Vrbo Reviews

Rented a home and paid in full according to terms. A few days before arrival owner sent a demand for a $1500 administration fee. Spent hours on the phone with VRBO who called the owner on my behalf and told me she refused to rent the home unless I paid an additional $1500. She refused to refund my original payment of $2086. Homes in the neighborhood with similar amenities were renting for $1400-2000 a week so I told the customer service agent if I was being forced to spend an additional $1500 I would not be giving it to this owner who had breached our contract.

Booked a week vacation in Shapleigh, ME with VRBO. 8 days before the check-in date, my father became ill. I contacted VRBO and explained my situation and even though it was past the time limit for refund VRBO sent me a reply that the owner had been contacted and that I would receive a refund. Several days go by, no refund, no replies to any of my inquiries to VRBO or the owner of the property. I finally call the owner, am spoken to rudely, told I would not receive a refund and was HUNG UP on. So I contact VRBO, cite their previous email that I would receive a refund. Was told..."Oh well the owner won't give you a refund so I would have to deal with him!"

This has been my most miserable travel experience ever! My reservation was cancelled for me and I lost a great deal of money with no one answering phones and up to my elbows in paperwork just to keep getting hassled. I would advise against using anything related to VRBO because the stress and hassle have left a very bad experience.

We could not go on our trip this summer to Kauai due to COVID. The owner refused to refund us our money or rebook for next year and VRBO will not help us get our money back. Why should we pay $6k for a rental property that we cannot use. We are happy enough to rebook for next summer when this is over but there is no accountability for their owners. We will never use VRBO again.

I do not like the fact that #1 Guest reviews cannot be rebutted at all and #2 I cannot change my review of the property once submitted. #3 I would not rent a place off this site also, as I don't think they screen people well especially regarding the cleanliness of the places etc. Ie. Why during Covid 19 would they allow someone to have a compost toilet?

We will never use Vrbo again. We had a trip scheduled in June to Florida. Concerned about the wisdom of going during the pandemic we tried to contact the manager starting in March to find out what our cancellation options were. Here we are in August still trying to reach him. All of our attempts to resolve this matter through Vrbo and any other companies they told us we had to go through, have been for nothing. No one will respond to emails and Vrbo keeps passing us around to one of their other booking companies. We thought we were being responsible in not traveling but apparently responsibility comes at a steep price. We have also seen where the house we were to rent was rebooked for that week so they got their money.

I rented a house from VRBO and have received very harassing emails from the owner that I have had to block her. It’s been very awful experience. I will not ever rent from VRBO again. She had so much stuff in her house including guns and bayonets that my grandchildren were exposed to which she Denies. She also was filming us and her neighbors were spying on us. I am so disappointed. It was husband's 70th birthday and my retirement. I suggest that nobody should rent from VRBO.

Once they have your money, there is no way to contact VRBO for a refund. Phone numbers do not answer... live chat has left me waiting with no answer for an hour when said 5 minutes... disgusting company. Hopefully a better company will come sling and put them out of business.

I booked a vacation on Vrbo for Avon NC. I received confirmation and paid for it in full $3,493. I received confirmation that it was good to go. I received an email from the owner saying that the house was double booked due to a glitch in the system and I would need to cancel my reservation. He mentioned that I would get a full refund. However his cancellation policy states: "Cancellation policy: 100% refund for cancellations more than 60 days before check-in date. The dates selected do not qualify for a refund if your trip is cancelled."

VRBO has taken the stance during COVID-19 that it's entirely up to the owners on whether or not to issue refunds which is a problem itself since each customer is going through a different experience, some good and some bad. Even when a property owner issues a refund, VRBO is keeping hundreds of dollars in "taxes and service fees." How can they charge taxes and fees on services never rendered? We were supposed to receive $729 back (this is after the owner kept a portion to cover their own fees through VRBO). VRBO kept $222 of that. The owner has been fighting with VRBO on behalf of us and at least one other client of theirs. This is terrible customer service, especially during a global pandemic when people are not choosing to cancel, they are forced to cancel. We've had good luck booking through them in the past but have never had to cancel before.

I booked a stay at The Roundhouse Lodge on VRBO website. Had a couple questions so I called The Roundhouse Lodge. The answering machine stated but the lodge was closed due to covid-19 and would not be open until after my reservation. I immediately went to the website VRBO and cancel my reservation to a close Hotel. Really didn't think much about it. Surely they wouldn't charge me for a reservation for a Hotel that wasn't open. I was wrong. They charge me $347. I've called them with no satisfaction, no refund, no nothing. I would never use their site again. I would never encourage anyone to use their site. I believe this to be fraud. I will be writing letters to the Better Business Bureau Attorney General. I'm not going away and I will not give this up. I'm sure I'm not the only person they have stolen from. Shame on you VRBO!!!

I booked for a villa with a private pool In Polo Resort in Dubai through Vrbo.com. It was listed for $900. There was a generic paragraph that stated that guests should pay an amount of money and it stated something about New Year's. I paid and VRBO received the money. After that I called the hotel to make sure that there were no extra charges, and to discuss the generic paragraph, but the hotel couldn't find my name.

Dealing with VRBO was worst traveling experience ever. They charged me a $488 fee for what? The property owner was an issue from beginning of reservation. The property owner even kept our refundable deposit. I have made several complaints to VRBO and they have done nothing. I really don't know what their fee is for when they allow property owner to do as they wish and you get zero protection from VRBO. I travel a lot. I have a lot of friends that travel a lot. I tell everyone I come in contact with never ever book with them. Worst experience.

We booked a house for the weekend thru VRBO. The morning of the check-in day we received an email stating that a mistake was made and the house was not available. Ok these things happen, however it takes 3-5 day or even 3-4 weeks to get your money refunded. So unless you are independently wealthy you are out of luck. We will never use VRBO again. Do yourselves a favor and use Airbnb.

Regarding VRBO property "Alma", Paris 7th Arr., Property# **, Owner "Paul". Booked in January for 15th anniversary re-marriage. Booked flights and photographer, as well. With Pandemic, had to cancel a trip to Portugal in May, and flights and apartment were all refunded, without a problem. As the EU is not allowing US flights to EU, but was reviewing each 2 weeks, hoped it might change. When it did not, went to cancel apartment from VRBO (flight had already emailed me a voucher link without my having to ask). Told NO refund, pandemic be damned. I had offered to rent it same time next year, and to let the owner sit on the payment (100% of the rental) for a whole year, gathering interest, to no avail. How thoughtless can you be?

I am a property owner. Now that guests are starting to return to my rental, they are paying in full for their reservation and VRBO is NOT transferring my payment to me, so the guests are staying for free and VRBO is keeping all the money!!!! I have told them I will report them for fraud and I have requested a Supervisor to contact me twice immediately. Still.... no call. They will not give me any contact name or number for a supervisor and will not give me the billing department phone number. They owe me $5,000. This company has been a huge mess since The virus and I can only hope they fix this immediately or I will have them investigated for fraud while I am out thousands of dollars.

We are a property owner and this year we have had nothing but incorrect payouts. Our guests have been charged, have paid, and completed their stays and we haven't received our correct payouts. We have received less than 50% and three calls to "support" have been less than helpful. We were told we had to wait and there was no other option to get help. I think it is horrible to withhold payments. Maybe it is a technical issue but good business practices dictate that you are apologetic, transparent, and available for customers when they call for help. We will remove our listing from VRBO and continue on AirBnb.

We have a lake house rental. We really liked VRBO until May 22. All money stopped! We rent almost every day. It’s now over $9,000 with broken promises and people on the phone with thick accents. We have a case number. Now our case is expedited. Still no rent. We are ready to pull our listing.

This year I listed my beach property with VRBO. To date I have generated somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 in reservations. However, VRBO has not paid the majority of the money owed me for the rentals. One reservation that the renters already paid in full for months ago was for over $14,000. I am told I will not see any money until they actually check in still several weeks from now. Ok, so why have I not been paid for a rental that was completed? 07/18 - 07/25 for $4,738.00 (my share after their take)? When I go to the VRBO site, they have a notice that states, in part: "Some partners are currently experiencing intermittent payout delays." I am going to cancel my service as this company is untrustworthy. I run a business and always keep my word. Jeff

Failed to assist with rental refund. DO NOT USE VRBO. Read their refund policy which is a joke. They "encourage" owners of the rentals to make refunds or allow changes to other dates. Neither happened with 6 women - all over age 60 who rented an apt. in NYC for a week long before Covid and then had to cancel when NY closed the state and so did Calif, where we live. Had to cancel and never got answers from the owner, and VRBO sent several form emails saying customer service could not do anything. Finally got their attention when we complained fraud with the NY Attny Gen. but they will not refund the money - over $3600. Their policy is bull, claims COVID was an act of God! That some fool in China made a virus on a lab in Wuhan and God must have done it!! Come on. Never use VRBO, Home Away - both owned by Expedia!

My last three rentals still haven’t been paid to me with the new VRBO! It’s incredibly frustrating. When I my renters come from Airbnb - I typically see the rental money in my account two days after they check in. HomeAway was always slower. But now, Vrbo is not releasing any monies to me. When I call they keep saying it’s a computer glitch and I get a different answer every time I call. I don’t know what to do to get them to release the past three renters money.

We have been renting out our vacation villa for over 10 years. The bigger VRBO gets, the worse they get. This time is the absolute worst. Normally, if a guest checks in on Saturday, I will receive an email from VRBO on Monday that their payment is being processed and will appear in our bank account in 5-7 days. Our guest checked in last Saturday. But Wednesday, I realized that I had yet to get a confirmation that we were getting paid. It took over 90 minutes and two calls to their customer service to actually get a real person on the phone. Usually you get someone with such a strong foreign accent that you can't understand them.

The owner of this property (VRBO property number 9172560ha) would not return over $1000 I paid to them. If you are thinking about renting this Hudson, FL property please be aware that Debi **, Property Manager along with the property owner refused to return over $1000 to me when I was unable to occupy the property for seven weeks due to COVID. Also know that according to the VBRO website the property appeared to have been rented to someone else during the same period I was supposed to be there. The property owner insisted that I knew the rental policy and should have purchased renter insurance. She said this even though the VRBO rental insurance does not cover pandemics like COVID. So if I had purchased the rental insurance it still would not have made a difference.

Although we understand the gravity of the current pandemic we did not agree to our rental property monies being used to fund VRBO's business plan. Guests have paid in full, and are about to check out, and we have not received our payment for their stay from VRBO. We are also concerned about those remaining rentals including one next week. We never agreed to let others use our property without payment so we are now considering cancelling the remaining rentals even though we were counting on them. It's not an easy decision to dump VRBO's incompetence on renters however, as an owner, free rentals were not part of our business plan. We won't be using VRBO next season.

