VRBOReviews 2,004

VRBO has joined the club of charging travelers extraneous charges on top of the rental price.
Insurance: 5,000. That is refundable. $99. That is not refundable. They also sell insurance in case you run into double booking. For a non-refundable $39. As a former owner of a ski Condo, I understand risk but if my onsite manager found no damage, the deposit was returned. Even car rental companies will try to sell a customer extra insurance, but it is not mandatory if the customer says they have insurance coverage. VRBO/Homeaway does not. The VRBO agent told me that the property was vacant on the week-end I wanted. I submitted a credit card. Then the owner said the property was occupied. Probably because I asked him if the $99. Insurance fee was refundable if there was no damage. No was my answer.

Then there was the time in London with our granddaughter where the manager never heard of us when we tried to check into the VRBO apt. We had rented.

Airbandb is not this risky or expensive.

Sara Williams

I rated VRBO, not the website.

Villa Victoria (3rd floor, 2-level, 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms) Barcelona

If only the Villa Victoria apartment could raise the ceilings as it raised the spirits, it would have been the ideal place for our group. The space overall is chic, bright, tech-friendly, and well-located. The AC and washing machines work. (Go easy on fuse-blowing appliances.) There is one fine downstairs bedroom: quiet, queen sized bed, private, closets, small balcony. My husband and I got it, being hosts and taller people. The headaches, literally, were borne by family members. If your party is young, short, not romantically involved, barely snores, or has rubber heads, stop reading this and book it.

Otherwise, consider the following. (1) The ceiling height is a challenge. The lovely looking upstairs bedrooms come with door heights that are TOO low. Wall features protrude. Our 3 couples are all 40-something, average adult height below 5'10", so the screams and curses from on high took some getting used to for those of us on Floor 1. Beyond headache-inducing; we counted at least 2 mild concussions.

(2) The other four rooms aren't great for couples. At least the 2 upstairs rooms have queen sized beds, though the sliding room dividers allow no more privacy or intimacy than an Ikea show room. The minimal 4th and 5th bedrooms each have 2 single beds, air well window, no closet. One was downstairs, so no head-bonking. The other one is accessible via a little spiral crows nest staircase.

For a good-natured, well-fed group, this is tolerable for 4 nights, though other accommodations may provide better value for the money. Most likely, short-term head-banging does not cause brain damage. But we recommend a steady stream of friendly reminders ("DUCK, goddammit!") to aid the bag-toting, rushing-around, wine-drinking, half-asleep bathroom user. On the Rambla and in cathedrals, very nearby, bruises forgotten, the sky is the limit.

We rented from VRBO to go to Daytona Beach. I researched the resort and it was perfect location. I made a down payment of $100.00 in January 2015 and tried for the whole month of February to make the rest of the payment. I could not reach them and left several messages with no phone call back. The day before the balance was due, low and behold they answered the phone and gladly took my money. When we got to Daytona the hotel informed us that they overbooked us and we would have to stay in Ormond beach, where they would pay for our stay and refund us the full price that we paid. Needless to say we were frustrated, the hotel we stayed in was nice but not what I paid for. I reached out to VRBO and they assured us that our refund was coming. I received the $100.00 deposit but I have yet to receive the balance on the refund. I email them everyday but they have stopped responding. I am finally disputing the charges with my credit card account.

By now anyone using VRBO's reservation system and anything other than straight advertising is an idiot. They are crooks in disguise. They do zero for us. It is time for all of us to create a new web site Owners direct rentals or some such name that a is simply an advertising platform. No services. Emails direct from your page to you, no middle man competing with you/ Now they send ads to anyone that wanted to contact you, pushing properties that they have sold the maximum of their crap to. Would you buy insurance from these people?
If you are interested in an alternative site, contact me and let me know you are interested. I f I can get 100 people to sign up we can put up a site that will offer a real alternative and eventually we might surprise vrbo and put them in the toilet where they and their monopolistic ideas belong.
My email is *******@jsdeft.com

We have used VRBO for many years and had at least a dozen good experiences, but something has changed in the last few years.

On a recent trip to California, we had made arrangements to rent a 2 bedroom home with a kitchen in Chico. We arrived late in the evening to find a place that did not remotely resemble what we had paid for. The photos on VRBO were of multiple properties and did not apply to the place we were shown, which had 1 bedroom and a bizarre kitchenette behind a bar? The owner did refund our money, but we were left to find new places at the last minute.
We did find one great rental in Redding, then went south to Mill Valley where once again the VRBO listing did not give complete information. The apartment had 5 flights of exterior stairs and one inside, after driving up a one lane twisty road. The small elevator could only be used by calling the owner to operate it, and he shared that it had broken down a half dozen times in the past. Gee, a choice of being stuck in a tiny elevator or going up and down six flights of stairs. This clearly should have been disclosed on the website.

VRBO's credibility is shot as far as I'm concerned. Maybe local property managers would be better choices and be more accountable for what they advertise.

Mad in Minnesota

I recently rented a condo in Park City (Redstone area). I paid the full amount 3 months in advance along with the $500 deposit and cleaning fee. Upon arrival I was told by place checking us in that my credit card would be run in case of damages. I was not told about the $25 fee that LESPRI charged for checkin and checkout. It was in the fine print and after complaining to my credit card company, I am forced to pay this fee. I was not told by the Owner or VRBO of this $25 fee.

