Vrbo Reviews 103

I had my first stay in a VRBO property and the owners messed up the parking permit (that was asked for and arranged in advance) so I got a parking fine.

The hosts ignored me, so I spoke to VRBO. Not only can you not edit the (previously positive) review, to delete it you have to make several calls and (if you're lucky) they'll send you a link to confirm deletion about a week later.

There's no UK complaints process and the Customer Service team are intentionally powerless. They do nothing because they can do nothing.

This is VRBO's attempt to whitewash their scammy hosts and make sure that accurate warnings about hosts can't be published.

If you've got to choose between a freezing cold ditch and a VRBO property, don't be so quick to write off the ditch as an option.

I made a cancellation-free booking in August 2025 that I had to cancel the day after but forgot to check that the refund was being processed as per the terms. A couple of meonths later, after realising the funds had not been transferred back to may account, I asked the host twice to send me the due refund but to no avail. Hence got in touch with Vrbo Customer Service who after wasting a lot of my time with requests of additional information, documentation, evidence simply told me to open a dispute with my credit card issuer. And what is worse is that I had to tell them TWICE to remove the listing - which was a scam obviously - from their website!! I eventually received the money back from Amex so that's good news but I would advise people to stay away from Vrbo. Shameless really. Cherry on the cake is that I keep on receiving their deceiving newsletters despite having tried to unsubscribe several times! Stay away!!!!

VRBO, the weekend before our cancelled trip and VRBO have done nothing to find us a solution. This must be the worst customer service you could experience. They are part of Expedia & Hotels.com, but that won’t help you either. Something is seriously wrong at the top of this organisation to treat their customers in such a manner
Do not use this organisation, you will regret every moment, seriously bad !!!!!!

I am an owner. That's the first problem, since all the contact procedures and questions on the site are geared to guests rather than hosts. The web site has always been very poor, very slow, and VRBO ignores any complaints.
I recently tried to accept a booking on the site, as I have done many times previously, only to have it lock up every time I tried. As I am required to respond to enquiries within a short time, I eventually found (on the site) a problem that was vaguely connected and called the recommended help line. The "help" I received (clear your browser cookie cache) was ludicrously irrelevant and of course made no difference, other than requiring me to re-establish my credentials on many other sites which of course had also had their cookies removed). I should have known better than to follow it, but you never know.
Far worse than that - it turned out that the help line number was in fact a premium 0845 number for the use of which I was charged £13.00. I have never before met a company which uses premium lines to penalise its users for daring to complain, but I have to say that it is typical behaviour.

Property not as advertised, dirty, scruffy and in bad repair.

Having arrived at our holiday home discovering no single duvets for single beds, two legs breaking off another bed all within 1hr of arrival. Problems contacting host - bed finally fixed 5pm next day and quilts delivered. Food left in kitchen, decomposing frogs and mice in the swimming pool, hot tub not at temperature to name a few problems. It has taken over 15 emails and hours on the phone to be refunded €150 the cost of the week was €3117. The most stressful and regrettable booking, dreadful customer service.

I booked an apartment and the day I was due to arrive the host said there was sewage problems.So they cancelled.
Then silly me booked another apartment on the vrbo site,for the host to message why didn’t they take it down as the apartment was already booked out.😡By then I’m already at the airport with no accommodation at the other end when I arrive at my destination.Vrbo customer service said 5 days refund which is almost £1000 they didn’t care.
It was my get away I’ve planned for many months.Dont book with this company it’s a scam and they have no empathy.
Quick to take your money for properties that are already taken,but not so quick to give you your own money back
Scam scam scam

We booked a villa in Javea for 4 weeks and when found arrived found it to be neglected, in disrepair and really dirty.
We contacted Victoria at customer services regarding these and other issues related to the property.
We sent numerous photographs and a long detailed email outlining the main issues.
We continued to request a move and spent the first half of our holiday trying to sort things out but Vrbo took no responsibility and although they contacted the host, absolutely nothing was done.
Brbi advertised the villa for 6 people but there was only enough room for 4 people in the living room and dining area.
Also the villa was repeatedly rated higher for cleanliness which we found to be old, long standing dirt.
We took over 90 photos
We will NEVER use Vrbo again. They are incompetent and employ youngsters to front the complaints. Incidentally Vrbo is owned by Expedia Group therefore I will be advising everyone I know to a avoid both companies.

Used last year to go to Mijas Pueblo, and the apartment was brilliant. However this year went to Granada, where it was totally the opposite. The description appeared to show a top floor apartment with plunge pool and terrace. In fact a second floor apartment and communal pool and terrace. Numerous issues with the apartment and the noise from students outside every night between 2 and 6 am was constant. VRBO asked for a review so I gave them one, rating 2 out of 10 and cataloging the issues. They responded by asking me to resubmit as it didn’t meet their guidelines. I read the guidelines and made two minor changes and resubmitted. 48 hours on and they have not replied and the review doesn’t feature against the property. There are 15 reviews on the site, 14 are 10/10 and 1 was 8/10. My guess is they filter out the bad reviews. Highly unlikely I will use them again.

Our booking was made last November 2024, the host stated there was a natural disaster in the rental apartment three days prior to our trip, the same property was re rented for three times the amount because a pride festival was rescheduled for them dates. Both the host and the management company should be ashamed. Not an honest company!

