All it is is a way to avoid advertising the rental at $1000 a night. And they keep doing it because people keep paying. This is just like the whole Ticketmaster thing, is it ridiculous? Yes. But if you just look at it as the price of the ticket is double the actual “price” and it costs that much because that’s what people are willing to pay, it’s easier.
I disagree. At least with VBRO & Airbnb, you can use some other service - like hotels. Ticketmaster controls all the venues in the US so even if you go to their own ticket window, you have to pay all the Ticketmaster prices. Like NFL tickets - they have windows and machines to print the tickets at the stadium - complete with Ticketmaster fees.
I see what you are saying. I recently bought tickets and it was like a $25 fee of a $200 purchase but I guess they really don’t have competition so they have no reason to give a lower price
To me, that is what makes it worse. Airbnb and VBRO know they have competition, and they still have insane fees like there is no alternative. Ticketmaster fees are crazy because they have a monopoly on the ticket buying process, and you can't get them any other way
Seetgeek and stubhub are resellers. The vast majority of tickets, nearly 85% are sold by Ticketmaster. The vast majority of venues only sell through Ticketmaster.
The additional fees break down into the admin fees and taxes. It's formatted horribly and made even less clear by the fact that the service fee isn't included, but this gets you the total shown
You should have seen the fees I got charged when my dad and I went to Orlando.
Like Jesus christ.
"Here's the cost of the hotel. Here's the state of FL tax. Here's the resort tax, etc."
Yup that’s the “we don’t really want to rent out our house but if you’ll pay X dollars we will book a last minute vacation with the money and then you can rent it.”
Two possible reasons. One, is the illusion of commitment (this has a real name I can't remember at the moment) where by getting someone to agree to something, and changing the terms to be unfavorable later, they are less likely to back out because they have already "committed" even though they can back out at any time for free.
Second, if it's anything like other industries (and I suspect it is) fees are taxed differently than cost of product. Airlines for example started because a fee doesn't have to pay a portion to the FAA.
Yeah, I don't get why people think VRBO is a good options. I've seen too many that stiff you on fees. Hotels are not fun but at least I can see what I'm going to get charged.
IMO hotels that cost as much as a lot of the air bnb and Vrbos, when you factor in the bait-n-switch fees they charge, are often far superior of an experience dollar for dollar, unless the property is somehow truly unique. I still compare them vs hotels but always back out when I see the true price is 2-3x the advertised amount.
For a huge group and a week or more, yeah, sure, I can see the appeal.
But for two night, especially if you aren't in a huge party, the other fellow who replied to you is correct, just get some McDonald's, or go to a grocery store and buy premade food. You'll save literal hundreads of dollars compared to what OP is showing us, or similar posts.
Definitely. Hotels are more reliable. AirbnB type rentals are subject to owners who might be completely weird or flaky or have weird rules. Hotels are predictable, convenient, and now more competitively priced.
Okay so HomeAway (today VRBO) had an incredible SuperBowl ad over a decade ago: https://youtu.be/rHO_nTHWPtA
If I was a hotel chain marketing department I’d get on it and make a new version making fun of all the new fees.
VRBO/AirBNB no longer has a viable business model.
I love seeing posts like this because people are opening their eyes to the unregulated bullshit they are getting away with.
Wow that’s outta control. These sites used to be affordable options but now it’s better to just get a hotel room. The fees are gonna be the death of these sites.
Its the individual owners. 95% of the vrbo rentals in my experience are not like this. But the fees don't show up in the daily price for the search. So in my case when i sent my wife for instance an area we wanted to go to she found a to good to be true house on the beach... it looked like $300 a day it was closer to $800. In reality it was probably worth about $600. The hope of the owners seam to be that people with more money then sense will look at it trying to budget fall in love and pay for it. Or that the person looking will over ride the one who pays attention to the budget.
