VRBOReviews 2,001

We booked a New Years vacation through VRBO for our family of 5 in Key Largo, FL
The site charged us upfront and we traveled from Michigan via car with our 3 children. This trip was approximately 2000 miles for us. We were informed as we were traveling and 9 hours before check in that the management company Evolve had cancelled our reservation due to a city regulation that requires rentals to be 25 days or more. We had to contact Evolve property management in order to find out what could be done. They offered us a refund and no alternate properties plus $360.00 (20%) that would be sent to us at a later date. Considering that we had a family of 5 and they had taken over $2000.00 from us upfront to pay for the cancelled property this really did not help at all. We then contacted VRBO to see what they could do to accommodate us,last minute and on a holiday weekend. They offered us a selection of hotel properties for the next 2 days until they could find us a similar rental. Now we were crammed into a hotel and we had planned a vacation where everyone had their own sleeping space for 4 days. They said they would contact us VIA email with options. It never happened and we ended up spending a majority of our vacation on the phone to resolve the issue where were hung up on over and over again. We ended up having to book our own last 2 days because they did nothing additional to help us. Now we are waiting on the funds to make it back to our account while we get back to normalcy. I would not recommending you place your family and its vacation at the risk of this company and I would be very cautious if you do. This ended up costing us double an amount of our planned vacation and we never really were able to relax as planned. I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else and I hope they are held accountable at some point. Expedia should be ashamed.

Owner classic bait-and-switch approved by VRBO. We made a reservation 18 months in advance, with reservation accepted/approved. Owner called and insisted he could make more money and told us to cancel, which we refused to do. Owner cancelled us. Phone complaint to VRBO (twice) and was told it happens all the time and there was nothing they could or would do about it. We asked for a supervisor to return our call, still waiting.

While VRBO can be effective for bookings and their agents are generally helpful, if you do have a serious problem with a tenant, the homeowner has no access to help from senior management. Repeated requests for contact are totally rejected. It leaves the homeowner in a helpless loop and can lead to negative reviews and needless stress. Their policies need to be seriously revisited!

This is my first experience in renting and with VRBO. I had a few questions as a newbie so I reached out to support. Chat and phone are the two options.
Chat: I waited several minutes for my turn, only to be told my agent wasn't available and to start over. After starting over and then waiting for several more minutes, a message came up that read that "messages were being translated and my session had ended"? What?
So I got inline again...finally Jenelyn helped.
The issue was, I hadn't received any funds after the guest checked out after a week.
I found out how to find the payout summary showing all the details of their payment, deductions etc. At the end of the line item it reads "payable to you" which ended up being different than it showed under the specific reservation. After working with Jenelyn for over 30 minutes and having her go into my portal, my original report was now blank so I couldn't see any of the details of my transaction. When I asked her where the information went...she disconnected.
Oh, I did try to call the 1-877 # but it is constantly busy.
You would think better of a big company but I guess they continue to provide reason for their low ratings.

I get that I booked a place. But come on - this place was sitting there empty and still is. They didn't lose a reservation when I cancelled. I had to have emergency surgery and my Doctor said I absolutely cannot go and put it in writing. They charged me the full price anyway and only refunded the cleaning fee. What a complete scam. DO NOT EVER BOOK WITH VRBO!

A couple of friends and I were trying to book a place to stay for an event on New Year's Eve. We got canceled on not once, not twice, but three times. They clearly are not implementing anything to service the rentees and prevent cancellations. For context, I have used Airbnb for 5 years now with multiple bookings and not one has cancelled. If you can, just book hotel rooms.

Made a reservation on VRBO for Property # ******* with Host Naylan and paid in full for 12/24/2022 to 1/3/2023. Prior to arrival I was having difficulty contacting host and called from a different phone and was eventually able to speak with him on the morning of flight. About 1/2 hour prior to boarding I was informed that the house was no longer available. I was scheduled to arrive at 2:00 P.M. and check in at 3. Without any time to figure out what to do do upon arrival. I was refunded the money eventually but being Christmas eve on saturday and Christmas on sunday left with very few options. Needless to say they ruined my christmas and whole vacation. Later on upon checking the house was available to rent on 12/28/22 to 12/30/22 and by looking at their facebook posts they used the house for their personal use. Had I not called from a different phone I would have arrived without any notice of it being cancelled. VRBO was generous enough to put us in a hotel but that's what we had planned for since the rooms were not close to each other. We were able to get a decent meal or any kind of holiday celebrations. By Day 4 still couldn't find a rental because of the time of the year and shortage of housing in Florida and was forced to stay in a hotel and play an outrageous amount for my vacation which I had not planned on. STAY AWAY FROM THIS PROPERTY AND THIS HOST. VERY BAD BUSINESS PRACTICE AND SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO RENT AGAIN.

HIDDEN FEES! This property listed for $33 a night, so for a month we were expecting to pay about $1460 including the not hidden service and cleaning fees (which are cheaper than AirBnb) which appear at checkout. THIS PROPERTY wants a mandatory $1000 a night to stock the kitchen of a 2br 2bath condo. That's $34,000.00! What respectable business would allow such trickery and deceit to represent their brand? They know that they are luring people in with the low nightly rate...this is clearly a SCAM tactic. Then refuse the full refund to cancel making/taking money off of travelers. Vrbo should be ashamed of themselves for listing this property! The truth is that at checkout, this fee should be made visible and added to the total on the check out page if it is MANDATORY! This fee should be listed on LINE 1 not line 15.

