VRBO
Reviews and Complaints

We made reservations in colorado in March. Due to cover the wedding we were going to was canceled and travel has been difficult. 60 days prior to the reservation we tried to cancel and get a refund. even thought the website has "free cancelations" they would only return their portion and not the owners portion of the almost $900 deposit. Each call into home away and vrbo led nowhere. no one would respond saying they would contact the owner. 2 months and multiple calls (at 20 minutes on hold each time and getting disconnected) with no results. no call backs and each call goes to a different agent that knows nothing and starts over. Terrible business and will never use these sites again! Total Rip OFF!

We rented a house for two days end of March then the virus and we needed to cancel our trip.We were advised for vrbo there were no refunds allowed.We waited for owners reply about a credit we heard nothing. Got a letter stating vrbo was hoping the owners would work with the renters but ours didn't when they did contact after 2 tries she mentioned a credit then said vrbo gave us a refund for 27.00 out of the 504.00 we paid.Like anyone planned on a virus becoming an epidemic!Don't book with them so unfair

we rented this property from 03/05/2020 til 03/11/2020 and before we could get there Kim called my phone and texted me several times what time were we arriving. then when we arrived and she saw we were African Americans she started askin about my son who was on the reservation to stay there 6 people were on there my hubby, 2 sons, grandbaby, and mother then she stated that would be too many if he planned to stay there when I told her he wasn't cause he bought his girlfriend. I was sick and on vacation couldn't get proper rest from the kid running around upstairs, Kim kept texting me about stupid stuff even called my phone to ask who came over at 4 in the morning and left. In the 1st place the rental doesn't say that it was your basement cause I would have picked other options and how are you babysitting grown folks. When we left she texted me about a blanket that was in the drawer and some broken blue bowl that we have no idea what she talking about. My problem with this rental don't say you on sight, say you live upstairs and the rentals in the basement and my other problem is I am on vacation don't want to be bothered I don't know you. Then I definitely don't wanna hear stumping upstairs all night and early in the morning. Nothing was close by as she stated. barely anything to do. Before looking for stuff you started textin me talking bout stuff was missing that was there. I don't appreciate anything she done as far as my stay and being accused of taking stuff that is still there. If you don't want blacks staying there find out what color they are before they get there, my sons were very disappointed with this vacation. Lane peeping round corners acting like we criminals. I have stayed at several AirBNB and got perfect ratings and wasn't watched. Everybody there were grown, we have money and live just as good as you do and don't appreciate a vacation turning into a disaster. My hubby didn't get to celebrate his birthday cause we were not comfortable there. This was vacation in hell. If I could got my money back when I first got there I would have left, not used to staying in nobody's basement. Everybody asking where's the pictures of what being in hell for 6 days. I would like some type of refund so I can take me a decent vacation cause this definitely wasn't what I spent my money for. Couldn't even enjoy ourselves for being bound, I tried to be nice but after the review when I cleaned up the house even washed the towels and she gave me a 3 and friendliness, I didn't come to be your friend I came for a vacation. the things she did let us know she was prejudice and I will be taking this situation further cause I am not used to stuff like this I live in Indianapolis Indiana. God create us all equal. I have other witnesses, very disappointing trip

Since december 16th 2019 the address of 8348 stone creek drive chanhassen mn 55317 started renting out their home as a short term rental property, the house has sat vacant for two plus years and now its a rental, cars everywhere and people coming in and out all the time, no privacy at all its become a huge nuisance to our neighborhood and neighbors. Not knowing who is there it has a revolving door all the time worse on weekends. large party groups, cars pulling in and out plugging both sides of the streets we live in a safe or used to be safe neighborhood not so safe anymore, i have attached some photos and video of what our street and this place looks like every week and weekend, its only been on the rental for three months and it had to go. not fair to the us as tax payers and the owners don't even live in this city. the groups of people and the coolers out side in the snow and on the porch is a giveaway on what they are doing, if you look at the [censored] add it states to be kind and respect the neighbors and they have done none of this, we the add also states that sleeps 14, people well that just asking for a party pad, on street parking, ect. this home is on vrbo property number 9251168ha

On 1/28/2020 I was refused access to the home, although I paid for it. The owner incorrectly stated that a refund had been issued. Up until now I considered Starfish Point to be an upscale lodging provider - and for that reason I expected sound business practices and stellar customer service. Unfortunately I found that to not be true. The level of incompetence and poor customer service is alarming. For that reason I will be pursuing appropriate resolution thru Oregon Small Claims Court, including a full refund along with damages.

