Vrbo Reviews

I have contacted both the property owner and VRBO in numerous occasions trying to locate my £100 deposit placed in a property rental in February 2015. It is now September 2015 and still I'm no clearer as to where this £100 is or why it hasn't been returned to me. My partner and our daughter stayed with the property owner and had a great time, he even helped her with an art exhibition on the last day, fetching and carrying. She says we are the only people to rent through VRBO, VRBO say she has let too many people and returned no one's deposits. Yet they still allow money then get through her hands? Even if what they say is true, surely they have some responsibility being as your money passes through them. I am so angry and upset about this. We are not rich people and had to borrow to pay the deposit on this rental which was necessary for my daughter's schooling.

In early May 2015, when we first contacted Abbey Lane Cottages through VRBO, we inquired about two accommodations, The Captain's Quarters and Cozy Cottage. After consideration and numerous emails with the manager, we booked the Cozy Cottage. We sent our $300.00 deposit and signed a very detailed contract. We received the formal rental confirmation VRBO ** on May 27th 2015 for Thursday August 27th to Sunday August 30th.

You should check that your homes listed as "pet friendly" actually accept pets. We inquired about a "pet friendly" Louisiana site (which even included a pet fee) and received "We ask that no dogs, Thanks" (?). Not sure if this was a scam, someone with poor English, or maybe they don't know what a pet fee is for? For those of us who travel with pets - just a waste of time.

So UPSET!!! My rental booking is down by 40% this 2015 summer due to VRBO changing their search to "best fit" or something like this. Bottom line is I believe us property owners need to move away from this mega site as they are controlling booking as they see it "fit" for them to make money. Not in the best interest of property owners or renters for sure.

Rented a home through VRBO. Was told by the owner if we write a negative review on VRBO - he can simply take it down, as he did not want unfavorable reviews to adversely affect his rating! A house infested with flies and tattered linens is something other guests might want to know about? I guess the rating system on VRBO is flawed at best.

I rented a house from the VRBO site and I was unhappy with the outcome. Told owner that I was very upset and would let my feeling be known via a review on the website. The website refuses to post so I am very concerned that they only post positive reviews so customers like me don't get the real story.

I have attempted to book accommodations twice on VRBO. The first host never responded. The second host was very responsive and accommodating but for the fact that there was no way to book his property. I will now officially give up on VRBO. It has been a huge waste of time.

Had gone online to look through rentals and logged on through my Facebook. Some time ago I had updated my Facebook account and switched to a new email address. Apparently this email was never updated through VRBO (why I don't know since the accounts are linked). I found a rental I liked, and rented the home. Afterwards I went back in to pay my deposit. I logged on through Facebook and I went to my account and it said to send an email for verification purposes. I had an email sent, checked my email after some time and nothing. Called VRBO to see where the email had gone so that I could log on and pay my deposit. They informed me that my account had my old inactive email. I asked where I could update my contact information and they informed me that "you cannot update your account information."

I received an email from Evelyn on March 3, 2015 regarding the rental unit for final instructions for her rental unit. She clearly stated 11 pm as her check-out time in the email. I do not believe I have to verify/validate her information since she has done this multiple times & it is my first time renting from individuals. I went on this trip with 6 other people & had forwarded her last email with final instructions to 3 of my friends whom were also under the impression that check-out is at 11 pm because that is what the email states. We planned our trip based on the time she provided.

Rented condo at Aqua Resorts thru VRBO. Place was filthy and needed maintenance. Went to VRBO to write a review to warn others before they rent. Review has never been posted. Obviously they only allow "good reviews" to post for people to read. This is wrong and misleading to only post positive reviews. I now understand why the last review on this unit was a positive review but was 4 months ago. Will not use VRBO again.

A home in a vineyard - the perfect place to be for a 60th Birthday, Napa weekend with my girlfriends!!! We did it all, from this superbly located house. It was beautiful, clean, and had more than we even needed. I'll be coming back!

When we arrived at this mountain condo we expected to find it as advertised. It smelled like sewerage, had filthy carpet, egress was impeded by damaged door frame, non working smoke detectors, rumpled beds with used plastic fork on top. Fireplace was left dirty. We could not stand it. We left and called the owner. She promised return call. Never happened. We called again. No answer. We asked VRBO for help. Never happened. Sympathetic ear at first until you really want assistance. Then you learn VRBO has NO hold over its customers and will not offer any words of advice except seek counsel. Owner finally responded by the way. Guess what? We punched a hole in the wall of a room we never stayed in. We left within 30 minutes of our arrival. Our PROPERTY CASE # ** did us no good. Why use VRBO? There is no reason. Never again will I consider using VRBO.

I had a negative experience at a property rental listed on VRBO regarding the Lotus Lake House in Grass Valley, CA. I posted a factual review and the owner was allowed to attack me personally both on and off the website. He wrote harassing emails and left voicemails threatening me if I did not remove the review. Apparently this practice is allowed by VRBO. The owner was then allowed to post personal information about me on the website and VRBO refused to remove the listing even after I escalated the problem to a manager. So there is a reason there are very few negative reviews posted on VRBO.

I booked a rental through VRBO.com and up until the day before our arrival I still had no idea where the home was located; how I was to get a key to get into the home; if it WAS a true rental or I had been scammed. I called VBRO and was pretty much told that I was responsible for my own reservation. I got the feeling this company was detached from my questions about what I would do, and where would I go, if this reservation was a scam. I was told "how the owner runs their business, is up to them." I did not feel VRBO was a company that required much booking details and accounting from their owners. I did finally receive the home & gate key from the owner the day before our arrival which had me angry and turned off by this company. I will never book through them again.

Owner has not returned our $300.00 deposit, does reply to emails. Her phone number doesn't work. I can't find any customer service numbers thru VRBO/HomeAway that work, no help for the renter who has problems! Property is rundown, dirty worn carpets. The decking around the house is in major disrepair, loose boards and nails sticking up throughout, a big safety concern. We stayed in August, the house got too warm. No air conditioning and there are few window screens. Ceiling fan in the main living area didn't work. There were two large bags of garbage left on the porch from previous tenants. (Per rental agreement you are asked to leave garbage on the porch.)

Frustrated with searching. Just this morning I looked at a listing that had not been updated for 14 months. Either the calendars are not updated or the owners do not respond. I do not understand this. Wouldn't it be easier for owners to update than to receive inquiries constantly? Instill use local realtors whenever possible.

The reviews cannot be accurate on VRBO.com. I recently stayed in a place that was nothing like the dozens and dozens of reviews it received. I didn't think to actually look at the "traveler's" profile before I traveled, but should have. Upon my hugely disappointing trip which I cut by two days because the accommodations were so unsafe and so unlike the reviews, I re-read the reviews, all of which seemed so legitimate before traveling. There is absolutely no way those were authentic and when I clicked on each "traveler's" profile, only TWO of all those reviewing the space actually every reviewed anything else.

I rented a condo in Oahu in 2014 and when we arrived our unit was on the same wall as the elevator with non-stop noise. It had never been disclosed. We tried to stay 1 night and couldn't sleep. It was so noisy. We called the property manager who admitted it was a problem but the owner refused to do anything. We moved out and had to pay for a hotel. I complained to VRBO and they refused to post my complaint. I will never book with them again.

My first time to get paid as an owner by VRBO has turned into a problem. They hold the first payment for 30 days, then disburse. The VRBO note to me on my dashboard was that 'payment had been disbursed 8/6'. So when I went online and checked my bank account 8/8, it wasn't there. I called VRBO, explained my situation and was put on hold for at least 10 minutes while VRBO's rep checked with ANOTHER company to see where my money was. When he came back on, he told me it should appear in my account in 2-3 business days. I asked him how this other company did their disbursements and he didn't know.

Vacation rental owner or property manager name, phone number, and email address: John **, **, sender@messages.homeaway.com. Website and vacation rental listing ID #: vrbo.com VRBO Listing #**. Description of situation and desired outcome: On March 25, 2015, John ** (the "owner") confirmed my reservation of this listing in Vancouver from July 30, 2015 to August 10, 2015. He took my credit card number as a means of holding the reservation, but did not charge anything to it. He said he would accept only cash in payment on the day of our arrival. I offered other secure means of payment, such as certified cheque, bank draft, or money order, but he refused them all and effectively said it had to be cash or he would cancel the reservation. I accepted his terms.

VRBO has by far the worst connections to customer support that I've experienced in years. They keep you on hold for 30 minutes no matter where you call from. Then to add insult to injury tell you in a recorded message how quick they are to respond to customer needs. Then have a delayed relay Indian support team who lose your call within minutes of answering and when they finally do answer, can't hear you so eventually hang up. The company happens to be one of the best vacation services, until now, but they are like the worker who comes late to work every day and does an exemplary job. He quickly gets fired and VRBO should be no exception. There are too many other services that are more deserving of the mindless work involved selling someone else's property for rental. Companies like this that are big, fat and stupid to boot surely won't be around much longer if they continue this MO.

My reason for booking through VRBO instead of directly through homeowners (which would be cheaper) is to protect against fraud. That is absolutely not the case. After submitting proof of a fraudulent property, VRBO did not go to bat for me whatsoever. So what is the point in paying the additional money? They don't even warn about the property. It's still listed with no alerts. I have spent thousands of dollar through them. Never again!

I reserved property #669561 in New York City 4 months in advance and paid 100% in advance for a stay starting on Friday, May 22nd (Memorial Day weekend!). On May 21st (the same day of our flight out of Salt Lake City) we received an e-mail from the owner stating that previous guests had caused damage that could not be repaired in time for us to stay at the property. I think that the property owners had a more lucrative deal from somebody else for the holiday weekend so they bumped us. The grief and anguish of trying to find a place for 4 adults to stay in New York City on the Memorial Day weekend with no advance notice was excruciating! We are required to give a 60 day cancellation notice on our end in order to get a refund on our money. They did refund the money that I had paid in full earlier in the year but there should be compensation to me for cancellation of my reservation with no advance notice.

I went through the VRBO website and rented a cabin called Northern Retreat at St. Helen in St. Helen, MI. I received a confirmation from VRBO, AND a confirmation from the owner. In addition, my bank account held a nearly $1000.00 charge for the property. After all of the confirmations and bank transaction had been effected, the owner wrote to say "Oops, [her] partner had already promised the property for those dates." I asked her to reconsider in that I had received the confirmations, my bank account had been docked, and the VRBO website STILL showed that the property was vacant at the times I had reserved it. She did not. The bank held my payment for 5 business days before restoring it to my account.

We rented a cottage for a week in San Diego for my grandson's wedding. In a conversation with the property (#3878930) owner, John **, I asked if my son 44, and grandson 17 could spend 3 nights with us. The property had a king bed and a full size futon. Mr ** agreed and said there would be no additional cost. We were delighted with the cottage and the Hillcrest area of San Diego. Our problems began the following day when my other children met us at the cottage to plan the next day's activity. We shared some coffee and donuts. There were 8 adults and 4 children present for approx one hour. While they were there I got a call from VRBO, saying the property owner was on the line and wanted everyone out immediately. He asked that I call the owner directly and correct the problem. I called and the owner did not answer. I left a message saying there must be a misunderstanding. Our group was just there briefly and everyone left.

