VRBOReviews 2,004

We booked our reservation in September 2019. Heard nothing from the owner since then. I even questioned him about the 30 rental law that went into effect over the summer. I was assured there wouldn't be any problem and today he cancelled my reservation using the coronavirus as the reason. WTF Hawaii isn't even having an outbreak there. VRBO with their limited English speaking reps told me he would not be allowed to cancel and even sent me a basic email. But I just received the cancellation notice. Do not rent from this guy!

I gave them a call about a cancellation due to the fact that the coronavirus is killing a lot of people and vrbo is not doing anything! They said oh we are a marketing company oh we can't do anything oh we don't know what to do. Called the property manager and he said I just went to Europe where the coronavirus was bad and he came back fine... OK Johnathan you ignorant POS. He didn't want to give me my refund. Talking about policy... you idiot it's your policy lol. Kid dude is a scam and has a trash apartment. Go figure because he uses a trash service like vrbo. Stick your policy up where the sun doesn't shine POS.

Owner cancelled on me and after 3 weeks I am still fighting to get all of our money back. As vrbo haggles with the homeowner about doing whatever she is supposed to be doing, we have to sit and wait. Why does the homeowner have any control over whether I get my money back? I have a great idea VRBO... why don't you refund my money and then you can haggle with that woman to get your money back? I have been disconnected several times. Have waited on hold for a total of hours. Told things will be resolved in 48 hours a couple of times. Nothing! This is the craziest customer service I have ever seen. I would never trust this company again.

Whatever you do, STAY AWAY! They advertise one price on the website, and once you book (and pay) the owners email you separately demanding more money to keep your reservation. Don't fall for this scam!

There is ZERO customer service. We contacted the website about the owner demanding more money after we paid, and they sided with the owner saying if they want more, then we have to pay more. We are the paying customers, and have absolutely no rights where they are concerned. Take heed and learn from our mistake. We will never book through them again.

Ever since they became Home Away it has been a nightmare as an owner. So many technical problems I have spent many hours and had many frustrating calls to "support" where I get none at all and everyone tells me something different. I have set rates that don't transfer over to home away. Their system goes down and people can't book or get booked at the base rate instead of set rate. There are so many problems I really want to walk away. Unfortunately they do get so many people onto their website I might lose bookings but I'm not sure if he frustration level is worth it. I consistently complain and no one bothers to follow up. Clearly they don't care about their customers. They are probably so big that one little person with only one property doesn't matter to them. Really fed up.

I have a vacation property on VRBO. As the property has not rented for the upcoming season I decided to search for my property to see what the issue was. Lo and behold the property I have had listed on VRBO for 4 years doesn't even show up when searching rentals. When I contacted customer service I was advised that it would be referred to their team and there is nothing I can do until someone on their end responds via email.

No resolution, nothing on the potential loss of income for the property being down. List elsewhere VRBO offers no protection, just takes your money!

We had a condo for a vacation rental a couple of years with VRBO and we never had any issues, recently we sold the condo and bought a home to rent as a vacation property on VRBO.
My first complaint is that they changed the way they issue payments to the owners, we have to wait till the trailer checks in to have the funds released and then at that point we have to wait an additional 5-7 days for the funds to show up in our bank account, I just had a supervisor argue with me about verifying my account that my wife has repeatedly added me too and they still will only send her a text to verify and will not acknowledge me as the second owner, I was transferred after having them verify threw my wife to a supervisor who then asked me to verify myself again and I could not believe after 20 minutes of getting told that they don't know why the funds were not being released on last weeks check in and only a supervisor might have the reason for this and the supervisor basically gave me an extremely hard time about re verifying myself and when I said I have had it I'm going to get my wife on the phone the supervisor hung up immediately.

The bottom line is this company is now using our funds when we take the first deposit it can be a year or more out then we have to wait for the check in date and then a cleaning period this is all new policy and should be illegal considering VRBO is not a financial institution and has not right to hold monies that belong to the consumers for a very long period of time, are they insured like a financial institution if they have company problems where does our money go and we still have to honor the traveler.

