Vrbo Vacation Rentals

My husband and I booked a condo for a family vacation and Vrbo emailed us our confirmation number and information for the booking, and our card was charged for the condo. We arrived at our destination and hadn’t heard from the property about check-in. Vrbo pushed us off to the property manager (who was extremely rude), who then pushed us off to another Vacasa rental person who informed us that there was no booking for us and they had already filled the condo vacancies for the weekend. He stated that the confirmation number from Vrbo was not a valid number in their system and there was no record of our booking. Then he pushed us back to Vrbo for answers. During this time, we were waiting in 95 degree weather with nowhere to check into because of Vrbo’s mistake. We then waited on hold for at least 30 minutes, and finally, a Vrbo representative answered our call. This individual didn’t seem concerned at all about the inconvenience due to the mistake on Vrbo’s part and just wanted to issue a refund and end the call. This experience was terrible and we will never book with Vrbo again. Be wary if you use this company for booking, they do not care about the customers who book through them.

Due to an error on my part, which was a typo on the email address when making a reservation, the reservation didn’t show up in my trips. I called Vrbo and they were able to forward the confirmation email to my correct email. But they could not change the email on the reservation as their system was having technical difficulties and they could not add it to my account cause it is an Apple account. I called again a few days later, still they are having technical difficulties and cannot change address on reservation. I am not comfortable with a stranger having access to my reservation so I asked to cancel the reservation and rebook with correct email. I cannot cancel through the site because the reservation is not part of my account. Customer service tried and said they could not cancel because the account connected to the wrong email is not setup. My recourse is to connect directly with Vrbo host and see if they can and would change the email on their end so I could get updates and any other communication or I can dispute the charge through my credit card. Customer service left a message for the host, but haven’t heard anything yet. I will try to call on Monday to see if that will work out, though not a fan of the idea. if that doesn’t work out I’ll have to call the bank. On a good note the 2 customer service reps were pleasant, understanding and tried to help, though they didn’t have the tools to resolve the issue.

The condo is on beautiful grounds; there are sidewalks all around the fenced complex to sit by the water or explore. Great pool with view and hot tub. It is very close to the beautiful Fajardo beaches and not far from the Kiosks which are right on a fun beach. Then a little farther is Old San Juan which is worth a visit. Great location to El Yungue National forest. Call restaurants before you go; yelp is not updated. El Cayo is the restaurant right across the waterway from the balcony, but it’s all outside and it was excessive heat when we were there. The brown building straight across from the bay side windows is also great and right on the water, Sabalos Marina Grill. Note that there is a cooler bag in the apartment for groceries or take out. The grocery stores, Walmart, and other, do not have free bags, they’re 10 cents so we took our own plastic bags in. As a matter of fact, we left 2 clean sturdy Walmart bags in the cooler for the next renter. Also, there are styrofoam plates, coffee filters, napkins, paper towels, stuff for dishes and showers. We took a bar of soap and you have to buy your next rolls of toilet paper. Really nice light bright apartment with Amazing views of the mountains and the marina and out to the ocean with islands in the distance from the windows and balcony. The AC units are very cooling- quickly; although you want to turn them both off before going on the balcony. If you open the front door vents and the marina side windows, the cross breeze is nice. Great experience and great apartment / condo complex to come home to.

VRBO doesn’t let you edit a review you no longer agree with because the host did something to change your mind. Okay. But I should be able to withdraw, remove, or delete it easily, right? Wrong. You have to call or email customer service and in my case I talked to one representative that closed my case after I sent text screenshots between me the guest and the property host. Was told by a second and third representative that my request has to go to a special customer service committee for review of my review that I should be able to simply remove myself. Not asking to edit it. I’m wanting it removed entirely. It shouldn’t take an act of Congress to simply remove a rating and review of a property when circumstances change and when that review is no longer consistent with your experience with the property and the host and it was over generous to an ungrateful host who asked you to give them a five star rating to help boost their views and you do even when it wasn’t deserved but you thought they were nice yet didn’t return the favor when they rated you. You should be able to at least not help increase their property visibility, enabling them profit off your review when they may be hurting your chances with the next host by their unfair rating. Care about guests that book through your site instead of just the hosts! Not happy with VRBO. My telling you to take my words down because I don’t want them there should be all you need to take a rating/review down, not a committee review. Irrational.

Downloaded this in hopes it wasn’t as money hungry as AirBnB. It is somehow worse. Didn’t think it was possible. My total went from $495 to $1200 all from “fees.” I know fees are necessary to keep the app running, but come on people. There is no way on God’s green earth I will ever pay for something that is more than doubled from fees like “$125 - management fee” 🤡. Edit: After receiving a response from the developers, I’d like to expand just a bit. First off, I respect that you take the time to thoughtfully respond to reviews. I think it is a great idea to incorporate more transparency in your fees. It’s rather jarring seeing your total more than double, but if I knew why it doubled, I might be able to bring myself to buying it. What exactly is a “management fee” and how does that differ from the rest of the *expansive* list of fees? I don’t remember the rest of the fees but adding some type of information as to why those fees exist and what they are would at least be a good step in the right direction. Another thing, if price is solely dictated by the hosts then they need to be regulated. A $125 “management fee” is 25% of a $495 total price. That fee alone has added an additional quarter of what I’m already paying. That is ridiculous. So, hosts either need to be constrained within more reasonable percentages or outright denied from charging outlandish fees like this one —outlandish in my opinion, that is.

I rented a cottage on a lake (and I’m am headed there now) This is a vacation for our family which includes 5 children, 5 and under! I started calling 3 weeks ago to get info about what is included so we have a clue what to bring! NO ONE EVER GOT BACK TO ME!!!!! I paid VRBO a fee of almost $700 to handle my rental and they couldn’t even return a phone call, text message or email !!! They also use a 3rd party company called EVOLVE… they r even worse to deal with because they blame VRBO for not getting the proper info to me !!!! My $8,400 vacation rental is turning into a nightmare before we even get there !!!! STAY AWAY, they’re promises r completely false ! Update- We arrive at the rental, find the deck and lake front unkept like no one had knew we coming. The inside seemed OK, the beds were made at least, we wanted to get some drinks and head to the water but found 1 bag of frozen ice cubes, no ice maker or even ice cube trays to make our own! At dinner we brought steaks for our first night went to set the table and there were only 4 dinner plates (this rental slept 14) and only 3 steak knives ! The handle to the main bathroom shower kept falling off! We bought ice good disposable plates shared knives was careful in the shower and had an as good of a vacation as we could. This property was not even close to what was advertised, and when I called when we got home to at least get a refund of my service charge I was hung up on, put on hold until I got a recording saying they were closed or promised a call back once they looked into it but never received one ! STAY AWAY !