I prepaid a vrbo from may 24 - 30, 2019. My conference was allowing me to travel to australia, and I extended my stay, and I booked a vrbo (first time). My conference was postponed, and then eventually indefinitely postponed. I had prepaid, and when I cancelled the property, the property manager stated that my funds would be placed in escroe until I could rebook. Little did I know, the conference was not financially solid, and they stated they would plan on a 2020 date. Well these funds are personal funds I used for an extended stay and I would simply like a refund. I am getting a run around and was told by vrbo staff that I should have cancelled with the property. I did! I feel used, abused, and ripped off by your system, and will never ever book again, and I will not recommend vrbo to anyone! I am losing $3000 usd, am not a rich person and can never replace these funds.

Do not rent through vrbo! Do not tent from ezstay new jersey. Do not rent from shelly lam. Do not rent the property in jersey city on pavonia ave!
I rented the property and paid $3300.00 for 6 days shortly before before we were to go my son died unexpectedly. She said she would refund $1000. Over a month ago and never sent it. Now she doesn't respond to my messages at all. She kept the rent, the vrbo service fee and the cleaning fee. We paid a cleaning fee even though we were never there? How do they even see this is legal?

VRBO was used to scam me and my partner, the "owner" being an employee or possibly the owner and an accomplice, who knows? The fact is this VRBO platform and their useless customer service policies enabled someone to bilk us out of over ten thousand dollars for a long-term rental in San Pancho, Mexico. We are NOT wealthy people, yet the "mystery" of how this has happened "twice" to the same owner (he told me this over the phone) goes unchecked by VRBO. Fraud is in their interest, apparently. I will never use this so-called "service" again. This scam will continue to be perpetrated and no one at the company gives a damn. Find another way to rent from real, decent people and a company that actually values repeat business.

On November 11th I tried to make a booking for a vacation house in Italy (Property # 8758555) for next summer. When trying to pay by Mastercard I received an error message saying the transaction could not be completed, probably because the amount exceeded the credit limit. When checking my bank account the next day, I saw an amount had been reserved. Contacting Worldline (provider of the MasterCard), they told me this reservation was made by VRBO.
Contacting customer service of VRBO, they confirmed that they have seen the attempt to make a booking, but could not find a reservation made on my creditcard.
This means that there is no legal ground for blocking an amount on my creditcard. Worldline then told me all that needed to be done was VRBO sending a mail or fax to them asking to relieve that reservation, which I asked VRBO to do.
Answer from VRBO is that they are not allowed to do so and will see at a higher level for a solution. One week later and several mails from my side, I still haven't had any response and the amount is still blocked on my creditcard. As long as this is the case, I cannot make another payment with my card. All I ask is for VRBO to send a mail to Worldline to release the reserved amount on my creditcard.

On July 12, 2019 we reserved (and paid a deposit) for property # 444415 for the dates 1/14/20 to 3/14/20. We received confirmation from VRBO on the same date that the reservation was confirmed.

On 9/12/2019, we received an email from the owner/manager Thomas Jackovics that the reservation was cancelled. He did not state a reason. We went back online immediately & noticed that the property was listed as available so we rebooked & paid the deposit figuring there that some glitch/error had occurred.

Assuming that all was good, we purchased airline tickets for the family. We received a balance due email from VRBO on 10/23/19 & immediately paid the balance only to receive an email on 10/24/19 from the owner stating that the reservation had been cancelled since the unit was booked for Jan & Feb of 2020. I called the ownerʻs contact number but the call went directly to voicemail.

We contacted VRBO by phone & the agent we spoke too tried to be helpful by calling the owner directly. The agent reported back that Mr. Jackovics was rude & had hung up on him. The agent then advised us to contact the owner/manager prior to booking to make sure the property is available. Seriously!

We would recommend that people avoid dealing with Thomas Jackovics at all costs. Weʻre sure he has other listings on VRBO. As for VRBO, I would reconsider dealing with them at all.

I just wanted someone to be aware of the strange situation I experienced with the following VRBO owner when making a reservation: https://www.vrbo.com/704564.

The property says that it sleeps 15 people.

After I made the reservation this past Saturday (Oct. 19) the owner accepted it and then asked me how many people where in my party and what their ages were, which I thought very strange since I've stayed in VRBOs before and have never been asked these questions.

But I went ahead and told him that my party consisted of eleven people between the ages of 14-54.

He then replied saying that he would be charging me for the "extra" person and that the "base price" was for only 10 people. Since the house is listed as sleeping 15 people, wouldn't this be considered false advertising?

I have attached a screen shot of the listing, a screen shot of the ages question and a screen shot of our further conversation.

I have since canceled my reservation, as I do not feel at all comfortable or safe dealing with this owner or staying at his property.

I also have to question his 51 five-star ratings. Did 51 people really OK him asking their ages and charging extra for more than 10 people? In a house that sleeps 15, I would imagine that all parties that stay there consist of more than 10 people.

