Vrbo Reviews

With a recent VRBO booking, I changed from a 5 night stay to a 4 night stay. Property owner refunded 1 night stay + tax but told me to call VRBO to request the refund of 1 night service fee. VRBO will not do partial service fee refunds. VRBO will only refund the service fee if you cancel the entire booking. VRBO keeps my service fee for a 5 night stay even though it was changed to a 4 night stay within the required timeframe with the property owner. Property owner was great about making the change. VRBO not. I will definately not recommend VRBO to family, friends, coworkers, etc and will be very hesitant to book with VRBO in the future and ongoing. Lesson learned. If I could give VRBO 0 stars, I would. Be sure of the number of nights absolutely needed before booking or you will have to cancel and rebook to get the service fee correct so you aren't overpaying VRBO. VRBO will not make partial adjustments on service fees.

Vrbo has been no help in fixing issues with our rented apartment and their customer service wait times are insane. We arrived in Italy and learned that the apartment we rented through Vrbo had a broken AC and the host wouldn't be fixing it while we were there. This was a major problem since the temps averaged 95F most days and grandma is 72 and unable to handle this heat. I immediately used the Vrbo text app to contact someone, who was helpful and opened a case for us, promising that Vrbo would work something out when I called customer service and got redirected to the specific department that handles cases like these. Sadly I never made it that far.

I always book with Airbnb but I decided to try VRBO this trip. Right away Visa contacted me that a fraudulent charge appeared on my credit in the same city where I was trying to book reservations. I contacted VRBO and of course they denied it but it was too coincidental. Then the application misbehaved and the $ that was quoted was different than the final price. I called right away and was told they would take of it and get back to me. I waited a week and no one did. I tried calling and got the run around so I called Visa and we called VRBO together and that agent would do absolutely nothing.

Somehow, we had two rentals booked on VRBO and we weren’t allowed to cancel one. We were charged 25% for one company and full price for the other. Our vacation isn’t until October so plenty of time to find another renter. Very disappointed and will never use this company again.

Rented a VROB in DC over a month ago! Upon my wife and kids walking in I dropped some bags in front room. Went back to truck to get more luggage as I turn the corner they are walking out! Place dirty!

Made reservation on Expedia.com/VRBO for treasure island. booked it then a week later, only days before my trip they canceled with no explanation. What a waste of time and money, now rates are higher. I will never use Expedia/VRBO again. Impossible to count on them.

Worst customer service I have ever experienced. I called 9 times and was hung up on by 7 different reps after being on hold for 2 hours and 55 minutes during one call and 2 hours and 17 minutes on another, meanwhile I was 3,000 miles away from home. Vrbo left me and my family stranded for an entire weekend without accommodations for my entire stay or a refund in a city across the country from my home. They had me pay premium same-day pricing at a hotel even though I booked my stay with them 4 months in advance. When I asked to be transferred to a manager, a manager named Marcuz got on the phone and yelled at me. He said, “don’t play with this one ma’am,” as if my family and I being stranded would be something I'd be joking about and just completely belittled me. I am appalled by their lack of empathy and disregard for my and my family's lives and safety.

We used VRBO to rent a property for a family vacation. The owner canceled the reservation and we did not receive a refund. When I contacted VRBO customer service I was told to contact the property owner directly. You are better off using Airbnb.

I reserved a two bedroom VRBO in the Pittsburgh, PA area approximately two months ago, paid in full and received a VRBO confirmation. I phoned the number listed for the owner the day before our check-in to receive the required steps needed to enter the property and was advised by the owner that this property has not been available for rental in over a year; and yet VRBO continues to advertise the property on their site. He informed me that he received calls from two other customers within the past year who also paid in full to rent this property and struggled with VRBO to receive their full refund. When I immediately notified VRBO, they refused to assist me in finding another rental property in the limited area until the actual day of my check in (which was the following day).

We booked 2 weeks in Europe, 9 different places. One of them was a scammer trying to get money from us multiple times - 200E for deposit and 60E to use linens and towels. VRBO customer service was not helpful at all, and keeps refusing my review due to guidelines. Just beware that VRBO probably won't do anything if you get scammed. And beware of property #2839335 "in the middle of Upper Lusatia - Apple Barn Cannewitz" in Germany.

VRBO is an absolute nightmare of a company to deal with. My family and I checked into a house that was completely misadvertised- multiple issues with the utilities not working and property damages. The house was advertised as a 1 min walk to the beach, to find out that the location was on an 8 lane interstate highway that needed to be crossed over and was nowhere near the beach. The utilities- air and water- were not working, a/c in 2 of the 3 rooms were blowing HOT air and temperature could not be lowered. Main living area had no a/c and no window coverings, with intense tropical heat coming inside the house.

Good morning to all. We came here last Wednesday which was august 3. We have apartment in Sian residence Hollywood Florida rent from owner. Apt 3E 4001 Ocean drive. I could start from saying terrible smell as soon open the door. I understand came early. But it’s not worth what I pay. Terrible ** smell from someone upstairs. The apartment is dirty. Wall dirty. Bathroom water all over. This is the worse place I stay in Florida. Always staying good places. For the money I pay I could had stay in better place. The pool is small. But not bad. Beach was dirty which I didn’t want to go back. I’m guessing I’m paying for the view.

Terrible experience. I reserved this house since Jan 2022, by May 2022 I was supposed to do the last payment, comes to happen that host didn't reply to me how to make the last payment... I had to contact VRBO which was a nightmare until I decided to send an email to almost every top person at corporate and the ball started running on our favor... Finally one month later I was able to get all my money back, because at beginning it seems that they have no intention to return my money even though it wasn't my fault...

We rented a "4 room house" in Las Vegas through VRBO (Reservation #**)., and it turned out that this was the most neglected house we have been to through a renting agency. It was the most disappointing and frustrating experience to rent a "4 bedroom house" and get a 3 bedroom house with a "4th room" which was actually a bed in a closet. Consequently, one of our family members had to spend the night on the floor. Furthermore, the house was old, poorly maintained and poorly furnished, and the air conditioning hardly worked. Though the owner was "kind" enough to send someone to fix it, it still was not functioning properly. Staying in this house at 104 degrees was unbearable. Additionally, the sewage system was not functioning properly, as water flew out in both bathroom floors every time we took a shower or used the toilet.

I've been using VRBO (HomeAway) for years. It's always been good until I've had an issue. The property (3 bedrooms) and the listing (4 bedrooms) didn't match. The property was filthy, AC didn't work (Vegas in August), and the sewer came up from the baths every time we flushed the toilet. The host was nasty and hostile. We ended up booking a place on Airbnb that cost the same but was perfect for my family and me. VRBO support was terrible and wouldn't transfer me to another property, even though I took pictures and showed them that it's a three-bedroom house on the title. They claimed that the tiny closet was the 4th bedroom. They also said that I should contact the owner about the other issues. I told them I was not going to spend our three days vacation inspecting his house and accommodate contractors to work during our stay. What a joke of a company. I'm done with VRBO.

Good luck.... Refund is impossible to obtain. Custom service would be better if it came from a foreign call center. Definitely would be more polite. Very inclusive service. Like Turo they can deny you the rental if they don't like your name... And some how keep your payment! Use Air BNB or stay in a hotel. At least you get what you paid for and they will stick to their own polices. Don't waste you time or hard earned money 'cause you won't get either back at the end of your hellish experience.

As a owner, our guest paid in full Oct 19. Due to Covid, changed holiday dates twice. They have now been and gone a month ago and Vrbo still not paid us their money! Vrbo has had this money nearly 3 years and said it will be dispersed when the guests arrive. That was 1st July and still no payment. Rang several times over 5 hrs of calls and told it is with the payments team. This is over £1000 which they have had in their bank nearly 3 years, this is disgusting. I am exhausted trying to get what is due to us!

VRBO was wonderfully quick at taking our money for the booking. We totally understood the refund policy of 60 days prior to the date of check in. We were expecting that if anything occurred after that we could contact VRBO to change our dates without trying to get our money back, just rebooking. We planned a trip where myself, my husband and our 3 adult children with their families could visit my parents. My 85 yr old dad was newly diagnosed with cancer and we wanted them to be able to meet our 2 little grandchildren and all spend some time together. The week prior to our date, my mother contracted COVID and my Dad followed 2 days later with a positive test.

We stayed at a vacation rental for a week under VRBO mgmt group. When we left the property, we were provided an opportunity to rate and comment. We rated as 1 Star (due to lack of cleanliness, pre-paid amenities were not correct, & non-working hot-tub for half the stay). before I left the review I bumped it to 2 stars because it was close to the beach.

Rented from the host above, from VRBO. Listing stated it aaa a modern 3 bedroom townhome, it was far from modern, should’ve known when I looked at picture. Said it was a shared pool? Wasn’t sure what made it shared since it didn’t list more than one unit until I got there then I knew. There were 7 cars and a truck in the driveway along with a group of guys. I contacted the host immediately and was told she’d take care of. Contacted her numerous times but it was never taken care of. Amanda contacted the other guests and informed them I was complaining which lead to a heated argument (they came to my door). This could’ve been a real bad situation.

We had to check out early for personal reasons and we were able to do so through the website nor app. We spent hours in chats and phone calls and nothing was resolved. Very poor service on the part of VRBO and Expedia. There were no issues with the property and the owner was great but he too couldn’t get the technology to work. Try Air Bnb or Booking.com instead.

VRBO took over a Homeaway service which was a wonderful group. I never had any problems with them. In contrast, VRBO has become worse since they linked to Expedia. It is full of faults: the website is misleading, the service is very poor and they never solve any of your problems when you call. I had the same experiences as the tenant and owner. You can hardly understand the people you talk to, then they put you on hold for 10-15 minutes and after 30-40 min finally tell you that your case has been transferred to another customer service which will get back to you "depending on your priority".

VRBO used to be my app of choice for vacation rentals. Recently, I have had TWO bad run ins with hosts that could not take feedback of any sort, and therefore, left retaliatory, and blatantly false info back about me. There is ZERO way for a traveler to dispute or respond to the review. This is a horrible practice that will be the downfall of Short Term Rentals.

I booked a “Family/Pet Friendly Desert Oasis” with no option to select a pet. I sent a message to the host making sure my dog would be OK and they confirmed. I booked, and now I have been told my dog is against the rules and I cannot get my money back, as I get zero from canceling. The host wants to draw you in and make you cancel for zero refund. Vrbo supports this, and there are a lot of similar reviews. Reporting them for fraud, don’t book with pets. Or at all really.

We wait until 4pm checkin and no passcode. Email owner, no response. Call owner…"We sold and VRBO was suppose to call you." We called VRBO and was on phone for over three hours with 6 different agents. VRBO stated to wait patiently as they would put us up for night for free and arrange other accommodations for trip. We waited in vehicle for 7 hours (had already purchased cold food for condo) and still no accommodations made. Poor customer service and ruined our vacation. Try finding a beachfront property with similar accommodations on day off in peak season and National softball tournament.

I waited 30 mins for a chat and it looks like someone is there to help, it has a name John **, but it's not communicating with me, nor will it allow me to write anything. I have been on the phone for 30 mins and no answer yet. So I'm unable to write a review. The main thing that I want to point out, is the reviews for the properties are not real. The place that I stayed at had bug, it was very dirty, and it smelled moldy. When I talked with the owner he did nothing, was not helpful. He didn't believe me. Don't go through this site for alternative.

I booked a property in San Diego for the 4th of July vacation. It gets canceled by the host with no reason at the last minute when I was standing right outside his property!! I called Vrbo's customer service. After waited for 50 mins, the girl who answered the phone told me she can't do nothing and hang up the phone. I have to pay double the price for other hotel arrangement. It basically ruined my family vacation. This website only protects the host's right. There is no consideration for customer's right. It was a good company when it's called HomeAway, now is really bad... Avoid it!

We have rented from VRBO for years, primarily because it is the only game in town with lots of rentals. Twice in the last week, charges have appeared on my credit card from VRBO that I had no knowledge of. I waited on hold for almost 30 minutes before getting an explanation. In the future I should be told of charges before using my credit card. In the other instance we canceled the credit card and will let visa sort it out. One other recent incident involved VRBO telling me they were charging $600 for damages. I contested the charge and never received a copy of complaint nor information on resolution, nor do I know if they charged my card. Every rental has a large service fee tacked on for customer service, clearly this charge is not going where it should.

VRBO SCAM. Beware! I reserved a property on VRBO and paid a $2700 deposit. I messaged the property manager, Stay **, several times and received no response. Upon further investigation, I found that the same property was listed in VRBO under second ID number which showed that it was still available to rent for the week I reserved. A Google search for Stay **, VRBO’s ‘trusted partner’ showed that they were out of business. I also contacted the real property manager on the second listing who confirmed that Stay** was not authorized to rent the property. Over the course of the next 10 days or so I made contact with 5 different customer support staff and managers as well as Jason in the Trust and Security Team.

We were planning a trip to Isle of Palms, South Carolina. We reserved a year out. We were first cancelled in December. The owner said she had double booked. I asked if we could go on another date. So we set that up. She cancelled us 10 days before we were to leave which was August 6, 2022. Actually, it was a blessing that she did it then. The worse thing that could have happened would have been when we were on the the way.

As an owner, having the ability to contact VRBO is very important. However, the chat function on the website will take all your information and waste your time and then when they say they are checking into the problem, they disconnect you. This happened twice in a row in one sitting for a waste of at least half an hour. If you call the 800 number you are on hold for a 30 minute wait minimally. In addition, there are spam/scam inquiries that you must pre-approve or you are penalized in your ratings.

A week ago a had a guest coming through Fewo direkt which is now VRBO. I never got paid for that Booking because VRBO sent money on the WRONG bank account. They did have my CORRECT bank account because last year they paid for a Booking on the correct account. I got mail informing me about the payment and spent hours chatting to agents and wrote mails.... Hope that Big Expedia concern and VRBO will send me my money (2000€) which I did not receive due to their mistake. I need it.

VRBO is basically a platform to connect a guest looking to rent a property with an owner's property. Sounds great on paper but when you run into a problem VRBO washes their hands of it, sends you their fine print and cannot take any action. So not sure where all those service charge fees go because they pretty much do nothing. It is such a gamble using this platform. If things go good, consider yourself lucky. If not, you pretty much entered your worst vacation. In my opinion I will NEVER ever use or recommend them again as the risk is too great.

I found a rental home on VRBO. The home had 0 pictures of the outside, but I didn't think that it was an issue (big mistake, my fault). After driving 9 hours the house is run down. Vrbo says there's nothing they can do. I should've called within 24 hours of checking in. How am I supposed to know this? The owner of the home is confrontational and they wanted to contact him. I have children I needed to think about!

I've been a Homeaway/VRBO user as a vacation home owner since 2007. Since Homeaway became VRBO, its customer service is almost impossible to reach. It can take literal hours (HOURS!) to get connected and all conversations are run through a digital translation service, which means much of the communication will be lost.

I provided an unfavorable review of a condo because it was in an old building and the halls reeked of marihuana. Customer support "rejected" the review because it "contains profanity." So, don't waste your time on honest unfavorable reviews. In fact, don't waste your time on VRBO!

VRBO is a sick company and they continue to show it on the daily. My children cannot even watch TV without VRBO trying to indoctrinate them with ads and filth commercials. They have no sense of morality, no care for others but only care about pushing their own agenda to confuse children. It's really sad, I will be sure to use as many social media outlets to expose this company's wickedness. Every person I know will be using other businesses than VRBO now as well, I will make sure that this complaint is posted on every review site there is. VRBO will never get another dime from me, and I am a person that take my family of 6 on about 4 vacations a year. VRBO needs to apologize for their wicked deeds, and change their ads and commercials.

I traveled to Colombia and decided to stay the last night in a luxury apartment close to the airport. Three days prior to check in I tried to look up the address and noticed it was an empty lot. I tried to reach out to the property owner several times and was unable to reach them. The phone number was not working and they were not responding to my emails. I called VRBO and they advised that they couldn't see the address either. I was advised that according to VRBO policy the owner was to provide an address 30 days prior to check in. It had not happened.

