Vrbo

VRBO is the worst company/customer service I have ever interacted with. VRBO has zero sense of responsibility or accountability for its properties, so if someone places a misleading or fraudulent property listing, VRBO leaves you in the dark trying to get your money back from the person who scammed you. They were hard to get a hold of, evasive, poor communicators, and when you finally pin them down on it, worthless as a company and lacking in any kind of integrity. Whenever I give recommendations on a vacation or vacation stay, I always make sure to say "Make sure not to use VRBO", because using them for anything can only be described as one thing, a mistake.

I will NEVER use VRBO again. They do not stand behind their rentals. I booked a home in Florida with them in March 2021. We were supposed to leave on February 8 and were notified on January 20 that VRBO canceled our reservation because the owner sold the house. VRBO made no effort to work with us to find alternate lodgings especially at that late date. The real insult came when we looked for the refund and found out that the owner of the house was from Great Britain and everything was converted to pounds . When it came time for the refund, the dollar had dropped and we received less than what we paid for his reservation. VRBO said they had no control over this. We also asked for a refund of our insurance policy and again VRBO said I'm sorry but we have no control over this. Well VRBO if you have no control then I have no other choice than to find other avenues to book my rentals. Buyer Beware!

Stay away from using VRBO. Use a site that does not allow owner to rent directly to you. VRBO does not assist you if you use them to rent then have problems or if the property is not as listed. Being that you have to pay before you can even rent, the owners can false advertise then refuse to refund you anything. I rented a house in SC using VRBO. The property was completely false advertised and we had numerous problems while there. The owner refused to assist and then after I posted a negative review, VRBO removed it and said the owner accused me of lying. Even after I sent them texts and pictures of the property they still refused. So the owner can continue ripping people off and vrbo will do nothing to assist and then will remove your negative review if you post. The owners know this, so they just keep doing the same thing to renter after renter. Use another trusted site to rent. Vrbo is the worst site I have every used to book a vacation on. Never again!!!!

We booked a property in Florida towards the end of May for an August 14th vacation. On August 1st received email that booking was canceled due to water leak in vacation home. As per email we would be refunded the full amount and were to contact Vrbo to decide for a replacement property. We contacted customer service, our information was collected, and we were to wait for an email response from the cancelation team. After continuous attempts to reach out Vrbo due to no response from cancelation team we continue to receive the same message from customer service. We are told that we must wait for the cancelation team and that they will respond between 24 to 48 hrs. It is August 9th as I write this, and we have not heard from Vrbo. We ended up renting another property through Air B and B. Due to short window, all properties on any Travel website were twice the price. We had no choice but to pay double the price for a rental for August 14th. Vrbo has the worst customer service. They were supposed to find us a replacement and defer the cost of higher price and never responded. All correspondence is done through email, and you cannot get a person that is working on your case. We have used Vrbo on numerous occasions but never had an issue until now. But you never know what you get until you have a problem. They are not on the same level as Amazon’s Customer Service. I will never use them again or recommend them. Go with a different Travel company.

We booked the original stay 2 weeks in advance, flew to our destination, and then at 3:59 pm (1 minute before check-in) our host cancels. We were on the phone with customer support, on hold that is, for over an hour trying to get help with the situation and find another stay. (YOU CANNOT BOOK THE SAME DAY THROUGH VRBO) So either way, we were screwed for the first night. We thought we lucked out by finding another Vrbo listing and the owner said we could arrive a day early no problem. What a relief... Only to arrive after dinner and find that there were already people staying there, so we left... and the owner wanted to refund only 50% of the $1,300 bill even though we were no longer able to stay there. My boyfriend and his army vet brother ended up having to get two hotel rooms at a Holiday Inn instead. After the second bad experience, I started writing reviews to warn people and he is still on the phone with support... going on 58 minutes. Not only that, but the refund is not immediate... it will take several days to get the $2,000+ back which will be hindering our overall vacation. I don't understand how this 'company' is in business at all. Terrible experience. We will stick to hotels in the future. It's not worth the stress of not knowing if you have a place to sleep when you get off the airplane.

If you have no issues with the property, VRBO is fine. If there are ANY issues, you are out of luck (unless your travelers insurance covers the issue). VRBO is basically non-existant if there are any problems - all they care about is that you made the payment, after that, everything is between you and the property owner. I would STRONGLY recommend that if you find a property you like on VRBO, that you try and search for the same property on other websites; ones which actually help and suport the travelers. As the name of the company states, VRBO is vacation rental by OWNER. The owner has final say in everything once you have paid for the reservation.

Unable to get money back from trip planned prior to COVID. Flights and island canceled and yet VRBO does nothing. Their canned statement saying they encouraged the property owners to refund at least half fell on deaf ears when our property owner refused to even consider it. I was given the option to visit again at a later date for half the rate. But no refund to the sum of over $10k . Numerous complaints to VRBO and still they would do absolutely nothing. I don't feel that I should pay any money to either their fees or the property owners. Those owners had a mortgage to pay whether I was renting their space or not. Not only that, but regardless of having to cancel the trip, there was no way they could rent that place out to anyone else due to the pandemic. VRBO had every ability to force the property owners to refund funds and yet they would not. I absolutely, emphatically would never use this company for any travel plans. They DO NOT stand by the traveler. They are difficult to get on the phone, the customer service is contracted with people outside of the country and even if you leave messages to return the call, you never hear from them. DO NOT USE VRBO!

