Vrbo

I booked a vacation rental for 5 nights for my 4 people family. 2 kids, me and husband.

We arrived villa at late night on 8/6 and just slept and the next day left early morning for Miami roadtrip and came home around 8:30 PM.

things were normal only on this two nights. On Tuesday night, when we came home around 8:10 PM the temperature inside was 96 degrees. The emergency phone number on file and on the reservation confirmation email was out of service. I called travel agencys number several times and left 3 voice messages between 8:15-8:50 PM and they called me back around 9 PM and told me they would send me maintenance guys in the following 45 mins.

We were planning to have a family barbecue party that night but since it was around 100 degrees inside and there were 2 maintenance guys at home we delayed this plan to the next day. Guys left home around 10:15 PM and we had to stay with them until they leave the house, the temperature of the house turned into normal degrees when it was around 12:30 AM.

Next morning (wed morning), i woke up with leaking voices coming from the first floor, when i went to downstairs i saw it was leaking from the ceiling and it was like it was raining in the living room. I kept a water bucket under the leaking area and changed the 10 liter bucket 2 times from 6 AM to 8:30 AM. I called the agency to inform them about the leaking and we were planning to go out to universal , of course we could bot spend all our time at home to change the bucket until they come.

Noone answered the call and i again left a voice message. They called me back after 11 AM when we were already in Universal Studios. I told them we are not at home and did not leave the keys since we had left all our valuable stuff at home. We went home around 6 PM at that day and surprise!

In addition to leaking there was a high volume alarm sound at home and it was not possible to stop it since the dijital alarm screen was not responding. Called the agency several times and they called me back around 9 PM and sent the same maintenance folks to fix both issues. The leaking was because of the AC unit fix happened the day before and the alarm voice was because of the ring bell thing. They cut the cables to stop the annoying sound and left home around 11 PM.

We wanted to use this house for sleeping and cooking at nights. 2 nights of 5 were nightmare for the entire family. I called vrbo about these ongoing issues and they advised me to send an email to homeowner, i did, i sent home owner an email ! I was really surprised by her answer!

she mentioned that she is so sad and sent me the positive review of the previous guest. Of course i rented this house by reading the reviews, it they were not positive i would not rent it! She also told me that vrbo folks called her at 2 AM ( her local UK time) to inform her about the issues. And she wrote me that vrbos call made her family awakened!!!

Woooow! . If she is making money from this business and if the guests who paid $ 1554 for 5 nights are exposed to an annoying alarm voice for 5 hrs and a leaking from the ceiling, it generates another annoying voice ! And we had to change the buckets to keep the ground dry !!

But she is complaining about being awakened at midnight! Sorry then we should live with this annoying sound and does not matter if we do not sleep!!! Home owner has to take care of her houses annual structural maintenance before renting her house to people who has only 1 week PTO in a year. Guests are not supposed to welcome maintenance guys until late nights while she is fixing her houses structural issues.

I asked vrbo to refund 2 nights bc they were completely nightmare for all of us. Vrbo does not take the responsibility to refund and they just rely on home owner. BTW, we were supposed to leave the house on Friday morning and home owner offered us a refund only for the 1 day if we do not want to stay for that day. There was only one day left and how could she think that we would find another place to stay for one night and move all our stuff (pack again and repack again) only for one night.

This is not a refund! After having all these issues if we want to leave for the remaining one day we will get money back!

What a customer centric experience! I have never experienced such a unique terrible vacation experience!

Read the policy's so when I rented a 1bd Apt that said Entire place this is what it said exactly. And host explained that the rental he had to post on the site he couldn't finish putting up the bed because he was tired and I had to help him or stay in the shared space rental.

Asked a ton of personal questions about me like where are you located right now which is strange and said you don't sound like you are from Georgia. What a *** bag. He claimed he had to meet me at the falsely advertised home so he can take me to another unit he didn't have the furniture ready for and put his bed up for him all this I paid 600 nearly for the week. Now I'm begging my boss to give me an advance for stay or I'll haft to sleep in my car for the week and I haven't heard anything from VRBO as far as my refund or Expedia who refuses to even acknowledge my booking through them, some alliance with VRBO.

And I literally haft to be in vicinity to what seems to not even be a viable address because on Google maps it's a bunch of trees in front of an apartment building not townhomes. There's no proof of anyone buying or selling that property at that address at all on the web which is strange even home 50 yrs or older in ga have pictures on Google maps. He seems too eager to meet up and would never answer any of my questions right out about him and this guest of his in my rental.

