Stefan M.

We've had our Mexico property on VRBO for 11+ and decided to rent it through the VRBO website. Originally we paid them a $249 annual subscription fee to list on their site. VRBO would directly connect prospective clients owners. Then the site was sold to Expedia a few years ago and everything changed. Now in addition to the owner subscription they charge a 4-9% service fee to the renters and force the owners to use their online booking service so they control the distribution of rental fees; i. E. they park the money an escrow account and make interest off it before finally handing it over to the owners. And most recently they started doing it with security deposits. If the renter uses a credit card to pay the rental fee they charge the owner a 3+% credit card transaction fee. They also encourage the renters to purchase outrageous rental/trip insurance premiums through them. Along with all of this the stopped publishing owner/client contact information (emails, phone numbers, etc) to prevent direct contact outside their control. So they are scamming the owners on 3 fronts and the renters on two. This is the epitome of greed. We now refer to them as "Ex-GREED-ia" and refuse to ANY of their services. Hopefully they will go out of business for it but I doubt it.