VRBO Property #8486344ha
Reservation ID HA-W3JB9D
Booked: September 23-26, 2019, 3 nights.
Owner Name: Giuseppe

1st Payment: Paid on 04/18/19 E226.75
2nd Payment: Paid (due on 9/8/19, paid on 9/2) E491.25 Total Paid: E718.00

Issue: Received reminder from owner on 9/1 that second payment was due, despite 9/8 being listed as second payment date. On 9/3 I paid the remaining E491.25 by credit card to HomeAway. Almost immediately after receiving the payment, I received an email from the owner stating that he was cancelling our reservation, also dated 9/3. A VRBO invoice states that the owner then refunded me E81.88 and E245.63, for a total refund of E327.51 I believe that Giuseppi /Home Away still owes me E390.49
I contacted Giuseppi by email about this discrepancy. He did not provide details as to why he cancelled the reservation and told me that the remainder due would be refunded by HomeAway. To date I have not received this refund.
Thank you,
Sam Pronesti

Unhappy with vrbo owner service. They don't seem to care about owner and frequently change "rules" and make it difficult for us. VRBO is also charging too much in fees and keep changing rules for owners to make bookkeeping hard to see what is taken out and not itemized in a way to simplify for owners ! Now I don't even get paid until AFTER guests check in and are there a few days---which is unacceptable! I will be looking for another rental service and not renewing with vrbo/homeaway.

In July our son was in a very severe accident. We contacted the cabin owners (Benwares) to ask for a refund 2 DAYS after the 30 day cancellation date.
Our son was in ICCU for 15 days, Critical care for 5 days and then regular hospitalization for 3 weeks.

I sent a picture of him in a medically induced coma to the Benwares and offered to forward medical evidence (photo attached). At first, Cathy was very concerned. She said she would re-list the property and was certain it would rent. (Our 5 days would be the ONLY 5 days available for the remainder of summer - their place is so popular.)

The week prior to when we were supposed to go, we looked online and saw that the cabin was booked! We have a screenshot of the listing showing it was rented for our week. (attached, taken Aug. 7 showing our dates - Aug 10-16 were filled.)

Several weeks after, when we didn't hear anything, I sent the Benwares an email. They said that they tried to rent the cabin but was unable to. Therefore, we were entitled to 1/2 of the rental and the entire cleaning deposit..
The remainder of the money, $911.75, we would not get back because the cabin didn't rent. They did offer us a credit towards next year.

We feel that the Benwares DID NOT ever remove our listing and that's why no one rented, it appeared online as though it was rented.

Because of the severity of our families crisis (my son still cannot move his left arm or left ankle due to nerve damage) and the fact that we were told the property would be RELISTED and it wasn't, that we should be entitled to a full refund.
We've gone back and forth through the years renting through Vrbo in several places. There are plenty of sites to rent from and we have never experienced a problem - granted, we never has an emergency such as this. I find it hard to believe that successful owners of vacation rentals cannot use their better judgement in an unusual situation such as this. That money is desperately needed too. When a child has through the roof medical bills, school loans and credit card debt and is hospitalized and unable to work for several months, the bills don't stop... Interest keeps accruing, life moves on. I certainly expected an organization that rents to families would be concerned about the families using the site.

We want to receive the remainder of our deposit back. Holding onto that deposit for next year will not help us if our son is still unable to hike, swim, boat, etc next year. We may not be able to afford a nice vacation with the medical bills we are currently paying and if we can, without a full refund, we will never book with Vrbo or any of their affiliates.

Avoid VRBO like a plague. They took our $1766.61 for a week in Nags Head. I thought I had purchased the traveler insurance; but lo and behold we had mistakenly purchased a "Damage Protection" policy. Hurricane Dorian rolled through the Outer Banks this week. I was assured by the owner that we could get in as soon as they cleared the area for re-entry for tourists and that the condo was fine. The next communication said there was problems with the property and that the HOA had decided to not leave any renters in this week. While the Owner did offer me a week in January or February; we were meeting our family for our annual Nags Head vacation. Also, we're really not interested in going to the beach in the dead of the winter when very little is open and it is cold, gray and windy. So just for kicks, I went on the VRBO site today and there are last minute rentals listed this week for Pier View. What a sham. Customer Service at VRBO is arrogant and condescending. The landlord and company pocketed all our money and we have no recourse. I highly recommend you avoid this company; but if you do work with them - buy the insurance policy. Even then, good luck!

