We want to recoup credit card processing fees when cancelling a booking. Right now, we can only set up a cancellation fee of a fixed amount. Can you add the function of a % of booking?
[Another topic was closed as a duplicate of this topic (Cancellation Fee Modification)]
After some research into this topic, I'm afraid we will not be able to move forward with this request at this time. There are existing workarounds available.
A big driver for that decision is that Vrbo doesn't support percentage-based cancellation fees through their API. Your main options are to set your Cancellation Policy below 100%, or use rate adjustments to build buffer pricing into all bookings to offset potential cancellation losses.
While Vrbo's official policy requires hosts to provide 100% refunds for guests to receive service fee refunds, there's an unofficial workaround: small "cancellation fees" (like recouping 3% by setting your Cancellation Policy to a 97% refund) may be retained if you let Vrbo's automated systems process everything without human intervention. However, if anyone contacts Vrbo directly about the cancellation, they'll enforce the full refund requirement in order to refund those guest service fees. More importantly, any cancellation fee (whether percentage-based or flat) could potentially cost you Vrbo's ranking boost for offering 100% refunds. It's generally better to slightly raise your rates (around 0.5%) to cover cancellation risk while maintaining the no-fee policy and keeping Vrbo's algorithmic advantages.
I'll leave this request open for voting, but do keep in mind that a percentage based cancellation fee would only be applicable to direct bookings if we do decide to tackle this in the future.
