Vrbo Reviews
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About Vrbo
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Vrbo provides a marketplace for booking unique accommodation options and vacation rentals. Established in 1995, the platform connects homeowners with travelers seeking rental properties, offering homes, condos and cabins.
- Clean and well-maintained properties
- Good amenities
- Poor communication from owners
- Hidden fees and charges
Vrbo Reviews
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Reviewed Aug. 15, 2022
Rented a VROB in DC over a month ago! Upon my wife and kids walking in I dropped some bags in front room. Went back to truck to get more luggage as I turn the corner they are walking out! Place dirty!
Reviewed Aug. 15, 2022
Made reservation on Expedia.com/VRBO for treasure island. booked it then a week later, only days before my trip they canceled with no explanation. What a waste of time and money, now rates are higher. I will never use Expedia/VRBO again. Impossible to count on them.
Reviewed Aug. 15, 2022
Worst customer service I have ever experienced. I called 9 times and was hung up on by 7 different reps after being on hold for 2 hours and 55 minutes during one call and 2 hours and 17 minutes on another, meanwhile I was 3,000 miles away from home. Vrbo left me and my family stranded for an entire weekend without accommodations for my entire stay or a refund in a city across the country from my home. They had me pay premium same-day pricing at a hotel even though I booked my stay with them 4 months in advance. When I asked to be transferred to a manager, a manager named Marcuz got on the phone and yelled at me. He said, “don’t play with this one ma’am,” as if my family and I being stranded would be something I'd be joking about and just completely belittled me. I am appalled by their lack of empathy and disregard for my and my family's lives and safety.
This is by far the worst customer support experience I have ever had to deal with; never have I been hung up on by multiple representatives of a company; never have I been left without a reasonable resolution when I am 3,000+ miles away from home; never have I been left stranded across the country without a place to sleep; never have I been yelled at and threatened by a Customer Support Manager; never have I had such an abominable experience that I am forced to warn others of such possible atrocities. Stay away from Vrbo or you may very well have your vacation turned into a nightmare like mine was!!!
Reviewed Aug. 15, 2022
We used VRBO to rent a property for a family vacation. The owner canceled the reservation and we did not receive a refund. When I contacted VRBO customer service I was told to contact the property owner directly. You are better off using Airbnb.
Reviewed Aug. 14, 2022
I reserved a two bedroom VRBO in the Pittsburgh, PA area approximately two months ago, paid in full and received a VRBO confirmation. I phoned the number listed for the owner the day before our check-in to receive the required steps needed to enter the property and was advised by the owner that this property has not been available for rental in over a year; and yet VRBO continues to advertise the property on their site. He informed me that he received calls from two other customers within the past year who also paid in full to rent this property and struggled with VRBO to receive their full refund. When I immediately notified VRBO, they refused to assist me in finding another rental property in the limited area until the actual day of my check in (which was the following day).
After being transferred to 3 customer service representatives and staying on hold for 2 hours and 37 minutes; I was then advised to call back on the morning of our check-in to resolve the issue. I did this, only to be transferred to another 2-3 customer service representatives and hold for another 2.5 hours to finally receive confirmation of a hotel reservation for that evening for two rooms (since I was travelling with my ex-husband we could not share a hotel room, hence the need to rent the two bedroom property!!). I was advised that VRBO would be placing me into another rental property the following day, only to find out once again that they were unwilling to find us a rental property. I was advised I could rent a hotel room (but for no more then the cost of the nightly VRBO fee of $160), pay out of pocket and submit the documents for "possible" reimbursement after further review!
This resolution however was unacceptable, as it only provided me with ONE bedroom, and we rented a TWO bedroom property; one of us would have to pay for the hotel room WITHOUT receiving reimbursement!! I attempted to contact the rebooking department regarding the unacceptable offer they emailed to me, but was told there is no possible way to speak with any employees or supervisors from that department; I would have to just accept their offer and am unable to speak with anyone about the issue!! I responded to their email offer and requested a representative contact me immediately to resolve this issue to assure we both had lodging for the night, but NOBODY ever returned my call or responded to the email. Speaking with multiple customer service agents who work in "offshore call centers" who cannot offer any resolutions to customers is absolutely inappropriate and unprofessional.
Customers who do not receive appropriate resolutions have no ability to speak with anyone of authority.... I received nothing but scripted answers "it is our policy...." repeated over and over again without providing the actual policies!! I have rented from VRBO in the past without issues, but knowing about these inappropriate business practices that certainly DO NOT provide the "book with confidence guaranty" they advertise must be made known to the public to protect future customers from being scammed by this unprofessional company. The last customer service agent I spoke with, Richard, advised me that VRBO does NOT monitor their site for fraudulent listings....anyone can post an ad to a rental property and customers run a high risk of losing hundreds of dollars in these scams. Someone needs to investigate their fraudulent business practices and hold them accountable for their actions.
Reviewed Aug. 12, 2022
We booked 2 weeks in Europe, 9 different places. One of them was a scammer trying to get money from us multiple times - 200E for deposit and 60E to use linens and towels. VRBO customer service was not helpful at all, and keeps refusing my review due to guidelines. Just beware that VRBO probably won't do anything if you get scammed. And beware of property #2839335 "in the middle of Upper Lusatia - Apple Barn Cannewitz" in Germany.
Reviewed Aug. 12, 2022
VRBO is an absolute nightmare of a company to deal with. My family and I checked into a house that was completely misadvertised- multiple issues with the utilities not working and property damages. The house was advertised as a 1 min walk to the beach, to find out that the location was on an 8 lane interstate highway that needed to be crossed over and was nowhere near the beach. The utilities- air and water- were not working, a/c in 2 of the 3 rooms were blowing HOT air and temperature could not be lowered. Main living area had no a/c and no window coverings, with intense tropical heat coming inside the house.
The water was burning hot and my child and I both burned ourselves trying to shower and use the sink. It then started to rain and found a huge puddle on the floor from a huge crack from a leaking ceiling and roof. The entire main floor was flooded with water! The pool was filthy and could not be used, and the entire house smelled of marijuana. This house was located in Carolina, Puerto Rico and had pictures of flamingos everywhere. It was a scam.
I had placed multiple calls to VRBO to request a refund and not one person did anything to resolve the issues. I was put on hold at length (30-45 minutes at a time) and hung up on repeatedly. Was then told they would process the refund but had to transfer me to talk with another representative and the call would disconnect. One representative told me it was at the owner's discretion if they would give a refund. However the owner refused to correct any issues and claimed they did not exist. Must have placed a total of 20-30 calls to VRBO to try to get a resolution and get out of there.
Finally the kicker in all this- the owner ENTERED THE PROPERTY AS WE WERE STAYING THERE, started cursing at me in front of my children and decided to call the police to have me leave the property, even though I had been asking for a refund to leave there, when the police arrived they reiterated to him that he needed to refund me. The owner of the property decided to play games and keep half of my payment for a 8 night stay, even though we left the same day we checked in.
We left and have been fighting this with my credit card ever since. VRBO has done NOTHING to refund my money or assisted me while we were supposed to be on a vacation away from home. This place was an absolute SCAM and VRBO did not do anything to correct the issues or refund me. Will NEVER do business with this company again. Once they get your money- you are on your own.
Reviewed Aug. 12, 2022
Good morning to all. We came here last Wednesday which was august 3. We have apartment in Sian residence Hollywood Florida rent from owner. Apt 3E 4001 Ocean drive. I could start from saying terrible smell as soon open the door. I understand came early. But it’s not worth what I pay. Terrible ** smell from someone upstairs. The apartment is dirty. Wall dirty. Bathroom water all over. This is the worse place I stay in Florida. Always staying good places. For the money I pay I could had stay in better place. The pool is small. But not bad. Beach was dirty which I didn’t want to go back. I’m guessing I’m paying for the view.
When you call the VRBO they say they will call me back. Which nothing. Sad. But I had to purchase all my clean products to clean the place. We do have a small kids. Anyway I give 0 star to this place. I believe not all the apartment is like this but this one here is just trash. I will send pictures and post. Sad very sad. I’m glad I’m leaving today. And never come back here.
Reviewed Aug. 11, 2022
Terrible experience. I reserved this house since Jan 2022, by May 2022 I was supposed to do the last payment, comes to happen that host didn't reply to me how to make the last payment... I had to contact VRBO which was a nightmare until I decided to send an email to almost every top person at corporate and the ball started running on our favor... Finally one month later I was able to get all my money back, because at beginning it seems that they have no intention to return my money even though it wasn't my fault...
And as of today I can say never again I will rent a house through VRBO... That statement that money back guarantee NOT TRUE!! It should say "MONEY BACK IF YOU KNOW HOW TO FIGHT FOR IT." Long story short what happened was the house that I rented was sold. (I investigated and found out about this), it was removed from VRBO and NO ONE LET ME KNOW ABOUT THIS!! VRBO want it me to wait until the day I was supposed to check in to jump in and help me with no guarantee that I will have a house for all 25 people in my group and that will not have to pay an extra penny. And that was a NO NO for especially that we have children in the group.
Reviewed Aug. 10, 2022
We rented a "4 room house" in Las Vegas through VRBO (Reservation #**)., and it turned out that this was the most neglected house we have been to through a renting agency. It was the most disappointing and frustrating experience to rent a "4 bedroom house" and get a 3 bedroom house with a "4th room" which was actually a bed in a closet. Consequently, one of our family members had to spend the night on the floor. Furthermore, the house was old, poorly maintained and poorly furnished, and the air conditioning hardly worked. Though the owner was "kind" enough to send someone to fix it, it still was not functioning properly. Staying in this house at 104 degrees was unbearable. Additionally, the sewage system was not functioning properly, as water flew out in both bathroom floors every time we took a shower or used the toilet.
The swimming pool, which seemed "the highlight of our stay", was not clean and not well taken care of. Talking to VRBO representatives was a waste of time. It fell on deaf ears. While we were spending literally hours calling them and trying to persuade them that staying in this house was unbearable and therefore out of the question, they tried to evade from seeking a solution. Instead of offering an alternative, they simply ignored the problem with all kinds of excuses. We left the house after one night of disappointment and frustration. VRBO offered no solution, wasted our time and caused us aggravation and no compensation. We recommend you refrain from making a deal with this agency. What a shame! If you don't want to go through such a frustrating experience like we did.
Reviewed Aug. 9, 2022
I've been using VRBO (HomeAway) for years. It's always been good until I've had an issue. The property (3 bedrooms) and the listing (4 bedrooms) didn't match. The property was filthy, AC didn't work (Vegas in August), and the sewer came up from the baths every time we flushed the toilet. The host was nasty and hostile. We ended up booking a place on Airbnb that cost the same but was perfect for my family and me. VRBO support was terrible and wouldn't transfer me to another property, even though I took pictures and showed them that it's a three-bedroom house on the title. They claimed that the tiny closet was the 4th bedroom. They also said that I should contact the owner about the other issues. I told them I was not going to spend our three days vacation inspecting his house and accommodate contractors to work during our stay. What a joke of a company. I'm done with VRBO.
Reviewed Aug. 8, 2022
Good luck.... Refund is impossible to obtain. Custom service would be better if it came from a foreign call center. Definitely would be more polite. Very inclusive service. Like Turo they can deny you the rental if they don't like your name... And some how keep your payment! Use Air BNB or stay in a hotel. At least you get what you paid for and they will stick to their own polices. Don't waste you time or hard earned money 'cause you won't get either back at the end of your hellish experience.
Reviewed Aug. 7, 2022
As a owner, our guest paid in full Oct 19. Due to Covid, changed holiday dates twice. They have now been and gone a month ago and Vrbo still not paid us their money! Vrbo has had this money nearly 3 years and said it will be dispersed when the guests arrive. That was 1st July and still no payment. Rang several times over 5 hrs of calls and told it is with the payments team. This is over £1000 which they have had in their bank nearly 3 years, this is disgusting. I am exhausted trying to get what is due to us!
Reviewed Aug. 5, 2022
VRBO was wonderfully quick at taking our money for the booking. We totally understood the refund policy of 60 days prior to the date of check in. We were expecting that if anything occurred after that we could contact VRBO to change our dates without trying to get our money back, just rebooking. We planned a trip where myself, my husband and our 3 adult children with their families could visit my parents. My 85 yr old dad was newly diagnosed with cancer and we wanted them to be able to meet our 2 little grandchildren and all spend some time together. The week prior to our date, my mother contracted COVID and my Dad followed 2 days later with a positive test.
I went online a week prior to our check in to request to reselect new dates and crickets. Nothing, no response, no communication whatsoever, despite the multiple times I sent the request. We totally understood we could not get our money back, but surely they could cancel out the dates on the calendar to allow another group to rent in our place, and possibly recoup something. At the very least reschedule us for dates a few weeks later. Still no response. I got online multiple times, that was the only way I was given to contact VRBO, the virtual agent put me in cue to speak with someone each time for over an hour, only to be disconnected from the chat. So frustrating. All in all we paid over $800 to fill their pockets without any form of response.
During all of this, we did connect with the owner, who only offered out a couple of days within the next 2 weeks that they could not fill in fear that if they booked us out any further they would have reopened the cancellation policy and we would request our money back, I even offered to sign something stating we would not do this. Not happening. I am writing this review to inform others that no matter how smooth this site appears, and how available they say they are, they are not. I can not express my disappointment, forget about the personal stuff, but what about good business ethics? I would have at least expected a response stating, "No we can not do that." Buyer beware.
Reviewed Aug. 4, 2022
We stayed at a vacation rental for a week under VRBO mgmt group. When we left the property, we were provided an opportunity to rate and comment. We rated as 1 Star (due to lack of cleanliness, pre-paid amenities were not correct, & non-working hot-tub for half the stay). before I left the review I bumped it to 2 stars because it was close to the beach.
Needless to stay it was not a vacation where we did not expect to be calling property management every day for 4 of the 7 days. So, the rating given was weighted on the poor scale. I submitted a review 3 days after our stay and only learned 18 days later (today) my comments (which was what I provide in parenthesis above) did not meet VRBO guidelines. We actually wrote very little. The VRBO email suggested today (again 18 days past of vacation days) we can go back and edit the rating. When I tried, thinking there was some grammar issue, not only was I not able to pull up the review, I received a message stating you are past the 14 day window of reviews and therefore no edits can be made. LOL.
So in summary, I write a review. VRBO tells me [18 days later] that my review does not conform to its guidelines but I can modify and resubmit. Then when I attempt to go in and see what exactly what it is that does not meet the VRBO guidelines (I was thinking perhaps I can remove the statement that it was not worth the [actual dollar $$ value], that would than go through. So I tried and I get a message stating reviews cannot entered after 14 days past the last date of property use. To us, this appears flawed. In an attempt to contact VRBO, I am told there is nothing they can see within my account on their end regarding the original rating.
So just a warning to VRBO users. Buyer/Renter beware: I consider the VRBO systems approach poor. I question the business practice of follow-up during and after your stay. There does not appear to be any accountability. We made the best of a poor situation and tried to make light of the experience. But I would certainly raise more questions up front before ever booking through this group. In my view not consumer guest friendly.
Reviewed Aug. 3, 2022
Rented from the host above, from VRBO. Listing stated it aaa a modern 3 bedroom townhome, it was far from modern, should’ve known when I looked at picture. Said it was a shared pool? Wasn’t sure what made it shared since it didn’t list more than one unit until I got there then I knew. There were 7 cars and a truck in the driveway along with a group of guys. I contacted the host immediately and was told she’d take care of. Contacted her numerous times but it was never taken care of. Amanda contacted the other guests and informed them I was complaining which lead to a heated argument (they came to my door). This could’ve been a real bad situation.
I would not recommend renting her unit. She’s about the money and not about the safety of her renters. Rental ID 2886606 N Myrtle Beach. Renters beware.
Reviewed Aug. 3, 2022
We had to check out early for personal reasons and we were able to do so through the website nor app. We spent hours in chats and phone calls and nothing was resolved. Very poor service on the part of VRBO and Expedia. There were no issues with the property and the owner was great but he too couldn’t get the technology to work. Try Air Bnb or Booking.com instead.
Reviewed Aug. 3, 2022
VRBO took over a Homeaway service which was a wonderful group. I never had any problems with them. In contrast, VRBO has become worse since they linked to Expedia. It is full of faults: the website is misleading, the service is very poor and they never solve any of your problems when you call. I had the same experiences as the tenant and owner. You can hardly understand the people you talk to, then they put you on hold for 10-15 minutes and after 30-40 min finally tell you that your case has been transferred to another customer service which will get back to you "depending on your priority".
Well, I called to verify something, an agent by mistake duplicated my property and... it has been over 2 months, multiple phone calls and the property is still in limbo, no one taking responsibility to activate it again. Totally unacceptable. As soon as my last tenant leaves, I am terminating VRBO. There are many local rental service providers including AirBnB that are much more responsible for the owner and tenants.
Reviewed Aug. 1, 2022
VRBO used to be my app of choice for vacation rentals. Recently, I have had TWO bad run ins with hosts that could not take feedback of any sort, and therefore, left retaliatory, and blatantly false info back about me. There is ZERO way for a traveler to dispute or respond to the review. This is a horrible practice that will be the downfall of Short Term Rentals.
Reviewed July 28, 2022
I booked a “Family/Pet Friendly Desert Oasis” with no option to select a pet. I sent a message to the host making sure my dog would be OK and they confirmed. I booked, and now I have been told my dog is against the rules and I cannot get my money back, as I get zero from canceling. The host wants to draw you in and make you cancel for zero refund. Vrbo supports this, and there are a lot of similar reviews. Reporting them for fraud, don’t book with pets. Or at all really.
Here is a highlight from the ridiculous messages Vrbo doesn’t care to do anything about and reminder I get zero for cancelling and the host knows that: “The world doesn’t revolve around you and your dog. I’m done dealing with this and you… You will no longer receive any help from me in any manner… Cancel your reservation, move on, and DO NOT CONTACT ME AGAIN. Repeat, this is me asking that you DO NOT CONTACT ME AGAIN."
Reviewed July 27, 2022
We wait until 4pm checkin and no passcode. Email owner, no response. Call owner…"We sold and VRBO was suppose to call you." We called VRBO and was on phone for over three hours with 6 different agents. VRBO stated to wait patiently as they would put us up for night for free and arrange other accommodations for trip. We waited in vehicle for 7 hours (had already purchased cold food for condo) and still no accommodations made. Poor customer service and ruined our vacation. Try finding a beachfront property with similar accommodations on day off in peak season and National softball tournament.
Reviewed July 25, 2022
I waited 30 mins for a chat and it looks like someone is there to help, it has a name John **, but it's not communicating with me, nor will it allow me to write anything. I have been on the phone for 30 mins and no answer yet. So I'm unable to write a review. The main thing that I want to point out, is the reviews for the properties are not real. The place that I stayed at had bug, it was very dirty, and it smelled moldy. When I talked with the owner he did nothing, was not helpful. He didn't believe me. Don't go through this site for alternative.
Reviewed July 25, 2022
I booked a property in San Diego for the 4th of July vacation. It gets canceled by the host with no reason at the last minute when I was standing right outside his property!! I called Vrbo's customer service. After waited for 50 mins, the girl who answered the phone told me she can't do nothing and hang up the phone. I have to pay double the price for other hotel arrangement. It basically ruined my family vacation. This website only protects the host's right. There is no consideration for customer's right. It was a good company when it's called HomeAway, now is really bad... Avoid it!
Reviewed July 25, 2022
We have rented from VRBO for years, primarily because it is the only game in town with lots of rentals. Twice in the last week, charges have appeared on my credit card from VRBO that I had no knowledge of. I waited on hold for almost 30 minutes before getting an explanation. In the future I should be told of charges before using my credit card. In the other instance we canceled the credit card and will let visa sort it out. One other recent incident involved VRBO telling me they were charging $600 for damages. I contested the charge and never received a copy of complaint nor information on resolution, nor do I know if they charged my card. Every rental has a large service fee tacked on for customer service, clearly this charge is not going where it should.
Reviewed July 25, 2022
VRBO SCAM. Beware! I reserved a property on VRBO and paid a $2700 deposit. I messaged the property manager, Stay **, several times and received no response. Upon further investigation, I found that the same property was listed in VRBO under second ID number which showed that it was still available to rent for the week I reserved. A Google search for Stay **, VRBO’s ‘trusted partner’ showed that they were out of business. I also contacted the real property manager on the second listing who confirmed that Stay** was not authorized to rent the property. Over the course of the next 10 days or so I made contact with 5 different customer support staff and managers as well as Jason in the Trust and Security Team.
I explained the duplicate listing, the unauthorized property manager and the fact that my rental was still showing as available and have been getting no help in securing a refund of the money that was stolen from me. I have basically been told I need to work it out with the property manager who is out of business and has no contact information. VRBO customer support staff just don’t care! DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE! They don’t validate that properties listed are actually available for rent and don’t stand behind their policy to refund your money when you request a cancellation. I am now working with my bank’s disputes department to recover the money that VRBO stole from me.