I have a popular vacation rental listed on both VRBO and Airbnb. Airbnb has always made timely payments without issue, regardless of world circumstances. It is a knock down drag out affair to EVER get paid by vrbo. I have yet to ever get a payment on time- they will specify a payment date (generally a few days after a client checks in), but then arbitrarily change that date multiple times, pushing pay-out further and further into the future, WITH NO EXPLANATION. Also, if a guest booking involves multiple payments, despite the fact that vrbo has ALL funds weeks prior to guest check in, they use the guest multiple payments as an excuse to pay hosts incrementally. So if your guest pays in two installments, vrbo pays the host in two installments. This gives vrbo the opportunity to drag out payments further, and creates a situation where a host has to fight vrbo not just once for payment, but multiple times.

Vrbo is accepting funds from travelers, however, they are not paying owners per owners agreement. Their excuse is COVID. They claim they have record-breaking numbers of rentals and cancelations. VRBO continues to accept payments, but are not paying owners. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM. USE AIRBNB! Owners, remove your listings!

VRBO/formerly HomeAway.com. There are many issues with being an Owner and listing your property on this site, I won't bore you with all of the small issues, only the largest and most important! As their infrastructure grows, so do the fees. They've purchased many of the smaller booking sites and continue to become a large conglomerate, probably only to sell themselves to the next highest bidder. They keep increasing fees and adding new fees.

I have had one of the worst experiences of my life dealing with VRBO. I booked a trip to Fernie BC from July 17 to July 19th 2020. I booked a condo for the weekend. $530.00 for the weekend stated it was non refundable, which was fine as I knew we were going to go. The property owner contacted me a few days after booking asking for a $1,000.00 deposit cheque to be given to him before we were allowed into the property. I am not comfortable giving the property owner a cheque for $1,000.00 payable to him off site. The property owner then said we were not allowed to stay there if we did not give him a $1,000.00 cheque.

I rented a property from VRBO. The next day, the owner canceled my reservation. I called VRBO to make sure I was receiving my refund, and they said due to heavy volume it may take 3-4 WEEKS!!!! I asked if I could just transfer what I paid them to another property and they said no. So now I have no way to book a different property elsewhere (definitely not thru VRBO), because my refund will come in after my vacation. This company is horrible. Do NOT book here.

VRBO facilitates vacation rental deals between Homeowners & Renters and collect 5% fee for it. That's a lot, but fair. However, Renters pay the fees through VRBO at the time of reservation, VRBO collects the rental fees and HOLDS IT AWAY from the homeowners for very long period of times, sometimes weeks, sometimes months....until the guests check-in. Sometimes even after the renters check in, and sometimes even after the guests checks-out! They can hold and use the funds from the moment that the guest pays until they disburse it to the homeowner in any way they choose, but the homeowners have to wait to receive the rental fees much later and to their discretion. Taking advantage of the homeowners in such way isn't right/fair game.

On 2 occasions I have tried to book a rental vacation property from this website. Neither time did I get an actual vacation and on one occasion, I did not get my money back. It has been over a month since the owner cancelled the stay (not sure why) but still no money has been returned to my account. The owner said it is not his fault (he cancelled the payment) but I have no idea where the money went. I have been in contact with VRBO staff and still I have no money returned.

I am a home owner with VRBO and I have a rental property with them. I am having a issue with collecting the money owed to me. The NEW payout program was explained to me that VRBO holds all the money for rent until the guest checks in. Then the day After the guest checks in VRBO will Send notification to me by email letting me know that the full payment will be posted in my bank account 5 to 7 days. My guest checked Out July 19 2020. I never received any payment for this guest until July 20 2020. I only receive 1/2 of the funds. Customer Service has no idea why this happened. We were given a case #. Customer Service says billing will take up to 2wks to resolve. We have back to back guest. So on Sunday July 19 2020 we had a new guest check in. Today is Wednesday July 22 2020 and we have received no Notification of payment from VRBO.

My experience with VRBO, though its recent IT issues and failure to make a payout when the day after a guest checks in or even with a few days of their checkin, seems to be nonexistent. Payout is still not here and tenant is checking out tomorrow after a week long stay. VRBO is not small, they are owned by Expedia. What is their problem. Also on a previous delay of payment they tried to say that my deposit info had to be checked, never understood that, as I had previously received deposits to my account and nothing had changed. I feel that VRBO, is holding host money by making all kinds of excuses to not disburse our payouts. The guests are all paying on time and so should VRBO.

I have been a VRBO homeowner renting my home for 2 years running, maintaining a 5 star rating. Since the Covid Pandemic, I am having to fight VRBO every single listing in order get my payment for my guests' stay after their having stayed and checked out! I have provided my services but VRBO is not paying me in a timely manner for doing so! Customer services is not even allowing access to chat and when I call, will not allow me to talk to a financial representative! I have never had this difficulty with Airbnb!

I had a reservation at a house in Chesapeake beach, Maryland. I also bought the rental insurance in case we had to cancel. 10 days before we were set to leave our family tested positive for Covid. I sent a message to the manager with no response and then cancelled the reservation. I received only a portion of the refund. And strangely my insurance was refunded. It turns out the insurance doesn't cover cases as a result of Covid. I called VRBO and they asked me whether I knew the cancellation policy. Which I did. And since I did not stay at the location I couldn't leave a review. So, in hindsight our symptoms were mild. So I guess VRBO and this manager would prefer that you NOT cancel your stay but rather go stay at a VRBO location AND STAY EVEN IF YOU HAVE COVID. And if that's the case, anyone staying at a VRBO location should be concerned that they might get COVID.

HORRIBLE experience with VRBO/Homeaway. Received an email contract with UNIT # and KEY BOX code to be used to get the physical key used to unlock the unit door (was told to immediately put the extra key back into the key box because if you locked both keys in unit there would be a $50 charge). Checked in 4:30ish. By 9:40pm the “real” unit owner and property manager knocked on door RUDELY asking my sister if she belonged there (as if she had broken into the place). She said yes, was questioned are you sure, again answering yes.

I have in the past years, my wife and I, always rented from Homeaway or VRBO (same company) usually in Europe, and had wonderful results!!!. This yr I noticed there has been some changes in ownerships and it has been a bit confusing. Because of virus we had to cancel our reservations we made for Europe and I rented a house in California which was advertised for $275. And when I received my confirmation it was $326.72 x 8 nights. I was a bit shocked at the big leap, and emailed the manager which is now VACASA at least 8x and never received one reply. This was one month ago.

I am an owner of a property rented through VRBO in Maine, USA. I have not yet received payment for a reservation--the renter has come and gone, she paid in full, but I am still waiting. No help from VRBO's customer service, no explanation. They are a Payments Company and this is all they do--collect rent and disburse rent. They are failing at their #1 task, the essence of their business. Are they going under? In financial distress? Headed for bankruptcy?

The owners cancellation policy was 30 days prior for full refund. We cancelled our Sylvan Lake property prior to that deadline- confirmed by the owner. It is now 13 weeks and no refund. All VRBO says is they are expediting it or they don’t reply. The owner responded by stating they don’t have any more time to invest in getting me my refund and I am on my own in dealing with VRBO. My recommendation is that if you are not 100% certain you will not be cancelling then don’t use VRBO. We are out nearly 500$. Posting this to save others a pile of heartache. Thanks.

I used VRBO for a New Jersey shore rental. The property was not what described well and it was overpriced. It was described as a "garden apartment" when it should have said basement. There were dead flies all over the place. The bedroom had a loud filthy air conditioner. The bedroom also smelled musty, as if there was mold. The supposed comfortable futon was hard as a rock. To top things off the toilet started leaking mid stay. I asked the owner for a partial refund which she agreed to, however because it is during COVID-19 they say it will takes 3-5 weeks for the money to appear in my account. For a booking that was non-refundable, the return should be immediate. I will never rent through this company again. There should be a zero star option.

We were very disappointed booking a year ahead, paying the full amount, and having an owner-cancellation due to a real-estate sale so close to arrival. There are lots of cancellation fees for renters. We would have lost everything if we cancelled at this date. For owners canceling near the arrival date, it’s a simple “sorry.” I know this is probably a company policy and not the owner’s. The one star is a reflection of the company policy, not the owner. The refunds are running 2-3 weeks behind. It’s not the owner’s fault.

Customer service is non-existent. You'll spend a great deal of time getting through on chat or phone. Then you will get an agent who you won't understand. The agent has absolutely no authority or ability to help. They will jerk you around for hours and give you lots of different numbers to call and no one will help. I've been in the site for many years, they keep changing the rules to squeeze every last dollar from host and traveler. It now costs the traveler and owner 1000's of dollars to book in bogus fee, insurance, etc. I highly suggest you go through a licensed real estate agent. They provide no method to screen traveler, you may be letting a violent criminal into your home. VRBO will not allow you to obtain and information on traveler until you accept booking so you have no way of doing any screening.

I am trying to get the attention of someone competent and human enough on the management team of this company, my experience with calling the customer service department has been frustrating and also useless to say the least. I am sure you all are suffering the impact of what this global crisis, now, can you imagine having to be calling every day and stay on the phone to beg for money that belongs to me and that was charged to the end customer more than a month a go??? To me this is like you are stealing from me, while I am starving and with no money as a this is my only source of income, your incompetent customer service teams keep of making false promises and not giving me solutions! Get serious as a company, how come competitors like AIRBNB help their customers with relieve funds while this company is retaining my money without an explanation and even the decency of a good customer service.

I am both a renter and an owner on VRBO until today. My son has had to postpone his wedding and I have had to rearrange my rental twice! I rented a lovely house on VRBO. The wedding is now the 4th of July weekend next year. A very busy time. The management company from the house called and informed me I could not at any time have anyone at the house who was not staying there. This is a destination wedding. There are relatives coming from all over the country. We both decided that this house would not meet my needs. They refunded the money immediately.

They are of no assistance when trying to cancel and get refund from an owner. Cancellation policy said 30 day and 15 day cancellation, we canceled 23 days prior to due to surgery and have documentation. This was in March and still not getting anywhere. I would not use VRBO ever again or this place in TN, Property # 7918847ha.

VRBO will threaten owners who have canceled their Reservations with their guests by moving their viewing page to the back. They don’t want to repay or refund guests for canceling reservations. They want us to rebook them. And simply will not respond to emails or return calls from owners with concerns. Stay away from this company and use other rental companies. This is first hand experience with them as an owner of a rental property. It’s a shame how they treat us and our guests.

I am giving this a one star based on this experience! It has been four weeks and despite numerous text messages that the owner never replied to, we had not yet received our deposit back. We left the condo in pristine condition. Today we finally received the deposit back in our account. The owner seems a little shady like they were trying to make it hard for us to get our deposit back. Absolutely no reason why this was not taken care of right away.

This was my first and last experience with VRBO. After I had booked travel, the state I was travelling to was added to our states travel ban list. I immediately contacted the owner to discuss options. She basically told me "Oh well not my problem." I asked if I could apply what I had paid to a future travel date and she refused.

Over the past month I have had several suspicious scam inquiries about my property through VRBO, WHICH HAS CO-INCIDED WITH AN ATTEMPTED BREAK IN. These inquiries tend to have a common pattern:- Stays which would commence within the next 1 - 3 days. The person inquiring asking for confirmation the property is available (in spite of the fact that the specific VRBO calendar shows the home is available). The "person" inquiring puts in their credit card details to hold the booking until a response is received. The homeowner is then obliged to respond in some way.

