VRBOReviews 2,001

We rented a home for 60 days. VRBO took $499 fee. We arrived and the home was a disaster including a faulty electrical system and non-functioning fire alarm system. The home did not meet local fire and safety code. We left. We asked VRBO to refund our fee many times. They refuse. VRBO does not stand behind any claims made by any renter. They wash their hands of all misrepresentations and misstatements made by renters inducing people to rent. VRBO just takes its fee. They are a fraudulent and criminal organization. Stay away. Rent from reputable agents.

Rented a cabin in the smokey mountains through VRBO from a Ravinger Japgal. We booked a few weeks prior and were excited to relax with the kids for a mountain vacation. We drove over 10 hours to the smokey mountains with 2 kids and the night before we were to check into to our rental cabin we get an email from this poor excuse for a human saying "we sold the property and your reservation was cancelled" no notice and they billed over 2k on our credit card and did not refund. Spent oved 6 hours on the pbone with vrbo who has the absolute worst customer service known to mankind. Ravinger jagpal is a huge piece of trash who does not care they left a family with 2 young kids stranded 12 hours away from home in the mountains. Was told if we cant find another place dueto it being spring break to just go home. *******905 would give negative stars if we could.

I reserved Property ID: ******* in Snowmass, Colorado, with owner Pete Ferrara, back in June. When Delta canceled our flight into Aspen, we were 65 days from check-in. The property is advertised with a firm cancellation policy which means the renter receives a 100% refund if canceled more than 60 days from check-in. He will not refund the money unless he re-books the property for the same date. VRBO sent him a recommendation to refund the money; he refused. VRBO is now an active participant in this fraud as they allow owners to advertise one cancellation policy and then impose another. UPDATE: VRBO was no help at all - lots of on holds and escalations with no results. Costco VISA to the rescue (even though I put the charge in dispute almost 6 months after the initial payment}! After an investigation, they issued a permanent credit to my account for over $2000. VRBO still 1 star. Costco Visa CC 5 stars. It's unfortunate for all of the wonderful owners using the VRBO platform, but I, along with many others who have had an awful experience with an unscrupulous owner, will never book through VRBO again.

I spent hours reviewing properties and finally selected one. It gave specific instructions for scoring the deal advertised, so I messaged the "host" to double-check the instructions. He responded, telling me that he had sold the property, so I would have to contact the new owner if I wanted to rent it. But VRBO would not allow him to give me the number. VRBO also refused to take down or correct the listing, saying that they would instead just wait until it eventually expired.

HORRIBLE COMPANY... had a very rude host... told company about it and tried deleting or deactivating my account and felt like it was held for ransom... no matter what i do they dont seem to let me delete my account with them... was on hold 19 mins to be hung up on... then called back to be put on hold for 25 mins... they sent email i responded and nothing done... next day i call again, wait was 5 mins, put on hold for 11 mins to be told they will send another email and after i responded to email they claim they are not receiving it... she also said it has to go to a specialist in order to delete it... THIS COMPANY IS ONLY HOLDING MY ACCOUNT HOSTAGE IN ORDER TO SELL OFF MY PERSONAL INFORMATION... will be calling my state attorney general

VRBO has no teeth. If the owner wishes to cancel a reservation, they can do it at any time. Even right up to the day of check-in. Be careful and read, their policies first. At best, they will "try" to help you find another reservation... what happens if, there is nothing left or the prices are much higher? If you purchase their travel insurance, you don't even get that back if the owner cancels on you... And it's a 1 way travel insurance, only in favor of the insurance company as, it does not cover the owner cancelling your reservation... I would highly recommend using another service that is at least reputable.

I booked 2 x 7 day cottage trips for this summer, the owner canceled both. I have no recourse whatsoever.

Find another service, get away from this one!

One would think a company that was born and bred specifically for the internet would have become a leader in the industry but instead, VRBO has the most unintuitive site/app with archaic features that make searching for a property about as cumbersome as it can get.

No means of saving searches so, you must go in and enter ever filter each time you go in to resume a search; no means of selecting renting an entire house - instead, you will get apartments that are IN an house, and the list of misses goes on.

Coupled with no customer service, whatsoever, we've switched to Airbnb for listing properties and finding rentals.

I have used VRBO in the past but will never do so again. I saw a vacation home on its site and should have known better; I booked through VRBO, was taken through the payment process and then received a call from the local rental agency at the vacation site saying they had "not received a payment". I checked and VRBO debited for a $500 service fee, but did not do ANYTHING ELSE! The payments and info will be coming from the local rental agency and VRBO collected a fat fee from me for NOTHING. I feel so stupid and also feel cheated. This is completely unfair for the "service" provided, which is apparently nothing. Never ever again. Lost a repeat customer with this. I cannot share the image from my account, but it is showing the VRBO fee, as well as the payment made directly to the local rental agency. TOTAL RIPOFF!

