VRBOReviews 2,004

I have listed with VRBO for many years and never had a problem booking our cottage. Nothing has changed with our property, our listing or our vacation rental market. The only change is that Expedia entered the picture, and we have essentially lost all our business. We did not choose to let VRBO handle our booking, so I expected our listing to be low on the search list. However, our listing was not coming up in any searches. Not at all. We also paid to be a featured listing and our listing was no where to be found under features. This used to be a decent business but it is now one of the most unethical business I have ever dealt with. Add us to the list of owners leaving VRBO.

I made a reservation 4 months out through VRBO and had to cancel in 3 days. The owner would not let me cancel but said they might be able to give me some of my $500 back. They didn't. And they quit answering my e-mails. Air B&B and most reputable companies allow a way to cancel when it is so far in advance. Not VRBO. I hope Amanda Barrera in Pearland, TX (property #*******) had fun with my money. I have used Air B&B since and they are much easier to work with. And they do allow cancellations.

The Cheshire Cat Inn B & B of Santa Barbara, California is a must stay if you visit the area. The innkeepers were very welcoming. Our room was lovely with a fireplace and hot tub. The bed was very comfortable and our room was very clean. The Inn is one block from the main street where you can walk to stores, restaurants and the beach. Their food was creative, delicious and the portions were generous. Their daily happy hour with local Santa Barbara wines was wonderful. Staff were very friendly and always helpful.
Delightful!

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.

Datai in North Caicos - If you are looking for a very nice, relaxing place, this is it. The clean, sandy beach is a short walk down the 50 foot wooden walkway. The water is some of the nicest I have ever seen and I've travelled a lot. Lots of good snorkeling, kayaks, bikes and a ping pong table are included. One can walk to a local eatery/watering hole on the sandy beach and there are numerous nearby sights to see with scheduled events at various restaurants during the week. A great place!

Thank you Mr. Sharpels (CEO of Homeaway/VRBO. This past year of changes in VRBO/HA have been a total disaster! You have done a magnificent job of ruining what was a great market place for owners and vacationers! Why your Board allows you to stay is beyond comprehension. I have made recent arrangements to kick you to the curb, when I get this email that you have dropped the price of a Platinum Ad of $1300. To the price of $349.00 for all ads. For this price I will stay another year. I'm really not sure if it is even worth $349.00 any more. My inquiries have dropped to nothing when I used to be #1 in my rental area. The whole program really turns my stomach. The Customer Service group is doing the best they can with what they have to sell. It is such a shame that so much damage has been done.

I phoned HA /VRBO last night and was told that Expedia is "trying to deal with some of the issues clients are bringing to HA." I asked when we'd learn about it. The agent said, "Some people have already been sent emails. Others have not." I asked why and he said he did not know.
So what's THAT about? Has anyone received any more info from Expedia dba: HA/VRBO?
If it is true, I'd love to get an email about that posted on this site.
Thanks. Let's stick together!

Be Aware of VRBO.

VRBO booked my place, collected the rental. A deposit of $2,601 was made to my account, 2 weeks later I was told that it is fraudulent transaction. VRBO instead of taking back the $2,601 of my bank account, the charge back was $3,291, the full amount including their commission. They even take their commission and fees, they make the landlord pay for a processing fee and commission event though the landlord was charged back.

They are scammers. They will take any credit card to make a sale, and when a charge of a fraudulent transaction happens, they will keep their commission and their processing fee. So they are making you pay for their error. I received $2,601 for a rental to may account VRBO charge back from bank account is $3,291.01 instead of what they paid me. So I am out of pocket by $455. VRBO does not care about the Owners and I am sure they don't care about the tenants. Be aware Owners be aware. Do not trust VRBO with your bank account.

