The overall reputation of the company reflects significant dissatisfaction among customers, particularly regarding its customer service and reliability. Many users report frustrating experiences with delayed refunds, poor communication, and unhelpful support staff. Complaints about properties not matching descriptions or being in unacceptable conditions are prevalent, leading to a loss of trust. While a few customers express occasional satisfaction with specific transactions, the overwhelming sentiment leans towards a lack of accountability and professionalism. This has resulted in a growing number of users opting for alternative platforms, indicating a critical need for improvement in service quality and responsiveness.
This summary is generated by AI, based on text from customer reviews
I have many listings, through many clients in my area. VRBO does not allow co hosting, while everyone else does, and so this creates a massive amount of problems for me. They insist that the best way for me to manage my business is to make many listings... which is idiotic. They want me to log into seperate accounts each time, then navigate through their screens. I do this all day, and this is a huge waste of my time. I absolutely hate using the VRBO website. If you use AirBnB as a host, you know the difference between the 2 platforms, and VRBO is like a nightmare.
Furthermore, I have a listing which needed a new bank account attached to it for payments. I did that with no trouble, then got an email saying it WAS DELETED. And now, they have been WITH HOLDING MY PAYMENTS FOR OVER 2 MONTHS, leaving me to pay my clients out of pocket.
We booked what was listed as a luxury property a substantial amount and were eagerly looking forward to a family vacation - only to find that the place was not what was described. Upon arrival we were notified that the property ran on a septic tank and we could not flush toilet paper down the toilet - had to put in in a garbage. Then, in 30 degree heat, the air conditioning and electricity were being rationed (had to call owners daily to turn it on, and it was shut off as soon as we left the property - yes owners came in every day during our stay), creating heat, smell and animal infestations during our stay. Two of the fans in the bathrooms were not working. The third bathroom had a wall open to the outside, inviting all sorts of animals in, making it unusable. The place was in the middle of nowhere, about 10 minutes drive from town through dirt roads to town - not the described two minute walk to the beach. It was a lone house in a development that never got built, and so isolated owner had to assure us he had installed an electric fence around the perimeter. The property was in shambles, no oven, the dishwasher falling apart, kitchen cabinets were moldy and ant infested. Sheets, towels, linens, kitchen appliances in complete state of disrepair, put together from scraps that felt like we were using hand-me-downs, they were moldy with stains and holes. Housekeeping services were promised every other day but were never delivered (the property smelled bad due to septic tank, humidity and lack of proper air conditioning/ventilation. (I have 30 pages of comments as to what went wrong, but it is too much to list here)
Stay became so bad owners kept apologizing for everything that went wrong and after two nights into a 6 night stay verbally agreed to cut our nightly rate in half based on other comparable properties in the area, asking for a few days to process refund after xmas/new years. After check out they reneged on their promise. Complete scam that left us shocked.
Was not able to make owners provide what they promised. They offered to refund their service fee, but beyond that had little recourse. They do not vet their listings for accuracy so the entire experience was stressful and would not use them again
We had planned a vacation to Australia over the Christmas holiday. We booked a home thru VRBO. Due to the wildfires and the unhealthy air there we were forced to cancel our trip. We did, however, re-book a home thru VRBO in San Diego CA. It was actually more expensive than our place in Australia. I called VRBO to see if they would refund their service fee from the home in Australia as I had rebooked the home in California. They were very inept - said it was there policy not to ever refund the service fee. Then they said maybe they could - they checked on my re-booked property and then said since it was not exactly the same days (Sydney is a day ahead of us so it would never have been the same exact days) they could not refund the first service fee. I understand that the home owner in Australia could not refund the home (we had people in our group who had some lung issues so we thought it best not to expose them to the toxic air there) but I thought we would at least get the service fee back since we re-booked thru them. I will never use VRBO again - they are horrible!
We rented at Harbor Tower and Yacht Club for three weeks. After 6 nights there my son died. I went home immediately. The owner would not even consider to give me a refund. Said that the contract said 60 notice prior to date. How was I supposed to know my 39 year old son was going to pass away.
I did contact the Harbor club and they are very upset nothing was offered.
