Agree with most of what you are saying. I am an owner of a SXM rental on VRBO. If the owner is a paid upfront advertiser (like me) rather than a per booking advertiser you can contact the owner via email or by an inquiry on the site. It is ONLY if you book AND pay via VRBO will they charge their service fee payable to VRBO (not owner.) As an owner you have to go to the VRBO site, sign in and check the inquire. In it you will see the email address and or phone number of the party. The automatic email sent to you as an owner will (as someone has said) have the email address hidden.
So, as an owner you can still book guest. As a guest you can pay direct to owner and avoid the VRBO fees. At least for now. (they will most likely phase out the one fee ad rate to prevent this in future.) <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

Good luck and happy travels.
GaryB <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />