Vrbo Owner Customer Service

Vrbo Owner Positive Reviews

More Owner ProtectionsWe have mostly had wonderful guests book our home through VRBO. However, we have had a few bad apples & would not have accepted their booking if VRBO required written responses from hosts instead of just the star rating. The fact that VRBO allows for guests to write a written review for hosts, but hosts just give a star rating, shows how heavily your favor towards guests is. We as owners have a lot more to lose if something goes wrong, it is our property after all. For this reason, we stopped allowing instant booking since we had no ability to filter any potential issues beforehand. Our last guests had no star ratings on VRBO yet they had booked on VRBO before. They ended up arriving 3 hours before check in, had 3 extra guests that they did not pay or book for, & it was a huge hassle to try & resolve it while they were in our home. If VRBO allows hosts to give a detailed, written review for guests, it would allow hosts to have a better idea of who the guests are & we could choose if they were a good fit or not. I can only think VRBO gives more power to the guests as it means more money for VRBO, that’s not good business. Thankfully there are far more wonderful guests than not, giving the owners the ability to give a detailed rating would not harm the amount of bookings VRBO gets, rather it would help filter out the disrespectful guests who owners have the right to be warned about. Keep the system that both owner & guest have to write a review before they are allowed to view their review, it keeps the reviews unbiased. I know many other hosts who have this same grievance with VRBO, it’s a simple fix. Please remember owners are why you have a business.Yucca MoonVersion: 2023.8.0

Wanted to like it more than I doAlthough I love the idea of it, I am disappointed in the owner app - at least the mobile version. I just spent a half hour trying to figure out how to look at pricing so I could tell a potential guest how much of a discount they get for an extended stay. Finally, I had to look at the quote and multiply it out. Also, I still haven’t found where to change pricing if I need to - even using help! I guess that’s the long way of saying it could be more intuitive - I have a hard time finding what I need to be responsive. I also really dislike the little note that pops up to tell me I lost a booking. Your company works hard to create a community of owners, and then you set us up as competitors who win or lose bookings. Not every property will be appropriate or desirable for every traveler, and a savvy individual will look at a number of properties before selecting one. To tell me I lost a booking makes me angry, when I suspect the intent is to cause me to look at how I could have “won” the booking. Maybe I could lower my price, maybe I could add a bedroom or put in a pool... The fact is, my house is what it is. I can’t change its location or the number of bedrooms. It is well appointed with every amenity I can add. But it will not be perfect for every traveler, so to say that I “lost” a booking to my neighbor implies failure that simply isn’t there. I think there must be a better way to offer helpful comparisons without pitting owners against each other..Pele's DaughterVersion: 2018.14

No good for OwnersThis app and overall website is not good or user friendly for Owners. When you receive an inquiry and go to read it you have to log in every time, there is no user id memory function. It also takes you to screens of the latest tools rather than taking your directly to the inquiry. Lastly VRBO does NOT let the owner communicate directly with the potential renter. I want to vet my potential renters and see if they are good people and/or validate they have as many guests coming that they message through VRBO. VRBO does absolutely no background check. The site also gives the person, making the inquiry, the impression that they’ve locked in the property. Again, we want to make sure that our home will be in good hands. I’ve tried sending my phone number and email address and VRBO xxx it out. Earlier this summer I was on holiday and did not respond to an inquiry. Without notification, VRBO put my account on inactive status so potential renters could not see it. Even though I paid my $500 annual fee and I lost 3 months of active advertising. This site is unethical. The fees are ridiculous for the service rendered. If I were a website developer I would definitely create some competition for VRBO & Home Away..KmrlovesmarcoVersion: 2018.18

Good but one issueI’ve used the owner app for a couple years and I generally like it however my one complaint is that it ghosts all forms of contact information from being shared with people. You can’t send anyone your phone number because VRBO doesn’t want us communication outside of the app. While I understand the business reasoning for this, it frustrates me because some renters want to be able to speak with you over the phone. I’ve had inquiries from Europeans who are interested in visiting the Chesapeake region for the first time and they would like to talk to a person rather than the impersonal messaging in the app. I would like to be treated like an adult by VRBO. If I want to share a phone number so that a potential guest can call me and get a better feeling about their vacation planning, I should be able to do that. If VRBO is so afraid of losing business they should come up with better incentives to keep people willingly using their system, not force the issue by treating us like children. Claire Homeowner.RiverhousegirlVersion: 2019.6.1

The whole system is flawed & costs the owners grief.Just had an altercation with a guest because Expedia doesn’t have a pet box when booking. Regardless of being pet friendly owners have a right to know before arrival in case specific information is needed. VRBO has one off in space somewhere, because rarely do people find it. So when they bring a pet it becomes an issue because the owner is not aware even though it’s in the contract. This happens constantly. I called about it & 3 cs service ppl started calling me opening 2 cases over it. I had to explain repeatedly to each one what the problem was. Not printer friendly. Printing is frustrating to make a copy of a deposit notice as the name of the guest is grayed out so you can’t read it & a reservation takes 2 pages. Even reports. It needs to be reformatted. Oh I could make a list. Since the original HOMEAWAY format they have junked it up confusing owners & guests while both pay more & more fees to have this service. Owners now pay the taxes on their reservations/banking fees they keep. Owners do the work. With Expedia who bought VRBO, it’s worse, seems the stock holders are not satisfied yet. Thinking of leaving..CicibpVersion: 2025.14.0

The exposure is great BUTThe exposure you get is great. My property stays rented out consistently. The website is good, sometimes a little confusing. The app on the other hand is extremely quirky with a lot of bugs. Most of the time you’ll have to refresh it multiple times trying to accomplish one single task. Also, when you need to call customer service the agents try to be as helpful as they possibly can. But they are very limited as to what they can do and the information they can give to you regarding your account. I’ve been waiting for an answer on a payout that is being held by the accounting department as to how much or why for three days now. Every time I call they say you have to wait for an email from the accounting department for the answer to your question. Well I’ve been waiting for three days. And I cannot talk to the accounting department personally. And this is not the first time this is happened. Also the customer service representatives can be a little difficult to understand as all of them have a foreign accent. Some of them too strong of an accent to understand..Pcic1Version: 2023.19.0

