VRBO which used to be free to travelers to book from their site has now implemented a fee to travelers fee is from I think 6-10% of the rental price. Expedia bought homeway and VRBO back in November. So now it looks like they are trying to merge hotels and vacation rental homes into one industry. Which is like the difference between Apples and Oranges. Hotels are corporate owned while Vacation rental homes are privately owned houses, condos etc.
Lots of buzz on the internet about it very upset vacation rental owners because they pay a large advertising annual fee to VRBO so that travelers did not have to pay so a bait and switch was pulled.
Guess a class action suit has been filed against homeway.com / VRBO.com
The site is in the process of changing over and by year end the fee is suppose to all be in effect across every listing.
Travelers are upset by the hefty fee and are not notified of the fee -
There are a few listings sites that do not charge travelers that are now starting to gain traction since the fee. Not a lot of selection of rentals just yet but I assume more and more will be added as the whole fee thing gets added to the VRBO site by end of year.
one is
www.homeescape.com
and also there is a facebook group of all legit vacation rental property owners that listed their properties to which you can contact them direct. There is quite a selection on this one but then you have to a facebook account so may not be for every one.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Vaca...ntalsbyOwners/
No reason to pay a service or booking fee if you don't have to.
I'm always looking for ways to cut my travel expenses.. plus I would rather deal direct with the actual owner anyways.