Now mind you Vrbos policy is that they do not rent shared space it's their own freaking policy. Airbnb wasn't much better but at least the host aren't *** scam artists though I've only had one stay on Airbnb I felt safe and right now I feel I've been scammed.

Bonjour, Hi,
English version follows
Lundi dernier, le 22 janvier 2024, nous avons procédé à la réservation de notre hébergement pour la semaine du 24 au 31 mars 2024, en Guadeloupe. Bien que l'application et le site internet soit en devise canadienne, ainsi que tous le détaillé de la facture que nous avons vu avant de procéder au paiement, il apert que sur ma carte de crédit ET par la suite sur le détaillé de la facture, que tous les montant soient en dollars US.

Est-ce possible de comprendre ce qui s'est passé, d'avoir un correctif dans la bonne devise ainsi que le remboursement de 836.94$ CA? De plus, ce qui est d'autant plus inacceptable est que lors de la réception des confirmations de paiements, on ne voit AUCUNE mention de la devise de paiement. Honnêtement, voir une villa annoncée à 258$/canadien pour les dates prévues et réserver à ce taux pour un total avec taxes et services à 2189.18$ CA, et au final avoir une facture de 3026.12$ est très loin de la réalité première.
J'ai des preuves de ce que j'avance. Bien triste que je ne puisse les ajouter en pièces jointes
Merci de la considération de la présente demande.

Vous pouvez me joindre sur mon cellulaire au
_____
Last Monday, January 22nd, 2024, we reserved a villa on your Website. For the week of March 24th to March 31st, 2024, in Guadeloupe. Even though the Website was clearly set-up in Canadian, as well as the Web App when we performed our researches, I was charged in US dollars on my credit card and since then, when I look at the details of the bill, I can see it is in US dollars. Is it possible to understand what happened, to get a correction to the proper dollar charged and get the reimbursement of 836.94$CA on my credit card?

In addition, and it is even more unacceptable, in the emails I received to confirm payments, NOWHERE is it mention in which currency. Honestly, to see a villa advertised at 258$/CA for that week, complete the reservation and see 2189.18$ with taxes and services, and then, to see on my credit card bill a total of 3026.12$ charged, is really far from reality.
I have proof of my saying.

Too bad I cannot attach them.
Thank you for the consideration of my request. You can reach me on my cell at
Passez une agréable journée
Mélanie Martel

Cozy Covington home on 275 branchwood, in Covington, GA was anything but cozy! On morning of 3rd day of our stay one flush proved disaster.

Home had sewage coming into shower, tub and leaked to floors in bedroom to where we had to move our luggage out of room.

Host said they would send someone out the day of our checkout the next day! Really? In calling for more to be done to help, I spoke to VRBO rep, who advised we not cancel reservation immediately but allow the host time (up to 24hrs) to atleast try to fix things. Host said no one could come bc of holiday.

I called and found a plumber that could come WITHIN 2 hours despite the host saying that ALL plumbers were booked/unavailable due to it being NYE holiday. The host asked for roto rooter the # via text on VRBO site and I sent # for plumber thinking that finally some resolution is going to come,..

oonly to have the host text hours later,(after midnight) to say maintenance will be by later that day on our check out! Unbelievable! What a ruse!

Host didn't reply til after midnight...only for the host to say that someone would be there sometime later the following afternoon. To add to this, in doing what the VRBO rep advised in this situation I was told because I "accepted the circumstances" as they were with raw sewage floating through the house (Which is definitely NOT true) I voided my criteria to get a refund ! What? Seriously??

I had a disabled person, military veteran, and 7yr old that could not use the bathroom in the middle of the night in a home we paid almost $800 for.

We were not offered compensation to go to a hotel NOR was a refund given in part of full for the inconvenience and unsanitary conditions we encountered.

The home looked nice on the pictures but it was a deception of what the host projects and what actually happened there.

On top of that, the host is foreign? or not available via phone. The numbers don't work or no one answers the phone.

OPULUXE Management, Sherryn ORR, Myisha, all dealings with this company in this emergent situation was a complete disaster! I really cannot believe VRBO allows or does not have a better system in place for when emergent type situations occur or to permit the hosts to behave in such a manner.

To allow us, the consumers, to have a rental without immediate assistance backup numbers or resolution. The VRBO rep said they have to give the hos atleast 24 hours to respond. That's fine for a blown light bulb or a spider on the front porch, but for active toilet issues and water flooding, we could have literally been chin deep in the -ISH waiting for the 24hrs to pass , for all that mattered!!

