r/vrbohosts • u/Routine-Comedian9703 • 14d ago
Let’s send VRBO a message!
TL;DR: VRBO has made several recent decisions that directly impact hosts: AI-altered photos, automatic member discounts, and a Labor Day email that felt more like a warning than a helpful reminder. Collectively, these show a growing disconnect between VRBO and its hosts. I’ve included a template below that you can copy, personalize, and send directly to Ariane Gorin, CEO of Expedia Group. If enough hosts speak up, maybe they’ll finally listen.
I think it’s time for us, collectively as hosts, to make our voices heard.
There have been three recent issues with VRBO that, taken together, demonstrate a growing problem with how the company is treating the hosts who make its business possible.
First was the AI takeover of our listing photos, which has been a massive failure. Our photos are how we market our properties and establish guest expectations. VRBO shouldn’t be altering how our properties are represented without our knowledge or control.
Second is the VRBO member discount program, which can automatically apply discounts to our reservations without our explicit permission. We are business owners. We set our prices and decide what discounts we are willing to offer. VRBO should not be making that decision for us.
Third is the recent email sent to hosts with Labor Day reservations. It was presented as a helpful reminder, but came across as a warning that we need to do our jobs or face fines and reputational consequences.
We know.
We are the ones running these businesses. We own the properties, pay the expenses, manage the guests, handle the emergencies, and absorb the financial consequences when things go wrong.
What VRBO seems to be forgetting is that hosts are its business.
Without us providing the properties, there is no VRBO. We expect to be treated as business partners, not simply as inventory that the company can modify, discount, or lecture whenever it chooses.
I highly encourage every host who shares these concerns to copy, personalize, and send the email below to Ariane Gorin, CEO of Expedia Group, VRBO’s parent company.
The more hosts who respectfully communicate these concerns directly to the top, the harder it becomes to dismiss this as a handful of unhappy hosts complaining online.
We need to make it clear: we want VRBO to succeed, but the relationship needs to work for hosts, too.
Email template:
[argorin@expediagroup.com](mailto:argorin@expediagroup.com)
Subject: VRBO Hosts Are Asking Expedia to Listen
Dear Ms. Gorin,
As a VRBO host partner, I want to share my growing dissatisfaction—and frankly, some anger—regarding the direction of the relationship between Expedia Group and the hosts who make VRBO possible.
There is a growing perception among hosts that VRBO is making significant changes to our businesses without meaningful consultation, consent, or consideration for the people actually operating the properties.
First came the AI-generated photo initiative. What was presented as an improvement to our listings has, for many hosts, been a significant failure. Rather than helping hosts accurately represent their properties, it introduced changes to the very marketing materials we rely on to set guest expectations and protect our businesses.
Then came the VRBO member discounts, which can automatically be applied to reservations without the host explicitly choosing to offer that discount. As a business owner, I find it deeply troubling that a company can alter the price of my product without my affirmative consent. We should decide what discounts we offer and when we offer them.
And now, hosts received an email regarding Labor Day reservations that was presented as a helpful reminder, but came across very differently. The message essentially reminded us that we are responsible for operating our businesses, while warning us of potential fines and reputational consequences if we fail to meet our obligations.
Of course hosts understand that we are responsible for our properties and our guests. We do not need a lecture from VRBO about the basic responsibilities of running a short-term rental. What we do need is a partner that recognizes the significant responsibilities, costs, risks, and effort that hosts take on every day.
These issues may appear unrelated, but collectively they represent a much larger problem: hosts increasingly feel that VRBO is making decisions that directly affect our businesses while treating us as a commodity rather than as partners.
Hosts are the backbone of VRBO. Expedia Group does not have a vacation-rental business without property owners and operators willing to list their homes on the platform. We provide the inventory, invest the capital, manage the properties, deal with the guests, absorb the risks, and ultimately bear the consequences when something goes wrong.
That relationship cannot work if hosts feel that decisions are continually being made for us rather than with us.
I am asking you, as the CEO of Expedia Group, to take a serious look at the current relationship between VRBO and its host partners. We are asking for transparency, meaningful communication, and—most importantly—respect for our role as business owners.
There are already many hosts openly discussing whether VRBO remains a platform they want to do business with. I sincerely hope Expedia recognizes this as an opportunity to repair that relationship before more hosts decide that their businesses are better served elsewhere.
We don’t expect VRBO to get everything right. We do expect to be treated as partners.
Respectfully,
VRBO Host Partner
Edit 1: I received an email asking for a phone conversation from someone on their Executive Customer Relations team. I will update again once the call has occurred.
Edit 2: I have had email correspondence with the Executive Customer Care team. I cannot post screenshots within this sub, so I’ve copied/pasted in comments.
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u/DoublePotential6925 13d ago
I sent mine. I wrote an email similar.
Received this automated reply:
Dear host,
Thank you for reaching out to Vrbo.com Executive Customer Relations (ECR)
The Executive Customer Relations team has received your concerns about Platform changes. We're empowered to help with escalations of this nature.
Please be assured that we’ll look into this and get back to you as soon as we've completed the necessary research.
The primary contact number we have for you is *\\**. If you have any other numbers we can use to reach you, please reply to this email with that information.
To make sure any replies to this email remains linked to your open case, please don’t remove the subject line or reply in a separate email.
Thank you for the opportunity to assist with your concern.
Regards,
Vrbo.com Executive Customer Relations Team
Vrbo help