Vrbo Reviews 270

property was poor, filthy and unfit for holiday in South of France,
customer service refund was terrible, on phone for hours getting nowhere arfter spending 1400 pounds it was disgraceful beware!
Vrbo refuse to send me details of my refund I am threatened legal action

The place we booked was absolutely filthy. There were pee stains and pubic hair on and around the toilet. The floor was sticky. The counters had not been cleaned, and still had someone's food on them. Laundry was piled up in the corner of the living room, and laundry still in the washer/dryer (so don't expect to be able to use them). The whole building was overwhelming with the smell of drugs the minute you walk in. The outside of the building had trash all over the place. Nowhere to park (even though I had asked about parking before booking). Even the police chief from my hometown told us to get out of there immediately because it was not a safe neighborhood.

We stayed on the phone with VRBO customer support for 2 hours, and sent them pictures showing the filth. The agent agreed that the place was filthy and unfit to stay in, and agreed for VRBO to put us up in a hotel for 1 night... HOWEVER, they are refusing to refund the money that we paid for this rental that we couldn't even stay in. Stay as far away from VRBO as possible.

I just booked my first (AND LAST) stay with this crowd. Finished paying my bill then I got a message from the host demanding an ADDITIONAL RIP-OFF CLEANING CHARGE. Scamming ...........s. Never again.

Don't bother with VRBO in London. We have been scammed out of 2 deposits on flats that were misrepresented and no response from alleged hosts. VRBO can do NOTHING and won't about deposits or cancellation policy the crooked hosts establish. There is also NO option to write public reviews on VRBO or Expedia about the listing or thievery they are up to. Stay in a hotel instead.

Had a terrible experience last year booking a property that was not as advertised.
Unfortunately, I have just repeated the mistake.
Yet according to Vrbo everything was right about both properties.
Can anyone please tell me just what Vrbo do to justify their fee

Pre booked what I thought looked a pleasant place to stay for a few weeks, after a stressful few years looking after my ill elderly parents. On arrival could not access the key in the lock box because the unit was broken. The taxi man noticed on arrival there was a surveillance camera pointed just at my front door. None for next door. This was not mentioned anywhere in the brochure and ruined the experience.
I needed a normal front door number to receive post, (like a new bank card and letters from my solicitor and estate agent.) The door was mis-numbered and an irate neighbour was bringing my post round, 3 weeks late, which landed through his front door. The landlord said he would fix it, but did not. The tenants next door were dumping their rubbish in my bins. The bathroom had an unpleasant, unclean smell like a gym changing room, the carpets and furniture were stained and grimy. Bought tons of antibac to freshen the place. Very disappointed as I had paid a very considerable amount of money in advance.

Attempting to make a booking through Vrbo had been hugely disappointing. Initially, the website hung up when we selected the country to complete our booking. The worst part was that when we completed our booking we were informed that our booking "cannot be confirmed." This is a waste of time and has never happened to us with Booking.com for example.

Arrived in Tulum to find a property that was booked through Vrbo a year ago was not available or worse not even built yet if you went by the map location. Fair play to the property owner, they apologised and promised to refund which they did, however Vrbo were worse than useless. Having used over £30 to £50 of mobile data on non-discounted call rates trying to reach their team that promise to find you accommodation, gave up, drove to a well known coffee shop for some internet, and went on the Vrbo website for an alternative which I then found doesn't allow you to book same day. So had to go to a competitor starting with book and ending in com to book something the same day and avoid us being homeless in the streets of Mexico. Once I reached the Vrbo call centre next day they promised to investigate and reply back to me about compensation and the refund but have not heard anything from them since. The owner thankfully has maintained contact and refunded me but no help it seems from Vrbo. I know who to book with next time as these guys cost you a fortune to contact them from abroad and waiting times long. Not a great help when you are homeless abroad and don't care it seems about the costs incurred.

Vbro just cancelled my booking. No compensation, No help finding alternative accommodation even though they promise to on their site.
I enclose their promise from their web site.
Re-booking when you need it
It doesn’t happen often, but if a host has to cancel a booking at the last minute, we have dedicated re-booking specialists here to help you book similar accommodation.

