What: Lake Rentals is one of several home rental sites run by a parent company called RedAwning that advertises widely but demands heavy commissions

Commissions & Fees: 20%

Husl$core: $$$

Expected pay: NA

Where: Nationwide

Requirements: A home to rent and the legal right to do it.

Review: LakeRentals.com is one of several home rental sites operated by a company called Red Awning. Red Awning claims to be the “largest network of vacation properties,” but that claim may be based on the fact that the company lists properties on not only its own affiliated sites, but also on Expedia, Hotels.com, Booking.com and Airbnb, among others.

The bright side of this is that your rental listing gets plenty of exposure. The downside is that your rental may become prohibitively expensive on sites that charge renters a service fee, such as Airbnb. (See our review of RedAwning if you want to rattle through the math showing why that makes your rental less competitive.)

What are the benefits to listing with RedAwning properties like this one? You’ll conceivably be listed on lots of sites. RedAwning also provides $3,000 in property damage coverage; and says it has a consumer-friendly phone app to allow your customers to manage their reservation. However, some reviews say that the app doesn’t always work. And Airbnb offers more insurance coverage — $1 million in property damage coverage and $ million in liability coverage.

RedAwning also doesn’t allow hosts and guests to communicate, which precludes hosts from screening who is staying in their home. Airbnb screens guests and gives hosts the ability to communicate with them too. 

In our view, Airbnb offers a better service and is cheaper for the property owner. 

What their users say (from Apple store)

Unable to log on with verification code or reservation number. No help through support. Hope the place is better then service prior to our stay. Making us nervous that we spent hard earned money for this. Will use other reliable places next time and make sure that when originally booking through Expedia not to have to then use this.

From the Better Business Bureau:

I own a property management company in SW Idaho. Red Awning is responsible for multiple double booking issues in my homes. I recently displaced a guest to another vacation rental that was nothing like the home they thought they were renting. I let them stay there for 5 nights with no revenue because Red Awning had their money. They have now refunded the guests credit card and I have no revenue to show for them staying in my condo for five nights. It is near impossible to get anyone at the company to communicate with me. RED AWNING IS HORRIBLE DO NOT USE THEM, you can find the same homes for cheaper on plenty of other websites just do your research. They actually mark up my homes to make money and don’t want me to tell the guests about it. TOTALLY UNETHICAL!!

Try LakeRentals