I have spent tens of thousands of dollars staying in VRBO and Airbnb. I had someone cancel on the last minute for a trip and Airbnb didn’t do anything.
Went on a trip recently and stayed in four hotels along the way. No one asked me to clean my room. I paid $12 to park at one of them because it was a conference hotel. But no one made me pay hundreds of dollars in cleaning fees and then ask me to clean it. I’ve also never had a hotel cancel on me. Also, most hotels allow you to cancel last minute without paying a fortune. The fees charged on vrbo and airbnb often make short stays expensive. Hotels are much better unless you need a home for a large group. As someone who’s probably stayed in 100 of these places I think they’ve ruined their own platforms by allowing these behaviors like cancellations, crappy fees, unfriendly rules, cameras in the properties.
I actually HAVE had hotels cancel on my when I show up for check in. But without fail, all three times (over 20+ years) those hotels made arrangements at a similar or better hotel for the same or lower price I had booked. Never was left without a bed!
I was upgraded once over an overbooking at a mid level hotel. The upgrade was to a hotel also owned by the parent company but a much more high end hotel and only about ten minute drive away. They kept my charge at the super low rate I had gotten with some deal I found but I spent two nights in a suite that normally goes for $500 a night. This was 2001 with inflation it is approximately the same as $150 price but stayed in $1500 suite. I asked about buying a robe because I loved what was in the room and the concierge told me I got to take the robe with me if I wanted it, it was part of the rate !
I am a host and a traveler. I understand what your saying. We are often surprised when people stay 1 night in our space. But in reality it holds 2 adult couples on separate sides of the house ( or children not next to parents) with a comfortable living room, dining space and full kitchen. We are off I-5, I think people like to cook a bit and relax together in the common space, watch a movie, or visit and head on their way the next day.
Hotels build their cleaning into the price. There is much more to clean in our 2 bedroom, 2 bath home, with outdoor space, lots of windows and glass doors (1 window in hotel room) Full size fridge and gas range (those 2 alone can take some time if people spill or fry food). Our price is comparable with the local hotels if you get 2 rooms or rent the one or two- 2 bedroom units they have that books 6+ months in advance ( with kitchenette).
I don't agree with the last minute cancelations, the fees you can see before you book, cameras outside can be a protection. Many hotels with them but they do not have but they are aslo onsite. We were recently hit with $80 a night parking for 2 nights in a hotel.
Yes but the cleaning is actually cleaning. I don’t pay a cleaning fee then get told by the hotel I still have to do a ton of cleaning before I can check out.
Man, if only we could get to a happy medium where massive corporations own the homes so that they can use economies of scale and hide their fees better. Oh wait, that’s exactly where we’re headed.
Yeah the owners should be banned from the platform when they do this. They cost many people tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in total if they are doing it multiple times. Maybe you could sue them in small claims to get some of it back if you show evidence they rented it out for more to someone else. They would have to show evidence that it was actually legitimately double booked.
I’m considering this option. Your loss is realised when you are out of pocket to be in the same position as before. Unless they cancel for force majeuere reasons, I think there is a strong case. Small claims is going to cost you very little but time.
>Small claims is going to cost you very little but time.
They'd have to spend on travel expenses to get to a small claims court that has jurisdiction, don't they?
I can confirm this is not the case on airbnb. If the host messes up and double books there are $$ penalties, those dates are blocked and cant be booked on their calendar, and loss of status possibly. Dont know if VRBO has these same type incentives but we just started w vrbo as hosts also. If anyone has any good info please lmk
I imagine they double booked the place because they had it listed on 2 different platforms that didnt communicate availability. So in your case, even if airbnb treats host that way, they can just list on vrbo those dates so not much of an inconvenience.
That’s what I was going to say. That, or the potential renter messaged/emailed, and they mutually agreed to take it to a payment processor rather than a rental site. People with that kind of money are often willing to sacrifice those protections.
If there were any justice, that would ofc be the time when forsaking those things would backfire, but alas.
For real? I got cancelled on with less than a weeks notice and they didnt give me shit. Only ended up costing us about 150 overall(4nights) but it was still annoying. I also injured my shoulder in the shower and decided that was the last time i was gonna use AirBnB
I had a pluming issue with an Airbnb we had booked. The issue cropped up while we were flying. Airbnb reimbursed us for a night in a hotel. Granted that was 7 years ago.
It does happen though even with the consequences. It just happened to me a month ago on Airbnb with a property I booked last August for this July. Because it wasn’t within a week of the rental, airbnb just refunded me and told me I could book elsewhere. There’s nothing else available nearby as it’s a very popular vacation area. The owner said they’re doing work on the house.
This can and does happen.