Do not use. Absolutely hopeless and they list misleading information about properties. They don’t care when things go wrong. Don’t book through them.

This company is a joke! I booked a property in Ireland which was so disgusting we could not one stay night in it! After many, many complaints the company and owner refused to refund my money: I then wrote a review about the property - guess what, it’s not on the property description! I believe most of the reviews have been fabricated as no one would stay in a filthy and down run property if they read my review!
Shocking of you VRBO you are acting immorally and conning people into parting with their money and leave them stranded in a very remote of Ireland!
As a result of our expense we had to over €1000 to stay elsewhere!
Don’t touch VRBO!!!!!

I asked to request a booking which was eligible for 100% refund (double-checked against the T&Cs). I received only half refund. Vrbo is completely uncontactable so I can't even raise my case.

Poor information on dangerous properties. No help with refunds when services offered were not working. Only contact out side UK is telephone number which cannot be contacted by mobile . NO check on property safety.

Avoid at all costs. I booked a place in Birmingham for the night. I’d not heard of Vrbo before but seeing as i got to them via Expedia I went with it. That got cancelled, I booked another place. Time went by and no details to gain access to the property came through. I messaged the owner, no response. I went through Vrbo online help and was told they normally do it a day before. That time arrived, still nothing, went through the online help again. To be told they normally do it an hour before check in time. Told the lady this was no good to me as I’d be travelling before then and wanted the reassurance everything was ok. And was told they couldn’t do anything until the check in time arrived. I asked them to cancel the booking and refund me, she said they couldn’t.
So me, and my two young children travelled to the property, and what do you know, no details. I managed to ring customer services, only to be told that the property had had several bookings, all incomplete over recent months. Why wasn’t I told this before??

All in all, avoid like the plague. We ended up in a travelodge, nothing fancy, not even particularly nice, but atleast it existed

I booked a property in Brittany which was supposed to provide bed linen. It didn't. The host proved impossible to contact. When I contacted VRBO's °help centre" to get them to try and resolve the issue they proved utterly useless. At one stage they told me they had contacted the host but couldn't help as they (the VRBO agent) "didn't speak French". Not great for an international holiday property company.
In the end, after two days of sleeping on towels, we drove to the managing agency to try and get the bed linen ourselves. After another day's delay we were given linen, only to find when we got back to the apartment that there was only sufficient for one bed, not two.
Throughout this nonsense the VRBO customer support system proved utterly unfit for purpose: I was put on hold then disconnected, an agent promised me she would ring back within 24 hours and didn't, numerous emails went completely unanswered. Now I'm back in the UK I have tried to submit a complaint and request for compensation to VRBO but this has been impossible. I am beaten; their labyrinthine contact system has led me down so many dead ends that I now admit defeat
I shall never use VRBO again.

I am outraged with VRBO
I have a new property that I let out which is delightful and has excellent reviews on booking.com
I had a guest arrive and cancel her booking straight away because one of the guests were in a wheelchair and it is not easily accessible this way which I do not advertise it to be !
She made up lies about my property saying there is mould and other ridiculous untruths and on the back of this vrbo refunded them over a thousand pounds of which £900 was meant to be mine
despite me having a no cancellation policy !!
I feel like I have been conned by them and will take this further

I would also like to mention that I had 3 bookings from vrbo none of which I knew about or were shown in the app !!

I made an official booking and had it officially confirmed by Vrbo.
I then received a follow up payment request though it was from a property owner I had just had a conversation with. I paid thinking it was for the confirmed property. I now have two bookings for the same date and no Vrbo support.
How can a person send me an invoice using the Vrbo platform for a property I had not booked? And Vrbo have no vested interest to help even though they were informed immediately.

They take a booking and then you are asked to pay by the venue itself, which is a fabulous opportunity for fraudsters….we were contacted with all the relevant details, dates, name of villa, correct spelling of my wife’s name and it was a scammer.

This website is a scam. I have booked a weekend away and I have accidentally mistyped the email address without realising it. I went through payment and everything and got confirmation of the booking on the web page. I waited for the confirmation email but I didn't receive it, so I tried to log in into my account and the booking wasn't there. I called the customer service to check if the booking was confirmed and after 40 minutes over the phone, the assistant told me about the mistake and he said that he can't do anything about it and I will have to contact the host. HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT YOU CAN BOOK FOR A HOLIDAY WITHOUT AN ACCOUNT?!?!? I then tried to log in with the mistyped email but it doesn't give the option to put a password, it only asks for a code that you received via email (email that I cannot access). On my other account there are 3 ways to access (email code, password, and code via phone number) while on this one only the code via email. WHAT KIND OF JOKE IS THAT?!?! I can't access any information about my booking, and now I don't even want to go there anymore even if I can because this whole situation is just so stressful, also because my husband's credit card has been used for the payment, so there's even him involved who is obviously very angry about the situation. This whole thing has become a nightmare and even IF (so far I couldn't because it was too late in the evening) I manage to contact the host, this holiday is ruined because of a ridiculous customer service full of scammers. Also the customer service assistant doesn't know phonetic alphabet and it was a drama to spell my name and he was very difficult to understand when he was talking and when I asked him to repeat and speak slower he totally ignored me. Don't book with these scammers if you don't want to spoil your holiday and throw away your money!!!