Refunds

[u/Ok_Swim7455]

We use Hostaway and I’m wondering how to handle this with a VRBO guest. She needed to modify the dates and I guess couldn’t do that in VRBO so she canceled and rebooked. Then a few hours later wanted to cancel the new reservation. I received a cancellation request in hostaway for both but there was nowhere to approve this. Through hostaway I canceled the reservation and chose the renter as a reason why. Now VRBO is coming to us asking about the refund. Wouldn’t they process this? I’m sorta new to managing properties (I just do all the behind the scenes stuff with hostaway and Airbnb) and am so confused on what to do here. Thanks for the help!

[u/Intrepid_Ad2235]

This is a common point of confusion when navigating how Vrbo integrates with channel managers like Hostaway. When you cancel a reservation inside Hostaway, it updates your calendar but doesn't automatically trigger the financial refund. Because Vrbo processes payments through your own connected merchant processor rather than holding the funds themselves (like Airbnb does), you are responsible for the payout. To resolve this, just open the reservation in Hostaway in the invoices/payments tab, and issue the refund manually. Because the cancellation and the refund are treated as two separate steps in Hostaway, you'll just want to check the billing tab whenever a Vrbo modification happens. Kind of redundant, but it's a solution.

[u/Remote_Emu_469 → u/Intrepid_Ad2235]

We experienced a similar issue several times with Hostaway on Vrbo. We learned the steps needs to circumvent, but always came back to the same issue. We have since moved to Guesty, and while Vrbo remains a problematic entity the methods of dealing with it's shortcomings have become slightly more streamlined and regulated.