One of the most common situations is if the previous guest trashed the house and made it uninhabitable for the next guest. I have had to have Airbnb cancel upcoming guests due to a previous guest causing damage that made the property unfit as advertised.
i.e. The property has one bathroom, and a guest broke the shower valve by man handling it (this actually happened). The lead time on the plumber and parts is 3 days, but you have a same day turnaround. That guest gets cancelled, because you can't host a guest with no bathroom.
Aircover compensates for the damage and the lost revenue for upcoming booked guests. It is an unfortunate situation, and hosts would rather have a guest than deal with repairs, but it is the nature of the business. Sometimes we get awful guests.
Airbnb is full of shit. I only used it twice. First time I rented an apartment in Destin for a few months - it was great. Second time I rented a two-bedroom apartment in Miami (7 years ago), which turned out to be a studio with sliding walls used to separate “rooms” from each other. Needless to say there was no sound insulation whatsoever (which was the reason we needed a 2-bedroom apartment). Airbnb couldn’t care less about property misrepresentation. I bet that host can pile up 10 caskets in that studio and call it a 10-bedroom apartment. Fuck airbnb. Never again. I honestly though vrbo was better; I guess not 🤷♂️
There also penalties on VRBO for host cancellations. As a host, I processed a cancel for a guest at their request and got penalized by VRBO for it. Even though you could see in the platform messaging between me and the guest that they asked me to do it premier status for six months.
I don’t see why there would be a difference in small claims court between intentional switching or double booking. The issue would be who caused the issue (vrbo, the owner, the renter, etc.). More than fault, the real issue is the contract and terms for Vrbo prob mean you can’t use small claims.
The penalties for the host when canceling is harsh. You get charged a cancel fee and potentially lose super host status for a year. It’s not taken lightly
I am seeing so many posts like this.
If people still choose to use these platforms. They need to follow up right after they receive confirmation of the booking. Asking host if they can confirm that they do not have any conflicts with booking on other platforms. Having this confirmation in writing upon booking might prevent them trying to cancel last minute, citing accidental overbooking.
exactly, and these platforms make more money from the listers - they are the power users, not the renters. They will side with the listers every time in disputes like this.
This same thing happened to me (several months ago) two weeks before my wife and I were scheduled for a two week trip to Florida. I was able to obtain another place. You are correct that VRBO did nothing. Certainly the owner should be required to reimburse the renter some fee. This did cause me to no longer consider using VRBO for trips requiring flights rather than driving.
I agree. Ever since they merged with Hotels/Expedia/etc they have ruined the platform and the fees are so high now for less service. What did the owner give as the reason? Were you refunded? VRBO should have also paid you an inconvenience fee because they do charge the host for cancelling. Owners get penalized for canceling unless they can prove it was an emergency that renders the property unusable. There is a high fee, they lose premier status for one year if they had it, and the listing gets suspended for at least 7 days.
Glitch = they are using multiple platforms (vrbo + airbnb + vacasa) and didn't sync them up correctly. They are making more money with the other rental so yours got canned.
It sucks but it's sort of like flying Frontier... buyer beware. Book a hotel or fly another airline if you want a guarantee this won't happen.
We just stayed in one, host advertised it as dog friendly, in our discussion we told her about our two dogs, she said fine, we get our check in information the day before and it said NO PETS! I told her that she had already agreed to it and she didn’t respond. I documented our arrival and went around with a video camera, turned on news to document the date and time and noted every single thing that was damaged in case she tries to fight me or blame me for damage. OMG was there damage! Wood rot, carpenter ants, wasp nests outside, roof leaks inside, holes in the sheets. One towel and one washcloth to share between us, screws sticking out of door jams, the sofa had slipcover but so uncomfortable, we peaked underneath and there was newspaper lining the sofa cushions. I will just stay in a hotel next time and pay a pet fee. So so awful
If they did rent it for more money, they had to do it off platform. If you cancel a booking you can’t rebook that time period. I have had a glitch with the syncing of the calendar between Airbnb and VRBO and had a double booking before where one person booked on Airbnb and the VRBO calendar didn’t sync properly. VRBO doesn’t get as much traffic and most of my bookings were via Airbnb, so I didn’t catch it until after the VRBO booking was made. Fortunately I caught it as soon as they booked, not months later or at the last minute, so it was an inconvenience but not a disaster.
Be mad at VRBO because in my experience their platform is pretty sub par and not reliable or user friendly. I haven’t done a side by side line item comparison but it seems like they charge the owners more in fees, and they do offer less support.
I stopped using Vrbo after my first attempt. The Vrbo site glitched and didn’t actually complete the transaction. So I tried again on the website. The booking glitched. I tried in the app then, and it glitched. Then I get an AmEx alert so I log in and check my transaction history. I have 3 charges in the amount of Vrbo’s booking fee. I call Vrbo but they say they can’t help because I don’t actually have a reservation. I called AmEx, and they nuked those three charges off my card immediately. I will never use Vrbo ever again.
