VRBO

I understand inflation and don't mind when prices and costs gradually creep up, but VRBO just slapped on a HUGE new to cost to its current subscribers and guests.
In August, I joined VRBO to list my beach house for rent. I paid $349 for a 12 month subscription, $49 for it to be a "feature listing" for one month, and then $149 for a featured listed for an additional 6 months.
This is a total of $547 to use their listing service.
VRBO/Homeaway is still able to make a percentage of each transaction processed through Homeaway payments (which is pretty much all of them) So here is a steady funding stream from each listing in addition to the annual fee.

Then, I get an email notice in November of 2015 stating "More travelers We plan to introduce a new service fee for travelers who book through HomeAway websites, enabling us to spend more on marketing to bring even more travelers to your vacation rental listing and highlight the benefits of vacation rentals to traditional hotel shoppers." When I read this I thought... Why?... There is not really a need for this. But, whatever, if this is how you choose to explain away your new fee, no big deal. UNTIL I SAW WHAT THE NEW FEE WAS! YOWZA! Up to 10% of the amount of each booking? I had a one 3 night booking request which totaled $630. This extra fee charged by VRBO is $56.70!

If I average five 3 night bookings like this each month for 12 months (which is only 50 % of available days), VRBO gets an additional $3,402 a year. If I'm able to book 75% of available days, that's an additional $5,103 a year! And that's on top of the $547 I pay to just list the house and the transaction fees they earn on all Homeaway payments.

This price increase is unheard of and unfair to all of those that have based their rental business on the VRBO platform. We will be looking into the ethical and legal aspects of this further. Shame on you VRBO, Homeaway, and Expedia!

You pay the price for a 4 star hotel room and get a house instead. Owner was very helpful.

Do not book through VRBO - they allow their hosts to cancel days before your stay and leave you stuck, worst experience ever

We booked a cabin for the weekend on VRBO.com. After payment accepted, received confirmation from cabin resort. In the confirmation it notified us they were having construction on their property all weekend. On the VRBO website, the only contact number is for their parent company HomeAway. I called and was assured the payment was pending, would cancel out, and we could cancel without any repercussions. I also called the resort to notify them we would not be staying. They said there would be no charge.
We then booked a second cabin for our weekend. We were charged for the cabin, insurance, and a 25 dollar booking fee.
After our weekend trip, we checked our credit card. The charge for the first cabin had gone through and was not refunded. I called Home Away again. They assured me the charge was pending, and would come off. I told them the charge had gone through. They referred me to the cabin resort, saying they had already sent payment to the cabin resort and could not refund my money.
I called a total of 6 times, every time they would tell me they couldn't find my reservation, then they found it, but now they can't see the credit card charge, and finally refer to the resort.
I spoke with the resort. They said they never received payment and had not received any emails or phone calls from HomeAway (as reported by HomeAway).
After I looked at my credit card statement again, I noticed the charge wasn't from VRBO or HomeAway. The charge was made by VacayStay Connections. I called the corporate office of VacayStay and finally spoke with someone that could easily see my reservation. They are refunding our money, but charge a $25 dollar fee for refunding. This process took 2 weeks of phone calls and hassle. Will never use HomeStay or any of its companies again. Hoping we get our refund this time.

If I could give 0 stars I would. Our reservation was NOT available when we arrived. Only after we tried to access the rental, spoke to the owner, and messaged the property owner was our reservation been cancelled. We were left without a place to stay, and money has not been refunded.

I'm reviewing this here after numerous attempts through the phone and the app.
My friends and I booked a VRBO reservation, address 2923 South Dakota Ave NE 2, Washington, DC ******* (property ID *******).

The reservation was made by my friend on April 20,2021 (reservation ID HA-MFGF78) When we arrived on June 17th we were informed that the location was no longer being used as a VRBO location and, according to the building owner, he has not had the location as an available VRBO rental.
Between booking (April 20) and arriving at the rental (June 17 at approximately 10 pm) we received no notification of cancellation.

The night of June 17 we were left without a place to stay and had to settle for a hotel, not as conveniently located, and not as comfortable as a house. When we look at Kristin's account the booking was cancelled on June 17,2021 at 10:50 pm. This was AFTER we arrived, AFTER we reached out to Regina (the property manager) and AFTER we talked to a man at the property claiming to be the property owner.

We emailed VRBO that very night. No response. We tried calling and contacting VRBO through the app on June 20th. My friend was able to talk to someone who said that the host was paid and they would be contacting the host for a resolution. They said she should get a refund within 5 business days. That would have been Friday, June 25,2021.

