Vrbo Reviews

My last few days trying to book a short-term rental through VRBO is driving me insane. The site has ridiculously high fees (cleaning, booking, cancellation and service) on top of the daily rental fee. Their customer service is TERRIBLE -- very long wait times once you call and 3 out of 3 calls ended up dropping before conclusion, and one one customer service rep called me back. And, you often get no response to questions you might have about certain properties for several days, by which time, the property can be booked. If you go ahead to book to preserve the option, despite unanswered questions, you are hit with big cancellation fees if you decide not to go through with it. I am coming to hate this place; it acts like a monopoly, rather like Comcast.

Avoid VRBO like the plague! They are one of those companies that provide no customer service. They just stonewall and stall endlessly hoping you'll give up and go away. I have never dealt with worse!

My first time using VRBO we were seeking a home in Arizona with a heated pool. We found a home in Lake Havasu and rented it for a few days (VRBO property id 2241051). We had multiple issues but the largest by far were that the heater for the pool was not functioning. Worse was the time we had to spend dealing with issue trying to get it resolved (including three visits by the owners pool company) before we were scheduled to leave. To his credit the owner did give us a partial refund. When solicited by VRBO, I submitted a review which I believed to be both balanced and constructive. When I observed that this review was not posted on the VRBO web site I tried to call them multiple times. After long waits with music the call disconnects!!!!

PROPERTY ADDRESS: 2739 3 PEAKS LANE JULIEN, CA. This is the worst experience we ever had with VRBO. The description of the property amounts to fraud and deception. Here's a list of the problems:

I made a reservation online for my family of 6 through VRBO, they collected the money, sent confirmation. I even received the code for the front door! My family arrived at the facility, unpacked and I was contacted by the facility stating they double booked my cabin and my family and I had to find a new place to stay! On a Friday at 5:00 pm in Kanab, Ut during spring break! I was told I need to call vrbo. I have been on hold now for a total of 85 minutes!!! The first time I got disconnected after 40 minutes. I had to look at my kids and tell them to load back up and find a hotel with 2 rooms available.

As other reviews have stated the place was nice but definitely not what is pictured or worth the money. The outdoor furniture is old and only includes rocking chairs and regular chairs. There were 2 side tables and one coffee table size. There are no cushions as pictured online and are they are very old and weathered. The pool table is in AWFUL condition. The dryer didn’t work as someone just glued the start knob back on and when I touched it... it fell off. Even went and bought a tool to try and start it and it still wouldn’t turn on.

I rented the place for new year 2021 about 6 months before the time however the host send me their complicated contract about 1 month before the date which basically passed the fully refundable canceling time... In their contract they forced us to pay additional $500 thru "Venmo" because I was younger than 28!!! (not sure how they come up with this number). Also they mentioned they will not offer bed sheets as well as essential things like soap, toilet paper... We called VRBO several times and each time they said, "We agree that the host sent you the contract very late but sorry we cannot do anything here but advise the owner to ignore taking money with Venmo..." That was very hard moments for us since we were students and sending $500 with Venmo means owner may not refund that since Vrbo does not have any control on that money...

My family rented a house on Sacandaga Reservoir in upstate New York. We used VRBO to locate this rental. When the time came to place a deposit we were charged by the owner $260.00 which we expected. We did not expect to be charged by Evolve Realty as well in the amount of $686.00?!!! I am so upset and would cancel except that there are no refunds. Be very careful when using VRBO. I myself will never use them again and I would highly recommend that if you do be very, very careful.

We just booked a 1 week rental in Cape Canaveral. We received the invoice which had booking fees and taxes that were double our weekly rate! $883 “owner fees”, $85 “service fee”, $422 “booking fee” and a $374 cleaning fee! 3 other taxes totaled $931! This is a vast rip off!!!

Buyer beware. VRBO’s site charged me $499 to book a home in Colorado. I had no problem with this at the time of booking. Unfortunately, this listing on this site claimed that I was within 12-14 miles of the attractions that I booked. That turned out to be 1 1/2 hour one way trip every day. That cost time and money. I brought this to their attention and they forwarded blame to the host. It is their site and responsibility. My suggestion is to bypass VRBO and book directly. If they would have just admitted and corrected the mistake and refunded the booking fee I would have been fine. But to pass blame is not ok.

I am beyond disappointed with my experience VRBO and Roompicks by Victoria. March 5th, I paid and got an email confirmation. I called in to follow up March 18th about the 2nd payment since I didn't see it posted and it was suppose to be deducted on the 17th. When I called in I found out there was a "technical error" and our reservation was not available. I reached out the 18th, 19th, 20th trying to get refund. For over 2 weeks I thought I was booked, flight booked and then hotel prices went through the roof. I don't know what kind of technical error booked me a room, confirmed and took my credit card payment but I am extremely upset about this fraudulent, unprofessional business practice.

My first experience booking with VRBO was the worst. Ashley ** listed her rental in South Lake Tahoe for $200/night. After I booked it through VRBO, the host Ashley sends me an invoice for $250/night. I asked her why there is a price difference and she tells me she didn’t have time to change it on her calendar. I asked VRBO why a host can raise the price of a rental after it’s booked and they said they can’t do anything about it if the host has not actually accepted the cc payment. Later host tells me she raised the price because I have 8 people and a pet and because she can tell I’m going to be difficult. Later, tells me the place is not available. Unbelievable!

This is the most absurd experience I’ve ever had. I booked a house, months ago, the owner decided to cancel it 3/9. I’ve been promised a refund since, still nothing. I’ve spent countless hours on hold and getting different excuses about the matter. If I hear “Please be patient ma’am” one more time, I’m going to lose it. I’m the most calm person ever, and in customer relations myself, so we all make mistakes...but, you make it right. If this doesn’t get fixed, I’d like the 27 different customer service reps (and that includes the escalation team, re-booking team, etc.) to call the 9 teenage girls and the other 3 moms and just say “Sorry”. Disappointed is a very big understatement.

Be very careful when purchasing travel insurance through VRBO because Generali insurance is a total scam. Read the reviews online because the company covers very little if anything. And, if you complain to VRBO they refuse to help you and pawn you off to Generali. You can't reach Generali by phone because you get cut off and there is no one on the other end. I eventually got the trip cancelled through my credit card company.

I recently booked through VRBO.com and had a question about the Service Fee that VRBO charges (not the homeowner), basically just wanted to know how they came up with the amount of $280.00. I tried twice to do an online chat and both times the agent disconnected before there was any interaction with me at all. So, I tried to call Customer Service at the phone # I found on Google and waited and waited and waited for the next available representative and again no one! The worst part of this is that their explanation for charging the Service Fee is that it is to help cover the cost of 24/7 Customer Support.

This company is not a trustworthy company. They do not have any policy toward customers, all benefits are toward the owners and the company. We did not stay at the property even one night but they did not refund our money even the cleaning fee. This is fraud and they are stealing people's money. Do not even look at their properties. All pictures are fake.

PSA to everyone....DO NOT book a trip through VRBO! We had our dream vacation to Hawaii booked last May and due to COVID, moved it to this May. Considering all the restrictions still in place in Hawaii, we cancelled...following all the rules and working with the UNRESPONSIVE condo owner. Finally coming to a fair agreement, to split the cost of our prepaid trip, so neither of us lost the whole $2000, we thought we were ok. But then our reservation & ALL correspondence for the past 2 years, VANISHED like it never existed, from the VRBO website & the refund has not shown up on our credit card!!! Today was the 5th contact with VRBO and again nothing!! Complete run around from both the condo owner and booking site!!! Bottom line, DO NOT RENT FROM VRBO OR MARK ** @ Turtle Bay Condos on Oahu!!!

I will never use VRBO again, if I could give them 0 stars I would. If you cancel at ANY time after booking it will only refund about 40% of what you paid, check-in at 16:00 and check-out at 10 a.m. Never had any of these issues with Airbnb much less a hotel.

I had a confirmed reservation. It was verified with an email, payment withdrawal, and message from VRBO and the host. Upon arrival, I inquired about check-in procedures. I was given a room number and email with a virtual key. When I got to the room, it was occupied. After 5 hours and negotiations with VRBO and the "super host" my reservation was canceled by the host. They refused to offer another unit, even with their "confidence booking guarantee". Then VRBO sent an email stating I was ineligible for a refund. After another 3 hours of negotiations, I received check-in instructions followed by cancelation email. The host's manager was rude and hung up on me several times.

I have emails from owner guaranteeing a refund of my deposit if I was not able to travel due to Covid. Tried cancelling my trip, owner won’t respond and VRBO will not refund the money. My trip was from USA to France and France has its borders closed due to covid.

I made reservations for a vacation for our family. My husaband got COVID and we had to cancel. We were told by VRBO that we could get a refund 100%. The owner of the property complained that canceling on him would reflect negatively on his VRBO account and he would still have to pay VRBO fees of $177. (In the meantime the property has rebooked with new guests.) I talked to VRBO and they said this is not true that because it is COVID related he would get his money back and so will we and this will not affect the owner's standing with VRBO.

I booked this property through VRBO. MY first trip to Hawaii and spent many hours researching a 2 bd, 2 bath, oceanfront condo with ac. I thought I had found it at Poipu Shores, advertised Exhilarating, 2 bd, 2 bath, A/C. I paid the 556.00 required to book. Days later, reading reviews when I saw one on the 3rd page, complaining of how hot the second bedroom was, there is no ac in the second bedroom. I immediately sent an email to Cher, Property Manager, no response. I sent a second email to which she replied that all correspondence stated that second bedroom had no air. I have now emailed her twice regarding a refund, stating that VRB0 advertised this unit as AC. I have asthma, can’t possibly be without ac in every room. What a disappointing experience. I still have not heard back from Cher, the property manager.. my first trip to Hawaii, the trip of a lifetime, so frustrating in what should be full of excitement. Thank you, Jane **

I booked a house in Florida from a host through VRBO with a 100% refundable deposit up until July 30, 2020. I cancelled the reservation on June 4. 2020 and the home owner would not return my deposit. I have spent over 8 months calling vrbo and they have continuously promised to help and never followed up: repeatedly telling me they will call/emailing me back and never doing so. I still have not received a penny of my 100% refundable deposit.

As an owner with a property in the Hamptons and as guest who travels frequently, I've seen this company become the #1 worst customer service company in the US. They deserve every bit of it -- even while they foolishly spent all their money gobbling up every competing service save AirBnB. For an owner, their website is a mire in silly glitches exactly in the same way they were five years ago ...as if in permanent Beta mode. As a guest, expect to wait for 45 minutes on hold only to be "assisted" by mere 21-year old lackeys who will say and do anything -- even if that means lying or transferring you back to being on hold -- to get through their hourly shift. ZERO Integrity and no management, it seems. Try AirBnB instead.

