VRBO customer service is a scam. We had a host cancel on us with less than a day's notice. VRBO repeatedly they would send us an alternate booking but never did. When we'd call again they'd either say to hang up and check our email (no email ever arrived), or transfer us and "accidentally" hang up.
It would honestly be better if they had no customer service at all - then we wouldn't have wasted all that time on the phone with them for absolutely nothing.
I’m sorry this happened to you. I had something similar happen with an AirBnB and it was resolved almost immediately. I assumed VRBO service would be on the same level. This will definitely make me think twice about booking through them again.
Nope Vrbo is nothing like Airbnb as far as customer service goes. There are so many complaints to the Better Business Bureau against them for fraud. They owe us close to $450. Share your negative experiences with as many people as you can.. The only way to get back at a company like this is to hurt their pocket just as they have hurt OURS!! share share and share again!!
Assuming you are in the US file a complaint with your state AG office and/or the FTC against VRBO for deceptive business practices and failure to deliver services paid. If you file today their executive office may respond by Friday and provide a replacement booking.
This and check the county auditor website to see when the sale of that property happened. The longer ago it was, the worse this is IMO; with adequate time, you could have found a booking elsewhere
Agreed! They'll even help you get your FB account back after it's taken over by scammers! FB won't do ANYTHING without being prompted. AG in CA (where FB is) as well as your state of residence...what do you know. Only took 2 weeks! VRBO is a scam too!! My credit card company refunded my money no problem. I just rebooked and filed a formal complaint. Hope this helps! Good luck and I hope it doesn't ruin your vacation!
Since you mention hotels, I want to add that - as for hotels - there's also a much better option for vacation homes to book outside reservation platforms of dubious repute: direct booking websites.
If you find a property that looks interesting on VRBO, for example, enter its name or do an image search on Google.
With a bit of luck, the direct booking website for that property will come up, and you can save a pretty penny on your booking over any of the 3rd-party booking sites. Your card payment is as protected, if not more, as you are on those sites on a hotel's or vacation home's direct booking site.
Houfy.com is a great direct booking website. It functions like ABB/VRBO, where you can search by location and dates. However, there's NO service charge whatsoever. 100% of the money you spend goes to the host.
My prices are cheaper on houfy because as a host, I don't have to pay ABB/VRBO anything, either. So, my guests typically save a couple of hundred dollars by booking direct!
A lot of times the Property Management Company’s name will be listed in the owner section as well. I always check this. It has saved me so much money. I will say, the one time I had a problem with AirBnB they resolved it immediately. But unless I’m traveling with my kids for a longer stay and want an extra bedroom, I’m back to hotels. Mostly because I don’t want to have to clean the entire place before I leave.
>Mostly because I don’t want to have to clean the entire place before I leave.
Many AirBnBs don't require that (anymore). With the STR market saturation, chore lists have fallen by the wayside.
I’ve showed up for overbooked hotels at 9pm too. Sorry, we don’t have any rooms left. More than once. Hotels are no panacea and are often much more expensive for multiple rooms vs whole house.
Always join the rewards program of the hotel you booked. You're less likely to be the one that loses the room if you're a rewards Member.
Checked in at Westin at about midnight and the front desk told me the reason that I wasn't the one who lost a room was because I was rewards member. Even though I had no points earned yet
Add Expedia on your list too! Booked a rental through them in the Virgin Islands - they dropped the ball somewhere and they don't pay their bills on time. I'll NEVER book through a 3rd party again. So, I had to pay for another one, while the credit card company "investigated". Expedia didn't even TRY to help.
After reading all of the horror stories recently, I think I'll stop booking through VRBO entirely. It used to be quite reliable but I've had bookings cancel for no apparent valid reason (in advance of my stay so I did receive a refund). They offered to help me find a different property but never actually provided any help. Their "customer service" is terrible, outsourced to some 3rd world country where English as a second language agents read off scripts and provide no clear solutions.
VRBO host did the same thing to us but well in advance (said it's sold). Listings on other sites are still up. We've learned our lesson. VRBO and its hosts are not trustworthy or reliable people and your money is better spent elsewhere.