We are out the price we paid for the VRBO ($1,159.85). We are out the price for a hotel. We are out the added expenses for more gas, eating out more, etc. To say we are frustrated is an understatement.

1. VRBO fees are just horrendous- I've listed my house on VRBO and AIRBnB and it's 10% vs. 3% so for the same time period my house was rented VRBO charged my 300$ vs AirBnb's 95$.
Same for the Travelers/guests- AIRBnb charges 3 x less!

2. VRBO's calculations that I get as the owner are so convoluted and confusing and nothing adds up, that I am sure it is done on purpose to confuse owners, as you would have to call VRBO every time to have it explained to you.
I'm sure they want the fees to appear very 'professional' with many fancy words that actually mean nothing, it's a way to justify outrageous charges!

3. LACK OF SECURITY FOR OWNERS- the number FAKE requests and scam requests I get from the VRBO website (mainly from UK) is around 60-70% of all requests!
VRBO can implement a very simple procedure to verify the guests but they will not- I actually asked them about it as you have to waste time investigating the guests yourself all the time, and VRBO replied " We just want your business(money), we are not here to protect you, you have to do that yourself'!
I actually have this in writing when they emailed me back!
(AirBnb has a very simple method- phone # verification by the system, and a VISIBLE to owner guest's profile with a picture and any previous reviews, and a short bio. Works like a charm)

***I HAVE NEVER gotten even 1 fake request from AirBnb, but about 25 from VRBO in this past year! ****

I have a couple of guests booked from VRBO for this year (80 % of guests are coming from AirBnb anyway) so after that i will be cancelling my account with them. I hope their abhorrent business practices will be their demise.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND AIRBNB, actually customer friendly, inexpensive, great service, great website, just a fantastic experience!

Sylvie,
Canada

I made a rather substantial reservation in January for an October stay and then, due to covid, had to cancel in February. This was when the problems started. For "technical reasons" the date of my reservation was changed, moved forward (a change I knew nothing about and did not approve). This meant I was within the no cancelation dates. After much discussion, daily calls for a few weeks, the owner of the property and VRBO admitted that the error was on VRBO's part. The property owner immediately refunded the funds she had recieved. VRBO did not.
I spent several more weeks fighting with the people at VRBO and finally they agreed to refund my money. The problem was that in the time of all this fighting, the exchange rates had changed and I was out $400. The property owner said that wasn't her issue it was VRBO's. VRBO said it wasn't their issue, it was the property owners. Another month of fighting ensued and VRBO agreed to refund the final $400. However, they said it would take 6-8 weeks.
After 9 weeks had passed, I contacted VRBO. They claimed they had not recieved the forms they needed. The back and forth began again. I resubmitted the forms and this time contacted them to confirm receipt. After several more weeks a check arrived for the final amount.
The process started in February and was finally completed in early August. In between times, I spent, literally, hundreds of hours on the phone trying to assert my rights and get my refund. But, at the receipt of the check I thought it was all done. I was wrong.
Two weeks ago I received an email telling me that the final payment on my reservation was due. I call and told them that there was no reservation intact. I was informed that the property owner did not approve the cancelation and the payment was due.
Today, I received a notice that the payment was past due. I have spent another half hour trying to get these idiots to understand that I do not owe them any money. They are not getting any money. All they need to do is look at their own files and they would see this but instead they keep telling me I am wrong.
My advice, don't use this company for anything.

As a self catering apartment's owner, i had the worst experience in my life with VRBO website.
In the moment I have signed up paying them more than 500 euros, a new system called "quotable rates" was just introduced (in BETA version, full of bugs).
Shortly, it was impossible to me to use VRBO: because of a bug in their system, my listing randomly switched from the old rates system to the new bugged one, and as a result no one of my potential customers could see the correct prices (meaning, the price i wanted to show them) online.
The most incredible part of the story is that after tons of emails to the customer service, one representetive of VRBO admitted via mail the BUG:

Erinn, from customer service wrote to me:
"I am escalating this to tech support. My apologies for the inconvenience. Thank you!"

I wrote back:
"And how long should i wait? And in the meantime i just stay on vrbo with uncorrect prices... I paid for 1 year service, at least stop it while you fix my property."

Erinn replied:
"At this point the only thing I can think to do is to offer you a refund. Please let me know how you'd like to proceed. Thank you."

As soon asI confirmed that i wanted my listing to be removed and the fee reimbursed, I have received the following incredible mail from VRBO.

Sheryl wrote:
"Upon review we have found that VRBO listing # xxxxx is ineligible for a refund per the Terms and Conditions of the site".

That is the most arrugant and unprofessional reply never had. Clearly I will not make a war for 200 euros refund, but I truly hope this post will help others that are possibly thinking to work with Vrbo, I just strongly suggest them to look elsewhere.