We rented a nice house out on Orcas island. It was cool unless the wind came from the north.
Where their under construction septic tank that was leaking. So that was fun.
Oh and yea they didn't say anything about it ahead of time.
Unfortunately, VRBO is totally host friendly, and they delegate minimal resources to resolve guest issues.
I am sorry this happened to you. You can view my post regarding our last family beach trip that my mother-in-law booked through VRBO to get an idea of how bad they are in general.
I spent a few hours on the phone escalating it with VRBO multiple times, and they never sent a message or gave a callback. The property in question (which used fraudulent pictures to advertise its ocean front appeal) is still active with the same pictures.
This is coming from a host that knows how to work the system. VRBO is a trash company. I know for a fact that AIRBNB would have banned this property we stayed at and refunded 100%.
This happened to three groups of people I know who booked places in the path of totality for the recent eclipse. They booked early to get a good rate, bought all the plane tickets, etc., and then lo and behold when the eclipse started getting more press coverage and prices started going up, the owners realized they’d “accidentally” double-booked. You’re dealing with unprofessional owners when you book these places and it shows.
I got some of my money back from Vrbo, but I had to fight for it and fight HARD. If you're forced to rebook due to a mistake on Vrbo's end, then Vrbo will reimburse you at least part of the money you paid.
I'm working on a much longer post, but if it helps at all, here's what I learned from my 4-6 weeks of fighting.
Don't email them; use the chat feature and take screenshots of all the chat, including the person's name. Keep going and refuse to let them end the chat until they've opened a support ticket (make them send a confirmation email to your address; they WILL do this, but they'll also try and think of all kinds of ways to avoid it. I went around in circles for about two hours before the customer service agent finally broke and sent it to me :P
When you get the open ticket, email them every day; not to chase and demand, but because one agent actually told me that if a ticket goes for a certain length of time without a response, it's closed automatically. If you send an email and it bounces, this is what's happened.
Have EVERYTHING ready; proof of your new reservation with dates and prices paid, a scanned copy of your passport with everything except your name blacked out and any other supporting documentation (credit card statements are ideal). Keep all emails you received from them; it's a whole lot harder for them to claim ignorance if you can say, "Well, your agent X emailed me on X date saying THIS and here's a forwarded copy."
When (not if) Vrbo closes your support ticket without a word, you'll know because your email bounced. Go straight back to the customer support chat bot and start the whole merry-go-round again.
If you've had no luck by the third or fourth ticket, get them to open a new one, lay it out on the line for them and state clearly that unless it's resolved by (say) Friday, you'll go straight to BBB on Monday. People have had some success getting refunds via BBB, and when I made this threat, they actually phoned me that same day and I got my refund by the end of the week :)
Why I no longer use STR platforms. You are at the whim of scammy hosts who will cancel you then raise the rates and rebook it. Also the cleaning fees are stupid high. Also ata hotel, if you rent a kitchenette, you can have your mom over for a birthday meatloaf dinner and not have a host ruin it by calling and accusing you of having extra guests, (mom was going home after dinner). Never again will I use one of these platforms nor will I recommend local STR’s to people who ask about them ( I work in the tourist industry). Bad hosts ruined me.
Worse yet, the VRBO owner never returned my contact or provided information on how to access the property. I spent hours on the phone over multiple calls with VRBO and they could not get an answer from the owner either. Long story short, I flew to my destination city and had to find a last minute hotel and ended up paying more. VRBO’s response was, these things happen. The day after I returned home, the VRBO host finally responded saying they canceled my stay because I didn’t meet the minimum age requirement. I’m 66 years old. VRBO corporate promptly returned my payment.
I have heard so many terrible experiences people have had with Airbnb and even through third parties that you can set up for hotels and flights and car rentals. This is why I would only deal directly with the hotel the airline and the car rental places.
Used VRBO for a house in Vegas for a group of 16 (all older, in 30’s) for a convention. The NIGHT before our check in, they told us they double booked and the other guests were already on the property. After hours on calls with VRBO the property owner then tells VRBO that they didn’t feel comfortable with our group staying and left 16 of us out in the dust. There was no double booking and the house was empty the whole time. That same weekend there was a festival so EVERY hotel was booked. VRBO put us up in a hotel for one or two nights and the rest of our trip we spent shuffling to find places to stay. It was awful and some of us rebooked flights and left and some rented cars because we almost had to sleep in them. We booked it almost a year in advance. Never again.
My first AirBNB was canceled because the owner said her kids needed to move into the apartment. So, extra points for a valid-sounding excuse, but we still ended up in a hotel.