Reviewed July 23, 2022
We were planning a trip to Isle of Palms, South Carolina. We reserved a year out. We were first cancelled in December. The owner said she had double booked. I asked if we could go on another date. So we set that up. She cancelled us 10 days before we were to leave which was August 6, 2022. Actually, it was a blessing that she did it then. The worse thing that could have happened would have been when we were on the the way.
I think this happened because I asked the owner too many questions. Lesson learned: Remember that you are dealing with owners who are not professional. They do not know how to communicate well. VRBO states that you should not communicate outside of their message system. The owner I was dealing with was sending message by text from different phone numbers which made the situation more complicated. It was very unprofessional. To make it worse, she would send text without indicating who was sending it. I get a lot of spam with links that the fraudster wants you to click on. All I ask is for the sender to tell me who is sending the links. That seems simple. I think I made mad when I could not find her texts. Anyway, this was a very scary situation. I thought it was going to happen, and I am glad that she did it before we were on the road.
In reading other reviews, I see that the owner cancelling on short notice is a very big problem. I will never use VRBO or any similar site again. I will only use real estate companies who handle short term rental. If you are going to the outer banks of NC, I highly recommend Sun Realty. I used them many many times. Once we had a storm come by and we had a little flood situation. They even moved use to a new and better house. You are much better off if you only rent from professionals. Happy Traveling!
Reviewed July 22, 2022
As an owner, having the ability to contact VRBO is very important. However, the chat function on the website will take all your information and waste your time and then when they say they are checking into the problem, they disconnect you. This happened twice in a row in one sitting for a waste of at least half an hour. If you call the 800 number you are on hold for a 30 minute wait minimally. In addition, there are spam/scam inquiries that you must pre-approve or you are penalized in your ratings.
So to fix their problems because they don't have proper filters to rid the spammers from their site it is on the owner to contact VRBO. So I am stuck wasting more of my time as they happily take all the fees and expenses and give nothing back to their owners. Often the website malfunctions and is unable to pull up the emails of my guests due to errors. Again, putting owners at a disadvantage. VRBO can either fix these issues or they will be losing people not willing to put up with this poor level of service.
Reviewed July 21, 2022
A week ago a had a guest coming through Fewo direkt which is now VRBO. I never got paid for that Booking because VRBO sent money on the WRONG bank account. They did have my CORRECT bank account because last year they paid for a Booking on the correct account. I got mail informing me about the payment and spent hours chatting to agents and wrote mails.... Hope that Big Expedia concern and VRBO will send me my money (2000€) which I did not receive due to their mistake. I need it.
Stanka **, Zadar
Reviewed July 20, 2022
VRBO is basically a platform to connect a guest looking to rent a property with an owner's property. Sounds great on paper but when you run into a problem VRBO washes their hands of it, sends you their fine print and cannot take any action. So not sure where all those service charge fees go because they pretty much do nothing. It is such a gamble using this platform. If things go good, consider yourself lucky. If not, you pretty much entered your worst vacation. In my opinion I will NEVER ever use or recommend them again as the risk is too great.
They really need to figure out a plan to protect guests from negligent owners, as of my knowledge your only option is to leave a negative review LOL. My problem, in a nutshell, I paid premium for a pool view which had 3 bedrooms and I really only needed 2 but I paid for the view because I wanted to watch my teen kids swim. Needless to say, I show up to the condo and the pool in closed due to renovation and the construction noise and dust was so insane that we had to leave the condo during the day and couldn't even use the BBQ or the balcony. I did the process VRBO listed and the owner never responded. This was a planned project and the owner was well aware.
So frustrating! We saved up a lot for this Hawaiian vacation. No discount, no apology. I left a negative review as VRBO suggested to only receive a retaliation review from the owner which was absolutely not true. It has been a month and this really still bothers me, as I sit here I read all the other reviews I actually consider myself lucky compared to others nightmares. Really having a hard time understanding why something can't be done. Buyer Beware. VRBO is a pretty shady site.
Reviewed July 19, 2022
I found a rental home on VRBO. The home had 0 pictures of the outside, but I didn't think that it was an issue (big mistake, my fault). After driving 9 hours the house is run down. Vrbo says there's nothing they can do. I should've called within 24 hours of checking in. How am I supposed to know this? The owner of the home is confrontational and they wanted to contact him. I have children I needed to think about!
Reviewed July 19, 2022
I've been a Homeaway/VRBO user as a vacation home owner since 2007. Since Homeaway became VRBO, its customer service is almost impossible to reach. It can take literal hours (HOURS!) to get connected and all conversations are run through a digital translation service, which means much of the communication will be lost.
Once you do get connected, be prepared to be disappointed. I recently was trying to get help with a guest who wanted to extend her stay by an extra night. When I tried add the extra night to her reservation, there was no clear way to also charge her for that evening (it's not added on automatically). Therefore, I needed to open up that night as well as the nightly minimum, so that she could book her extra evening herself.
When I opened up the night for her to accept, in just a few minutes, two parties tried to book before the existing guest could secure the additional night. I asked for help via customer service, was on hold for 2 hours, and was hung up on by the agent. I ultimately had to decline these two people and was penalized by VRBO for declining. I then spent another hour and a half with customer service trying to get the penalty removed but "they couldn't because of their rules." I am planning to shut my 15 year account down. VRBO triple dips in fees, charging an annual fee for owners, and service charges to both owners and guests for each rental. The company does not support owners and you cannot get timely support. No thanks.
Reviewed July 19, 2022
I provided an unfavorable review of a condo because it was in an old building and the halls reeked of marihuana. Customer support "rejected" the review because it "contains profanity." So, don't waste your time on honest unfavorable reviews. In fact, don't waste your time on VRBO!
Reviewed July 15, 2022
VRBO is a sick company and they continue to show it on the daily. My children cannot even watch TV without VRBO trying to indoctrinate them with ads and filth commercials. They have no sense of morality, no care for others but only care about pushing their own agenda to confuse children. It's really sad, I will be sure to use as many social media outlets to expose this company's wickedness. Every person I know will be using other businesses than VRBO now as well, I will make sure that this complaint is posted on every review site there is. VRBO will never get another dime from me, and I am a person that take my family of 6 on about 4 vacations a year. VRBO needs to apologize for their wicked deeds, and change their ads and commercials.
Reviewed July 14, 2022
I traveled to Colombia and decided to stay the last night in a luxury apartment close to the airport. Three days prior to check in I tried to look up the address and noticed it was an empty lot. I tried to reach out to the property owner several times and was unable to reach them. The phone number was not working and they were not responding to my emails. I called VRBO and they advised that they couldn't see the address either. I was advised that according to VRBO policy the owner was to provide an address 30 days prior to check in. It had not happened.
I waited to the night before and decided to book another hotel as I was with my wife, two young children and their grandmother. That evening the owner reached out to me asking for documents in order to complete the order and send me the address. I found this to be ridiculous. How can anyone wait until the night before to submit the address of the place they were suppose to stay in. When I called VRBO they told me that they were unable to process a refund because the property owner reached out to me, even though their policy says that host are to provide address 30 days prior to booking. Don't trust this company. They are fraudulent and irresponsible. Don't trust your family with VRBO.
Reviewed July 13, 2022
We booked a holiday where we received confirmation of our reservation and then 24hrs later (24hrs before we were due to travel) they cancelled. I called customer service and tried their online chat. They try to keep saying it's because a third party should contact us but never did and then keep saying that we need to send confirmation emails to them as they have no record. I'm writing this as we are still on hold 2.5 hrs later being asked to speak to someone higher up - they have rebranded and that's because they must be making millions stealing from consumers and hoping we would give up fighting for ourselves. I have two young boys now heartbroken no holiday, no money left as they have stolen it and it's all down to them and they do not care.
Reviewed July 13, 2022
To Whom it May Concern at VRBO: My family and I have never been treated with such disregard, disrespect, and at times, downright cruelty as how this company with its policies and procedures have treated us. I traveled Europe in 2018 and only used the AirBnB app. It was flawless. I intended to use it again for our first vacation since covid, but a friend recommended VRBO. So I, stupidly, gave your company an opportunity.
An hour before our check-in time, our host canceled our reservation. He said it was VRBO’s fault that the company double-booked his property. I had been in contact with the host a week in advance, asking him details about the property as I have a fifteen month old baby. I wanted to make sure she was safe and as comfortable as possible. This is why I booked through a service like VRBO instead of a hotel room. A hotel room for an entire week is not conducive to an infant’s happiness. And if the infant isn’t happy, no one in the family is happy.
Our family was an hour and a half outside of Chicago when I first saw the email that our booking was canceled. VRBO sent a generic email about other rentals. These rentals were a) not in our price range and b) nowhere near where we intended to stay. There was a statement that financial assistance may be available for rentals outside our price range. But no guarantee. As it was nearing the baby’s dinner time, I called an acquaintance who did not know we were coming into town, but because they have small children, thought this could be a smart resting spot while we figured out our lodging situation.
Although, here me out: These are uncertain times. Our baby has only had one of three vaccines needed to give her immunity from Covid. I have spent the last three years trying to keep her safe and healthy from this pandemic. You put her, and all of us, in harm's way. I will never forgive or forget your company for this. After four hours on the phone with VRBO, being transferred over four times as my case was “escalated” and the system was “down,” it was after 8 pm when someone finally offered to book a hotel room for us.
By this point, my baby was asleep in a makeshift crib in the hallway of an attic. It was hot but she seemed ok because there was a fan. I did not want to move her as she had already had a long day and was asleep. So I asked that I be rebooked starting the next day. The agent told me they could not do this, that I needed to speak with the “rebooking” team and that the only way to contact them was through email. Thus, I would be receiving an email the next day. “THE NEXT DAY???,” I thought. But I calmed myself and hoped for the best. My husband and I slept in the attic near our baby that night. That was our first night.
Our baby woke up at 5:00 am the next morning. We were being a huge inconvenience and there was not enough room for us at the acquaintances' house. So at 8 am we packed up and went to a friend’s house because they had a basement we could camp out in. At 10 am, I received a phone call with a voicemail from VRBO, but I was putting the baby down for her first nap, thus could not answer it. I saw the missed call once she was asleep along with another generic email with options for us to book two different stays- one for two days & one for three (totally our entire stay) in Evanston, IL. Evanston is not Chicago.
I emailed the representative back and explained that we paid for Chicago and this is where we wanted to stay. A different representative emailed me and asked me to give her my number and she would call. So I gave her the number and waited for her to call. I even kept my phone on for the baby’s second nap. She never called. I emailed again. No response.
That was that. Less than 24 hours after we were displaced, there was not another word from VRBO. There was no one reaching out. I suppose they assume that families have nothing else to do but wait for a call or an email. With a baby and having to move our things (all of our things) twice in less than 12 hours, we could not be at your company’s beck and call.
We moved a third time into a condo that was a friend of a friend’s out of town. After cleaning it and child-proofing it, we were exhausted. So out of our five day vacation in Chicago (if you do not consider the travel days on either end of the week), we spent 3 days moving and cleaning. The only touristy thing my husband and stepson were able to do was visit the Field Museum. We canceled an architecture tour and other events because we were either moving, cleaning, or too tired from doing these things and from the stress of our “vacation” to do anything.
Perhaps this sounds trite to your company. But our family is not wealthy. We did not have the option of “just finding another place” as we could not afford any of the other rentals or hotels- everything starting at $400 a night. There was no email guaranteeing VRBO would reimburse us. We simply could not afford a plan B for alternate lodging. We saved for a year for this trip. For the entire year, we looked forward to this trip. I researched lodgings and locations for a few months before booking. I booked this property months in advance. I spoke with the host often. I still don’t understand how he didn’t realize he double booked. But he did let me know that VRBO charged him money for canceling our stay the day we were to check-in. We have not seen any of this money nor any real offerings to make this right.
Yesterday, I received yet another email from some random representative asking if I would send in detailed receipts for alternate lodging. The email states, “Again, I am very sorry for the lack of inventory on the site and lack of communication provided to you but if you send in the self lodge receipts I will try my best to assist as much as possible.” You must note that, again, there is no guarantee VRBO will reimburse us. I do not trust this company. Why would I go out on a limb and spend money that my family does not have, especially after being left stranded in Chicago with a baby?
This company and the way it handles their business truly disgusts me. I am sick to my stomach as I write this email. I have been a world traveler. I have used Airbnb, I have stayed with friend’s friends, I am easygoing. I have never written a letter like this in my life. But these circumstances not only compel me to do so, they compel me to let families know that VRBO cannot be trusted. They are willing to put your family in danger, both physically and financially.
Reviewed July 13, 2022
This is a joke that they asked us to paid LATE CHECKING fee or access code to enter is voided. We booked one week renting a property in Houston and were not allowed to enter if don’t late checking fee. They also refused refund if we do not accept their demands. This is unethical business practice. Should be out of business and should be sued for stealing.
Reviewed July 13, 2022
VRBO stands for Vacation Rentals By Owner and they are owned by Expedia group. The 'rentals by owner' part is the problem as VRBO only minimally get involved with any issues, leaving the process to the renter and owner to contact each other. Because of Covid I eventually had to cancel my booking in Encore, having paid the $2000 deposit to the owner. When I initially requested the refund, through VRBO and the owner, months in advance of the cancellation date, I heard nothing back. Through many phone calls and 'chats' on the VRBO website I was eventually told I had to contact the owner directly to receive the refund.
The case is now closed I was told. They literally did nothing only put me on hold for 90% of the time I was in contact with them. If I hear that Spanish guitar music again... I'm from Ireland and although they gave me a number to ring, it was never answered. How am I to contact someone in America from Ireland. It just seemed that if the owner did not want to refund me the deposit, he could just get away with it. I'm out of pocket of $2000 all because of VRBO. Stay AWAY from them. Book directly or through Booking.com etc, at least you will automatically receive your refund should anything occur.
Reviewed July 12, 2022
My wife booked a cabin for a family vacation. 2 days before the trip we hadn't received access information or a physical address. We contacted corporate. After several calls and at least 2 hours on hold we were granted a refund. When it came through it was $45 short. It's been a week and I've called nearly every day as instructed. I've been promised a return phone call several times and been disconnected after a very lengthy hold. They have yet to follow through. I will never use them again.
Reviewed July 12, 2022
We posted a deposit for property rental in Italy on 07/06/2022. Payment was accepted and reservation confirmed. Two days later the host cancelled our reservation because they wanted to increase the rental rates. The host refund was posted on our bank card two days later, EXCEPT the amount was $34.00 short. The exchange rate for US to Euros changed between the two dates which resulted in a refund that was less than what we paid. I contacted VRBO to point out that they state on the rental that reimbursement is 100% in full if cancelled prior to a specific date. We have not been made whole. They were of no help and suggested we contact the bank card to see what they can do, and call them back. My position is that it is the burden of the host and VRBO to complete the full reimbursement as advertised.
Reviewed July 11, 2022
A host added an extra guest fee for more than 2 people even though the house was advertised as sleeps 5. They also charged more for cleaning in July than Sept. Contacted VRBO and they refused to do anything about it. I gave them several chances to escalate and a manager/supervisor wouldn't even talk to me. Very poor service. I'm going back to AirBnb and so is everyone I know.
Reviewed July 10, 2022
We booked in November 2021 2 bedroom, 2 bath for 4 people. Spent the day on my cell phone while traveling trying to get a code or key for the condo. Kept getting put on hold and forwarded to someone else. I was finally told that the owner would be there to meet us when we arrived. That was just a put off. No one there to give us access and when calling VRBO we were put on hold for a long time then hung up on twice. We had to get two hotel rooms regardless of cost, for our stay and could not cook our own meals as planned. I have contacted them when we returned home. They said that they would refund us for the unused condo and requested our personal information along with copies of the hotel stay to review. That was two months ago and we have still not received a refund or any other compensation. This company is a direct trip off! Scam! Do not get ripped off like I did.
Reviewed July 10, 2022
VRBO has incredibly horrible customer service with long very long wait times and the rep using chat will simply end the call if they do not know how to answer questions regarding not being able to use your iphone to take and upload pics on VRBO. VRBO makes it impossible for you to use their site! Very disappointing and frustrating.

Reviewed July 9, 2022
I stayed at a property in Hampton, NY during June 2022. During my stay, the pool heater didn't work, took owner two days to fix, AC broke down for 4 days, no repairs made, property condition were dreadful, broken glass, broken basketball court, carpenter ants everywhere including beds and clothing. After complaining to VRBO, they said that I had 12 hours to contact them from check-in time so they can find other accommodation or give me back my money. (So I guess they want a family driving from several hundreds mile to just go back.)
Some of these issues did not surface until a day or two days later when we were in the rental. When I bring up these issues, VRBO then hides behind their subpar practices, they do not visit or validate such issues prior to allowing listing to come on. Owner even tried to put fake insurance claims against Heater and broken BBQ grill. Afterward, I write my review, they send me an acceptance memo and then next day they take it down. I guess they only want to see 5 star ratings only. VRBO did nothing. Not sure what my $600 service fee was for? Shame on you VRBO, this was the first time I used this company, and it will be the last time. As a company VRBO has a lot of growing up to do especially in learning best practices across rental houses, evaluating them and caring for customer grievances.
Reviewed July 9, 2022
We rented at Whitney Beach 6701 GOM Dr, #332, LBK FL 34228. Upon entrance of the unit the outside wall of unit is collapsing. Upon entering front door of unit ceiling is collapsing. Outside collapsing wall caused damage to inside bedroom wall. Nonworking bedroom blinds. Broomsticks used as locks for sliding glass door on bottom floor unit. Should we go on? Called Vacasa within 10 minutes of entering unit, operator stated someone would be out 6/2/22. Vacasa was a no show or call. So as to not completely ruin our vacation, these issues would be dealt with on our last week.
No one at Vacasa contacted us after numerous emails. The unit has obvious code violations therefore we contacted LBK code enforcement and they wrote two code violations. After the code inspection (on our vacation), Vacasa finally called only after we searched for the company’s CEO’s and email addresses and blasted them all with their failure as a management company. A management company that does not manage, go figure. Vacasa offered $1k refund for renting a unit with code violations knowingly and willingly. EXTREMELY OFFENSIVE. Vacasa district manager admitted issues with unit. The owner is also at fault. Vacasa received a final demand letter from us, they still owe $430.00 and time is ticking. All $ should have been refunded back to c/c on file. Vacasa you are playing a game refunding the balance of $430.00 on a check. You’ve proven to be dishonest.
Vacasa don’t push us anymore, you will not like the outcome. Our advice to others; many of us in these situations are 1,000’s of miles away from home with no help except for Vacasa Management Company who is useless! We reached out to the town’s council members, code enforcement, HOA on-site manager and other owners on-site. Hope this is helpful to others who have to endure Vacasa Property Management or an owner who willingly rents their unit with multiple violations.

Reviewed July 5, 2022
Booked condo #1307 for June 29th through July 4th. Arrived late on the 29th. Went to bed to wake up to bed bug bites all over. Reported it. Received refund. But VRBO put available on their website. Someone rented it.
Reviewed July 3, 2022
This is what happened: The Vrbo app scheduled me on the wrong dates - not the dates requested. Discovered this via email confirmation received about 5 minutes after booking. Immediately tried to cancel, but was offered only 50% back. Cancelled anyway and Vrbo cancelled the cancellation insurance that I had purchased. My only resort was to appeal to the owner. The owner was most gracious and returned some of the funds. Unable to send photos to owner to show the amount Vrbo did refund. Looks like I'm out of a bit over 500 dollars and THEY CANCELLED THE CANCELLATION INSURANCE THAT I PURCHASED. Not using Vrbo again.
Reviewed July 3, 2022
Family Vacation in the Smoky Mountains turned buggy. Cabin rented for $350/night was infested with bed bugs. Blood stains on sheets, and also 3 pet bats that stayed on the deck….No Refund, No help. Vrbo advised would open health and safety report! Took pictures of bugs and bug bites….they advised they wanted “more evidence”. Will not use again!!!
Reviewed July 2, 2022
I am a cottage owner who is leaving the VRBO platform. VRBO doesn't pay cottage owners until guests arrive. I am a large cottage so groups need to plan well ahead and consequently book 6 to 15 months in advance. There is a no refund policy on my site so no reason for VRBO not to pay out within normal 5 to 7 business days. Imagine the cash flow issues I have waiting for over 6 months and in some cases up to 15 months to be paid. I am sure VRBO invests in the short term money market using millions of $ of cottage owners' funds. The fees are pure greed as well.
VRBO charges renters 10 to 12% of booking amount which for my cottage averages $600 to $1400. There is very little support and assistance to justify such a huge fee. That's a lot of money to receive for doing an electronic transfer. No wonder they can flood the TV channels with advertising $. Pure corporate greed. A few years ago they charged an annual fee to list a property. In the past you could contact clients direct. Now they block this option so they can gouge renters with exorbitant fees. List your property with another company or create your own website as I have for full control. Anyone who rents through VRBO just be aware of the huge extra cost and poor support for the owner of the cottage.