I really want it put on VRBO not to rent from this person. Christine Wohnus 521? She didn't complete the contract by not giving me a review to write
Buyer Beware. This was my first and last time using VRBO / Homeaway. VRBO does not provide any protection for their renters. Recently booked a stay at 2*31 Oneida Loop Kissimmee, FL ******* and the home had bugs, missing verticals in living and master bedroom and sticky floors. When I pointed out the bugs in the second room the owner said, "This is Florida, if you look for bugs, you'll find them." I live in Florida and I don't have 100s of dead bugs along the baseboards of my bedrooms or behind my beds. Yes! 100s of tiny dead bugs. I contacted the owner as it recommends in the faqs and I contacted VRBO when I returned from my trip. VRBO says it's up to the owner to provide a refund and the owner chose not to. I drove three hrs, got there after 10pm with my two young children. I was by myself. Shame on you VRBO. I hope the owner enjoys spending my son's Christmas gift money... I'm out $530. I will never use VRBO and warning anyone considering staying at the house. I have pictures of the bugs so you know what kind of bug spray to bring.
We booked our trip of a lifetime to Australia spending New Yeats Eve in a VRBO property overlooking Sydney Harbor Bridge. After we paid in full for our stay, the property owner ghosted from the VRBO website and VRBO never contacted us to let us know. We had made reservations months and months and months in advance but are now facing thousands in additional fees to have a very far less New Years experience.
Our family will NEVER use VRBO again...
Ordered, cancelled within time frame.
Charged a " tax, traveler service Fee And 75 extra.
We are NEVER USING AGAIN.
AND WILL FIGHTVTHIS TOOTH AND NAIL.
Required $59 insurance, and $1000 deposit on a $500 booking. Spoke directly to property owner and booked for cost. Do not use vrbo ever.
My husband and I have used VRBO several times through the past 3-4 years and have always been extremely satisfied with them. Until now. Our vacation was cancelled just 2 days prior to our arrival date by the owner. It took hours on the phone along with numerous texts and emails to get a full refund. We were given a partial refund twice before getting the full amount. Essentially, VRBO was sorry, but could not help with a new place unless we wanted to pay full price for it. That would have been seriously crazy as we had yet to get our money back from the prior reservation.
BedAndBreakfast.com site claims they still accept gift cards yet offer no help or access to these properties and online filter/sorts show no properties accept previously purchased gift cards.
I should have stuck with Airbnb, knew it was a risk going to another company basically unknown to most of the public. I still haven't been paid for a two night stay someone had at my property and they STILL haven't replied to my email. Terrible customer service. Never going to use them to book a holiday or to rent my home again.
I had a review left on my beach condo through a HomeAway guest. When I saw the review I knew this was not my condo. I could not get Home Away to do anything so I contacted redawning. I sent them pictures proving the review was not true. HomeAway removed the review however VRBO has the same review on their site and they will not remove. I have now found out that these people did not even stay in my condo. So Homeowners beware.
The review left said I had dinosaurs for TVs, 5 channels, 2 TVs that did not work, kitchen trash can to small and sofa broken in middle. I have flat screen TVs one in each bedroom and one in living room. My sofa is not broken and the trash can is a kitchen trash can. I also have high speed internet with over 149 channels.
When using the VRBO app I attempted to book a home. After inputting my credit card I received an error message that stated something to the effect of "Something went wrong. Try again later. Upon trying again the home was no longer available. I told my wife that the house was no longer available and went to bed for the night. She proceeded to arrange another property through VRBO.
When I awoke the next morning and checked my email I found a confirmation email stating that I had some how booked the property when I had originally received an error message. I immediately picked up the phone and called the customer service phone number and told them the story. They apologized and told me that both properties had a zero refund policy and it was my failure because I hadn't check my email for a confirmation email after receiving the error message. After calling several times and insisting on speaking to a supervisor only then did they tell me that the only way to get a refund was to cancel my reservation and hope that someone else rebooks the property through VRBO. I sent the owner a message through the app and he said the same thing. I questioned both VRBO and the owner, "What if he books the property through AirBNB and it doesn't show up in VRBOs records as being rebooked? Then how am I guaranteed a refund?" The owner has since stopped replying to messages and VRBO could not give me a straight answer.