We booked a holiday where we received confirmation of our reservation and then 24hrs later (24hrs before we were due to travel) they cancelled. I called customer service and tried their online chat. They try to keep saying it's because a third party should contact us but never did and then keep saying that we need to send confirmation emails to them as they have no record. I'm writing this as we are still on hold 2.5 hrs later being asked to speak to someone higher up - they have rebranded and that's because they must be making millions stealing from consumers and hoping we would give up fighting for ourselves. I have two young boys now heartbroken no holiday, no money left as they have stolen it and it's all down to them and they do not care.

To Whom it May Concern at VRBO: My family and I have never been treated with such disregard, disrespect, and at times, downright cruelty as how this company with its policies and procedures have treated us. I traveled Europe in 2018 and only used the AirBnB app. It was flawless. I intended to use it again for our first vacation since covid, but a friend recommended VRBO. So I, stupidly, gave your company an opportunity.

This is a joke that they asked us to paid LATE CHECKING fee or access code to enter is voided. We booked one week renting a property in Houston and were not allowed to enter if don’t late checking fee. They also refused refund if we do not accept their demands. This is unethical business practice. Should be out of business and should be sued for stealing.

VRBO stands for Vacation Rentals By Owner and they are owned by Expedia group. The 'rentals by owner' part is the problem as VRBO only minimally get involved with any issues, leaving the process to the renter and owner to contact each other. Because of Covid I eventually had to cancel my booking in Encore, having paid the $2000 deposit to the owner. When I initially requested the refund, through VRBO and the owner, months in advance of the cancellation date, I heard nothing back. Through many phone calls and 'chats' on the VRBO website I was eventually told I had to contact the owner directly to receive the refund.

My wife booked a cabin for a family vacation. 2 days before the trip we hadn't received access information or a physical address. We contacted corporate. After several calls and at least 2 hours on hold we were granted a refund. When it came through it was $45 short. It's been a week and I've called nearly every day as instructed. I've been promised a return phone call several times and been disconnected after a very lengthy hold. They have yet to follow through. I will never use them again.

We posted a deposit for property rental in Italy on 07/06/2022. Payment was accepted and reservation confirmed. Two days later the host cancelled our reservation because they wanted to increase the rental rates. The host refund was posted on our bank card two days later, EXCEPT the amount was $34.00 short. The exchange rate for US to Euros changed between the two dates which resulted in a refund that was less than what we paid. I contacted VRBO to point out that they state on the rental that reimbursement is 100% in full if cancelled prior to a specific date. We have not been made whole. They were of no help and suggested we contact the bank card to see what they can do, and call them back. My position is that it is the burden of the host and VRBO to complete the full reimbursement as advertised.

A host added an extra guest fee for more than 2 people even though the house was advertised as sleeps 5. They also charged more for cleaning in July than Sept. Contacted VRBO and they refused to do anything about it. I gave them several chances to escalate and a manager/supervisor wouldn't even talk to me. Very poor service. I'm going back to AirBnb and so is everyone I know.

We booked in November 2021 2 bedroom, 2 bath for 4 people. Spent the day on my cell phone while traveling trying to get a code or key for the condo. Kept getting put on hold and forwarded to someone else. I was finally told that the owner would be there to meet us when we arrived. That was just a put off. No one there to give us access and when calling VRBO we were put on hold for a long time then hung up on twice. We had to get two hotel rooms regardless of cost, for our stay and could not cook our own meals as planned. I have contacted them when we returned home. They said that they would refund us for the unused condo and requested our personal information along with copies of the hotel stay to review. That was two months ago and we have still not received a refund or any other compensation. This company is a direct trip off! Scam! Do not get ripped off like I did.

VRBO has incredibly horrible customer service with long very long wait times and the rep using chat will simply end the call if they do not know how to answer questions regarding not being able to use your iphone to take and upload pics on VRBO. VRBO makes it impossible for you to use their site! Very disappointing and frustrating.

I stayed at a property in Hampton, NY during June 2022. During my stay, the pool heater didn't work, took owner two days to fix, AC broke down for 4 days, no repairs made, property condition were dreadful, broken glass, broken basketball court, carpenter ants everywhere including beds and clothing. After complaining to VRBO, they said that I had 12 hours to contact them from check-in time so they can find other accommodation or give me back my money. (So I guess they want a family driving from several hundreds mile to just go back.)

We rented at Whitney Beach 6701 GOM Dr, #332, LBK FL 34228. Upon entrance of the unit the outside wall of unit is collapsing. Upon entering front door of unit ceiling is collapsing. Outside collapsing wall caused damage to inside bedroom wall. Nonworking bedroom blinds. Broomsticks used as locks for sliding glass door on bottom floor unit. Should we go on? Called Vacasa within 10 minutes of entering unit, operator stated someone would be out 6/2/22. Vacasa was a no show or call. So as to not completely ruin our vacation, these issues would be dealt with on our last week.

Booked condo #1307 for June 29th through July 4th. Arrived late on the 29th. Went to bed to wake up to bed bug bites all over. Reported it. Received refund. But VRBO put available on their website. Someone rented it.

This is what happened: The Vrbo app scheduled me on the wrong dates - not the dates requested. Discovered this via email confirmation received about 5 minutes after booking. Immediately tried to cancel, but was offered only 50% back. Cancelled anyway and Vrbo cancelled the cancellation insurance that I had purchased. My only resort was to appeal to the owner. The owner was most gracious and returned some of the funds. Unable to send photos to owner to show the amount Vrbo did refund. Looks like I'm out of a bit over 500 dollars and THEY CANCELLED THE CANCELLATION INSURANCE THAT I PURCHASED. Not using Vrbo again.

Family Vacation in the Smoky Mountains turned buggy. Cabin rented for $350/night was infested with bed bugs. Blood stains on sheets, and also 3 pet bats that stayed on the deck….No Refund, No help. Vrbo advised would open health and safety report! Took pictures of bugs and bug bites….they advised they wanted “more evidence”. Will not use again!!!

I am a cottage owner who is leaving the VRBO platform. VRBO doesn't pay cottage owners until guests arrive. I am a large cottage so groups need to plan well ahead and consequently book 6 to 15 months in advance. There is a no refund policy on my site so no reason for VRBO not to pay out within normal 5 to 7 business days. Imagine the cash flow issues I have waiting for over 6 months and in some cases up to 15 months to be paid. I am sure VRBO invests in the short term money market using millions of $ of cottage owners' funds. The fees are pure greed as well.

This is the worst website to use to rent a vacation rental. They give you nothing for the money they are charging you as a service fee. They back up owners not travelers, and their customer service do not even know English. And they count on translation app to send you messages.

I had my account suspended and was blocked from submitting a review by the property owner because I asked for my money back. The reason we asked for our money back was because the building was Unsafe. It was a shoddily converted storefront in a very sketchy run-down town next to a laundromat/dive bar. We found a creepy underground passage full of garbage and debris. It had recently been used, it appeared to lead to other doors/openings and we couldn't lock it. There was a lock on the door, but it wasn't able to actually be bolted. It appeared that they wanted us to think it was locked, but it wasn't, nor was there anything in the vicinity that we could use to secure the door. This easily could have been a sex trafficking operation.

I booked a unit in Barcelona via the VRBO site. I thought it was odd that there were no reviews for what looked like a great place. As my trip approached there were a bunch red flags: still no reviews, the phone number for the listing was out of service, the lister requested credit card information outside of the Vrbo payment platform or a wire transfer, which meant it wouldn't be covered by Vrbo if there was an issue. They also asked for passport information, which I understand is required by Spanish police, but should be provided at the unit, not online. They also sent me messages that included errors. They tried to explain their errors but didn't address any of my other concerns.

Buyer Beware - Gondomar, Portugal S. Don’t book this place!!!! The host (not on-site or nearby) has his managers there, with whom it was nearly impossible to communicate, and I speak French, Italian, German as well as English. Before we could be checked-in, or even see the second bedroom, they demanded 200 euros (safety deposit, in cash) which was nowhere in the posting or payment details or in an email recently sent to me --owner claimed that I didn’t read them carefully, which was not the case. Two more neighbors joined in, all trying to explain to me the concept of a deposit.

On June 22, 2022 my friends and I booked a VRBO in Ventura, CA (property #2791570) for a weekend girls trip. The house looked nice and spacious, set against some hills-it looked tranquil. Since you can only get the address of a location after booking we weren't able to check out the home until it was confirmed. After confirmation and payment, we received the address and our friend that lives in the area went to check it out. She grew up there and still lives in the city. She called and said that the home was in a dangerous area of Ventura, that it wasn't safe to be out after dark. We felt mislead by the listing and cancelled the booking. We had a similar experience in Las Vegas (with another rental company) and didn't want to repeat it.