Not acceptable. They VRBO or OPULUXE MGMT, or the hosts would not like to have been treated this way or found this acceptable, if they were in this same circumstance.

We booked 2 weeks at a resort on the marina in Cabo. Stay was from January 16 to 29.

Dec 17 we paid half the cost. Dec 18 was the point at which we would only get half of our resort payment returned. Dec 19 we got a call from Juan Jaramillo of EV Brokerage the the resort had some kind of a problem and had canceled our booking. The resort immediately returned all our money.

Juan informed us that to get our money back we had to cancel our reservation. This info was over the phone. The cancellation by the resort was not done with an email that could be referred to. Incidentally, the resort contacted us on the 18 of Dec and offered us a booking for the same time for $3141.63 usd when our original booking for that time was $1565.28.

And you are refusing to pay us back your original $154.

USD for the cancelled booking. Everyone beware of VRBO.

Reserved and paid for a condo for 2 weeks, 3 months in advance. Arrived to no electricity.

There was no electric meter due to nonpayment. Could not contact customer service. The host knew but didnt tell us until we were already on the plane. Took 2 days to fix.

Had to pay triple the price for a place to stay plus cab and back and forth. Then when we return and can use the lights, the place is so infested with mold in the rooms, we ended up just sleeping on the floor. Finally got to customer support they put me on hold and disconnected me several times. Then a manager from the complex showed up and said that the owners were not allowed to do short term rentals and we had to go.

I contacted support several more times.. now 4 days into this nightmare VBRO says I may qualify for their book with confidence guarantee and get reimbursed.. but it will take days.. called again and got the same answer..

no one has accepted my receipts for the extra expenses, or even asked. We were stranded in a foreign country for 4 days and counting it was a fraudulent rental on VBRO and they are in no hurry to help us.

My family feels that VRBO is a scam, do not deliver what they promise and do not help people who are scammed by the property owner.

The owner/manager lied about having air conditioning in the apartment and this was false advertising on the VRBO website. We specifically booked this place for 3 reasons and the number 1 reason was the Air-Conditioning.

This place was still extremely unclean after sending one cleaner to come and clean it after the 4pm check-in time.

He also lied about the cleanliness of his property. Both issues were a health and safety issue as my 92-year-old grandmother could not stay in a place that was not air-conditioned in a very hot apartment in Montreal's humid summer with an air quality warning. Also, I could not stay in a hot apartment with my health issues as well as the poor air quality affects my auto-immune disease and my asthma. Both health issues made it so that my grandmother and I couldn't open the window in our bedroom which made it even hotter and difficult to sleep.

To make matters worse the apartment was completely filthy and very dusty which are also health concerns for my asthma and auto-immune disease. In addition to the fact that there were health and safety concerns, we were missing basic items in the apartment. There were towels for each of us (we booked for 5 guests and only had 4 bath towels), there were no facecloths, no hand towels for when you wash your hands, the bathroom doors did not shut completely and there were no kitchen cleaning cloths or kitchen towels. We noticed that just a half of a roll of paper towel and half or less of toilet paper rolls were in the bathrooms.

(We have extensive photo's and video to back all of this up.)

I also want to mention that we tried to get a hold of the owner/manager by phone about our issues and asked him to call which he did not. He also would not answer us about where to find the air-conditioning controls and units. We assumed that this was because there were none. The VRBO customer service people also tried to contact the unit owner/manager but he would not answer the phone for them either.

The owner/manager/manager texted through VRBO and emailed about the cleanliness and said that his cleaners took pictures of how clean it was but the pictures were taken from far away and no one could actually see how dirty it was from those pictures. Of course it is going to look fine from far away.

So be forewarned, the place looks great on surface but in person is dirty and poorly kept.

As a side note, since we were trying to get a hold of the owner/manager urgently but he was not calling us back, out of desperation my cousin Kelly (also staying at the unit) texted and said he needed to call us because the unit was flooding as we knew that he was ignoring us and would only respond if he thought it was an emergency to him - which is exactly what happened, when he thought his place was flooding he called immediately. Since the owner/manager finally called us, we were finally able to talk to him. My cousin explained that we said that there was flooding so he would call us back about our concerns since our messages about calling us to talk were being ignored.

He did not want to hear what we had to say and would not let me speak, he just yelled at me and then said you are a liar and you can leave a bad review about me, I dont care. You are never getting your money back and hung up.

