Are you aware that you pay commision to VRBO for extra sevices you sell to your guests (e.g. airport transfers)?

Are you aware that you pay commission to VRBO for extra services you sell to your guests (e.g. airport transfers)?

So, you add an extra service (a manual surcharge) to a VRBO booking in OR and VRBO gets a commission on this extra service (e.g. on airport transfers, on a guided tour etc.).

I've just realised this and I'm terrified.

I understand that a compulsory  cleaning fee that is automatically added to the booking is a part of the price and VRBO charges a commission on this but non compulsory extra services?! Why? How is this logical?

I don't sell any extras like that (other than cleaning/pet fees, etc.), but there's a nugget of interestingness here: in the travel agency industry, the travel agent is paid the lesser of the booked revenue or the actual revenue. If a guest books a hotel or car for 3 days/nights and extends their stay/rental, the travel agency only receives commission on the 3 days, not any additional days. And if the agency books it for 3 days/nights but the customer checks out/returns after 2, the agency only gets commission on 2. TAs sort of take it in the shirt either way, but it is how it has historically been done.

Vrbo really shouldn't be able to grab additional commission on stuff not booked through them. Maybe the OR team needs to go back to Vrbo and bring this up in light of how commissions work with other parts of the travel industry? Ultimately, it's OR that reports the revenue to Vrbo, so OR could change this, but they need to clear it with Vrbo first, I'd imagine.

Hello Chris,

Thank you for your feedback...

Actually my guest representative from VRBO was surprised about this. She was clearly stating that only compulsory fees (e.g. extra person fee, compulsory cleaning fee etc.) are subject to their commission but nothing else. I'm also in touch with OR and waiting for their answer. I wanted to make sure that everyone is aware of this glitch/issue, so nobody overpays commission to VRBO unnecessarily.  

Is there anyone from OR who'll reply to this thread? VRBO says only compulsory fees (extra charges) that are part of the inseparable part of the booking are subject to VRBO commission but currently all of the surcharges entered in OR, even the optional ones such as airport transfers are commissioned by VRBO because I believe something is missing between VRBO and OR API configuration.

Can someone from support give an answer?

any fees chargeable to the guests are subject to commission. 

any fees chargeable to the guests are subject to commission. 

Who says so? My VRBO acccount manager doesn't say this... She says only compulsory fees are subject to VRBO commission but other fees  are not...

The only fee I have is cleaning fee and it was subject to commission when I had commissioned listing (now on subscription). Cleaning fee is mandatory and is shown in quotes. I do not add fees after booking. Also I would think if you sell service to guests AFTER booking , then VRBO is not involved (just bill guest via Ownerrez), so how would Vrbo even know to apply commission? 

Vrbo charges their 3%/8% commission on the total rental that you process through their platform.  If you don't want them to charge you to process it through their platform, take those non-compulsory items off of their platform and offer them separately.

The only fee I have is cleaning fee and it was subject to commission when I had commissioned listing (now on subscription). Cleaning fee is mandatory and is shown in quotes. I do not add fees after booking. Also I would think if you sell service to guests AFTER booking , then VRBO is not involved (just bill guest via Ownerrez), so how would Vrbo even know to apply commission? 

VRBO knows what extra fees you add to your booking after a booking is made because OR has API connection with VRBO. Normally you'd expect OR to make  VRBO aware that some of these extra charges are compulsory and some of them are optional, so that VRBO would not get a commission on these optional extra charges that has nothing to do with them (if I sell the guest an airport transfer, or guided tour, what is this to do with VRBO?). Also as I said before, my guest representative from VRBO acknowledged that they are supposed to get commission on compulsory surcharges.

So, I'm still waiting an answer from OR support.

Isn't there anyone else who sells extra products/services to their guests and concerned about the commision they pay unnecessarily up VRBO for these extra products/services?

Vrbo charges their 3%/8% commission on the total rental that you process through their platform.  If you don't want them to charge you to process it through their platform, take those non-compulsory items off of their platform and offer them separately.

Why use two separate systems and complicate things unnecessarily when OR can fix the bug/issue in the system?

As I said before, Normally you'd expect OR to make  VRBO aware that some of these extra charges are compulsory and some of them are optional, so that VRBO would not get a commission on these optional extra charges that has nothing to do with them (if I sell the guest an airport transfer, or guided tour, what is this to do with VRBO?). Also as I said before, my guest representative from VRBO acknowledged that they are supposed to get commission on only compulsory surcharges, NOT on the optional surcharges.

I couldn't get a satisfactory reply from OR support for this issue and hoped that putting my question here in the forums would help to get a proper reply. Can someone from OR support can give a proper reply ?

Is there a specific reason why OR support doesn't give a reply to this topic?

Well, I was doing month-end financials and in my Vrbo booking statement (the line-by-line CSV version), I noticed a reservation number listed twice, and the second line had a PPB fee of $0.25.

I then pulled up the booking in OR and found that I had added a $5 shipping and handling fee to mail a guest a lost item:

So yeah, this is definitely happening--and it's kinda silly in cases like the one above: why should Vrbo get a cut of the postage I paid for to mail the guest's item home? No other segment of the travel industry does anything like this--Vrbo shouldn't, either.

As of the release earlier this week, Vrbo will no longer know about optional surcharges added to the booking after the guest books. We worked with Vrbo to make sure this would work since the payment total may not match the charge total. It's now set it to ignore "other surcharges" or where the surcharge mode is automatic. So, PPB commission fees should not be factoring in any such surcharges any longer.