Homeowner FAQ: Your Questions Answered at Grand Welcome

When you partner with Grand Welcome, you will be free to come and go from our program as you please. All we ask is that you give us a 30-day advance notice if you do choose to remove your home from our program.

We typically get homes onboarded in 2-3 weeks. Once signed, you will be introduced to your Onboarding Manager who works directly with our local management team to get the walk-through and photos scheduled. Once those items are complete, we will then create your listing and send that along with pricing for your approval to ensure we are on the same page prior to going live!

The only item we require is Wi-Fi. We want to ensure your home is set up for success, so we will provide you with our Unit Stock Sheet, which lists items we suggest having in the home to go above and beyond guest expectations.

You are free to use your home for as much personal use as frequently as you’d like – but if you plan to only rent out your home occasionally or solely outside of peak seasons, your home may not be a great fit for our program. We also reserve the right to cancel a homeowner agreement if the home is predominantly unavailable for bookings.

We collect and remit any taxes required as a complimentary service, so you do not need to file unless you prefer to do so or if the local requirements mandate owners must file. We’re here to help if you have questions regarding state/county restrictions. Please note that in Hawaii, we charge $100 per filing due to the very extensive permitting process.

That’s completely up to you! It does help increase revenue, allowing you to charge more per night. We charge guests an additional non-refundable fee, which goes directly to our housekeeping vendors, as a deeper clean may be required. If there is any damage caused by a pet, we will charge the guest accordingly. Please note that we are not able to prohibit service animals.

We use a dynamic pricing model, allowing us to adjust listing prices based on the level of supply, demand, and time of year. Our in-house pricing system pulls from multiple data sources including direct data from Airbnb and VRBO to ensure our homeowner listings are set at optimum rates.

We carefully examine your home and consider all that it offers in terms of amenities, furnishings, location, etc. This process also allows us to set appropriate nightly minimums in order to achieve additional occupancy with less wear and tear.

We provide you with access to your homeowner portal, which reflects all your property’s bookings, any maintenance tickets, statements, and it also gives you access to easily reserve your property for a personal stay.

We provide payment by the 15th day of each month for the previous month. If you have a booking that goes from one month into the next, payment for that reservation would be issued the month of the actual check-out date.

Yes, assistance with initial permitting and renewals is included in our management fee, however, the homeowner is responsible for the cost of the permit or TOT number. Please reach out to Sales for the fees associated with your market. For our Hawaii homeowners, there is a fee associated due to the state’s extensive permitting process.

Of course, we list on Airbnb and VRBO, but that’s just the start of our online presence. Your property will be visible on these sites and more!* In addition, we have our own website and a massive database of our best guests built over years of service. In 2021 alone, we had over 60,000 guest stays across all of our listings in each of our locations!

All of these guests are added to our mailing list to receive bi-monthly newsletters promoting our properties and destinations. We sync your availability calendar across every site to ensure there are no double bookings.

*Online travel agency sites are subject to change.

Pricing and listing optimization is a key step in our process – Here are some examples:

1. Keywords in the description/photo captions help guests search for specific amenities/homes. For example, adding details such as “espresso coffee maker or “convection oven” could result in an increase in bookings.
2. We request reviews from our guests on both Airbnb and VRBO to increase search rankings on both channels.
3. Once your property is live and active on VRBO or Airbnb, we check rankings to see if any adjustments are needed. We can access ClickThrough-Rates or the number of inquiries to bookings, and determine if new photos, new headlines, pricing changes, or amenity updates might be needed.

In some cases, we can transfer reviews from your VRBO/HomeAway listing to the new listing that is created and supported by the Grand Welcome system.

AirBnB

AirBnB does not offer a process for transferring existing reviews.

Yes, we do! Generally, a picture is the first impression and it’s worth 1,000 words. Grand Welcome has professional photographers in each market. The photographer will also edit the photos to ensure your home is picture perfect on every listing site. As professionals, they’re trained to scope out the best angles and lighting to make your home look its absolute best.

Just call us, and we will reserve your property on your desired dates, or you can view your availability and book it yourself via your Owner Portal.

When making your home available for friends and family use, we can create a discount code (ex. 10% off) and your guests can either call in to book or simply enter the discount code at checkout on our website. The housekeeping fee will always be applicable whether you opt to charge your friends and family, or not.

We enforce a strict cancelation policy. For a fee of 5% of the Total Charges, guests may cancel their reservation by providing us with written notice at least 60 days (90 days for Hawaii properties) before their Check-In Date. If guests do so, we will refund the Total Charges except for the Nonrefundable Reservation Fees, including the 5% cancelation fee. If a guest cancels their reservation after the Cancelation Deadline, we will have no obligation to refund any amounts paid, except for the Security Deposit, unless otherwise required by applicable law.

Grand Welcome will ensure your home remains stocked for every guest. The amenities provided vary, based on the location, however, we supply a kit that includes items such as toilet paper, paper towels, soaps, etc. The cost of these items is built into our housekeeping fee and charged to the guest.

Grand Welcome provides complimentary electronic locks. Each guest has their own code, valid only during the time of their stay. You will also have an owner code that never changes.

If you do not currently have a preferred vendor in place, we are happy to provide a trusted vendor.

Most of our owners have a trash service provider. Our local team in your market will visit and put out the trash with no charge to you unless your specific location requires it or if we have to bring overflow trash to the dump, we will do so for a fee.

In addition to repeat lawn, hot tub, and pool service, Grand Welcome recommends having a local, licensed HVAC service plan in place. It is important to have regularly scheduled services for your A/C, heating, and air filter replacement. We do require snow removal in winter areas, and we strongly recommend an annual garage door service plan, gutter cleaning in heavy leaf areas, and twice-yearly window washing.

Guests can book your property directly through the Grand Welcome website and the other top travel sites where we list your home. Guests can also email Grand Welcome or call us to make a reservation.

We’re local and on hand to deal with any issues or emergencies. Guests can connect with us via email or by phone through our 24/7 Customer Care Team. They can also reach out via our website or the travel site used to book.

We charge guests a damage waiver, which covers 15x the damage waiver fee. For example, if the damage waiver is $59, then $885 (15 x $59) in accidental damage is covered. The fee charged to the guest will vary based on the group size and duration of their stay and this fee ranges $39-140. This covers you for items outside of normal wear and tear. Any damage that exceeds that amount would then be covered by your general liability insurance. We perform an inspection after every clean to pinpoint damage.