VRBOReviews 2,001

I rented a property and VRBO blocked my review. They told me it needed work. I think the property needed work! Here is the rejected review. You decide

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Amazing 5 Bed Single Family with Private Pool up to 12 Guests - 8992 CC

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Property was spotlessly clean but not as grand as pics. Pool the size of large hot tub. Called property manager upon arrival and left message to ask where to park second car as I thought street spots were numbered for other condos. They never got back to me. I figured it out. Also, the advertisement pictures show a pool table. We really had plans to play pool at night- one of the reasons we took the place. But there was only one pool stick with a broken tip. Unusable. I texted owner who was very responsive to texted questions BEFORE we arrived. But not after we checked in. I explained situation and politely asked him if there was something that could be done etc. He never responded either. I did receive several communications from the property managers insisting that I send copies of my drivers license and credit card beforehand and a list of what I can and can't do and costs for each item that is missing which seemed ironic. How about charging the previous person for breaking the cue stick and running out to Walmart and buying the new guests a stick. The general fees were extensive, extremely creative and exorbitant including a damage waiver that you don't get back even if you don't damage anything. I would not go back. It's too bad.
Date of arrival - March 17,2022
Reservation ID #*******

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 advize you think twice about using VRBO.

My extended family booked, paid for and received confirmation for a house in Missouri 8 months ago. My sister received a letter two days ago notifying us that our reservation was canceled by the host. The reason gave to us? The host realized that she could rent the home for more money and relisted our booked week for $4,000 more. Several of our family members had already booked flights. That is a really crappy move and VRBO did nothing to advocate for us.

I recently wrote an unfavorable review of a property that I had rented. The description listing did not tell me that I needed to bring a lot of firewood to get the place warm or that I wasn't allowed to take a bath because there was a water shortage and we were supposed to bring our own water. The sheets and bed coverings were not washed well if at all and smelled strongly of perfume. I checked out early and let the owner know. He did not apologize or offer any kind of a refund for the days I didn't stay. So I left a review stating all the problems, but I also stated favorable things about the property. As soon as I had posted that review he posted a bad review about me as a traveler. So childish!
Owners look at these when they're deciding to rent to you - so I called Vrbo and explained to them that if they wanted our honest reviews on properties then the landlords shouldn't be able to retaliate right after the fact. They said there was nothing they could do. So basically don't write a bad review of any property or you'll get a bad review in return. You can't trust the reviews people write, knowing this. I will not be using Vrbo again.

I was on the hunt for a house in the keys for five families to stay during a wedding. Searching through VRBO I found a home and sent a request. They contacted the host and the host contacted me. The host then proceeded to say that we could communicate via email or text. Moving forward I secured the reservation, the host sent me the rental agreement and requested payment be sent through zelle which I did. This host has since disappeared! VRBO is claiming to be not responsible because transaction was done through a third party but in fact they are 100% responsible. They posted this listing, they contacted this host, they gave her my information, and they allowed this to take place without any type of background check on the host. VRBO is unsafe, fake, and dishonest thieves!

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 every 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.

I booked a vrbo, for Chicago, for weekend of 6/24/22. We are going to the Dead & Co shows at Wrigley. I booked property on 04/05/22 and then on 04/21/22, I got a message from the owner saying my reservation was canceled due to a technical glitch, saying the property was already booked. Why did it take the owner so long to cancel my reservation. Vrbo would not do anything to help me out or hold the owner to honoring the contract. Especially since it took over 2 weeks for the owner to cancel my reservation. I was able to book another property. I filed a BBB complaint and this was part of their response:
Our Traveler Care team can assist in finding a new property if a request is made. This situation does not qualify for rebooking assistance under our Book with Confidence guarantee.

What situation does qualify for the Book With Confidence guarantee?

My husband, his 2 brothers and their wives all went to Tennessee from ohio for the Windrock shindig, April 22-24,2022. We booked with VRBO months before the event, 2 weeks before our trip they canceled on us. So we LUCKILY found another house to accommodate 6 adults. When we got to the property. There was only enough room for one truck and trailer. We all had trucks and trailers as we were going to the shindig to ride our sxs's and for the concert. The back of the property was all grown over with broken table and chairs. The house was swarming with wasp and bee's. Once we tried to access the property the property code wouldn't work. We called VRBO, they put us at a red roof in for the night free of charge. (Not a nice hotel at all!) dirty walls, holes in the doors, just not clean at all. So for the 2nd night we had to pay more money out of our own pockets and find our own accommodations, because VRBO would only accommodate one night. We were hours away from our homes! I've tried calling VRBO numerous times. Every time I've been on the phone with them, they transfer me to "the specialist team". Every time I've been transferred I've been disconnected. So not only are we out the money for the property because we can't get it refunded, we're out even more money because we had to travel to another accommodation and pay more money out of our own pockets to stay. We will never book with VRBO again! I believe this website is a joke or a scam one. I pray no one else has to go through what we've went through this past weekend to try to have a good relaxing weekend. It has been far from relaxing! It took the property owner a long time to respond. We had already found other accommodations by the time we got a response. In the pics I've provided you can see where they said we could stay the final night. We couldn't access the property the first night, why would we waste anymore more of our time or money to travel back to a property we couldn't access? The code that was provided for this property wouldn't work!