VRBO lists some nice properties but it takes forever to get your deposit back. I stayed at a property over two and a half weeks ago and still haven't received my $500 deposit. I called and they said it could take up to another one-two weeks. I was just one tenant who stayed for three days. Between them and the landlords, someone is making lots of money on interest by holding on to YOUR money.

Worst customer service ever. We booked a place, made all the arrangements and then come to find out they double booked us and wouldn’t offer any kind of compensation for their error. They kept blaming everyone else. Honestly the worst experience with customer service I’ve had in a long time. We will never use their service again and we would highly recommend you don’t either.

VRBO has probably the worst customer service I have ever experienced. The initial night I arrived for my stay, there were multiple issues that required me to get a hold of customer service. It took me almost 8-9 hours to get my issues addressed and at that point it was even resolved. I had to call back on the second day of my trip to speak with a different dept. If I wasnt disconnected, I was sent down a rabbit hole of wrong dept. after wrong dept. that kept transferring me. Nothing was resolved by them and they still charged me a fee. I am actually waiting to talk to them again at this very moment and it's been almost 2 hours just attempting to live chat. They wont even let you leave a negative review that I have been trying to leave for days. It's a terrible company with worse customer service.

I paid and they accepted my deposit immediately. Now they say it takes up to 4 weeks to issue my refund. They are earning interest on my money and I don't like it! I would think they would be a little more sympathetic under the current situation.

We found a beautiful cottage to rent in Huntsville from Nazbur Rahman, paid the entire amount, signed the contract, it was accepted and then he cancelled the reservation two weeks later on the basis 'the previous owner promised the cottage to someone else.' What protections are there for renters of the owner just cancelling and leaving us with no options? Because of COVID, it is impossible to book something for August and now we have to tell our children after they can't go to school and can't go to camp, that they can't have a cottage vacation this summer either. Very unprofessional and disappointing. VRBO - you need to do a MUCH better job to protect the people who are counting on you for a holiday. We work hard for our money so we can do this for our family, and to be left with nothing is so disappointing - will never use your site again.

On Jan 23, 2020 we booked a home rental in New Orleans for Oct 4 through Oct 8, 2020. The total rate was $4,800 and we prepaid $2,800 upfront for a team meeting for 10 people. Then Covid 19 hit and trade show we were scheduled to attend was cancelled. We decided to still have our team meeting in New Orleans but only needed 3 nights instead of the original 4 nights.

In late June 2020 (Vrbo Reservation ID#: **), our experience doing our stay at the property (Property # 283733) was fine, we enjoyed the house, the property and the beach, however, three days after we returned home, we received an accusatory e-mail from the owner, Margaret **, alleging that we broke the washing machine, left water damage, and that we left sand everywhere. These were false accusations and she did not even present any evidence, including not sending any pictures, nor did she give us the due courtesy of even asking us questions about it, through a telephone call, just a terse brief personal e-mail, and she did not even use the Vrbo messaging system when doing this. She just barred us from the property, presuming we were guilty. Moreover, there were other people, including the cleaning crew, had who had access to the property in our absence.

A few months ago I booked a townhouse in Cape Cod for two weeks for my family. At the time I paid in full. Yesterday, just a few weeks before the rental was to start, the owner texted and wanted us to leave halfway thru the second week. I told her that would be difficult because two family members, who had purchased plane tickets, were coming in at that time. The Owner than cancelled the entire lease. Now it is the middle of the summer and it is very difficult to find a place and we are out the plane tickets. In addition, VRBO does not let people post reviews about owner cancellations so you don't know if the owner is unscrupulous.

My family rented a property with VRBO. We had to cancel our trip due to COVID-19. I tried for months to get the property owner to refund my $4000 deposit, but they refused. I talked with VRBO, my credit card company and no one could help. I tried VRBO once again and told them that if I could not get a refund, someone in our party was going to use the property. VRBO checked and the property was no longer available, but they wouldn't tell me if someone else had rented the property and the owners never told us. The next day, I received an email from the property manager stating that the owners have agreed to refund my deposit in full since they had rented the property to another group. I've been trying for 6 weeks to get my refund from VRBO and keep getting the run around. There is no number other than their customer service number. I need to talk to CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS!!!

VRBO did nothing to persuade the owner of the property to refund our money. Within 2 weeks the city of Aspen was shut down and Colorado was a hot spot due to the Coronavirus. AirBnb refunded all of our friends money that were traveling with us for a wedding. VRBO just said that we cancelled outside of the owner's cancellation policy. We got service fees credited to our account but we were not refunded almost $4000 for the reservation. I will never use VRBO again. The owner of the property was despicable!

So. For five years I have been a loyal VRBO customer and done well. This year is different. I have a guest who left on July 2 - and I have not been paid. Furthermore, my listing is not visible and has not been for 5 days. I call customer support - all nice people - but all they can do is pass on the issue. No one EVER gets back to you or fixes the issue. What happened to the company I really respected!!! I am not alone - look at the forums.

Booked a Canadian cottage from within Canada. Website defaulted me to English USA which wasn't a problem as English USA and Canadian are pretty much the same. Thought I was paying in CAD but it charged me in USD at a huge increase. The 'language selector' did NOT in any way appear to be a currency selector and nowhere did it indicate CAD or USD - not even in the confirmation email. Since I accessed the site from within Canada for a Canadian product I naturally thought it was CAD.

My family rented a house on Lake Gaston recently and the problems started upon check-in. We were not provided a lock box code (even though we requested the code hours before arriving) so we had to wait around until an agent finally answered the phone and gave us the code. Then we discovered that the refrigerator did not stay cool (average of 55°). We reported the problem & were told no one could service the unit for at least 2 weeks! So we had to buy our own ice every single day just to keep food and drinks cool.

There is no customer service. They just take your money and hold it. If you have a problem... Figure it out yourself. It’ll take 2-3 days for a response. I don’t know we have collectively sued somehow.

Our family was scheduled to be at Santa Cruz, CA, a beach rental by owner Kristen **. = Due to COVID 19 and the "Shelter-In-Place" order issued by our Governor we were forced to cancel. We paid $3,565. The only refund we have received to date was by the owner for the damage deposit in the amount of $500. We have not been reimbursed by VRBO or by the owner the $3,065 that is owed to us. This is even after the owner had agreed to reimburse us. We are forced to seek legal remedies through small claims court. We will never book through VRBO again!

Been on hold off and on for 6 hours on chat and phone and there is literally no way to reach these people. Host gave refund for COVID travel and VRBO hasn't literally no way to reach these people using COVID as an excuse. They have had over 100 days to build up staff, ridiculous.

VRBO charged me twice for the same property, reserved for the same dates. Won't refund our money. Said the property owner has to do it. Called the property owner and he said he can't do it because he doesn't even get paid until three days after the stay (we are going in less than a week). I have been on hold for 2 hours and 32 minutes total. I talked to one person and she said she can't do anything (after wait on hold). Asked to talk to a manager and said one moment and been on hold for 56 minutes.

I booked and stayed at a condo in Captiva Island, FL on June 4-7. I paid a $500 security deposit. I checked out on time with the unit left as required. After 5 days, I contacted the owner who said that VRBO controls the deposit and would refund it on the 21st, which was 2 weeks later. On the 21st I received an email saying that my deposit was being refunded. But, it could take 3-4 weeks for me to get my money due to Covid-19. This is BS. I understand if people are cancelling reservations and owners are holding money, but this was my security deposit and I have always received it from the owner within 7 days. To hold it for 14 days and then take another 21-28 days is absurd. Will probably not use them again and try ABNB. Never had an issue with them before.

They didn't help me at all when my booking was cancelled due to their computer glitch and they double booked us. They should have found another place for us and compensated us for our inconvenience. Really a bad place to book your vacations!

It is now the end of June and VRBO has still not paid me a security deposit that the owner tried to refund me through the VRBO system in March. I called in April and they admitted that they didn't have the money to pay everyone, but would get it to me in a couple of weeks. That came and went and no money. I called in again and then they tried to say that they did refund me, and had the nerve to tell me to send them my credit card statements. I have disputed the charge with my credit card company. Additionally, VRBO has recently billed me again for an unknown reason. Unbelievably poor-run and unscrupulous company. I own a vacation home, and will absolutely never use VRBO or anyone affiliated with them.

I tried booking a place through the VRBO website. I attempted to make the 1st payment and I got a message that it didn’t go through YET the charged showed as pending on my credit card. After being on hold forever (after trying the online chat for help with no success), I was told by a VRBO rep that it would show as pending until the Owner accepted the charge. And, if the Owner didn’t confirm it then it would come off my VISA as a pending charge completely.

I booked a 2 bedroom condo using VRBO. Our reservation apparently failed to go thru to the owners from what I'm told. The night before I messaged the rental company thru VRBO messages to get my checkin details. I received a phone call saying my reservation was doublebooked. I was offered a one bedroom condo at another resort by the rental company as compensation. I found a 3 bedroom that was only ~$250 more. I offered this up for them to book for me, but was told it wasn't owned by them so they couldn't make it work. I was offered a refund or $250 off of the one bedroom which didn't meet my family needs.

I recently rented a home (a very nice home at that) using VRBO's site. I normally use the Airbnb site and the very same home was on both sites but I opted for VRBO this time. This was my mistake. My dates were June 5-7th. When I read the refund policy of 2 weeks I was really shocked. They claimed that I would be refunded between the 15th-21st. My initial reaction was "are you telling me I have to wait almost 2 weeks for a refund?" However I still booked. On the 21st I received an email stating my refund was initiated and some rubbish about 3 weeks. Today is the 24th of June and during this time in the economy I am upset that I have to go through this for MY money. The property owner was even alarmed and has emailed VRBO to expedite the refund. NEVER will I book with them again!

This company is extremely dishonest. It was very difficult to cancel our reservations in Italy for July, 2020. The company booked 2 apartments instead of one without me knowing. I found out about it by accident when we had to cancel our trip because of COVID. We tried to cancel these reservations 3 times, once by contacting the property manager, then by talking to 2 different representatives at the Home Away office. The last time we spoke to them it was confirmed that the reservation was cancelled.

In January, my wife and I booked a stay at a house in Mexico for day of the dead. In February we had to cancel the reservation. This was 9 months in advance and well within the cancellation policy. However, we were told the home owner had to approve the cancellation. When she tried to do so, there was a computer hickup. So, in order to prevent her house being unavailable during such a significant time, they changed the booking date to March. Before the situation could be resolved, the cancellation window had "passed" since the booking now showed as March. A switch I did not know about or approve.

We used VRBO to reserve a condo at the Destin Palms Condos in Destin, FL. Due to the virus, we had to cancel when a high school graduation got changed. VRBO did not advocate for us when the owner refused to refund any of the money. They said that we needed to rebook. That isn't an option since our graduate is going into the Navy and they don't care that he never got his last family vacation. The VRBO representative talked to me like it's my problem that the virus derailed all of our plans. I imagine I am not the only one this has happened to. I will never use VRBO, Destin Palms or CSA Travel Protection again.