As of right now VRBO has not taken any responsibility or accountability of the error on their app. And the owner is not planning on refunding my money.
The only hope I have is that I have filed a dispute with America Express on the charge.
We will never use VRBO again.
If you have a property good luck getting any support from HomeAway. The staff are not based in NZ, and were difficult to understand. Biggest issue was a lack of common sense.
When I gave up and emailed, they did not grasp the issue and all and instead replied with a generic copy/paste information.
I gave up in the end.
After years of my using VRBO
They knowingly partnered with a 1- star payment service, Yapstone. Yapstone reviews are nothing but horror stories about people waiting months and years for the reservation payments. I was due payment in August, and as of 11-7-19, had nothing but unintelligible excuses from non-English speaking phone representatives. After many broken agreements over months, and having VRBO on the line with me talking to Yapstone, Yapstone finally admitted they HAD no date to give me about dispersing my funds! 3 months! I checked the reviews and was horrified to see that this is SOP for Yapstone- so WHY would VRBO partner with a sleazy company like that? Check the reviews about YapStone.
I canceled a $2,000 Christmas reservation to avoid being a permanent victim. If you've been harmed and wish to join a class- action lawsuit to join recovery efforts for damages from VRBO/ Yapstone, contact at *******@gmail.com.
We booked a villa in Las Terrenas, DR for our honeymoon on Oct. 24 and the property manager now tells us our reservation was not booked. We called customer service and a woman told us she'd 'get back to us,' but hasn't. Our flights are already booked to the DR for Christmas day. We have no place to stay, and VRBO and the property owner have our money. This is our first time booking with VRBO and we didn't realize they are owned by Expedia. On our last trip to the DR, our car rental reserved through Expedia was also overbooked so there was no car at the airport. We had to pay almost three times as much to another company on site. We filed a BBB complaint and found there were over 100 before us for a variety of reasons. Stay far far away.
Don't trust this company. I booked accommodation through them and the owner contacted me saying his villa wasn't available and offered me a villa of a lot lower standard. He also said he wouldn't refund me, I contacted company on their help number only to be told there was nothing they could do to cancel the booking and get me a refund, even with the accommodation not even being available and the proof I had, I lost a lot of money over scam. BEWARE!
VRBO has THE WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER! They do not answer you or make any real and sincere attempt to help you. They just pass the buck to the homeowner, who often only wants your money. They seem to have no idea about the fact that they are supposed to be in the hospitality industry, WORST CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER at VRBO... rent from Air B n B instead.
Published review 10/23/19
I signed up oct 21 2019, I just sold my house moved to bnb in the area for 2 weeks while looking for a place, I have 2 kids that still go to school in the same area. The bnb I was in wasn't available for longer so I found a property in vrbo that is comfortable enough and close to the school with enough rooms and parking. I submitted the request wrote the letter to the owner about us and that I needed for 11 days total cost 2,614.00$. They accepted I was charged, money withdrawn and then right after the owner texted that oops the driveway was just redone and I won't be able to park, so I asked will be street parking be an issue, she was honest and said yes and we had 2 vehicles and possibly my older son vehicle, so looking for parking every time we come back wasn't an option. Owner canceled but the refund won't come back till 5-7 days. I need a place in 4 days I was on the phone for few calls as expected, absolutely no compensation noo solution I asked them to book me something and charge me in few days. I asked them to stop the refund Anything because not everyone can replace 2,614.84 in a minute, but nop nothing they one of the representatives literally said I have to figure it out on my own all they can do is refund. I did everything right and when they messed up no compensation whatsoever. I actually have to figure it out I didn't have any choices or even suggestions Even though they fool with their Confidence guarantee and so called protection HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE
Vrbo boldly boasts a "book with confidence guarantee" designed to give consumers comfort that if a host cancels at the last moment, Vrbo will resolve the problem. This happened to me on a reservation I had for seven months that was cancelled two days beforehand which caused great damage. I couldn't get Vrbo to pick up the phone, nevermind do anything about it once I did get a hold of them. They have stood behind legal jargon saying that they have nothing to do with the agreement of property and consumer and won't even acknowledge the 'guarantee' plastered on their website.