The banking agency, Vacation Rent Payment, from Walnut Creek, California made a mistake with my payment account that has been completely impossible to work out. They have taken my bank account information and misused the information, not allowing me to receive payments or direct security deposit withdrawals from my checking account. I have spent WEEKS trying to remedy these issues with no avail. When I finally received a supervisor she had the same resolution that I had tried already 4 times with no results.

We worked with VRBO for the past 3 years their service for advertisers that pay the vast amount of $ to keep VRBO afloat is declining at a steady rate. A quick search on reviews from Hosts you'll see why. Their customer services and "support" team doesn't do "service" or "support", they "sell". A listing at Gold Level $899/yr received 17 inquiries in a year = $53 per inquiry. A listing at Platinum Level $1299/yr received 16 inquiries in a year = $81 per inquiry. A listing at Classic Level $399/yr received 7 inquiries in a year = $57 per inquiry. Basic Maths. You get better return on investment from burning a load of cash. $81 per inquiry is about 20 times more than Google would charge you for pay per click advertising.

The day we had to check in he disappeared. He didn't answer the phone calls or e-mails. He said her mother would be there to open the house and when we call her, she said she has nothing to do with the house. A cleaning company guy was inside and let us enter to the house. While we were waiting for the cleaning to finish, another man entered the house without announce and later we learnt he did the A/C maintenance and he said he will change the A/C machine on Monday. But we had no idea what he was talking about or how to proceed since there wasn't any responsible person to address to (and we are on holidays, not taking care of his house or anything).

I am an owner of a VRBO rental. I have had great guests for the most part, many are repeat renters year to year. Everything was great with VRBO till Home Away took over. Now I have problems with my calendar, it has made direct contact with my potential renters very difficult. They seem more interested in handling my rental than VRBO did. We've always done it on our own. I've had conversations with my disappointments with them to no avail. I'm about to update my calendar and hope it sticks. We have a beautiful rental as described in our ad. I've heard stories from my guests of other places they have been, we know what to avoid. There is always toilet paper and lots of towels at our house. Don't just blame VRBO - there are bad owners out there also.

As a VRBO subscriber, I communicate with my renters thru their "Dashboard." That's how I answer guests questions. If you go back to the guests email to check that you answered every question... you will lose EVERYTHING that you just typed.

We rented a place for a week at 511 Rideau in Ottawa, Canada through VRBO (this was the second time we used VRBO for a rental - the first time went fine). After having a pretty bad experience with this rental, I decided to post a review. This was the first time I wrote a review - usually things go well and there is enough positive reviews out there that I do not need to add more - I also do not like to open accounts to write reviews. For this one however, I felt that other travelers should not have to go through the same experience that we had. In particular, the material posted on VRBO (and a whole bunch of other sites such as hotel.com, venere.com) is so misleading that I had to write my own review.

I recently made my first serious attempt to use VRBO to book a unit. I know I was looking during a very busy period in the area, so expected difficulty in finding something. So, at first it didn't bother me when I found a calendar that showed availability and then later got an email saying it wasn't really available. But it got more annoying when it happened 3 more times. And yet even more annoying when a week later all those properties were still listed and showing availability on the site.

My wife and I were there at Bella Sirena in Rocky Point, Puerto Penasco, Mexico in April, 2015 and had to leave a $200 security deposit. They took my deposit because they said we damaged a table while there. My wife and I are in our 60's, were there only two nights, and ABSOLUTELY did no damage to any tables. They have been very uncooperative at Seaside Reservations in Lukeville, CA. Also, the resort manager, Ernesto, has refused to return any of my 6 calls to him. I would NOT recommend this place because there is an underlying current of distrust there, and one gets the feeling they want to rip one off as much as possible. Spend your vacation money somewhere else!

I have had a listing with VRBO.com for years and recently have had terrible problems in getting inquiries with losses every day because they cannot get listings correct or in the right areas. Try and get customer service to do anything - FORGET IT! Talk about the run around for months! I do not use their credit cards and they hound me to do so - IT IS ABOUT THEIR BOTTOM LINE and NOT YOURS! The listing was archived - who told them to do this???? I have begged them to fix it because they do not give refunds but they state that the tech support has to repair problems, for months and months!!! Really! Try to talk to the TECH Dept and they do not allow it. VRBO.COM TERRIBLE COMPANY!

Rented a house in Ojai, Ca. We were eaten alive by fleas. Called the property manager who offered to refund our money for one night. Now we haven't heard from her after repeated phone calls. How convenient. Dishonest and not reputable. Definitely not worth the money. Oversold on the website, what a tremendous letdown. Cannot be trusted.

Scarborough Affair, Rehoboth Beach DE VBRO#68033 - We spent a week with 15 family at this VRBO rental. The location was just off Rt 1, at an inconvenient distance from all shops and restaurants and with a very long walk to the beach. The floor layout offered no privacy. The owner falsely advertised 8 bedrooms, but one of the bedrooms was two twins located in an open kitchenette and one was in between a bathroom and another bedroom--it was actually six bedrooms. The shared bath for the two king rooms on the first floor required passage through the kitchen, offering little privacy. The AC on the second floor was inoperable; a service tech was called in and directed that we leave the three bedroom doors open at night in order for the air to flow. The owners were argumentative and accusatory through our week long stay.

First of all I would like to point out that the rental property itself was great. I have no complaints about the property titled Villa Blue Sky Cape Coral, FL. We had a great stay in the place and the owner was very friendly. My review was on the property management company "Blue Sky Property Management." I had a less than successful experience dealing with this company. THE PROBLEM IS... VRBO would not post my negative review. They said that I violated their review guidelines. I reviewed the guidelines again and reposted to meet their satisfaction and I was rejected every time.

I tried booking several condos that were listed as available according to the calendar on VRBO, but then received emails back from the owner that they were NOT available. In each case, the calendar was supposedly updated a day or two beforehand. Owners shouldn't be allowed to advertise falsely that a unit is available when it actually is not. I won't use VRBO again!

It is just very misleading. On the site is says taxes not included, yet they have published nightly rates that include the tax. What happens later, do they again add in the tax since the site clearly says taxes not included. Don't trust sites that do this to the travelers.

This was our first renting a vacation home from VRBO. What can I say? Their Home Away commercials were very cute. Couldn't resist the dog in the commercial. We stayed at this home located at 307 North Signal Street in Ojai, California on 6/26, 6/27, and 6/28 2015. When we checked in, we were very pleased with the house as it looked just like the pictures shown on the website. We were relieved as it was our first time renting a house through VRBO.

My husband and I recently had a terrible experience with a VRBO rental, with the listing not being as advertised (AC not functioning, over 90+ degrees in the home, water the color of urine from the faucets, no drapery/blinds, lacking furniture, lacking basic kitchen necessities they advertised having, etc). When we asked to leave, and be refunded, we were denied by the owners. When I threatened to complain to VRBO or Amex for a chargeback, they instead withheld our $1000 cash security deposit. We now are taking them to court with an attorney. Despite our horrible experience, VRBO won't allow my negative review. I edited the review twice to "meet their guidelines", have called and emailed customer service, but they ignore me. I also think they will not accept bad reviews, or possibly they are bribing the owners under the table to pay them to not post. Who knows. But we will NEVER use VRBO or HomeAway again.

SEASIDE GETAWAYS - don't use this company. They hide the fact that half the houses are falling apart and that they have a bed bug issue in some of the homes. The sheets aren't always linen service so you are taking a chance of sleeping on the last guest's sheets.

Using the VRBO/Homeaway website we booked a condo for Thanksgiving 2015 week. On the website it says, in several places, 100% refund if canceled at least 30 days before arrival date. The owner's name and the exact address of the property is not revealed until you book & pay the deposit. As soon as I received the contract from the owner, I became very concerned.

I checked rates thru VRBO. I was instructed to call 888 998-1894. The condo St. John villas St. John USVI was booked at the price they listed. I checked more weeks & same thing. They are advertising prices & no dates are available at price quoted on VRBO.

If you are thinking of listing your property on a commercial vacation rental website AVOID HomeAway/VRBO. My log cabin has been listed with this company for years. Recently the company has made MAJOR changes in their marketing and rental processes, a business move to increase their profits BUT with detrimental consequences to the homeowner.

The beach house we rented only had positive reviews. I wondered why. We rented it anyway and stayed a week. After our review, I wrote a review of the pros and cons but it was never posted! I gave an honest review with the good and the bad. How can we use these rental sites if the owners have a choice to post what they want?

I recently posted a review on VRBO for the above property. I made a mistake when I got back and without discussing it with my wife ask if it were possible to stay again. Without detail, I listed each problem after changing my mind and the owner stated that I "blackmailed" her by putting an honest assessment of the property and my stay there because I didn't get a total refund when she contacted VRBO. This is false. The unit was antiquated and I ignored it. The owner contacted VRBO and stating that I said "if I didn't get a full refund," I'd post the review. I did ask for a price ADJUSTMENT. Not a full refund. The review was removed after the OWNER contacted VRBO and in her reply to me stated that she had never gotten anything other than 5 stars and that it was "sour grapes" on my part.

I have rented on VRBO for many years and have had good experiences until this past February. Found a house in Florida that we wanted to rent. When the inquiry came back it was not owned by an individual but a Travel company in England and managed by a local property management company. We decided to go ahead with the booking, much to our dismay. We got to the rental and the lock box code provided was wrong. I then spent $10 on my cell phone making long distance calls to the emergency number for the property management company to get the code. Finally into the rental and we thought all is good now. No such luck - the pool heat that we paid for was not on. Again tried to call the property management company but it was the weekend and the office was closed and this was not classed as an "emergency."

This is a company that gouges and gouges and gives you very little in return. You are held hostage to doing things their way, or you appear so low on their listing, it's pointless to even be there. For example, we are in the Cayman Islands and have a bank account on the island. They insist on having the ability to deposit right into our US bank account! Well not everyone lives in the USA, but you are punished if you don't. They are not fair in how they have you listed. I used to be #1, now I'm on page 2. They keep on coming up with schemes to take more money, like adding more pictures. If you don't pay to put more on the site, well those that do appear higher.

On April 3, 2015, I entered into a rental contract for Dec 26-Jan 2 of this year, and paid the deposit. Then on June 3, 2015, I received an email stating that my reservation had been cancelled, deposit refunded and remaining balance cancelled. I immediately replied to the email asking why the reservation had been cancelled. I called HomeAway/VRBO to see if this was a mistake. They said that there was nothing that they could do to help me other than providing the owner's phone number to me. I also attempted to reach ** by phone (the name of the property owner changed during the time period of 2 months, yet the phone number remained the same), but I was only able to leave voice messages.

VRBO advertises condo rental units in Breckenridge CO with associated reference number, shows pictures of the unit, provides a detailed description of the unit HOWEVER, the unit you actually rent could be any unit. The listing are generic! Clearly, false advertising, lying, deceitful and deceptive. If I didn't ask for the actual number of the condo, I would not have been told that the unit I picked from online pictures was not the one we would get.

Rented luxury condo at 201 in Iron Horse, North Star. The rate was 2000.00 week with cleaning. This rate was the same all summer. We were there June 3-10... listing advertised being in the village of north star and how great it was to be right in the middle of restaurants, theater, gondolas for hiking, etc. None of these, except 2 restaurants were available. We stayed there to be able to take gondola hiking. No mention in listing that services unavailable some of the year. Left 2 messages for owner, unreturned, and VRBO has not published my review.