Reviewed July 1, 2022
This is the worst website to use to rent a vacation rental. They give you nothing for the money they are charging you as a service fee. They back up owners not travelers, and their customer service do not even know English. And they count on translation app to send you messages.
Reviewed June 30, 2022
I had my account suspended and was blocked from submitting a review by the property owner because I asked for my money back. The reason we asked for our money back was because the building was Unsafe. It was a shoddily converted storefront in a very sketchy run-down town next to a laundromat/dive bar. We found a creepy underground passage full of garbage and debris. It had recently been used, it appeared to lead to other doors/openings and we couldn't lock it. There was a lock on the door, but it wasn't able to actually be bolted. It appeared that they wanted us to think it was locked, but it wasn't, nor was there anything in the vicinity that we could use to secure the door. This easily could have been a sex trafficking operation.
Even more creepy, the owner claimed to know Nothing about it. We got out of there as fast as we could. It's absolutely shameful that VRBO would choose to protect the property owner in this situation and prevent me from posting a review. What if the next person to stay there gets raped or murdered? I don't think it's too much to ask that a property I'm paying to stay at is safe and secure from intruders, and it shouldn't be "extortion" to simply ask for a refund for a service I did not find adequate.
Here's the rental listing, if you're curious. https://www.vrbo.com/9311755ha?adultsCount=2&haExternalSourceId=6755ed35-5c10-4112-9baa-4dbada1e7b4b%20b5301a5a-b049-4cd5-9fc8-e40af89f4024%20hasc%20email&unitId=8370053&utm_campaign=VRBO_TRV_RES_HASC_replyReservationBlank_PPB&utm_content=listing-id-121.9311755.8370053&utm_medium=email&utm_source=SYS&utm_term=20220630
Reviewed June 29, 2022
I booked a unit in Barcelona via the VRBO site. I thought it was odd that there were no reviews for what looked like a great place. As my trip approached there were a bunch red flags: still no reviews, the phone number for the listing was out of service, the lister requested credit card information outside of the Vrbo payment platform or a wire transfer, which meant it wouldn't be covered by Vrbo if there was an issue. They also asked for passport information, which I understand is required by Spanish police, but should be provided at the unit, not online. They also sent me messages that included errors. They tried to explain their errors but didn't address any of my other concerns.
When I called Vrbo to confirm that they were a legitimate establishment the Vrbo support staff was verging on incompetent. I was given no useful information or assurances. They did suggest that I not proceed with the booking and even asked me if I had tried AirBnB instead. After the lister pressured me to provide my credit card information and I refused, Vrbo emailed me to confirm that the listing was legitimate but referred to me in that email by a completely different name! I have no faith in this website and I'm just glad that I didn't provide credit card information in advance of my booking. If you must use this site, use it with caution.
Reviewed June 28, 2022
Buyer Beware - Gondomar, Portugal S. Don’t book this place!!!! The host (not on-site or nearby) has his managers there, with whom it was nearly impossible to communicate, and I speak French, Italian, German as well as English. Before we could be checked-in, or even see the second bedroom, they demanded 200 euros (safety deposit, in cash) which was nowhere in the posting or payment details or in an email recently sent to me --owner claimed that I didn’t read them carefully, which was not the case. Two more neighbors joined in, all trying to explain to me the concept of a deposit.
After back and forth me trying to explain that this was not what I had agreed to, nor was it legal, they put me on the phone with the owner, who only speaks French. He tried to explain that we have to pay this, and since my purse was stolen that day, and I had no cash on me, I could pay through PayPal. However, I never felt I should pay them anything extra at all, and the whole thing was absurd. We had been driving all day, exhausted and ready for bed.
I finally reached VRBO, as their chat didn’t work, and I explained the situation. The woman on the phone told me that the refund was being processed and they were going to find me another place. After hearing that, we left this remote village on (a stony, windIng road, 40 minutes from Porto, we drove into the city of Porto. I then received this text from the owner, after we were extremely stressed and drained from the hostile exchange. After VRBO reached him, I received this text: “Hello Rachel. I am sorry. I think it's à problème another vacationer. Please call. It's ok With the payment. You can stay. It's ok. I am very confused..“
VRBO then decided that we will be charged the full amount because the owner corrected his mistake,. (No matter that he broke every rule by demanding the money in the first place.) By that time we were long gone. After being on the phone with another woman and a manager for an hour, always hearing the same script, I asked to speak with another manager. It was to be escalated and I never heard from them about it. Apparently the VRBO people were confused because I had reserved the place earlier and canceled it before I made this reservation. Not really my problem that the person at VRBO didn’t know how to retrieve the current, NOT CANCELLED RESERVATION.
SO, first VRBO claimed that we needed to stay at the property after all this, and Our leaving confirmed that we chose to cancel the non-refundable reservation. Then He said that there was also confusion on the part of the first VRBO person I spoke with who confirmed that a refund was in process. My only chance to get the money back ($411) is to contest it with my credit card company, which I will do. Airbnb has a guarantee that if there is any problem at all with their property, checking in, whatever, there is an immediate refund. VRBO stands behind its hosts, and against the people renting. And their customer service is abominable. It goes without saying that I NEVER use their services again. There are wonderful places on Airbnb and Booking.com. Don’t use this service.
Reviewed June 25, 2022
On June 22, 2022 my friends and I booked a VRBO in Ventura, CA (property #2791570) for a weekend girls trip. The house looked nice and spacious, set against some hills-it looked tranquil. Since you can only get the address of a location after booking we weren't able to check out the home until it was confirmed. After confirmation and payment, we received the address and our friend that lives in the area went to check it out. She grew up there and still lives in the city. She called and said that the home was in a dangerous area of Ventura, that it wasn't safe to be out after dark. We felt mislead by the listing and cancelled the booking. We had a similar experience in Las Vegas (with another rental company) and didn't want to repeat it.
The booking was cancelled within 2 hours of confirmation. The website said that the owner would keep half if cancelled that day. We didn't anticipate this issue and had agreed. However, we felt misled. That being said, the cost of the house was $502 per night, for a total of $1004. There was a $250 cleaning fee and a $159. fee from VRBO. They kept half of everything, including the cleaning fee. In fact, it was more than half of the total. The total cost was about $1400 and we only got a $600 refund. AFTER 2 HOURS. Why would VRBO or the owner need to keep all fees and half the cleaning fees after being booked for 2 hours???
I called VRBO. I was on hold for nearly an hour before a response. I finally spoke to somebody who said there was nothing they could do outside of contacting the owner to see if they'd be willing to refund more. I asked about the cleaning fees and the VRBO fees. She would simply repeat that there was nothing they could do. She said she could email the owner as he wasn't answering the phone. Between her accent and lack of willingness to work with me on the matter or answer questions about why certain fees were being kept, I asked to speak to somebody else. She hung up on me at that time.
I can not express the level of frustration I felt in that moment. VRBO, shame on you. This is an incredibly terrible way to handle a cancelation-greedy, greedy, greedy. If this is not resolved in a timely manner, I will never support your company in the future. I vacation often with my family and friends and will not ever use your company again. My friend booked this for our group, you will find further information with the reservation ID: **
Reviewed June 21, 2022
We booked a place on VRBO (Property ID: 1940981) in Praiano Italy before Covid struck. When Italy when into lockdown, the host made us pay to move our booking. She even dictated new travel dates (not similar to our previous dates). We reorganised our entire Italy trip around those new dates. Upon arrival, she put us in a COMPLETELY different house. We had a group of 6 people, there was not enough crockery, no kettle, no aircon in all the rooms, not enough chairs, a lot smaller than the original house we booked for. When we told the host, she simply said "Well Amalfi is fully booked, and this is all I have"... Have tried to complain to VRBO and that has also fallen on deaf ears. They don't care about protecting future visitors, only their hosts (aka Maria **). Will NEVER use VRBO again, and will tell all my friends not to use them either.
Reviewed June 20, 2022
Tried to complete a reservation online and couldn't as the site did not accept "Canada" as a valid country. Called their support line and was told the site is having technical difficulties. Waited 30 mins, tried to book again and the price/night increased over $50. Called their support line again and was told they would not do anything as they are not accountable for price increases or issues caused due to issues with their website. Despite having screen shots with timestamps showing the issue on their end, Vrbo denied having anything to with the issue. Very poor service and dishonest service.
Reviewed June 18, 2022
Save yourself the time and just list on Airbnb. I have been on both for around 2 years and will never list a property or use VRBO for my travels again. Be forewarned if you list a property with VRBO expect to be spammed to death by people who "kindly" want you to book outside of airbnb. Also, support is terrible. Even upon trying to remove the listing I could not find any online instructions that made sense on how to do so. I then tried to use the chat and the guy was useless and started by asking me why, I told him I wanted to move. He then ask if I had already sold it to someone else yet? I'm thinking, what the heck is this??? I want to remove the listing. Why so many freaking questions. Then after tell him just to cancel my account he said, "Let me know when you receive the code."
I said would I get that via text or email. He said text. I said that I didn't get it yet and he said then it must have went to my spam box and that he couldn't my account without the code. I said Spam box??? I don't have a spam box text, that's email. Then he left the conversation and put up some pre-written message saying I needed to call. This is ridiculous, as I'm leaving bad reviews I'm still on hold because they closed the chat.
Reviewed June 18, 2022
I rented a one month rental apartment in New York City through VRBO. The night we got there the toilet flooded, the water ran out of the bathroom into the hallway and towards the kitchen. We are in our 60s and had no access to a bathroom. We called VRBO and after 5 hours on hold they booked us into a hotel and told us that they would rebook us into a different unit. After a couple of days we realized that they were not making an effort to find us another unit. They would not return our calls and communicated very vaguely.
We contacted the owner of the apartment asked if the toilet had been fixed, when she said yes, we asked for the keys to the apartment several times but she would not respond or make arrangements for us to have the keys. This is documented through various text messages. We went back to VRBO, they never booked us into a different unit instead we were shuttled from hotel to hotel, 6 different hotels in all through the next 12 days. We ended up returning home on June 12.
Despite several assurances from the various VRBO contacts that VRBO would make sure we got our money back today we got a message from VRBO stating that they could not offer us refund assistance without giving us any reason why, and said we should contact the owner. The owner absolutely refuses to make contact with us. She has our money, and did not give us the keys to return to the apartment, and VRBO who is the facilitator and is supposed to ensure access to the apartment told us we were on our own.
Reviewed June 14, 2022
On May 8, we decided on a last minute trip to Maui for memorial day weekend. Luckily we found a great little spot so I booked it and I paid in full. In addition to the rental fee, cleaning fee, VRBO fee and taxes, there was a $1500 refundable deposit that I opted for rather than paying a $60 nonrefundable fee. The trip was great and in the first week of June I messaged the host thanking her and asked when the $1500 would be refunded. No answer but VRBO had a message in the payment breakdown stating if no damage was found, the $1500 would be automatically refunded by June 14 (this is over a month from when I originally paid) and I'm sure other guests stayed there over the past two weeks so why did it take so long to refund this money?
Here's the icing on the cake, on June 14 my refund of $1500 WAS INITIATED AND VRBO STATES IT WILL TAKE A MINIMUM OF 5 DAYS BUT UP TO 15 DAYS TO REFUND. So, that means there's a chance I won't get my money back for another two weeks. Never again will I book with VRBO. Keeping someone's money for this long is unacceptable and wrong.
Reviewed June 14, 2022
I made reservations via Expedia.com. I received confirmation of reservations initially from Expedia. Then from Home Away.com and then VRBO.com. VRBO left a message my reservation was not available via VRBO.com. Home Away gave me contact information that was invalid. Email was not answered and phone number was disconnected.. Expedia did not help with contact information. Two days before my reservation, I did not know if the reservation was valid. It turns out the property had changed owners and the Expedia Group did not notify me of the change nor the contact information. The major problem is the Expedia group is so disjointed, that vital information was not disseminated to me. I will not trust this group in the future.
Reviewed June 14, 2022
As mentioned by other customers here, there is no oversight of the hosts and no customer support when one needs it. London host cancelled with no explanation and VRBO customer support (AI probably) literally disconnected me. Closed account.
Reviewed June 14, 2022
VRBO cancellation policies allow property owners to cancel days before trip with no penalties- and they can even re-list the property for a higher price for the same days. Plus, you can’t even leave a review to warn others that this happened, so the owner is free to do it again and again and again. These insane rules completely screw over the traveler and ruin entire vacations. This was my first and last experience with vrbo and I caution all users to find a different app and different company.
Reviewed June 13, 2022
I rented an apartment through VRBO, and then several months later had a change in plans and put in a request to change the dates (selecting dates that the apartment was not already booked). The owner didn't respond, even after several messages to him through the platform and outside the VRBO platform -- WhatsApp, phone call. The owner did not respond -- it is now 8 days since I sent the first message, and on the VRBO platform it says the owner has 24-48 hours to respond. In a panic, we booked another property (owned by the same person) close by to the first property, for the dates that we needed.
The first property is much cheaper than the second (because had booked way in advance) so owner doesn't want to allow us to change dates, apparently. VRBO says they cannot help us resolve this issue. They say that even though the owner is unresponsive they can't do anything -- which of course is untrue, because it's VRBO's platform and they can require that owners respond, in order to be listed on the platform. Several VRBO customer service representatives told me they would pass my case on to a "Supervisor" who would call me back in 24-72 hours. When I called again yesterday, the agent I talked to said that in fact no request for a supervisor had been submitted. So several agents outright lied to me (perhaps passing along a case to a supervisor negatively impacts their performance review?). In short, I will NEVER book with VRBO again.
Reviewed June 13, 2022
VRBO has let their app go down. It has not been functional for several days. I am an owner and host of a VRBO property and the app is how guests communicate with hosts whenever they have a problem. With the app down, there is no clear way to communicate with a guest or even know that they have an issue. Customer service tells me that I can log into the site via Chrome and communicate in this way. Clearly this is not an effective solution as there is not a way to known that a guest needs help unless I log in every 15 minutes and check to see if there is a message. They said it could be 2 weeks before this problem is addressed. TERRIBLE service and answer for both hosts and guests.
Reviewed June 13, 2022
This website has become joke. Their MADE UP Fees raised the cost almost 100% of the rental. It's dishonest. You KNOW it's dishonest. Rent with confidence? Confidence that NOTHING is as it seems the whole time you're looking. They are deceitful in making sure you don't see that until after you waste your time finding a place. It's an absolute shame. I've used this site for almost 20 years and now I will avoid it at all costs. This is a disgusting way to show everyone that has rented through you, mean NOTHING to you. Greed always costs the greedy in the end. Believe that!
Reviewed June 13, 2022
I recently booked a home through VRBO.com and was disappointed. The home that I rented out for one week had 2 huge rats inside the home along with a machete found on the side of the refrigerator. Not only that but there was a bird flying around inside the home. The street is really dark at night and there are 5 barking dogs next door that continually bark all night. This house make you feel like you're in a horror movie. I contacted the owner and received no response and then I contacted VRBO.
VRBO agent Juan if that's his real name said there was not enough evidence and there was nothing VRBO can do. I sent over proof of the machete a long with the flying bird. The fast track star rats running around I couldn't get a video of. It's not like I am excited to chase a rat down and hold it up next to me to show proof. Anyways VRBO does not come out to any of these homes for inspection they just go by the lying host and owner word of mouth. Please do not stay at anything VRBO has to offer. Once they got your money they don't care about the customer.
Reviewed June 12, 2022
Booked VRBO for a stay in Ottawa. The rental was not what was in the description or the pictures. The place was not clean and triggered allergies. Food splatter on the walls and ceiling, dust everywhere and cigarette butts all over. VRBO customer service kept on passing us off to the host who didn’t want to clean the place. Since VRBO takes full payment months before the rental, there is no way of recovering anything and VRBO just says you have to work it out with the host. Beware of VRBO. There is a reason why they have so many bad reviews and all the good hosts use Air B&B. I just wish I had researched more into VRBO as well as searching for what looked like a good place to stay.
Reviewed June 11, 2022
In need of a getaway, signed up at VRBO to check it out. Turns out the security deposit $1500 for the first stay, $4000 for the second getaway...is taken from our credit card and not returned for a 2 weeks after you leave. So, if you book way ahead, to make plans, the money is not yours until 2 weeks after. For us it was 2 months.... We didn't pay attention to the specifics, just excited for a getaway. They do give another option...pay $80 non refundable now. Really.....So we pay the cost of the stay + Cleaning fee + Service Fee + Lodging Tax + this damage deposit. Ex: 4 nights $660 turns into over $1000. This will not be in our future plans. All the extra costs are prohibitive.
Reviewed June 8, 2022
We booked a “beautiful Studio” on the website of Expedia and through VRBO. Despite confirmations from both at arrival there was nobody there. We called VRBO customer support. After being on the phone for at least a full hour they informed us that they were not able to contact the host but they would arrange an alternative. In total it took us FOUR HOURS on the phone which finally resulted with an e-mail in which we were told to find lodging ourselves. But we would be compensated based on their guarantees. Two weeks later we only had more work in providing them information AND we are confronted with a 140 Dollar cell phone bill since the VRBO TOLL FREE number is actually not TOLL FFEE when you call from Canada.
Reviewed June 8, 2022
Booking was cancelled by owner the day before we were to arrive. VRBO told us how to get a refund and we did all as was required. Still they made things difficult and said we were to blame for the last minute cancellation. We have had to speak directly to the owner to get assistance as VRBO was of little help even though we did as was asked. Bad systems. Poor service. May try another service next time. There's enough out there. Only the best will survive.
David
Reviewed June 6, 2022
Cancelled on us one week before trip! We rented a VRBO property two and a half months ago, paid for it in full, and a week before we were supposed to travel, got a message that our booking had been cancelled! Apparently the property had been somehow double-booked and we got booted. VRBO did refund us, but now we are stuck less than a week before our trip with nowhere to stay! VRBO said they would help us find another booking, but so far hasn’t even communicated with us. We just found a nearby hotel for almost $200 more than what we had paid VRBO (and definitely out of our comfort-zone price-range), hoping that VRBO would cover the difference, since the last-minute cancellation was 100% their fault, but they will not pay. What was supposed to be a fun trip has become a source of frantic emotional and financial stress. We are very angry and will never book with VRBO again.
Reviewed June 6, 2022
My credit card got hacked so I had to cancel it. When I went to VRBO to give them my new credit card information for my reservation, they did not have my reservation (I had the email confirming it) and told me I had to contact a 3rd party company, outside the US, and work with them to change the card. I don't want to give anyone outside the US my information but VRBO does not do anything about it. Very disappointed since I booked with them thinking they had oversight & control. I will be using Airbnb from now on.
Reviewed June 5, 2022
VRBO Complaint and VRBO HOST Complaint. RE: Shoreline West, Mountain View, California. Property ID: 9650747. 1) Host complaint: Made reservation 6 weeks in advance, on April 7, 2022, and deposit was made upon confirmation. One week prior to date of travel (on Memorial Day weekend) received email confirmation on May 20, 2022 (and was reflected on bank info) that remaining balance was paid in full. The following day on May 21, 2022 the HOST, for no reason (which was confirmed by VRBO 'it doesn't say why') and we had to find other arrangements. I sent 3 emails via VRBO to say cancellation was in error and how to complete any missing/erroneous info, but he NEVER replied! 2) As a “Professional Host,” as listed on the site, this is TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE behavior! NO reason to cancel after reservation was PAID IN FULL and NO response to multiple emails!
3) VRBO Complaint: VRBO customer service people (2) were completely useless. They could not tell me why, they refused to contact Host to ask why and/or resolve issue, they could not/refused to make another reservation at that complex (said to "make another reservation online" and when I tried the computer would not allow it and they still didn't help), & finally they NEVER could make another reservation for a different place despite being told "we put you on the escalation list" for someone to call to make another reservation. 4) Called VRBO to see how to make complaint about Host activities (cancelling for no reason & after paid in full, and NO reply to multiple emails) and their reply was "you cannot make a Review if you do not stay there."
Reviewed June 2, 2022
I existed before VRBO and thankfully, I still exist. Rentals were never a problem before VRBO. You planned ahead, worked the phones and got a good deal. VRBO has killed all of that. Sure, you can sit on your butt now and soft through the rentals on your screen and it takes less time, but the deals are gone for both the renter and the rentee. More and more restrictions are in place and you have to resign yourself to the fact that VRBO uses the money they make from you to push a Woke Agenda that will outrage you. I loath VRBO.
Reviewed June 1, 2022
The only thing offered to the renter from VRBO is the computer platform to find and pay for properties. The renter has no recourse with VRBO or protection if anything goes wrong at the property. After arriving at our property there were several misrepresentations. We talked to VRBO and they said to work it out with the owner. We reached a mutual agreement for a refund amount, which we got in writing. After we vacated the property, the owner changed her mind on the refund.
After spending over 6 hours on the phone with VRBO customer service we finally wrote the CEO of VRBO. This escalated the case to a customer service group out of the U.S. that actually spoke understandable English. We found out, it is entirely up to the owner to make any financial accommodations. Regardless of what the owner agrees to, VRBO will do nothing to help the renter when an unscrupulous owner decides to renege on an agreed upon refund. VRBO is merely a computer platform. The renter has no protection through them.
