I'm Lost or Not?

I arrived in Portland Maine sometime after 11:30 PM which is about 12 hours after I left my home in San Diego. My Maine camp is just 45 miles north of Portland, so I set off in the rental car happy to be "home." Alas, there were some obstacles to overcome, minor for me, but major had I been a first time guest to Maine.

It's drizzly and the roads are wet. This instantly makes signs harder to read. First stop: toll plaza: $1 please. Thank goodness for the crumpled up $1s in my purse. Who carries cash anymore? Next stop taking 295 which seems confusing, and another $1 toll.

I had forgotten there are two seasons in this part of the country: winter and construction. As usual there is plenty of road work and signage to distract anyone on this dark night. The lane markers and the lack thereof add to the discomfort. Mind you,I know where I'm going,but it's been 2 years. I'm driving a rental car and still figuring out the windshield wipers and trying to remember I'm heading north with the water on the right instead of south. By the time I get to exit 31 for Topsham I'm Doubting my memory. The local landmarks are reassuring and I'm feeling good. Until the first detour sign for Rte 1 north. I followed the signs faithfully and end up by Bowdoin, fortunately I knew the way from there because the signs disapparated.

By this time it's well after 1 in the morning and the rest of the winding lightless drive seems so much longer than I remember. When I arrive at the end my signs are illegible and the camp as dark as night. I would be very discouraged if I were a first time guest to this vacation rental. All I could feel was "I'm in the middle of nowhere and it's damp & dark. I wonder how our guests ever get there!

VRBO Gouging in most competitive locations?

Is it just me or does anyone else feel gouged by VRBO's pay for photos pricing model. Back when VRBO started out they sorted by listing number, so the older your listing, the higher you appeared in results. If I remember right 4 photos came with that listing. As VRBO grew and technology improved they started allowing more property photos at a price which would give you a higher position among your competition. Listing number still factors in all else being equal. When The competition heated up and the cost to store media came down, the same cycle repeated itself until we got to 16 photos being the max one can buy. I'm in one market where that still puts my listing at #19, even with a low listing number. So for my add I pay approximately $299 base rate plus $29.99/ photo more than 5. That's nearly $330 more to get those photos so I might get noticed. This was almost justifiable...but then came search by availability and more. No longer is it necessary for VRBO to find a way to justify listing rankings since the search algorithms can kick in. Only one thing! VRBO does not use a random appearance algorithm even when guest choose what's important to them. The properties are filtered and then show up by number of photos & listing number.

I ask: Why hasn't VRBO come into the 21st century where photos are free and virtually un limited(because guest want photos)? Why is every last dime squeezed out of the owners who are in the most competitive market places? I feel gouged. Do you.