How to save hundreds of dollars on your next vacation
If you are like my
family, you don’t want to spend hundreds or thousands of extra dollars on a
‘service’ fees just so that you can book a property online! So what to
do?
Here are some suggestions on securing the vacation rental without paying any additional fees:
1. Go ahead and look for a rental ALL OVER the
Internet. Google everything you can think of. Don’t restrict your search
to HomeAway, VRBO, AirBnB, etc. Most homeowners now have vacation home websites
like Moose Pond Cabin’s. Do a little homework – it is worth it.
2. If you do find a home you want to rent on HomeAway, etc., try to find
that home elsewhere on the internet before inquiring through the OTA (online
Travel Agencies). If the home has a name (like Moose Pond Cabin) or another
identifying feature, Google it and try to find the owner’s website and contact
information. We will be so happy to hear from you and you will have saved
yourself a bundle!
3. Here’s a trick someone taught me – Google a photo of the
house on the OTA’s site to see if the photo shows up on another website.
Most times, homeowners use the same photos on their OTA listing and on their
own website. To do that, go to the photo of the home on the OTA site and
right click on it, then choose Search for Google Image. It doesn’t work
every time, but you could get lucky.
4. Never be shy about contacting
the owner directly, outside of an OTA site. Many vacation homeowners are very
unhappy about Expedia price gouging YOU – our customers.
Some background…
In November 2015, Expedia bought HomeAway and its subsidiaries, which include VRBO, vacationrentals.com and a long list of others. (These companies are referred to as OTA – Online Travel Agencies.) Expedia paid $3.9 BILLION for that sale. This might not have been interesting news, but it has reshaped what it looks like for travelers to rent a vacation home.
How? Expedia is a public company.
That means they have one primary goal – to raise the price of their stock for
shareholders. They do that by generating more revenue and profit. In a market
where they do not own the product they sell – their product, vacation homes,
are owned by the homeowners – there is only one easy way to generate more
revenue and profit… FEES.
In the pre-Expedia days, vacationers would find a home to rent on an OTA
site, contact the homeowner through that site, and make their reservation.
Money exchanged hands directly between the guest and the homeowner through personal
check or credit card. The homeowner was able to email and talk with the
guest to answer questions, help with vacation itineraries, and generally
provide personalized customer service. The OTA made their money through
subscriptions homeowners bought each year in order to be listed on the site. (Typically
around $400).
Vacationers were happy. Homeowners were happy. Wonderful vacations in wonderful homes were enjoyed.
Flash forward to early
2016. Expedia has to justify the $3.9 billion sale and so institutes a ‘service
fee’ on each rental that the vacationer must pay in order to book the vacation
property. This service fee can be as much at 20% of the rental cost and
it goes directly to Expedia’s bottom line. There is a behind-the-scenes
algorithm used by Expedia to determine the service fee % on each rental, which
means there is no way to predict how much it will be until you get an online
quote through the site. A recent guest at Moose Pond Cabin paid a service
fee – $245!! – When they booked our home through an OTA. Yikes. I can think of
about a thousand better things to spend vacation money on than fees. The fee
can be hundreds – and in some cases, thousands – of dollars, depending on the
cost of the rental. Again, this service fee goes right to the OTA’s bottom
line, it was never intended as a way to provide you, the vacationer, with
additional ‘service’. The service you get comes from the vacation rental owner
– it always has.
Another new change is that contact information
between the homeowner and traveler is blocked. No longer can we talk to guests
on the phone or email them to answer their
questions before a reservation is made. This restriction was implemented so
that homeowners and travelers are forced to run any transaction through the OTA
website, ensuring the OTA gets their fee. A classic example of putting profit before
customer service.
I hope this overview helps you on your next vacation search. Life is short, go on vacation!