Vrbo Reviews 270

I didn't get round to booking with them as the website experience is very misleading. The total price "including taxes and fees" on the property page is not accurate. When you go to checkout there will be other fees such as cleaning or management, which depending on the property can be in the hundreds of £/€. When you've spent time shortlisting properties based on a budget and to find out there's £200+ more to pay it leaves a bad taste. Plenty of other competitors to use who are up front about costs. VRBO is a cop out.

The host cancelled our booking and when I call to try and get my refund nobody picks up the phone! I have not had an online chat with VRBO, a phone conversation over two weeks ago when I was requested to send in all proof of payments etc. which I did. Two weeks later, I am on the phone with VRBO now, having given my case number, I am just listening to elevator music with the handler not having a clue what is going on. Quite disgraceful all round ... if you book, don't think you will have somewhere to stay!! and don't think getting your money back will be easy!! I will have to go to the credit card company to try and recover the funds. I would give them zero stars if that was an option.

Stay clear bunch of muppets

Tricky website, I am speaking about this as an owner. They booked on my property as a ghost for 26 days 6000$. It was suspicious at the beginning, I did not accept the request at first. I wrote to the Costumer Chat, there some Arab agents wrote me about the booking. They said it is fine and I should accept, anyway if the guest will not pay the booking is not availablem nothing to lose. They also shared the guest email address, which one was fake for sure, letters and numbers...C.mon it was visible for a kid too. How they share a private email, where we can make the booking without commission....Anyway they had manual accept the received booking and when I saw the booking came to me..like I should book and pay for my own property. I mentioned this discovery with print screens to them but they did not give much attention. Maybe just maybe it was a fraud and the agents was involved in it also.

I had a terrible experience with customer service from Vrbo. They didnt help me fairly when the host cancelled my reservation 2 days before arrival. They only told me to go find another room on their website. All listings at that time were expensive as it was 2 days away.

Terrible, Booked 1.5 months in advance, host cancelled 36 hours before booking, support recommended another booking nowhere near the orginal and for double the price.

The first night of my booking was cancelled 3 days before I was due to arrive.
There was no Customer service the apartment owner and Vrbo just blamed each other for the mistake.

DO NOT TRUST THEM

Booked an apartment through Vrbo. No check in details were provided from the host despite repeated attempts to contact them. On the day of check in even Vrbo could not get hold of the 'host' so it must have been a fake listing. Had to find alternative accommodation at no notice. Vrbo did refund my original booking but they are legally obliged to pay for alternative accommodation when cancelled at such short notice. I sent them all the receipts & evidence they requested but during this process they closed the email correspondence address so it was impossible to resolve. Follow up phone calls were worse than useless. Such a painful and time consuming experience. To cap it all, I got an email a few months after this thanking me for submitting a review - which i did not write. So they are now faking reviews for imaginary apartments too. AVOID!

Booked a house for 10 people back in May and paid in full.

One week before arrival tried to contact host for check-in details with no luck. Just days before arrival host failed to communicate with either ourselves or VRBO. Asked VRBO to explain alternative arrangements if this fell through (not an easy booking for a House for 10 people, including 4 children, in Cantebury area). They refused to offer any guidance or plan, just said "we guarantee alternative accommodation if it goes wrong."

VRBO refused to do anything until after check-in time on day of arrival.

VRBO didn’t have the courtesy to contact us with...comment, alternatives, failure of host or offering a refund.

When we heard nothing from VRBO (or host) on the day of arrival, we called 2 hours 'after' scheduled check in and after protracted call, VRBO agreed to a refund, no alternative was offered.

Holiday of family including 4 young children ruined, by being left hanging by an incompetent and insensitive holiday letting company. Extremely stressful. Would steer well clear and of course never use again.

Had to pay for premium, last minute alternative to VRBO some way away from our chosen location...very costly. No recompense and no apology, just quoted T&Cs which are worth reading as they essentially avoid and responsibility for any failure.

After the dates, VRBO sent a feedback survey. With mandatory questions, but with no facility for this type of failure (we had to score cleanliness?!?). Subsequently were told our feedback could not be posted 'for the reasons below' (there was nothing below.)

It's crazy they really don't pay. I didn't believe the reviews at first. We've had a guest on July 15, VRBO collected the money, I asked support when we'll get it and they said 1 months. now is Aug 26 and they didn't pay anything the website is a mess. They are literally strealing money publicly it's crazy that such a service still exist.

Booked a cottage, host cancelled as it had been booked on another site. Could take 30 days for a refund. The host of gablebach cottage is ignoring us. Don’t pay even if instant booking confirmation.

Details: NEW - Historic Cottage with oak beams, Black Mountain, Brecon National Park

How can I book for this weekend now?

Pure incompetence on the host Ruth Mayes part.

No one cares either.