We have about VRBO 30 listings. Recently they have created insurmountable procedures to getting info from potential guests. We are through providing them 10k+ year. If you want to "live" on VRBO's dashboard and pay all the commissions then you are perfect for them.

Rented a place in Vancouver downtown. It was listed as "Brand New" very quiet neighborhood. We were told we would have parking right in front of the condo for $20.00 per day. After talking to some of the residents we realized we paid $180.00 in cash for on street parking which she pocketed. Called the city and a permit was $10.50 per week. When we called her on this she talked in circles and told us this was a service she provided. When we walked into the building, the very old building, there was a sign posted that it was treated for bedbugs!! This 1938 so called brand new condo seemed ok though. After getting the tour of the place, it seemed nice enough. After she left we started to look around and found that the entire kitchen was run by extension cords running all along the walls. The oven was so filthy we could not use it. We had to take the carpet outside and clean it, disgusting.

Watch out for VBRO (and vacation home rental companies like it)--some homes are truly represented--and it seems many are not. So from rental experience--try to visit or send someone to visit the home you plan on renting. Only the too good to be true pros are mentioned and photographed in the write ups. It's pretty shocking when you arrive. Before you rent--ask the owner or property manager to tell about the cons of the property to try to get a feel for what the property is really like.

I booked with a property owner named ** for a cottage on the bay in Gulf Breeze, Florida through VRBO. This was done several months before the scheduled trip and I made a large down payment to her thinking that I was scheduled for a summer vacation. A few weeks before the trip I received a notice to make my final payment but as I tried to push the pay now button, it wouldn't go through. I was promptly emailed that the payment was cancelled. Owner told me that VRBO had double booked but upon contacting them I found out that she was alone responsible for booking.

I would never use their site again. I was looking for a house rental in Washington. I booked what I believed to be a "house" on VRBO and when we arrived it turns out to be an apartment rather than a house. So we are now spending our quiet romantic vacation cramped under somebody's house with them thumping above us with very little privacy. I do not the listing has changed since we booked it and the price has dropped almost $100 compared to what we paid and now is clearly listed as an apartment. When I went to lodge a complaint it will take days to process by then we will be back in California. VERY VERY annoyed after 12 hour drive getting here. Not at all what we expected or wanted. I can supply a receipt when I am back home.

I rented a house in Temecula CA. On the VRBO website in May 2015 The pictures were beautiful and it received great reviews; 5 stars from everyone. The house on the outside was beautiful and the garden and views spectacular, however, the inside of the house was dirty and smelled bad, the beds were uncomfortable and the bathrooms were unusable. When I tried to post an ACCURATE review on this house VRBO refused to post it. I rewrote the review according to their "guidelines" and they still have not posted it and have closed my account. Renters BEWARE... you may not be getting reliable information from this website.

We reserved an apartment in NYC for a week from Ideal Oasis through VRBO. When I walked into the Ideal Oasis lobby it was full of disgruntled people. There were several different parties waiting there for their apartments to become available. They were all being told that they were waiting on the cleaning people to bring the key back to them. It was already after 5 pm and 2 hours after the apartments were supposed to be available for check in. While I was waiting, another person called and said their key didn't work for the apartment they were trying to get into. After 2 employees did some looking around at their stash of keys, they discovered they had given him the wrong key.

We rented VillaVerde1 #5 Tamarindo, Costa Rica (May 19-24). It was disgusting with barely or no running water depending on the day, could not flush toilets, we could not take showers or do dishes, smelled like sewer in the condo and all along the street. The property manager clearly did not care. I feel taken advantage of, it was unhealthy and am having health issues since, not to mention my hard-earned money was taken. This rental should be taken off the VRBO rental list completely. Where is the quality control? This property is managed by Longasta real estate **. He acted like he could care less and why should he? He had our money. I want my money back as it was like living in a sewer for 5 days.

Condo rented in Branson MO was so unacceptable we could not stay there. Carpets were disgustingly stained and unclean. Sofa was stained and cushions sagging and uncomfortable to sit on. But the very worst part was the horrible smell of mold. Contacted owner who chose to keep all of our money even though he knew we would not be staying there at all. Almost $900 spent for absolutely nothing.

My house was not even listed with them. One of my enemies put a bad review on me and they listed it as a review for VRBO on another one of my properties. I called and told them how is it possible for them to post a review on a house that does not belong in their advertising. They posted it anyway.

I have been a member since 2009. The yearly costs have continued to rise. For the important rental inquiry time, they had my marker placed in Virginia on a golf course. I called and spoke to a representative whom stated he could not locate us on Lake Gaston, although two neighbors in our cove are listed with them. I have received one booking this summer, which is a repeat customer. Every other year I have been entirely booked. My prices have not been raised. I find it very odd. This is my last year with VRBO.

I have spent many hours trying to find a place in Chicago for an upcoming trip. What I have found on VRBO breaks down into 1 category: places that say they are available that aren't. Either calendars aren't updated after someone rents a place or they have different requirements than they list on the site - like 6 day stay requirement when the site says 1 day or 3 days. Most of these places you need to email to find out this information, so it takes you several days to get a load of responses that basically say you are out of luck. I asked a couple of these places why the site doesn't reflect this information and they have all said that VRBO isn't the primary way that they do business, so they just don't bother. Well that's what I suggest regarding VRBO - don't bother you will end up annoyed and frustrated and have nothing to show for it.

I'm sure I could tell you this cottage is lovely if I actually got to spend the night in it. Myself & 5 other girlfriends settled on a this cute little cottage for a girls' trip & 40th birthday celebration. The cottage was booked & deposit paid over a month in advance. We all made the track from Vancouver, BC to Seattle. When we arrived in Seattle, one hour before we were suppose to check into the cottage, we got an alarming phone call... THEY HAD DOUBLE BOOKED US!!!

I began using VRBO and VacationRentals.com in September 2014. Within a couple of months, I received a warning message that my account was going to be restricted due to violating policy and not accepting all bookings and payments through their payment system. Never have I taken a payment outside of their system, not once, not ever. In fact, on my own website I had all of my listings, 45 of them to be exact, linked to my VRBO listings because I wanted the Damage insurance that comes with my VRBO bookings and to avoid the security deposit hassle. After talking to customer service, they removed the warning, only for it to appear again a couple of months later. I again talked to customer service and they once again removed it, both times telling me they didn't know why it was happening.

I have rented a condo through VRBO HomeAway on April 3rd, 2015. The company renting the condo - Avanti Way. I was promised by **, agent at Avanti Way that my deposit will be returned the following week. It is now month and half and I still have not received my deposit. All attempts to contact the agency, calls and emails, including attempts to contact the manager of the agency, remained unsuccessful. I greatly appreciate your help!!

done.

We had a fantastic week in Sand Pointe 124 on Sanibel Island. The condo was very warm and inviting and full of many extras to make our stay wonderful. The condo provided awesome views of the ocean both day and night and was centrally located near many great restaurants. We would highly recommend this unit and have already booked our stay for next year.

I have a guest currently in my vacation rental property. This guest booked months in advance for her holiday and according to my dashboard, the guest made three payments which all went through. However, now that the guest in my place, only two of the three payments from VRBO were disbursed to me even though on my dashboard it says all three have been disbursed, on the same day. I have dealt with five different people at VRBO, and get a different story every time. The confusion and lack of care is astounding to me along with the stock replies i.e. "We are doing all we can" which means every time I call they simply send an email to the office that disburses payments.

I own a house that is listed through VRBO. I have been reading these complaints. I am here to tell you that Owners are being treated equally as bad as our potential customers. It used to be you got a request because the customer found you through VRBO and you were able to take over the booking and get on with it. Now VRBO wants to handle ALL aspects of the booking, including taking the money, holding it for you until after the guests stay (read - collect all that interest instead of you getting the $).

I have utilized VRBO for many years. Just recently switching back after long-term rental for 5 years. First 3 months went wonderful with requests and bookings. I paid for a feature ad and am unsure of why I have not experienced any new inquiries or bookings since doing so. My home is in the Corridor area of Cabo. I have 5 star reviews from all recent guests and the house is very reasonably priced. The listing order has been revised to include specific areas which I tried to explain to their customer service were actual housing development areas and that my specific area is not listed. Point being, if you are not familiar with Cabo, you will not search Cabo - Corridor Areas - Other Corridor Areas, 3 different searches required to get to my property.

The site is OK for renters, but they aren't the customers of Home Away/VRBO because renters deal primarily with property owners. The property owners are the customers of HA/VRBO & they seem to agree that they are HORRIBLE!! Because they are the largest, they seem to think that they have a monopoly, so they can care less about their customers/property owners. I have been with using Home Away & VRBO for over 7 years. I have 3 properties listed with each, i.e. 6 listing at the highest levels offered. Last year I paid them over $7,000, but I won't be renewing my subscriptions because I am getting no bookings. That's because my listing priority is so low. For example, on Home Away using all applicable filters, my 2 BR cabins are # 54 & 55 out of 150. Without filters, & on VRBO it's even lower. The problem is that they keep changing priority criteria so they can get more $ & some recent priority requirements are things I don't control.

Arrived at 7:00 P.M. in Jerusalem. After one hour of chasing ** for the key, he appeared. We dumped our bags and went to get dinner. Upon returning, we were overcome by the filth. The shower leaked so badly then I fell in the watery "bathroom". Exhausted, we fell asleep. Checked into Leonardo Plaza where they told us of two other couples from last week with same experience. Asked for a refund less the one night and was told to go to H-ll.

I am trying to book a vacation rental on VRBO but can't seem to get by the bait and switchers. Seems like the properties that I like are always booked for 'my dates' but they are happy to help me find something else. C'mon VRBO, get your anti-fraud crap together! Instead of burying your link to report a fraudulent listing, why don't you embrace it like all the other reputable sites and manage this problem? It appears you are enabling or even promoting this activity for the listing revenue but regardless of which it is, I'm going to a local Realtor to book my trips from now on. I'm done with you until you get your ** together.

So I booked a condo in Navarre, FL in June 2014, paid a $200 deposit owing $675 more by March 3rd, 2015 so we cold take our family vacation this year. Vacation was to begin April 4th, 2015 and end April 11th, 2015... as the date was getting closer we had some questions for the owner so we contacted VRBO to get owner's information only to find out they couldn't find our reservation at all or even the property listing. Finally found it under my husband's name and gave us property owner info. After calling at least 30 times that day we finally speak with her, she states she no longer owns the property so now where do we go, who has our money?? Contact VRBO again to let them know she no longer owns property and they state that the only thing I can do is file a complaint towards her, so I fill out that paperwork and email it back to VRBO in which they give her 7 days to respond in what happened.

I found a listing in Akumal, Mexico, over Christmas thru VRBO's sister site, HomeAway. I sent an inquiry, along with dozens of others. Many came back as already booked and I just filed or deleted the emails. I received one email that said they had had a cancellation. The first thing I did, because with dozens of inquiries, I couldn't remember the listing, was to look it up. Sure enough, it was listed as available and within my price range so I responded that I was interested.

Researched the VRBO website and tried to rent the property unsuccessfully. Called the 800 number to clarify and secure the rental. On this call I found out that the rental was available, but the rental cost was 3 times what was posted on the website. This is a classic case of bait and switch. TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!!!

