Vrbo Reviews

I would advise anyone to think again before booking with Vrbo. While encountering a bad host can happen anywhere, it is how the platform handles it that matters. If you have an issue with the property or the host, expect no help from vrbo. They are useless. We rented a place that was not as advertised (AC wasn't as advertised, the place was filthy) which we were willing to overlook, but when we found the shower wasn't working properly we contacted the host asking for help. He soon stoped responding and offered no help.

Hi everyone, I just want to share an experience I had and hope it helps others, as a traveling teacher I had found a great little cabin in east glacier, the business name is Glacier Getaway Cabins, LLC, however on another site it is posted as: **. I only had a verbal agreement with this person named Simarron ** and on July 29th, I made a down payment of 500 to have/hold the cabin from October 8th, until June 1st, which coincided with the school year, It was a very nice place, however as life happens I needed to not rent it, due to a family emergency.

I've had horrific experience with VRBO customer service team. I booked a reservation through VRBO, which I later needed to cancel (within cancelation time frame). I was unable to cancel using the button in my app prompting a call to CS for assistance. Long story short, it was host contracted with VRBO and needs canceled through the host directly. VRBO was unable to assist in canceling and requested that I contact host to cancel. After several failed attempts and unresponsive voice-mails, and several emails and calls with VRBO customer service. I've now spent little over 2 hours collectively trying to cancel and get my $ back. VRBO customer service will do nothing more than offer me a $50 credit.

Due to misrepresented information presented in the listing for this property and unsatisfactory assistance from VRBOCare- not one single night (of a 7 day booking) was spent in this home. Upon entering this home, there was a very noticeable stench of what smelled like old cigarettes and ashtrays, the alarm system continuously beeped and the control panel listed many (5) items requiring attention, there were no smoke detectors- just flat plastic bases where smoke detectors should have been (I thought smoke detectors were a requirement of a rental establishment for human occupancy), and there was a used cleaning cloth wadded up in the kitchen sink.

My card was used to hold a reservation but when they asked for ID to verify they (VRBO) realized the person whose card was used wasn't the person trying to reserve the rental, they cancelled the reservation but only refunded about a tenth of the money back! I've been trying to get back the rest of my money which is over 2k back from these despicable business, I was given the number to the owner of the rental and he was a nasty piece of work....Once they have your money they don't want to return it....

I’m writing this review in hopes of warning other travelers about VRBO’s absolutely unacceptable customer service and business practices. On September 3, 2025, I booked a beach house in York Beach, Maine, for a family vacation scheduled for August 22–29, 2026. I made this reservation almost an entire year in advance specifically so our family could stay together in a beachfront home in a place that has been special to us since our kids were young. At the time of booking, I paid a deposit of $3,594.45, PLUS an outrageous $853.47 VRBO service fee. That’s $4,447.92 paid upfront for a reservation we believed was secure.

The property was good but Vrbo keep our deposit for up to 14 days after checkout.

VRBO is a terrible company! I would never rent from them again. Spent 8000 for a week in wild dunes. There was very heavy construction a few feet away in another house the entire week. Contacted the host but no response. Spent 2 hours on the phone with Vrbo and spoke with 5 agents and a supervisor. Sent photos and noise recordings to prove my case. They me offered me 100 and then 200 to go away. I said no. I spent 1000 a day on the rental and the constant noise ruined the vacation. It is owned by private equity now and they added 2000 in fees for cleaning, the Vrbo fee and taxes which added 2000 to the rental of 6000 for a total of 8000.

Booked what I thought was one room in Sioux City through Vrbo for $385, it turned out to be two rooms. At check-in, the hotel manager told me their direct rate was $125/night per room, so $250 total for two, versus the $385 I paid through Vrbo. That’s a $135 markup once Vrbo’s fees and third-party pricing are factored in. If you’re booking a private home through Vrbo, fine, rates are fixed with the host. But for hotels, call the hotel directly first and compare. I only caught this because the manager was upfront with me. Check the hotel’s own rate before booking here.

I rented a beach home in Myrtle Beach called “May the Beach Be With You” in the Ocean Lakes community. It was HORRIBLE. There was no electricity and the plumbing to the kitchen did not work upon arrival. Later that evening the Palmetto roaches started crawling out of the vent work. We immediately vacated the property. And VRBO and the owner have refused a refund. VRBO does not stand behind its VrboCare guarantee. Do not rent from VRBO. You will be sorry.