I would be happy to have an official reply here, but I guess it will not happens. I already tried in their forum community, and I my thread just disappeared!

Sincerely,

Angelo

My first time using Vrbo has been a nightmare! And this will be my last time! Beware! Stay far away! They charged me an extra $2300 months after my initial vacation was completely booked and paid for on time and early. They charged me a $1500 "refundable damage deposit" twice and also another $800+ which does not compute into anything at all. I called many many times to try to get this fixed and they absolutely acted like they didn't hear at all what I said over and over and over. I even had my husband try to talk to them. I have absolutely never had such a nightmare experience happen before. The extra $2300 is a lot for me and I have been so stressed trying to get this fixed with Vrbo. I believe it is a scam company. I had to report fraud to my credit card company. My host Ashley Mattingly or Jamie Garrey ( I believe she uses a fake name) could care less about my issues once my stay was over. I believe the reviews are fake and filters. I choose this room because of the 5 star reviews and my experience was not at all like the reviews. I also believe that Vrbo does choose which reviews they want to post. Upon arrival to my room there were large linen bags in front of the door that we had to move to get in. They stayed there for 2 days so I messaged the host about this as well as the smell of our room and having no clean blankets When we walked into the room it smelled like mildew and/or smoke and stayed this way throughout our stay. We looked around the place and could see mildew all over the walls and ceilings where the vents were blowing the mold down onto us including in the bedroom. The mattress was yellowed and gross. My son had no blanket to sleep with on the couch because the blankets smelled like the room and definitely were not freshly washed. There were stains on the couch and areas that you could tell her hired cleaners had not touched for a long time! If you need anything you can not go down to the hotel desk and ask for anything. You have to message the host and wait for her hired help to assist you with anything. The host decided which messages of mine that she wanted to reply to. After she got her money, she could care less about my issues including double charged for $1500 as well as another $800 months after my vacation was all paid for! I have never experienced anything like this and I will warn anyone I can from using Vrbo!

Listings on VRBO are grossly misrepresented. We have had strangers coming and going for all hours from an RV in the yard. Needless to say it's not "entire property" as advertised. The Host (Sam), was confronted about the strange people when my Wife had text him asking; 'why there are strange people coming and going from the property...' The Host responded with making it our issue; saying 'you are being unreasonable, they have nowhere to go.' Absolutely unbelievable response and the true definition of "gaslighting". We contacted VRBO to tell them we do not feel safe. We are not able to allow our dog outside and most importantly, we were never told there were people on the property. It is supposed to be against VRBO policy for a shared residence or property to be advertised via their platform. However, this is the second and last listing we have stayed at that was a shared property with other guests (strangers). We rented the listing through VRBO as we were under the impression we would have the property to ourselves, this wasn't the case. Feeling safe and secure was not a concern for us from the Host nor VRBO. We will absolutely discontinue utilizing the app in the future and just wish this review to be a fair warning to other users to be cautious and diligent in renting through VRBO. It is not only a platform where listings are inaccurate but is a platform where your safety and security are of no concern. Just an fyi, the property we rented was a home in Moses Lake Washington right on the lake next to the highway (VRBO made me remove the address to protect the owner), Owner: Sam. Be cautious in and with this listing and "Host"
The listing: Check out this property on Vrbo https://t.vrbo.io/npMvt527rCb

The owner of Snowy Mountain Ranch near Laurel, MT provided false statements about the ranch & VRBO will not let me post a review.

On Wednesday (before Su day check in) when address finally dropped I called them to tell them host has not responded, and if you try to get directions there is not a residence there, can we please rebook... direct quote "we can't rebook until 30 mn after check in time" So your sending me to the epicenter of amusement parks the weekend before Christmas with no place to stay... ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE! After numerous calls (over 10 hours of phone time, along woth all of the frustration) I finally got ahold Cody whom opened a fraud case and helped us book a room for Sunday (only) he said someone would call me to rebook the rest of our stay Sunday (check in day) at 430, as then it would be considered a voided contract by the host. Well it only got worse, not only did I not receive a call to rebook Sunday@ 440, I didn't hear from. Them till after checkout time at the hotel that Cody booked us, and what I recieved was an email stating to find a room, and submit the bills and they will determine what they will pay... WTF you have my $$ I am stuck in Orlando with no place to stay and ZERO support from VRBO
Will NEVER USE THEM AGAIN!
They should atleast make sure the photos are the same as the actual property, especially since we as a consumer don't have access to an address until in our case 5 days before our stay and to cancel is a huge fee!
Wish I could add photos but since there is not a house there are no photos