While searching for rental home for a week in La Quinta for next year, we found a home that was handled by a company called Presented by LUXE Vacation Homes. We selected our dates and were quoted $2,100.00. When we sent the email trying to complete the rental, we were sent an email informing us the price was actually $4,244.00. I called the company immediately. I was told that the quotes on HomeAway did not include "taxes". Really? 2K in taxes? When I told the woman I would stay away from any property managed by them, she said, "good". Nice. To add insult to injury, I am now receiving spam emails from luxury business in the La Quinta area, courtesy of this untruthful property management company.

VRBO's new search functionality for travelers is a failure. Their original map-based searching was simple and effective. It worked like this for the USA - Pick a state from the US map, then pick a region from the state map, then you got a list of cities to explore. Travelers could return to that list of cities and explore all the hidden nooks and crannies out there. It worked for over six years for me.

On the road to a vacation rental in FL, the real estate agent renting the property told us not to come as the rental payment had been removed from his account so he had changed the entry pin and we would not be allowed in the unit. The agent at HomeAway/VRBO had returned the payment as "the bank" had informed them the payment was fraudulent. The credit card company had no record of any contact with HomeAway. If the credit card company had been contacted they would have contacted me as I was the only party who could determine if the payment was fraudulent. Since I was on the road to the rental, there was a problem and I lost time and money to obtain payment so we could check in the following day.

We tried rent "Island House C 219 Ocean View Rentals, Hdtv, Wifi, St Augustine Beach Fl' for the month of June in 2015. After sending an email and getting no response, I called their reservations line 1 888-840-6538 on March 20th 2015 at around 6pm cst. The agent that answered told me that they don't respond to emails and that they would not honor the price listed on their website of $2,395 per month. They indicated that they could only accept $5000 for the month. This is twice the price that is listed. It seems misleading to post such a low price and not honor it.

After years of subscribing to VRBO without a problem lots of 5 star reviews joy of ownership. I allowed some so called vacationers book my property at a discount since it was off season, then they changed their minds and had to go another week. I told them to amend the lease and would allow the change since I had availability. They said they would, I told them where the key was from the 1st contract. They sent back the lease without giving me a damage deposit and no record of their drivers license or addresses. They never signed the new lease.

My wife and I rented a vacation rental March 3-11 2015 @ $175.00 per night for 2 persons.. in the complex known as TERRASOL Unit No. 107 Tortuga Building Cabo San Lucas Mexico VRBO Listing No. 461635. This property was/is managed by a Real Estate agent out of Las Vegas Nev. (**) Summerlinrealty www.specialistspm.com

I am a first time user of VRBO. I contacted a listing to see if I could stay there. The property owner only contacted me through my personal e-mail address. They requested I mail a security deposit check and then a month later mail another check for the full amount. Before mailing the check for the full amount, I wanted to double check the website, as I had not received any confirmation from them. Turns out I had no listed reservations. When I expressed I found this odd to the Owner of the vacation rental, they said it was easier for them to not go through VRBO.

They are obviously trying to become a website-only business with no employees, just revenues and of course higher profits. The latest glitch is "two-step-verification"--you can only sign into your account via your US cell phone. I guess nobody thought of ex-pats. So I have no way of getting into my listing to change calendar, prices etc. And no, they don't respond to owners' e-mails, I already sent two. I won't even get into their insistence on getting into the price quote business, when their system can't comprehend tax rates or seasonal prices. Clearly a company getting ready to go down the tubes.

I am a homeowner that has been a client of VRBO for years. I have been scammed by a renter. The renter was caught in her scam, and I confronted her with the situation. She in turn filed a complaint, prior to staying at my condo. I responded on March 5, 2015. On March 21st, I contact VRBO, due to the scam artist trying to reverse her cc transaction. The agent was very rude, and stated that "I never responded to the complaint." I said, "Pardon?" I responded, March 5, 2015. I was placed on a long hold, the agent returned, and apologized that she found the complaint. In regard to this incident, I have contacted VRBO approx. 12 times, and have been misguided. I have gone as far as security.

We had listed our French condo with VRBO for many years. Several years ago the company was purchased from the original people who started it and fees went up dramatically. We accepted this and moved on. However, recently VRBO has changed their listing policies again. It used to be that when you searched for properties in our town (Andlau) you would get 8-9 properties, all located within the town of Andlau. Now, if you search for rentals in Andlau, you'll get over 250 properties showing up, most of which can be up to 3 hours from Andlau. You would have to check on a map, every property listed in order to ensure that you are close to the place you have indicated.

First of all, I am a property owner/manager who pays for a listing on the VRBO website. So my experience isn't with a rental entity who has listings there, but with the VRBO corporation itself. I have an ongoing problem with the VRBO messaging interface. Basically, it's glitched out on two different bookings twice now, and message responses FROM my renters are coming back to me with two lines that say that I have "responded to your message" then a long rundown of all the rental information and then the entire message thread. No new information, my most recent message is not in the thread, nor is the renters response to me. Any attempt to respond to these messages generates the exact same response to my renters and myself. Is this what I'm paying for?

My family and I booked a home at 5524 Gregg Street owned by ** (http://www.vrbo.com/620146) for an upcoming wedding in September. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we were forced to cancel our reservation. According to their listing, the cancellation policy states that a 100% refund will be issued if the booking canceled at least 30 days before arrival date. I promptly notified the owners of the cancellation on February 2nd, more than 7 months in advance of our reservation. ** responded with the following, "Sorry to hear but we can certainly understand and thank you for notifying us early. We are happy to issue a full refund. This is a cash flow business and we will do that as soon as our next reservation comes in which shouldn't be too long."

We just spent 3 days here and we're shocked at how 'icky' this house is. It smells so strongly of dog urine and mold that we didn't even want to stay here once we walked in. The carpet isn't clean, the dining room chairs are gross (stained), and that would be an easy fix. The windows haven't been washed, so the view is marred by that. Our sheets had stains on them and we were not sure they had been washed. The only decent areas were the 2 bathrooms. This place is perfect for frat boys bringing their dogs.... for families, no. We were very disappointed.

I inquired about a property in Puerto Rico, called Playa Azul, Laquillo Beach, Puerto Rico, from ** & some dude named **. She uses him to get your credit card information, saying he is your "contact person when you arrive". Problem is, their mouth does not match their contract so I did not sign it. I called back in 5 minutes and told ** to give me back my "refundable" $250.00 deposit, because nothing we spoke about is even remotely in the contract, that is in writing!

I rented a 3 bedroom, two bath condo that was in a development that was still under active construction and I was not informed of this. I was told pool and tennis court...neither of which is completed. Everyday at 6:30 am trucks rumble past the house and the beeping and dust-laden air prevails all day long! What is my recourse? I complained to the owner to no avail! How do I go about trying to get at least a partial refund? This is a two month rental at 3500 per month. My dream vacation is a nightmare! The owner's name is ** and the address is ** and the name of the complex is Gran Paradiso. Can you offer any advice?

Last year I rented a condo in Gulf shores, AL & it was the third condo in the list of the complex where we wanted to stay. I almost never found it again. We found out that Home Away is now putting rental companies, that charge way more than owners do, to put all of their condos first in the line of each complex. The condo we wanted to stay in was now #49 on this website of VRBO instead of number 3 like it was last year. I clicked on many of the first condos & was so shocked at the prices. They had gone up by at least $350.00 more per week.

We booked a short term rental, paid a 50% deposit and then had to cancel (4 months prior to booked dates/policy was 30 days prior) due to loss of my job. The homeowner, after nearly two months, has not refunded my $450 and ignores all attempts at communication. VRBO claims they are purely an advertising medium and can do nothing to help. Their website boasts about security and fraud protection, but provides none. VRBO seems to be more protective of the advertising homeowners, so if renters stop using their site, the homeowners will no longer need their advertising medium. VRBO either needs to be clear that they are strictly for posting ads, like a newspaper, or provide the protection they advertise. The false sense of security and loss of my money without any concern is beyond unacceptable!

In 2010 I began renting my beachfront condo to short-term transient guest to cover my expenses with this condo. Like so many other property owners, I turned to the service that I used myself, VRBO.com (acronym for Vacation Rentals By Owner). Initially, VRBO was nothing more than a classified ad site for property owners to post their properties in various categories based on location and amenities. Initially, the process was pleasing and enjoyable. Skip forward 5 years and there is not a day that goes by where I do not think of a way to escape the necessary evil in my life. VRBO!

I've used HomeAway or their affiliate VRBO for several years and not had a problem until this month when I lost $2000. I blogged this along with my seven mistakes at lizlies.org. I didn't buy "vacation protection" because it's outrageously expensive and I doubt you'd ever see a return despite the page on HomeAway claiming "Guarantee the rental meets your expectations." I realize they disclaim they are "facilitators" but so is PayPal, Amazon and eBay yet they work hard to provide conflict resolution.

My wife and I rented a house in Ecuador for almost 3 weeks. When we arrived, the property was not clean so we hired a person to clean it. Next it was never mentioned there was a busy highway between the house and the beach, very noisy starting at 5 am; internet did not work, phone did not work, microwave did not work and we did not have hot water. We contacted the property owners several times with no satisfaction. PROPERTY # 655761. I think we should be reimbursed at least part of the rent as this property was not as advertised. I wait for your response. THANK YOU.

As far as the 2 stars for VRBO/HomeAway goes, they're a big controlling company - practically a monopoly on the vacation websites - and I hope to God that some start-up vacation rental site knocks them off the ratings. But until then, I'll have to continue listing with this expensive, non-responsive company. REGARDING SCAMS - I'm a property manager. My VRBO account got scammed. People thought they were contacting me, but they were contacting a scammer at my email address. Without going into details, it was incredibly easy for the scammers (who we found out were operating out of Hayward, California) to hack our accounts and take over. They were offering Travellers a discount if they paid their booking deposit within 24 or 48 hours.

VRBO, which is a subscription based service, unilaterally and without notice imposed a new fee on subscribers compelling them to offer their guests a "Rental Guarantee" to which only VRBO profits.

We have been with VRBO for 3 years and this year, we have had it!! We have a lovely rental property and every time it is rented, VRBO has deposited our money directly into our bank account. This year, they changed that without notifying us. We have a renter paying us for July. The first payment is being held by them until the person checks in, which has never happened to us. We have a 5-star rental home (5-star by every single review) and yet they want to keep our money for 6 months. I have tried for 2 months to get resolve and I keep getting the "runaround!" I am frustrated BEYOND MEASURE!

We rented the Bluff house on the Bahamas through VRBO. The location of the house is nice but we had serious problems. Firstly, the number of rooms is not as advertised: the housekeeper is staying in the house for the first night (on instructions by the owner). This takes away one room and besides this room is in a very poor state. The other rooms were dirty; in one the toilet was not flushed and there were hairs everywhere. Worst of all was that the water tanks were not working and we were therefore without fresh water halfway through our stay. The owner was not able to fix this.

We rented a house in Grass Valley on Rollins Lake Rd. It was a beautiful house but there were some issues. No internet minutes available, outdoor speakers disconnected, pool murky. Turns out the house was put up for sale between the time we rented and the time we arrived. Evidently the renter's were renting it out as a vacation rental. We spent our time but still have not gotten our 750.00 deposit back. Another group we know went shortly after us and they have not received their deposits back either. The person that rented said "we don't have it," so they illegally spent our deposit money. I have their names but am not sure what to do.