I try to avoid VRBO bookings bc of this appVRBO has definitely not kept up with the times of technology. This app can barely do anything for me as an owner. I have 3 listings on this site, I could potentially have 6 but I don’t even want to take the time to create a listing bc I try and push all my business to Airbnb. In order to do what I can do with a push of a button on Airbnb apps I have to log onto the main browser for VRBO. I can’t do the 2 main things that I do as an active STR owner which is add/remove blocked dates or adjust rates. This app is worthless to me. Maybe I’m missing some steps, but bc Airbnb is so user friendly as an app I set all my listings to “book now” on Airbnb and only “request to book” on vrbo. Plus the way vrbo pays you out as an owner is not straight forward. They don’t collect or pay any of the taxes on my behalf which is also a nice perk that Airbnb does. Regardless, I’ll keep my listings on here but have to jack up the price an additional 10% of my Airbnb listing price since they charge a higher commissions as well as charge me back the credit card transaction fee if the guest pays with a credit card! Sorry VRBO, you are not my first choice!!.TCountry11Version: 2018.24

What is up with the MarketPlace feed?I guess vrbo thinks I want to know every time someone books with another owner. It’s interesting but not actionable information. I mean I can’t change my view, add another room, or change how many people I can accommodate. When I go into the app, it’s usually to respond to a guest, or look at the calendar. But no, vrbo wants me to look at the market feed. Stop trying to make the Marketfeed happen. Why so much prominence on mobile and web site and why are you burying the operational aspects of my business? Inbox, calendar, rates, revenue. When I do want market data, the info I need is not available. The area my house is in is VERY seasonal, so the last 3 months doesn’t do me any good. I want last Summer’s data so I can manage my pricing. I think vrbo needs to do more research with users to understand needs regarding market data..Owner in TexasVersion: 2018.05

Nice app, not my favorite hosting serviceThe vrbo app works smooth and does what it is designed to do. It’s very user friendly and I can use it for all of my hosting needs. I’m just not as happy with the hosting process on vrbo compared to Airbnb. There are a couple of features that I do like about vrbo but overall the hosting process is much better with Airbnb. One feature I really wish was available with vrbo is to only allow well rated guests to “instant book”. I’m not as comfortable letting just anyone “instant book” my place without any prior reviews or knowledge of the person. The other issues are a bit more minor. I like that the calendar syncs between apps. I like the communication process on vrbo, the only thing lacking there is the option to have more automated messages sent to my guests. It saves you a lot of time when Airbnb automatically sends a prepared message to my guests at the times I have set. Keep working on your features vrbo but overall I like the experience on your app..WizzKid83Version: 2023.11.0

Upgrade App Is Badly FlawedThe new app is greatly flawed. It allowed me inadvertently to up change a reservation that had been fulfilled 5 months ago. It caused me to thing that Home Away had charged those renters for the reservation for 2018. When I called tech support they walked me through how to refund my renters wrong charge and how to submit a quote. When they refunded the money I realized that they had not put the money into my account to begin with. Now after 2 hours on the phone they are liking into but don’t think they are willing to help me. The funds were sent to my past renters and Home Away says I need to reach out to them to get my money back. That is a huge flaw in the their system and they are not taking responsibility for. Now this morning I have someone trying to rent another week but the Home Away app won’t let me add a pet fee. Since they up graded their app recently it is riddle with flaws and very confusing. Worst of all Home Away takes no responsibility for the horribly upgrade which may cost $1,650!!!! HORRIBLY!!!!.SugarBeeReviewerVersion: 2018.01

Many Scam InquiriesI have had one legit booking, and that was good. She didn’t get the address from Vrbo before check in and I had to message it to her on the day of arrival. I just received my third fraud inquiry like this but they all end with the numbers being typed out funny, trying to reduce the price, and getting off the site for payment (claiming cashier’s check). This reminds me of the scams that used to be on Craigslist. Owners BEWARE! Vrbo, please fix. They select our days and if we are connected to other platforms then they are selected until their non payment kicks them off. Here’s my recent scam that was in my inbox: “ Hello, Thanks for your response, I have discuss with my wife and we are both interested in your property. I will be coming with my wife, no kids and no pet for the vacation. It seems there a glitch with the vrbo app because the dates I inquired was June 2 through June 20 pls correct that and confirm the availability. My company will be taking care of the vacation so I can only make the payment by sending you a cashier check for it due to unsecured use of credit cards and other online payments, kindly get back to me with the mailing information and total quote for the night via my direct email onepeterhawkins G mail and you can also send the mailing information to my cell phone at #four #one #four #five #zero #two #nine #six #six #two, so we can further discuss this Thanks “.RealreviewGAVersion: 2024.16.0

Glitchy app & not user friendlyThis app doesn’t allow templates to be created through the app to have pocketed quick responses to inquiries, and doesn’t have an auto-reply feature, etc like Airbnb does. This is VERY important to me since I manage so many properties. The calendar view is nice bc it shows the prices for each day without having to click on the actual days, but the calendar it’s doesn’t work at least 30% of the time I try to open it on my iPhone XS. The calendar functions are extremely limited along with many features on the VRBO app that are available on Airbnb. VRBO also charges higher commissions for bookings and therefore I increase my price roughly 15% on VRBO and charge more fees simply because I don’t want to do business very frequently with VRBO. You would think with them charging much higher fees that they would have a premium product/ functionality over Airbnb, but that is FAR from the case..Swellrider85Version: 2021.5.1

DecentIt’s a little clunky and hard to navigate, sometimes it boots you out and you have to sign back in, and it’s generally pretty slow to load, as well as notify you of inquiry’s/bookings/guest questions (which you’re graded on by response time)... but, overall, it’s improving in all of these areas. You’re also able to do more and more from the app w/o having to go to the website, which is nice, thanks for updating those features. Generally you’re able to manage your property from the app w/o having to be tied to a computer, which is pretty remarkable. Please bring back the owner payout breakdown and make it easier to modify guest length of stay. It now shows the total that the guest is paying but not how much goes to the owner, which is a pain and somewhat misleading. Also, please change the font for “price change suggestions” when in night mode (iPhone), it’s currently unreadable at night..QweouhVersion: 2021.5.0

