I've been an owner renting our property in Puerto Penasco, Mx. for over 15 years. Never really had any challenges working with them, although the feeling of their system being inflexable often occurred. During this time, VRBO has collected more than $100,000.00 in commissions from my rentals. A new Mexican tax has started as of June 1, 2020 and VRBO requested each owner's tax identification numbers from Mexico to prevent having it paid thru VRBO. We, like everyone just about, have an accountant in Mexico that takes care of these payments which I include in the charges when they occur for a new rental client. I've submitted the information (CURP and RFC) to VRBO at least 3 times and there is never confirmation. I speak with the VRBO representative on the phone and they tell me someone will get back to me, and there is never anyone from VRBO that gets back to me. Interesting in their process of identifying me the VRBO representative asks for my phone number in case we get disconnected but they Never get back to me. When they investigate, there are now at least 20 different case numbers regarding this issue. It probably takes at least 30 minutes to read thru the case numbers while I'm on hold. At least 3 times I have been disconnected after holding that long and noone calls me back!!! Then I have to start over. By the way, if I ask for a supervisor to speak with, the representative tells me that one will get back to me within 24-48 hours. That also never happens. If anyone has ever seen the movie GROUNDHOG DAY, that is exactly how I feel with VRBO. They have gone from bad to worse, it doesn't appear that they care at all for my six figure business. I'm done with them as of December 21 when my subscription runs out. By the way, the subscription costs $500/year, PLUS VRBO takes a heavy commission from each rental, PLUS VRBO charges 3% for CC use. Rent thru Airbnb or some other rental agency, but stay away from VRBO. They're bad news and inflexible. If I could give them a zero rating I would do so. Frustrated to say the least. read more

Cape Cod is an idyllic setting and up until the departure day of our stay all was great until..... The property owner determined that because we hadn't folded the bedding, had left untouched water bottles and moved a chair (yes moved a chair), that we had broken the "rules" and took part of our security deposit. The owner had already charged us $125 cleaning fee in advance so obviously this was a scam. Stay away from this property in Onset as there is really nothing in the immediate area in terms of beaches or sightseeing. Stay in Chatham, Hyannis or Eastham if you have families that like to go to the beaches and sightsee. read more

Paying $1600 to stay 3 nights in a run-down place without stated amenities was incredibly disappointing and frustrating. The wi-fi didn't really work (it worked for maybe 2 hours of our entire stay). It was dirty and old. There was no shampoo/conditioner/lotion. The one local store is open limited hours and is crazy over-priced. So, it was frustrating to have to go to the store (have it not be open the first night we were there and not open until 10 am the next morning) to buy some basic things that you expect to have staying at any hotel/motel/airbnb, regardless of the rating of the accommodation. It was ridiculous. According to the listing of the property, we were supposed to have "4 bikes in the garage". There were only 3 bikes in very poor working condition. They were not rideable. Flat tires, non-working breaks, bald tires. No helmets. We didn't bring our own bikes because we were told bikes were at the location. This is one reason we were willing to pay the crazy high price for this place. A big part of choosing Sunriver was the miles of bike trails. Well, we weren't able to bike. It was an enormous bummer. I tried to communicate with the vacation rental company about the bikes. I was told they would bring another bike the morning of day 2 of our trip. They didn't . Icing on the cake was the power going out. I realize this was not the fault of the vacation rental place. However, they knew about the issue with a transformer in the area and did not communicate with us. I had to contact them. I was told that it would reportedly only be out for 2 hours. It was out for half a day. No communication. Overall, this was truly an overpriced horrible experience read more

Terrible site to rent from. Very inaccurate to what you say you get and what you receive. What a ripoff!

