Vrbo Reviews

I have recently placed 2 of my properties for rent with VRBO. I have had both with Airbnb for 3 consecutive years and I'm extremely happy with Airbnb services. The only reason for placing my properties on VRBO was the possibility of reaching more possible renters. BIG MISTAKE! VRBO is a rip off for both owners and renters. PLEASE, DO NOT USE VRBO! Not only they are charging the renters this outrageous fee, they take over 40 days to pay the owners for their already collected money! This is to say the least, absurd and a bad way to do business! I'm out and it's a shame! I'm back using only Airbnb. I have heard about FlipKey, but for now I'm going to stay with Airbnb only. SHAMEFUL! BAD COMPANY! RIP OFF!!!

We had rented through VRBO several years ago and it was a great experience so we decided to do it again. We found a condo that we loved for the price and dates that we were looking for. It was for 5 nights in June. I hesitated to book through the website because it didn't state the terms for the renter's insurance. So I called the number listed. I was told that the condo was available and since life sometimes happens, I chose to purchase renter's insurance. I was told that I could cancel it within 10 business days. I paid my condo deposit and the $111 for insurance. The very next day I received an email from the owner of the condo stating that they were very sorry, but that condo had a six night minimum stay during that time of year. Nowhere did it say that on VRBO's website, nor was that mentioned during the booking process.

After 4 years of a successful business partnership, VRBO recently started a new 11% "Service Fee" which was never part of the original contract. We have lost at least 50% of our business through this website because of these exorbitant fees which are charged to the customer at the time of booking our vacation rental property!

I have rented through VRBO 3 times in the last year and suddenly this last time I was charged with "travelers fee" of $123.80 for booking online for the very same house I rented 9 months ago. I am very disappointed that this wasn't fully disclosed before I rented or I would have rented directly from the Management company that holds the rental. I will do my best to bring awareness to others about these outrageous fees charged to book online.

In the beginning... VRBO gave regular down to earth home owners an avenue to advertise their rental vacation homes to down to earth vacationers who wanted to get away from the commercialized, impersonalized mega property brokers. It was a marriage made in heaven! Owners paid VRBO a reasonable amount of money to provide a well run user friendly website to advertise their vacation rentals to prospective renters. At that point, renters contacted owners personally and the two (owners and renters) worked out the details on their own. Fast forward to today. VRBO raises its rates to owners (I pay over $1300 per home for platinum level on 5 homes) charges high credit card fees (I don't use credit cards because I don't want to raise my rates to cover the fees) and is charging renters a service fee to book through the website (no one knows what for) which amounts to 4-10% of the total balance.

They are new & need listings NOW to take off!

I have 3 properties on VRBO and will not renew these once they expire. I loved the idea of a site where the owners managed their own property and offered much better rates than hotels or property managers. Since 2007, their annual fee has almost doubled, you no longer have seniority listing placement UNLESS you buy into all of their add-ons and additional fees. Now they've sold out to Expedia and they're just another big travel site with the goal of charging as much as possible. As owners, their annual fee is already expensive, they try to add travel insurance without the guest noticing and now an outrageous booking fee that the guest has to pay. The owners have no say so in any of this and VRBO's greed is out of control. It's now cheaper to sign with a property manager. SAD!

Totally destructive to good relations with customers. These folks have One thing on their minds and that is how to get that Very last nickel out of your pocket and into theirs. My guests are offended, I'm offended. THIS is Not going to Fly. I started out with just ADVERTISING... That's all I wanted. These guys are not happy with just ONE piece of pie... They want yours too. Expedia and VRBO have so many companies doing the same thing. My inquiries and bookings are destroyed. Three years of hard work and goodwill down the drain. Shame? I doubt it. Plus now they make you wait and wait and wait and wait for a human customer service representative. I don't know what I am exactly paying them for anymore.

As a host that used to get paid the minute my guests arrived, I started noticing a delay last summer to where on a regular basis I might not even see my money until the guests stay was over. I called last summer to complain several times and VRBO pushed me off to Homeaway and back and forth. Neither had an answer and told me that it had to do with weekends, etc. etc. Why were things all of a sudden different? They had no answer and pushed it back on me, telling me to buy another service so that I would get paid in advance. I don't need to get paid in advance, I just want to get paid when the guests arrive like I did 2 years ago!

I have been a subscriber of HomeAway since 2008 (ultimately, I landed on VRBO when the companies merged and that was nice... for a while). Gradually, there have been changes made where control is being taken from the owners (under the guise of protecting the travelers) but this latest service fee was the last straw for me. I have had 1 (count 'em "1") inquiry since February because I have circumvented the system so that my guests don't have to pay the ridiculous service fee - as a result, they bumped me down on the search results so new guests can't find me! I even paid extra for a "featured listing" which they assure will result in many more inquiries from potential guests -- not so in my case.

I too, do not agree with the added booking fees. VRBO is double dipping and should either charge the homeowners for listing OR eliminate the guest booking fees. I do not remember this being brought to my attention when I renewed the listing. I am also looking at alternative sites to advertise my property. I would be in support of a class action lawsuit - surely at least one homeowner is a lawyer that would know how to accomplish this. I hope a large percentage of homeowners do not renew in 2016. SHAME ON YOU VRBO/HOMEAWAY!!

We are not happy with this new concept and the associated service fees. Our bookings have dropped off significantly since the fees were implemented. And there is no adjustment for the subscription that we've paid? Is anyone doing a class action suit against these guys? At the least we want our subscription fees back. I believe we are entitled to damages too.

We have been using VRBO to rent our ocean front property for 3 years and have been very pleased until they implemented their new fee. Since this has occurred our rentals are down. We still get inquiries but people are not booking. I believe it is because of the new fee they are charging and or the links to other rentals at the bottom of my listing directing them elsewhere. I am not paying VRBO so they can advertise their other rental properties or areas. Do this on their site not my booking page.

I have used VRBO for four years and was very pleased with their service until the last two months. Now that VRBO has been purchased by Homeaway, they are changing their agreement, placing new fees on clients as well as mandating that we "book" through them. I do not plan on renewing at the end of November 2016 and am looking for another venue to advertise.

I have listed one property on VRBO for the past 5 years and have been mostly satisfied. I pay almost $1000 per year to list a 3 bedroom home in Northern CA. Recently, VRBO suddenly started imposing their own fee at about 10% to renters. There was no warning and no explanation. Potential renters are complaining and inquiries have dropped off. I lost a booking today as a direct result of this fee. In an effort to provide guests with an alternative, I posted my property on FlipKey. When I offered this to my potential guest through their inquiry, VRBO removed the name, FlipKey, and the link so that the information would never reach my guest. VRBO has gone over the top with this fee and imposing such control over homeowner and guest communications.

We have been with VRBO with a flat fee for over a year and have been very pleased until we are suddenly hit with this outrageous "service fee". What service? I do not consider a percentage of the total booking any sort of service fee. It is a brazen money grab where neither the owner nor the renter has any say in the matter. A service fee should be a flat fee to cover the actual booking service, say $15-20. But an extra $200 or more for a service fee? That's just extortion. I do not want or need their marketing assistance and if I did I would pay extra for it as many VRBO owners currently do. The transient room tax in my area is 12% so with this additional take from VRBO we are over 20% additional before cleaning, insurance, etc. We will definitely be looking at moving to another site.

I went to book a short stay in Miami beach and found one we liked on the 12th floor oceanview. I started the booking process and within 1 minute our credit card had already been charged 1/2 the amount and I haven't even gotten the contract. When I got the contract it stated that they will assign us a room in their inventory similar to the one I wanted. Wait a minute, I wanted the 12th floor only, so I called the # and it was disconnected. I looked at the charge on the cc and called that #. Someone answered like it was a cell phone (just said "Hello"). I told her I wanted to book the one in the ad and she says they don't have one on the 12th floor. "Well your ad is false" I'm thinking.

I've been duped with a Platinum subscription & now VRBO bullies owners into doing things their way (credit cards, accept anyone - even if it means losing your rental permit. Who cares about neighbors and occupancy laws? Not VRBO!) Their sales pitch that new "service fees" insure the travellers' trip are BS. If a traveller has a problem VRBO will have them go to their credit card co. first before they do anything. What kind of service is that? Waiting on hold with customer service is at least 10-20 min. Charging consumers up to $499 fee when the owner has already paid (in my case premium) is double dipping! CEO is pompous and arrogant. Their research justifying the fees is highly questionable (owners have not been shown any of this). Sign me up for the class action lawsuit!!

Signed on in 2007 for around $350. They then put the squeeze on every year saying you'd lose your place in the search order unless you upgraded your ad to include more pictures. I did this every year for an average increase of 20% per year to hold my place at #32. In 2014 the new squeeze was ad online billing for an additional 10% of rent value which is another 56% increase over my now $1400 annual cost for the ad. And now their latest squeeze is to charge customer another 10% they say to increase advertising. That's interesting. After my 2nd year of VRBO membership, my rentals stabilized and have never gone up. My rentals actually went down last year because they lowered me to #89 as punishment to a 9 year customer who bought into all their photo squeeze rate inducements now paying $1400 per year for my VRBO ad.

For several years I have used the VRBO website as a means to find, and now rent out my own vacation property. It was a simple, cost effective way to deal directly with property owners. Not anymore. Suddenly this year part way through my prepaid advertising period, a service fee is added with less than a months notice. I specifically paid to not have a per booking charge, to now add a special 9% service fee to our guests feels like the old bait and switch. I've run my owner service based business for over 30 years. Treat customers with respect and don't get greedy, do what you've agreed to for the price if you want to stay in business for the long term.

Rented through VRBO, sight unseen, and gave nearly $8000 upfront to the owner for 5 months' rent - our entire savings for our first year as retirees. Showed up to a filthy, cockroach and ant infested dump with broken lights, stove, and BBQ grill, disgusting furniture, nasty carpets that hadn't been cleaned in a decade, broken railings, etc. The owner refused to give us back our money so we spent one entire month deep-cleaning the house, making repairs, cleaning the garage and shed, and waiting for service people to come in.

I was so glad to find this website as I could not figure out why the inquiries to my rental dropped to zero. The fees to the traveler are outrageous and I cannot imagine anyone willing to continue with a rental after finding an additional $100 plus fee to VRBO. I will not be renewing my subscription when it expires and will actively seek a different venue in which to advertise. I hope that a new website will appear soon. I have been with VRBO for many years and pay for a top tier spot but no more.

Not only is the new 'service' fee reprehensible as owners already pay for the listing. This is possibly the worst case of communicating a price increase/new fee I have ever seen. It brings into question their true motives as if HA/VRBO literally thought they could sneak the fee in without owners and renters noticing. It is insane, particularly considering the recent increase in fees and their continued pressure to control the financial exchange of the booking along with CC fees. We will be discontinuing VRBO listing. Looking for a respectable competitor.

Attempting to rent a home through VRBO, I noticed a "service charge" of $116 added to the cost of the rental. None so mentioned on their advertised home rental. Contacted owner, also did my own research. My attention to ripoffs was alerted when I noticed VRBO literally requiring we rent through them, rather than directly through the owner. Bottom line: VRBO is trying to create unearned millions of dollars in rental fees by "providing the service of securing renters' contracts for their own good". Bovine excrement! That kind of money for "securing" a one week rental is unconscionable GREED. Received email from owner this evening cancelling our reservation, apparently as I refused to pay the extortion money demanded by VRBO. He and other owners may have been recipients of a good flow of renters heretofore, but renters with principle and more than a double digit I.Q. will find other options and see that they work.

