VRBO
reviews and complaints

I had a negative experience at the Lotus Lake House in Grass Valley, CA, listed on VRBO. I posted a factual review and the owner was allowed to attack me personally both on and off the website. He wrote harassing emails and left voicemails threatening me if I did not remove the review. Apparently this practice is allowed by VRBO. The owner was then allowed to post personal information about me on the website and VRBO refused to remove the listing even after I escalated the problem to a manager. So there is a reason there are very few negative reviews posted on VRBO.

I paid a $4, 500 deposit on a condo at "Aston at the Whaler on Kaanapali beach" on February 21, 2015. The advertiser/owner (Brian Mead/William Watts) ended up being a fraud and I lost my deposit. I only caught on to the scam because I was sent an email by someone purporting to be VRBO's Trust Dept telling me that the advertiser was a fraud. I found out that this email I received was actually a phishing email to try to get me to call them and give them money as well. The email told me to call one of two numbers and they would help me find another, presumably, legitimate, rental. (Looks like I was being scammed by two different crooks). I called Brian Mead to try and get my deposit back and he tried "stringing me along" telling me that he was "legit" and would be there waiting for me to hand me the keys to the condo when I arrived there. However, he wouldn't provide any contract and when I demanded my money back, he quit answering my calls or my emails. His name, probably false, was Brian Mead. His phone number was [protected]. His email was [protected]@gmail.com. I tracked his phone number to a Chapel Hill, North Carolina address. He had me wire my deposit to a bank account in the name of William Watts in Cudahy, Wisconsin. I've rented from VRBO before and had no problems so I had my guard down. Now I'll be cautious again but I'll never use VRBO.com again. They are impossible to get hold of by phone and, obviously, don't have the security in place to keep these scammers off their website.

I registered on the website www.vrbo.co, but I was disappointed. I tried to find a house for my vacation, but the website worked so slowly and all provided info there was real scam. I checked several phones numbers and all of them were fakes. I tried to contact the online chat agents, but they kept silence. I wonder if there are other people, who had the same experience. Let’s share views about this website.

I've been advertising my house as a vacation rental on vrbo.com for two years, and I really dislike this company. They are fixated on getting homeowners to sign up for the online booking program. Constant emails about it. Finally, they've decide to actually punish those of us who don't want to use the online booking system. If we don't sign up for it, we have to pay $50 more for a subscription. However, I did sign up for a couple of years ago, and it was a nightmare. Homeowners have very little manual control over the payments, so very often, renters will make a payment, and the homeaway system continues to send them emails (automatic) saying they have to pay. They refuse to separate the credit card option with the direct deposit option, and since most people would opt to make a credit card payment, we owners get whacked with credit card fees. When you have ten weeks to make your rental income, those fees really hurt. I opted out, both because of the fees and because it was such a pain in the derriere to use, and all went perfectly fine with renters sending the rent to me directly via check. I have an excellent rapport with my tenants, and one of the reason is because I want to keep the whole thing very personal, between them and me. But Homeaway is going the way of so many big companies in this country, acting like WE, their customers, owe THEM, and bending our arms to buy stuff we don't want or need if we want to continue using their primary service, which is advertising our houses and making them known to people looking for houses to rent. It's so sleazy and dirty. It's also arrogant. So we are punished financially now either via homeaway charging us more, or lowering our listing, if we don't opt in for online booking…OR we're penalized by paying ridiculous credit card fees! I hate this company.

I have used this company to list my rental in Mexico since 2009. I have never had any problems until this month when the company must have changed ownership to HomeAway. I received no notice of the change to the website which is significant and very hard to use now, or to any changes of their policies. This month I got a request from a prospective renter and needed help with using the webiste. I did manage to talk to someone on the phone after waiting 1/2 an hour. Next, I got a request from another renter and the payment was not handled correctly. Renters are to pay a $200 security deposit and then the rent and cleaning fee 30 days before arrival. The renter did pay the entire amount but only after I sent a request for the security deposit. After all was confirmed the renter complained about the fact that the terms of my rental were not honored by requesting the entire amount immediately. I am waiting to hear from VRBO by email about this matter but so far no response. I will not be renewing my lisiting with them for 2015 but will seek other means to rent the property. They are TERRIBLE, avoid them at all costs.