I had just had a really bad experience with Airbnb (an issue mainly due to lack of cleanliness) so I decided to try Vrbo for the very first time. I finally found a space that was a new listing, but had one 5-star review so I figured I would be ok trying it out. I arrived 3 hours earlier than my check in time just to see the location of the house. I wasn’t happy with the location, since it felt unsafe for me as a woman on her own, to drive at night. However, after the bad experience at Airbnb, I really didn’t want to make a big deal of things or create any kind of conflict. I arrived and saw one woman, who I later found out was the owner of the house, cleaning. I stayed outside of the property for 15 minutes while I made a phone call, then decided to leave since I had arrived too early. I did notice that throughout my whole texting conversation with the owner she kept mentioning that she had a cleaning & repair crew that would go replace the washer (and that’s why I had to wait to check in until 4pm). I noticed the whole time I was there that I only saw her, one person, and thought it was odd that she had felt that it was necessary for her to lie about having a “cleaning crew”, but again, I didn’t want to create any conflict. I just needed a clean, safe space to spend 2 weeks in quarantine before heading home to my grandparents. When I finally checked in, the owner was still in the garage. I immediately felt uncomfortable that she was there at the property because I had been very specific about going out of my way to isolate before heading home to my 80-year old grandparents. Again, I didn’t make a big deal out of it. I also noticed that there was a washer and a large amount of trash right by the entrance. Not a good view, it immediately felt like a very lack-of-class move and like she didn’t’ even actually bother making the place look nice for her guest. Again, I didn’t say a word. The driveway and entryway were full of dead leaves, grass was overgrown, it just felt cheap and like the owner had not even made a small effort to make the place look decent for me. I walked inside and took a quick tour of the place just to check if I saw anything crazy. 1. Kitchen zinc still had a piece of cilantro on the side. (Not a big deal, but big warning flag that maybe she had not cleaned the space as well as she promised). 2. One of the toilets still had brown spots all over. I immediately took a picture, since I’m assuming that was feces that she didn’t bother to clean. I went to the other bathroom and even though it wasn’t super clean, I didn’t see any feces so I decided to just use that one. I didn’t want to create conflict and I brought my own cleaning supplies so I figured I could clean myself. I went back outside and started unpacking. She was still there for another 2 hours in the garage, which she said she used as storage. Again, I didn’t make a big deal about it. But it did bother me that I felt that she was invading my space. I know that it is her property, but I had paid a lot of money just to have privacy and it felt like she wasn’t respecting my space. It felt intrusive. Since day 1 I wasn’t able to sleep well because there was a very loud noise coming from outside or the walls right by the bedroom. Eventually I got up and searched for an animal outside or in between the plants but I wasn’t able to find anything. The noise kept on going and I was just so tired that I passed out and didn’t find out what it was. Next morning, I woke up and tried to watch the TV. It wasn’t working. I texted the owner and she was nice enough to come take a look. I asked her to please stay outside since I was quarantining. She did stay outside for 30 minutes but since she wasn’t able to fix the TV, she eventually came in. Again, I didn’t feel comfortable having her come inside, but I wanted to have a TV, so I allowed her to come in and stayed in my car for a little over an hour until she fixed it. I thanked her for helping me solve it and for wearing a mask like I had requested, but I did feel disappointed that she had not had the TV and space fully ready before my arrival and that I had to allow her into the home, when the whole purpose of me renting that space was to be able to avoid any kind of human contact. That night, I couldn’t sleep again with the animal noises, but she had been annoying the last time she was there, and I didn’t want to unintentionally open another window for her to come back in again, so I didn’t text her about it. About 2 days after this, there was a tornado warning and the alarms were ringing. I had not experienced this before and I immediately texted her since I didn’t know where to seek shelter or what to do. She only responded after the alarms and alerts were over. I understand that she doesn’t control the weather. However, I was disappointed that as a Vrbo Host, she didn’t have a safety manual or some kind of guideline letting people who didn’t grow up in the area know what to do in case of a tornado. Apparently, it was tornado season in Irving, TX so she would have been aware that a tornado was likely to happen. Up to this point, it’s all issues that bothered me but since I don’t like to create conflict, I simply let them go. However, the real horror story starts on Sunday, Nov. 29. I was very cold that day and decided to turn up the heater. I pressed the heater about 6 times but the temperature wouldn’t stay at 76, so I decided to text the owner very politely and ask her if the thermostat was working. Long story short, she went completely crazy after this. She started sending me screenshots of the current temperature of the home; that’s when I realized that she could see and control the temperature of the home from her phone. It’s not that the thermostat wasn’t working, but every time I tried to put the temperature above 70 (this is in late November), she would immediately turn it off. Then she started texting me non stop for hours, like a completely crazy person. She texted that she would come to the home next day and fix the thermostat because it was broken. It wasn’t broken, she just wanted to set it up so that I wouldn’t be able to set up the temperature at any point higher than 70. I was freezing and upset that I had paid so much money and this crazy lady didn’t even let me turn on the heater. In addition, she started sending me nonstop screenshots all evening and night letting me know that she was monitoring the temperature. She started sending me condescending texts saying that if I didn’t take care of the energy there wouldn’t be anything left for our children. I was in shock and immediately called Vrbo at least 20 times throughout the night because I kept on getting transferred and/or disconnected every single time. At one point I was even considering calling the cops because I honestly got so freaked out by her constant texts. At one point I begged her twice to stop texting/sending messages through the app. because I had to wake up early next day to work and she was still texting me screenshots of the temperature after midnight. She also kept on saying that she was going to show up next morning to “fix” the thermostat even though I very politely asked her to please not come during the day since I was busy working from home and in meetings and that I was also trying to quarantine. That’s when she proceeded to threaten me and tell me that she was going to just cancel my reservation and not issue a refund if I couldn’t keep the temperature under 70 degrees. She also said that I was lying and not quarantining because SHE HAD FOOTAGE of my boyfriend coming to visit me one night. I was creeped out, I felt like my privacy was being disrespected, the way she stated it as “having footage” really made me feel like I was being watched and it was such a disrespectful and condescending way to address a guest. I was shocked! I don’t know why I proceeded to politely explain that he was also quarantining, when it was none of her business. She was so offensive and I honestly felt a little threatened that if I said the wrong thing she would just show up. Her constant texts at that time of day and her previous behaviors the few times I had observed her in person made me feel like she wasn’t very balanced psychologically and I just didn’t’ want to risk it. I called Vrbo and let them know about the situation. One of their representatives even suggested I call the cops when I released access to the conversation that (thank God) was mostly texted through the app. However, with my plan to quarantine and how uncomfortable I was staying there and thinking about not wanting to trigger a psychologically unbalanced person, I let Vrbo know at 3 am Monday morning, November 30 that I was in the process of packing and I was going to leave first thing in the morning. I explained the situation, gave them access to the conversation, told them if she texted me one more time I would file a police report, and demanded a refund ONLY for the nights that I wouldn’t be staying there. I got one hour of sleep that night and at 6am packed everything into my car and left the property. While I was on the road driving for 10 hours, she started texting me. When I got a chance to stop at a gas station I simply blocked her number. This has honestly been the worst experience of my life. One could argue that I overreacted but as a woman alone (my boyfriend lives in another city 2 hours away from Irving, TX) a woman of color, a foreigner in Texas, I really didn’t want to risk it with the current social and political climate with someone clearly psychologically unbalanced. I consider writing reviews or complaints a waste of time. However, I am taking the time to write this because I’m in shock and I truly believe this situation was completely unfair and unethical. I felt threatened and Verbo not only was completely useless, but they’re still refusing to issue a refund for the transaction. This has been the worst experience of my life and no one that crazy and disrespectful should be allowed to rent/manage their property on any of these platforms and, most importantly, Vrbo shouldn’t be allowed to simply get away with horrible hosts, terrible bad customer service, and just keep my money without a fight when it’s simply unfair. I’m not even being unreasonable in spite of all the issues and requesting a full refund. I’m requesting the bare minimum, which is a refund for the 7 nights that I didn’t get to stay in the property because the owner made me feel threatened and a refund for the cleaning fee since she didn’t even bother cleaning the feces from one of the toilets. I’m still in shock and it’s unbelievable that businesses allow these situations to happen. Hopefully by submitting this to the Better Business Bureau, Vrbo will conduct an investigation and stop allowing her to rent or at least manage the property herself because she’s not equipped to do so with her disrespectful, controlling, condescending and threatening ways. Vrbo should also be investigated for not reacting properly, proving absolutely terrible customer service (I counted at least 30 phone calls within a 24 hour period and they were completely unable to help me in any way. I also kept on getting (perhaps intentionally?) disconnected and placed on hold at least 20 times) and for not accepting to issue a refund in a situation like this. Most importantly, I hope other consumers learn from my experience and decide to use a hotel instead of Vrbo. I will never use their services again and have already told my coworkers, family members and friends about this terrible experience. Unfair business practices should not be allowed and at least I wanted to fulfill my civic duty and report this owner/host, this company and share my terrible experience. Thank you for your time!

Terrible company. First I rented and paid for a Hawaii rental- got a confirmation number. Then 3 days later said price was wrong so had to pay more!!?? Vrbo would not budge to meeting in the middle or taking the blame and giving us the listed price or the responsibility for messing up! Just said find another one! Now I found a place to rent for next summer paid for it and received confirmation it was booked. The next day I got man email saying it’s not available so find another one basically! The dates were out there!!! Now I am stuck again without a place It was hard to find in the first place. What is the deal with VRBO?!? It sucks lately. Vacations are being ruined!!!!!!!