We booked a family vacation home before COVID hit. Paid in full. The property owner (WinWinVacation homes) would not refund our family... VRBO didn't help at all. I will never book through VRBO again.

I recently booked a stay in Vegas to help my father recover from a heart attack while on his vacation. I found a rental that fit what he needed so I booked the stay. Immediately I was charged for the stay and received confirmation of my reservation. Just about an hour later the property manager messaged me through the app and said I needed a 48 hr advanced notice and that there was no vacancy. He said he would refund me and I started to look for another place to stay.

I booked a cabin & purchased the insurance to cover the possibility of needing to cancel. I got back $60 of over $600. After reading the other reviews, I believe the whole thing is a scam. I will never book anything through VRBO ever again!

Customer service is awful. If you have any complaints about a property it doesn’t matter. They have no ability to help the consumer. Their sole purpose is to protect the property owner. You will be on hold for over an hour. Transferred from one person to the next with no resolution. “Is there anything else I can help you with.”

I received a cancellation and refund email yesterday with no explanation and when I contacted the property manager, the property manager said VRBO had double booked my reservation resulting in the sudden cancellation. He added he received a message from VRBO saying they will phone call me but that phone call never happened. I did not receive any phone call, email, voice message, or a text message regarding this issue. The cancellation was very sudden and unexpected, only 2 weeks prior to my travel dates and because of this, my whole travel plan has gone up in the air.

We booked with VRBO and a week before the trip, they cancelled our reservation. Seeing that it was Spring Break, there was nothing else available or the prices were more than double at the last minute. Called them and got "disconnected" 4 times. Said they would call me back if they got "disconnected" and they never did. This company is horrible! If you want to have your trip ruined, go ahead and book with them. If you want to have a good vacation, book with Booking.com. Have had great experiences with them. Should have never looked on Vrbo's site! Horrible experience and then no customer service after they screwed us!

I had a bad experience with a VRBO stay. I took about 20 mins of my time to write a lengthy, but Honest review. Was notified by the website that my review would be reviewed for poor word selection, but would be posted in two business days. Out of curiosity I just checked the property's listing and checking to see if my review has been added a week and half later....Nothing. So the five star rating is NOT accurate as they are not including all the reviews, only ones that are 3 star or better seem to be posted. I will not be working with Vrbo.com for any of my future home rentals. The landlord was rude on a safety issue and blew me off. According to their reviews he is responsive, however my experience was not the same.

While attempting to book a vacation through the website I kept receiving an error message and was prompted to try again. After 6 times and 2 different vacation properties I also tried to call and hung up after 20 minutes with no answer. Only to discover I had managed to reserve 2 different locations and got charged the booking fee 6 times for one of the units. The next morning all of the fees had been reversed except 2. One for the booking and one additional. Plus I had 2 different vacations reserved. Upon trying to call again and being on hold another 20 minutes with no answer I contacted both locations to verify they were indeed reserved. Gave VRBO a few days to see if the fee would be reversed after sending an email and still nothing.

I started to reserve a property through this website. After providing credit card information, I was provided with an agreement which stated no parking at the house and an extra damage fee was going to be charged whether we damage to the property or not. We were given the option to provide an additional $5000 and not have to pay the fee. For that reason I did not sign the contract and said I did not want to finalize the reservation. It turns out my credit card had already been charged $164. When I asked for this money to be refunded, I was told that charge came from a different company and I would have to call them. The number was provided. I called the number. It was a number that was out of service.

We rented a place through VRBO for a weekend in Niagara during October, the host asked the payment in advance, more than $300, never answer us when was time to check in, we lost all the plans we had, and Vrbo doesn't wanna be responsible about it! After following all the requirements, just yesterday, after 5 months they finally decided will not return us the money, for something we didn't use at all. Completely disappointed and unfair! I not recommend this company????

I stayed at the house at 700 Greenbrier Road in West Virginia owned by Tara ** over the weekend. We were accused by Tara of finding dog food and dog hair after we left. The thing is we had no animals. Tara won’t show proof from the maid. She has hung up on us multiple times. She won’t even respond to messages. She or her maid or trying to get more money out of us. We paid over $862 for Friday through Sunday. This town is rough and was not a nice town to stay at. The sad thing is we cleaned the place Sunday morning and was charged for a cleaning fee. I tried to message Tara to come to some kind of understanding but she didn’t want to even try. This woman has been beyond ugly. I will never go back to this town. Would definitely not recommend this house and I wouldn’t recommend Vrbo unless they do something about this situation.

I booked a stay with VRBO and end up getting scammed. Called customer service and they offered a hotel stay (mind you, they did not mention it was coming out of my money). They told me they will try and contact the owner of the place but the only told me he wasn’t answering his phone. Does VRBO not run background checks? The owner owes me $400, and VRBO needs to be clear that offering an “incentive” means it’s coming out of your pocket still. I never got a call, an email, an update— absolutely nothing but scammed. I WILL NEVER book with VRBO again. Some may be fortunate, some may not, but this was definitely not professional.

Very Frustrating experience- first they double booked us and found out 3 days later and we had to search for another property. The second property became more of a nightmare. We were dealing with a company called Evolve management which partners up with VRBO. We originally made a reservation for a second place for specific dates. We found out we have some personal issues that would be a conflict with those dates so we requested a change. We did not hear from anybody until I called VRBO and talk to customer service after being on hold for 45 minutes and they opened up a case against evolve management for not responding within 1 to 2 days of my request.

After spending hours reviewing and comparing properties, I made my choice. It had very specific instructions for getting the special advertised price, so I messaged the "host" to double check the instructions before booking. He responded by telling me that he no longer owns the property and it is being rented by its new owner, but VRBO would not allow him to give me the new owner's phone number. They also refused to take down the listing, saying that it would eventually run out.

VRBO has no teeth.. if the owner wishes to cancel a reservation, they can do it at any time. Even right up to the day of check-in. Be careful and read, their policies first. At best, they will "try" to help you find another reservation....what happens if, there is nothing left or the prices are much higher? If you purchase their travel insurance, you don't even get that back if the owner cancels on you... And it's a 1 way travel insurance, only in favor of the insurance company as, it does not cover the owner cancelling your reservation... I would highly recommend using another service that is at least reputable. I booked 2 x 7 day cottage trips for this summer, the owner canceled both. I have no recourse whatsoever. Find another service, get away from this one!

Leaving a "luxury" condo we booked for a month. All VRBO reviews great except the last one which was accurate! Condo was fair, but Sienna Park Condo in Sarasota, Fl is not well taken care of. Rented a condo in back of complex, next door neighbors are squatters per other neighbors. Eviction notice on door which was for yesterday, they are still here. After 8 pm., constant flow of "visitors" for 5 minutes, doors slamming until 4 a.m. most nights. I'm no "Columbo" but appears to be drug activity taking place. Cops arrived for a domestic btw our neighbor and neighbor below. Swearing, yelling, strong cigarette smoke coming through the door (they smoke right outside).

After I booked and paid, a host refused to allow me access and said he wanted to cancel on me, and demanded that I cancel through the site. VRBO said it would not refund me. Customer service won't respond to address the issue. On a separate occasion, a different host decided to cancel the day before check-in and wouldn't give me access to the property. VRBO promised to rebook me but then failed, and didn't respond after hours of effort on my part. These people just want fees, and don't mind ruining customers' vacations.

After booking a winter cabin which advertised "a ventilation system keeps the home warm in the winter" and arriving to a winter cabin with no heating system and an internal temp of 41 degrees F, I was unable to get more than a "sorry" from VRBO. We followed VRBOs recommendation of contacting the owner/manager and contacted the management company of the home by phone and email several times without a solution. We then sought support and solution from VRBO. However, was told by VRBO, despite false advertising on the listing and dangerously cold temperatures in the home where small children were staying, "there is nothing we can do, you should have called us while you were there."

Do not book with VRBO. I repeat. Run away. This past weekend, my husband and I booked a dog friendly cabin through VRBO in Bozeman, MT. We received all of the confirmation information. We showed up at 9 pm in a snowstorm blizzard to find that someone was already staying in the rental who had booked it for a week. It was horrifying to show up, knock on the door, and to have someone yell down at you to go away. We were both horribly confused. I wasn't hearing back from the host (who was traveling at the time), and VRBO customer service was the worst. I actually run the CX team for a fitness startup, so I know how it's supposed to go and how you're supposed to handle these situations.

VRBO does not submit the bad reviews from people experiencing of the rental. I rented for 6. Was on vrbo was nothing but a ripoff. No ac. No heat. Poorly hot water. The blinds were broken. The refrigerator door was broken, and the cabinet door was broken.. I summited my review and they did not post it.. Beware of their rentals. The pictures do no justice for what you get. And they have all these fees if I would have known before I paid VRBO would have never went...

Friends, do not book with VRBO. Most owners have a no cancelation policy even if you can't travel due to country travel restrictions, border closures and positive Covid-19 tests. I just lost over$1300.00 because my country issued a Level 4 DO NOT TRAVEL to my destination. The owner refused to refund even though it is no fault of my own that I can't travel there.

Don’t bother doing business with VRBO, once you pay if things go sour they won’t do a thing for you, they tell you to sue the owner and that often a waste of legal costs nobody want to incur. Credit card companies won’t deal with them either....

I tried to book a vacation rental on 2/28. I found out the next day that their booking system was malfunctioning. Today, I have 3 charges. I was able to get refunded by the resorts, but not by VRBO. They have my three charges and despite knowing their system screwed up, they will not fix it without me sending in bank records to prove that they have my money.

Made a reservation for a property in early January for spring break week in March in Seagrove Beach, FL. Made both payments on time and in full on 1/11 and on 2/8. Received email on 2/26 that the property manager cancelled my reservation with no reason listed. Direct quote from email from VRBO: “Unfortunately, the property manager had to cancel your reservation in Seagrove Beach, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.” This was just 17 days before our reservation was scheduled to start.

I had a terrible experience with the VRBO owner and customer service. The owner refused to refund money due to COVID19 situation. I had to make a last minute cancellation due to coming into a close contact with someone who developed Covid19 symptoms. Since I made my reservation only 6 days prior to departure, the owner told me I was not eligible for any refund, even if it was Covid related. This is simply outrageous! The the owner still had an opportunity to put the property on the market, and based on the calendar, her property was not in demand. I lost $1450 and feel cheated. The VRBO customer service representative just stated that it's up to the owner to refund my money, and they can't do anything about it.