I am a property owner and have used VRBO for this property since 2008. We always sell out the entire summer... with the exception of this year. VRBO implemented substantial fees which will increase the money they get from my rentals by over 700% all at once. They say this is for a guarantee, which does not guarantee anything additional for the renter, and to increase their advertising budget. Increasing advertising budget by 700% when you have a monopoly on the market does not sound fair at all. This was implemented without any coordination with the property owners, without any input from property owner and the largest impact to be realized is to the property owners. It's like if you rented a car for one month and in week 2, they added more service fees to the rental, changed the rental agreement in the background and threaten to come and take the car if you don't pay the new fees. A breach of agreement.

Since instituting their service fees, I have had 1 cancellation and no bookings. I feel I have to lower my price to now compete with the other properties that agencies have. I called customer service to ask what the fee is (it's in the 5-9 percent range) and even they couldn't tell me. Their advice was to try to book my own property and see what the fee is and back it out from there. I loved VRBO in the past but now the experience is far worse. How do I explain to return renters that their price is up by 5-9 percent with no benefit to them? It takes away any price increase I could possibly make for this year. They say that this will drive traffic but even their statistics are now suspect - it shows new bookings when people are just making payments.

These people are criminal in their dishonesty. I have filed a complaint with the Florida Attorney General, with the state's Consumer Affairs licensing division and with the Better Business Bureau. They lied to me and cheated me. I paid for a two month vacation rental in St. Augustine, Florida based on information provided on the VRBO site but the property turned out to be a dump. The webpage information provided was misleading proof being that it has now been changed to delete some of the misleading information. They moved us to another property and told us we would be taken care of for our two month stay.

Our VRBO property has seen a complete drop-off in inquiries since the service fee was put in place. This is extremely unusual for this time of year. I wonder if the reason VRBO started the service now is because this has typically been the busiest time of the year for bookings. VRBO said that they will remove listings from their VRBO site if an owner states that a renter can contact them directly to pay instead of using VRBO. Some VRBO owners have been removed from the site already apparently. How would owners who currently advertise on VRBO band together and fight this? Would it be possible to create our own online rental site owned by owners? Think of that - all of the profits would go back to the owners. We have been very happy with VRBO in the past. But, we aren't happy about this at all.

We have listed our Scottsdale, AZ home with HomeAway.com since 2009. For quite some time, we were extremely pleased with HomeAway. Some time back, that began to change... Due to all of the automated systems they have implemented. Having a vacation property listed on HomeAway and VRBO has become extremely and unnecessarily egregious!!

Just like other reviews I had a potential renter call regarding a quote asking what the fee was and suggesting I was dishonest in my rental charges. Since I had no idea of what this was I called HA and after a 39-minute wait had a discussion with a CSR that informed me that I was emailed of this change. I checked all my emails and there wasn't one (included deleted ones which I was told by the CSR I had done).

VRBO has initiated a service fee with absolutely no benefit to either the owner or the traveller. They also did not communicate at all with guests. If I would have known this I certainly wouldn't have renewed. If they planned to do such dramatic effects to what they are offering (and what I paid for), they should have told their customers (owners) FIRST. If we agreed, we could have resubscribed.

Our vacation property has been listed on VRBO.com for 2 years, and we have been using VRBO as travelers for 15 years. This month, they have started charging our guests (and us, when we travel) a hefty percentage, even though we already pay a hefty fee to advertise on their website. They say it's for added service and added protection. We do not want to need either. Things have been fine for 15 years. Now that they have a monopoly on the market, they are charging this ridiculous fee. This was not in our yearly contract, and we have lost our guest bookings since the fee was implemented.

I, like so many others in this forum, have been a long-time vacation home advertiser with VRBO. Today, the new service fees added $111.00 to a guest that was attempting to book a 6-night visit. This is not a small fee and is a total deal killer for guests. I am finding that more and more owners are switching over to Airbnb. I am also now going to give them a try.

I too am upset with VRBO. I have email them and stated this. I have also asked VRBO to estimate how much of their annual subscription charge would be returned if we cancelled. I believe since they changed their process we all should have the right to cancel and receive a refund on unused portion of subscription.

I am extremely grateful to the owners who have detailed the slimy business practices VRBO is now employing. I have been a happy renter through VRBO through the years, and just now am in the process of buying my first vacation rental property which I planned to list through VRBO. I have heard enough to be convinced to avoid VRBO and will let them know that. I will probably stop using Expedia as well. It's very unfortunate and I hope all the owners affected negatively will find acceptable alternatives. You have all saved me the grief of going through what you have experienced, and I appreciate it. It's important to spread the word.

I write this review while I have been on hold for over 45 minutes waiting to speak to someone at VRBO to request a refund for my subscription. This is the most egregious fee I have ever seen and the reaction reminds of what Netflix went through when raising the price. The company almost went under. Almost assuredly, the homeowners could do the same to VRBO in this situation. Chief Operating Officer Tom Hale is hosting a webinar on March 23rd where he will speak on the changes at Homeaway/VRBO. I was appalled to read that they feel this is going to assist me in renting my property in any way. I urge fellow owner to take a stand against this greed. I have already listed on Airbnb with 7 inquiries in the first week. No inquiries on VRBO during that same time period. I will be listing on Vacationhomerentals.com tomorrow.

I'm with VRBO since 2012, not long. Was very happy how they did handled all issues, till in January 2016 I realized that they charge my tenants service fee. I did called them. They stated "Why do you worried, it's not your money." This is sick, I am getting non reservation since January because tenants does not want to pay extra so I paid $1000 an year for one condo, each tenant now has to pay % from booking, and it's legal??

If there are any other attorneys interested in helping tens of thousands of owners please contact us through the "Say no to VRBO" Facebook group. We as owners feel strongly our initial contract with VRBO/HA has been violated. We chose an almost $2,000 "platinum" listing as opposed to a "pay per booking" listing to be able to connect with potential guests directly and not have any charges imposed on renters. This was violated midstream by assessing a service fee to our guests of up to $499.00 and making it look like we were charging it to them. Big listing fees + large surprise service fees = class action lawsuits.

Have been with VRBO for 2 years, seemed ok and was working. Then out of the blue the new service fee is added. I have added on average more than $100 per booking. Will they give us a balance sheet to show what all the service fees went toward? They say advertising and improved customer service. Well I haven't seen a commercial or ad anywhere and my call today to them had a 25 minute hold time. I can see how well this fee is helping. Helping line the pockets of management, that's it. Also don't check the auto refund security deposit. They keep the money for you, it doesn't see your bank account and the VRBO interest rate for that hold is 0.00%. If there is another good option out there please share it.

I have a short-term (vacation) rental and have used VRBO.com for over three years. My rental has the greatest number of 5-star reviews of any VRBO/HomeAway property in our service area. I mention our status as a testimonial to understanding customer service and business. Over the last year or so, VRBO.com/HomeAway has instituted several new fees/penalties.

I can only say I wish I could put no star to VRBO. I have had a good experience in general until recently we encountered an issue where someone decided to vacation for free and claimed fraud at the end of their stay... we never felt any support from VRBO and we had to try solve the whole thing with no advice whatsoever except for a "it does happen". We did however let it slide as a one of... I was wrong!

This company is becoming one of the most hated companies in the world. It is like they are TRYING to reach the #1 most hated company. The business model we all signed up for as vacation rental owners is in the process of being replaced by one that we will NEVER be on board with. We are only putting up with it until a viable alternative comes forward. Then we are all leaving. Expedia, this poisonous reputation of VRBO is becoming yours now. Congratulations. All my travel dollars are going elsewhere.

Just logged onto my account and realized there were new fees implemented on Feb. 18th with zero notice. For a $2400 monthly rental, my renters are now being charged $174 extra on top of 10% taxes, exit clean, rental application and Spa and Club transfer fee which goes directly into the pockets of Expedia (VRBO). This is criminal! This is a class action lawsuit, and I will certainly be a participant. Shame on you Expedia! Bookings and inquiries will plunge. Not a smart or ethical decision.

Up until 2015 VRBO was a very practical, very functional interface intended to connect ordinary people with a home to share with ordinary people looking for a home in which to stay. I have used VRBO in both capacities for a number of years with great satisfaction. Then comes the latter part of 2015, Expedia purchases VRBO and everything changes. As a homeowner yearly subscription pricing for the package that would guarantee the most views jumps by 40% without notice. At the same time views, inquiries, and bookings are drop dramatically allegedly because searches are now driven by a proprietary algorithm which is guaranteeing our property is all but impossible to find. To top it all off Expedia decides to charge our guests an unannounced and arbitrary service fee. A 9% service fee (!) added to the rental price.

I have had my vacation rental property listed on VRBO 16 years. In the early days they conformed to their name Vacation Rentals By Owners. Then they slipped and started letting non-owners list with them – they should have changed their name to VRBOPM Vacation Rentals By Owners and Property Managers, but they did not as they were no longer operating in an ethical manner. Now that they are forcing the original property owners to use their booking services and fee system – they should called Vacation Rentals by VRBOPM as they have hijacked their original customer base and want to do it all, for a lot of money of course.

I have been renting my vacation villa through VRBO/HomeAway since 2008. I pay well over $1000.00 to have my property listed in the top tier. They continue to change the requirements for placement midstream, and now they have added a service fee without notifying the owner first. I received an email from a guest who had a confirmed reservation complaining that the price went up. I did not have a clue what this person was talking about. This is truly upsetting. As others have mentioned, my inquiries have been very slow and I am not closing rentals once they receive a complete quote. My business is suffering. I intend to go elsewhere with my business. Shame on VRBO/HomeAway.

I have used VRBO/Homeaway to list my vacation rental exclusively for the past 6 years. It has been a great platform for my business model, until recently, when they rolled out numerous changes with little to no warning. Not only are they imposing an added guest fee of 4-9%, they are pushing me to conform to their payment, cancellation, booking, and refund policies, with little to no flexibility in how I run my business. Not only are they forcing me into this, they are charging for it on top of the yearly platinum subscription fee of $1600!

I've 2 properties listed with VRBO with paid subscriptions. They are advertising "Free Listing" with a "Pay-Per-Booking" option. How can VRBO charge a "Service Fee" to guests of owners who have a paid subscription? They are simply being greedy and ruining business for owners. I've not gotten a single booking since the fee went into effect. Guest may only book if the owner somehow covers the service fee in the form of a discount. Other websites either charge a Pay-Per-Booking or paid subscription but not both. VRBO needs to remove the service fee for owners who have a paid subscription regardless of it showing as a fee to guests because bottom line is that owners have to pay it.

I was wondering what was happening, now I know. This new service fee is killing my reservations. As others have stated, normally this time of year we are booking for the summer. I have not received any reservations since the fee went into effect. I just paid my annual fee to stay in VRBO/Home Away but I am going to research other avenues with which to reserve my home for guests. I am sad that this has to happen as I totally enjoyed VRBO and the ease of security payments, online payments, and correspondence. I hope I find some other rental service that can do the same. If anyone can share, please do. Sorry VRBO, as a homeowner, I am leaving you. Sad departure.