I'm not sure if this is a scam or not. However, I purchased a rental property on 12/01/2022. The property manager canceled as soon as I submitted my payment and stated the property has been booked locally at the last minute and I will be refunded within in 15 days. Today makes 21 days. I still have no refund. I've been calling the call center for the past 5 days. The only answer I've been given is this case has been escalated to a higher department. Still no refund. No managers to talk. Scammed by Vrbo is my new name. Where is my money. Nobody at the call center can answer this question. Only reason why I'm giving them one star because there is no room for zero stars.

Stay away from Property ID *******, it is a complete health hazard, owner refuses to refund and VRBO does nothing. Pictures on site are not reality. VRBO is the worst place to rent from, you would think when they tack on their exorbitant fees that they would actually protect the traveler but instead they are there for their cut of the scam.

We booked our condo in May and we flew in with kids got groceries and went to the condo. The owner would not let us enter and said Vrbo double booked and refused to refund our money and many hours on the phone with Vrbo and no refund and no stay

I had a recent guest review my property favorably.: However, she gave me one star to accompany the said written review. I tried to contact her thorough VRBO for more information on why there was a discrepancy between the one star and the written review she provided. She has not replied to my polite request for more information in several weeks. VRBO stated that guest may have made a mistake in rating the property with one star. VRBO also stated that the company was unable to change the rating and that the guest had to change the rating. The name of my property is The Butternut Cottage. I have been a loyal VRBO customer until now and have provided them with considerable business through the rental of my property. I feel betrayed and disparaged by VRBO.

We have attempted to rent 2 different homes in Maine for our daughters graduation from college and both have cancelled after making the arrangements and paying. The 1st one decided to remodel and the 2nd one decided to sell the home. Never trusting Vrbo again. We did get our refunds. Not worth the hassle and disappointment.

I rented a 3 night stay with VRBO, we asked the owner to repair some items who stated "he didn't have anyone to come out to repair items while we were there". Just after we complained to the owner, we received an email stating we violated the rules and our stay was terminated. We could not find a 2 bedroom near us and was forced to drive 2 hours to rent a hotel. VRBO gave me 2 case numbers and told me several times they would require the owner to prove we violated the rules and they would refund the total amount. The owner never sent proof and we were only refunded one night that we didn't stay and vrbo has refused to refund any other amount. I sent photos of the condition of the unit and after numerous calls, they ended up doing nothing. Will NEVER rent from VRBO again! Toilet continued to run, rotting area of floor where baseboards were removed, moldy caulking, dirty pillow, lights didn't work in areas, cat or dog food in blender, coffee pot broken, hair balls on floor in screened porch & more. Owner only reimbursed one night, we still had to pay for 2 nights and find another place to stay the final night and pay for that stay 2 hours away. When VRbo spoke with me, they assured us they would refund all of it because of the issues. Then they changed their minds after 2 case numbers and tons of calls to VRBO.

I list a remote 5 star rental on four different booking sites. We have maintained a perfect 5.0 rating on all four sites since opening our property for booking in 2020. We recently (Nov 2022) had a guest who from the start made every effort to cheat the rules and lied about the number staying on property to avoid additional charges. When confronted about this and charged the extra nightly rate for the additional guests, the guest was not happy. He also wanted a total of 7 people to stay which we denied. This resulted in a very bad review from the guest which contained numerous lies. The guest stated we had surveillance cameras everywhere. We have one surveillance camera on the entry drive for security. It is off when guests are present, and it is noted clearly in the listing. We immediately paused our listing so no one would see this very false review. I contacted VBRO on numerous occasions and they offered no assistance to remove the review so I removed the property from their website.

DO NOT STAY HERE. THE DIRTIEST PLACE I HAVE EVER BEEN. Dust, hair, dirt, old food, dirty toilets etc. explanation of property is a lie! "Host" is gross. Waste of time and money

Our VRBO host requested a $1500 personal check outside of the app for an "event fee." They threatened to cancel our stay if we refused to pay, then they kept our $500 deposit at the end of the stay for "trash removal," in addition to the 200$ cleaning fee we paid. There are no protections for the person staying in these places, and the owners can filter out bad reviews. VRBO does nothing to help.

Lame site, keeps crashing with "aw...snap!". Tried different browsers, yada, yada. Their website sucks.

In April of 22, I rented a place for the entire month of January in 23. I have 10 family members with booked airline tickets coming January 2. The week before Thanksgiving, I got a cancellation notice without explanation from the owner. VRBO did nothing. It appears the owner was incompetent and double booked the unit. There is no recourse or protection from VRBO. So while I would have lost half of my fee as of November 1 if I cancelled, there is no penalty for a owner to cancel up to the day of rental, without explanation. So we rented another place, at twice the price given that it was so close to the date we wanted and found one more unsettling fact. The house we rented is listed with a realtor! It could potentially sell, and they are under no obligation to fulfill the agreement. There has to be a better way, VRBO makes a huge fee for doing nothing.

I booked a place on VRBO. Through no fault of mine my reservation was canceled. They claimed so sorry somehow you and someone else booked same time. We will issue a refund. Here is is a month later and I get VRBO says the owner refunds the owner says VRBO refunds. After numerous and tries both the owner and VRBO are playing its not me game it's them. How that works so much in their favor they drag you out frustrate you and make you spend countless hrs yes Hours on hold to do nothing but play the blame game. Literally they refuse to help at all all they say is its the owner we send a message well funny because when you reach out to owner they say oh so sorry only VRBO issue refund what a crock! Nice scam they have going! Buyers beware thank god I used Capital one to purchase as they were kind enough to fix the wrong that VRBO did when stealing my money!