We rented a property advertised on VRBO. The property was not as depicted and was a dump so we didn't stay. The owner kept our security deposit and rental fee and we had to take them to small claims to recover our money. VRBO did nothing but protect the owner and still allows them to advertise even though we won in small claims court. VRBO does not protect consumers and knowingly allows owners to misrepresent their properties. Beware of VRBO they are not responsible or accountable.

After being a platinum member for a number of years, I suddenly see my placement moving down the list. When I asked the question why, I was told it was for a number so reasons. I don't use their quotable rates where a traveler can create their own quote. My reason for not is I like interaction with my renters. It gives me the ability to do some due diligence and some selling. I don't use the online booking service where a traveler can automatically book. We're not a hotel. We're particular who we rent to, and have a rental contract and releases to be signed. We don't use their online payment system, which I would use, but can't because I don't use their online booking service. They say I respond too slow. Well, if it's a spring breaker, whom I will not rent to, yes I may be slower. I also have other business interests, so I'm not sitting there just waiting for inquiries to come in, but if I use the automated quote system, what does it matter?

Unlike AirBNB, VRBO seemingly does no due diligence on its listings or owners. While looking for a two week summer rental, I found owners who have never rented (He said: "we have had 38 inquiries and never rented."), inquiries that go completely unanswered, and listings that have not been active since 2007! Clearly VRBO's pay model is to have listings, not to create happy transactions. Last year we found a vacation home through VRBO. The owners were complete novices, not even telling us there was a gated entry that required a code. Then they were annoyed when the system called them on their cell phone whenever we wanted to come back in. It took two days before they gave us the code to enter. It seems there are a lot of listings where people THINK they want to rent but aren't really interested. VERY frustrating. Good idea - poor execution.

We reserved a property in Charleston SC in late January 2015, paid a 50% down payment and cancelled the rental the next day. We have not received a refund more than 1 month after the cancellation. The rental was for a period at the end of May and the beginning of June 2015. The home owner refused to refund our down payment because he is in litigation with VRBO HomeAway for $29,000 in unpaid bills. He has withdrawn all of his properties from the VRBO site.

VRBO listing #396131 - Carmel, CA. We rented this cottage for 3 nights during this last week and were a little disappointed. The couch was so low that you couldn't get out of it once you sat down, the rugs were old and not clean. The instructions for using the TV were almost nonexistent. The master bed was very uncomfortable and sagged in the middle so we both woke up with sore backs. The front porch cover has a rotten post holding it up, seems like this should be fixed. I know you can charge a premium in Carmel and the location of this cabin was amazing, 1 block from the beach, it needs some TLC to warrant any return visitors.

This is an accumulation of events since we subscribed with them. I manage three of our rentals and overall I have been very unsatisfied and frustrated with them. First of all their yearly subscription is a deceiving. According to the initial statement the yearly subscription is $349 vs. 10% of pay per booking fee. Except that they don't tell you that there is a 3% credit card processing fee, so you are only saving 7%. There was another unscrupulous instance with them. We had a large rental come in, since this was early on in my rental it was unexpected and after doing the math we decided to just sign up for the yearly subscription.

We were trying to rent a property for a three day weekend. We found one we liked and the dates were available, so my friend paid the full $900. She was then told that it actually wasn't available, and it has taken days to refund her money. It hasn't happened yet, so we found another property that showed available. I emailed the owner and called. She said she would email me the contract. She then sends me an email stating that the property was actually booked. Look, if you can't manage your stuff, or don't have time to make updates, don't list your home.

Have tried to rewrite a review of a VRBO property, VRBO site claims to be down over a week. Can not revise review at their suggestion, all they talk about is phishing or to list a new property. Can't get anyone to answer me.

We had renters move into our home 1/1/2015, and payment to our account (via their third party vacation pay) should have been dispersed immediately. We receive a bounce back saying our credit union account was invalid, therefore we needed to provide another account number. On 1/6/2015 I did exactly as they asked and on 1/8 it was confirmed that my bank was updated and all payments would be deposited to that account. We received our first payment 1/20/15 and the second payment was never dispersed. I didn't receive a call or anything regarding this payment (they basically just sat on it) until I called 2/5/2015.

VRBO.COM, HOMEAWAY.COM & VACATIONRENTAL.COM IS A SCAM FOR OWNERS. These people took my money, and did NOT provide a secure site so I got a lot of Fake inquires, and one on behalf of a stalker that I had, and she sent me a fake client that video taped my home, made copies of my keys, took photos of my windows and doors, & stole some personal paper work and then left. She then demanded a refund and we ended up in court! She also sent fake letters to homeaway.com accusing my 2 Million dollar home with slander & Lies. Homeaway locked my account, took my monies, didn't refund me and will NOT give me their legal dept. info so that I can sue them! They do NOT ask the travelers for their info, picture, computer IP addresses that should be a given, so anyone can write you and try to steal from your personal info, and come to your home and pose as a traveler!

My family and I picked a VRBO rental. We booked online and waited for confirmation which did not come. The lady listed as owner but from a realtor apparently doing the rentals. Not exactly by owner as it indicated, I got an email from Jimmy **, realtor confirming we had booked for the dates we requested. His information said to call to confirm, which I did right away. He said fine. He would mail a contract. We booked our plane tickets based on having a rental locked in.

I wanted to rent a condo in New York City. It was called "Condo with Two Balconies in Chelsea." It was listed at $700 a night. There is a duplicate condo that is listed for $1900 a night in the New York listing. The name and other info of where to send the bank transfer keeps changing. Originally, it was to go to a bank in South America. I do not believe that this is a legitimate offer. I have not replied to their requests for money.

My husband and I booked this Siesta Key studio after reviewing it online on Dec. 7th 2014. When we contacted the owner she advised us that it was available for the entire week and if we stayed for the full week, she would give us a better price. We accepted. When we got there we were shocked at the amount of space. There was no real space to have a cup of coffee or a light meal or even a sandwich or glass of wine. It was impossible for two adults to sit there comfortably. The "bistro" set would work well if you were small children. The A/C unit had no heat and of all times, it was so very cold.

We started at the end of October trying to list our vacation home. It is a very straight forward rental in a popular vacation spot. We have had utter confusion and virtually no help from them. I think the problem is with the payment site they use which is YapStone. YapStone even began mailing copies of someone else's personal information (tax returns, utility bills, and property deeds to us). I am very uncomfortable that such a large company with such stringent listing details could make such a huge mistake.

I have moved from 11 out of 465 rentals in my mountain resort area to 65th place under their new ranking system. I have a 100% Quality Listing and the maximum dollar, Platinum subscription. My calendar is always up to date. I called, complained and was led through a series of steps to examine the situation. I got a very good thorough review of the situation that supposed displayed that there were no errors nor wrongdoing. What I see however is that out of the first 59 listings ahead of me, only two have any rating stars; I have 13 5-Star Reviews in my first year. Of those 59 only three are listed "By Owner." The gentleman I questioned called them "pay-by-booking" meaning VRBO only get paid if the property is booked.

No deposit refunded after time stated, tried over 10 times TO contact with owner & VRBO.com. 1st 3 days, no hot water. Last 2 days, cockroaches. Pictures taken. Contacting atty. Marco island, Apollo 407, marco island, FL.

I have been advertising my rental for several years with VRBO. Originally it was great. I listed my property, people inquired and I responded and made reservations. Now with VRBO's "new dashboard" and other "upgrades" and this new "listing quality", I am very disturbed. Even though I have responded to the inquiries by going to the dashboard and getting the emails and responding directly and getting reservations, I got a "low listing quality" because I didn't respond through their dashboard. Also, I began getting emails saying the VRBO had sent emails to my guests without my consent or knowledge until after the fact. So I now respond ONLY through the dashboard so as to keep my "listing quality" higher, because "your listing quality score is the most important factor that influences your placement within search results which can improve your performance and help you provide a great booking experience with your guests".

Made a deposit on a vacation rental advertised on VRBO. It turned out to be a scam. VRBO will not take any responsibility for the lost deposit. They admit the property was a scam and delisted it but will not help me to recover my deposit. They are not a responsible organization and I would not trust anything advertised on their site. They make no effort to check on listings.

VRBO has been very good for us. FLIPKEY and many some others charge the renter and the owner. VRBO does not. VRBO has allowed rental agencies on there which is hardly "BY OWNER." I tried to stay in the Orlando area and there was nothing by "owner," maybe they will catch on. As an owner I had to provide information which they verified but you as a renter can easily check online or call the county's tax office and get an owner's name. If the owner will not provide an address call VRBO, typically they are helpful.

I used to be a big fan of VRBO having used their services since 2003 as a home owner and even earlier for renting vacation homes. But recently they completely messed up when a renter was "accidentally" refunded the entire amount of his stay. When I promptly alerted them to the fact that the website had a glitch they initially said they would fix it but later said that it was too late and that we would have to re-bill the customer who has now magically disappeared off the face of the earth. They then blamed us despite written evidence that the refund would only be for the security deposit. Clearly they had not done due diligence on the customer who was a late booking and are making me pay for their mistake.

I have been advertising my property through VRBO for the past 11 years. Over time things have changed drastically... rates jumped from reasonable to thru the roof. Did not complain too much as I was getting a fair amount of booking thru the site. A few years ago they were bought out by HomeAway and things have gone down hill ever since. There are so many hoops they make us jump thru as home owners. The worst, most egregious thing that they have done is FORCING you to place an instant BOOK IT bottom on your site or they down grade your site positioning. It's bad enough that they are charging over a $1,000.00 a year, they add insult to injury by forcing you to not only pay the highest amount for a decent position but then they want to become your new business partner by sticking their hand in your pocket by forcing credit card fees.

Rented 2-bedroom, confirmed nonrefundable deposit 10/6/14 from Dec. 30 thru Jan/10. Re-confirmed in Nov. early Dec. everything fine. On Dec. 29th while attempting to get check-in information, I was told my unit was not available, however they had another they could supply. I contracted for a 3.5 or 4-star unit was switched at the last minute to a 1-star unit with no options because of PayPal 601 dollar non-refundable deposit. Arriving in apartment provided, I found expired lease where it had been rented for 4 times less than I paid 1 week earlier. Address ** Poblado Medellin, scam artist Jason **, Joseph ** **.

Here's what everyone - both owners and renters need to know - If a potential renter makes an inquiry on VRBO to a homeowner, the email is intercepted and then re-forwarded to the homeowner. That's fine, but there is no means for the homeowner to reach the consumer directly without VRBO intercepting and editing the email.

We used VRBO for a nice place in Wailea, Maui and it was great. We have twice used VRBO for summer rentals in Laconia, NH at a place called South Down Farms. Most recently (last summer) we chose a place advertised as "Immaculate". In fact, that same place is again advertised as "Immaculate" even though for us it was actually very messy and in state of heavy disrepair. My review of this place did make it onto VRBO's website, kudos for this. But the real estate agency that handles it, Bayside Rentals, has not included my largely negative review on its website.

I contacted an "owner" on VRBO - Paul from Indian Springs - about a house he listed on VRBO in Hawaii. After getting a "contract" I wired him the FULL amount (Bank of America to Bank of America, all in the US). We emailed, talked on the phone, etc. It turned out he didn't have any rights to the house he falsely presented on VRBO. I ended up talking to the owners and they had no idea who he is - he stole photos off their realtor's website. I bought renter's insurance from VRBO - I am in the process of doing the paperwork now. Stayed tuned - I'll let you know if the insurance works. I would very much like to reach Susan of Kansas City, MO who posted on Dec. 6, 2014 that she lost $5,000 plus to the same guy. How did VRBO let him post twice----or more?