I continue to read all the reviews about fees and costs by this company and you are all... 100% right in your statements. Since VRBO was purchased by Expedia their service fees have increased expeditiously. And you are all correct that before the merger, VRBO allowed owners to operate independently of them and allow guests to communicate directly with the owners. Well, we all know that ship has sailed. All I wanted from them was to bring me traffic... Nothing more. Now they are not only in your business, they are now running your business. We call that tortious interference in law. But here is one of the most greiges acts to date. In the USA, states want to be sure they get their fair share of the sales and transient or tourism taxes they can. Hotels and motels pay it and now they want to be sure vacation owners are paying it as well. I got it. Not a problem as this process was there for owners/manager to input what taxes to collect in the rate section on this platform. Not so any more. So now, VRBO/HomeAway is being forced to collect and remit state taxes which are now in the quotes for future guests after September 1, 2019. By the way. They just released this new SOP to owners on August 29th, just 2 days before enacting this new procedure. And that would be great as well, but they screwed this SOP as well. But where they completely failed and dropped the ball on this process was the failure to calculate local and county tourism taxes. That's right. If you are in one of those states that require VRBO/HomeAway to collect and remit state sales and tourism taxes and you have county taxes also to pay, they are not collecting this in their quote. So guess who is now responsible for the additional county/local taxes. You are as the owner of the property. Now you're going to love this one... During my 4th call to CS at VRBO/HomeAway the solution offered was to simple tell the booking guest (after they have paid of course) that their will be an additional monies due for the local/county taxes that were not included in their quote. Are you serious? These guests just paid $$$ to you for the travelers service fee that is as worthless as... well you get it. Then I need to call my new booking guests and say... "By the way, you still owe me $$$ for taxes not disclosed by this platform"... They are going to have a cow. I won't blame them a bit. What did VRBO/HomeAway think when they rolled this process out. Could they have at least just included an additional line for "other taxes" that have to be paid in their quote to booking guests. Absolutely NO says the CS rep. We only collect state sales and tourism taxes. That is your problem to collect now. I of course updated my description for all my properties and explained the situation so that the cow droppings were in their face rather then in mine.

In my opinion, this is by definition "tortious interference" by a company suppressing owners ability to manage their own business and hindering their cash flow. They have now stepped over that peruviol line in the sand and folks need to stand up against them. This is just not right from anyone's perspective. That's why most of my guests are all repeats and book directly with me and not through this platform. I always tell my past guests who express an interest to return to contact me directly to avoid costs and fees from VRBO/HomeAway.

I am LIVID! The psycho dentist who rented me an UNHEATED, dark basement, with coin operated washer and dryer for $2.50 a load, and wanted $1100 a month from me, just said she's keeping my $900 deposit, and the $900 of Jen. ( My now roommate, who I agreed to let stay with me for two weeks-because the land lady told her that her apartment was not ready). Neither of us did a walkthrough ( she arrived half a week before I did) We cleaned like crazy, and you could eat off the floor, yet she states that she " will require hours of cleaning" ( at an undisclosed rate). This woman also owns multiple residences and apartment buildings in Miles City, MT. OR nurse I'm working with can't control their heat ( land lady does) in their apartments. ( Mine had no dedicated heat). She honestly comes in unannounced using her key regularly. She texts or showed up minutes after a question posed between my roommate and I with a response to our exact question ... bugged ? DO NOT RENT FROM Dr. Robin Hogan in Miles City, MT! She rents through Furnished Finder ( cowboy cottage ( basement ), cowboy condo etc ...Todd Steadman, who owns the Ace Hardware here, and the Prairieview and Riverview apartments ( now renting there) he's amazing, and so are the apartment units .

The property only had AC in the bedrooms. The beds were stiff as boards with only a sheet. The 2nd bedroom didn't have fitted sheets on the twin beds. There were little bugs crawling on the bathroom sink. There were no fruit trees. There were no wash clothes. There was no washing machine or a fireplace. It wasn't wheelchair accessible in the bathroom. All of these things were advertised on VRBO. We left after the first night and they refused to refund us our money for the other 6 nights.
Sherry Recchio
[protected]@gmail.com

VRBO just announced that they will impose, unilaterally and without consultation, dramatically different payment terms to homeowners. They will now keep the payments from the renters until after they check in. This is millions of dollars that renters advance for the rentals that VRBO/Homeway intents to keep, for months and even over a year, free. What is even more egregious abuse is that they offer to ‘advance' the homeowner their own money by charging the owner, for his own money, a 3% a year interest!

Their explanation over the phone is even more aggravating: they claim they hired a ‘payment service' (Yapstone) that imposed these new payment schedule on the homeowners without Expedia/VRBO/HomeAway knowledge, that they are ‘just as surprised' and they plan to develop their own payment system (the same they already have and used for years) in ‘the coming months', adding insult to aggravation.

We delisted our property and although they ceased to perform by the terms of the contract we subscribed to, they insist they will not refund the unused portion of the yearly subscription price we paid for. Amazing how much they feel they can abuse those of us that made VRBO/Homeaway possible in the first place!