Getting a lots of fraud messages please work on screening these fraudulentI just want to make you aware as I’m sure you are I receive a lot of fraudulent request for reservations they want me to take a check their company check because the company does not have a credit card all kinds of nonsense!! I know it’s fake as I’ve been working with Vrbo for a long time and I’m surprised you are not able to get rid of these fraudulent request. I work with the other short term rental companies and I never get any fraud request such a large company can have better filters it’s really annoying!!! I am sure people have been taken advantage of . I enjoy hosting the real ones please please try to get rid of all these fake reservations it’s just a waste of time and energy for everyone. Thank you please Sarah.Karma0528Version: 2022.14.0

VRBO App Lacks Lots of FeaturesWhen I am out and about I find the Vrbo app handy in that I can accept a booking request and maybe ask/answer simple questions on current or pending guests. However unfortunately it lacks a lot of features that you can only access on your laptop, desktop or even just accessing the website on your iPhone. The app has been out long enough now that I feel they should’ve had the time to update it with all the same features we get elsewhere. It would make our lives a lot easier as Owners! I also experience the app not working a lot and giving me a message to check back later. That is quite frustrating when you really need to do some work on there ASAP. The app isn’t reliable when you need to adjust quotes, add extra charges, subtract charges, etc. Hopefully VRBO will take the time to update the app very soon..Lynnalou64Version: 2021.23.0

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Vrbo Owner Negative Reviews

System glitches and EXTREMELY SLOW TECH SUPPORTPeriodic glitches (can’t accept inquiries or pages time out while loading), spams messages galore and the response time for tech to address your case is unbearably sloowwwwwwwwww!!!!!!! Remember those old dial-up commercials where you could bake a cake while waiting for your computer to connect to the internet ? Well…that’s LIGHTENING FAST compared to techs ability to ”swiftly” resolve case issues. SEVENTEEN times my property was randomly deactivated and it took FOUR MONTHS for tech to FINALLY resolve the issue (I am NOT exaggerating). And yes all SEVENTEEN times during this painstaking long four months that I called VRBO, EACH rep confirmed all required information was stated on my listing (that had already been established for almost a year when these random deactivations started happening). And there’s no way to actually speak to tech…you just have to sit back and wait for them to email you. Also, they provide the option to sync your calendar from other platforms, but it’s doesn’t always work…so a rep said to still MANUALLY block your dates even if you have your calendar synced. What’s the point of having that option for hosts if it’s not reliable?! I have a love/hate relationship with VRBO. Im really cheering for them but COME ON GET IT TOGETHER WE’RE TRYING TO RUN A BUSINESS HERE AND SEND SOME PROFITS YOUR WAY!! Yes this review isn’t entirely about the app but about VRBO in general..TECH IS SO SLOWWWWVersion: 2023.2.0

Terrible for owners, 2 hour wait for customer serviceApp is buggy and slow. I've been a Homeaway/VRBO user as a vacation home owner since 2007. Since Homeaway became VRBO, its customer service is almost impossible to reach. It can take literal hours (HOURS!) to get connected and all conversations are run through a digital translation service, which means much of the communication will be lost. Once you do get connected, be prepared to be disappointed. I recently was trying to get help with a guest who wanted to extend her stay by an extra night. When I tried add the extra night to her reservation, there was no clear way to also charge her for that evening (it's not added on automatically). Therefore, I needed to open up that night as well as the nightly minimum, so that she could book her extra evening herself. When I opened up the night for her to accept, in just a few minutes, two parties tried to book before the existing guest could secure the additional night. I asked for help via customer service, was on hold for 2 hours, and was hung up on by the agent. I ultimately had to decline these two people and was penalized by VRBO for declining. I then spent another hour and a half with customer service trying to get the penalty removed but “they couldn’t because of their rules.” I am shutting my account down. VRBO triple dips in fees, charging an annual fee for owners, and service charges to both owners and guests for each rental. The company does not support owners and you cannot get timely support. No thanks..Bonita CreativeVersion: 2022.13.0

"Coming Soon"*Update* I’ve dropped this app from 3 to 2 star. I do not like the constant “Rate Me” pop up. I also tried to edit a future client’s booking request (drop the cleaning fee) and could not do so. I was able to before this new update. If I keep having to go to my browser...why have this thing on my phone? And this “You lost a potential booking?” Most of the time the “lost” booking was to a home unlike mine: twice as big, lake view, an unattached house, etc. Theyre not comparable. *Update end* This app works well in a variety of situations. The operation is simple and effective. However, I have needed the ability to edit my rates, etc., and all the app does (for the 11 months I've been using it) is to promise that these features are "coming soon." With all the money being taken in during the year (between hefty fees for owners--and now renters, too), there should be more than enough tech support in place to make doing all my VRBO business from my phone a reality. I just spent almost 20 minutes on the phone only to be told what I already know--that I can not edit my rates via my VRBO app or Safari. I must use my computer. I don't want to carry my computer every time I travel and I certainly don't want to use a public/hotel computer when I'm accessing such things. It is a security risk. Very disappointing in this day and age...and unaccountable when one considers how much VRBO is now gaining from its users..Mizfit103Version: 2018.09

VRBO horrible customer service1. If there is a problem they always go with guests side not the host . ( even though there is not host mistake or problem ) 2. You can never solve a problem when you call customer service as the associate who pick up the call can do NOTHING. 3 . You can NOT communicate with email effectively. because if you are very right on the any matter but the agent knows they can’t do anything except supervisors only , so they don’t reply or make that email DO NOT REPLY. so you will receive an automated email saying “ We're no longer monitoring this email……) 4. They have a lot of problems but just need to improve customer service and educate them to solve the problem the guest or host facing and be natural when dealing with a case . I am a host on their site long night 8 years to know these The application is not functional and not user-friendly. Plus their customer service is horrible horrible when you face issues they do not help you like customers stay at your property and later make false claim to the credit cards to their bank, chargebacks you more then you got and the money goes out from your bank . I personally called Customer Service six times past couple weeks, they never help but say “ we gonna escalate the case to the higher department and they will contact you” . However, no one contact me yet. Sep 1st 2024. Horrible and horrible.Yakupjan108Version: 2024.33.0

