VRBOReviews 2,001

I tried to make a reservation through VRBO for a weekend home, however after trying to contact the owners of the house I was made aware that the listing was fraudulent as the real owners of the property only list the property through Airbnb and Instagram. I contacted VRBO twice to inform them of the situation through their online chat and once i made them aware of the fraudulent listing they simply ended the chat and gave zero answers or solutions. Its an absolute disgrace that the website is fraught with fraudulent listings and VRBO will do nothing to help or compensate you. So if you want to put at risk any travel reservations through their site with little to no verifications of the existence of the properties they advertise then be forewarned.

Vrbo host cancelled our accomodation 3 days prior our thanksgiving trip stating she didn't get paid, however our cc was charged the day I made the reservation.
Vrbo told is, sorry we can't find anything to replace your reservation. So we had to cancel our trip, (unless we wanted to be homless with children and grandma on Thanksgivin) we lost plane tickets. They ruined our thanksgiving but at least, We want them to refund our plane tickets but they won't work with us at all. How can you not pay for your vendors and not take care of your clients? Very-very bad way to run a business. Do not book!

We booked a house for 10 and in Angel fire New Mexico to go skiing in December. We purchased the travel insurance just case we had issues. The resort that we went to didn't end up getting snow this year and they pushed the opening day back. So basically we would have rented gear, bought lift tickets, and drove 8 hours to be stuck in a small town in northern New Mexico with nothing to do. We contacted VRBO and they refused to help in any way. Basically we would have to cancel everything with no refund and make a claim with the insurance. The insurance is a total scam. The insurance was also no help. They only have a few reason to why a refund would be given and offered no support. If you book with VRBO don't get the insurance and make sure you will be happy traveling to your designated even if nothing is open. This will be last time I book with them.

I had a horrible experience on VRBO where I found out after booking the owner had several Criminal Records and what appears to be a Domestic Violence case! I would have NEVER booked with the host knowing this and after a 12 hour reservation he stole 50% of my payment! Outragous VRBO and SHAME ON YOU! Never again!

My family with two children and my elderly mom is traveling to the UK for Christmas. We needed a place to stay and found a property through VRBO. Booked, was confirmed. After 2 days I realized I needed to extend my 10 day stay by 1 additional day. I submitted a request. Days passed without an answer from property manager so I tried again. No answer, which worried me - with 6 weeks to the date of travel and a fortune already spent on flights... I called customer service and they said they will submit a request on my behalf. No response again. I called customer service a second time and they said they would escalate to reach the owner. At this point I was already very concerned and all other properties left that were suitable for my party size were a lot more expensive. No response from the owner and no follow up from VRBO, so I call again and escalate. They manage to reach the owner and learn that the property is no longer available for rent. I ask for assistance to book a similar property give their booking guarantee -- and... you guessed it... no response. I called again, was reassured by a supervisor that they would help, and afterwards I receive a standard email from company saying I don't qualify for their assistance. To add insult to injury the listing is still live on the site and now has a review from a poor traveler who found himself stranded without a place to stay. Abysmal service, no quality control of their listings and an untrustworthy site. If you do have to book through VRBO for some reason a word of advice: always call the owner first, instead of processing online. At least you'll have a better chance that the place actually exists.

Before booking this rental, look at the photos the VBRO listing doesn't show: holes in walls, rusty chairs, wires hanging, curtain rod with no curtians, scraps on walls, mirror off the wall, repairs not completed, dust and paint on fake plant, pocket doors don't close, missing blinds so the ability to see inside front bedroom, food explosion in microwave not cleaned, dust and debris throughout, disorganized cabinets with food left from previous tentants. Definitely not worth $1296. 59 for 4 nights!