My thoughts and sentiments are the same as in all of the other reviews!!! One thing that I did not see mentioned, is how VRBO is implying that if the renter does not book through their website there is a distinct possibility that they will get ripped off (click on the link to someone that does not do Book it Now and their phone #). They are implying that we, the owners are unreliable and plan to steal the renter's money.

VRBO is a bully, abusing rental owners and now abusing renters. Owners are forced to provide online booking or you will drop in the search listings. Owners are forced to pay for Platinum listing or you drop in the search listings. More than one owner in the same complex can buy Platinum listing, so you share rotation with all Platinum purchasers, but Vrbo never discloses that.

New "service fees" are astronomical, driving away business and are misleading to consumers as it posts the fee in a way that makes it look like the homeowner gets the fee instead of VRBO. Fees are ridiculous. Airbnb charges substantially lower fees (less than half of what VRBO charges) plus no subscription fee with Airbnb. VRBO is double dipping and driving homeowners out of business. I have lost business due to being an economy property and guests don't want to spend $400 extra on service fees. PERHAPS this is pocket change to VRBO with their new double dip scheme. IT IS A DETERRENT!! VRBO is out of touch with the average consumer!!

As a vacation property owner, VRBO now disregards the owner's need for a rental agreement signed by the renter. We must know to whom we are giving the keys to valuable property. Copy of drivers license, employer, number of guests, emergency contacts, etc. are critical. Also most property insurance companies require a written rental contract which defines and limits liability. Property owners listing with VRBO are NOT renting motel/hotel rooms with constant onsite SUPERVISION. VRBO must now think with their new policy that owners are oblivious to this obvious distinction.

I recently purchased a condo in Florida. I paid VRBO $1500.00 at the first of the year to list my property. I was getting several hits a day and several bookings. For the entire month of March I have only had 3 inquiries and no bookings. I tried to call VRBO several times and could not get anyone, put on hold and no one ever answered. Then I came across this site and read all the review and now I clearing understand what is going on and why I'm getting no response. I'm am very unhappy like everyone else and I will not be renewing with VRBO when my contract is up. We all need to find other means for listing our properties. I'm going to check out HomeEscape, TripAdvisor and Airbnb. If anyone has any other ideas would you please post up. Thank you.

This is an explanation of why I will be leaving VRBO just as soon as I can establish myself elsewhere if it doesn't improve quickly. I am sickened that they added this 'surcharge' after their "POINT OF DIFFERENCE WAS NO ADDED FEES!" 4 years ago I left all other advertising for THAT REASON and went to them, paying $1300 per year to advertise my rental property. Now I pay them $1600 per year to advertise because they jacked up the rates and they have the audacity to start charging my guests a 'service fee' so they "can afford to market us better"?

We have 2 properties on VRBO in AZ and we're about to add a third. The fees that VRBO is now charging (our guests) to book our properties are ridiculous and outrageous (9-12%!!!). As it is, we property owners pay upwards of $1500.00/property/year. Now they are charging guests! This also leaves us "Property Owners" very little - if any room to adjust our prices. This new 'fee' is a MAJOR deterrent for people using the VRBO or HomeAway sites let alone wanting to continue with VRBO in general. I have called in to customer service to voice my complaint. Take note VRBO. If you don't get rid of that "FEE", you'll be losing all of our business to Airbnb. It will be goodbye VRBO and hello Airbnb.

When I was booking a vacationer I found out there was an extra fee on their booking. I was not aware until this happened. I told the vacationer I would look into it, so I call VRBO and they told me they sent an email out to each owner. Well they didn't at that time. All they send is which property is a great one to go to or their convention they have every year. I asked them what the fee was for and they said it was to protect credit card fraud and other things. I told them that is a bunch a crap to charge people more money.

I am very disturbed about the usurious rate (usually 10%) VRBO has begun charging travelers for booking trips. VRBO says this is to improve marketing and service. I now experience longer wait times (20-30 min) than ever when calling customer service. I also believe the additional expense to travelers is a deterrent to using VRBO and forces homeowners to lower their rates to stay competitive. I think they should remove the service fee entirely as this was not in the agreement I contracted for with them in October 2015. VRBO has subsequently been purchased by Expedia and has then implemented the new fee which I feel is unethical and suspect may be illegal and possibly subject to a class action lawsuit.

I subscribed (paid a yearly fee) to be listed on VRBO and receive directly inquiries from guests. Then, without prior notification, I suddenly saw "Service Fee" that is charged to every reservation and included in every quote on their system. I did not subscribe to their listing service to suddenly have my guests pay on average over $100 more than they would by simply calling or emailing me. I do not and never have used VRBO Payments as we accept credit cards directly at a fraction of what VRBO would charge us. In my opinion this is a Breach Of Contract and this company should be prosecuted and sued. Also, the number of inquiries I receive has dramatically dropped since this new "Service Fee" started to show up.

I have been a loyal user of VRBO for years and I am outraged at the serviced fee they are charging. I can understand a fee but the amount is insane! I just signed up for SQUARE so I can take credit card payments on my own. I won't have the card so a manual input is 3.75% with a $.15 charge per transaction. If a customer doesn't want to provide the CC# they can always use the VRBO payment option and pay more. At least I won't be supporting the outrageous fee. I even put the information on my site on VRBO.

I too have been using VRBO for years with great success, and paying my yearly fee. As of now I have one rental, and that's only because they booked before the new (unannounced) fee appeared! This is not a flat rate fee, it is a 4 to 9% fee depending on the rate I charge my renters. THIS MEANS THE HIGHER END THE UNIT IS THE HIGHER THE PERCENTAGE. This is what I was told by a VRBO representative when I called to complain. The representative had a long drawn out explanation which boiled down to pure greed! One of the great advantages of using a VRBO was affordability over booking through a travel agent thus avoiding the "service fees". I personally HAVE BOOKED MY LAST TRIP THROUGH VRBO. It just seems to me that there has to be some legal issues behind this and I do plan to speak to my attorney today. I'll report on how it goes... VRBO you get 1 star. You are at the bottom of the scum bucket in my opinion!!!

To all owners who use the HomeAway family of websites, I encourage you to attend the March 23rd, 1 pm CST webinar where the idiotic service fee will be discussed. I also encourage to submit questions/comment before the meeting... instructions on how to do this on the sign-up website. To HomeAway... is an average 6 to 7% service fee really worth losing many loyal owners and possibly destroying your business? If you do indeed require online booking by the end of the year, I will have to leave your sites or take the chance of having to sell my vacation home. To other owners... please publish loudly any alternative sites you have found!!

We have been customers of VRBO for 5 years, a subscriber to the listing service that was its original business model. Without due consideration to their customers and without proper notification, a new business model was revealed after the fact, that has seriously impacted a number of homeowners that provide the inventory for this company to operate.

VRBO recently announced that, as of last month, they are tacking on service fees to rentals and money transactions through VRBO. What the heck do we pay an annual fee for? Other agencies are free that use the service fee structure. Also, I just went on my page and at the bottom are advertisements for other rentals in the same area as well as rental cars, etc. I know VRBO makes money off of those entities. What good is VRBO to me now if they are making more $$ off of ridiculously overpriced service fees and now cluttered advertising on my page? I'm looking for another alternative if anyone has some recommendations – maybe Airbnb??? If have turned off my automatic renewal of my annual fee.

VRBO/276446 (the Osprey Nest, 4603 Bottle Bay Road, Sagle, Idaho) Home-Away March 16, 2016. A satisfied customer since November of 2009, I now wish to register a complaint. The amount of money to subscribe to your service has risen and I have accepted that, however the adding on of a fee to my guests rental is not acceptable. And that was done without any prior notice making my renters contract in error with regard to the total price of the guests' stay. The service rep claimed that owners were sent an email but I checked all of mine from October 2015 to the present and did not find an email from your company. The morning that I called a blue message appeared on the screen about an hour later with note about the additional charge.

I am so appreciative that I found this forum to air my grievances regarding VRBO/HomeAway's new and totally ridiculous service charges that they are slapping on renters. Up until this happened, I was very happy with the support I was receiving from VRBO/HomeAway to help market my properties. Yes, the yearly fees owners paid for the photos, the level of service to have your property pushed higher up on the search menu, were all expensive, but it felt worth it. Now, however, as a long time VRBO/HomeAway user, I have been pushed to the limit regarding these new service fees. I have emailed and called and voiced my complaints to the support desk at VRBO/HomeAway, all for naught. What do these service fees charged to renters do? Absolutely nothing. Any emergency that I was told by a VRBO rep that this fee would cover, is already handled by me.

I think this change in policy from HomeAway will have far reaching implications to the company, homeowners and travelers. I'm a homeowner, and I'm very upset with this development. I will not renew my subscription next year, and I think many of my fellow homeowners will follow suit. This is a blatant cash grab by Expedia. The HomeAway takeover by VRBO has left few viable competitors. Their anti-competitive behavior has emboldened them. They asked homeowners to use their payment system which of course comes at a cost. Now they want to force us to use their payment system under the threat of pushing your listing lower, on the scale they have devised.

Like so many other reviewers, I have used VRBO for many years and was willing to pay their high fees as the extra income was nice and I almost always had renters come through the site. I am a homeowner and do not own dedicated vacation rentals. I rent my home a few months a year to offset the cost of my own travel. Since Expedia came on board things have gone seriously downhill. Lots of BS about the "service" they are providing owners and renters. Everything just lines the pockets of the company. Our rental inquiries have gone significantly down as they have for every other owner-renter I know and sounds like for many others. Read the details of the longer reviews. 95% of it fits with my experience. This has become big business and no longer a service company to the owners that it is supposed to serve. I will be looking for other ways to advertise my property.

Very dissatisfied with VRBO and the house owner. Lied to about location, lied to about internet, VRBO and owner got dates wrong, and I paid hidden fees (if you're quoted a final amount, there should be no added on "Oh I forgot" fees after you check out). Absolutely terrible company. Will NEVER use again. Do your research and book privately!!

I've been on VRBO since way back in the late '90s. It was such a beautiful thing! So sweet, so simple. Little people with cool places talking to little people looking for cool places to stay. Then came HomeAway. They are based here in my town, Austin. The local paper is always doing glowing stories about how great they are. They did nothing. They invented nothing. They improved nothing. All they did was buy up all the competition. Then sell it for a fortune. Yea! This service fee is just one more kick to the gut.

I have been a VRBO/HomeAway customer since they began. We were one of their first listings. We have watched the company grow and have been huge supporters of their growth. We now have seven premium listings on HomeAway/VRBO of which we pay $1800/year each. The sneaky way in which they have added the new service fee seems to have been in the making for some time now. By adding "new features" every few months in which an owner "has to" implement in order to keep their listing at the top now seems as though it was a sneaky scam in order to really hit everyone with a HUGE service fee on each and every rental.

Attention owners. Has anyone noticed the new format of quotes in the owner dashboard which has a line for "total fees" but only reflects the service fee and not the credit card fee (so it's not actually the total fee)? Then the last line reads "payable to you" but that amount does not actually match the amount paid to you (again not reflecting the credit card fee)? When you list an amount as "payable to you" that generally means NET proceeds. I believe this is a potential class action suit against VRBO. Any folks out there with legal background who could chime in please??