I was told by VRBO that I should use them because they are a local U.S. company and IF there was any problem on my trip to France, they would back me. Well, the person from whom I rented an apartment in Antibes did create a problem. I did have to cancel the reservation and notified the owner in advance. He told me verbally and repeatedly in writing that if I cancelled my reservation and he was able to re-lease the apartment for that period that he would refund my money. He did re-lease the apartment and beyond to someone else. But, he refused to refund. I went to my "friends" that said they would be there for me at VRBO and essentially they said there was nothing they could do. I recounted all the promises, dates and people at VRBO with whom I had spoken, and they said sorry, but nothing they could do. In my case it turned out ok because Visa went to bat for me and upon presenting proof of the promises made by the apartment owner they decided the case in my favor and reversed the payment. None of this is in any way due to efforts or promises kept by VRBO. It was a lot of time, phone calls and aggravation caused by dishonest practices.

1. Chose to CALL to book a rental the first time that was advertised as "LAST MINUTE AVAILABILITy".
2. at the end of process, was told that the owner will contact us w/in 24 hrs to let us know if they've accepted our booking? Really?
3. I advised them that I'm booking flights. They continued to state the same--as if reading a script--'the owner will contact you' within 24hrs to let you know if they've accepted the booking? I told them to cancel the request. Then they said, thank you and have we answered all your questions?
4. I told them NO, you did not answer the question if this place is available, why do i need to wait 24 hrs?
5. fortunately, our flights could be canceled within the time frame that we did.
6. They did get all my credit card info--hmmm, might there be sneaky snake charges? Will keep you posted!
7. don't have the energy to discuss the 2nd time

I am an owner and I had my property on Airbnb with excellent results for over a year, buy with VRBO I only got 1 reservation in over a year, and is been over 7 weeks and I sill haven't received the payment for it. I called every week for the last 4 weeks and they always have a different excuse, they say that this department or that department will call me or email me back to resolved the problem and they never do, I tried to escalated to a manager and even for that they said that they will contact me back within 24 - 48 hours. It's frustrating and don't recommend VRBO at all ton post your property!

VRBO in and of itself is a great site. BUT Homeaawy took them over and ever since its been getting worse. As an Owner I spend way to much time trying to help ny renters who have refund issues and I have payment issues.
Since they decided to intrude in owners collecting their own rental income they have just messed thing up. When Homeaway hired Yapstone Corp to collect rental income credit card fees etc there has been nothing but problems. At least at that time I could all direct to Yapstone with issues> Payment issues took 6-7 months to fix. Drove everyone crazy. Just when its fixed Expedia takes over and get rid of Yapstone and let HomeAway take over payments. What happens all of the issues that Yapstone IT people patched all came back and Homeaway has no idea how to fix them all. Homeaway does not allow you to talk with their IT people. Only Customer Service. What good is a customer service that is ill equipted to handle and can not handle monetary issues. They call the issues--KNOW GLICHES. This is not acceptable when thousands of dollars per week are at stake and If owners can't get access to their funds then renters do not get access to rental properties.
EXPEDIA needs to wake up> taking first place away from COMCAST for worst customer service in the country is not an honor. HEY think maybe someone high up in the company will call me. NOT

I have been an owner advertising on VRBO since 2001. Over the past year their customer service has fallen apart. I have a repeat guest who paid a $3000 security deposit fee for a stay over Christmas in December. The day after they checked out I notified VRBO to refund their $3000 security deposit. VRBO has yet to refund their deposit. No one at VRBO knows what they are doing. VRBO is ruining my rental business. They have no follow through. I have left 5 on-line reviews after talking with a VRBO customer service rep asking for a supervisor to call me. 40 days later I have not received a call from anyone.

We booked and paid for a Penthouse Apartment in Amsterdam for the New Year's Period 2019/20. Paid $5000 AUD in full on the 13th of September last year. Upon arrival the apartment was filthy and there was evidence of drug use. We were left dealing with a 12 year old boy as the Manager, then his mother then the owner. We left the property with a verbal agreement we would receive a refund. Next day the owner replied advising no refund. VRBO Call centre then advised they don't assist with disputes. No travel insurance would cover this. Will never recommend or use VRBO again.

