VRBOReviews 2,004

VRBO is a rip off. I was charged a $97 fee when I booked a vacation rental and there was nothing on the web site that suggested that I was to be charged this fee when I booked. It is my opinion that any charges for booking a property owner's rental should be charged to the property owner not the person booking the rental. I have rented that same property for 3 years in a row and was never charged a fee before. So what is this all about? I think the amount they charged me is excessive and literally "highway robbery". I'll never use them again. Signed Dave Oustad of Fresno, CA.

We are innkeepers who have been listed with bed and breakfast.com for prob 15 years. Their new business model of only allowing you to list your B&B if you book through them -so they can take a whopping 18 % - is outrageous. I am not the only B&B jumping ship. Whoever thought this a good and fair idea for the innkeepers is incredibly mistaken. Makes me so angry when companies change things in favor of them making the most money possible and dont care about how it impacts longstanding customers... and we are in the hospitality business. How ironic.

Tried to rent a vacation home from VRBO. Got denied because the owner said the property wasn't available. Went through this 3 times before we realized VRBO is a scam!

I am a property owner and over the last six or seven years enjoyed my relationship with VRBO. But that is no longer the case. In 2017, VRBO changed its web site and formats... properties that were in a unique or historic location are now blended into the entire county with thousands of other listings. VRBO now takes commissions out of the rentals in addition to the lump sum you paid at the outset for Owner's listings. VRBO also gouges with excessive fees for use of a credit card, holds back on payments until long after the guest has vacated the rental property. Resolving issues with their personnel takes hours... they must be minimum paid service employees, not properly trained or sub contracted globally. I have used a property manager for my rentals for 15 years... she has encountered nothing but problems with them. VRBO personnel don't seem to be able to distinguish between a property owner and a property manager. My advice to any person renting their property thru web browsers is seek another company for your rentals... Airbnb, Booking.com etc. Read the warnings by other clients... and do not do business with this outfit.

VRBO now has taken over control of owners properties and charges potential renters a large fee. As an owner you can no longer speak directly with your renter. You can no longer accept personal checks from renters or use PayPal. Renters must give their credit card to even send a request to an owner. Find a way to google a property and contact the owner directly. I hope all owners flee VBRO and they are left with Expedia hotels and other garbage place.

As an owner of a rental property we paid for a year subscription. VRBO cancelled our listings because we refused to charge guests a service fee of $75 per rental. We felt this was unfair to our guests. As a result VRBO deactivated our listing and when we called to finalize the deletion of our listing they told us they would not refund us the years subscription ($597) that we had paid in advance even though they deactivated our account and we only used 5 month sof their service.

This site is a gateway to FRAUD. We looked up a property and made a inquiry. The "Owner" responded that it was available and to wire the money because... We did so and he acknowledged receipt but the promised confirmation never showed up. Then we were contacted by the bank who informed us the account was suspicious and they suspected bank fraud. We contacted the "Owner" who played games. We then contacted the Homeaway "Investigative team". There are simply no words to describe the moronic, insipid responses from the imbeciles with whom I was forced to deal with for over an hour. Their conclusion was that the site was fine and it was our fault for following his instructions. Despite knowing that "Michael Rosvold" in Lahaina is a fake and a thief the site remains up and ready to defraud another unwitting customer of thousands of dollars. Doubtless there are tens of thousands of phony listings on their site. I drove by their "World Headquarters" in Austin. It appears to be a former gas station. This company is a joke. DO NOT DEAL WITH THEM!
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