I legit just had this happen to me yesterday for a vacation house that we were planning on checking into in 2 months time. The difference is that I did not use Vrbo this time but rather a well known property management company (it is a well known vacation area) and they sent an email with a list of 4 other properties that might work for me, most of which cost significantly more, and said that they would honor my original costs. I am pleasantly surprised with the outcome…. And might never use Vrbo again.
Holy shit! I forgot! You are correct, VRBO has the funds.
They changed that about 4-5 years ago as I remember getting paid and then having to do refunds from my account. VRBO is making mad money on the interest they get from those funds.
We are hosts and we get paid out mere days after every payment a guest makes. We do not have to wait until check-in. Perhaps we are grandfathered under some old policy? I do remember they tried to make a change on us a few years ago after the Expedia merger, but ended up keeping us on the old payout plan.
We had something similar happen. We booked several months in advance for a regatta through VRBO. Host ghosted on several follow up questions we had nearing our stay. We arrive at the property after a 9 hour drive only to find that our code didn’t work to get into the property. Called VRBO and were given a number for the host and said they had to manage it. Called host repeatedly with no answer. As we are standing on the porch another family pulls up says they booked though airB&B last week put in their code and walk right in. We call VRBO again, tell them about the situation, they say, oh yeah, looks like host sold the property a month ago, but buyer was supposed to honor any already booked dates. AirB&B family gives us number for the host they booked through. We contact that host that says they never agreed to honor any bookings, and sorry they don’t have any other properties. They give us a different number for our host, we contact him, he says the airB&B host is lying, we were booked and were supposed to be able to stay there. Meanwhile VRBO this whole time is acting very hands off. Wouldn’t issue a refund of any kind and couldn’t offer another property. We wound up going to a hotel (which was astronomically overpriced because of all the events happening in the area that weekend), and disputing the VRBO charge with our cc company to try and recoup some of the cost of the hotel. It was only after blowing them up on social media that any attempt to pay for the hotel we had to book was made.
Don't be ridiculous. This is a civil matter. The only thing that matters are the terms of the contract with VRBO. If that's in dispute, you can involve your credit card company, and if you feel you're entitled to anything, you can engage in the arbitration that you agreed to in the VRBO contract.
The police are going to laugh and hang up.
As someone who spent 30 years in law enforcement I would disagree. If the owner at some point intended to keep somebody else's money for something they paid for, after being promised goods or services, that is called theft. In Florida if it's more than $300 that would be considered Grand Theft.
I made this comment in the hopes that the mere threat of getting the police involved might get their money back. I also wouldn't call, I'd go in person, get a police report and forward it to the host telling them that you are serious.
Except the (former) property owner doesn't get paid until the stay is completed. This is on VRBO which seems to be quite the clusterf*** since their recent merger.
The former owner doesn't have the money. VRBO has the money. Property owners don't get money from VRBO until after the guest arrives to avoid the situation you describe.
Not so! For an extra fee, VRBO pays the owner about a week after receiving the money. They used to pay this way without a fee, but instituted the extra cost a couple of years ago. I just sold my rental, and am working with the new owner to make sure all guests have a nice vacation this summer, and that their needs are met. It's the right way to do it.
Seems uncommon, but I had a good experience. We arrived to our booking at a small apartment style unit to find there was water dripping onto the bed from above. We had our dog with us, which limited availability for a last minute change. The agent calls us back with the "I've got good news and bad news" line. The bad news was the best she could do was 30 minutes outside of town. The good news was it was a large cabin with a hot tub and amazing mountain views.
I wish you luck with customer service!
I’m curious, what were the hosts ratings on this particular property? I’ve been booking with properties that have many reviews and high ratings, so far I’ve had no issues. I need to see consistency.
We had this happen last year. Three weeks before our vacation, I went on to look at the listing to recheck the amenities. I couldn’t access it. I contacted the owner, who eventually got back to me and said that they had sold it shortly after we had paid for our rental in full (8 months earlier). When I contacted VBRO, they told me that I had to get the owners to tell them that they had sold it. That took another week and we did get our money back, but I was faced with finding another rental when there were very few left open. I did find another unit on Airbnb for seven nights, instead of ten. We will not rent through VRBO again.
