VRBOReviews 2,004

Expedia purchased HomeAway for $3.9 Billion (yes, billion). Who made this all possible? The homeowners. If homeowners don't list on VRBO then traffic to their site dies. It's just that simple. Homeowners are critical to their success, a point them seem to have forgotten in their greedy grab to soak us by raising the listing fee AND adding the new "user fee" (which will be born by the homeowner not the renter).

Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Bad move VRBO.

Let me add my voice to the chorus of property owners disgusted with VRBO and their institution of this new "service fee" - to be paid by renters. I had been wondering why rental inquiries for my properties had recently dwindled so drastically. Upon receiving an inquiry today I went to the dashboard and was horrified to see a 9% service fee added onto the price quote breakdown for my potential future renter. I called VRBO customer service voiced my extreme dissatisfaction, only to be greeted by an agent doing her very best to try and justify this additional charge. There is NO JUSTIFICATION for it. VRBO substantially increased their advertising charges less than 18 months ago. My platinum level charges increased by almost 30% per year. Now it appears VRBO is looking for further revenue and this time it its the renters who have to pay. All this does for property owners, is diminishes the number of inquires and ultimate rentals. I am going to look at moving my properties elsewhere and in the meantime - until my subscription runs out, inform anyone inquiring about renting over VRBO that this new "service fee" has nothing to do with me. It is just VRBO being greedy. I intend to give potential renters alternative options for rental - where they will not have to pay this fee.
2 years ago I would have given VRBO a 5 star rating as a property owner - how unfortunate that now feel unable to give them more than 1 star.

We need a class action suit. We paid VRBO to let us advertise on their site. THAT was the deal, the only deal. When a client responded to our ad, the bull was in our court. They have no right to step in at that point and charge our clients after we do the work and sell our product to the client. The "service fee" should be optional as any insurance fee is. In addition, the service is not all it's cracked up to be. 24/7 not so sure. I called 11:50pm and held on for 20 minutes before hanging up! Some service. Class action somebody, lets go.

I have rented beach homes for summer vacations annually with family & friends. We have been hearing about a new fee & owners unhappy with vrbo. I looked it up one of our past rentals and couldn't believe the "service fee" of nearly $140.00!?!?!? For 24/7 phone support? That is ridiculous.
I've rarely had a problem in the past and if something has come up the owner is just a phone call away. No one can provide service like the owner - someone overseas is just not going to care as much.
So why pay so much more? I can easily find my favorite places on their own websites, Facebook, or go to local sites for my favorite spots.
Just booked my next trip directly with vrbo owner we booked with last year that was more than happy to take things outside of vrbo and save us some money. They said soon they and many other owners will leave soon... Save yourself some money and don't fall for vrbo's BS!

At one time VRBO was a great service to both renter and owner but their "Service Fee" has undermined their program. Whoever thought it up should be fired. Yes, an immediate fee increase for them but a long term disaster. So many I have referred will no longer book with them on principle. The "Service Fee" offers NO SERVICE to a renter and is easily seen as a get rich quick scheme... shame on the management. People do not appreciate being taken for a fool. Hoping a competitor will offer the same service... without the fee.

This house has been updated and in excellent condition. It was easy to keep clean and conveniently arranged. The supplies left in the house were greatly appreciated. The managers were very accommodating and responded to our request immediately. I truthfully cannot think of anything that could have been better except the gentleman responsible for the care of the outside property. He is large, wears a hoody down over his face, does not communicate and doesn't do an exemplary job. He was the only down side to our stay. Cheryl and Rick Miller were fantastic.

Yes, for now you can tell your customer you will book it through paypal or other means, but soon VRBO will be separating owners and renters so they can't do that. That is what the push for "book online" is all about. I don't know about you, but I need know my guests' name and phone number and email, and if I communicate with them and get a weird feeling, I google them to check them out! I have no intention of trusting VRBO to screen, or to take care of damages- they don't do that. I created an independent website, but the big guys spend so much on advertising it is hard to get anywhere near the first few pages of a query. I'm bailing out and going to long term rental unless an enterprising replacement company pops up to run them out of business.

