VRBOReviews 1,999

Travelers: Have you seen VRBO's notification about the implementation of their impending travel booking fee? No, I didn't think so. Well, in the first quarter of 2016 they are going to add a hefty booking fee to you for the privilege of going through their website. And, exactly what additional benefits are you getting for this fee? Welllllll, nothing! You are paying for the same old ho, hum. My advice, go now and get all of the individual homeowners names that you possibly can and print off their emails and phone numbers. Other advice, I would look midway to the bottom of the list. Look for listing numbers with lower numbers. These are the people with the most seniority that built up the site. Just like you, they are now the ones that VRBO is tearing down. Homeowners and renters alike - run from this site!

No where does it say the company is in Singapore and you can be charged by your credit card company for a transaction fee. There is a phone number for VRBO but none for Travelmob who does the transactions. Trying to get reimbursed for $26 fee. Someone emailed me but after writing back no response... WOULD NEVER USE AGAIN.

There are no updates on lodging availability when you put in dates... only when you contact the owner do they say there is no availability... stick with AIRBNB

Why is it that every single person I know and every person I have worked with for over 20 years, that uses VRBO loves it? All of use it every year for vacation home searches and bookings.

We use it for our vacations and then purchased a vacation home, and listed it with VRBO ourselves. Now we and our renters love it too.

Why is VRBO/HomeAway the #1 vacation home rental website in the world?

Simple really, don't read this review and trust us, go see for yourself on their website. Pick an area you'd like to vacation in and see the selection they offer. Read the reviews, pick a home and call the owners personally. Heck, we will spend hours on the phone with you, telling you all about our home and the area. All of the good and all of the bad (which isn't much).

Then try that on another vacation rental website. You know, the ones that won't give you any information on the owner like their phone number until after you book the property. Like shooting darts in the dark and hoping it all works out. Good luck with that.

We had rented a property over Thanksgiving thru VRBO. The property ended up being a scam and we canceled. The owner of the property told us we forfeited our damaged deposit of $350. We told the owner that his property description was a scam and we wanted no part of it. He then threatened to come to our house, as he had our address, and deal with us personally. He wrote this on the VRBO email system. We immediately contacted VRBO and all we got was blather. They wrote long scripted messages saying they would look into the wrongdoing and get back to us. They told us their "security" people were looking into the situation and would soon ban the property owner from VRBO until he returned our damage deposit. All that happened was that the property owner changed the description of his property and to date we still have not got our damage deposit back. Very disappointed with VRBO in particular since we were threatened.

VRBO has the worst customer service ever, vrbo only protects the renters. You cant remove any negative reviews let alone file a claim against them due to negligence, and the fact renters don't read anything till after they book and want a refund because they were expecting more. VRBO could allow owners to review uptight, high maintenance guests and they might think before they post reviews. TERRIBLE SERVICE for what the owners pay for. VRBO is always boasting about the new and upcoming features, of course they have been saying these things for months and yet another email about giving owners more control but where are the features? VRBO is all talk and no action.

Just learning that our booked vacation home thru VRBO/HomeAway appears to be fraud. After hitting "Get quote" on VRBO screen, received an email shortly afterwards stating available for rental... I'm trying to contact property mgr on emails and no response once payment was sent. VRBO/HomeAway I'm now seeing has a major security issue if in fact the "Get Quote" button is compromised or not secure. Waiting to hear from VRBO/HomeAway as to status... Flights are all booked by many family members... I hope VRBO stands behind their security flaws and if this is a fraud, repay full amount of rental... Or better yet, Hope to find out this is not a scam, and we're booked... but not looking good.

More I'm reading online, VRBO knows that their Owners/Prop Mgr's email accounts can be hacked and all emails sent to them from the "Get Quote" button are intercepted and sent to hackers... Hackers respond with a very legitimate email with all the logo's etc...

VRBO/HomeAway not taking calls. They issue a canned response via email that I may be covered for $1000. 00.
Then VRBIO sends a long list of items they require just to consider a $1000. 00 refund. No calls can be escalated beyond their HelpDesk (supervisor or someone in authority)... Pretty sad customer service, but a hell of a way to make money and not take ANY responsibility...

The hard core might want to try this place, if your a Foodie, OUTSTANDING and a Great Beer and Wine selection. I even went back for more the next day

We used VRBO to find an apartment rental in NYC and ended up with a company named CityKit that VRBO allows to rent through their website. I should have dug deeper when I made the reservation because after our really horrible experience I found reviews voicing very similar concerns to ours. The apartment was nothing like the pictures, it was run down, most of the amenities were missing and the unit heat went out the second night. We managed to get in touch with the office and they tried to do the right thing by bringing a space heater, but the "sup" who was actually supposed to come by and fix the heat never showed. Completely unacceptable and I blame both CItyKit and VRBO, as now looking closer there are many many complaints on line regarding CityKit but VRBO continues to allow them to rent on their site. I would never rent from CityKit again, they are completely dishonest with regards to the product they are selling. We only spent 2 nights and then moved to a hotel, seeing the other reviews it is pretty clear we won't get out money back for the additional 2 nights, but i won't let this ruin my vacation.

This is a terrible site! I have used it for years and now it really has gone down hill. Listings take reservations and deposit and then returns deposit when something better comes along and lies about it. Listings post 4-7 day rental and then when you inquire they say if it's not booked 2 months from date call back because we want 7 days instead of 4, then make it a 7 day listing. VRBO doesn't take calls to help manage the sites, they said leave a review. You can't review something you haven't stayed at! They need a review for communication with owners, too many are very dishonest!