I had received a quote from an owner but had not booked. When I went to book, I noticed the total was more than was previously shown. The nightly amount was still the same. I contacted the owner (this was Feb 18) and asked if the rental amount had changed, that it was showing more $$ than the original quote. She said no. I then requested to change dates, and because part of that time fell on a holiday weekend, the price went up some. I did not realize that I was being charged a service fee by VRBO, as I had not been charged a fee by them before.

I have used HomeAway/VRBO to list my properties for 10 years. Up until 2015 and 2016, I was relatively pleased with the service they provided to my business. They sold us Platinum level subscriptions guaranteeing us a certain position. This costs 3 times what the basic listing costs. And then they changed up the rules resulting in lower ranking, less exposure, and fewer bookings. "Best Match" was never communicated to us and should actually be called worst match! Only unscrupulous businesses make substantive changes without notifying their customers. Then they imposed a Service Fee on our guests starting Feb 18 with no notice of the implementation date or the magnitude of the fees. It only applies to half of their listings.

I have listed my rental properties for years on VRBO. However, since Expedia has bought out all of the competition and now have a monopoly, they continually are finding new ways to extort money out of the property owners and renters. My cost for a listing has went up by a factor of four between 2010 and 2015. The latest extortion attempt is to charge the renters a booking fee of between 4 and 9% which is completely ridiculous. I can only hope some meaningful competition becomes available as I am currently looking for an alternative. In the meantime any renter looking to avoid the 4 to 9% fee should look for listings that do not offer online booking and call the owner directly.

I have been listing my 8 week seasonal rental property on vrbo.com for the last 3 years. Which I have had no issues with until now. I just paid my renewal fee of over $500 in November of 2015, as I reside in Canada. Vrbo.com is now implementing fees to travelers who wish to reserve our property through their website. I have had 4 requests through vrbo.com, since the beginning of March and have not received one booking since they implemented these extra fees to travelers.

This new fee that VRBO added in February is killing my rentals! I haven't gotten a single rental since the fee went into effect. I am seriously thinking about selling my property!! - Frustrated GA Owner

VRBO made a poor choice when they decided to make money off the renters. Most people want to pay one fee for their rentals and not have added fees. They should have worked with the property owners to come to a new yearly rate rather than charging our customers. We have not had a single booking during our busiest time due to this. Does anyone know a viable alternative to VRBO? Is there a lawsuit?

I have been a long-term vacation homeowner since 2006 with very good success renting through VRBO and Homeaway. I always paid for being featured in the top tier for my geographical area, because I rely on this income to support me in retirement and take my responsibility to provide value to my clients very seriously. Recently I noticed, without warning, a line item in the booking amount called "service fees" which are added on top of my rental amount in quotes I send to clients. I was incredulous, thinking that there must be some mistake, because I pay over $1,500 per year, up $300 from last year, for my listing to be on this site.

Apparently VRBO needs to change their name. This is no longer Vacation Rentals By Owner. I am disgusted that this company has moved forward with implementing a booking fee. As an owner and a traveler I will be taking my business elsewhere. As an active member of social media I will be spreading the word for my family and friends to take their business elsewhere. As an owner of a vacation rental, we have paid the company with an annual subscription. Adding additional costs to our guests is greed and goes completely against the purpose of having a site that is advertised as vacation rentals by owners. I hope many other owners and renters will join me in leaving VRBO!

After years of multiple listings with HomeAway and VRBO, my vacation rental business appears to be dead in the water, with inquiries that have dropped to nearly zero after HomeAway's new pricing model that includes unannounced service fees, and search rankings that depend on nebulous and changing criteria that property owners seem to have little control over.

This is a new feature VRBO has sprung on customers and homeowners alike. I have loved listing my property with Vrbo for years but I pay a fee to do so. Now all of a sudden out of nowhere I'm hearing from renters that they're being charged to use Vrbo also! What a racket! Vrbo will not survive this. There are too many other home rental options. Hope you figure that out before it's not too late, Vrbo!

I am very upset with the new fees charged by VRBO. I have been booking vacation rentals for years through their website. This new fee seems a little greedy. They are being paid by the listing homeowner, why do they need the traveler to also pay a fee? I read the letter explaining the fee, but isn't it more a cost of doing business? I am a small business owner & I do not charge my customers to use my website. That seems a bit ridiculous & I am going to find another rental site to use. I refuse to pay them the fee.

After hours of trying to a vacation spot in Myrtle Beach SC, VRBO 335704 property, the owner sent us forms along with instructions as how to reserve a beachfront property. The forms were downloaded, checks were written (one for 1/2 of the rental and $500 for pet damage to be returned). Problem? No return address where to send the forms, money. She would not give us the required address - finally suggesting "maybe you need to get another rental..." Reading the reviews on the property should have been a clue as to the mindset of this rental.... Each one who complained in their review, the owner of VRBO 335704 was attacked viciously. This woman obviously is a flake and while is a 3 unit owner in Myrtle Beach, she remains rude, crude and an absolute idiot.... BUYERS BEWARE WITH VRBO!!!

I own 2 properties in AZ & list both on VRBO. You have read how they are charging a service fee now. The few "automatic" quotes the website has given to my potential guests added $91-$400 to their quote, all of which go right into the BIG FAT VRBO WALLET A.K.A. Expedia.com. In addition to that, I have recently discovered I've been paying a premium to have my property at the top of the search & it's not showing up there. On my own computer, I did a Google search for a Surprise Rental Property & was offered the VRBO website link. Once I got to the VRBO homepage, I searched for a 4 bedroom home and was happy to see I was # 6 out of 36 potential properties. I did the EXACT SAME THING on my friend's computer (who has never been to the VRBO website before) and was SHOCKED to see my property listed as the 35th out of 36 properties. This is completely unethical on VRBO's behalf.

VRBO just added a 12% "Service Fee" to customers wanting to rent our vacation home. We have been a customer over 10 years, listing our vacation rentals. We pay a large annual fee to use their service. Now since this new service fee, potential renters are asking what this huge fee is for. This seems outrageous!!!

Just accessed VRBO/HomeAway for the first time in a while. I've been a customer for many, many years, renting apartments all over the world. No more. Never again. Service Fee? For what? Pure profit. They already charge the homeowners. They just priced themselves out of the market.

I agree with all the complaints posted by homeowners of vacation rentals. I am so upset in so many ways, all of which have been noted. What I have done that seems like it just might work for us. I put a simple note at the first page of our listing under description saying we no longer make online reservations or quotes to please contact us via email or phone. When I get inquiries I still respond but then also go to my B&B email and send a second email to the guest and from there we are booking our place outside the VRBO site to avoid the fees. I agree with all the complaints of booking coming to a complete halt. I normally see 7-10 inquiries a week and most turn into bookings. Lately 3 inquires and 2 bookings.

What an outrage & ripoff this new service fee is! I did not receive notification of this fee & was shocked when I saw it within one of my quotes. I had to lower my rates in order to keep the renter. Customer Service said that this was a fee to protect travelers.... Something that travelers have requested. Not only am I a property owner, but I'm also a traveler & this is NOT something that I would ever pay for. VRBO/HA/Expedia is ripping us all off! I pay an annual fee, plus a fee each time I get a booking & now they're charging all travelers a ripoff fee! I will be taking my business elsewhere! If anyone knows of another property owner site that doesn't rip their customers & travelers off, please let me know.

The unannounced fees are disgusting. Send VRBO management a clear message and turn off the auto renew feature on your listing. VRBO has stats on this feature. Let them contemplate the fees they will earn next year when they have no inventory.

I've been pleased with VRBO over the years, but then they started to push for online booking - not an option for me. Then they out of the blue instituted a "service fee" - when I first read it, I thought maybe $5-20 for a renter. When I saw the first quote to one of my inquirers, I realized it was a deal breaker. I am on the hunt now for another way to market our house. Very bad business decision - ranks up there with one of those that business students will study in future classes.

Today!!! I discovered that a service fee had been added to my guest booking on VRBO. We had no idea what this was as they continue to force feed you with their crappy updates and lack of knowledge to explain what just happened. Their support department is not up to date on software changes and therefore points to you read a doc created by who knows and that's their answer. There is no explanation you can possibly give your guests to more hidden costs and get away with it. I spoke to their support today, sent two crappy emails and let's see their response - (one email) "This is a pathetic explanation to our customers to pay more money. Making millions isn't good enough - now go after the customers who got you there!".

The latest VRBO Expedia "booking fees" will kill the goose that has been laying golden eggs along the Florida Panhandle. Paying $2,000 to $3,000 per week for a summer vacation unit plus cleaning fees, pet fees, state sales taxes, local bed taxes, and other add-on fees adds up to 25 to 30% in additional consumer costs. Property owners like me provide all the capital, pay VRBO up to $1250 per year for the listing on the system, pay the insurance, pay the property taxes, manage the cleaning service and take all the risk and don't net $, as much as VRBO does. In addition, property owners don't know who or how many are coming under the VRBO platform with the "book it now" service. People enter 2 guests and no pets, and 8 guests and two dogs show up. You stipulate no one under 25 and 8 college teens move in.

I just checked my analytics for year over year in March 2016 compared to 2015. My one property had 25 inquiries in March 2015 and now I'm at 2. My other property had 8 inquiries in 2015 and now I'm at 0. For the 12 month history of data VRBO provides for my listings' performance, I've never been below the market line until now. I called VRBO and they told me the same BS they've told everyone else - the fee is not affecting bookings yet here are hundreds of owners saying exactly the opposite (including my own data).

I've been a property owner on VRBO for more than 10 years. Sharples charges me almost $2,000/year to list on his site. For every month before November of this year, my page had 1,500 to 2,000 views per month. In November, he blacklisted my site and pushed me down to 300 views per month, despite still paying him $2,000/year to list on his site. Then, they "auto-renewed" me before my subscription even expired! After "auto-renewing" me, and getting another $2,000 in fees from me, they pushed my listing even further down, and now I am getting only 30 views per month. This site has become an absolute and total fraud against property owners.

I have been signed up with the company for my rental property for a few years. The company was wonderful, until late last year, when Expedia bought the company. Now customer service is almost impossible to get ahold of, and to top it off, they have tacked on a huge service fee to the guests, which has made my property go from booking very well, to almost not booking at all. I am paying them $1500 per year to have my house on their website, plus they make anywhere from 2.9% - 4.4%, off of credit card fees. The "service fee" they are charging the guests using the website is without merit, as they supply no "service" to the guests, it is all done by the owner/property manager. It is pure greed. I have already signed up with TripAdvisor and Boutique Homes, which do not charge guests who use their websites. I think Homeaway/VRBO, will find many of their clients leaving in the near future.

As many others have stated, this change in policy with VRBO/HomeAway is pure greed. There is no option to opt out of this 'service fee' which is just servicing VRBO's income stream. It does nothing for the customer despite their claims. The website implies a sense of mistrust in NOT using their system for payment. Not only do they get their 10% from the renter but they charge us a 3% fee for the transaction.

Now VRBO has implemented this new service fee unannounced. When it first started showing up on our quotes we were afraid we were having trouble with the hackers again. After spending nearly an hour waiting on customer service to help us out we come to find out this is their new service fee that they are adding to our quotes. Of course they waited until after the first of the year when we had just renewed our listing with them for the year to do this. We have not booked one single reservation since this fee has been implemented. So now we are looking at having to lower our rates by a significant percentage to account for this fee.