As a property owner I am advising everyone out there to not use VRBO to rent out your property. They do not support their property owners and they don't lift a finger to help you with any question or any situation that arises. Their customer service is absolutely horrible. The people that answer the phone can never answer a single question and they always promise to create a case number and escalate the complaint or situation up the chain of command. They give you a case number and tell you that somebody above them will be reaching back out to you within 24 to 48 hours, but time and time and time again you are ignored and nobody ever follows back up with you. So if you wish to protect your home and your rental business you should definitely stay away from VRBO until they get their act together and develop a proper and helpful system for customer service, which is completely nonexistent as it currently stands. Any issue that arises usually takes over an hour on the phone and result is no resolution and no proper answers because nobody there and seems to know what they're doing. They're happy to take your money but definitely have ZERO interest in helping you or resolving issues! Just the WORST! Their owners app doesn't even work right - it doesn't show you much of the info you need to see & access as an owner and the company has known about this problem for at least the last few years because they tell you not to use the app when you call in because it's "still not working properly". For years it has not worked properly and they've known and haven't bothered to fix it. It seems like a bunch of kindergartners run this company. It's just awful which I guess is why there are SOOOO many complaints on here and why they have lower than a 2.0 rating. I guess they just don't care.

VRBO... NO THANKS. Beware of this company promoting places without making sure they are "liveable". We rented a waterfront condo in Florida for 5 months. All good, until the day we walked in. There were extraordinary renovations, with pneumatic hammers from Monday to Friday, from 9am to 4pm. The owner, when I complained, told me that I had the contract with VRBO. I call VRBO and she tells me I need to speak to the owner. Meanwhile, VRBO pocketed nearly US $ 1000...
I sent videos to prove the disturbance created daily by these works. But vrbo did nothing to get me back some of the rent.
The dishonesty of its own property was also the dishonesty of this company. Be careful, don't trust.
I did not feel protected by this company, which gave me the impression of thinking only about getting the commissions...
I'm definitely not going to use vrbo again, a dishonest company

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 every were. Then I had to rebook my own stay again and yet they still haven't refund me. I DO NOT RECOMMEND

We booked through VRBO, the host called and asked me to tell him my credit card number, I did not agree and called VRBO to refund my money. They said it will take 4 days. A week later they sent me an email saying the host was running a scam and to call them. I did, they said they'll refund me again. It's been 3 weeks still no money. Even though they said that the host was a scam.

I try 4 times to rent a property in the state of Maine close to a mountain we were planing to visit and every single time my reservation got canceled because the owner or property manager did fail to accept the reservation, at the beginning i thought that they got busy and didnt get the acceptance on time then i thought maybe somebody else beat me to it and reserved the place before me but no, i did manage to get in touch with the person responsible to accept the reservations and i ask why a unoccupied property does not get my acceptance and i got ghosted no reply, at the end with a different property i got a message saying why do i want to rent the property and more info about my group of persons, i did explain we are a family looking to rent a place for vacations in the mountains for the summer and nothing still ignore i reach out to VRBO costumer service for help and find out why i get rejected because this situation looks very discriminatory and the rep offer to a supervisor call me back, all i got was a email at the next day for a questionnaire of how good my experience was on my case that was closed. Now im doing business with AIRBNB

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 BS. 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.

Made a website reservation on a property. Halfway thru, attempted to add a day to see the effect. When I went to confirm the dates, their system locked me out saying that week was already taken. Had to log out and enter a new week thinking I had been blitzed while procrastinating. Comes back at the end as 2 separate reservations with deposits and fees. Contacted the landlord who understood the issue and nixed the 2nd deposit. Still fighting with VRBO over $100 fee for reservation created by their software.

Tried to book a vacation to visit family and found a place that seemed cozy and cute from what I could see and read. Well, once booked, I got the address and looked it up to see how close it was to my family's place. Zillow popped up with that address on google with a VERY different place than what I saw or was described. It was described as "cozy hobbit home" but really it was a "house" or unit in an RV park, which was not stated in the description. I said it was misleading and talked to Vrbo. They said I booked too close so I couldn't get a full refund…. I booked it the night before. So only could receive half back even though I booked less than 24 hrs ago and definitely was deceived from the post. Didn't give me much options. So if you're looking to book through Vrbo…. I wouldn't.

9 Wisteria Lane, Sea Pines, Hilton Head, SC
This is a beautiful home. We rented it for the last 6 years in February. Pretty clean, stocked most years and the fenced in yard was always a plus. We managed to fix a few things every year so we didn't have to bother the homeowner, but no big deal. We cleaned the house before we left better than we found it. After letting the homeowner know that we wanted to rent for February 2023 - our 7th year, we were informed that the price was going up……yep, it went up alright…. By 100%…from $3,900 to over $8,000 with car pass, departure cleaning and all taxes. We were informed that the market rate for the neighborhood has increased dramatically and there were no other homes that offers all the features of this home. However, I did find a better priced rental for the month of February 2023 in Sea Pines with the same amenities…. So, obviously its all about the money. They can ask more, and they will get it. And to top things off, we were accused of bringing two dogs, and only telling them we had one. They saw two dogs on their newly installed outside cameras. I have the text that I sent to Carla in October 2021 and it specifically states the fact that we will have two dogs, unless our old 14 year old passes on before the trip. Disappointed and shocked at the price increase and accusation. Looking forward to our new journey in a much larger home….

I found a great stay, placed reservations, and the host quickly informed me that the room was not available. The host refunded his full charge but Vrbo will not refund $266.18 for a room I was not able to rent. After being on hold for over a half-hour Vrbo said that I would receive a refund but only received the refund from the host not the service charge and the useless insurance.

Worse customer service received
Still waiting for the email to go to the rental holiday home company to allow them to process refund. Made me go back and forth like a yo yo. When clear they were in the wrong. Working in partnership with hotel.com. And wonder vacation homes