“My husband, son and myself booked a getaway to Miami for the week of Thanksgiving. My husband's cousin invited us to celebrate Thanksgiving with them (in Lakeland - 4 hours away), so I booked an apartment for that 1 day and night. We left Miami, while driving to Lakeland, I realized I heard nothing from the host. I contacted her, to be informed my booking was not confirmed, and the location was occupied. Now I had already paid, and received confirmation from this very host, and I told her as such. She asked me to send her proof, I tried to call her, her number was not working. I called VBRO immediately. The rep' I got was very nice, very helpful. He too tried to reach the host, but had similar issues with her phone. He told me he was going to escalate my matter, to make sure I got refunded. Made sure we were at the legal check in time(4pm), before labelling it a 'no go'. He then advised I find other lodging. So here I was, on the road, with my family, on Thanksgiving, with nowhere to stay! I know my husband's cousin would have had us stay with them, but they already had 32 people at their house. I found a hotel room. The next day I was contacted, to find out what happened. And this is when this got bad. It was like pulling teeth! I had to provide ALL the documentation, even my message with the host, to prove I was wronged. DAYS of back and forth! Then in 1 email. I was told they'd refund my hotel stay. Good news is. I got my refund for the lost stay, but when the time came for them to refund the hotel stay. I was told to provide proof of when I was informed of such. Thank God I still had the email. I sent it, you'd think that would be enough...NOPE! Was told since my hotel was cheaper than the place booked, they would not refund. So if it were more expensive they would have?! Well, no to that as well. I was told the email was 'not what they meant' and if it were slightly more expensive they would have refunded. Hey VBRO...then why not say that in the email then?! Don't put things in writing, to then say it is not what you meant. I have been using VBRO for 12 years. I will never use them again, or encourage anyone to use them.”
“This app is horrible, dishonest. I made a reservation for a house, the owner hadn't approved it yet and the app authorized me to make the reservation. and the owner of the house had no availability and canceled my reservation. and vrbo told me that they can't do anything and wait up to 15 days to return the money. it was their mistake.”
“My family and I rented a home that was supposed to be for a wonderful weekend celebrating my mothers birthday. When we arrived to the home we immediately noticed a very steep stairway of 60 stairs leading down a cliff to the home, which was the only way to get there. There was no mention of this on the website. My mother is handicapped and can do some small stairs but this was not something she could do. The rest of us went down to investigate. The stairs and railing which were wood and nailed in were not steady and a huge hazard. Many were barely attached. I even yelled at my kids not to touch the railing it was so dangerous. When we opened the door to the home, a horrible smell hit us immediately. The entire home smelled like a moist rotten basement that had not been opened in decades. That aside, the only downstairs toilet was hidden behind a washer and dryer that only had about 6 inches to squeeze through to get to. This was to be my elderly mothers bathroom. Also, the home has major foundation issues and was slanted by at least a few inches to one side. We felt like we were in a scene of A Series of Unfortunate Events. We immediately vacated the home and called VBRO who gave us a incident number and from there sent us to the "customer service" department. Which I do not understand why VBRO puts on a front as if they actually have a customer service department because they did nothing and told us they would do nothing to help that it was up to VaCasa to help us which is the company that manages the property. (side note: I had a issue with another Vacasa property being grossly misrepresented but I rented from airbnb. Vacasa refused to refund me but Airbnb did.) One of the customer service reps at VBRO even became verbally abusive toward my mother, after she had been on the phone for 5 hrs saying the same thing to these people, and I had to take the phone from her as she was in tears and he was verbally abusive to me as well. Bottom line, I would absolutely never recommend anyone rent from VBRO nor a Vacasa property. Stick to AirBnb and the properties on that site that have high ratings. VBRO and VaCasa get my vote for the worst companies in the world with absolutely no customer service.”