The owner of the place I rented canceled on me a couple days before my check in date. I have been in contact with 7 separate customer service agents over the course of the past few days on the phone for a combined total of 6 hours (not exaggerating). All I've asked for is help with finding an alternate place to stay considering the fact that my 7 friends and I are flying across the country tomorrow with no accommodations, and their refund still hasn't hit my account yet. NO ONE has been able to help me at all... My interaction with the most recent representative sums it up pretty well. I asked the agent if she could help me at all. She replied "No." I then asked if she could transfer me to someone who could. She said "No." Frustrated, I asked if she had a manager or superior. She said "No." Finally, I asked if anyone at all at the company could help me in any way. She said "I'm sorry, but no." I was astonished... the worst customer service I have ever experienced. I can't even believe this company exists. Wish I could give negative stars. read more

This company could care less about it's customers. I rented a cabin from a company through Vrbo back in October 2020 when COVID was calming down with no possible way of knowing Omicron would come along. 3 days before our reservation, the people I was going to be traveling with contracted COVID. I call the rental place, not asking for money back, but simply wanting to move the trip, so everybody wins. I was told twice that the "only" thing the private company could do was to try to re-book it and whatever days it gets rented, we'll get refunded. So I then contacted Vrbo - they had me on hold 3 times and essentially told me that all they could do is write the rental company an email asking them to be more accommodating, "please". I then call the rental company back and they inform me that's not what the Vrbo email says, it just notates what we discussed and what I'm looking to achieve. SO, despite COVID being something we could not control, the rental company and Vrbo refused to accommodate us in any way aside from the company giving us the cleaning fee back after I had to ask for it (they did not automatically offer it back). The Vrbo woman did not speak good English and the connection was not good, so I could hardly hear what she was saying. While the woman I spoke to was nice, that does not excuse allowing this private company to cheat your customer out of over $1000 because of an unforeseen medical emergency. Vrbo boasts that it requires its' hosts to accommodate for COVID and then it DOES NOTHING when it comes time. Furthermore, I was told if I had bought insurance, I could've got my money back. I looked at other reviews and people who bought insurance and tried to get a refund a year ago, at the beginning of COVID, have yet to see their refund. So no, my not buying insurance did not have anything to do with the situation. It's just an out they used to blame their customer for their poor policies. I will never book through Vrbo again. They were unhelpful during this pandemic. Thank you, Vrbo, for making my birthday so spectacularly awful. read more

This company has no accountability and no customer service policies which would allow their representatives to make amends with clients. The sheer enormity of their monopoly allows them, for now, to charge for what is effectively no service except the accessibility of the properties to view and book. Beyond that, any expectation that booking through them provides you any level of guarantee or insurance for the rental (which is the purpose of not booking directly with a property owner) is false. They are dismissive and feel untouchable in their field. One customer service representative stated that in 10 years he had never been authorized to compensate anyone for their owner-cancelled booking and the time spent by the renter in securing an alternate property. We only asked that they waive their VRBO fee as they had not provided us a service. They denied this request. Going forward we will avoid this company whenever possible. You should too. read more

VRBO is a joke. They do not support the consumer. They are scripted in their responses, they do not do what they say theyre going to do, and they are hackers! Ive never been so disgusted in my life! The property manager of my recent stay charged me a $500.00 incidental fee for damages that were there before we arrived. Ive spent countless hours on the phone and online chat with her AND VRBO. They did absolutely nothing. The property manager went on her listing and edited the description and deleted all her reviews. She opened up a new listing which is where MY review ended up. On the (edited)listing. She also had outdoor cameras facing directly in the house. I read VRBO's camera policy and this is a no no. Do they do anything about it? NO! I am outraged that these people get by with this! It's absolute BS and I don't know how they sleep at night. I thought I had exhausted all my resources till a light bulb went off in my head...the news! I am going to give my story to the news! It's got to get out there so others do not have to experience the hell I have been through the last 8 days! read more

Tried to rent a place off of their website paid and full. It was not a true listing. Do they check out anybody before listing their properties? Now we are trying to get refunded and they are not helping at all. This is so upsetting when you save for a vacation and they basically steal your money. What a deceiving company. DO not Trust!! read more

