VRBO.com

Complaint: [redacted] I am rejecting this response because: they are not addressing the complaint. Why is the service fee not fully disclosed on the website? The only way you can find this fee is you have to unclick details on the invoice to see it hidden among the other charges. As a FYI, I have seen no improvement in the site since they began charging this fee. I did not ask for the services they are now charging for. It's like travel insurance, either you elect to take it or not. They will not address the issue just as they have ignored all of the negative comments from vacationers and the property owners. We can only fight against this with our money, and mine will not be spent with VRBO again. Regards, [redacted]

I am an owner of a vacation rental for a number of years now and was initially very happy with Vrbo. They advertised my rental the way I requested for a yearly fee. It was exactly what I expected and they did a nice job of it. I the last couple of years, Vrbo started to take more control and they also took more money from my renters and from me. I keep getting more notices about additional things they want to take control of, (my taxes to state and local). Some other notices are now throwing very wordy agreements that I don't understand. I've been trying to contact them, both live chat and phone calls but am not getting helped. The live chat takes a long time to load and when I finally did get through, they disconnected while I was typing my question. I could never get through on the phone and was never offered an explanation. They are not helpful in the least. I am very dissatisfied with how they are taking so much control. I just want to advertise and do the bookings myself.

I have booked with VRBO/home away more times than I can count. My family and friends use them as well. All experiences have been good ones. As a loyal customer, I expect loyalty in return if something were to go wrong. In September of 2019 I booked a property for November 19. It was a home in Las Vegas for a half marathon race and mini family vacation. As always, I paid up front in full. In October of 2019 I was notified by VRBO via email that there was “possibly an issue with my upcoming booking” and to contact the owner. I did as they said and was upset by the owners response. He stated that VRBO had taken everything from him, shut down all his properties and left him bankrupt. He then notified me that not only was my booking cancelled but he had no funds to refund me my money for a trip that was more than a month away. I wasn’t too panicked at this time because I knew VRBO would take care of me with their “Book with confidence guarantee”. After all, it’s that what booking though a site like this is for? For security? Boy was I wrong. I first responded to VRBO’s initial email in which prompted me to a 1-800 number. I called this number and was lead through the ringer. They could not help me at this time. The lady said the owner had received a “serious complaint” and as a result had to be shut down. That is all she could tell me. She said she would expedite my case and I would receive a call I about 24hrs. 24hrs later, no call but another email.... stating that VRBO could not help me (with no explanation given) and that I needed to dispute the charge with my credit card company. I called VrBO 2 more times after this looking for answers... no one could give me any information other than “This is a unique situation” and I was finally told to stop contacting them. I am appalled to say the least. DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY. Airbnb provides a much better service with a guarantee they actually stick with.

I was honestly appalled at the lack of help I was given by VRBO.
(*This is a VRBO property owner/ host incident)
My situation was that I had a guest stay at my property and then weeks after staying and booking they file a dispute with their credit card company saying that they didn't make the charge, so the money was taken out of my account and given back to the guest. I am livid at the fact that we pay all these fees and there is no sort of verification or backing to protect owners from this. The guest showed as a "verified user"- but VRBO said they couldn't prove that the guy made the charge and so they gave him his money back. I was also faced with the cleaning fee associated with cleaning after this guy got his free vacation.
I find is baffling that out of 4 different hands that this transaction crosses (1. the guy that booked my property 2. his credit card company 3. VRBO 4. ME) that I am the one that gets the repercussions of this. Not the multimillion dollar companies or the guy that supposedly left his wallet out for someone to steal..... NO, lets not penalize him. Lets penalize the one that is completely innocent in the whole transaction! Like I said- UNBELIEVABLE! I had no idea that VRBO didn't verify the people staying at our place. I don't know why there is a little check mark by their name that says "verified" if they aren't going to stand behind it. I am impressed to find out that AIRBNB requires all their bookings to verify their identity before they even allow them to book at our property. This is an excellent and I think VRBO should take note!

We have been 5 STAR Vrbo.com customers for about 10 years. Four days ago we added a second property to our listing. We were told we had to out a price on the property, which we did-a very low ball price just to get the listing up and running. We wound up having to cancel numerous bookings because VRBO wouldn’t allow us to negotiate a price. Now they have confused our two property listings and have removed BOTH listings until the “IT Department” can call email us back- which will never happen according to similar owner complaints here.. FIVE phone calls, waiting 30-50 minutes to speak to someone-still no listing on their website- missing potential bookings. Two upcoming rentals have PAID VRBO and we have been denied payment from VRBO, THIS IS FRAUD. Fortunately, we have contact numbers for two outstanding rentals and are able to sort it all out directly with them. We are leaving VRBO at the earliest opportunity.

