VRBOReviews 1,999

I have rented beach homes for summer vacations annually with family & friends. We have been hearing about a new fee & owners unhappy with vrbo. I looked it up one of our past rentals and couldn't believe the "service fee" of nearly $140.00!?!?!? For 24/7 phone support? That is ridiculous.
I've rarely had a problem in the past and if something has come up the owner is just a phone call away. No one can provide service like the owner - someone overseas is just not going to care as much.
So why pay so much more? I can easily find my favorite places on their own websites, Facebook, or go to local sites for my favorite spots.
Just booked my next trip directly with vrbo owner we booked with last year that was more than happy to take things outside of vrbo and save us some money. They said soon they and many other owners will leave soon... Save yourself some money and don't fall for vrbo's BS!

At one time VRBO was a great service to both renter and owner but their "Service Fee" has undermined their program. Whoever thought it up should be fired. Yes, an immediate fee increase for them but a long term disaster. So many I have referred will no longer book with them on principle. The "Service Fee" offers NO SERVICE to a renter and is easily seen as a get rich quick scheme... shame on the management. People do not appreciate being taken for a fool. Hoping a competitor will offer the same service... without the fee.

This house has been updated and in excellent condition. It was easy to keep clean and conveniently arranged. The supplies left in the house were greatly appreciated. The managers were very accommodating and responded to our request immediately. I truthfully cannot think of anything that could have been better except the gentleman responsible for the care of the outside property. He is large, wears a hoody down over his face, does not communicate and doesn't do an exemplary job. He was the only down side to our stay. Cheryl and Rick Miller were fantastic.

Yes, for now you can tell your customer you will book it through paypal or other means, but soon VRBO will be separating owners and renters so they can't do that. That is what the push for "book online" is all about. I don't know about you, but I need know my guests' name and phone number and email, and if I communicate with them and get a weird feeling, I google them to check them out! I have no intention of trusting VRBO to screen, or to take care of damages- they don't do that. I created an independent website, but the big guys spend so much on advertising it is hard to get anywhere near the first few pages of a query. I'm bailing out and going to long term rental unless an enterprising replacement company pops up to run them out of business.

I have been listing my house for years at several thousands of dollars per year on VRBO, Homeaway and Vacationrental.com and paying 2.5% out of my pocket for credit card rentals. Now, the site adds a "service fee" on top of all this and customer service wait times are 25 minutes and longer. What an improvement...

By the way, I have been in the online software business for decades and know the margins are already fat for the kind of volume the Homeaway family does. Could this be a result of the purchase of the site family by Expedia to pay of debt?

Personally, I am now worried that renters will go to other sites and therefore Homeaway has forced me also to explore other sites for a more transparent business plan for my potential customers..

We have been ardent supporters of VRBO for seven years both as vacation home owners and travelers. The company recently added Service Fees to the traveler without properly notifying home owners. Additionally, these fees do not clarify to the traveler that it is being charged by VRBO. Many travelers believe the fees are imposed by the homeowner. Most importantly, the fees do not provide any value to the traveler and are egregious in nature. We have left VRBO and we caution the traveler and homeowner to beware. The greed is unconscionable.

In the beginning... VRBO gave regular down to earth home owners an avenue to advertise their rental vacation homes to down to earth vacationers who wanted to get away from the commercialized, impersonalized mega property brokers. It was a marriage made in heaven! Owners paid VRBO a reasonable amount of money to provide a well run user friendly website to advertise their vacation rentals to prospective renters. At that point, renters contacted owners personally and the two (owners and renters) worked out the details on their own. Fast forward to today. VRBO raises its rates to owners (I pay over $1300 per home for platinum level on 5 homes) charges high credit card fees (I don't use credit cards because I don't want to raise my rates to cover the fees) and is charging renters a service fee to book through the website (no one knows what for) which amounts to 4-10% of the total balance. VRBO also makes it look like it is the owner charging the guest the service fee. This is very deceitful and VRBO is stating that all of their owners will be using their booking services by the end of 2016. Well this is one owner who will not! I just signed up one of my houses with Vacation Home Rentals an affiliate of Trip Advisor and I'm going to see how it goes. VRBO had a cash cow but got greedy. Vacationers will not be taken advantage of, they will just take their business elsewhere and so will owners.
VRBO better wise up and quit trying to be a bully or they'll end up playing by themselves.