Recently, my husband and I stayed at a beautiful VRBO in Colares, just outside Sintra in Portugal. (#*******) Pedro and his wife Luisa were the ultimate hosts and property owners. Clearly they take great pride in their place and in providing a safe, clean, well appointed rental property to their guests. We were thrilled with our choice, and the photos of it on the internet do not do it justice. I was afraid that it would be too small, and that the shower would be inadequate. Was I wrong! The apartment was much larger than I had anticipated, and it was clean, nicely decorated, and the shower was fabulous! Great pressure and lots of hot water.
The apartment is on a kind of rural property, although it is in the village. Pedro operates a farm with many different birds and beautiful gardens. The area is quiet and quaint, and is only minutes away from a small village with a well stocked market and cafes. Sintra is 11 km away, and since we had a rental car it was very easy for us to get there. Sintra is magical, and is a must see if you are going to Portugal.
The pool was immaculate, and we had all the privacy we wanted when using it. Pedro keeps the grounds in immaculate condition, and his lovely young adult children were friendly and helpful to us as well.
The property is also only minutes away from several world class beaches. You will not be disappointed here. The views are fantastic, and there are several cafes and restaurants on the beaches as well as many recreational opportunities, such as parasailing and surfing.
We were delighted by our good fortune in finding this place, and highly recommend it to anyone wanting a place with privacy, cleanliness, and friendly and obliging hosts. We would definitely return there if we were going back to Portugal.

Not sure if everyone is aware, but Home Away & VRBO are not getting into the property management business. Of course, this means that VRBO, i. E. "Vacation Rentals By Owner, will no longer be "Rentals by Owners." This also means that those of us who are owners will have our listing priorities reduced even more since properties that they handle will have 1st priority.

The problem for renters is that they will no longer be able to deal directly with owners & properties handled by VRBO & Home Away will have their management fees added to the cost of the rental.

I paid $1600 for 6 days in a home in Anchorage, Alaska. Our son and daughter-in-law were flying in from California. We were so excited to spend the week with our kids, and was looking forward to cooking my sons favorite meals.

When we arrived, the house was dangerously dirty. Urine on the toliet seat, Beds that were unmade because people were sleeping in them, and there were not clean sheets available. Cigarette butts, and M & M peanut candies, sprinkled throughout. Filty dirty, we even considered spending the next four hours till our son arrived to clean it, however it was way to fillthy to do so. Torn towels, and no pillows.

We called VRBO, they did nothing for us, we were stressed because we had no place to put our family. They refused to refund money so we could pay for a hotel, and it has put a damper on our vacation, and absolutly ruined our 1st vacation day.

Day 2, still refuse to refund monies paid in good faith. The only way to get your money back is threw the court system.

BEWARE OF VRBO... they do nothing but take your money, and have no concerns about there customers... don't even bother buying insurance, that's a scam also. SCAM COMPANY! DO NOT RENT THREW THEM!

Steve and Kathy

I was forced to cancel a booking due to an injury and the owner didn't want to refund any money. I contacted customer service, filled out a complaint and within hours I received a rating review, before they even had time to contact the owner. Nothing resulted and the bottom line is that VRBO is responsible for nothing. I paid by check but perhaps should have used a credit card to get charge back credit. The owner has my money and I have no recourse unless I decide to contact an attorney. BEWARE!

I was involved in a bait and switch scheme and paid for a property I did not receive. VRBO said I did not qualify to get a refund of any kind because they are just a third party taking money for the agent. They should state that they have no liability what so ever. They don't return calls and do not stand behind their properties. BUYER BEWARE. They claim they have a file against agents who misrepresent but they do NOTHING.

We own several properties which we rented successfully with VRBO and Home away for several years. Recently, because of a very irate tenant's review they unilaterally decided to dump all of our listings without explanation and without refund of over $1,000 in fees. We also recently discovered that they had collected payment from a guest who booked last year, never forwarded payment to us and yet confirmed booking to them. Every time we call for explanation we are told somebody will get back to us. They avoid all correspondence and will not honour their undertakings to examine key issues.
There are many new listing sites which are so much easier for both owner and renter to use now. They have forgotten who is paying their bills, catering to badly behaved guests and ruining their business.

We have now stayed at five VRBO locations in Tucson, AZ, Palm Springs, Ca, and Hawaii and have only had one issue regarding water supply which was not the owners fault. Have had much bigger issues staying at hotels and resorts including all-inclusive facilities. These people run a business and are good at it. To bad the others are to big to care!

VRBO's new search functionality for travelers is a failure. Their original map-based searching was simple and effective. It worked like this for the USA - Pick a state from the US map, then pick a region from the state map, then you got a list of cities to explore. Travelers could return to that list of cities and explore all the hidden nooks and crannies out there. It worked for over six years for me.

VRBO's new search functionality has complicated searching, and the result is that rentals in small unknown towns are not being found. The new design paradigm is poorly thought-out and on top of this there are technical glitches that VRBO claims are "by design" and they say the traveler need to use better search terms. Their system cannot even handle "north Georgia mountains" and VRBO has verified this and claimed this is "by design".

Modern search functionality is expected to be forgiving. VRBO should be able to handle misspellings, abbreviations and even gibberish, and ALWAYS turn up results (instead of zero) and then prompt the searcher, guide them on their exploration for the perfect rental.

VRBO's failure comes from trying to imitate all the other travel booking sites, and that is a mistake. VRBO stands for Vacation Rental By Owner, and they had a unique place in the market for travelers that were also unique. Vacation travelers are often as not exploring. They may want a mountain cabin, but not know the name of all the small mountain towns where cabins are found. VRBO's paradigm should be as a concierge to exploration, not a Book It Now me-too rent-a-room site. True VRBO homeowners and guests who enjoy true VRBO homes - this is an entirely different mix than someone looking to book a motel/hotel room and that knows their destination.