VRBO is expensive. I spent $600 to place an ad with them last year and after 7 days, the ad was still not approved. They have no customer support phone number, they don’t provide updates on support tickets and they just plan don’t communicate at all with their customers. The CEO of Homeaway is a complete buffoon having spent all this money buying all of these companies, he’ll just lose market share are companies with better customer service and better business models slowly eat away at his market share.
Back to my story, so last year I ended up telling them to cancel my ad and refund my money. They actually did that, after 10 days of waiting. I promptly took that money and spent it at one of their competitors. I thought I would try again this year. On Sunday I posted a beautiful add and again paid them $600.00. Today it’s Wednesday and guess what? The listing is still pending and no one answers my customer service inquiries.
Tomorrow I can going to process a chargeback against VRBO for the full amount. Once again they will lose my business and they’ll also get charged a chargeback fee.
And now they have this negative blog post as well. I just can’t fathom why a company would treat their customers this way. There are so many great competitors out there…you can spend $600.00 at a multitude of 2nd tier sites like this site, vacationrental4s11, flipkey, vacationsfrbo, etc.. If you are in florida vacationrentalhotspots or vacationrealty…and get similar results as vrbo and be treated a hell of a lot better.
Not only that, they expect me to pay for my listing while it’s in a “pending” state? I got news for them, that sh*t doesn’t fly around here. We treat our customers with respect!!!
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
I had similar problems with VRBO. First they denied my website link because they said it had nothing to do with my listing! Click on it! My listing # 302721 and the website are IDENTICAL! As of this date May 28, 2010 the listing is still on VRBO. They also reassigned my house as an “Apartment” when it is so obviously a huge French stone house! They wont change that either. I had to put my owners info in three times as VRBO deleted it! There was nothing wrong with it…..just poof! Gone. I sent them multiple emails, all unanswered. I called….the woman I spoke to “couldn’t do anything” really! All she COULD do was take my money. I emailed them to remove my listing immediately….no answer. I finally fled a complaint and refused charges on my credit card. These morons must be smoking crack! I have never experienced such a TOTAL lack of regard for customers. Customer service just isn’t BAD it’s NONEXISTANT!
I was a customer of VRBO for over eight years. They have no customer support or service. If you post your email with them or phone number you will get hundreds of spam and phone calls in the middle of the night. You will get email from every rental scam out there. Your money will be better spent going with several of the smaller vacaton rental sites.
These people are thieves. DO NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY WITH THEM. If this industry was regulated by any government agency, they’d all be in jail.
they allow scammers to publish all over there site and when they are told about the scam they’re say we’re sorry, come back soon. I hate VRBO. yea, you get a good deal here or there but then you get screwed and ALL of your great savings are washed away. Im gone VRBO until you clean your act up – and your site and your customer services. Man am i pissed!!
I’m an owner with my house listed on VRBO for two years. I just had a similar experience. NO customer service. Which prompted me to look at other companies. Yes, I found others with actual people I could talk to (findrentals.com) and much nicer UI’s with better prices (tripadvisor.com). My contract’s up with VRBO in January. I’ll be done with them. But I’m sure they don’t care about one guy leaving.
If you haven’t already, you might filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Here’s the link: https://odr.bbb.org/odrweb/public/getstarted.aspx
The address for VRBO is (you’ll need this for your complaint): 1011 W. Fifth Street, #300 Austin, TX 78703
I agree, VRBO is a disaster. It acts like what it is, a monopoly. They’ve jacked their prices up while decreasing the value of their sevice. Then I find that they have the nerve to advertise competing properties to clients who are trying to inquire about my property! That’s downright fradulent as far as I’m concerned.
But what are the alternatives? Every alternative listing service I’ve found is either owned by HomeAway or just as overpriced.
We have been on VRBO for about 1 1/2 years and have not been very happy. We get 10 time more rental inquiries from almost anywhere else than from VRBO. There seem to be some great promises, but not a lot of meat behind them. I just figured that it was something with our particular island vacation rental property, but now I am starting to think that it is VRBO and not our property… I have not had to use their customer support, so I can not comment there.
FIRST: Maybe you can actually respond to the Support Request; to date VRBO.com, Inc. has not responded;
SECOND: Our Support Request listed the (1) Payee Name and Address (that is you), (2) Payment Amount ($508.93); (3) Reference Number (AB9BDMY7); (4) our Name (Daniel Archer); Check Number (1109269031); Deliver no later than date (20 May) and when processed from our account (13 May);
THIRD: You might actually open your mail and the deposit checks your receive; our bank sent our payment (a bank check, not personal);
FOURTH: You might try entering the 21st century and allow Electronic Fund Transfers (EFT), which is why the bank had to send a check in the first place—this actually would allow you to receive more money but maybe VRBO likes to pay credit card fees;
FIFTH: For those clients who still write checks or use EFT’s, you might actually put the correct mailing address on your Website;
SIXTH: You might try to find out why your invoice address keeps changing each year since the same thing happened last year too: (1) 25 May 2011: Post Office Box 671788, Dallas, Texas 75267-1788; (2) 20 April 2010: 1011 W. Fifth Street, Suite 300, Austin, Texas 78703 and (3) 2009: VRBO.com, Inc. 3801 S. Capital of Texas Highway, Suite 150, Austin, TX 78704 USA;
SEVENTH: Even when we called Tuesday (26th May) and spoke with ‘Doug’ who, after we waited for 10 minutes on the phone, acknowledged VRBO received the bank check (but wrong address—see above), nothing was done and our Listing is still disabled today (Thursday 28th May);
EIGHTH: Another wonderful VRBO.com, Inc. representative called us yesterday, who had no idea what was happening, but said she could immediately reactivate our listing if we just allowed her to process another $508.93 from us over the (unsecured) telephone if we just gave her our credit card number (or maybe this call was from Nigeria)—she additionally thought that the new billing PO Box address ‘Doug’ gave us was wrong;
NINTH: One would think—since you did the same thing last year—that you would immediately reactivate the listing and stop the damage;
TENTH: We know you really do not think you cause any damage to your clients, but just look at our calendar and the number of inquiries we receive and perhaps that ‘big business’ and ‘the customer is always wrong’ attitude would change;
ELEVENTH: No apology, last year or this year…an amazing VRBO mindset! Let me correct that, your ‘Doug’ said if we pursued this, he might give us a one month listing credit as a courtesy, even though we may have lost $1,000-$2,000 in bookings (see above).
