Go elsewhere. Sadly what started as a very good site many years ago has evolved into an unethical monopoly that has a sole interest. Profit. They do not care about owners or travelers. They exist to remove you from your money, and will say one thing and do another. They have lost the faith and trust of both, and it is well-deserved. Anyone coming on board with any of HomeAway's companies as a traveler or host would be foolish considering their underhandedness.

Bob gave a good answer. Basically, if you don't pay more, your listing priority is lower. In a market like I'm in, i. E. the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area, there are over 2,000 similar properties in the area, so if I don't pay the max., my property may be listed as # 1,500, i. E. it will never be seen. However, subscription price is only 1 of many criteria for listing priority. Some of those criteria we have little if any control over. For example, if guests don't write reviews or if reviews aren't 5 star, your listing priority is lowered. If guests don't USE on line booking, your listing priority is lowered. To answer your 2nd question, I may be mistaken, but I don't think they charge guests unless they use on line booking. Then they charge us a "booking fee" of about 3% of the gross rent. In addition, they recently started charging guests a "service fee" of 2% - 10%. I recently had a guest book a cabin for 4 nights. HA charged them $135 more than I would have charged if they had booked directly with me. I am telling my guests about this & suggesting that they book with me directly or use Pay Pal which only charges 3% to book. Because I'm telling them this, I'm losing business because I don't get as many on line bookings so my listing priority drops which means I don't get as many bookings, but I try to look out for my guests & don't like to see anyone (especially my guests) get ripped off by anyone including Home Away or VRBO.

Beats me! You're asking a really right question IMO. They are downgrading those of us who aren't paying them to collect and pay the rent; and they are now charging a fee to the guests who pay through them. I can't figure it out. But it makes sense to me that HA's business dealing with Expedia has changed the whole HA "vibe." Corporate focus on every possible way to collect another bit of money, adding up to less better deal for owners and renters.

HomeAway gives options - annual subscriptions with different levels, the more expensive raising the priority of your home in search results, or a payment per booking, which puts your home lowest on the list. But there are other elements that impact where your listing shows up - what they call 'listing quality', that includes review ratings, speed of response, completeness of listing, acceptance of reservations/payments through HomeAway, etc. To your second question, yes, HomeAway also charges your guest about 10% of the total you charge your guest. There are other sites that do not charge. One such site I found is HomeEscape. It doesnt have all the functionality of HomeAway yet, but their listings are growing fast (especially due to the new market changes - i. E., HomeAway's new fees) and they are adding new functions regularly. HomeEscape says they will never charge owners or guests at all - that they will get income from advertising. Sounds good - at least worth trying for free. I've lost several guests due to the new HomeAway fees so need to try other options - it is costing me quite a bit for HomeAway to add this fee a few months after we renewed our subscription.

Homaway will charge additional fees to your guests if they pay online using Homaway payment services. About 10 percent of the booking amount.

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Thanks,

After years of paying Homeaway for my listing, I cancelled my Service today - When I said I wanted to cancel because of the service fee, they made ZERO effort to keep me as a good paying customer. They just immediately cancelled it and gave me a refund, I am shocked, Stupid bastards!

Hi
Yes homeaway will put your listing lower in the search results if you pay for the minimum listing also if you don't use the book it now option they will put you lower yet and they charge an additional fee there too
They also charge 5 to 15 percent on all renters now regardless of how much your listing was
I have 2 platinum listings and pay 1800 each
They still charge the renters the fee
Better off don't re new and go to another site

I and others have responded to this type of question several times. Andi and Terri have provided good responses. I would encourage you to post your site else where. This way you will not have invested a lot of your time in a company that keeps trying to find ways to make more money off of the renters and owners. Like others, I will be moving my posting else where when my cycle ends this year.

Yes they are now charging each renter a service fee and renters are canceling once this hsppens

Alvin, just because you have a "$#*!" don't mean you have to be one.
"just sayin"

I would not use the site.
Find another one. This one is terrible

Alvin Rosenfeld, MD

Clinical Professor of Psychiatry

Weill Cornell Medical College

ARosen45@aol.com

203-861-0700

212-348-5900

Fax 203-961-1941

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Yeap, but if you pay straight to the priperty owner you get the chance to loose your money. Because HOMEAWAY -VRBO are not responsable if the home owner is a thief! They protect them! That happened to me. I still in court because of this