VRBOReviews 2,004

I originally posted this review under HomeAway but VRBO is the same service. I wished I read this website before we booked vacation thru HomeAway/VRBO. Just don't do it, find a better site that will stand behind you. We booked thru HomeAway/VRBO for this Christmas week and ended up stranded on a Sunday evening in Angel Fire. We had to pay for another property thru the resort and can't get anyone neither the owner or HomeAway/VRBO to get us our money back.

We have listed with VRBO for 5 years, They get worse every year. Now they are hitting a new low, with online booking being forced on the owner, new fees and listings by management companies. The O stands for owners! We have worked hard to list a quality unit, have great reviews, and seem to be punished for being owner listers. We want another choice.
A new site is available, and I hope with all my heart that it succeeds! Owners, do some research and check it out.
Look for AVROA.org

Do not waste your time with this game player. He strung us along for 2 weeks while ultimately accepting someone else's money for a deposit without notifying us. I have screen shots of the entire conversation. He also later told my husband the deposit was never received, yet he mailed it back to me in another envelope 2 days prior according to the postmark (12 days after my deposit was postmarked). We lost chances at renting other affordable condos that we were interested in because we already had a verbal commitment with this man, Terry Pitman. By the time we realized he duped us, the other condos had also been rented. Also note, he does not accept PayPal for a deposit like his listing indicates. It's easier to pick and choose if checks are mailed. Just dirty.

Be advised that if you want a "pet friendly" house, avoid using Bryce Rental to find a house. There is a very reasonable pet deposit, which we fully expected. We had no idea, however, that bringing a pet precluded receiving any linens whatsoever, not even a hand towel for the kitchen. To make matters worse, there is no reduction in the daily rate even though you are not receiving the same services as guests without pets. The 'pets = no linens' policy is in the PS section of your contract. Neither soap nor shampoo are provided. We are frequent travelers (~25 trips/year) and expect such amenities will be provided by the facility, especially at $345/night. A bar of soap to be shared by 7 adults in 3 bathrooms was delivered after I contacted the 'management' company, Bryce Rental.

Travelers: Have you seen VRBO's notification about the implementation of their impending travel booking fee? No, I didn't think so. Well, in the first quarter of 2016 they are going to add a hefty booking fee to you for the privilege of going through their website. And, exactly what additional benefits are you getting for this fee? Welllllll, nothing! You are paying for the same old ho, hum. My advice, go now and get all of the individual homeowners names that you possibly can and print off their emails and phone numbers. Other advice, I would look midway to the bottom of the list. Look for listing numbers with lower numbers. These are the people with the most seniority that built up the site. Just like you, they are now the ones that VRBO is tearing down. Homeowners and renters alike - run from this site!

No where does it say the company is in Singapore and you can be charged by your credit card company for a transaction fee. There is a phone number for VRBO but none for Travelmob who does the transactions. Trying to get reimbursed for $26 fee. Someone emailed me but after writing back no response... WOULD NEVER USE AGAIN.

There are no updates on lodging availability when you put in dates... only when you contact the owner do they say there is no availability... stick with AIRBNB

Why is it that every single person I know and every person I have worked with for over 20 years, that uses VRBO loves it? All of use it every year for vacation home searches and bookings.

We use it for our vacations and then purchased a vacation home, and listed it with VRBO ourselves. Now we and our renters love it too.

Why is VRBO/HomeAway the #1 vacation home rental website in the world?

Simple really, don't read this review and trust us, go see for yourself on their website. Pick an area you'd like to vacation in and see the selection they offer. Read the reviews, pick a home and call the owners personally. Heck, we will spend hours on the phone with you, telling you all about our home and the area. All of the good and all of the bad (which isn't much).

Then try that on another vacation rental website. You know, the ones that won't give you any information on the owner like their phone number until after you book the property. Like shooting darts in the dark and hoping it all works out. Good luck with that.

We had rented a property over Thanksgiving thru VRBO. The property ended up being a scam and we canceled. The owner of the property told us we forfeited our damaged deposit of $350. We told the owner that his property description was a scam and we wanted no part of it. He then threatened to come to our house, as he had our address, and deal with us personally. He wrote this on the VRBO email system. We immediately contacted VRBO and all we got was blather. They wrote long scripted messages saying they would look into the wrongdoing and get back to us. They told us their "security" people were looking into the situation and would soon ban the property owner from VRBO until he returned our damage deposit. All that happened was that the property owner changed the description of his property and to date we still have not got our damage deposit back. Very disappointed with VRBO in particular since we were threatened.

VRBO has the worst customer service ever, vrbo only protects the renters. You cant remove any negative reviews let alone file a claim against them due to negligence, and the fact renters don't read anything till after they book and want a refund because they were expecting more. VRBO could allow owners to review uptight, high maintenance guests and they might think before they post reviews. TERRIBLE SERVICE for what the owners pay for. VRBO is always boasting about the new and upcoming features, of course they have been saying these things for months and yet another email about giving owners more control but where are the features? VRBO is all talk and no action.

