Vrbo and direct booking: what is allowed, and what gets a listing suspended.

What Vrbo says

Vrbo’s help center is clear on the principle: “reservations must be made through Vrbo and payments must follow Vrbo’s checkout and payment flows. Our platform cannot be used to find or discuss a reservation and then take that reservation or payment off-platform to avoid paying compensation or fees to us.”

In practice Vrbo blocks four kinds of messages: contact information such as phone numbers or emails sent before booking; messages offering alternative booking methods, “such as a personal website”; suggestions to pay outside the Vrbo platform; and messages directing travelers to contact you outside Vrbo. “If you are found in violation of the Off-Platform Booking Policy multiple times, it may result in the suspension of your listing.”

Once a reservation is confirmed, contact details appear in the inbox so you can organize the stay. That is for the stay: using a Vrbo conversation to arrange the next one off Vrbo is exactly what the policy forbids.

What Airbnb says

Airbnb’s Off-Platform and Fee Transparency Policy lists what is not allowed, including:

• “Asking or encouraging users to move current, future, or repeat bookings (including reservation extensions) off of Airbnb”
• “Including links that take people off of the Airbnb platform in listings or messages”
• “Offering or soliciting discounts to book off of Airbnb”
• “Asking guests for contact information prior to booking”
• “Selling, sharing, or using guest contact information for marketing communications or signing guests up for contact list”

Payments outside Airbnb for Airbnb bookings are prohibited, with narrow exceptions for some disclosed fees and deposits. After a booking you may confirm the contact details Airbnb provides and use another channel if the guest asks for one, as long as the rest of the policy is respected. “In the event of repeated or severe violations, we may suspend or permanently deactivate a user’s listings or account.”

What Booking.com says

Booking.com doesn’t share guests’ private email addresses: you see an alias ending in @guest.booking.com. Its General Delivery Terms say the property “shall not use the Messaging Service and/or Guest contact details provided by Booking.com … to send unsolicited electronic communications”, and that guest data may be processed only for the stay or where there is a legal ground, including the guest’s consent.

Booking.com’s terms also cover rate parity. In the EEA, Italy included, properties are not required to give Booking.com rates as good as on their own website. In the US, the standard terms ask for rates at least as good as those on the property’s own website, apps or call centers. Check your own contract.

The three platforms side by side

A safe way to grow direct bookings anyway

None of this stops you from having your own site. It means the site has to be found, not pushed.

• Give your place a name and use the same name as your domain, so guests who search it find you.
• Put a real booking engine on the site, synced with Vrbo, Airbnb and Booking.com so nothing is double booked.
• Look after guests who book on your site: they are yours to contact, with their consent.
• Build demand outside the platforms: local partners, social media, your own content.

The full list is in how to get direct bookings.

What Vrbo charges, for comparison

On Vrbo’s pay-per-booking model, the fee is “a flat, all-in 12% commission fee, which includes payment processing fees”, charged on the rent and any fees you add, like cleaning. Taxes and security deposits pay a 3% processing fee instead. Hosts connected through software may pay 12% to 15% in some regions, such as Europe. Vrbo has stopped new sign-ups to its yearly subscription and says most legacy subscribers move to pay-per-booking from October 2026.

Travelers also pay a service fee at checkout; Vrbo says the percentage varies with the reservation amount and doesn’t publish it. Compare a stay across platforms in the fee calculator.

Questions hosts ask