Josh S.

We own and take care of many properties, and the worst part of the experience has become VRBO. They have taken a monopoly on our funds. Our rates are good enough that we stay 100% booked and we give the extra customer service, but to charge more for extra pictures and a higher ranking and credit card fees is insane. The last straw was (after we paid our renewal) notifying us if we did not book online our rankings would drop. Every one of our properties has 5-star bookings and not one bad review - how can you drop me by 50% if I do not offer online bookings? We have never had one single complaint and our guests always come back. When I called customer service, I kept explaining that it was unfair to drop us by 50% in rankings because they want to gouge us $1800 a year in credit card fees for one unit. The goofball kept saying, "I don't know how you are getting $1800? It only costs $3 for a $100 rental fee." I was like - "Who rents a beach condo for $100 a week?" I made her do the math, which came out to $1800 per year. They are becoming billionaires on our profits, and while some people might think we can afford it, after VRBO, lodging tax, liability, dues, insurance, etc., we are going broke keeping rates affordable for people to vacation. Also - just a tip to anyone who has properties on VRBO - when a guest sends you an inquiry, go on the site and get their personal e-mail and notify them you will be contacting them outside of VRBO so that contracts will go through - or whatever. It is not these people's business. All of our guests come back over and over. They tell you it is to protect the guest, but that is a lie. It is for marketing to hound these people and know what they are looking for. They want to act like a property management company to get whatever fees out of you they can, use the guest's private information for marketing, but they take no responsibility for your unit - they are a means to advertise - an advertising company - and they are getting too big for their britches. There are some new companies popping up, and with offer good rates, so we do not need to bow down to these people and pay our profits to get higher on the list. They need us more than we need them - trust me - if they start getting hit with people dropping them - they will go back to doing business the way they should. Not forwarding the customer's e-mail, yet forwarding all of their other personal information is not to protect anyone - it is to keep control of your unit - take the extra minute - go online - and get the e-mail off of the website or request it from the customer. If you do your customers right, they will be back and send people. We have been doing this for two years and are 100% booked - I do not even think we need these people anymore. So aggravating. One of these days someone is going to class-action sue them.

And to the person who said VRBO is great, and these must be fake reviews from competitors - all I can do is tell you how ridiculous that sounds. It seems you are the one working for VRBO.