We booked a place on VRBO (Property ID: 1940981) in Praiano Italy before Covid struck. When Italy when into lockdown, the host made us pay to move our booking. She even dictated new travel dates (not similar to our previous dates). We reorganised our entire Italy trip around those new dates. Upon arrival, she put us in a COMPLETELY different house. We had a group of 6 people, there was not enough crockery, no kettle, no aircon in all the rooms, not enough chairs, a lot smaller than the original house we booked for. When we told the host, she simply said "Well Amalfi is fully booked, and this is all I have"... Have tried to complain to VRBO and that has also fallen on deaf ears. They don't care about protecting future visitors, only their hosts (aka Maria **). Will NEVER use VRBO again, and will tell all my friends not to use them either.

Tried to complete a reservation online and couldn't as the site did not accept "Canada" as a valid country. Called their support line and was told the site is having technical difficulties. Waited 30 mins, tried to book again and the price/night increased over $50. Called their support line again and was told they would not do anything as they are not accountable for price increases or issues caused due to issues with their website. Despite having screen shots with timestamps showing the issue on their end, Vrbo denied having anything to with the issue. Very poor service and dishonest service.

Save yourself the time and just list on Airbnb. I have been on both for around 2 years and will never list a property or use VRBO for my travels again. Be forewarned if you list a property with VRBO expect to be spammed to death by people who "kindly" want you to book outside of airbnb. Also, support is terrible. Even upon trying to remove the listing I could not find any online instructions that made sense on how to do so. I then tried to use the chat and the guy was useless and started by asking me why, I told him I wanted to move. He then ask if I had already sold it to someone else yet? I'm thinking, what the heck is this??? I want to remove the listing. Why so many freaking questions. Then after tell him just to cancel my account he said, "Let me know when you receive the code."

I rented a one month rental apartment in New York City through VRBO. The night we got there the toilet flooded, the water ran out of the bathroom into the hallway and towards the kitchen. We are in our 60s and had no access to a bathroom. We called VRBO and after 5 hours on hold they booked us into a hotel and told us that they would rebook us into a different unit. After a couple of days we realized that they were not making an effort to find us another unit. They would not return our calls and communicated very vaguely.

On May 8, we decided on a last minute trip to Maui for memorial day weekend. Luckily we found a great little spot so I booked it and I paid in full. In addition to the rental fee, cleaning fee, VRBO fee and taxes, there was a $1500 refundable deposit that I opted for rather than paying a $60 nonrefundable fee. The trip was great and in the first week of June I messaged the host thanking her and asked when the $1500 would be refunded. No answer but VRBO had a message in the payment breakdown stating if no damage was found, the $1500 would be automatically refunded by June 14 (this is over a month from when I originally paid) and I'm sure other guests stayed there over the past two weeks so why did it take so long to refund this money?

I made reservations via Expedia.com. I received confirmation of reservations initially from Expedia. Then from Home Away.com and then VRBO.com. VRBO left a message my reservation was not available via VRBO.com. Home Away gave me contact information that was invalid. Email was not answered and phone number was disconnected.. Expedia did not help with contact information. Two days before my reservation, I did not know if the reservation was valid. It turns out the property had changed owners and the Expedia Group did not notify me of the change nor the contact information. The major problem is the Expedia group is so disjointed, that vital information was not disseminated to me. I will not trust this group in the future.

As mentioned by other customers here, there is no oversight of the hosts and no customer support when one needs it. London host cancelled with no explanation and VRBO customer support (AI probably) literally disconnected me. Closed account.

VRBO cancellation policies allow property owners to cancel days before trip with no penalties- and they can even re-list the property for a higher price for the same days. Plus, you can’t even leave a review to warn others that this happened, so the owner is free to do it again and again and again. These insane rules completely screw over the traveler and ruin entire vacations. This was my first and last experience with vrbo and I caution all users to find a different app and different company.

I rented an apartment through VRBO, and then several months later had a change in plans and put in a request to change the dates (selecting dates that the apartment was not already booked). The owner didn't respond, even after several messages to him through the platform and outside the VRBO platform -- WhatsApp, phone call. The owner did not respond -- it is now 8 days since I sent the first message, and on the VRBO platform it says the owner has 24-48 hours to respond. In a panic, we booked another property (owned by the same person) close by to the first property, for the dates that we needed.

VRBO has let their app go down. It has not been functional for several days. I am an owner and host of a VRBO property and the app is how guests communicate with hosts whenever they have a problem. With the app down, there is no clear way to communicate with a guest or even know that they have an issue. Customer service tells me that I can log into the site via Chrome and communicate in this way. Clearly this is not an effective solution as there is not a way to known that a guest needs help unless I log in every 15 minutes and check to see if there is a message. They said it could be 2 weeks before this problem is addressed. TERRIBLE service and answer for both hosts and guests.

This website has become joke. Their MADE UP Fees raised the cost almost 100% of the rental. It's dishonest. You KNOW it's dishonest. Rent with confidence? Confidence that NOTHING is as it seems the whole time you're looking. They are deceitful in making sure you don't see that until after you waste your time finding a place. It's an absolute shame. I've used this site for almost 20 years and now I will avoid it at all costs. This is a disgusting way to show everyone that has rented through you, mean NOTHING to you. Greed always costs the greedy in the end. Believe that!

I recently booked a home through VRBO.com and was disappointed. The home that I rented out for one week had 2 huge rats inside the home along with a machete found on the side of the refrigerator. Not only that but there was a bird flying around inside the home. The street is really dark at night and there are 5 barking dogs next door that continually bark all night. This house make you feel like you're in a horror movie. I contacted the owner and received no response and then I contacted VRBO.

Booked VRBO for a stay in Ottawa. The rental was not what was in the description or the pictures. The place was not clean and triggered allergies. Food splatter on the walls and ceiling, dust everywhere and cigarette butts all over. VRBO customer service kept on passing us off to the host who didn’t want to clean the place. Since VRBO takes full payment months before the rental, there is no way of recovering anything and VRBO just says you have to work it out with the host. Beware of VRBO. There is a reason why they have so many bad reviews and all the good hosts use Air B&B. I just wish I had researched more into VRBO as well as searching for what looked like a good place to stay.

In need of a getaway, signed up at VRBO to check it out. Turns out the security deposit $1500 for the first stay, $4000 for the second getaway...is taken from our credit card and not returned for a 2 weeks after you leave. So, if you book way ahead, to make plans, the money is not yours until 2 weeks after. For us it was 2 months.... We didn't pay attention to the specifics, just excited for a getaway. They do give another option...pay $80 non refundable now. Really.....So we pay the cost of the stay + Cleaning fee + Service Fee + Lodging Tax + this damage deposit. Ex: 4 nights $660 turns into over $1000. This will not be in our future plans. All the extra costs are prohibitive.

We booked a “beautiful Studio” on the website of Expedia and through VRBO. Despite confirmations from both at arrival there was nobody there. We called VRBO customer support. After being on the phone for at least a full hour they informed us that they were not able to contact the host but they would arrange an alternative. In total it took us FOUR HOURS on the phone which finally resulted with an e-mail in which we were told to find lodging ourselves. But we would be compensated based on their guarantees. Two weeks later we only had more work in providing them information AND we are confronted with a 140 Dollar cell phone bill since the VRBO TOLL FREE number is actually not TOLL FFEE when you call from Canada.

Booking was cancelled by owner the day before we were to arrive. VRBO told us how to get a refund and we did all as was required. Still they made things difficult and said we were to blame for the last minute cancellation. We have had to speak directly to the owner to get assistance as VRBO was of little help even though we did as was asked. Bad systems. Poor service. May try another service next time. There's enough out there. Only the best will survive.

Cancelled on us one week before trip! We rented a VRBO property two and a half months ago, paid for it in full, and a week before we were supposed to travel, got a message that our booking had been cancelled! Apparently the property had been somehow double-booked and we got booted. VRBO did refund us, but now we are stuck less than a week before our trip with nowhere to stay! VRBO said they would help us find another booking, but so far hasn’t even communicated with us. We just found a nearby hotel for almost $200 more than what we had paid VRBO (and definitely out of our comfort-zone price-range), hoping that VRBO would cover the difference, since the last-minute cancellation was 100% their fault, but they will not pay. What was supposed to be a fun trip has become a source of frantic emotional and financial stress. We are very angry and will never book with VRBO again.