Reviewed June 1, 2022
My first time using VRBO, and never again! VRBO charged my husband and I over $80 for "middle man fees" for a 3 night stay in a cabin near Frio river. After that, the property owner falsely accused my husband and I of "bringing pets" and tried to tack on a $30 cleaning charge. They even fabricated photo proof to frame us. I tried complaining to customer service because we were getting scammed; customer service was THE WORST. They would "send an email" to owner to contact us to discuss complaint, and after 48hr offered to "do a 3 way call". GARBAGE COMPANY.
Reviewed May 31, 2022
We arrived at our VRBO rental and discovered it was nothing like it was described. The air mattress had a hole in it, the place smelled of smoke. The bathroom toilet was leaking, the ceiling fans quit working. We called VRBO and they said they would work to get it fixed. After my wife and I slept on the floor for two nights we got an air mattress. When I asked for a refund they said they would get back to us. I called today after our stay was over and was told no refund because we elected to stay the entire time. They said we should have been given an alternative place to stay but even though they didn't make that offer we got no refund because we stayed at the place. It was Memorial Day weekend in St Louis, there were no places to stay!!!! They told me we should have left and stayed on the street if we wanted a refund. NEVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!!!!
Reviewed May 27, 2022
I cancel my reservation within the agreement date for a full refund and three calls later several email and the host cannot be reached. Did I mention for every call there is a 20 to 30 minute wait. NOPE. NOT AGAIN
Reviewed May 24, 2022
Attempting to receive FULL REFUND after host cancelled stay. 4 phone calls totally over 1.5 hours and numerous emails back & forth... still no FULL REFUND. What a nightmare experience and drain of my time!
Reviewed May 23, 2022
Years ago I needed to do short-term renting of my home until it could sell (the market was weak), so I turned to VRBO and found the experiences mostly pleasant with decent system support. Now, I have had mostly difficult, time-consuming problems with VRBO hosting:
1.) Looong wait times
2.) Agents that can't fix problems and "escalate" which means you'll never get a call back
3.) Excessive security measures. You'll get locked out whenever you change phones or anything like that. Then they can't help you and have to elevate it which means no one will EVER follow through or call back as they promise. They DO NOT follow up on anything. Make sure to record your case number because you will have to call back and wait for 20 minutes to get a person.
4.) Their agents have pretty strong accents and the phone connections are choppy. You will have to repeat yourself a lot and ask them to repeat themselves.
5.) Requoting guests or dealing with guest changes is a GIGANTIC headache. There's no transparency to the process. You won't be able to tell which was the original versus first, second, third revision request. The app on the phone will suggest dollar amounts that are way out of line and don't take into account what you'd previously quoted. Don't even try to modify a quote on the phone app. You need to be a forensic accountant and have 2 tabs open on a computer to accommodate customer change requests to previously booked dates.
Reviewed May 23, 2022
I booked two different properties on this website. When I put in my dates it said it was available. I paid in full the amount and waited. After 24 hours I received a notice saying it was already booked. I found another property and went through the exact same thing to only find out it was already booked. WHY would you advertise an available property and then say it’s already booked? And this was on numerous properties. Do Not Waste your time trying to find something with them.
Reviewed May 20, 2022
This VRBO home owned by Brent ** 9112 Stromboli Ct, Kissimmee Fl is disgusting! I should have known when one of his rules is to not strip the beds when leaving but instead remake them!?!? Wait! What? There was black mold in every shower; black balls of hair throughout the home; no clean towels; little to no WiFi; not all tvs worked; the pool was filthy and when turning on the spa to heat, it would drain within minutes! There was used toilet paper rolls in each bathroom as well as used soap bars. Disgusting!
Worst of all - the homeowner Brent ** thought we left; he sent a man to “fix the tvs and take pictures”!?!? One of our adult lady guests stayed at the home after we left for lunch and that is the only reason we know a man was on site. I am thankful that my teen girl did not stay at the home while we were not there! It is terrifying to think of the consequences. One can only imagine! Brent Koch never notified us prior to the man coming on-site! We still have no idea who this man is.
VRBO refuses to refund us our monies; in fact, VRBO expects us to reach out to the homeowner for a refund!?!?! This is nothing short of outrageous! Particularly since we sent VRBO the pictures; and how can VRBO support a homeowner who does not notify the renters of sending a man on-site?!? I reached out to VRBO within hours of arriving to no avail. VRBO supports the homeowner. It is both disappointing and vile. See the VRBO reply below. If it does not post here please send a text to 239.209.9278. I will provide it.
I wish I could post the photos of this home - but I cannot. Feel free to reach out to me at 239.209.9278 for photos. I suggest you do not eat prior to that. Brent ** is a horrible VRBO homeowner. His home is disgusting. He deleted my review on VRBO; and he refuses to answer my calls and emails. VRBO has not supported me in this matter. BEWARE!!
"Hello this is Barbara I'm calling from the resolutions department with the VRBO this message is for Maureen ** in regards to the request to speak with the supervisor. It's my understanding that you encountered multiple issues during your stay at your property at the property that you had booked from I believe was a let me doublecheck a April 22 through the 25th with a Mr. Brent, so I have reviewed all the pictures that you have sent us as well as the issues that you can countered off the property. Um. Alongside the communication that you had with the owner Brent when he assisted you on getting those issues rectified and I wanted to let you know that your reimbursement request is not possible under VRBO spoke with confidence program meaning that if you are requesting for a reimbursement you would need to talk to the property owner in regards to that.
Now we've done that on your behalf already so that we can advocate for you and request that reimbursement and I'm afraid to say that the reimbursement that was requested is not possible through the property owner either as a branch does not feel it is appropriate to provide you with a reimbursement given that you responded to all of your report concerns in a timely manner.
Now that we know for a fact that as far as a reimbursement through VRBO is not possible nor the property owner. We would need to suggest for you to seek alternative routes for Dr. reimbursements. Now if you have you can't necessarily suggest which route you can take so you would need to look at your own personal resources and see which route may be the best for you to seek him the reimbursement that you are looking for. But I did want to have a conversation with you and let you know that undergo conference program like I said your requested reimbursement. Unfortunately she's not a possibility. I'll go ahead and send you an email with the information that I've giving you on this voicemail so that you can have it in writing and will try and call you one more time before we consider this matter close OK. morning. thank you for your time and I hope you have yourself a beautiful Day." Outrageous! Be forewarned!
Reviewed May 20, 2022
As a property owner who rents lakefront homes on VRBO I can’t begin to explain my frustration and dissatisfaction. Their system on the owner side is down or screwed up almost every time I login. I can’t get meaningful reports, guest reviews lag by weeks, payments are held sometimes months. Calling VRBO is typically a 30 minute wait to speak to an offshore contractor who can do nothing. The best an owner is going to get is “I’ll escalate your case to tech support.” You will never hear from tech. Support nor will the problem be fixed. I give it 110% to be sure my guests have a great stay. I just wish VRBO would give me 10% for providing them with the product they make millions from.
Reviewed May 19, 2022
We book a hotel in Nashville coming from Wisconsin. 2 days before we were to fly out we called to confirm our reservation and were told there wasn’t one. The rental company canceled it and never notified us. They tried to make it right by giving us a different rental nowhere comparable to what we had. If we didn’t call we would not have had a place to stay when we arrived. We ended up having to book not as nice of place for more money. We asked for some sort of compensation or something for our troubles and they did nothing and did not care. We will not be using VRBO any longer. Wasn’t the first time having an issue either.
Reviewed May 18, 2022
The mattress and beds were horrible. No paper for the first day. No cups for coffee. No utensils in the house. Bathroom shower broken the water was coming from the bathroom to the kitchen trough the roof. Horrible experience. The pictures he showed were fine. Did not show stairs. All the experience horrible.
Reviewed May 17, 2022
We booked a home in Lake Geneva, WI in March 2021. Due to circumstances in the family, we changed the reservation from one family member to another. Then, the house appeared on my trips, but I could not make payments. After waiting 36hrs and still no resolution, I called VRBO and we agreed to cancel the original reservation and rebook the reservation ON THE SAME PHONE CALL. Literally, one minute apart, if that. Then the new service fee was $561 instead of $499. VRBO refuses to adjust the service fee down because "You canceled the reservation." WILL NOT USE VRBO ANYMORE!!!
Reviewed May 16, 2022
We booked and paid for a week in a lovely looking and well reviewed French gite in Bruniquel... the directions were awful. However, after 30 mins we found it. The gite was in a junk yard of old cars, the owner was absent, we could see his trousers drying on an airer in the property. VRBO had probably not advised him of the booking. The balcony rail, over the fast running river Ayveron, was feeble and dangerous (a health hazard) and the gite backed to a busy road. The owner did not respond to our emails or phone call before arrival in France or whilst at the property. There was a diseased cat present... with his (owners) dog locked in the house next to the gite too.
### OVERALL CRAP SERVICE. ###... Oh and then Vrbo put us up in a disgusting 'F1 Hovel of a hotel' knocking shop with ** stained communal toilets, nicotine smelling rooms, shagging noises at 4am and residents spitting god only knows what out of the widows... all this conveniently (NOT) located between a motorway and an industrial estate.
Reviewed May 14, 2022
We booked 3 nights in a VRBO listing and it listed air conditioning as one of the features. We get there and it had no AC. The listing was on the ground floor of a MAJOR multilane road. When we contacted host he told us (via text so i have it in writing) that he was mistaken and the AC isn't turned on until next month. We asked for our money back and the host said no. We contacted VRBO and they said there was nothing they can do but to contact host. They clearly are only interested in the home owners.
Reviewed May 14, 2022
We returned from our one week stay at Watercrest Condominiums Unit 1504 in Panama City Beach, Florida yesterday. I would stay away from this property at all costs There were six adults staying here for the week; one of which is pregnant and another with severe asthma. Upon arrival, the unit was older, but looked OK. Shortly after entering the unit, we discovered that there were dirty pans in the dishwasher with caked on food. Also, the Mr. Coffee pot was never cleaned from the last occupant. A representative arrived shortly after our arrival to give us our parking pass, pool wristbands and to inform us of the broken towel bar on the glass shower doors. She said that maintenance was aware of such and would be up to fix the shower bars.
The following morning, we discovered so much more wrong with the unit. Per instructions of our booking through VRBO, we immediately called and texted Emerald Coast Destinations to inform them of the problems. We texted the below to her the day after our arrival:
“We spent all morning cleaning the unit:1-sweeping the floors, particularly under beds, dressers and chairs- There were piles of dirt, papers and other debris, including a condom wrapper in the 3rd bedroom!
2-vacuuming the rugs- The dirt cup was full and we emptied it. With every sweep of the machine, you could see a lighter stripe in the one rug. When we were done, the cup was filled with sand.
3-defrosting the freezer- The ice maker is defective. It leaks and an iceberg is created locking in the tray and creating one solid mound of ice in the tray.
4-cleaning the mold inside the clothes washer as best we could with Clorox wipes.
5-scrubbing a used tray that was in the dishwasher and never run.
6-Cleaning the coffee pot which was never even rinsed since last tenant.
7-Disinfecting the dining room table which was grimey and sticky.
8-Cleaning the air conditioner return vent which was caked with grime that was so disgusting. It really should be taken off and scrubbed on both sides.
9-cleaning the dryer vent of accumulated lint since last occupant.
10-Wiping all tables in bedrooms which was sticky to the touch
11-Wiping the fan blades which were layered with dust
12-Cleaning the refrigerator drawers and glass surfaces which had caked rings from previous occupant.
13-Cleaning the furniture covers which had crumbs and other food scraps in the crevices.
Additionally, the towel bar on the shower door in the secondary bedroom is broken. We were told maintenance would be up to fix it. It is still broken.Generally, we are very disappointed with the cleanliness of the unit, especially since there is such a high cleaning fee attached to the rental through VRBO. It appears that beds are made and towels piled and that is all that is actually done by the cleaning crew.”
Emerald Coast Destinations indicated that she would address the above issues on Monday morning. Despite several texts and phone calls, she never contacted me again. I would never book one of these properties or through VRBO again. There is no guarantee that you will have what has been represented. To make matters worse, upon our arrival home, I contacted VRBO and was told that it was too late to verbalize any concern about the unit since we were no longer there. I told the agent that I contacted Emerald Coast as directed, but she kept saying it was too late to do anything about it.
In addition to the above, the mattresses are sold old it is as if you are sleeping in a hammock. You lie down on the bed and roll directly into the middle. Half of the lights do not work. They are missing the on/off knobs, have non-working lightbulbs or are simply not plugged in. Two of the lightbulbs in the 2nd bathroom did not work and one of the other bulbs flickered on and off repeatedly. The kitchen is only modestly appointed. The TV in the 2nd bedroom only received 2 channels: #2 and the Hallmark Channel.
The view from the balcony is wonderful, but the amenities of the residence are far from adequate, and even when you follow the booking directions, you are deceived into believing that your concerns will be addressed. No one ever does address your concerns, and everyone points figures at the other to address the problem. VRBO says we have to contact the owner, but we have no contact information for the owner of the unit. I WOULD NEVER BOOK THROUGH VRBO OR WITH EMERALD COAST DESTINATIONS AGAIN!
Reviewed May 13, 2022
My husband and I went through VRBO vacation rentals to rent a condo in the Galveston area. (May 2022) The night we were supposed to be at the vacation home, we could not get in touch with the Realtor who was in charge of the home through VRBO. After about the third attempt (at this time we were late for check-in) trying to contact the Realtor, we called VRBO customer service. We were told they could not get in touch with the Realtor.
After the initial lady we spoke to figured there wasn't anything she could do, she transferred us to someone who could help us with our account. The second lady proceeded to say that the reason we didn't get our vacation home was that our purchase was 'pending' on the bank account. Since it was pending, it meant the rental didn't go through. We explained that's not what 'pending' means in a transaction, and she proceeded to argue the case with us. In the middle of the conversation, the Realtor of the condo finally returned our call.
In essence, we will never book through VRBO again because they clearly had no idea how accounts work. Why would I trust them with my funds if they didn't know how to run their own business? In the end, the Realtor handled the situation, and even went so far as to tell us not to go through VRBO, but to book directly with Sterling Vacations. I wasn't too fond of the company either, but that's a separate review for another day.
Reviewed May 11, 2022
I made a reservation through VRBO.com and the listing turned out to be a fraudulent listing. VRBO charged me for the full reservation at the time of the booking. The week of the reservation, I could not get a response from the owner for check-in information/details. So I contacted VRBO. They were also unable to contact the owner via phone or email. The owner never responded. The VRBO Rebooking Team put us up in a hotel for the 1st night of the reservation and then told us the next morning that we were on our own. The next week I started the refund process with VRBO. I spent at least 10 hours on the phone, (probably 9 of those on hold) and sent a minimum 20 emails.
They finally gave me an answer 4 weeks later that they had already paid the owner and I needed to contact the owner for a refund. Therefore, I’m supposed to contact an owner who listed a fraudulent phone number and does not respond to any attempts from me or any service representative from VRBO! I’m out the entire amount of the full reservation. The customer service at VRBO is ridiculous and their “Book With Confidence” policy on the website is a complete joke. I will never book with them again!
Reviewed May 9, 2022
I spent 3 hrs in VRBO to find the rentals that match my needs, esp the areas that have to be safe for travellers. You booked it and the owner told you these dates were not available. Sorry, these are from the VRBO website with the info you provided. Move to next, no answer at all after a few days. Found another one, then I was told these dates are not available either. Another problem is, they do not provide you with the address, and only tell you which community it is, it is very hard to know what public transport you could use. Personally, when I saw so many nasty reviews before I left my own, I think VRBO business model did not work. The business has no intention of looking after customers other than making the profit. Will use Expedia/AirBnB in the future and NEVER VRBO again.
Reviewed May 8, 2022
Booked a 6 bedroom home in FL on the website and paid for it in early January. VRBO canceled it 2 days before my rental was to commence in April. I called the number for help, No answer. 15 people stranded!
Reviewed May 8, 2022
Short story is we booked a vacation home in southern Florida through VRBO, and in conjunction with so flo vacations. The home was filthy and even had urine on one of the mattresses… I did my best to be reasonable but wanted out of the reservations after 24 hours. I offered to pay for the first night and then to vacate the property by checkout time. I spent four hours on the phone between VRBO and so Flo vacation rentals and kept getting the runaround. There was no soap or wash rags (even bath ones) to even clean the dishes with. The pool was Dirty and the furniture around it was mostly broken. That was the whole point of our visit, was to relax.
The worry free guarantee did not do anything but send me to an insurance agent that asked me to file a claim with an obscene amount of documentation. I would have completed said documentation if I would have known I was going to need all of that information. Instead I am out $1000 plus had to pay for a different hotel to stay at while we were there. Never again!
Reviewed May 6, 2022
I was in the need of a rental home for November in the Keys. Searching through VRBO I found the perfect house that would accommodate 5 families. I placed a request which is protocol and VRBO responded that they would send my request to The Host. I received a second email from VRBO stating that the host had responded. The response was that the house was available for the dates I had requested and that an attachment was sent with further instructions. The attachment stated that correspondence be made via email or phone number. So through that number I started to correspond with this host.
Everything seemed completely as it should. At least I thought so, this was the first time that I had ever used VRBO. The host continued to tell me that she had sent a rental agreement to my email address, that I needed to fill out and sign and send back. Also that payment be made through Zelle or money transfer and that once she received payment she would send me a receipt through VRBO. I sent payment and my host disappeared!!! Looking deeper into this home I found that it had a contract for sale on it. I contacted the realtor. She put me in contact with the renting company that rents this home.
This lady confirmed that the name that I had on my rental agreement was not the owner of the home and the rental company was not the rental company and that this house had been copied from her post by a scammer. She said she had made numerous contacts to VRBO the week prior making them aware of the scammer and requesting that their post be taken down. VRBO refused! Because of their lack of responsibility that post was still up when I was searching for a home. I've tried to make numerous contacts with VRBO and they've washed their hands of responsibility because I didn't pay through them but I paid through Zelle.
To me they are in fact responsible because they connected me with that host, they sent that host my information, and they kept that post up so that I could fall victim to the scammer. I'm trying to get my $1,500 deposit back which I believe VRBO should be held responsible for but you can't get through to anybody except for customer service and they just continue to tell me that since I didn't pay through them then no refund! Don't trust VRBO!
Reviewed May 5, 2022
Had to cancel reservation due to emergency heart bypass. Surgery needed for my husband. SOUTHERN VACATION RENTAL and VRBO would not work with me on my cancellation. Therefore they took over $600 from me even though I should have (according to the rules) at least got half of it back. But they refused.
Reviewed May 4, 2022
We were charged a $60 hot tub fee, but the hot tub water was tepid and we didn't get any assistance from property management when I called VACASA (which my reservation went to). I called three times, and was told that they may have other priorities: I'm a paying customer, just like everyone else, so I deserve to be treated in the same manner. Also, the beds were listed as Queen-size: they're not. They are full-sized. My husband and I have a Queen-sized bed at home, so we know what the size should be like.
The parking space is terribly small. We drove our pickup, which is big; there was barely enough room to park it. I can't imagine having two cars (oh, and if there is no room in the parking space, you have to park in the common area, which is downhill). By the time we paid for the additional fees that Vrbo and/or Vacasa charged us, the cost ended up being over $1,100 for a four-day stay. Definitely not worth it. I could have put that money toward a nicer vacation in the Caribbean.
Reviewed May 4, 2022
I had booked an apartment in London through VRBO, 6 months in advance of my trip in order to get a reasonable rate - reservation was paid in full at the time of booking. The owner cancelled the reservation 7 days before our arrival, claiming some plumbing issues that could not be fixed in time. Although I was refunded in full, the last minute cancellation meant I had to scramble for an alternative booking, naturally at higher prices due to short notice and London rates over Easter - I ended up paying 50% more than initially booked. VRBO owners are protected with various levels of non-refundable amounts depending on client cancellation date, but VRBO clients have zero protection against owner cancellation. Furthermore, VRBO is impossible to reach and complain, hiding behind automated emails and lack of email or phone contacts. I advise you think twice about using VRBO.
Reviewed May 3, 2022
Booked a trip with VRBO. They made the booking. When I arrived after taking my money, they stated that they accidentally double booked and my family and I had were in town for my son's AAU game. So myself, my son 15, my in-law whose is in late 70’s and and autistic adult arrive 11:00 pm and there someone staying where I’m supposed to stay for the next 2 nights. Called customer service and after about 30 minutes they realize some software didn’t work and they don’t know if they have anything available. They give me refund for the nights but due to more computer error they weren’t able to book a room for the night and they stated they would reimburse me for any expenses and they have not done that.
