Learn how to enroll new Vrbo listings in the 20% new listing promotion from Hostaway and when to use it to improve early booking performance.
When adding a new listing to Vrbo, Vrbo recommends setting a 20% discount for the first 3 reservations to drive demand and get some reviews on the board.
You can do this all directly in the Hostaway Dashboard by following the next steps:
- Go to the Channel Manager module in the Hostaway Dashboard
- Select the Channels tab at the top right
- Besides Vrbo, select Configure
- Besides the Vrbo listing, click on Export Listings
- In the pop-up (shown below), check the box Add this listing to the New listing promotion
- Confirm, and you're done!
The Value of Vrbo New Listing Promotion
It's Vrbo's onboarding boost for properties that have no booking or review history. You agree to discount your rates for a limited window, and in exchange Vrbo gives the listing artificial visibility it hasn't earned yet through performance data.
Typical terms (verify the exact numbers shown in your own dashboard, since Vrbo has changed them over time and they vary by region):
- Discount: around 20% off the nightly rate
- Duration: runs until you take a set number of bookings (commonly the first 3) or until a time limit expires (often ~90 days from activation), whichever comes first
- Eligibility: listings with no prior reviews/bookings on Vrbo
Benefits
- Search ranking lift. This is the real value. New listings normally rank poorly because Vrbo's algorithm weights conversion and booking history. The promotion overrides that cold-start penalty.
- "New listing" / discount badge in search results, which improves click-through rate.
- Faster path to first reviews. Reviews are the long-term ranking input, so the sooner you get 3–5 of them, the sooner you can price normally and still rank.
- Bookings are still full-term bookings — the guest pays less, but you get the same stay length, cleaning fee, and review opportunity.
Activating it for listings previously exported.
- Go to Channel Manager > Channels > Vrbo > Configure.
- Click the Vrbo account number to open the listing view, if available. In some cases, agents referenced a New Listing Promotion control/toggle there for exported listings.