VRBO
reviews and complaints

I used VRBO for many years to rent my property, and I haven't been on the website for a few years since we sold the property. I am very dismayed to see that you cannot do a search on a property and reply to an Owner without using "Google" or "Facebook" to sign in. No matter how much I've tried, VRBO will not accept my e-mail address to sign in. What gives? Has VRBO sold out to these entities? Very disappointing. Not sure I will continue using them.

In response to my vrbo case 163501 concerning our rental from kathleen freihofer may 26-june 2, 2018 I wrote in an email (june 11): "I am filing a property complaint for a refund of our $150.00 security deposit.in the short term rental agreement under exhibit a rental rules #1 it states"smoking is not allowed inside the house or near screens or open entrances."my husband and I do not smoke and are very sensitive to the smell. Our adult daughter smokes and we made sure she understood the rule in the rental agreement. She smoked outside (never inside the house) and never near the one door (which was always closed) and away from the closed windows and screens. She always smoked in the one corner of the patio, where the smoke blew over the fence toward the neighboring backyard. That is why I told her to smoke in that location. She put her cigarette butts in two empty pop bottles for the week. When we left, my husband put them in a garbage bag outside in the city garbage bin. Cigarette butts were never brought inside the house. The owners email stated we did not receive our refund because smoke damage cleanup exceeded the cost of the security deposit. I asked the owner two times through emails to tell me what measures were involved in any smoke damage cleanup and where. She has never answered that question, only responding that no smoking was allowed." (which is not what the contract says!) I have now received a response from vrbo about my case: there will be no refund because the owner says there was smoking, and sent vrbo a photo of the pop bottles with cigarette butts inside, along with the exhibit a rental rule #1. Obviously they didn't even read the above email I sent them (at their request!) I am just angry at the injustice of this. We left the house immaculate and I even washed the towels to help out the housekeeper, as the notebook in the house asked if possible. If the owner is that obstinate, she should change her rule to "no smoking anywhere on the premises of the house, inside or outside." this is so unfair!

We rented Villa #1029 at the OMNI Resorts in Cancun. The sliding glass door to the villa did not lock properly. Something was wrong with the locking mechanism. On our last day while we were at the beach someone came into the villa and stole our cash. They did not take our cards of anything else of value but took $370 in cash. We complained to owner of the villa Dr Judy Van Stralen and she denied that the door did not lock properly and that anyone would have stolen our money. For your own safety do not rent Villa #1029

On June 1 at 6PM I was told that my grandson who was shot by a pellet gun in the neck was unable to travel. Emotionally I cancelled my condo at the greens 205 Shipyard, Hilton Head Island Then 10 minutues later, we decided to take the condo, as I had already paid over $1600 for the week.

The owner, Jim Bateman, cancelled and would not reconsider. His only comment was that if he could fill the condo for 06/30-07/07 he would consider giving me 1/2 of my price back. I just wanted the condo as I had already paid for it.

At this point, I was only given the option of returning my $300 refund and $100 cleaning fee.

We wanted the condo!

Please be very careful when dealing with Jim Bateman Seems he wants double the condo rent for the 4th of July week. Very Very upset.

Have been coming to Shipyard for 12 years and this is a deplorable situation.

Shame on VRBO for this landlord..This is not a good PR for VRBO and I will tell my family and friends to go elsewhere from now on

Rita Tilka
[protected]

We checked in at approximately 5.30 pm on Friday May 18 upon our arrival the property maintenance outside was not kept. Once we walked into the property there was a very strong sewer odor coming from beneath the house. One of the landings in the dock were broken with visible rusty nails to get on to the dock you had to go thru the other entrance behind the garage. Upon check out all dishes were washed and put back all bed linens were put on top of the washer and towels were put in the Master Bath tub as requested. Veronica even asked if we could start a load of Laundry (this property charges $135.00 cleaning charge) Kitchen was cleaned before leaving only leaving a small stain in the freezer drawer where a bottle of beer leaked. The grill was used only one night to grill ribs. According to the property owner she says that there were heavy grease splashes all over the wall no grease was used only the actual grilling of the ribs. Per her cleaning crew there was a black stain on her couch, towels and bathroom floor rugs were stained. Only a hand towel was stained due to the poor quality of the water that would come out orange from the pipes. This property is priced pretty low at $168.00 a night with a cleaning fee of $135.00 plus the booking fee. Refundable deposit which I believe which is not refundable in their case is $500.00. I am under the impression that they use all these fake claims to keep that deposit. This is my second time using VRBO/HomeAway. This was not a very good experience I think I will stick to traditionally using Hotels to not have to go thru this Dishonest exchange of services. I would like to see my refundable deposit be refunded to me. Myself and all other guests that stayed will be giving Beware notice Reviews to all future victims that stay in this property.