I've been an Airbnb user for several years, as both a host and guest, but I recently decided to try out VRBO as a guest and figured if I liked the experience, I'd list my property on VRBO (or HomeAway) in addition to Airbnb. However, after booking two places and having two cancellations due to hurricane damage, I have to say, the VRBO customer service is so bad, I'm not sure how this company (or parent company HomeAway or Expedia) is even still in business. The platform is so awful, I'm not even sure where to begin. The best of the worst highlights are: 1) The property search shows you "nightly" prices that aren't even remotely accurate. After you click the button to reserve a place and all the fees are added in, the real nightly price often more than doubles. This is totally illegal bait and switch. Some savvy lawyer should file a class action suit. 2) Trying to contact VRBO/HomeAway customer service is a nightmare. Calling 800 number results in a message saying they can't connect you and them disconnecting the call. Using the chat feature "connects" you with an agent only to be randomly disconnected in the middle of a conversation. STAY AWAY from HOME AWAY! (and VRBO). Awful. Just awful. read more

DO NOT USE THEM. I recommend using booking a hotel or Airbnb. I never write reviews I had to on this one. If you noticed, a lot of properties on the Vrbo don't have reviews that's because those listings are FAKE. I paid $645 to stay at a guy name Luca Biguzzi's property in Venice Italy. A week before check in I messaged him, he never responded, I called his phone number and it was disconnected. I kept emailing and messaging him but he NEVER RESPONDED. I contact Expedite because I found this property through them, they just send me to Vrbo and they were completely USELESS and had HORRIBLE customer service. They hang the phone on me, they told me to keep "messaging until one hour before check in". I was left stranded in a foreign country with two elderly people with no place to stay. I never cancelled my trip with them because if you cancelled they don't refund you any of the money. So they put you in a stressful situation where you are tempted to cancelled but I didn't because I realized their SCUMBAG moves. Afterwards when I tried to get my money back they gave me the run around not wanting to give me my money back until they finally did and when I went to give them a BAD REVIEW, my trip was moved by them to 'cancelled' not me so now I can't give them a bad review on the app or the property listing. They do this on purpose so their listings don't show up with BAD REVIEWS. Please don't fall for them. read more

Horrid, horrid and nightmare. I booked a cabin in Masardis, ME. It looked beautiful in the pictures. The check in time was 4pm- we are talking in the middle of the woods, deep in the snow, everything dark, no signs and they have check in time- the place is only light up by lamps, 2 out of 3 were out. The floor was dirty, dog hairs everywhere- not from my dogs. I could only see that the next morning- Christmas eve. They only had a broom to sweep. Had to wait for next morning with the light to do so. Was told it had everything I needed- nope. Only TP. No soaps, no paper towels, no bathroom sink. No disinfectants, nothing. No sponge. Just dirty, musty smelly rugs. The sheets were smelly, the pillows same. We ended up leaving early. The icing on the cake was- when I got back I realized I got ringworm. I thought I was treating it, to only see it spread all over me. Several doctor visits later, $15 a day in anti fungal creams, 4 hours a day spent in disinfecting my house, and everything I touch, a broken dryer- I had to use it that much- and it's now been almost 3-4 weeks, it is finally beginning to subside. I contacted Vrbro who contacted owner. Dude said he disinfected the place. NOT. That cabin had not seen a disinfectant in decades. Needless to say- Thousands of dollars later, and a total ringworm hell and I still see their ads online and the dude is still advertising. Good luck to them. Assholes. read more

Do not use this company. We recently traveled to Tennessee from Miami. We had a confirmed reservation for a condo through their website. They charged my credit card and thank god we decided to stop in Georgia for the night. We received an email stating they cancelled the reservation in Tennessee and the manager would call us. Well no one called and it was peak season. The condo was still listed on their website as available but for more money than what we had reserved for. Apparently they wanted to charge more since there was nothing available throughout any of the near areas in Tennessee for New Years. I contacted the company and they could not explain why they cancelled except that they were sorry and we would have our money refunded. We were left half way through the trip without any room and I had kids with me. We managed to find something through Arbnb 3 hours away from where we planned to visit last minute which made our trip inconvenient and yer they still have not refunded us our money. First and last time booking with this website. I do not recommend it unless you want to be stuck without a reservation last minute. read more

