In this video Mark Simpson alerts short‑term rental owners to two subtle but impactful changes in Vrbo’s updated terms and conditions. He cites a Reddit post by Scoots Bowman that reveals a new rate‑parity clause requiring the price listed on Vrbo to match the price on the host’s direct‑booking site, undermining the host’s ability to offer a “best‑rate” incentive for direct bookings. Simpson also highlights a newly added content‑parity requirement that forces the title, description, and images on the Vrbo listing to be identical to those on the host’s direct‑booking website, limiting differentiation from other channels such as Airbnb and Booking.com. He praises LinkedIn activist Ginger Halsen for publicly challenging these clauses and notes that Vrbo/Expedia have begun to listen, though reversals are not yet confirmed. Simpson contextualizes the changes within a broader fee landscape, mentioning Airbnb’s fee increase from ~3% to 15.5% and Vrbo’s shift to a simpler fee model. He urges hosts to grow their direct‑booking share to about 65% to reduce platform reliance, and calls for collective action via social media and industry events to pressure Vrbo into reversing the rate‑ and content‑parity clauses. The video ends with a call for comments and discussion, hoping the message reaches Vrbo/Expedia staff.
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Well, may have seen what Verbo did with their fees recently, but I feel like in the T's and C's a lot of you have missed two very important terms. Now I was on Reddit and I saw this post by Scoots Bowman. Now as you can see in the new update from Verbo when they were talking about their new fees, they slipped something very little into the terms and conditions. Now if you look here, they slipped in that the price that you put on Verbo. has to match your direct booking price. Now, as you can imagine, that's a bit of a shit show because one of the benefits of when you book in direct, we can say to our guests that when you book direct, you get the best rate. Now, thankfully, there's been a person on LinkedIn called Ginger Halsen. Sorry if I pronounce your last name wrong, but she has been going at Vrbo and Expedia on LinkedIn over the last couple of weeks. And also as well, they tried to sneak in something else that I feel like not body's really been talking about, and it's the content. So they said the content that is on VRBO has to be the same on your direct booking site. So the title, the description, the images, that all has to be the same again. Because as you know, we put direct booking websites together. We do thousands of these things, and the listing that you have on your direct booking website needs to and has to be different than what's on Airbnb, Booking.com, and VRBO. Can't just stop here. We have to make them accountable, and we have to keep letting them know. So People like Ginger, we have to let them know that this isn't on. To be fair to them, Vrbo have listened, and thanks to the amazing people like Ginger, they are trying to reverse those. They may have not done it yet, but they do listen. And if enough of us come together, we can get them to listen. So never think that it's a waste of time. Never think that they're not here to listen. To be fair to the Expedia Group and the Vrbo Group, they are listening and they are making these amendments. The fees are the fees. It's just the price that you pay if you are reliant on these platforms. Obviously, if you're booking direct, you don't worry about them too much. But Airbnb have put their price up from 3% to 15.5% this year. Vrbo are scrapping their model to make it more simple. It's their right and it's their prerogative to do it. They are literally beholden to their shareholders. You as a business owner, you can only control what you can control. So as long as you are getting direct bookings, as long as you are growing that direct bookings, my aim is to get you all to 65% direct bookings. then you're on the right path. But what you can do is you can keep them accountable. Social media is a fantastic place to do so, but also at events. So we have to make sure that these clauses get reversed, especially the rate parity for direct, especially the content parity. And I will do my best as well to make sure that's happened. So if you want this to be aware, leave a comment below, let us know your thoughts, let's start the conversation. And who knows, somebody from Vrbo, Expedia might see this as well.