Absolutely horrible customer service! They will not help at all! I asked to talk to a manager and they refused. The rep kept repeating the same thing over and over and then finally said he couldn't help me.

I was due a 100% refund on my cancellation. The bank auto rejected the refund, because my Debit Card was cancelled and replaced...due to it being compromised. All I can get from VRBO is an ARN#, for the refund. They WILL NOT research their records to see that the refund was rejected. After 3 months, I still have not received my refund. I WILL NOT ever use them again.

I received a phone call today from an irate property manager accusing me of fraud. I didn't even know what she was referring to until I asked her if this phone call had to do with a property listed by VRBO over a year ago. At the time of that booking, I cancelled WELL before 60 days (which was her cancellation policy), and I have the inbox messages from VRBO to prove it. I requested cancellation on October 31, 2019 and the trip was for Feb. 2, 2020. She acknowledged my cancellation. On Feb. 16, 2020 I was issued a partial refund of 800.00. When the full refund wasn't given, I called my credit card company, provided documentation of transpired conversation and that I requested cancellation in ample time, and charged back for the remaining amount. They granted charge back after 6 months of investigation.

I booked the MGM Penthouse for CES 2022 (Jan 4-8, 2022) on VRBO. However, the property owner removed my reservation and requested that I cancel the booking because he said that he did not have a chance to update the rates. I am not even sure if this is legal but I cancelled. He was happy that I cancelled so he could raise the rates. Who has time for THAT? I will never book anything with VRBO again. Normally when I book a Vegas property the rates are correct and everything goes smoothly. Beware!

I booked a reservation for a house in Miami in November 2020 for my birthday in February 2021. We were set to check in on 2/13/21. About a week before my check in date (2/5/21), I received a message from the property owner stating that they are cancelling my reservation because of the pandemic. Panic set in as I had 13 people (including myself) flying in to Miami in a week and expected to have a house to stay at. I called VRBO and explained the situation; asking if this was something they could actually do. I was told that property owners can in fact cancel reservations at any time but they will need to pay VRBO a penalty for it if it's within so many days of the reservation. This penalty doesn't help me out in this situation at all because I'm still without a house.

We booked through Vrbo in February 2020 to book a home for Christmas of December 2020. This was before the pandemic even started. We booked our home in the Windermere area of BC. In November 2020, the B.C. Government put a ban on travel because of the virus and we could not go at Christmas time. They did not want to give us our money back so we thought that we could postpone our family vacation until the ban was over. We wanted to rebook our vacation for April or May but the guy that owns the house sold the place. We have been trying to get our money back from Vrbo ever since and they will not return our money. Our only recourse is to go to small claims court to get our money back. People be very aware of how these booking agents work. They are not honest.

We had a terrible experience with a vacation rental through VRBO. Upon returning we tried to contact them to discuss the issues, which we had plenty of detailed documentation for. They do nothing to vet their listings and it turns out they do nothing to help their consumers. There is literally no reason, as a consumer, to use them. You pay more and get less. What is the point of using these types of companies if they do not provide any protection for you?

Reserved a non-refundable studio room on St. Thomas for Presidents week for my daughter and myself well over a month in advance. 48hours prior to my intended arrival, receive a phone call and lets me know my room is cancelled, no reason at all. I make a million phone calls to VRBO, they say they offer a guarantee to get you a room equivalent to your original booking. LIES. I spent hours on-the phone, They actually tell me to go to ST. Thomas & wait until 3pm on check in day. That's when I'm considered stranded & they should have something for me. They have nothing. I have to book myself, by this time rates have doubled and they do nothing to help. I tried everything.. Do NOT book with them. They are Liars. There is no guarantee!!!! Vacations are supposed to be fun family time, this was a nightmare filled with stress and aggravation

While I really enjoy the excellent filtering and ease with finding vacation rentals with VRBO, I do not appreciate finding out, with just a little investigation, that the description is inaccurate. I located a pool house on Fort Myers Beach that had everything we wanted for a 2022 winter vacation, when my husband asked if this was for both floors of the house. Since there was no mention of it being a duplex or two apartments, I assumed that the lower level was a basement for bikes, etc., as many other homes have been.

I have been with them for years with a very good experience. Then after 45 excellent reviews I get 2 really bad reviews not based on anything that I did. (One almost got arrested by disobeying the law I warned him about and the other said I never communicated with her and the elevator went down). Their metrics caused my rating to go way down and they have taken away my perks from the previous high rating. But the problem is, they will not answer any of my emails as I guess they don't care about me. I could not follow the instructions to change my subscription and they still won't answer my email. I am now listed on Airbnb so we will see how that works.

I stayed at this cabin - 3152 Lexy Ln, Sevierville, TN 3786. I used the VRBO.com web site to book this cabin. I purchased Accidental Damage Protection for $79, which covered up to $3,000 in damage. However, when the host realized some sheets/blanket stains they charged my credit card directly instead of dealing with Vrbo and the damage insurance. I have called Vrbo twice now to have Vrbo refund my money back but they have not. The process is the homeowner/host should put a claim through the insurance I purchased, but the host put it on me to put the claim in.

We could not make our trip to Aspen due to the state of energy in Texas. They refused to refund my money. Even told me “power is on in aspen you should come ski”. This is horrible to keep out 3400.00 because we could not leave our homes and family behind with no power and water. This is a natural disaster that we had no control over and they want to pocket the money instead of doing what is right. I hope this gets out to everyone and no one uses this service ever!!!

Due to Covid restrictions, we were not allowed to leave our province and travel to our VRBO destination. VRBO provided NO support or understanding. They said it is up to the "Host" and their booking rules. The "Host" would not even consider allowing us to reschedule our trip. They pocketed 100% of our payment. Shame on VRBO for not supporting the LAW and the health and safety of our communities.

I recently went onto VRBO to reserve a property for a little vacation getaway. After I made the reservation, I wanted to confirm the address of the property. I reached out to VRBO and the Google maps outlined a different property, not the one I reserved (based on the online pictures). I have since tried to contact the hosts to no avail. I tried to text chat with VRBO but It's the most ridiculous thing I have ever had to deal with. Absolutely ridiculous! VRBO wants to be in business and take people's money with little or no effort in helping. At what point do these people get away with doing business in such manner? I will be digging deeper into this because believe you me, I am getting my money back if you don't deliver on what you advertise. I would say to other people out there, be careful using these sites. This is my first time and it will be my LAST.

The landlord was out of town and knowingly left us with a faulty entry system and NO EXTRA KEY. My family came into town and had our last night ruined by this. We were locked out and sat in our car for 2 hours. Could be a great place to stay if they had just checked the entry system. Never recommending this again!

Rented a beautiful condo 535 at Cinnamon Beach in Palm Coast thru VRBO who then turn you over to TurnKey. I love the rented condo and submitted a request for a quote for the same time in 2022. I received a note from TurnKey in return that the unit was being held for me. However when I called to confirm the next day they had already rented it out and explained that "first come -first served" is their policy. I told them their policy stinks. So be careful who you do business with.

I had my home listed on VRBO for 14 years. I switched from an annual fee to pay per booking because of COVID. They also told me that I had the options to go back to the annual fee basis at the time of renewal. They did not switch my account and charged me $499 (without prior notice) for the annual subscription. As I did not check my credit card and file for a refund within their arbitrary 90 day deadline, they refused my refund request - even though they took my money when they shouldn’t have.

So to start off, if you have used VRBO in the past or present and have not had a cancellation then this will mean nothing to you. For us a totally different situation. As with all Canadians, no hot spots happening in 2021. With great excitement we found our spot in Puerto Vallarta for 2022. We spoke in length with the owner and all seemed perfect. On January 23, 2021 we booked through VRBO (which VRBO terms us as the buyer) in good faith with a 100% guaranteed refund if our cancellation was before January 16, 2022, as we're not scheduled to be there until January 30, 2022. Initially, online with VRBO, all payments were in Canadian funds until you click on the payment button. No turning back, they have your money, and now it is in US funds. Not what we expected, but ok we can do this.

Beware, Black Duck/VRBO 911683, property owners Renee ** & Rich ** cancelled reservation and kept deposit. We had a reservation made in 7/2020 for a 7/2021 stay. In Nov '20, we reached out to the owners to see what penalties, if any, we would incur if we cancelled. The owners informed us they have a 'no cancellation' policy and we would lose all of our deposit. After a bit of back and forth on trying to settle on an amount to forfeit, we decided to keep our reservation as is and not cancel at all. We chose not to lose any money. All documented in texts between us and owners.

We booked a rental in Tahoe for December 2020. VRBO emailed us and told us our stay was canceled as due to Covid19 concerns. We did not get a refund. Instead we have credit, but only for the same property and less than a year to use it! Avoid VRBO at all costs. I will never book with them or any of their partners.

We first booked a vacation property in Mazatlan with Airbnb. A month later that company advised us of its cancellation with the specific property agent, HomeetMX. In complete ignorance we saw the same property on VRBO but at a much higher cost. Enamoured by the photos, we booked it again and paid the new price.

This VRBO Owner decided to do some creative accounting after adding a day to my VRBO stay. He also refused to refund a $600.00 Property Fees (refundable deposit) until I got the VRBO Executive Customer Relations Team involved. VRBO customers really need to read the VRBO Listing thoroughly as that is how I caught this HOMEOWNER. His VRBO listing states “The "Property Fee" is a REFUNDABLE deposit for beach equipment, kayaks, snorkeling gear, life jackets etc. but on your quote when you book the reservation, it does not state the $600.00 Property Fees is a REFUNDABLE FEE. Accounting Discrepancy: On February 10, 2020, I made a reservation on VRBO, Property 4257422ha Greystone Beach House Forbes Hill May 24, 2020 through May 29, 2020. I paid the requested $4186.50.

Property advertised as 4897823ha in Egan Park as bed and breakfast with concierge services is not really able to accept reservations or respond to any requests for information. I tried to book several times and never got a response. My concerns about this were communicated to VRBO customer service to no avail. Buyer beware and I hope I can spare some others frustration.

My husband and I booked a trip from Connecticut to New Orleans for late April 2020. We paid in September 2019. After the COVID-19 GLOBAL PANDEMIC struck, we had no choice, but to cancel. VRBO's policy leaves all liability and decision making regarding the cancellation of trips, up to the homeowners and out of the company's hands. I had purchased the additional insurance for this trip as well, which obviously didn't cover this unforeseen global event. After giving the homeowner in NOLA around $1300, he refused to give me a refund for the pandemic and only allowed me to rebook within a year. Please note, I gave him ample notice long before the date of our trip, at least 30 days.