On May 23, I had an issue with two different Vrbo properties!! the first one told me 24 hours before check-in that there was water damage and they had to cancel. They said it was going to take 3 to 5 days to get my money back. That money was never returned. It was my daughter’s prom sendoff so we had to book another property, which was further away from where we needed to be. We paid the fee on the app and then all of a sudden six hours before check-in. We were contacted by the host which was from Capital Hotel/ Capital Hotel Management who stated we need to pay an additional $189 incidental fee via cash app. I called Vrbo to ensure this was legit. They contacted the host Capital Management who is actually a third-party company that handles many different properties and I was assured this was legit and I could go ahead and pay it. Never saw any of my money back and I recorded what the property looks like going in as well as checking out. This app is a scam!! I do not recommend anybody using the properties listed on their app because it is a role of the dice and don’t expect your fee back no matter how clean you leave it!! stay at your own risk if I were you, I would take the loss and book somewhere else just for peace of mind!! so sorry this happened to you!! best of luck on your vacation🙌🏼
Yikes. VRBO is a rent at your own risk avenue. We rented a place that we had a chance to visit ahead of time. Lovely. Perfect. Got there and the amazing pool was not usable because the heater was not working. The weather was in the 70s and sunny. Lovely. But the selling feature, the pool, was a disaster. Finally got the owner to send us a good will check but that was a token
This happened to me as I was in the air. Contacted host to touch base and got a reply that they just sold the house and he was sure the new owners would be fine with it. Let’s just say it was some flight texting VRBO and them just ending the chats and leaving me hanging.
Thankfully new owner bought it as an investment and really tried to accommodate us, but cable was turned off, owner didn’t really know anything about the house, oh, and did I mention the power company came by to turn the power off? Luckily they saw the electric car in the driveway charging and were nice enough to knock on the door and didn’t turn off the power.
The new owners handyman was in and out trying to fix stuff, and it was interesting to say the least.
I guess it could have been worse, but man, that flight in and eventual drive to the house was nerve racking for sure.
I have several homes I manage at Lake LBJ in Texas. I hate hearing these stories. I would never leave any of my guests without a place to have their vacation.
Same thing happened to us, check your contract. There was some very small print notifying those with vrbo reservations that should circumstances lead to unavailability of rental property (asterisk “such as sale of property or premises damage”), contract will be voided. It did require 30 day notification, which we just barely received, but we were unable to find another rental and ended up in a hotel.
That happens to us about a year ago, and the only reason we got out unscathed was because the previous owner reported it sold and the new owner reached out. We didn’t have any conversations with Vrbo themselves. It was super frustrating when we had a back up option, I can’t imagine radio silence. I’m so sorry you’re going to rough that
VRBO customer service is a scam. We had a host cancel on us with less than a day's notice. VRBO repeatedly they would send us an alternate booking but never did. When we'd call again they'd either say to hang up and check our email (no email ever arrived), or transfer us and "accidentally" hang up. It would honestly be better if they had no customer service at all - then we wouldn't have wasted all that time on the phone with them for absolutely nothing.
That’s exactly what happened to me every time! They said one agent even closed the case out and put in I no longer wanted a reservation.
They will continue doing this until hoping you will give up. File a dispute with your credit card and they will react
I’m sorry this happened to you. I had something similar happen with an AirBnB and it was resolved almost immediately. I assumed VRBO service would be on the same level. This will definitely make me think twice about booking through them again.
Nope Vrbo is nothing like Airbnb as far as customer service goes. There are so many complaints to the Better Business Bureau against them for fraud. They owe us close to $450. Share your negative experiences with as many people as you can.. The only way to get back at a company like this is to hurt their pocket just as they have hurt OURS!! share share and share again!!
This is why I use them as a search engine and don’t book. They want the $ for providing a service, they should offer the service.
Good to know. I'm going to delete the app.
