Vrbo Reviews

I have been paying VRBO contract for over 8 years. They continue to change their requirements for their posting position according to "their needs" not their "paying customers". Since Expedia took over, it is spiraling down. I paid $1200 this past year and $1000 a year for 2 years before that and I have had probably 75% less inquiries even when I signed up for online payments but VRBO gives you the option to contact the owner and call them. When you do, I think they block you for other inquiries. Looking for other options in the future. I dropped online payments as no one who rents my home wants to pay a service fee for something I as an owner are paying to list my property.

My rental property is a seasonal rental. It's in Florida and always rents for January-April. This year, I couldn't figure out why it isn't rented. I went to my VRBO listing and realized it wasn't to be found. I called VRBO and they said it was removed because I didn't update my calendar. I have no reason to update it because I have no rentals May through December. So what gives them the right to remove my listing? They said, 1) I didn't update my calendar, and 2) I am hidden and when I do update my calendar, I am WAY down on the list because I am not doing their online booking. Now, online booking of course gives them 2.9% of my renters money. Well, on a 90 day rental, it is almost $400 more dollars. This isn't right!

Homeowners on VRBO should be very careful about their fees. The first year my membership was not automatically renewed as I understood it would be - I was told "you have to renew it every year." The next year - after not using the site and taking my home out of the rental market - they automatically charged me for a full year. That's after not using their site for under a year. They just keep changing their policy so they can charge you - but don't always notify you. On follow up many times with them, they refused to assist and were really very rude. In the end they didn't refund and we had to call back a 6th time to endure it was in fact cancelled. It wasn't - after all that conversation about cancelling it they still didn't bother to cancel it. Terrible service, unprofessional, and unacceptable. If I didn't call back to double check I would have been charged again next year!!!

I will NEVER use VRBO again. I was hit with a service fee that wasn't disclosed in any way. When I contacted VRBO customer service I was given a runaround. I contacted the owner of the property and was told that the fee is something new. He said that he pays VRBO a yearly fee to list his property on the web and, until recently, had never had to deal with an additional charge to the renter. In this case I have, to my way of thinking, had $59.31 stolen from me by VRBO and apparently there is not a darn thing I can do about it.

Does anyone know if this the latest scam from VRBO/HomeAway? I responded direct to VRBO on listing number 301526. A beautiful home in Brentwood, CA, that seemed almost too good to be true - and more about that soon. My wife and I wanted to reserve the first two weeks of October. We were excited to find the listing! The home and grounds looked awesome! I submitted a question prior to committing and instead of an answer I got a phone call from VRBO telling me that in actuality listing 301526 is NOT AVAILABLE NOW OR IN THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE due to it being under "LONG TERM LEASE". However, in a very authoritative and practiced voice, the sales scum says "But we (VRBO) have many other wonderful and delightful homes in the area!!! Wow well la-di-da. Isn't this tactic of offering what you have no intention of delivering against the law? Or just against every moral and ethical business practice known to mankind.

I have had three London properties on VRBO since 2001, and it was our main source of income after my partner got injured in hospital in 2000. Every January we pay £1000 per property to advertise with them. They have now tried to force their 'book and pay through them' policy onto us and yesterday when I went to see my inbox for enquiries, this pop-up box popped up and there is no 'X' to close it down. I can't access my inbox and yet still have another five months worth of advertising paid up in advance with them. It's a SHAM!!!

VRBO, HOMEAWAY, AND VACATION RENTALS now strongarms owners to make them use the BOOK IT NOW system where travelers are forced to book thru VRBO instead of booking through the owner. VRBO implements the book it now system, and charges the traveler a 6-10% extra fee (nothing to do with the homeowner) and when traveler tries to book directly with homeowner, they suspend homeowner's ad or put them at the bottom of the list. This is a purely wasted fee! Don't book thru VRBO. Use Flipkey and save yourself money! Go find the same house on Flipkey. Save yourself hundreds of dollars!

We recently rented a cabin in Pine, AZ through VRBO. The cabin was nice but had several cleanliness issues and most importantly, they required us to pack out all our garbage. No garbage service. This was NOT in the listing and was only told to us when the check in info arrived 2 days before our arrival. We posted a review at VRBO and they never published it. It appears VRBO gives the owner the power to block any negative reviews. Beware of VRBO listings with all or nearly all 5 star reviews.

DONE WITH VRBO!!! I listed 3 of my vacation rental properties with VRBO and have had the worst experience ever! From an owner's perspective the management of the site is awful. Customer service Reps are not qualified to support the companies' website or business policies. They don't rent their renters like Airbnb and they should!

FAKE REVIEWS ALLOWED BY THIS COMPANY - The reason for this review is because of a horrible experience with renters in my villa in Marbella who came through VRBO in America. First of all in the initial enquiry they said they would be a 3 couples with 7 children. When they arrived at my villa where I always greet my guests warmly and show them around giving them information on how everything works and safety precautions it was very unpleasant as they had a hostile air about them, not like the nice appreciative and polite English and Swedish clients we are used to having.

I'm not sure I will use VRBO again. I have been renting for 9 years and this is the first time I have had a problem getting my $1000 Refundable Damage Deposit returned and it was the largest. It was paid on 7/2/16 and returned 9/1/16. I had to contact the owners and VRBO several times. I still do not know what the problem was or who, but it wasn't because there was a damage issue.

VRBO started out as a streamline way to connect potential renters with owners. The owners would pay a yearly fee quite substantial I would say, I was paying 1,200 a year for the premium membership. In return I would have many guest inquiring and ultimately renting from me. Without notice VRBO started charging a service fee to renters in addition to collecting cc fees, Yeltsin fees and now percentage in addition that goes directly to them. It is a scam and my business has suffered as a result.

Stole my deposit. Despite complaint after complaint neither the owner or VRBO will admit to having the deposit, both saying the other one was responsible for the return of it. I am still £100 down after two years of asking.

I am a homeowner in the vacation rental business and subscribe to vrbo.com. I have been a subscriber for four years. The first two years were great. At some point VRBO was bought out by a large travel firm. Since then the experience gets worse and worse. Simply put the following are some of the problems. Customer service has gone downhill and it is often you will wait thirty to forty minutes to get a rep. I recently received a bad review that was a fraud. The reviewer posted ridiculous negative reviews on not one of my properties but three of them. That is not allowed. People cannot place a review on a property they do not stay in.

We decided to use VRBO to rent out our second home which is on a lake. A family from Tennessee found our property online and agreed to our rental price. They completely trashed our home. Toilets were unflushed, a brown liquid was purposely spread on the carpeting, the house was left filthy and when they left the premises they left the door wide open. During the end of their stay they also send multiple nasty and hateful emails.

Since being bought out by HomeAway and then Expedia, my listing was copied and used to extort 3 different guests out of thousands of dollars. Also, because I refuse to use their online booking, they have deleted emails on my dashboard saying I marked them as spam so I cannot contact potential renters when the inquiry is forwarded to my personal email. When I try to reply via my personal email, they block the email going back to the renter because it has to go through their portal. Since the email is not in my VRBO inbox, I cannot retrieve the email address or phone number to contact the renter directly. Are there any other websites out there that are TRUE vacation rentals by owner?

Just wanted to say that I have used these 2 sites for beach rentals for many years. After reading these complaints I have decided not to use them anymore. I won't support this company after reading how they have treated other renters & homeowners. I would rather give support the smaller companies who are honest, not big businesses out to make as much money as possible!

I just reserved a home in Orlando with this VRBO website that belongs to HomeAway and this people took the money from my bank and after that, they send me an email saying that the house was not available. Now I have to wait 10 business days for them to refund the $2,000 I just paid!!! It is amazing how dishonest this is, this company is putting in jeopardy my vacation time. I will never recommend this people, this website use others...believe me!!!

VRBO, HomeAway & VacationRentals.com are driving away their subscribers by imposing an additional fee on prospective renters. They do not tell prospective renters that the fee goes to VRBO, etc. but let the renters think the owner or manager is collecting it. They are forcing a system whereby a renter has to provide a cc to the company (VRBO, HomeAway VR). The company then collects the fees, rents, security deposits, taxes, etc. AND CHARGES THE FEE BASED ON HOW MUCH IS COLLECTED! However many times does not forward the moneys collected to the owner.

