Owners Direct Homeaway Service charges dont add up

[Benalbev]

Just joined this website. Received an enquiry. Now I dont mind paying per booking but the extra charge for a guest on a £840 rental was an extra £91 service charge and a £42 booking fee. Who is going to carry on making a reservation when they see that!
The list of fees charged did not even add up to the correct total
I have de activated.

[AndrewH]

It looks like you have a commission listing with Owners Direct. On your figures, the guest pays about 10% to OD and you pay them another 5% on top. The TripAdvisor sites are much the same, although the guest pays more (around 13% I think) while the owner is charged around 3%.

I guess many holiday makers fall for this. They may not even know they are being overcharged. Wiser ones know that with a bit of diligent searching they can make direct contact with the owner and book direct, saving themselves (and the commission owner) a fair amount of money.

[gardenboy]

About half my bookings come via online ha, i warn the guests before hitting the accept button, its their money and i recharge the 3% fee ha charge me. All my summer bookings pay direct as on 2k its 200 odd fee, the non summer bookings just pay it....its their money their choice.

I also think the bigger summer payers are more educated and savvy, they usually openly brag about avoiding any feeswhen i meet them.

[Steve1919]

Just joined this website. Received an enquiry. Now I dont mind paying per booking but the extra charge for a guest on a £840 rental was an extra £91 service charge and a £42 booking fee. Who is going to carry on making a reservation when they see that!
The list of fees charged did not even add up to the correct total
I have de activated.

problem is they then move your listing to a less favourable position

[Pixietoadstool]

I have had two bookings from Abritel (Homelidays group) who should have paid their charges but didn't pay - I felt it wasn't up to me to force them to pay a charge I disagree with. Can Abritel make me pay the charges if my guests don't pay? I can't see anything about this in their bumpf but somewhere I read that the charges were mandatory!

Thanks in advance anybody who knows!

Valerie

[AndrewH]

I have had two bookings from Abritel (Homelidays group) who should have paid their charges but didn't pay - I felt it wasn't up to me to force them to pay a charge I disagree with. Can Abritel make me pay the charges if my guests don't pay? I can't see anything about this in their bumpf but somewhere I read that the charges were mandatory!

Thanks in advance anybody who knows!

Valerie

I would say, Valerie, you are in the clear. It looks like these two guests chose to book with you direct and so avoid the service fee ("Frais de service") as charged by Abritel. Some guests prefer to deal with owners through the agency and pay the charge because they feel more secure doing it that way. The choice is theirs, and their dealings over this are strictly between them and the agency. You as the owner are not involved, nor will be.

[Pixietoadstool]

Thank you Andrew!