Wish we could get a tax credit for the $950.00 "donation" that we seem to have made to the Hot Springs, Arkansas property owner. She refused to honor COVID-related cancellation and said that she and other property owners were suffering. We were refunded only the $242 service fee (from vrbo), the $59 insurance (from generalitravel insurance co.); the $200 cleaning fee, and $292.33 sales tax from the owner. We paid a deposit of $1,743.33 and lost $950.00.

I am a successful host and was moved to VRBO during the merger with Canada Stays. I noticed that my calendar is incorrect and 2 of my bookings are not showing. I spent 5 hours this weekend (no exaggeration) trying to reach someone. I was repeatedly disconnected or hung up on. The matter is still not resolved and there doesn’t seem to be a way for me to contact anyone. I have never been this frustrated with a company. Hopefully these families don’t lose their deposits. I am deleting my accounts with VRBO and will never use them. I will not feel safe as a host or traveller.

Made a 14 day, $2k plus reservation for summer vacation. Confirmed and paid right away. Woke up the next morning to a cancellation from VRBO. Started out being told to wait 3-4 weeks for a refund. No way. Called multiple times, holding up to an hour each time. I was told it was their mistake and a refund would be processed right away. That was 10 days ago. The story for the last week or so has been that my money is somewhere between VRBO and the property owner. Still no refund. I will NEVER ever use or recommend this company again.

My daughter just graduated on Friday and we was looking for a home so she can enjoy with the rest of the family. Mind you this is the first time that I’ve used VRBO. I booked the home on 6/19. They tried to take out my account 3 different times and it was declined. When I went on the next day the emailed stated that my card declined, ok no problem. I’m thinking ok let’s do something else. When I went on again to see if the property was available for Sat 6/20 it wasn’t so I text them to see if they had another property for Saturday with a game room. They didn’t text for hours again, no problem. We ended up doing other things anyway.

My daughter was getting married in Hawaii in May of 2020. Covid 19 struck and everything canceled, the venue, the caterer, the airlines! The state of Hawaii even shut down only allowing visitors into the state after a 2-week quarantine. We had paid for half of our VRBO residence, more than $1800, but we could not even get into the state to use the home we rented. We could not reschedule our reservation because we could not reschedule the wedding as the state was still not allowing visitors without a 2 - week quarantine. "All individuals, both residents and visitors, arriving from out-of-state to Hawaii through July 31, 2020 are still subject to a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine." **

I was charged 242$ VRBO fee and NJ tax of 267$ which I found out if I had gone through a realtor there would not be these fees. What a rip off. They did not disclose that I would be charged these fees.

I wanted to share my experience with Evolve Travel and Home Away. My family along with 3 other families booked a home that slept 15 people in Jan 2020. Booked a 4 night stay for middle of June 2020. We all scheduled time off work, coordinated schedules, bought food, and boarded our animals for this trip. It was an 8 hour drive with young babies from Oklahoma to San Leon, Texas. We received confirmation of our booking the Sunday before our trip. Tuesday evening at 5:00 I received a voicemail stating my booking was cancelled with no explanation. I honestly thought it was a scam. After receiving emails it was in fact canceled, I immediately got on the phone with my POC when staying in the home since we had received the address and everything by this point.

I booked a house and paid for it through VRBO for a week stay, I was later contacted by the owner of the house and was told that week was booked. That Vrbo had made a mistake and double book so they contact someone and I did also. I was told they would refund me my money but it would be two weeks, I explain I could not wait two weeks. It would be too late to find and rebook another house and I just didn't have 1700.00 just laying around so I ask to speak to a manager. I was put on hold for 30+ min only for the supervisor to pick up and hang up on me. I have called back 3 times with being hung up on. With no help. I will never use this site again for the way they treat you on getting your money back. It takes them two min to take my money out my account but cant put it back in for two weeks and when money is hard to come by during the Covid disease.

I made a reservation in Clear Lake, IA on 4/15/20. My family changed our plans and I cancelled the reservation the same day. It’s been 5 weeks and I still haven’t been reimbursed, nor will the property manager respond to my messages. I have called customer support at VRBO and they couldn’t get ahold of the property manager. I have been using VRBO for 15 years (Hawaii, Oregon, Colorado,) and have never had a problem. This particular issue is not on VRBO, but the property manager. I hope that VRBO stops doing business with this Clear Lake, IA property owner.

I made a reservation at a VRBO property in Hilton Head and paid in full (big mistake). In less than 24 hours, the owner had cancelled the reservation because "her calendar did not sync and it was already booked." I received an email stating that a refund would post in 5-7 business days. I called VRBO (spent 42 minutes on the phone) and was told that the email was incorrect that the refund would take 3-4 weeks. I was also told to wait the full 3-4 weeks for a refund before I called back. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told "they are all busy" but the supervisor did relay a message that there was nothing they could do and there was basically no reason to escalate the call to the next level. Then owner has allegedly been affiliated with VRBO for over 10 years and is no help. Her answer has been "she not personally handle any of that". Lesson learned.

Requested travelers help, waited over 30 min via chat online for agent, asked agent to explain why property reserved not accessible to pay. Agent attempted access my account, reported system down & could'nt see my account. Then left without indication gone. Received virtual message, asked if wanted to wait 30 min for agent. Unprofessional, very poor customer service.

Wow this is my 1st experience with VRBO and it is awful. Mainly the response and attitude of the property manager in responding to my questions about cancelling due to Covid issues. We booked only a month out and of course had to pay in full but then issues started to arise so I reached out and it went downhill from there. At one point the prop manager said "Covid is all over the world and we as a country have been living with it for 4 months. The country is opening, AZ is open. You and your family had every intention of coming out here even with Covid-19 still being around. I am not sure what is changing now." WOW... 1st and last time dealing with them. Customer service is so important and they truly lack it.

Avoid this inferior service. I booked an apartment and was unable to travel because of COVID. The company refunded the service fee, but the owner refused to go out of the agreement and compromise at all. She wouldn't even return the cleaning fee for a no show. VRBO would not allow me to write a review on their site because that is only allowed if you checked into the property. The competitor site for this company gave a full refund to its customers, even out of the terms of agreement. I will only use the competitor's site in the future. I will never use VRBO again.

I will never do business with VRBO/Homeaway again. They claim to have a "Book with Confidence Guarantee". That guarantee states that if your reservation is cancelled, they will help you rebook. That is completely false. The owner of the condo that I planned to rent, cancelled my reservation, so I asked Homeaway to step in and help me find a similar property since I had a confirmed booking that was cancelled outside of my control. Homeaway refused to offer any type of help. When I pulled up their terms and conditions for the "Book with Confidence Guarantee", I read off the following excerpt to the supervisor I was speaking with:

A few months ago I paid for a place in Paris for my mother in law's birthday. Unfortunately this was in the beginning of the Corona pandemic. My family and I were unable to travel and called to get a refund. The company was being very difficult in canceling the stay and giving refunds. Not only had I lost my job but all flights were being cancelled as we were traveling from the States. I will NEVER use this company again. I will also not recommend to anyone in the future.

Very simple. Booked a stay in Italy thru VRBO. There was a 100% guarantee of refund for any reason up to 4/15/20. Cancelled due to Covid two weeks before deadline. They have refused to give me deposit back €671.00. Told me owner must. Called her in Italy. She never got any money from vrbo to refund and she okayed my cancellation. They are lying to travelers and our only hope is to get some attorney to start a class action suit against this corrupt practice. There must be thousands of out there who have been cheated. Walt **

After many attempts, my wife was finally able to contact someone at VRBO, who told us there was nothing they could do on their end, other than refund the service fee...which we already received. I asked the VRBO representative why they would send out a survey via email regarding our trip, and then never reply to answer our concerns for another 30 days? They had no info regarding that. They did tell me that they are handling a lot of calls, but after 90 days that doesn't fly with me anymore. VRBO customer service sucks.

Below is our review we were going to submit to VRBO but were unable because we did not complete the trip due to Covid. The VRBO website would not allow us to add a review for that reason. If I could say zero stars I would have. We scheduled a trip April 23-30 for our Daughter’s wedding. Covid changed our plans and that is totally understandable. What is not understandable is the crooked response from Arish ** (owner) and Dian ** (property manager). Absolutely no refund and only a token attempt at a credit for a future stay. Arish and Dian stopped communicating with us and around a month later offered us a future credit but insisted we send them an additional 1052.00 deposit on top of the 2056.00 deposit we had already paid. We should have been ok paying our remaining balance one week before our new arrival date as before.

I agreed to stay at a property for the advertised price of $141 per night for 6 nights ($850). When the bill arrived they had added on ANOTHER $536 IN service fees, cleaning fees, extra person fees, damage deposit fee plus taxes on the stay (and those fees) almost DOUBLING to cost of my planned stay - clearly a ripoff. I will not be doing business with VRBO again.

We rented through VRBO for over 12 years with very few problems--we earned high reviews and Premier Partner Status. However, when Coronavirus hit, dealing with them became a nightmare. We refunded any travelers who asked to cancel, to the tune of thousands of dollars. VRBO proved to be very efficient at removing the funds from our account but there huge delays both in getting payments from them and in travelers receiving their refunds. We had to field myriad complaints from travelers about this.

I have used VRBO with a problem a couple of times but recently I requested to book a property and was told within minutes that it was already booked and I need to cancel it. Ok... no problem. I cancel and find out they still withdrew $2200 from my account and a refund may take up to 4 weeks. Ok... no problem? I called customer service and very polite guy told me there was nothing I could do and no one I could talk to to get this processed faster. There is no way I could have avoided this. I just gave them an interest-free loan. Worse, many folks might not have another 2k to try to book a different property and it could have really canceled my vacation altogether. Mistakes happen and that part is understandable. Their lack of empathy and customer service is avoidable and will make me look for a different company in the future.

VRBO headquartered in Austin, TX is either in financial trouble and about to go under or has a huge Ponzi scheme going on and are in breach of contract with VRBO owners. Per the Owner/VRBO Contract the owners hosting guests in their home are to be paid the full rental amount at the time the guests check-in to their home. Guests are paying the rental amount in full weeks prior to check in so VRBO has already collected the money. Right now VRBO is NOT paying home owners even though home owners continue to hosts guests. We are experiencing this problem and after doing a quick google search there are tons and tons of other owners that are experiencing the same thing. When I went to the BBB site they have an F rating with a 1 star review from so many complaints.

My wife and I rented a place on Nantucket for the film festival...had to be paid upfront in full, $2600.00. We decided to vacation in Rhode Island instead. We booked with their "Book in Confidence Guarantee" which you book with their website to get get this. The trip was for June 23-June 29, 2020. The refund policy for THIS Property is: 100% refund for cancellations requested by 05/24/2020 at 11:59 PM (property's local time). 50% refund for cancellations requested by 06/09/2020 at 11:59 PM (property's local time). We cancelled on: April 13,2020 1:02 PM. We were told to contact property owner to approve cancellation. We contacted homeowner who said he approved.

My husband and I rented a place on Nantucket for the film festival...had to be paid upfront in full, $2600.00. When the event cancelled we decided to vacay in Rhode Island. We ask for our guaranteed refund and were told they had prematurely paid out the money to the owner, all $2600.00 and to contact him. We did and He had already spent it! Spent it, money he had not earned. DO NOT BOOK THROUGH THIS COMPANY!