I would never book another reservation through VRBO. I booked a rental with a 100% cancellation policy before a certain day, the day after I booked the reservation, I requested a cancellation. The host went radiosilent. I called VRBO to let them know I was within my window for 100% cancellation and they said they cannot approve cancellations only the host can. So basically any "host" can post a listing and the company takes no responsibility for any issues you have. Also, I booked a different reservation that was cancelled by the host last minute because the "property was not available." So yes, we were stranded without a place to stay after transportation was all booked because I trusted VRBO. Oh and the same reservation that was cancelled was still available online for the exact same dates. Customer service is offshore somewhere and if you ask to speak to a supervisor they will put you on hold for 45+ minutes and then hang up on you. DO NOT use this website for booking. I never had any issue with AirBnb.

If I could leave zero stars, I would. I would never recommend this lodging company in a trillion years. I booked my place on Nov 8. My check in date is supposed to be Thanksgiving, which means I should have received check in info from the host days ago. The host has not been responding to messages through the app or text for weeks and has NOT provided check in information. NO ONE at VRBO has been able to make contact and they keep telling me to wait 24-72 for an update. It's now 3 days before my trip and NO UPDATE. I have numerous times BEGGED them to just give me a refund or another place to stay being that I'm traveling alone. And they seem to be more interested in protecting the host than the traveler. I will be contacting my attorney and I urge everyone to NEVER use this company. I'm filing a report with the FTC and leaving a review on BBB

I would rate VRBO as no star if I could. I recently reserved an apartment in Whistler on VRBO website. The owner of the property posted this cancellation policy: 100% refund if you cancel by Nov 23,2021. 50% refund (minus the service fee) if you cancel by Dec 9,2021. No refund if you cancel after Dec 9,2021. I cancelled well in advance before Nov 23. The owner promptly issued a "full refund for this cancellation minus the booking fee". That's what the owner said in her email to me. So how is this "full refund". Does this make sense to you? What logic is it to provide refund minus booking fee and call it full refund? Owner retained $126 as booking fee from me. VRBO has emailed the owner twice now asking them honor their cancellation policy; to refund me in full. What do you think the owner would do... obviously to ignore all their emails. The owner is dishonest about her cancellation policy and VRBO has allowed this to happened unchecked, and they can't do much in getting my money back. VRBO can only chase after them with emails. Don't even know how this owner became a premier host. Beware: even if you read all the fine lines on cancellation policy, you can still be cheated out of money. VRBO is the worst, and you have lost my business forever.

VRBO, is not your friend. They do not protect you nor will they help you. We got to our locations it was so disgusting and filthy dirty, two hours away from Kona, we stayed and cleaned what we could for our protection, we would have left but there was 8 of us, this vacation had been planned for 8 months. I have 52 pictures of the worst filth ever, pillows with bodily fluid on them, (blood and drool) mold on the mattress, cockroaches, ratty towels, ratty bed skirt, sheets that don't fit the bed, the rooms like like prison cells, no decor, no headboard, beds shoved up against the wall. I wondered why the cushions on the chairs are upside down, lifted one and yuk! We paid $8,750.00 to stay at this location, 10 hours of travel and walked into this... the list goes on and on! VRBO did nothing!

I have told the creeps at Vrbo repeatedly to stop posting creep shots
little girls in bikinis on their ads and now I think I am seeing even creepier things that involves a shirtless child. YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS, VRBO

Just booked our first holiday for two years on VRBO. We are a family of four on a relatively tight budget but managed to find what we could afford on VRBO having looked at several other sites. After checking availability of flights and all other travel arrangements we went ahead and booked the accommodation and received a confirmation email then we booked everything else. Huge relief, everything booked, kids happy! This didn't last long, the next day we received a message from the host to say that the prices for 2022 were not correct on the website and he wanted a further £700 almost doubling the cost. I phoned VRBO who said all they could do was contact the host and ask if he would honour the original price. We then received a further message from the host to say we could cancel if we wished or pay the extra. This is all after we had booked flights, airport hotel, parking, taxis and ferries so our choices were limited. We searched for several hours for alternative accommodation but there was nothing in our budget in the location we wanted so we've been forced to pay up. Basically our whole holiday was booked based on our budget and having done everything in the right order and received an acceptance email from VRBO we have been stitched up with little alternative so beware travellers. I think this could be a new scam emerging!