Not sure if any of you are looking to use the Homeaway VRBO website. I have used the previous platform Cyberrentals beginning in 2001 as a homeowner. Ultimately Expedia has bought them all out. Recently they are getting very greedy and charging more and more for everything from the homeowner and renters. Just two months ago they moved our payment intermediary platform from their old one to something called Yapstone. Then just two weeks ago they are now forcing us to migrate to their own developed transaction platform. Who is running this company? Who is setting strategy? How ridiculous and painful for us the customers! On top of this, they will now be pocketing the 3% transaction fees, along with their website listing fees, and their renter transaction fees. AND, they will hold the homeowners payment until the renter checks in!!! They should immediately forward payments to the owners. I am really not a big fan of what they have become. Stay away from them if you can. read more

I have a renter that is coming in Dec.23 and check out on the 28th by the name of Don Cuffy. The renter cancelled his booking bec of COVID. Based on the cancellation policy, the renter is not supposed to get any refund of $1710. However, out of compassion, I decided to give them half of the money $855. So I requested on the vRBO website to refund $855. When I clicked the refund, the computer said systems error. I did it again and systems error showed again. When I was about to call vRBO, I noticed on the message section that the refund was completed. However, there was another refund of $436.13 a minute earlier than the $855. I do not have a clue of what the $436.13 was about. I called customer service and Camilo accused me of requesting the $436.13. They also said that they cannot do anything about it and I need to ask the renter to return the money. Of course when the renter gets the money there is no way they will return the money back to us. Now I need to refund another renter $300. So I called VRBO first and verify if there is a computer glitch whether they are going to help me get my money back. The customer service representative said they cannot do anything if the error happens again. Since I do not trust their website i just decided to refund the renter directly. VRBO should make sure their system work or owners will be cheated and suffer. I will put this complain online so other owners will be alerted. AIRBNB has a better system. read more

Wish I could leave zero stars. I will NEVER book with VRBO again. My fiancé and I booked a villa in Mykonos for our honeymoon ($800/night). After doing a lot of research, I felt safe booking with VRBO because they boasted about their "Book With Confidence Guarantee" After booking I tried to get in touch with the property owner and never received a reply. I sent three messages over the span of six weeks making sure everything was okay and still have never heard from this property owner. I called the phone number provided for the property and it was a disconnected line. Cue COVID-19. As a US citizen I was now barred from entering Greece through our travel dates and the only guidance VRBO was offering to its customers was to hope your property owner would be understanding and issue a refund. Seeing as I had no way to reach our owner I called VRBO customer service. I was on hold for 2.5 hours being tossed around from representative to representative re-explaining my unique set of challenges each time. Finally it was revealed that not only was VRBO taking no responsibility in any cancellations but no one could help me reach the property owner and I was told I'd hear from someone sometime in a week or two to resolve the matter. As you have probably guessed, I never heard anything again. I ended up disputing the payment with my bank because it was my only option left. VRBO is the saddest excuse for a company and I am sorry for anyone who has had to deal with something similar. What a pathetic, money hungry, coward you are VRBO. A shameful example of greed. There are so many other ways to book travel and clearly you have not made a good impression on MANY of your customers, I hope you go down in flames. read more

beware!!! do not book with vrbo!!! refuses to refund fully refundable deposits!! lied to credit card dispute then admitted lied but said it was technical glitch then still hasnt refunded for 5 mos after stating refund would be processed in 2weeks!!! lies rip off!!! never book with vrbo again!!! read more