This was a wonderful company that helped both travelers and homeowners get together.
It stood for Vacation Rentals By Owners - too bad that's changing. I've both rented homes off this site and now list my owner vacation property on it for the last several years. We pay for a listing, not to have VRBO/HomeAway run our own business for us. Slowly they have been changing and forcing homeowners to accept their credit processing if you want a good location, so I signed up. Then they give you only 24hrs to approve a guest or the "system" cancels them for you. Some people need a bit more time to decide and we have to do background checks on new guests to be sure everything is legit. VRBO has no liability if your home gets trashed or your TV walks out the door. Just the same, I once again complied without complaining so my listing isn't penalized. Now, with only a 25 day notice, they are beginning to charge our guests a 9% service fee for the privilege of using the site. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! This feels like the last straw. We pay a yearly advertising fee so that there were to be no other charges. This is one of the worst examples of "bait and switch" I've seen in a long time. I was told "it won't cost you a thing, it's your guests who pay the fee" - guess again. Our repeat customers are wondering why we've added another large fee to their price, their regular weekly rates have jumped $175 with no added benefit to them or us. In my opinion, this fee is at best highly unethical when you purchase and fully pay for your listing a year in advance and then the rules change, at worst it may be illegal. I've seen a number of customers suggesting a class action lawsuit against VRBO/HomeAway recently purchased by Expedia. This is no longer the great company I used to do business with. Along with many other former loyal customers, I'm currently checking on other options to rent my home and to search for accommodations. It's so sad to see a once wonderful company that had a simple workable idea getting ruined by corporate greed and irresponsible business decisions. If anyone would like to suggest other alternatives - we are ALL listening!

Concerned that large management companies with multiple listings are allowed to "locate" their property at any location. I own a condo in a resort on the beach. When you search for that resort - the FIRST listing is for a condo at a competing resort located next door... managed by Windham... who also manages properties at my resort. Large companies that manage multiple properties can place their "location marker" wherever they also manage other properties.

Since the Expedia takeover all my worst fears have become reality. I am paying for a gold membership with an additional fee for a featured listing. Last year the results were fantastic.
Since the takeover my inquiries have dropped by at least 75%! Paying more and getting less.
And now they have the gaul to charge the renter an additional fee! Unbelievable! I don't know where to go from here, but I am looking for viable alternatives. I even called to see what was going on and the rep gave me a song and dance about working on my analytics... like it was my fault.

In May I will not renew my subscription with VRBO. I don't like the Service Fee, I don't want to use BIN. I also don't like having only 24 hours to get in touch with the potential renter, to accept or reject them. I rent to families only, that are at least 25 years of age. I turn down about 15 people to every person I book. As a result of this, my listing gets dropped below others that use BIN, and rent to any body that has the money

VRBO is trying to make me sign up for a ridiculous amount to list my properties. There also adding services in to guest without telling owners. I have a problem with a guest not following any of my house rules. VRBO customer service person say Oh Well. The guest was having parties until 4 pm and visit 10 people to the apt. Also was going drugs, smoking in the apt and disturbing the neighbors/other guest. Playing loud music and using vulgar language. I had to call the police at 1 am the second day of the guest stay to escort the group of people out of the apt. VRBO 's said Oh WELL. And the guest can still write me a bad review for me asking them to leave my apt. This is not what I ever expected out of a company like this. It's all about them and money!

Signed on in 2007 for around $350. They then put the squeeze on every year saying you'd lose your place in the search order unless you upgraded your ad to include more pictures. I did this every year for an average increase of 20% per year to hold my place at #32. In 2014 the new squeeze was add online billing for an additional 10% of rent value which is another 56% increase over my now $1400 annual cost for the add. And now their latest squeeze is to charge customer another 10% they say to increase advertising. That's interesting. After my 2nd year of VRBO membership, my rentals stabilized and have never gone up. My rentals actually went down last year because they lowered me to #89 as punishment to a 9 year customer who bought into all their photo squeeeze rate inducements now paying $1400 per year for my VRBO add. Not all markets, probably most markets, will not benefit from their so called increased advertising and promotion. There are market conditions out of their control like competition from other condos, limited rental seasons, and in our case, pressures on spring break rentals due to alcohol limits on beach. I guess they will cancel me since I will not absorb nor am I able to pass on a 20% increase to my renters. I already lose between $8K to $10K per year on rentals. Greed. No customer service. Try talking to anyone at VRBO. They are a near monopoly that needs reigning in.