VRBOReviews 2,004

Beware of the Carefree insurance offered on this site. It is a complete SCAM. After I was confirmed into a condo for a month this fall, I got a message from VRBO saying they had cancelled all bookings by that lessor. When I asked how to get my insurance refund, tyhis is what I got---

Thank you for contacting the Trust and Security department of VRBO®, HomeAway®, and VacationRentals.

"In this situation the only advice that we can give when it comes to trying to recoup your funds that were lost are to either continue reaching out the owner and get it from him or if you are unable to do that then contact your credit card directly and dispute this specific transaction.
"In regards to the insurance that you purchased it would not come into play currently becuase this owner is under investigation with us and a decision has not been made on the property owner and the insurance only coveres a fraud that is declared by us.
"Also even if it did cover it, one of the steps in using it is to go back to your credit card company and have them try to get it back first because they have a lot more clout when it comes to their ability to get funds that were lost.
I hope this adds some clarity to this difficult situation."

So, the coverage provided by your credit card company is better than anything VRBO offers. And a fraud is only a fraud when VRBO says it's a fraud. And they only pay off if they feel like it.

As a property owner I have tried to find an effective way to get my property in front of shoppers. Many sites take your money up front and then never do anything to promote the rental. That has resulted in no traffic to the page or inquires. NONE.
I have been using VRBO for 3 months, have 195 hits on my property with to date 9 inquires. I don't pay until someone rents.
That's about 1000% better than what anyone else has to offered.
So all you who are trashing this site, please tell me what site is better. No site with multiple advertisers is going to be perfect; so who do you know is better? I will use them too.

I have used this rental web site numerous times. In March we stayed at property #******* in Redmond Oregon. I sent a complaint about this rental. Made 2 phone calls. If the rental is not as described... to bad... your complaint means nothing. The owner of the property is not held accountable for misrepresenting it. The owner was to contact me but they have not and probably never will. I just don't want anyone else to be mislead.

I wrote a negative review on property VRBO Listing #******* (Florida), it was an awful experience to say the least. I wrote about all the issues that needed addressed with the place we stayed. The owner was supposed to refund part of my money due to all the issues but it never happened. VRBO called me to see if I would remove the negative feedback and write something nice if they reimbursed the money that the owners were supposed to give back. I told them that the review was accurate and I would not remove it in exchange for some money back. My review was never placed on the site, only good reviews were placed. I emailed and asked why it was not placed and never received a response.

We are a vacation property owner and were initially happy with the service. However, like other owners have posted, they have given a very bad reputation to service sites once you become a consistent customer of their service... by finding ways to increase the annual rate by 10-20%.

The alternative to maintain a "flat rate" year over year is to pay for additional photos and/or increase your level of posting (Silver, Gold, Platium, etc) - all of which mean you are still paying more! Bear in mind we have increased our annual spend from $400 to $700 over the last 4 years - while our traffic and rental quantity have remained the same.

Airbnb is quickly gaining ground and next year I expect to be able to switch and not lose ground on marketing visibility... unless VRBO comes to their senses like NetFlix did and consider what their product really is... the owners who post.

VRBO - notice served...

We rented successfully on vbro all over North America for years then two years ago a Collingwood On ski chalet owner switched us to a lesser property and tried to say thats what we rented-they did return our money but vrbo would not let us post our problem. My son just this weekend rented in Miami only to find on arrival that the owner was moving them unannounced to an inland lesser property-he got his money back but had to scramble for a hotel for 8 people. You cannot post a review on vrbo unless you have actually taken possession and they did not care or support us in any way. No more vrbo for us.