As per Government orders & Global pandemic dictates, we cannot travel. VRBO & Owner refuses to change our travel dates or refund or help out at all. After connecting with THOUSAND upon THOUSANDS of other travelers online in the same situation, it is clear that VRBO does NOT care about public safety and is more concerned about short term money gains versus long term reputation. This will be the end of them. AIRBNB did the right thing and changed their policy to serve their customer base in this emergency. Does VRBO think they are immune to social media? The airlines refunded us, the tours we booked were no problem, the ski resorts, the lifts, the rentals, the car rental company, etc. VRBO is the only one giving us problems. We are currently out $5k! We have saved for years for this. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!! THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMER BASE. WE WILL NEVER EVER BOOK WITH THEM AGAIN, AND WILL CONTINUE TO SPREAD THE WORD.

We rented property in Galveston, TX over a month ago. The property owner did NOT send us the code to enter the property. We call her all night long, with only options was sleep in our rented vehicle or pay last minute price for a hotel. We opted to pay for the hotel, assuming the owner would offer to at least reimburse since it was her fault completely. We owner finally contacted us the next morning with the code. Upon arriving at her property, while watching TV in the bedroom, the 9'TV picture turns off but the audio is still there. NOPE no timer is set and nothing in the setting was set either. We for her to reimburse for our hotel room, she informed us that she wasn't making any profit on the property...BLAH BLAH. Our nightly rate at her property was $68.33 and she offered to refund $65...HOW is that acceptable? I want Cleaning, Service Charge and Taxes reimbursed since we did NOT stay the three (3) nights we paid for. We have contact VRBO numerous times with no explanation or resolution. I travel at least 4 times a year and will never use VRBO again. Do your research, check and double check there are people that refused to do what is right so I publicly let other know.

VRBO withholding guests $3000 security deposit for 40 days! I have been an owner advertising on VRBO since 2001. Customer service is ABSENT for owners and renters. I rented to a repeat guest over Christmas. The guest paid a $3000 security deposit held by VRBO. As of today, over 40 days later, the guest has still not received their refundable deposit back. I have made 5 calls to VRBO and my guest has made 7 calls to VRBO and they continue to tell us there is a problem with the system. I have asked for a supervisor to call me 5 times and no one has called. VRBO is ruining my rental business. Do no use VRBO, they have no customer service.

I booked a condo in Asheville NC on Oct 29th for the month of November. condo was available on line and VRBO accepted my money for the monthly rent. I called the owner - property manager on Oct 30th for the access and he told me that condo has been rented till March!!. it has been 2 weeks now, i am calling VRBO everyday to collect my money back, explain everything from scratch to call center employees everyday, so far no real action taken. The owner took the property off the web site, sent a message to me and them saying he doesn't work with VRBO anymore and VRBO is saying they still need to talk to him before they pay my money back.!!!! Horrible set up, worst call center. DON'T USE VRBO OR HOME AWAY!! AirBnB is way better.

I have booked with VRBO/home away more times than I can count. My family and friends use them as well. All experiences have been good ones. As a loyal customer, I expect loyalty in return if something were to go wrong. In September of 2019 I booked a property for November 19. It was a home in Las Vegas for a half marathon race and mini family vacation. As always, I paid up front in full. In October of 2019 I was notified by VRBO via email that there was “possibly an issue with my upcoming booking” and to contact the owner. I did as they said and was upset by the owners response. He stated that VRBO had taken everything from him, shut down all his properties and left him bankrupt. He then notified me that not only was my booking cancelled but he had no funds to refund me my money for a trip that was more than a month away. I wasn’t too panicked at this time because I knew VRBO would take care of me with their “Book with confidence guarantee”. After all, it’s that what booking though a site like this is for? For security? Boy was I wrong. I first responded to VRBO’s initial email in which prompted me to a 1-800 number. I called this number and was lead through the ringer. They could not help me at this time. The lady said the owner had received a “serious complaint” and as a result had to be shut down. That is all she could tell me. She said she would expedite my case and I would receive a call I about 24hrs. 24hrs later, no call but another email.... stating that VRBO could not help me (with no explanation given) and that I needed to dispute the charge with my credit card company. I called VrBO 2 more times after this looking for answers... no one could give me any information other than “This is a unique situation” and I was finally told to stop contacting them. I am appalled to say the least. DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY. Airbnb provides a much better service with a guarantee they actually stick with.

VRBO booking guarantee is a complete falsehood. These are just 2 reasons for refunding a booking from their website. • If the property is significantly not as described, unsafe, or you are denied access, you must contact Customer Support within the first twelve (12) hours of the event. • If your reservation has been canceled less than 30 days from your stay and you are unable to locate a similar property available during the same period. I was also quoted this information over the phone by a representative-when I called because the owner – rented the first night of our trip to her current guest before we arrived. She refused to refund the night’s stay. She claimed it was up to VRBO to refund it – They told me this was her mix-up and she needed to refund it. I questioned the promise of the guarantee and I was told the above were reasons to refund a booking. I was dealing with the exact reasons given for a booking to be guaranteed by VRBO but was still denied a refund from either VRBO or the owner. They offered no concern that we were traveling a great distance and had nowhere to stay. After HOURS of trying to work this out through the message system and VRBO– the owner-Marj refused to honor the 2nd night of the booking then refused to refund the money for this night too. Marj flat out lied promising she would place a check in the mail to refund a portion of the cost. It has been 2 weeks. Do not trust this owner. Do not trust that your booking is secure because you booked with VRBO. Do NOT stay here. You may or may not have a room when you arrive. You will definitely not receive a refund and will have to pay for a 2nd night’s stay.

First of all we are a recently retired couple wanting to find a great place to take out entire family on vacation so we found called Camelot on Cinnamon Beach. This is a beautiful 7 bedroom, 7 bathroom home three houses from the beach. We booked this home 11 months in advance. We have 10 adults and 5 children. Upon arrival on Saturday, June 1, 2019, we found the swimming pool at the home had not been cleaned. As the children were so ready to jump in the pool we quickly called and they sent someone with a skimmer and said they would be back on Monday to clean the pool. My husband later that evening got into the pool with the kids. He got some water in his eye and it immediately started burning and turned red. For the rest of the week his eye was infected and by the middle of the week they were both infected. This was not a good way to start a vacation. On Monday evening we got all the food prepared to cook on the grill by the pool only to realize the grill didn't work. So we called and the same lady came and checked the grill and said yep, it doesn't work. She said she would have to get someone else to check it later. They finally came and cleaned to pool on Tuesday. They came on Tuesday and checked the grill and stated it was simply out of gas but they never returned to re-gas it. Did I mention the awesome movie theatre at the property also didn't work. We realized this after we had all the kids seated and ready with popcorn to watch the movie. Also, the first night my grandson found sand in his sheets. The kitchen garbage can stunk like it had never been cleaned......oh but wait....it gets better. Thursday evening my daughter in law had a big red bite on her leg. My son specializes in animal control and recognized this to be a BED BUG BITE. So, he checks the bed they were sleeping in and sure enough there were live bed bugs in the bed!!! He started checking his sons bed and also found red blood stain on the mattress where he was sleeping. So my son slept in another bed and his son moved to the sofa. First thing Friday morning we called and they sent a Professional Company to confirm BED BUGS which he did. He advised us not to sleep in either of the beds he found bugs and evidence of bugs. He told us that every stitch of clothing needed to be dried for 45 minutes in the dryer and all luggage to be scrubbed with soap and water. After he left I called VRBO and advised them and asked what to do. They said they would find accommodations for us for Friday, as we were supposed to leave on Saturday. They also had other guests checking in on Friday. I asked how they were going to be able to accommodate other guests if they were going to treat the house for BED BUGS?? They stated they had already relocated the next guests. So, I waited to hear from them. They later called and said they were unable to find accommodations for us and we could leave and they would refund one night. I told them we could not leave because we had to do laundry for 15 people and beach towels and scrub suitcases and would like to have until Sunday to complete this since the other guests had been relocated. After checking back with us they informed us that we would have to check out on Saturday as the people were coming after all. So, I assume it was not even treated for BED BUGS then and probably since then. We worked all day Friday without even getting to the beach as we were busy getting the laundry done and making sure as best we could that we didn't have any bugs with us. The Professional told us that the BED BUG eggs could live up to a year. So, I made a complaint to VRBO and told them we should be reimbursed for some of our trip since two nights were spend looking for bugs not to even mention all of the unsatisfactory issues, Bottom line they offered us $500 is we would sign a paper saying we would not give a review on social media, internet, etc. I told them I wouldn't accept hush money. That was just another insult to injury as far as I'm concerned. This is a million dollar home that they are not maintaining very well. A few things I just accepted but BED BUGS are not acceptable! They are nasty, leave really nasty bites and very hard to get rid of. Who thinks we deserve a refund? I just wanted to warn other people renting this property so you won't bring BED BUGS into your home. Totally unacceptable in my book.....or my BED!

