VRBOReviews 2,004

Owners and renters are being ripped off on VRBO and Homeaway owned by Expedia

Renter Fees of 4-10% are now being charged to most bookings on these sites. These fees are not going to owners despite them trying to finfd ways to hide the fee and who is getting it.

Owners and renters avoid fees at the new www.homeescape.com

OWNERS-- disable BIN AND HA PAYENTS -- take bookings and payments off line like you used too.

Also remove your listing from auto renew and remove your credit card info so that they can't renew.

I was pleased with. This company up to about 18 months ago. But since then they have taken the contact away from owners, started charging these fees and others despite a large subscription fee. Pure greed on the part of Exoedia

They now double dip in an effort to generate added revenue... Charging home owners who advertise and again to those who rent, charging a service fee. This has had a dramatic effect on my inquiries which are next to nothing and to date I've had one rental when I normally have rented all my prime weeks by now. I've used VRBO for years with success but if things stay like this I will terminate my subscription.

I would also like to add, VRBO/Homeaway are deleting all negative posts in Facebook, on their sites, wherever they can control communication thus masking the issue that's causing a major problem for both property owners and renters/clients.

I use https://www.vacationhomerentals.com - I get more inquires than VRBO but not as many bookings. I will be leaving VRBO after subscription expires and I am also trying
http://www.homeescape.com
To avoid the service fee just sent a personal email to the inquiry and explain they can avoid the service charge by paying via Pay Pal. I have had 2 bookings in the last 2 weeks and potential renters appear to be very happy that I notified them. You can also update the VRBO calendar by just blocking the dates you process away from VRBO. For me this is temporary because I will soon say goodby to this deceiving, immoral company who has slayed the goose that laid the golden egg.

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.

Now Homeaway/VRBO/Expedia want to make another HUGE money grab by charging travelers a 10% commission ON TOP of the HUGE listing fees they already charge owners.

And when we the owners try to put WARNINGS on our pages to let travelers know we are not the ones charging this they block our listing and because they now own most of the listing websites they essentially put us out of business.
Worst they lie outright about what the fee is for.
They say it is for insurance, in case the owner fails to deliver.
First of all any credit Card Company will immediately reverse the charges if a traveler complains, so they are providing nothing. Second it is not them who can help the owner. Its up to the property owner to be of service. What if the AC fails? What if the pool stops working? Is Homeaway going to fix that? Of course not only owners can.
To collect this exorbitant fee and rip off the traveler as much as they already rip off owners they now make it seem like all owners on their site are crooks. Well if the owners on homeaway are such crooks the travelers should ABSOLUTLY AVOID BOOKIN ON homeaway/VRBO/Expedia.
Please if you are a traveler reading this DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH ANY of the homeaway family of sites.
There are other more reputable companies, and the best thing you can do is look to find an owner DIRECTLY on the web and save these huge fees that should be going to feed your family.

Time for a class action law suit.

Did not renew my listing and agree to the new terms.

No announcement of the new fees... not listed within the owner's dashboard site listing edit either.

CANT EVEN FIND A HONEST BREAKDOWN OF HOW FEE WILL BE ASSESSED. JUST SAYS BETWEEN 4-9% (without saying what amount will trigger which percentage).

Time to find an alternative to VRBO. Will be satisfying to see them without any inventory to charge fees on.

VRBO has just determined that even though owners pay a full up front fee each year for advertising on the site, that they will now start also charging our renters an additional 4-10% for every rental transaction. This new "fee" adds no value from what I can see and appears to be a method of milking clients while taking no responsibility. Check out their new Terms and Conditions as updated February 9,2016.

https://www.vrbo.com/info/termsandconditions

Two years ago my guests and I paid VRBO/HomeAway a little over 2% of our gross income. Their fee would now be 12% if I kept using the "Book Now" button and my guests and I would pay VRBO nearly $8000. About a week ago I turned off auto renew. Yesterday, I turned off "Book Now". VRBO confirmed that they could not collect the fee if the customer does not pay via "Book Now" but they plan to force all owners to enable "Book Now" later this year. I am looking forward to finding a company who can compete with this monopoly.