VRBOReviews 2,004

I booked a VRBO property in Clearwater, FL (702 Prospect Ave) in January, paid the final payment in February to attend a family wedding March 28 2020 at the Sand Pearl Resort. March 16,2020 the GOV and CDC came out with new social gathering guidelines. March 18,2020 the Sand Pearl Resort cancelled the wedding. I attempted to contact the property manager and VRBO with no avail. I tried the property manager 11 times including phone calls and emails and he has not responded. I was on hold for 171 minutes total over 3 phones calls with VRBO customer service for them to answer and tell me to call customer service and give me the number I had just sat on hold on for 45+ minutes and once they even hung up on me. Our family members that booked through AIRBNB got their money back due to COVID 19 with no questions asked or hassle. I can't get anyone to respond to me from VRBO or property management. We are out $879.25 and my message to everyone is stay away from VRBO. If you must book a 3rd party property do it with someone else, AIRBNB perhaps. If VRBO won't work with you during a pandemic crisis they certainly won't work with you with it is business as usual. STAY AWAY FROM BOOKING VRBO!

Vrbo is so far allowing the property owner to get away with cancelling (she cancelled we did not cancel) our pre paid reservation and not refunding us and not moving our reservation. Property owner is in bankruptcy which might explain her refusal to credit or move reservation. I had to do a chargeback with visa and also file a bbb complaint and report Vrbo to the press. Lot of work just to get a refund which so far is not even definite that we will be getting the refund. Avoid Vrbo at all costs.

Prior to the announcement of a pandemic and borders being closed, my friends and I booked a trip to New Orleans and our accommodations were through VRBO.
Given the evolving situation globally we unfortunately had to cancel the trip. Also, being ER nurses in Toronto, we felt an ethical obligation to stay and work. We notified VRBO of our cancellation and have not been successful in getting a refund back for our stay and communication has been a nightmare with the owner of the property. He (Lance) has been extremely short, unreasonable, and rude. This is despite being told by one representative that we would be getting a full refund and that the existing cancellation policy would not apply due to the circumstances.
The owner of the property (Lance) has closed off communication with us after offering to refund only $817 (not even half of total price) and VRBO has yet to refund us the service fee ($200). We are still paying the stay tax ($115), the cleaning fee ($200), as well as over 50% of the actual room charge. VRBO has also refused to communicate with the actual host so we are left with no answers and just a lot of conflicting information and over 2000 Canadian dollars short.
I think the public should know that compared to AirBnB (who are giving 100% refunds), VRBO is a POOR alternative and the company has left many Canadians out thousands of dollars.
VRBO AND THEIR PROPERTY OWNERS SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF BENEFITING FROM A GLOBAL PANDEMIC THAT NO ONE IN THIS WORLD HAS EVER LIVED THROUGH BEFORE!
WE ALL ARE VERY WELL TRAVELLED AND HAVE NEVER HAD A WORST EXPERIENCE!

Vrbo.com and their Property Owner #******* are taking peoples hard earned money and refusing refunds other than Vrbo.com's booking fees. I'm out $2,100 because they don't feel the need to take any responsibility in this COVID-19 crisis where we are all trying to pay our bills. The fact is, they received my money in August 2019 for a April 2020 trip that I never got (or will get) to take. Same story as all these other suckers. I hope they are aware of karma.

VBRO did not help enforce any refunds due to a worldwide pandemic. I had a home booked in Kissimmee, FL and even with Michigan on lockdown and everything in Florida closed including the parks, I was told we only encourage the owners to issie full refunds. I'm still out over half my refund. The owner kept more and will not respond to me. VRBO only can call him when I'm on the phone or email him. HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. WILL NEVER USE AGAIN. I WILL ONLY USE AIRBNB. VBRO you many thousands of unhappy customers.

I would give less than one star if I could. I have been booking with VRBO/HomeAway for years. We use it for everywhere we travel. Covid-19 hit the US and the world and VRBO didn't have our backs. We had a $4700 reservation that had to be canceled due to travel restrictions and canceled events. VRBO was no help other than refunding their transaction fee. We are out $2700 dollars because the owner wouldn't even refund 50%. VRBO needs to step up and stop allowing shady owners to post their properties for rent on their site.

I reached out to customer service and they assured me I would receive a full refund within 48 hours. Never happened. Reached out to them a second time and was told I should have copied the conversation with the customer service rep on my own so I had proof of the conversation. They refused to provide me with the conversation text.

Very sad for a business making a ton of money running a website! Use this service at your own risk.

I have been a HomeAway-Vrbo customer for 4 years.
I have 27 houses for rent with them.
And without warning me they deactivated a house...
Fortunately, a month after paying the advertisement for the year, I noticed it.
I asked them the reason and they asked me for a paper to verify that the tourist license number was correct.
There is no problem providing them. But. We are in containment because of the Coronavirus. I am teleworking and the document is with the agency at more than 60kms...
I asked them to leave the announcement active and that I will provide the document as soon as the situation allows.
They don't want to know anything. And don't want to activate the ad.
While this house has been advertised for 4 years. That I make the declarations every year and that without this number it would not be possible... and that I am announcing 27 houses to them...
I find it anti-commercial. Especially in these circumstances...