Reviewed April 30, 2022
The house was in terrible shape. Electrical outlets are fire hazard. Ants, mite problem. Back sliding door needed an army to slide it open. The house was extremely dirty. The beds sunk down. Bad appliances. Had to buy our own cooking utensils. Had to buy toilet paper, paper towels and reward h the linens before use. One of the beds had cigarette burns in the sheets and beds looked like 100s of babies were made on them. Absolutely disgusting
Reviewed April 28, 2022
Like many other reviewers said, this company doesn't protect the consumer. I booked a weekend rental in New Paltz NY # ** & 2 days later we decided to cancel [not a habit of ours] but the owner, a Middle Eastern lady refused to give us refund & kept blowing smoke at us, avoided topic. VRBO hasn't done anything thus far to give us our refund. Very frustrating!! Please use a different company, Buyer beware!
Reviewed April 27, 2022
VRBO does not deliver its promises on protection against FRAUD and does not reimburse you if you face fraud from a fake property owner. I spent $1,000 in a property that ended up being a scam, called Vrbo multiple times and gave them all the information needed, 6 months later I still haven't received my money back and probably never will. This is outrageous. I highly suggest using Airbnb instead.
Here is what happened to me: I booked the property a few days in advance, and the “host” named “Javier” apparently messaged me on WhatsApp in Spanish saying that the apartment was no longer available and was occupied and that he was new to Vrbo and didn’t know how to cancel or change my reservation. He told me to call Vrbo myself instead, which I did. Vrbo assured me I will get reimbursed, that they contacted him with information to follow and that everything will be alright. Vrbo contacted the host and let him know about instructions on how to cancel the reservation and process the refund for me. Then radio silent, no more contact from the host ever since then. Which meant it is a total scam.
This is already terrible, but what is even more terrible is that I still haven’t received a refund of $1,000 from Vrbo. I paid for this scam and never used their property and Vrbo hasn’t done a thing. I called Vrbo MULTIPLE times and gave them all the information they needed to process the refund, they always assure me on the phone that they will reimburse me no matter what. But it has been 6 months now and I haven’t received any money back. This is outrageous, one of Vrbo’s promises is that they procure secure payments, and fraud protection, and will pay you back if anything happens. See here: https://www.vrbo.com/l/travel-with-confidence/ and https://www.vrbo.com/trust/ Please, I hope someone reads this and helps get my $1,000 refund.
Reviewed April 25, 2022
“Sea Place”
Butler Beach, St. Augustine, Florida
(Off A 1 A South)
Review of the above rental, where we stayed from Jan 1, 2021 to March 30th, 2021 (approx. 3 months).1. Photos of the condo were correct. The setting is stunning and even better than what they show. Rate “10”.
2. The beach is also stunning and wonderful to walk and observe the other people doing all sorts of things: walking, riding bikes, driving on the beach, parking on the beach, sun tanning, surfing and just enjoying nature and having a great time. Rate “10”.
3. The location of the condo is also a plus, as it is located very close to all the basic amenities such as grocery stores, gas stations, restaurants and the city of St. Augustine. There are a lot of amazing places to see and lots of activities nearby as well. Rate “10”.
4. All the appliances work well. Rate “8”. Dishes and Glasses. Rate “8”. Overall, pots, pans. Rate “8”. • Except one no-stick pan which had outlived its life and burned everything I tried to cook in it. I am sorry, but I threw it out. A new non-stick pan is needed.
The condo does not represent itself well at all. Our trip started off very poor:a. When we arrived, we could not enter as the code we were given was the wrong number – this took about 1 ½ hours until we were able to enter. Condo Check/Maintenance Poor.
b. The next morning, we discovered the toaster was “Toast”, excuse the pun. That took a couple of days to get one that worked. Condo Check/Maintenance Rate “2”.
c. The same day we tried to hook up to the WI-FI, that took another visit from someone, and it took a hour or more to get the problem fixed. We let this one off the hook because they had just signed up with a new company and things happen. No Rate.
d. We went shopping and purchased some light bulbs as the light at the top of the inside staircase was out. Unfortunately, so was the unit itself. That had to be replaced, the next day. Condo Check/Maintenance Rate “2”. Also, during our stay, we replaced 3 other light bulbs that were burnt out in other light fixtures. Condo Check/Maintenance Rate “2”.
e. The light under the micro/fan is out and we have not bothered to replace that. No Rate.
f. No one has bothered to try to clean the windows on the outside, or they are just too old to clean the grime off them. Condo Check/Maintenance Poor.
g. The sliding screen doors keep coming off their rails. Management sent a repair man who informed us that they could no longer be repaired, and they needed to be replaced. This has not been done. Condo Check/Maintenance Poor.
h. Linens: not enough dish cloths (2). Towels that the edges are frayed (2). Cutlery, lots of knives but dinner forks and small forks and small spoons would have been nice to have as we had a lot of guests visit us. Rate Average.
i. Beds were good. Rate Good.
j. Living room is outdated, couch is extremely uncomfortable to sit on – we never tried to have anyone sleep on it. Rate Poor. Other furniture in the living room could use a paint job or replacing as they are starting to look their age as well.
k. The guest bathroom has had a mini upgrade, but the bath/shower needs to be re-done as well as the window. Rate Poor.
l. Primary bedroom ensuite is acceptable. Rate Average.
m. A must is new shower fixtures in both bathrooms. It is not easy to wash private parts without a handheld shower wand, it also makes the shower walls easy to clean. Rate Poor.
n. The noise factor. We could literally hear the people talking in the unit next to us and sounds like elephants thumping up the stairs when they use the inside staircase. We have heard people upstairs in other condos, but not from the room attached to us. We suggest you somehow add a dampening material to the wall in the living room and primary bedroom. This was our biggest complaint to this condo, we would not rent it again.
That is all that we can say. We hope these suggestions and ratings will give you an idea of how these small and large details can bring you up to a “10” very easily and without tons of money to accomplish this.
Reviewed April 24, 2022
I rented a property which claimed to require just a 5k deposit. The entire cost of the rental was over 22,000. Thus, I went over my credit limit on one card and was forgiven on the other. Who has 22k in available credit on your CC? The owner claimed VRBO did this and VRBO denied it. Eventually we worked out a more acceptable payment scheme. Be very careful. Read the fine print before you press the button to purchase. What’s worse is that they had a customer service agent call me whom would not allow me to speak and was certain VRBO did nothing wrong. Ugly!
Reviewed April 22, 2022
VRBO is not abiding by the covenants and codes established by the HOA overseeing the rental units that they are listing. They are advertising and renting within communities that have written rules limiting rentals to a minimum of 30 days. This needs to cease immediately. The community will approach the guests renting the units concerning this which will cause anxiety for the guests. Overall it will promote a bad reputation for the company. Bella Terra Condominiums, Phoenix.
Reviewed April 22, 2022
I made a reservation with Vrbo on 5 March, The booking turned out to be a fake listing as I went to the address given and people had already been living there for some time. I then communicated with Vrbo customer service on this matter, hoping to get some help at least a refund, it has been over a 8-9 weeks and I’m still yet to receive anything, I have called over and over again and I’ve only been told that my problem has been escalated to another department for investigation. This was a month ago, even the last time I called, the last person I spoke with told me that it had never actually been escalated and he’s just about to do it now.
I have 3 case numbers with this same issue, as they always tell me “it’s being escalated”. They’ve told me I will receive an email updating me on the status of my refund on 4 to 5 different times but I’m yet to receive even one. I’ve spent over a cumulative of 7 hours on the phone to be told the same thing over and over again. PLEASE, Don’t waste your time with vrbo.
Reviewed April 22, 2022
I've reserved my lodging with VRBO precisely March 26, 2022 with the intent of preparing my vacation travels for later in the summer. After realizing my reservations wouldn't accommodate my entire family- I quickly jumped online and hit the cancelation button. I was definitely did this quickly ensuring my refund would be issued. Nonetheless, we are now on April 21st and yet nothing has been done. I've been calling daily since Tuesday, April 19th, with never a manager to speak with me about my importance of securing my refund.
I've been told repeatedly it will take 5-7 days yet it has now been close to a month. They claim to have contact the landlord but they can't even get them on the phone. This is not my issue anymore! The refund policy indicates all refund of 100% are to be awarded prior July 27, 2022. I've just had enough! They don't care about you so don't give in to this company at all. I'll continue to showcase their lack of support to have my money returned.
Reviewed April 21, 2022
Purchased 3rd party travel insurance when checking out and paying for a VRBO stay. Unfortunately had to cancel trip last minute because of Covid. When I called about my refund they told me according to their records I didn’t have travel insurance. They could not explain to me how the 3rd party insurance company process worked just that I don’t have any. Got disconnected several times and they never called me back like they said they would. Ask to speak to a supervisor several times. Was placed on hold and disconnected once again!! If you purchase travel insurance make sure you follow it up and get a policy number. I will NEVER use VRBO AGAIN!!!
Reviewed April 20, 2022
My partner and I booked a three night stay six months in advance of our planned dates. A month before the stay, we received an email that stated only: "dates no longer available," and got refunded. This was obviously frustrating but we still felt we had time to find another place. I should have gone with a different service at that point though, because the exact same thing happened with the second place we reserved. We are a week away from our planned trip and have nowhere to stay, there has been zero communication with the owners or any help from VRBO. They DO NOT care about travellers. There was absolutely no way to write a review on either property to warn others their dates might just get cancelled on them last minute with no heads up. I am never using VRBO again and I strongly suggest no one does unless some significant changes in their business practice occurs.
Reviewed April 18, 2022
Instead, they found me one option after another which were a third to half the size of my original rental. Their rebooking department would take two or three days to get back to me. If you do that math, by the third time I heard from the rebooking department I expected to check-in the next day. They never came through.
They misrepresented their services and failed to fulfill their consumer guarantees. I spent hours trying to cooperate with them, but one agent would tell me something contradicting the previous agent. To top it off, most of the first tier agents I would speak with refused or could not transfer me to the rebooking department handling my case. It made it nearly impossible to even communicate with them. VRBO ruined my plans.
Reviewed April 18, 2022
Because of convenience, I wanted to like VRBO. Email: (1) host hasn’t provided info- true; (2) get updates on App - should have said App is the only way to get contact info or rental agreement. Quality of rental poor - looked in window - disarray, not clean. Blue Rose Cabins ** April 11. Can’t get refund even though didn’t stay there. Have to go through junkyard to get there.
Reviewed April 18, 2022
I used Vrbo to rent a property for our family vacation. Well long story short, I contacted the host 1 day before our stay to get an update. The host just cancelled with a 'so sorry' statement and left us without a place to stay. Vrbo was of no help and I was contacted by email to look and rent a place for two nights then they will give me more instructions, that was of no help. Vrbo was not responsible for the irresponsibility of their host and ruined my family vacation. Do yourself a favor and don't use Vrbo, I never had a problem with them but when I did they were not there to help solve the problem.
Reviewed April 16, 2022
Went to home and it looked like bedsheets had not been changed for a month. Could not stay due to the filth and have not received money back to date. Notified agent on site immediately and VRBO. VRBO said they could not do anything. Call Evolve. Evolve said I didn’t notify anyone but I sent them a copy of the text communication. Total scam.
Reviewed April 16, 2022
I booked a rental property through VRBO. My credit card was charged immediately and I received an email confirming my booking. An hour later I received a phone call from the property owner, informing me that there has been a double booking on the property. I contacted VRBO through their online chat service, notifying them of the issue and requesting a refund. The person I spoke to, though friendly, was not focused on customer satisfaction at all.
The cancellation policy was brought up repeatedly, which had nothing to do with the issue at hand. The person's command of English left a lot to be desired and made having a fruitful conversation extremely challenging. I was informed that I will need to wait 7 business days for a refund, which I find unacceptable. VRBO was very quick to charge my card, but they are very slow to refund my money because of their inadequate rental property control. This was the first and the last time that I used VRBO.
Reviewed April 13, 2022
I made a reservation using VRBO. Everything seemed to be on the up and up until night 2 of four when the property owner locked her and her siblings out. When we contacted VRBO about this they said they'd find a new location for my wife and her siblings to stay in for the remaining days. They failed to do this. They then told my wife that it would take time to get a refund. After calling three of four times they said that they don't handle the refunds or any money and it was up to the owner to make that decision. Long story short this company is hot garbage and cannot be trusted.
Reviewed April 12, 2022
VRBO charged me a service fee of $155 for a booking that was never accepted by the property owner. When I called to ask about it in multiple occasions, CS couldn’t help. Supervisors were never available nor did they return calls. When I disputed with my CC company, vrbo said it was non refundable. But their terms clearly states you are only charged if booking is accepted, which mine was not. This company is a fraud and doesn’t operate ethically. The app didn’t work properly either, which customer service even confirmed. Customer service reps are located overseas and sometimes don’t even fully speak English. I would avoid.
Reviewed April 12, 2022
This was the worst experience ever. I booked a villa 2 months ago in advance for spring break. The day I arrived in Florida I received notification that the property I booked was no longer available. So guess what that left me and my family with 3 children left without a place to stay. Then they book us a hotel with mold and paint chipping everywhere. Then I had to rebook my own stay again and yet they still haven't refund me. I DO NOT RECOMMEND.
Reviewed April 8, 2022
I planned a Bachelorette party, unfortunately, the wedding was called off. I booked this trip 9 months ahead of time and had to cancel 2 months later. The property management I booked my trip through gave me 90%, which is fair. BUT VRBO will not give you the service fee refund unless the property management give 100% refund back. Absolutely ridiculous that VRBO KEPT MY $271 service fee... And for what? Processing my CC fee and providing poor customer service? Save your money, time, and go with an Airbnb. This company is a complete scam and no one who works in Customer service is has a thick accent and speaks very poor English. You repeat yourself constantly, get transferred to someone else. I cannot believe I have to even bother with writing this, just want to help other people before they get screwed out of their money FOR LITERALLY NOTHING. Absolute scam, and never using this travel agency company ever again.
Reviewed April 7, 2022
VRBO has no quality control system in place. I helped my sister look for a one-month rental in the Universal City, Texas area. Through Vrbo a rental house (Top Gun Knots Landing) was located in the Olympia Hills area of Universal City. Once my sister and husband arrived, you could tell by just driving up to the house that it was not a well-kept rental – House looked shabby and with very poor lawn care. The heating and air conditioning unit was not in working order.
The owner had placed electric heater through the house and told my sister she that in the San Antonio area she would not need air conditioning. The TV reception was poor. The owner brought over equipment from Spectrum Internet & Cable to connect TV and internet service. At first, she told my sister that they could connect the equipment. But then later the owner did the necessary connections to bring the Spectrum on-line. As a result of this experience, I don’t recommend VRBO or this rental.
Reviewed April 7, 2022
Less than 12 hours before we were suppose to check in for our VRBO they cancelled our reservation with no explanation. I had to cancel my bachelorette and our flights. Found out the thing I was messaging was a robot not a real person. Never again.
Reviewed April 6, 2022
In March 2020, as COVID began, I agreed with owner of a rental house to roll the fully paid booking forward to March 2021. In March 2021 he agreed to roll the booking forward to 2022 then in January 2022, the owner sold the house. VRBO claims that cannot refund my fully paid booking on the grounds that "we don't have a way to just issue a refund for the remaining portion of the rental amount that has not already been refunded."
Reviewed April 5, 2022
I had a CONFIRMED reservation arriving on Sunday. Airfares booked and everything done and ready to go. On Friday afternoon 92 days before leaving, they texted me to say my reservation was canceled as they could not reach owner to verify. That is total **. The owner was notified and aware when I PAID IN FULL at time of reservation. When I asked about this ridiculous reason/excuse they rudely hung up on me!! What happens is they obviously get a better offer at the last minute and just screw the customer. Do yourself a favor. DO NOT USE THIS HORRIBLE COMPANY. What happened to me happens to many people as I learned later. They ruined my vacation with zero regard.
Reviewed April 5, 2022
Relaxation II, DANA POINT, CA house looked NOTHING like photos on VRBO Website: BROKEN furniture, DIRTY floors, RUSTY plumbing, STAINED furniture, & Outside Door WOULDN'T LOCK. After HRS on phone w/ VACASA & VRBO, WOULDN'T DO ANYTHING to fix situation although called IMMEDIATELY & WOULDN'T CANCEL our reservation or /REFUND our $$$$. After 16 good stays, we & our friends will NOT EVER stay at a VRBO & will share this horrible experience.
Reviewed March 31, 2022
Attempted to book a place in Porto, via Vrbo, submitted all required data, including financial information, received total cost estimate, only to be notified by Liiiving team, that the advertised and cost estimate was no longer valid, and to proceed I have to approve ridiculous increase amount. Attempt to obtain explanation however useless explanation how the system is not working properly. Waited 2days went back on line to find the same place with the same original amount, again tried to book it only to be declined. This from my perspective is a scam.
Reviewed March 30, 2022
Rented a property in Colorado City, Arizona for a family trip to Zion National Park. It was advertised as a cottage, it was a trailer home. One hour from Zion farther than what the mileage they had on their info. Horrible, unsafe area, the view from the front window was a junkyard and a falling apart, abandoned home. Do not reserve. Host refused to give me a refund, I cancelled as soon as I saw it and did not stay. Had to look for a last minute hotel. FALSE ADVERTISEMENT. Property #**
Reviewed March 29, 2022
Like many others here, my experience s with VRBO have been great in the past, but this week's were terrible to the point that I will never use them again. We prepaid for a week at a house in Orlando and met up with family flying from Missouri and Wisconsin. We did not get our door code until 3:43 p.m. on the day when we had a 4:00 p.m. check-in, and that was after 48 hours of constant calling and leaving messages that weren't returned. VRBO wouldn't help and said that they were just a site that advertised rentals and had no other responsibilities.
Their recommendation was that I should never rent houses on VRBO that were managed by companies instead of the actual owners (even though management companies are a HUGE (majority?) of their listings. I said, "So the only help or advice you can give me is to avoid using VRBO in the future?" Customer service didn't disagree. So great house in Solterra in Orlando, but try to bypass VRBO and Alpha Vacations if possible.
Reviewed March 29, 2022
We rented a VRBO house 5 min from our own to accommodate out of state family for a big vacation about 2 MONTHS IN ADVANCE. Imagine the nightmare that begins when we head over to the house around 7pm to put some groceries inside and we are stopped at the front door by OTHER RENTERS ALREADY INSIDE! They say they rented the house (and got there first). The next two hours were spent on the phone with VRBO who had no more to offer than we need to find accommodations on our own and they will reimburse us the amount we paid them but nothing more...and it's Spring Break in Florida where hotels go way up to $400 a night!
We went to the airport at 10pm to pick up 5 people we had no place to put them! I was on the phone until 2am with no helpful solution - except being told to go back to the house and photograph the cars in the driveway and the people if I could to prove it was already occupied to VRBO - at 2 AM I am being told this! What and get shot? Our family members ended up staying in single room at Sleep Inn for the week, it was dreadful and put such a stress and negative edge to the entire week. VRBO didn't give a crap...they did nothing to find them another house rental and did nothing to expedite finding a solution immediately when they were made aware of the situation...they were ridiculous in turning all the stress of the situation on us and left us in the lurch. BEWARE it could happen to you!
Reviewed March 27, 2022
I have been a loyal VRBO customer for years, booking through them 2-4x a year on rentals typically between $350-$750 a night. I am utterly disappointed with the customer service provided when a property manager cancels the reservation last minute. After several calls, chats, and assurances that we would be cared for, VRBO did nothing but send generic emails inquiring whether help was still needed and providing yet another phone number to call.
The property owner refused to cancel the reservation formally (he didn't want a negative mark) but confirmed via VRBO.com email and 3-way call with VRBO that he could not host us, yet they delayed and delayed citing the host had not cancelled formally! I booked the property 6 mos in advance and still my young children ended up camping with no heat at 25 degree night on this portion of our road trip. I still do not have reimbursement. I urge families not to book through VRBO. They will not take care of you if there is an issue on the owner end, And they keep money for a service that you never got! It makes me sad to write this review after years of investing my $ and trips in them. Things happen, we get that, but then take care of your customers when they do. VRBO does not.
Reviewed March 26, 2022
We rented 8811 Macapa Drive Kissimmee Florida for our son's wedding. Thought it would be nice to have one place for all the family to stay. The picture that we saw on the VRBO site were the farthest thing from the truth. Thank God that we arrived 2 days before the rest of our family, that is what it took to clean the house and try to get things together.
First thing was to replace around 20 light bulbs that were blown out, two coffee pots one worked, 2 toasters neither worked, living room furniture broken and put back together with 2×4s, a house that sleeps 24 people had enough bath towels for 17. Frying pans were nasty, bunk beds were falling apart, and we had to tighten all the screws for all the chairs that were falling apart, half the bedrooms didn't have tvs in them, big screen upstairs didn't work.
Hole in one of bathroom walls had toilet paper stuck in it, curtains hanging off the wall in the bedroom, wallpaper peeling off walls in bedroom, carpet was filthy, I could go on and on for another hour about things that were wrong, the biggest issue was paying $35 a day for the heat in the pool that didn't work and never being reimbursed for that. I have rented in the past from Airbnb and never had an issue, so that is what I will be using for the future and as a business owner myself, I will tell everyone of my customers about our horrible experience and the response we received for all our complaints which is NONE.