My husband, his 2 brothers and their wives all went to Tennessee from ohio for the Windrock shindig, April 22-24,2022. We booked with VRBO months before the event, 2 weeks before our trip they canceled on us. So we LUCKILY found another house to accommodate 6 adults. When we got to the property. There was only enough room for one truck and trailer. We all had trucks and trailers as we were going to the shindig to ride our sxs's and for the concert. The back of the property was all grown over with broken table and chairs. The house was swarming with wasp and bee's. Once we tried to access the property the property code wouldn't work. We called VRBO, they put us at a red roof in for the night free of charge. (Not a nice hotel at all!) dirty walls, holes in the doors, just not clean at all. So for the 2nd night we had to pay more money out of our own pockets and find our own accommodations, because VRBO would only accommodate one night. We were hours away from our homes! I've tried calling VRBO numerous times. Every time I've been on the phone with them, they transfer me to "the specialist team". Every time I've been transferred I've been disconnected. So not only are we out the money for the property because we can't get it refunded, we're out even more money because we had to travel to another accommodation and pay more money out of our own pockets to stay. We will never book with VRBO again! I believe this website is a joke or a scam one. I pray no one else has to go through what we've went through this past weekend to try to have a good relaxing weekend. It has been far from relaxing! It took the property owner a long time to respond. We had already found other accommodations by the time we got a response. In the pics I've provided you can see where they said we could stay the final night. We couldn't access the property the first night, why would we waste anymore more of our time or money to travel back to a property we couldn't access? The code that was provided for this property wouldn't work!

I booked a dream vacation through Donald Archer from Travelscowt as the pricing looked so amazing i couldn't resist, and we had been looking for a family destination. I found Donald on the VRBO website. Donald suggested we circumvent VRBO to eliminate the fees and to save money. This should have been a redflag but he assured me people do it all the time. This was a HUGE mistake. He also only accepted a personal check and did not offer credit card payments. Now I know why. I signed a contract that advised there was a NO cancellation policy for normal issues like illness or unexpected personal reasons that would prevent me from attending. Due to the Coronavirus we were unable (as well as the rest of the country) to board a plane and were also in lockdown in our county. We were in a national crisis. Furthermore the hotel I booked closed all the amenities including restaurants, bars, pool, gym and of course the ski mountain. They even banned guests a few days into my reservation from coming into the facility. When I contacted Donald Archer to cancel and get a refund he told me: "I am very sorry but we have a strict NO cancellation policy. I don't care about the coronavirus or how many people die, you are not getting your money back." Although the airlines, ski mountain and all other vendors offered refunds or concessions Donald told me tough luck and good luck trying to get money from me. Even VRBO is offering full refunds. BUYER BEWARE. Donald and Travelscowt do NOT care about customers nor the safety of anyone but themselves. I would highly recommend NOT using there service or renting any property from this company. Almost every vendor in the USA offered assistance with customers and victims of the coronavirus. It is very sad what has happened and it is a difficult time. It is sad that Donald Archer with Travelscowt is looking to profit from the sale of a property rental when the property was shutdown. I am in the process of suing his company and wish for ALL Buyers to Be aware of his ethics and business practices.

I have been with them for 6 years. Had always been frustrating to say the least, contacting them for help, very long phone waits etc. But THIS NEW POLICY TAKES THE CAKE! I had always phoned or emailed prospective tenants and they also booked directing through me.
No problem! Now, VRBO actually DELETE the phone numbers and email addresses on the emails which can only go through their site! IS IT NOT ILLEGAL TO TAMPER WITH EMAILS? AND ALL BOOKINGS HAVE TO BE DONE THROUGH THEM, SO THEY CAN CHARGE EXTRA FEES TO THE TENANT.
THEY TELL ME; anything from 5% - 12%! On what do they base the charges, and the rate amount? They say its "based on an algorithm" What?
So the tenant has to actually book, pay them etc etc. before they let you have their phone or email numbers? THIS IS CRAZY. And from what I am reading here, that can go horribly wrong as well, especially if something has to be canceled etc. There are many questions, back and forwards, not only for the owner but to protect the tenant who needs to know certain information... now everything has to go through THEIR SITE and its obviously monitored through them, who are checking everything they say, and DELETING pertinent information. Now it all takes longer, by the time these emails go back and forth through them, and we could be losing potential business!
I have spoken to their "resolution dept", Joel, who had his spiel down pat, and I got nowhere with him! That is the new "law" for VRBO, and I got nowhere with him!
I asked for the email and/or phone # of their President/CEO... they are not allowed to give either out. Surprise, surprise! I could write to him via snail mail!
Is there a legal mind out there reading this? Is it illegal to tamper with an email?
Also, if you have any ideas as to finding an alternative source so that I (and many others, I presume)could find tenants for their property, it would be good to know that. If VRBO start to lose their clients, perhaps they will re-think this.

