Vrbo Vacation Rentals 17+

If I could rate them zero I would. They literally stole >$6K from us. We booked a property on the platform in Mexico for a family vacation. Got confirmation from Vrbo of instant booking. Only a few days from the trip still zero communication from the property owner with confirmation of how to access the property. Vrbo says their policy is owners must respond within 24 hrs or be kicked off the platform. It’s been 7 days and no contact. So I guess good for Vrbo that they can kick off a bad owner. But we have talked to Vrbo customer Svc for hours a day for multiple days and they just say pound sand, zero refund offered for us even though we paid for something that they can’t deliver on. They also charged a $500 service fee to use the platform and “protect us”. They laughed at us when we asked if they were at least going to refund that since they didn’t actually do anything for us or provide any actual service. They told us our only option was to actually go to Mexico and they would accommodate us if we got there and had no place to stay. Yeah right! Who in their right mind would travel to a foreign country with young kids with no confirmation that they had a place to actually stay?!?!? Total highway robbery!

We would like to apologize for your negative experience with a host on our site. Bookings made on our site are protected with our Book With Confidence Guarantee and a dedicated Traveler Care Team is available 24/7 to assist with re-booking needs if a property is unavailable for check-in or a host ever cancels on a traveler last minute. We hope you will give us another chance to earn your trust back.

Downloaded this in hopes it wasn’t as money hungry as AirBnB. It is somehow worse. Didn’t think it was possible. My total went from $495 to $1200 all from “fees.” I know fees are necessary to keep the app running, but come on people. There is no way on God’s green earth I will ever pay for something that is more than doubled from fees like “$125 - management fee” 🤡.

Edit:
After receiving a response from the developers, I’d like to expand just a bit. First off, I respect that you take the time to thoughtfully respond to reviews. I think it is a great idea to incorporate more transparency in your fees. It’s rather jarring seeing your total more than double, but if I knew why it doubled, I might be able to bring myself to buying it. What exactly is a “management fee” and how does that differ from the rest of the *expansive* list of fees? I don’t remember the rest of the fees but adding some type of information as to why those fees exist and what they are would at least be a good step in the right direction. Another thing, if price is solely dictated by the hosts then they need to be regulated. A $125 “management fee” is 25% of a $495 total price. That fee alone has added an additional quarter of what I’m already paying. That is ridiculous. So, hosts either need to be constrained within more reasonable percentages or outright denied from charging outlandish fees like this one —outlandish in my opinion, that is.

We are sorry to hear about your negative experience and appreciate your feedback. Pricing is ultimately left up to the host and while many on our site do not charge additional fees, some do. We are always looking for ways to improve our site and are investigating how we can improve transparency for these fees in the future.

I booked a place 10 days before arriving and the stay was supposed to be for 30 days - we are relocating and needed temporary housing. We were traveling by car and running a day behind, I messaged the host to let them know and got no response. The day we were arriving, I messaged the host again because I hadn’t received any check-in information. The host informed me she canceled the booking, and since I didn’t show up on the first day, she thought it was canceled - 5 days later the app still doesn’t say my reservation is canceled. I received no refund, and as a consolation vrbo tried to book a motel 6/ super 8 for 3 days until they found a comparable place to house us. I declined and asked for a refund as the motels they suggested did not look safe! The rep said she was making sure my request was escalated, puts me on hold, then hangs up. I called again later that evening, and another rep hung up on me - after placing me on hold to get to their resolution team. Meanwhile, they still have over $2,800 of my money with no date/ expectation of when it will be returned! Moving across country is stressful enough, to arrive in a busy city and have no where for my children and I to lay our heads - and to have to pay more money for a hotel AND another temporary place to stay until we find permanent housing. I am going to fight for a refund AND the refund of the hotel stay that I shouldn’t have needed. Vrbo did not act in my best interest in this situation whatsoever.

Thank you for letting us know, we’re sorry you’ve had this poor experience. We’d like to try to address this for you, but the app store does not have direct messaging. Can you reach out to us at help.vrbo.com/contact with your name and itinerary details, so we can investigate?