PS If I were VRBO I would not allow this property owner to rent home due to the Huge Liability exposure it has on the property with that broken dock. Also front and back of home property is extremely unkept.

Hi,
I'm very disappointed. I've called 4 times VBRO about a problem of payment the property I've reserved. I've also called my credit card MC.
It seems the problem is the adress doesn't match with the adress of the card.
However, I verified several times and I'm sure I wrote the good adress.
I think that the web site has a problem.
I won't reserve anymore from VBRO! It took me 2 hours and nothing is solved!
Lyna

First time booking with VRBO, as I usually use Airbnb. Let me tell you, I will be sticking with Airbnb.

After submitting my request to book a property through HomeAway, the owner approved it at a higher price than initially stated on the ad. For this reason, I immediately messaged the home owner requesting to cancel the booking as they had stated a 100% refund policy on cancellations made prior to March 31. The homeowner did not respond, so I followed up again. He said he wouldn't accept my cancellation. I followed up with HomeAway customer service on two separate occasions, and they said they would contact the property owner on my behalf. I never heard back so I called them again. They asked that I submit a complaint to VRBO, so I did so.

After going back and forth 4 times, they have still refused to honor the originally stated cancellation policy, and the owner has since CHANGED this policy since my time of booking so there is no proof this was the policy stated at my time of booking. VRBO asked if I had screenshots of the policy - I'm sorry but what sort of trusting customer thinks they need to document and take screenshots of every detail of their booking. We even dug up an email from the owner stating a THIRD different cancellation policy from the one we first saw and the one VRBO said was the property owners' policy. The indiscrepancies are ridiculous. I have still not heard back from the property owner, and will never be booking with VRBO again. Absolutely horrible experience. Stick with Airbnb!

On April 1st my granddaughters and I rented a cabin in Gatlinburg TN.
We checked out on April 4th and left the cabin Dream Come True, even cleaner than we found it.
This has become not a dream get away but a nightmare as we received an email stating deposit not being returned. They lied.. stated the cabin was filthy and the bedclothes were destroyed.. None of this is true.
I have used VRBO and was even thanked by the owner for taking care of the home.
I want my 100. and honesty.

My husbands siblings, their spouses and our kids live all across Canada and had rented a large home to meet and vacation together in Arizona. A few days before leaving on our trip, his father had a sudden massive heart attack and died. He was either the father-in-law, father or Grandpa of everyone on the trip. We immediately cancelled everything and flew to his family. We had already paid via wire transfer a 600USD dollar damage deposit (which worked out to over 800 dollars Canadian). It was supposed to be mailed back after the trip when the house was found undamaged but never appeared. That was almost a year ago. I finally contacted VRBO and told them since we never made it, we obviously never damaged the property and I wanted my deposit back. They said they would contact the owner and get back to me in 1-2 business days. That was a month ago and they have just chosen not to respond to my last two e-mails.

I am writing a formal complaint about property # 1043335. We have been in contact with the management team and they have ignored our emails. The unit was filthy upon arrival, it was filled with bugs, cockroaches and rodents. Infested! We alerted them to the issues while onsite and they left chocolates and a starbucks card on our door. We spent 5800 dollars to rent this "presidential suite". We have always stayed with VRBO and always been satisfied. We want them to refund our money. We would never provide a place like this to anyone nor refuse to reply or reimburse for conditions that were beyond abysmal. My son, who is five years old, was bitten while sleeping and still has nightmares that he is getting bitten by bugs. This is Unacceptable. Please help

Booked property 4747883 February 8, 2018 for 6 nights in Cape Town.

I booked this property on the Canadian web site for a displayed price of $315 Canadian. Once booked,.. I was charged $310 US.
When I went to the US web site just after booking, and put in the dates that I booked, it showed a price of $250 US and showed the property unavailable. Also, on the Canadian web site it showed a price of $315 Canadian (I have screen shots of both).
I submitted a complaint to VRBO #[protected] and talked to a representative several times. He said the screen shots are just an average price not reflecting the actual price, yet when I went to the web site to check prices of the dates before or after our booked dates, I got the same rates of $315. Canadian and $250. US. Now, after a few weeks, I check the web site again and the Canadian rates have changed to $392 per night.
VRBO said this a client issue and the client would have to lower their rate and unfortunately VRBO cannot do anything. They washed their hands of the issue. I contacted the homeowner and he was very helpful, but also doesn't understand why the difference in pricing. He said he didn't know what he could do.
The VRBO representative told me that I can cancel the property and book something else. This is totally unacceptable as I would loose the exchange rate difference in buying and selling.
I find this whole situation very frustrating and costing me way more than what was quoted on the web site. VRBO is not helping me at all. Very disappointing.