DO NOT USE VRBO FOR YOUR TRAVEL!!!! Please pass this on to your friends and family and it will save them a lot of money and heartache. In October of 2018 my mom and I decided on a last minute trip to Hawaii for my birthday in December. After booking flights to Seattle and on to Hawaii I decided to save some money and try something new: VRBO. Even though some friends of mine had had trouble with a home they had rented in Florida through VRBO, cockroaches to be precise and lots of them, I was renting a newly remodeled condo in a well known property: Aston the Whaler at Kaanapali Beach, so I felt pretty comfortable with it. VRBO gave my info to BLACK ROCK RENTALS and I was contacted by them. I was surprised when they asked for all the money up front, including taxes and room cleaning fees, but I had every intention of going to Hawaii in December so I didnt think much of it and paid for ROOM #1113. Two days before we were to fly out my husband's father died in a freak accident and I had to cancel our flights and accommodation. Of course I wasnt expecting refunds, just vouchers or credit for future travel. Both Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines were wonderful. They were sympathetic and kind over the phone and with little effort I received a credit and voucher for future travel. After emailing and calling Black Rock Rentals I was denied any kind of voucher for future travel or refund. The over $2300 prepayment was nonrefundable and lost, no exceptions, even if due to the death of an immediate family member. The only way to get any refund was if the unit was rented out to another party (after looking at VRBO I found that they had relisted the condo). I wrote Black Rock Rentals again and told them that I was absolutely astonished that they would keep all the money even in the event of a family death. They refunded me the cleaning fee of $175 but kept the rest, even the taxes. Then they removed the rental from VRBO. Thinking they had gotten another party to rent the condo I wrote them and asked about it. Their response was that "they could not list a last minute rental on VRBO." It was heartbreaking to have my dearly loved father-in-law pass away, but these owners (owners of room #1113 of Aston The Whaler at Kaanapali Shores) made a sad situation even worse. It's hard to believe that anyone could be so heartless in the midst of such a tragedy but there are no exceptions and no laws that protect you against these situations when you use VRBO! You are at the mercy of individuals who have no morals or principles and who only care about making money. I can only hope that my story will help protect others who are tempted to save a few dollars by using VRBO. You may only end up with cockroaches, but in the event of an unplanned emergency you could loose thousands. Had we gone through a legitimate hotel/resort we would have had time to cancel, but not with VRBO who requires a 60 DAY NOTICE for cancelation. PLEASE BEWARE!! GO THROUGH A LEGITIMATE TRAVEL COMPANY like Booking.com. After all that VRBO won't let me write a review since I only paid for the rental but did not actually stay there.

My friends and I booked at 5 bedroom house with VRBO in December, 2017 for a wedding in August, 2018. Everything was paid in full and confirmed. 48 hours before we were due to arrive, VRBO contact us to let us know that there was a glitch in their system and the people currently renting the property had extended their stay so the house was no longer available. The offered us a 4 bedroom house from Saturday - Tuesday instead and not comping anything. We all arrive Friday morning for the wedding and now have nowhere to stay. All of the hotels are now exorbitantly expensive. I would stay away from VRBO at all costs - they do not honor reservations book 7 months in advance.

If you want to rent a property - do NOT use vrbo. There is nothing but issues but the worst part, if you do have a damage and claim the damage deposit, they block the listing until you pay it back in full. My guest damaged the table, even wrote to vrbo about it, and my listing‘is blocked even though he admitted, I sent pictures and original receipt. The customer service is horrible, I wait up to a week and longer for a simple reply. I used to list my properties on the website for 8 years but will no longer since they think they can control and decide. They changed a lot lately and I can only recommend to stay away. All fine unless you really have an issue, they only support renters because they pay their extragous fees. I will not accept this and I can only tell you - Stay away!

In helping small business owners for the past 14 years, especially in the vacation rental industry, it is sad to see a market behemoth like VRBO.com slowly take away the business of owners across the country. Not only do they want to control the calendar, money and rules, but now they want to control the communication. Who owns the small businesses anyways? An owner isn't even permitted to communicate with a prospective client unless it goes thru the VRBO.com system. So many leads are lost this way due to unnecessary rules and steps. Hopefully another company takes notice of the trend that small VR owners are leaving VRBO.com on a daily basis and creates a platform that is fair and continues to support the small business owners. Another market giant has tried, but is following the same format at VRBO.com. They also are losing clients on a daily basis due to this practice. Having a corner on the market is one thing, but when others figure out how to get the traffic, hopefully VRBO.com falls as quickly as it was built.

I've been an owner listing on VRBO for over 12 years. They have gone from amazing (12 years ago) to the most hated company in the Vacation Rental World. Their fees are excessive (normally 12% charged to my guests by these thieves) and they offer NO value. Don't believe the B.S. about their "carefree rental guarantee" or whatever stupid marketing name they have for it now -- it offers you nothing that your credit card company doesn't already offer. It's a farce. You are paying 12% for nothing. It's insane. Guests, use the pictures you find on VRBO or the verbiage of our listing to find our direct web sites using Google. Then book from us directly; you'll save hundreds of dollars and have a much better experience!

my condo in Montreal was robbed few weeks ago using this company, the Insurance Liability DOES NOT COVER the owners properties, it just covers the renters when they got into the properties. I lost around 8,000 dollars in damages and theft. I spoke with Sam, a US Trust & Security Specialist from HomeAway, and he told me that basically is my fault for not protecting my condo of theft. The criminals used a valid credit card that was not reported as stolen, the incident is being investigated by the Police of Montreal and my insurance company is not covering this because NONE of the insurance companies cover theft if we do short rentals. Then when we rent our valued properties we are totally under own risk, HomeAway will not cover criminal acts like this, ANY insurance company will cover either. Hopefully this information will be more public and the company shut down.... the same way they do publicity about the Liability Insurance, they could inform clearly the renters that thay would be robbed the entire house and NOTHING will happen

We booked a VRBO home on February 14, 2017 for a football game in Tallahassee on September 16, 2017. With over a $700 rental fee and deposit made for a 2 night stay and a contract signed and accepted by both parties, we were under the impression that everything was taken care of. In June, the owner unexpectedly and without notice negated our contract and refunded our money. Turns out she found another renter willing to pay more money. We tried for several weeks to contact her with no response. She finally contacted us in July and said it was mistake and that she would still honor the contract. We asked her to charge the same credit card for the rental and deposit and she never completed the transaction. On August 22, 2017 she contacted us and said that she was not honoring our contract again and that she's rented the home to another customer. After calling VRBO several times on August 23, 2017 and sitting on hold for over an hour, there has been no resolution. The representative from the VRBO Traveler Care Team notified me that there is nothing they can do. Between our two families, we are out over $1,000 above and beyond the cost of the rental home. We paid for tickets to the game, 2 car parking spots, an RV spot near the stadium and several tours of local establishments and the campus. We are having to cancel our trip and request that we are offered a VRBO credit of $1,700 to a destination of our choice. VRBO has denied this request.

