Vacation Rental Homeowners Revolt Against Corporate Giant Expedia
USA—As the vacation home rental marketplace has changed with Expedia’s $3.9 billion dollar acquisition of online listing sites, such a Vacation Rentals by Owner, HomeAway, and Vacation Rentals.com, to name a few, vacation home owners are quickly seeking alternative listing sites that allow them to simply advertise their homes, without extra fees and the ability to retain control of their properties.
“It’s extraordinary what has happened in just the last eighteen months,” said Bunnie Riedel, a vacation rental homeowner. “Every day, there’s another horror story. Owners can no longer communicate with their renter guests, so you have no idea who is renting your house. The renters are charged a huge booking fee of 9% to 12% and that goes to Expedia, not the homeowner. Expedia determines your policies. If there is damage to your home, Expedia gets to determine whether or not you get to recuperate the security deposit. Their online listing policies change constantly, so even if you have paid $500 to advertise on their site, everything can be changed tomorrow. The customer service rep even told me that in a phone call.”
Vacation rental homeowners’ properties vary widely, from luxurious, upscale homes and condominiums to little old cabins in the woods. In many communities, vacation rental homes help keep the local tourist trade afloat as there are few hotels or space to build more hotels.
“Expedia has brought its ‘hotel’ model to the vacation home rental community. That doesn’t work for us. They say we can’t get paid until someone checks in, it’s not like I have 300 rooms to sell, I have one house, and if the renter doesn’t show up I can’t just turn around that minute and rent it to someone else, it doesn’t work that way,” says Riedel.
And she’s not alone. According to an online petition asking Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to hold an investigation into Expedia and Trip Advisor’s duopolistic practices, comment after comment expresses the frustration these homeowners and vacation home renters share. See the petition at https://tinyurl.com/yd2p3a64. In addition, Facebook pages have sprung up with thousands of subscribers who vent their issues with Expedia, Trip Advisor and AirBnB.
Into this fray comes a solution that is slowly gaining ground. State and regional listing websites that return to the original online listing model of putting vacation rental homeowners together with hopeful renters. Ms. Riedel launched her site for the state of Virginia over the fourth of July weekend, it is www.vavacationrentals.com. Her site is now one of twelve such state and regional sites to go live.
The catalyst behind this effort is Bob Bourassa, otherwise known as “Yankee Bob.” With a deep background in marketing and development, Bob has created a system for state and regional websites that mirror the model most vacation home rental owners used in the past.
“It’s simple. We are providing a way for homeowners and renters to communicate, and that’s it,” said Bourassa. “These are advertising sites. There's no need for the state and regional site owners to engage in the business of renting the homes. We exist to promote these wonderful properties, not to control them.” His flagship site https://www.carolinavacationhomerentals.com was the inspiration for the others who have joined him.
“He has done an exceptional job,” said Riedel. “I am pretty positive this will eventually spread to all fifty states and beyond.”
This effort comes just in time as vacation rental homeowners are jumping Expedia’s ship by the droves.
“If you read the comments after the petition, you will see how angry vacation rental homeowners are. Person after person tells us their rents are down by 30% to 50%,” said Riedel. “And the latest news is that Expedia will collect occupancy taxes and submit them to the municipalities. Any homeowner that agrees to that is out of their mind.”
Contact Bunnie Riedel at [email protected] or 443-864-4517
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