I just returned from 2 weeks in Venice Italy. We rented an apartment we had found on VBRO for this stay. We chose this property as it was close to the train station and water buses.
It listed as a 2 bed 2 bath apartment and looked nice in the pictures. One bath had a shower and the other a hand held shower head in a bathtub. The shower in the small bath just dripped a few drops of water when turned on. The shower head in the large bath was broken off the water hose and could not be used at all. We informed the property manager and she sent someone to fix it the day we left. Also the heat and hot water shut off every night. We would wake up to a cold apartment with no hot water. It required that we flip a breaker switch every morning to get heat and hot water. Many of the electrical outlets did not work and the lamps in bedrooms and living room had burned out bulbs (we had to buy new ones with our own $) Having 4 people staying in this rental with the above issues made for some long frustrating mornings. The location was great with but this rental is in serious need of some repairs. The electrical issues alone made us fearful that a fire could start at any time due to the faulty wiring. Very disappointing property for the money.

I too have been a long time property owner... listing two properties on VRBO for many, many years. I tried to call them yesterday... 15 minute wait. Tried to email... but they make it tough to do that too. Not at all happy with this on-line booking business and forced CC payment. Got too big... Trying to do too much... Forgot who the real customer is... and tried to force it. Bad call. Going on my own vacation now... away from you VRBO... Adios!

We have listed properties with vrbo for many years.
It was an opportunity to develop a listing and have access to vrbo and its affiliated companies search engines. It was vacation rentals by owner. The tenant found the listing contacted the owner owner and tenant agreed to a booking tenant paid owner
Any issues disputes etc were between the owner and tenant. Vrbo just put the two together. Then Vrbo started the review system the many tiered subscription policy (the more you pay the higher you were) the add on fees the large increase in truly fees
Next without notifying any of their owners they added the service fee on to the price (for imaginary service are they going to come unclog s toilet)
Now they want to take away the ability for an owner to negotiate s stay directly with the tenant. They want owners to provide the property pay all the expenses of the property but have no say so in whom rents the property booking faceless on line and they want to collect my monies and hold it for a month and charge me additional fees for this service.
Vrbo is in for a rude awakening and Expedia just bought a pig in a poke when all their reputable owners and renters use other fairer priced with fairer policies websites. As Ross Perout said do you hear that sucking sound that is all your owners and tenants quitting your greedy unfair uncaring cimpany.

We booked a cabin for the weekend on VRBO.com. After payment accepted, received confirmation from cabin resort. In the confirmation it notified us they were having construction on their property all weekend. On the VRBO website, the only contact number is for their parent company HomeAway. I called and was assured the payment was pending, would cancel out, and we could cancel without any repercussions. I also called the resort to notify them we would not be staying. They said there would be no charge.
We then booked a second cabin for our weekend. We were charged for the cabin, insurance, and a 25 dollar booking fee.
After our weekend trip, we checked our credit card. The charge for the first cabin had gone through and was not refunded. I called Home Away again. They assured me the charge was pending, and would come off. I told them the charge had gone through. They referred me to the cabin resort, saying they had already sent payment to the cabin resort and could not refund my money.
I called a total of 6 times, every time they would tell me they couldn't find my reservation, then they found it, but now they can't see the credit card charge, and finally refer to the resort.
I spoke with the resort. They said they never received payment and had not received any emails or phone calls from HomeAway (as reported by HomeAway).
After I looked at my credit card statement again, I noticed the charge wasn't from VRBO or HomeAway. The charge was made by VacayStay Connections. I called the corporate office of VacayStay and finally spoke with someone that could easily see my reservation. They are refunding our money, but charge a $25 dollar fee for refunding. This process took 2 weeks of phone calls and hassle. Will never use HomeStay or any of its companies again. Hoping we get our refund this time.

We have been with VRBO, FOR 6 years. Now you build it and they were come. Yes we had been very happy, ever with the big yearly subscription.
Now the new big boys with big ideas, to show how GREAT THEY ARE! Succeed for NEED, NOT GREED.
Just like government, another tax here, and fee there. There excuse is better service and products. Don't fix something not broken. Cabin fee, and cleaning, OK we all except tax, right.
When Home away came into the picture, things changed. Now big fee, for what! I Improvements, 24/7(not needed) More advertisements to site. VRBO is found under vacation rentals by owners. Google you will find no brains needed.
MORE FEES you will NEED when WE ALL LEAVE YOU and when customers STOP, going to VRBO to Rich for THEM. Great disappointment