Have been looking for a rental on Folly Beach but even though the listing is titled at Folly, when you look at map location you could be booking miles away on Kiawah or the Isle of Palms unless you are from the Charleston area.

I have two out three bad experiences.

I reported my identity stolen to the FTC after discovering a fraudulent booking on VRBO for over $2000. I provided ample and strong evidence to VRBO about this fraud. I called on several occasions and was told I would get a response within 48 hours but never heard back. Meanwhile they disputed the chargeback with my credit card company, insisting that I made the transaction myself. Their evidence was an email from an account, which was also hacked, that was written in broken English that was clearly not written by me, referencing family members that I do not have. This is now under appeal. VRBO also refused to post my negative review of the vacation owner for their lack of response in the situation.

We had a terrible Experience with the property and owners at Siesta Key which we rented for two nights. My in-laws and my father who are in their 80s stayed at Paradise Retreat on Gulf on Higel Avenue while in town for my son’s wedding which was held at Ritz Carlton since they are more comfortable in a house rather than hotel. It turned out to be nightmarish experience. Ten of our family and close friends who are all professional including doctors decided to gather at the property after the wedding on January 23 since my in laws and father have limited mobility and we wanted to include them in festivities. It was a peaceful get together without any rowdiness or loud music inside the house until the owners Karen and her husband showed up reeking of alcohol demanding loudly and rudely for everyone to leave.

Horrible experience with VRBO!! I’ll never book through them again. Owner agreed to give us full refund back because one of our family members was diagnosed with Covid, so we couldn’t travel. We waited for refund 45 days until owner gave us some money back, however VRBO refused to return $449 back for service fee even though they were in agreement with owner to give us full refund back. We called multiple times and got different answer each time. They are not supportive of their customer at all. Please STAY AWAY. You are safer to book directly with an owner or use someone else.

I booked a 3 day booking and had to cancel. The owner gave me a full refund, yet VRBO Has held my funds for over a month after they stated it would be refunded in 7-10 days. I have called numerous times and they keep saying it is a gone to the engineering department because of complications. This department stated it would be 14 days and still no refund!! I’m very unhappy as this was my family’s winter ski vacation rental and they have taken that money from me.

Updated on 2/3/2021: 1/29/21. Jina ** yes but it's not impossible to be under the impression that you would request to book before they allow you to ask questions. I looked at it like Facebook marketplace. When you click on the item to checkout description, etc A message box pre-loaded with the question, "Is this item still available?" So I just thought request a book is to check if your dates are available, then they process your card, usually HomeAway (VRBO) would process their part ($120-200) and the The owner would ask you some questions about why are you Traveling maybe the ages of the people staying at the rental. Then they send you a rental agreement. If you agree to the terms you sign it, send it back and then they process the amount. That’s exactly how it went down before.

Be very, very careful when booking with VRBO, and be sure to check cancellation policies. They have a header on their site about flexibility, yet when the owner of my property would not refund my whole reservation due to COVID, I have no recourse as the "fee refund" needs to "be authorized by the owner". Also, the fees they charge are significantly higher than Airbnb. Be particularly careful with owner Samantha D with the Disney Aulani properties. She told me to cancel and then I would be refunded by VRBO, then texted me saying she could rebook but I needed to pay her 1200 by Venmo. Super awful experience the whole way around.

I had reserved an apartment in Hawaii in feb. 2020 for a trip in april 2020. When the pandemic hit and everything closed the owner refused to refund me. She kept full payment $1000 and Vrbo did nothing, they left up to the hosts goodwill to refund their guests or not. Airbnb instead made all of the hosts to refund their guests for the services that were not used. I will never make reservations through Vrbo ever again.

Worst customer service regarding a refund on a cancelled reservation. I'm out $250 on a guest house in Wesley Chapel. Don't book through this company. Owner of the house forced me to cancel by refusing to honor her pet policy and then won't refund the money already charged. VRBO call was a total waste of time. Only way to recover my loss is to go to small claims court. Do not book a pool guest house in Wesley Chapel with an owner named Linda. Horrible woman. I have to make a trip to Tampa just to file paperwork for court. Use Airbnb or other booking site.

I have dealt with Expedia making reservations for over 10 years and traveled extensively. If I have a problem I call them and get the problem resolved. I recently went on Expedia and logged into my account. After looking for hours, I found a vacation condo for my family's annual vacation. I made the reservation only to get an email confirmation from VRBO detailing all the fees: They charged me 3 fees, almost $300.00 for booking fees, $400.00 nonrefundable deposit fee. I canceled the reservation and emailed Expedia/VRBO that day. I called Expedia/VRBO at least 7 times only to get put on hold or transferred and cut off.

Very poor rental experience! We rented in September expecting the amenities for cool weather. The pool heater was broken, thus freezing water. Leaves in pool due to no service! The listed gas fireplace was no working- no control available! The 2 jacuzzis both were unable to hold water due to faulty stoppers. Rugs were filthy. Repeated contacts to rental agency offered no resolve. The owner was contacted repeatedly over the past 3 months with no response! Extremely disappointed with the money spent for this dreadful family experience!

I rented a home off of VRBO, the images were nice. The place only had 1 review and it was ok. When I got to the house it was disgusting, we had a basketball team full of boys and it was so dirty we wouldn't even let them sit on the couches. Needless to say we had to rent another place that was clean. When I contacted VRBO I was told to contact the owner and see if he would refund. Of course the answer from the owner was no. I contacted VRBO again and sent them pictures of how the house really is and asked them to make it right and refund my $ as we had now had to pay for 2 places. I was told that if I would have contacted them while I was still in the house they might have done something, but since I waited until after my trip, even know I never stayed at the property they wouldn't do anything about it.

Booked the NY holiday last minute in FL to spend with family through VRBO. After getting the confirmation, the owner messages me that the property isn't available until the next day after I got there. So, I agreed to stay in a hotel for the first night (12/31) and to him refunding me the one night I didn't use the rental which, by the way, goes for $599 p/n. After countless calls to vrbo and texts with this person, Paul **, here I am almost 3 weeks later with no refund. Vrbo can't do anything as the refund has to be owner initiated. This man has an excuse every time I ask about it; just a good old thief!! Beware!!!

We made reservation for a vacation rental and paid thousands of dollars. We get to the home and it is roach infested, not cleaned and black mold in the air conditioners. I spoke to VRBO’s customer service several times and apprised them of the condition of the house with pictures. They stated we had to work with the homeowner to get our money back, which she refused to do. They do not stand by their customers with any issues. So we did not get to stay in the home and they kept our money. And we had to pay to stay somewhere else. Bad, bad, bad.

Hello. Hopefully will shed some light on how VRBO functions. I booked a trip with a host for August 27 through 29. I submitted payment on August 22. When I arrived to the rental it was a mess but that is neither here or there. On the day of check in the host called enraged that I was trying to rip him off by submitting a dispute, this was not the case but rather VRBO reversed the charge and did not inform either party ahead of time. No funds were available in the account so this made no sense. But nonetheless the host demanded the payment directly or the authorities would be called, so I complied given the funds would eventually be return to my account from VRBO.

We booked a home in Florida for the week of Christmas 2020. The owner of the property, after receiving half of our funds, unilaterally altered our reservation by two months (moving it forward to October) without our consent, without consulting us, and even raised the agreed-upon price. We sought redress with VRBO, who dragged us along for months--each time siding with us, and promising action against the owner and a full refund every time we spoke on the phone. However, in January 2021 we received our first written correspondence from VRBO.

Updated on 04/18/2021: Booked a VRBO for 2020, our 50th Anniversary. Invited family to Orlando, unable to attend due to Covid. VRBO would not refund our $3,000. Sent back our insurance purchase. Has since started a new LLC and will not give us any answers.

Refused to cancel a booking even during a Covid shutdown. Allowed owners to charge fees without evidence or valid cause. Customer Service is unresponsive and VRBO does not accept responsibility for anything, they simply say speak with the private owner. They are a scam!

I wished I have read the reviews before having done business with VRBO. This is so frustrating and simply unacceptable. They are not able to help with any resolution. They have this virtual chat that is not able to offer help. There is no number to talk to a live person. I would think that planning for a vacation should be a pleasant experience but dealing with VRBO...is it stress-provoking!!!

This was the worst experience I have ever had. I have never experienced a vacation where my living arrangements have been CANCELLED the DAY OF ARRIVAL. VRBO is no doubt a scam. They do not deserve any professional credibility. Genuine, prompt customer service does not exist within this company. They have taken up not only our money, but our time during this trip. They put us on hold for HOURS, shoved 7 people into one hotel room, did not provide a refund, and abandoned us after several attempts to find a solution. These are only a few of the problems we encountered with them. Might I add this went on for 6 days. We are exhausted. All we wanted was to enjoy our New Years' trip and VRBO took that away from us. Thank you for taking our money and ruining our experience. I will never book from this company again. Stick to Air BNB.

It was easy to book our trip to Florida with VRBO, however, once booked, I no longer received any responses to messages I sent on the VRBO site...due to Covid19 and with plenty of notice given, was NOT to put through the balance of payment for our reservation. It WAS put through! Whereas, in time, the VRBO site simply showed 'cancelled,' (and their policy indicated a full refund would be made due to Covid19), I have not received a refund. All my messages, about seven of them, have been wiped from my account on the VRBO site and I have been unsuccessful trying to reach them. Notable, the property manager and owner themselves have been sympathetic and helpful!

A vacation rental through VRBO was a scam. The property was in horrible conditions, the property management was not responding nor tried to fix the issue and we had to leave the property few hours after we checked in. It was our 9-day family vacation so we had to find another property to stay at asap. We notified VRBO immediately about the issue and the fact that the property management is not responding. Tried to contact property owner for several days. We filed the claim with VRBO requesting a refund for the rental we couldn't possible stay in, but VRBO offered no help. After being “escalated” few times, multiple hours on phone for two weeks in a row, we were told to deal directly with property management.

I rented a property through VRBO. My family took very good care of the property, and cleaned it more than we had to, followed all of the rules, etc. When we returned home, we were surprised that we were charged $100 for breaking an item that we didn't break (nor did it cost $100 to fix). We reached out to the owner for more information, but did not get a response. The owner also left an erroneous negative review of us as a guest. We disputed the issue through VRBO, but they sided with the owner even though no proof was provided to us that we broke the item. Why would anyone use VRBO if they don't do any kind of vetting of property owners to make sure they don't do things like this?

The long and short of it is that VRBO's hosts we had booked with kept all of our money for a stay in Hawaii which we couldn't attend because of covid related travel restrictions. We wrote back and forth, VRBO did refund their commission but that was a pittance compared to what was lost. The hosts were unmoved and relied on technical arguments. Airbnb requires that their hosts do the right thing unlike VRBO. I will never travel with VRBO again.