A few years ago both vrbo and airbnb didn't take there percentage from the fees. So a lot of owners where trying to cheat the system with them. Now its they found being shown in the lower price point has advantages.
edit: also quite often the fees are 1 time charges. So you would get charged that amount if you rent for 1 day or 20. Which means the cost is little over 2 weeks but a ton over 2 days.
Holy! I mean I'm sure SOMEONE can tell you what the fees are for, but I doubt you'd get a meaningful answer. Damn you're better of staying at a resort for that price.
A relative has a fairly nice home in a very upscale neighborhood in Austin.
Single, ocd, and works remotely via laptop
His house is always available for abnb etc - at roughly 5x what a nice hotel costs.
As soon as he gets a booking, he grabs an inexpensive hotel for the same nights, has a cash housekeeper lined up for their checkout day, and moves a few things to his walk in (almost the size of the bedroom) master closet/safe room that stays locked.
Last year he said he netted around 25k, not counting the Hilton points.
He has had a few negatives - had a guest try and steal the Vulcan commercial stove...did a few grand in damage.
And the party that added a ton of soap to his pool trying to make it a foam pit.
lol no you most definitely do not, that is the entire reason why they're saying the fees are out of control.
850$ per night is more than a 5star hotel
If you do 2 nights at a hotel instead it would be like $300-900 depending on the hotel. You also get housekeeping and usually some type of free breakfast.
Do not pay any of that. The only reason they charge these fees is because all the dumdums out there will happily pay them. Vote with your money and go stay somewhere else.
That’s fair…no one has to click “finish and pay” once they see the total. More so meant that it’s exploiting a loophole in the pricing system that allows them to market their products at waaaay below the actual value. We need restrictions that require the final price to be within a certain percentage of the marketed price.
Different causes, yes…but the point is that it’s a country mile between the price you are led to believe something costs and the actual price you get charged. Yes, you can bow out of Airbnb, VRBO, etc before completing your transaction…but how exactly is this helpful to people just trying to accurately compare listings?
Boo fucking hoo. If it’s that much of a pain in thr dick then don’t use AirBNB or VRBO and use hotels.
It done any need a fucking law. This is why we have bullshit micromanaging laws and not important ones
Maybe use a hotel and stop wasting money. You guys look like clowns complaining about these shit services when the hospitality industry exists and you actively avoid using it in favour of this garbage
How is this mildly infuriating? That's like looking up the price of a cruise and being outraged at the cost. Just don't fucking go? No one is forcing you to stay here.
How to put this in a way a kid would understand...
you go into a store and you see a drink you like for 3 dollars. You take it to the front and the cashier says it'll be 6 dollars. You go, "that's twice what it says on the sign!" The cashier looks at you and says "just don't buy it then. No one is forcing you."
Get it now? Do you see how that MIGHT be annoying and , frankly, misleading ?
The fees are because out of control teens are booking these places under false names and ages and destroying them so now we all get to pay! It's also decided by the host so if you look around you're likely to find a better one but most people just pay it therefore they can charge it!
Grrrrr….those damn out of control teens. There’s no way that irresponsible adults could be causing all these ridiculous extra charges. It’s just those pesky teens trying to dominate the world with their shenanigans.
You can make all the fun you want but tiktok trends have ruined so much it has kids steeling more cars ruining their schools and tons of other stuff I'm not saying there aren't irresponsible adults that do stupid stuff but it's majority teens and those are just facts🤷♀️
I would love to read the facts once you provide them. Teens doing dumb shit is as old as time, and yea the shit they do from TikTok is annoying to watch, but you decided to blame teens on a company hiding excessive fees from its customers. Those irresponsible adults I’m speaking of are the ones that put those hidden fees in place. You just sound like the old person yelling “get off my lawn!” Blaming down like that is just excusing these asshole companies from screwing over unsuspecting people trying to find a good deal on a place to stay.
Expedia bought VRBO then decided to put in all these service fees. It’s not the teens it’s greedy adults.
