Hi Blamona

I've honestly never come across people pulling villas off VRBO and charging a fee, without the owners express permission before the fact. Perhaps I am naive or just fortunate not to have seen it.

On St Barts that would be illegal in any case. I cannot take your money and sign a contract on your behalf for a stay in a villa I am not mandated to handle, in the same way I can't sell you the Brooklyn Bridge.

The way it works on St Barts at least is thus:

An owner decides to market alone, with their own website, VRBO, Flikey etc.
An owner lists exclusively with one agency (getting rarer) and only that agency can or will process bookings.
An owner can list with multiple agencies, and mix and match with their own marketing efforts.

If the owner mixes between marketing his or herself and working through agencies the published price, on say VRBO, will be the same as that published by the agencies.

The owner pays the fees, not the renter, and in exchange the owner gets a distribution channel and connections which he or she wouldn't otherwise have.

VRBO does cost the owner money also, not as much as going through an agency, but the agency will provide a trained sales person (ideally) who will do all the legwork in qualifying leads and processing the reservation.

On top of that the agency provides as you say, a concierge, a 24/7 helpline, etc etc

Part of the agency commission will be further distributed to travel agencies that they supply.

It's yield management, hotels do the same thing.

They would ideally like to fill their hotels with full price direct clients, but make judgement call on how much of their business they will take from Travel Agents or Tour Operators at a discounted rate.

<We're actually aimed at experienced travelers who are looking for a particular type of experience.>

I disagree. This has nothing to do with villa rental (sorry for off topic) but there's nothing in Fodor's guidebooks that most people wouldn't know who been some place 8 times. Also because printed guidebooks are by their nature out-of-date again I personally have found more mistakes and incorrect information than new and useful for the places I visit repeatedly.

This comment isn't to one particular place, as I have a LOT of Fodor's guidebooks (because of being quoted and given freebies).

Doug you must be kidding when you say that Fodor's isn't geared to the first time visitor. The person who has visited an island multiple times isn't going to glean much more from Fodors.

It depends entirely on the destination and the book, but this is a fruitless argument. Readers have to make up their own minds about which books and coverage are appropriate for them. It really varies, and our coverage for some islands is much more detailed than for others.