We rented a place that was not under quarantine at the time. That changed and we asked for a refund. VRBO policy does not help with refunds. Their guarantee is nothing! Do not use this service. You will be sorry.

I originally booked a 21 days holiday for this coming August with this company. I had to pay in advance in order to confirm the booking. Subsequently I had to shorten my stay by 7 days and yet the company wanted to charge me the same amount by raising the daily rate. I then cancel my reservation. Then the company tried to entice me to book again by offering a rate even lower than the first time. I do not care how this company conduct their business. Will never deal with them again.

I rented a lovely home in the Berkshires the week of Thanksgiving, even gave the home a nice review. However, shortly after returning, the owner - J. ** - tried to charge me an extra $500 for use of extra linens and extra Covid cleaning, even though we only used 4 of the 6 available beds. He refused to communicate with me (I emailed him 5 times), and it took a month before VRBO was able to resolve the issue. Thank you VRBO, but Michael needs to be more customer friendly.

Tried for over a month to contact property owner. VRBO offered no help until 24 hours before check-in. After being “escalated” three times, multiple hours on phone and 5 days after my trip was supposed to start, I get an email from VRBO outlining the meticulous steps I must take in order to get refund. There is absolutely no “Book With Confidence Guarantee.” Not sure I will EVER VRBO again!! AND, when I tried to submit the above review, this was VRBO response: Your submission contains a customer service-related issue. Please directly contact our customer service staff with your request by clicking here.

Reserved VRBO Rental on the Big Island, Hawaii for March 2021. Canceled in December 2020. VRBO site very clearly states Free Cancellation up to 60 days before check-in. Paid the VRBO Service Fee which was refunded by VRBO. Paid (I thought was the deposit) of $379.55, of which only $88.67(deposit?) was refunded. The rental agreement did state the administrative fee was not refundable, but the font was so small, I couldnt read it. I also feel deceived, because I emailed the owner and specifically asked him about the cancellation policy due to COVID, and he sent the rental agreement. I have rented many many times on VRBO and have always been charged a deposit only and the administrative fee was low. RENTERS Beware - this is a scam. Also read the agreement even if in very very small print and do not rent if this is not refunded, especially during these times.

We reserved a 2 bedroom, 2 bath villa in St. John with another couple 2 months prior to the trip. Literally 1 week before our big trip, we get a short cancellation message from the owner that the property is no longer available. Really?! I am still waiting to see an email from the VRBO 'rebooking team'. Having a more detailed explanation would have helped a tiny bit. Some type of credit would also have been a nice gesture. This is a big reminder of the advantages of booking with a reputable hotel chain over a loose organization like VRBO.

We did a reservation for a oceanfront villa in Puerto Escondido, Mexico on June 26. We had to pay in full so we did, being subject to exchange rate from USD to Mexican pesos. Reservation was for 7 days in New Year 2020, property owner was slow in answering questions but did answered them (regarding cooking and cleaning services).

I scheduled my wife's 70th birthday with our family (17 people), with VRBO for 5 days in Santa Cruz, CA, at an oceanside home. The reservation was made on September 26, 2020, along with a $1500.00 deposit and a confirmation. The gathering was booked for June 1, 2021, for 5 days and 4 nights. On December 27th we received an email letting us know that our deposit was refunded to our credit card. No other explanation. On December 28th we questioned, via email, was it due to the Covid-19 virus?

I've rented an apartment on VRBO (HomeAway) since 2016. Last year they changed my bank account number to someone else's (we still don't know who) and 9 payments were lost, totalling $4,500. They did no verification checks on the new account - didn't even check whether the account name matched. There were no anti-money laundering checks and no counter terrorism financing checks. I don't know who has got my money now but it looks like a case of fraud on the inside, or maybe mismanagement.

On 8/30/20, we reserved a chalet in Gatlinburg, TN so that 6 of us could get away for New Years. I contacted VRBO on 11/13 to see how we get keys and if the chalet has Wi-Fi. I was told it was managed by the owner and he would contact us as they reached out to him. I then called back on 12/21 to see how we will be getting our keys for 12/30. I was told we reached out to the owner and he will call you in 24-48 hours. I called back again on 12/26 and was told the owner has 24-48 hours to respond to you. I then called back 12/27 and was told, "Oh we have several open cars with this property."

VRBO is great until you have a bad rental experience and have to leave early for a health/safety issue - which is an extremely stressful situation that you don't expect. And that is why you pay VRBO right? To have some protection? Well you don't really have much, but VRBO doesn't tell you that. When you have to leave early, if the rental owner is very reasonable things go well. That was not the case with me. If the rental owner chooses to, they can keep your rental money even if you leave early, (and VRBO can do nothing to help you! Except pay for your (tiny, cheap in my case) back up hotel but ONLY IF YOU SPECIFICALLY ASK...). The whole experience was so stressful for me and I felt that VRBO's policies definitely protect the owner, NOT THE TRAVELER.

We have a cottage booked in Ontario for NYE weekend with a group of 10. From the very beginning after we booked, the owner took at least 3 or more days to respond to us about inquiries of his property. For example, we asked about a hot tub that was on the listing, but there was no hot tub in the photos. Turns out the “hot tub” is just a bath with jets in the master bathroom. We also asked about what type of cooking supplies there would be. No response. We contacted VRBO about this, as we were concerned he would not be responsive if we had a problem at his property. VRBO contacted him, and once again no response until a few days later to them. Even so, he didn’t answer our questions.

I recently rented a vacation property from VRBO and the owner (Rick **), completely falsified the description of the property. I tried to reach out to VRBO for their complimentary "book with confidence guarantee, 24/7 support" but please let me assure everyone, this is a complete scam. There is no customer support. I called their contact phone numbers (877-228-3145 and 512-782-0805) over 150 times trying to reach anyone at the company but a pre-recorded message comes on the line saying thanks for calling but were not available (meaning, you are totally screwed). VRBO is the absolute worst company I have ever dealt with, save yourself a nightmare vacation and avoid that company altogether. I should have read the reviews before booking with them (ughh).

I was trying to book a room with Vrbo. The reservation went through. It took the money from my account. Then it came up on the site that the property was unavailable, three weeks later still trying to get my money back. Do yourself a favor. Don't use this company and if you do, "good luck".

I reserved a condo in Steamboat Springs for the upcoming ski season. While checking out with VRBO, it clearly stated that I had a deposit due up front and the rest of the payment was due by January 16, 2021. VRBO passed my credit card information to the host, and they decided they wanted to take the money early on December 16. I have tried to get VRBO to own up to this and just cancel the whole reservation. They are throwing their hands in the air saying it's not their problem and I need to work directly with the host. TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!

I am the owner of 2 vacation homes in Naples, FL. I mainly use VRBO to list my homes for vacation home rental. Booking through VRBO is an option for guests to choose and for owners to accept. Over a year ago, a guest booked one of my homes through VRBO for their stay in February and March of 2021. My terms have always been published on my listings which states 50% of rent due at booking with remaining rent and fees due 60 days prior to arrival. My guests signed with that agreement. First payment was dispersed to me immediately. When second payment was expected, none came forth.

We booked a condo in Clearwater Florida. We paid 100% per contract. 2 weeks before we were supposed to be going there the homeowner said he would not let us on the property unless we paid another $260. I called VRBO numerous times to try to get support. How are we supposed to stay at somebody's house that pulls this bait-and-switch. So they lock us out with all of our stuff in there next and then tell us they won't let us in unless we give them more money. Or they claim me to damages we didn't do? It's clear that these homeowners are con artists. Why would Vrbo want to be in bed with them. We booked through a website like them to make sure we're booking with people that we can trust. Not only did Vrbo not help us they refuse to let us talk to a supervisor or anybody else. How can anyone trust doing business with Vrbo when they let their homeowners steal from you and break your contract and then won't give you a refund.

I reserved Property ID: 635042 in Snowmass, Colorado, with owner Pete Ferrara, back in June. When Delta canceled our flight into Aspen, we were 65 days from check-in. The property is advertised with a firm cancellation policy which means the renter receives a 100% refund if canceled more than 60 days from check-in. He will not refund the money unless he re-books the property for the same date. VRBO sent him a recommendation to refund the money; he refused. VRBO is now an active participant in this fraud as they allow owners to advertise one cancellation policy and then impose another. This owner is causing Vrbo to lose my business after many successful years. Beware: Vrbo seems to have no control over owners who are jerks...

It is very obvious that this company only care for how much money that can make from nu-honest homeowner who post their home on their site for a fee. My wife stayed recently in a house in the woods ("MS") that did not have cable or internet service. The owner claim that her cable had small issue spotty. However the owner had two months to correct this problem before my wife and I arrived. To make a long story short the cable line was broke in the master bed-room and my wife and I learn from the cable company that the home address that we were renting had to services with the cable company and both were disconnected for none payment.

We had a reservation for Gatlinburg, TN. VRBO sent us an email saying the property sold and we could no longer stay there.. It wouldn’t be a huge deal if they had offered to let us stay somewhere else at the amount we already paid.. However, the only other options they sent us were hundreds of dollars more expensive... And when I spoke with customer service they were rude and very unhelpful.

We had a home rented on Oahu for Spring Break in March 2020. Due to Covid restrictions and a mandatory 14 day quarantine in Hawaii that was obviously derailed. We asked for a refund from the owner and VRBO, but were denied. Honestly, we were not surprised but thought they might follow AirBnB’s lead and issue a refund due to the unprecedented circumstances. They were completely within their rights not to issue a refund. The owner offered to rebook at a later date. At that time VRBO refunded our VRBO service fee (yay!). We booked for March 2021. Fast forward to November 2020 when one of the members of our group wanted to book flights to Oahu in March 2021. We made several attempts to confirm with the owner that we were all set.

Could not finish a reservation for a property. Owner was trying to communicate with me to confirm my reservation. Apparently VRBO reserved another person at a much higher rate that same evening. Seems like unfair play. Don’t waste your time. Use AirBNB. Have had total success for my years with them.

I had just had a really bad experience with Airbnb (an issue mainly due to lack of cleanliness) so I decided to try Vrbo for the very first time. I finally found a space that was a new listing, but had one 5-star review so I figured I would be ok trying it out. I arrived 3 hours earlier than my check in time just to see the location of the house. I wasn’t happy with the location, since it felt unsafe for me as a woman on her own, to drive at night. However, after the bad experience at Airbnb, I really didn’t want to make a big deal of things or create any kind of conflict. I arrived and saw one woman, who I later found out was the owner of the house, cleaning.