I've been renting our condo for 3 years on VRBO and been generally happy. I'm now furious about this new required service fee and it appears I'm not alone! Their customer service tries to explain it's helpful to the traveler but as has been previously stated on all the other reviews, VRBO certainly can't help the traveler with my condo. Does anyone know of other options to advertise other than VRBO? My renewal is up next month and I want to cancel it!

I have to agree. This fee that HomeAway is charging travelers is outrageous. I am not getting as many rentals and have ask my travelers to go back to paying by Paypal for Credit card transactions or pay by check which is a pain but by doing this not only will VRBO not get the Traveler's fee, they would get the credit fees that they remove from my deposit and you know their credit card fees are much higher than what the credit card companies charge them. This will be the last year I use them and will be changing to Flipkey.

For the past six years, I have used VRBO/HomeAway to book my luxury log cabins in Luray, Virginia. My cabins enjoy a 4.8 average review out of 5 stars. Last week, I had a disgruntled client who rated my cabin at a 3 and I accepted the rating with a polite response for future clients to help them understand the review. Shortly thereafter the client's spouse posted a second review with a 1 star rating disparaging me personally. The VRBO customer service team, Gloria, recommended that I offer to refund more money to the client. I refused and asked to speak to the executive communication team, where Michael removed the 1 star rating and let the 3 star stand with my polite rebuttal.

I am also a homeowner who has used VRBO/Homeaway since 2013. They have recently started a very sneaky campaign leading towards taking all of the control from the homeowners and this "service fee". The first thing I noticed was on my payment receipt, they removed the traveler/guest's address. Next, they removed all email addresses from the correspondence between owner's and traveler's in the body of the email. Then they "encouraged" homeowners to use their payment processor and collect all payments online. Next, they pushed homeowners to let them book the traveler without the owner/manager having to review and decide if this guest(s) was someone whom they would want to let stay at their property. Also, at this same time VRBO/ha was encouraging the HO to use the online calendar and to keep it updated.

VRBO Customer service. I am extremely disappointed in both VRBO's changed business model and owner focus. On the surface it looks brilliant, but at the very least it is unethical and has violated owners' trust. I noticed that your focus started to shifted from an "owner service provider focus" to a "VRBO centric focus", VRBO becoming more self-serving than owner serving. In fact VRBO is turning on the very base, the owner, whose listings made VRBO successful. Things that have happened that exposed your change in focus and business model...

I have two property listings to promote vacation homes I have at the beach. I have a management company that handles my rentals locally, to include collecting the sales tax and submitting on my behalf. Their new policy that you have to book online is not going to work under these circumstances. I will not renew as I cannot pay for a listing that is relegated to the bottom of the search engine results. I think this is a MONOPOLY in the making that requires the Feds to step in and put the lid on. Greed and more greed.

I just logged in and set mine to not auto renew because I am not getting any rentals with the new charges they have added. If everyone does this, they will see how the bottom line will be affected over the next year right now. After I have alternatives in place, I will also seek a refund for the rest of this year.

Greed is bad business... Really a 300% increase in fees? Goodbye VRBO!

Out of nowhere, I find that my VRBO listing for my rental has an added "service fee" on the quote that is to be paid by the renters, but appears to be imposed by me, the owner. This HUGE fee cannot be removed, and my renters are turning away. VRBO already collects $399/year from me, plus it sells advertising on the website. The "fee" is in excess of $300 per one week stay at my rental. I'm not receiving any additional services, nor are my customers. Expedia purchased VRBO/HomeAway this year and added the fee with no notice. I will attempt to cancel my membership and look elsewhere for rental advertising, but I will NEVER use Expedia or any of its affiliates again. Time for a class action lawsuit.

I am completely flabbergasted over the new extortion rates levied by VRBO/Expedia. Now that they have us completely dependent on their platform that we've been using for 14 years and paying an annual subscription fee that has quadrupled since 2002 they will now be shaking our guests down via their site by imposing up to $499 in "service fees". CEO Brian Sharples claims: "We've always been proud to be the lowest cost solution for renting your home. But we simply can't provide the level of marketing and service that today's travelers expect without asking travelers to also pay a fee for the service we provide."

Service Fee is Double Dipping. If you agree write **. He is the CEO. If us owners make enough noise he will reverse this fee. If he doesn't, then I will check out Airbnb or other options.

I have several vacation rental homes and have used VRBO for years. Paying nearly a grand every year for each listing, under the understanding that VRBO is a portal to list my home for buyers to find and reserve for no fee!!! Now… I am seeing $2-$300 fees snuck in on my rentals that I am not charging! Rentals have went to a halt! This is a complete bait and switch and VRBO should be ashamed of allowing this to happen to its paying customers – especially in the middle of their paid for contracts!

VBRO... New Fees. Terrible business move by VRBO. Everything that speaks of good partnerships were not taken into consideration. That includes communication of the changes down to some type of reasonable explanation of what this huge revenue source will provide to customers using the site. The CEO letter (received after the fact) was vague and provided little details. This type of approach will result in many customers moving on including those of us that have used VRBO to list our properties and those who rent from us.

Unfortunately VRBO has lost a loyal customer. I have listed two properties and traveled all over the world for the last several years using VRBO. They have recently added an outrageous fee charged to the traveler even though we as homeowners have already paid for our listing. I have received only 2 inquiries since the change and have lost both due to the fee. I am extremely disappointed and will no longer be giving them my business and I will spread the word. What a shame. I will be looking for a new website to list my properties and to find vacation rentals when we travel.

I just learned that my vacation rental listing on HomeAway/VRBO/VacationRentals has been dropped low on the list because I choose not to sign-up for their online payment process, even though I have listed with VRBO, etc. for over 10 years. I also learned that when HomeAway manages your payments they charge a service fee that is scaled according to dollar amount of rental. I pay nearly HomeAway $1000 per year for my seasonal rental (4 months per year).

After almost 20 years using vacation homes, I am simply devastated that HomeAway is killing the experience with fees. For a 4 day rental, here are their fees including $56 fee and $59 skim for "property protection". Damn the constant make money at any cost world. Rental Amount: (4 Nights) $556.00. Cleaning Fee: $70.00. Property Damage Protection $59.00. VRBO Service Fee $56.34. Tax: $38.92. Payment Total: $780.26.

This is our 3rd year listing my cottage on VRBO. Since Expedia bought VRBO last year, our entire experience has gone down the tubes. We had 2 successful years with lots of enquiries. I generated a long list of people who wanted to be informed when the next year's calendar opened up. We have had nothing but rave reviews from the people who have stayed at our cottage and we have really enjoyed dabbling in the hospitality business. This year enquiries have totally dried up... no return on my annual fee to VRBO of $399. The reason for this change is that my property is now listed at the bottoms of the results for the town where it is located. It was moved from near the top, because, despite the rave reviews and my excellent response time (a few hours) I would not switch to online booking.

This is an outrage to charge the guests a new service fee and charging us hosts a yearly fee and credit card fee... I am so disgusted that I want to cancel my 4 properties I have with them. This is pure greed and guests are asking me to waive this fee and it comes out of my pocket. Please someone start a class action suit soon.

VRBO is NOW charging renters a SERVICE fee ranging from 4-9% but will not reveal to homeowners on the site how they come up with that number. When asked, they say it is a sliding scale but will not tell the owner or renters what that scale is. They will not publish the scale to the owners which means they are "manipulating" the SERVICE fee as they like. This has got to be illegal and renters and owners should be furious! As an owner of a property, I will be moving my business to another site. No one will put up with a company that randomly charges a SERVICE fee at their leisure. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I recently book at renter on one of my properties from I lead I SECURED... not VRBO, but client wanted to pay via credit card so I booked them into VRBO's system. I was quoted service fee - (which is ridiculous I might add) and a booking fee - which I billed back to renter. Then once renter paid the booking fee increased by $80.50 - which was not quoted to me in my initial quote of FEES. I called customer service and they were rude and no help whatsoever. They claimed it is a system glitch, and nothing they could do about it. REALLY?? I'm trying to run a business as are they... and they misquote me and expect me to eat the difference which was THEIR ERROR.

My bookings fell off a cliff recently. It's a vacation home and a ski resort and it's been a very good ski season and good season for bookings until very recently. I could not figure out what was going on. I thought there was a problem with the site until I went to my own VRBO listing to test the booking process. I tried to book and noticed that VRBO was sneakily layering on an 8% booking fee to the clients!!! I went through my VRBO emails and did find a passing mention of this buried in the emails but no proper disclosure IMO. No wonder that no one was booking. Upon doing some more research I found this fee was implemented on 2/15/2016 right around the time bookings stopped.

We have used VRBO for more than 12 years, travelling from Wales all over the USA, and have rented some fantastic properties and met some wonderful owners in person. This now has to end. I refuse to pay this outrageous service charge for no service at all. It is an advertising site which charges owners for advertising. So now the customer and the owner are charged. We will have to find other sites that are not part of this group to rent from. We booked this summer before the charge was imposed, but when I tried to book for a week in Vancouver next year and then 2 weeks in Florida the charge appeared.

When I signed up and paid for my services in May 2005 with VRBO-HomeAway I never agreed to be charged 8% more just for listing my vacation rental. As of February 15, 2016 this is the case. To the potential renter, my $1150 a week vacation rental will now cost nearly $100 more. My rent-by-the-month fee will be $400 more! Increased marketing investment of my property is not the real reason for VRBO to do this without the agreement of homeowners. Otherwise, it would be explained as an option upon the renewal of my yearly contracted fees. I believe there is reason for a class-action (multiple damaged persons) lawsuit against VRBO-HomeAway. Does anyone else agree? It is likely a good San Francisco attorney would take this on as a contingency (no fee for the percentage collection of a win). Let me know your thoughts.

I've not been impressed with VRBO for a long time. First: it is strange that they would compare themselves with Airbnb. Airbnb service is 24/7 with hardly any wait time. Second: VRBO/Homeaway branding seems misguided.. These days it seems more in alignment with millionaires and now promises to be more expensive to renters, reducing the benefit of their services to owners. The secret to Airbnb success is that they've reduced the cost of travel while providing excellent value. This FEE is the explanation for the mysterious extra costs that continued to show up when we just reduced our rates to remain competitive. I'm seeing where other owners are saying inquiries have dropped since the fee began. VRBO this is hurting the very people you are supposed to be representing (us - the owners!) Am about to investigate how to cancel our account.

I was helping a guest with a booking the other day and saw an ADDITIONAL FEE on the quote! It was imposed by HomeAway! I couldn't believe it! I'd not been informed by HomeAway that they were doing this! We already pay a yearly fee to HomeAway now. They are going to impose a fee on the Traveler? This service to travelers is how HomeAway and VRBO has made it to be the largest vacation rental service. This I feel is nothing but Greed! I'm really disenchanted with the whole thing! What can we do to encourage them to renege? I really think this will be their downfall. If there is a class action suit count me in too!

I've been with VRBO for a couple years now and couldn't figure out why the SERVICE FEE kept popping up on my quotes. It took 1 hour to get through to customer service. They said it was a 4-9% fee charged to traveler. I said, "Well NO ONE has booked with me lately because of this fee unless I drop my prices/quotes." I also explained I paid an annual fee to list my property and advertise it with VRBO and at that time it was advertised as no fees to the traveler.