We are both seniors (69 and 71) and saw a rental unit at North Coast Village that looked very nice for a 3-month vacation Jan-Mar 2018.

I signed a 3-month agreement and paid was quoted $3950/month + $300 damage deposit. I paid $5235 which included $300 + 6 weeks rent.

Upon checking in we were surprised that there were many things wrong with the unit.

• The couch and loveseat were severely worn with no padding and we had to sit on pillows which didn't help much. I contacted the owner Michael and he said he could drop by a loveseat that was much smaller and wasn't a replacement of the couch and loveseat. The photo on his web site showed much newer furniture.
• We were concerned about the front door that appeared to have been broken into in the past and the lock was changed, and the hole left open.
• The washer / dryer was listed but we had to go up the walkway to coin operated machines.
• The place was filthy - blinds, tree, sink, recycle can looked like it had food stuck to it, garbage can top was broken, and appeared that it hadn't been cleaned thoroughly. My wife started coughing when we were in the unit and stopped when we left. Rust was on the heaters and one heater we had to use a knife to turn on. Toaster was dirty / greasy. It was very disgusting to see how dirt the unit was.
• I started cleaning the blinds, fireplace mantle and plant and was appalled at the dirt and grime that came off.
• Bed sheets were torn and the first week we changed the sheets the new one had a blood stain on it. We went out and bought a set of sheets and both agreed we needed to vacate this unit.

The next day called Michael and said we would be moving out February 1st. We would have moved earlier but couldn't find a 2-month rental till Feb 1st.

• We do have photo's backing up our claim.
• When we gave him notice he said that he would not be returning any money because we broke the lease.

I contacted him February 20, 2018 to see if he would be returning our deposit and 2 weeks rent and he did not respond.

We are asking for $1745 + $300 damage deposit = $2045 (2weeks paid in advance) + damage deposit).

[name removed]
[address removed]
Phone - [protected]
[protected]@gmail.com

Booking ID HA-3M0D5P·695856 A renter booked my villa on January 31, 2018 using a credit card. She completed the rental agreement and mailed it to me along with a $500 check to put towards the balance. I think more than 1 family is splitting the total rent. I called VRBO and was told they couldn't help me. No logical options were given and she insinuated that I was trying to go around the system. I asked to speak to a supervisor and waited 48 hours to get a return call from Joel. He had a bad attitude and keep reading from a script of all the ways the system is not set up to accommodate an accounting entry. And suggested I send the check back to her. What? And lose her as a renter? I asked to speak to his manager and again he read from a script saying he was the escalation process and his manager doesn't take phone calls. What kind of business doesn't take calls from their customers. But will take the service fees on each and every rental. I have paid the high service fees way too long.

Date of VRBO rental 451073 was 11/13-11/27, 2017. Waikoloa colony villa #2101 I contacted you regarding a rental that was initiated through VRBO, but was not finalized through your website. I communicated with owner directly re price but was NOT aware that he booked me off your site. This amounts to fraud and taking advantage of elderly/senior. Using VRBO is my form of protection. The villa was in very bad condition... cracked tiles in kitchen, moldy unusable shower, dirty carpet, etc. The owner will not work with me regarding a partial refund for all our aggravation. I have pictures. I want to write a truthful review and would like your assistance. I have used VRBO Many times in past with no problems. I am asking you to help with resolution... should be monetary, but if not a poor review is certainly warranted. Thank you, Lynn Keiser
My e-mail is [protected]@aol.com

I was scammed out of £830 via your website. I contacted yourselves straight after paying the scammer and was NOT advised correctly by your employee. I have claimed using the basic rental guarantee but you are only offering to pay me back £700 and not the full amount that we scammed from me. I am now officially complaining to yourselves to again give you the opportunity to use your discretion and decency to return all my money before I take further legal advise and also contact the media in regards to your employee not advising me correctly. If your employee had done so then payment could have been stopped and I would not be £830 out of pocket. I also supplied your company with a copy of payment receipts yet again your employee did not advise that payment had been made incorrectly (you didn't get paid your fee?). I was the one who in fact advised your company that this listing was fake yet I am now financially out of pocket! Here is case reference etc VRBO # 8375082 Case # [protected]. Have a look at ALL the evidence yourself. I have already spoken with a solicitor here in Scotland and have been advised I do have a strong case against your company. I will also have no hesitation in alerting the media and will also provide them with ALL the evidence to prove your employee failed me on more than one occasion.
I am awaiting your timely response to this official complaint.