App never worksThis app never works. It wants me to sign in every time but then it started saying my password is wrong. I tried to reset it and it says its wrong! 3 times of this. I gave up. I have to use a basic website to see messages, in which the password does work. Today I clicked on the email link for a message and it brought me to the app to download on my phone, only I already have it so nowhere to go other than write a review. Not to mention on an inquiry I was told fees would be one amount on a stay if accepted. Once the booking was accepted they charged $30 more and put it in a separate thread. I called up and said that now my payout is much less and they said that there was some kind of glitch and I would be paid out the correct amount and a call if I’m not for some reason. Once the reservation came and I was paid, it was for the lesser amount. When I called to complain they said that the person asked the host a question on the inquiry but booked it through instant booking once they decided to book. This happened in the same day. But VRBO is saying that because they click the instant book, I got paid less. That makes no sense whatsoever. if a guest is presented to me in an inquiry and I am told that this is how much I would make, and I answer questions for this guest, and she books, it should automatically appear in the thread as the same person. The rent amount was exactly the same, no other charges changed except for their fees. I said that this is a bait and switch and said I wanted to speak to a supervisor and no one ever called or contacted me. Scam and unethical business practices..Michelle .Y33Version: 2023.3.1

Terrible. I regret ever using VRBODON’T BOTHER USING VRBO I normally don't write reviews, but this app is so horrible that I want to warn anyone considering listing on VRBO. The app constantly glitches and is not user friendly. It’s very difficult to navigate, and there are many features missing. The desktop version isn’t any better, so it’s not just a problem with the app. I have properties listed on Airbnb and VRBO, but the VRBO layout is so terrible in comparison that I have stopped using it. I tried to delete the listings, but there is no way to permanently delete a property once it’s been listed. You can only HIDE it, which can sometimes glitch and reopen the listing as ACTIVE, allowing people to book. This is frustrating as one of my properties has been sold, so I don’t want it to reappear and get booked again since there is a $150 cancellation fee. This seems wrong. If I no longer own the property, why can’t I delete it from the account? Or at least give an option to mark the property as SOLD. The only option is to delete your whole account. This would be fine with me, except for the fact that it deletes your Expedia and other traveler accounts as well since they are all linked. So any points you’ve saved up from personal travels will be deleted as well. At this point, I am very irritated with VRBO and regret ever listing on it in the first place..That other userVersion: 2024.38.0

Terrible AppI can’t believe how poorly this app works for the most basic functions of which it should be designed for. Trying to upload and move photos for a listing is a complete nightmare. It will randomly not upload some photos I spent a lot of time selecting. It will sometimes just upload personal photos at random I have to delete after waiting forever for it to upload. But it will also randomly have errors and say it then can’t delete those random personal/not listing related photos it uploaded at random for awhile, so I will have to keep checking back. The app will randomly say it just can’t connect regularly. Then…the worst!…I will spend hours trying to put our listing photos in order. The app will constantly remix the photos to a completely random order almost every time I try to move them. I can’t believe it can’t handle something so simple. This is not to mention what a pain messaging guests is on VRBO. Maybe it’s my iPhone?? But this has been on two different iPhones months apart and I have zero issues doing anything on the Airbnb app with the same phone. Airbnb has a fantastic automated messaging system with saved messages we can schedule for each guest. VRBO does not as of my review date. You have to send messages yourself which is a huge pain when we are booked almost every day all year with stays of all different lengths. We are booked every day through Airbnb anyways and it is phenomenal. We have a VRBO listing just to cover our bases, but Airbnb all the way for owners’ ease of use. I hope VRBO fixes these issues. Doesn’t seem like it would be that hard. But still..everyone books through Airbnb anyways, so might not matter anyways..Nightmare to useVersion: 2023.12.0

The absolute worst app I am forced to use daily.No exaggeration, it’s just plain terrible. I need this for my business but it’s painfully slow, not user friendly, and the layout is abysmal. Has to be closed and re-loaded about half the time I use it. Push notifications arrive sometimes if not ever at all. Last week I was locked out and had to call customer service to get back in. They gave no explanation. Viewing reservations is an exercise in patience. Finding a reservation to communicate with the guest is cumbersome. To view and track financials… well that isn’t going to happen for you at all on this app. Just to see one payout your are forced to wade through multiple screens that load slowly or sometimes not at all. I like Vrbo service but this app is my main interface and leaves me angry and frustrated when I use it. Several years ago when I started my business I thought maybe it was just a glitch or an oversight, maybe Vrbo would fix this mess of an app but nothing has changed at all. I have actually just raised my nightly rates on this app and lowered them on the competition just to lesson the amount of time I am forced to use it. They should just throw the whole thing out and start over..ZpaffVersion: 2024.10.0

Processing Request for BookingSeveral times we have had to consider a request to book and have had issues. VRBO has limited options for owners to either accept or select a reason to decline a booking without penalties to owners in the form of reduced placement of property or viewed less because they are placed at the bottom of rental options, even though a request is obviously a scam or a potential renter does not even want to book, just ask a question. We have recently had to spend over an hour exchanging VRBO texts with requester and on the phone holding and talking to VRBO because the original renter didn’t meet the minimum age required, so they had switched their reservation request and contact names to 2 different names. They would not withdraw their request to book, so we had to decline it and ask them to resubmit under a new account with the correct primary renter information. To further the aggravation, each message they sent through VRBO was duplicated 4-5 times so we were sure there was a system issue, maybe even a security issue. VRBO needs to improve information sent to owners so they are comfortable with potential guests and want to continue using VRBO, now owned by Expedia global company..CmfoerVersion: 2024.29.1