VRBO WILL NOT STAND BY THEIR FRAUDULENT LISTINGS. Do not use VRBO, they will not stand by you. We paid 14,000.00 to owner online for a vacation rental. Once we are arrived, the one bedroom, ocean front, living room and kitchen suite was a hotel room. Nothing like pictures and description. Called VRBO and they said they could not help us. Could not dispute with Credit Card company because VRBO would not write letter stating it was a fraudulent listing. This is second time we booked a vacation rental with VRBO and listing was not like on site. DO NOT GO THRU VRBO.

Beware VRBO consumers, we have been a loyal user of VRBO for many years and have booked many vacation homes through their site. On 2/16/16, they implemented a new "service fee" charging you the consumer 10% of your total booking. If you check out their website, there is nothing on there telling you about the new fee. When you book online, you think you are paying the down payment to the homeowner but you are actually paying this 10% fee to VRBO.

Until they got acquired by HomeAway and then by Expedia. Their business practices when dealing with homeowners have gotten just horrible. We have been strong-armed into running our vacation rental homes the way THEY want us to, and if we don't, our homes aren't showing up in traveler searches. They have changed the search algorithms so that even those of us who pay $1000 or more per year for a subscription don't see the same number of guest inquiries as properties who pay much less or who use their "Pay Per Booking" model.

Wow. I wasn't aware that my tenants were going to be charged by VRBO as well as myself. Talk about double dipping!! Wow!! NOT Right!! I will be looking for other locations to post my Home! I am in North Phoenix Az. VRBO do you really want to piss off all of your clients? This will leave you open to loss!! And lawsuit!! I also don't remember you informing me of these changes!!

As many have already posted here and on other complaint boards, VRBO/Homeaway engaged in unfair trade by sneaking a service fee into their booking structure, after collecting full advert rates from their customers, the effect is a sharp drop in bookings to ZERO for homeowners like myself. I have listed my property with VRBO/Homeaway for the 7th year. It has never been this bad.

VRBO now is putting a "warning" flag on the sites of their "PAYING ADVERTISERS/HOMEOWNERS" for any site not subscribed to their payment processing option. They have told us as homeowners any other payment processing will not be supported in the near future. This program clearly is nothing more than an additional way for VRBO to generate a HUGE additional cost to the renter and a drastic disadvantage to the homeowner.

This is yet ANOTHER complaint regarding the booking fee VRBO has implemented. They justified the fee by saying they will increase advertising and drive more business to their listings. Frankly, I didn't feel that the listings were under-advertised. Instead of receiving increased inquiries, we are receiving practically NO inquiries. Certainly, NO bookings. VRBO has made a bad business decision and if they don't rescind the fee, they are destined to suffer huge losses in revenue. We don't intend to continue our participation with them as there are alternatives. Home Escapes and Vacation Home Rentals should be sending VRBO flowers.

We have used VRBO for 14 years to advertise our vacation home at the Jersey shore. Through the years, the fee to list our home on their website has gone from $249 to $899 for a one-year subscription. Over time, they became part of Home Away and now Expedia. On February 15, 2016, VRBO/HA started implementing a service fee to renters. They are trying to force us to use an online booking tool and collect this service fee. The fee from VRBO/HA to book our home for one week is $154. If a potential renter clicks on the "instant quote" feature on our listing, it shows our rental amount plus this service fee as one charge. The service fee is not listed as a separate charge. It appears that we are charging $154 more for our home for the week than we truly are.

I strongly encourage all travelers to book on non-VRBO/Homeaway/VacationRentals.com websites. I am a vacation home owner who is appalled at the new 9% fee VRBO has added to force renters to subscribe to services that you don't need and VRBO cannot manage! I have been running a successful business with lower than average rental rates to attract families under moral, ethical and honest principles. VRBO has undermined those principles by requiring fees to simply bolster their underperforming, poorly managed website and owner services offering.

I thought VRBO was an incredible website and have recommended it to so many people. Many of those people have started booking their vacations through VRBO. That has ended for me. We own a small cabin in North Georgia. We put in on VRBO in June of 2014. So far we have done modestly well. It is in a distinct community where there are only 16 rental properties and many people come back to visit friends or relatives. It is not in a big resort area. We have not broken even but close and we have not made any money on the significant improvements we made just to make it a short term rental (like $100 EA mattress x 4 beds x 2 covers for each bed to prevent bed bugs!).

VRBO changed their policy by charging a "service fee" paid by guests in addition to the annual subscription fee paid by owners. They made this change between renewal periods without notice to the owners. Now owners are experiencing a drop and cancellation of business once the service fee is disclosed to guests AFTER the owners paid for an annual service. The owners should file a class action suit against VRBO/HomeAway for their unlawful interference of trade since their new service fee policy wasn't in place when the owner's subscription was renewed.

It has become a money grab. Guests are subjected to a fee, owners pay a steep annual fee to participate, we are required to use their credit card system with more fees. I had written a letter wanting to opt out of the required credit card connection and continue using PayPal. One month later Omar from support at vacation rent payment answered telling me the things I will lose including the service for our guest to just push the "Book it" button. I have kept my rates low so people have an affordable get-away even though I have new carpet and new furniture.

My husband and I are the owners of a VRBO-listed vacation rental house in Santa Fe, NM. We have always paid the highest price for my ad in order to obtain the highest ranking in searches. And we have enjoyed great success over the past 6 years, achieving almost 100 5-star ratings from our guests and very high occupancy rates. But ever since last summer things have deteriorated because of all of the unethical and incompetent practices that Expedia/VRBO has been instituting - the most recent and most flagrant being the new service charge to guests.

Credibility and Trust... gone!! VRBO had no right to implement a charge to our Renters without any communication to us as their Customer. VRBO was sneaky and underhanded in their changing of business practices for Owners and Renters. We will not subject our Renters to the uncalled for fee when we already pay VRBO sufficiently for the listing. When trying their customer service lines to discuss, the call would simply fail!! Probably with dissatisfied customers with the new service fee! I am seeking my fees back and am cancelling my service.

When responding to a customer for a quote for the very short upcoming, very seasonal 8 week Summer 2016 season, I noticed an extra 10% Service Fee added to my quote after I had estimated the total for the customer. This ADDED FEE added an extra $117.00 to the estimate. I sent the estimate to the prospective customer. I called VRBO about this new fee and after a 20 min. wait I spoke with a nice operator and was essentially told that is the new way and will have to deal with it. I tried to say we pay a fee for using the online payments and a $399.00 yearly subscription to the company and by them adding another 10% on the back side of my quote is going to cost me business. I had already noticed a downturn in my inquiries after they have made "New and Improved Changes" over the last 5-6 months with the new "Algorithm".

I have just recently discovered that my guests are being charged a service fee. This evidently is being charged by VRBO to provide them protection against double booking, renting a home that is in foreclosure, and to provide better services to them. Really? This certainly is not the way to go about it. Do my guests really want to pay an extra $40 bucks for a 3-night stay for this service? This service fee applies even if they pay by check as evidently, they now have to enter their credit card. I find this extremely unfair to my guests. VRBO has stated for years that they would never charge a fee. My international guests have to pay fees for currency exchange and now this as well?

VRBO has a popup hidden in the lower right corner. It links my listing in Shoshone, MT to Shoshone, CA. I'm not going to get any rentals with this mistake, which they need to fix immediately!

Last night I discovered that a service fee had been added to my guest booking on VRBO. It is hidden to the guest. I was wondering why my inquiries and bookings had fallen to 0 in the last month. I was put on hold for over 30 minutes by the crack customer service team. I am certain I was their first complaint. I then joined and tried several times to post on the message community. I was censored. I used no profanity or threats. I questioned the competence of management to take a beautiful business in such a catastrophic direction. The arrogance displayed by this company will be its demise. I predict that without a reversal of policy and gigantic apology, this site will be insolvent in 12 months. As far as the censorship, I am sure the executive team can find employment in China where they share the same value system.

I have 5 properties with different subscription levels on Homeaway/VRBO. They completely changed their business model after collecting our listing fees. Simply put, it is not what I signed up for. The main issues I have are that they have forced us to use a "book it now" feature that doesn't work at all for my company that I would never have signed up for had it been put forth before my renewal.

We have been in the vacation rental business since 2000. We have had our own website for our property in Moab, Utah since we opened it. We've used many different "listing companies" through the years, and began listing on VRBO in 2010 after having suggestions by those we knew that rented houses through VRBO. In the beginning it doubled our bookings in the first year. We had always had a merchant account for taking credit cards, but we changed to use their payment system because they were competitive in their merchant rates. At that point we had many repeat customers, some that have booked with us for over 10 years. We have a large duplex that can be rented as two separate spaces (or houses), or as one rental. Up to our renewal in December of 2014 we were able to control our payments and calendar.

VRBO and HomeAway recently added a service fee to my online quote which greatly increases the total to rent the properties I have listed. They do not allow us to remove this if we don't use their online booking rubric and thus falsely elevates our quote communication with the possible renter.

I cannot believe what I just found out. VRBO is charging renters a HUGE service fee to fatten up their wallets. In case they don't know, our economy is not the greatest and I just found out the rental I wanted in Lake Tahoe is going to cost me an additional $499 in "service fees". I asked the owner of the house if this is his fee since he already was charging me a cleaning fee, damage fee and requires insurance, and he told me no it goes to VRBO/Homeaway/ Expedia for advertising and "my protection".

Since the implementation of the service fees, bookings have dropped substantially almost to zero. The company has manipulated their search engine over the past few days to prioritize different listings even if people have paid for the upgraded listing service. A company that is willing to alienate almost all of their supporters will have difficulty in the future. Without commentary, I would recommend that potential renters go to other sites in order to avoid the fee which has no added benefit. Home Escape and Vacation Home Rentals to name two.

Background: HomeAway and VRBO developed strong and highly profitable business models by connecting mostly individual property owners to individual renters. This aggregation model is particularly strong since the participants were mostly individuals (no domination by a large customer or supplier). Viewed another way, the model sewed together two fragmented markets - a classic "Long Tail" model. Serving a fragmented model is good - higher margins, and more stability so long as both sides of the equation like being in the arrangement.

As all are posting on here, I am writing in regards to the new service fee VRBO is charging renters. I have used VRBO as both a renter and I list with them as an owner. I was wondering why my inquiries have dropped to almost NOTHING. The power of social media is strong. I just posted on my personal Facebook page about what they are doing to the people wanting to book with them how they are charging them a fee. I have asked my friends to share my post to get the word out. I suggest everyone do this so we as owners can get the word out. Also tweet this information as well. Companies do not like negative social media posts! We will not be renewing our listing in April when our current listing expires.

I am very displeased with VRBO. After using VRBO for several years and very satisfied. But this year this has changed drastically. After charging me $899 for my listing they have decided without notice to me that they are going to charge my customers from 4% to 10% for inquiring and booking a listing thru them to me. They tell me that they notified me by email about the change. I cannot find any previous emails from them informing me about their decision to charge my customers a fee over and above my listing advertised price. I hope there is grounds for a class action suit against VRBO. My prime time rentals were fortunately mostly booked before they made this change. But since the change my weekend rentals have all but stopped. My understanding was that I paid for advertising thru them and nothing was said or stated about the extra charge.

