To choose the best property manager, short term rental investors should consider Vacasa reviews as it is the largest company in the US market.
How you manage your vacation rental is just as important as how you buy it. You can purchase the best property in the entire market and still underperform because of poor management. If you’re thinking of hiring a professional manager, you’ve probably come across Vacasa. But is this company legit and worth it for Airbnb investors?
Table of Contents
- What Is Vacasa?
- Vacasa’s Features
- Is Vacasa Legit?
- Vacasa Reviews by Owners and Guests
- How Can Mashvisor Help Short Term Rental Investors Working With Vacasa?
Vacasa is the biggest vacation rental property manager in the US, so there are plenty of reviews by both property owners and guests. They show very different experiences, including both excellent service and terrible experiences.
The main differentiating factor is location. Vacasa operates through local teams of property managers, and due to the extensive market coverage, they seem to lose control over the quality of services from time to time.
To decide if Vacasa is a good choice for your particular vacation rental property, keep reading this comprehensive review of the company.
What Is Vacasa?
Vacasa is the largest property manager for vacation rentals in the US market. The company provides comprehensive property management services to Airbnb investors so they can benefit from enhanced performance and passive income.
From a guest’s perspective, the platform allows them to search for vacation homes in top locations. According to some Vacasa reviews by guests, it’s more efficient than many competitors.
The services offered by Vacasa include:
- Permits and taxes assistance
- Custom listing copywriting and digital marketing
- Photography
- Virtual 3D home tours
- Listing sharing on the biggest rental platforms
- Screening guests
- Stocking up on guest amenities
- 24/7 guest service
- Expert cleaning services
- Maintenance
- Coverage in case of damage
- A phone app
When you start working with Vacasa, they will create a listing for your property and put it on their website. In addition, Vacasa will share the rental listing on other popular booking platforms, such as Airbnb, TripAdvisor, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia, and Google. This approach allows investors to expand their reach, which can lead to a higher Airbnb occupancy rate.
In addition, the Vacasa team implements dynamic pricing to make listings more competitive and boost reservations. However, the company does not provide enough information on how this is done and whether they aim to optimize occupancy or income. For comparison, the Mashvisor Dynamic Pricing tool works in a way that maximizes revenue and ROI rather than bookings.
Vacasa reviews show the company also provides vacation rental maintenance by hiring local staff across different real estate markets. It is a great selling point for busy short term rental hosts and out-of-state investors.
How Much Does Vacasa Charge?
Based on reviews by investors, Vacasa charges a flat fee that covers the basic services, but it’s necessary to get a custom quote first. Considering that every market and every vacation rental is unique, it’s natural for Airbnb host fees to differ. The company website reveals that some additional services are paid for separately. These include interior design and linen provision.
In general, Vacasa fees are higher than the fees of some competitors like Evolve property management, but investors get more comprehensive services.
Vacasa’s Features
Vacasa is a full-service vacation rental management platform. It helps hosts manage their short term rental property, from housekeeping to marketing. Aside from that, Vacasa provides a comprehensive homeowner account that allows users to keep track of their rental performance and more.
This account is a home base that lets owners keep track of everything that’s going on with their vacation home. When you sign up on the Vacasa website, an email invitation will be sent to you to log into your account. Once in, you can get insight into various information.
The specific property management services provided by Vacasa include:
Booking Calendar
The calendar feature makes it easy to keep track of guest reservations. What’s more, you can use it to reserve personal vacation time, too. The account won’t show the guests’ full info, only the first and last name initials, and the number of expected guests.
Performance
The Vacasa revenue viewer allows homeowners to check how well their vacation home performs in real-time. It’s relatively simple to check the property’s financial outlook and even make comparisons by month and year.
Statements
Rental property owners can also see and download printable monthly statements for each vacation home they have. The statements include information like monthly income and expenses.
Maintenance
If there’s something wrong with your vacation home, be that a faulty faucet or a broken stove, you can request maintenance services via your account. After a brief description of the problem, the local property manager will take the necessary steps to fix it.
Home Info
The local property manager is a part of the Vacasa homeowner account. It allows owners to quickly access information about their rental homes and view their listings.
Taxes
Via the account, homeowners can update their tax information and access the tax preparation forms. To make the whole tax experience easier, it’s possible to download a .xls file with annual data such as income, expenses, and repairs. It is particularly useful when tax season approaches.
Settings
In the setting section of the account, users can choose their payment method. For instance, they can opt for direct deposit to receive the money faster. It’s important to know that Vacasa will collect guest revenue on behalf of owners and distribute it (after taking its share) every month.
Homeowner App
Users can download the Vacasa Homeowner app so they can carry their property manager wherever they go. The app allows users to track bookings in real-time, set alerts, get notifications, and book their own vacations.
Is Vacasa Legit?
To state it simply: Yes, Vacasa is legit.
However, it seems that the property manager might have expanded a little too fast in an attempt to turn into a leader among vacation rental management companies in the US market. The rapid growth has compromised the provision of top-notch services to every single property and booking, as highlighted by Vacasa reviews by owners and guests. It is precisely why some doubt Vacasa’s legitimacy.
As it will become more evident from the following Vacasa reviews, the company is 100% legitimate. But like any other property manager with nationwide coverage, it doesn’t always provide excellent service in all of the best short term rental markets.
Vacasa Reviews by Owners and Guests
Is Vacasa worth it for short term rental property investors?
To answer this question, let’s now focus on the real deal, namely Vacasa reviews by both vacation rental owners and their guests. What makes Vacasa so easy to doubt is the opposing reviews.