I rented a property in California prior to the regional shutdown announcement. Property manager refused a full refund even though all restaurants & wineries were closed. Area was closed to non-essential travel.

VRBO now has a camera rule. I had no idea about this. They will not tell you when it started or how you were notified. Now they want to penalize me. The cameras were off not even on. Now they want me to refund 100% of the rental amount and the tenant damaged the property with large chips of marble from the kitchen island, left outdoor furniture uncovered in the rain and told VRBO they had tested positive for COVID-19. Every person I spoke with trying to get help gave different advice.

VRBO allowed a chargeback on my account, DIDN'T tell me the full amount of the chargeback! Deducted half the amount that was owed from another guest who stayed at our home! This is fraud! We are suing them as we speak. They are disgusting.

Not at all happy with Customer Service results or the owner of the property, Dorothy M. **. Paid in full Jan. 15 for a weeks stay in Aug. (15-22) at the Wight Bay in Ocean City Md. As we know Covid hit in March, I monitored how Covid was affecting Maryland and Ocean City specifically. There was no heightened issues till July, when Covid spiked quite high in Ocean City and Maryland was placed on NY's quarantine list.

Scheduled trip to Hawaii half with Vrbo and half with Airbnb— had to cancel trip due to COVID-19– still trying to get our money back from Vrbo— day after I cancelled with Airbnb had my refund—will never us Vrbo again— Airbnb is my choice.

This is a totally unsecure website. I have been exposed to a fraud through this website by a property owner. A property owner was able to connect with me directly and I was naive enough to make her a payment not through the website. I ended up not receiving any refund after I cancelled. The owner disappeared and stopped replying to emails. Vrbo simply didn't help solve my issue in any way. Very untrustworthy website and untrustworthy owner! BEWARE!!!

We booked two houses in Angel Fire, NM for this Christmas in early October. New Mexico then goes into a two week lockdown due to COVID-19 and Angel Fire Resort limits lift tickets to 25% capacity with people actually staying in Angel Fire Resort first shot at those limited lift tickets. We decide it would be best to wait and go after this COVID-19 Pandemic is over. The property managers at VRBO even told us to lie if we were stopped by police and tell them we were in state for 14 days since there is a travel quarantine in place. After requesting to cancel these properties due to COVID-19, one property manager gladly did, but the other would not. Even after I explained how conditions had changed due to COVID-19 she said that is not their problem and was unwavering on allowing a cancellation or rescheduling. I can assure you I will never use VRBO again and I would encourage anyone who values honesty and integrity to utilize another company as well.

I've been on VRBO for three years as an owner. It has, by far, the worst website I've EVER encountered totally counter-intuitive. The "help" function is useless (don't even try unless you want to scroll through 50 irrelevant posts off topic) and the functionality is unpredictable. I grimace every time I log in, either using my laptop or mobile.

Rented a condo maalaea yacht marina in Maui for month of November. Had to cancel due to covid issues and all Canadian airlines canceled till December. Owner 410 Kept $3000 and refused future credits as promised and advised on VRBO site. Repeated complaints resulted in letter from VRBO "Any further refund for your cancelled reservation would need to be worked out with the property owner as they are the only ones with the authority to initiate any further refunds." Owner has my money and appears to have rebooked all dates in November.

BEWARE, Utilizing VRBO I booked a vacation rental as a get away for my extended family, children and grandchildren, in February of 2020 before Covid-19 became a big problem. With the explosion of Covid-19 and concerns with infection, since many of our family members would need to fly to Florida for the vacation, we decided that we would cancel our trip.

Last week I reserved a home on VRBO. We showed up to property and asked about a key. We were then told after check in time that the property was not available. On phone for long time to try to get full refund. Had to get a hotel. Reserved another. Messaged owner early to be sure same thing didn’t happen. No answer. Called, owner phone disconnected. Called VRBO. Long hold, then a call back later. Called back later, long hold, call back later. Called again, "I’ll pay for you a hotel for the night, hold while I get you one." She comes back, "Sorry actually call back later." "Ok, but when I call back will everything be prepared to check in somewhere?" "Yes. Call back, please hold so we can try owner again."

I rented property #1307996 in August for 3 days. I changed the rental to 2 days and was promised a refund for the 3rd day, which I did not receive. After I saw the place I wished I had not rented it for any days. The floors were dirty. The sheets on the beds had what looked like body fluids on them. The commode would not flush. The outside door would not lock. Tore up blinds on bedroom windows, people from outside could see in while you were sleeping. I had to stay one night because it was Labor Day weekend and nothing else was vacant. We slept in our clothes. We were too afraid to even take a bath. We packed up and came home the next day. Needless to say the condition of this house ruined a mini vacation for me, my sister, my daughter and grandson! VRBO would not make the property owner give me a refund even though we only stayed one day. I will never use one of their properties again!

READ THIS!!!! STEPHANIE ** Is hands down one of the most immature, unprofessional, and simply one of the most disrespectful property managers I have ever dealt with in the past 7 years this dealing with discrimination to me and my family. We had our family member finally come back from serving our country to celebrate with him and his family flying in to see him. She had neighbors take pictures of us coming in invading our privacy taking notes of us and discriminating us as soon as we arrived. Most of my family are ** and having these neighbors continued to watch us and doing everything in their power to kick us out of the place without violating a single rule made us angry and ultimately feel that we are some sort of threat to the neighborhood!!

This is my email to Erik with VRBO concerning our chalet trip last weekend and he has yet to respond to me: "Well it started out wrong. We arrived at the chalet at 4:05 and there was a red truck in the driveway with trash in the back and the lights were on in the house. I knocked on the door but no one would answer so I called your office. The lady I spoke to said to use the door code and open the door. I did and there was music playing loud so I was afraid to walk in. I hollered and still no one would answer so my husband walked in and shouted several times yet no one would answer. The house was a wreck. The lady from your office called the cleaning place and they said they thought check in was 5. The lady told me they would have it cleaned in an hour if I could wait.

I have used VBRO for a few years booking our vacations. A few months ago I booked a family vacation and the owners canceled due to hurricane damage, which is understandable. The owners charged me $120.00 for their "service fee" which VBRO said is against their policy. I was assured that VBRO would handle the matter and to go ahead and book another vacation (which we did).

I booked through VRBO with owner Chris ** for property located in New Jersey. I never received any check-in information not even on the day of check-in. I attempted to contact the owner with no response and for 4 hours VRBO tried contacting him with no response. VRBO agreed to put us in a hotel for the night and refund us for the second night. Because VRBO was not affiliated with the hotel we chose we asked for a full refund and we would pay for the location we wanted. VRBO agreed to a full refund but changed their mind after the owner responded 5 hours later and after we had already paid for other accommodations. They are now saying I should have just showed up and tried to gain entry to the property. I asked if they honestly felt like that why offer the hotel and a refund. I have used this company before and never have I had to hunt down the owner for a response or access to the property.

Are any other owners having this issue. In the last 2 months, I have opened 3 tickets with the billing dept. I didn't get paid for 2 stays and also received a random charge for over $300. VRBO treats owners horribly! You can only speak with a representative that has no authority to handle any billing issues. They only can open tickets. They say billing dept will respond within 14 days. It was over 14 days when I finally received money from first renter stay. Now it's happening again, unbelievable!! The renter came and went, paid over $4000 and I haven't received a dime! I just need to speak with someone from the billing dept because now they owe me for a current renter in my home now. Owners need more options than VRBO. Crooks!!!

I normally never do things like this because I'm just not that type of person, however for this bunch I had to get it out. THIS SITE IS ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE! I booked a stay at a cabin that had already been overbooked 10x because of a glitch in the system on their end. Things happen right.... no big deal! However it was a very big deal! Not only did they allow me to book a place that had been booked 10x already, after talking to the owner of the place and him having it out with them (whom which they hung up on just as they did me), getting on three way and talking with the customer service rep and the owner of the property to release the funds, then getting false promises of things being done and still getting misinformation, to add insult to injury they now say that it is the owner's responsibility to get me my money back and hang up on me once again.

Vrbo does not allow you to leave a review if your stay was cancelled. Property # 390079 cancelled our reservation days before we were supposed to arrive. Offered us one of their other listings at higher price. This is a common scam and these people are scammers. Do not stay here. 14846 W Rivera Dr is owned by scammers.

This was the most TERRIBLE experience ever!!!! Had rented a house to accommodate 18 people for my sisters 50th Anniversary and they call two days before and say it is double booked and we cannot use the house. Then they try to give us a 3 bedroom 2 bath house for 18 people. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!! Do not use these people. They suck!!!!

We booked a home for OCT 2020, in June 2020. Due to some unforeseen medical surgery, we found out in July that we would not be able to travel in October, July 23rd we requested to cancel the reservation. We never received a cancelation email, I gave them extra time due to COVID 19. Aug 18th we reached out again to confirm the cancelation, we called the customer number this time since there still was no response to our last email. Vrbo promised that they were escalating this issue and we were going to get our money back. 10 2 called again and promised they were escalating the issue (again), they asked for 48-72 hours to resolve the problem.

I attempted to rent a spot 5 months in advance for 12 days, had been in touch with the owner and was ready to pay in full after confirmation. The next morning as I attempted to send a deposit, I was prevented from doing so and the owner informed me that the property had already been rented due to a longer period of time requested. At my time of request, it showed the property available on the VRBO site. I would think the company would have the decency to hold a property if the intention was to rent and dialogue had been established. I understand first come first served, but this practice is unfair.

We booked a vacation rental condo on VRBO for a trip to Hawaii that we were planning with our family. We booked over a year in advance and purchased the trip cancellation insurance. It was going to be our family dream vacation. When is came time to travel in March, the Canadian government has just advised that we were not allowed to leave the country due to the Covid pandemic. This announcement come out the day before our travel. Since then we have tried to obtain a refund from the cancellation insurance company but there is not coverage on the cancellation policy due to the pandemic. VRBO originally said that the owner of the condo unit was required to pay us back if the cancellation policy did not, then we called again and they changed their story saying that the owner did not have to pay us anything back at all as it was up to their discretion.

My host cancelled on me the day of check-in at a place in Hawaii, when I was already physically an ocean away from my home. The VRBO emergency rebooking assistance team never was able to offer a comparable property to house me and my friend in, despite its Book With Confidence Guarantee. They offered us a couple properties far away from the original location that did not have enough places for us to sleep and had an extra $1000 parking fee we would be responsible for, despite our original booking including free parking.