I agree with Steven and Patricia. I have spent hours on the phone with them to no avail. It is like the guest is valued and the customer is not. I HAVE NO VOICE WITH THEM. I had a guest put a 2 star rating and by phone tell me I had to pay back 1500.00 for him to take it off. I did not have that in writing so it could not go before a 'board'. SO I HAVE TO LIVE WITH IT. But the 2 star review WAS ACCEPTED with no written proof that had to be submitted that I had said my AC was old. It is not old and I did not say such but it is allowed to be broadcasted and basically ruin me and my inquiries (as it met guidelines). I AM STUCK...I HAVE NO WHERE TO GO. THE SYSTEM HAS TOTALLY CHANGED AND THE CUSTOMER IS NOT VALUED. Also to KEEP UP WITH THEIR REQUIREMENTS in order to stay in 'good standing' and in a decent place on the 'listing status' is A TOTAL NIGHTMARE. You have to worry constantly to check your emails and to respond and accept OR ELSE. They are more against me than for me and WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PARTNERS TO HELP ONE ANOTHER. IF ANYONE READING THIS HAS ANY SUGGESTIONS OF ANYWHERE ELSE TO GO TO RENT MY UNIT I WOULD APPRECIATE IT GREATLY!

I have been a member of VRBO for the past 7 years with four properties. I pay $600 per property to be listed. Now as one of my properties was up for renewal I am told that it is mandatory to use their booking system. Now along with the $2400 I pay, they will also get 3% if someone uses a credit card and 8-10% additional that they tack on to the customer as a "Service Fee." The customers think that this is an added charge from the homeowner, but VRBO is charging them. I have also heard horror stories of how VRBO collects the money at booking but does not actually give the homeowner the funds until a month after the renter checks out. The amount they are getting in interest by doing this is insane. I will never renew with them. I have my own availability calendar and booking and I am not going to give them control over this. Since expedia bought them out, it has become a greedy horrible company to work with. Hopefully someone else will come around and make a similar company to what VRBO used to be in the beginning. But in the meantime, all customers should know they are paying much more by booking through VRBO!!!

Way to costly, customer support has a lousey attitude of treating property owners like cash cows they continue to milk dry. Now to renew they take more control over who will be booking my properties and charging me almost $500.00 per yr per property and then charge me 3% when a customer uses a credit card PLUS 15% of every booking. Due to their greed I have decided to find a reasonable partner. Why the heck should we buy the property, reconfigure, furnish it maintain it and on top of a very high cost to advertise it give them up to 18% of my income. After all of that I still have to pay the sales tax to the city and state plus the income taxes on whats left. Does anyone think this is a responsible decision to do business with these people. Its a shame because they used to be top notch and easy to do business, now just a greedy money sucking company. Not my sort of partners.

Since Expedia purchased VRBO, the website has declined astronomically. It was bad, but now, it's terrible. I'm supposed to be positioned among 20 other townhomes in my 2 building complex. VRBO constantly moves me from that listing area, where I'm supposed to be located, and moves me miles from where I'm supposed to be located. This has cost me thousands of dollars in bookings. Last year, I failed to rent multiple weeks and discovered that I had been removed from my listing position. Of course, VRBO told me it wasn't their fault. It's Google's fault - so they tell me. They cancelled all of the people I had booked on my calendar. Suddenly, I was being contacted by potential renters, who told me that a particular week was available. Of course, those weeks were already booked, and of course, VRBO swore it wasn't their fault. Their analytics are faulty. I'm fully booked 42 weeks of the year, but according to their analytics, I'm not getting any bookings. They give top billing to my neighbors, who don't have 24 pictures, don't have many reviews, and don't offer online booking. VRBO doesn't have an explanation for that problem. Their customer service people have limited information and can't answer questions about analytics. Neither can their supervisors, who always say that the computer isn't available. I'm moving on to what I hope will be a better experience.

We have a property that we list on both AirBnb and VRBO (although we a have removed it from VRBO now ). On our first ( and last ) rental through VRBO we had a guest book for 5 nights. A couple of weeks beforehand the guest contacted us and switched it to 2 nights. No problem, I edited the reservation to change to 2 nights. Oddly the website did not recalculate the rental amount and the service fees. I searched help and forums and the best suggestion was to cancel the 2nd of 2 payments that the guest was required to pay. When the guest arrived VRBO released the payment to me less the original service fee for the 5 nights which made the total service fee charged to be 27% of the rental amount. Back and forth with customer service they acknowledged that the fees were not correct but said that they could not issue a correcting payment to me because I had not edited it properly and their "system" won't recalculate after the fact. They also sent me instructions on how to do it properly in the future. So I asked the customer service representative that if the opposite had happened and the guest had booked for say 1 day and increased their reservation to 7 days would the "system" automatically recalculate so that VRBO would get an appropriate increase in their service fee? His answer: "OF COURSE!" My conclusion: VRBO attempts to maximize their profits at the expense of customer service. Purposefully creates and allows "errors" in their "system" in their favor. When I said I would be cancelling my listing he said "maybe you should try HomeAway" !!!

1. VRBO fees are just horrendous- I've listed my house on VRBO and AIRBnB and it's 10% vs. 3% so for the same time period my house was rented VRBO charged my 300$ vs AirBnb's 95$. Same for the Travelers/guests- AIRBnb charges 3 x less! 2. VRBO's calculations that I get as the owner are so convoluted and confusing and nothing adds up, that I am sure it is done on purpose to confuse owners, as you would have to call VRBO every time to have it explained to you. I'm sure they want the fees to appear very 'professional' with many fancy words that actually mean nothing, it's a way to justify outrageous charges! 3. LACK OF SECURITY FOR OWNERS- the number FAKE requests and scam requests I get from the VRBO website (mainly from UK) is around 60-70% of all requests!! VRBO can implement a very simple procedure to verify the guests but they will not- I actually asked them about it as you have to waste time investigating the guests yourself all the time, and VRBO replied " We just want your business(money), we are not here to protect you, you have to do that yourself' ! I actually have this in writing when they emailed me back!! (AirBnb has a very simple method- phone # verification by the system, and a VISIBLE to owner guest's profile with a picture and any previous reviews, and a short bio. Works like a charm) ***I HAVE NEVER gotten even 1 fake request from AirBnb, but about 25 from VRBO in this past year! **** I have a couple of guests booked from VRBO for this year (80 % of guests are coming from AirBnb anyway) so after that i will be cancelling my account with them. I hope their abhorrent business practices will be their demise. If you want a great experience as a Host or Traveler/Guest- use AirBnb! Fantastic, friendly and inexpensive. I can see why they took over the market so fast. VRBO is just a greedy, hungry business. Sylvie, Canada

I've been a host for several years, and sometimes a guest too of online vacation rentals. Even though I list my properties on both airbnb & VRBO, I'd never book through VRBO as a guest, for VRBO is too greedy & charges too much from both the guest and the owner. I, as many other hosts/owners, have to increase the rates on VRBO for the same property to make it even. Generally, airbnb charges about 13% as its total service fees, while VRBO charges 19~20%. Plus, VRBO also charges $399US for annual subscription. Unbelievable high fees, comparing to its long waiting call centre and almost non-existing service. Also, VRBO pays out very slowly. My last guest checked in a week ago, & I still haven't seen a penny in my account. Had to call in and was told it'll be next week that I may see funds transferred into my account. Oh, my!

