I received an email today that VRBO is no longer going to pay out rental payments at the time of reservation. You now have to pay a 3% fee for this, or receive your payments at check in.
Another feature gone!
But VRBO still charges the guest at time of reservation, right? Sounds like a way for them to earn the interest instead of the hosts. It’s probably a lot of money when you add it all up, and it’s surprising they waited this long to make the change, especially since Airbnb has been doing it for a long time.
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Yes, guest pays up front
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Yep. They are moving to Airbnb type model.
Check out the new terms for check in payments. HA clearly plans to decide if your guests will receive refunds.
But…this shouldn’t be a surprise. They have been alluding to this for some time now.
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We’ve always been getting paid after the guests check in. Is it because we pay per booking (vs. annual subscription)?
We pay per booking and received payments day of booking. We have it set in two installments, one upon booking and one prior to check-in. The upon booking payment was really one of the only things we liked about VRBO.
I’m not sure if I had to opt in, but about a year ago they started paying out at time of guest payment. I’m also on the pay per booking plan.
PPB was supposed to be that way and I know a lot of people are set up just like you are. And like Brandt said about a year ago they just switched people. It was really random.
Example: I was on subscription and was getting paid after check-in. Actually I don’t have an issue with that because I don’t spend the $$$$ beforehand. But then they switched me to advance payment. At the time, people had to make a special request to be switched to advance payment.
But anyone who had been using advance payment for years kept it.
So it’s all over the board.
Odd. We signed up for VRBO in February or March this year, after we set up on Air. Doesn’t matter to me when it comes in. It goes right back out regardless lol.
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The move to Airbnb is what is the scariest part. But they really have been alluding to that for quite some time.
I wish I could recall what it was they said quite a while ago. But it was some vague statement that I interpreted as a hint about extenuating circumstances policy later down the road. Whatever it was that they said was the first little move to inch that way…
It’s not “VRBO”, it’s their payment processor Yapstone. VRBO /Homeaway is bringing the payment processing in-house. As part of Expedia, they are big enough to process their own credit cards. Yapstone is feeling the pinch of losing a big customer, so they are doing something desperate to generate more income. The problem is that VRBO’s in-house processor is just about ready to start paying out shortly after booking (the mis-named “Advance Payments”), and VRBO isn’t currently charging the 3% fee. So Yapstone is actually hastening their death by pushing owners to go to the in-house processor as fast as they can.
I know those of you that get most of your bookings on AirBnB or shortly before check in are probably wondering why this is an issue. But many of the VRBO properties book out a year in advance or more, and owners suddenly are going to have a big gap in their cash flow. Many of us will have to tap into our savings to bridge the gap.
And VRBO is rapidly losing their attractiveness compared to AirBnB, especially since they charge an annual subscription fee. I know you can do a pay-per-booking listing, but we would pay the annual fee with just a couple of bookings, so it’s cheaper for us to pay the subscription.
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Thanx for the lesson. I am not yet a user of VRBO.
Some of the owners dont have savings to tap into the bridge that gap.
What do you think the real world implication of this might be?
Why do you believe this is just YapStone? You don’t think HA is part of this?
Not sure if you read the latest announcement posted by HA today.
“We know how much you value advance payment and have been actively working on building our early payout program on this new platform. Given the news from Yapstone, we’re accelerating rolling out this feature to eligible partners as quickly as possible. In the next 24 hours, you’ll receive an email letting you know if and when you’ll be invited into the early payment program. Currently, the early payout program will be offered at no additional cost.”
They say that “currently” the early payout program will be offered at no additional cost.
Which we know with HA…that means it will not be free in the future.
They are trying to get everyone in-house and then they can become the intermediary just like Airbnb. I don’t think this has anything to do with Expedia being enough to process their own cards.
People will pay for early payout like they do on Airbnb. The rest will receive payment after guest checks in. And then they will be able start rolling out any policies they want like Airbnb.
There is no way that HA agreed to terms with YapStone that they could just change their terms at any time with no notice to customers. HA consented to this.
Some owners are saying that their payments have stopped. No notice given. And HA is just acting like it’s no big deal and they are sorry but they can’t do anything about YapStone. 
Of course they are lying! Nothing new with HA there…
I didnt know people could get early payout inn airbnb. Is that o my available to super hosts or to my to plus or what are the criteria?
Short-term - owners will bitch but pay up the 3%.
Long term, it lessens the attractiveness of Vrbo/HA compared to AirBnB. I agree with @cabinhost - HA will start charging for early payout, too. And the in-house HA payments require us to agree that the guest will be fully refunded after check-in if the property is not as described - just like AirBnB. I, for one, will take a harder look at my strategy between the two platforms.
But I also hope this creates new competition. The higher the fees go on the big platforms, the bigger the incentive for other options.
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Not sure of the most recent changes. But I believe it is for people on Super Strict Cancellation policy? And you receive payment 60 days prior to check in.
Some people were invited. Some called and asked and were able to get it. To get into the program was never any consistency. Sometime you had to have a very expensive house. Or you booked far in advance and not last minute. Other times it didn’t matter? You pay an extra 2% to ABB outside of the regular processing fees .
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A few years ago ABB realized they wanted and needed to go after full house properties…at that time the site was still mainly attracting rooms and on site hosts.
They wanted to grab the VRBO listings…and grow the ABB full house business.
So they needed to compete on the release of funds to the owners and at that time created the Super Strict Cancel Program. It is an extra 2% as said above.
That’s the history of the program.
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I got that also, it may be OK. It just means I have to be diligent in making sure guests have paid.