Clunky site & a pain to useI’ve had some great guests through here but WOW is the site a pain to use! From minor things like not being able to delete old bank accounts that aren’t used any more to major ones of not being able to remove a booking approval once sent to a guest who decides they no longer want to book and having it block the calendar FOR THREE FULL DAYS & they give the guest no other option but to “cancel “ and lose a portion based on cancellation policy (and remember- nothing was actually booked so don’t ever send that unless your certain they will book!) it’s a super frustrating site if your used to the ease of Air platform. If the guest selects insurance in the request to book they can’t get out of that either unless they lose money and “cancel” if they change their mind about booking. The message system is so dated as well. Guests can start multiple threads & their own requests on one block them from booking on another. Communication with them guests buried in the thread by date instead of most recent being brought up to the top. Its crazy it’s so behind the times with as big as the company is but I get a few bookings so I just keep pushing through and using it..DeeTolsVersion: 2023.29.0

Nonstop problemsThis app and the entire VRBO platform is the least user friendly in the STR market. I have had repeated double bookings due to the calendar not syncing properly despite being set up correctly. It will work okay for weeks and then suddenly “un-sync” and there is no warning before you have bookings for the same dates on multiple platforms. It also prompted me to “offer guests the option” to purchase damage protection, and I clicked yes. Went a month with no bookings before a prospective guest messaged me to tell me she was being *required* to buy the damage protection. I could not locate the page to remove that “option” and had to contact support, which was not a smooth experience in itself. VRBO deliberately made it seem the protection was optional when it was not optional. The only “option” is to the owner as to whether or not to enable it, but the verbiage is completely incorrect/misleading. I don’t know if it was intentional and malicious of VRBO or if they are just incompetent. Either way, this platform has cost me more money than it’s helped me make. The fees and commissions are much higher while the level of protection and customer service is almost non existent..WordSmith780811Version: 2024.26.0

Vrbo is painful as an ownerAllow me to recount a recent experience. Guest inquires to book Thanksgiving. I’m not comfortable with his request to checkout Saturday of holiday weekend so I try to reject the inquiry. Vrbo says that will be a penalty against my discoverability but suggests I should respond with an adjusted booking so send back an adjustment to guest that includes Saturday night. He says he can’t do that. So we agree to not move forward. But somehow VRBO platform decides this is now a confirmed booking (despite neither of us confirming anything). Guest calls support and after being on hold 30 minutes is assured it’s just temporary hold that will get automatically cancelled in 72 hours. 4 days go by and “booking” is still there blocking my calendar for Thanksgiving so I try chat support. After a 45 minute back and forth chat with someone who is obviously not US based, I’m told to give it another 24 hours and it will clear. Now it’s a week later and the phantom booking is still there. Call support again and once again dealing with staff somewhere in the world that doesn’t seem to understand the issue. airbnb is not perfect but never had this kind of frustration and potential lost revenue with them. Steer clear of Vrbo if at all possible..Sleep Deprived in SeattleVersion: 2024.39.0

Frustrating but others are worse I hear...Very frustrating app. I have been complaining for three years to customer service as an owner using this app and find it very frustrating that the changes I recommended are never made. I have a rental property that has two additional flipping spaces that I use only ad out on options for the main house and I never rent them separately but the app and the website do not accommodate away for a guest to select which units they want and obtain a price quote applicable to only those units. Additionally the app is limited with function I have to go to a laptop or computer to be able to edit my guests’ quotes so it completely defeats the ability for me to respond to the auto request to pay feature and then I get a negative score for not responding promptly simply because I could not accept the reservation because the request for the reservation was given the wrong price quote. I have put all of this explanation and instructions right in the top of my property description but the guests never read anything and they constantly select an auto request to pay but then they actually want to add the other studio units on which means their payment quote is inaccurate. VRBO also charges fees to the owner even when a guest cancels and so you get no money and have to pay a fee for money that was sent back to the customer. VRBO also uses another vendor for your actual payments that you make as an owner and this vendor fails to ever send you a tax statement at the end of the year so you can see how much out-of-pocket expense you paid to VRBO home away for credit card fees and rental fees. I’ve complained for years and this company does nothing to fix it..Lake quinault ownerVersion: 2018.15.1

FRAUDS AND THIEVES USE HOME AWAY!!!I recently decided to try home away along with Airbnb. I was excited to get my first booking and expecting it to be similar to Airbnb but Nooooo, The first guest I had with this platform robbed and trashed my place. When i reported the situation to them and filed my claim I was informed they won’t provide compensation for any of my stolen items or any malicious damages. To make matters worse they don’t verify the identities of the renters and put me and you as owner holding all the risk, so filing a police report is almost useless. You would think this would be the worst thing but no. To add insult to injury they still haven’t released the money that was paid by the robber to rob me and destroy my place, their reason for holding the money is to prove that I’m a legit renter. you would think after being robbed and my place destroyed by someone who booked my place through their platform they would make concessions considering the circumstances, but they were so callus that one of the many people that they forwarded me too was laughing on the phone. I couldn’t believe this when it’s all said and done HOMEAWAY Doesn’t care about the homeowners who list the homes on the platform. I would strongly advice not using this platform if you don’t want to be robbed and mistreated.R0xie loves youVersion: 2018.12

VRBO poor customer service, terrible appWhen you call customer service you have to wait a minimum of 20 minutes. It even alert you that it will take at least 15 minutes for someone to get with you. I assume that so you won’t wait and you’ll just hang up and I won’t have to deal with you I can’t imagine why it’s the same message every time you call that you’ll have to wait a minimum of 15 minutes. Customer service sends you to India, which would be fine except that their accent is so heavy. It’s difficult to understand what they’re saying. Today I got hung up on by the representative after waiting 15 minutes and spending only one minute on the phone with the rep. You can’t communicate with the potential renters you can’t get notifications that you even have Rental’s coming. There’s no hey, your renter will be here in two days Notification. VRBO only tells you once that you have a guest that has booked your property. It will never alert you again so if your potential renter plans ahead and rents in April for a June stay, VRBO will never tell you again that you have a potential renter. Yesterday the app was down for hours. When I signed up, nothing sent me to any forms that I needed to fill out for taxes or otherwise. After my second Rental, I noticed I had not received funds from Vrbo after searching for nearly 30 minutes I found a tiny red dot next to the tax form listed deep into the listing app. no warning, no emails new text messages nothing that I needed to fill out these two forms and correct this. Any form that I needed to correct or add two or finish on Airbnb I got an email and a text message. Airbnb is a far better service than Vrbo. As soon as I get paid, I am deleting this app, and will no longer be using Vrbo. I caution anyone to not use Vrbo..Goldwing1978Version: 2023.12.0

