VRBO.com

this place allows illegitimate people to post rentals. I was almost scammed. They are affiliated with homeaway.com DONT USE THESE SITES. They also don't seem to care

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
I was specifically told by VRBO, after filing my complaint,  that if the property owner did not refund my money that they would refund my money and now they are not standing by that.   
Regards,
[redacted]

According to our records the advertiser is disputing this consumers stay at the property. Per our Traveler Reviews Guidelines an advertiser can dispute a traveler review and our process is then to request proof of stay from the...

traveler.http://www.homeaway.com/info/homeaway/owner-marketing/reviewsguidelines "The traveler must be able to provide satisfactory evidence of the stay; possess receipt of property access information from HomeAway Mobile Hospitality Manager; or demonstrate payment in accordance with a rental agreement and was cancelled on within two weeks of arrival; or paid in accordance with the rental agreement, arrived and had to stay at a property other than the property booked. Owners and property managers of advertised properties may not review the property that he or she owns or manages"We sent this consumer an email asking them to submit proof of stay in internal case#[redacted] back on 1/5/2015. To date we have not received the necessary information in order to post this consumers review.

First of all, we thank you for being a longtime customer.As you know over the last several years, HomeAway has changed quite a bit as the industry has grown. Every year we make important changes to help continue to grow the vacation rental industry and your bookings. Our job for you has...

been to attract travelers and bring them to your and other customers’ listings. Best match is the most recent change because we know travelers are having a hard time finding the right rental to book and we want to fix that so it means more bookings. We will test all of the changes to ensure the changes mean more bookings overall. Your platinum subscription level remains the most important thing you can do to influence where your listing appears within search results, and unless a traveler has applied a specific filter such as "sort by price" you are appearing within your subscription level. If you are noticing fewer page views or inquiries, it is likely because you are already booked for that period that travelers are booking for, and it wouldn't make sense to send you a booking request that you have already fulfilled. So that may put another subscriber above you for a certain time, but you above others another time.Everyone wants to find and buy the things that match what they are looking for quickly and easily. That’s true of travelers looking for vacation rentals. By matching eager travelers with the best listings for their unique needs, HomeAway strives to drive more bookings for our owners and property managers. Delighting travelers with an excellent booking experience encourages repeat travelers and repeat bookings that help our shared marketplace thrive. This is the goal of best match, which we will use to determine search results within subscription levels, as opposed to focusing on listing quality scores. Listing quality is still be relevant, as explained below, and we continue to believe that higher quality listings will produce higher performance.Best match is a sophisticated process that looks at traveler preferences as well as the booking experience a listing provides to place listings within search results. Listings are first placed within their subscription level (as applicable) in search results and then sorted based on the best match for the traveler and their search to optimize bookings for property owners and managers. Best match is also used to determine the optimal placement of pay-per-booking listings throughout the search results.There are a few instances where search results do not factor subscription level into consideration.When travelers are easily able to find what they are looking for, more bookings occur! To help make sure search results are delivering as many bookings as possible, you might notice:We hope you have been a valued customer over these last several years because we’ve delivered you value and bookings and we hope to continually increase the value you get every year.

I made a deposit on a rental listed on VRBO. The deposit was made in April for a December rental. Upon investigation, I found that the property was not as advertised. The reviews were fraudulent and the house was not in the location as represented. From Google maps, the house may not even exist. In August, I requested a refund of my deposit. The owner acknowledged my request and agreed that it was early enough to qualify for a full refund. But the owner refused to refund the money. This is a clear case of fraud. The house was not as advertised on VRBO and may not even exist. The owner has disconnected their telephone and their email no longer works. VRBO has refused to recognize their part in allowing fraud to be committed on their site and will not assist me in recovering my deposit.

HomeAway is an online marketplace for owners to advertise, and travelers to find, vacation homes to rent, but we are never involved in the transaction between the traveler/consumer and the landlord/property manager. It is the responsibility of the owner to make sure they are happy with who they are...

renting their property to. Our site has a Community section where owners come together and share information about their best practices, including the screening of potential guests. Payments made through the site are processed by another company called YapStone. If a traveler filed a dispute with their credit card, it is YapStone that would have contacted this consumer. We strongly recommend that this consumer contact YapStone to seek their assistance. They can be contacted on [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
This new fee was not made known to me when I booked.  Why it is being charged is because VRBO wants to make more money on each transaction.  Any other stated reason is deception on their part.  They did not answer the part of my complaint regarding 
the deceptive practice of adding trip insurance to the bill.  This company will not be upfront with their charges because they are unethical.
[redacted]
 