We have had listings on Vrbo for over 4 years. We have paid platinum subscriptions. The rates have increased drastically over the past year. The services we are provided as owners have reduced. We went from page 1 to page 4 and sometimes 5. I keep our calendar up to date daily. We have the most reviews in our area, and we have followed they with all requirement changes Vrbo has requested. In our area you can watch as a new listing is added it automatically goes to the top position and stays. For every new listing it moves us on back. I do not agree with the sort order best match. If a traveler is looking in just one area alone and has no filters, I believe our tenure should remain the top sort order. We ( all property owners) have worked to hard to promote our rentals to be placed on the last pages. We have watched our listing fall back after each booking. Vrbo has explanation as to why the properties are never sorting around. All cabins should get the equal amount of time on the front page instead of the same cabins. Keep in mind the cabins that are staying on the front page are the new listings. Vrbo needs some heavy competition and then maybe they would change their ways!

We paid for the Platinum Subscription to rank higher in search results since 2010. As it was told, certain criteria was a direct component to search rankings and we worked those criteria to assure our vacation rental placement near the top of the list for our area.
In 2015 the price for the Platinum subscription increased $ 350 but we wanted to maintain our placement in the 1st seven. Within the 1st 20 days following renewal, vrbo changed their algorithm and our property is now near the bottom of the list and we have not received even 1 inquiry since. Screw VRBO. I can do better using other advertising methods.

Recently stayed at VRBO ******* in Russian River Valley, Sonoma County, CA. My husband and I bid and won 5 days/4 nights at what was marketed as a condo for a charity auction. THIS RENTAL IS A 1BEDROOM APT. ON THE GROUND FLOOR OF THE OWNERS HOME. It as was a huge disappointment. No cell service, no dishwasher, all of the website pictures are accurate but skewed. Would never pick this place. The owner actually contacted my husband to complain about our review which was sadly accurate of the (lack of) ammenities and comfort of the accomodation. I feel bad that others will spend over $200/night and have no idea what they are in for!

Booked this house for two weeks but the condition was such that we left after 18 hours. Since we purchased the carefree rental guarantee from VRBO we thought we were covered by travel insurance, but no. The Carefree Guarantee is meaningless and the owner Tamara Miller kept our three thousand dollar rental fee. As well as the house being moldy, the TV and Internet not working, and the yard being covered in foxtails, the setting of the house and area of Ocean Park, Washington is sub-par.

VRBO is the worst site ever. They don't let hosts review guests so since there's no qualifying who's staying at your house, our first guest was a woman who traded sex for the fare with her taxi cab driver as she had no money. They also accidentally booked her in for a longer period of time than she paid for. They synced my calendar with the wrong property, so they had space blocked out on my one listing instead of the correct listing. We have a bedroom suite and they won't let you list the pricing separately so every quote they send out for a booking is incorrect. I edited the quote they sent tonight and they figured their commission wrong. I called to question it and the rep said it was a "rarity in the algorithim" that computed it incorrectly and couldn't be fixed. They can't figure 10% incorrectly? When I talked to a supervisor and told him that was the most ridiculous thing I ever heard he said the rep must of pulled that answer out of her pocket (more likely out of her you know what!) And of course, it's in their favor. Their mobile site is worthless, it won't let you access anything other than your calendar and your inbox. They cancelled a request because they said I didn't respond, the email chain shows I responded with 4 hours. When you pull up the dashboard, it shows you the listing number, not the property name, because I have 3 properties listed, I never know which is which. And, they keep your money for 30 days on the first booking. Airbnb is the only way to go!

I've been listed with both VRBO & Airbnb for about 8 months. After getting a $2400 booking and only receiving $2000 after booking and bank transfer fees, I decided to pay for their 1-yr membership. That was 3 months ago, and I've gotten not a single booking since. I made the colossal mistake of listing a client's property at the end of July. Just found out that the first booking was made with a stolen credit card. I do not check ID or anything as I assume the entity taking the booking has done their due diligence. I stated that to VRBO/Homeaway. I just checked my account and they have gone in without my permission and withdrawn the funds and has put me in overdraft. They funny thing is - they've charged me yet another fee for doing so. STAY FAR AWAY from this company. I feel like I have no recourse. That they can go into my account and just take the funds - it's astounding.

I have been with VRBO for over 15 years. They were originally Expedia, then VRBO went separate. They were a great start up for listing vacation properties. Then they merged with Homeaway, and had two separate sites which listed virtually the same thing. I went with both of them for several years, and never, not one time did I book a Homeastray booking! Sure I had inquiries, but not even one from Homeaway materialized. I still got plenty inquiries and bookings from vrbo. In my area they had upgrades which were for extra listings and also to be in the front pages of all listing that were in the described area. The first year, I was in the top five! Not bad, and always on the first page. I decided to try another year, and did not bat an eye to pay almost 1300 bucks for the bang. The first few weeks were OK, and then I noticed the inquiries dried up. I looked on the site and saw I was no where near the front page and now was on the second page towards the bottom. I contacted VRBO and the person on the phone told me it was because my computer knows who I am and my listing is not essential in my searches. I have plenty of computers, tablets, iphones, and laptops. None of them showed me my site on the first page. I knew right away that I was given the run around, and right now I will most likely never list with VRBO as they forgot their loyal customers and now only strive to flood the area with listing that are not even in the immediate area where they belong. I also experienced several fake inquiries from Homeaway, and even replied to one of the fake inquiries letting them know I that it was a fake inquiry, and offered them a huge discount if indeed they were serious. They said they were for real, but even with the massive discount, no booking! Now I know for sure Homeastray is not bonified on the inquiries, and VRBO is NOT the way to list your vacation rental. Try Airbnb.com for more listings, even though you do not see your money until 24 hours after the guests arrival, at least they get listing for you and it hardly cost anything!