TWELVETH: We realize this complaint is going nowhere and probably directly into your trash, so will send a copy to your CEO and see if he can correct the way you handle these incidents which border on negligence.
I have been wiht VRBO since the FIRST YEAR – have spent THOUSANDS of dollars with them for many years. There customer service is HORRID and no e-mail address nor phone number – Would they EVER let us as owners do that? NOOOOOOO. No phone numbers either- Again, would they let US as owners only have a conact form where we would call potential renters back? NO- DOUBLE STANDARD. I cannot begin to tell you how MANY technical issues they have NEVER solved to this day- I have wasted HUDNReds OF HOURS TRYING TO SOLVE PROBLEMS WIHT THEM TO NO AVAIL- I would stop advertisign if ANYONE could get big enough to take their place? I have to, however RENT. I feel trapped.
I got no service from VRBO.com. I will post my email below that explains it all.
Craig
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(Part 1 of 2)
Re: listing cancellation request
I received an email from VRBO indicating they will not be linking to our availability calendar. This is such a tremendous disservice to our company and our prospective tenants who need to see an a accurate calendar. VRBO is kind enough to provide their calendar service, but updating several calendars with all the companies we purchase advertising through is not practical for us. We use one custom made calendar program on our own website.
I tried to call VRBO on July 14 but could not find a phone number on their website, neither could I find any email address and all emails I received from VRBO was “noreply@vrbo.com”. I sent two email queries through your “help/support” form on July 14 and I’m disappointed that four days later I have received no reply. The help/support form itself is restrictive and difficult to use, limits a person to 1000 characters and is very slow. (Continued in Part 2).
(Part 2 of 2)
Re: listing cancellation request
I’m very dissatisfied with VRBO’s lack of service and their lack of commitment to helping condo owners advertise their condos as accurately and efficiently as possible.
Due to no service and VRBO’s policy against linking to custom/private calendars, I regret we will not be able to purchase advertising through VRBO. Not being able to contact VRBO or receive any reply, I have already contacted our credit card company and have reversed the charges.
This is classic vrbo incompetence, I reversed my charges as well for my vrbo listing. If they can’t respond in a timely manner, that’s the price they pay. My website + google ppc is all I need for full availability. Vrbo will implode now that they’ve gone public… It was just a rollup to line the pockets of a few, not create any real value for vacation rental owners
I have four listings on four different properties both in Maui and Arizona. I have been with VRBO for over ten years. I have tried vacations.com and if I am lucky I get two bookings a year. I have changed my reservation system recently and I emailed VRBO for help and they were back with me on the phone in ten minutes. I am sorry you all have had problems. I am fortunate that I have only had good resutls and the same when I book a holiday through.. Aloha
I have four properties listed with vrbo.com. One of my properties listed with vrbo.com is in Ouray, Colorado (# 91039). Several years ago I added more photos to my listing so that I would be in the # 1 listing spot on the vrbo.com website. I just discovered today that I am now the # 7 listing. They now determine listing order based on both length as a vrbo customer, and number of photos. That means that any owner who has been a customer longer can upgrade to 16 photos, and move ahead of any owner who have been in a higher listing spot (such as myself). I thought about that, and I think I have figured out why vrbo.com implemented this change. vrbo.com, by enticing customers who have been long-time customers to add photos makes more money. So, now I have lost my coveted # 1 spot, all because of their greed. I have been with vrbo.com for somewhere around 10 years. So, what does that do for my loyalty to them. In other words, It think they simply said “to hell with our customers who opted for 16 photos – the customers need vrbo.com more than we need them (so the customer will just suck it up, and we will make more money). I just tried to call vrbo.com, and got a recorded message that they were swamped with calls, and would not be able to return my call for 2 hours. vrbo.com makes such a huge profit, and they can’t take care of their customers by having a sufficient number of employees to answer telephone calls. I consider them to be a role model for what a company should not be.
I heard the same thing from another property owner today, I think this change was made recently. VRBO / HomeAway is a publicly traded company, they have to keep figuring out ways to nickel and dime you, or their stock price will go down. Sad but true.
I agree and have similar circumstances with you, James Clay January 18, 2012 at 4:46 pm. VRBO was a great service for me until Homeaway.com took over their company. It is so sad to see VRBO change. In the past few years, I had recommended several other vacation home rental owners to VRBO.com… This year, I cannot do so. Very sad indeed! Homeaway.com. GO AWAY!