VRBO had no right to implement a charge to our Renters without any communication to us as their Customer. VRBO had no right to move our listing to make it difficult to find. VRBO was sneaky and underhanded in their changing of Business practices for Owners and Renters. We will not subject our Renters to the uncalled for fee when we already pay VRBO sufficiently for the listing. I will pass on any future solicitations from VRBO and inform every owner in Ocean Resorts to do the same. VRBO you have lost not only credibility but an entire community that I have personally sent your way...

I've spent the better part of a day reading posts and reviews to get a handle on the new service fee. Only last night did I see the fee for the first time on a booking request so today I started investigating. Now I know why I've only received one request through Home Away/VRBO lately. All the rest have come in from TripAdvisor. I called Home Away/VRBO, from outside the US where I live, but the wait was over 25 minutes, so I hung up. Please count me in on a class action lawsuit. My property is in So. Cal where the rental costs are already high. I cannot imagine adding another several hundred $ to a tenant's quote.

The additional service fee was the last straw that we had with VRBO. The lack of information given when customers made online payments was bad enough - grouping payments with undisclosed fees was an accounting nightmare. I don't need them to rent my property but they did help with exposure. I think I will be better off once I delete the online payment option and setup a better profile on a few other sites to rent my houses out! Very excited to see when the class action lawsuit will be filed!!!

We are the owner of two rental cabins in North GA and have been utilizing the services of VRBO since 2011. Out of nowhere I experienced an additional fee automatically added to a quote to a prospective renter of 9%. Not knowing where it came from I contacted customer service, and after 30 minutes on hold, shared my story and was told that VRBO began adding this service fee to be paid by the renter. Shocked, I asked about why I had not heard anything in advance and what the fee was for. They informed me that an e-mail had been sent out (which I can find no record of) and that this 4-9% service fee (9% for the lower cost cabins like mine) was being charged to the customer and did not affect me. Unbelievable!

VRBO model was built on owners paying yearly rental fees and renters not paying any fees. In January 2016 they without any explanation added about 10% to my quote naming it service fee. Customer service said: well, "Airbnb charging customers fees." Yes, but I, as a owner don't pay them anything. Absolutely abhorrent dishonest money grab from VRBO.

I have been with VRBO for 8 years. I have been nothing but happy with their website up until now. We were not notified or I did not agree to the new service charge they have tacked on. On top of not being made aware of the fee, not everyone is currently being charged. Only a handful of owners who list in my area are showing the service fee making my rental appear $165 more than others. Calling the company I was pretty much told... too bad. We can do it so we are. What a poor way of doing business. Very disappointed.

Without notice VRBO began charging a service fee between 4% and 9% of the rental rate. For my property it is 9% and it is a large fee to pay for any renter. You see, my property is the low cost property in the area and I take pride in providing excellent value. This fee is completely blowing that strategy for me. My cabin is super clean and VRBO never once had to intervene with any of my satisfied customers. I have a 100% 5 star rating without VRBO lifting a finger! And now there's service fee; FOR WHAT? I already paid $300 just for VRBO to carry my listing, but that's it.

I have been a satisfied VRBO customer for several years and recommended them to other owners. Last year they failed to secure their system exposing my banking information. Last year I spent days to fully load the "hospitality" section of the site with manuals, instructions, photos and great information about area attractions. All of the info under the "hospitality" tab is now blank (so much for the website enhancements). Now, rather than trying make amends, VRBO (without warning, e-mail or snail mail) decided to start charging our customers an undefined sliding scale percentage. I sent an e-mail to VRBO about 26 hours ago with no response. Please include me in the class action lawsuit.

I can confirm via personal billing experience what others have said about the new VRBO fees. VRBO is suddenly increasing their revenue many-fold, exhibiting extraordinary greed. They are charging my renters 9% of the owner's income. They have also increased their credit card processing fee as well. Mine went from 2.5% to 2.9%. I gather that they will also increase their annual listing charge to about $400. Even excluding their annual charge, their take is 11.9%, which exceeds my, and probably most owners' net profit. Despite their new fees, which the CEO tried to justify as intended to improve customer service, they have created a new communications wall so that you can no longer e-mail them.

A SERVICE FEE is charge for making any booking on VRBO. As a property owner using VRBO we ALREADY paying to promote our properties. But did not sign up to have VRBO use us a tool to ding our customers/clients. You don't see other industries doing this the end-users, Car Rental, Airlines, eBay, Amazon, Grocery stores, Gas Stations...

I am furious. VRBO just added a service fee and it is a rip-off. No prior notice plus there is no % structure. I am definitely looking to other options. I was so happy up to this point with VRBO but because this is such a slimy practice and I am very, very disappointed. Greed is the only answer.

HomeAway/VRBO was acquired by Expedia which is owned by Microsoft. I have been a loyal HomeAway/VRBO customer (owner) since 2009. I have a tiny beach condo in GA. I have been very happy with the service and results until now. I pay $1200 per year to advertise, I recently noticed that a 10% service fee has been added on to the guest total cost of booking my condo. I am very unhappy and I'm trying to find alternatives to these companies. Talk about Corporate GREED, this is so UNETHICAL. My listing is up for renewal soon, I do not plan to renew my listing. I hope all VRBO/HomeAway Owners and Guests will write to consumer affairs to express their OUTRAGE. Bill Gates, shame on you! If other Owners find alternatives, please publish them to help all of us. I am now listed on HomeEscape, Airbnb, TripAdvisor and looking for more.

As many other owners, I am appalled at the new booking fee that VRBO is sticking my guests with, so I am planning to fight. I am replacing my listing description with this, in case anyone else wants to join me! Now that I have your attention, let me explain. I have rented my units on this site for some time and like it because unlike other vacation rental sites, VRBO did not charge my guests a "booking fee", instead they charge the owner a hefty yearly fee, the most basic one is $399 and it goes up to $1299 for the platinum, plus another $450 for the listing to appear on their other sites, like HomeAway. I did not mind paying the yearly fee in order for my guests to not have the "booking fee". I also really liked the fact that unlike other sites, VRBO did not hide owner's and guest's contact info from each other, making communication much easier. That has been changed recently.

HomeAway/VRBO/Expedia has been cheating its customers for years now. First they talked their customers who are homeowners into paying for upgraded premium subscriptions (platinum) for a cost of nearly $2,000 with included bundle promising they would show up at the top of searches displayed to the travelers on their websites. Then long before these outrageously expensive subscriptions expired HomeAway/VRBO/Expedia cheated those same owners by artificially bumping up other homes to the top of the search because by doing so HomeAway/VRBO/Expedia would make a larger commission. The list of lies is a mile long, even their customer reps have been recorded outright lying to travelers.

The vacation homes on its website are priced low. When booked, either the owner or VRBO would confirmed your desired dates are not available. Some owners would lure you to their own website for higher prices. The worst part is that VRBO's still holding some full amount charges on my credit card for the unsuccessful reservations of 3 days ago. Several unsuccessful reservations brought my available credit to 0 and trigger my credit company's fraud alert. I wish such a company luck.

I've used VRBO to travel for many years. They've always said that renters would NEVER pay any fees to rent. You can easily Google it and find the video of the CEO himself stating it. They are now charging a 4-10% fee to book as of last month. This is a disingenuous approach to doing business. Will never use them again.

We noticed there was a $228 fee added on onto a quote to a renter that was booking with us 2 weeks ago. We knew Expedia had bought VRBO and that there would be changes, but this is a joke. It took 119 minutes to get through to customer service, as they are consumed answering calls from every owner, furious with this new fee. They will give no specifics and the inside phone reps will only tell you it's a sliding 4-9% scale. They also are persistent in saying that this fee is on the renter, not the owner, designed to increase customer service and improve the app and site! Hilarious, it doesn't take this much money to accomplish this.

I am shocked to find out that VRBO is now starting to charge my guests a fee to rent my property and for nothing! And they are outright lying about what the service is for. Their explanation makes the prospective renter think they are doing this so they will not get cheated by the owner. This is beyond horrible and I am just heartbroken. We have been so happy with VRBO since 2011 and have had wonderful results and now they have gone down a slippery slope of no return with their clients. I vet all my guests and get to know them before they rent. There is no way I would allow someone else to take my reservations or my money. Increase the owner's subscription fees if you have to make more money. Why fix something that was not broken?

It's hard to believe a company like VRBO would pull a stunt like this without telling anyone in advance. These new fees are just ridiculous. I'm done with VRBO and I hope others drop them also.

Everything about the way this has been handled is completely unacceptable. To all of the sudden have service fees show up on my quote that I send to potential renters with no explanation of what and why.... making if look as I am charging them a service fee! It's unethical and greedy. And seriously, because you already charge property owners a list with you, you are double dipping whether you admit it or not. AND, I could see maybe a very low percentage if you need some sort of compensation from the renter... but your service fee is higher than my cleaning fee, which I was going to raise this summer out of necessity but now don't feel like I can overwhelm the renter. I have had many inquiries since the service fee and not ONE booking.

I have been using VRBO/Homeaway since June, 2013. The annual subscription cost me $1148.00. Without any prior notice, after being bought by Expedia, they start charging service fees from 4-10% to the person booking when they pay through VRBO website using a credit card. This was not what I paid for. Newsflash to VRBO: If your were going to implement a change of this magnitude, how about waiting until the annual subscription was up and then making the change then. CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT PLEASE. Are we supposed to change our confirmations to reflect the new service charge? Yes, my bookings have dropped. I will be upfront with customers about the booking service fee, and give them the option to pay through me with my credit card processing company to avoid the fee. Will I renew? Certainly not, unless the subscription fee is lowered to a third of the price.

I agree with the other owners posting comments. I was never notified by VRBO that they were adding a fee and I already pay for a top yearly subscription. Since this fee was added I am not getting as many inquiries. I dropped a managing company because of their fees. Now I have the VRBO fee. Adding a fee to a renter's quote only means one of two things. I have to lower my rates and take a loss of income or the renter has to pay the extra charge. So far, renters do not want to pay. In addition, I do not want to lower my rates. I have expenses in keeping up a quality rental. This is only more money in VRBO pocket!! Not the homeowner or the renter. This should be a class action lawsuit. This does not benefit ANYONE except VRBO.

I have used VRBO for 10 years. I just cancelled my auto renewal, removed my credit card, and will not renew my ad based upon the service fee they are imposing! Not only is this the dumbest business move since Coke cancelled their original flavor in favor of New Coke (someone should be fired), it is a ridiculous move imposing a fee that has no basis other than to make VRBO revenues increase. The cost owners pay for listings had always, and should always be, for the support that VRBO has always provided and which they claim the new service fees cover.

I have advertised on VRBO for years. We pay an annual fee to do so. VRBO just implemented fees for bookings. Now there are fees in the amount of 5%,10% added to all my bookings that I am now charged. It's a deterrent to all our clients and quite a stupid marketing strategy. VRBO is also sabotaging our property tanking. Beware of VRBO / HOMEAWAY. THEY ARE DISHONEST.

Without any notice, and what appears to be a deliberate lack of full disclosure about newly added service fees to potential guests, as a dedicated property owner, focused on personalized service and care to my vacation rental guests, I had 8% service fees added to all of my guests' quotes and stays. I added a property on February 24th, just after this service fee was unilaterally added and I was NOT told about it by the sales rep, who took my $850/year fee! When I saw it added to the first inquiry, I called VRBO repeatedly, giving up twice after 30-minute plus waits, and then leaving a message for them to call me back (an offered option).

