If you own a short-term rental and a co-host manages it for you using Hospitable, you'll need to take a few actions on your side when they connect your Vrbo account. This guide walks through what's yours to do — and what your co-host does — so the booking money flows directly to your bank account.

What you'll need before you start

To log in to your Vrbo account.
A credit card in your name — Visa or Mastercard. Prepaid cards are not accepted. This card pays Vrbo's per-booking commission.
The bank or Stripe account where you want payouts to land — account and routing numbers (or IBAN / sort code, depending on your country).
In some countries outside the US: A company VAT number and registry.

How to connect your Vrbo Partner account to your co-host's or property manager's Hospitable account

The following steps are from the Vrbo account owner's perspective, and describe how to connect their account to a co-host's or property manager's Hospitable account on the Partner connection, while remaining the recipient of all reservation payouts and the party responsible for the Vrbo commission.

Step 1: Receive the invitation link from your co-host or property manager.

The owner of the Hospitable account will send you a link.

Click the link to start the connection process.

🚨 You do not need to have your own Hospitable account, or to log into Hospitable for this connection process!

Step 2: Sign in to Vrbo when prompted

When the connection flow reaches Vrbo's single sign-on screen:

Enter your Vrbo email and password.

Step 3: Import your account

After logging into Vrbo and starting this process, Hospitable will import your Vrbo properties, reservations, and setup.

When this import is complete, press Review Properties to continue to the next step.

Hospitable imports the listings from your Vrbo account. You'll see a screen that lists each property and tells you whether it can be brought online through the Partner Connection, based on:

The property's location.
Whether a supported payment processor (Hospitable as Merchant of Record, or Stripe) is available in that country.

Properties that can't be supported will be flagged here — you can still continue with the listings that are supported.

For more on partially-supported accounts, see Vrbo Partner Connection: Overview.

🚨 If you have unsupported properties, you can read more about how to manage those here: Who can not use the Vrbo Partner connection

Step 6. Choose your default payment processor

Pick how Hospitable should handle guest payments on this Vrbo account:

Hospitable as Merchant of Record — Hospitable processes guest payments, cancellations, chargebacks, and handles tax collection where supported. This is the default for most regions and the only option in some markets.
Stripe — guest payments are processed through your own Stripe account. Available in supported countries.

Read more about the payment processor setup here: Vrbo Partner: Payment Processing Settings

If Vrbo asks you for additional documents — most commonly a VAT number (in parts of the EU) or business registration details — provide them inside Vrbo's screens. The connection can't proceed until Vrbo lets you through.

Step 7. Select whether you want your listings brought back online or not

During the connection flow, your Vrbo listings will be taken offline for a few minutes.

If you want them to automatically become available again as soon as possible, make sure to tick the "Bring back online" box.

If there are any that you would like to remain offline, for example if your co-host needs to review their details and setup before setting them live, then leave the "Bring back online" box unticked.

Press Continue when ready.

Add (or confirm) your commission credit card on Vrbo

Vrbo charges its commission (around 5% per booking) directly to a credit card on file in your Vrbo account. This is separate from the guest's payment.

To add the card:

Sign in to vrbo.com.
Go to Account → Payment methods (the exact label varies by region).
Add your Visa or Mastercard. Prepaid cards are not accepted.
Set it as the commission card for the account.

Vrbo will charge this card per booking. If it ever fails — expired card, insufficient funds — Vrbo will email you directly to fix it.

Make sure this card stays valid and has headroom. If Vrbo's commission charge fails, Vrbo (not Hospitable) will follow up with you, and your listings can be affected.

What you're responsible for as merchant of record

With Stripe as merchant of record, some things are on you rather than on Hospitable:

Taxes. You're responsible for collecting and remitting any guest taxes (lodging, occupancy, VAT, GST, etc.) that apply in your jurisdiction. Hospitable does not facilitate tax collection or remittance under Stripe-as-MoR.
Chargebacks and disputes. If a guest disputes a charge with their card issuer, you defend the dispute through Stripe. There's no chargeback protection from Hospitable on Stripe-routed bookings.
Refunds. Your co-host can trigger a refund from inside Hospitable, but the money comes out of your Stripe balance.
1099 / tax reporting. Stripe will issue you the relevant tax forms in countries that require them (such as the US 1099-K). Your accountant will use those, not Hospitable's reports.

[Callout: If any of the above is a deal-breaker for you, talk to your co-host about switching to Hospitable as Merchant of Record instead. That setup transfers tax facilitation and chargeback protection to Hospitable, but it also changes how money flows — Hospitable becomes the merchant on the booking.]

Troubleshooting

I don't see Stripe as an option

Stripe-as-MoR is available in most supported countries, but a few markets are still rolling out. You can see the full list of supported countries here: https://stripe.com/en-es/global

If Stripe is not an option in the property's country, and Hospitable doesn't offer financial services in the country, you will not be able to use the Vrbo Partner connection.

Vrbo is asking me for a VAT number I don't have

Vrbo requires VAT or equivalent business registration in some regions (outside US) before the connection can be completed. You'll need to provide it through Vrbo's own screens. If you don't have one and can't get one, the Vrbo Partner Connection isn't available for your account.