What is VRBO’s take?

[Collin Hays]

So let’s assume you have a rental that grosses 40K a year.

Here are your VRBO expenses:

- either $599 per year flat fee or 5% rental commissions.
- 3% credit card fee

-3% advance pay fee

- Average of 8% “service fee” charged to your guests that effectively lowers your rent (you have to adjust your rent after the add on fees to keep it market competitive), and VRBO doesn’t share a dime with you.

So your fees to VRBO range from $6000 a year to $7600 per year on a $40K rental.

15 to 19 percent total. 

[Nathan Gesner]

Originally posted by @Collin Hays:

So let’s assume you have a rental that grosses 40K a year.

Here are your VRBO expenses:

- either $599 per year flat fee or 5% rental commissions.
- 3% credit card fee

-3% advance pay fee

- Average of 8% “service fee” charged to your guests that effectively lowers your rent (you have to adjust your rent after the add on fees to keep it market competitive), and VRBO doesn’t share a dime with you.

So your fees to VRBO range from $6000 a year to $7600 per year on a $40K rental.

15 to 19 percent total. 

If you didn't use VRBO or AirBnB, you would have to build your own website that 99% of the public would never be able to find because it would be ranked on page 17 of a Google search. You're paying for a platform that gets your product out to the public, provides tools that allow for simple reservations, payment processing, and communication, and much more.

By the way, what about state/local taxes? Cost of furnishing the unit? Utilities? Landscaping? TV and internet? And on top of that, you still have to calculate how much time you spend on it and what that time is worth.

I actually think you're getting an even lower return than you think, but you're also underestimating the value provided by VRBO and other platforms.