My overall experience with VRBO for the past 5 years, has been ok to neutral until this year. Since July it has been a nightmare. The small town where the home is located has a lodgers tax- like a hotel tax. We began receiving notices that that tax was not being paid by VRBO. When we contacted VRBO, the customer service people said they were paying the tax; the town said no; VRBO said yes, etc. Around and around it went. One of the most frustrating things is that when customer service couldn't/wouldn't help they would not transfer us to a manager. They would open a case file for us, then say they were sending it to the tax dept who would get back to us. No response from tax dept. Three very long phone calls, three case numbers, no response from VRBO. I argued with one person for at least 30 minutes before she agreed to transfer me to the Resolution Dept. What did he do? He gave me a case number and said he would send it on to the tax team. Then he suggested that I send a letter to all the renters stating that a lodgers tax had not been charged to their account and they needed to pay it. Huh? Keep in mind that there is only one phone number. I feel very frustrated. I did find out that VRBO/Home Away is owned by Expedia. I wonder if sending letters to them would help. So now we have paid the lodgers tax but we are left with no way to collect the tax from future owners as VRBO has removed that line item from their application process.

LISTEN CLOSE, I just took a trip to costa rica, and the places I stayed were horrible, and nothing like what was on vrbo, sample, I stayed at a place in playa ocotal, it was hot and humid as hell, the place had no air-conditioning, no t. V., no toilet paper, no internet, many broken things, so what I learned about vrbo, is they don't care about the travelers, only the rentals, I booked the place for 2 weeks and stayed only 2 nights, ''horrible'' so when talking to vrbo they told me to take it up with the owner, that they paid the owner all ready and there was nothing they could do... soooo, you know, when you rent from vrbo ''if'' you don't like it, theres nothing you can do... but like me, NEVER EVER WILL I USE VRBO AGAIN... vrbo does not care about travelers... trust me. Bob

I had booked a rental home in Gulf Shores Ala with them. It was terrible and they would not refund the taxes, service fees and insurances which I didn't use because it was that bad. Bed stained and stunk like urine. Sofa same thing, oven and dryer broke, Didn't not offer me compensation for the money I spent at the hotel for the rest of my time. You will save money and heartache by booking at a local rental company. Customer service reps speak broken English which makes for an additional problem. Names like Raisin, orange REALLY. Sounds more like a fruit salad. See Bed pic below for example

They took my money for an extended stay in Honolulu in November. Christmas day I received an email saying the place was over booked when I contacted them it was all lip service. "DONT WORRY" now two weeks before departure still nothing Money was returned between the amount returned and what I paid I am out 2000. 00 plus because the booking was confirmed the airline ticket booked was non refundable It has ruined the entire trip They are just scam artists with no consience and from what I read they treat property owners as bad or worse

I never received check-in instructions for the condo I reserved in Cabo through VRBO and thus I was forced to cancel a long-planned extended family Holiday celebration at virtually the last minute. I have used VRBO for 14 properties since 2014, so I know the owner is supposed to provide information a week prior to check-in. After not receiving that info, I emailed the owner repeatedly with no success and when I called "his number" I got a message that no voicemail box had been set up. I called the resort and was told there was NO reservation for me. I started contacting VRBO several days before I was supposed to leave. They could not contact the "owner." either. So I cancelled my trip, despite the fact that they told me if I couldn't get into the property, I should contact VRBO and they would find me "other lodging." I was unwilling to put my family through what easily could have been a nightmare. Since then I have called VRBO "customer service" repeatedly. I was told early-on that the owner would be contacted and told he had 48 hours to respond. If he didn't, a claim would be started. When I called today and explained my "case" again for the umpteenth time, I was told that I would have to get my refund from the credit card company or the "owner," despite the fact that neither they nor I am able to establish contact with him. To ad insult to injury, when I started protesting the call was suddenly cut off. And the credit card company said the claim was too old to process. This experience clearly demonstrates that it is way too easy for someone to list a property on VRBO, get paid, and never have to provide access to it by simply not providing the necessary information.