Using VRBO has been a horrible experience. Since I was unable to get married this weekend due to covid, we decided to go on a small road trip. We chose Breckenridge Colorado and set up plans to rent a cottage there. It cost us around $1000.00 for the trip. It is now 6:19 pm. We've been at the front door of the house trying to get in since 4:00 pm. They've sent us multiple codes that do not work. The maintanance mans code did however work. He was able to tell us the bath I rented the place for doesnt even work. Now, as we sit here on the steps of an unsanitary, disappointing little dump of a place, trying to get a refund (since we still cant get in), we've had to reach out to a 3rd party called summit management (so rude). They were able to refund some of our money. We should get it back in 3-4weeks. For the rest of the fees, we had to call VRBO. Its been a great 48 min hold on the phone and no resolution. Not how I intended on spending the first 4 hours of my anniversary trip. Wow. They just dropped my call. For the love of sweet baby jesus. Please dont use this app. I'm disgusted. read more

I had rented a home in Charleston for mid-March, 2020. We had also booked a few tours through the historical society. I live in the NY/NJ area and when the coronavirus was beginning to hit our area, I asked if we could cancel our reservations. I was told that everything was fine in SC and we would not get our money back. A few days before our scheduled trip, NY was pretty much in quarantine and all of our tours in Charleston were cancelled. (I was refunded all my money for the tours without any hassle). I was still told from our rental person that SC was totally open and we should still come. We had decided that we would cancel our trip as the fear of traveling was too high and would fight the money battle later. I then received an email from VRBO saying that they were recommending all property owners to cancel reservations and refund any money. I once again contacted our property owner and sent her the email from VRBO. She finally refunded most of our money with the exception of a small fee. I then contacted VRBO many times asking for the rest of my money to no avail. I would never use them again when during a pandemic, they made life even more difficult and were certainly not helpful. They made our cancelling our trip even more sad. read more

I am absolutely infuriated with VRBO. The homeowner of our vacation property removed his property from the website 3 weeks before our trip that we booked 1.5 months ago. They did not have a single option for us and had to get a refund which they say will take 3-4 weeks!!!!!! They're holding $2,000 of ours and we cannot now book another place while they are holding our money. We are hard working people who need that money right now, not in a month!!! I am disgusted that they EMAILED us that our property was no longer available. No one called us!!!! We had to call them and wait multiple times on hold for OVER 1.5 hours to even talk to someone with no help. They make it absolutely impossible to get a hold of someone to talk to. You are frauds. You are thieves! We cannot book another place until our refund comes through. Not only that, we have to wait for refunds from 3 separate places!! What in the world? Everyone we talked to doesn't have a clue what the other person is saying. YOU ARE A JOKE! We booked this vacation for our family of 7 and now we are probably going to have to tell them it's canceled. We will NEVER USE VRBO AGAIN!!! AS WELL AS TURNKEY RESERVATIONS!!! I'd leave zero stars if I could. read more

**Warning DO NOT BOOK WITH VRBO** I am writing this post to expose the pure SCAM that is VRBO during a nationwide pandemic (Coronavirus). My family and I booked a vacation rental in Siesta Key, Florida for our spring break vacation in April. We paid a large amount of money, being $3,500, as she has 5 children & we needed a large rental. The rental is also on the beach. The beaches have since been shut down as the state of Florida continues to be one of the epicenters for the Coronavirus outbreak. The owner is refusing to refund our money and IS NOT being accommodating to change our dates when VRBO "suggested" to give renters a year to change. We contacted VRBO who was NO HELP and stated it is between us and the owner! I am sure they are doing this to other poor families who paid good money to go on vacation, some of which may REALLY need it during this time of unemployment and uncertainty. This is such a scam during a nationwide epidemic when we cannot be going on vacation during this time particularly to a place (Florida) which is as I said is one of the a primary locations of the virus. read more