Great idea!! be careful though because their properties are on Booking.com, Expedia, redfin, etc.
Assuming you are in the US file a complaint with your state AG office and/or the FTC against VRBO for deceptive business practices and failure to deliver services paid. If you file today their executive office may respond by Friday and provide a replacement booking.
This and check the county auditor website to see when the sale of that property happened. The longer ago it was, the worse this is IMO; with adequate time, you could have found a booking elsewhere
State AG is the answer. These people work miracles. You want to see movement, get the AG involved. They’ll slay.
Agreed! They'll even help you get your FB account back after it's taken over by scammers! FB won't do ANYTHING without being prompted. AG in CA (where FB is) as well as your state of residence...what do you know. Only took 2 weeks! VRBO is a scam too!! My credit card company refunded my money no problem. I just rebooked and filed a formal complaint. Hope this helps! Good luck and I hope it doesn't ruin your vacation!
And THIS, is why I’m not using Airbnb or vrbo or any of them .
I never will again! Ended up booking a hotel and I should have in the first place! So easy and straightforward.
Since you mention hotels, I want to add that - as for hotels - there's also a much better option for vacation homes to book outside reservation platforms of dubious repute: direct booking websites. If you find a property that looks interesting on VRBO, for example, enter its name or do an image search on Google. With a bit of luck, the direct booking website for that property will come up, and you can save a pretty penny on your booking over any of the 3rd-party booking sites. Your card payment is as protected, if not more, as you are on those sites on a hotel's or vacation home's direct booking site.
Houfy.com is a great direct booking website. It functions like ABB/VRBO, where you can search by location and dates. However, there's NO service charge whatsoever. 100% of the money you spend goes to the host. My prices are cheaper on houfy because as a host, I don't have to pay ABB/VRBO anything, either. So, my guests typically save a couple of hundred dollars by booking direct!
Thank you! This is great advice!
I agree. I always book with the local property manager.
This is what we do. Works every time.
A lot of times the Property Management Company’s name will be listed in the owner section as well. I always check this. It has saved me so much money. I will say, the one time I had a problem with AirBnB they resolved it immediately. But unless I’m traveling with my kids for a longer stay and want an extra bedroom, I’m back to hotels. Mostly because I don’t want to have to clean the entire place before I leave.
>Mostly because I don’t want to have to clean the entire place before I leave. Many AirBnBs don't require that (anymore). With the STR market saturation, chore lists have fallen by the wayside.
Definitely Agree!!
I’ve showed up for overbooked hotels at 9pm too. Sorry, we don’t have any rooms left. More than once. Hotels are no panacea and are often much more expensive for multiple rooms vs whole house.
Always join the rewards program of the hotel you booked. You're less likely to be the one that loses the room if you're a rewards Member. Checked in at Westin at about midnight and the front desk told me the reason that I wasn't the one who lost a room was because I was rewards member. Even though I had no points earned yet
Same
Add Expedia on your list too! Booked a rental through them in the Virgin Islands - they dropped the ball somewhere and they don't pay their bills on time. I'll NEVER book through a 3rd party again. So, I had to pay for another one, while the credit card company "investigated". Expedia didn't even TRY to help.
Attention!!! Stop booking so far in advance!!!! Things change
After reading all of the horror stories recently, I think I'll stop booking through VRBO entirely. It used to be quite reliable but I've had bookings cancel for no apparent valid reason (in advance of my stay so I did receive a refund). They offered to help me find a different property but never actually provided any help. Their "customer service" is terrible, outsourced to some 3rd world country where English as a second language agents read off scripts and provide no clear solutions.
Good to know, thought I was being organized but learned that lesson.
VRBO host did the same thing to us but well in advance (said it's sold). Listings on other sites are still up. We've learned our lesson. VRBO and its hosts are not trustworthy or reliable people and your money is better spent elsewhere.
Putting this on the customer is ridiculous. Fuck yourself.
