Vrbo Vacation Rentals 17+

I have been using VRBO for several years and never experienced what I did this week. We rented a place that looked very cozy and relaxing. I always read the reviews and take that into consideration when renting a place. The reviews were good.

We got to our house and found it to be NOTHING like the pictures. It was very cluttered with junk on the outside and the “yard” area was very crowded with stuff and not a welcoming relaxing environment like we were expecting. The front door looked like it was 200 years old and very heat and sun damaged. I’m sure it would not take much to break down the door. The “neighborhood” was very trashy. We definitely did not feel safe there at all. I called the owner and told her we were not going to be staying here based on what we observed when we arrived. She went on to tell me how much she paid for the place to buy it and fix it up. She did not acknowledge anything I was telling her. I have pictures of the way the house looks in person. Not even close to the ones posted. We asked for a refund and she said she would consider it if she was able to re-rent.

I am very disappointed in VRBO that they would allow this host to rent this place and on top of it all she is considered a premium host. I will not be using VRBO in the future.

We are very sorry to hear about this experience. If you need further assistance, please contact us at; https://help.vrbo.com/?t=traveler

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.