My credit card got hacked so I had to cancel it. When I went to VRBO to give them my new credit card information for my reservation, they did not have my reservation (I had the email confirming it) and told me I had to contact a 3rd party company, outside the US, and work with them to change the card. I don't want to give anyone outside the US my information but VRBO does not do anything about it. Very disappointed since I booked with them thinking they had oversight & control. I will be using Airbnb from now on.

VRBO Complaint and VRBO HOST Complaint. RE: Shoreline West, Mountain View, California. Property ID: 9650747. 1) Host complaint: Made reservation 6 weeks in advance, on April 7, 2022, and deposit was made upon confirmation. One week prior to date of travel (on Memorial Day weekend) received email confirmation on May 20, 2022 (and was reflected on bank info) that remaining balance was paid in full. The following day on May 21, 2022 the HOST, for no reason (which was confirmed by VRBO 'it doesn't say why') and we had to find other arrangements. I sent 3 emails via VRBO to say cancellation was in error and how to complete any missing/erroneous info, but he NEVER replied! 2) As a “Professional Host,” as listed on the site, this is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE behavior! NO reason to cancel after reservation was PAID IN FULL and NO response to multiple emails!

I existed before VRBO and thankfully, I still exist. Rentals were never a problem before VRBO. You planned ahead, worked the phones and got a good deal. VRBO has killed all of that. Sure, you can sit on your butt now and soft through the rentals on your screen and it takes less time, but the deals are gone for both the renter and the rentee. More and more restrictions are in place and you have to resign yourself to the fact that VRBO uses the money they make from you to push a Woke Agenda that will outrage you. I loath VRBO.

The only thing offered to the renter from VRBO is the computer platform to find and pay for properties. The renter has no recourse with VRBO or protection if anything goes wrong at the property. After arriving at our property there were several misrepresentations. We talked to VRBO and they said to work it out with the owner. We reached a mutual agreement for a refund amount, which we got in writing. After we vacated the property, the owner changed her mind on the refund.

My first time using VRBO, and never again! VRBO charged my husband and I over $80 for "middle man fees" for a 3 night stay in a cabin near Frio river. After that, the property owner falsely accused my husband and I of "bringing pets" and tried to tack on a $30 cleaning charge. They even fabricated photo proof to frame us. I tried complaining to customer service because we were getting scammed; customer service was THE WORST. They would "send an email" to owner to contact us to discuss complaint, and after 48hr offered to "do a 3 way call". GARBAGE COMPANY.

We arrived at our VRBO rental and discovered it was nothing like it was described. The air mattress had a hole in it, the place smelled of smoke. The bathroom toilet was leaking, the ceiling fans quit working. We called VRBO and they said they would work to get it fixed. After my wife and I slept on the floor for two nights we got an air mattress. When I asked for a refund they said they would get back to us. I called today after our stay was over and was told no refund because we elected to stay the entire time. They said we should have been given an alternative place to stay but even though they didn't make that offer we got no refund because we stayed at the place. It was Memorial Day weekend in St Louis, there were no places to stay!!!! They told me we should have left and stayed on the street if we wanted a refund. NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!!!!

I cancel my reservation within the agreement date for a full refund and three calls later several email and the host cannot be reached. Did I mention for every call there is a 20 to 30 minute wait. NOPE. NOT AGAIN

Attempting to receive FULL REFUND after host cancelled stay. 4 phone calls totally over 1.5 hours and numerous emails back & forth... still no FULL REFUND. What a nightmare experience and drain of my time!

Years ago I needed to do short-term renting of my home until it could sell (the market was weak), so I turned to VRBO and found the experiences mostly pleasant with decent system support. Now, I have had mostly difficult, time-consuming problems with VRBO hosting:

I booked two different properties on this website. When I put in my dates it said it was available. I paid in full the amount and waited. After 24 hours I received a notice saying it was already booked. I found another property and went through the exact same thing to only find out it was already booked. WHY would you advertise an available property and then say it’s already booked? And this was on numerous properties. Do Not Waste your time trying to find something with them.

This VRBO home owned by Brent ** 9112 Stromboli Ct, Kissimmee Fl is disgusting! I should have known when one of his rules is to not strip the beds when leaving but instead remake them!?!? Wait! What? There was black mold in every shower; black balls of hair throughout the home; no clean towels; little to no WiFi; not all tvs worked; the pool was filthy and when turning on the spa to heat, it would drain within minutes! There was used toilet paper rolls in each bathroom as well as used soap bars. Disgusting!

As a property owner who rents lakefront homes on VRBO I can’t begin to explain my frustration and dissatisfaction. Their system on the owner side is down or screwed up almost every time I login. I can’t get meaningful reports, guest reviews lag by weeks, payments are held sometimes months. Calling VRBO is typically a 30 minute wait to speak to an offshore contractor who can do nothing. The best an owner is going to get is “I’ll escalate your case to tech support.” You will never hear from tech. Support nor will the problem be fixed. I give it 110% to be sure my guests have a great stay. I just wish VRBO would give me 10% for providing them with the product they make millions from.

We book a hotel in Nashville coming from Wisconsin. 2 days before we were to fly out we called to confirm our reservation and were told there wasn’t one. The rental company canceled it and never notified us. They tried to make it right by giving us a different rental nowhere comparable to what we had. If we didn’t call we would not have had a place to stay when we arrived. We ended up having to book not as nice of place for more money. We asked for some sort of compensation or something for our troubles and they did nothing and did not care. We will not be using VRBO any longer. Wasn’t the first time having an issue either.

The mattress and beds were horrible. No paper for the first day. No cups for coffee. No utensils in the house. Bathroom shower broken the water was coming from the bathroom to the kitchen trough the roof. Horrible experience. The pictures he showed were fine. Did not show stairs. All the experience horrible.

We booked a home in Lake Geneva, WI in March 2021. Due to circumstances in the family, we changed the reservation from one family member to another. Then, the house appeared on my trips, but I could not make payments. After waiting 36hrs and still no resolution, I called VRBO and we agreed to cancel the original reservation and rebook the reservation ON THE SAME PHONE CALL. Literally, one minute apart, if that. Then the new service fee was $561 instead of $499. VRBO refuses to adjust the service fee down because "You canceled the reservation." WILL NOT USE VRBO ANYMORE!!!

We booked and paid for a week in a lovely looking and well reviewed French gite in Bruniquel... the directions were awful. However, after 30 mins we found it. The gite was in a junk yard of old cars, the owner was absent, we could see his trousers drying on an airer in the property. VRBO had probably not advised him of the booking. The balcony rail, over the fast running river Ayveron, was feeble and dangerous (a health hazard) and the gite backed to a busy road. The owner did not respond to our emails or phone call before arrival in France or whilst at the property. There was a diseased cat present... with his (owners) dog locked in the house next to the gite too.

We booked 3 nights in a VRBO listing and it listed air conditioning as one of the features. We get there and it had no AC. The listing was on the ground floor of a MAJOR multilane road. When we contacted host he told us (via text so i have it in writing) that he was mistaken and the AC isn't turned on until next month. We asked for our money back and the host said no. We contacted VRBO and they said there was nothing they can do but to contact host. They clearly are only interested in the home owners.

We returned from our one week stay at Watercrest Condominiums Unit 1504 in Panama City Beach, Florida yesterday. I would stay away from this property at all costs There were six adults staying here for the week; one of which is pregnant and another with severe asthma. Upon arrival, the unit was older, but looked OK. Shortly after entering the unit, we discovered that there were dirty pans in the dishwasher with caked on food. Also, the Mr. Coffee pot was never cleaned from the last occupant. A representative arrived shortly after our arrival to give us our parking pass, pool wristbands and to inform us of the broken towel bar on the glass shower doors. She said that maintenance was aware of such and would be up to fix the shower bars.

My husband and I went through VRBO vacation rentals to rent a condo in the Galveston area. (May 2022) The night we were supposed to be at the vacation home, we could not get in touch with the Realtor who was in charge of the home through VRBO. After about the third attempt (at this time we were late for check-in) trying to contact the Realtor, we called VRBO customer service. We were told they could not get in touch with the Realtor.