My business is non existent, now that Expedia took over VRBO.com and Homeaway. I had been contacted by other owners in the Carlsbad area, who had similar complaints, their beach homes, not getting inquires and not receiving rentals. Expedia purchased VRBO.com and Homeaway.com, to put private property owners out of business. This was done as a benefit to the big hotel owners and corporations, while the little guys get shut out and stuck with a revamped system, orchestrated and created by Expedia, to stop vacation home owners from being able to conduct business. They hire flunkies to field their many calls, but ultimately, they don't care. The buy out was for no other reason than to ruin vacation rental owners businesses, and to redirect booking business to the big hotels.

You spend literally hours searching for properties based on the price you're willing to spend. You see prices listed, then you have to click on each and every one to get the ACTUAL price, which is almost every time significantly higher than the price shown on the property initially in the search, sometimes nearly double once cleaning fees, damage waivers, additional travelers, service fees, etc. are added. And these are NEVER consistent!!!

When I signed on with VRBO.com in 2008 I was the second homeowner in my community. Now there are 159. I helped build VRBO, and they helped me to build my rental business (To clarify, we were renting out our own place after a cross-country career move and two nightmare long-term rentals.). They were definitely our number one contact for potential renters. Then, HomeAway bought them, and things started to change. Then Expedia bought that, and buckle your seatbelts, it's all downhill from here.

We have a one bedroom apartment on the side of our home and have been very successful renting the last 4 or 5 years. Last fall VRBO was sold to Expedia and they completely changed all their rules. They introduced a ridiculous and costly service fee, which along with all their other changes dried up most of our inquiries. We sifted up and agreed to one set of an agreement and paid a lot of money to be on this website. Our apartment has not been as full this year as others. We probably won't renew with them.

Since we decided to move to South Florida and I knew it would take a while to find a home to live in, I booked our temporary place through VRBO in Boca Raton. After driving for over four days and 1825 miles with my mother, daughter, granddaughter and dog, we arrived in Boca Raton at our rental property. Upon arrival we were met by a man who walked us around the property and told us that he was separated from his wife. He went on to say she was living in upstate New York and had spotty cell phone service. He said this was their home for over 20 years.

I just booked 6 nights in Florence on VRBO. I was quoted online the amount for the apartment plus cleaning fee - all billed by the owner. THEN there was the VRBO service charge of Euro 74.67 which is approx 7.25% of the owner's charges. At this point you are asked if you want to go ahead with the booking at these prices. With no choice to do otherwise I continued with the booking except that the minute I hit "Continue" there was a sudden increase in the total!! Yup, VRBO added 20% VAT to their service charge - AFTER I had already agreed to the lower total. I phoned them straight away and they basically said that's the way it is and I cannot be refunded the difference between what I was quoted by them and agreed to - and what I actually ended up being charged. IT IS A TOTAL RIPOFF! Being charged 90 euros / £76.30 / US$100 to just book off their site is OUTRAGEOUS.

Came to Myrtle Beach for a dance competition at the Convention Center. We had a big group with us so we rented out 3 of the condos at South Beach Cottages. Drive to Convention Center = 10 minutes, 1 block from the beach, which was perfect. Each condo had 4 bedrooms and 3.5 baths, perfect for all our girls. The condos were spacious and no one felt crowded. The complex also had a pool. Small, but clean. Our condo not so much (clean that is). The floors were sandy, coffee maker dirty, 1 of 2 frying pans in the cabinet still had food on it. Which made it tough on cooking, since we only had 1 to work with.

This is the third year we have rented this lovely home nestled in the beautiful mountains of Highlands, North Carolina. The house is one of eight on a very quiet and secluded street, only five minutes from town. The sun room becomes a screened porch when the glass windows open up, which we did every day. The deck which is great for grilling overlooks a tiny creek and rhododendron covered woods. No other houses are visible. Two couples can stay here comfortably. It has all amenities. Bird watching is great and the owner is wonderful. Definitely returning next year.

I rented a house for the month of July at 601 Forest in Sandpoint. KWI property management in Post Falls, ID was the contact. (Post Falls is about 50 miles from Sandpoint.) The worse thing among many was that a pipe between the second floor bathroom had a leak. The result was toilet water including fecal matter leaking into the dining room. And that's not all... I had to call them to get information to pay them. I had to call them to get information to enter the property. The lock box code they gave me was wrong. This delayed entry. When we entered three smoke alarms were ringing. This indicates preventive maintenance is not part of their property management. The modem would not sync without a security code. KWI did not know the code. I synced by pushing a button of the modem with my computer nearby.

Rented business/property on VRBO owned/managed by **; 75 Wyandemere Dr., Woodcliff Lake, NJ 07677-7665. "Maranatha Cottage", S. Thomaston, ME. One of several he owns. Forced to leave within 18 hours!! Property was filthy, unsanitary, and unsafe. Arrived to find doors locked and NO key/info. Called owner, "No Service Available". Got unknown keys from neighbor and fortunately one worked. Deck unswept/debris, gas grille corroded away, not usable. Kitchen floor dirty, bathroom floor even worse. Garbage in sink. Opened window in bath, window sill had piles of dead black flies. Was one of only 2-3 screens that was not bent/broken/ripped beyond repair. Refrigerator dirty.

This is the first time I've used VRBO and it has been a NIGHTMARE. I booked a place for a trip to Colorado and it said the total price was $350. When I got my emailed receipt, there were 4 other charges for cleaning fees/service fees, etc. and the total price is now $600. What? I went back to the original listing to make sure I didn't overlook anything, and there was literally nothing that said I'd be charged for extra fees, especially that much. I've tried calling the number on my receipt to "get a hold of the property owner," which is SenStay, and it goes straight to voicemail every single time. I cannot get a hold of anyone. It has been the most frustrating and confusing process in my life. Here's a tip for anyone else who gets screwed. The charges haven't gone through on my debit card yet, so I just called my bank to make sure they block the payment from coming through.

Been with VRBO for 7 years. Each year they have become increasingly greedy and deceitful. You can read what's already been posted. The most recent scam they are pulling: as an owner I cannot log onto my account without accepting "online booking". There is no "x" nor "no thanks" button to shut off the pop up. You cannot not log in without choosing "set up online payments". I called VRBO. They said the work around is to click on "set up online payments"...which took me to a pop up that only offered a button for a one-step "set up online payments". I am currently locked out of my account as a paying owner of 7 years.

Home Away website is not secure! I just lost 1300.00 and my family vacation booking through homeaway.com. Contacted owner 9 months ago through website but email was intercepted by crook! He offered me great discount to pay in full upfront! HomeAway takes no responsibility at all! Please help! Any class action suit out there? Looks like this scam has been going on for a long time!

We were at the property 5036 Vista Cay 5036 Shoreway Loop 306 Orlando FL 32819 Feb 2, 2016 Mar 16, 2016. Needless to say, we were very happy with our stay in most or all respects. We have been there before and are planning for the same unit next September. This says a lot about our feelings toward vacationing at this area. The condo is very nice with all what we need. The location as well with a lake view and very central in terms of shopping, entertainments etc. We would recommend this to our friends at any time!! To the owners, you can be proud of your property!!

Homeaway and VRBO, you will never get another dime from me or my customers. You did us wrong. You grew too big too fast and did not think about us peons. Shame on you. It looks like everyone feels the same way. I was with VRBO since 2008. I was listed 424 out of 459 listings in April. The reason why, they said I didn't respond to inquiries in a reasonable time. Guess what, I didn't have any inquiries because they found a place to rent before they got to my listing. Lost a lot of money.

I have listed our vacation rental with four different companies and find that the Homeaway and VRBO provides the worst customer experience for people wanting to book as well as a very bad customer service for people wanting to list. Listings dropped: I have tried for months to work with this company to attempt to solve the problem of our listing being arbitrarily dropped from search results. When prospective clients go back to the website and look for our property, it simply is not anywhere near the place that they found it in their prior search. The last email from the company informed me that they have solved the issue. They had not. Search results also do not provide an accurate view of the market.

Our family rented a vacation rental in Kauai, HI. The address is 5001 Hanalei Plantation Rd was a nightmare vacation rental. We stayed there for 10 days and none of the photos that were on the VBRO website were true. We tried to go through VBRO & get our money back or to have them help us locate to another vacation rental. VBRO was no help and their guarantee was worth nothing. The owner stated that there was air conditioning in all the bedrooms and there was a/c only in 3 bedrooms not all 5. The window a/c's were rusty and the filters were moldy. They kept stating "change filters." The kitchen refrigerator stated "change water filter." Everything was run down & disrepair. The couch was just a frame w/ a cover thrown over it. The dining room table was a picnic table. The beds & linens had stains.

After I had booked a rental, I saw the next day that my credit card was charged over $51. I called the property management as I had, initially, thought it was them. Then I was informed about this fee was through VRBO. How can they charge a fee without informing us!! Very shady. I will never use VRBO again.

