Vacation Rentals By Owner [VRBO]
reviews & complaints

Date: May 12, 2022

Renters playing loud music in back yard that has very repetitious, annoying drum beat. Noise can be heard inside my neighboring house with all doors and windows closed. Trying to sleep with ear plugs and can still hear music. First noted at 10:30pm and still going at 11:13pm. Awaiting response by Mesa Police Dept. for noise ordinance violation.

Rental house is in quiet residential neighborhood and this is very disrespectful of the neighboring property owners who live here. No hotel rental permits such noise.

Moderation

CASE # 35715693

VRBO

Janice texas

Guests who OWE MONEY for a stay should not be able to leave a review unless they have settled and paid any claim against them.

It goes to say…the guest is OBVIOUSLY not happy & will leave a bad review!

I demand satisfaction.

I demand VRBO implement a rule That prevents guests from giving a review until their stay is PAID for in its entirety.

VRBO Case # 35715693

Moderation 

CASE # 35715693

VRBO

Janice texas

Guests who OWE MONEY for a stay should not be able to leave a review unless they have settled and paid any claim against them.

It goes to say…the guest is OBVIOUSLY not happy & will leave a bad review!

I demand satisfaction. 

I demand VRBO implement a rule That prevents guests from giving a review until their stay is PAID for in its entirety.

VRBO Case # 35715693

I have a reservation for a house in Bend, Oregon. The dates are May 11-May 15, 2022. I have paid all of the fees. One of our guests broke their hip and was not going to be able to make the trip. I began requesting a change of dates before the deadline. I sent 3 messages over the week with no response. I contacted VRBO and told them the situation. They sent an email no response. Then when I called the agent said she would call them, please hold on the line. I held for 30 minutes then was disconnected. No one every called me back. I called about 5 days later and spoke to someone again. They told me I should call the property management company. I did and the number is not a working number. I believe this is a fraudulent rental. I called again and the agent called verifying the number is not a working number. The agent is telling me that I will have to request a refund from the property owner. How am I supposed to do that when it is a fraudulent ad? Then the agent told me I should make the 10 hour drive to Bend, Oregon and go to the place to see if it is available. If not they will find me a place to stay. You have got to be kidding. I am beyond frustrated and angry. I am told I am not eligible for a refund. If fraud is not a reason for a refund what is? Isn't this why we use VRBO for the safety of it? Please Help!

In May of 2021, VRBO listed and rented my property in Kelowna BC. Since then, they have refused to pay any of the amounts owed to me. In my complaint to the BBB, they falsely claimed that they were working on my account, that there were computer problems they had to work out, and even that they were going to promptly look after payment to me. None of this has occurred. They made other false statements to the renters to cover the actual situation. They originally stalled by providing me with false information and failing to provide appropriate contact information to the departments causing the problem. Their last word to the BBB was that they would not make payment because they had not received disputed monies for another rental from years ago where VRBO owed me monies (again). When the legalities of that situation was explained, they essentially indicated that they were not interested in the law, and that they had my money.

No refund from vrbo we will never do business with vrbo due to case#34915843, did everything according to what was on vrbo site but they used a secondary site hotel connect and no refund. We have tried since Dec. 2021 till date, March 16, 2022. Watch what refund system that they use we got caught.

This is the second complaint on this site...

James & Kathlene

Vrbo gave us a false address for our rental unit. Because I arrived at 9:00 pm I had no choice but to sleep in my car. The following day I recieved the correct address from Vrbo and was able to access the unit . No apology, no offer of compensation from Vrbo. Sleeping in my car aggravated my back condition which basically ruined my vacation.

During our stay the unit owner allowed access to an 'inspector' while we were not there . After this 'inspection' I noticed 500 $ missing from my bag .

Upon our return home Vrbo informed us of an extra 200 $ ' cleaning ' charge .

The unit was an absolute disgrace, dirty smelly and almost nothing worked, lights fans etc .

Vrbo has not responded to any of our complaints .