I had a coupon for a discount on VRBO's ridiculous ad rates and after entering it, they told me it was for New Accounts only. When I called I was treated rudely and told the coupon wasn't valid at all. When I asked for a supervisor, they said there wasn't one there. Terrible customer service!

We stayed at a vacation rental place, which we booked via VRBO Dec 28-1st of January 2015. Found bats in the house and had to call security twice. Landlord refused to change the property due to unavailability but offered refund of money. Now on return and upon asking, he refused for refunding the money. We all including kids had a horrible time all 4 nights being away from home and could not sleep there. Nightmares at night. We could have moved to other rental but due to New Year none were available. I am very disappointed and my family is too. I want to inform people to be very careful with this rental company in trusting them. Need legal action against the people to make sure no one else ever stay there to avoid miserable situation.

Someone rented my condo and left a false review. After contacting VRBO on numerous occasions I was told the only thing I could do is post a response to the false review and it would not be removed. I explained to the VRBO rep. that I have proof in writing and email correspondence that the renter was not telling the truth and I would gladly share the truthful info. The VRBO rep. acted as if they couldn't care less about my situation. Wow! If I treated my long time customers the way VRBO has treated me I would be out of business. The fact that the false review has been allowed to go onto my listing page is unacceptable. I have used VRBO for 4 years now with only good reviews. Looks like I need to find another source of advertising my rental property.

We rented an apartment in Prague in October for December 26-29, for 6 adults and a baby. On December 22 the owner contacted us via HomeAway email and said there was a problem and they had to cancel the rental agreement and that we would be getting a full refund from VRBO. We contacted VRBO and the owner, both saying different things about who has our money and how we will get it back. It's been over 2 weeks and no money has been refunded, so now we are going through our credit card company to cancel it. We had paid full, half in October and the other half in December. The VRBO listing number 598548 is no longer listed on VRBO, and we have been very disappointed with the lack of help on this from VRBO. We have used VRBO in the past but will never do so again!! We were able to find a good place in Prague last minute through AirBnB.

I subscribed to advertise my home on VRBO.com, a HomeAway company, two years ago. I never liked how unresponsive HA/VRBO was to any concerns and requests I had, but I was happy enough there and it generated a lot of business for me. But now HA/VRBO is changing certain policies and twisting the arms of we homeowners (who also happen to be their paying customers). HA's business model is a very cynical one: they woo the nonpaying users, Renters, and abuse the paying customers, homeowners, to that end. They put homeowners in the position of having to work for HomeAway/VRBO, NOT the other way around.

Vacation rental in Crystal River, FL - We rented this apartment in July for the month of Jan. 2015. We sent the owner $350 deposit as requested. This was the last we ever heard from her, despite numerous attempts to contact her. On Dec. 27, we received a call from her - after we decided we had been scammed and changed our plans. We declined to send any more money and instead, cancelled our reservation. She, of course, is keeping our deposit and we are not only out the money but everything is booked now and we have no place to stay. This was a very unhappy experience for us and VRBO did pretty much nothing to help us. I made a formal complaint against the owner to VRBO "security" department and have yet to hear back from them. I'm told I can't write a negative review of the property since we never stayed there!! Beware of dealing with this company. It runs a shoddy and dishonest business.

I have had a few guests stay in my apartment that came from the listing I had on VRBO. Everyone of them gave me a 5-star rating and only had good things to say about the place and neighborhood. Recently, a lady from Canada stayed in the apartment and she complained that the apartment was smaller than what she saw online and that in fact the apartment advertised online appeared to her to be an assortment of different pictures from several other apartments. This was a complete fabrication and totally incorrect yet VRBO unlisted my property and then sent me a letter stating that I am permanently removed from their website and that I can never advertise there again. They also forfeited the fees that I paid to list the property.

I booked two properties through VRBO. One owner, Sean **, canceled my reservation without any explanation, but at least he refunded my money. The other owner, Andrea **, kept my money for over four months, then canceled my reservation because she no longer owned the house. That's right, she held onto my money for a reservation on a house she no longer owned. When I called VRBO, they said there was nothing they could do, even when I pointed out that Andrea **'s listing still appeared on their website.

We requested a condo reservation through VRBO which was not approved by the non-responsive owner in time (short notice booking) so we contacted VRBO to cancel the request (which is not a true reservation until it is accepted by the owner). They agreed we would not be charged and said they would contact the owner directly. 3 hours after we booked another condo the owner of this first condo accepted it and charged us, even though he knew it was cancelled and VRBO had confirmed the cancelled request on the phone. VRBO again confirmed on the phone that we would not be charged, but it would take 7 days to refund.

My wife called the owner Kim ** about a property in Hawaii on Maui Island. She was very pleasant, so we decided to book and pay in full about 7 weeks before our trip. I received an email with a LINK to the rental agreement. It wasn't really an agreement, it was more a list of things to do when we arrived in a scroll box. I saved this page on my web browser. About 12 days before our rental, I get a call from the owner, saying I needed to sign some paperwork, including an agreement. I looked in my spam folder and didn't find anything resembling an agreement (it was all one-sided rules) that also said I would pay for all electricity if the bill was over $120. This was something new I'd never seen before. When I went back to the link of the original contract, it was now completely different. So I sent VRBO an email asking for the "agreement" at the time I paid, and told the owner I would get back to her in a few days. She freaked out, and sent an email at 11:00 PM, demanding that I sign the agreement before midnight. The next day, I asked for clarification on the demand and she just canceled my reservation, stating she was keeping my money.

Rented a property on line and was then sent confirmation email also requesting payment in full to be sent to a bank out of the country which turns out to be a fraud. The money was sent then days later an email from VRBO saying that they had suspicious activity on this particular rental. Now dealing with banks trying to retrieve my money $3000.00 Also dealing with FBI and International Police for cyber crimes. Be aware of these scams and do not send any money until all is checked out. VRBO does not guarantee any monies if this happens only up to $1000.00 after all other possibilities exhausted. They are not very helpful when questioned - they said this does happen a lot. Great look for other ways to pay if you either directly with the owner by the old fashioned method of a check which can of course be cancelled.

I have listed my property in Mexico with VRBO for many years, listing # **. Apparently another company called HomeAway has recently acquired this company. There was no notice given to me about this change of ownership or new requirements so I could check my listing and get up to date on any new procedures. The website is totally changed and hard to navigate.

Beware of Paul from Indian Springs vrbo scam 206 N Ocean Dr. October 2014. We "rented" his villa. Thank goodness we had to cancel and did not send him the remaining $5200. When we canceled he never called us back, never replied to emails, removed the property from VRBO. He robbed/scammed us out of $5200. We are still going to prosecute but wanted to post a warning. Don't do business with him.

My wife saw a listing for a girl’s weekend in New York City. It was for a Chelsea, New York City Apt. - sent deposit to owner Susan. When they arrived from Tampa, Fl., they picked up keys and told the address. When they arrived, the listing was not for the apt. they saw online. This is what we call Bait and Switch. Do not use VRBO.

I called in to HomeAway customer support (I'm a homeowner) on a Monday morning and waited 20 minutes in queue. The agent, after hearing my need, put me on hold for an unknown reason. I said, "Hey, don't drop my call please and don't subject me to a perpetual hold." He said, "Of course not." But 19 minutes later (that's a total 39 minutes), they dropped my call!! This is not my first unsatisfactory experience with their customer support. Now I'm back in queue at 11 minutes and counting.

We stayed at this rental Casa de Corazon in San Diego. Athena and "bo" ** are the smooth talking owners. It was not as advertised. It was in the ghetto instead of the gas lamp district as advertised. There was a fence up all around and one had to put security code to get in gate! Not to mention the Mercado grocery store had a cop walking in parking lot as well as one in store. Yowzers. Scary!

Beware of renting a VRBO listing for a particular 2 bedroom Ocean & Canal Front home on Cudjoe Key. The manager on the listing took our deposit (almost a year in advance) made out to her realty co, it was cashed, and when the time came to pay the rest, we were told the realty company she had been working for went out of business, that the place was rented to someone else and and we couldn't get our $500 deposit back! We don't know whether it was a scam or negligence but we're out of our vacation rental And $500. We spoke to the new rental agency, the original realtor, and wrote a letter to the actual owner (looked up his name on the tax records) with no success.

I have used VRBO for many years successfully. However, I recently had a listing on VRBO from Greece (#3670066), fraudulently use my credit card information and had to contest the charges through my credit card company when VRBO would not act on my behalf. They are STILL listing the property and the property is phishing for more money from me by sending payment links for money I do not owe as I am not renting their property, nor have I agreed to in person or in writing. I contacted VRBO AGAIN to let them know that this company is phishing for money and they see no problem with continuing to work with this property.

A traveler booked my apartment on October 28 and paid by credit card. Payment was received on the same day by VRBO. Today, November 14, I didn't received yet my payment. I called VRBO and, after 20 minutes of waiting (their call service is horrible!) a lady told me she didn't see the booking I was talking about and suggested me to call Homeaway. After insisting she finally found the booking, she saw the payment and she couldn't do nothing to direct my payment to my bank account. She suggested me to call Homeaway. I am waiting them to reply. VRBO is keeping $1,017 unauthorized, and he doesn't know how to credit it to my bank account. I don't have words to comment this. If you are a property owner I wish you good luck. I will never work again with them.

We stayed at a home in Boca Grande, FL because it had all perfect 5 star reviews. We found the home to be not so clean. Since our grandchildren were coming, we washed all the tile & wood floors, and the water was very dirty. We were allowed to bring our cat. During the night, we would hear her chasing something and growling. Each night we would open the 2 drawer dishwasher and find about 10 cockroaches running in them. We started checking around the home and found some very large ones either alive or dead under beds and under curtains on the floors. We also found them in the shower during the night. We also found many baby ones in pictures frames on the wall. Our cat also chased a mouse a few times, which we could not catch.

Airbnb 3.0% gross rent; Admin hours: Airbnb takes about 1/10th the time to deal with vs VRBO (Airbnb system is more efficient facing hosts). Apparent reasons for the above performance differences: Airbnb site has broader internet coverage, extensive language support, more professional presentation to guests, better guest/host review/feedback system, easier for hosts to use. Airbnb is more complete comprehensive system.

We have stayed at a number of places, typically in the $150 to $250 per night range, in Utah, Montana, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and now St. John, USVI. We have always had a positive experience, until now.

I have been with VRBO, HomeAway and VacationRentals for my two villas in Florida for the last four years. I currently pay $3,000 per year! Whilst I have been getting bookings, the customer service is disgustingly poor. (And mine is a Platinum subscription!)

We have been an owner of a VRBO property since 2009. This is the only property we own and we try really hard to accommodate our guests. Lately VRBO has been making "improvements" and thus making it very difficult on the owners to accept payment and reservations. They have thrust upon us a new feature called the Hospitality Manager, with no warning or any kind of guidelines of how to use it. It gives guests the ability to access certain features of our rental, directions, codes, and such even before they have paid the balance of their stay.

