Vacation rental managers and owners who have listings on HomeAway’s sites are reporting that HomeAway is cracking down on content in vacation rental listings that provides information to guests about how to contact the owner or manager directly to avoid paying HomeAway’s service/traveler fee.
In an email to customers, HomeAway said, “We will deactivate listings that contain messaging indicating that travelers are encouraged to pay outside of our reservation system.”
New listings on HomeAway are being closely checked against HomeAway’s “Marketplace Standards.” One manager who has other listings on HomeAway recently added a new group of listings and included an office photo to all the listings — both old and new. The photo was removed from the new listings, but not the existing ones.
However, individual owners are beginning to report changes to existing listings. It appears that HomeAway has initiated an effort to comb through existing listings searching for language, photo captions, URLs and phone numbers than lead travelers to contact managers directly.
HomeAway’s Terms and Conditions state, “Members agree not to encourage or advise a traveler to avoid or circumvent the service fee charged by HomeAway.”
We reached out to HomeAway to find out if there has been a change in processes for enforcement but have not yet received a response.
There must be a real struggle in HA right now. They have a large inventory of traditional, less city centric, longer stay, seasonal accommodation. So many are easy to book on other platforms, directly or through local advertising sites and tourist boards.
Plus not everyone uses credit cards. In central Europe, repeat visits, larger value bookings often use wire transfers – 60 percent plus – so this fee is hard to grab if a card is not used. We have all heard the stats and guests want to book online etc, but there are so many moving parts and money parts this single solution doesnt work. The hybrid, subscription and Request to Book model doesnt work as its actually part of their full BIN system and just confuses and angers guest and owners alike with endless emails and confirm booking messages and payments.
On the 3 samples above on VRBO they all have a send an email, so these can all book off site. Sure no text is allowed insinuating the fee can be bypassed but with all these friction points, guests will start looking elsewhere.
Why not add text to your listings to say
– If you are interested in booking, please send an email, via the little link under the Request to Book button. We often have special offers that cannot be shown on this advertising site. You wont be disappointed –
No doubt an avalanche of emails – have u booked, did u book, why not book now, only book online, dont trust the host etc will follow, but by then they are in direct contact.
When OTAs starting pushing PPBs as a “good” option, we saw the proverbial writing on the wall. As a property management company, I decided something needed to be done to help offset the coming slaughter of the PM. Think about it, the more control we give up, the harder it will be to take it back and the giant OTAs are slowly taking the control away from us. To overcome this VRguest.com was created. A website that keeps the control in the hands of the property manager and owners where it belongs. As a PM, I understand the multiple problems that are arising from the PPB systems that are growing so fast. We are listening to the pains being created and building a site that helps the little guy. We are better together.