Cancelled reservations Dec. 7,2021 and as of March 5th, 2022 no refund.

Cancelled before no refund date Jan 28, 2022 and should get 80% back but got $281.00 of the $855.06. Followed all procedures as requested and a total of over 60 emails back and forth and no refund. I sent bank statements, and all information requested but still no refund. Called customer service many times on phone 1-2hrs with no results only escalated to next level and unable to talk to

who is the next level. My wife and myself have lost all trust in VRBO.

The reason we did cancel was due to my wife health problem.

This is under comp# 34336858 (VRBO)

I have been a premier host consecutively for three years with all five star reviews and hundreds of bookings. Someone in a department, no one will see the name, decided to deactivate my account. No doubt, mistakenly. I have been working for a month with customer support to correct their err. Nobody will allow me to speak with Management, not even customer support’s own management! I am simply told, and every single host out there may relate, that they must be the ones to escalate the concern to the other department that you have zero access to. They do not respond to emails, customer supports claims, anything. You are given no reason and no response to why your listing has been deactivated and no one is allowed to reactivate you except for this particular department that I know no name of.

AirBNB is even worse. Be forewarned of both VRBO and AirBNB!

I booked a rental with VRBO and paid the fees associated with the booking. However, within a week, we realized that our trip plans had to be changed and I requested a cancellation of our reservation. I received a refund from the host within 1 day of the request, but 15 days later I still have not been refunded the fee which VRBO charges for the booking. This all transpired well within the cancellation dates listed on the rental site. I contacted VRBO by phone and spoke with a representative who explained that they had not received a cancellation, although my trip page on their site listed the rental status as "cancellation pending". I was told to send confirmation of the cancellation either by screen shot or photo of the owner's agent's email confirming that the booking had been cancelled. VRBO took my payment without hesitation, yet I have to

work to receive a refund which is rightfully mine.

There are two addresses owned by Mr. Evan Plauche of New Orleans LA. These addresses, 320 Windward Passage, Slidell LA and 111 Ondine Lane Slidell LA 70458, are in a residential area where VBRO is illegal and prohibited by Parish Code. 320 Windward Passage was rented 2/11/22 through 2/14/22 and 111 Ondine Lane is currently rented as of today 2/15/22.

Ordinance #6641, went into effect 2/1/22, which banns single family residential areas. Vacation rentals only in areas zoned for commercial or mixed use which is not this subdivision.

Please do not allow this owner to continue operating illegally. I do have pictures to prove this violation.

VRBO are one of the agencies advertising our rental property. We link all our availability calendars because VRBO have an instant booking facility. When guests book through another agency VRBO request from me their names and emails addresses. This is so they can offer to write to the guests asking for a review post stay.

I have discovered it is a scam. My guests get the email from VRBO, spend their precious time writing a review then return it to VRBO. Each and every guest then get a message back saying "Oops, there has been a problem at our end" This is written to let them think it is a software problem that will be resolved so leave it to them. I have had three different VRBO chat agents tell me it is a software problem. Its not, it's a scam. After several complaint to VRBO I eventually got a written admission saying it's not a software problem, VRBO simply "do not support reviews from guests using other agencies" So why ask for their email addresses then write an email requesting a review!

Since becoming part of Expedia VRBO have become ruthless providing not just poor customer service but also being deceitful.

Why is the renter has 30 days prior to arrival to cancel & get $ refunded(50%) but owner can cancel right before arrival with no warning or explanation. I booked a condon rental last February 2021 for rental Jan 3-Feb 28, 2022. Paid all my fees, rental etc. car packed up, quest's airline tickets purchased, time off work & school ok'd. Night before Gibson Beach Rental called to inform me owner canceled our reservation. They were very "short" in their answer as not knowing why. Original reservation slept 8 in which I needed 7. Only could offer me a 1 bedroom unit in exchange. You can't tell me there were no other units available for 7 people. Very disgusted with VRBO in which I will NEVER used again for any booking & for Gibson Beach Rental for their handling of the situation. I ended up finding a unit which cost me almost double what i was paying with the canceled property.Flooding social media with bad reviews for both VRBO & Gibson Beach Rentals

Worst Comapany ever. I booked a vacation home through this and Owner denied the availability later. there was glitch in their system Owner refunded his part but VRBO never refunded my money. They still owe me 300$. After several calls to their customer service, they didnt do anything and making excuses. I am not sure who to contact for my money.
This is what they are sending me everytime.