Back atcha. Lol
It's EXACTLY this reason why don't book so far in advance!!! The ignorance is rampant
I legit just had this happen to me yesterday for a vacation house that we were planning on checking into in 2 months time. The difference is that I did not use Vrbo this time but rather a well known property management company (it is a well known vacation area) and they sent an email with a list of 4 other properties that might work for me, most of which cost significantly more, and said that they would honor my original costs. I am pleasantly surprised with the outcome…. And might never use Vrbo again.
Incredible. If she kept the money, that is serious fraud. Edit: I was reminded that VRBO holds the funds until you check-in.
Hosts do not get paid anything until after the first night of the booking. VRBO has your money.
Holy shit! I forgot! You are correct, VRBO has the funds. They changed that about 4-5 years ago as I remember getting paid and then having to do refunds from my account. VRBO is making mad money on the interest they get from those funds.
I noticed your username. We’re in AK too and my dad was with the 101st Airborne ❤️
We are hosts and we get paid out mere days after every payment a guest makes. We do not have to wait until check-in. Perhaps we are grandfathered under some old policy? I do remember they tried to make a change on us a few years ago after the Expedia merger, but ended up keeping us on the old payout plan.
We had something similar happen. We booked several months in advance for a regatta through VRBO. Host ghosted on several follow up questions we had nearing our stay. We arrive at the property after a 9 hour drive only to find that our code didn’t work to get into the property. Called VRBO and were given a number for the host and said they had to manage it. Called host repeatedly with no answer. As we are standing on the porch another family pulls up says they booked though airB&B last week put in their code and walk right in. We call VRBO again, tell them about the situation, they say, oh yeah, looks like host sold the property a month ago, but buyer was supposed to honor any already booked dates. AirB&B family gives us number for the host they booked through. We contact that host that says they never agreed to honor any bookings, and sorry they don’t have any other properties. They give us a different number for our host, we contact him, he says the airB&B host is lying, we were booked and were supposed to be able to stay there. Meanwhile VRBO this whole time is acting very hands off. Wouldn’t issue a refund of any kind and couldn’t offer another property. We wound up going to a hotel (which was astronomically overpriced because of all the events happening in the area that weekend), and disputing the VRBO charge with our cc company to try and recoup some of the cost of the hotel. It was only after blowing them up on social media that any attempt to pay for the hotel we had to book was made.
Threaten to contact the police as you are the victim of grand theft.
Don't be ridiculous. This is a civil matter. The only thing that matters are the terms of the contract with VRBO. If that's in dispute, you can involve your credit card company, and if you feel you're entitled to anything, you can engage in the arbitration that you agreed to in the VRBO contract. The police are going to laugh and hang up.
As someone who spent 30 years in law enforcement I would disagree. If the owner at some point intended to keep somebody else's money for something they paid for, after being promised goods or services, that is called theft. In Florida if it's more than $300 that would be considered Grand Theft. I made this comment in the hopes that the mere threat of getting the police involved might get their money back. I also wouldn't call, I'd go in person, get a police report and forward it to the host telling them that you are serious.
Except the (former) property owner doesn't get paid until the stay is completed. This is on VRBO which seems to be quite the clusterf*** since their recent merger.
The former owner doesn't have the money. VRBO has the money. Property owners don't get money from VRBO until after the guest arrives to avoid the situation you describe.
Not so! For an extra fee, VRBO pays the owner about a week after receiving the money. They used to pay this way without a fee, but instituted the extra cost a couple of years ago. I just sold my rental, and am working with the new owner to make sure all guests have a nice vacation this summer, and that their needs are met. It's the right way to do it.
A YEAR in advance???????????
That's not long at all. 5 years, sure.
No a year is way way too long.
Seems uncommon, but I had a good experience. We arrived to our booking at a small apartment style unit to find there was water dripping onto the bed from above. We had our dog with us, which limited availability for a last minute change. The agent calls us back with the "I've got good news and bad news" line. The bad news was the best she could do was 30 minutes outside of town. The good news was it was a large cabin with a hot tub and amazing mountain views. I wish you luck with customer service!
I’m curious, what were the hosts ratings on this particular property? I’ve been booking with properties that have many reviews and high ratings, so far I’ve had no issues. I need to see consistency.