I will admit that yes I've had 2 or 3 great experiences on VRBO and met great property owners, but this is due to detailed research prior to booking. However on the flipside I've had one apartment double booked and was notified by the owner 1 week before. They eventually found us another apartment but not suitable for a vacation rental. Got no compensation from VRBO.

Earlier this year VRBO went from a rental property search providing results based upon your search criteria and the "level" (Gold/Silver/Bronze) of membership the property owner signed up for their property to a search engine that provides listings based upon you paying your rental fee through VRBO/HomeAway as the primary criteria of satisfying your search. This was done purely to line the pockets of this company charging excessive fees to both the renters and the property owners. The problem they are now confronted with is that all listing that have switched over to booking through VRBO/HomeAway (passing on the excessive fees to the renter) have the "Book Now" button which leads potential renters to believe they are booking the property when really it is only sending a request to the owner to determine if they want to rent the property for the period you are requesting.

I have Camp Custer Log Cabins in Custer SD. I was with VRBO for many years and have recently dropped them due to their new greediness and regulations. Problem is that they are still using me to lead people to their listed vacation rentals! Is this legal? They save your info after you quit them. So, if someone types in Camp Custer Log Cabins the first thing that comes up is my website. But the next 2 directly under that are my 2 cabins Sky View and Pine Crest and if you click on either of those 2 it takes you directly to VRBO vacation rentals Custer SD, and you will not see either of my cabins there.

I just received this email from VRBO after I called to ask about the money that should be in my account. Vacationers have been in my home for 9 days now and no cash in my account. "Your request for an update on the status of the payment(s) disabled for disbursement has been submitted to our Account Management team. Please allow two to three business days for your inquiry to be reviewed. You can respond to this ticket with any questions or additional information."

Horrible. Your website is misleading, not accurate or timely in providing information needed to secure a reservation without going through many disappointing steps. For example; I input my search criteria including dates of stay. The following list of properties includes those already rented for those date. The other absurd and misleading feature are the properties that show availability for the requested date yet when you click to reserve the calendar shows no opening... and not an opening for the next day, the places I reviewed the calendar was reserved for the property for three months with no openings. You ask for criteria, you apply the criteria you chose and ignore the consumer's request. Your website provide inaccurate, false and misleading information. I would have expected greater quality of professionalism and integrity in the marketplace

Have tried four times to rent a vacation rental thru this company in Orlando Florida unsuccessfully for 5 nights in November to take our grand kids to WDW. Have submitted all info even credit card numbers only to be told they can't confirm rental or property is unavailable, even though website says it is available on all the properties. Have even called Homeaway directly to no avail. This is no way to treat consumer when trying to book a property that is "supposedly" available. Somebody needs to look into this immediately!

I had changed my bank account. HomeAway apparently didn't register it and 4 month later sent money to the wrong account (which didn't exist anymore). I made them aware of the mistake, then they told me I needed to fill the formula again even though I have email proof that it was already done and a sales guy promised me in writing that all was ok. I filled it out again, then said it was file now but for the bounced money transfer, I owed them 1250 Euros. They would not release any funds until I pay. At the end they deducted them from my rental income and sent me the difference. I am deleting my account and will never deal with them again.

I have booked with VRBO several times and just today was charged a 118.00 service fee. I called them and was told this fee was to protect me from internet fraud. I was forced to pay it. I don't understand why I gave my CC number to another agency but somehow VRBO was able to make this fraud.

If I could give this review all 0 stars I would. Rented through VRBO. We were looking to get away on a mini-vacation retreat and wanted to go to a secluded remote area to get away the stresses of everyday life. This property owner of the unit ended up "scamming" us out of $2,000.00. Owner was NOT forthcoming with information about his property. Nowhere on the property listing on the VRBO website does it state that there are surveillance cameras INSIDE and outside the property! A mini vacation in a secluded area to get away was set, at least that's what we thought until we found out "BIG BROTHER" would be monitoring our every move!

We have had an account with VRBO for the past several years for a property that we own in Florida. They charge property owners a pretty hefty fee to use their site to advertise vacation rental property, take bookings and accept money. In addition, they charge a pretty high rate credit card fees to the owner for customer's paying with credit card (even higher if outside the US).

OK, I understand all the business model changes with VRBO and don't agree with them. We will not be renewing any of our listings with VRBO (we have been a customer since 2008). But now when we log in to edit our calendars or listings, we get this "sign up for VRBO online payments" window, and we cannot get around it to get to our listings!! Thankfully we have figured out a very burdensome workaround but won't mention it because it may get blocked by the VRBO terrorists. The decision has been made to cease doing business with VRBO and letting our listings expire, but what I think is ridiculous is we have to "work the system" to even update our listings or calendars due to this ridiculous pop up window.

I booked a vacation through their website and they charged my credit card without my permission or knowledge. Do Not Use this website.

DO NOT BOOK THROUGH VRBO/HOMEAWAY!!! I have booked through VRBO for years without issue... UNTIL NOW. I recently booked a condo and discovered not only the deposit, as correctly reported by the rental company but a charge to HOMEAWAY which was never mentioned in the booking process. I attempted 6 times to contact the toll-free number listed on my card with the charge and was only put on hold... The phone was NEVER answered. After googling HOMEAWAY and contacting them in another country, no resolution was offered... UNBELIEVABLE!! What a scam! I intend to contest the charge with my credit card company but customers should not have to deal with undisclosed charges like this. Please book directly through rental companies instead of VRBO/HOMEAWAY. I'm not sure who owns them but I assure you, they know nothing about customer service!

I reserved a week's stay at the Windmill Cottage in Cape Cod for late June 2016. Within 45 minutes of arriving at the home, my husband and I saw our first cockroach! Anyone who knows about roaches know they only come out in daylight when the area they are inhabiting becomes overcrowded. We immediately contacted the owner and indicated that we would not be staying and wanted our money back. We took pictures and a video as proof. We posted a review on VRBO but they pulled it down because it is their policy to not post reviews when renters are trying to get their money back. This is ridiculous. Future renters should be advised of a home's condition - especially when we have concrete proof; otherwise why bother with reviews?

I am a veteran VRBO property owner in the range of 16+ years. The initial service was good. All I wanted, and all they advertised was a "listing" site, pay for play, if you like. Let's skip over the astronomical fee increases. To outline the 'structure' to potential renters, property owners paid a sliding upscale fee specifically to HA/VRBO to only "LIST" our properties. It was meant to organize a gap in the market whereby millions of 2nd Homeowners listed their houses, direct to guests and with our fee-based structure, there was NEVER a question of charging a guest a "service fee" to book. NONE of us signed up for a 'Property Management Company', it was a straight transaction. I pay YOU, the Company, to List & Advertise... that is it! With the fees you charge, YOU go to the market and with collective buying power, you get us exposure. That is IT, that is ALL!

Rented a property from a so-called "owner", turns out it was an ex-wife of the owner who scammed us of $800. Had to go to small claims and only got $300 back. VRBO did nothing to help the consumer. Beware. Owners may not be real owners of properties!

I have used VRBO and HOMEAWAY to find vacation home rentals for the last 8 years and I have always been very satisfied with the experience until now. I just booked my second vacation this year on their website. I contacted the owner, we agreed on the dates and the total price and I then paid the owner online with my credit card. Today I received my credit card statement and there was an additional charge on my credit card from HOMEAWAY! I called HomeAway and spent 45 mins on the phone with someone in another country (poor English) who said they will NOT take off the charge.

I've had a great time reading reviews from other owners who feel the same way I do about VRBO's online booking system. I've been with VRBO for 3 years and I'm a holdout who refuses to adopt their online booking model. My rationales: A) I don't want VRBO monitoring all the dialogue with potential guests; B) I don't my guests paying the fee; C) I don't want to use credit cards -- my guests have always paid by check; D) I don't want VRBO cancelling potential bookings if I don't respond within 24 hours (and let's not forget I sleep or am otherwise not checking e-mail for at least half those hours!).

Don't use VRBO or HomeAway. Who owns them!!! I submitted a request for a vacation rental. My credit card was immediately sent a hold for the amount (hidden service fee included) even though the website stated that would happen after acceptance by owner. The owner did not accept the request so the reservation was canceled after 24 hours. Per VRBO website, funds will be released after 72 hours. This is not true! After talking to their customer service which was horrible (even asked for supervisor and did not get one), I was transferred to 3rd party to get release code that I had to give to my bank. It turns out that these funds are not released until 7-10 business days. I had to make several calls, wait on hold at my bank and finally gave up. Am waiting out the 7-10 business days. Funny how they could quickly charge my card but can't release the hold on the funds.