Looking for hotels in Tennessee and the rate is $150 a night. I am a seasoned traveler so I know there will be taxes and because it is VRBO a service fee, but they also had a owners fee, and they required a $1500 deposit and or mandatory $60 usage fee for damages, which I know I will not damage. So the net rate is not really $300 but a minimum of $534.75 for what should have been ALL IN under $400. This is grossly misleading. Fraudulent. A waste of the consumers time. A demonstration of lack of trust with the customer. I will gladly book at a major hotel chain that understands value. Disappointment and deceit is what I think of VRBO.

VRBO is demanding that owners of vacation homes who pay annual fees to join VRBO must now allow it to charge an additional fee to their travelers. It is outrageous "double dipping", certainly unethical and, for you VRBO owners who are lawyers, isn't it also illegal? We vacation home owners entered into a contract with VRBO. We agreed to pay an annual fee in exchange for VRBO posting our property. We did not agree to allow VRBO to charge our renters. Isn't that a breach of contract? VRBO insists all renters want to only book via computer. Well, my clients DO NOT WANT THAT! They are not FlipKey or Airbnb customers. They want to book directly with the owner, enjoy exchanging emails and asking LOTS of questions to which they want answers before they spend money renting a beautiful villa for their vacation. They are usually older and not "wired". They are not the budget travelers that use Airbnb or FlipKey.

This company has changed the way they are displaying the properties from the time we purchased the advert on a continuous basis. They added so many additional options and are trying to force us, the owners to 'buy more options' from them. Recently they implemented changes that charge 'my guests' a service fee of 5-10%. That too after we purchased the 'spot' on their website to advertise. Totally unethical company. I need my money back.

I have a Platinum membership ($1500/year) with VRBO.com to advertise one studio rental. I am a very small business owner. I have been satisfied with VRBO/HomeAway services until today when I noticed that my customer had been hit with a $94 "service fee." This is on top of the credit card fees they already charge the people who book rentals. I am so disappointed that VRBO/HomeAway did not ask or inform their members of this fee beforehand. They should have given us the option to cancel our memberships and refunded the remaining balance.

Count me in for a class action lawsuit. VRBO has turned to **. I just found out that there is a glitch in their system, that emails from smartphone do not always come through. Since Expedia has taken over it has been extremely hard to make and get bookings. I have 5 listings and will not be renewing due to the service fee (never advised of - just appeared) and the fact that I have not gotten all the emails??? I had several past clients call me and ask why I had not responded to their requests. Well I never got them!!!

Like many of you responding here, I too am a homeowner that has a listing with VRBO. I have had 1 house listed for about a year and a half and just bought another that I WAS planning to add to VRBO. I will not be doing that now. For my listing this new service fee will be the equivalent of VRBO tripling their fee. This is absolutely ridiculous! What other listing services are available that I can switch my properties to? Because this new service fee is going to kill my business so I have to figure out another way to get my properties rented.

VRBO has changed 100%. I am a homeowner and now they are so different than one year ago. They have added fees to my customers. This has turned customers off and I have lost customers, but I still have already paid my yearly fee to VRBO. They now only give me 24 hours to answer on the new system. "Book it now, then you can no longer keep that reservation." What a pain for me and the customer. They are now showing a lot of prices in USD. I never had any Canadians say this to me before, lost 2 clients over that. You cannot change invoices once the reservation has been made. This allows for no changes if the client needs changes. I assume because of all the changes they are getting so many phone calls and complaints because I have waited on hold 2 times both over 35 minutes. That is not customer service. Airbnb is looking better. I think this industry is ready for a new player!!!

I noticed two days ago that when one of my repeat customers attempted to book a week at my vacation rental, she was charged a $218 service fee, which was actually taken out of the proceeds of her deposit paid to me. When I called VRBO about this, they could not explain this fee. They told me that they had notified me in prior emails beginning in November, 2015, but I could not find the emails that notified me of the additional fee. They would not re-send these notices to me. They could not explain how the percentages could range from 4% of the rental fee up to 9% of the rental fee.

The new service fee is the most unabashed corporate money grab I have ever seen. It's not just the customer service reps that can't explain the new fees. Brian Sharples (CEO) can't even give a logical explanation. None of this seems to concern them because they know they really "don't have to". They've said that "customers are used to service fees and won't think twice about paying it"?! And tried to sneak it in quietly. Can't find anywhere how the sliding scale fee is calculated (4%-10%). I will never book through them again.

I found out through a renter that VRBO is now charging a service fee to my tenants. This is around 10% depending on the rental. I have been trying to call VRBO and have been on hold for over 30 minutes. This is beyond ridiculous and I'm canceling my account.

I own a vacation rental which rent through HomeAway/VRBO, for which I pay an annual fee. I am also charged a fee when guests pay through their system. They are now arbitrarily charging vacation renters an extra "fee" of 4% - 10% for the privilege of booking through their site. My inquiries and bookings have dropped off dramatically. I had a guest call to cancel, demanding a refund when he noticed the new fee. (I allowed him to pay though a secondary source for which this fee was not charged and he kept his vacation dates.)

For the past 3.5 years, I have been very pleased with VRBO, but in 2016 "the wheels have come off" of VRBO. I own one of the most exclusive properties in Panama City Beach and have ALL 5-Star reviews on my listing. After paying for the top level subscription in July 2015, I started getting "bullied" about booking contracts only through VRBO. VRBO has initiated extremely high charges to both the guest and the owner to book a property. These fees were never stated in the contract I signed in July 2015; they just started "appearing".

As an owner to avoid paying "commission" to them you have to buy a membership for over $400 a year. As of 2 weeks ago they snuck in a "service charge," that they charge to customers and can be as much as 10%. The reason I bought the membership for a year was so I would not have to deal with customers being charged extra on top of the rental rate. Called customer service and their argument was that I was not being charged but the renter was.

VRBO won't publish what their Service Fee rate structure is. All they say is that it is a sliding scale based on the Rental amount and that it varies from 4% to 9%. On my rental I plugged in some numbers. There is no 4% rate. The lowest is 5.5% until you hit the maximum fee of $499. 4% is a lie. And who knows if everyone is getting charged the same fee structure or if next week the fee structure will change. Completely shady. Not to mention when I signed up they said the credit card service fee was 2.5% and when my first credit card transaction came in I was charged 2.9%. So I took on all this work to manage my property and earn the 15% to 18% property management fee myself. I spent some money on electronic locks and other things to make it work out. Now VRBO wants to take over half what I was saving with a stroke of a pen.

I have been using VRBO for 3 years and it has been pretty good, not as good as Airbnb, but worth the subscription rate ($350). But last year my banking info was hacked. They offered a free credit review to see if my identity was stolen. Yikes. So I was content to subscribe and have guests pay me by check in the mail and in person. But now, without alerting me, VRBO has added fees to my guests, jacking up my price in their eyes. I have not renewed my contract with them this year. Plus, they offer big discounts to new users but nothing to loyal long term customers. Airbnb is much better.

Due to the new service fee, I fortunately have only 6 days left on my subscription which I won't renew. When I talked to customer service they could care less what I thought about the new fee. I will work very hard to share my feelings with everyone not to use them for any reason in the future.

asked when I renewed if there would be any fees to my renters and was lied to. I for one would like to start a class action lawsuit and surely will not be renewing my listing.

I have rented my mountain cabin through VRBO for a few years. Unfortunately I renewed my annual "contract" a few weeks ago. I pay $370 annually for my property to be listed on the site, plus pay a percentage of any reservations where guests book and pay online through VRBO. Until recently, VRBO has stated on their website that guests who book/pay through the website are never charged a fee to book. Now VRBO has started charging a "Service Fee" to guests who book and pay through the website. However, when a guest makes an inquiry as to property availability and cost, this "service fee" -- which supposedly ranges from 4-10% of rent but it was not explained how the exact percentage charged was determined -- appears on the quoted cost to rent that is provided to potential renter as though it is being charged by the PROPERTY OWNER.

One of my repeat multi-year repeat customers just tried to book for this year and saw the new "service fee". Likely won't book. So now VRBO (or what's left of VRBO as it has been absorbed by HomeAway and now Expedia and has lost all interest in representing the owners) has added a huge tax. We had no say in this. Doesn't help me one bit. Doesn't help my customers one bit. All it does is drive up everyone's cost - except Expedia - they make the profit and erode any remaining reason for anyone to take the risk in owning and renting a property. I WELCOME competitors that will keep transaction fees to under 1%, annual fees to under $100 and that can cover their remaining costs with judicial use of advertising revenue. Hope VRBO's new service fee is a giant mistake and embarrassment and they retract it quickly. Let's hope a multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit gets filed and bleeds them.

What can I say that hasn't been said already. I have 2 properties on VRBO and rentals are down this year. So much for the "Silver" plan that I paid $1300 for now that VRBO is chasing away customers by taking on a meaningless, money grabbing fee. I noticed they rolled this fee out at the beginning of the rental season (right after my auto renewal). I would love to see a league action brought against them because I certainly did not sign up for this.

WE are property managers who advertise several of our homes on VRBO. We pay close to $5000.00 a year to advertise on their website. We just learned of the additional fee that will be charged to renters on this site and we disappointed that VRBO has taken this path. Once our subscription fees on our homes are up we will not be renewing our subscriptions. I just had a phone call from a sales representative to renew 4 of our properties and not one word was said about these new fees. I renewed the fees at a cost of over $4000, I am very disappointed that VRBO has chosen to go down this path. WE have been very happy with VRBO prior to this even if we were paying over $5000 a year to advertise. WE will go with a website now to advertise our vacation rental properties.

I am really upset. I just found out about this new service fee from VRBO. I have been a customer for 6 years and have been happy until now. I just got off the phone with VRBO and spoke with Matt who told me that no one knows how much the fee will be for each renter. He said the computer generates a number between 4-9%. He said no one at VRBO knows how this fee is calculated. I asked him how can I tell my renter how much it will cost them. He told me to tell them my fee and then tell them there will be a fee from VRBO then I can't tell them how much it is going to be. How is this legal?? I asked for a call from his supervisor to see if he can tell me how it is calculated. He said he would have him call me but he will tell me the same thing.

It looks like VRBO has added a new booking fee, charged to CUSTOMERS, on top of the SUBSCRIPTION FEE that I pay, if they reserve/book/pay on the VRBO site. Looks like an easy solution. I will tell my renters that they can pay the booking fee if they want to pay on VRBO (plus me pay the credit card processing fee) OR they can let me book them manually in my property manager's system and pay them without the booking fee (I'll still have my credit card fee, so no impact to me). VRBO has lost their minds!

I am very unhappy with HomeAway's (Expedia's) decision to add service fees that are essentially adding profits to their bottom line exponentially. What is even more unfortunate is that they are adding service fees to customers who have had quotes and reservations for over a year and that is illegal. Let alone the audacity and lack of integrity of their decision to steal money from our customers that have already been provided a quote and booked based on that quote. I would expect and hope they find themselves in a large class action lawsuit as a result of their greediness. Not only did they not provide notice to the Owners who advertise on HomeAway/VRBO & countless other sites, they have the audacity to charge customers who have had quotes and reservations for as much as a year.

I am extremely upset at VRBO's new service fee on top of my annual listing payment which I used in place of the flat commission for booking. I was never informed of VRBO's new service fee at any time or prior to my renewal of my gold level listing in December and learned of it today with the latest request for booking where it was included.