I have read some of the comments on this site. I both list on VRBO and rent from VRBO. I have had good and bad experiences renting. I also read other property descriptions on the website. I personally have rented twice with poor to terrible (did not stay there) rentals. I am amazed at how people in the area I have a rental, "stretch" the truth about access to golf courses, beach clubs and extra costs. I am very honest with my listing, pictures, descriptions and reviews. I wish there was a better way to have people describe their listing more truthfully. In my case, I just let the experiences go and did not complain to VRBO.

I have been attempted to post a review on a rental property I acquired during the renovation of my home in the month of September. To my surprise I have been unsuccessful in doing so as it would appear that if you try to be honest about your experience (the good or the bad, in my case VERY BAD) VRBO will not allow you to post anything unless it is a "5 star" rating. I have tried countless times in posting my review but no matter how many times I revise it and edit it in order for it to be posted VRBO has always declined in posting it for one reason after another. It then occurred to me to review the reviews on VRBO both pertaining to this particular property I had rented and also in general.

We rented a cabin in the area of redwoods state park in California in August. We went and had a nice time, despite assurances from the cabin owner he still has yet to return our deposit. When we went to post about it on the VRBO.com website, they censored our review, even though we said nice things about the cabin, but mentioned we were frustrated we were unable to recover the deposit. I can only imagine what else they have censored form their reviews. So do not trust their reviews on their homes for rent because they censor negative reviews. Hurting their customers in favor of the rental owners.

We have rented vacation condos for years in the US and abroad with absolutely NO problems. We have been treated very fairly and found the property owners very helpful in all regards. I was really surprised with the number of negative complaints some folks wrote about. It has not been our experience at all. We have had no reason to contact VRBO or HA on anything to-date. Have we just been really lucky? We try to deal with the rental property owners directly when possible. I did note that when I tried SEVERAL TIMES to submit a very positive review for a property we stayed at, it never was printed on the owners' listing.

We rented a vacation home VRBO #3690334ha in Fort Lee, NJ for 4 days in summer 2014. We are unable to get our $1000.00 deposit back. The owner who was very nice before renting stopped returning our calls, texts and emails when we tried to call her to get the deposit back. It's been more than 2 months, we have just filed a formal complaint with VRBO. Let's see what they can do.

The Lambourne 725 Pine st Unit #304 San Francisco, CA 94108 - Enjoyed my stay there. There was a $350 security deposit. They didn't return the money to me. I complained about 6 weeks after my stay was over. The owner didn't respond. When she did she wanted to refund me $327. The VRBO management has been no help. I would stay away from this renter and VRBO in general. They will RIP YOU OFF!!!!!!!

We tried to rent the following property on VRBO.com in #59461 on 7 rue du Marc Antibes. For seemingly no reason, the manager became unresponsive except for smug phone texts saying she would be in touch shortly. She never did respond to my requests for an email account for a PayPal payment. Has anyone had trouble with this listing before? I worry that it is a scam despite the reviews...

My family rented VRBO 240500 in Stowe Vermont. We were asked to provide a separate check for the (very large) security deposit of $750. Prior to our arrival I wrote the owner and asked if we could bring our dog. She replied IF I was willing to pay for additional cleaning costs. However, I was able to find another place for my dog while we were traveling and did not bring him. The homeowner met us at the house and took us around for about 30 minutes, telling us to take off our shoes, how to open and close the windows and window coverings, how to work the tv, etc. She could clearly see we did not have a dog with us, did not ask to see a dog, did not ask about a dog, and was there when the rest of the group finished emptying the car. When it came time to get my security deposit back, she had cashed and KEPT the check, saying she was keeping it because we brought a dog.

I was with both VRBO and HomeAway for over 12 years! They treat the owners like they don't care a stitch! They do not protect both owners or renters from deception. They are merely there to take your money. BEWARE OF VRBO.

We rented 102 State Street, Rehobeth Beach this summer #292418. Two weeks before check in time we emailed and called the owner to find out how we would be obtaining access to the property. He never did respond. VRBO told us not to worry, that they vet their listings. We found a kind local realtor who went to the door of the property and the current renters called us - they did not find out until one hour before check in time. Frustrating as they had coolers, out of town guests, etc. The morning of move in day we finally heard back. At the end of our stay we took pictures to show that we left the house in excellent condition. We never received our deposit back - neither did the past renters, in spite of emails and phone calls. We feel this guy is scamming people and are disappointed with VRBO as well. The travel editor for the Washington Post tried contacting VRBO and the owner as well, with no response.

First, let me start by saying I have three homes I rent in vacation areas. I always get back to inquiries within hours, even while traveling. If I do not have what the renter wants I let them know so they do not waste time AND I may have gained a client for another time period. The few time I have attempted to rent homes - worldwide - and any of these websites I have come away disappointed, disgusted and weary. Rarely are the calendars updated or correct as to bookings OR rates. What a waste of time! Some are deliberately left blank for months, years. Why bother?

VRBO is only a listing service. It doesn't own the properties listed, and it isn't responsible for the scams perpetrated by the people who list properties on the site. I do agree that VRBO should do better at enforcing truth in advertising and following up on reported scams or misleading listings. However the fact that customers are getting scammed by people listing property on Vrbo.com says more about the sad state of today's dishonest society than it does about Vrbo.com. As long as there's an opportunity to rip off people, someone somewhere will do it. The protection against rip offs is easy - pay with a credit card. No scammer is going to accept payment by credit card, because they can be easily identified and thereby prosecuted if something goes wrong.

In short, VRBO owner's email account was scammed and our money was wired to the hacker in UK. Then the owner phoned said didn't receive any $. Appears similar scam happened since 2011 at least, but VRBO & HomeAway are not taking any responsibility for what happened. So is the owner. Shame on this public traded company which so many people rely on as us.

Let me say upfront that we have used VRBO for a number of years to rent property in Michigan, Florida, and Alabama. The experiences have been positive; except for the most recent. We rented a house in Saugatuck, Michigan for a week recently and the pictures of the place were not representative of what the house currently looks like. There were a number of internal and external maintenance issues along with worn out mattresses, linens and pillows.

My husband and I needed a place to stay in London until our flat was ready. We sent inquiry after inquiry on rentals with no response. We tried the "Book Now" option, paid for the rental but we're then denied the reservation two days later. We still haven't gotten a refund. This service is misleading and not reliable. The "book now" option is not immediate, you pay then wait just like the others. I DO NOT recommend.

We rented a house in Aptos, CA. It was advertised as "Ocean Views from Every Room in This Chic Bright 2bed, 2BA Home in Santa Cruz". The pictures' great, price great, house was filthy and hazardous. There were no reviews and now we know why. We couldn't find a coffee pot, any dishtowels, dishcloths, washcloths or hand towels to begin with. The owner when contacted suggested we use paper towels and use the damaged French press that was there.

I've dealt with VRBO twice. The first time, the cabin was misrepresented. I asked specific questions about the property and was lied to in response. After spending 1 sleepless night in the cabin, the owner apologized and promised to refund all money paid minus the one night, but only refunded 1 night. The second time I tried to use VRBO, I dodged a bullet. I emailed about a cabin and reserved it for 1 week using specific dates. The website stated the price would be $894 including tax and fees. I received an email 3 days later telling me the cabin would be available on the dates I asked for with the price being $200/night plus tax and a $100 cleaning fee. I'm through with VRBO. It's apparent to me that they are either deliberately deceptive (crooked) or they are very irresponsible in the way they run their business. I'll waste no more time or money on them.

VRBO Luxury Escape Ucluelet B.C. - Since my husband and I were celebrating a birthday and our wedding anniversary, we were looking for a really special and secluded place. After a careful online search we settled on this VRBO. The pictures and reviews on the VRBO website were intoxicating! We paid more than our monthly mortgage to stay here for one week. The dream of staying here, after the planning, and then traveling 2,100 miles, disintegrated during our week-long stay and vanished by the time we left.

I had a terrible experience with a renter on VRBO. I just wanted to have a nice family vacation on the beach. The pictures were not reflective of the property, as it was older and had stained carpets. After I returned and emailed the owner on the status of my 500.00 deposit, she claimed we left the house in a filthy state and stained towels and linens. This was far from the truth. In addition to the 175.00 cleaning fee she claimed the cleaning company had to bill them for an additional 9 hours of cleaning and linens and bedding that needed to be replaced.

We rented a 3 bedroom condo in la duna la quinta California and it was not clean, no internet except what you could get from a nearby condo, no tv as advertised and foreclosure notices on the counters. Just noticed that someone did write an accurate review but it has been deleted today, so no point in me doing the same. I would suggest if the site shows no reviews, there is a good reason and to stay away!

It was by far the loveliest we've ever rented. The owners (Kim & Kevin **) could not have been more welcoming and warm. The cottage was beautiful; the kitchen, a cook's dream, and all within 200 feet of the Pacific. We hope to have the opportunity to rent again.

We rented a home in August for our vacation to Florida. The owner insisted upon coming over the first day we arrived after a road trip to pick up a signed copy of the rental rules even though they had been signed and sent electronically months prior. After the stay, the owner sent an email several days later claiming staining on her linens and extra cleaning. She even claimed there were oil stains on the garage floor and damage to a shredded boogie board she had left us. She said she would not refund my entire deposit. A day later, she emailed me that she would refund my deposit via check. She never sent a check, and VRBO did nothing. All they could say was I should dispute it with my credit card. Rhonda ** repeatedly harassed me because I left an honest review of the property. In her response, she lied as well. She said my dispute was dismissed even though I was refunded my entire deposit by my credit card company. Never went through VRBO. You will go through a similar nightmare and they will say they can't help.

I am an owner of a property listed on VRBO in Paris, France. I think I am typical of most who list on VRBO when I say that we do our best to provide an accurate description of the flat and that the pictures are recent. We honestly don't want people to stay there who will not be happy there. Perhaps unusually, we do not require a deposit and with over 75 different parties having stayed in our place over two years, we have only had one disagreeable experience (dirty baby nappies not carried out during summer) and virtually all our guests have said they were very satisfied.

VRBO ** - Tulum Mexico home. We tried to post the review below. Were told today they won't post it because it does not help travelers. It is honest, and truthful.. and it does help people be safer. Review # ** Not the vacation we expected. Casa Dos Bahias is new and well-appointed. It's somewhat secluded with open lots on each side, near the end of a dead end street. We had a pleasant stay until we were robbed the final night.

I recently booked an apartment at vrbo.com for my family vacation. But the day before my scheduled arrival, the owner informed me he had to cancel my reservation because of emergency. As a traveler, you'll never want to be in this kind of nightmare. It is even worse that vrbo.com/HomeAway told me they could do nothing about it except letting me file a complaint to the owner. In vrbo's own words, "we are an advertising venue".

I paid for three nights. I was given wrong code to get in. It was after midnight - no one answers my call. I looked for the security guard, no to be found, so I stayed with friends. The next day I was given new code – worked. The master bath has no water to toilet - six people had to use the second bath. Called management. I was promised some refund. That’s was a lie. Its place where you pay money and get poor service. It’s rip off place. Place was clean, no issue. The second day we were lock out - the code did not work. So new cod were given to us. Not worth what we paid and trouble.