We spoke to 4 different people at VRBO over the phone on Thursday, June 29th over a six hour period. All said they would call us back when we got disconnected but in the end they did not. At no time did my phone show a missed call or a voicemail.

If they had called and couldn't get through why wouldn't they leave a voicemail? The last person we spoke to that night was supposed to move us to another accommodation and agreed that it was a health and safety concern to stay there however when we got cut off she never did call us back. During those conversations they kept saying they had to check with a supervisor so we asked if we could speak with the supervisor directly but none were available. With nowhere else to go and talking to VRBO without call backs until after 10pm we had no choice but to stay the night.

The next morning we spoke to two different customer service people who, after 3 hours, finally put us through to an agent who was supposed to find us somewhere else to stay.

The accommodation person finally said that there was nothing she could do to help us despite the fact that the owner/manager had falsely advertised his unit AND we had many health and safety concerns. When we asked if we could talk to the supervisor, she put us on hold and then when she came back on the line said that there were no supervisors available to talk to. In a company as large as VRBO I find it hard to believe that there wasnt a supervisor available anywhere to talk to and to help us with our complaints.

This was a stressful, horrible ordeal and because we could not stay in those conditions, I told the owner/manager by email that we were terminating our stay there and filing for a refund through our insurance. I never did receive a response from the owner/manager about us leaving.

The owner/manager did text me 3 days later to see if he could enter the unit to install air conditioning units on Sunday at around 4pm. By then it was way too late. We originally would have been leaving the next morning had we stayed.

This experience completely ruined our holiday as we had to find somewhere safer to go. This took up basically an entire full day and a half OUT of our holiday with spending time on hold and calling back, then spending time trying to find another place to stay, finding a way to get there as we booked this place due to the location and it's walkability to everything.

We ended up having to book a place 30 mins away, so after all of this ordeal, then getting settled into the new place, we had lost all of that time.

It is also disappointing as now, we are forced to let everyone we know what happened to us so that our friends and their friends do not suffer the same injustice from VRBO or that property owner/manager as we did.

As was mentioned we have extensive photos, videos, a witness and are in the process of getting written documentation from our doctors about the health risks we were faced with. However the insurance is refusing to accept our claim so now we are thinking Generali Insurance is also a scam.

I found that my listing was inactivated. It must have been inactive for some time.

I called and they said it was inactivated due to me canceling reservations. I explained that I have not once canceled a reservation that there have been a few clients that canceled on me. He checked and confirmed and said my listing was inactivated in error. I had been disconnected at least 3 times.

I pay for a year subscription for them to advertise for me. I am in month 6 so I ask for a refund. My issue was escalated and I was expecting a phone call.

After a week I called back and they told me I would be escalated to another department and I should receive an email with 7 days, it's been 2 weeks and no email and no one can help me. All I am being told is to wait foe this email.

I tried to book a room in Piigeon Forge TN this past Friday night, 1/12/24. The app said the first two bookings i trued to make the dates were no longer available.

So i booked a third time and it went through. Then when i looked at my bank account VRBO had taken out$1254. They charged me for all 3 rooms. I immediately got on with costumer service to cancel which they were unable to do.

I was told i would be called back in 24 hours. I have since called 2 more times. I was able to cancel 2 of the 3. For some reason your company and customer service is still unable to cancel the final booking and refund me the almost $500 for that booking.

It has been 4 days.

Ive called 3 times and heard nothing. I have bills coming up and i need this booking refunded ASAP!

I booked a rental through VRBO for my family to stay in Costa Rica February of 2021. I paid in full.

Shortly after booking, the U.S. announced travel restrictions because of Covid. We decided that the risk was too great, so we reached out to the property owner to cancel and get a refund, The property owner was reluctant, and said that we would need to cancel the reservation through VRBO before they could help. So I cancelled the reservation through VRBO.

After I did that, the owners became combative and ultimately blocked communication(the only way to communicate with the owners is through VRBO email system) So I thought I would write a review of my experience of the interaction with the owner. VRBO will only allow a review to be posted AFTER the stay is complete. Apparently they send a review request after the stay. Because I cancelled, I had no opportunity to post a review of my experience.

Obviously the owner understood this. So they kept my $2276.00 and avoided any sort of review. I went to VRBO and they were unresponsive. I posted candid accurate information on their Facebook page and I was blocked.

I filed in small claims and they had a para legal appear virtually.

I lost because the court said that I needed to pursue the owner. The problem is that VRBO protects the owners information, so no recourse for me.