Updated on 10/15/2020: The Vrbo.com website (Expedia) is becoming terrible for both the landlords and tenants. It is loaded with errors and Vrbo is holding money from both landlords and tenants using the Covid-19 excuse. When booked tenants with rental deposits being held by Vrbo, have to cancel due to Covid-19, Vrbo will eventually refund their deposit but will then create a debit for the landlord. After the next renter stays and pays the rental charges to Vrbo, they will withhold those fees rather than send them to the landlord. After filing a complaint, Vrbo says they will review the matter and reply within 14 days. This is not a billing error; this is a purposeful holding of millions of dollars for their own use. Covid-19 has nothing to do with it!!

These people are frauds!!! Stayed at a cabin that was infested with roaches. The owner lied to us and knew she had roaches, it was vile to stay. The Roaches crawled in our family dinner Making us lose out on $200. We had to leave the property at 12 am because it was roaches were coming from everywhere and stay at a hotel were we promised a reimbursement for our stay. 4 weeks later and 20 phone calls to customer service still no reimbursement and every time we call they hang up the phone or put us on hold for 30 minutes and then hang up or tell us call back next week and the same thing happens. They even refused to reimburse us because the cabin owner refunded our money but it cost us $100 than the cabin less to find a hotel to stay at for the rest of our trip.

Made a reservation for my family on1/7/2020. We had to cancel the trip to Hawaii due to COVID-19. Refunds were supposed to be issued in four to six weeks, but twenty-four weeks later, we still don't have a refund. VRBO did refund their $200 fee, but I'm still out $3,356.02. VRBO keeps pointing the property manager, VacayHome Connect. VacayHome Connect keep saying they are only processing 1-4 refunds a week as their staff has time. Don't do business with this website. AirBnB treats customers better. You'll never get your money back. ** Case ID -

In January I made a reservation for a house in Hawaii for June 2020 and I made a $1106.72 deposit. When Covid hit we agreed to postpone the reservation until June 2021. In early August the owner informed me he was selling the house and had to cancel my reservation. However, he has not refunded my deposit. After many chats with VRBO, having to spend about an hour re-explaining things each time, VRBO has still done nothing but send the owner emails asking him to “initiate my refund”.

We have stayed at La Estancia in the past and enjoyed the resort. We booked through VRBO Suite 1105 for dates in March 2020, and due to COVID 19 the reservation was cancelled. The Owners would not provide a refund nor would they agree to move the reservation to 2022. VRBO has requested that all owners provide a refund and provided minimal support in dealing with the Owners. At one point VRBO listed on their website that we had received a 100% refund which was completely incorrect!

This company is about the worst I've ever come across in my 50yrs! They charge a lot and they do not help at all. My vacation was canceled due to a hurricane. I have still not gotten my VRBO service refund. I easily got the refund from the real estate company, but the VRBO representative who I spoke to claims that not only do I have to get the check back from the real estate company but I have to deposit in my bank account and show them my bank statement to prove that it went in my bank account. This is unacceptable and unbelievable!!!

I rented the house at 618 NW 47th Ave. in Deerfield Beach Fl. in March of this year. I made the first payment at that time. My reservation was for June. In May, they billed me for the rest including $500 refundable damage deposit which I paid that day. Four days later, they the homeowners, cancelled my reservation without an explanation as to why. I had to send an email asking why. They refunded the last payment but refuse to refund the first payment which is more than half of the total cost of the rental without the damage deposit. They didn’t even offer to apply it towards a future stay. I do not feel that the homeowners should get to benefit from Covid at my expense nor do I feel like VRBO has honored their 100% refund guarantee. I will not be using VRBO again. If you choose to do so, then I advise you not to rent the property owned by Nathalie Desjardins.

I rented a property in Lincoln City, OR for a trip 9/13-9/16/2020 from Charles **. Property ID: **. Lincoln City was evacuated due to the wildfires. I was told by Mr. ** I would receive a refund. It has been 3 weeks now and he will not respond to messages or phone calls from VRBO or myself. VRBO has been no help at all. They keep trying to call him (no answer). They keep telling me to message him (which I have done now 12 times.) I was not able to use the rental due to wildfires and I am the one who is penalized?

Saint Andrews Commons on HHI - Ken **’s condo was filthy upon arrival, appliances did not work, moldy, multiple lights out,unit was not as advertised (unit 1766). Owner blamed everything on either COVID or the complex. VRBO was not helpful. Stayed 4 of the 7 weeks, Received partial refund with no negotiation agreement AND he canceled the reservation on VRBO so we could not write a review.

I rented a home 15 months ago for family to stay in for my daughter's wedding. I booked early because it was a holiday weekend during prime foliage season in New England. 2 weeks out and the owner canceled on me because they "had a change in plans" and decided to stay in the house themselves. They didn't notify us earlier because they didn't know what their plans would be and the house "may" have been available. VRBO won't honor the Book with Confidence Guaranty because they feel it's "COVID" related. Now there's nothing available (even in the surrounding area) so we have a wedding and no where to stay. Beware of using them. They don't stand by their "guaranty."

I made a reservation for a beachfront condo in a location that was later impacted by a hurricane. I began to contact VRBO and the "owner" the day following the storm. I had concerns that the property was still standing or habitable. I was also concerned that my card would be charged for the entire rental amount as their normal instructions indicated that charges would occur automatically and there would be no refunds beyond 50%. Since they made no concessions for COVID cancellations, I did not expect any grace. So, it was important for me personally to cancel immediately. The "owner" I put in quotes because I really do not know who the actual owner is, only the name of the condo management company. I found that the "owner" did not answer calls and their voice mail was full. (At that point, I was worried about how bad things were for these folks.)

Overall VRBO is fine in describing their property but their mileage to nearby destinations is misleading as it is done in a straight line and you can't check it because they don't give an address prior to booking.

Our VRBO host Ben ** property number: ** was clearly looking to upgrade some equipment that he admitted was damaged in a storm a few weeks prior and just so happen to charge us 3x what a new product would cost. The rental wasn't cleaned properly, and he didn't provide listed items on his site booking page.

I have booked with old HomeAway several times with pleasant experience. But consumer should be aware of their service after merged with VRBO/Expedia. As per my experience they do not have any process of refunding your money even if THE PROPERTY OWNER CANCELS the reservation. You are in an infinite loop trying to get your money, which I have not been able to get for last three weeks. As a traveler, if you cancel last minute, you are in the hook for the whole amount. But if the owner cancels on you, VRBO will neither help you rebook and good luck getting back your money!

False advertising, overpriced, slumlord running a scam! It’s nothing like the description or photos. What a rip-off!! I had spoken with the listed host of the property prior to my booking, which was only 24hrs before our actual arrival. He failed to mention that he’s currently “in between internet providers” at the moment, so there was no Internet access, which meant no TV’s either. We chose this overpriced rental because of the rooftop lounge area that’s listed as an amenity with photos showing that it overlooked downtown, but upon our arrival, the door is locked to all guests due to Covid. It’s obviously been locked up for a long time, but they still advertise it as a selling point on their VRBO photos/bio. Without the rooftop, there’s no other option to sit outside at all. Not even a chair in the “mulched” backyard.

Reserved property in Florida in July. One week before going, ask questions to the owner per VRBO. She became rude and then called me. Based on the Covid in that area even though she lived in Georgia. In conversation she had me scared I ask what would do for me if cancelled. Stated she would refund my money. Told her would like to not come based on her information. She cancelled the reservation so I assumed she would refund me in full. She kept 1/2 of the reservation. Since this went through VRBO I called them. Spoke with them numerous times. Each person I spoke with gave me a different response every time. They would call Owner and tell them to pay me in full. Then the owner would call VRBO and they would say should get full refund but beyond their control. This is the first and last time I will try them. And definitely would not rent from the owner, she was rude and changed her story.

Refund was oked 08/22/2020. Now, today they tell me 6-8 weeks since they made a mistake and the the refund got stuck in their system. This is not fair to me and my family. They kept telling me to check my bank and that was just a delay. I have heard they do this.

I went into VRBO to see if a property in Key Largo property. I went to search to see if the property was available, the system required me to put in credit card to indicate if the property was available for the specific dates. I received a notice that the property was booked. I immediately requested a cancellation. VRBO charged $5,221 to my credit card that day. After 6 months of disputing the charge, it has been determined that due to the "services and conditions", the full amount is due even though VRBO canceled the reservation. So bottom line is that VRBO is expecting a patron to pay the full booking charge even though the client never even had the opportunity to stay at the property. I will never search properties or even consider using VRBO in the future. I have never written a review on this type of site, however, I would like to warn others to not be scammed by VRBO.

VRBO is nothing but a face for fraudulent transactions. They allow owners to be listed as a PREMIER PARTNER and how they offer a “Book with confidence GUARANTEE”. Do not fall for it. If a property has a no refund policy, it doesn’t matter about the contract you sign, any of the emails you exchange through the site, the owner’s can change a policy or a contract at any time no matter what and then NOT REFUND YOUR MONEY. VRBO will do nothing about it. They will literally only read from their manual and say, “please refer to the property’s refund policy”. They will try to contact the owner, but if the owner never responds they wash their hands of it. DO NOT EVER BOOK ANYTHING THROUGH VRBO!!!

I booked a hotel consisting of apartments, called Stay Alfred, through the Vrbo website. Due to Covid 19 Stay Alfred has gone bankrupt and is no longer in business. I have tried since June to get a refund from Vrbo, which states the company "guarantees a 100% refund of a traveler's payment up to $10,000 in the event of internet fraud, misrepresentation, bankruptcy or foreclosure," however after 4 months of fruitless conversations with the Vrbo staff, I have been told they won't be honouring me, and that if I want my money back, I need to go through my credit card company. In fact, Vrbo's guarantees are completely useless and downright dishonest.

Dirty, poorly described condo. Called owner, no response. Spent hours on phone with VRBO with no one empowered to solve the problem. This company truly sucks. They do not hire US-based call centers then they give no power to the call center people so they say someone will contact me to solve the problem.... 3 days have passed and I’ve gotten nowhere. This company isn’t going to make it.

I have been with VRBO for 4 years now, this year is the worst experience I have every had with this company. They have withheld all my payments for the whole year, not a single penny been deposited into my bank, every time I call they keep telling me that they are working on it, it has been 6 weeks now and still no one can tell me what's going on. They won't let me speak to a manager or someone who can help. Stay away, from this company.

We booked the VRBO because the house listing was advertised to be aligned with good cleaning practices due to the current pandemic. It said that there is a “minimum 1-day vacancy between guest stays” – Upon arrival, there were six people at the house after check-in time. We arrived at 3:30 and they were still cleaning? The rental should’ve been SPOTLESS! Come to find out the pool was GREEN!!!!