Prior to the COVID pandemic, I rented a VRBO home in the Berkshires. Since we have a handicapped child and 2 elderly adults, all in very high risk health conditions, my family agreed that we needed to cancel our summer 2020 travel plans. After contacting VRBO, the homeowner, and filing a claim with CSA Travel Protection and Insurance Services, I was saddened and very disappointed when I learned that CSA, which is underwritten by Generali Global Assistance, has refused to accept my claim.

I booked through Homeaway and paid the deposit. Their website guarantees 100% refund if cancelled by 5/5. Cancelled on 5/1 and received the Homeaway fee shortly thereafter. Trying to get the rest back is impossible. I was assured by Homeaway customer service that I would be refunded the full deposit. Now over 30 days and multiple calls later, still no money. Shell game passing me back and forth between property manager and Homeaway. No one helps and now the reps have gotten less and less helpful. Management oversight is non-existent. I typically travel 3xs a year and this was my first and last attempt to use their service!

We purchase the insurance VRBO offers for our trip to Hawaii when in the summer of 2019 when we booked our trip for May of 2020. Our flights were all cancelled by the carriers, Hawaii asked us not to come too due to the pandemic. The VRBO insurance would not pay a refund. They stated that carrier cancellation and or a government isolation order was not covered.

I am an owner with a popular vacation rental. I have been with VRBO for 10 years. At approximately $500 a night my rental has almost every night booked this summer. Yet VRBO has released almost none of the thousands of dollars they are holding for rental fees, housekeeping, deposits, and taxes. I have renters that have fully paid VRBO, vacationed in my house, left the house, and I have received 0 dollars for this. I am subsidizing vacations for people because while I am not getting paid by VRBO, my expense to run this operation continues.

Turnkey properties charged $1500 for cancelling on a reservation that was made in error. The reservation was made for the wrong date which we noticed within 4 hours of making the reservation. We attempted to cancel the same day and even though the reservation was for a week away, they told us they could not reimburse us for the error. I’m not aware of any hotel or most properties that do not honor cancellations made a week in advance. In any case - buyers beware - and avoid Turnkey properties.

Rented condo Property # 1479987 for 3 nights late May. Condo was fine but price of $130 a night was very misleading. What was anticipated to be an $390 bill came to OVER $800 dollars with Owners fee 250, cleaning fee 125, pet fee 125, plus taxes. Reviewed listing and thought I missed something but only the cleaning fee is mentioned. Deceptive, beware.

As owners, we contracted with VRBO for "early payout," which means that VRBO makes payment to us as owners within one day of VRBO receiving payment from the guests. Since COVID, only after I contacted VRBO, they informed me that they suspended that and said they could only pay owners after the guests check in, despite when guests made their payment to VRBO. I suppose they need to use guests' money for the time being. However, VRBO has not paid me for the guests who stayed May 25-28, even though I have refunded the security deposit, and the guest and I have reviewed each other. I've contacted VRBO and opened a case, but they can't tell me anything. VRBO also has not paid me for the guests who checked in yesterday, either, and they were 3 weeks late in paying me for the guest before the last one. I'm starting to get worried!

We rented a property by Newport Beach for 10 days and received a confirmation of payment email. Within 24 hours, we got an email that our reservation had been cancelled without any reasons. The homeowner said that we should have received our refund but VRBO said it would take 3 weeks to receive a refund.

I own a rental property and list on VRBO and Airbnb. I have a VRBO renter in my house this week. They booked in early March and paid VRBO in full via Visa. They checked in May 23, 2020. They are checking out May 30, 2020. As of this moment, May 28, 2020, VRBO not only has not released the funds to me they will not tell me when they will release the funds. I have no recourse since the renter paid in good faith. Two weeks ago, VRBO was several days late in paying as they are supposed to release the funds the day after check-in. They kept changing the date they would release but ultimately did four days later. For this renter, I have no idea when they will release the funds to me. I also list on Airbnb so I will now direct all VRBO requests to go to Airbnb instead until/if VRBO gets their cash flow corrected.

VRBO Rentals are not what they claim. Nothing against individual owners, however: All claim to be available. Most then after going through the hoops that there are dates that are not available, or that there are minimums for staying. Nothing wrong here, only if they would advertise that they only allow 5 night or Weekend only stays, it would save customers a lot of time.

VRBO. We contacted the customer Service Dept. and we talked to agents that can barely speak English, and they told us our payment will not be processed for another 4 weeks, for A total of eight weeks from when VRBO received the full rental charges. We have been a “Premier Partner” with VRBO for over 10 years. They can not treat rental owners this way and keep any business.

I booked a vacation Condo in February. I received a rental agreement and confirmation. After paying the remaining balance I received a paid in full receipt with my arrival and departure dates again with my rental agreement. May 25th I received a text message saying they were changing my dates. I have flights booked around the times I booked. I was told they would find another condo, oh they did but they wanted an additional $1200.00. And it's funny how the condo is back on the market and the dates are still available that I originally booked but the fee is $1,000.00 more! How many people does Teeming VR do this to!!

Vrbo is a total scam. I hosted a 5 day stay for a family and have yet to be paid for their stay. Every time I go to view the payout date it changes, so I tried to contact customer service. The lazy ** picked up the phone and put it on mute... I could hear them breathing, then placed me back on another 20 minute hold. It's been almost a month now since I should have received a payout. I will definitely not be doing any more business with this company. They are thieves, which is ridiculous in a vulnerable time like this when property owners have already taken such a huge financial hit. Would not recommend anyone to use this company.

I booked a trip with VRBO in 2019 for travel in June of 2020. I purchased travel insurance of 499.00 just in case I had to cancel for any reason. I have now been fighting with VRBO for 6 weeks now and they are zero help. They just advise to call the insurance company. The insurance company will not answer the phone all they do is allow emails for cancellations and they won't reply to them nor advise any status. I would not recommend VRBO to anyone.

I recently booked a house for the Memorial Day Weekend, and my reservation was accepted right away. A week later, I get a notification from Vacasa, the property owner, that due to Covid-19 my reservation was cancelled. I'm not sure why they would have accepted it and took my money the week prior, but ok fine. I also get a notice that I've been issued a credit. I responded multiple times stating I would prefer a full refund, as I do not expect to ever book with them again, and I have not heard anything back. I contacted VRBO Customer Service multiple times. The chats barely work, and when you finally do get to chat with someone, they either stop responding or end your chat session abruptly leaving you frustrated and having to start all over again. When I called Customer Service, I was place on hold for hours.

For obvious COVID reasons, we are not allowed to stay in the home we rented in Italy (#**). The property manager not only refused to refund any of our money, she also would not allow one of our guests, who lives in Trento, Italy, stay at the home. I am pretty certain this manager had rented the property even before we cancelled, because she created multiple, bogus excuses for why my cousin couldn’t stay. VRBO offered zero support. We have been a VRBO customer many times but had never had to cancel in a situation like this where circumstances were out of our control. VRBO has no power or authority to help people who rent through them. Do not think you will get any support from them. They cater only to owners.

My wife booked a Sr Grad Trip for 16 people in Newport Beach Ca. She did so last Aug, for $8k. It’s a week away and now and the property managers have cancelled it saying it’s due Covid restrictions, which isn’t true. There are other properties being rented there. They have now offered a full refund. It was only a “credit” back in May. A refund then would have allowed her to rebook elsewhere. And they have now relisted it for the same time for $250 more a day. Are you kidding? VRBO will only back the property owners and managers not the customer. Shame on Vrbo. And I’ve heard of many other unethical instances much the same. My wife and others are now committed with airline tickets but questioning where to stay. In a word.... Unbelievable!!!! Will never use them again. And shouting from the rooftops.

After prepaying thousands of dollars for a rental at Avalon condos in puerto Vallarta Mexico. I was only allowed to stay 2 nights out of the 8 paid for. My things were ranged through and several thousand dollars of cash was stolen- Alan the manager denies that, through his lying teeth. The owner of the unit I rented and others in the Avalon complex should be in jail. To be left stranded in a foreign country by thieves through VRBO. What did they do for me? Nothing except perhaps share in the stolen goods. Karma is a **, please don’t ever use vrbo and certainly, don’t rent at the Avalon condo complex, who knows you could be the next one left stranded in a foreign country. Hopefully the changes we are now faced with Will weed out these unscrupulous con artists.

Where is my refund? It's been almost a month and they owe me $5,287.30. I cancelled well within the contract terms but have not received the payment. I don't know if they are ever going to pay me and there is no one to complain to either by phone, email or website.

The customer service is terrible, you receive misinformation, which cost me 10k in rental fee, they want access to your bank to withdraw $. There is not enough space to provide detail but after 10 yrs I am leaving to go to a travel agent that takes 10 percent and provides great service.

As an owner we have refunded and lost bookings totaling over $30,000 in order to support our clients and yet we are rewarded with a "change in policy" from VRBO. This what we read about funds dismemberment after an instant booking: "Due to unprecedented volumes of travel disruptions, payouts may take a few weeks to be processed.... Your rental agreement was accepted on 5/20/2020. Your payout will be disbursed on 6/10/2020, and will be deposited into your account in 5-7 business days."

Booked a trip for our 20 yr anniversary. We have only been on 2 trips since our first child 16 years ago so we were excited for this trip. We drove down the day before our stay so we could hang on the coast until our room became available. Instead, I woke to an email saying my reservation had been cancelled due to a double booking. Called Alysa at the helpline who is a star when it comes to help. She reached the owner (Beach Life Vacation Company) who said someone is living at the property. They never disclosed this information to me at any time until we had already driven 10 hours to get there!!! Then stated they tried to reach me 2 times.

We have booked on VRBO in the past with good experience. This is the first time we've booked since Expedia took over. We booked a place for a weekend getaway for the family. We screen captured the listing that showed the cancellation policy 100% if cancelled >= 2 weeks before arrival. We paid 100% of the money. We ended up cancelling about 3 weeks before arrival, expecting a 100% refund. It seems that the cancellation policy changed to 50% >=14 days and 100 % >= 30 days. But then nothing happened.

I book a rental house in Florida on May 10th. They processed payment and was taken from my account. Less than 30 minutes after the owner emails and tells me, due to travel bans they cannot rent. Allow 3-4 weeks for a refund. My issue is why is VRBO allowing their site to accept Rentals and processing payments. So for someone like myself Traveling for work this puts some stress in my life as I dish out thousands of dollars to be told they will give it back in a month. Meanwhile I have to rent hotel rooms now for a month. If this has happened to anyone else please feel free to contact me at **. I have contacted a very reputable firm as I am looking into a class action suit.

We used VRBO to manage our vacation rental. Vrbo pushed us to try new phone app so we did. First transaction was a deposit refund to our customer. The phone app duplicated the refund and vrbo would not correct it. There were 1 second transaction time between refund. No way I can process anything that quick. No, we did not hit button twice, it disappeared. We refuse to pay the extra amount. Vrbo has sent us to collections for this money. All they had to do is fix the transaction. Absolutely no customer service. They blame it on on the other vrbo owned 3rd party...no matter which party you talk to.