Answer: There are many problems with listing with VRBO/HomeAway. The 1st is that it is the largest company of it's size. While that may mean that you get more exposure, you also have more competition for getting your listing seen. For example, your listing could be # 300 out of 2,000. Most people don't want to search that far to find what they want because they can usually find something else sooner. In order to get a higher listing, you must pay more. I pay the highest rates they have for my properties in TN # 191351, 189535, & 289723, i. E. over $1,500 each. Listing position is also based on a number of criteria which they mandate. We have no control over some of those criteria. For example, listing position is based on whether or not guests USE VRBO/HomeAway on line booking. Initially,. VRBO/HomeAway required that we OFFER on line booking in order to maximize our listing position, so I offered it. VRBO/HomeAway then changed their criteria & now guests must USE on line booking in order or my listing position drops. I have no control over whether or not they USE VRBO/HomeAway & I don't recommend it for several reasons (more on that if you're interested). Listing positions are also determined by the number & quality of reviews. Again, I have no control over whether or not someone writes a review nor how they rate a property. What may be a 5 Star for someone may only be a 3 Star for someone else, but I'm at their mercy to provide a review & to rate it well. There are many other factors that go into listing position. As I said, I try to maximize what I can & If I'm luck, my property will be listed around 50/200. I get much better response from FlipKey by TripAdvisor. As I mentioned, I pay VRBO/HomeAway over $1,500 for each property. I Pay FlipKey by TripAdvisor about $450/property for #'s 6588094, 2386143, & 3746421 & get much better results. The problem with FlipKey is that it's hard for someone to search for a specific property using the property #.
Answer: VRBO will not help anymore with anything. Homeaway bought them and there is no personal contact with owners anymore until they pay through the site. I don't know about negative reviews. Never see any. If there was a way to avoid VRBO and Someway I would do it; but they have the corner on the VACA rental market now.
Answer: I have the same problem. I don't think they have any.
Answer: Vrbo will NOT get involved in any way. They will not arbitrate on anyone's behalf. They are strictly an advertising website. Carefree travel insurance & all the other stuff is just to make renters feel more comfortable to rent. They hardly ever pay out if there is a real problem. You can sue in small claims court, in the city & state you rented in. The only defense you have is if you paid with a credit card to do a charge back, & even then its hard. You have to have documentation to prove you case. However, vrbo won't contest the chargeback if you can get your credit cad company to work with you. Best to leave a review that warns other renters to stay away. But vrbo approves the reviews before they are posted.
Answer: I have spoken with them so many times yesterday and today with no fix my problem. The number is 1-877-228-3145. I wish you better luck than I have had.
Answer: Absolutely nothing! Every change they make results in their making more money and owners making less. My bookings are down drastically. I would not sign up with VRBO.
Answer: Go with the standard listing if you have already paid. If not save your money and try homeescape.com. Homeaway/VRBO rolled out a new 9% service fee charged to your customers in addition to what you're already paying for. They did this without any warning to their customers. I found out after one of my repeat guests questioned the charge. I'm moving away from them and going with other options.
Answer: A: NEVER, EVER DEAL WITH ANY OWNERS OR PROPERTY MANAGERS THAT YOU HAVENT SPOKEN TO DIRECTLY. NEVER use any form of payment other than credit card. All CC's would refund you the money if you don't get the services. If they don't accept cards or allow payment through Homeaway, FIND ANOTHER PROPERTY OWNER WHO WILL or be prepared to take the chance. READ all reviews, if they don't have any you ARE taking a chance it's a scam or a dump (or a new property but be careful. NEVER make a large deposit EVER! VRBO has turned out to be reliable for us, never used Flipkey and AirBnB wouldn't use it - I want a large property not a room room share
Answer: Try airbnb to rent part of your home
Answer: Same issue for us. The house we rented had glowing reviews and when I tried to post an honest review it still has not been posted.
VRBO provides vacation rental listings by owner in the US and around the world.