Home Away took my full week rental fee not knowing if the property would be available or not. With great intentionality they were very slow and difficult in refunding my money when the homeowner finally responded with no on availability. Customer service was horrific. Separate processing company. Poor English, huge wait times.

We have been trying to secure a refund of an annual subscription fee of over $1600 which was paid to VRBO in February 2015. Under their agreement which we signed at that time, they offered a full refund to property owners registering with their site, if no bookings were made through their websites - and if a number of criteria were followed - which they were - such as property being available, photos, calendars being updated, responding to inquiries, etc. We met all these criteria. They did also state they don't need to inform if there's any change to this policy. This was shocking in itself, but seeing as it's stated, I'm not sure if we would be able to argue. However, within just a few weeks after we had submitted our request for refund, which to us was an obvious outcome, we were told no refund due, as they had changed the policy just two weeks after we subscribed! This policy was dated 2012.

This will be a short review. I've been a property owner using VRBO for about three years without problem. We were very satisfied, paid our $400 annual fee to advertise with them and had the flexibility to handle rentals however we wanted...online booking, PayPal or payment by check/regular mail. My guests had no problems and everyone was happy. Early in 2016, VRBO suddenly started adding a fee to every booking without notifying owners in any obvious way that this would happen. They did not notify me when I paid my annual fee last year either. These fees were payable by guests to VRBO. They also wanted all booking to be online so they could collect more fees. Very disappointing. I'm sure there will be many members like myself that will not continue with this group.

When you book with VRBO you do not get a full disclosure of fees. I had a 4 night stay where I was charged $250 damage deposit, $72 cleaning fee and a $42 fee, of which there is no stated purpose for, other than enriching VRBO. The owner of my property stated she feels VRBO's business model is very poor as well. If you book through VRBO, beware.

The deposit explanation that is sent to you via an email does not coincide with the payment explanation under your account on your listing. It is not explained who paid which fees (owner or guest) and how much commission was charged based on what amount. It is purposely designed to be unclear and when I called customer service the person wanted to ramble off numbers without explaining how they arrived at those figures. Then I ask for a supervisor and spent almost an hour with him and he could not clarify the charges either. He created a ticket to get back to me.

I have listed my properties with VRBO since it's inception. It has always been a good and fair company until now. However, since it has joined with Expedia, I have not had an inquiry for the last 2 months, I also have a poor ranking because of my low response rate and my calendar was not updated. What happened? How could I respond to inquiries when I didn't receive any inquiries? How could I update my calendar when I didn't have bookings? I also found out that if you do not update your calendar ever 60 days, regardless of whether it needs it or not, your listing will be "inactive" and not be included in any guest searches. Of course, if you sign up for online booking they will keep you active. Did I miss an email telling me this would happen?

I found a vacation rental online through what I thought was VRBO. The website offered email contact with the property owner/manager. I received an email with a pricing which included a reservation fee. I called the number on the website and made a reservation, not knowing that in addition to the reservation fee another fee would be added. When I spoke with customer service, they indicated I would only have to pay the total fee sent to me in email by the property owner/manager. I subsequently discovered my credit card had been charged an additional fee by "HomeAway". My experience with the customer service agents on the phone was uninformative and directly misleading. I subsequently called and spoke with several layers of customer service who each in turn characterized themselves as unable to refund this additional fee, stating they did not have the power to do so (?).

I have been a member of VRBO/HomeAway for almost 2 years and wasting time writing this. The changes that are being made to paying customers are unbelievable. My plan is to not renew my membership as I have other ways to list without being given grief and aggravation. This was once a great site but no more.

MORE than a review this is actually the simplified version of a report I will be filing very soon with the public authorities. We can all read VRBO policy in matter of reviews used by renters as a means to extort refunds from their own host. "Any threat or abuse of the review system " would have the effect of having removed the review.

We are hard-core property owners who are the ones who pay the bills, keep up the properties, keep happy guests. Without us, VRBO would be nonexistent. We will find other means to advertise. We can exist without them and I applaud the college student who will hopefully come out of MIT or somewhere and start a new VRBO - we will be there. Did VRBO not realize that at some point guests would quit going to the site and come straight to us? You need us more than we need you. The guests will find us. JUST RIDICULOUS MARKETING FOR GREED. FOOLS.

As advised by a VRBO representative over the phone, VRBO recently changed how it groups property listings. They have gone to a region/map format. This recent change in my listing area has caused a huge error. I have contacted VRBO several times via phone and email to have it corrected. In fact, VRBO did correct temporary, but now has reverted back to the incorrect format. Here is an example, and I hope anyone reading this checks their search area too for this error!

We recently rented a condo through VRBO - I LOVE the location. But the owner of the condo was condescending, rude (had people servicing the condo during my kids' nap time, without asking or taking our schedule into consideration. After she had my money - and I would ask her a question, I was met with a condescending tone. And when we mixed up the check out time - that was completely our fault - we apologized and started getting out as quick as possible, offered to help with extra cleaning - even pay for cleaning... Told the owner we would be out in a short time... The owner called the cops on us saying that we were "refusing to leave" which was completely untrue.).

Back in November of 2015 the VRBO CEO Brian Sharples decided that it would be a great idea to change a good thing and mimic his competition by adopting their payment model, unfortunately it has not worked out as planned! My wife and I have several properties, one of which was on VRBO at a cost of over $400 per year, and up to the change we were booking at least half of our vacation rentals thru VRBO. However since the change we have had NONE, with only two hits. It's not like it's sitting idle, it's fully booked thru Mr. Sharples competition so what do I get for my money... a savings on our other rentals, we didn't add them to VRBO and when this one runs out he will lose this revenue as well. Way to go Brian! Glad I'm not a stockholder.

Long story short: Greatest ever business model and we're grateful for them. But they've recently decided that - after becoming a part of Expedia - that all the money they make just isn't enough. So now they're charging the renter as well. PLUS, they're changing the way they do business and long-time loyal VBRO'ers who have been willing to pay a premium for high exposure are now at the back of the bus. Their new business model is a big disappointment. But they know they have the us by the short hairs. So what can we do? Corporate America stuffs the little guys again.

Words cannot express how disappointed I am in VRBO. We rented a house through VRBO. We received a very threatening email from the owner - making horrible threats and accusations. We discovered that the owner was watching us through security cameras throughout the property. In addition, the smoke detectors were dismantled, and quite obviously not functioning. Property was advertised as being on a quiet street. Traffic is loud and goes all night. VRBO advertises that they warranty the properties. The list goes on and on.

The recent comments on this site are helpful, and fair and accurate from our experience. We've used VRBO for our UK & European properties for almost a decade; at this point we have a London property and two Swiss properties listed (one of those through the Swiss letting firm Interhome, whose former CEO was hired away by Homeaway). As another has said, Homeaway has constantly felt the need to increase charges as the firm has changed hands and been revalued: Wall Street demands this. The result has been increasingly bad service. I have a lawsuit (moneyclaim.gov.uk) on now because VRBO refuse to delete a defamatory review placed there by a "guest" who rented under a fake name and with a credit card under yet another name while an undischarged bankrupt. (I filed an objection to discharge in his bankruptcy) I've been contacted by his ex-landlady (whom he also defrauded) and his ex-girlfriend (whom he abused).

We have a very expensive property and have been happily renting it through VRBO since 2008, with many returning guests who love it. This year VRBO, under their new owners, has been a nightmare to deal with. Not only have they placed us much lower in the rankings even though we have 2nd highest 5 star rating in our geography and pay for top platinum membership, they try to "force" guests to pay through them using the "Book it now" feature which gives VRBO about 9% surcharge on every rental, even though we are already paying them $1,500 per year for the one listing! We rent about $30k a year so this is $2,700 more in income to them!

They instituted service fees and have taken control of rental fee disbursement. I and my partner haven't received ANY additional benefit from their added fees. In fact our rental inquiries are down since they decided to impose them. AND they now control rental income disbursement; i.e. they hold on to the rental money (escrow account) so they can make interest off of it. This website went from a useful tool to nothing but a big ripoff!

A beach property rental was quoted online as $810.53 for 1 week rental. I asked a question and in her response was the total amount of $1607.73. I called to clear this up and I got some lame excuse that it was a new rental and amount entered incorrectly. We had planned things out for this trip now it is off thanks to their incompetence. The listing was # 873762. As of this writing the original amount is still listed.