Money grab.Everything that you’ve heard about platforms like eBay, DoorDash, Uber, etc. applies to VRBO. In other words, VRBO heavily favors clients over the service providers. You would expect that if this were done in a fair and balanced way, it would be a win for everyone. However, it seems that it’s time goes on the services that made VRBO/Homeway appealing as a vacation rental platform are gradually disappearing. Want to easily share your calendar with your housekeepers? Don’t expect an easy solution. Need to cancel because of an accidental double booking? Property owners are punished with heavy fees and suspension of service. Want to book friends and family into your unit and have it appear on the calendar? Good luck. Changes in the platform make it difficult to easily manage, especially if you are doing property management on a smart phone. Don’t want to receive customer service from an overseas call center? That’s your problem. I could go on, but you’ve heard stories like this before. For the amount of money that VRBO collects in fees and subscriptions, you can do better. There are many free platforms out there and even things as basic as Facebook marketplace. Start there before you give VRBO a dime..3M_TA3Version: 2025.31.0

Worst app I’ve ever used.Constantly the calendar doesn’t load, you have to refresh over and over before it loads all of your bookings and at times you have to log onto the web browser to access anything and still get refresh issues. For the last few days I haven’t been able to log in to the app at all. I’ve uninstalled it multiple times and it won’t let me log in. When I click on “forgot password” and enter my email it says “cannot connect to the network”. All of my other apps are working just fine and there is nothing wrong with my internet connection. Even the actual website won’t let me make changes to our calendar blocking and booking rates and when I called into customer support and sent them a screen recording of what was happening they didn’t have an answer for me and just suggested for me to tell them what changes to make and they could do it. What is the point of having an app and website for owners if we can’t actually even use them and have to call into customer support to make changes to our account. They charge a lot of extra customer fees for bookings compared to Airbnb to not even have a working app and website for vrbo owners..Willp0wersVersion: 2023.14.0

VRBO is the WorstVRBO is hands-down, the most difficult booking platform of the big three. It is super difficult to get even the most simple function accomplished that you would expect to be able to do on a booking platform for either a host or a guest. You end up spending hours on the phone with Customer Support to do what you would very easily be able to do on other platforms. Their interface is outdated and it's very difficult to edit anything when you're in the messaging portion. Then they have options that are only available in the browser version or on your laptop that should be available in the app since most people are using their phones for everything. They also need better training for their support reps as their customer service skills are not on par with other platforms. Their agents are sometimes so rude that you have to escalate to get good service. I hope that management reads these comments and will take heed to the concerns that both Hosts and Guests are having about the platform and will take steps to try to address their concerns before they completely lose business to their competitors..ExLetgo UserVersion: 2026.20.0

Used to be good.In 2004, we listed our property with VRBO. At the time VRBO was a very simple website that brought together property owners with vacationer. Property owners were allowed to provide excellent personal service to their guests. Guests and owners could communicate freely, and make sure a potential rental agreement was a god fit for both parties. But with each passing year, VRBO & Homeaway have done everything possible to ruin the experience for both parties... VRBO has changed from a great service provider to the greediest organization I can think of. They introduce one rule after another with the goal of keeping the owner and vacationer isolated from each other so VRBO can charge their ridiculous and unfair service charges. So whereas they used to make their money with a straightforward listing fee, the now make money with a listing fee, a service charge to the renter, transaction/credit card fees and more. They will scour your listing looking for violations of recently changed and poorly communicated rules, and de-list your listing without telling you. For example, we for many years we had a “call us at such and such number if you have any questions” note in our listing. Then suddenly there was a rule against that... we were unaware. We wondered why we weren’t getting any inquiries. We called and were told that our listing was taken down because we were trying to bypass their service fees. That was insulting and 100% untrue. In fact we had many long term renters that tried to bypass the fees and we wouldn’t let them do it. This is just one of many, many frustrating experiences we had with VRBO. They don’t care about the property owners... that is for sure. I can’t stand this company..AvalonSTLVersion: 2020.9.0

Highly Disappointing, not user friendly, tons of spamIt is mind boggling how much money Vrbo will spend on TV advertising, but when it comes to actually using their App, it’s like they’ve never listened to their customer. This platform is wrought with spam users. I am inundated at least weekly with fake accounts messaging me to book my place, asking for my mailing address so they can “mail me a company check”. The App is coded so unbelievably poorly for iPhone users. (Can you not hire someone that actually knows C++ please??) It redirects you to the “web” version all the time, does not sync with their email notifications, and makes you re-sign-in every time, many times unsuccessfully, causing users to have to change their password all the time (and no, I’m not forgetting my password, it’s an App coding glitch). The App has very basic, limited property management capability, so you’ll need to be at a PC to get most things done anyway. The AirBnb app on the other hand is extremely user friendly, they takes less of a commission fee, and very very rarely experiences issues with spam accounts..CMO ArroganceVersion: 2021.23.0

Go for Airbnb, Vrbo does not worth the effortPoor customer service experience and a lot of hidden fees if booking date was modified. I’m traveling out of the states and can’t make international calls so I used the chat function about my recent payout amount. Vrbo owes me $360 to my payout due to a check in date change. I heard from the customer service person in the chat that there are fees when you change the booking dates and that amount “varies” (which means as much as the platform would like to take). The change was a request from the guest and I was being flexible (later on the guest requested to revert it back to original dates), but Vrbo took additional $360 just for the changing back and forth (which was not marked in their payout and somehow they took $360 just for changing the dates from and back to the original). This is unreasonable and I want that amount back (unable to do so in the chat and couldn’t call either due to internal traveling. There is no customer service email to handle payment situation). I’m not going to list my property on this platform anymore and will go just for Airbnb. Not worth the money and time for this platform. :(.FanTheOwnerVersion: 2021.12.0

