notes:

• Mapping is now optional: You can proceed with the mapping process without selecting all Vrbo listings. However, any listing on Vrbo that doesn't have a corresponding listing mapped on Hostaway will be automatically archived when the integration is activated. A confirmation pop-up will notify you about which listings will be archived before you proceed.
• It's not possible to unarchive listings, so you need to be sure about the process to avoid losing listings later on
• It's not possible to unmap listings via API after the mapping is committed on Hostaway and accepted by Vrbo
• Listings with reservations must be mapped (the process will error out if there are reservations on Vrbo and the listing is archived)

User flow

1. You have already filled out the SSO form on Vrbo, and Hostaway received the notification that the listings are ready to be mapped/archived

2. You receive a notification from Hostaway informing you that you can start the mapping/archiving process

3. You navigate to the channel manager > Vrbo configuration > Select the account to be onboarded (if there are multiple accounts)
   
   
   
    

4. A list of Hostaway listings will show, and you can proceed with the mapping process:

   • Select the corresponding Vrbo property for each listing in the Listings from Vrbo dropdown

   • Use the Save draft option to save the current configuration without submitting it to Vrbo. Listings will not be active until the mapping is submitted and approved, and you can come back to the screen and complete the process later if needed

   • Once all Vrbo listings that have a corresponding Hostaway listing are selected, use the "Map listings" option to submit the mapping to Vrbo
     
     

5. If any listings from Vrbo were not mapped to a listing from Hostaway, before we submit the mapping to Vrbo, we will show you a list of listings that exist on the Vrbo account but were not mapped to Hostaway, reinforcing that any listing not mapped will be archived in Vrbo

   • IF unsure about archiving any remaining listings, you can cancel and go back to the previous step to map the listings that remained

   • IF all is ok, you confirm that the mapping can be submitted to Vrbo

6. We will submit the mapping to Vrbo via API, and Vrbo will approve or reject it. This process might take a few minutes

   • While the processing is in progress on the Vrbo side, the Vrbo account status will be CONNECTING on Hostaway, and it's not possible to change it until we receive feedback from Vrbo about the mapping

   • If the mapping is not accepted, you need to redo the process from scratch. We will send a dashboard & email notification with the error details and restart the mapping so you can try again

   • If the mapping is accepted, the Vrbo account status will be updated to CONNECTED, and you can export new listings to Vrbo if desired
     
     
     
     

Screens Overview

List of Vrbo accounts

Vrbo account listings and configuration

Listings not mapped

Net New Onboarding flow

You never had a Vrbo account before, so there are no listings to be mapped and no reservations to be imported.

1. Go to your Hostaway Dashboard > Channel Manager

2. Find Vrbo and on the right side, click on Activate

3. You will be prompted to enter your Company Name and Vrbo Email address (The Company Name will be the default name for the Vrbo account)
   
   ⚠️Important: Be careful to correctly enter your Vrbo Email address and not your Hostaway email address. In case of failure, you can restart the same process with the correct email, so it's not blocked.
   
   
    
4. Click Connect to Vrbo
5. Then you will be redirected to Vrbo to complete the SSO form
   • Log in to your existing Vrbo account

6. Once the integration has been activated on the Vrbo side, Hostaway receives a notification and activates the API connection as well

7. You can now go to the Vrbo configuration screen and export listings

   • Listings with the warning icon (⚠️) miss some required information to export listings to Vrbo, so you should complete the listing before exporting. Clicking on the warning icon allows you to fill in the information directly from the channel manager

   • You can choose to enroll in the New Listing Discount, which offers a 20% discount on the first three reservations. It’s a great way to secure the first reservations (and reviews) on Vrbo!

8. Once the listings have been exported to Vrbo, you will be notified, and the listing will show as active on the channel manager. It may take up to 24 hours for Vrbo to process the availability of new listings, so it may take a day for guests to be able to book the property.