First time I have ever booked a stay with VRBO... I have always used Airbnb. I will not book again with VRBO. There is a global pandemic, Shelter in place and my host will not refund nor allow us to reschedule our booking. We are flexible and totally open to rescheduling our stay later this year. In fact the host has indicated they will not work with us and their policy is ZERO cancelation. Absolutely, unreal when Nashville is shut down... I have tried for over a week to contact VRBO for resolution with no response.

I booked a dream vacation through Donald Archer from Travelscowt as the pricing looked so amazing i couldn't resist, and we had been looking for a family destination. I found Donald on the VRBO website. Donald suggested we circumvent VRBO to eliminate the fees and to save money. This should have been a redflag but he assured me people do it all the time. This was a HUGE mistake. He also only accepted a personal check and did not offer credit card payments. Now I know why. I signed a contract that advised there was a NO cancellation policy for normal issues like illness or unexpected personal reasons that would prevent me from attending. Due to the Coronavirus we were unable (as well as the rest of the country) to board a plane and were also in lockdown in our county. We were in a national crisis. Furthermore the hotel I booked closed all the amenities including restaurants, bars, pool, gym and of course the ski mountain. They even banned guests a few days into my reservation from coming into the facility. When I contacted Donald Archer to cancel and get a refund he told me: "I am very sorry but we have a strict NO cancellation policy. I don't care about the coronavirus or how many people die, you are not getting your money back." Although the airlines, ski mountain and all other vendors offered refunds or concessions Donald told me tough luck and good luck trying to get money from me. Even VRBO is offering full refunds. BUYER BEWARE. Donald and Travelscowt do NOT care about customers nor the safety of anyone but themselves. I would highly recommend NOT using there service or renting any property from this company. Almost every vendor in the USA offered assistance with customers and victims of the coronavirus. It is very sad what has happened and it is a difficult time. It is sad that Donald Archer with Travelscowt is looking to profit from the sale of a property rental when the property was shutdown. I am in the process of suing his company and wish for ALL Buyers to Be aware of his ethics and business practices.

We rented a house with two other families over the week of March 21st. My son, who is in treatment for cancer, has a compromised immune system. We were informed not to travel. HomeAway/VRBO which is owned by Expedia, made "suggestions " to their owners to refund at least partial payments but left the decision ultimately up to the owners. While Air BnB refunded all payments to renters. We were on the phone three times with HomeAway and has to wait on average for 40 minutes to talk to a customer representative who we could barely understand due to their accents. HomeAway is keeping their policy to support the home owners and not the renters. Let's see how well they survive financially when no one uses HomeAway/VRBO/Expedia again. #out$2075novacation4us

Our daughter and her friends were heading to Fort Lauderdale for their college senior spring break, booked a house (with Ana-and David)and had to cancel because of Covid 19. They all saved and paid for their trip, but when it came time to ask for a refund they were denied. I want to know why when the president and all others are saying that you should not travel and the college says you will have to self Quarantine if you go, that that is not a good enough reason to get your money back! They don't want to Reschedule because they will all be in different places in another month. Very sad on your part VRBO for allowing your homeowners to Get away with this! I HOPE YOU WILL MAKE THIS RIGHT!

VRBO has been tremendous in getting our refund back in the number
Of days they told us, first class organization we will use them again going forward i did not call them I used the connect button & the operator was the best we were typing back & forth to each other & she made it very easy, I'm reading some of the negative comments just wondering how much patience they showed during these tough times one gave 5 stars then a negative comment what's that all about, good job VRBO & thank you, I would like to give my confirmation number so the operator gets credit but that might not be safe to do signed Philip M.

Beware of VRBO. They will not refund your money or even help you get a refund if you have to cancel. We booked a stay at a home in Del Ray Beach, owned by Ann Kenny, the week of 3/31/20. Sadly we had to cancel because we cannot leave Illinois due to " Shelter In Place" plus beaches and restaurants are closed so no food and no where to go would be terrible. I cannot even begin to express my total disappointment with VRBO. The owner of the rental Ann was very rude, sending many texts (before I blocked her) stating that this is not her problem, no refund, too bad! I contacted VRBO and while they claim they opened a case, I spoke with a woman yesterday who said their hands are tied and basically "so sorry!" $1,428 bucks gone, with no recourse. I'll spend more money having my attorney draw up a complaint but it's worth it given this company and this homeowner are so terrible and during such a stressful time for our country. Do not use vrbo. We will never ever use them again and we will tell everyone we know, whenever we have a chance to bad mouth this company and the homeowner who refuses to refund our money.