US maybe good but not internationallyThe reason I gave them a one star is the fact that I tried three times for them to fix their issue and I get an email saying they did, however the issue remains. The issue below. I downloaded this app and even the VRBO owner and I immediately try to activate my account on both. Every singe time I try to log on it would say “Error, invalid log in credentials please try again.” I call the call center and they tell me I have to get a new email. When I tried that the same happens. Then they send the case to their support technician and I was told they would solve the issue and “contact me.” Then I get an email a day later saying “ We have resolved the issue and your account and any associated property listing(s) have been reactivated. We apologize for any inconvenience. Sincerely, Vrbo Account & Supplier Risk Team.” So I am excited that I finally get to use this awesome website! Nope!!! Not today! I call again and same thing happens, I call a third time and then they want to see the email that “THEY” sent. I sent them their own email, and same thing happens. To this day I can not log in! So yea, one star is all they get!.ISEAiVersion: 2022.17.0

If you have an issue, customer service is Third WorldDo not start listening this property thinking it’s going to function like Airbnb. It does not. Just getting a hold of customer service and then pulling up your bank account takes 9 1/2 minutes once they have answered the phone they struggle with everything they ask for your email and then they pass for 45 seconds. They ask you for your property ID, which is not easily found. They keep asking you question after question and then they ask you if they have permission to access your dashboard and then they ask you if you have deposits turned on why can’t they see that themselves? Why do I have to tell them if I have deposits turned on. Also, the deposit is only for damages. Not if they owe you money for extra guests or extra fees that were agreed-upon. You are basically in charge of collecting your own money. They just process it for you so the customer service that you can provide is going to be low as far as the trust in the customer because you have no recourse…..Carlos4ΦΚΣVersion: 2025.40.0

Falling shortVrbo has gone downhill the last couple years. The app has a glitch that makes it difficult to type in messages-leaving no space between words. You have to double check every message to make sure it typed out right and doesn’t make you look stupid. The app also didn’t apply the correct pricing to our listing and we lost money on a booking. We had two guests in a row have trouble booking our property through vrbo. The second never could make it work so went through Airbnb, which ended up paying us $80 more for the exact same booking, while the guest paid a little less overall. The fees are crazy high on vrbo with very little support. The messaging between host and guest is very frustrating because there is no way of knowing if the template emails are going out on time or not-and you can’t count on the guest getting messages that are supposed to be sent. All in all, we would rather not have to use vrbo, but do still get quite a few bookings through vrbo..CC in the WVersion: 2024.33.0

App is nearly uselessWe’re long time property owners on VRBO and I’ve reported this before — The current version of the app simply does not work on iPhone 10. What gives? We can’t reliably work from this app, which means we cannot continue doing business here, as we depend on mobile support. And we’ve certainly paid for it, what with 11 property listings. The inbox often does not load, the calendar spins and fails not load nearly every time, when we’re finally able to access a message thread, we receive “bad request” when we attempt to send a response. This has been going on for well over a year now. For more years, it’s not been possible to remove/change transient occupancy tax setting when quoting stays greater than 30 days — must be done via browser! VRBO has just made it impossible for us to function as mobile users. Even the browser application has been moving downhill, release after release — there’s nothing intuitive or simple about it. Invest in a UX team, and mobile support. If you can’t support new/recent iPhones, what the heck are you doing?.BgxxyVersion: 2019.25.0

Super slow and behind competitionForget that Airbnb is bigger and better in every way. This is about this app and the lack of experience anyone part of the product team has with being a host on either platform. When I open the app, I should see every current or upcom de ing guest stay. There should be an overview/all view or a filtered view by property. I should be able to easily toggle into editing each property an viewing the listing for each live INSIDE the app. Financial reporting is atrocious and not easy sto understand or filter by property or see everything overall. I normally just export the raw data to a CSV database file because the insights and reporting in the app don’t exist and when I’m on desktop they’re not useful at all. The inbox is wildly confusing and slow with response time. Overall VRBO gives no incentive to guests to review properties after their stay to help build trust in the properties new guests are researching. Conversely I can’t see any reviews of guests from past hosts and it’s not really helpful the info provided to me overall..NickAVA10Version: 2023.13.0

Over $6k held for over a yearI had 13 stays from 2021 through now that VRBO held the money for. They are calling it a glitch on their billing side. I have called for several issues since renting my property and am never able to speak with a manager or supervisor. Nothing is ever resolved. I called to give them a heads up about a party being planned at my rental, they did nothing to stop it. They never reached out to the renter to stop it and never charged the customer extra for trashing my property. They do not have email addresses, direct phone numbers and will not give last names. The person served in my civil suit is the one person who has emailed me when they wanted to sign me up. How is the company able to get away with egregious breaches in contract? I guess we will find out. I filed a civil suit against them today. This company is trash. Don’t waste your time and just post your property with Airbnb. Better payouts and you are able to get actual help with any issues. Take it from someone who has had $6,600 held for the past year..VTodd23Version: 2023.6.0

Glitchiest App I’ve Ever UsedI am an owner/manager and love VRBO as a service, but the app is incredibly glitchy and annoying to use. It’s been glitchy for a while now and not getting any better, hence the review. Often, parts of the app simply won’t load- whether it’s the inbox, calendar, reviews, or reservation details. Sometimes I just go to the website in my phone’s browser so I can actually conduct business and it works way better than the app. The notifications seem unreliable as I have gone to the app and found a message sitting there, unbeknownst to me. I am also randomly logged out of the app without me knowing so I definitely miss notifications and messages in those cases. I have taken to just manually going to the app daily to make sure I’m logged in and didn’t miss any messages. Owners should not have to do that. In addition to the fixing the constant glitches, it would be nice if the app was a little more user friendly and effective for owners. The calendar is cumbersome to edit. It would also be nice if there was a quick way to see a list of upcoming reservations in chronological order. And a quick way to check reviews, or notifications of reviews within the app. I’ve seen other similar reviews and hope the company works out these kinks- you are too big of a company with too many users to have a crappy app. We love being hosts but the technology needs an overhaul!.Banks033Version: 2022.16.0