Booked a rental home on May 16, 2020 in the amount of $2039. My debit card was immediately charged for the full amount. I received an email less than 24 hours later (May 17 at 7:58 am) stating that the property manager cancelled my booking followed by “please allow 4 weeks for your refund to process due to COVID-19.” I understand the refund policy if I was the one who initiated the cancellation, but I was NOT! Two emails and a phone call later has me nowhere! I cannot even get an explanation as to why my reservation was cancelled. It’s disheartening that American companies can do business in this manner. I will NEVER use VRBO again and I have shared my experience with anyone who will listen.

I had to fight with the property owner who refused to refund my money. She finally was shamed into giving me a 50% refund to save her reputation with VRBO. I went through my Visa dispute center and they were able to get me a 100% refund. I offered to postpone my trip to a later date back in March, I bet the owner wishes she had taken me up on that offer. I suggest all of you file a dispute with your credit card companies. Nowhere in VRBO's contract does it say "we keep the money in case of a pandemic" - but I bet it will now. Airbnb will have customers for life. Shame on VRBO and their property owners. Don't buy a rental property if you can't afford to make payments without rents.

Owner had to cancel our condo reservation in Florida due to Florida COVID restrictions for out of state travelers. Owner was excellent and immediately started the refund process. Now 13 days later, VRBO website says refund may take 3-4 weeks! They immediately charged me of course when I booked. There is absolutely no excuse for a refund not to be booked via credit card! Next step I will go through my credit card company to try and get the funds back. This type of thing can ruin their business! American Airlines has been awesome about support, communication, giving credits for flights, etc., through this pandemic. I will not be booking through VRBO again unless this situation is rectified this week!

I am still waiting to be paid out on a rental of my property from ONE YEAR AGO!!! AVOID HOMEAWAY/VRBO like the PLAGUE. They are still holding my money and over 20 hours of CSR and still no resolution. Use Airbnb or something else. HOMEAWAY/VRBO are criminals and need a class action lawsuit to get them out of business. Attorneys feel free to contact me.

Due to the coronavirus, Key West Florida closed their entrance. If your DL did not have an Key West address you were not allowed in. Rental home thru Vrbo are not issuing full refunds to people who had to cancel their plans. The owners applied for small business stimulus checks, how unfair is VRBO. State lockdown and the profit goes to the owners. Renters beware... they keep your money. No refunds. Will never trust VRBO again.

If you like getting bent over and taking it up the backside, then, by all means, book with HomeAway/VRBO! Their response to the COVID-19 pandemic is appalling and their "customer service" during this time is a joke. Instead of stepping up and giving customers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic full refunds, like their competitor AirBnB did, HomeAway/VRBO just threw their hands up in the air and said "** it, we're not doing **. Take it up with the property manager." Guess what the property manager's response was? "** that noise, I'm not doing **."

Due to COVID-19, my rental was canceled by the owner of the property. It cost us over $7k for one week. VRBO has refused to do anything while the owner has told us that he will not return our money. They allow theft! How can they just stand by and watch? Disgusting.

Just another story about having to cancel due to COVID19. Reached out to property rep about our concern one week before the Us/Canada border shut for non-essential travel and was told the owner was “reasonable” and not to worry. We’ve continued to get some kind of a refund and she has flatly refused and ended all communication. Planned to rental large house for bachelorette celebration for 3 nights ~ $4000.00 robbed from us. VRBO allowing this is disgusting.

Rented cabin in Smokies. Awesome overall experience and owner was great. Security deposit of $200 was immediately taken out, but now to get it returned it will take 3-4 weeks? That makes no sense. This is not a COVID issue. I am not asking for a full return on my stay just what was promised when I stayed and no damages occurred.

VRBO.com advertises a false promise of refunds during this Covid-19 crisis. I had a reservation for a location that is now closed to outside visitors. VRBO.com said I could get a full refund. Well I attempted to cancel the reservation via the website, the chat and with the customer service on the phone. I was unable to cancel. There is nothing they say they can do. Do not do business with this company.

Would not refund our stay during the COVID-19 global pandemic, despite the fact there are travel restrictions in the state we are traveling to, as well as the state we are traveling from. Since the extension of our governor's orders, we have spent nearly 2 weeks emailing multiple times and leaving our numbers for a callback. Eventually I was forced to wait on hold for 75 min just to reach them. I will note: this is our 3rd trip cancelled during the pandemic - both a hotel and AirBNB were easy to contact and gave full refunds. Do yourself a favor and book with AirBNB - our household (including a travel related business) will not be booking with VRBO or Vacasa moving forward.

I booked a trip through VRBO for Hawaii. Because of COVID19, I had to cancel my trip. The homeowner, who was paid in full ($951) said that he would allow me to book another trip within 365 days of my scheduled trip. I was satisfied with that. 3 weeks later, I reached out to homeowner to re-book trip and homeowner basically ghosted me. He never responded to my emails or phone calls. I called VRBO numerous times for help. Though they did try helping me by calling on my behalf, they basically told me there was nothing they could do. I assumed because I booked through VRBO, they would make this right somehow. But, nothing. I would NEVER EVER go through them again. They do not stand up for their travelers and continue to let this homeowner have his condo listed on their website. Homeworker took my money and now I'm out $951.

We purchased a trip to Maui, Hawaii through VRBO and elected to pay for VRBO trip insurance through CSA. The premium of $774.25 was paid on September 26, 2019. The trip was scheduled for March 1 through March 21, 2020. As early as March 7 local Hawaiian TV and newspapers were reporting that airlines were about to terminate flights to and from Hawaii and the mainland. We did not want to be unable to use our scheduled March 21 flight home, so we elected to return on March 11 (the earliest flight available). On March 23 we filed a claim with CSA to recover the portion of our condo rental that we forfeited (approximately $5000). We were concerned we would have to pay for additional lodging if we could not return home on our scheduled flight.

I wanted to get my family out of NYC during Covid-19 and found a beautiful home on Long Island to rent for $20,000 for a month. VRBO accepted a $500 fee, charged my credit card, not a pending charge but processed, and then canceled my stay with no explanation and did not refund my card nor respond to my inquiries. I now have to dispute the charge with the credit card company. Not to mention our vacation is canceled. The worst people in business.

Due to Covid we were unable to leave Canada as the border was closed. We couldn’t get to our reservation in Hawaii. We were forced to cancel as a result. We put in for a claim with CSA insurance, which we had purchased through VRBO and were denied. VRBO asked owners to do the right thing and provide a refund, partial refund or credit as we cancelled within 60 days. Owners refused as “under no legal obligation” to refund. VRBO says cant force the owner. Tried to work with VRBO and they couldn’t have sounded less interested in helping. Owner refuses to respond. We are out 2000$! Thanks VRBO and owner H.F. in Kauai. Do not use VRBO. DO NOT PURCHASE CSA INSURANCE. Total scam and you have little recourse.

In Jan. of 2020 I paid in full for a vacation week of 4/4/2020. Due to the Coronavirus we tried to reschedule for week of 4/25/2020. We then had to cancel again due to government order for no vacation rentals until 4/30/2020. We contacted the owners Melissa Jones and requested a full refund due to the government order. We did not want to reschedule for another date because things with the virus are changing daily and it is unknown when we would be able to travel. She only offered 6 months to rebook.

Rented a condo for a week in Hilton Head for end of March. The borders where closed mid-March and all non-essential travel was restricted. Tried to receive refund and was told the owners group on Hilton Head Island decided no refunds would be given and was offered a another date next year. As we are in our mid-sixties our travel insurance will sky rocket and we do not know what the future will hold. All we hear about is 'unprecedented' times but keeping money for a service not provided is simply a money grab. VRBO was no help, called insurance provider to get security deposit back, phone call gets dis-connected.

We made a reservation for a stay that had to be cancelled due to Covid 19. I actually cancelled within the 100% money back guarantee time. The cancellation was approved for a full refund on 3/21/2020. It is now 5/11/2020 and I have yet to receive the refund.

I made a mistake. I thought the credit would appear on my most recent transactions. After messaging with a customer representative I see the credit was applied back to the date I paid which was January 19, 2020.

Despite the fact that a property owner, Christina ** (property ID no. 4274139ha) fraudulently created expenses to justify withholding my full refund, VRBO.com refuses to remove her listing from their site in order to protect future victims from renting her property. Property owner CLAIMS that she had an expense of almost $700 which she is unwilling and unable to show proof of, yet she still withheld it from my refund. We never even visited the property and the reservation was cancelled within 16 hours of booking because the booking was made erroneously.

During the COVID 19 crisis, I had to cancel travel plans. Ironically, purchased the CSA insurance, upon travel restrictions, I immediately contacted VRBO and was told by the owner, that there would be no refund but I could put in a claim to the CSA insurance, which I did. Very patiently waited since mid-March, contacting a few times, and assured that I would get a refund. Today, mid-May, I was told I didn't follow the VRBO cancelation timeframe. Therefore, no refund. This is on principle. I will never use either VRBO or the travel insurance again. What an incredible disappointment. During an international pandemic. So unfortunate, shameful display of compassion.

In January of 2020 I used VRBO to make reservations for a two month rental from April 15 through June 15 on a North Padre Island condo owned by Ken **. VRBO charged my credit card $2978, the full rental amount immediately. Because of COVID-19 I cancelled my reservation at the end of March. VRBO refunded me the full $150 service fee that they charged. VRBO said the rest would need to be refunded by the owner Ken **. VRBO gave me Ken's phone number. I called him and explained my reason for cancelling. He said, "Sorry. Read the contract. No refund if less than 30 days notice." Not fair considering the COVID-19 circumstances. What do you think?

I had to cancel a trip to Kauai due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. VRBO is a listing service only and refunds are left entirely up to the property owner. Even though Kauai County issued an emergency rule mandating that transient vacation rentals cease operations and violations can be punishable as a misdemeanor, the property owner would only issue me a 50% refund. He even charged me 50% of the cleaning fee for a total of $795.57 for an uninhabitable property. While I certainly understand it costs money to maintain a property and I told him that I would be happy to pay $200 for his trouble. His response: "I think 50% is fair per VRBO. Everyone is a victim in this situation. If I give 100% then I am the only victim and that doesn't seem fair." Poor guy, the only victim in a global pandemic.

I had to cancel my booking with a home owner in Montreal, QC due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Once my booking was cancelled, I inquired about my refund. The home owner has never returned my messages or emails and her voice mail box was full so I couldn't even leave a message. I contacted VRBO directly several times and was basically told that there is nothing they can do for me. They can just keep reaching out to the property owner and that's it. I'm out $1500. The customer service agent actually hung up on me when I called them out for basically just being a website for people to post their properties but take no responsibility in making sure property owners provide the service required. Be very wary about booking through this site. Anyone can just take your money and VRBO will not care.

