Vrbo Reviews

$1500 charge on my cc if I didn't pay an extortion insurance fee of $80 for a 2 day stay. They charged my card and kept it for 2 weeks before I received a refund. I will NEVER book with VRBO again.

Booked a cabin on VRBO with “total price” clearly reported. Once booked VRBO put thru a second additional charge of $118.37 for a VRBO fee unapproved by me. When I called they said they charge an additional VRBO fee because it was booked through Expedia?? I booked on VRBO website with no mention of Expedia. Crazy enough I asked to extend booking but the property owner couldn’t do it because it was booked thru Expedia. VRBO couldn’t do it because it was booked thru Expedia. And I can’t contact Expedia customer service because it will route to the same department I was already talking to. Their solution was to cancel and rebook despite the price to rebook is higher than my original price. I cancelled it and am purchasing something else through a different vendor. Guess what the property refund went through but the sneaky $118.37 VRBO fee has not been refunded. Accident? I think NOT!!

I feel misled by VRBO regarding insurance charges. I clearly remember selecting only one insurance policy, yet I was charged for multiple additional insurance products that I did not knowingly authorize. When I contacted support, I did not receive clear proof of my consent. Instead, I was repeatedly redirected to the insurance provider, which did not resolve the issue or explain the charges. Overall, the process lacks transparency, and the insurance additions during booking were not clear or properly explained. I feel that the way these charges were applied is misleading and unacceptable.

NEVER AGAIN VRBO!!! I booked a cottage through VRBO for a short 2-night stay. For a weekend trip, VRBO immediately charged a massive $1,500 security deposit to my credit card. The stay is over, and the landlord immediately gave the "all clear" to return the deposit, confirming zero damage. Yet, I have now been waiting for almost two weeks, and my $1,500 has still not been refunded. As I was told the refund is scheduled for exactly 14 days after check-out so there is method this deplorable behaviour!

My experience with Vrbo has been completely unacceptable and has exposed serious flaws in both their booking system and customer service practices. Three days before my scheduled Memorial Day vacation, my reservation was abruptly canceled due to a “double booking” error allegedly caused by VRBO’s platform. A failure of this magnitude should never occur, especially for customers who booked and paid in full well in advance.

The Company Vrbo is not going to protect you from their hosts. We had a host that was scamming normal people out of their hard earned money. The Host deceived us and misrepresented the property and has been doing this for many years according to him. Vrbo's custom protection consists of asking the Host to refund the money if he refuses you are out of luck. We traveled all day to get there and found the place to be unsafe. We had to drive another hour and a half to find a place to stay.

If you have no issues with your rental then everything is great. Watch out if there is any issue, vrbo and the hosts are working together. The guest is not a concern. A hot tub cleaned walked in unannounced, apologized and went and cleaned the hot tub. Clear privacy violation and safety issue. When I reported this to vrbo and the rental company, they said they had no record of a hot tub cleaner accessing the property. Either they are lying to cover their end or someone was entering the house under the cover of a cleaner. The person cleaned the tub btw….

I have been listing by beach house for five ears with VRBO. Several months ago, after not having any booking for months, I called Customer Service (what a misnomer). Apparently I had forgotten to pay the local Short Term Rental License and instead of advising me of this, they merely restricted (delisted) my property. I have made countless phone call to the so-called Customer Service, numerous on-line Chats, sent several emails, sent copies of the paid STR license SEVEN TIMES, and after two months I am still delisted and no-one from VRBO has contacted me to tell me why!

I wish there were a zero rating. This company needs to have a class action lawsuit filed. I booked a condo back in March for a stay coming up May 22nd in Galveston, TX. When I booked this, it stated the price per night and stated "all fees included." I then went to booking page and it showed the amount of my condo for one night was $148.05 and there were some taxes added for a total of $198.05. I paid this amount in full. As it is getting closer to my stay, I realized that no one had reached out with information on how to access the property so I logged in to VRBO and found that the owner of the property had messaged me through the website, which I had no knowledge of.