DisappointedWe have mostly had 5 star ratings from tenants. But because we will not automatically accept a booking, vrbo has downgraded us and our bookings have come to almost nothing. I call that vrbo “cutting off their nose to spite their face” - it’s cost us bookings and income on both our parts. Our home is in a family neighborhood and we respect our neighbors / so we ask additional questions before we accept a booking. Vrbo may not care that tenants disturb neighbors and possibly trash an owner’s property, we’re not going to do business that way - we will screen potential tenants before we accept. In addition, many we have been turning down appear to be scams whose “company is paying for their vacation and will be paying by check - totally cutting out vrbo. Yet because we don’t automatically accept them, we get dinged for it. Not very happy w how vrbo does business - it must be a win/win for both parties. Vrbo has in essence destroyed our bookings by taking away our status. Plus your fees are pretty greedy as well..Dissatisfied ownersVersion: 2023.26.0

Another failure by Homeaway!I listed my home with Homeaway and linked calendars with another popular rental website. On the first day, a Homeaway customer sent a reservation request for dates that were unavailable. I called home away and they apologized seeing that those dates should not have been available to he Homeaway customer. They didn’t have any explanation, but were very apologetic. However, this is a terrible customer experience for me and my customer. So now several weeks later, after my anger subsided, I listed again with home away yesterday. Today I get a request for a one-week rental checking in tomorrow. Sure enough the Homeaway system will not allow me to accept the booking request, on my PC or on my phone app. Just keep getting error messages. I called for support and they see the error and they said they will try to fix it. Two hours later still can’t accept and still have no answers. I called Homeaway and they tell me NO it’s not excepted. Five minutes later I get a call and they assure me it is accepted. I see nothing to prove this. Total chaos..HKS513Version: 2018.13

Horrible AppThe VRBO app is for a lack of better words, garbage. It’s not user friendly in any way, things are not organized in a way that makes sense. The interface lacks check-out instructions, there is no integration with smart door locks, like their rival, its slow to react, uploading anything is nearly impossible on the app as it’ll cause an error, then log you out AND lock your account. Today alone, I’ve been locked out 2x on the app and have had to call customer service, whom was professional but is outsourced to overseas customer service agents, in Peru. Many times you have to go to their website on a physical computer to get things done efficiently. To make things worse, when your account gets locked out customer service makes you delete the app completely, to then redownload it all over again as a way to fix the lockout one is having. VRBO needs to do a better in making this work. I do not have ANY issues when I use their rivals platform and app, Airbnb. It’s to the point that I want to get rid of VRBO because I don’t get any hits on it and my property is AMAZING. Since I started my hosting journey 2 months ago, today is my first VRBO guest and it has been a nightmare trying to get things working and ensure I’m able to respond in a reasonable timeframe. When I initially joined VRBO as a host, their Expedia Account Management Team, Josh reached out and after I responded I didn’t hear a peep out of him, that was back on Aug 16th, 2025. Little things like this is what makes me want to cancel..Esco41Version: 2025.41.0

All a facadeYou break things that work (tax settings) you don’t communicate major changes that drastically impact owner cash flow (payments) and you consistently raise fees that you say the traveler pays (service fee) that should come to us. Furthermore you’ve turned listing position into a game (boost pts) instead of using things that matter like response time over guest experience etc etc. You justify these added fees and costs by stating we’ll have better marketing and feature but I’ve got a market place fees in my app that’s been down for almost two months and we are down 20% in revenue meanwhile still a top listing in the mkt. you also now want to report to the tax man but the figures you have aren’t even close to accurate on your site. You don’t calculate a return accurately. The greed continues as you watch your competition out clas our shine and our feature a software that won’t even allow me to add a decimal pt in for the additional payment request so only while dollars can be charged..SkolNationVersion: 2019.20.0

Very bad for owners !It is a very bad site. Vrbo mixes our house with hundreds of other nearby houses, making it impossible for people to find our property. It now conceals any contact details from prospective renters, so we can not contact them and interview them prior to renting. Vrbo is trying to be like Airbnb, where guests can automatically rent and then destroy your property. It is impossible to get preferred status on vrbo, even though you may have all 5 star ratings. It is highly inaccurate in granting preferred status since they seem to do this based upon how many bookings that you do. Maybe you do not want these bookings. Or maybe you want high quality bookings. Vrbo penalizes you if you reject potentially bad quality renters. They also make it impossible for potential renters to contact you by stripping out your phone number, so potential clients can not contact you. They have increased the annual fee to $500. They also charge huge service fee to both the travelers and owners. Thousands of dollars per year….Alena 0000Version: 2022.3.0

It’s better than nothing but the competition is WAY betterI gave vrbo a fair shot and am really not impressed. My primary complaints include: The messaging is very glitchy. The screen constantly freezes up and won’t send messages on multiple search engines and on the app. Not just the messages but the whole platform is glitchy. Also, the ability to customize messages is basically non existent. On airbnb I can craft the exact messages I want and set the exact times for them to automatically be sent out. VRBO only has certain templates your allowed to use, a limited number of them, and you have to set reminders throughout the day to send the messages because they aren’t automatic. Basically, on airbnb and hipcamp the process is smooth and easy and requires very little time whereas every time I have to do anything on vrbo I feel like screaming and pulling out my hair. It’s time consuming and doesn’t work well..HdlqoxbwnaoxknwVersion: 2025.14.1

Terrible App and Customer Service. Use Airbnb.If you are a new host and considering STR platforms, turn around and go download Airbnb instead. This app is super glitchy and less user-friendly than Airbnb. When I started writing my unpublished listing before getting my photos done, some support guy kept calling me to try to coerce me to get my listing up as soon as possible, despite me explaining that I could not take my photos until finishing a renovation. I legitimately thought he was was actually a hacker trying to get me to upload more information because I could barely understand what he was saying, and then when I finally understood, it did not make sense considering he wanted me to upload photos of an unfinished property. Additionally, despite the fact that many hosts are property managers for external owners, there is no way to upload a PDF of the required W9 tax form that the owners have filled out. They just tell you to sign the owner’s name on the auto-generated form. How hard is it to add an upload button to avoid forgery??? On top of the unhelpful outsourced customer support, the app randomly logs you out frequently, gives you “something went wrong” errors constantly, and does not let you easily scroll up to reference messages while you are typing a new message to a guest. And finally, the fact that so many of the five star reviews are actually critical makes it seem like these reviews are rigged..Zesty CakesVersion: 2024.1.0

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