I have been using VRBO to list my rental home in Galveston for the past 4 years. Since VRBO has changed its business model, I have not had 1 inquiry in over 6 weeks. These changes have directly affected my ability to make an income. Does this merit a class action lawsuit? If there is one pending, I would certainly like to join.

I usually don't use my bank card for reservations but recently closed several cards to reduce open credit and when we booked a beach house for the 4th of July used my bank card on VRBO. We booked a house for $1,663.14 and were waiting for the confirmation email. The following day we received confirmation that the rental was booked and the funds would be released. That was fine however 72 hours later my bank account was locked due to fraud. I went to purchase a few misc groceries at Safeway for dinner and my card was declined even though I had more than adequate funds available. I called my bank and they put a freeze on my account to see if I had made a purchase for $1,663.14 at Walmart in Arkansas.

If you are not happy with a property and post a negative review, and the owner responds, VRBO will not let you respond to that. They consider it a "duplicate review" even if the owner is lying about his property! So essentially the owner gets the last word. Although I know that those reading the review will take note of what I said and if they don't, well they will see how bad the place is when they get there!

I've been with HomeAway since it was run out of a guy's basement in Vermont. That was back in 2002. It was a great service then. You have a problem and the guy fixes it. I never ever had a problem keeping fully booked. The company has changed hands a number of times over the years and each new owner adds their own little obscenity to attempt to recoup the costs assessed by their purchase. The most recent owner is Expedia... and their changes are NOTHING SHORT OF AWFUL... These ** look at every move with an eye to extract every last dime out of their members - and now renters as well. In addition to simply increasing the cost of the listing, they now insist upon having financial transactions take place through their vendor. It increases the total cost of the transaction by about 7 percent. The homeowner pays... the renter pays...

We rented one condo through VRBO with no problem. It was not until we rented our second property that things started to fall apart. First the property had not been cleaned, dirty dishes were in the dishwasher, wet laundry was in the dryer and the floors were covered with filth. It was in disrepair and the stove was filthy and in need of replacement. We contacted VRBO right away to ask for a refund and a new location. They stopped communicating and tried to take an additional $500 out of our personal account without permission. We also tried to contact the homeowner without success. The incident has been reported as fraud and hopefully will be remedied. Avoid this company!

I accepted a Christmas booking for 6000.00 UK Sterling on my luxury London Property from VRBO/HOMEAWAY group of companies. VRBO sent me confirmation that payment had been made. I bought champagne and foods ready for the guests' arrival and had that house fully prepared for them (garden tidied, windows cleaned etc). I let the guests into my house and then drove several hours back to where I was staying, to receive an email from VRBO/HOMEAWAY saying that there was a problem with payment.

I have personally sent an email to VRBO/HomeAway and told them I will no longer use their sites to book rentals because of their service fees. There are plenty of sites out there (FlipKey by TripAdvisor ranks high) that do not charge fees to book. I am officially jumping ship and I hope many owners do as well when their subscription ends. Good luck to all owners and shame on you VRBO/HomeAway!!!

I have used VRBO many times in the past with successful results. Recently I used the site to book a lake house which showed as available for our dates. I booked the house and received a confirmation email from VRBO stating they were confirming the reservation with the owner/management company. The next day I received another email stating the owner did not respond and therefore I was not being charged. That night I used VRBO to find another home and before booking checking my bank account to make sure I was not charged for the prior rental. Turns out I was charged the full amount to the tune of $1,400.

I've been renting my house for years now and have never had any issues until recently. A guest booked my house through HomeAway, showed up and stole thousands dollars worth of items, even numerous irreplaceable ones. To add insult to injury the card they used to book the house was stolen as well, meaning the money that was used to rent the house was also withdrawn from my account... even the security deposit. HomeAway hasn't helped in the least so at this point I'm going to have to hire an attorney. Has anyone gone through the same experience? Any tips/advice? Please help!

Recently my 2 listings on VRBO disappeared. You could find them by VRBO number but no longer associated or found in the complex they are located in. Mine with a large number of others simply gone. They changed their search process to using V & H coordinates and in doing so they somehow placed my properties in other places...but no longer searchable by complex name though others were still there. Took their tech support almost a week to address. I had 3 different devices and each came back with different results from the same search request (by complex name...no filters, no dates, etc.).

I have listed 3 homes on VRBO for about 14 years. It was a wonderful resource and you paid for what you got. Now forget it. We have about a 1/3 of the inquiries for homes that have sold out every other season. I finally figured out that one home was arbitrarily given the US bundle and it got many more hits at the bronze level than the gold level home had. When I called repeatedly to find out why one home was given the bundle and the others weren't, no one could give me the same answer. I have been told repeatedly that all homes would be given the bundle in July 11th and that if you are a "best match" with VRBO then you will get listed higher and your subscription costs will be lower!! Don't list your home on VRBO. I certainly won't after my subscription ends.

I have been very happy with the rental referrals I have received from VRBO since I first signed up. I own an ocean view home in Cannon Beach, Oregon. My business tripled when I joined VRBO. Then, around late winter/early spring this year, my referrals totally dried up. I could not figure out why and just received my notice that my membership would soon auto-renew (GOLD LEVEL $899 DUE 6/14). I also received an email re Expedia has purchased this company and they are going to a single level membership in July but I can stay with my GOLD level for another year with the same benefits (high ranking in the search).

After renting on VRBO, we submitted our review. We had a list of complaints - soiled bedspread, dirty coffee pot, layer of dirt on entry doors, and most importantly, mold growing on window frames that made it impossible to sleep in one of the bedrooms. We did not list all our complaints in the review, only 2 of them; we also said a few positives on the place. We gave it 2 stars -- our review could have been way more harsh. Now, I just received an email from owner saying that unless we withdraw our neg review, she is seeing an atty to seek remedy. This feels like extortion. Why should we remove a review that was wholly accurate? (Btw, she posted a reply to our review, on the site, where she went into a rant about us -- shot herself in the foot.)

I have gone through VRBO for many years. With added service fee this will be my last. They charge owner of property which should be enough. Goodbye HomeAway & VRBO.

I recently booked a condo in Kauai through VRBO. Before I was able to confirm my reservation, VRBO charged my credit card the booking fee of $117.12 USD. The next day, the owner cancelled my reservation because another renter has booked it (so he says). This is absolutely horrendous and unacceptable from a company this big. Renting through the owner of the property is completely unreliable. To date I have not received my refund for the fee. It was my first time to use VRBO and never again.

Am I understanding this correctly? I pay VRBO to advertise my beach home so I can attract renters. VRBO does a good job of attracting renters to my site. Now, VRBO charges a service fee to the renters that I pay them a fee to get for me. IF I HAD NOT PAID THEM A SUBSCRIPTION FEE, THEY WOULD NOT HAVE A home rental to collect a commission on. It kills me that I am paying them and supplying a home to them so that they can collect a commission on. Does this make sense?? Have you tried handling your rental lately? It's a nightmare. Having a third party stick their nose into our business is not going to work. It may take a while but someone will come up with the same model we used to have. What an opportunity for a savvy person to make millions.

The new Service Fee is TOTAL B.S. We've been a very regular user of VRBO - worldwide - but this aggravating fee will force us to search for alternatives. I'm sure I'm not alone.

I stumbled on the reviews of the recent VRBO/HomeAway changes and after weeks of sleepless nights worrying about 'my' predicament realized I WAS NOT ALONE!! I wondered WHY no one was inquiring on a property that has been fully booked for 13 years during the summer months in Big Sky MT? Hell no, I am not sharing my income with the company who I already pay dearly for my site. AND since when have they come to clean toilets and turn beds, for me? So when I read countless reviews I felt at least validated in my worries. With 3 vacation rentals in my quiver; I work hard at keeping them spotless and welcoming as I read many who do the same. I move from one place to another so that I have a place to live while the other is rented, and therefore, my life is busy (by choice). My solution if in fact it is one was to let one VRBO account expire.

I’ve used VRBO for many years and have stayed in many great places. The site offered easy navigation, complete descriptions, and useful filters - until it was taken over by HomeAway. I recently was on the site, found a place I wanted to rent, but when I got to the final cost, there was a $70 service fee!?!! For what? The privilege of using their site? Checking out others reviews, I learned that the property owners are spending $1,500/yr to list their property, the customer service they receive is essentially nil, and their occupancy rates have dropped dramatically. I will no longer be using any HomeAway site, and hope others will do the same to send a strong message to this company.