I rented a house in Florida through the VRBO/HomeAway website. I entered my debit card number and my account was charged twice. I fwanted to know what happened. After speaking to SEVERAL agents at HomeAway and contacting the owner, we were both given wrong information from HomeAway agents which caused an already aggressive owner to be unbelievably hostile and rude. Finally I asked to speak to a supervisor and found that the third party billing agency for HomeAway had a glitch in their system which caused a double payment. The owner was so difficult that I canceled the reservation. HomeAway just dropped the whole situation and then refused to help me get my refund back from the owner. I am still working on it! I would never recommend using HomeAway/VRBO/Vacation Rentals again!

VRBO won't let us post our review because they say it doesn't help travelers. I believe it does .. helps them be safer. Our review is below.. Beware travelers and don't believe reviews from VRBO

Casa Dos Bahias Home in Tulum - VRBO #509559 -- we were robbed!Not what we expected... for a vacation...

Casa
Dos Bahias is new and well-appointed. It's somewhat secluded with open lots on
each side, near the end of a dead end street. We had a pleasant stay until we
were robbed the final night.

We left 5 teenagers in the house and went up the street for dinner (less than a
mile away). While we were gone, someone apparently scaled the exterior wall of
the house, and broke into both second floor bedrooms. This occurred while the
children were on the first floor of the house! One of the children heard a
noise and went to investigate. Luckily, he did not discover the intruder(s).

We lost phones, an iPad, jewelry and our passports. The other couple had cash,
credit cards and an iPad stolen. The property manager had come to the house
that evening to inquire about our departure and quickly came back when the
police were called. He was helpful in arranging for us to get a police report.

The only way were able to get out of Mexico is that we had color copies of our
passports and the police report. Nonetheless, the experience was very stressful
and traumatic as we were never certain we'd be able to leave until the last
minute.

The irony of our experience is that we religiously used the room safe to store
our valuables until the final evening. We had packed before dinner as we were
leaving early the next morning. Since the restaurant was on the same street as
Casa Dos Bahias (which has a security guard at the entrance), we assumed our
belongings would be safe for an hour in an occupied house; we were wrong.

We contacted the owner, who informed us that he plans to take precautions to
make sure this doesn't occur in the future. He asked that we not post this
Review but we do so that others will be forewarned.

If you stay here, make sure you safeguard your valuables at all times. We will
not return to this property.

Shockingly filthy! We recently stayedat "Moments Tobago" (VRBO 328066) on our 2nd year anniversary, andwere shocked at the condition of the accommodations. First of all, food andketchup(?) were stuck on several plates, AND we found acockroach in the glasses cupboard, and also a dead one in the pots andpans cupboard. The dishes weren't clean; greasy fingerprints on almost all ofthe dishes, plus there were ants crawling on the kitchen counter and inthe cupboards...
The pool was slimy, green, and cloudy - iactually slipped and fell as I was walking down the steps into the pool - itwas that slimy. We didn't venture back in.
The microwave didn't work, the ovenwas moldy and obviously hadn't been cleaned in awhile, plus thecoffee maker is probably from 1970s - AND dirty.
On our third night, we both started itching andscratching - little red bumps came up, and we were horribly uncomfortable!We're still not sure where this "rash" came from, but we'resuspecting the bedding.
Although we reported the unhealthy status ofMoments Tobago, the owner(s) quite rudely refused any kind of refund. We endedup renting a different villa in Tobago, and had the MOST amazing time! Pleasedo not let this review turn you away from Tobago - definitely the most amazingisland and people! Just find a different place to stay, rather than MomentsTobago.

Owners agree to HHI condo to us for the week at rate of $758, which we agreed was a great deal. Ms. Williams immediately expressed remorse over agreeing to the price, cut us off, and rented to someone else after a last minute barage of emails in which she was obviously creating the illusion of trying to contact us. HHI is great...just save yourself some trouble and pass over this unit and rent from someone else!

We rented cottage #17 last week for spring break. We saw mult mice in the kitchen and bathrooms during our stay. Even had found a hurt bleeding mouse and a dead mouse which was very upsetting to our children (not to mention us). Found mult points of entry that easily could be spotted but owner never seemed to have fixed. Previous posts suggested mouse problem but owners assured it was taken care of and a problem in other cottages. We have stayed in other cottages at this location before and never had a mouse problem. Final day I found rat feces on my daughters toys that were in the nightstand drawer. I was absolutely horrified. Do not stay there. On a side note, the cottage is right near a busy hill road and the noise kept us up most nights.

Home Away, INC, Homeaway.com and VRBO.com are websites that advertise 'Vacation Rentals' which are really just homes, condo's, etc... that are individually owned and rented out for short periods of time to vacationers.