I made a reservation through VRBO.com and the listing turned out to be a fraudulent listing. VRBO charged me for the full reservation at the time of the booking. The week of the reservation, I could not get a response from the owner for check-in information/details. So I contacted VRBO. They were also unable to contact the owner via phone or email. The owner never responded. The VRBO Rebooking Team put us up in a hotel for the 1st night of the reservation and then told us the next morning that we were on our own. The next week I started the refund process with VRBO. I spent at least 10 hours on the phone, (probably 9 of those on hold) and sent a minimum 20 emails.

I spent 3 hrs in VRBO to find the rentals that match my needs, esp the areas that have to be safe for travellers. You booked it and the owner told you these dates were not available. Sorry, these are from the VRBO website with the info you provided. Move to next, no answer at all after a few days. Found another one, then I was told these dates are not available either. Another problem is, they do not provide you with the address, and only tell you which community it is, it is very hard to know what public transport you could use. Personally, when I saw so many nasty reviews before I left my own, I think VRBO business model did not work. The business has no intention of looking after customers other than making the profit. Will use Expedia/AirBnB in the future and NEVER VRBO again.

Booked a 6 bedroom home in FL on the website and paid for it in early January. VRBO canceled it 2 days before my rental was to commence in April. I called the number for help, No answer. 15 people stranded!

Short story is we booked a vacation home in southern Florida through VRBO, and in conjunction with so flo vacations. The home was filthy and even had urine on one of the mattresses… I did my best to be reasonable but wanted out of the reservations after 24 hours. I offered to pay for the first night and then to vacate the property by checkout time. I spent four hours on the phone between VRBO and so Flo vacation rentals and kept getting the runaround. There was no soap or wash rags (even bath ones) to even clean the dishes with. The pool was Dirty and the furniture around it was mostly broken. That was the whole point of our visit, was to relax.

I was in the need of a rental home for November in the Keys. Searching through VRBO I found the perfect house that would accommodate 5 families. I placed a request which is protocol and VRBO responded that they would send my request to The Host. I received a second email from VRBO stating that the host had responded. The response was that the house was available for the dates I had requested and that an attachment was sent with further instructions. The attachment stated that correspondence be made via email or phone number. So through that number I started to correspond with this host.

Had to cancel reservation due to emergency heart bypass. Surgery needed for my husband. SOUTHERN VACATION RENTAL and VRBO would not work with me on my cancellation. Therefore they took over $600 from me even though I should have (according to the rules) at least got half of it back. But they refused.

We were charged a $60 hot tub fee, but the hot tub water was tepid and we didn't get any assistance from property management when I called VACASA (which my reservation went to). I called three times, and was told that they may have other priorities: I'm a paying customer, just like everyone else, so I deserve to be treated in the same manner. Also, the beds were listed as Queen-size: they're not. They are full-sized. My husband and I have a Queen-sized bed at home, so we know what the size should be like.

I had booked an apartment in London through VRBO, 6 months in advance of my trip in order to get a reasonable rate - reservation was paid in full at the time of booking. The owner cancelled the reservation 7 days before our arrival, claiming some plumbing issues that could not be fixed in time. Although I was refunded in full, the last minute cancellation meant I had to scramble for an alternative booking, naturally at higher prices due to short notice and London rates over Easter - I ended up paying 50% more than initially booked. VRBO owners are protected with various levels of non-refundable amounts depending on client cancellation date, but VRBO clients have zero protection against owner cancellation. Furthermore, VRBO is impossible to reach and complain, hiding behind automated emails and lack of email or phone contacts. I advise you think twice about using VRBO.

Booked a trip with VRBO. They made the booking. When I arrived after taking my money, they stated that they accidentally double booked and my family and I had were in town for my son's AAU game. So myself, my son 15, my in-law whose is in late 70’s and and autistic adult arrive 11:00 pm and there someone staying where I’m supposed to stay for the next 2 nights. Called customer service and after about 30 minutes they realize some software didn’t work and they don’t know if they have anything available. They give me refund for the nights but due to more computer error they weren’t able to book a room for the night and they stated they would reimburse me for any expenses and they have not done that.

The house was in terrible shape. Electrical outlets are fire hazard. Ants, mite problem. Back sliding door needed an army to slide it open. The house was extremely dirty. The beds sunk down. Bad appliances. Had to buy our own cooking utensils. Had to buy toilet paper, paper towels and reward h the linens before use. One of the beds had cigarette burns in the sheets and beds looked like 100s of babies were made on them. Absolutely disgusting

Like many other reviewers said, this company doesn't protect the consumer. I booked a weekend rental in New Paltz NY # ** & 2 days later we decided to cancel [not a habit of ours] but the owner, a Middle Eastern lady refused to give us refund & kept blowing smoke at us, avoided topic. VRBO hasn't done anything thus far to give us our refund. Very frustrating!! Please use a different company, Buyer beware!

VRBO does not deliver its promises on protection against FRAUD and does not reimburse you if you face fraud from a fake property owner. I spent $1,000 in a property that ended up being a scam, called Vrbo multiple times and gave them all the information needed, 6 months later I still haven't received my money back and probably never will. This is outrageous. I highly suggest using Airbnb instead.

I rented a property which claimed to require just a 5k deposit. The entire cost of the rental was over 22,000. Thus, I went over my credit limit on one card and was forgiven on the other. Who has 22k in available credit on your CC? The owner claimed VRBO did this and VRBO denied it. Eventually we worked out a more acceptable payment scheme. Be very careful. Read the fine print before you press the button to purchase. What’s worse is that they had a customer service agent call me whom would not allow me to speak and was certain VRBO did nothing wrong. Ugly!

VRBO is not abiding by the covenants and codes established by the HOA overseeing the rental units that they are listing. They are advertising and renting within communities that have written rules limiting rentals to a minimum of 30 days. This needs to cease immediately. The community will approach the guests renting the units concerning this which will cause anxiety for the guests. Overall it will promote a bad reputation for the company. Bella Terra Condominiums, Phoenix.

I made a reservation with Vrbo on 5 March, The booking turned out to be a fake listing as I went to the address given and people had already been living there for some time. I then communicated with Vrbo customer service on this matter, hoping to get some help at least a refund, it has been over a 8-9 weeks and I’m still yet to receive anything, I have called over and over again and I’ve only been told that my problem has been escalated to another department for investigation. This was a month ago, even the last time I called, the last person I spoke with told me that it had never actually been escalated and he’s just about to do it now.

I've reserved my lodging with VRBO precisely March 26, 2022 with the intent of preparing my vacation travels for later in the summer. After realizing my reservations wouldn't accommodate my entire family- I quickly jumped online and hit the cancelation button. I was definitely did this quickly ensuring my refund would be issued. Nonetheless, we are now on April 21st and yet nothing has been done. I've been calling daily since Tuesday, April 19th, with never a manager to speak with me about my importance of securing my refund.

Purchased 3rd party travel insurance when checking out and paying for a VRBO stay. Unfortunately had to cancel trip last minute because of Covid. When I called about my refund they told me according to their records I didn’t have travel insurance. They could not explain to me how the 3rd party insurance company process worked just that I don’t have any. Got disconnected several times and they never called me back like they said they would. Ask to speak to a supervisor several times. Was placed on hold and disconnected once again!! If you purchase travel insurance make sure you follow it up and get a policy number. I will NEVER use VRBO AGAIN!!!

My partner and I booked a three night stay six months in advance of our planned dates. A month before the stay, we received an email that stated only: "dates no longer available," and got refunded. This was obviously frustrating but we still felt we had time to find another place. I should have gone with a different service at that point though, because the exact same thing happened with the second place we reserved. We are a week away from our planned trip and have nowhere to stay, there has been zero communication with the owners or any help from VRBO. They DO NOT care about travellers. There was absolutely no way to write a review on either property to warn others their dates might just get cancelled on them last minute with no heads up. I am never using VRBO again and I strongly suggest no one does unless some significant changes in their business practice occurs.

Instead, they found me one option after another which were a third to half the size of my original rental. Their rebooking department would take two or three days to get back to me. If you do that math, by the third time I heard from the rebooking department I expected to check-in the next day. They never came through.