Reviewed March 23, 2022
Accommodation: Mt. Pleasant Ct, Saint John, NB: Property # 21264vb. Terrible experience and terrible accommodation. We arrived at our accommodation and discovered it was on the third floor (not stated in the description and I was travelling with an amputee), the bannister and stairway were rotting and unsafe, the apartment was dirty and smelling of stale smoke. We immediately left due to these factors and contacted the owner who does not live in the area. He sent in his cleaning crew who told him everyone was fine despite the several pictures we sent him to the contrary. He refused to refund our money. When I contacted VRBO they told me that they could do nothing for me - I paid over $1400 for the 5 nights accommodations. I have booked through VRBO in Europe, the Dominican Republic and in Canada and have not experienced this substandard level of service. Sadly, they have lost my business due to this experience.
Reviewed March 20, 2022
I booked an apartment in Buenos Aires. The host was unresponsive and I could not get details about how to enter the apartment I booked. VRBO tried calling him for me, but they said that there was nothing else they could do. Meanwhile, I had already been charged, and I tried calling the guy myself and his phone was out of service. This is extremely bad customer service - and business operation. Not only Vrbo would not help a customer (me) who has clearly been scammed by fully reimbursing me, but they also don’t check their listings and they allow scams and swindlers on their site. This is unbelievable and terribly bad business. I would NEVER recommend Vrbo to anyone - please go to Airbnb or another site. At least you won’t get your money lost there.
Reviewed March 20, 2022
We booked a cottage in Manitoulin Islands (Ontario, Canada) a year in advance. Seven months later we received a booking cancellation from the owner. There was no reason given for the cancellation. All cottages for the summer of 2022 are pretty much booked up so we're not hopeful of finding something. I phoned Vrbo and was told that I can't leave a review about our experience and was given various reasons as to why the owner would have cancelled including that the owner could have cancelled my reservation because they thought that they may get a higher rate by putting the property on the site again after cancelling with me. Really?? There is no opportunity to rate them (to give someone else a heads up that this could happen) or make a comment on the site unless you have actually stayed with them. This was my first experience with VRBO and I don't have plans to book with them again.
Reviewed March 20, 2022
We booked a condo in Barbados, and a month later we received a booking cancellation from the owner. There was no reason given for the cancellation. Rental units are often booked up a year in advance in Barbados so this was lost time and exchange rate etc. As a result of this situation I went online to discover that many people have had similar experiences with to recourse for the owner of the residence, and no ability to rate them or make a comment on the site unless you have actually stayed with them. I will never use the site again.
Reviewed March 18, 2022
Prices were indicated in CND, however I was charged in USD (eg. advertised as $500 CND yet charged $500 USD). I called to let them know that upon checkout prices are indicated as Canadian dollars. I was provided a number of different explanations that made no sense. At one point they even tried explaining currency conversions and suggested I call the bank. After 3 dropped calls and an hour and a half of back-and-forth they argued that since I didn't take a screenshot of the checkout window for the dates booked, which indicated amounts in CND, I wouldn't be entitled to a price adjustment.
Even trying to speak to their customer service representatives is pretty bad. Besides having my call drop 3 times, I had to continuously ask them to repeat themselves since they'd keep cutting out or due to background noise. I would definitely recommend using AirBnb instead. I have not come across any issues like this when using their platform.
Reviewed March 17, 2022
Booked a house Palm Springs thru VACASA paid $355 fees to them. Then I got my credit card statement and saw that VRBO charged me $134. for the res. Do not know how they got involved. VRBO are crooks that is excessive and when I called all they could tell me it was their fee...for what??? Paid almost $500 in fees for a $325 night house.
Reviewed March 16, 2022
Vrbo is not responsible of false advertisement or unsanitary conditions of homes that you rent. We rented a home in Pocono Mountain that was unsanitary. VRBO did not respond or try to investigate. The host Brittany refused to give us money back. The house had dead mice and odor from septic system of drains. The host refused to acknowledge and denied anything was wrong. VRBO did nothing to help. I wouldn’t trust all the houses listed there and keep in mind they might not give you the money back if you have issues.
Reviewed March 15, 2022
VRBO.com is not serious people. Out of the blue, they cancelled my reservation, reason being because the owner of the home said home will not be available for those dates. They will fully refund my 2,500 initial deposit. Of course he will rent to a higher rate. The problem is the lack of commitment and professionalism. I already purchased flight tickets for over 10 people and they are not willing to respond for these charges, not even penalizing the owner of the home. This is disappointing and hopefully future customers do not fall into this trap. Shame on them!
Reviewed March 15, 2022
I have listing with AirBnB. Been with them for 2 years and done very well. I decided to add my listing to VRBO. VRBO stated an easy way for them to add in info, and I agreed. This was done, however a great deal was not done. Much had to be updated. It was listed live before I had a chance to check it. I spent hours getting everything set up and realized it had me listed in the wrong town. Called support and used support chat. The call ended up disconnecting on me and never called back (I was told that if they lost me they would call back). I was treated like I did not know what I was talking about. There was language barriers to get information relayed. I am now in the process of deleting my account... which I can not even do on my own. Now waiting for the Global something department to finalize.... I really can't wait to no longer be connected with this company in any way.
Reviewed March 15, 2022
Back in Jan., 2022, three families went in together to rent a Lake House (Lake Norman, NC) for a week in June 2022. We received a rental confirmation and they charged my credit card for the full fee. In mid-March, when reaching out to the “ Host” with a question, we found out that he had pulled his rental from VRBO in Dec. 2021 and VRBO had no business listing it. We were promised a call from the VRBO Guarantee Dept. but no call came. Now we are finding that availability on other rentals is limited and rates have increased. Thanks VRBO for ruining our family vacation and not caring in the least! Renters BEWARE!!!!
Reviewed March 13, 2022
Just fYI. We had rented a house at the beginning of the pandemic and the event we were to attend was canceled. So we had requested our money back and were told owners were already given the money and they refused to return our fees. In its place they said we could use it towards a future visit. Well that event was cancelled the next year so requested our money back again with no luck. So we are out over a thousand dollars, we then worked with executive villas of Florida. They requested more info with previous e-mails. We forwarded those as well with no luck and were told basically, "Too bad." So someone just got a gift from us and we are now out of over a thousand dollars. All due to the pandemic and no one at Vbro was willing to see we're treated fairly.
Reviewed March 11, 2022
So, when I review a property and give it 5 stars on VRBO, the review is published. If/when I don't, there's every chance the review will be rejected. Especially if it is a VRBO's premiere host and there is no third party involved in hosting. I can no longer trust VRBO properties based on their review. I could easily spend 5 grand for a weekend on a property that's falling apart or a property that is outdated. I have noticed lately that VRBO caters more to the hosts than customers. It's a company that doesn't care about its customers.
I stayed at a property in Santa Rosa and things inside were literally falling apart; the window blinds, fireplaces, bathroom fixtures, toilets, etc. were in poor condition. Furniture/beds were lumpy and outdated. I paid $7,000+ for 4 nights. Still, the host has managed to get all 5-star reviews for the property. When I brought this to VRBO's attention, they said that my 4-star review which noted all the pros and cons which made the property not worth $1450/night could not be published because my review did not fit their "guidelines". The review was rejected and no second chance was given to me to update the specific sentence that did not meet the guideline. That sentence was, "for $1450 a night, I'd expect a little bit more luxury."
I strongly recommend customers to review VRBO properties with pictures and detailed addresses on Yelp. I also recommend customers to add the VRBO property ID when reviewing it on a third-party platform. This is a new trend in California in the hospitality industry--some hosts of Vacation Rentals don't want to spend a dime of their income on keeping the property updated and welcoming.
Reviewed March 9, 2022
We booked a "tiny home" in Ft. Lauderdale for my husband's 40th birthday. It would be the first trip we had taken together in six years, then, my son came home with COVID-19 from school and spread it to the entire family. I had only booked the house three days before but when I went to cancel the reservation I was charged %50 of the total of the rental, which included a $500 deposit. I reached out multiple times to both VRBO and the property owner and neither company would work with me to come up with a fair cancellation.
VRBO states CLEARLY on the site that they will refund a trip 100% due to COVID-19 infections if such bad luck was to incur. I offered proof of positive tests but they refused to help. I was even told by a customer service representative that their policy was from "three years ago during the "first surge" and did not apply, apparently to the latest surge from the OMICRON variant. I am shocked at the rigid and stonewalling response from both VRBO and the property owners who made off like bandits from our misfortune. The fact that VRBO clearly states they will guarantee refunds from covid infections but not back the consumer up is abhorrent.

Reviewed March 8, 2022
I reserved a property via VRBO.com and the host said that that property should not even be posted on VRBO and they don't know how to use VRBO and why their property was listed on the VRBO site on the first place. In the description, property owner was supposed to provide lockbox access key. Access key was never even provided. Reservation number: **. When you call customer service, they don't even listen to what you are saying. Keep putting me on hold and doing absolutely nothing. It's been over 10 days and there no resolution, no refund either. I paid using Afterpay and Afterpay denied my charge back. I can't believe that Microsoft - Expedia is behind this scam. It's a theft and this is criminal, they are committing financial crimes. Nobody takes responsibility for this.
Reviewed March 8, 2022
This is our honest review. We are not affiliated with the owner or VRBO. We were not expecting anything additional other than what was advertised and posted on pictures. Parking: Very narrow but reserved and well lit. Exterior: Walking up the steps to the unit, it obviously needed to be swept due to debris but this was not that much of a big deal to us. Check In: Easy with code provided in timely manner. Interior: Modern with all appliances listed however, now we must discuss the negatives. The floor had debris (dust particles and hair everywhere). It was obvious that it had not been swept. The sink contained a used sponge and a sink drain with debris inside of it. Sink had residue in it. Stove had residue on it. Counter had residue on it. Water dispenser at refrigerator had residue on it.
White couch needed to be at least wiped down and had long brown hair strands attached to it which was found throughout the unit. Side table against the wall had residue. Basically, everything had residue on it including the comforters on bed. There was also a leftover loofah in the window of the bathroom. There were we assume snacks in the cabinets but they were opened. The unit was NOT cleaned prior to our arrival. We immediately began to record because we knew that proof would be needed. We contacted the owner and VRBO for a refund. VRBO was unable to process a refund without owner permission. They kept attempting to get in contact with owner but could not. Their only resolution was for us to pay for another unit without guarantee of a refund on the current one.
The owner did respond that night asking for pictures and stating his disbelief that the place was not cleaned since he hired "professional cleaners" and believed them over us. The only part that he was willing to accept was that they may have left a dirty sponge. Again a refund was requested but he said that our claims were "unfounded". We slept in all our clothes, on beach towels on top of linen that night since we were so tired from flight and had two children with us that needed their rest as well.
That morning we decided to make the best out of a horrible experience. We took our bags with us during the day just in case a cleaner came- no one ever did. We stopped by Walmart and bought some cleaning supplies and I cleaned and disinfected as best as I could. We washed the sheets that were previously on the bed and some towels. The whole point of us staying at Airbnbs is to be able to relax, maybe utilize the appliances to cook our own meals. There was a Publix next door but there was no way that we were cooking/eating anything in this place.
We highly advise anyone reading this review to not stay at the airbnb at 9220 Biscayne Blvd Miami Shores, FL 33138 with owner Gerard. There are not many reviews for this property but we should have listened to the review about the hair in the bed and the dingy sheets. Gerard, maybe you should not trust your professional cleaning crew so much because they absolutely do not clean as you want to believe. It does not appear that they come very often since the closet leading to the ac unit with also has dust all over it and could easily be cleaned with light dusting. Also Gerard offered us $75 as a solution. This is probably what he pays his "professional cleaning crew" which could be why they did not even do the minimum. Pictures included.
Reviewed March 7, 2022
On a recent trip to Molokai we were provided with a wrong unit number with our rental key. We contacted Vrbo but they said they would be unable to help until the next day. As it was late I had no choice but to sleep in my car. Sleeping in my car aggravated my bad back which ended up ruining my vacation. During our stay the unit owner allowed an 'inspector' access to our unit while we were not there. After this 'inspection' I noticed 500$ missing from one of my bags. The overall condition of the unit was substandard and it had not been properly cleaned in years. Dead and live Bugs everywhere, dirty and smelly, most of the lighting and appliances didn't work.
Vrbo is in my opinion a criminal outfit.
Reviewed March 7, 2022
We booked a reservation and decided to cancel within a day. Their customer service said that this property came from another site, which I don't understand since it was on the VRBO site and there was no reference to any other site. I read the cancellation policy carefully and it did not say that the property was being booked from a different platform and that I would need owner approval for a cancellation I had every right to make according to VRBO. The cancellation policy gave us months to cancel with a 100% refund. That's what the cancellation policy said and that's what should have happened.
Instead, I can't cancel unless the owner approves it and I'm still waiting for that approval. Unbelievable. Clearly the cancellation policy that VRBO states on the property page was a lie. It's never been so difficult to cancel. With so many other great platforms, I'm done with VRBO. I should have looked at reviews before working with VRBO because on Yelp and Sitejabber, VRBO only has one star out of five. You can't get any worse than that so they're clearing doing a lot wrong. With so many other great platforms out there that my wife and I can use instead of VRBO, we won't be using VRBO again.
Reviewed March 4, 2022
I cancelled a trip to be made in June 2022 on Feb 18, 2022. I should have received a refund, at the most, within 5 days. It has been 2 weeks and no refund. VRBO does not do anything but make inquiries. They believe the renter, not the traveller and they expect the traveller to handle the problem. I've had to contact the property owner several times and now he's unresponsive. I have reported this to my credit card company, which assures me I will not have to pay this charge. I have had to spend way too much time on this. Be aware, you're on your own with VRBO. Only using AirBNB from now on.
Reviewed March 3, 2022
We arrived in Maui at 11 pm excited for our stay in a VRBO condo. I had received an email entitled "Keys for your stay" and assumed we were good to go with the information for entry to the property. Through either the owner's or VRBO's error, there was no document attached. We messaged the owner for an hour to no avail before reaching out to VRBO support. After being placed on hold several times and having our call dropped, we were sent an email telling us to book another property on Expedia or VRBO. By this time it was after midnight and there were no properties available.
We called back and were placed on hold again and then dropped. After this we received an email telling us to "self lodge." What does this even mean? After calling 20 hotels we found a room at the Courtyard for $700 and have been told we will not be receiving a refund. Unbelievable! This was my first and last time using VRBO!
Reviewed Feb. 25, 2022
VRBO (part of Expedia) is by far the worst holiday agent I've ever seen. They compensate nothing after a last minute annulation by the house owner. And thereafter their customer contact center hang up the phone consistently when the question gets difficult. My advice never ever book your accommodation at VRBO or Expedia. Thieves may not the right word, but unreliable surely is.
Reviewed Feb. 25, 2022
VRBO is not paying out. They owe me over $10k. They keep saying that I haven't filed a W9 tax form but I have done it twice now. I have called them multiple times and I even cancelled my future bookings. This app is the worst when using a management company. The listing has to be under one account, just save yourself the headache and use Airbnb.
Reviewed Feb. 22, 2022
Do NOT every use VRBO! If you get sick (covid) they still charge you. Their cancellation policy is the worst. They have poor customer service and do not follow up on emails or voice mails in a timely manner.
Reviewed Feb. 22, 2022
Booked twice using VRBO and the experience was bad both times! I would give ZERO stars if I could! VRBO does not have any set guidelines for the property owners. The owners can operate however they want. Once our booking was cancelled by the owner last minute saying they cannot accommodate for the weekend and gave us a partial refund even though it was cancelled on their end. Spoke to the VRBO customer service and was told they will contact the owner for a full refund. Nothing happened for days, until we followed up again and again!! In fact, we should have been compensated for the last minute cancellation as we could not find any other cottage for that weekend. Other time we were charged $500 for a broken bed "8 days after" we left the cottage. Clearly, the bed was broken by either the owner him/herself or any other guest. Got absolutely zero help from VRBO! In short, booking for any property on this website is only a hassle and horrible experience.
Reviewed Feb. 22, 2022
The house was flooded with sewer and did not get any help or refund from VRBO or VACASA. This companies are a scam. They have no personal service whatsoever. Did not even provided us with any type of refund.
Reviewed Feb. 18, 2022
This review is for the Summit County Mountain Retreats 'Chateaux DuMont' property at 1203 West Keystone Road in Keystone, CO (80435). This property was reserved on Vrbo for one night in Feb., 2022. If I could leave a 0-star review I would -- continue reading to see why. I stayed at one of the Chateaux DuMont condos as part of a group of 6. We booked for just one night as part of our group getaway to the mountains, and booked this unit specifically for the indoor hot tub. These condos are pretty pricey, so without the hot tub, we would definitely have opted for somewhere more affordable. When we arrived the afternoon of our check-in, we walked in and immediately saw the unit's hot tub in bad condition. The hot tub was gutted open on two sides (insulation dangling out) and clearly inoperable. We had been in contact with the property manager all day to coordinate early check-in, so we immediately called to ask about the hot tub.
Not only was the company extremely rude to us, but they said that the hot tub had just broken that morning and they hadn't had time to communicate with us or fix it. No time to communicate, despite having texted all day about the early check-in. At one point, the manager even mentioned "I just returned from a personal vacation" as an excuse to not be able to report the broken hot tub. Furthermore, the rest of the condo was actually quite nice, so we hoped to enjoy our stay and not get too upset about the hot tub. We immediately stopped by the property manager's office to discuss potentially getting a partial refund equal to the value the hot tub brings to the condo.
Unfortunately, Summit County Mountain Retreats was unwilling to take responsibility for the situation or provide any adequate compensation. They not only insulted us, but pointed to the rental agreement as a means to hide behind their horrible customer service and their inability to act as decent humans instead of blindly following an arbitrary company policy.
Their proposed solution? A $50 (total) refund for an over $750 total bill (less than 7% refund), refusal to find us a different unit with similar amenities, and directing us to a nearby lodge to use their pool and hot tub, at an additional cost of $50 or more to each of us. They came with the "we usually don't do refunds, but here's what we can do" approach. They also threatened us by saying that we would not receive any refund if we left a negative review online. We of course did not accept the measly $50.
Were I a competent management company, I'd admit that the situation was unfortunate, comp. the group $400 or more for the broken hot tub and lack of professional communication, and move on with it. But no, we even had a phone call between the property manager, us, and Vrbo (the third-party booking site) during which Summit County Mountain Retreats staff could be heard laughing and even ended up hanging up on us. Vrbo agreed that the property manager's behavior and solution was not adequate, even going as far to say that they'd be removed from the site, but then Vrbo proceeded to do nothing.
After multiple attempts at contacting Vrbo Customer Service and hours spent on hold on the phone and talking to customer service reps. that provided no solution, I'm extremely frustrated and disappointed. Despite stating themselves that the Property Management Company was disrespectful and had mistreated us, Vrbo would not take responsibility for hosting their units on Vrbo.com and also refused to offer any refund or solution. This stay for one night was over $800 including over $100 of Vrbo service fees and an $125 hot tub fee for a hot tub that was never used; Vrbo refused to even refund those amounts.
At one point, the rep. (Sherry) promised that a supervisor would call me back later to discuss the situation. Never received a call. At this point, I'm convinced that Vrbo is nothing more than a scam because they promise to help their customers, but when push comes to shove, they put in zero effort to remedy bad situations or hold the property listing management companies accountable. If anything goes wrong, Vrbo will promise "to work diligently to fix the issue" on paper and then send you through an endless loop of phone calls and new case numbers, to the extent that your issues will actually feel worse.
Reviewed Feb. 18, 2022
On hold for 3 and a half hours AND told can't offer a refund on the fact that their website being screwed up was not my problem. There was no way for the property owner to contact us back and give entry info.
Reviewed Feb. 17, 2022
Since being acquired by Expedia service is non-existent for property owners. Hours on hold for customer support, non-functioning site, errors resulting in no ability to confirm booking requests yet resulting in inferior rating by VRBO for lead response times. Ridiculous hold times - who has 2 hours to wait for a rep to respond w/out authority to address any issues?
Reviewed Feb. 17, 2022
I booked a vacation property on a property for the Christmas week in Costa Rica. Two days before our check in, the owner cancelled my booking on basis that the property was damaged from previous renters. Actually, he reposted the property on VRBO for a higher price. VRBO did nothing about this. Despite their "booking guarantee" which is suppose to apply if the cancellation occurs 30 days from start day (they would assist in finding an alternative location). They did offered us some alternative in a complete different area (400 Miles away). We had to find ourselves an ok alternative, VRBO promised us that they will fully refund us for it but they gave us only $128 on the $1711 that we spent. Avoid VRBO. They should apply their guarantee as listed.
Reviewed Feb. 16, 2022
Be aware. I planned a trip and bought the travel insurance offered. I was not able to go on the trip and cancelled immediately. The travel insurance company makes it so restrictive that getting a refund is very constrictive. Other companies, Expedia, etc. have great refund policies. Do not book with Vrbo.
