VRBO "Host Fee" when booking . . . Please explain?

Question

Trying to make booking for 2 nights business and 1 night pleasure next week. I was looking on VRBO so that I can burn up the last of my Hotels dot com rewards now that future accruals are at 20% of what they used to be.

I've found a few places where the nightly rate are only $105 and $169, however the all in price is more than double the nightly rate. The lesser priced room has a total host fee that is over $400, and $169 has a host fee around $170. VRBO does not include a "?" icon next to it like it does for the service fee breakdown. Is the VRBO Host Fee basically the equivalent of the Cleaning Fee on Airbnb, and at the discretion of the host and for them to collect?

Seems absurd to have a host fee that is higher than the cost of a 3 night booking and that most of that should be spread through the nightly rate. Or is this a way to get around VRBO charging their % markup and taxes?

John Underwood · Answer

There should be a way to see a break down of the host fees.

Some people try to sneak some extra fees in here above the cleaning fee.

At the end of the day just look at the total price for your stay and compare that. If someone has extra fees this may hurt them during this comparison.

Jesse Turner · Answer

I'm looking for more info on this as well, and so far I've seen a place on the backend where hosts can enter cleaning fees, pet fees, etc. My assumption is that VRBO combines these fees and masks the itemization from the potential guest.

Lisa Graesser · Answer

The host fees are a combination of cleaning fee and any administrative/resort fees that may be charged per stay and not per night. Depending on when you are booking the nightly rate may change based on demand, but the host fees stay the same.

Yiwei Cheng · Answer

You can't if you use a PMS.  I also like having more control over payment processing to weed out the fraudulent charges.

Yiwei Cheng · Answer

If you have a PMS, you have the option to take payment yourself through Stripe or another payment processor.  I don't think there's a great way to get around 3% unless you want to use your own payment processor since Stripe takes about the same amount & is the middle person.  Just know that if you use your own, you will be responsible for disputing chargebacks and refunds.

Nancy Bachety · Answer

$7 an hour? In what country?@Yiwei Cheng I’m aware of this option but haven’t explored it and always pay that peaty 3% fee. Do you have an efficient way of collecting payment from your guests that make it worthwhile?

Ryan Moyer · Answer

VRBO fees and taxes are charged on all revenue including the host fees, so it's not a way to "get around" any of that.

Those are usually fixed costs (cleaning fee, etc) that don't scale with length of stay which can make staying at an STR (particularly on VRBO which tend to be larger places on average) difficult for a very short stay.  Just the nature of the business and not having the scalability of hundreds of small rooms with $7/hr cleaners that can blast through them like a hotel has.

Yiwei Cheng · Answer

I've been doing short term rentals for 4 years and it was confusing at first as well.  Here is the breakdown:

On VRBO, the "service fee" is the VRBO platform fee 5% of nightly rate + cleaning fee

"host fee" is the cleaning fee + any other fees charged by the host/manager and is unrelated to VRBO.

I am not using VRBO's payment processing, so we collect payment ourselves.  If you on VRBO directly, you are most likely paying an additional 3% for payment processing on the entire portion of what the guest paid minus VRBO service fees.

Hope this helps

Sarah Kensinger · Answer

My understanding is the host fee is mostly the cleaning fee. Unfortunately, many hosts tend to pad that amount to make extra revenue. We never use hotels when we travel except for rare occasions, and I make sure we find STR listings with reasonable fees and nightly rate. Also, if you look and find the right property, it'll come out about the same as a hotel. And if you plan on doing some cooking instead of eating out the whole time, it ends up becoming a bit cheaper all the way around.

VRBO "Host Fee" when booking . . . Please explain?

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