We actually have a 'vacation rental' next door to us, in a neighborhood of $500, 000 to $1M homes. It is against the CC&R for this neighborhood, and against city laws that regulate against transient, short term rentals.

We now live next door to a what has become a hotel, with groups of 20-25 people at a time rotating every couple of days.

HomeAway does NOTHING when being told of the disturbances and violations. They do NOTHING to warn renters about the situation they will be walking into when they rent an illegal vacation rental. We have seen group after group have the police called on them, get yelled at by angry neighbors, stared down and treated like the enemy. VRBO does NOTHING to protect these renters from what will end up being a bad experience for them.

Why can't Homeway simply decide to be decent and take an active roll in getting rid of the rental properties that are causing problems in the communities, and violate laws? It's such an obvious, right, thing to do. But, instead, Brian Sharples has been quoted saying that they cannot know every law in every city. No, Brian, you dufus, you can't. But you CAN have a group of people who looks into situations brought to your attention and handle it with class and ethics. Go figure.

I think that any vacationer who rents a house in the middle of a neighborhood and brings in 20-25 people in 'LOUD.. I'm on VACATION' mode is asking for trouble. They get what's coming to them, in my opinion. I feel sorry for the renters who rent in my neighborhood. They go home crying and their kids witness the WHOLE, SAD mess of a vacation.

HomeAway is destined to FAIL if they don't change.

BE WARE of 'rentals' privately owned in neighborhoods. They often do not meet firecodes, pay taxes, adhere to America Disibilties Act regulations, adhere to CC&R's for the area, adhere to local laws... And YOUR vacation will be ruined because of it. Good luck getting a refund! Once that money is out of your hands, you will have to FIGHT to get it back, regardless of the situation that you were subjected to. You can thank the greedy money grabbers at VRBO for not giving you the headsup.

Think the 'reviews' you read on the rentals are accurate? Think again. Any negative comments about the rentals are BLOCKED by the property owner. Do your homework-- or better yet, rent a LEGITIMATE hotel room!

Untrustworty Review System
Sep 21, 2010

wwwvrbocom20213 says:

DislikesOtherPoor customer support

Comments:
This site has a bogus and worthless traveler review system. The system
has no quality control measures to validate reviews. The reviews are
subjective and manipulated by reviewers and homeowners alike. Travelers
may say anything they like about a property no matter how untrue and
outrageous. Some travelers even plant malicious negative reviews to harm
homeowners (failed attempt to blackmail a homeowner with a negative
review to extort a refund). Homeowners often game the system by getting
customers to plant positive reviews. The bottom line is you cannot trust
the traveler review system, and DO NOT base your rental decision based
on traveler reviews as they are likely unreliable and invalid.

Facebook User (Power Visitor)

The best use of this site is Other. LikesActive community
DislikesHard to navigatePoor customer supportSite is slow and unresponsive

Comments:
I list 3 properties with HomeAway of my own, and at one time had about
25 that I manage with them. The customer service has never been much of
anything. Their focus is on getting more & more owners, and
advertisers, but they don't seem concerned with providing us value for
the money. Their advertising encourages vacation rentals as a bargain,
bashes hotels, and now smushes the test baby. People who relate to these
are not our target market. It's mom, grandpa, and extended families
making the decision. Bleck.

Hard to list. Heavy handed managment.
Expensive.

Canibalistic Predators
Nov 18, 2011
dbo9 (Casual Visitor)

The best use of this site is Other.
DislikesOther

Comments:
Canibalistic predators - I believe from Texas - that have bought several
existing vacation rental sites and proceeded to destroy them by
murdering everything in them that was good and usefull, replacing them
with just ways to milk their subscribers for every penny. Also idiotic
policy and system.

Not focused on customers
Mar 03, 2012
upstateny (Power Visitor)

LikesEasy to navigate
DislikesOtherPoor customer support

Comments:
I have three waterfront homes listed in upstate NY. I find the site
easy to navigate and ok to update and I appreciate that there are a good
number of hits by potential guests. However the "good" ends there.
Customer Service: they have NONE - people to answer the phone, but no
technology knowledge or ability to correct any bugs with the system. I
have had bugs open for over a year. They consistently are advertising
IN YOUR FACE additional features for additional cost before you can
actually use the site. The site is expensive compared to its
competitors. Using their payment system for rentals is very expensive.
I am just waiting for competitor sites to improve their traffic and I
am gone.