Reviewed Feb. 16, 2022
We rented a condo in Hawaii and paid in full on our credit card. The host mysteriously stopped all communication 1 hour before check in. We were never sent check in info and could not access the property. VRBO had a 40 min hold time. They informed us it was up to the host to issue a refund regardless of the circumstances and the only thing they could do was send an email. This is a total scam!
Reviewed Feb. 15, 2022
I have been a premier host with VRBO since 2007. I never thought I would say that their service has become so poor that I would remove my listings to Airbnb! They make no attempt to help solve their mistakes, lie to get you off the phone and then do not fix their site errors, or refuse to help and place you on hold for ridiculous amounts of time, never coming back. If you ask to have a supervisor call, they flat out tell you that you probably will not receive a call from anyone! Do not use this rental site!
Reviewed Feb. 14, 2022
I cannot emphasize this enough. Their customer service is absolutely terrible and do less than the bare minimum to help you with issues that arrive with your host. I booked a one week trip to Tampa Florida for a festival and some other events and the place that I was staying at had roaches, terrible to not wi-fi and while my girlfriend was showers sewage started coming up out of the drain and then the toilet.
I tried contacting the host, busy. There was no phone number listed anywhere. All I could do was use the initial payment email and VRBo chat service. The host was unresponsive to both me and the representatives that I spoke with at VRBO. My girlfriend and I could not shower or use the bathroom in our VRBO for two and a half days. I broke out in hives from the stress and girlfriend had her own skin problems.
I called in over 25 times to try to get some type of help or just to get us moved. It wasn’t until halfway through our trip and after 25+ calls totaling over 10+ hours, multiple ignored attempted call drops with no call backs and unhelpful people that VRBO paid for a 1 NIGHT stay at a cheap hotel 15 minutes away from the place that we booked specifically for its location. I then had to fight for them to pay for two more days. I ended up having to pay for one out of pocket. 2 weeks after the trip I am still fighting for a refund. I cannot say this enough - their confidence guarantee is an absolute scam. We were literally sleeping in filth without being able to clean ourselves and VRBO only cared about the host and retaining their money.
Reviewed Feb. 14, 2022
I booked a place in Puerto Vallarta on January 1, 2022 for a group of 12 to celebrate a 55th birthday. Tonight, February 13, 2022, they canceled without explanation. I called and was put on hold, then hung up on.
Reviewed Feb. 11, 2022
I can't even express how horrible our vacation was because of our host and VRBO didn't care. We rented a 9 bed/9 bath house for our family to vacation in the Dominican Republic and we did not get what was listed. There were only 7 beds and 6 baths which we could have made work but there were no beds in 2 of the rooms. She stayed in a hidden room in the back of the house and would not leave the property. There was no hot water in the house and the AC worked in only 3 rooms. She recorded us without our knowledge and would discuss our private conversations with us the next morning. (We were confused at first wondering how she knew what we talked about. At first we brushed it off as if we were reading into it.)
She asked our hired chef to pay the electric bill because it was going to be shut off. ALL the bathrooms had broken showerheads and we won't even discuss the filth in there. I paid VRBO the full amount that she wanted for the chef, maid, food, car rental, and the 14 day rental cost. The car ended up being her personal car that only seated 5 and her response was, "We can fit up to 14 people in here". It seated 5 people.
We filled the car up with gas to make it work for the first 4 days because that was the soonest we could get the rental van that held 14 people. As soon as we filled the tank, which was $80, she took the car to go to the grocery store and was gone for 7 hours. Every morning we would get up to eat breakfast and get ready to leave, she would grab the keys and leave for a couple hours and we couldn't go anywhere by the time she got back. I paid $1200 for food and was asked for food money on day 5 to feed my family. I was told that she didn't know what we were going to eat because her credit card was maxed out.
On day 9 we were fed dry toast and eggs because the chef was digging through the fridge to find what she could for scraps to feed us. I went to the store and spent another few hundred dollars for food to get us through the trip and our host was upset that the chef talked to me about there being no food for her to prep. At that point, the host treated our chef and maid very poorly and refused to pay them the fee she charged us for their service. Told them that if they ate while they were there, it needed to be reduced from their bill. That was my food and I offered it to them.
On day 8 our chef came to us and asked for at least a deposit for her services because our host told her that we were paying her when we arrived. I had to break out the communication between the host and myself to show her that I paid the fee for the chef, maid, food, and everything else. Once we were carrying this conversation and I was explaining I paid for these fees through VRBO, our host came in 20 minutes later and caused a full scene because it was not in our place to be holding this conversation, these were her employees. Well, her employees came to me with messages between the two of them saying I was going to pay when I arrived and I had messages saying their fee was added to my bill.
This is where she told us that she had recordings of us saying awful things about her and even let us listen to it. There was so much more during this 14 day stay like leaving the property and coming back to padlocks on the doors so we couldn't access our room until she returned to unlock them (thankfully it was never long). And then said she did it to keep our hired staff out because she did not trust them. Not sure why they were there if you couldn't trust them, but I can tell you, they were both great people. She also told us that our chef was going to stab her when she walked out the gate (we rented a villa so we had the whole area) but never once asked her to leave the premises. Just kept telling her that she had a 14 day contract and was not going to be paid unless she filled that contract.
We have been gone for a couple days now and the staff has still not been paid, VRBO will not call me back, and sadly I am out the $750 she asked to borrow for the hot water tanks and fixing the air conditioners until she could run to the bank in the morning because they would not accept credit cards. I am contacting a lawyer in the morning to rectify this situation.
Long story short, they don't do background checks, vet the property owners before listing (oh almost forgot, she didn't own the property, was renting, and rented out the units that couldn't be rented because they were not finished), and doesn't care once you pay the bill. Please don't fall victim to VRBO. I will not say it is all bad, you do have people out there that does care and provide you with what they promise but for the ones that don't, and by the looks of multiple reviews there are many that don't, VRBO doesn't care and will do nothing for you. You are just out of your money and left with a very expensive sad experience.
Reviewed Feb. 10, 2022
We booked a ski holiday solely due to the 100% money back guarantee if cancelled before a certain date (we cancelled a few days before). They are refusing to refund us. Will need to go to Small claims court.
Reviewed Feb. 10, 2022
I will never ever use this agency again. Worst agency to work with. Their employees do not know their policies. They misrepresent facts however it fits their situation. Zero professionalism and communication.
Reviewed Feb. 9, 2022
I will NEVER go through VRBO again unless my issue has FULLY been resolved. VRBO isn’t screening their “HOSTS” at all to see if these HOSTS are in fact owners of their homes and NOT renters of an apartment complex! I should have known from the beginning when the so called HOST put the wrong address on her ad so that her apartment complex wouldn’t find out that she was going AGAINST her lease and subletting her SUBSIDIZED unit out! I should have known when the HOST asked me NOT to speak with anyone around the complex and especially her neighbor. Finally, the home was GROSS when I checked in on a Tuesday and the so called “OWNER” said that the cleaning lady would come that Saturday but did she? NO! The owner texted me saying the cleaning lady canceled. Coincidence? NO!
VRBO has put me in a VERY uncomfortable situation and I am fighting for a resolution. I feel trapped that I can’t even talk to anyone, I feel gross because I can’t even shower in the gross shower and I feel used! I have contacted VRBO but they keep saying that there is NO supervisor to speak with and that they will call me but NO ONE HAS CALLED ME. I have been hung up on twice! No one at VRBO is taking this seriously when in reality it is THEIR mistake for not screening these HOSTS! To top it all off, when I spoke to the property manager of this apartment community and she verified this was COMPLETELY against their rules, the property manager confirmed this said OWNER is on a LOW INCOME BASED PROGRAM and pays very little per month!
Reviewed Feb. 8, 2022
I have used Vrbo for many vacations before and they've lost all credibility with this past experience. If there’s an option for 0 stars, I would give it. I really prefer to give -1 star. This never happened with my AirBNB experience. I booked a suite at the Wyndham via Vrbo for a ladies' trip to Austin. Unfortunately, the entire state of Texas declared an “emergency” and shut down nearly all cities due to an unforeseen ice storm that started Wednesday night, 2/2/22.
We had no choice but to reschedule (not even asking for a refund yet). Trust me when I say that we did not intend to change our vacation; it was going to be our first ladies' trip after years of planning. All of us were gutted but the road condition was unsafe. I contacted the host much in advance; however, after not receiving any response for days (there wasn't even a contact number for host), I called Vrbo customer service and was informed that they could not change the reservation, instructed me to contact the owner, and provided me with a phone number listed on their file.
When I called Wyndham, "Leah" with Club Wyndham guest services stated that the booking was through Extra Holiday and she was not able to modify it and that I need to call Extra Holiday. Once again, "Shantel" at Extra Holiday very rudely said that she could not see anything on her end. I asked for her supervisor, and she refused to transfer me. I called Leah at the Club Wyndham back, who then connected me with "Samantha" at Extra Holiday. Finally, "Samantha" pulled up the reservation and said that the booking was through EXPEDIA??!! Even though I was speechless, I called Expedia. At this point, I was not surprised to be told that this matter had to go back to Vrbo. I politely asked to have a 3-way call but was placed on hold for over an hour without anyone coming online.
Hopelessly, I still contacted the host via Vrbo app multiple times daily. No response and no resolution. We finally decided to forfeit and stop wasting our precious time. This listing seemed very much like a scam at this point. Vrbo offered no help in facilitating a resolution. Vrbo only cares for its bottom line. I would never use Vrbo or ever consider Wyndham - no accountability, no customer service, and all they do is tell you, "not my problem, call somebody else".
Reviewed Feb. 8, 2022
Rental was paid in full for Bahamas. The government suddenly changed Covid testing requirements from 48 hr to 72 hr test before visa application. We were in the 72 hr window and could not comply, we were not issued visas, and were locked out of the country. VRBO said tough **. You lose your vacation rental, and there is no refund. Not even partial. So, through no fault of our own, the vacation was terminated, and VRBO kept ALL our money. Do not even remotely consider renting from this toxic organization!!!
Reviewed Feb. 8, 2022
I booked vacation property on January 30, 2022 through VRBO in Miramar Beach Florida for March 1, 2022. Seven days later, the owner cancelled my booking (advised intends to refund) on basis that property was undergoing renovations. Yet, he simply reposted the property on VRBO for a higher price. VRBO will do nothing about this, such as delisting this property owner. Furthermore, despite their "booking guarantee" which is suppose to apply if the cancellation occurs 30 days from start day (they would assist in finding an alternative location), VRBO customer service rep indicated that because I was getting a refund, they would do nothing for me. Avoid VRBO at all costs. Shame on Expedia.
Reviewed Feb. 6, 2022
We have booked through VRBO twice and neither was a good experience, but the recent one at an apartment in Paris was the worst!! The apartment was barely adequate with a television that didn't work and in an extremely noisy neighborhood, but I would not have bothered to complain about that. But two weeks after we were there, I got a message on Vrbo from the host that she had charged me 200 Euros for damaging some blinds in the apartment. It was a totally bogus claim, and I should have gotten my credit card company involved, but I assumed that I would get help from Vrbo.
Repeated attempts to get some resolution never got any kind of response from Vrbo!! They get a 1 only because it's not possible to give a zero which is what they deserve. We will never go through Vrbo again. By contrast, we have had only positive experiences with AirBNB with 4 stays in the US and abroad. So be aware that you are totally without any help if things go wrong at a Vrbo property!
Reviewed Feb. 6, 2022
I have used VRBO many times and been happy. Now I rented a cabin for the weekend through them and have always assumed renting through them is safe. I was informed by the property owner the day we were supposed to show up that the electric was out at the house and we would not be able to go. We were bummed but never expected that we would not only miss our vacation but be out the money even though it was not our fault we couldn't go. Vrbo told us they suggest the owner refunds the money but they don't mediate the situation. I never thought this would be a problem and hope no one else get caught in this situation assuming booking with vrbo is safe.
Reviewed Feb. 5, 2022
VRBO is the worst company/customer service I have ever interacted with. VRBO has zero sense of responsibility or accountability for its properties, so if someone places a misleading or fraudulent property listing, VRBO leaves you in the dark trying to get your money back from the person who scammed you. They were hard to get a hold of, evasive, poor communicators, and when you finally pin them down on it, worthless as a company and lacking in any kind of integrity. Whenever I give recommendations on a vacation or vacation stay, I always make sure to say "Make sure not to use VRBO", because using them for anything can only be described as one thing, a mistake.
Reviewed Feb. 4, 2022
BUYER BEWARE. I have used VRBO for years. I actually use to recommend them to friends and family. Always had a good experience until recently as owners (and their accomplices at VRBO) take advantage of unsuspecting customers. They are greedy and taking advantage of the pandemic for profit. I booked a year in advance only to have my booking cancelled 40 days out from the booking dates. This of course is just outside the Book with Confidence Guarantee which apparently is only 30 days. How am I supposed to know that this can happen???? Where is the warning? What ever happened to offer and acceptance. Simply contract law. I am travelling with 2 other families and the prices have increased for the same accommodation 400%. Of course VRBO's fees go up too because they are % based.
I am on about my 20th case number as VRBO's customer service is specifically designed NOT to support is customers, but instead exhaust them into submission. Hours of emails, phone calls, made up titles, FALSE perception of Escalation. It feels like collusion. It feels like extortion. It feels like price gouging. It feels like exceedingly poor business practice. I will NEVER again book through VRBO. Do yourself a favour and follow my lead.
Reviewed Jan. 31, 2022
Contracted for a home that then became unavailable the day of arrival. Was given a home last minute that was filthy and had human feces in the toilet. Stayed in the house all of 20 minutes contacted property owner that the property was unacceptable and filthy I asked for refund. Owner called me liar. Refused to refund money. Lodged a complaint with VRBO who told me that they contacted the owner who refused to refund money. I will never use them again.
You need to understand that you don’t know what the property looks like or condition. You trust the photos. Or you may end up in another property last minute. You pay in advance with no real recourse if you are given a unacceptable property. Only the owner can give you the money back. I lost $1400 and incurred another $1500 to find another hotel for my family. Please make sure you understand what the property is and that you have no support from VRBO for a inferior product before using them. I will stay in nice hotels from now on.
Reviewed Jan. 30, 2022
We had a bad experience when staying at a VRBO property. When I left a review it violated content guidelines and I tried to resubmit but was unable to. I was misled by VRBO's customer service team and told I would get a fresh link to resubmit my review and was then called and told I was not going to be able to leave any review at all. Crooked VRBO is biased towards negative reviews. This would make their bookings of that property go down so they throw up roadblocks so my true experience cannot be shared with others. SO WRONG! I even reached out to the CEO's office and Annie reached back out to me based on that and delivered the bad news that I was misled by VRBO's customer service team and they will be coached on that. I'm totally censored now and it's just not right.
All I want to say is Cold Showers and leave one star on my review. So wrong that I can't even do that. Now, other travellers see this host has 17 reviews that are great--16 have 5 stars and one has 4 stars. Our experience is not reflected now and it's not an accurate reflection of the experience we have had with this host. I would love for VRBO to be pressured to do the right thing and let me leave a review. Otherwise they are an unethical company with unfair policies and inaccurate reviews.
Reviewed Jan. 28, 2022
After making a booking on VRBO with what turned out to be a scam and reporting this to them along with the police and banks VRBO have shown no interest and have not even taken any action on the listing. Their customer service have ignored the issue, hung up on online chat when it is mentioned and lied about contacting me in response to a review on a different site. Caveat emptor on this site, people. The listing is still open to book and the fraudulent "owner" is still a VRBO member, presumably VRBO also make no checks on actual ownership of properties posted to their website, shocking lack of due diligence.
Reviewed Jan. 27, 2022
All of the reservation dates and details were provided correctly to VRBO, and the reservation was "accepted", and the payment of $1400 made. The money was taken, but the Host immediately sent a message that the accommodation was not available for those dates, and they would not, and could not, honour the reservation.
The Host claimed they were unable to provide a refund. VRBO provided a Case Number, and assured that there would be a refund. As the weeks went by, VRBO gave one excuse after another, frequently going back to one provided previously. The message repeated for seven (7) straight days was "We'll try and contact the Host again. They have twenty four (24) hours to respond. At that point, a complete refund will be provided. 168 hours later, there has been no progress and no refund.
Reviewed Jan. 25, 2022
BEWARE…Casago Snowshoe is NOT assisting customers when travel plans are negatively impacted by COVID. We booked a 3BR condo through VBRO (and Casago) for a ski weekend at Snowshoe. Shortly before our arrival, it became apparent that the latest COVID variant was highly prevalent in the Snowshoe area and a serious health risk to those at the ski resort. We were concerned and called the local Casago office to understand our options. The person answering the phone told us the office was in chaos due to the number of renters calling with COVID related concerns.
While this was going on, we tried to purchase lift tickets to ski at Snowshoe and discovered lift tickets were sold-out for the weekend. [We were told by Snowshoe representatives that lift tickets were available if we rented directly from Snowshoe but NOT available to VBRO / Casago customers.] In addition, we had booked dinner reservations in advance at a restaurant in Snowshoe village. The restaurant later called and cancelled the reservation as it was temporarily closing down due to COVID. Given COVID concerns and no Snowshoe lift ticket availability, we tried to work with the Casago office for a refund or to reschedule our trip. They would not provide either option. I give Casago Snowshoe / VBRO a very poor rating for how we were treated and STRONGLY encourage you to use other options when booking a property and Snowshoe.
Reviewed Jan. 24, 2022
Less than a week before our family trip to Mexico, my original reservation was cancelled due to flooding in the apartment. I tried not to panic and booked a new place. There were no reviews, which would usually be a deal breaker, but there few options so I took the risk. I booked, was charged, received the Vrbo confirmation and expected to hear from the host soon. Two days before we left we still had no contact. I called the host's number in Mexico, needed to have a Spanish speaking family member listen to the message to find the voice mailbox was full. I contacted customer service the day of our departure and was told I needed to arrive at the property, see there was no one there to meet us and then call customer service. I said it will be late and dark when we arrive there due to our flight, but that was disregarded.
Upon arrival, we attempted to find the apartment, which was just a neighborhood location, not a specific apartment building, and saw no one milling about waiting for us (clearly). I was on the phone for the next three hours with customer service and eventually they booked us at a hotel. The next morning, I was on the phone with customer service for three additional hours, was eventually emailed a choice of three locations that I needed to email back our choice and a was told a rep would contact the host and get our reservation lined up. I replied quickly to the email and didn't receive an email response for two days! Countless additional hours were spent calling the customer service number and regardless that our case had been escalated to a different department, each rep needed to start each call from square one, sometimes even saying they needed to try to contact the host again!!
I was disconnected when they attempted to transfer me to another department on four different occasions and then needed to start the whole insane process over. It was beyond frustrating. Eventually they paid for two more nights in different hotels, our reservation was refunded and they said to find our own place to stay, never responding to the original email offering to help to secure a place. They repeated time and again that there is no direct phone line to additional support for people that had case numbers. This occurred over Christmas, but I was assured several times that my case was "expedited" and would be taken care of immediately. A couple of weeks later, I received an email requesting a review and I happily was able to post a warning to others since the apartment is still listed, now along with 1 review- mine. We are never, ever using Vrbo again.
Reviewed Jan. 24, 2022
VRBO bad customer service and fraudulent fees to both host & guest. VRBO CUSTOMER SERVICE IS VERY WEAK, WITH reps that peak up the phone. They do not give their names...from 10 calls you, 9 customer service have heavy accents and not understanding English at all, from 1-3 who understands, most of them do not know the solutions or answer to the question. They refuse to ask for a supervisor to call you. They refuse transferring to a supervisor.... They tell you, "Hang up and call back again!!!!"
Bottomline to get an answer to a simple question, must plan 3-4 hours of phone call and repeat the call, each time numerous minutes to verify and you explain the story over half hr., they put you on long hold, only to come back and give you a irrelevant nonsense answer, or saying they do not know!!! VRBO charges hosts even for extra damages the guest pays, therfore host has to pay out of their own pocket part of the damage repair costs!! VRBO is increasing rip off charges out of reservation charges, charges a large portion from hosts and also charges the guests.... It is getting hard to work with VRBO anymore. VRBO getting more and more inferior in service.... Not a good travel interface.
Reviewed Jan. 21, 2022
A property owner cancelled my reservation because we needed more time to pay as someone in the party was in the icu on a ventilator with expectations to recover but the group was going to cover their portion we just needed a bit more time. The reservation would have been paid in full within 30 days of arrival. We were over 60 days from the trip. All correspondence between owner and myself was on the VRBO platform. I asked owner to please refund the deposit and she could keep any vrbo fees, she declined. I then reported her to customer service where they have a guarantee of all reservations and those reservations are eligible for a full refund if the owner cancels and there is no natural disaster or house destruction by traveler.