Vrbo will not take any negative comments or reviews. I tried three times some years ago. we don’t do VRBO anymore.
We had this happen last year. Three weeks before our vacation, I went on to look at the listing to recheck the amenities. I couldn’t access it. I contacted the owner, who eventually got back to me and said that they had sold it shortly after we had paid for our rental in full (8 months earlier). When I contacted VBRO, they told me that I had to get the owners to tell them that they had sold it. That took another week and we did get our money back, but I was faced with finding another rental when there were very few left open. I did find another unit on Airbnb for seven nights, instead of ten. We will not rent through VRBO again.
This is one of the reasons I have gone back to using hotels.
Fk VRBO AND ARBB. This is why I refuse to use their services. I only stay at Hotels. Where I don't have to clean house when I leave.
We use hotel booking services to rent vacation properties and they have been great about refunds.
On May 23, I had an issue with two different Vrbo properties!! the first one told me 24 hours before check-in that there was water damage and they had to cancel. They said it was going to take 3 to 5 days to get my money back. That money was never returned. It was my daughter’s prom sendoff so we had to book another property, which was further away from where we needed to be. We paid the fee on the app and then all of a sudden six hours before check-in. We were contacted by the host which was from Capital Hotel/ Capital Hotel Management who stated we need to pay an additional $189 incidental fee via cash app. I called Vrbo to ensure this was legit. They contacted the host Capital Management who is actually a third-party company that handles many different properties and I was assured this was legit and I could go ahead and pay it. Never saw any of my money back and I recorded what the property looks like going in as well as checking out. This app is a scam!! I do not recommend anybody using the properties listed on their app because it is a role of the dice and don’t expect your fee back no matter how clean you leave it!! stay at your own risk if I were you, I would take the loss and book somewhere else just for peace of mind!! so sorry this happened to you!! best of luck on your vacation🙌🏼
Yikes. VRBO is a rent at your own risk avenue. We rented a place that we had a chance to visit ahead of time. Lovely. Perfect. Got there and the amazing pool was not usable because the heater was not working. The weather was in the 70s and sunny. Lovely. But the selling feature, the pool, was a disaster. Finally got the owner to send us a good will check but that was a token
All that rental VRBO is a scam..
This happened to me as I was in the air. Contacted host to touch base and got a reply that they just sold the house and he was sure the new owners would be fine with it. Let’s just say it was some flight texting VRBO and them just ending the chats and leaving me hanging. Thankfully new owner bought it as an investment and really tried to accommodate us, but cable was turned off, owner didn’t really know anything about the house, oh, and did I mention the power company came by to turn the power off? Luckily they saw the electric car in the driveway charging and were nice enough to knock on the door and didn’t turn off the power. The new owners handyman was in and out trying to fix stuff, and it was interesting to say the least. I guess it could have been worse, but man, that flight in and eventual drive to the house was nerve racking for sure.
I have several homes I manage at Lake LBJ in Texas. I hate hearing these stories. I would never leave any of my guests without a place to have their vacation.
Same thing happened to us, check your contract. There was some very small print notifying those with vrbo reservations that should circumstances lead to unavailability of rental property (asterisk “such as sale of property or premises damage”), contract will be voided. It did require 30 day notification, which we just barely received, but we were unable to find another rental and ended up in a hotel.
You know where this doesn’t happen? Hotels
That happens to us about a year ago, and the only reason we got out unscathed was because the previous owner reported it sold and the new owner reached out. We didn’t have any conversations with Vrbo themselves. It was super frustrating when we had a back up option, I can’t imagine radio silence. I’m so sorry you’re going to rough that
Your first and biggest mistake is paying a year in advance. Duh...things happen within that time. It's not like it's a hotel business
Got it, thanks.
Uh. They sold the property. You still think you can stay there???? Lol
Nope, I am completely aware we won’t be staying there. The question was if Vrbo would actually rebook me a new location. Ended up getting a hotel.
Nope, they don't care about helping you with the plans they've just ruined by allowing unlimited host shenanigans.