I am an Owner and have my condo on VRBO since 2005. They have made many financial changes, and not all good ones for our clients and us. As an owner I pay a yearly fee to have my condo on VRBO. A few years ago VRBO started charging clients a service fee, and not a small one. Now they have changed their payment plan to Owners where we won’t receive payment from our guests until one day after our guest check in. VRBO charges us 3% for this late payment service. Now they are offering us another 3% charge to get our rental income as we have been since 2005 with us paying a total of 6% on all the money we receive through VRBO. I am not a happy owner!

I have used VRBO many times in the past so decided to rent a home in New Orleans for a long weekend family reunion. This was in February. Total amount was charged to my credit card right off the bat. We are talking $4200. Mid summer I checked the site and home I rented was no longer on site. Googled the address and it was in a bad area. Called number of contact to which mail box was full and other number left message with no call back. Called VRBO and they said there was nothing they could do until I physically went to home. There were 10 of us. This home was so misrepresented on site. I called VRBO from the home and also host who met us there and said we would not stay there due to unsafe issues. VRBO said the only thing they consider misrepresentations is if the wrong address is given, so to bad. We rented hotel rooms for our stay. Just want to warn people to not rent anything from VRBO site. I really feel I was scammed. Sad but true!!! Now I am out $4200.

I have been with VRBO for 4 years and they were great until they combined with Expedia. Now they are using Capstone as a finance go between the owner and the guests and they are keeping my money!. They are taking the guests payments and keeping them for 30 days or until after the guest has left my property, which ever is longer. I have no income for most of the guests who have booked for Sept and Oct. I cannot get any help through customer service, my business account is near empty and I cannot pay for repairs that need to be done before my next guest , Sept 21st. this is fraud and they are stealing from us! I am consulting with a lawyer on Monday!
Deanne

Avoid. They will charge you fee's after you book that are not listed on their website at time of booking. There are multiple organization that rent condos and places to stay. Use them since never have I had them change extra things on my credit card after booking. 10% fee is a lot of money that isn't disclosed.

I booked a property in May for a trip in August with VRBO/HomeAway, even paying for the full visit in advance. The property got double booked and I did not find this out until I got to Phoenix and tried to contact the homeowner to verify the address, an hour and 10 minutes before check in. Let me tell you that their Guarantee is a complete and utter joke. They want me to spend my time holding on the phone for them. They don't just put you in a property that is comparable or better (they put you in a dirty hotel frequented by vagrants) for two days and then they will find you another place. They want you to stay one place for two days, then get moved again. I don't know about anyone else but having to move all of your stuff around every couple of days is just stressful. There is just so much to do with the convention, taking care of my mother and the fact that I myself got sick while there, the stress caused by this "Book with Confidence Guarantee" provided by VRBO/HomeAway is something I will make sure I never do again. And yes, I will be letting everyone I know about this. Please feel free to let everyone you know, about this too!

this place is horrible!!!!!! DO NOT BOOK WITH THEM. I had to cancel my reservation and they didn't offer any resolution or give me any money back. They took $1,500 out of my account and no one will help you, I even took out the insurance *** PROPERTY MANAGEMENT ARE HORRIBLE. STAY AWAY THEY WILL RIP YOU OFF.

Rented a property in San Francisco 4 months in advance of our trip. Then got an email from the owner "***"of the property saying SF would no longer license them to list property AND the CFO embezzled the companies money so they couldn't refund my 1.3K deposit. Dealing with VRBO has been a nightmare. Lots of phone calls and emails never with the same individual. My AMEX will cover the loss but need confirmation from VRBO. One month later and AMEX states still needs confirmation from VRBO. Just this week VRBO said VRBO hasn't assigned an agent to the case yet. BUYER BEWARE... don't use VRBO!