Don't use vrbo if you really hope to have a place to stay! Watch out for vrbo! They allow hosts to lie to you, double book you and then leave you a bad rating - even when you didn't stay with them (which is AGAINST VRBO's OWN POLICY) - and do nothing about it. It's horrid to arrive at your lodging only to find another renter there already. No one wants to be stranded in another place with no available lodging, especially when they planned ahead for six months and thought all was well. But to make matters even worse, VRBO allows the sneaky host to leave a 1 star review for the POOR GUEST who never walked through the door of the property.

I stayed at a Vrbo and found out upon leaving that the host had undisclosed cameras near the pool and hot tub area that was supposed to be private. I read through other reviews and saw that this host had other guests bring this up numerous times on both Vrbo and Airbnb, but they continued to be allowed to rent without disclosing the location of those cameras. Vrbo said they would investigate, and refunded $100, but that was it. They kept making excuses for the host, and it doesn't sound like anything will actually be done to stop them from secretly filming people there. Vrbo clearly doesn't inspect the properties themselves.

Been using VRBO for a few years. Seemed to work well. Trying to book a home for August of 2027. This time they did not offer a deposit option. VRBO says the owner must turn that option on. I told her and she did. I went to book. Entered all my CC info and they said there's a problem try later. After several attempts I messaged the owner. She said they don't allow bookings more than a year out so I have wait a week and try again. I double checked my listing yesterday just for the heck of it and it's booked for the week I want. The owner is frustrated, I'm furious. I will never book through VRBO again.

I have been using VRBO for a long time mainly renting vacation properties. Never had any issues. But recently was charged all of a sudden with a damage fee for some sliding door. Didn't even touch that door during a 3-day stay as it was a door to a patio which we used just once since we spent all the time on the beach and would come back to that property just to sleep.

Unfortunately we had an awful experience at a VRBO in Paris. The owner was rude and frightening when we asked for a 2nd towel. Things didn’t get better and VRBO was zero help. Trying to get a partial refund is impossible! They say it’s up to the owner who they can’t seem to contact. Rotting moldy food and absolutely filthy apartment.

Ad says sleeps 5. Condo had 1 king bed and a sofa sleeper, comfortable for 2 children, air filters in air conditioners were 1/2 inch thick with dirt, black mold on the air conditioners. Floors were full of sand, could not hang cloths in closet, 7 pillows and brooms, mops, bucket, broom were thrown in and piled on the closet, the condo smelled like rotten lemons, dirty towels were wrapped up and stuck to the bottom of kitchen cabinets. We paid $463.00 a night for that.

If I could give VRBO zero stars, I would. I booked a villa through them in June. First, I received an email that I owed another $550 for amenities that are not listed, two hours before my arrival. No idea I owed that. I was told I must pay before my arrival. This is after I was sent a confirmation and receipt of payment with check-in details.

After driving 9 hours to Charlotte N. Carolina with my 3 teenage kids, we got to our reservation & could not find the lockbox that was supposed to have the key to the front door. I text & called the host but got no responses. Ended up calling VRBO customer service, which I learnt uses agents in Egypt & they also couldn't get a hold of the host. I spent almost 2 hours on the phone with the agents, trying what they could to help. They eventually canceled my reservation, sent me a link to the Expedia website & asked me to see if I could find an alternative place to stay as VRBO itself couldn't find us another property for that evening.

They do not stand behind the products in their portfolio. They will help you if you have 4 hrs of your vacation time to waste (3-5 min LOL) hours... House had several safety violations. No help to move to a safe location.

I will never use VRBO again. The host of my 2 month rental was absolutely horrible. He entered the property without permission multiple times, both when we were in the home and away. VRBO did not help us as we did not have video proof. The host then acted hostile to us for the next month because we told VRBO about our issue. As we are 2 young females in our 20s and our host was a man in his 50s or so, we felt very unsafe in this house yet got no help. We were refunded $200 out of our $3000 stay. They did not help us locate to a new, safe environment. Customer service once at the supervisor level was not helpful. Horrible experience overall.

We rented a location in Houston for Father’s Day weekend. The location looked exactly like the pictures which was great but the devil was in the details. It was filthy! The first issue was that the owner tried to change the check out time and advised that the garage was not accessible to us. Absolutely not! Those were some of the most important requirements that led to our decision to book. Of course the owner would not respond to our calls/text to we reached out to VRBO support. Shortly afterwards the owner came to remove their car from the garage, provided remote controls for the TV and corrected the check out time.

