FAQ — Bella Vista, Casa Pacis, Alta Vista

Fees - what fees, if any, are you paying when you rent from ACViews?

When you book your vacation through ACViews, you pay for rent, cleaning, and the required taxes. You pay for no hidden fees or other expenses.

Our family has owned Casa Pacis as a personal vacation home and made it available for vacation rental since 1983 (Bella Vista since 1993, and Alta Vista since 2004) providing multi-day rentals during these years to many guests.

In addition to featuring our homes on this "ACViews" website (the name stands for Affordable Comfort and Views), we list them sometimes with a few dedicated vacation rental listing sites, such as "VRBO." Traditionally, these listings sites provide inquiries from travelers looking for vacation rentals. We then respond to such inquiries with a quote, handle the subsequent booking, and manage the rental details. We do not charge a fee for these services, as well as for all associated costs, including the expense for the listings with these outside advertising companies. We use PayPal as primary means for our guests to pay with their credit cards, following our guests’ agreement to our no-nonsense rental conditions. In most cases we even absorb the fees charged to us by PayPal for their services.   

In 2016, VRBO and their parent company “HomeAway,” now owned by “TripAdvisor,” changed their business profile, setting a new trend in the vacation rental business. They forced us homeowners — i.e., their clients who paid for their listings on their platform — to accept their new on-line booking program, for which our guests have to pay a high additional “Service Fee” directly to them (about 10-20% of rents). We ourselves have been providing on-line booking all-along, without charging any such fees — and this with better, more personalized service and considerations than what the computerized HomeAway booking system is providing. For example, our exceptionally consumer-friendly refund policy through PayPal dwarfs the “enhanced consumer protection” which HomeAway claims to be offering in partial justification for the fees they charge to our customers.  

We may also be listed with Airbnb. Similar to HomeAway, bookings through Airbnb are also subject to a high booking fee as compensation for their services. However, Airbnb's fee is a bit more reasonable, and they do not separately charge us for listing with them.

The upshot is that we offer our guests avoidance of substantial, unreasonable third-party service and booking fees by encouraging booking directly through us, without extra fees. 

All bookings, if for periods less than 31 days, are subject to a mandatory Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) charged on rent, housekeeping, and fees, if any. In addition, bookings at Sea Ranch are subject to a 3.5% Sea Ranch Association Short Term Rental fee on rents.

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