Because of convenience, I wanted to like VRBO. Email: (1) host hasn’t provided info- true; (2) get updates on App - should have said App is the only way to get contact info or rental agreement. Quality of rental poor - looked in window - disarray, not clean. Blue Rose Cabins ** April 11. Can’t get refund even though didn’t stay there. Have to go through junkyard to get there.

I used Vrbo to rent a property for our family vacation. Well long story short, I contacted the host 1 day before our stay to get an update. The host just cancelled with a 'so sorry' statement and left us without a place to stay. Vrbo was of no help and I was contacted by email to look and rent a place for two nights then they will give me more instructions, that was of no help. Vrbo was not responsible for the irresponsibility of their host and ruined my family vacation. Do yourself a favor and don't use Vrbo, I never had a problem with them but when I did they were not there to help solve the problem.

Went to home and it looked like bedsheets had not been changed for a month. Could not stay due to the filth and have not received money back to date. Notified agent on site immediately and VRBO. VRBO said they could not do anything. Call Evolve. Evolve said I didn’t notify anyone but I sent them a copy of the text communication. Total scam.

I booked a rental property through VRBO. My credit card was charged immediately and I received an email confirming my booking. An hour later I received a phone call from the property owner, informing me that there has been a double booking on the property. I contacted VRBO through their online chat service, notifying them of the issue and requesting a refund. The person I spoke to, though friendly, was not focused on customer satisfaction at all.

I made a reservation using VRBO. Everything seemed to be on the up and up until night 2 of four when the property owner locked her and her siblings out. When we contacted VRBO about this they said they'd find a new location for my wife and her siblings to stay in for the remaining days. They failed to do this. They then told my wife that it would take time to get a refund. After calling three of four times they said that they don't handle the refunds or any money and it was up to the owner to make that decision. Long story short this company is hot garbage and cannot be trusted.

VRBO charged me a service fee of $155 for a booking that was never accepted by the property owner. When I called to ask about it in multiple occasions, CS couldn’t help. Supervisors were never available nor did they return calls. When I disputed with my CC company, vrbo said it was non refundable. But their terms clearly states you are only charged if booking is accepted, which mine was not. This company is a fraud and doesn’t operate ethically. The app didn’t work properly either, which customer service even confirmed. Customer service reps are located overseas and sometimes don’t even fully speak English. I would avoid.

This was the worst experience ever. I booked a villa 2 months ago in advance for spring break. The day I arrived in Florida I received notification that the property I booked was no longer available. So guess what that left me and my family with 3 children left without a place to stay. Then they book us a hotel with mold and paint chipping everywhere. Then I had to rebook my own stay again and yet they still haven't refund me. I DO NOT RECOMMEND.

I planned a Bachelorette party, unfortunately, the wedding was called off. I booked this trip 9 months ahead of time and had to cancel 2 months later. The property management I booked my trip through gave me 90%, which is fair. BUT VRBO will not give you the service fee refund unless the property management give 100% refund back. Absolutely ridiculous that VRBO KEPT MY $271 service fee... And for what? Processing my CC fee and providing poor customer service? Save your money, time, and go with an Airbnb. This company is a complete scam and no one who works in Customer service is has a thick accent and speaks very poor English. You repeat yourself constantly, get transferred to someone else. I cannot believe I have to even bother with writing this, just want to help other people before they get screwed out of their money FOR LITERALLY NOTHING. Absolute scam, and never using this travel agency company ever again.

VRBO has no quality control system in place. I helped my sister look for a one-month rental in the Universal City, Texas area. Through Vrbo a rental house (Top Gun Knots Landing) was located in the Olympia Hills area of Universal City. Once my sister and husband arrived, you could tell by just driving up to the house that it was not a well-kept rental – House looked shabby and with very poor lawn care. The heating and air conditioning unit was not in working order.

Less than 12 hours before we were suppose to check in for our VRBO they cancelled our reservation with no explanation. I had to cancel my bachelorette and our flights. Found out the thing I was messaging was a robot not a real person. Never again.

In March 2020, as COVID began, I agreed with owner of a rental house to roll the fully paid booking forward to March 2021. In March 2021 he agreed to roll the booking forward to 2022 then in January 2022, the owner sold the house. VRBO claims that cannot refund my fully paid booking on the grounds that "we don't have a way to just issue a refund for the remaining portion of the rental amount that has not already been refunded."

I had a CONFIRMED reservation arriving on Sunday. Airfares booked and everything done and ready to go. On Friday afternoon 92 days before leaving, they texted me to say my reservation was canceled as they could not reach owner to verify. That is total **. The owner was notified and aware when I PAID IN FULL at time of reservation. When I asked about this ridiculous reason/excuse they rudely hung up on me!! What happens is they obviously get a better offer at the last minute and just screw the customer. Do yourself a favor. DO NOT USE THIS HORRIBLE COMPANY. What happened to me happens to many people as I learned later. They ruined my vacation with zero regard.

Relaxation II, DANA POINT, CA house looked NOTHING like photos on VRBO Website: BROKEN furniture, DIRTY floors, RUSTY plumbing, STAINED furniture, & Outside Door WOULDN'T LOCK. After HRS on phone w/ VACASA & VRBO, WOULDN'T DO ANYTHING to fix situation although called IMMEDIATELY & WOULDN'T CANCEL our reservation or /REFUND our $$$$. After 16 good stays, we & our friends will NOT EVER stay at a VRBO & will share this horrible experience.

Attempted to book a place in Porto, via Vrbo, submitted all required data, including financial information, received total cost estimate, only to be notified by Liiiving team, that the advertised and cost estimate was no longer valid, and to proceed I have to approve ridiculous increase amount. Attempt to obtain explanation however useless explanation how the system is not working properly. Waited 2days went back on line to find the same place with the same original amount, again tried to book it only to be declined. This from my perspective is a scam.

Rented a property in Colorado City, Arizona for a family trip to Zion National Park. It was advertised as a cottage, it was a trailer home. One hour from Zion farther than what the mileage they had on their info. Horrible, unsafe area, the view from the front window was a junkyard and a falling apart, abandoned home. Do not reserve. Host refused to give me a refund, I cancelled as soon as I saw it and did not stay. Had to look for a last minute hotel. FALSE ADVERTISEMENT. Property #**

Like many others here, my experience s with VRBO have been great in the past, but this week's were terrible to the point that I will never use them again. We prepaid for a week at a house in Orlando and met up with family flying from Missouri and Wisconsin. We did not get our door code until 3:43 p.m. on the day when we had a 4:00 p.m. check-in, and that was after 48 hours of constant calling and leaving messages that weren't returned. VRBO wouldn't help and said that they were just a site that advertised rentals and had no other responsibilities.

We rented a VRBO house 5 min from our own to accommodate out of state family for a big vacation about 2 MONTHS IN ADVANCE. Imagine the nightmare that begins when we head over to the house around 7pm to put some groceries inside and we are stopped at the front door by OTHER RENTERS ALREADY INSIDE! They say they rented the house (and got there first). The next two hours were spent on the phone with VRBO who had no more to offer than we need to find accommodations on our own and they will reimburse us the amount we paid them but nothing more...and it's Spring Break in Florida where hotels go way up to $400 a night!

I have been a loyal VRBO customer for years, booking through them 2-4x a year on rentals typically between $350-$750 a night. I am utterly disappointed with the customer service provided when a property manager cancels the reservation last minute. After several calls, chats, and assurances that we would be cared for, VRBO did nothing but send generic emails inquiring whether help was still needed and providing yet another phone number to call.

We rented 8811 Macapa Drive Kissimmee Florida for our son's wedding. Thought it would be nice to have one place for all the family to stay. The picture that we saw on the VRBO site were the farthest thing from the truth. Thank God that we arrived 2 days before the rest of our family, that is what it took to clean the house and try to get things together.

Accommodation: Mt. Pleasant Ct, Saint John, NB: Property # 21264vb. Terrible experience and terrible accommodation. We arrived at our accommodation and discovered it was on the third floor (not stated in the description and I was travelling with an amputee), the bannister and stairway were rotting and unsafe, the apartment was dirty and smelling of stale smoke. We immediately left due to these factors and contacted the owner who does not live in the area. He sent in his cleaning crew who told him everyone was fine despite the several pictures we sent him to the contrary. He refused to refund our money. When I contacted VRBO they told me that they could do nothing for me - I paid over $1400 for the 5 nights accommodations. I have booked through VRBO in Europe, the Dominican Republic and in Canada and have not experienced this substandard level of service. Sadly, they have lost my business due to this experience.