I have been searching different websites including Flipkey, airbnb and this vrbo trying to find suitable vacation rentals all evening long for my stay with my fiance in the Philippines. What I am surprised at is that the prices that are listed as 35 USD or 41 USD, when I click for booking page, it at first shows me the price listed on the initial site but within 10 seconds, the price nearly doubles for that... 41 USD turns in to 71 or 75 USD. This is just awful. I know that all these companies are trying reap people off by the excuse of cleaning fees, booking fees, payment protection fees, service fees etc... but this one has been the worst in my experience so far. I instantly checked the prices on other sites and what a big difference! Why not stay in hotels or book hotels directly instead of dealing with these big crooks?!

My very profitable and beautiful rental in Cozumel went from HERO TO ZERO since VRBO decided to copycat AirBnB. I can't believe I spent almost $1400 this year to advertise with them and now I am stuck until Feb 2017. BUYER BEWARE!!!

Our clients are Canadian and they are looking for a holiday home in CANADA. The rate that is displayed to our customers have been showing in US $'s. This misleads our clients into believing that the house costs much less than what it does. We are losing clients because of this. VRBO did not tell anyone that this is happening nor do they seem in the slightest bit interested in changing this. Apparently the world revolves around the US and Canadians are worth their bother. I will be looking for a different place to list my holiday homes.

I have had no inquiries for 6 weeks for my vacation rental, Pua Hale at Poipu, since Expedia bought the company. I have had the rental for 20+ years and am always booked and get an overflow of inquiries every week that I refer to friends. THERE HAS BEEN NO EMAIL FOR MY PROPERTY, **, FOR 6 WEEKS. I have talked to other owners who use VRBO and find the same problem. There is something wrong. I have paid over $1000 for one rental... I am looking into other ways to rent my property.

I have been renting property for vacations through VRBO for a number of years, although the past couple of years I have often found better deals by contacting local property management companies. Nevertheless, I still start with vrbo when I'm searching for properties. This year I find that they are now charging me a fee to rent properties through them, even though they also charge their property owners a fee. I understand their desire to increase their bottom line but I'm saying no to this attempt. They have less expense (unless they are not managing their business properly) than local property managers, and don't have to maintain local offices so I'm just not going to deal with them anymore. If they want my business they're going to have to get it by removing the fee.

I object to the new Travelers fees for VRBO vacation rentals. I have lost bookings because of VRBO Travelers fees. I feel it is unfair for a very large company to exploit small business owners. They try to make me feel good by telling me I will only pay 350 a year, down $500. However after I reimburse my Travelers the fees, it costs me another $2000.

I have used VRBO/Homeaway for years and am normally booked for our summer high season by mid-March. This year we're a week away from Memorial Day and I have no bookings at all. This makes no sense as our town has been restricting short term rentals at some places which would take at least 100 properties out of the marketplace so I should be getting more inquiries. I know I am not alone and there are thousands of other vacation owners out there who are experiencing a serious loss of income due to the changes within VRBO/Homeaway even though we are contracted and have been paying increased rates to list our properties for the last several years. VRBO/Homeaway was a great resource but they have breached all of our contracts and should offer refunds for the damage they have done.

I subscribed to VRBO last year with a platinum membership. During that year I booked my house with reservations extending beyond the subscription. I called VRBO to inquire what changes, if any would occur if I did not resubscribe and was told nothing would change and that VRBO would honor the reservations. I decided to try pay per booking just to fill in holes in the calendar. Imagine my surprise when I learned all my payments for bookings made PRIOR to my subscription running out were now in a delayed disbursement plan! So VRBO has decided it's okay to hold funds for up to 5-7 days AFTER a guest has checked out? I would like to know how the folks at VRBO think home owners can run a business by being paid almost a week after a guest leaves? Are they going to pay the house cleaner, taxes, utilities, etc?

I sound like a broken record but hoping the more people that write in may have an impact on VRBO changing their policy back to what we all signed up for... Vacation Rental by OWNER! I would happily pay even more than the Platinum service charge I currently pay on both our properties if I could continue to manage the properties and have a more personal relationship with our guests.

I have had two homes on HomeAway and VRBO for over 10 years. Things were great until this year. I am at 1/4 of my rental income from last year for both homes. Just awful and THEY PUT YOU AT THE BACK OF THE SEARCH LIST IF YOU DO NOT GO WITH THEIR PLANS, and now that I have signed up, I have not gotten one inquiry and it is over a month. I paid in excess of $2000 for my two homes for 2016 and feel I have just been **. I can't see how they need the extra money for marketing. They are just greedy. I do not recommend signing with HomeAway or VRBO.

I had two properties advertised on VRBO in 2012. At the time they merged with HomeAway, I suddenly could not find either property. Not surprisingly, my bookings went to zero. There was no warning from VRBO, and my calls to customer service were not answered for weeks. Finally I got in touch with someone who told me my listing has been "down" due to a "software problem" and there was no estimated time to have them back online. I asked for a refund for the time that the homes were not listed, and was told "We never give refunds, and we don't ever credit more than a month's time."

We have used VRBO since 2007 and have had great results until recently as they grab for more money. Ours and friends rentals have booked slower this year than ever due to the games VRBO are playing to generate more income for themselves. If I can find an alternative site like the old VRBO we are leaving. They want to much control and now are charging our renters an additional fee for as they claim better advertising. I call bullshit, it's a money grab and a huge one at that. I will not bow to this pressure and will not do online booking. It takes away the personal touch that we like and our renters like. Take note VRBO we are not happy at all.

I have been renting my home on VRBO since 2011. I only rent for July and August the Saratoga race meet weeks. Never have I had any openings, and have had to turn people away. I actually did extend my rental one week because a family that has stayed with me for 7 years had some health issues and when they found out they could come I was already fully booked, so I added new week for them.

This reminds me of the time Netflix tried to raise their prices for mail-in and streaming subscribers. I completely agree with everyone else's comments on this site... Really, It's just a terrible business decision from VRBO.

We have used VRBO to advertise a resort rental for over 10 years with very good results. Over the last few years the fee has increased dramatically but we felt we had no other option. Now with the recent fee and ranking changes we will have to explore other sites. Our place is not a typical rental property since we and our children use it as well -- and thus we must be very careful about who we rent to and the renters have uniformly been very happy with the accommodations (all 5 ratings). And because our rentals are so seasonal and our cleaning people's schedule so constricted, we vary the rent considerably based on the number of people, days, and season.

Our property in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL has been listed with VRBO since 2009. We always had great response from the site (at a Gold Level). After the latest change in February to require the use of their Payment system to have a high ranking (we use a property manager for our billing), we haven't had a SINGLE inquiry. Our property went from being on the 1st to 2nd page to about the 12th page. WHY would I pay one additional cent to this company? We let our contract lapse and have moved over to VacationHomeRentals.com, which is part of the TripAdvisor family. The prices are lower, there is NO fee to the renters and I have had 8 inquiries on the property in 1 1/2 months. They offer a 60-day trial membership. I will be paying for a full Gold or Platinum membership when my trial is up!

Over the last 15 years we have owned 6 different properties in Outer Banks, NC and 2 in The Villages that we advertised on VRBO. We have sold them all, but know how costly it is to advertise on VRBO. We spent thousands of dollars over all those years. Yes, we did get rentals and we felt it was one of the better sites to advertise, but nevertheless, very costly. Owners pay a lot.

Been with VRBO for 12 years. Was initially established to provide owners a means to rent property themselves and avoid the huge fees rental agencies charged. AND, provided renters discounted rates as a result. However, this is no longer the case and both property owners and renters are paying the price. Rental agencies are now allowed to post properties on their site, AND, getting preferential listings on top of the page. Rental service fees are now required 8%+, if property owners elect to "opt out" they move to the bottom of the page listings, AND!!! if you elect to select book it now but end up dealing directly with your clients, there is a note on their site that they accept less booking than normal. So because I have so many repeat renters that contact me directly, (which should be a good thing) I end up declining a lot of requests for dates I already have booked even when my calendar is blocked.

I join the masses of owners who have expressed their concerns over changes in Homeaway/VRBO. I am happy to see I am not the only one that is saying "What the hell is going on". I have been happy for 6 years and now went from happy to zero with them. Just got off the phone with them, so far EVERYTHING they told me is not true. I was doubled billed, then not then next year it will go down, then in July everyone new gets a better deal but I get screwed because mine does not renew until 4 weeks. That extra fee is so unclear to guests. Everything is scrambled eggs. I am just really unhappy now.