I have been listing my house for years at several thousands of dollars per year on VRBO, Homeaway and Vacationrental.com and paying 2.5% out of my pocket for credit card rentals. Now, the site adds a "service fee" on top of all this and customer service wait times are 25 minutes and longer. What an improvement...

By the way, I have been in the online software business for decades and know the margins are already fat for the kind of volume the Homeaway family does. Could this be a result of the purchase of the site family by Expedia to pay of debt?

Personally, I am now worried that renters will go to other sites and therefore Homeaway has forced me also to explore other sites for a more transparent business plan for my potential customers..

We have been ardent supporters of VRBO for seven years both as vacation home owners and travelers. The company recently added Service Fees to the traveler without properly notifying home owners. Additionally, these fees do not clarify to the traveler that it is being charged by VRBO. Many travelers believe the fees are imposed by the homeowner. Most importantly, the fees do not provide any value to the traveler and are egregious in nature. We have left VRBO and we caution the traveler and homeowner to beware. The greed is unconscionable.

In the beginning... VRBO gave regular down to earth home owners an avenue to advertise their rental vacation homes to down to earth vacationers who wanted to get away from the commercialized, impersonalized mega property brokers. It was a marriage made in heaven! Owners paid VRBO a reasonable amount of money to provide a well run user friendly website to advertise their vacation rentals to prospective renters. At that point, renters contacted owners personally and the two (owners and renters) worked out the details on their own. Fast forward to today. VRBO raises its rates to owners (I pay over $1300 per home for platinum level on 5 homes) charges high credit card fees (I don't use credit cards because I don't want to raise my rates to cover the fees) and is charging renters a service fee to book through the website (no one knows what for) which amounts to 4-10% of the total balance. VRBO also makes it look like it is the owner charging the guest the service fee. This is very deceitful and VRBO is stating that all of their owners will be using their booking services by the end of 2016. Well this is one owner who will not! I just signed up one of my houses with Vacation Home Rentals an affiliate of Trip Advisor and I'm going to see how it goes. VRBO had a cash cow but got greedy. Vacationers will not be taken advantage of, they will just take their business elsewhere and so will owners.
VRBO better wise up and quit trying to be a bully or they'll end up playing by themselves.

This was a wonderful company that helped both travelers and homeowners get together.
It stood for Vacation Rentals By Owners - too bad that's changing. I've both rented homes off this site and now list my owner vacation property on it for the last several years. We pay for a listing, not to have VRBO/HomeAway run our own business for us. Slowly they have been changing and forcing homeowners to accept their credit processing if you want a good location, so I signed up. Then they give you only 24hrs to approve a guest or the "system" cancels them for you. Some people need a bit more time to decide and we have to do background checks on new guests to be sure everything is legit. VRBO has no liability if your home gets trashed or your TV walks out the door. Just the same, I once again complied without complaining so my listing isn't penalized. Now, with only a 25 day notice, they are beginning to charge our guests a 9% service fee for the privilege of using the site. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! This feels like the last straw. We pay a yearly advertising fee so that there were to be no other charges. This is one of the worst examples of "bait and switch" I've seen in a long time. I was told "it won't cost you a thing, it's your guests who pay the fee" - guess again. Our repeat customers are wondering why we've added another large fee to their price, their regular weekly rates have jumped $175 with no added benefit to them or us. In my opinion, this fee is at best highly unethical when you purchase and fully pay for your listing a year in advance and then the rules change, at worst it may be illegal. I've seen a number of customers suggesting a class action lawsuit against VRBO/HomeAway recently purchased by Expedia. This is no longer the great company I used to do business with. Along with many other former loyal customers, I'm currently checking on other options to rent my home and to search for accommodations. It's so sad to see a once wonderful company that had a simple workable idea getting ruined by corporate greed and irresponsible business decisions. If anyone would like to suggest other alternatives - we are ALL listening!

Concerned that large management companies with multiple listings are allowed to "locate" their property at any location. I own a condo in a resort on the beach. When you search for that resort - the FIRST listing is for a condo at a competing resort located next door... managed by Windham... who also manages properties at my resort. Large companies that manage multiple properties can place their "location marker" wherever they also manage other properties.