Effective: May 12th, 2025 (Global)

Transparency builds trust. This policy helps ensure price transparency for travelers by requiring partners to clearly communicate any Fees and Taxes associated with a booking.

Key terms

  • Base Price: The price of a reservation before adding Fees and Taxes.
  • Fees:
    • Mandatory Fixed Fees: Fees that travelers must pay as part of the reservation that can be calculated at the time of booking. Examples include cleaning fees, resort access fees, or administrative fees. (Note: Pet fees are considered Mandatory Fixed Fees if traveling with a pet.)
    • Mandatory Usage-Based Fees: Fees that travelers must pay for utilities or services measured by usage, which cannot be calculated at the time of booking, e.g. electricity charges based on actual usage.
    • Optional Fees: Fees charged only if the traveler chooses specific features or services, such as optional parking, heated pool/hot tub access, streaming services, or premium WiFi.
  • Taxes: Government-imposed taxes or charges that travelers must pay for their stay at a property.

Your responsibilities

The total amount of Mandatory-Fixed Fees must not exceed the Base Price.

Rates must be fair and competitive with other marketplaces, to the extent allowed by law.

Partners may not charge any Fees or Taxes unless they have been disclosed to a traveler at the time of booking. Partners must load these Fees and Taxes into their listing as outlined below:

  • All Mandatory Fixed Fees and Taxes must be loaded in the designated structured fields.
  • Where your account type allows Mandatory Usage-Based Fees, these must be loaded in the designated structured fields. Where your account type does not allow Mandatory Usage-Based Fees, you will need to either build these into your Base Price or load as a Mandatory Fixed Fee.
  • Optional Fees may be loaded into the designated structured fields, where available, or included in the property description. For clarity, no other fees should be added to the property description.
  • Taxes may be collected either at time of booking or at the time of the traveler’s stay.

 Partners may choose to provide additional details on Fees and Taxes in the property description. 

Enforcement

Partners who violate this policy may be subject to suspension. Vrbo reserves the right remove partners who repeatedly violate this policy.

Appeal a suspension

Partners have the right to appeal their suspension by providing documented evidence proving the enforcement action was made in error.