*UPDATE pending monies are now available to me - same day, so it can be done with a little rant etc

I add my name to the 93% one star reviews because like so many companies nowadays Vrbo treats its clients with complete Well, out of the reviews, they’ve got 93% of one star, distain. They offer a service which we pay for yet if you need to contact them you have to speak to robots or women who speak like robots And it takes an hour instead of a couple of minutes. Do you call this customer service? I call it customer service and I have simply gone elsewhere which will make no difference. I know which is so sad. It is the tail wagging of the dog.

On a recent trip to fortrose i met somebody who was staying in one of their holiday lets..... long story shortened
.. after seeing their photos and review i advised them to contact their credit card company and told them to do a charge back claim to get a refund for false representation

Booked an apartment in Quarteira Portugal through Vrbo and paid the deposit with no problem. Tried several times to pay the balance before we went on holiday and was unable to do so. Contacted Vrbo customer services and spoke to about 5 different advisers and problem still not sorted. Eventually contacted the host direct to explain the situation and he agreed to accept the second payment when we arrived at the apartment. The host was very understanding and we had a lovely 9 night stay in his beautiful apartment. This was the first time I have used Vrbo and it will certainly be the last. Customer service is shocking.

DO NOT USE Vrbo.
Just cancelled our apartment with no warning. Good job we looked on our emails as this came totally out of the blue. Rang Vrbo (The Philippines!!!!) couldn’t understand what the lady was saying, couldn’t give any answer as to why our booking was cancelled. When asked for the phone number to ring the “HOST” no one answered when we rang it. Disgusting company. Would NEVER recommend this company to anyone.
AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!!!!!’
Can’t even put the date we were going on in the review which is supposed to be 26-28th July as won’t except it.
AVOID, AVOID, AVOID.

DO NOT BOOK THROUGH VRBO. I REPEAT, DO NOT BOOK THROUGH VRBO.

The host misrepresented the property. The entire building reeked of smoke, and there were drug users and homeless people IN the hallways of my rented apartment. The host was largely unresponsive, and was of no help. Neither was Vrbo customer support. In fact, it is the WORST I have ever seen in my life.

They put you on hold for what seems to be FOREVER, keep transferring you to other departments, the line will often drop, and they do not have a good record keeping system, so you have explain yourself OVER AND OVER AGAIN. They do not appear to be based in the US/Canada and all sound robotic as if they are reading from a script.
They stated that a refund was at the discretion of the host, and they couldn't do ANYTHING to make things right. Essentially no protection for the guest WHATSOEVER.
Anyone can simply make a listing, post devious pictures and misrepresent the fact, and we're basically at their mercy. You can send pictures, videos and testimony to no avail. I've now lost over $600 to this misadventure. NEVER AGAIN.
If you must, please, ONLY use Airbnb.

Travelling to London for an event. Booked a self contained apartment on Vrbo weeks in advance, three day before departure Vrbo emailed to say my reservation had been cancelled because the property was no longer available as it had been booked in another platform.
The property was owned/managed by Edens Property.
This is obviously a case of the owner got a better price elsewhere and our booking was dumped in favour of that.
This caused us a lot of inconvenience and stress.

We will never use Vrbo again!

The VRBO host has just gone a cancelled my booking-AGAIN. I've done a lot of short-term accommodation booking over the last few years & VRBO has wat to regularly produced properties & hosts that are unreliable. I've had 2 or 3 cancellations before my trips & one where I turned up & couldn't get into the property at all, nor contact the host. To be fair VRBO did arrange alternative accommodation for me at the same price, but what a time consuming waste of time at the start of a trip. My theory is that because there are no ratings on VRBO, hosts don't have to take care of their guests as they would if they knew that their actions would be made public. Plus VRBO don't have a section that highlights how often hosts cancel a booking before a trip as the competition does, so hosts get no penalty for pulling the pin if they think they can get better prices by cancelling the booking on VRBO & putting the property on another platform. Which is exactly what I think happened today as I booked my accommodation months ago when prices were cheap. The town is now fully booked for an upcoming event & properties are going last minute for double & triple what I was supposed to pay. Only speculation. For whatever reason we have a rule now where we won't book a VRBO property if we can avoid it as the chances of cancellation by the host if accommodation gets tight is to high for our comfort.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Read this review.
You could save yourself some awful anxiety.
Booked a place to stay in Porthmadog Wales.
Two days before we are due to leave we receive an email to say the booking is cancelled. At least we were told.
Vrbo told us that they would try to find us another place but to wait 24 hours.
So we were expected to wait until the day before we were due to leave to find out if we had a place to stay.
I think not.
Don't trust this company with your money.
We have been told our money has been refunded. We shall see.
If nothing else make sure you book with a credit card.

Vrbo rented me a ghost. The host at no point answered any querie. The date of the booking came and went. Vrbo customer services did nothing to remedy the situation. Their call centre staff merely repeated a script, refused to accept responsibility and have yet to refund me. In short they have obtained money through deception.