VRBOReviews 2,004

My family has used VRBO several times over the last ten years and never had any issues. I even recommended them to others. However, that is no longer the case. They are only great when everything goes according to plan. We placed a deposit on a property in Florida for a family vacation in May. When our home state made it mandatory that all residents Stay Home, all our vacation plans came to a screeching halt. My daughter could no longer graduate from college in May, and my husband is unemployed. I immediately contacted the owner and was told that I was SIX days late for the cancellation period, so I could not get a refund. SIX DAYS! When I asked for them to consider the COVID-19 circumstances, I was told that everyone is having a hardship. They offered to allow me to either gamble that the WHO would extend the travel advisory through May (so then I could possibly get a refund), or I could pick a different week. What I think people are missing is that this is not just about missing the May vacation dates. This is about not being employed to pay for a vacation now. Basically, they are just going to keep my $1,700.00. I contacted VRBO, and that was a joke. They do not care about the renters; they only care about the owners. Businesses and people across the world are all trying to help each other out, but that does not include VRBO. VRBO, Matthew Devey, and Mayr & Co Realty should all be ashamed of themselves by taking advantage of people at this time.

The owner ($#*! Wall) of the property we rented in Florida was absolutely unprofessional in his response to our concerns regarding the WORLD WIDE pandemic. Callously remarking "next time purchase the insurance." I wish I could find more places to put him on blast! Don't rent from him! What a snide, unreasonable person. We even requested to rebook on a different date and his response was something along the lines of "you can't expect a business owner to pay for an act of God." Stating that he can't afford to lose money on future bookings by rescheduling all the current ones. I will never book through VRBO again.

I had to cancel my week rental (March 21 to 28) in Savannah because the border was closed. VRBO said 95% of owners were able to reach a mutual agreement settlement with renters.The owners refused any compensation (outside of. Cleaning and damage which is not a refund) VRBO returned service.
Fee only. Also the owner would not offer me an alternative booking as VRBO suggested
Three time consuming phone calls to VRBO did nothing. The owners got to keep my hard earned money and offered no compromise whatsoever. Goodbye VRBO!

The companies that last through the ups and downs are the companies that put customers first. Customers are what keep companies going. VRBO will diminish due to its lack of care for customers. I had no control over the COVID-19 pandemic and now I'm out a nice chunk of money because the property owner and VRBO were not willing to understand OR have any sympathy. If you are debating what rental site to use for your vacation, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT use VRBO, HomeAway or any of its affiliates. These companies do not care whether you lose money. Companies like these should not be supported.

I was suppose to rent a condo in the French Quarter of NOLA for my Bachelorette. We were so excited for this event, but then COVID-19 struck. Lance, the property owner, did not care that I was out thousands of dollar and he didn't even try to help. I would type long messages explaining my situation and I would get one sentence responses. Do yourself a favor and do not rent property ID *******. You will be treated poorly.

Vrbo seems to not care about customers and getting refunded way to hard. Had to cancel a trip due to Chinavirus vrbo said it was canceled and refunded but never received money and said because of Chinavirus they wouldn't charge fees but did their emailed showed 2nd time I have had to cancel through them and other time was also a pain had to talk with a lawyer to get that money back don't think I will be using this organization again

My wife and I rented the vacation home in Leavenworth, WA. We paid all fees and insurance on-time and without incident, as they were all too happy to take our money. Then the Covid-19 Virus settled-in, and we had to cancel, which was mandatory, as there is a Nationwide health crisis in effect. My wife contacted the owners of the rental property, and they agreed to refund our money, but the DASTARDLY SCUM that is VRBO would not allow the funds to be returned to us. The "customer service" representative with VRBO, whom we could barely understand as result of her inability to properly speak the English language, said the refund was processed two weeks ago, it could take up to 3 weeks! If we did not see it by then, wait another 3 weeks! Then she went on to tell my wife, who was extremely polite, "Everyone is waiting for their refund, not just[my wife's name]"! Avoid renting from these people, unless you want to flush your money down the toilet, they are despicable people, whom setup hard-working Americans, to steal their money. If you would like to hear a shining example of how to be a complete scumbag "customer service" rep., her name is Rachel. She's a peach, you guys should really enjoy her monotonous, mumbling, attitude-laden version of the English language!

Booked a place in New York State March 10,2020 for arrival to a property April 8 because I planned to visit family in the area. Mind you the time between book and stay date is less than 30 days and the property is wide open because of the time of year and travel uncertainty. As things changed in travel and virus toll went up on a daily basis I talked to the VRBO property owner about moving my dates or cancelling if things got worse. I even suggested only a 50% refund and a 50% credit for future use in the next year. Totally fair given the circumstances... if I didn't book they would have never had a reservation anyway. I called VRBO and they told me the property owner could give credit to be used in the future and the property owner even agreed in writing that they would do 50% refund and 50% credit. Just 14 days after I initially booked I finally asked to cancel because New York State (well look at the numbers of virus cases) and the Governor started restricting travel. My neighbors in VA had been self quarantining because they all had symptoms but no test available to determine if they had it. I didn't feel well so I certainly didn't think travelling was a good idea. Mind you, it is less than a week after I booked that I started communicating to cancel. The owner just got my money and hadn't been planning on a booking. Now she is looking at a target for keeping someones money. Nice enough person, but you see what people are truly made of in times of crisis. Long story short she refuses to offer a credit and keeps half the rental money telling me I did not cancel in the day window (I booked in less than a 30 day window). I guess it is my fault for not waiting a couple weeks but given the circumstances the owner should have been willing to even give a 100% refund. VRBO should have made the owner give a credit and not refused to do so.