We have used VRBO on numerous occasions and have had few problems. Not so with our last booking. We booked a property on August 25th for October 2-11. When we had not heard from VRBO regarding check in information 2 days prior to leaving, I called the owner. Apparently the property had not been for rent for over a month when we booked it. VRBO happily took our money, including their fees for a property we would never have been able to stay in. It is their responsibility to keep their listings up to date. Fortunately the owner was very nice and refunded all of our money. There was only one other place to stay and we booked it via phone through a local rental company. I am NEVER using VRBO again. When you try and call them to complain there is an automated message: "Thank you for calling HomeAway. Your call can not be completed at this time. Please hang up and try again." They are supposed to have 24/7 Customer Service. read more

If I could give less stars I would because 1 Star is far too many for the shit service I have recieved! Booked a family reunion at Lake Tahoe for Sep 5th through the 11th and 4 days prior to the event they canceled the reservation! The answers they gave us were very insufficient and aside from their "UNDERSTANDING" I recieved absolutely zero help in locking in another house for my family. The help they did provide consisted of increasing the cost from $2200.00 to $6000.00 due to the short notice, and with no hope of financial assistance from the company that caused this fiasco! We have family coming from across the country with flights/rentals already booked that will now have to be canceled! They offered me a "full" refund of my money which is absolutely laughable because why wouldn't I get that already? Thanks for ruining my family reunion Home And Away or VRBO... fuck you guys in whatever name you want to use! read more

I would advise people to be very careful regarding the modification/cancellation policy of a property. In my case, no changes to a reservation are allowed within 30 days and I contacted the owner one week out. I ended up forfeiting the first payment of $140. There was no deception on the part of the owner but it is a harsh penalty to pay if unforeseen circumstances arise. I had to cancel reservations (due to illnesses) at other properties (not VRBO) and there were no penalties. I think booking with VRBO can be a gamble. read more

If only 'zero' stars were an option for this review.....For the record, THE HOMEOWNER'S I DEALT WITH WERE AMAZING, but due to unknown future travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, I cancelled 2 separate reservations on 04.26.2020, well before the full refund cancellation cutoff. VRBO, not the homeowner, has my money, but VRBO HAS STILL NOT ISSUED A REFUND TO ME AFTER 9 WEEKS. I called to request information and following brief discussion, I was placed on hold so the agent could 'research' my reservation cancellation info. I was advised that I now have a case # and my delayed refund was being escalated to a production team, however no further information was given. This agent had a perfectly memorized and limited script which included zero info on timing for contact from said production team to address my 'case', and a total refusal to connect me to their supervisor or manager who was deemed unavailable. I couldn't be more frustrated or disappointed, and VRBO has done a great disservice to amazing homeowners that will not get my future business if they remain connected to VRBO read more

My family and I booked a trip to London prior to COVID. When choosing our apartment, we made sure to choose a property that would allow us to cancel should anything come up. We selected an apartment that had a cancellation policy which would provide us with a 90% refund if we cancelled 4 weeks prior to our trip with said refund to be provided within 4 weeks after cancelling. After the pandemic hit and we realized we could not travel internationally, we reached out to VRBO and the landlord and formally requested a refund. That is where the trouble began. The property owner first offered to either give us a credit for a future stay or the contracted refund which we responded to by requesting the refund. They responded by telling us that they have approved the refund but that it would take 4-6 months to see the funds. We responded by quoting the contract and requesting that it be honored. After this, they went silent. We have spent over a month going back and forth with VRBO who refuses to assist us in providing a refund. We have provided them with screenshots showing that the property owner said they would refund along with the rental contract. We even went as far as reaching out to the CEO, Jeff Hurst. After numerous dead-end emails, we received a response on 8/13 telling us that the property owner has refused to provide a refund and that VRBO would not take further action. We were not given a reason nor did VRBO enforce the contract. VRBO expects us, as the consumer, to sit back and allow this person to steal thousands from us and many other families. They do not see this as their responsibility, nor do they show any concern whatsoever. We have also filed a complaint with BBB who received a generic response from VRBO. We are not looking for anything other than what was contracted, upon rental of this property so we simply do not understand how VRBO, as the rental agent can treat this issue so poorly. read more