CHINCOTEAGUE, VA, July 05, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ — Citing big changes in vacation rental listing services, such as Homeaway and VRBO, a new regional website called Virginia Vacation Rentals has launched to allow renters and vacation homeowners direct contact with each other without hidden fees or interference.

“We’re going back to the model of simply being a listing site for vacation homeowners,” said Bunnie Riedel, President of Riedel Communications and owner of the website.

“As a vacation rental homeowner, I was driven off of sites like VRBO because it was bought by Expedia and then Expedia proceeded to treat our property like it was a hotel,” said Riedel. “Their policies such as charging renters a booking fee and not allowing direct contact between renter and the homeowner are shocking.”

In 2015, Expedia Inc. agreed to acquire VRBO and its family of online booking sites for $3.9 billion in cash and stock. Not long after, its policies began to change and now, two years later, vacation rental homeowners are jumping ship and looking for alternative booking sites.

“It’s become a perfect storm. Bookings have been reduced by 30% to 50% as vacationers realize that they have to pay a booking fee of 9% to 12%,” said Riedel. “And to make it worse, the renters do not get the owners’ contact information until after they’ve booked and vice versa.”

Virginia Vacation Rentals was created to give homeowners and renters direct contact with one another and put them in the driver’s seat.

“Our goal is to provide a platform so renters and homeowners can speak directly to each other without the interference of a middle man,” said Riedel. “The site has eight separate regions for vacation destinations; there really is something for every taste whether it’s the mountains or the valley vineyard tours or the coastline or close in to Washington, D.C. We’ll have a listing for every budget and every vacationer’s dreams.”

Riedel Communications, Inc. was started in 2005 as a marketing and strategic planning consulting business. Its clients include nonprofits, local, state and federal government clients and retail businesses.