VRBOReviews 2,001

We booked the reservation in Orange Beach Alabama on August 28th 2021 property ID ******* I went online check the weather and I find out hate Ida hurricane all over the news and internet I did contact the property they never respond to me then I did contact your customer support 24 hours she said that somebody will contact me soon as possible and never heard from them called a Vrbo the said I will get full amount call today in the morning 8 I did I need to contact the property we did contact the property she claimed that she did contact me when she did not then she said oh I did contact you a few days ago the guards to pin... but you never called me or contact me regards the hurricane she claimed if something was wrong they will contact me how I supposed to know how to run their business there and gas I suppose to Drive 11 hours to make the long story short she will refund the money but she will charge to cancellation fee wrong because we did not cancel it the natural disaster and vrbo said they will not found us to feed because I did not got the full amount from the property and I spend with them on the phone from 8 am in the morning to 11:30am I did ask to talk to the manager was nicely rejected

If you have any trouble with the platform, hosts, or the review process whatsoever, don't expect to receive help via VRBO's customer service call/chat options. They will copy/paste part of the company policy and hang up on you. Hard to think of another company that would tolerate operating with such an exceptionally poor customer experience.

My wife reserved a cabin in Arrowhead for us which we found i could not get that off vacation wise and we canceled in less than 24 hours. We received no communication from them now they are claiming the host is refusing the refund, I will get it though with a credit card dispute through my bank. Do not do business with this company very unethical. They have no clue to customer service or communication. Saying the host is refusing the refund wow what a scam obviously from the reviews here they don't care about their reputation.

Beware that the owner/host can cancel your reservation at anytime with minimal penalty. I just had a Florida monthly winter vacation rental on Sanibel Island canceled this morning by the owner because the owner wanted to use the rental. Now there is nothing affordable left. The only thing VRBO will do is assess penalty points to the owner. I'm very disappointed.

RENT AT YOUR OWN RISK: If you are a renter the homeowner CAN RECORD YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN WHILE INSIDE AND LISTEN TO YOUR CONVERSATIONS with hidden devices. There is a selection for the homeowner to disclose cameras, but VRBO customer service will state they DO NOT penalize or enforce landlords. Their policy is the homeowners have the rights to install cameras on their property and watch renters. VRBO does not conduct background checks for sex offenders.

If you find being recorded 24x7 creepy and uncomfortable STAY AWAY from VRBO. As the renter you will need to purchase your own sophisticated equipment (about $200) to scan for quarter size recording devices hidden in smoke detectors, alarm clocks, books, speakers, stuffed animals, air vents. If you call customer service (located in India) they will try to make you feel like they are special and willing to help and promise to call you ASAP with an update. Customer service will NEVER call you back and when you reach out to them again at that time they are reading verbatim from a script and will tell you they can't do anything per their policy. If you ask to escalate, the customer service representative located in India just hands the phone over their 4x4 cubical to his buddy pretending to be a manager and you are read the same lines from the standard script again.

VRBO DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY PRIVACY AND OFFERS YOU NO PROTECTION

VRBO and their SCAM insurance company should be shut down for blatant fraud. They stole over $500 including the cost of Trip Insurance. We had rented a house for a graduation event that was canceled due to the pandemic. We notified VRBO and their Scam insurance company over a week in advance of the rental. They refused to make good on the trip insurance and even kept the extra fee we paid for the insurance. TOTAL SCAM!
WE WILL NEVER UTILIZE VRBO AGAIN.

Had a long weekend trip scheduled in Tahoe, CA. A few days before the trip the air quality turned hazardous due to wildfire smoke. The company's policy says they grant cancellations for natural disasters, however when we called VBRO customer service they did not acknowledge their own policy and told us to deal with the property owner.

VRBO literally did not follow their own policy. A service that does not follow the upfront contract that they publicly state on their website is in itself fraudulent behavior. Don't trust this company with any of your money!

Contrary to what their instructions say on the website (quote: "You may withdraw your pending booking request at any time before it is either accepted or declined") I have been totally unable to withdraw a booking request even though it has not yet been accepted by the Host. Due to last minute change of plan I now have to wait 24hrs to learn if the request is accepted and if it is I will only be able to claim a partial refund.
Tried calling their 24hr support number but this is a total joke. They have not been able to answer my call and an automated message instructs you to hang up and try later, with the same predictable results.
This is the absolute worst booking service I have ever had the misfortune to use and I will be deleting my account as soon as possible.

DO NOT rent from Gabe of Property ID: ******* in Ocean City, MD!

This is the worst owner/renter experience I have ever had.

