Homeaway Costs?

I can’t tell a whole lot from the website, until I “list” my property about what the actual costs are? So, if I go with the $399/year…do you pay that upfront at once? Are there actually further costs after that? Has it been worth it for you? Does anyone use the per fee booking and what is it? TIA.

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No they changed it to be 8% of the booking cost but this is the last year that you pay to be “featured”

I’ve been on VRBO/HomeAway a long time. For the past couple of years they have been trying to emulate the industry leader, Airbnb. The subscription plan is $399 with so called “online booking” enabled, ($549 without) is payable upfront. I doubt they would allow a new listing to go up without online booking enabled. It is super important to them. The only other fee would be a “service fee” added on to your price quote (paid by the traveler), totally copied from you know who…They used to have a help page with a schedule of the service fee but it is gone, they now say it averages 6%. On pay per booking the guest pays the service fee and they charge you 8%, including the credit card fee (I think). I’m on the subscription but I’m getting so few bookings from them lately I may move to pay per booking instead of renewing. I would advise starting with the PPB plan and switching if it looks like you will exceed about 4 - 5000 gross. They allow you to switch at any time

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Informative…thank you! So I’m guessing online booking means you must accept instant books?

I just signed up and have online booking and can’t even find how to accept instant bookings (though I don’t have it, so whew!)

Interestingly, I had a fellow VRBO owner call me the other day because VRBO called him to try to get him to sign up for online booking. I told him the 6% average was a lie. I then went online and found places in both our price ranges (in our area) and the average booking would bring in the 9% service fee.

The rep. also did not tell him that he would have to pay 2.9% or the 4 something percent for international travelers.

They also called me a few weeks ago trying to enlist me into online booking. Trying to tell me it will help in search results. It’s so aggravating when some young kid is paid to tell you lies. I told him once everyone enrolls in online booking…then NOBODY has an advantage in search results. And the next carrot will be instant booking. I had to hang up.

Ftworth and Sarah - if you want to see the service fee that your guests will be paying, then try to book as a guest on different listings. You don’t have to book, but you will see that the average cost is not going to be 6%.

And Homeaway is trying to tout that they have lower service fees than Air. They will eventually keep raising those fees down the road. Flipkey used to have a chart that showed exactly what your guest would pay depending on the total. At the time their service fee ranged from 5-10%. Now they place a 13.5% service fee on every transaction and the chart has been removed.

@FtWorthGal
Actually “online booking” gives you 24 hours to communicate, revise the quote and decline it or accept it and send an approval and payment request. I am on this.
“Book It Now” (BIN) is their instant booking program. You can cancel these but if you decline too many there are consequences. I don’t have this. I am considering turning it on to increase visibility on the site.

Let me correct myself. On all bookings processed on the VRBO/HomeAway system the owner will be charged ~3% credit card fee. That means PPB bookings, (8% from the owner) actually cost ~5% extra which makes the break even point between subscription and PPB around $8000, (not 4 - 5000).

@cabinhost
Q. How can you tell a HomeAway rep is lying?
A. Their lips are moving…

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That is a viola joke!

How do you know that a viola is playing out of tune?

Their bow is moving.

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You’re a violinist???

Yes. But that was a viola joke. Violin jokes might be even crueler.

Of course, that’s why I asked if you were a violinist.

Not a musican myself but I’ve been around orchestra and band kids in high school for many years.

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