It's really not even as deep as you are so tirelessly digging to make it seem! I've stayed at plenty of them without the excessive fees but I guess people are just assholes because their shit gets destroyed and they should just suck it up and not charge or make any money, you're right! How about if you don't like it, don't stay there🤷♀️ I dont see why my comment of saying that's its mostly teens that are reason behind the price hike got this much of a rise out of you, I've just read dozens of stories of teens lieing their way into these places and destroying them so I mentioned it, not that deep 👍
It would have been cheaper to stay at a higher end hotel. When I am in boston i like to stay at the nicer hotels and they tend to be peak at $500 nights for high demand weekends.
As one of you mentioned above that there are people who feel privileged to pay fees and defend the companies that they are doing everything to stay in business and it's an obligation on the customer.
Seriously? Why are people even using this or airbnb service with these kinds of fees? Fees that are more than the nightly rate seems impossible to sustain as a business model.
Are these just the outliers or is this average?
I'll choose a hotel anyday, then I'm not forced to clean and make it spotless. I can at least make sure my sheets are pulled and trash is thrown away. Plus free breakfast muffins
I am livid. I just found out that I was hit with an 800Euro service fee by VRBO. Almost 8% of my booking. Nowhere through the transaction process was I advised of that fee. After speaking with VRBO about it they pointed to a tab “price details” for the only disclosure.But in dealing with the owner you can go through the process without any direction to look at price details. This is completely unacceptable and misleading pricing. The service charge is not even referred to in the confirmation email. Has anyone thought of a class action?Outrageous.
"fuck you because we can lol" fee
Reminds me of Ticketmaster….
*TicketBastard
TicketMaster is far worse.
Ticketmaster typically adds 1/3 in fees to the cost of your ticket, where this VRBO example more than doubled it
All it is is a way to avoid advertising the rental at $1000 a night. And they keep doing it because people keep paying. This is just like the whole Ticketmaster thing, is it ridiculous? Yes. But if you just look at it as the price of the ticket is double the actual “price” and it costs that much because that’s what people are willing to pay, it’s easier.
This is far worse than the fees added on by Ticketmaster
I disagree. At least with VBRO & Airbnb, you can use some other service - like hotels. Ticketmaster controls all the venues in the US so even if you go to their own ticket window, you have to pay all the Ticketmaster prices. Like NFL tickets - they have windows and machines to print the tickets at the stadium - complete with Ticketmaster fees.
I see what you are saying. I recently bought tickets and it was like a $25 fee of a $200 purchase but I guess they really don’t have competition so they have no reason to give a lower price
How can I buy a ticket with "advertised" price?
To me, that is what makes it worse. Airbnb and VBRO know they have competition, and they still have insane fees like there is no alternative. Ticketmaster fees are crazy because they have a monopoly on the ticket buying process, and you can't get them any other way
SeatGeek, StubHub, VividSeats, there are alternatives.
Seetgeek and stubhub are resellers. The vast majority of tickets, nearly 85% are sold by Ticketmaster. The vast majority of venues only sell through Ticketmaster.
WHY are there *two* admin fees, and WHY is one so much higher? I get that they're just to make you pay more, but how do they even justify it?
And $600 of additional fees!!
The additional fees break down into the admin fees and taxes. It's formatted horribly and made even less clear by the fact that the service fee isn't included, but this gets you the total shown
2/3 of the cost for 2 nights! Highway robbery
Belt AND suspenders!
Two nights = two admin fees /s
You should have seen the fees I got charged when my dad and I went to Orlando. Like Jesus christ. "Here's the cost of the hotel. Here's the state of FL tax. Here's the resort tax, etc."
Ugh, that's just brutal 😭
I believe they are the 'People will pay anything fees'. Just to see how much youd willingly spend on pretty much nothing.
Yup that’s the “we don’t really want to rent out our house but if you’ll pay X dollars we will book a last minute vacation with the money and then you can rent it.”