We rented a home in California for May 1st through VRBO. The wedding has been postponed due to Covid-19. Homeowner agreed to give us a full refund on March 31st. We received the deposit and service fee back on April 6th but we are still owed $4840. I have emailed and called over 12 times. VRBO stated there was a computer error on April 6th which prevented us from getting the refund. Then on April 8th they sent a letter to the homeowner stating he had to contact the third party company, Yapstone, who does the payment collections. Unknown to me that our payments were going to another company. Yapstone won’t take incoming calls. The homeowner has requested 2-3 times to VRBO to issue the full refund.

I was browsing the VRBO travelers website on February, 8, 2020. Next day February 9 I made Res. ** for December 23-Jan2. On February 13, I noticed my account a charge of $2,431.00 for February 8 Res. ** from VRBO. It was odd for I didn't remember making a reservation. I was just browsing. I called VRBO. An Agent wasn't able to find the listing under that account, I called a few times – no avail. April 24 an agent finally was able to locate the mgr. and cell#. The agent also said that sometimes a traveler get charge even for just browsing, I called that # and left a message but never did return my call although I was bombarded with emails from mgr.

This is very important for you to read if you use VRBO for rentals. Back on April 23, 2020 I paid for a rental that was booked for June 2020. It is a 60th birthday celebration for my wife. I was sent an email later that day from VRBO telling me that this listing was a scam. Thats right, a booking made on their website was a scam. I also received an email telling me that my card was credited and it would take up to 7 days to show up. Well it's 13 days later and no credit. Called my card company to dispute charges. Takes up to 60 days thru them. Have spoken to Safety and Security Team for VRBO with no help. This is so very frustrating. Please take the time to vet the rental if you are going to book they VRBO. My Wife's 60th Birthday celebration is being held hostage by VRBO. My VRBO case number is **.

I have read all of the frustrated reviews... and as a property owner I totally understand how a traveler feels, we also list our home on Airbnb and about 90% of our travelers are from Airbnb not VRBO. I do not agree with withholding a travelers money during this virus, but I am sure some property owners were ill prepared for this and are desperate. We have elected to refund all paid rentals through at least May, if the travel advisories lift we will look at it case by case. But from an owners perspective I have guest trying to cancel into September???

After countless emails, the property manager refuses to refund my money. I cancelled within time although he changed to cancellation date. Luckily I printed the original contract with the cancellation date, saying 100% full refund. I’ve been told the protection insurance (which I purchased) won’t refund anyone due to COVID19, you must have an illness and a doctor’s note. I’ve been looking on social media, I see there are many people that haven’t received their money. This isn’t fair, they get to keep our money and still get the federal interest free loan. I’m not giving up on this.

I booked a vacation home in Jan 2020 in Key West owned by Vacasa through VRBO. Once the corona pandemic occurred and travel was not an option, I cancelled and they initially tried to offer a credit which was not acceptable as I was still in the window to receive at LEAST a 50% refund. I work for the second best hospital in the US and our CEO was advising no travel as early as March, so I complied. In a note, Vacasa stated they did not want to issue refunds as they felt the Corona virus would be resolved by 04/3/ 2020. I was incredulous and asked for some documentation to this “fact” which of course they could not send.

As a result of the virus I was given a full refund by the homeowner and VRBO. The rental fee was returned in full but VRBO still has failed to refund the service fee and the remainder of the taxes I am due. I have contacted them repeatedly and have been told it takes time. This is week number six.

Made reservations and paid deposit for vacation from May 26-28/20 at Property ID 787513. Cancelled the reservation via e-mail to the property owner on March 22/20 due to covid. Property owner informed me I would need to contact VRBO for the refund, which I did. Spoke to vrbo on April 8 & 9 asking when I could expect to see my refund applied to my credit card, I was told they were very busy with cancellations, but I would be refunded. Called again on April 15/20, was given a case #** and told it would be 3-4 weeks, but assured me of the refund. April 22/20 and 23rd, which was accounting for the 4 week wait period and was told this time that the 3-4 weeks was business days. I have now passed that period also and still no refund. This is so very frustrating and I don’t know what my next step should be.

We rented a house in Austin for my son's college graduation through Home Away/VRBO. Due to Shelter In Place guidelines here in Illinois we are unable to travel to Austin. The property owner - CARRIE ** - has refused to work with me for either a credit or partial refund. VRBO "encourages" their property owners to give credit for a future stay, give 100% refund or at least a partial. I reached out to VRBO and they said they would send her an email to "encourage" her to follow their Covid 19 emergency guidelines. Ten minutes later she cancelled my reservation and has kept my deposit of over $3,000. Shame on CARRIE ** and shame on VRBO for not enforcing their policies. AIR BNB has stepped up to do the right thing - I will be using them instead from now on. Never again VRBO/Home Away!!!

VRBO does not make their rental owners refund money. So basically if you rent a property and the renter cancels for no reason, they do not have to give you the money back!!! Maybe I should list my home, good way to get mortgages paid! Beware!!!!

I have been renting properties through VRBO for over 20 years, and have always been satisfied. It seems like they have gone downhill since they were bought by Homeaway. They have raised their prices, charge more fees, and now scammers are listing fake properties. If you get scammed by one of these fraudulent listings, VRBO will NOT release the name of the person who scammed you. They make you go through an attorney. It’s time for me to find another vacation rental site.

I booked a trip thru VRBO for May 2020 when the COVID-19 virus struck. After almost 50 days of both the property owner and VRBO pointing the finger at each other I have yet to receive a full refund. The owner is Blue Ocean Yacht Charters in Key West. They misled me through this entire ordeal. Shameful business tactics and terrible customer service.

I decided to become a host with Vrbo as I had never used them before. I got a reservation and was happy to accept it, as I have no income due to Covid. The moment I approved the reservation $584 was taken from my bank account which is attached to Vrbo for payout. Not only did I not make any money, I lost the last money I had in my account. I now have 59 cents in my account, and have no clue how I will feed myself of my sick child who is terminally ill. Vrbo refuses to help or acknowledge that it is their fault. Please help me.

Made a reservation, paid the deposit for our daughter's college graduation week. Due to coronavirus graduation was canceled. Called and asked to have our reservation moved to August. Lady said "o.k. no problem ". Next week we were notified via email the property management had canceled the reservation and were keeping our deposit. Do not waste your time with these vultures.

Paid for a service that we could not use. In February,CoVid19 did not exist when we planned our trip. We tried to cancel 1 month prior in March. Normally when you pay for a service/product, the service and product supplier and provider (VRBO/homeowner) works with their customers to insure satisfaction and commitment of what they are selling to their consumers. We did not simply choose not to use the service/product, the entire nation was given direction regarding loved ones with compromised immune system, which was applicable to our child. But it wasn’t enough to have a valid critical issue that a child’s life was on the line. Days later after providing a cancellation request, the area we were visiting was completely shut down as well. No beaches, restaurants, stores etc. While people around the globe chose to work with customers during this time, VRBO/Homeowner chose not to. This was not a typical cancellation.

I just tried VRBO for a change after using airbnb. Well, I had to cancel my reservation for a stay in September, unrelated to COVID-19, and cannot get my refund. I cancelled well within the cancellation guidelines and they admit I am due a full refund. But they say it will be weeks before they will credit my card. Weeks? It has already been 10 days and I am out over $800 while they lollygag around, holding our money and making interest from it. Meanwhile, I am out the money and will now have to pay interest on my credit card for the delay. And of course, they will not reimburse me for it. If you might need to cancel, go to another site and company.

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, I have to cancel my VRBO vacation, not only are we still on a stay at home order, but the friends I was traveling with are also on a stay at home order, with one being a DoD employee and they are under travel restrictions. Georgia ** will not even consider a refund, not even a partial refund due to this crisis and because she is selling her property this summer, I'm unable to to move the vacation. Called VRBO to help and they said since they have tried to get a hold of the owner and she is not responding, I'm out of luck because I signed a no refund policy. The COVID-19 wasn't a crisis when I reserved my vacation. So, I will never book another vacation through VRBO and I hope Georgia and her cottage business suffer because of this posting. She is a horrible person!!! Please do not do business with her in Asheville, North Carolina.

Hire customer service personnel that can speak understandable ENGLISH!!!! The rental property was disgusting and completely misrepresented in photos. VRBO will do nothing to help but give Mgt. phone #.

VRBO was great until it starting making changes that favored itself first, the renter a distant second, and never the property owners. We raised our rental price for our beach house by 9% compared to last summer's rentals. VRBO's jacked up the service fee they charge by more than 50%. We contacted their customer service department to ask why the service fee had been increased so radically. They refused to answer. They repeatedly said they have the right to raise the service fee, so they did. VRBO's policies reflect their greedy nature and inability to understand that owners are struggling to rent their properties, particularly with the pandemic. This is not the time to get even more greedy with their service fee charges. VRBO doesn't even realize the impact they have on the very people they need most, homeowners who rent their properties! VRBO doesn't exist without property owners and they are losing them by the minute.

Absolutely disgusted that homeowner in Norfolk Broads did not give any refund even though VRBO asked homeowners to give 100% or 50% refund. Still waiting for VRBO to refund their fees. I asked Homeowner if he could move our holiday to later in the year or even to the same time in April next year. No he wasn’t prepared to do this but as a gesture of goodwill he would give 50% of any future booking. I wanted the money I had already paid refunding or transferred to a future booking.

Like many others due to travel restrictions by COVID travel plans and vacations have had to be cancelled and outside our control. Under these circumstances the property owner we were renting our summer vacation property from was amazing to work with and allowed us the opportunity to move our reservation to a later date. When our dates weren't available he refunded our property deposit without hestitation. Once the owner initiated the refund back in early April I received an email from VRBO w/ confirmation informing me that it would take up to two weeks for the refund to post to my account. After two weeks I haven't seen the refund credited to my bank account so I called them. Now VRBO states it can take upwards of 4 weeks or more to get my deposit back.

I find it very interesting that there’s a surge of people trying to salvage VRBO tirade of well deserved bad reviews in the last month. Wasn’t enough that I got 0 refund for rental but it was the manner of how it was handled. It was almost criminal. Also, even though I’ve paid for the rental, In full, I was not allowed to post a review because we didn’t physically stay there. The review encompasses the property, the owner, the email traffic, etc ... to me seems fraudulent and an attempt to do damage control... They lost a customer of about 12years.

I have waited over 4 weeks for an authorized refund of my VRBO service fee. The homeowner refunded our money within two weeks of cancellation. Our cancellation was made within the cancellation time frame for a 100% refund at the very beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. VRBO asked all customers to wait up to 4 weeks for their refunds. It is beyond that timeframe and when you contact them, you get routed out of the country to people who leave you on hold for an hour or more and then provide no assistance. VRBO should be going out of their way during this pandemic to take care of people expediently. People are out of work and need their money. If I could have given them zero stars, I would have. If this continues, maybe these stories should end up on the evening news. It seems to be the only way to get anything resolved these days.

I would never use this site to book a rental because of the bad experience I had during the Covid-19 event. I booked a house rental in Nevis and when they closed their border I could not access the house that I had rented. The owner only gave us back 50% of our money- keeping $3600USD citing VRBO guidance. I would never trust this site due to this type of behavior. They should be ashamed of themselves for this type of guidance- Keeping people's money when you can not even access the island to get to the house is so greedy and unconscionable. Please be aware!!!!!