[removed]

I reserved a home in mid-August 2017 on VRBO.com for a week beginning on July 21, 2018, VRBO #487010, near Durango, CO. The VRBO website through which I reserved the home stated that the cancellation policy is 100% refund if cancelled by June 21, 2018 (i.e., one month before the beginning of the reservation).

VRBO (HOME*AWAY) charged my credit card three times totaling $4, 118.00 between August 15 and August 21, 2017.

I cancelled the reservation via the VRBO website on August 17, 2017, (about 10 months prior to the rental reservation date) and received confirmation via the VRBO website that I had cancelled the reservation.

I have received no refund of the three charges. Yesterday, I sent an email via the VRBO website to Tom Moody, the property owner, who responded with a request for my phone number so that he could call me today "to resolve this". I immediately responded with the phone number, but he did not call me. VRBO makes it impossible for renters to learn the phone numbers or email addresses of its owners.

I sent Tom Moody another email this evening advising that because he had had not called me today, I would immediately phone Visa and contest the three charges, which I promptly did. I then sent a confirmation email to Tom Moody via VRBO.com advising him that I had contested the three charges and that he should be hearing from Visa in the future so that he and Visa can "resolve this".

Tom Thweatt
[protected]
[protected]@gmail.com

I was trying to rent a guest home in Homestead, Florida for dates 9-23-17 through 10-23-17 at a rate of $80/night, this was the advertised price. My husband is an adjuster and was going there to work in order to try to process claims as rapidly as possible to get aid to the affected individuals that had lost property during Irma. My total was $80 per night x 30 nights = $2400, cleaning fee= $50.00, Tax= $318.50 and Service fee of $151.00 and a $300 refundable deposit. The dates I requested were available . I submitted all my credit card information and awaited approval from the owner. I received a message back stating he would rent the unit to me for $100/night, he stated they only offered the monthly discounted rate during "low" season and when reservations were made well in advance (however this was stated no where in the ad). Since we are now out of "low" season due to the circumstances (he is referring to the hurricane Irma), he has since removed that monthly rate from the "low" season fee schedule. Because we are in a "high demand" situation we are essentially back in "high season". Our weekly discounted high season rate is $900/week. We are offering it at $700/week. I've had 7-8 inquiries in the last 12 hours. We currently have guests in there now and they are going to let me know in a day or two in they will be extending their stay. So how do you advertise $80 per night and the dates I requested are available? This is false advertisement and price gouging during a time of crisis. I feel this company should be forced to uphold what was advertised and what I made reservations for. Website is https://www.vrbo.com/757201. I have a screen shot of the ad for $80 per night. Can you please advise me of my rights and what can be done about this.

I rented a home - 1100 6th Ave. Broomfield, Colorado, on Feb. 13 for a first payment of $1, 306.00 and on June 20 I made the final payment $1, 375.00. This was for rental dates of July 26 - Aug. 2. Thus the pricing 7 nights 2, 100.00 cleaning 250.00 Service fee 131.00.. This equals $2, 481 plus $200.00 for Damage Deposit When we arrived to get the code to get in, we were told we were cancelled. I was shocked and said, "what? We didn't cancel?" She kept saying we were cancelled, we would be refunded and Good Luck. I said we wanted and had the right to stay there because we paid in full and did not cancel. We had ten more people arriving shortly and it was late in the afternoon and no place to stay the night. All of the area around was 97-99 % filled for homes and besides none would have beds for 12. When I first rented this property from the owner, it was a guy named, Marc. At some point Taia must have became the owner. She was now was charging over $125 more per night than Marc. So obviously she decided to rent it for more money... I find this not acceptable in any way. Did n't I have any rights?

I get an email saying an owner has reviewed me as a renter. (Didn't know that feature was available). I left the property in top notch condition with one exception: the last thing I did before leaving was use the bathroom. Well the toilet obviously stopped up when I was already out the door. So she just destroys me in her review of me in every category. What to do?

I just rented a property today for $199 and when I went back to look at the property online the price had been lowered to $160. I feel like I have been duped. If I had waited a few hours I would have been able to rent the same property for $39 less per night for a week. The cost difference is $273. I called customer service requesting an adjustment. They told me they would email the owner. Since they are the ones who handled this transaction I feel they should be the ones to make the adjustment. I am waiting for a response. If I don't get an adjustment then not only will the owners and VRB/ Home Away get a bad review but I will never do business with your company again. This is not the first time I have rented through your company. This is poor customer practice to change the price within hours of reserving a property. My reservation # is HA-FLP5HW. The property number is 192607. I hope the owner or the company will extend this courtesy to me. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. Mrs Paula Gossett