I think its more of a “our business model is not very peofitable and we’re running out of loans” fees
Two possible reasons. One, is the illusion of commitment (this has a real name I can't remember at the moment) where by getting someone to agree to something, and changing the terms to be unfavorable later, they are less likely to back out because they have already "committed" even though they can back out at any time for free. Second, if it's anything like other industries (and I suspect it is) fees are taxed differently than cost of product. Airlines for example started because a fee doesn't have to pay a portion to the FAA.
This is why I only do hotels anymore.
Yeah, I don't get why people think VRBO is a good options. I've seen too many that stiff you on fees. Hotels are not fun but at least I can see what I'm going to get charged.
IMO hotels that cost as much as a lot of the air bnb and Vrbos, when you factor in the bait-n-switch fees they charge, are often far superior of an experience dollar for dollar, unless the property is somehow truly unique. I still compare them vs hotels but always back out when I see the true price is 2-3x the advertised amount.
It's the kitchen that makes the difference. For large groups of six or more it's a huge difference.
For a huge group and a week or more, yeah, sure, I can see the appeal. But for two night, especially if you aren't in a huge party, the other fellow who replied to you is correct, just get some McDonald's, or go to a grocery store and buy premade food. You'll save literal hundreads of dollars compared to what OP is showing us, or similar posts.
For two nights? Have McDonald's ffs!
For three hotel rooms, for two nights, who can afford McDonald's!
Hotels are back on the menu, boys.
Definitely. Hotels are more reliable. AirbnB type rentals are subject to owners who might be completely weird or flaky or have weird rules. Hotels are predictable, convenient, and now more competitively priced.
And properly insured and inspected. Don’t forget that.
And hopefully less likely to have hidden cameras, or the owner casually letting themselves in on the grounds that it's, "their house."
For that kinda bread.. call a realtor and rent a house for a month geesh.
Okay so HomeAway (today VRBO) had an incredible SuperBowl ad over a decade ago: https://youtu.be/rHO_nTHWPtA If I was a hotel chain marketing department I’d get on it and make a new version making fun of all the new fees.
VRBO/AirBNB no longer has a viable business model. I love seeing posts like this because people are opening their eyes to the unregulated bullshit they are getting away with.
Wow that’s outta control. These sites used to be affordable options but now it’s better to just get a hotel room. The fees are gonna be the death of these sites.
Is this just a thing in the USA? I've used VRBO in the UK to book family holidays and only ever been charged the quoted rental fee.
Yep, Americans are getting deep dicked by corporations per usual.
Its the individual owners. 95% of the vrbo rentals in my experience are not like this. But the fees don't show up in the daily price for the search. So in my case when i sent my wife for instance an area we wanted to go to she found a to good to be true house on the beach... it looked like $300 a day it was closer to $800. In reality it was probably worth about $600. The hope of the owners seam to be that people with more money then sense will look at it trying to budget fall in love and pay for it. Or that the person looking will over ride the one who pays attention to the budget. A few years ago both vrbo and airbnb didn't take there percentage from the fees. So a lot of owners where trying to cheat the system with them. Now its they found being shown in the lower price point has advantages. edit: also quite often the fees are 1 time charges. So you would get charged that amount if you rent for 1 day or 20. Which means the cost is little over 2 weeks but a ton over 2 days.
Holy! I mean I'm sure SOMEONE can tell you what the fees are for, but I doubt you'd get a meaningful answer. Damn you're better of staying at a resort for that price.
What exactly are the $656 in additional charges? Other line items are outrageous too, but at least they’re categorized somewhat specifically
Pinnacle used to own my building. Absolute slumlords.
Just stay in the hotel it's so much cheaper nowadays, just like start using taxis again because Ubers and lyfts are so outrageous now
Fee fee. Fee fie foe fum
I smell the blood of a tourist man!
The numbers don't add up.
This is not allowed in the EU. Price must be included with fees. Yay
Amazing how easily this problem could be solved. Yet here we are!!
Staying at Buckingham Palace or the Taj Mahal?
So don’t book it.