Upon completion of our stay he say in an email that we were great guests and he gave us a 5-start review. But then the actual review was scathing. He sent that initial email to me to fool me into writing a good review for him. He then went on to say we were horrible guests and that we didn't adhere to any of his house rule.

Here is what he is falsely claiming:

1. Cleaning Fee - He claims that leaving a wrapper on the floor, a few bits in a trash bin in the bathroom and a few items in the freezer do not fall under the cleaning fee. If those minor items are not, then what IS included? We swept the entire unit, made the beds, scrubbed the kitchen, washed the dishes, put them all away, cleaned the patio area, took out the trash and recycling, etc. Plus his cleaning service would not have to wash any linens or towels because this owner expects the renter to supply ALL of their own sheets, bath towels, beach towels, hand towels, etc.

2. Screen door - He claims that we broke a screen door, which we did not. One of the rollers at the bottom of the screen was on the floor, which was there upon our arrival.

3. Smoking - He accuses us of not adhering to a no smoking policy since there were cigarette butts on the ground outside of the unit in the parking lot. We DO NOT smoke and cannot be held accountable for someone else's actions. Not to mention that renters cannot be held accountable for cleaning a parking lot near the unit.

4. Coffee machine - He claims that we LIED about his coffee machine being broken. It is a very basic, single Keurig cup machine that absolutely did not work. We made several attempts at using it, wasting OUR purchased Keurig cups. When the brown liquid finally came out of the machine it was barely warm and was not consumable. He says he ordered a new coffee machine but it did not arrive in time during our stay. He provided a $25 gift certificate to Starbucks (generous, but that was before he called us liars).

I have been notified by him that he is charging an additional $300 for a new screen door ($250) and additional cleaning fee ($50). I absolutely will not pay these fees. They are false claims and he was nothing but rude. I reported him to VRBO and will share this review everywhere.

They cancelled a confirmed reservation that I made because it was the host's birthday, seriously?!? Who does this? Now I can't get a refund as they charged me immediately but not won't refund nor respond. The worst customer service anywhere. I will NEVER do business with them and recommend nobody else do business with them either. I cannot believe this has happened this way. Don't risk your money, book anywhere else!

This is shocking… first time I used VRBO and will never use again. I went to rent a place with vrbo and the property manager never sent me the code to get in. So with two upset kids and a tired wife I decided to just book a different hotel instead of VRBO. I've been in the process trying to get a refund which VRBO said I should be entitled to get but has to come from the property manager. I totally understand that. I've reached out to the property manager, no answer. Two VRBO agents have tried calling him… no answer. One agent sent an email last week and told me that they had 48 hours to respond… I waited a week because I understand that sometimes things get in the way and I wanted the property manager to have enough time to respond. Again no response. I guess at this point I'm probably out of luck for a refund. I understand that it was the property manager who needs to give the refund but after so many times of contacting there does not seem to be a chance he will. Really sucks, but thought people should be aware that VRBO will not try that hard for you when you as a customer has been screwed over.

I've spent the last 5 days in a row being lied to by customer service. The property owner promised a refund of 50% but say the other portion come from Vrbo Beyond that one time he refuse to respond. Vrbo says it up to the property manager and refuse to take no action or responsibility. No matter when I call the supervisor is always on another call which is a lie because it's their immediate reply without checking. Save your money and avoid using them, it's at your own risk because if god forbid something happens to your family they will not care at all.

Please stay away from host Jeff Kolb and Campbell Quail. I booked at condo well in advance, had poor communication with the host and when I showed up the condo had not been cleaned from the previous renters. The host had not returned any of my communications. Beds were not made, garbage throughout, bathrooms not cleaned, towels not cleaned and in the floor. I could go on and on. Please avoid this condo and host.
Vrbo customer service was no help and told me it was an issue with the owner. The reps are from other countries. I was on hold for 45 mins and then hung up on. Second time I called was to no satisfaction either. That person was from the Philippines. What a joke this has ur bed out to be.

We booked a property in Florida towards the end of May for an August 14th vacation. On August 1st received email that booking was canceled due to water leak in vacation home. As per email we would be refunded the full amount and were to contact Vrbo to decide for a replacement property. We contacted customer service, our information was collected, and we were to wait for an email response from the cancelation team. After continuous attempts to reach out Vrbo due to no response from cancelation team we continue to receive the same message from customer service. We are told that we must wait for the cancelation team and that they will respond between 24 to 48 hrs. It is August 9th as I write this, and we have not heard from Vrbo. We ended up renting another property through Air B and B. Due to short window, all properties on any Travel website were twice the price. We had no choice but to pay double the price for a rental for August 14th. Vrbo has the worst customer service. They were supposed to find us a replacement and defer the cost of higher price and never responded. All correspondence is done through email, and you cannot get a person that is working on your case. We have used Vrbo on numerous occasions but never had an issue until now. But you never know what you get until you have a problem. They are not on the same level as Amazon's Customer Service. I will never use them again or recommend them. Go with a different Travel company.