When it comes to Vacasa rentals reviews, there is a lot of positive feedback on various third-party online review websites like Trustpilot, BBB.org, and others. Positive guest Vacasa reviews express the renters’ satisfaction with the great vacation rental properties, the top locations, the excellent supplies, the quality of cleaning, and the customer service they’ve gotten.
Nevertheless, it’s important to note that many reviews are also painted in a more negative tone. Vacasa complaints from guests are primarily associated with high fees compared to other companies, poorly maintained properties, dirty rentals, and the inability to reach customer service at some locations.
What about Vacasa reviews by owners?
Again, there are both positive and negative opinions. Real estate investors seem to find the complete services Vacasa offers to be quite helpful. Many are very happy with their local property managers and how they take care of their vacation rentals.
Nonetheless, market differences can be striking. Some owners report having a poor experience with Vacasa in terms of property management and rental cleaning. Properties have been neglected, leading to maintenance costs.
This is normal with a large property management company, as it’s challenging to have control over all local teams. Thus, we recommend talking to investors who work with Vacasa in your market before deciding if Vacasa is worth it in your specific situation.
Improvements Needed in Vacasa Services
Based on the public Vacasa reviews, the biggest issue stems from occasional local staff screening misjudgment. While some local property managers are outstanding, mishaps tend to happen with sudden company growth.
However, the company seems to be working on addressing these issues. For starters, Vacasa added more local team members in order to expand and improve their support. Moreover, the company started the housekeeping training program as well as the Vacasa Premium Clean program. The goal is to make sure their vacation rentals stand out from the rest of the other available homes on the market.
What’s more, owners won’t have to worry about losing popularity due to increased fees since this new service doesn’t involve added costs to either guests or owners.
Vacasa reviews have been very positive so far when it comes to the so-called triple sheeting technique as well. This particular technique boosts the hygiene levels of the rental and presents it in a 5-star hotel fashion.
Vacasa shows to focus on further homeowner assistance in terms of better revenue. The company does the work instead of property owners in order to suggest the best market prices. As a result, newly onboarded owners can expect an increase in rental revenue.
How Can Mashvisor Help Short Term Rental Investors Working With Vacasa?
Vacasa and Mashvisor are two different platforms that can help real estate investors optimize the performance of their Airbnb business.
Mashvisor is a tech-based analytics platform that allows investors to find the best markets and the best properties to invest in. Once they purchase a short term rental, they can hand it over to Vacasa for comprehensive management. Also, if existing Vacasa customers are looking for opportunities to grow their investment portfolios, Mashvisor can help.
Here are the main Mashvisor tools and how they assist short term rental property investors:
Mashvisor Market Finder
Every successful real estate investment starts with choosing the right location. Mashvisor has recently launched the Market Finder, which allows you to find the best places for Airbnb investment across the US.
You can use the following filters:
- Mashmeter score
- Regulatory environment
- Home values
- Property type
- Monthly rental income
- Short term rental occupancy rate
- Cap rate
After entering your preferred values, you can zoom in and out to locate the top cities and neighborhoods within them. The best part is that, like all other Mashvisor tools, the Market Finder uses real-time nationwide short term rental data that comes directly from the Airbnb platform. This means that it reflects the actual performance of active listings in each location.
To start looking for the best markets for vacation rental property investments, sign up for a 7-day free trial of Mashvisor.
If you want to get excellent Vacasa reviews, it will help if you have the right rental property. Mashvisor makes the hunt for a good investment property easier with its Market Finder.
Mashvisor Property Finder
The second Mashvisor tool that can be of great help to Vacasa owners looking for new investment opportunities is the Property Finder. This AI-driven tool allows Airbnb investors to search for the best vacation rentals for sale in any US city. So, when you identify a few good locations with the Market Finder, you can move on to the Property Finder for your investment property search.
All you have to do is to enter the following criteria:
- Location
- Distance from the selected location
- Budget
- Type of property
- Number of bedrooms
- Number of bathrooms
It will give you access to all available properties for sale that meet your expectations. Most of them are MLS listings, but there might also be some off-market opportunities. The available properties are sorted out from the best cash on cash return down. This means that you get to see the top-performing Airbnb investments right away.
Mashvisor Airbnb Calculator
The third Mashvisor tool that addresses the exact needs of short term rental investors is the Airbnb Calculator. By entering a street address and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, you can get a highly accurate estimate of what income your Airbnb property can generate. And that’s not all because revenue is not the only determining factor in vacation rental investments.
The Mashvisor Airbnb Calculator also provides estimates of the expected rental expenses, cash flow, occupancy rate, cash on cash return, and cap rate. With just a few clicks of a button, investors know if a particular property will bring them good ROI. The investment property analysis is based on the performance of rental comps on the Airbnb platform.
Is Vacasa Worth It?
Based on Vacasa reviews by owners and renters, it’s obvious that the company deserves its position as a leader in the vacation rental management industry across the US market. There are many satisfied investors and renters who highlight excellent property management and comprehensive customer support services.
However, there are also negative reviews you should not ignore. Several property owners and guests are frustrated with the management services provided by Vacasa, particularly in some markets.
That’s why you should check out the local team and local Vacasa reviews before deciding whether you should hire them or not. Also, you should not forget that the first step towards a profitable vacation rental investment is choosing the best market and property. The Mashvisor real estate investing platform was designed to help with this.
Using AI, machine learning algorithms, and national real estate data, the Mashvisor tools allow investors to locate the top opportunities within minutes. This means that more experienced investors can no longer snatch top-performing properties for sale from you.
To learn more about how Mahsvisor can support your short term rental property investment decisions, schedule a demo with our team.