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Frequently Asked Questions |
For Travelers:
- How much does it cost?
- It's free to browse the vacation rental listings on GVRL. It's also free to create travel blogs and post vacation photos online. There are rental fees you must pay to stay at a property, of course, but GVRL doesn't charge commissions or referral fees when you make a reservation using GVRL. Property owners and managers pay a low fee to advertise on GVRL.com (click here to view our current pricing) and can choose to take inquiries only or reservations and payments through GVRL.com. If they accept payments, those are processed through PayPal. For information about PayPal's fees and terms of service, visit PayPal.com.
- Do I have to be a GVRL member to make a reservation?
- You can browse this Web site without being a GVRL member, but to make a reservation using our system, you must become a GVRL member.
- How do I make a reservation?
- Click on the preferred date of your arrival on the reservations calendar. From there, you'll be able to enter the number of nights you want to stay and other information you want to communicate with the property owner or manager. Some advertisers on GVRL may allow you to make a reservation and pay for it using our system. Other owners and property managers allow you to inquire about a reservation and will get back to you to confirm your reservation and explain how to pay. Either way, your reservation is not confirmed until you receive a cofirmation and a receipt at the end of your transaction.
- How do I make a payment for my reservation?
- Property owners and managers can accept payments in many ways. Many use The GVRL Total Reservations System™, which allows you to pay with a credit card online or to mail a check. Others only accept checks mailed to them. A few will even take payments when you arrive. If you pay using the GVRL system, remember that GVRL is only acting as a payment facilitator and is not a party to your transaction with the GVRL Member. We cannot ensure that either party to a transaction will actually complete the transaction.
- How do I cancel a reservation? Do I get a refund?
- Advertisers who place a vacation rental listing on GVRL set their own cancellation and refund policies. Be sure to review them when making a reservation.
- How do I check in? Will there be anyone to greet me? How do I check out?
- Sometimes there will be someone to greet you and let you in to a rental property, usually the property owner or a property manager. Often, you'll be given the combination to a lockbox at the rental property where you'll find the keys to the vacation home. Once your reservation is confirmed, you'll receive instructions that explain how to check in.
- What if there's a problem during my stay?
- You'll be provided with emergency contact information when your reservation is confirmed.
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For Vacation Property Owners and Managers:
- How much do listings cost? What's the benefit?
- We are currently giving away FREE listings that will run on GVRL.com for at least one year. By advertising on GVRL, you'll expose your vacation rental property to our community of travelers and get access to the GVRL Total Reservations System™, which you can use to accept payments and manage reservations.
- I've always wanted to rent my property as a vacation rental, but what can I expect?
- Travelers browse this Web site to find suitable lodging when they're on vacation or traveling for business. They want to find out as much as possible about your property, so they expect a well-crafted listing (we provide tips and make it easy to create an attractive listing). If your listing makes sense and your property is attractive and in a good location, you should expect periodic inquiries about the property and occasional or frequent reservations. You'll have to accept payments, figure out a way to turn over the property to renters, clean up after they leave and keep track of everything, including payments, availability, communications with renters and more. Fortunately, GVRL gives you all the tools you need to do all of this.
- How do I handle inquiries about my vacation rental?
- You can choose to handle inquiries in a variety of ways. Most simply, you can take inquiries only from GVRL.com without an availability calendar. That's similar to this listing: http://gvrl.com/property.asp?propertyid=679
When visitors to the site inquire, you'll receive an e-mail and a message will appear in your My GVRL Communications Center. You can respond through the Communications Center to keep your e-mail address private or just use regular e-mail.
Or, you can use an availability calendar to accept inquiries and show when your property is available, but not take actual reservations or payments on GVRL. That's similar to this listing: http://gvrl.com/property.asp?propertyid=612
To go a step further, you can show an availability calendar on your listing and take inquiries and reservations and payments from GVRL. That's similar to this listing: http://gvrl.com/property.asp?propertyid=672
When you take reservations and payments with the GVRL Total Reservations System, payments are processed through PayPal. There's no monthly fee for PayPal or for the Total Reservations sytem. PayPal does charge a "per transaction" fee. For more information, take a look at http://gvrl.com/totalreservations.asp and PayPal's Merchant Services page and their Fees page.
- How do I keep my listings up-to-date?
- It's fast and easy to change your vacation rental listings. To do so, log in to My GVRL at http://gvrl.com/mygvrl/
There, you'll be able to immediately change any part of your listing and your changes will show up on the site right when you save them. You can upload just about any type of digital image files and we automatically make them work on the site when they're uploaded, so you don't have to worry about size, format or quality.
- How can I make my listings stand out from the rest?
- Supplement your listings by posting to our free Travel Blogs and Photo Albums. Create a list of the best free things to do in your town, for example, and post them on your blog. Or create a photo album that shows the beauty of the area around your vacation rental. Even use your your Public Profile to promote your vacation rental management company. There, you can explain what you do and list contact information, and create links to your Web site in all your text.
- Will my listing be featured on the home page?
- If you include images of your vacation rental property, it will be featured on the GVRL home page on a rotating basis.
- How can I temporarily disable my calendar?
Log in to My GVRL.
Then click "Manage this Listing" next to the property with the calendar you want to disable.
Then, scroll down and you'll see a question that says, "Would you like to use the GVRL Availability Calendar?" Check "No". Then click the "Submit" button to save your changes.
When you're ready to turn the calendar back on, go back to the same page and click "Yes" and then the "Submit" button and the calendar will show up on your listing again.
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General Questions:
- Why does GVRL have ads?
- We advertise books and other travel-related items from Amazon.com in order to keep costs as low as possible for people who post their vacation homes on our Web site. Our editors choose each item we advertise, based on what they think GVRL users will like. We hope you find our ads relevant and that you find useful products to buy and enjoy.
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