VRBO change Subscription model

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
User avatar
bananacake
Posts: 384
Joined: Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:55 am
Location: Adriatic Coast, Pescara, Italy
Contact:

VRBO change Subscription model

Post by bananacake »

Hi Folks,

hope all is well. :wink:

I wanted to check your thoughts on VRBO's new subscription listing policy (i.e. 8% commission to Owner and 10% commission to Guest)

How have you dealt with this new change? Have you increased your prices by 8% to compensate? Left your rates as is? Interested to learn your thoughts on how you managed this.

thanks
Old Bill
Posts: 64
Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2014 5:36 pm
Location: Cessenon-sur-Orb, France
Contact:

Post by Old Bill »

Hello there,

We pay a fixed annual subscription to Vrbo. In practice they charge the tenant about 14% of the quoted rent and they charge us about 3 3/4% ('payment processing fees'). So the total is about 18%.

Vrbo haven't notified us of any change in the model. If they do change it as you suggest, we would certainly increase the prices quoted to the tenants.
FelicityA
Posts: 2816
Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 2:54 pm
Location: Cotswolds
Contact:

Post by FelicityA »

I changed from subscription to commission about 3 years ago, partly because the subscription kept going up and up and I was still paying for the processing (which actually amounted to about 5% when the payment was from abroad) but mainly because I was going down and down in the listings and not getting any enquiries.

I find now, on commission, that I have to add 12% to my rent in order to come out at about right to the true rent. This is partly due to the fact that VRBO charge ME the entire processing fee - that is what the guest is paying VRBO so really I am paying all VRBO's processing costs too. Of course all of this makes it MUCH more expensive for the guest but I am still getting a slow stream of bookings from them, despite this. I am making what I intended and VRBO are making themselves a large amount for doing virtually nothing except take the money.

I used to feel really bad about people paying over the odds but then I decided, if they want to, if they can't be bothered to do a simple google, then that is their choice. I am much more visible than I was on subscription and the clever ones google. Mostly I get Americans and mostly they book longer than a week. Of course, because I have been doing this for so long the bulk of my bookings are from Americans (thank goodness, starting to come back after Covid) booking direct and paying me through a transfer system, not with a credit card, because they are repeat visitors.
Cotto
Posts: 40
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 6:35 pm
Location: Tuscany

Re: VRBO change Subscription model

Post by Cotto »

We are still on VRBO subscription model and we prefer it as it costs less to us. As we aren't a business, we have to pay taxes on the listed rental price and we cannot detract any service cost. So with the commission model the fee would be fully on us, paying taxes for that much money we don't receive is not really sustainable. On VRBO we are receiving more bookings since last year, at prices that are more than double, often three times what AirBNB suggests (in fact we got almost nothing from Airbnb for many years). VRBO advised prices are more fair and logic, sometimes they suggest to slightly decrease, sometimes to increase. ABB always suggest to drastically cut prices to 50% or 30%. We don't allow immediate booking but still receive bookings. I think if you have good reviews, many people don't care about instant booking or stricter cancellation policy. Having the rental quote explicitly state the intermediary fee is better in my opinion, it makes them understand the price.
If they want, they can simply look for our website and book directly at cheaper prices; but some people, even returning guests, still prefer to pay more via VRBO. On subscription model that's not an issue for us.
Post Reply