Vrbo Vacation Rentals

So I am writing my review on the app and my experience while staying at our Vrbo cabin! Our family decided to stay a couple nights in a charming cabin just outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee. We booked through the app and it seemed really easy to make all the arrangements. The owner of the property was quick to respond via email about some questions my husband had and send the information we needed to unlock the door to get in! I would say it’s pretty cool that you can make these kind of reservations through an app on your phone! So neat! We get to our cabin, park, get our two little kids out of the car and head inside our cabin! Get inside and find that the place hadn’t been cleaned from the last guests who had stayed there......We were in awhhh....So we tried to reach out to the property owner ASAP and let her know that the place was not ready for new guests! We waited a short time and still no reply. So we decided to contact Vrbo instead. They were very nice about it. They reached out to the property owner who then contacted us shortly after. Long story short, the property owner refunded our two night stay. We still had to pay taxes on that and was charged a cleaning deposit still of $100. Anyways. Vrbo doesn’t take financial responsibility for refunds etc. Its not their fault at all this happened. Anyways.

Not buggy at all, but functionality could be improved. The map feature is pretty limited - would be nice to be able to switch to satellite view, get directions, see what else is nearby, etc. The rate display is not great either - even though you enter in the date range when you search, you still have to select an entry and then select again to see what the total will be. And even though it shows the nightly rate when scrolling through the search results, just because one entry has a lower per night rate doesn’t mean the overall stay is cheaper, because taxes and fees are not factored in. So you could see one place for $200/night, and another for $215, but the total for the latter could end up being less overall. And lastly, when you share a property with someone, that person has to get the app to see it, instead of opening the website. P.S. While writing this review, I tried to select a word and “Look up…”, and then was locked out of the keyboard. I could select text but not type anymore. Not sure if that’s iOS or the app…

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The app is okay at finding rentals. However, my first experience with VRBO was so terrible that it will certainly be my last unless they improve their customer service support and fix their cancellation policies to protect renters who get ignored by the rental owner/manager. We unfortunately got a rental that was manage by someone who did not respond for days. I VRBO directly first through the website online chat support, which seemed to be positive, but then I was told to call the corporate customer service hotline number to speak with an agent to “escalate” my grievance about the lack of communication from the rental owner/manager. Because of the lack of contact from the manager and a negative review on the property I was confused about how to proceed and whether or not this rental was legit or a scam. I requested to cancel, and the manager finally responded by cancelling the rental and keeping the $1,700+ for 4 nights. So now we are out $1,700+ and have no rental! The agent from VRBO kept referencing policies and sounded cold and unable to make any changes or even partial refunds. At times, the agent could barely be understood. The customer service was abysmal at best. Apparently, VRBO does not do a good job at quality control and keeping property owners/managers in check to ensure customer satisfaction and good communication.

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My husband and I go to Las Vegas every year for CES in January. In 2019 we reserved a two bedroom, 2 bathroom condo that was very close to the LV Convention Center. The place smelled, there were burnt-out lights, the blinds in one bedroom fell the middle of the night and everything was worn out, i.e. the bedding, kitchen cabinets. For our trip in January 2020 we made a reservation for a condo at the Jockey Club. On December 9th we received a message that our reservation had been cancelled and a refund was being sent. It is very hard to get a decently priced room during the week of CES, which is why we always book early. My husband contacted VRBO. They said the owner is not allowed to do that. They tried to reserve another condo for us and said they would pay the difference. They also told my husband that if the owner didn’t respond within 24 hours they would call him to help book another place. They didn’t. We will never book a place to stay through them again and are telling everyone we know. BTW, a friend of mine who goes to Hawaii every year has had several people tell her about the nightmare experience they’ve had with VRBO. At least two of those said when they arrive at their destination, found out that the place they had paid for was rented out to someone else.

This is a pretty good travel app overall. I’m frustrated about a few things, however, and want to pass them on to the developers. (1) Add a button next to the heart (favorite) symbol to allow us to remove a property from a list if we’ve already ruled it out. I would suggest an “X”. I can’t remember which properties I’ve already considered, especially if I cant return to my search for several days. (2) Add the dates for travelers reviews. I take recent reviews more seriously than reviews that are a year old, for example. I think the property managers would like this as well since it allows them to recover from a bad review. (3) Break down “washer dryer” into two pieces - in unit and shared. I won’t stay someplace without a w/d in the unit and there is currently no way to find this out without contacting the property managers. (4) Break down the “free parking” filter into free onsite, on street, and valet. Again, it is nearly impossible to know the parking specifics without contacting the manager. Hope this helps. I love VRBO and have been an owner and traveler for 20 years.