The trip did not occur as it was cancelled in January and the trip was in March. VRBO did not honor their policy and did not refund me my deposit. I had to refute the charge with my bank to receive my money back. Do not use this platform as they are fraudulent pro host only and have unethical business practices. I will stick with Booking.com, Airbnb and other high end sites. VRBO is criminal in how they subjectively do not abide by their travelers refund guarantee.
Reviewed Jan. 20, 2022
Generali Global Assistance & Insurance Services sold "Travel Cancellation" insurance on the VRBO rental accommodations web platform. I purchased the insurance to cover a rental property stay for a group of youth baseball players attending the Cooperstown (Baseball Hall of Fame) tournament in New York. The reservation and insurance purchase was made in December 2019. The trip was to take place on August 7, 2020 to August 14, 2020. Later, as a result of Covid19 the state of New York imposed restrictions that resulted in the cancellation of the event including travel restrictions to New York state.
Generali Global Assistance & Insurance Services denied my claim for returned deposit on the basis of criteria they developed after Covid19 became an issue. Note that the policy was purchased before Covid19. Generali Global Assistance & Insurance Services was deceptive in their advertising presented on the VRBO website. They led the purchaser to believe that the advertised "Trip Cancellation" insurance was in fact just that, a policy to compensate in the event of an unforeseen and unavoidable cancellation.
Reviewed Jan. 13, 2022
Events that occurred: 1) Landlord complained about our utility / hydro usage & we were g gone for 2 weeks of 8 week stay. 2) Cleaners never showed for the cleaning I was REQUIRED to schedule. 3) I was NEVER able to reach the hostess with questions, EVER! The rental office was not able to reach her either. Unacceptable. 4) The furniture broke only to find out via the repairman that it was held together with white duct tape. 5) The dishwasher is destroyed. 6) I could not find the remote for the TV. Turns out it was folded up in the sofa couch. Concerned that the bed had not been cleaned at all.
7) No front door key on original key ring provided. I rummaged through some loose keys to finally find it. AFTER I gave low customer sat. rating, the company turned around and gave me a poor customer rating. When asked why, they said it was because the shower curtain was dirty. Who washes the shower curtain after renting with VRBO. I have email communication to back up everything I have provided above.
Reviewed Jan. 12, 2022
I made a booking with this company for a 2 week stay in Mexico. 2 days prior to my trip the host canceled. I figured I "Booked with confidence" so it would be fine. Spent the next 3 hours on hold with customer service. They told me the guarantee did not apply. Apparently there is fine print that is not listed online. So I booked and they did nothing except find me places to stay that were double and triple the price I had previously. They are not based in the USA and do not have to worry about holding up the claims that are made. Please remember that you are not "Booking with confidence."
Reviewed Jan. 11, 2022
I reserved three separate vacation rentals on a recent trip to Mexico and each owner emailed later to say their unit was not available. They questioned how I was able to book as each unit had been reserved months earlier. VRBO is a useless platform with inaccurate availability. After such a disappointing experience I am now receiving emails from VRBO to submit reviews for units I did not stay in. While I am new to both platforms, Airbnb was far more accurate and reliable.
Reviewed Jan. 10, 2022
Worst Company ever. I booked a vacation home through this and Owner denied the availability later. There was glitch in their system. Owner refunded his part but VRBO never refunded my money. They still owe me 300$. After several calls to their customer service, they didn't do anything and making excuses. I am not sure who to contact for my money. This is what they are sending me every time.
"Dear Shruti, Thank you for contacting Vrbo.com Customer Support. We apologize that you haven't receive your refund. Have you contact your bank to check ? You can call us so we can escalate this . Please prepare a screenshot of your bank statement. Visit help.vrbo.com for answers to frequently asked questions. Best regards, Naomi Vrbo.com Customer Support"
Reviewed Jan. 9, 2022
I made a request for a property and VRBO charged my card with their fees at once. The property cancelled my request the next day (although I had send them my card details to charge the amount of the booking), but VRBO denied to refund the fees. After checking again, the villa does not exists anymore at VRBO, and although I contact with them, they do nothing but giving me the owner's details to contact. An owner that does NOT exists!!! Why they charged me "service fees" if they provide NO service? I made the reservation request (NOT booking, REQUEST) through them and they were responsible to validate the property's existence and to contact the host. NOT me! If it was like that, I culd book through the villas' website which would be cheaper. Be aware. VRBO is not trustworthy!!!!
Reviewed Jan. 8, 2022
I cancelled a booking due to COVID and was entitled to a 50% refund. While I did receive a refund on the rent, they refuse to refund me on the lodging taxes that I paid. I've talked to multiple reps and have been lied to multiple times. They are refusing to refund me the lodging taxes that I am owed. This company is awful.
Reviewed Jan. 7, 2022
We booked a week's vacation thru Vrbo in the Savannah historical district. The loft was very nice at first glance. By nightfall, however, there was a severe roach infestation. We stayed up all night killing bugs and got no sleep...bugs coming from under the kitchen cabinets, crawling across bedroom floor, as well as crawling up the walls into the loft area. We never even turned down the beds. We contacted the owner at 1:15am and informed him of the bugs, he stated that bugs are all a part of "life in Savannah". We told him we would not be staying at his loft and would be leaving in the morning, as we were in a strange city did not want to be looking for a room in the middle of the night.
We loaded up the van to protect our belongings from the bugs, and left the next morning by 10am. We had to find another place to stay, pay again, and unload...again. This residence should have not been rented to anyone, it was literally uninhabitable. I had have to fight for my refund, still fighting...since July...to get the remaining $400. I have called Vrbo numerous times and they said the $400 would have to come from the owner. I was told by my bank the $400 was a result of the "strict Vrbo cancellation policy." Same song and dance, and runaround...and I am still out my $400. BEWARE!!! This could happen to you! DO NOT BOOK THROUGH THIS WEBSITE!!!
Reviewed Jan. 5, 2022
This Vrbo's stated policy: "Your refund is issued based on the property's cancellation policy. If you cancel your reservation and are within the window to receive a 100% refund, the service fee will be refunded to you automatically when the cancellation is confirmed. Refunds take up to 5 days to appear in your account." As I discovered, this is only true of the property manager is "integrated" (i.e., is on their software platform). I discovered this when I tried to rent a property, only to discover after giving them all my info, that it wasn't actually available (owner must have listed it improperly).
When I looked at my credit card transactions, I saw a $530 service fee that I figured would be refunded automatically. Two weeks later, it hadn't been. So I called. But what if I hadn't noticed the charge? Or what if I never went back to verify the refund? In fact, I didn't cancel the reservation, they did, within 24 hours! From my standpoint, nothing should have been charged if the property wasn't available.
No apology. No "our bad." Just a nonchalant "ok, we'll return your $530." If Vrbo's policy is to "automatically refund" and then they only do it under certain conditions that a renter would have no way of knowing (integrated property manager?), that sounds like either outright fraud or extreme customer indifference when Vrbo sees it can make a buck on customers who aren't paying close attention.
Reviewed Jan. 4, 2022
I am a homeowner who had a guest from 12/25-1/1/2022. VRBO received full payment on 10/2/21 and I have called twice to find out why payment has not been received. I am now sitting on hold for the 3rd time (they answer after 15 minute wait period then hang up). One of the agents I spoke with said he would expedite the case as it should have been paid but there was a hold on payment & he found no reason. Meanwhile I await over $3000 that is due me. I had a great tenant, have reviewed them and cannot believe this company can hold my money and I have now spent over an hour trying to get assistance for money I am due…. I will be pulling my account as soon as I am paid.
Reviewed Jan. 4, 2022
We rented a condo in Kapaa, Kauai, Hawaii and had an unpleasant dispute with the owner of the condo. Firstly, the toilet seat was broken when we arrived and the owner admitted the previous renter had complained but he did not fix until a few days before we checked out. We left the place clean but were charged an extra $200 for carpet cleaning on top of the $150 cleaning fee. The owner claims that we scratched the bathtub and charged us another $200 for repairs. We did not damage the tub but VRBO would not even ask the owner for proof of the cost of repairs or proof that the damage wasn't already there. VRBO took over a month to contact the owner and reach conclusion which was that the owner was in his right to keep the damage deposit. In other words, the owner could charge whatever he wanted without having to prove that it was legitimate. Would not use VRBO ever again!

Reviewed Jan. 3, 2022
If you've already been wronged by Vrbo/Expedia and want to skip my story and just want to send in an email and complain to Expedia's Executive Leadership Team, scroll to the bottom for names and email address. Property Owner and Vrbo Stole My $728.75! I booked a property (Villa Del Mar) on Vrbo, the owner cancelled the invite on me (and contained a 48 hr cancellation policy with 100% refund for the client), and then Victor (the owner) told me they were in error and sent me a link to re-book the "same property again" later that day... except that the second property had a different name (Belmont Estates), different pictures, different pricing, different VRBO/Airbnb map locations AND WHAT HE DIDN'T MENTION, A DIFFERENT CANCELLATION POLICY.
After receiving the confirmation email for the second property, it seemed suspicious, and our group was uncomfortable moving forward. I called Vrbo support desk and they said the cancellation policy is provided by the owner, Victor. I asked the Victor (owner) what the cancellation policy was and he directly sent me this screen shot: "Strict – Full refunds for cancellations within 48 hours if check-in date is at least 14 days away". Our date was over 6 months away. I cancelled the reservation at the 47th hour and was due a full refund of $1,628.75. After a week I saw a refund come through for ONLY $900! Victor said I was lucky he didn't keep it ALL.
Once again, I contacted the Vrbo support desk with proof of the cancellation policy Victor provided me directly, and once again, they were absolutely useless telling me they can do nothing and that I was to keep working with Victor, the owner, who was refusing to provide me refund back according to his policies. I also called up my credit card company, Capital One, to dispute the charge. They provided a temporary credit for the full amount while they 'looked into it'. I wasn't going to wait 4-6 weeks to wait and see if Vrbo and Victor do the right, moral, and ethical action, so I pressed on getting my money back.
After I wrote this initial review, Victor has been asking friends and possible past clients to post good reviews to keep his Vrbo 5 star/Superhost rating alive. According to Vrbo's website, he's not supposed to ask friends to submit a biased rating/response for the owner/property to get more rentals, but he's still holding on to my money at this point and losing face with the truth being exposed. There have been 3 reviews for this property on Vrbo's site within the last 2yrs and now, and overnight, it has five new 5-star reviews all in a single day? I found another review from a traveler that stayed there, saying there was a dead lizard under the couch upon arrival. I bet that smelled nice.
After a few weeks of back and forth, Vic and I came to an agreement on how to settle this. From Vic on 12/13/21, "Until you remove any negative posts online, move the rating from 1 star to 5 stars, and say something positive, or we certainly won’t approve any reimbursement for you from VRBO". Isn't this a textbook definition of extortion? I continued to try and get my full refund that I was entitled to.
After submitting an email to the CEO of Expedia (Vrbo's parent company), Peter Kern, his Executive response team contacted me after 10 days... completely unacceptable. They listened to me with the preconceived notion that there's nothing they were going to do, except tell me 'Only the owner could release the funds'. Great representation you have, Mr. Kern. I asked the Executive Response Team resource if I could have a conference call with the owner and Vrbo on the line to straighten this out. Guess what, only the property owner can request a conference call! How absurd is that? He's got my money and is a convenient 2,000 miles away and doesn't want to talk or give me my refund.
12/20/21 - Vic's message to me on Vrbo, "I have received none of your $$. like I told you 100 times, they have all of your $$. Good luck with them". Is that something a good natured and helping Vrbo 'Superhosts' says? I continued to ask if Victor was going to refund my money back while reviews like this were still active. Vrbo assured me that Victor was the only one who could release any funds. 12/21/21 - Victor finally responded back, keeping up the extortion-like activities telling me "I (Victor) withheld $300 Vrbo the balance. Take down the review and I approve your refund. I think I have some control over whether or not Vrbo refunds you their fees. Again I only authorized Vrbo to withhold $300 from your booking. The remaining $ withheld is Vrbo fees".
Wait, he just told me yesterday that he's has no control over my money? A superhost telling me to take down a review in exchange for MY MONEY back?? Where's Vrbo during these types of activities? And it's all captured on Vrbo's messenger chat... isn't this against their corporate 'moral/ethics' code and in direct conflict with Expedia's vision statement or something? Once again, I contacted the Executive Response Team and asked if they were holding back a portion of the monies that were not refunded on a property I never stayed at, cancelled within the owners 48 hours, and 6 months in advance of the reservation dates? They danced around the subject through many exchanges but ultimately admitted to taking part of my payment.
Back to Vic, I finally take the review down expecting him to start the refund process so I get SOME of my money back. Vic was concerned rental bookings will drop if a review like this stays online, so I thought there was an outside chance his word was good. We have a deal, except neither Vic or Vrbo followed through with their promises. Speaking of useless, my credit card company Capital One, sides with Vrbo, never even asks me a single question, and charges me back the full amount, minus the partial payment of $900 that Victor so graciously refunded for holding on to my money for 47 hours. He's a real gem. I've already followed up with a dispute against the dispute ruling.
12/31 - Vic tells me Vrbo closed my case and now I'm out $728.75 for both of them doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. There is no other platform to complain about crooked rental owners if you haven't stayed at any of Expedia's properties. Vrbo will take down your review if you haven't stayed there, so there's no way to make others traveler aware of the owner's actions. Look at all the Vrbo complaints on this site alone! Horrible stories and just like me, and Vrbo couldn't care less. For doing absolutely nothing Vic is keeping $400 and Vrbo is keeping $328. Villa Del Mar (aka Belmont Estates, West End, etc...) is on multiple rental sites, and I'm warning people stay away from that property (the one with many different names) and Vrbo in general. I never felt for a second that either one of them were trying to do the right, or ethical thing.
Vrbo is just as guilty as the crooked property owners they work in tandem with. I spent countless hours on the phone with Vrbo's support help desk, and their 'Executive Response Team' associate, Vanessa, and messaging back and forth with Victor... who when I mentioned that the kids and wife will have less for Christmas because of him, he just said 'Yeah I'm Scrooge'. Nice guy.
If you've read this far, keep going a little further. If you were ripped off by Expedia or one of its subsidiaries, write a well crafted and highly documented email to Expedia's CEO, Peter Kern at 'pkern@expedia.com'. That email address is verified as of late December 2021. I plan on continuing my fight with Vrbo and in future emails plan to include others leaders next to Peter's email address. These names and titles are good, but I have not had confirmation on the email addresses.
Barry Diller, Chairman and Senior Executive - pdiller@expedia.comPeter Kern, Vice Chairman & CEO, Expedia Group - pkern@expedia.com (verified)
Bill Holtz, CIO, Expedia and LinkedIn - bholtz@expedia.com
Robert Dzielak, General Counsel & Secretary- rdzielak@expedia.com
Wendy Killion, Global VP Business Development, Expedia Group Media Solutions - wkillion@expedia,com
Mike Anand, Vice President Strategy (he can work on helpdesk)- manand@expedia.com
Subbu Allamaraju, Vice President of Expedia Group - sallamaraju@expedia.com
Reviewed Jan. 3, 2022
In March 2020, our flight was cancelled due to Covid-19. Owner refused refund and was rude. She even said it was safe to travel at that time. Called VRBO and was on hold 45 min and then another 30 min. They said it was up to owners who wouldn’t even refund 50% at that point. Stay away from VRBO. Their "guarantee" is worthless! I chose VRBO because they advertised a guarantee but that was a huge disappointment. I paid $2928 for a service that was not delivered. I will never use them again!
Reviewed Jan. 2, 2022
I stayed in Washington, DC at an apartment which looked decent on the advertisement. It didn't have a lot of reviews, which in hindsight should have been a red flag. My friend and I got to the apartment late at night, where our host did not adhere to COVID protocols, and stayed in the apartment to tell us unimportant information for an hour. Once he left, we looked through the apartment, and found that it was in the middle of a renovation, and completely different than the advertised photos. The ceiling was unfinished in four places, the furniture was different than what appeared in the advertisement, and the toilet didn't function properly.
My friend had trouble with a newly scratchy throat in the morning, and with the dust that appeared to be coming from the unfinished ceiling, we decided to cancel the rest of our stay for health reasons. We were willing to pay for the first night in full, but assumed that the rest of the stay would be refunded, considering it was a misrepresentation by the host. The first issue with working with VRBO was that the wait time was excessive to reach a representative. By the time I talked with someone, the checkout time had passed, and the host said we were responsible for another night, even though we had said that we wouldn't be staying another night before the checkout time.
When I talked to someone from VRBO, they explained that the refund should be negotiated between the host and the guest. This is problematic to start with, since VRBO should be obligated to act as a mediator when one side of the guest-host agreement is in dispute. But what makes it worse is that the guest has no recourse or negotiating standing in this agreement.
I talked to VRBO representatives every day for the next two weeks, explaining to them that this policy is ridiculous, considering I had been deceived with the product, yet had no ability to challenge or receive a refund. The representatives acknowledged this, but stated that this was VRBO's policy, and that I was on my own to work with the host. Considering I had no leverage, it is predictable how this negotiation worked out - I got back about 1/5 of the total cost, when I had only stayed for one of the seven nights I had booked. From my experience, Airbnb does not treat valid disputes like this, and is willing to side with guests when they have reasonable and well-founded issues with their stay.
I had clear documented evidence of all the disputes, including correspondence on the app chat service between the host and I where he admitted the place did not match the advertised photos, and was undergoing renovation. However, when presented with this evidence, VRBO was unwilling to side with the reasonable argument in the dispute, even though their representatives agreed that I was correct, and that this policy was unreasonable. My assumption is that they are trying to poach stays from Airbnb, which is why they uncompromisingly side with the host. I will not choose VRBO again.
Reviewed Jan. 2, 2022
I had to cancel a reservation because the information on the site was wrong, it said the distance to the place was less than a mile, false information. I tried to contact more than one agent, no help from them, I tried to contact the host, no luck. I think if the site has misleading information, we should be able to get a refund no matter what their policy is. I'll put more reviews to let people know about what VRBO and Expedia are doing.
Reviewed Dec. 31, 2021
I found a property on VRBO. The property was far from me, but the price was low that tempted me to make the reservation. Just after that, a new payment was requested by the owner. (That means he increased the price) It was half an hour after reservation and in the period of 50% cancellation fee. So, I thought the price was no longer that good and since I wasn't so interested in the rental I preferred to not continue. But, strangely when I contacted call support they told me you have to pay a 50% cancellation fee! (after 1 hour of discussion!)
Here is the problem: I rented the property at a price and the owner decided to increase it. Why am I supposed to either pay more money or pay a cancellation fee? I asked him to cancel the reservation if he doesn't want to give it with original price but he refused. Here is my complaint: You cannot request more money after you sell something and refuse to even cancel the purchase and, instead, ask for a cancellation fee. Why do you expect me to pay the cancellation fee when I don't accept your increment on the price?! That time, I was forced to pay the money since the deadline was close but canceled it later.
VRBO support admitted I am right at that time but took no serious action. They told me that they can only encourage property owners to not increase the price after reservation! They said they would ask the rental owner to cancel but after they called back and said, unfortunately, he didn't accept! So, what is the responsibility of VRBO? Only encourage people to not do scams or fraud? What is the role of the VRBO as the platform?
Reviewed Dec. 30, 2021
Had to cancel trip due to omicron virus. Service fee will not be refunded. 600.00 charged and received absolutely nothing for fee. Disgusting experience. Will never book a rental with this outfit again but does not surprise me.
Reviewed Dec. 30, 2021
I found a cabin for a friends getaway on VRBO. I booked it and received updates frequently from VRBO! We are almost to the property when I talked to VRBO because I didn’t have an entry code! This property was supposed to be off the site because it was sold! We were stranded on the side of the road with nowhere to go! 2 car loads, 5 people, 1 dog and groceries for 4 days! We wound up staying in a hotel that we found but VRBO paid for and going home the next day! VRBO wanted me to find the substitution to the hotel! We spoke to them 11 times in 16 hours. They wanted to resolve things through email! Our vacation was ruined!!
Reviewed Dec. 27, 2021
In November, I used VRBO site to make a reservation for one person for 3 consecutive nights at a small hotel. The Vrbo app kept telling me that my request did not go through and to reenter my information. I did so repeatedly, but still got the same alert to reenter. Finally I gave up. The next day, there were 5 charges for a 3 day stay on my Visa Card for a total of 1770 dollars to VRBO. No kidding.
I immediately called VRBO AND the hotel, cancelling all 5 reservations for 3 night stays. The charges were never removed. The hotel did drop their charges, but not VRBO. I am now working with my VISA card as well, but VRBO has not removed their charges. I have been calling for 9 weeks, made over 12 calls, and still no one will even call me back. DO NOT use this company. They use a website that coaches you to repeatedly enter requests, then refuses to refund the bogus reservations. This is fraud, plain and simple. My next call is to my attorney. This is just plain theft. I WIll NEVER USE THIS COMPANY again. Use Air BNB. At least they do not commit fraud.
Vrbo Company Information
- Company Name:
- Vrbo
- Website:
- www.vrbo.com
