VRBOReviews 2,004

Renter's Alert! This unit is not as it appears. Owner has 2 units in Sugar Beach Resort, uses pictures for the redone unit on floor 3 yet rents the sub-standard unit on floor 6.
Didn't realize this until we arrived.
Issues as follows:
-burners on the stove don't fit and are very dirty
-Maintenance unable to repair
-filthy, soiled carpets
-cupboards filthy and shelf paper gross
-light fixtures filled with dead bugs
-air fans had to be cleaned by maintenance, absolutely covered with dust and filth.
-ceiling fans caked with dust and dirt
-NO CURTAINS, very hot with afternoon sun and no privacy.
-bathroom toilet brushes were removed by maintenance because of germs and dirt
-bathroom had to be re-cleaned
-medicine cabinet shelves dirty
Some issues were responded to by maintenance and house cleaning after much pestering on our part.
Bed was OK but sheets were very tired
View was ok but impeded left/right by structure walls
All in all this was a disappointing experience despite a marginally reduced rate.!

I am an owner who lists on VRBO and I have used it as a traveller. As for owners, it is expensive but I do get good inquiry rate. If someone searches for specific criteria the house will show up no matter how far down it is on the priority list. As for renters, I have also used the sight for finding properties. Always contact the owner directly and ask lots of questions. The homes are not hotels and you have to be very careful. The reviews are real despite what some have commented and I can't eliminate bad reviews without eliminating all reviews. My suggestion is to ask if the owner manages the property and ideally if you can see it. If you are travelling from far away, do lots of inquiring. VRBO is merely a hosting site. Don't expect them to solve any problems-they won't. If an owner doesn't seem professional don't use them. I require 6 pages to be read and then signed so guest know my expectations and understand what I provide. I am available all the time and my guests come back over and over because my house is clean and inviting.

When looking for rentals at VRBO - just know that VRBO charges up to $999.00 per year for a listing if you want to be one of the first listings that people see in a town. If you have a regular listing at "only" $349.00 per year - goodness only knows how far down you will be.
If your vacation rental home is in a big city or town - having dozens of rentals listed there is fine, but they go to all the tiniest little places and take listings for anything regardless of quality and as long as the owner is willing to pay their $999.00 a year, the are happy to advertise any dump at the top of that town's listings, and rotate it onto their "featured" listings page!

First of all, do not just go by reviews posted of VRBO. They only allow you to post a review if you stayed at the vacation property. Regarding: Property #******* - Casa de Duck - Georgetown Sands Road in Duck, NC. I had rented this beachfront house in Duck, NC for 1 week through this website in January for a vacation in May. I had paid half the cost as a deposit and the other half was charged to my credit card a few weeks prior to the reservation. This house was 8 bedroom which would accomodate a family reunion including family travelling from Florida and Maine. I was called by the owner the Wednesday before our rental (which was to begin on Sunday) - just 4 days - that they accidentally double booked us. They said they would find us a comparable house, but due to the fact that I was informed of the double-booking just a few days before our trip, there were no houses comparable with the same number of bedrooms and beachfront. The owners offered no compensation, and I never got a refund. Thankfully, I had purchased the rental through my American Express Credit Card, whose fraud department handled it and credited my card completed. However it was months before I received all the credits and I had to pay $1500 more for another vacation house that would accomodate my family. The owners promised to refund me, but never did; even after at least a dozen phone calls and emails. I contacted VRBO who would not do anything, as they claimed they are only a mediator and have no financial responsibility. BBB could not help due to the owners not owning an actual business. The owners stopped responding to me after the first response from them promising a full refund immediately. DO NOT rent through VRBO! You will save yourself a lot of aggravation. I ended up using Sun Realty who was amazing and you know that they will correct any problems immediately.

VRBO, aka HomeAway is a decent website, decent company. People are friendly when you call for customer service. My issue is that it is NOT very clear that most of the cities in which they operate in the USA and Europe have strict or COMPLETE restrictions on house rentals. So most of their ads are running against the law. God forbid you should get caught up in the legal loopholes of Police coming to inspect and verify a 30 day or longer lease agreement when you rent with one of their listings.
I had my ad placed with VRBO for 6 months, and was notified by the county (through the police officer that conducts and handles investigations) that I could not rent out my property as a short term rental. I was quite shocked. Having had to cancel most of my upcoming clients, I also asked VRBO if I could transfer the balance of my prepaid ad to another property in a city where I could have short term rentals. To my dismay they were completely UNCOOPERATIVE. I will NO LONGER BE RECOMMENDING OR USING THEM. This was never an issue with their competitor (who also has a better ranking on Alexa). They will get my business exclusively. I was also shocked to hear that VRBO does not pay for any lobbyists in major cities to fight city council to change the law. They make individual homeowner's pay for all the attorney costs and expect them to do all the work. Yes, they have "free" webinars. But free webinars are not going to change the city and/or county laws by themselves. Check out their competition. Much better company. It's a pay as you go site, so they are only as good as your last dollar!

As a self catering apartment's owner, i had the worst experience in my life with VRBO website.
In the moment I have signed up paying them more than 500 euros, a new system called "quotable rates" was just introduced (in BETA version, full of bugs).
Shortly, it was impossible to me to use VRBO: because of a bug in their system, my listing randomly switched from the old rates system to the new bugged one, and as a result no one of my potential customers could see the correct prices (meaning, the price i wanted to show them) online.
The most incredible part of the story is that after tons of emails to the customer service, one representetive of VRBO admitted via mail the BUG:

Erinn, from customer service wrote to me:
"I am escalating this to tech support. My apologies for the inconvenience. Thank you!"

