VRBOReviews 1,999

My friend and I were staying with my dogs in a hotel during some renovations on my home. Due to the small nature of our hotel room we decided to book a one month dog friendly unit from VRBO.

Huge mistake. We used the "instant book" feature and it immediately took a little over $4000 in sales. The reservation was immediately canceled. When I called in to see if we could have the funds released they said refunds take 5-7 days. We informed them that we had used the last of our housing budget to book the property. Their response was "it's in the terms and conditions there are shelters for these situations". Faced with the choice of booking another night at the hotel or purchasing food we decided to sleep in our trucks. Guess we will be in that position for 5-7 days.

Stay away. They are ripping everybody off. They do not support owners. They allow reviews that are completely false. I joined VRBO more than 4 years ago, we have been a paid member and those that found us thru VRBO could book directly to the owners of the property. Then they started a 10% fee to renters to book thru VRBO. Then they instituted a policy that you could only accept payments through them and added 3% transaction fee to Owner. Prior you could accept a check or via PayPal or similar program. If you were a member in good standing you received your monies at booking. They just added another 3% to receive the money prior to arrival. I have a 60 day no refund policy. Once that is reached the payments are no longer VRBO's. It becomes my money. They also instituted a policy that they hold any deposits. If you need to make a claim it will go to an illegitimate arbitration process.
So in all a $500 membership fee to owners per year PLUS 6% additional on every booking for the owner. For the renter they can pay as much as 10%.
List and book on other sites like AirBNB or Tripadvisor.

In addition to the service fee you are charged to rent through VRBO, if there is any dispute regarding the security deposit, there is no renter recourse. If you have rented through management companies, you know they act as a "middle man" in resolving disputes. With VRBO, the owner decides if there is a problem, the owner decides how much it will cost to fix (no receipt or documentation). Finally, in my last VRBO rental, the owner kept coming by the house during the week. It verged on creepy. Go through a management company - you never have to see the owner, you have a small security fee rather than a hefty one the owner can essentially keep at will, and as management companies have many owners to consider - they want to keep renters happy.

I am apparently one of many that has been scammed by their gift cards. I have tried for over a year now... the phone number goes to a message that hangs up on you and the area on their site does not really accept or enter in any gift card certificate and order numbers. I have complained to the better business bureau and would like to see if there is a way we, the scammed can start a class action law suit. Even getting some funding back is better than nothing and this company needs to go out of business.

I booked a property in May for a trip in August with VRBO/HomeAway, even paying for the full visit in advance. The property got double booked and I did not find this out until I got to Phoenix and tried to contact the homeowner to verify the address, an hour and 10 minutes before check in. Let me tell you that their Guarantee is a complete and utter joke. They want me to spend my time holding on the phone for them. They don't just put you in a property that is comparable or better (they put you in a dirty hotel frequented by vagrants) for two days and then they will find you another place. They want you to stay one place for two days, then get moved again. I don't know about anyone else but having to move all of your stuff around every couple of days is just stressful. There is just so much to do with the convention, taking care of my mother and the fact that I myself got sick while there, the stress caused by this "Book with Confidence Guarantee" provided by VRBO/HomeAway is something I will make sure I never do again. And yes, I will be letting everyone I know about this. Please feel free to let everyone you know, about this too!

A owner misrepresented the house I rented. I was bullied by the owner. The owner took my SECURITY DEPOSIT. I paid for cleaning and for damage liability insurance. Owner said I damaged the property I told her to call the Damage liability insurance and file a claim. (I did not damage her property at all) she instead just took my security deposit! I told her if she did not refund my deposit as I had damage insurance I would express my experience of her property. They allowed me to post a review and said it was acceptable then removed it and she was allowed to review me 1 star! I got my money back for 1 night and security deposit. But I am unable to have my review posted but hers is still on my acct! And I cannot rent because of her now! I was treated horribly by VRBO and I left the house in fine shape! 4 towels on floor and bed covering that smelled like toilet bowl cleaner was left next to it. That was no reason to try to take my security deposit and make up false allegations! VBRO SIDED WITH OWNER! I paid for damage insurance! If there was damage she should have proven it! NOPE! Just tried to rip me off! VRBO will not allow me to close and delete my account!

VRBO phone app duplicated a refund to my customer with the same process time. I did not process twice.
VRBO would not help with this and was actually Rude. I called 7 different times.
Same results. So I blocked the bank draw and vrbo idiots paid it anyway... yes the ones that couldn't help. So now vrbo is coming after me for the money. The renter only gets one refund not 2. I called the corporate office and they were just as rude if not worse.

If you are a property owner do NOT use VRBO! I started using them despite their higher fees than Airbnb and longer payment pay out times. I set everything up correctly and after thirty days I got my pay out (Airbnb in a day after guest check in) and my bank rejected the payment saying information didn't match. I called VRBO and the rep was unable to say why there was a problem and issued a ticket to the billing team. I never heard back again. I called back after trying to update my payment info and kept getting an error message. I called back and the issued a ticket to their tech team. I never heard back. I called back again and they issued another ticket to the tech team as they closed it without communicating with me. I called back again and and they issued another ticket to the tech team and this time 6 days later I get and email asking if I'm experiencing a problem and when I didn't respond in 40 minutes (I was at the beach) they closed the case! I had to start the process all over again. I continue to have technical issues with their site to set up payment information and its been two months since our first VRBO guest and we still have not been paid and have spent hours to resolve. NO ONE at VRBO takes ownership of an issue. Bottom line they take longer to pay than Airbnb and cost more too. They are not worth your time. Period!

The owners misrepresented this place. The apt was next to one of the busiest roads in Asheville. I was divebombed by vehicles all night and the sheets were so old with lint balls, I wouldn't even use them as a rag. I checked out the next morning (paid for 6 days). They refused to give me my money back citing their cancel before 2 week policy. VRBO's customer service is worthless. They say it's between my and the owner. I now have to take this guy Shawn to court.

Booked a night with Acker Vacation Homes and Suites in Kelowna, BC via BedandBreakfast website. Some of the descriptions of the place are: panoramic room, lake views, and free parking among other lovely things.

- was a small room with a king bed and that's about it. Hardly any room to move on other sides of the bed
- was a lake view but it is from a top a hill over 10 kms away
- parking is free, if you park on the street in front of the house
- supposed to be "bed and breakfast" but there is no breakfast. In fact, your small room is locked from the other side and you have no access to anything or anywhere else in the house.
- zero service on site to help with anything including checking out
- no where on the site tells you the rate is in USD to CDN. The only indication is a note the say $100 CDN deposit is required. With that information and that the location is in Canada one would think that the rate is in Canadian dollars. So I booked the room for $133 (after taxes and fee) for 1 night, and immediately my credit card company notified me a charge of $178 being made. Right away, I contacted Arcker about the situation and wish to cancel. After explaining to the site manager, Mark, he told me no problem but I need to contact BedandBreakfast. But when I called bedandbreakfast I was told that Arcker need to approve the cancellation for it to happen. To make the story short, Archer refused to cancel my reservation and will charge me $178 regardless or me staying the night or not.
(To be fair, the bnb man on the other side was very understanding and tried to be helpful.)

Would not use either BedandBreakfast or Acker services again. Very dishonest.