I have been a loyal VRBO property owner since 2011, at the platinum level so my listing has always been top second in searches. I have perfected my personal way of conducting MY property management, being the sole manager/owner and corresponding directly with my potential renters. I have developed multiple, custom responses through personal experiences over the past years as well as conducting my own bookings/reservations. Now, VRBO is penalizing both me the property owner and the potential renter by penalizing me if I do not allow bookings online. I am charged more money by deferring this feature and the renter is likewise charged an additional fee. Moreover, my consistent rating as #2 in searches continues to drop based on my refusal to allow online bookings. Appears VRBO does not value their loyal property managers and feels compelled to stick their fingers in my personal rental management.

Went through VRBO to book a property for our family of 10 in Florida. We contacted the owner of the property and was assured there were no bugs and that the home was treated for insects. VRBO guarantees you a refund if the property is misrepresented etc. We booked our flights and although our plane was delayed, we arrived at the property after 8 pm on May 10, 2016. We were traveling with an infant so we were pretty happy to get to the property, leave our bags and go out to eat. Before we went to eat at a restaurant, I poked around the kitchen looking to see what spices were provided and what was not for our food shopping list. I opened the cabinet above the microwave and saw a bug run into the cabinet. I thought it was a fluke thing and let our party know to be on the lookout. We then left and went to eat.

I will not be renewing. They do not stand behind their products. They are trying to maximize their profits without giving any thought to their clients. One rep will say one thing and another something else. I have received more referrals from different sites than VRBO and the new added fees to the clients are really outrageous. They know their system is not working and they plan to eliminate the featured and scaled levels but they will not credit clients for features that do not work. Very unsatisfied Client.

I am a VRBO homeowner and have been for 6 years. I have continually had to upgrade my subscription with VRBO to continue to stay at the top of the listings of rentals. I have renewed my listing in February for $1,700 including the global package and a platinum listing. Every year, VRBO makes changes to their rules and their website. Homeowners including myself rarely get notified of these changes. This year, they starting charging traveler service fees effective February 19th and, once again, didn't notify the homeowners of this change. The impact of this change affected my reservation calendar tremendously. I am not receiving the amount of reservations that I normally receive during the Spring season. In a nutshell, by charging the traveler service fees, VRBO, has turned away interested travelers.

The February 2016 traveler fee is a disingenuous move on the part of HomeAway thus making potential clients suspicious of property owners, creating a loss of business for property owners because it increases the rate by a significant percentage. Homeowners were not given an option to decline the service fee added to their rate. Clients are not given an option to decline the service fee. Someway has done what is worthy of a class action lawsuit because business is declining as a direct result of HomeAway's gimmick to make money with their service fee. Homeowners and clients should have an option. It should not be a mandatory inclusion.

I have been with VRBO for 5 years and each year they increase their subscription fees. I've renewed my contract each year because I've found that consumers have become increasingly aware of the VRBO name and I like the web site (somewhat easy to work). I just became aware this week that VRBO is now charging the public (consumers, my guest) a very large fee to book through their website. I'm totally confused!

I have been a loyal subscriber of VRBO since 2006, and had developed a trust and satisfaction with their product to the point that I eventually used them exclusively and paid for their highest subscription level, platinum global, and followed their advice to allow online booking, keep my calendar up to date and every other tip they offered. Things were going so well that our vacation rental had our all time highest bookings in 2015, even in the midst of an extreme drought in California resulting in a winter with no snow in a Lake Tahoe rental where our biggest seasons are Winter and Summer.

After waiting days for a "supervisor" to call me back, he accused me of lying to him when I told him about problems with their website and how it keeps changing data on my listing to make it different from how I set it up. Their "new and improved" (read: changed to make them more money and screw landlords and tenants simultaneously) website has flaws that automatically change info about your listing (average nightly rate, town where your property is located). When I tried to inform them of this and request some compensation, they accused me of making these undesirable changes. (WHY WOULD I DO THIS? I'M TRYING TO RENT MY PROPERTY!)

Ugh! This whole system is horrible!!! It's clunky to start. I have spent a small fortunate on advertising for VRBO and they have requests that can't be answered because the "inbox" shows empty even though there are "alerts" that I get from my own email. I call repeatedly for help and the service people hang up on you. Airbnb is a much more reliable system, I am finding. Not perfect, but much better than VRBO!!!

I have been with VRBO since 2010. I have always used their subscription service. This yr, when it expired on April 14/2016, we decided to finish off our last 2 1/2 weeks of our summer rental season, as a pay per book format. When the payment was to be processed for the 1st guest of the 2016 summer season, she booked in Feb 2016 - I was informed that even though 96% of our guests booked before our subscription expired, all guests were now classified as pay per book, as that was the current status of my acct. If I want my money to be released, as how I originally paid for, I need to pay another yr of subscription. This is fraud, and no better than gangster mentality.

Since the introduction of the service fee by VRBO we have experienced a dramatic bookings reduction. Imagine their service fee for a high-end, water front Florida Keys home with a $28 minimum stay? This fee makes clients upset which in turn impacts our bookings. Very disappointing.

Then they were taken over by Expedia, straight downhill after that. They absolutely for two weeks are completely unable to read a map. They have not been able to put my platinum membership ($1,500) property in the right area of Maui. They cannot even understand that Maui is an island in the State of Hawaii. Completely clueless. Customer service is totally downhill too. What a disaster. On top of this, they are charging the guests 9%!!!! Wow! Are they ever raking in the money! My $1,500 to advertise per property (2 properties) and then they are soaking the guests another (% with is hundreds of dollars per guest!!). Try TripAdvisor instead. Home Away/VRBO is horrible now.

For eight years, we've used VRBO to list our condo in Myrtle Beach and had wonderful guests staying in our condo. Over time, we've put up with the changes made to VRBO, and then HomeAway, even though they gave us less and less control of our listing. In addition, the annual listing fees kept going higher and higher. Our listing level had always been in the top three pages on VRBO's site. Then HomeAway came along, and our listing level dropped down, even though we maximized the number of photos, had always had 4.5+ star reviews, and kept our calendar up to date.

Despite doing everything I can think of to make the new VRBO/HomeAway system work, I am nearly at the end of my rope. I'm having countless issues with their poorly designed and horribly buggy system. But rather than go on and on about those issues, I want to highlight one in particular in this post. This company has lost its values. The new VRBO/HomeAway culture is condescending, patronizing, deceptive and lacking in ethics. I've been with them for 12 years and it has changed for the worse each of those years.

I own a vacation home and every year Homeaway raises their prices and lowers their service. Today was the last straw, they want 500 bucks plus an addition fee for clientele to even see my property. Airbnb and TripAdvisor does not do this. When this year's subscription is done, so are we with Vbro.

Our rental has been using VRBO for the past 5 years. The recent changes are not acceptable for our rental. We will no longer be using this service if these changes stay in effect. I am sure that some genius in the Finance Dept. thought that adding to their revenue by forcing everyone to book online was a great idea. If we wanted to do that, we would have already been using AirB&B. We use the direct booking time with the customer as a way for them to vet us, as we are able to vet them, (control their expectations). We have always had great reviews. By not being able to have these conversations, we are unable to make sure that the vacationer is truly getting the experience that they expect. We can fill them in on the local must-sees, and the exact limitations of the property.

I was a subscriber with 7 platinum listings on VRBO and HomeAway and without proper notice they forced a service fee of up to 9% for each booking that is charged to the vacationers. I already paid $1,300 annually for each of my listings and had time on my agreement but VRBO did not offer me even a prorated escape route, they just forced the service fee upon us and we had no choice in the matter. It would not surprise me a bit to see a class action lawsuit brought against them. I am highly disappointed with their president's decision and think that homeowners will reject this and decide to use other booking services and protest by not renewing their listings.

I definitely want in on any class-action lawsuit against VRBO/HomeAway/Expedia!! We signed with VRBO in October 2015 after purchasing our vacation home. We elected to go with VRBO's Gold US Bundle for increased visibility. This Bundle came up for renewal around March, at which time we did renew. However, nothing was mentioned about the ridiculous new "Service Fee" which would be charged to OUR renters! Had we been notified of this, we would not have renewed at this upgraded bundle!

Decided to book a weekend trip to Santa Cruz for the kids and I. Found a beach house and clicked "booked", filled out the CC information. A few hours later, the home owner emailed and me and said it was already rented. How can it already be booked if it said it was available? Then to find out the homeowner charged me for the weekend rental, $900. Now I have been going back and forth with VRBO which has been a disaster. Finally they stepped up and wrote the homeowner, he replied he has fully refunded my money. Well, it's been 4 days and no refund has been made on my CC. Every time I have called VRBO I have to explain the ENTIRE story over and over. The customer service is awful. Today, I threw in the towel and my CC company will refund me and fight VRBO (that call was only 1 minute). I will NEVER use VRBO again.