If I could give ZERO stars I would. This company and their hosts do nothing but scam. We were accused of stealing 3 year old comforters, 3 year old mattress pad, 3 year old rocking chair everything we were accused of had to do with 3 year old items that I feel the host wanted to update. My 84 year old mom was accused of stealing 3 year old twin comforters and smoking in the bathroom downstairs where she stayed but yet doesn't smoke. The host cleaner planted cigarettes in the bathroom trying to make it look like us but funny part is the cleaner planted her own cigarettes with a gold ring around the filter. Tried charging $250 for cleaning on top of the $199 that was already paid when we booked. How do I know they are her cigarettes, I watched her for 2 hrs coming in and out of house to smoke and noted her brand of cigarettes. Neither of my son-in-laws smoke a cigarette with a gold filter. Stupid is and stupid does. We have been back and forth with customer service which is a joke because they help the host scam insurance company to replace their old 3 year old items. This is not a safe place at the dock you will fall in if not careful. It is on 50 gallon drums so rocks. The alcove is completely filled with what looks like chopped broccoli and you cannot swim until you get to the main river. We were lied to and told it just all of a sudden blew in. Look at the pic, it didn't just blow in. This whole game they played was for her to file an insurance claim. If your a women don't bother with her as she only like dealing with men. You can't leave a bad review because VRBO monitors and will not place review for people to see, they will only post good reviews. I refused to pay anything as She was lying and placing false claims and when I asked for the videos to prove it, she has numerous videos and camera around property, she could not provide them. So if you can't provide proof then that shows signs of a liar. The house can be dangerous with all the wood splintering on an upstairs deck we never used, but was accused of breaking a wood love seat and fire pit cover. Heck we didn't even know the fire pit existed. We didn't use upstairs deck in fear of rotting wood and someone getting hurt. This house needs a lot of repairs and TLC. If I was going to take something it would have been nothing in this home as most of her stuff is junk. Pretty sad

BEWARE. STAY AWAY from RAINBOW RIVER COVE - Dunnellon - Host -Christina. She will use you to get her next old items replaced. I will never use VRBO- Airbnb or Expedia. Apparently all owned by Expedia now.

Sad people are so dishonest nowadays. Rainbow River is great but beware of this Host- dishonest

I've been paying vrbo/homeaway since 2008 to advertise multiple properties.
I'm truly blown away by their new "service fee"
I do not think it is legal and i'm certain that there will soon be a class action suit against them?
I think that they like much of america has sold their soul to satan and become a dark & evil entity.
It was my understanding that when vrbo 1st began it was for the good of the people. I. e. To help middle/lower class america travel and afford vacations worldwide without the greedy hotel fees.
It is so ironic that vrbo is now charging more fees than the hotels.
I just called my vrbo representative who actually told me that renters love this fee and are embracing it.
Today when i spoke to my "rep" at vrbo this is what transpired.

I kept asking her what the fee was for and she kept calling it a customer satisfaction fee.
I asked her to break it down and she said it guarantees the traveller their deposit back.
I said that the 4% c. C. service fee they charge already does that.
She just kept insisting that it was a wonderful new fee that guests love.
I said if they love it so much that make it optional and not mandatory?
She then said it was for their own good.
I then said is vrbo now a dictatorship?

It is truly bizarre that a vacation rental company makes a bogus fee like this mandatory.
I told her that we would all be in a nightmare of financial disasters if if expedia and all airlines and hotels and all companies worldwide were to adopt this sort of fee and that all made it mandatory? She said that she loved her job and that it was a legitimate fee.
I now think that she is brainwashed. Or a cyborg employee.? How can anyone think a mandatory fee with no explanation is a good thing? What is happening to our country.

I have now written a letter that goes out to all my potential clients explaining this fee and asking that they call vrbo and voice their opinion.
I also have advised them that they do have numerous options to pay without these
Greedy bogus fees.
I. e. Bank to bank wires, pay pal, square etc only carry 3-4% not the new 10% customer fee recently added to quotes on vrbo.

To conclude:
I will still keep some of my accounts with vrbo and i will just have my client pay through bank deposits and wires and pay pal and square.
I would advise all my fellow hosts to do the same and maybe if we all unite we can force vrbo to do the right thing and decline and get rid of this blatant and unnecessary act of greed.

Ps
I wanted to give them no stars but it made me put one to post?