San Francisco, CA
4/16/2008

Beware!
When we arrived at the property listed as #153095 on the website, for our
reserved time, the key lock box did not work. We called the owner and
he said he didn't know who I was. When I told him I had documentation
from him to me, then he started saying it was the wrong week. I again
stated I had documentation from him to me confirming the date and
showing he had charged my credit card. Then he said the maid hadn't been
there so the house was dirty. We didn't take the house.

The website Vacation Rentals By Owner offers the promise of 150, 000 properties to rent for days, weeks or months.
Most listings show pictures of the properties and traveler reviews. Boulder resident Jason Mendelson spent about $10, 000 for a
three-month rental of a one-bedroom house in Yountville, California, a Napa town renowned for its culinary offerings. The house had racked up several positive reviews from renters on VRBO.com.
About a month and a half into the rental period, after hearing late night scratching through the walls, Mendelson’s fiancé realized that the house had been infested with rats. The owner Lupe DeLeon says rats are an unfortunate epidemic in the area (disconcerting for diners who shell out small fortunes for a meal at nearby Thomas Keller’s French Laundry).
For Mendelson and his fiancé, the rat outbreak led to disputes with DeLeon over cleaning fees and reimbursement for a hotel stay.

Chalking it up to a bad experience, Mendelson simply wanted to give his appraisal of the landlord and property in the same place where other renters had written their positive reviews on VRBO.com. Mendelson sent his comments to VRBO. But a week later, Mendelson made a surprising discovery. Instead of posting his opinion of the property, VBRO removed all reviews for DeLeon’s listing. “My ultimate issue was not with the landlord. I thought I owed it to the VRBO community to let them know what my experience was, ” says Mendelson. “I was extremely disappointed that they don’t want to have a
transparent marketplace of communication about these things.” Mendelson’s initial review is now posted on his personal blog.
Mendelson’s experience raises the question of what types of disclosures consumers should expect on sites that let strangers exchange goods and services. DeLeon pays $300 per year to list each of his properties on VRBO.com. “Owners say they pay us to advertise their properties so they feel like they should have a say, ” says Alexis De Belloy, a Vice President at Vacation Rentals By Owner’s parent company, Home Away.com. DeLeon agrees: “I didn’t want to give them the opportunity to just trash me, ” he says. “I know I could’ve responded on the site, but I didn’t want to get into it.”
VRBO’s official policy is to let owners either open up their properties to all reviews, both positive and negative, or none, says De Belloy. De Belloy says VRBO.com is the only one of HomeAway’s 15 websites, including three US vacation rental sites, that allows owners to opt out of reviews. On HomeAway’s other websites, he says, owners must show all reviews. DeLeon, who lists three other properties in California and Mexico on VRBO, still shows traveler reviews on his other
properties.

VRBO did not engage in overtly deceptive advertising. Mary Engle, the associate director for advertising practices with the Federal Trade Commission, says the agency has clear rules for what constitutes deceptive advertising.
The FTC, she says, might take action against a website which posted only positive reviews and dropped negative ones without making that clear to the consumer. Still she says the FTC hasn’t seen a case like this yet, and VRBO’s opt-out policy clearly doesn’t fit into that paradigm.
The company’s policy does raise questions about overall transparency and consumer expectations online and on new online marketplaces, forums that are rapidly proliferating. VRBO tries to both serve potential buyers who want more insight into properties they might rent and sellers who pay the website for the service of listing their homes. While
consumers wouldn’t expect other companies that sell goods online to air every consumer gripe, VRBO appears to trade on the crowdsourcing check on quality that sites like Yelp offer by posting reviews. Yet, VRBO is ultimately a forum for paid advertising. While consumers who spend enough time on the site might realize that some owners have opted out of
reviews and come to understand VRBO’s policy, it’s not explicitly clear.
Social media has democratized the public airing of complaints. Anyone can post negative reviews on their personal blog and hope for an audience. As a managing director at Boulder, Colorado venture firm The Foundry Group, Mendelson has an outsized social media presence and more ways to get the word out than the typical consumer. Other people had
similar experiences, as you can see from the comments’ section of his blog. Have you had a similar experience with reviews or overall transparency on other websites? Drop me a line at [protected]@forbes.com or leave a comment below.

Sealy, TX

10/12/2012
From owners perspective, its a poor customer experience as well. While
support is very polite, they are entirely inadequate in taking care of
thier owner customers, almost feels like they are monopolistic in their
approach. Wait, that is exactly the problem.