I booked with VRBO and was not pleased. I left a review and they would not post it. Please see below. Thank you for submitting your review. Unfortunately, it needs a little bit of work before we can post it to our site. The reason we are currently unable to approve it is listed below. Please revise your review so that it meets our content guidelines, which you can see here. When you're done you can resubmit it by clicking the button below. •Your submission contains questionable or inappropriate content. Review #16661412 “Immaculate, Gorgeous Villa! Min. to Disney! Great Amenities! Dec. Spcl $70 night” ★ This was the worst Christmas holiday vacation ever. We had reserved a minivan that was not available so we had to get two cars. There are 8 of us in a townhome, 5 adults 3 boys ages 4 and 5. We arrived at Seven Dwarfs Villa and there is no guard at the guards desk. So we call the owner and she is very helpful in helping locate the unit, but assumes we have company because of the two cars. We immediately go grocery shopping as a way to save money. We cooked something daily. We drove to Daytona beach and had great time. We experienced Magic Kingdom for New Years which was magical. We stayed 4 nights 3 days. On our last morning we all get up early and began vacuuming, pulling trash and pulling linen. I started a load of laundry as per instruction. Everyone is aware of my deposit so we all pitched in to tidy up the place. (which was not in the instructions). We had groceries left and decided to cook before we left as to not waste food. When I get home I got a disturbing email from owner that say "My housekeeper almost fell because there is so much grease on the floors and walls. I may have to charge you for extra cleaning." The owner states that her housekeeper has pictures that she will send me. I get the pictures 7 days later. The first thing that gets my attention is the trash because my husband took the trash to the dumpster, by the car wash as we left for the airport. Very suspicious. The contract read that normal wear and tear is acceptable. However most of the pictures that are sent are of soiled linen. Again there are 8 of us. If we had not tidied up the place I would say ok, but we did and this has me very upset. There were no instructions as to cleaning the linen or we would have. The owner kept my deposit, for "extra cleaning" of her own linen. I think that if she really has a housekeeper, that they are running a scam on families for "Extra Cleaning". I own two homes I have a housekeeper and when I pay her to clean, she cleans. Renters beware. I have rented vacation homes 2 other times and have never experienced anything like this. If you have children or wear makeup you would be better off at a hotel. I thought damage would be something broken or missing. This really put a damper on what was otherwise a great holiday. The owner assumes that I'm also stupid but I am filing a small claims against her. This is not acceptable. I want my deposit back as I kept my end of the agreement. BEWARE

I attempted to book a VRBO rental yesterday. When I went to pay, it repeatedly declined my credit card and said to check it and my billing address and resubmit. I phoned up VRBO Customer service, was told to contact my credit card company because the issue lay with them. The credit card company's agent confirmed that there was no error their end so together, she and I phoned back VRBO Customer Support. In total I believe I spent two hours yesterday, and a further two hours today trying to just *pay* to book the rental, without success. It seems VBRO outsources their customer support to a contact centre in the Philippines. Their agents are basically trained to read off a script. If you inquire as to what the problem might be, their answer is, 'I suggest you try to book again in an hour or I can transfer you to the payment processing dept.' When you get transferred to that dept, they claim nothing is wrong their end and transfer you back to customer support. When you ask to speak to a supervisor, none are available. They do not notify you that they will be placing you on hold, they just do it, so you are left wondering whether you have been disconnected or are still on the line. On the last occasion I spoke to a VBRO agent, they concluded that 'a few travelers have been experiencing payment issues and it is something to do with our system.' When she came back on the line, however, she contradicted herself and said I must have typed in a number or letter wrong on my billing address. All told, this company cannot solve customer issues, nor are they apologetic at all, nor do they care about earning your business or making the customer happy. This was my first, and undoubtedly my last, time using them. Back to airbnb!

I have advertised on VRBO for 10 years. Up till last year I was a happy with their services. I have homes in South Carolina and on the coast of Florida listed on VRBO. Now VRBO, is double dipping by charging the owner a listing fee and the renter a 4% to 10% fee. They are forcing all owners to use their online booking or risk being delisted or put to the bottom of the list of homes. Worse yet they have added hundreds of homes to a search area which has nothing to do with the community. I complained to them I had been a loyal client for 10 years and they were listing properties above mine. When adding the service fee VRBO stated they would be enhancing services. I have spoken with them several times and was put on hold 50 minutes to finally get voicemail. I tried twice and left 2 messages however they never called me back. VRBO's service has definitely gotten worst. VRBO simply didn't care what I had to say and can care less about servicing their clients. Unfortunately, it was not always like this. They did manage to contact me to renew my subscriptions.

I was a host with VBRO from July to September 2015. VBRO charges hosts hundreds of dollars annually in order to be able to use Pay Pal (which is free to them), or hosts and guests must use their YAPSTONE payment server. As we were just getting our hosting business started we went with their default payment server YAPSTONE. VBRO mandates hosts' full social security number, birthdate, bank routing & account & debit card numbers, phone & address: EVERYTHING. There were two VBRO/YAPSTONE security breaches in August, which we were not informed of until mid-October, and even then only some people got letters whose information was hacked. All personal and banking information were taken by the hackers from thousands of VBRO accounts. Never-the-less VBRO insisted that they did not need to upgrade their security, bor change their payment server, nor would they waive their fee for using PayPal to those whose information had been stolen. YAPSTONE never responded at all despite letters, emails, & they do not post phone # anywhere, nor would VBRO givve out that info. There were two more breaches in the next two months which their some of VBBRO's employees admitted to but then subsequently their managers lied & said that the employees were mistaken. We had to change our banks, accounts, and debit cards 4 times due to fraudulent charges from these VBRO security breaches. Only those VBRO assigned accounts & debit cards were compromised each time.

Had a vacation rental booked 10 months in advanced to travel with my family of 7 to New Orleans for Halloween. On the shuttle ride to the property I notice that I have an email stating that the reservation had been cancelled due to an electrical issue at the property. I contact VRBO to find out what are they going to do to help me? They told me that they have on a certain budget to work within and that they could my family up in a hotel for the night 30 miles away from where we were suppose to be and that I was on my own to try and find a place to stay for the duration of the trip. I was a stranded traveler with a party of 7 (my family) and this is their policy. BEWARE, BEWARE, BEWARE of using this company and please have a back-up plan for yourself if you decide to use them.

Since you deleted my friends review from your Facebook page the next best place to go for a FAIR review would be your own page. I had a friend get married and book her condo with this service. She paid for a condo with the beach front access; however, upon arrival she realized that their was construction that did not allow said beach front access resulting in not ever stepping foot on the property she rented!! After trying to get ahold of the property manager without success, go figure, she tried once returning home to give them one last chance to rectify the situation and they blew her off, yet again. So, she left a review on their Facebook page which they promptly deleted and then emailed her saying she was no longer eligible to post a review on the page because she was 'blackmailing' and 'attempting to extort' the property managers for money!! Not telling a renter that they won't get what they paid for and then ignoring them when they are trying to get to the bottom of the situation IS EXTORTION!! She NEVER asked for money, only to speak with someone that could fairly address the situation. Be careful when renting from this company because they do NOT provide what they promised, nor do they want the public to know about it, hence deleting her comment from Facebook. OH DID I MENTION THAT SHE RENTED THE PROPERTY FOR HER WEDDING!!??