Beware of using VRBO. Since they are essentially just an advertising platform, I can confirm that they will do practically nothing to help you if there is a problem. We abandoned our rental 7 hours after checking in, as the place was disgusting and had mold and cockroaches. We could not recuperate the cost of the rental and were on our own to immediately find and come up with money for another place. The people at VRBO were not only dismissive of our dilemma ( ie. "No one else has left a poor review on the property, and since it's not technically an unlivable space, you need to contact the homeowner yourself" ), they were also devoid of any human decency ( ie. "Seriously, 3 cockroaches isn't an infestation. It's not like the place is crawling with cockroaches" ). Additionally, we were charged a $50 Returned-Check Fee when we never paid by check. Our countless phone calls and complaints were met with assurances that their investigators would look into the matter and someone would get back to us, but we have yet to hear back from VRBO. Any attempts to leave a review have been thwarted, since writing a review is ironically not an option for renters who cancel their stay, regardless of the reason. And since they also pre-screen their reviews to decide which ones will be posted, it's not surprising that no negative reviews on the property previously existed. Total scammers! Never again!.

Last February 2019 I rented a condo through VRBO for 2020 for the months of January thru March in Mexico. I paid in full as was required. The owner just canceled my reservation! Even if the reservation is guaranteed doesn't mean the owner can't cancelled. Now I have plane tickets and no place to stay. I would NOT recommend this site!

After many years of downhill service from VRBO, increasing fees, complicating communications and providing zero service, I am no longer going to work with them. This week they decided - with NO advance notice - that all payments to owners would now have to wait until after the renter checks in. I know I am one of 1000s who was expecting money in the next couple of weeks who will now have to wait three months or more. Unless I want to pay them 6%. This is dishonest theft in my opinion.. I hope they go under.

I made two reservations through VRBO and VRBO added a third for the same location and dates as one of my others. It wasn't listed on my reservations either so I didn't know to look through my paperwork for a third reservation. I confirmed it and I didn't realize what had happened till afterwards. The property management did not care that a mistake had been made because they have their paperwork and VRBO did not have my money and would not help coordinate with the property company about their mistake. I'm out of a lot of money. I feel cheated and humiliated.

During home renovations which we were forced to undertake by FEMA due to hurricane Harvey mitigation, my friend and I booked a hotel room with two dogs. Due to the small nature of a hotel room, we decided to book a pet friendly unit with VRBO.com. We located a unit and used their "instant book" feature. They instantly took a little over $4000 off the credit card and promptly sent two e-mails. One that said confirmed and another right after that said property not available reservation canceled.
My first thought was no harm no foul. Just stay in the hotel and try again. The issue came up when I realized that they still had my money. I called repeatedly and the only response I could get was "refunds take 5-7 days, it's in our terms and conditions". When I let them know that I don't have an additional 4k laying around one rep stated that there are shelters for my situation.
So I read through their terms. It actually states that I was a protected traveler and that they should provide lodging for up to 3 days. Instead they said that they cancelled quickly so it wasn't their problem. Tonight we are making the decision on sharing a hotel room or eating over the next week. Their entire staff is aware of the issue and says it happens all the time.

Scammers - spent almost 600 bucks to get abused and called drunk and refused entry after driving seven hours - 5550 highway 1 in padre - apt 528 Laura - watch out . A really scam going on here and this company is a joke. I was told there is nothing they can do money was already taken and nothing they can do.

I cannot say enough bad things about this company. I was on hold for thirty minutes before I spoke to someone with an awful connection, not from me. The fees for owner and guest are astronomically high even compared to hotel fees. Their web platform for owners is so overly complicated. On top of all that I have to find out through the phone that they hold funds for 30 days after the guest pays. Are you kidding me??!! With Airbnb our funds are deposited within three days!! Awful company!!

I started managing vacation rental properties many years ago on VRBO. At that time they were a privately-held company, and they were great to work with! I think I paid $300 a year for the listing, and that was it. I could manage my own payments then, too. Then Homeaway bought it, and now it's owned by Expedia, and they are AWFUL. First, the renters need to pay way more than they used to as they charge me almost $500 a year plus a "service fee" of $100-200+ to the renter on each booking. Secondly, I am not allowed to know anything about the renter before they have booked. I used to enjoy talking with renters up front and addressing any questions they had. Also, many of these properties are small, privately owned places, and I am no longer really able to vet the prospective tenant. The final blow came this week when they decided - with no notice whatsoever - that they would keep payments from my renters until after they checked in. I used to be paid when the client paid. Many of my bookings are for a year in advance, so, I either have to wait a year to be paid, or I have to pay them 6%. What a bunch of crooks. I am taking my listings down. There are other options out there.