To say the least we will not be renting/booking through VRBO. We booked our place on January 11, 2026, for our stay in April from 4/19-4/25/2026. When we walked in the place was a mess. The linens were all stripped from the bed and left on the sofa and armchair, or mattress. The bathrooms were left in unsanitary conditions, there was trash left on the floor bottles left in the rooms, on the tables. Used condiments was left in the fridge. The back door was left unlocked, the porch is not screened in as was mentioned in the ad, the yard was a mess. I have videos and pics. When I called VRBO, I spoke to Anish, promised me a call back in 20 minutes. We’re now 3 weeks after this whole nightmare and still, no call from him.

VRBO has high service fees. For my summer weekly rental, they took $300 service fees and also block out personal phone number information. It is my property that I should have the right to communicate with my guests directly in case of issues or concerns. But VRBO won’t reveal contact information until it is booked via VRBO. Also each time, VRBO charges about $300 or more on service charges during summer season. As much as we are paying for these fees, they took website should function and stream in a much higher speed rate! It doesn’t upload pictures in real time and calendar or inbox messages are extremely slow!

Upon our arrival late in the evening of 4/4/26 we encountered the following:

First I had to open a new account and lose all previous points because they flat out refused to allow me to change my email address. Booking a new place was ok but then I asked a simple question about how payments show in my account and their AI went nuts telling the host I wanted to cancel. It turned into a complete mess and then I did indeed end up cancelling. Then I get another insane message telling me I was entitled to a 100% refund (cancelled well within the time frame) but the host was the one who cancelled and the host had a no refund policy so I would not be getting a refund. Well...the host had already sent the refund info. and had no idea what VRBO was talking about. The host agreed VRBO had become a pain and mess to deal with. I will NOT be using VRBO again. Do yourself a huge favor and use a different service.

We were faithful, good Silver customers of VRBO visiting many of their homes and then we came to a VRBO property today after hours of travel. The owner was inside the VRBO house even though the property was listed as a home we would have completely to ourselves on the VRBO site. We were so tired and so were our pets we traveled with. The house was nasty.

Do not use VRBO!!! We rented a house in Pigeon Forge in late March 2026. We arrived to a dirty place and construction zone. Construction going on both sides of the house and in back and front of it. Equipment and back hoes parked up to deck. It was just unacceptable and VRBO’s excuse was they couldn’t get a hold of the owner OR management company for the home so there was nothing they could do other than give us the cleaning fee back since it hadn’t been cleaned before our stay. There were even dirty cloths and towels in the house when we arrived! VRBO took absolutely no accountability for what we reserved on their site. DO NOT USE THEM….

The "all-in" claim on Vrbo listings is misleading. The rental service fee should be clearly disclosed on the website and in each listing, and not charged immediately upon booking. I filed a BBB complaint and got a refund, but I haven't read horror stories from other renters who haven't been as fortunate.

I’m sharing this because I’m still furious and I want other travelers to know what can really happen on VRBO. Last month I booked a condo in Hallandale, Florida through VRBO for a two week-long stay with my elderly mother and her aide (both in their late 80s). The listing specifically advertised “elevator access,” “beach chairs and pool access for guests,” (for which we paid an additional amenities fee per day to the Beachwalk resort) and “well-maintained amenities.” None of that was true.

I need to send a message to report the way we were treated by a host that we leased from for an entire month from March 15th to April 11th. We did not get our 30 days that we paid an astronomical amount for. She was 3 thousand higher than others in the same building. There was a lot of work being done the whole time we were there. She said she would refund some of the money but instead charged extra because my guest for 3 days had a small very good dog. She said if we gave her a good review she would take care of it. Nothing was done. Her name is Sandy F. But it is not the name she gave us.

Host refused refund, Vrbo no help, no resolution. Host denied refund, Vrbo unresponsive, no help. Host refused, Vrbo silent, no refund, no help. Host uncooperative, Vrbo no help, no refund. Host denied refund, Vrbo ignored issue entirely. Host refused refund, Vrbo failed to resolve. Host denied refund, Vrbo offered no support. Host unresponsive, Vrbo no help, no resolution.

The information on this site is inaccurate and misleading. There appears to be no reliable process in place to prevent fraud or verify property ownership. I was able to make a reservation and pay in full, only to arrive at the location and be informed by the host that they no longer owned the unit. This is completely unacceptable and reflects a serious lack of oversight and accountability. I would strongly caution others before using this platform.