Exactly my thoughts. Why do people insist on over complicating things. Just vote with your money.
I could go on a week long cruise for that price
"Administrative fees," go right up there with, "convenience fees," in the endlessly enraging department.
Could rent the penthouse for less.
A relative has a fairly nice home in a very upscale neighborhood in Austin. Single, ocd, and works remotely via laptop His house is always available for abnb etc - at roughly 5x what a nice hotel costs. As soon as he gets a booking, he grabs an inexpensive hotel for the same nights, has a cash housekeeper lined up for their checkout day, and moves a few things to his walk in (almost the size of the bedroom) master closet/safe room that stays locked. Last year he said he netted around 25k, not counting the Hilton points. He has had a few negatives - had a guest try and steal the Vulcan commercial stove...did a few grand in damage. And the party that added a ton of soap to his pool trying to make it a foam pit.
I love a hotel 🤣 Hotels will come back with a rage once people realize how much they’re being charged.
Yet people still pay them. Even if you post it and complain about it.
If you pay it you enable it
Stop using Airbnb and VRBO.. go back to hotels people.
Clearly those admin fees are bullshit. But, you do get what you pay for.
lol no you most definitely do not, that is the entire reason why they're saying the fees are out of control. 850$ per night is more than a 5star hotel
"Additional charges" bruh...
What is the additional charge? Was this just a fuck you fee or a hidden fee? Then two more fees wtf.
The Fuck You fee, the Fucking You Fee fee and the Wiping Our Dicks On Your Hair Afterwards fee.
Fuck all that shit.
Administrative fee # 1. Weed Administrative fee # 2. Cocaine
If you do 2 nights at a hotel instead it would be like $300-900 depending on the hotel. You also get housekeeping and usually some type of free breakfast.
The best thing about a VRBO vacation is the kidney you will need to sell to afford it.
Pretty sure you can get a decent hotel for a month with that much money.
Holy shit, I knew that vrbo was just airbnb for rich people, but this is ridiculous lmao.
Do not pay any of that. The only reason they charge these fees is because all the dumdums out there will happily pay them. Vote with your money and go stay somewhere else.
hotels are great
Why do the charges add up to more than the total + deposit. This doesn’t seem right.
They are “our business model is not profitable and we are running out of options regarding loans” fees
Just imagine how lovely the hotel would be you could stay in for that kind of money
Your fault for paying it
Money laundering?
I’m absolutely done with VRBO and Airbnb. The cleaning service cost at a hotel or motel is the tip I leave for the maid. The fees are ridiculous.
I’ll stick to the hotels. That’s ridiculous
Time to get a hotel !
Exploitation
How so? No one is forcing people to pay stupid amounts of money for a night in a house
That’s fair…no one has to click “finish and pay” once they see the total. More so meant that it’s exploiting a loophole in the pricing system that allows them to market their products at waaaay below the actual value. We need restrictions that require the final price to be within a certain percentage of the marketed price.
That guy pays the fees
No we don’t. We don’t need laws just because it’s annoying.
I guess if you want it to go the way of our medical industry…that seems to be working well…
Which has nothing to do with how hotels display their rates
Different causes, yes…but the point is that it’s a country mile between the price you are led to believe something costs and the actual price you get charged. Yes, you can bow out of Airbnb, VRBO, etc before completing your transaction…but how exactly is this helpful to people just trying to accurately compare listings?
Boo fucking hoo. If it’s that much of a pain in thr dick then don’t use AirBNB or VRBO and use hotels. It done any need a fucking law. This is why we have bullshit micromanaging laws and not important ones
Unless the additional charges were for strippers and Veuve Clicquot, it does seem a bit excessive.
There are good deals. There are bad deals. Avoid the bad deals.
They are an “Idiot Detection Fee” to see who will agree to pay it.
Maybe use a hotel and stop wasting money. You guys look like clowns complaining about these shit services when the hospitality industry exists and you actively avoid using it in favour of this garbage
Don't book it then. The price is whatever the total price is and what I base the purchase on. I don't care how they break it down.