Five years ago, VRBO. provided a listing service used by owners of residences to locate vacationers and other itinerant tenants who sought our vacation homes. It provided space on the VRBO site to post several to a dozen or more photos of the premises; detailed description of the location, and conditions to rent such as, "no smoking", "no pets," "not suitable for children." It also helped owners provide a list of rents, based on season of the year, holiday times, and duration of the rental period, usually from per day, to per month. Owners preparing their listings were invited to "check off" such amenities as appliances on site, proximity to waterfront, extent of furnishings supplied, proximity to sporting opportunities and equipment suppliers, and to performance venues like movies and live theater, and distance to the nearest bar or tavern, among others. Would-be vacationers would contact us owners by site-based email, inquire about availability and verify (or seek to negotiate) rates and make arrangements with each owner to reserve and pay. A few years ago VRBO and HomeAway combined their efforts, and classifications of owners' listings were established: e.g. classic, silver, gold, platinum featuring more photographs and charging higher fee to the listing owner. There were also, "featured listings" inaugurated, which charged a fee for an owner's property to be "featured" at the top of the list of properties for the town or other designation like "neighborhood" or "borough" in some locations. Travelers looking to rent a vacation property used the straightforward location system to find properties that might be available. Occasionally, people posing as vacationers looking for a house to rent would try to scam owners to defraud them by bad checks and variations on that. We chose to use Paypal to put a barricade between us and our vacationing renters. It has worked perfectly. VRBO/HomeAway won't let owners choose Paypal, but insist on access to bank account information in full together with right to withdraw money from such bank account. Owners paid an annual fee to be on the listing, added fees from year to year or month to month as VRBO/HomeAway encouraged owners to compete for more inviting and conspicuous listings. Last year, they began to charge a fee above the rents set by owners. Now, VRBO/HomeAway are pressuring owners to give them the funds charged for rent to hold until the travelers get to the property. They describe it as enhancing "safety" and promise that it makes it much easier for travelers to book vacation homes they want for their trips. Complaints on the internet have reported waiting for weeks to receive the rents after the travelers arrived and departed. I don't have personal experience with that, but have chosen not to participate, preferring the "Classic" manner of listing with VRBO. Now, our property is buried in what appears to be a constantly shifting format for finding our listing. VRBO claims to be "matching" searchers for property with owners of vacation homes. But a first-try to find our place by searching as though we were prospects, turned up a list of commercial hotel listing websites, and a "search" engine that seemed daunted by terms that had quickly resulted in finding our place using the old paradigm the had in place before. We're quite soured by now, only a couple months after we renewed for another year, because the expressions of interest have slowed to nil, and that seems almost inevitable in the current set up that travelers now confront.

SCAMMED OUT OF $2,080.00!!! Rented through VRBO. We were looking to get away on a mini-vacation retreat and wanted to go to a secluded remote area to get away the stresses of everyday life. This property owner of the unit ended up "scamming" us out of $2,000.00 Owner was NOT forthcoming with information about his property. Nowhere on the property listing on the VRBO website does it state that there are surveillance cameras INSIDE and outside the property! A mini vacation in a secluded area to get away was set, at least that's what we thought, until we found out "BIG BROTHER" would be monitoring our every move! Once property owner received the payment in FULL ($2,000.00) information in regards to the cameras INSIDE and outside the property was disclosed. Property owner does not see an issue with the cameras, that he stated he uses to monitor the guests. What he does with the footage who knows; uploads it online?; uses it for sexual gratification?!?!...who knows. After discussing concerns with property owner, the owner agreed to issue a "partial" refund. However, the property owner then recanted and is refusing to issue a refund. Terrible customer service. Property owner is difficult to engage with and is not trust worthy. Potential renters be warned! Then, we escalated the issue to VRBO for assistance. However, VRBO does not see the issue with the surveillance camera's and how it is an invasion of privacy. If the camera information was disclosed on the listing or prior to payment we would have never entered into an agreement to rent. VRBO stated that they would be unable to assist us further in resolving this concern. We purchased "trip protection insurance" through the VRBO website for $80.00. After contacting the insurance we were told that the "reason" we canceled is not covered under the trip protection insurance. The insurance stated that they are unable to assist us further in resolving this issue. After everything we paid $2,080.00 for a trip that never happened and no kind of support from VRBO, the trip protection insurance, or from the property owner. There is currently no kind of resolution being offered and we are still out $2,080.00. Very dissatisfied. We paid for a service we never received.

VRBO was great until it was bought by Expedia last year. We own a cottage and had lots of inquiries.....we have a 5 star average review score. This year, without any warning, they started charging renters a fee on top of the subscription that we owners pay. In order to collect this, they pressure the owners to enable online booking. I will not allow online booking and my punishment is to be listed at the end of the search results. I have gone from an average of 450 views per month to well under a hundred and my inquiries have all but dried up. I will not be renewing my subscription and will be switching, probably to Vacation Home Rentals.

I made a reservation through HomeAway for a VRBO in Wisconsin for a family reunion. I put a deposit down on the house in December 2016 and thought that all was well. As the time approached for the reunion I tried to find the property on the website and it had disappeared. I called HomeAway customer service, a phone center somewhere in Eastern Europe, and they verified the owner had taken the house off the list but told me my reservation was OK. They gave me two phone numbers to contact the owner on which I left numerous messages. I also tried to contact the owner through Facebook and his business e-mail. No response. I did a little research and found out he had put the property on the market and tried to sell it. I decided to cancel my reservation. I found out that the only formal way to cancel the reservation was to contact HomeAway and have them notify the owner. But the reservation is only cancelled when the owner responds and acknowledges the cancellation which he has not done to date. Just got the automated message to make the final payment and still no success in cancelling the reservation. So understand when HomeAway guarantees the return of your deposit if you cancel 30 prior to the start date, that it is not really a guarantee. You are still at the mercy of the owner. And the only person you talk to for customer service is some person who works at a phone center in Eastern Europe.

For a homeowner Every year they charge more and offer less. Now, you are forced to use their online payment system or have a terrible ranking. We use a management company and can't use their payment system, which means a much lower ranking. My experiences with their customer service have been brutal as well. For a customer If you use the online payment through vrbo and have a problem, vrbo customer service is horrific. You have very little recourse and will just be frustrated and probably lose $$. All our reservations run through a great management company with fantastic customer service. In 8 years, there have been no customer service problems. Booking our place through them is a much safer and overall much better experience. If you have a problem after arrival (water leak, heater failure, phone doesn't work, internet doesn't work, etc.), who will you call? VRBO? Good luck getting them to help. The owner? Maybe helpful but also could live far far away and make things much harder and time consuming to get fixed, or not get fixed. If there were a problem in our place, you have 24 hr access to help and very fast turnaround.

I submitted 2 offers using VBRO. I discovered that both properties were not available even though I was allowed to put my credit card down and "book". Basically I was submitting an offer. Both got rejected because they were not available, yet my credit card was charged for the cancellation insurance and the VBRO service fee. I went to call the customer service number on VBRO and I got a message saying that all customer service was in training. My card should have never been charged until the offer is approved and I should have never been allowed to submit an offer on a property that is not available. Will not be using VBRO again. If my card is not refunded soon I plan on disputing the charges. Unacceptable. Better to go directly to the property manager.