I tried renting a unit at the MGM signature. Went through all the proper channels, rental agreement, spoke with owner only to find that it was a scam. This "owner" did not own the unit he was trying to rent. I complained to VRBO. They not only did not list the negative review but continued posting the unit for rent. The original owner complained to me saying that I slurred his good name because he hadn't posted anything on **. This was a scam. I was able to track down the original scammer thru research and provided VRBO with his name, phone number, and address. VRBO did not take action and in fact continues to post this unit with not bad reviews. I have had many letters back and forth with VRBO but they obviously don't care.

This website does NOT allow to post a review that contained a complaint or has one star. That is why whatever you has only 5 stars. We rented a condo from a landlord "David **" and he didn't refund our security deposit for according to him "several scratches on the mirrors behind the couch". This was all made up to just keep your $500 security deposit. I've submitted 6 reviews to VRBO.COM and each time they said: The review you submitted does not meet our guidelines and cannot be posted. Thanks.

I have a rental property listed on VRBO and I have rented many VRBO properties for my vacations. I am completely satisfied with their customer service. Their representatives are knowledgeable, courteous and there is little or no hold time when I call. My yearly fees have not increased over the last two years and my listing remains where it has always been relative to other listings. I find their "Book It Now" option helpful both as an owner and renter. I also list with Airbnb, but find VRBO's preferable since I set my own payment schedule and cancellation policy. Also, unlike Airbnb, I am not required to write a review of my renters before being able to view their reviews of me.

I rented a house on a lake for two weeks for my family. The reviews on VRBO for the house were very nice. The house is actually dirty and smells of cat urine. I tried to post a fair but negative review of the rental house but VRBO is not posting my negative review. The company keeps sending me emails asking to review the vacation rental and I reply by resending the same review. I cannot trust the VRBO site at all. I will never use their service ever again. Here is my review:

We recently rented a property through VRBO in Jackson Hole, WY. The property was managed by Mountain Property Management. Four days before we were to arrive in Jackson Hole the management company emailed me to say that they had just become aware of a siding project at the condo and we wouldn't be able to park in front of our unit. I immediately emailed back and told her I was concerned about noise and parking, she offered us a 1 bedroom unit (not suitable for a party of 5) or a 4 bedroom house (more expensive) in town. Since neither of those options worked we continued on with our plans. We had children driving in from Salt Lake City and another flying in from Denver.

VRBO has begun using an illegal process to block Owner access to people inquiring about properties. Then they steal the listing to guarantee a commission. They require you participate in online booking or lose standing in the listings. The cost to advertise 9 years ago was $150 per year per property. Now it is $1200+ to keep a standing that we should have for seniority. I called today when I realized that all my correspondence with guests was blocked, and they were booking without my consent. They acted shocked, but I see they are doing it to everyone. They put me on hold for 30+ minutes then disconnected. What they are doing is illegal, and should be looked at by the authorities. They will lose their client base fast as word gets around.

I've used vrbo a few times. It was ok. The place is always smaller and some quirks with it. BUT, lately I'm tons of realtors and or property managers are sending messages. Where did the owners go. It's become ridiculous. They say they don't have the place I'm looking at but others. I almost was scammed by a company or man in London until I became suspicious and investigated further. Google it. So beware of messages or calls coming out of London through vrbo.

Cabin at Lake Murray, Oklahoma, 1/2 mile to Lake Murray Lodge. Arrival date: 07/24/2014. Departure date: 07/27/2014. Travelers: 2 adult(s), 2 child(ren). My family and I stayed at this location on July 24-27. It was fantastic!!! The cabin had everything you could imagine. And our son brought his friend, and they camped upstairs in the loft room, and played all the board games the cabin provided, and played outside on the tether ball pole. They had a fantastic time, and were so ecstatic to see the cabin even had a pizza pan to bake pizzas on!! The cabin is fully stocked with all kinds of dishes, and linens. Please keep this lovely cabin clean when you leave so we can enjoy this cabin again! The beds were very comfortable, and the owners were so nice. We will be back again!! This was a great trip!! Thank you for sharing your cabin with us! Thank you.

The cabin was very dirty. It has not been kept up with faulty plumbing, worn, broken-down furniture, torn lamp shades, torn wallpaper, dirty stained carpet, and even a gummy worm stuck to the top of the ceiling fan. There were light bulbs missing, switches that didn't work and general disrepair. The cabin was a mess. I do not recommend for anyone.

I won't even give this company a star. We rented a villa in Florida emerald island number 2641. Be very aware that the pictures you see of this villa is not what you get. We arrived to find holes in microwave. Three chairs round a table for four people, a games room that you could not use, ripped pool table, no tips on the cues and when you tried to get the cues of the holder the whole thing falls off the wall. Old broken pool chairs and tins of paint and an old table tennis broken by the wall. The place was full of dust window sill you could write your name on them. The drawers were all so full dust and sweet wrappers and soda cartons. We had to empty the dishwasher from last guests. Curtain rails removed and not replaced when my granddaughter tried to close her curtains that fall on her head. Ice cream or yogurt dried in on the sofas and side tables. List goes on and on. Ann and Gary who own this website say it is nothing to do with them, all they do is rent you the house for the owners so not there problem. ALSO BE VERY AWARE THAT THEY WANT YOU TO PAY THROUGH THE BANK. YOU THEN HAVE NO CREDIT CARD INSURANCE.

Rented a home found on your site. Contacted you and entered the information for the owner to approve. Received the call from the owner and he explained he never used your process and he will decline the request to proceed with sending me the contract. The listing has been off VRBO since 2012 with NO Reviews. Arrived at the rental to find it was not ready for us: dirty dishes, food in fridge, no internet, leaves and dirt on side of window AC, garden was not kept at all and glass everywhere. We had to go buy light bulbs and go buy some pots and pans as there was nothing available to cook with. Painting tape left from whenever, moldy smelly towels in the dryer. Overall a sad experience. Pictures were taken. Owner informed. Even had some realtor show up at the door without warning (one of them was rude). This property is in East Hampton, NY.

I wanted to rent 4 nights (check in Sat, check out Wed) during the dates listed as "EARLY FALL PAY 3 GT 4 6 GT 7." The weekend nights were listed as $99 (Fri, Sat) and the Nightly rate was $79, so the advertised cost should have been for 1 weekend night and 2 weekday nights + 1 free night ($99 + $79 + $79 = $257). I contacted the owner with the dates and two other questions. The owner wrote back without answering the questions, and a quote for $560 (!) - Rental Rate: $356.00, Mis. $7.33, Tax $32.05, Sub-Total $395.38, Refundable Damage Deposit $100.00, Cleaning fee: $65, Total Quote Amount $560.38. In this case he said that the $7.33 "mis" [sic] charge was for 1/2 of the charge that the credit card company charged him. Also, he said that instead of paying through the VRBO system, we would need to leave $65 at the house for the cleaning services.

I was charged a $25 fee through VRBO while attempting to pay for a home. I received no information from VRBO or their parent company, Homeaway. The homeowner let me know that payment had been denied, although there was no reason given. When I followed up with VRBO, they said that they could only hypothesize that I had made an error while inputting payment information, but that they had no idea what the error was and that there was nobody for me to follow up with. I did not find out about the $25 charge until attempting to get my damage deposit back from the homeowner, who had been charged by Homeaway. I therefore did not get my damage deposit back in full.

In Waikiki Grand Hotel this guy called Bill ** is trying to rent this from Portland posing as the owners representative. It's a scam as he presses for payment once you inquire and when I asked for info to confirm his representation he said it was suddenly rented for those dates yet on the site calendar there was no one booking it.

Renters beware: Property # 566770 on VRBO and property # 114538 on Vacationrentals.com. These numbers are for the same property. We had a rental agreement for this property in Hawaii through VRBO. Agreement was signed, confirmed and we had paid our first payment. We rented early to be sure to get our choice of properties. I checked the property availability calendar after we had our agreement - to be sure that our dates were added to the calendar. I found the dates did not match our rental agreement. I phoned the renter and was assured that our dates were secure. Since we had found a great rental, our friends (not knowing our exact dates, just that our dates were the beginning of February) emailed to rent the same condo after we had left.

I am a owner of condo in Florida and my unit is listed through vrbo.com. I pay plenty of money to be on this site and recently they have changed the format which hides emails of the inquires which makes you forced to respond through their "dashboard". I noticed that I was not getting responses to my emails and I found out that the people interested in my condo were never receiving my emails. Called vrbo and spoke to a representative that had no idea what I was talking about and when asked to speak to a "supervisor" there was no one available to take my call but someone would call me in 1-3 days. You can imagine how upsetting this was to me under these circumstances that I was losing renters. Finally I received an email from them stating that all emails were going through and that I was pretty much fabricating the story. OWNERS BEWARE...... RENTERS BEWARE. I think this company is being run out of someone's garage!!!

My husband found a great ad online for VRBO vacation home rental in Sandpoint Idaho. Turned out the owner not only charged the $650 rental upfront to my visa but later sent an email with a email address demanding an additional $300 for what he called a security deposit to be sent to his address in the form of a check and after the checkout date he may or may not return the deposit depending on the cleanliness of the rental. We'll I thought about it for a while and spoke with my City official friends who said this is a scam especially since it was not disclosed on the VRBO website condition of agreement. Later I emailed the owner and expressed my concerns about disclosure in the original contract and that he breached it and we will not be renting his property.

Used VRBO to rent a houseboat in Sausalito for Labor Day. They took the deposit plus stupid fees out of my bank account -- i.e. carefree guarantee and property damage fees -- didn't rent the property to me probably due to some day rule that wasn't published and are attempting to keep the fees. Like What?? We weren't there to damage anything and what was carefree about stealing **. Total $70. Stay away from these jerks. I will be battling you.

We rented a 3 BR/3 BA unit located at 1412b West Beach Blvd in Gulf Shores, AL Found on VRBO. Location and layout were accurate. Amenities were lacking: no DVD, no DishTV, sketchy plumbing, etc. The dishwasher could not open because someone put in a full-sized fridge that blocked the door. The agency suggested moving the refrigerator (in front of the BR door!) to get to the DW. Worst customer service ever. Got the run around. Owner unavailable. Two service guys came to fix TV and left immediately saying they didn't know how to fix it. No returned calls. We filed a complaint with AmEx to hold payment. Also filed BBB complaint. Tried VRBO but my bad review got hung up in a supposed update to their system. Ha ha! The manager told my sister we could complain all we wanted but they had already got their payment. Then the internet died (to keep us from complaining more!). Nice beach but stay away from Liquid Life.

We rented VRBO number 14143 located at Harbourwood Villas, Sea Pines in Hilton Head Island. This villa is described as immaculate at the VRBO website. The owner apparently has 86 excellent reviews. That is why I chose the property for a week's vacation.

As an owner of vacation rental property in Costa Rica, I have listed with VRBO since 2007. My current ad was changed by the company and now reads that I am located in Pasadena, CA. Therefore I am getting a mountain of requests for the property based on the low Costa Rica prices. As of yet, I have not been able to contact either branch of this company and make corrections. Part of the problem is that the potential rentees are not reading the content of the ad itself but the initial headline places my property squarely in Pasadena, CA. I apologize to all for the inconvenience and continue to try to rectify this problem.

I recently wrote and submitted a two-star review for a VRBO condo stay in Charleston, SC. When I received the email and clicked on the link to verify my review, the message said, "The system is temporarily down while we are making updates to our site. We will be back up shortly so please check back. Our apologies for any inconvenience. The VRBO.com Team."