 
 
Regards,
[redacted]

We apologize for the experience this consumer has had.  We reviewed their situation and it seems that we may be able to refund the charge.  We will contact this consumer directly with the details.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
I am already paying for the space that VRBO is allowing Google to use to direct my potential renters to my competitiors. Essentially what VRBO is doing is the equivalent of renting a house to someone and them letting someone else rent the same house. They are getting paid twice for the same house, in that analogy. It is completely corrupt and unacceptable.
Furthermore, I have already emailed them screen shots on at least two separate occasions of competitors who VRBO allows to advertise on MY webpage. They refused to remove them citing the same 1% statistic that they gave the Revdex.com and responded with a snark, condescending response. I no longer want to do business with this company and I want a refund of my money on a prorated basis dating back to the date of my original complaint.
Regards,
[redacted]

I did not deal with one person in particular at VRBO, I responded via a complaint form. The complaint number is [redacted] and the email address is [redacted] VRBO is located in Austin Texas but I am not sure of their exact mailing address.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:I placed 17 pictures for a 750sqft condo and back then I could not find any more pictures to post which would make any difference.  If posting the same pictures would make any diffence then I would but it would not.  This is just a reason to reject a refund policy.  it seems like they no longer do this program since they do not offer refunds anyway and use these none sense reasons to reject refunds. This should work with the company moto. Also back then I could not open the link but they are claiming that the link was working.  do they have a proof of this? I am not happy with their service and I am still requesting the refund.
Regards,
[redacted]

sent the following response to the Revdex.com:
Thank you bringing this matter to our attention. We do show that this consumer did contact us and request a refund to an annual subscription fee. Below is a timeline of the specific contacts that are notated in this consumers case.
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8/31/2014 - Consumer reached out requesting a refund, HomeAway representative explained that he not applicable for a refund. Consumer asked to speak with an escalation agent.
9/2/2014 Escalation agent called back (#1), was only able to leave a message at number provided.
9/3/2014Escalation agent called back (#2), was only able to leave a message at number provided.
9/5/2014 Consumer called in and did not want to speak with senior agents and asked to speak with one of the previous escalation agents, set call back.
9/6/2014 9/3/2014Escalation agent called back (#3), was unable to leave a message at telephone numbers on account and provided, sent email explaining where he can read our specific refund policy.
Unfortunately this consumer is not applicable for a subscription refund based on our refund policy found here:
http://www.homeaway.com/info/about-us/legal/terms-conditions/HA_no_booking_no_fe...⇄

According to our records this consumer did contact us (case#[redacted]) In regards to this consumers review, both the review and the owner response have been reviewed by the Reviews Team and were evaluated based on the Traveler Review guidelines, and both were approved. At this time, both will...

remain online. The owner's response is in compliance with guidelines and cannot be removed without consent from the author. All user-generated content is solely the opinion of the author. You can see the full review guidelines here: http://www.homeaway.com/info/homeaway/owner-marketing/reviewsguidelinesWe understand that this consumer may disagree with the review policy on VRBO, but our policies for the hosting of user-generated content is similar to many other large-scale, reputable websites and complies with both the Communications Decency Act and the European E Commerce Directive.Specifically, with regard to user-generated content:We do not edit, modify or alter the content or investigate the accuracy of the content.Each vacation rental owner or property manager is given the opportunity to respond to a review. Travelers are not permitted to comment on an owner’s response.We may remove any review brought to our attention that does not comply with our Content Guidelines. Keeping in mind that we do not investigate the accuracy of a review or response.