I paid in advance $9970. 84 CAD for my 1month booking in the US. Their customer/ renter canceled within 5 days because they got a longer booking.
I received a Refund of $9438. 95 CAD, $$531.89 less than my payment.
I did not cancel or change my booking. They did! VRBO and their renter are responsible. VRBO said to talk to my bank. This is fees and services.
Yes, there are always fees and services but VRBO is responsible because they canceled. They will not refund the fees and services. This was a cost to book and a refund should be given.
Just a warning to all booking on VRBO and their partners. You will NOT get a full refund. This was advertised in Canadian dollars and I paid in Canadian dollars. They don't tell you that you will pay the exchange to American dollars. This is a total scam. BE CAREFUL.

Vrbo has given all the powers to the property owners. Property owners are more interested in the money, and they do not care about the health or situation of a person. I booked and paid for my Florida vacation. This was when the covid-19 numbers were looking good, and we realized we wanted to go and rest after staying and working at home for one and a half years. Hardly did we know that the Delta Variant would create yet another havoc. So when we saw the Florida numbers were not looking good, I sent an email to the property owner requesting to reschedule my trip as is listed on the website, and I did not get a response from him. I waited for two days and followed up with another email. I still did not hear from him. I knew very well that I had passed the time of cancellation. I wanted to reschedule the trip because I had people with pre-existing conditions in my party who did not feel comfortable traveling after realizing that Florida was becoming a covid-19 spot.

The property owner has not responded to my emails. The Vrbo customer services could not provide any help, yet it is stated on their website that you can request to reschedule your trip if situations change. On several occasions, the Vrbo representatives I spoke with kept telling me that they will send a courtesy email to the property owner while my days for the travel were approaching. They could not give me any help. The Customer Service representative gave me a phone number to contact the owner, to which I did. The property owner told me that he would not take my request to change my trip dates because he would lose some money. I told him to at least reply via email to state his reasons, and I never received that email.

Meanwhile, the site states that you will receive a response within. Would you please not book your vacation trip from this site? I have made several trips to Florida using Villa Direct, and all was well. This time I tried to change, and I caked see I am losing my money because our safety is better. If you have booked and paid and you are within your cancellation period, please cancel. If your situation changes and you cannot travel, trust me, you will not reschedule, and you will lose your hard-earned money, especially during this pandemic. I know they think they are clever, but all the money they are collecting will not take them anywhere. I feel sorry for their greedy wretched souls.

We have been using VRBO as hosts for years. Once Expedia bought them the fees and more fees, rules and general craziness started. We now use VRBO as a last resort and charge much higher fees there vs the exact same house on other sites so if you are a tenant looking to book you will get the highest rates (plus the crazy weekly fees they charge tenants) and the worst dates. Look elsewhere as both a host and a renter!

On June 30th, 2021 my friends and I booked a home on VRBO that sleeps 7 people for 1 night in the Poconos (PA). The rental was confirmed by VRBO. We departed on our 5-hour journey to the Poconos on July 3rd and when we arrived at the rental property, we met the property owner, but he had NO IDEA about the reservation. He brought us inside the home and told us that he had called VRBO to take down the advertisement from their website as he was SELLING the house. We walked around the house to find nearly all the furniture had been removed. We called VRBO inside the property together and the property owner told the representative that he had cancelled the listing, and this was not the first time he had to have the money refunded to other renters because they hadn't taken down the listing. VRBO did not help us find a different location but did tell us send the receipt for the reservation we did end up making. We had to scramble to find a new location which was another hour away from the property we had booked and had to coordinate 3 different groups of people and how to get there last minute. We emailed the receipt and after several calls to VRBO stating that this was their mistake they told us that they would not compensate us. As of this posting the property is still on their website! I still have the property owner's phone number and we spoke several times since we had arrived, and he was nothing but helpful. So, the takeaway here is that if you book through VRBO and it's a listing that they haven't taken down due to their negligence and your holiday plans go awry they won't take responsibility for their mistake and you'll be on your own to scramble. I highly recommend using a different company for your vacation rentals. VRBO customer service is atrocious.