I hope that the VPs are listening. its rather sad to see basic logic not prevail in a good austin based company.

3/4/2011
Joan C.I have used Homeaway for my vacation rental home for three years. While the
web site is easy to navigate for owners and renters alike, their customer service department is woefully inadequate.
As an owner, I pay a fee each year to have my home listed. For this fee, I expect at
least a shred of support when there's an issue with my site.
Today I made the sixth phone call to customer support. Each time, I receive the same reply: technical support is working on it, and they will call me back, or the customer service rep will call me back.
Each time I've been patient, but today I lost it and today I'm Yelping!
Bottom line: $350+ for the listing, and no support at all. Terrible.

I paid for $698.00 for a listing on VRBO on July 2, 2012. After completing the listing and submitting credit card online, the website interface crashed. I had to start all over with a new listing and PAY AGAIN to complete it. The funds from the "failed" transaction were drafted from my account, as well as the funds for the second payment
Now- on Feb 13 2013, after multiple calls to VRBO and many broken commitments by VRBO staff, such as Kerri, Chad (A senior agent) Heidi, Dianna and others, I am still out nearly $700.00 with no apparent prospects of getting it back.

I sent in a request for availability at Mana Kai unit 405. I was sent a reply from the owner saying it was available for the dates I needed. I then sent in the rental agreement and told the owner the deposit check was in the mail. A few days later I received an email from the owners assistant saying they received a deposit from another party for part of the dates I had reserved, therefor I could not have the unit for the dates they had promised. I have used vrbo for years and have never run into a problem like this. I live in Canada and it is Christmas so it does take a few days for mail to reach California. I have looked at this units availability calendar and it shows that the other party wanted to rent the unit for 18 nights and I was renting it for 14 nights. It seems to me that this owner is being very unfair with her agreements. Be careful with this person, if you are going to rent from this person you had better have a backup plan.

We have a horrible problem with VRBO and the rental with Mark and Linda Lee of 4249 Briar Creek, Dallas Texas 75214. We rented their condo in Austin (1200 Castle Hill) for 4 days last month. When we got there, someone else was in the condo. They double booked it. I have a contract, confirmation emails, and cancelled checks for the payment in full plus $300 deposit. Linda Lee has admitted she double booked it writing. It was Formula 1 week so we were lucky to find a hotel room at the last minute but it cost us an additional $1000. Linda Lee would not respond to my emails, texts or phone messages for 2 weeks. She told me two weeks ago she mailed the check but it hasn't come. Beware of VRBO and renting from Mark and Linda Lee. VRBO will not accept my review since we didn't stay there! Beware... some owners commit fraud.

VRBO would not allow us to post a negative review on their site. I believe that they only allow positive reviews to be posted. We chose our St. John Villa (Heavenly Villas) based on the five star ratings they had on their site and found the villa to be hot, bug-infested, and noisy. It nearly ruined our vacation.

Instead of allowing us to warn other travelers, VRBO removed our review for no reason. Beware! Do your homework before relying on VRBO.

I own multiple vacation rentals on five contiguous lots. VRBO took my money for my listing then told me I would have to purchase a listing for each building. I cancelled, however VRBO did not notify me they kept my listing without going live for over a year and then refused to refund my over $750 dollars. Very greedy company and not able to listen or satisfy a disgruntled customer.

I had a rental agreement with Jim Ring for his Park City, UT property VRBO #106012 for 2 nights in August 2012. He cancelled my rental 10 days before my scheduled arrival and refused to refund my $330 (2 nights at $150 + $30 cleaning fee). The reason he gave for cancelling was that he got a longer-term renter for the property - so he was cancelling me for another person.

Jim offered a credit but did not respond at all to my request that he refund my money - even the cleaning fee I had already paid. I had no use for a credit because my travel plans were already booked and I had no plans to return to Park City later. My husband left him a message a few days later that wasn't returned, then did reach him by phone a few days after that. When they spoke, Jim said our money was "gone" and that he hopes we don't use his credit. Clearly he would not honor it if we ever did try to use this "credit". I contacted VRBO to file a complaint, and they told me they had contacted the owner and that their process required him to follow up with me in writing. It has been nearly 2 months and he never contacted me in accordance with VRBO procedure. This property owner breached our rental agreement, refused to refund payment for services that were not provided and refused to follow VRBO's complaint procedures, and VRBO has done nothing to assist me with this.