Things are rapidly changing in the Vacation Rental By Owner world! If you have ever used the site VRBO or HomeAway to book a vacation home in the past, be aware they are now charging a SERVICE FEE to book through their websites as of February 18, 2016. This is a corporate fee. Owners of vacation rentals do not receive this new fee! HomeAway began buying up vacation rental websites, including VRBO, and travel giant Expedia purchased HomeAway in October of 2015 for 3.9 billion dollars - that is correct BILLION. In order to make their investment profitable, Expedia adopted a policy of charging a service fee through their HomeAway and VRBO websites. Guests now pay a charge of between 4 and 10% when they book vacations online through these websites.
We have our home listed on the VRBO website, and you are welcome to check it out. The listing number is 789012. We are not happy that Expedia has made a "money grab" through the online booking portal. For this reason, we have resisted Online Booking for our property. We never accept your payments, as we have an onsite property manager who handles the receipt of deposits and final payments at check-in.
What do you think about paying an additional 4 to 10% on your vacation rental? If you can save that much by renting directly from an owner, what would your preference be?
Let us hear from you.
