SERVICE FEES. This has become a HUGE issue in the vacation rental world. Many large world wide sites have moved to control the booking process and charge the users anywhere from 12% to 20% of the "total take". Or total booking. You can see the example above you are paying $228.23 MORE to book on that site. That is OVER 16%!
So why is this happening and what can you do about it?
Many of the well know sites, like VRBO, Homeaway, Flipkey and TripAdvisor have made moves recently to control the entire booking process and have moved from a subscription based program to a commission based program. This has caused much turmoil in the vacation rental industry. They are adding "service fees" to the booking and the guest may not even know it until they check their credit card statements and see unexpected fees in the hundreds of dollars that just as little as a year ago was not there.
You have options. These sites do not own the vacation rental homes. Many of the owners and managers running these rentals do not want to participate in the new service fee system and are making moves to promote their rentals on other sites. So if you are looking for a rental, just look around as the same homes are listed on their sites and you can book direct and avoid these service fees.
We believe the best service will come from booking direct with the owner or manager. Adding another layer to the process is very inefficiant. Who are you going to call if you have questions? The owner of the vacation rental or a world wide site where they oursource the customer service calls to some third world country. You know the answer to that question.
Why would you pay more? There is no reason to do so. Every owner or manager can offer you better service and protection. They have been doing this for years. Paying hundreds more today does not change anything with the rental other than costing you more money to go on vacation.
Vote with your feet and BOOK DIRECT. ECBYO.COM supports booking direct with our owners and managers. You can find the exact same home here as you see on other sites. It is better to book direct here and pay less! Who goes to a site to pay more?