First it used to be easy - create advert, pay your fee, get gite enquires, and liase with the clients.
Then someone thought it would be a good idea to have first-class, second class, etc tiers of exposure on the website, for extra money.
Then they started to worry about payment security etc,( we have been renting out for 15 years and never had a problem) and brought in online payment, for 3% per booking ( but no advert fee)
Now, its back to Stage 1, with the addition of charging the holiday-makers 6%!
I am also sceptical about the changes. I spent 30 minutes chatting with HA today about it. I pay a fortune to be at the top of the list for my area. It is worth it for me. However, this move takes away any competitive advantage I had before. I'm sure they will find ways to make us pay more again through the bundles. Basically the HA agent said that you need to use their booking and payment system for your advert to have a reasonable ranking. I suspect that one's ranking will depend on how much money they make through your bookings.