A few days before my vacation, I was mysteriously refunded $1000 for cancellation. I freaked out and messaged the property owner, he said it was a VRBO mistake and then he sent me a bill to repay that $1000, which I had only a day to repay but as I worked all day I only really had an hour. I leave for my vacation the following day.
Many amenities were non-functional: hot tub, air hockey, ping pong, a toilet, hot water heater, several lights, jacuzzi bathtub etc.
I contacted the manager many times, he ignored the issues and I finally requested maintenance. We arrived Friday evening, the repair guy came Saturday late afternoon. My group's whole day was thrown off, and they only thing that got fixed was the water heater, but it was my group that fixed it: it had been connected to the constantly running toilet which depleted the hot water.
So I kept politely asking the owner for a partial refund, he ignored me completely on that, but did reply to my "thank yous" and "fyis". Finally I sent him a very blatant "where's my refund?" To which a week passed without a response.
So I got a hold of VRBO, I was told I'd get a response in 3 days. 5 days are passed and I've received nothing. I've concluded that this is a scam company who doesn't care a lick about their customers.
Don't give them your service!

Evidently, their booking system malfunctioned on 2/28. I kept getting error messages saying they could not process my request. At one point I got a notice that my desired place was booked, so I tried a different place. Same error message each time. Today, I have three reservations and terrible customer service. Now they won't return my money unless I show them my bank records. Let's be clear. They know their system messed up, and they are making me show bank records of the fact they have MY money. The resort, by the way, returned my money immediately, but not VRBO.

We book a vacation home in B. C. In February 2020. This was before the pandemic even started. We booked the home for Christmas of 2020. In November of 2020, the B. C. Government issued a travel ban because of the virus so we could not go. We thought that if we could not go at Christmas that we could postpone our trip for when things got better. We contacted the owner to rebook our vacation for April or May to learn that he has sold the house in the meantime. Now we cannot get our money back. VRBO says the owner of the house has the money and the owner is saying that VRBO is holding the money. Meanwhile we have not received any money. Our only recourse is to go to small claims court to get our money back. Be very aware of how this place operates and be very careful when you book with them

I was refused a refund because I did not cancel in time. We had a Natural Disaster here in Texas. No electricity no water for 5 days and a freeze the day I was to dive to vacation. No help from VRBO AT ALL! Owner refused unless she could re book. Hello we are in the middle of a freaking disaster here. No I'm stuck $650. VRBO SUCKS!

We had a terrible experience with a vacation rental through VRBO. Upon returning we tried to contact them to discuss the issues, which we had plenty of detailed documentation for. They do nothing to vet their listings and it turns out they do nothing to help their consumers. There is literally no reason, as a consumer, to use them. You pay more and get less. What is the point of using these types of companies if they do not provide any protection for you?

I spoke with 3 people from a foreign call center, had a case number, had legitimate complaints, and was told my case was not worthy of speaking to a supervisor. The call center would not transfer me to a supervisor - I was told my case didn't qualify, it was denied the respect of one. The call center people kept repeating their script regardless of what I said. At the end, it turns out they should have told me to contact the property company directly. Instead, they let me stay on the phone for 3 hrs with them, for nothing but disrespect and frustration.

This is the most disrespectful and pointless company I can think of. They do nothing to look out for the consumer, and give you zero respect despite the thousands of dollars you have spent with them. There is no benefit to using them. Go directly through the property rental companies or use another service which doesn't have a 1 star review. I hope they go out of business soon.

It's a nice idea but beware before you click. If you make one mistake, they may well not refund your money. Whatever you do DO NOT BUY THEIR TRIP INSURANCE. Very expensive total rip-off. It's nothing to do with VRBO, so they will take zero responsibility for it and you will never meet the requirements. I lost so much money to this crappy company. I will never use them again.

I had my home listed on VRBO for 14 years. I switched from an annual fee to pay per booking because of COVID. They also told me that I had the options to go back to the annual fee basis at the time of renewal. They did not switch my account and charged me $499 (without prior notice) for the annual subscription. As I did not check my credit card and file for a refund within their arbitrary 90 day deadline, they refused my refund request - even though they took my money when they shouldn't have.

Also, I have sold the property and rather than transferring the only 2 bookings to the new owner, the guests have to manually visit VRBO, cancel their holiday and re-book with the new owner. All VRBO cares about is a money grab. They do not treat owners fairly and are very user unfriendly to the guests that are paying a lot of money to book through them. I would never book through VRBO or use them again.

Horrible service. I booked a place and the night before the check-in received an email from the property that the unit is not available when I received email confirmation and the payment was deducted from my account. I called VRBO and was one hour over the phone with customer service and at the end been told to call tomorrow morning so the other department find a replacement for me. This is based on their claim that they guarantee to find another place if its less than 24 hrs to the check-in. Next day morning another one hour and at then end I was told to go to expedia to find a place.

Just reserved a place at Lake Weir Florida, 2 weeks out, paid for it, then 2 days later got cancelled, no reason what -so -ever. Can only assume it was about money where someone renting before us or behind us were paying more. The owner stated he refunded my money. Also, I bought a travel policy. Also, rented a place in Glendale Az, got there, then the landlord changes my reservation resulting in my renting a hotel room. I called VRBO, they will tell you, they cannot do anything for you. I am done with them!

VRBO is allowing their property managers to post very low rates to get you to book. Then the property manager doubles or triples your rate. This is not legal and VRBO didn't even respond when I sent an email.

I've been waiting since August to get my refund. Once October hit I contracted them and informed them I still had nothing. They informed me that the was a problem with there system and they would get it fixed and get it send out. So I waited again, January hit and I contacted them again to be in former it was sent out and it was cashed. I never received it and they just dragged me along for the ride..