Transmit to business
Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this this shady business lies.
In conflict of interest, VRBO rather not withdraw small frauds rent ads or allow reviews on these to still earn the ads money,VRBO obviously sides with owner/fraudster after evidence of fraud by owner who after 8 months of reviews online withdrawn on her lobbying then reinstated, found new tricks to have other reviews withdrawn, reinstated review must have new words, would be 'no stay', yet took extortionate $ 500 without rent contract then without cancellation fees due.
A warn onlinne review was the minimum, 8 times online for 8 months as it met HomeAway terms.
Then VRBO dared claim it wouldn't side by fraudsters on lobbying, or that after a review withdrawal no more review allowed whereas it had allowed 7 !
No evidence of would be threats, blackmail, extorsion, VRBO withdrew these claims, unable to authentify owner/fraudster emails.
I have saved all files evidence of VRBO fake claims, lies, contradictions, as evidence to use in a just launched mediatized lawsuit against Homeaway France, to obtain the maximum, this fraudulent rent ad withdrawal or refund by HomeAway of extorsion by owner, an ad on airbnb for 3 years and no review. 
This owner never answered authentic *1 reviews sent, VRBO lets her many fake *5 reviews - 0 review on her airbnbad - a VRBO insider confirmed *1/*2 reviews are usually banned.
Everyone should understand VRBO dismal rates on the Revdex.com.
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:Business is like always not reading my previous msg.  They are just finding ficticious reasons to deny the claim.  for a 750sqft condo I had 17 pictures.  IT is more than enough to show every detail in this small 1 bedroom condo.  I have a bath, kitchen, bedroom and living room.  this is more than 4 pictures for each location and every inch of this condo is shown in these pictures.  Like I said they are just finding a reason to reject the refund.  They discountinued this program which makes sense since they do not give refund to anyone from what I can see from Consumer Affairs website anyways.  also they are still failing to prove that the refund link was working back in June 2014 when I first contacted them.  this is not working currently and I could not open this link back then either.  see attached.
Regards,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: Your best match sophisticated system does not work in our complex. We have 228, 3 bedroom units with a total of 284 total rentals in Phoenix West II. The Best match system took the top listing in our complex and put us on page 2 and 3. By your own admission, you clearly state that the more visitors, the more rentals. You have the availability search box that potential guests can put in their dates to see what is available. Every website now has the feature! The guests now know that is what they need to do, but VRBO decided they would take the properties with the most reviews and put them down the list. After hours of studying their new algorithm that is the only thing I can see different.
We have change pictures, description, title, etc. Nothing has changed our position. I am simply asking VRBO to look at Phoenix West II to do something different. It is too large of a complex to put your great listings on page 2 and 3. You have properties with no reviews, no book it now feature, houses, bad reviews, etc all on the first page. This is bad for VRBO and simply terrible for us and others who once were on the top. A better system would be to simply rotate the Platinum listings. But keep those with a lot of 5 star reviews first. I was hoping that they would rotate the Platinum listings more but they have not done it and this new system has been in place for over a month. The top 20 have not changed. I will continue to monitor and document their positions daily. It doesn't matter whose computer I check the positions with, they are all in the basically in same position. They change a little every day but they do not change positions much from one computer to another. Please help us by looking at Phoenix West II and other larger complexes.
If you really care about your valued customers, you will take a look and see that your are definitely destroying a lot people's lives! Please call me and I will show you the facts about BEST MATCH and you will agree it is not working as it should.
 
 
 
Regards,
[redacted]

I have rented condos through VBRO many times over the years. I recently used their website to rent a condo and was charged a $143 "service fee" which I have never been charged before. After spending multiple phone calls and 30 minutes on hold, I was informed there was nothing they would do and as of Feb 2016 all people are charged a service fee. This despite the fact that the website took me to a realtor and the realtor and condo association charged me more fees to rent this condo. So the rental was via the realty company but I was charged $143 for the use of
VBRO website to find them. Outrageous. Never again.

Here is our formal response: 
Revdex.com complaint [redacted] was filed on 6/21/2012. It was assigned the internal VRBO.com case# [redacted]. Our billing team was actively working with this consumer just prior to this date of the Revdex.com complaint under our internal case#[redacted]. However a...

response from the Revdex.com came through for this same consumer under complaint # [redacted] (see attached) . We marked the Revdex.com complaint # [redacted] resolved based on the reply we received referencing Revdex.com Complaint #[redacted] thinking one was a duplicate . I think that is where the confusion happened. We also received positive feedback from this consumer thanking us for helping us resolve this issue back on 6/14/2012. Please let us know if you need any additional documentation we would be happy to provide it. 
Thank you, 
[redacted] | Trust & Security Lead[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]

Booked and confirmed a stay for a group of 10 via VRBO.com 5 months prior to trip. My credit card was charged the full amount. The month before the trip, the listing for the location where my group was to stay mysteriously disappeared from the website.
Communication with the home owner indicated they would not be able to accommodate our group and thus would cancel and refund through VRBO.com. This refund never occurred. Communication with VRBO.com said they were not liable for this and did nothing to settle the dispute. We were forced to make a claim through VISA to get a refund.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: If a company or THEIR 3rd party partners cannot keep my information secure then I should be able to request that they remove my personal data especially bank details (account information).  If I am no longer using their services then why do they need to keep my banking or personal details on file?  I find it odd that they refuse to remove the data I have requested.  Because they are subcontracting YapStone it is their responsibility not mine to ensure my data is safe.  All I am asking it that they remove me from their system as well as all of their 3rd party subcontractors.  This will give me the piece of mind that my data is safe!
Regards,
[redacted]