VRBO was great until it starting making changes that favored itself first, the renter a distant second, and never the property owners. VRBO's policies reflect their greedy nature and inability to understand that owners need to pay their bills in order to even offer these properties for rent. By changing their fee structure from "pay when property is rented" to "pay a few days after the renter checks in" they completely disrupted cash flow for owners. When you also add in fees for owners at every turn, you realize that VRBO doesn't even realize the impact they have on the very people they need most. VRBO doesn't exist without property owners and they are losing them by the minute.

Let me start with saying I will never book a home on VRBO again, and I will tell everyone I know to avoid booking with them, as well. In December I scheduled a trip for 4/30/20-5/3/20. I spoke with the home owner, signed a contract, and we were all set. Obviously the Corona Virus Pandemic has since come into light and makes it impossible to complete our trip. There are stay at home orders in my home state (IL), as well as, the home owner's state (MI) until mid-may, at the earliest. So, we literally cannot complete our trip as planned per federal order due to a global pandemic..

With the COVID pandemic ongoing, VRBO has requested that their property owners/rental agents abate their cancellation policy and offer full refunds. This is a simple request that is easily ignored. I would have much more confidence if VRBO had backed it up with delisting the property if the request wasn't followed.

We booked and paid for our vacation. Due to Covid-19 we have decided to cancel our trip. WE ARE STILL WITHIN THE CANCELLATION WINDOW for 100% refund. VRBO is now refusing to refund or even offer credit!

I have successfully rented vacation property through VRBO across the country for many years. I have never been disappointed or had a bad experience until now, when I rented a home on Martha's Vineyard in mid-May 2020 managed by an outfit called Vacasa Vacation Rentals. This is a warning to all renters not to deal with this company. In the midst of this pandemic, Vacasa was completely inflexible about giving all but their standard refund, even though the ferry service to Martha's Vineyard continues to recommend that visitors stay away because the small island hospital is not prepared to deal with Covid-19. Restaurants and tourist attractions will likely remain closed into June.

We have travel plans for mid April to Hawaii, I have tried multiple times to get our refund, I even advised them over 30 days before the pandemic was announced since it looked like it was only going to get worse. VRBO does nothing, can't get a hold of anyone, when you try to they just refer back to their 50% refund policy and do nothing. I don't want a credit, I want my money back, I can't afford to put over $3200 on hold for a trip that will no longer happen and I don't want a credit. Doesn't VRBO understand this? Hotels, Airbnb, airlines have all processed 100% refunds.

COVID 19 AND REFUSAL TO REFUND. This was our first time using VRBO and it will be our last. We booked our trip to New Orleans in Oct 2019. We were supposed to fly out on May 20, 2020. This amazing trip was planned for my 40th birthday. Flights paid, vehicle rental and house. When Covid -19 surfaced, we started watching everything very closely and we were up in the air about cancelling. When we were 42 days before our departure date, we knew there was no way that we were going. The borders are closed with no signs of reopening. We contacted the airline who immediately gave us a credit for our flights. We cancelled the car rental without issues.

Booked a reservation for a house in Florida on Apr 2nd for the 1st week in May. Owner took reservation and deposit, then decided a couple of weeks later that the house was no longer available. She canceled the reservation and said the refund would take 5-7 days. I called the Customer Service line and was told the same thing. Now today, 10 days later, I'm told it will be WEEKS more (4-5 weeks) before a refund is issued. This is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE AS THEY CANCELED ON ME, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND, and I still have to travel that 1st week in May. I'm going to dispute the charge via my bank, and let VRBO deal with the extra work around chargebacks and reconciliations on their end. I will never use any of the companies owned by Expedia Group again.

We cancelled our house rental on April 4th for a June 17th arrival and received an email confirmation of our cancellation and refund. VRBO's cancellation policy is 30 days prior the arrival date for a full refund. Today is April 19th and no refund has been credited to our credit card account. In contacting VRBO by phone and speaking with a live agent, they again confirmed they had received our cancellation notice, however did not have the money to pay us. Our deposit had been forwarded to the owner and VRBO was waiting for the funds to become available in order for us to receive our refund. We are currently placing a dispute with our credit card company against VRBO. VRBO has not been forthcoming and is difficult in which to deal. We strongly DO NOT recommend them for any of your vacation rental needs.

Never ever do business with this company. These people are crooks and pure evil at the top. I had renters that VRBO/HomeAway still have not paid me out on. I will be joining a class action siut against them and possibly my own claim as well. 46 calls to them, not resolved. Elusive evil non-public billing department said they would pay 3 dates and failed still today. Avoid at all costs these companies of thieves!

In these times of uncertainty, with covid-19, I would strongly discourage anyone from booking with VRBO. You maybe forced to pay for a vacation home that you cannot visit. It’s like booking and paying for an airline flight, the airport closes, and no refund or credit is offered, No thank you. Never again.

Our trip was canceled due to the covid19 virus. VRBO refuses to help with refund. AirBnB at least helped its customers to get their refunds. When I called vrbo customer service it seemed they did not care or want to help resolve the issue.

VRBO recommends on their site with link to insurance with CSA/GMMI/Generali Global. My husband became seriously ill while on vacation and was in a semi-comma. The insurance company was horrible. We have not been reimbursed yet and it has been almost a year. The company does not answer calls (Sara **) and adds so much insult to pain dealing with a sick husband and traumatization from the entire experience. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. We are reporting them to the California Department of Insurance.

The owner of the property I am supposed to be staying at refuses to return our money or a partial return, Luke ** is also refusing to provide a stay at a further time. I am out 1000 because my flight to Kauai has been cancelled over Covid 19. I will never use VRBO again and would recommend that you never stay at one of his properties. We are all suffering at this time and a little compassion and understanding goes a long way.

I booked a reservation for 12/20/2019 to 4/1/2020 in Florida. I spent over $7000 for this reservation. I booked this reservation on 3/8/2019 and submitted my payment. So I went on my trip and it was nice. So I check out and the owner was happy with my staying there and met with me on checkout. He said everything looked great. I even left items I bought while I was there like a small vacuum cleaner, more dishes and storage containers for the kitchen etc. I even paid someone to come in and super clean the unit. The owner said he would notify VRBO to immediately refund my damage deposit. He did and now... VRBO says they have it in process but cannot tell me when other than it will take weeks.

Had a trip planned during spring break march 19-22 and had to cancel due to COVID-19. They are the only vendor that will not issue us a refund for our trip. We are being told we can use the money to re-book our trip, but that has to be done by April 30. Not going to happen since we are still under stay at home orders. Tried to call several times and was on hold over 90 minutes before hanging up. I don't think they even have anyone to answer phones!!

We have a reservation for a city that has been completely shut down due to the virus and does not want any non-essential visitors. It is not true that VRBO is issuing refunds. It is up to the owner or property manager who in our case refuses a refund. We have one person who has been ill but is still going because they are out the money. Very short sighted thinking by VRBO and this property manager. Basically they are requiring us to go against the recommendation of the government and to potentially become ill or risk others becoming ill. Pretty sad business policies.

Very disappointed with this service. It turns out the site has multiple fraudulent listings and takes days to get your money back. After finding out our booking was a fraud we then began to find others all over the site. VRBO doesn't seem to vet these people listing on their site and the only thing they do for the inconvenience is hold your money for days. Would have been nice to offer a promo code or something since now the idea of our vacation doubled in price. Avoid this site.

The homeowners of the property that we were to stay at submitted a refund to VRBO on 3/25. I have a statement that attests to the refund so I’m not calling into question the homeowners' delay. 21 days have passed and l have not received the refund from VRBO. I get that there is the Pandemic flu but the company is not communicating anything with respect to refunds and their delay in processing them.

VRBO does not pay rental owners until after the guest leaves unless owner pays VRBO extra fees to get paid the rental fee, even though the guest has made their reservation and paid far in advance for the rental. I am a vacation home owner that has had my home listed with VRBO for over 15 years, starting when it was VR by owner. VRBO cut off my access to my bookings with them at the end of 2019 when I refused to sign a contract that gave VRBO/Homeaway 'in and out' privileges to my bank account, even to withdraw from my bank account without explanation, and disallowed me from ever filing suit against them. I was required to accommodate guests at my property before receiving any of the payment that VRBO collected from them, until after the guests left. And with the contract VRBO set before me, I would have signed away any recourse to get the rental fee from VRBO that the guest already paid, should they just not pay me.

This has been the WORST experience I have ever had to deal with. Due to Covid-19 we were forced to cancel our trip, as many people have. Long story short: good luck getting a hold of ANYONE to try to help you. The cancellation policy changed three times in four days. At first it was anyone traveling between X day and X day are given full refunds, then it changed to partial refunds, and finally landed on the owner's decision to give back your money or not.

I have rented from VRBO in the past but never again. I rented a home with a no refund policy as I never expected Covid-19. Despite the local area where I rented rescinding the occupancy permits of any rental property renting for less than a month at a time, the property owner would not give me a full refund. That's ridiculous! So I can't go because it's against local regulation and I am at the mercy of the homeowner? VRBO says they can't help because they are only a website service.

We arrived in North Port Florida on March 10 and had to leave March 18 because of the Virus. The owner was hesitant about giving back our remaining money for March 18 to March 24 but explained there was a pandemic out there and we need to get home to Canada. She then agreed if we would write her a rave review of her place. I did, she didn't. The property ID is **. The grounds were a mess, the laundry is in a shed with tools and the place was not clean. She is originally from Quebec and speaks both English and of course French. Our communication has always been in English until the last email. FRENCH. I don't understand French. So I can only assume she isn't going to refund. SLY OWNER. Stay away.

We received 0 refund from $1300 rental in California. The property owner had a no refund policy—understandable in regular circumstances, not a pandemic. We could not book a future date offered. Did not even refund cleaning fee for an unused property.

If there was a zero star rating that is what I would use. VRBO has demonstrated a complete lack of customer consideration for the travelers during the COVID-19 pandemic. They issued an emergency policy but there is no obligation from the property owners to provide a refund or a credit. Our property owner refuses to offer any compensation and VRBO is washing their hands of any responsibility. We have lost over $10,000 which was 2 years of multiple family members saving for this trip. This was a once in a lifetime family reunion of 15 members from 5 states. VRBO refuses to contact the property owner to discuss this with him. They do not care about the travelers. They want to protect the property owners. Unlike AIRBNB who have provided refunds to all people effected by COVID-19, VRBO has not assisted to refund their customers. AIRBNB has also rented properties for the health care workers at their expense. VRBO has done nothing. VRBO has shown how inconsiderate and uncaring a company can be during a time of crisis.

I was forced to cancel my reservation due to covid19. Despite the fact that my rental entitles me to a full refund if cancelled by 4-12-2020 and the reservation was cancelled on 4-2-2020, I have yet to receive my refund. It is ridiculous that upon booking a reservation you are required to submit your deposit immediately, yet 9 days after cancellation I have not received my refund. Customer service has given 3 different answers on the timeframe to receive my refund. Renter Beware!!!