Was interested in a villa in Spain. Messaged “the host” to confirm costs etc. before booking. He then said oh it depends if it high or low season, if there are any school holidays!! how many people. I did give him the exact dates only to be bombarded with a lot of nonsense minus the cost. Three times I asked him what the cost was!! He then said I was stupid! and still not telling me the cost. Lol. Well I had to agree with him, absolutely stupid to even go into this site in the first place. I actually should be thanking him for saving me using this very dubious outfit!

Vbro said the'd refund me but when I log in it says "refused". See below screenshot.

Reserved
Busby, Scotland, United Kingdom
Property ID: 10802512
Check-in
19-Nov-2022
16:00
Check-out
20-Nov-2022
11:00
Host
Joined in 2017

Getting there
Change or cancel trip
Cancel your booking
Your booking no longer qualifies for a refund.

Having requested 3 x properties which state they are available for rental and been turned down 3 x I will no longer be using vrbo.

Customer service is worthless. It's an offshore call centre powerless to even understand their own process. I had several charges on my card that they couldn't tally despite the reference numbers on the account. They aren't allowed to escalate the call to a manager and half they time they cut you off.
You should be able to ask, "I have this charge, HA-123456" on my card please can you tell me what it relates to" - but they can't. They can only start with an email address and then they start guessing as to what it might be. I'm astonished they're accredited to charge credit cards to be honest. I have charges on my card that aren't attributed to my account, and in fact have somebody else's name against. They won't help so I'm going to report fraud with my credit card company.

I rented a villa in Cyprus in September. Although it was a beautiful place the security of the villa was a joke. We were burgled one morning. The managers were not interested. The Police said that there had been 6 burglaries in the area over the previous 3 weeks including next door. I tried to put this in a review of the property but VRBO made sure it didnt get published. I contacted them and they said it was being checked before publishing. Then they emailed me to say I needed to change a couple of things and then re submit but I couldn't do it as the website said I was out of time. I contacted them and they also said that I was too late. It was ok for the manager to give me a bad review after having read mine, but not the other way round.

The property rental was a fraudulent listing. They took our money and we never made it into the apartment. Vrbo failed to find us alternative accommodation. Our options were to sleep on the streets or book through a non affiliated company- meaning Vrbo would not pay for it. We eventually got a refund on the original booking. The fraudulent listing remains on their website! They cannot be trusted. Terrible in every imaginable way. Do not use them.

I am out $700 for a property that I never rented, and I even had the cancellation/refund approved by the Host! 2 phone calls to VRBO for over 45 minutes each did absolutely nothing. I was blatantly lied to both times; the agent told me they would refund me within 48 hours after seeing the messages between the host and myself to confirm I was owed a refund. I have received nothing, no communication, no refund. I am sick of wasting time talking to these people without any action. I will never use VRBO again and warn everyone I know about their unprofessional business practices. I am now reporting this incident to my bank to hopefully recover my money, as it is rightfully mine.

PROPERTY OWNERS, DO NOT USE VRBO!
Have used AirBnB for years and then added VRBO as well. Had a client stay and enjoy themselves then get home and reverse the charge. VRBO said they would "defend" the charge with their "chargeback team"! Problem is they never contacted me to get details, I called twice to talk to them but was not allowed to share the details of the stay. They basically just gave a three day stay back without ever trying. AirBnB has never done that and always given awesome service!

Use this company at your peril-their guaranteed refund is not worth the paper it is written on. I was never refunded

Paid £39 for insurance but my deposit for the rental house did not go through at the same time and the booking was cancelled. I have been referred by VRBO to their insurance company (in Dublin !!) for my refund. The phone number was not recognised. Complete waste of time. Avoid this company !! I have since rebooked my holiday cottage with another company. VRBO is a disgrace.

As other reviewers say, they make it seem like a luxury holiday site but it's like Air BNB only worse. They take NO responsibility for the properties and you have to rely entirely on reviews. Not helpful when there are only two. Booked a pretty nice villa in Crete for quite a sum of money. We looked on Google Earth to check it out and saw an empty plot next door. We asked the owner and they said the next-door villa was finished. When we got there it was still a building site! And there were a few other issues. When I called Vrbo they said it was absolutely nothing to do with them.