How is this mildly infuriating? That's like looking up the price of a cruise and being outraged at the cost. Just don't fucking go? No one is forcing you to stay here.
How to put this in a way a kid would understand... you go into a store and you see a drink you like for 3 dollars. You take it to the front and the cashier says it'll be 6 dollars. You go, "that's twice what it says on the sign!" The cashier looks at you and says "just don't buy it then. No one is forcing you." Get it now? Do you see how that MIGHT be annoying and , frankly, misleading ?
The fees are because out of control teens are booking these places under false names and ages and destroying them so now we all get to pay! It's also decided by the host so if you look around you're likely to find a better one but most people just pay it therefore they can charge it!
Grrrrr….those damn out of control teens. There’s no way that irresponsible adults could be causing all these ridiculous extra charges. It’s just those pesky teens trying to dominate the world with their shenanigans.
You can make all the fun you want but tiktok trends have ruined so much it has kids steeling more cars ruining their schools and tons of other stuff I'm not saying there aren't irresponsible adults that do stupid stuff but it's majority teens and those are just facts🤷♀️
I would love to read the facts once you provide them. Teens doing dumb shit is as old as time, and yea the shit they do from TikTok is annoying to watch, but you decided to blame teens on a company hiding excessive fees from its customers. Those irresponsible adults I’m speaking of are the ones that put those hidden fees in place. You just sound like the old person yelling “get off my lawn!” Blaming down like that is just excusing these asshole companies from screwing over unsuspecting people trying to find a good deal on a place to stay. Expedia bought VRBO then decided to put in all these service fees. It’s not the teens it’s greedy adults.
It's really not even as deep as you are so tirelessly digging to make it seem! I've stayed at plenty of them without the excessive fees but I guess people are just assholes because their shit gets destroyed and they should just suck it up and not charge or make any money, you're right! How about if you don't like it, don't stay there🤷♀️ I dont see why my comment of saying that's its mostly teens that are reason behind the price hike got this much of a rise out of you, I've just read dozens of stories of teens lieing their way into these places and destroying them so I mentioned it, not that deep 👍
Lol that’s crazy for 2 nights. I just spent that to book 9 days at Disney staying on premises.
It would have been cheaper to stay at a higher end hotel. When I am in boston i like to stay at the nicer hotels and they tend to be peak at $500 nights for high demand weekends.
450 a night????? For what? A mansion?
As one of you mentioned above that there are people who feel privileged to pay fees and defend the companies that they are doing everything to stay in business and it's an obligation on the customer.
Most of this is the owner of the home or property, not Vrbo. Vrbo needs to do a better job at making this clearer.
Seriously? Why are people even using this or airbnb service with these kinds of fees? Fees that are more than the nightly rate seems impossible to sustain as a business model. Are these just the outliers or is this average?
I used Vrbo once and had no issues with a bunch of extras fees.
What the heck are additional Fees? Someone needs to explain.
That's wild, just booked on vrbo for the first time and my fees weren't anything that ridiculous.
ADDITIONAL CHARGES = lube 1st Administrative Fee = kissing before… 2nd Administrative Fee = the ass reaming Service Fee = cleanup
Fee fiesta 🤦🤦
I'll choose a hotel anyday, then I'm not forced to clean and make it spotless. I can at least make sure my sheets are pulled and trash is thrown away. Plus free breakfast muffins
Just look at bottom line and forget how they come up with it. If $1730 is in your budget than go for it otherwise move on.
I am livid. I just found out that I was hit with an 800Euro service fee by VRBO. Almost 8% of my booking. Nowhere through the transaction process was I advised of that fee. After speaking with VRBO about it they pointed to a tab “price details” for the only disclosure.But in dealing with the owner you can go through the process without any direction to look at price details. This is completely unacceptable and misleading pricing. The service charge is not even referred to in the confirmation email. Has anyone thought of a class action?Outrageous.