Before my recent trip to Truckee California, I thought VRBO was just fine. However, VRBO pulled a fast one on us! After we booked our girls trip to Truckee, we were outsourced to Vacasa rentals, which has THE WORST reviews! We found this all out after our horrific experience with them. Before I tell my experience, the reason I'm rating VRBO low is because they should have been responsible for refunding us the full amount and instead they chose to ignore us, not call us back, and push us on to Vacasa who is also not returning our calls. Oh and the total refund for a two night stay ONLY paid for our Uber that weekend.

When I booked my vacation this year using VRBO, I was expecting the same quality I got when I used them last year. I checked the refund policy and it said I was covered. I booked the stay in January for May. Covid-19 hit and I contacted the rental company I was staying with and they said due to the state being shut down, they would move my stay to September but I couldn’t get a refund. I was okay with it at the moment thinking they would work with me in September if there was still a reason I couldn’t travel.

I booked a home in Destin Fl back in February before the pandemic hit. The end of February I contacted the owner about canceling before my 60 day window was up, to which he asked me to wait and see what was going to transpire. I agreed as we were looking forward to our family getaway for my 60th birthday in May. Well of course things got worse and the governor or Fl restricted all vacation rentals until May, so I canceled my booking.

Stayed Aug 2020. Jamie L. Booked on Vrbo. Before I even start with how disgusting this cabin is, let me say that anyone looking to rent from this person is going to waste their money. The owner discredits all of the tenants complaints and says it's the fault of themselves or others. If you scroll to the bad reviews, you can see this right off the bat.

We have rented our apartment for 15 years with Holiday Lettings, that became HomeAway, that became part of VRBO. Never had a problem with guests until now. Our last guest STOLE FROM US. HomeAway REFUSED TO DEDUCT FROM THEIR SECURITY DEPOSIT, leaving us severely out of pocket. HomeAway (so called) CUSTOMER SUPPORT REFUSED TO ENGAGE WITH THE GUEST ABOUT THE THEFT, they REFUSED TO ANSWER ANY OF OUR QUESTIONS about why they would not withhold the security deposit, THEY BULLIED US by cutting the 14 day period to discuss deductions down to 7 days, THEY CANCELLED OUR LISTING (that we had just paid for) and THEY REFUSE TO ACCEPT A COMPLAINT against them! All in all, the most SHOCKING AND APPALLING CASE OF CUSTOMER NEGLECT I have ever encountered.

I tried canceling a reservation 3 months ahead of time. Nobody (neither the property or VRBO seemed to get the message). 1 month afterwards they figured it out, but then, not only canceled the one I wanted, but also ANOTHER reservation. It has now been 1 month and I haven't seen my $1800. They are terrible. And in calling customer service, I have been hung up on more than once.

I booked a condo for two days through the VRBO mobile app. Before booking, I checked the details that were shown at least a couple of times but it had NO DISCLAIMER saying there may be other charges once the booking is completed. After the booking was confirmed, they sent an agreement with an extra $75. DISAPPOINTING!

My family and I rented shore house in July in hope of having nice trip despite the pandemic. We came ready with supplies to wipe down all of the high touch zone, even bringing our own sheets/pillows because we're hesitant to go anywhere with the pandemic. We got there, took a tour of the place, he pointed out a broken doorknob but explained that that had happened just before we arrived so he was unable to fix it.

I have used this resource in the past and had reasonable luck from them. Granted there was nothing out of the ordinary when I did so one would expect that it goes well. Book something, pay for it, travel and enjoy yada yada yada... Enter 2020 where we had booked another condo in Maui and placed the deposit, etc. AS time approached it was obvious that Hawaii gov was not going to remove the 14 day quaratine so we opted to cancel and would just rebook at a later date once things were back to norm. NOT SO FAST...

We reserved a weekend this past July of 2020 at one of the properties listed on the VRBO website. This property was not set up as a vacation rental. It was a young man's primary residence who needed help with paying his rent. It was not thoroughly clean and all of the occupants belongings including used bathroom toiletries such as washing products and used wash cloths were left in the shower. All the dresser drawers and closets were filled with their clothes and the cabinets and refrigerator were full with their personal food items. We unfortunately hadn't read the reviews prior to making our reservation. We had needed a large enough space to accommodate our party of 5 that was located a short distance to the beach. This property seemed to be a good fit. Had I read the last review left by someone just a couple weeks before I would have never made the reservation.

Booked a trip to Hawaii for April and of course, the pandemic prevented us from going. We canceled the original trip the day travel was restricted by the government (30 days prior to the trip). The owner of the property not only refuses to give us any form of refund, we cannot re-book for a later date. We are out $2,000. I have spent MONTHS (March to August) going back and forth with VRBO customer service. I emailed all the executives and actually got a response! I thought maybe we would get something... I was wrong.

I reserved and booked a place in Ogunquit Me. I made this reservation June 24 and canceled it June 25. In a matter of hours my money was already taken out of my account and I have played phone tag with VRBO but finally got someone who said I'd receive a email with a future date to come because of Covid. Never happened. Adam the owner is a thief to take almost 800.00, number one from a person who lives paycheck to paycheck and a housekeeper is a thief. Number one I cancelled that reservation within 24 hours. It shows I did. I still have the cancellation.

I signed into Homeaway and was under the impression that anything was covered under the insurance policy they promote and tell you about. I asked when I called before putting my house on as a rental and was told my house was covered for up to 1,000,000. My latest renters moved all my furniture around, including a 200 pound desk to a different floor. I had to pay movers to move it back.

We rent a house through VRBO, Orlando Florida for 2 weeks end of August 2020, paid half in January. In March we made a request to VRBO to cancel: They answer they encourage home owner to reimburse given the probability Canada-US Border remain close. They say wait to see the situation in August, but we were due to pay the balance in mid June. We didn't, then VRBO say they were at least to reimburse their commission and provide guidance to the owner to reimburse. Nothing happen, we still try to communicate with VRBO to get the reimbursement of commission, always the same: in middle of communication we get a message connection lost: Amazing. The money should be put in trust and release to the owner only when the rental service being provided by the owner. I will never again deal with VRBO or parent Company Expedia. They manage for no liability or responsibility. Not trustable.

I did not complete the rental this time but have had good experiences in the past. I was researching a rental, the average price was $150 a night. Go to book two weeks and it is $668 a night. No way you ever get this place for $150. I felt scammed and cheated.

Terrible customer service. They have gobbled up other companies (HomeAway) and are owned by Expedia. So bad, in so many ways. Do. Not. Book. Through this agency. Unable to submit review on latest rental as server has been down for weeks.

This apartment looks great online at VRBO, and I paid in full 10 months ago to get re-married for my 15th anniversary. Due to Covid-19, and EU travel restrictions, this vacation had to be cancelled. The airline voucher was very easy to acquire. The landlord for 9 Rapp Ave., Paris, Paul's Apartments, however, was greedy, absolutely against not only a refund, but a simple voucher to use for the very same trip next year. VRBO was of no help whatsoever, and I truly wish I had rented via Airbnb with another landlord who was more human. AVOID THIS POS!

Rented a house with VRBO. Lost power due to a hurricane and the property owner provided no consideration and refused to refund our deposit with no evidence of any damage. Vrbo does nothing. Airbnb is much better.

I chatted online to start with and the representative couldn’t even spell or complete a sentence which made it difficult to try and resolve my issue of a damage deposit refund when reading what they were saying was gibberish. I would ask a question and get circular responses and they kept wasting my time by asking me if I was still there, not even giving me time to respond, and then just disconnected the chat!

We booked a house in Cabo through VRBO for a late March visit. Our trip was scheduled for around the time when the pandemic started. We had to cancel our trip as we were not comfortable leaving the country at that time. Our host refused to refund our money and only offered to re-book us. We have no idea when we will be comfortable bringing our family to Cabo. VRBO was super unhelpful and could not get us a refund. We are very disappointed and will NEVER use this site again. The company should be shut down immediately. It is a complete SCAM. Do not book on VRBO!

We paid a deposit through the VRBO site for a rental property. Due to Covid-19, many family members could not go because of work restraints. We cancelled at least a week before the deadline for a full refund. We received notice from VRBO that we were due our full deposit. It was never received. I called and got a recording that we had to wait at least 4 weeks for the refund before speaking to a customer service agent. After the 4 weeks and still no refund, I called VRBO. This is when it became a back and forth he said/she said between them and the property owner. VRBO claimed that the owner did not release the money, and the owner was claiming he did. I do not know who was lying, but eventual I was told by VRBO that there was nothing further "THAT THEY WOULD DO." We had to finally put in a claim with our VISA bank.

I booked a vacation for June, however due to a storm, we planned on not going till mid-week. We knew we'd lose a couple of nights of rent. However, on the day after our arrival date, the owner cancelled (I guess assuming we weren't going at all?) and will not refund us a dime. VRBO was horrible to deal with. They said it is up to the owner as to whether they refund me or not. Now, I am going through small claims court. Losing $3000 right now (especially during these hard times) is not an option. Do not believe VRBO's slogan "Book with confidence". There is no recourse if the owner decides they want to cancel on you.

I booked a rental from this site for the Tokyo Olympics that have been rescheduled to 2021. The host cancels the booking 3 months later without my consent to only re-post it the same day at a much higher rate. I had to pay in a different currency and due to the exchange difference, I am now out approximately $189. There is absolutely no help from customer service and all they will tell me is to contact a host before booking. However, a host can still cancel a month before the start of your trip with zero penalties even if they provide reassurances that their listing is up to date. I would avoid booking through this site as there is no guarantee that a host will not cancel. Plus, you cannot leave a review if they do cancel to ensure that this will not happen to others.

I booked my birthday vacation trip to Northern California a little last minute -a week before travel. I found a nice place on VRBO, confirmed it and paid. And because the trip was going to be 12 hours on the road (per Google) I decided to break it up with an overnight stay in San Francisco, again through VRBO.com. I did this 2nd booking on Aug 9 - I was traveling on Aug 11. On Aug 10, day before my trip, the northern California property canceled my booking. They blamed vrbo and vrbo blamed them. Though they’d already charged me $909 they claimed my booking was not in their system and someone else was staying in the cabin.

I have been a VRBO host for the last 4 years. I have also been a traveler booking with VRBO. During this time of Covid-19 changes with travel, VRBO or Homeaway as they are also known, have not been able to cope. They are understaffed and are not taking care of the traveler nor are they being responsive to the Host of properties they represent. I have a feeling a class action suit is in their future. DO NOT USE THIS PLATFORM for your travel needs or your rental needs.