From a competition perspective, Vrbo is catching up to Booking.com and Airbnb in pushing the fee burden onto hosts. Eliminating or greatly reducing guest fees has great optics, but travelers will end up paying for them in the form of higher rates.
Vrbo is increasing commissions for hosts while planning to ease rate parity rules.
Travelers may face higher rates as hosts pass on increased fees to cover the commission hikes.
The rate parity rule ensures that prices remain consistent across different platforms, but changes could alter this.
Hosts are worried that rising commissions will impact their earnings and competitiveness against other platforms.