Dear shruti,

Thank you for contacting Vrbo.com Customer Support.

We apologize that you haven't receive your refund. Have you contact your bank to check? You can call us so we can escalate this. Please prepare a screenshot of your bank statement.
Visit help. vrbo.com for answers to frequently asked questions.

Best regards,

Naomi
Vrbo.com Customer Support

I found a property on VRBO. The property was far from me, but the price was low that tempted me to make the reservation.

Just after that, a new payment was requested by the owner. (That means he increased the price) It was half an hour after reservation and in the period of 50% cancellation fee.

So, I thought the price was no longer that good and since I wasn't so interested in the rental I preferred to not continue. But, strangely when I contacted call support they told me you have to pay a 50% cancellation fee! (after 1 hour of discussion!)

Here is the problem: I rented the property at a price and the owner decided to increase it. Why am I supposed to either pay more money or pay a cancellation fee? I asked him to cancel the reservation if he doesn't want to give it with original price but he refused.

Here is my complaint: You cannot request more money after you sell something and refuse to even cancel the purchase and, instead, ask for a cancellation fee. Why do you expect me to pay the cancellation fee when I don't accept your increment on the price?!

That time, I was forced to pay the money since the deadline was close but canceled it later.

VRBO support admitted I am right at that time but took no serious action. They told me that they can only encourage property owners to not increase the price after reservation! they said they would ask the rental owner to cancel but after they called back and said, unfortunately, he didn't accept! So, what is the responsibility of VRBO? only encourage people to not do scams or fraud? what is the role of the VRBO as the platform?

for VRBO information:
Property ID: 2459285
Reservation ID: HA-X1BK1C

The property I reserved was property #2557364 in Fort Worth, TX. The communication from the property host was mostly unresponsive before my check in day and spotty while at the property. The first thing my wife noticed when we entered was the house WAS NOT PROPERLY cleaned. We found dust and cobwebs in far too many places. Then we opened the back door and were appalled to see trash strewn all over the back yard with chickens walking through it! I have a picture to support this assertion. The furniture was in sad shape and one side of the reclining couch was broken. The TV in one of the bedrooms had no remote and there was no way to turn it on. The refrigerator had paper taped over the ice dispenser and had no way to make ice. There were no instructions in the house about how to work anything. But, the worst issue of all (and that is saying something) was the noise. The house is on the corner of a very busy street and the bedrooms are right next to the street side. The horrendous noise from the traffic lasted all night and made it virtually IMPOSSIBLE to sleep. The place was so bad we could not stay the second night that we had reserved and paid. This place SHOULD be an EMBARRASSMENT to vrbo!

We booked a condo in Maui April 2020. Due to COVID we were unable to go! The VRBO Host, Wen is her name!?! 503-560-1831. She has said she will refund us but has yet to do it! VRBO said they can do nothing about it! Completely disgusting that they have no consequences for people who don't honor agreements within the VRBO Company! This will definitely hinder our use of VRBO from now on! People work extremely hard for a living and this is truly sickening that we have such dishonesty! This was neither our fault or Host but now since she has stolen our money it is definitely HER FAULT AND VRBOS! GROSS

I rented a condo in Hawaii for a week. The door came off the track in the hallway very easily. I was charged by the condo owner $ 50. I didn't think that was quite fair.

Also the condo owner said the condo smelled like vomit. None of us were sick when we stayed there. We cleaned the condo. I felt like the condo owner didn't acknowledge what I said in my email reply.