Hi Travis,

First of all, thank you for your reply.  I do appreciate the time  and effort that you spent to consider this and provide a response.

You mention that my listing fee ($329 -- which is about 5% of my annual net at my small one-bedroom condo), goes toward marketing and Google & Yahoo rankings.

You mention that the advertising on the site helps fund vital SEO and marketing.

For the benefit of everyone, here is Wikipedia's definition of Search Engine Optimization (SEO):

     "Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving

       the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the

       'natural' or un-paid ('organic' or 'algorithmic') search results."

SEO is a part of good web design & development and does require constant attention -- but it is a given for any web site and good web developers will do this as a matter of course.  Marketing is part of any good business plan and bidding on keywords in Google is a costly affair, I know from personal experience.

Having said this -- my $329 should cover all of this.  I can not stress enough that the _only_ thing that I'm paying VRBO and HomeAway for is SEO and Marketing.  Other sites exist for free that do property listings as good as, or better, than VRBO/HA.   SEO and Marketing is, in my opinion, the only true value-add that HomeAway offers owners and one that is worth paying for while the competition builds businesses that can compete with the momentum HA acquired (literally acquired -- by buying up the existing competition).

Property managers, on the other hand, may see more benefits. There is quite a bit of functionality on VRBO/HA that I do not need (but that I can not opt out of and, consequently, must subsidize for those that do).

I absolutely do not buy the assertion that advertising on the site is in any way, shape or form is required to fund SEO or marketing efforts.  When the ads appeared on HA/VRBO, I certainly didn't see my listing fee go down.  I also did not see the performance of my listing go up either.

Perhaps if HomeAway spent more effort with smart Marketing to the end customers worldwide and less time with costly U.S.-centric, one-offs like the Superbowl advertising, then this need for additional, offensive advertising at the top of my property listing would not be necessary.

It certainly is unconscionable that HA and VRBO are putting ads at the top of our listings and pushing owners' vital listing information below-the-fold.  You are devaluing my listing with the HA/VRBO "template".  This devaluation was done without my agreement or consent and after I paid my $329 in good faith.

I think that the ads cheapen the HA/VRBO site, distract from my listing and are a poor policy overall.  If you can not run the SEO and Marketing campaigns with the $329 that I'm paying times the 500,000 listings that are reputed to be on VRBO/HA (That's $165 million/year, folks) then someone at head office needs to seriously look into cost inefficiencies.

Again, Travis, I appreciate your time and answer but -- I'm sorry -- the answer smacks of "towing the company line" and seems disingenuous to me.

I suppose it's possible that I agreed somewhere in the pages-and-pages of legalese that HA could sandwich my listing between ads.  If so, I would appreciate if you would point out to me where this is stated in the terms.  If not, I again request that you opt my listing out of the ads.  I do not approve of them on my listing.

I think HA/VRBO simply hoped that we owners wouldn't notice.  I did -- and I hope others will take the time to speak up too.

Regards,

P.

P.S.  If maximizing revenue from ads is required by HA and if you believe them to be acceptable then why are there no ads on the HomeAway or VRBO home pages?  While I'm glad they aren't there (as I said, it cheapens the site and sends potential guests mixed messages), I think HA is being hypocritical in putting them on my listing while not putting them on the home page.