I booked an apartment in Buenos Aires. The host was unresponsive and I could not get details about how to enter the apartment I booked. VRBO tried calling him for me, but they said that there was nothing else they could do. Meanwhile, I had already been charged, and I tried calling the guy myself and his phone was out of service. This is extremely bad customer service - and business operation. Not only Vrbo would not help a customer (me) who has clearly been scammed by fully reimbursing me, but they also don’t check their listings and they allow scams and swindlers on their site. This is unbelievable and terribly bad business. I would NEVER recommend Vrbo to anyone - please go to Airbnb or another site. At least you won’t get your money lost there.

We booked a cottage in Manitoulin Islands (Ontario, Canada) a year in advance. Seven months later we received a booking cancellation from the owner. There was no reason given for the cancellation. All cottages for the summer of 2022 are pretty much booked up so we're not hopeful of finding something. I phoned Vrbo and was told that I can't leave a review about our experience and was given various reasons as to why the owner would have cancelled including that the owner could have cancelled my reservation because they thought that they may get a higher rate by putting the property on the site again after cancelling with me. Really?? There is no opportunity to rate them (to give someone else a heads up that this could happen) or make a comment on the site unless you have actually stayed with them. This was my first experience with VRBO and I don't have plans to book with them again.

We booked a condo in Barbados, and a month later we received a booking cancellation from the owner. There was no reason given for the cancellation. Rental units are often booked up a year in advance in Barbados so this was lost time and exchange rate etc. As a result of this situation I went online to discover that many people have had similar experiences with to recourse for the owner of the residence, and no ability to rate them or make a comment on the site unless you have actually stayed with them. I will never use the site again.

Prices were indicated in CND, however I was charged in USD (eg. advertised as $500 CND yet charged $500 USD). I called to let them know that upon checkout prices are indicated as Canadian dollars. I was provided a number of different explanations that made no sense. At one point they even tried explaining currency conversions and suggested I call the bank. After 3 dropped calls and an hour and a half of back-and-forth they argued that since I didn't take a screenshot of the checkout window for the dates booked, which indicated amounts in CND, I wouldn't be entitled to a price adjustment.

Booked a house Palm Springs thru VACASA paid $355 fees to them. Then I got my credit card statement and saw that VRBO charged me $134. for the res. Do not know how they got involved. VRBO are crooks that is excessive and when I called all they could tell me it was their fee...for what??? Paid almost $500 in fees for a $325 night house.

Vrbo is not responsible of false advertisement or unsanitary conditions of homes that you rent. We rented a home in Pocono Mountain that was unsanitary. VRBO did not respond or try to investigate. The host Brittany refused to give us money back. The house had dead mice and odor from septic system of drains. The host refused to acknowledge and denied anything was wrong. VRBO did nothing to help. I wouldn’t trust all the houses listed there and keep in mind they might not give you the money back if you have issues.

VRBO.com is not serious people. Out of the blue, they cancelled my reservation, reason being because the owner of the home said home will not be available for those dates. They will fully refund my 2,500 initial deposit. Of course he will rent to a higher rate. The problem is the lack of commitment and professionalism. I already purchased flight tickets for over 10 people and they are not willing to respond for these charges, not even penalizing the owner of the home. This is disappointing and hopefully future customers do not fall into this trap. Shame on them!

I have listing with AirBnB. Been with them for 2 years and done very well. I decided to add my listing to VRBO. VRBO stated an easy way for them to add in info, and I agreed. This was done, however a great deal was not done. Much had to be updated. It was listed live before I had a chance to check it. I spent hours getting everything set up and realized it had me listed in the wrong town. Called support and used support chat. The call ended up disconnecting on me and never called back (I was told that if they lost me they would call back). I was treated like I did not know what I was talking about. There was language barriers to get information relayed. I am now in the process of deleting my account... which I can not even do on my own. Now waiting for the Global something department to finalize.... I really can't wait to no longer be connected with this company in any way.

Back in Jan., 2022, three families went in together to rent a Lake House (Lake Norman, NC) for a week in June 2022. We received a rental confirmation and they charged my credit card for the full fee. In mid-March, when reaching out to the “ Host” with a question, we found out that he had pulled his rental from VRBO in Dec. 2021 and VRBO had no business listing it. We were promised a call from the VRBO Guarantee Dept. but no call came. Now we are finding that availability on other rentals is limited and rates have increased. Thanks VRBO for ruining our family vacation and not caring in the least! Renters BEWARE!!!!

Just fYI. We had rented a house at the beginning of the pandemic and the event we were to attend was canceled. So we had requested our money back and were told owners were already given the money and they refused to return our fees. In its place they said we could use it towards a future visit. Well that event was cancelled the next year so requested our money back again with no luck. So we are out over a thousand dollars, we then worked with executive villas of Florida. They requested more info with previous e-mails. We forwarded those as well with no luck and were told basically, "Too bad." So someone just got a gift from us and we are now out of over a thousand dollars. All due to the pandemic and no one at Vbro was willing to see we're treated fairly.

So, when I review a property and give it 5 stars on VRBO, the review is published. If/when I don't, there's every chance the review will be rejected. Especially if it is a VRBO's premiere host and there is no third party involved in hosting. I can no longer trust VRBO properties based on their review. I could easily spend 5 grand for a weekend on a property that's falling apart or a property that is outdated. I have noticed lately that VRBO caters more to the hosts than customers. It's a company that doesn't care about its customers.

We booked a "tiny home" in Ft. Lauderdale for my husband's 40th birthday. It would be the first trip we had taken together in six years, then, my son came home with COVID-19 from school and spread it to the entire family. I had only booked the house three days before but when I went to cancel the reservation I was charged %50 of the total of the rental, which included a $500 deposit. I reached out multiple times to both VRBO and the property owner and neither company would work with me to come up with a fair cancellation.

I reserved a property via VRBO.com and the host said that that property should not even be posted on VRBO and they don't know how to use VRBO and why their property was listed on the VRBO site on the first place. In the description, property owner was supposed to provide lockbox access key. Access key was never even provided. Reservation number: **. When you call customer service, they don't even listen to what you are saying. Keep putting me on hold and doing absolutely nothing. It's been over 10 days and there no resolution, no refund either. I paid using Afterpay and Afterpay denied my charge back. I can't believe that Microsoft - Expedia is behind this scam. It's a theft and this is criminal, they are committing financial crimes. Nobody takes responsibility for this.

This is our honest review. We are not affiliated with the owner or VRBO. We were not expecting anything additional other than what was advertised and posted on pictures. Parking: Very narrow but reserved and well lit. Exterior: Walking up the steps to the unit, it obviously needed to be swept due to debris but this was not that much of a big deal to us. Check In: Easy with code provided in timely manner. Interior: Modern with all appliances listed however, now we must discuss the negatives. The floor had debris (dust particles and hair everywhere). It was obvious that it had not been swept. The sink contained a used sponge and a sink drain with debris inside of it. Sink had residue in it. Stove had residue on it. Counter had residue on it. Water dispenser at refrigerator had residue on it.

On a recent trip to Molokai we were provided with a wrong unit number with our rental key. We contacted Vrbo but they said they would be unable to help until the next day. As it was late I had no choice but to sleep in my car. Sleeping in my car aggravated my bad back which ended up ruining my vacation. During our stay the unit owner allowed an 'inspector' access to our unit while we were not there. After this 'inspection' I noticed 500$ missing from one of my bags. The overall condition of the unit was substandard and it had not been properly cleaned in years. Dead and live Bugs everywhere, dirty and smelly, most of the lighting and appliances didn't work.

We booked a reservation and decided to cancel within a day. Their customer service said that this property came from another site, which I don't understand since it was on the VRBO site and there was no reference to any other site. I read the cancellation policy carefully and it did not say that the property was being booked from a different platform and that I would need owner approval for a cancellation I had every right to make according to VRBO. The cancellation policy gave us months to cancel with a 100% refund. That's what the cancellation policy said and that's what should have happened.