I had a very disappointing experience using Vrbo. In February 2026, I booked an apartment in Isla Verde, Puerto Rico, for a 10-day stay. Before my trip, I contacted the host to confirm whether a parking space would be available for my rental car. Communication was very poor, and the only response I received was, "subject to availability." Since guaranteed parking was important to me, I contacted Vrbo customer service, explained the situation, and canceled the reservation. The total charge was $1,514, plus a $1,500 security deposit. The Vrbo representative assured me over the phone that I would receive a full refund within 14 days.

I am a property owner with a terrible experience with VRBO. A guest reached out to me from their platform and I approved their stay. VRBO allowed them to make a partial payment and didn't inform me that the guests did not make the last payment. I received no notices of any kind and they allowed the reservation to stay active. I unknowingly allowed the guests to stay in my home for 2 days. After I noticed an incorrect payout, I contacted VRBO and asked for them to pay me the total since it was a collection error on their end. 2 separate VRBO reps told me "Sorry there was nothing they could do." They went on to tell me that it was my responsibility to make sure that the guests had paid before check in.

I booked a VRBO apartment through Expedia.ca paid up front and 2 days later received a message that it had been cancelled by the host. Was not too worried until the refund arrived in my account $74.22 short. I followed up with VRBO customer service and each of 4 times talking to them I was told it would be resolved and I would get a confirmation email. Absolutely nothing happened after those 4 follow up calls. One email attached below but nothing since and no $74.22 outstanding refund to my CC. In total probably spent over 2 hours on the phone to them, and yes is $74.22 worth that, probably not but on principle I wanted my full refund. Will never use them again and I can't emphasize how bad corporate customer service has been. Uncooperative and disrespectful.

I made a reservation on Expedia website. Received the confirmation from vrbo. I needed to cancel but have been unsuccessful since according to Vrbo cancel portal my reservation does not exist. I tried to cancel several days after reservation was booked and within their 100% refund grace period. The cancellation/change process is difficult, no e-mail or telephone contact info on vrbo website. They charged my cc upon making reservation and it has been impossible to cancel or get my money back.

I guess I should have looked here before booking. The property had a score of 10/10 so I thought I was safe. However, when we got there, someone else was in the property. Couldn't reach the manager. We had a 5 month old and 30 minutes to get to a wedding rehearsal, so we quickly found other rooms. I made the mistake of not taking pictures of other people's belongings while trying to quickly make other arrangements. So now we are having difficulties getting a refund, even though I have a $1000 hotel bill. Tried all weekend to get in touch in-between wedding activities, and never received any messages from the manager. Called VRBO today and am getting the runaround because I didn't take pictures. Extremely disappointed and I will tell everyone and advertise NOT to use VRBO.

Run. Don’t walk from VRBO. Never booking through them again. Recently booked condo for Dec. vacation in Key West for 7 nights. Booked online at host's price of $198 per night plus taxes and fees. Paid amount due at booking, received confirmation email with contract showing correct cost matching what I booked through Vrbo. I signed it and emailed back to host and received confirmation they had received it. Next day host calls me and says she needs to cancel booking because pricing was incorrect, should have been $750 a night. I said that I did not want to cancel and wanted the booking at agreed price of contract I signed. She said no. They will cancel booking. I said I will call Vrbo to get you to honor the contract. I call Vrbo customer service and explain about them wanting increase after signing contract.

$1500 charge on my cc if I didn't pay an extortion insurance fee of $80 for a 2 day stay. They charged my card and kept it for 2 weeks before I received a refund. I will NEVER book with VRBO again.

Booked a cabin on VRBO with “total price” clearly reported. Once booked VRBO put thru a second additional charge of $118.37 for a VRBO fee unapproved by me. When I called they said they charge an additional VRBO fee because it was booked through Expedia?? I booked on VRBO website with no mention of Expedia. Crazy enough I asked to extend booking but the property owner couldn’t do it because it was booked thru Expedia. VRBO couldn’t do it because it was booked thru Expedia. And I can’t contact Expedia customer service because it will route to the same department I was already talking to. Their solution was to cancel and rebook despite the price to rebook is higher than my original price. I cancelled it and am purchasing something else through a different vendor. Guess what the property refund went through but the sneaky $118.37 VRBO fee has not been refunded. Accident? I think NOT!!

I feel misled by VRBO regarding insurance charges. I clearly remember selecting only one insurance policy, yet I was charged for multiple additional insurance products that I did not knowingly authorize. When I contacted support, I did not receive clear proof of my consent. Instead, I was repeatedly redirected to the insurance provider, which did not resolve the issue or explain the charges. Overall, the process lacks transparency, and the insurance additions during booking were not clear or properly explained. I feel that the way these charges were applied is misleading and unacceptable.