I wrote back:
"And how long should i wait? And in the meantime i just stay on vrbo with uncorrect prices... I paid for 1 year service, at least stop it while you fix my property."

Erinn replied:
"At this point the only thing I can think to do is to offer you a refund. Please let me know how you'd like to proceed. Thank you."

As soon asI confirmed that i wanted my listing to be removed and the fee reimbursed, I have received the following incredible mail from VRBO.

Sheryl wrote:
"Upon review we have found that VRBO listing # xxxxx is ineligible for a refund per the Terms and Conditions of the site".

That is the most arrugant and unprofessional reply never had. Clearly I will not make a war for 200 euros refund, but I truly hope this post will help others that are possibly thinking to work with Vrbo, I just strongly suggest them to look elsewhere.

I would be happy to have an official reply here, but I guess it will not happens. I already tried in their forum community, and I my thread just disappeared!

Sincerely,

Angelo

We recently rented a property through VRBO for a trip to Destin, FL. The experience was awful and I would never want anyone to go through it.

Take a look at these pictures and you can see how filthy the property was when we showed up. The carpet was stained and dirty, dust was hanging off the ceiling fans, curtains were stained with what appears to be vomit, and bird poop all over the balcony furniture.

Also, the rental unit claimed to have wireless Internet access, but when we showed up there was no Internet. Contacted the owner immediately and he was very rude and refused to help us. His solution was for us to steal Internet from the neighbors. I asked him if he had recently seen the condition of the property and it turns out that he lives 600 miles away.

We notified the owner we were leaving immediately and we filed a complaint with VRBO. The complaint included the pictures detailing the unsanitary conditions you see in the links below. This is their response.

"When we receive complaints, we encourage both parties to work toward a mutual resolution. We provide the vacation rental owner or property manager an opportunity to resolve the dispute by forwarding them the details of the complaint. Our procedure is to note both sides of the situation and closely monitor accounts that have had a complaint filed.

As our site is strictly a venue for advertisement, we are unable to mediate disputes. To do so would violate our terms and conditions."

Basically they refuse to do anything. I contacted them again and they sent me the same canned response. Never use VRBO!

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We payed a £2000 deposit for a holiday home after agreeing a price. The owners then demanded more money. We said no. The owners kept our money. VRBO were incredibly unhelpful. Having looked more closely it's clear that the reviews are all fake. We told VRBO but they don't seem to care. The property in question only has 5 star reviews. Genuine holiday makers who lost their money aren't allowed to write reviews. These people have been doing this for year's and VRBO don't seem to care as long as they continue to profit from it.

I do not know where to begin. I used VRBO 2 times for an apartment in Manhattan, no problem. Then my cousin used VRBO, very strange. All seemed fine until she got to the apartment, the owner was there waiting for his cash only transaction. He let her and her sister in the apartment, gave them the key, grabbed his suitcase out of the bedroom and said see you in four days. It was his home.
I used VRBO again this past August. We rented an apartment in Queens for the US Open. Scanned through the listings 6 month prior to event, found a great place, read the reviews and sent in a deposit. The owner wanted 2 deposits, then final payment. No problem 100% guarentee refund if cancelled in 30 days.
Sent deposit and then 3 months later sent another deposit. Then tried to contact the owner for apartment key and directions, no answer, phone voicemail full, emails bouncing back. Looked on VRBO's website, apartment no longer listed. Contacted VRBO and they told me the listing had been deleted by the owner and basically it was not their problem. They are only an advertising company, even though VRBO has a fraud and security department, which by the way do NOTHING! If I had taken out insurance when booking I should contact the insurance company otherwise I needed to contact my credit card company to recop my losses. So now I am out $700, which by the way was deposit from 5 us and still needed a place to stay. Thank goodness for CITIbank! It took 2 months to get my money back and still needed to find a place for us for the week, but CITIbank worked with me and were great! I do not know what I would have done if I would have used paypal like that moron wanted me to! I will never use VRBO again!

As owner I have read my competitors reviews on VRBO. Though there are many positive things about each property, there are also negatives. I learn from the negatives how to fine tune my customer service. Sometimes the problem is simply communication between the owner and renter. VRBO is a generic type of site with it's intrinsic limitations. It is up to the renter to ask questions, explain in detail their expectations, and make sure the place is a right fit. It is up to the owner to spell out clearly the benefits and limitations of their property. This is best done with a personal phone call and a detailed letter to follow. Many owners feel their property is just wonderful, to their desires and standards. It may or may not be to the renter. No fault of anyone, except communication breakdown. Renters be realistic in your expectations. What percentage of pools are heated (ask)? Would you expect to have spiders occasionally in a cabin in the woods? If you hadn't had your check cashed or heard from the owners early in the discussion/reservation phase, why didn't you inquire? ETC. Many times reviews can be an unhealthy forum for complaints, irritation and anger, Better, go to the owner and make healthy suggestions. A 5 star does NOT mean perfection... It means generally met or exceeded your expectations. You can't hold a site responsible for your bad experience or your neglect as renter or owner.