Back in November of 2015, I booked a 4-bedroom home in downtown Rapid City, SD, well in advance of a family summer vacation in July of 2017. I did so because I wanted a nice, clean home that suited my family's needs. 5 MONTHS later, the owner broke the lease and the only other home in that area that I would have considered renting was booked solid for my dates. I ended up reserving another home through Flipkey, 3 bedrooms, 15 miles from where I wanted to be. As a result, the smaller home forced some of my family members to stay home, after purchasing non-refundable plane tickets. I am quite devastated over this and very angry about the fact that a Homeaway owner can, at will, pull the plug on a client who has dealt with her in good faith. Apparently, Homeaway/VRBO does not impress upon their owners the importance of commitment and responsibility. I probably won't be booking with Homeaway?VRBO again since I guess their owners can get away with this kind of behavior. I'm just wondering now how many people out there have had the same unfortunate experience? Surely I can't be the only one…

I am a rental house owner. VRBO\HomeAway deactivated our listings last Friday afternoon without any warning. In an e-mail after the fact, HomeAway stated that our listing "contains messaging directing travelers to pay offline to avoid our online secure booking checkout system in violation of our content guidelines." That statement was incorrect on two facts: we only advised travelers that there were options available; and once I was able to find a working link to their "content guidelines" I found no such restriction. (I did print out the guidelines in case they try to alter them later.) Nevertheless we deleted the wording immediately and asked for our listing to be reactiavted. However, their "special team" that handles such cases conveniently does not work on weekends, so our listhings have been missing all weekend and as of now (Wednesday late afternoon) only one has been re-activated. Every time we call they inform us that they can't estimate when our case will be reviewed. It is extremely frustrating. We have been among their top 5% earners for 9 years now and introduced many guests to their site, this is how we are rewarded? We have demanded a refund of our subscription for the time lost, but that is probably a hopeless cause. I have also suggested that they make their services optional, like HA's trip insurance used to be. I let them know that we've had several guests state that although they have been using VRBO for years (one since the 90s), they will be looking elsewhere in the future; there is a deep-seated animosity to the Ticketmaster business model. If travelers truly value their services, they will opt-in. But again, this seems a lost cause. We feel that RBO\ HomeAway/Expedia doesn't care about owners any more because basically they feel they don't need to. It is time for us to find other websites with some owner focus. We are joining HomeEscape.

YES - VRBO DOES HAVE A NEW "SERVICE FEE" - TO BE PAID BY THE RENTER!! Let me add my voice to the chorus of property owners disgusted with VRBO and their institution of this new "service fee" - to be paid by renters. I had been wondering why rental inquiries for my properties had recently dwindled so drastically. Upon receiving an inquiry today I went to the dashboard and was horrified to see a 9% service fee added onto the price quote breakdown for my potential future renter. I called VRBO customer service voiced my extreme dissatisfaction, only to be greeted by an agent doing her very best to try and justify this additional charge. There is NO JUSTIFICATION for it. VRBO substantially increased their advertising charges less than 18 months ago. My platinum level charges increased by almost 30% per year. Now it appears VRBO is looking for further revenue and this time it its the renters who have to pay. All this does for property owners, is diminishes the number of inquires and ultimate rentals. I am going to look at moving my properties elsewhere and in the meantime - until my subscription runs out, inform anyone inquiring about renting over VRBO that this new "service fee" has nothing to do with me. It is just VRBO being greedy. I intend to give potential renters alternative options for rental - where they will not have to pay this fee. 2 years ago I would have given VRBO a 5 star rating - now unfortunately it would only be 1 star

One of the worst companies I've ever dealt with. We rented a property on VRBO and were refused the property when we arrived and the owners KEPT the money! Because Homeaway doesn't hold the money there is nothing we could do except file a dispute with our credit card. On top of that, because when we asked the property owner for our money back, we said we would remove the review and consider our transaction void, Homeaway then removed and BLOCKED us from any future chance of reviewing claiming we were trying "black mail" or "extort" the property owner. They have ZERO customer service and favor the property owners no matter what. I will NEVER rent with them again, tell EVERYONE I know to not rent with them. Only use Airbnb as they actually HOLD the money to protect their customers. They give WAY too much power to the property owners and cannot even fathom how they have succeeded as a business. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

I use airbnb.com, Flip Key (TripAdvisor) and VRBO. I do get quite a few bookings through VRBO (about half as many as I do through airbnb.com. But it is an inferior site. The metrics can be glitchy and it is difficult to reach customer support. They refuse to sync their calendars with other sites (which airbnb does) and it could lead to double bookings (it does import the competitors' calendars, though). So I have to manually check each booking to make sure I don't double book. BUMMER. The quality of guest is not nearly as good as airbnb, I think because we can't rate the GUEST. Rating the guest makes them so considerate (in advance). VRBO seems like an anonymous, corporate machine. Airbnb seems like we are in this sharing community together (notice the word community, you won't see that word in VRBO). I do like that they allow you to collect the fee without using there service, because I have had big problems with refunds and security deposits through them. So I never use their credit card booking service. I get paid in person. I think it stinks that they are owned by Homeway and try and get you to pay TWO fees to belong to both. Rip off. I guess the best thing I can say about VRBO is that it is better than TripAdvsor (Flipkey) that sent me a drug abusing domestic abuse, pyromaniac couple.

I am a vacation home owner who pays HA/VRBO to advertise my property, vrbo.com/79324. Due to recent changes for SOME of the homeowners in our area, my home has been moved from the Mendocino listing where I was #3 of 112. Yes, I paid the Platinum subscription price to be listed that high, $1249.00 for 12 months and have been advertising with HA/VRBO for 10 years. Now HA/VRBO has moved my listing to a city with only 2 homes listed. They REFUSE to refund the difference between the "regular" listing price of $349.00 and the $1249.00 I paid. My inquiries have decreased 95% and a portion of summer is still unbooked. Hmm, you moved me without my consent into a city where I do not need to pay Platinum fees to be higher on the list, you refuse a refund....and I CANNOT get a MANAGER or "Escalation Specialist" to call me about this? Very unhappy with the service anymore.

Complaint of VRBO by Owners In 2010 I began renting my Beachfront condo to short term transient guest to cover my expenses with this condo. Like so many other property owners I turned to the service that I used my self, VRBO.com (Acronym for Vacation Rentals By Owner). Initially VRBO was nothing more than a classified ad site for property owners to post their properties in various categories based on location and amenities. Initially the process was pleasing and enjoyable. Skip forward 5 years and there is not a day that goes by where I do not think of a way to escape the necessary evil in my life. VRBO! VRBO enacted a policy in 2011 that required owners to allow reviews of their properties. Prior to that, as an owner you could disallow or allow this feature. As a digital consumer I recalled the process Ebay.com has in place where the review process is not so onerous. A purchaser may think twice about leaving an embellished bad review in fear that they will be given one in return for merely falsifying a review to be vengeful. VRBO has completely stepped away from their roots. VRBO does not own my property, I do. My property is not a Hotel, its mine. I do not have to let people stay at my property, I allow them to as my guest. VRBO is spending a lot of its efforts to compete with the www.expedia.com, www.travelocity.com, www.hotels.com market. Those sites are renting hotel rooms from companies that rent hotel rooms. Needless to say because VRBO has drifted so far away from its initial vision it allows pure onerous reviews where a guest that just chunked my TV out the window and lit my sofa on fire may post a negative review about my property in the fact that I kept their $300 security deposit "unjustly." I request assistance to return the power to the owners of the properties (the people that pay VRBO.com's salary) or even the playing field by requiring guest to create a profile and get reviewed themselves as well. Perhaps they may think twice before hurling that TV out the window this time.

VRBO had the chance to show loyalty to me as a customer and did not. There is an owner on VRBO with a listing that that now has 3 very similar negative reviews. The bottom line is that it’s fraudulent and VRBO is not doing a thing to help me recoup my money. After a handful of positive experiences, I will now never trust VRBO with my business again. Very disappointed and discouraged.