NEVER AGAIN VRBO!!! I booked a cottage through VRBO for a short 2-night stay. For a weekend trip, VRBO immediately charged a massive $1,500 security deposit to my credit card. The stay is over, and the landlord immediately gave the "all clear" to return the deposit, confirming zero damage. Yet, I have now been waiting for almost two weeks, and my $1,500 has still not been refunded. As I was told the refund is scheduled for exactly 14 days after check-out so there is method this deplorable behaviour!

My experience with Vrbo has been completely unacceptable and has exposed serious flaws in both their booking system and customer service practices. Three days before my scheduled Memorial Day vacation, my reservation was abruptly canceled due to a “double booking” error allegedly caused by VRBO’s platform. A failure of this magnitude should never occur, especially for customers who booked and paid in full well in advance.

The Company Vrbo is not going to protect you from their hosts. We had a host that was scamming normal people out of their hard earned money. The Host deceived us and misrepresented the property and has been doing this for many years according to him. Vrbo's custom protection consists of asking the Host to refund the money if he refuses you are out of luck. We traveled all day to get there and found the place to be unsafe. We had to drive another hour and a half to find a place to stay.

If you have no issues with your rental then everything is great. Watch out if there is any issue, vrbo and the hosts are working together. The guest is not a concern. A hot tub cleaned walked in unannounced, apologized and went and cleaned the hot tub. Clear privacy violation and safety issue. When I reported this to vrbo and the rental company, they said they had no record of a hot tub cleaner accessing the property. Either they are lying to cover their end or someone was entering the house under the cover of a cleaner. The person cleaned the tub btw….

I have been listing by beach house for five ears with VRBO. Several months ago, after not having any booking for months, I called Customer Service (what a misnomer). Apparently I had forgotten to pay the local Short Term Rental License and instead of advising me of this, they merely restricted (delisted) my property. I have made countless phone call to the so-called Customer Service, numerous on-line Chats, sent several emails, sent copies of the paid STR license SEVEN TIMES, and after two months I am still delisted and no-one from VRBO has contacted me to tell me why!

I wish there were a zero rating. This company needs to have a class action lawsuit filed. I booked a condo back in March for a stay coming up May 22nd in Galveston, TX. When I booked this, it stated the price per night and stated "all fees included." I then went to booking page and it showed the amount of my condo for one night was $148.05 and there were some taxes added for a total of $198.05. I paid this amount in full. As it is getting closer to my stay, I realized that no one had reached out with information on how to access the property so I logged in to VRBO and found that the owner of the property had messaged me through the website, which I had no knowledge of.

To say the least we will not be renting/booking through VRBO. We booked our place on January 11, 2026, for our stay in April from 4/19-4/25/2026. When we walked in the place was a mess. The linens were all stripped from the bed and left on the sofa and armchair, or mattress. The bathrooms were left in unsanitary conditions, there was trash left on the floor bottles left in the rooms, on the tables. Used condiments was left in the fridge. The back door was left unlocked, the porch is not screened in as was mentioned in the ad, the yard was a mess. I have videos and pics. When I called VRBO, I spoke to Anish, promised me a call back in 20 minutes. We’re now 3 weeks after this whole nightmare and still, no call from him.

VRBO has high service fees. For my summer weekly rental, they took $300 service fees and also block out personal phone number information. It is my property that I should have the right to communicate with my guests directly in case of issues or concerns. But VRBO won’t reveal contact information until it is booked via VRBO. Also each time, VRBO charges about $300 or more on service charges during summer season. As much as we are paying for these fees, they took website should function and stream in a much higher speed rate! It doesn’t upload pictures in real time and calendar or inbox messages are extremely slow!

Upon our arrival late in the evening of 4/4/26 we encountered the following:

First I had to open a new account and lose all previous points because they flat out refused to allow me to change my email address. Booking a new place was ok but then I asked a simple question about how payments show in my account and their AI went nuts telling the host I wanted to cancel. It turned into a complete mess and then I did indeed end up cancelling. Then I get another insane message telling me I was entitled to a 100% refund (cancelled well within the time frame) but the host was the one who cancelled and the host had a no refund policy so I would not be getting a refund. Well...the host had already sent the refund info. and had no idea what VRBO was talking about. The host agreed VRBO had become a pain and mess to deal with. I will NOT be using VRBO again. Do yourself a huge favor and use a different service.