Just learning that our booked vacation home thru VRBO/HomeAway appears to be fraud. After hitting "Get quote" on VRBO screen, received an email shortly afterwards stating available for rental... I'm trying to contact property mgr on emails and no response once payment was sent. VRBO/HomeAway I'm now seeing has a major security issue if in fact the "Get Quote" button is compromised or not secure. Waiting to hear from VRBO/HomeAway as to status... Flights are all booked by many family members... I hope VRBO stands behind their security flaws and if this is a fraud, repay full amount of rental... Or better yet, Hope to find out this is not a scam, and we're booked... but not looking good.

More I'm reading online, VRBO knows that their Owners/Prop Mgr's email accounts can be hacked and all emails sent to them from the "Get Quote" button are intercepted and sent to hackers... Hackers respond with a very legitimate email with all the logo's etc...

VRBO/HomeAway not taking calls. They issue a canned response via email that I may be covered for $1000. 00.
Then VRBIO sends a long list of items they require just to consider a $1000. 00 refund. No calls can be escalated beyond their HelpDesk (supervisor or someone in authority)... Pretty sad customer service, but a hell of a way to make money and not take ANY responsibility...

The hard core might want to try this place, if your a Foodie, OUTSTANDING and a Great Beer and Wine selection. I even went back for more the next day

We used VRBO to find an apartment rental in NYC and ended up with a company named CityKit that VRBO allows to rent through their website. I should have dug deeper when I made the reservation because after our really horrible experience I found reviews voicing very similar concerns to ours. The apartment was nothing like the pictures, it was run down, most of the amenities were missing and the unit heat went out the second night. We managed to get in touch with the office and they tried to do the right thing by bringing a space heater, but the "sup" who was actually supposed to come by and fix the heat never showed. Completely unacceptable and I blame both CItyKit and VRBO, as now looking closer there are many many complaints on line regarding CityKit but VRBO continues to allow them to rent on their site. I would never rent from CityKit again, they are completely dishonest with regards to the product they are selling. We only spent 2 nights and then moved to a hotel, seeing the other reviews it is pretty clear we won't get out money back for the additional 2 nights, but i won't let this ruin my vacation.

This is a terrible site! I have used it for years and now it really has gone down hill. Listings take reservations and deposit and then returns deposit when something better comes along and lies about it. Listings post 4-7 day rental and then when you inquire they say if it's not booked 2 months from date call back because we want 7 days instead of 4, then make it a 7 day listing. VRBO doesn't take calls to help manage the sites, they said leave a review. You can't review something you haven't stayed at! They need a review for communication with owners, too many are very dishonest!

We have had listings on Vrbo for over 4 years. We have paid platinum subscriptions. The rates have increased drastically over the past year. The services we are provided as owners have reduced. We went from page 1 to page 4 and sometimes 5. I keep our calendar up to date daily. We have the most reviews in our area, and we have followed they with all requirement changes Vrbo has requested. In our area you can watch as a new listing is added it automatically goes to the top position and stays. For every new listing it moves us on back. I do not agree with the sort order best match. If a traveler is looking in just one area alone and has no filters, I believe our tenure should remain the top sort order. We ( all property owners) have worked to hard to promote our rentals to be placed on the last pages. We have watched our listing fall back after each booking. Vrbo has explanation as to why the properties are never sorting around. All cabins should get the equal amount of time on the front page instead of the same cabins. Keep in mind the cabins that are staying on the front page are the new listings. Vrbo needs some heavy competition and then maybe they would change their ways!

We paid for the Platinum Subscription to rank higher in search results since 2010. As it was told, certain criteria was a direct component to search rankings and we worked those criteria to assure our vacation rental placement near the top of the list for our area.
In 2015 the price for the Platinum subscription increased $ 350 but we wanted to maintain our placement in the 1st seven. Within the 1st 20 days following renewal, vrbo changed their algorithm and our property is now near the bottom of the list and we have not received even 1 inquiry since. Screw VRBO. I can do better using other advertising methods.

Recently stayed at VRBO ******* in Russian River Valley, Sonoma County, CA. My husband and I bid and won 5 days/4 nights at what was marketed as a condo for a charity auction. THIS RENTAL IS A 1BEDROOM APT. ON THE GROUND FLOOR OF THE OWNERS HOME. It as was a huge disappointment. No cell service, no dishwasher, all of the website pictures are accurate but skewed. Would never pick this place. The owner actually contacted my husband to complain about our review which was sadly accurate of the (lack of) ammenities and comfort of the accomodation. I feel bad that others will spend over $200/night and have no idea what they are in for!

Booked this house for two weeks but the condition was such that we left after 18 hours. Since we purchased the carefree rental guarantee from VRBO we thought we were covered by travel insurance, but no. The Carefree Guarantee is meaningless and the owner Tamara Miller kept our three thousand dollar rental fee. As well as the house being moldy, the TV and Internet not working, and the yard being covered in foxtails, the setting of the house and area of Ocean Park, Washington is sub-par.