Vrbo Fees

Vrbo fees are the two charges Vrbo takes on a vacation rental booking: a commission the host pays, which is a flat 12% including payment processing from 29 October 2026, and a service fee the traveler pays at checkout (Expedia Group Newsroom, Vrbo Compensation Model Changes) (Vrbo Help, What is the service fee).

Last updated: October 2026

How Vrbo fees work

From 29 October 2026, hosts on Vrbo's pay-per-booking model pay a flat 12% commission, though the rate can run from 12% to 15% depending on region and brand, and each host sees their rate in the Vrbo Dashboard (Expedia Group Newsroom, Vrbo Compensation Model Changes). The commission is charged on the rental amount plus any extra fees the host charges the traveler, such as cleaning, pet or boat fees (Vrbo Help, How is the booking fee calculated). It is not charged on Vrbo's traveler service fee, taxes, refundable deposits or insurance products (Vrbo Help, How is the booking fee calculated). Where VAT applies, it is added on top of the commission (Vrbo Help, How is the booking fee calculated).

Payment processing depends on who handles the money. Hosts who use Vrbo as merchant of record no longer pay a separate payment processing fee, with some regional exceptions (Expedia Group Newsroom, Vrbo Compensation Model Changes). Hosts who use their own payment processor pay the 12% plus their processor's fees, and the Professional Plan in parts of Europe, Australia and New Zealand can reach 15% including processing (Vrbo Help, How is the booking fee calculated).

The traveler service fee is a percentage of the reservation total before taxes and refundable fees, and the percentage varies with the size of the reservation (Vrbo Help, What is the service fee). Vrbo does not disclose its service fee range, and says the fee is set dynamically and will typically be lower after the compensation change (Expedia Group Newsroom, Vrbo Compensation Model Changes). Before the change, guest fees ran at 11% to 14%, a range reported by the travel press rather than published by Vrbo (Skift, Vrbo to Double Commissions as It Plays Catch-Up to Airbnb).

The same change closes Vrbo's subscription option. Vrbo is retiring its pay-per-subscription model and moving those hosts to pay-per-booking, either from 29 October 2026 or at the end of their subscription term (Expedia Group Newsroom, Vrbo Compensation Model Changes).

Why Vrbo fees matter for hotel and rental distribution

The new commission applies to Vrbo hosts globally, so it reaches professional operators as well as individual owners (Expedia Group Newsroom, Vrbo Compensation Model Changes). About 55% of listings worldwide, and 51% in the US, connect through a property management system (PMS), based on AirDNA data, while the legacy subscription covered about 6% of listings globally and 12% in the US (Skift, Vrbo to Double Commissions as It Plays Catch-Up to Airbnb). Those connected operators run Vrbo as one online travel agency (OTA) among several, so a change in one channel's fee changes what each booking from that channel is worth to them.

Price parity is the second thing to watch. Vrbo plans to drop its rule that the price on Vrbo must match the price on the host's own website, a change reported in October 2026 that was not yet in Vrbo's published terms as of 13 October 2026 (Rental Scale-Up, Vrbo planea eliminar su regla de igualación de precios). If the rule goes, a property would have more freedom to price Vrbo separately from its direct booking channel.

Hotels and resorts that list on Vrbo through a connectivity partner have their own setup questions. Our guides to choosing a Vrbo channel manager and to Vrbo Premier Host status for hotels cover those.

Vrbo fees compared with Airbnb and Booking.com fees

Vrbo splits its fee between host and traveler, while the 2026 press estimates for two other large booking platforms put the whole fee on the host (Skift, Vrbo to Double Commissions as It Plays Catch-Up to Airbnb). The guest service fee and the host commission are two separate Vrbo fees, set in different ways, so the table keeps them apart.

 VrboAirbnbBooking.com
Who pays the platformHost and travelerHost onlyHost only
Host feeFlat 12%, or 12% to 15% by region and brand, from 29 October 2026 (Expedia Group Newsroom, Vrbo Compensation Model Changes)About 15.5% (Skift, Vrbo to Double Commissions as It Plays Catch-Up to Airbnb)About 15% (Skift, Vrbo to Double Commissions as It Plays Catch-Up to Airbnb)
Guest feeService fee as a percentage of the reservation, range not disclosed (Expedia Group Newsroom, Vrbo Compensation Model Changes)NoneNone

OTA commission in general, and Airbnb's fee model in detail, each have their own glossary page: OTA commission and Airbnb host fees.

Frequently asked questions

What are Vrbo service fees?
They are the traveler's side of Vrbo fees, paid at checkout, separate from the commission the host pays. The total price Vrbo shows travelers includes all required fees, including the service fee, so it is visible before booking. The one addition is value-added tax, which is charged on top of the service fee where local law requires it.
Are booking service fees refundable?
On Vrbo, yes, when the booking is cancelled within the full-refund window: the traveler service fee is then refunded to the traveler automatically. Outside that window the fee follows the booking's cancellation terms, which are a separate topic. Hosts cannot waive or reduce the service fee, so it cannot be removed to win a booking or settle a complaint.
Is a subscription cheaper than paying commission per booking?
Vrbo is retiring its subscription, which cost roughly USD 699 a year; a very small number of listings that met several criteria were grandfathered. One property manager calculated that, against a 12% commission, the subscription only came out cheaper below about USD 5,825 in annual bookings, down from about USD 14,000 under the old 5% commission.
Why are host fees so high?
On Vrbo, the host commission is 12% from 29 October 2026. Before that, hosts connected through a property management system paid 5%, and other pay-per-booking hosts paid about 8%, made up of a 5% commission and 3% payment processing. The 12% rate remains below the host-only fees of the two platforms in the comparison table.
How much are host fees on a booking?
Take a stay with USD 900 in rent and a USD 100 cleaning fee. At Vrbo's 12% rate the commission base is USD 1,000, so the host pays USD 120. The traveler service fee, taxes and any refundable deposit are paid by the traveler on top and stay outside that base. Where the regional rate reaches 15%, the same booking would cost the host USD 150.

Related terms

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Where Jetstream fits

Every channel takes its fee in its own way, so every channel needs its own correct price. Jetstream builds an AI channel manager that keeps a property's rooms, rates and availability accurate on every channel it sells through, managed from one place.

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