VRBO / Homeaway Raise their Fees Again

[Mike V.]

Just wanted to share with you all, VRBO raised their 'new listing' fee from $399 to $499 effective Jan 12th.  I have multiple properties listed and no notice was sent out.  I only discovered it as I was listing a new property on their website.

What's even worse is, I posted my listing before the change and as all new listings do it goes 'pending' for a few days while they review it.  When it finally went live the price jumped and they refused to honor the price at the time of the posting.  To top it off, I had TWO 'sales' people from VRBO hang up on me when I asked for them to honor the price at the time I posted the listing.  They had the nerve to tell me that they literally have no way of adjusting the prices. Ha!  The hang up came when I mentioned the blue 'coupon' link right on the main page.   Their customer service gets worse and worse as their fees go up and up.  I really wish there was a viable alternative but unfortunately 90% of my reservations come from them so i'm stuck.

[Mike V.]

@Andrew Wong, This is an actual list of the service fee's the guests of ONE of my rentals paid in calendar year 2017.  When VRBO introduced the much hated "service fee" that they started charging guests many listings had to reduce their rates to help offset the fee. I frequently get inquiries asking if i'll reduce the quote by the amount of the fee.   VRBO double dips on the consumer AND the listing fee.  I understand one side or the other but both just makes my blood boil.  On ONE property they got paid roughly $6500 by the GUESTS and anther $399 by me for listing on their site.

I guess my point is, when is enough enough?

Service Fee
$68.13
$152.00
$92.00
$252.00
$118.00
$149.00
$160.00
$79.38
$97.00
$162.00
$70.00
$252.00
$252.00
$153.00
$252.00
$151.00
$160.00
$156.00
$160.00
$166.00
$164.00
$145.00
$57.00
$164.00
$304.00
$152.00
$114.00
$152.00
$184.00
$276.00
$304.00
$140.00
$138.00
$109.00
$96.00
$140.00
$126.68
$118.14
$44.55
$126.68
$230.73