I have been on VRBO for over 5 years and own 2 vacation properties. I HATE VRBO and the way they do business. Every year, they figure out a way to scam us out of more money -- by making you pay to add 3 more pictures (and they list by the # of pictures you have) or make you pay for a "premium" listing, the next year you have to pay more when they allow 4 more pictures (They started at 6 and now they're up to 16). Just waiting to see how they squeeze more $ out of us -- already costs us $799 a year for each site. Just recently they made 2 more changes that negatively impact us. I can see they are trying to be a monopoly and slowly buying up other rental companies. You used to be able to reply directly to a potential guest -- now you have to go through their website. And they limit how many words you can use in your reply. Also, if you have a calendar on other websites, and most people do, you cannot edit it from any other website, they make you go on the VRBO website and log in to edit your calendar. The calendar used to be independent and all of your websites hooked up to it --- then VRBO bought out the calendar company. And if you ever have a problem with a guest -- and the guest complains to VRBO, they automatically take the side of the guest. I had a man want a refund because he came for deep sea fishing and the waves were too rough so he only got to go out once -- and he demanded a full refund. VRBO forced me to refund the man -- I was livid. It wasn't my fault he didn't catch any fish and i don't control the weather. They threatened to throw me off the site -- I could not believe it. I am so fed up with VRBO and am probably going to stop advertising on them once FlipKey gets bigger. For now, I'm stuck.

We have been trying to find a rental for a family celebration of life for my grandmother passing. We finally found a great rental and confirmed the dates with VRBO via email and phone. When we went to send a deposit we left numerous messages and emails and did not EVER receive a response! We now see that they rented it out from under us for a longer period of time… we only know this because the dates are now unavailable. What a poor way to run a business. Whatever happen to first come, first serve? Such a disappointment for us.

I currently have a cottage listed on vrbo.com... I am so frustrated with vrbo.com... I would remove my cottage listing from vrbo.com if there was another competitive website because they do not deserve my business... They have at times removed all of my booking on my calendar after I had filled up for the season and posted all bookings... They said they did this because I hadn't accessed my calendar often enough... But again I was already full and had posted my bookings for the season when suddenly I was getting inquiries for weeks that were already booked... That is when I discovered vrbo had removed all my bookings on my calendar... Also, I like to keep my listing simple by indicating all the amenities in my written description... However vrbo wants me to use their formats that have come out after I posted my listing on their we site... I choose not to use them, and now they have punished my by moving my listing further down the lost, even though I pay for a specific spot and was originally promised a specific spot on the listing based on seniority and number of pictures I pay to display... I have tried to conform to their ever changing requirements to move up the list, and currently my pricing is posted all wrong because they insist I post a daily rate, and rates for different seasons, and average daily rates for the different seasons and so on and it ends up so confusing that it is not accurate... but if I don't do this then they will move my further down the listing... my listing is now a mess... I can't believe they can and are causing me so much grief! The price I pay for this listing is a gouging price... I believe vrbo is greedy... I am very angry with vrbo... I hope an honest fare competitor comes along and puts vrbo out of business... This would be well deserved... To bad vrbo treats their good paying clients this way... I can't say enough bad things about them!

I had a terrible experience with VRBO. My husband and I rent an apartment via VRBO and we were using for the 1st time the "Book it" option. That means you have 24 h to accept the booking and the payment comes via credit card. My husband called VRBO to know if they had checked the payment and they said yes. But 4 days later, just before the check out, someone from VRBO Ireland (?) called saying they could not get the payment. It appeared that it was a false or stolen card. On the day of the check out, the tenant had disappeared with our keys without having paid. VRBO did not help us, they rejected their responsibilities. They push owners to use their Book it option and use their payment system (they get money from that) but it is not secured. I find this completely unfair.

I simply have not experienced any of the problems described here. I am a vacation rental owner as well as a user, so I have experience on both sides. When I signed up as an owner, I had to prove I owned my location so I don't know how you can rent a property that doesn't exist.

As a guest, I have rented w/o a single problem and have been able to email and speak to the owners. There are safeguards in place so you are not able to write fake reviews.

Also, you are absolutely able to write negative reviews. Again, as an owner, I am able to respond to negative reviews (fortunately, very few & far between) but, a guest can write & post one.

I agree that email support is interminably slow, but you can call customer support w/o a problem.

I just booked a condo for my family in Alberta, Canada & found the owner immediately responsive & the reviews positive.

I would suggest readers of the negative reviews to look deeper & explore on their own.

While I have had amazing experiences with VRBO, I am lately really objecting to the way the pricing shows. What you see on the initial screen is far different than the final price. In many instances the cleaning fee is exorbitant And there is often a "property protection" fee. That one makes no sense to me. They already have insurance on the property, and assuming that they want a damage deposit, it should be refundable. I object to a cleaning fee of $200.00 when I leave it cleaner than I find it.