If I could rate Expedia with a minus I would but I could not find the appropriate review. I recently lost my beloved husband and was being exploited by Expedia (HomeAway and VRBO) at the same time. I'm so tired of the government and Expedia telling me that changes are good for me. They are not and shame on anyone that believes this is true. How can Expedia charge a 9% service charge when they do not do 9% of the work. They actually stated that guests would not mind the extra charge. I'm so disgusted with Expedia and please find other Christian sites that do not exploit everyone.

I join the masses of owners who have expressed their concerns over changes in Homeaway/VRBO. My husband and I rent out a small cottage. We are the least expensive property in our area. We are the go to budget motel that has all the necessary amenities plus extra touches. We are reaching to the people who are looking for a deal. All goes well for 7 years and then we are blasted with online booking mandates which cause us to lose money in credit card fees and now our renters are forced to pay a service fee of 9 percent. If we were an expensive property they would be paying 6 percent.

For a homeowner. Every year they charge more and offer less. Now, you are forced to use their online payment system or have a terrible ranking. We use a management company and can't use their payment system, which means a much lower ranking. My experiences with their customer service have been brutal as well.

I, like many of these other folks, have rental properties advertised on VRBO. I loved them at first... paid top dollar to advertise at the Platinum level, kept my calendar up to date, immediately responded to inquiries and kept my reviews current and numerous. They now charge this ridiculously HUGE booking fee... can be up to $499. Up to 9%. That's unbelievable. Why am I not just using a realtor at 12% with none of the work? I also tried to call VRBO to complain. The gentleman told me many others have called and have similar complaints. I also posted my complaint to them in writing through my owner's page. Nothing. I am very unhappy with VRBO and am seeking another way to advertise, for the sake of my renters who don't deserve these extra fees.

I have a property listed on VRBO/HomeAway that I have successfully run for awhile now. Always happy guests through Airbnb and the handful I have had through VRBO/HomeAway and I have the reviews to back it up. Along came a guest that blatantly wanted a free stay and so he issued a chargeback, saying my place was not how it was described. Without asking any questions, VRBO yanked the money back from my account (even though he stayed the WHOLE time) AND they charged me 2 fees of $25 each, penalizing ME for the chargeback. It's the worst racket of a company I have ever dealt with and I will not be doing any more listings there. Atrocious customer service.

We own and manage properties from North Carolina, through South Florida, and the Florida Keys. We started with VRBO, then expanded onto HomeAway. Over the years we went through Tiered Subscription Levels; Basic, Bronze, Gold, Platinum. Then we went through U.S. Bundle, European Bundle, Featured Listing, etc. All at extra costs. Then at the beginning of this year, we went through online bookings, they charge +/- 2.9%, we process at 1.4%. Savings are passed on to our guests in lower rates. We have not increased our rates in over seven (7) years. Then we went through having banners posted onto Guest Inquiries, that they were NOT protected if they did not Book through HomeAway via online.

I just rent a villa in FLORIDA for March 2017 with VRBO. I have rented villas with VRBO and HOMEAWAY for 6 years. I was always satisfied, but this year I am very disappointed... For a reason I do not understand I was billed two times for the same PROPERTY DAMAGE PROTECTION. That is an insurance in case you accidentally break something in the villa. I emailed tree times VRBO and HOME AWAY since 8 days and still no answers. I find this situation very frustrating. VRBO should at least give me an explanation. I tried a phone number but it no longer exist. If someone know a phone number I could reach VRBO or HOMEAWAY directly, please let me now.

Deposit to my account by Yapstone Europe to my account $2,806.01 on March 24, 2016. April 8, I was told that the charges was a fraud, so did a charge back to my account of $3,261.20. So VRBO took $455.19 more from account without authorization. I have called many times but I have been transferred to many places without any answers. Please do not trust VRBO and Homeway. Do not give them your bank. They also charge the tenants additional commission. I have just cancelled my membership.

As many others have stated, we wanted a site to list our rental properties not a rental management company. We absolutely refuse to allow someone else to dictate our rates, fees and form of payment. The new guest service fee and forced online payment are deal breakers. Dusting off our html knowledge, we have now generated our own listing site at Floridarentalsnow.com. With two properties in the Sebring, Florida area, we will not be renewing with VRBO.

Good morning VRBO. Thank you for your email explaining your new plans. TOO LITTLE TOO LATE. We have been with you solely since 2000. We own one 4 bed 3 bath villa in Kissimmee. We have had a very successful booking history. We paid for the Platinum package with online booking and online payment (everything you advise us to do). Since you have induced this SERVICE FEE we have had only two bookings. By this time in a normal year we would have been well booked up. We are one family. Our villa is our delight but we will lose it if we cannot book it which will break ours and our children's hearts. DO YOU CARE. We think not, why are you doing this to your loyal customers.

I just learned that my vacation rental listing on HomeAway/VRBO/VacationRentals has been dropped low on the list because I choose not to sign-up for their online payment process, even though I have listed with VRBO, etc. for over 10 years. I also learned that when HomeAway manages your payments they charge a service fee that is scaled according to dollar amount of rental. I pay VRBO nearly $1000 per year for my subscription. Originally, I signed up for online listing, not property management. Gradually, VRBO/HomeAway has morphed into so much more and does not give members a choice. As a vacation rental owner, I enjoy getting to know my potential guests and want to make sure my home does not feel like a quick-click rental.

We first listed our new Outer Banks vacation home with VRBO three years ago. Our first season was fairly successful, with bookings most summer and some shoulder season rentals. Although not as successful as we thought it could be, we chalked it up to our first year learning curve and looked forward to year 2. During our second year we purchased additional banner ads and promos - and at the conclusion of the season had seen our bookings and revenue both drop. Scratching our heads going into season 3, we upgraded our listing. Three months into our upgraded listing we ran the "analytics" they offer owners, and while our listing scores high (reviews of 4.9 stars, online bookings, complete listing, 24 photos, less than 24 hour response time, etc.) in their "listing scoring system" with no areas we can improve upon, our page views have dropped to ⅓ of what they were for the same exact time last year.

Can someone make me a dart board with Brian Sharples face on it please? Aside from the "service fees" just because they can, the worst customer DIS-service revolves around the search parameters - map based searches. "My" island has one single zip code but three distinctly different towns. If you are searching in one specific town here, you would be extremely disappointed to find yourself in one of the other two. They all have their own distinct vibe.

Last month I made a booking on VRBO and paid through their "Book with Confidence Guarantee". 3 days before the arrival, the owner cancelled my booking. Few days later he refunded the money but it was not a full refund. He insisted that he made a full refund but I only receive a part of it. I have tried to contact VRBO support but the answer is that they are not involved in rental transaction. What a shame, I have paid through their "Book with Confidence Guarantee", so what kind of "Guarantee" is that? I will never book with them again. Stay away from VRBO if you don't want to ruin your vacation.

Wish there was another option for listing my home. They are trying to run my business by managing bookings, payments and customer interactions, info and penalizing us when we do not cooperate with their changes. They are also ripping off our customers by charging fees which I do not require. They do all this to charge us and our guest more in the name of "guest" security and making us look bad and not trustworthy! They also are trying to filter guest away from direct contact with the homeowner. I really wish a class action suit is taken against them.

I join with the hundreds of dissatisfied VRBO customers who are losing rental income since the acquisition of VRBO by Expedia. When I called to discuss the horrid collapse of reservations of my property since the acquisition I was assured that was counter to the documented trends and was told that only the owners were complaining. That is certainly not true nor are any of the other stories told by the "customer" service folks. After all, who is your customer when you charge the owner ever increasing fees and charge the traveler a "service" charge? I cut from the Platinum level to the Bronze level and am listing on every reputable commission service available. Next year I'll know which is best.

Started with VRBO and sister company Homeaway over ten years ago. I was beyond pleased until they "tried" to fix something that wasn't broken. Now the quality and quantity of inquiries is awful and so is the customer service. ALWAYS in the past paid one fee for both sites and now was forced into paying a separate fee for second site which is basically the same site as the first.

Very dissatisfied with the changes that have been made by VRBO to charge our gracious renters an additional service fee and their attempts to bully those of us who paid 599.00 and up for a one year listing to now use their online booking system. We were very happy and recommended VRBO to everyone we know but we will be sure to tell folks to avoid this company now! How can you charge someone an annual fee and then turn around and change the terms of the agreement? I for one will be looking for a refund from my credit card company where I charged our owner listing fee. You can certainly tell that there has been a change in ownership of VRBO!!! Does anyone out there know of a similar service that is like "VRBO was in the good old days"?