When we arrived to the rental property we discovered window pane was missing from ground level window. The owner just taped a plastic board on the opening and the tape was coming off. It was late in the evening and the owner could not fix the problem immediately and we didn't feel secure to stay at this place. I called VRBO Customer Care # and all they did was to put the owner on the line which I did that myself already. They wouldn't even stay on the line to listen and document our conversation. The owner initially verbally agreed to a full refund but later did not return calls or emails. It would make a difference if the VRBO customer care agent was there to document my conversation with the owner. VRBO did nothing to help me to obtain the promised refund when I filed a written complaint later. Their email answer to me was: "If a resolution cannot be reached after efforts to contact the advertiser regarding the situation, you may need to consider other avenues. We cannot advise you on how you should proceed. We want to assure you that we have taken appropriate action on this advertiser's account. Please note that due to privacy laws, we are not permitted to disclose any action taken regarding this situation." Bottom line is don't count on them for assistance. Whatever action they took on the owner did not help me getting my refund.

VRBO is doing nothing to help people recoup money lost due to Coronavirus. I'm out around $7,000 from an owner who refuses to refund money or reschedule. In fact, he told my husband he will not respond to any more email from him. Shame on VRBO for contracting with unscrupulous property owners who take advantage of a worldwide pandemic to make money. I've called VRBO seven times. All I get from them is " I'm sorry for the inconvenience " and " I understand your frustration." I will NEVER use VRBO again, and I will make sure everyone I know understands what a horrible business it is.

VRBO has handled the COVID-19 crisis horribly. They have done nothing to help renters who are being screwed by selfish and greedy owners, who refuse to give any sort of refund (including the "refundable" damage deposit). VRBO needs to follow a much better run company like Airbnb, which has REQUIRED all owners to issue full refunds, then pledged $250 million to help those owners. We are all in this COVID-19 crisis together and are all being affected financially (losing jobs, closing businesses). Owners who refuse to meet halfway and give any sort of refund are downright disgusting, greedy souls and VRBO continues to protect them rather than renters. Never will we use VRBO again!

After having to cancel our once in a lifetime European holiday because of Covid-19 we cancelled a booking made with VRBO. This was done in the free cancellation period. No problem we thought. What a mistake that was. After a few days of the money not returning to our account we contacted VRBO and were told it takes 4 to 7 days. Ok we wait a week, still no refund. Get back in contact with VRBO and this time we are told it has been paid to us. When pressed the agent agreed it had not been paid back because the banks were busy and it would take up to 3 weeks. ( what a crock of $#*!). 3 weeks later another call to VRBO and I am told again it has been returned to our account. They asked for a screenshot to prove it hadn't and sent me an email with their copy of a receipt for payment which showed absolutely no details of my account or merchant. Such a load of garbage. This has not been payed to us and they are so full of $#*!. Give me my funds back you crooks.

How dare you not ensure refunds to everyone who has been affected by Covid-19? How dare you say that when my state is locked down and my country's borders are closed that I should be out thousands of dollars for rentals that (to be clear) I am not deciding to cancel, but my government is cancelling for me. Disgusting company with awful business practices. I will never book with them again and will make sure that every single person I know, now and forever, refuses to book through VRBO as well. The sooner they go out of business, the better.

It looks like I'm about to lose several thousand dollars because VRBO is not enforcing its weak suggestion that its owners provide refunds or credits for cancellations during the current pandemic. So I get to work several weeks in order to pay a stranger's mortgage, terrific.
The character of a person or a company comes out during times of crisis. I'll never book through VRBO again. I will not be booking a property on AirBnB if it is also listed on VRBO either.

We are having issues with trip cancellations through VRBO. Currently, they are only issuing full refunds for trips booked through April 30th, even with the recent Shelter In Place extension. If we do not cancel by today, we risk forfeiting our entire payment in hopes VRBO extends the full refund period beyond April 30th. Our trip is scheduled for May 1st! We are being pigeonholed into losing money for a matter beyond our control. I imagine others are having the same issue, since this is a VRBO guideline. This situation has me rethinking the use of VRBOs in the future. Maddening! #VRBO #MusicCityLofts #shelterinplace #bayarea

They are pushing the blame onto the home owners for how THEY are handling this pandemic. There are other vacation rentals doing the right thing (AIRBNB) but they have decided to rip off the renters and then blame the home owners. All of this despite getting a government bailout. Everyone is suffering right now due to an uncontrollable circumstance, but what we can control is how we respond to these events. VRBO has decided to respond with greed and indifference.