I wish we knew what we were getting into. This was our first time. We booked, our family member got Covid. We "thought" we bought the insurance. We bought insurance, but not the right one(?). Host lied, refused to cancel our trip and it kept showing we stayed there when we didn't. VRBO refused to help. We lost over $2,000. Has anyone taken VRBO to small claims?

I have been using VRBO for many years. Have seen their fees go up, their service down. Lesson learned after my last stay. The property was a disaster - 2 out of 3 showers didn't work microwave didn't work, the floor without central air was supposed to have a separate ac unit but didn't, even though the listing states it and hasa picture of it - that's the floor where 3 guests were supposed to stay but instead of comfy beds they had to sleep on couches just so they didn't roast, no curtains in the front, downstairs bedroom so no privacy, couches were falling apart. VRBO says I can leave a bad review and that's it - they won't help further in any way. Lesson learned for not using a local property manager. Fool me once...

DO NOT USE THEM. I recommend using booking a hotel or Airbnb. I never write reviews I had to on this one. If you noticed, a lot of properties on the Vrbo don't have reviews that's because those listings are FAKE. I paid $645 to stay at a guy name Luca Biguzzi's property in Venice Italy. A week before check in I messaged him, he never responded, I called his phone number and it was disconnected. I kept emailing and messaging him but he NEVER RESPONDED. I contact Expedite because I found this property through them, they just send me to Vrbo and they were completely USELESS and had HORRIBLE customer service. They hang the phone on me, they told me to keep "messaging until one hour before check in". I was left stranded in a foreign country with two elderly people with no place to stay. I never cancelled my trip with them because if you cancelled they don't refund you any of the money. So they put you in a stressful situation where you are tempted to cancelled but I didn't because I realized their SCUMBAG moves. Afterwards when I tried to get my money back they gave me the run around not wanting to give me my money back until they finally did and when I went to give them a BAD REVIEW, my trip was moved by them to 'cancelled' not me so now I can't give them a bad review on the app or the property listing. They do this on purpose so their listings don't show up with BAD REVIEWS. Please don't fall for them.

My reservation got cancelled last minute ( tomorrow is my check in) host was unresponsive and never got back to my emails.
I called support asking for help as I was left without any property to stay for tomorrow for 5 people, including my old parents!

They were very rude and said I can look for available properties on their website, book and pay for it. No compensation and no offering to pay the difference, said they can't do anything!

I WILL NEVER USE YOUR SERVICE AGAIN IN MY LIFE, Airbnb much better ;)

VRBO confirmed my reservation and then realized it was during the holidays and they canceled my reservation and relisted it for an exponential amount more. Extremely unprofessional and unreliable.

I booked a stay for labor day weekend in Chicago. The host cancelled on us last minute. VRBO did very little to assist in finding another comparable stay. They pushed properties that were double the price and did not offer any financial assistance. I called their customer support, sent emails, sent messages on Twitter. After multiples of these communications, they finally said that I qualified for their financial assistance reimbursement. I booked a trip that the price difference would be covered. I am now 2 months after the trip trying to get my reimbursement from VRBO and it has proven to be extremely difficult and they're not helpful. I will never be using VRBO again. I have put probably 40+ hours into communication with them, and I am not sure I am going to receive the reimbursement.

Summary: Don't use VRBO and expect them to assist with any issues that come up with your trip! Their customer service is horrible, and you will be left high dry or will have to spend MANY hours to even attempt to get any assistance from them.

My Vrbo host did not respond. Vrbo customer service promised me a hotel and a different Vrbo but never got back to me. They left me stranded in the middle of DC with a pregnant wife and a dead phone while paying over $600 for a hotel on a teacher's budget. I spent over 90 minutes on the phone with them, but never got my hotel. Terrible experience.