{"id":6283,"date":"2025-07-03T11:56:13","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T11:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/?p=6283"},"modified":"2025-07-03T11:56:13","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T11:56:13","slug":"booking-vacation-rentals-directly-with-owners-to-save-on-additional-fees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/?p=6283","title":{"rendered":"Booking vacation rentals directly with owners to save on additional fees"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In my last post, I talked about the merits of booking vacation rentals directly versus via a third party website such as Airbnb or VRBO. I concluded that the listing sites are useful for being able to research what properties are available but pointed out that, once you\u2019ve found a property you like, it can be beneficial to book directly with the owner, assuming you are dealing with a reputable owner, of course. And you can, to some extent, get a good idea on this from the reviews on listing sites. Listings that have a significant number of reviews and consistently score highly are more likely to have reputable owners (or managers\/agencies) behind them than those that have very few reviews or inconsistent scores.<\/p>\n

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Booking directly can save you significant sums. People might not realise this but on a booking totalling a little over \u00a31,000, it\u2019 is very possible that around \u00a3200 of this could be made up of additional fees. That\u2019s quite a significant sum that could be put towards other treats whilst you\u2019re on holiday.<\/p>\n

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But how do you go about contacting an owner directly if all you have is a listing? Read on to learn more\u2026<\/p>\n

What you don\u2019t do<\/h2>\n

First, let\u2019s start with what you don\u2019t do. Don\u2019t simply message the owner via the listing site, asking to take the conversation off-site so that you book directly. Third party sites can monitor the messages you send via them and usually restrict the sharing of email addresses, telephone numbers and\/or websites, at least until a booking has been made via their platform. They\u2019ll no doubt claim this is to protect guests\u2019 and hosts\u2019 privacy and security, but it\u2019s also because \u2013 if you book with them directly \u2013 they don\u2019t get their commission. Attempting to flout their rules will likely earn you a slap on the wrist or you could even risk being banned from the site in question.<\/p>\n

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So how do you go about contacting an owner directly, if that\u2019s what you want to do?<\/p>\n

Try some basic detective work<\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s say you find a property that you really like the look of in the village of \u201cXYZ\u201d. Go to a search engine (or social media) and just do some searches for \u201cXYZ accommodation\u201d or \u201cXYZ apartment\u201d (if it\u2019s an apartment) or \u201cXYZ country house accommodation\u201d, \u201cXYZ riverside holiday home\u201d, etc. etc. You get the idea. Look through the search results and you might just find the direct contact details for the property in question.<\/p>\n

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Try other listing sites<\/h2>\n

Not all listing sites restrict access to the owner\u2019s own contact details. Some sites instead charge owners a listing fee (rather than taking a commission) and don\u2019t restrict the ability to see the owner\u2019s own contact details. Other sites \u2013 such as local tourism boards or chambers of commerce websites \u2013 might also just provide owner contact details.<\/p>\n

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Everything you need to plan your trip in 2025<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Try some more advanced detective work<\/h2>\n

Look at the listing for the property a little more closely. There are all sorts of other clues that might help you locate the owner independently. Maybe it\u2019s the owner\u2019s name (often you are only given the first name, but this can still happen in some instances, especially if it\u2019s quite a distinctive name), maybe it\u2019s a photo that allows you to work out what street the property is on, maybe it\u2019s something that\u2019s mentioned in the text. Listings can be full of a surprising number of clues!<\/p>\n

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Try searching for specific phrases<\/h2>\n

As humans, we are inherently lazy. If a listing site asks an owner for copy for their property, the likelihood is that the owner will just use text that they already have, rather than create something new just for that one site. Chances are, they will just copy and paste text from their own website \u2013 if they have one \u2013 for use on other sites.<\/p>\n

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This means that you can find a phrase on a listing, copy and paste it into Google search, and put quotation marks around it, to search for that exact phrase. It doesn\u2019t have to be many words, but ideally a short piece of text that\u2019s unique and specific to the property you want to contact directly. You might be surprised how often that exact same text recurs on different websites and you might just find the owner\u2019s own website or a social media page.<\/p>\n

Try a reverse image search<\/h2>\n

When you\u2019re on a listing that you like, you can download an image (or get the URL of an image) by right clicking on it. You can then use this to find where that same image is used on other websites \u2013 what is known as reverse image searching. Sites such as TinEye, Google Images\/Google Lens and Yandex Images are all worth looking at when it comes to performing reverse image searches.<\/p>\n

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A final word of warning<\/h2>\n

In the spirit of balance, it is important that I include this final note. When booking directly, you can usually make a saving, and often a significant one, but it is important that you\u2019re aware of the implications. First and foremost, you will not have whatever protections that the third party platform provides. This might include anything from secure payments to dispute resolution in the event of there being a problem with your booking. You\u2019ll also be subject to the owner\u2019s individual cancellation policy rather than that of the platform, which might be different. It\u2019s critical that you conduct due diligence and that any agreements you have are clear. And we strongly recommend that you take out suitable travel and cancellation insurance. However you choose to book, we wish you a wonderful holiday!<\/p>\n

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Becky Johnson<\/h3>\n

Becky Johnson is a Director of Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd.. Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd. offers luxury riverside holiday accommodation that is perfectly positioned between two of the UK\u2019s most beautiful National Parks \u2013 the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales. If you would like to be a guest blogger on A Luxury Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Source: https:\/\/www.aluxurytravelblog.com\/2025\/07\/03\/booking-vacation-rentals-directly-with-owners-to-save-on-additional-fees\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my last post, I talked about the merits of booking vacation rentals directly versus via a third party website such as Airbnb or VRBO. I concluded that the listing sites are useful for being able to research what properties are available but pointed out that, once you\u2019ve found a property you like, it can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.theblyde.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}