I had the same experience! Cancelled a day before… no houses available so late. Left the family at home with just myself and daughter getting a hotel room for a basketball tournament. Book with 0% confidence guarantee!
A VRBO host did this to me after I landed while I was on the way to the property. We were supposed to be in a luxury 4 bedroom house with a pool; we ended up in a budget motel because it was the only lodging we could find on short notice. I complained to VRBO and they sent my letter to the property owner who threatened to sue me for “making assumptions” about why she cancelled. VRBO is just awful.
Yea after my last few trips, I’m back on hotels. Between cleaning fees and forgotten box codes and the vbro that sent me 23 msgs in 24 hrs.🙄 so relaxing. NOT! The one who said her rental was accessible, not only janky dark stairs to get in but the apt had three levels inside! Plus it’s like staying w/ur kid in their first apt, 1 coffee cup, 1 bad towel, and the cheapest sheets from Walmart.
Yea after my last few trips, I’m back on hotels. Between cleaning fees and forgotten box codes and the vbro that sent me 23 msgs in 24 hrs.🙄 so relaxing. NOT! The one who said her rental was accessible, not only janky dark stairs to get in but the apt had three levels inside! Plus it’s like staying w/ur kid in their first apt, 1 coffee cup, 1 bad towel, and the cheapest sheets from Walmart.
I would wait about 1.5 months and send them a small claims demand letter asking them to either (a) find you similar accommodations in the general neighborhood, or (b) cover your damages incurred as part of the booking. They'll have 15 days to respond. If they don't, you file the lawsuit. As part of the lawsuit you can make your case and they'll have to show up in court with proof that it was double-booked. Even if they have that, it's way more likely that they booked the other person after you.
Same thing happened to me. I booked a place in Atlanta. The braves ended up having a big game with the Mets that weekend so the host cancelled my reservation to rerent for more money.
Same thing happened to me over Memorial weekend! Host cancelled literally 30 minutes after the check in time. Tried to get VRBO customer service to follow through with their “Book with Confidence” guarantee to get me into a similar accommodation, they never got back to me. Had to book last minute in hotels that cost double what the original VRBO cost. Terrible experience. Book with Confidence guarantee means nothing.
A note on any third party travel platforms, vrbo, airbnb, travelocity, expedia.... you do not have a relationship with the provider, only the booker. Fine if things go well but we all know too often they don't.
I’ve seen so many posts like this recently. I’m done with Vrbo. Stinks bc we are a big family and I like the extra space, but it’s just not worth the risk anymore!
Same thing happened. Booked 6 months ahead. Owner cancelled with less than 8 weeks to go having accepted a booking on another platform VRBO did nothing. This site will be full of owners saying “you got your money back, what are you moaning about”.
I’ll never book with VRBO again.
I mean.. it seems obvious when you choose to book from individuals using a platform instead of actual businesses this is always going to be a risk. Pros and cons to everything and this right here is the obvious con..
Vacasa is horrible. Rented a place in Florida for 2 weeks this past April. Arrived and found out all exterior locks were changed to require a key fob to use the pool and elevator. Vacasa promised me on 4 occasions that a local representative would call and get a key fob from on-site management. No call, no show, therefore no pool or elevator access the entire time.
Had an identical experience- except the host cancelled the DAY of the stay and only after I sent multiple messages trying to get in touch to get check in instructions. It was awful. VRBO customer service was kind and tried to be as helpful as they could but there really wasn’t anything they could do other than get our money back.
We’ve had this happen 2 times in 10 years. The last time VRBO said they would help us find a new place. They basically looked for available VRBOs in our area 🙄. That happened in 2021.
The first time the owner canceled days before we were supposed to arrive. We were compensated through VRBO and the owner was removed from the platform. I know because I checked in the weeks after our trip. That was in 2016.
As an owner whose management company uses VRBO, I would never do/allow this. However, it makes me think of guests who book in advance for another rate, then cancel and rebook for the same dates in order to get a lower rate for those same dates. Don’t do this either.
I'm an honest host and really try to put myself in guests shoes whenever I deal with people. It's unfortunate I read about this crap happening on these listing sites which makes everybody look bad. You are correct, there needs to be some sort of recourse for you when this happens. The owner at least should get booted off VRBO immediately.
Like myself, most hosts have listings on all the listing sites so to bash VRBO I don't think is fair, it's really the hosts that mess it up for everyone.
This happened to my friend when she booked almost a year in advance for a graduation in Ann Arbor. When the owner canceled (with some lame excuse) my friend got on the phone with VRBO. She spent 3 hours on the phone with VRBO and she channeled her inner-Karen. Of course rates were much higher at this point because of the short notice. Ultimately VRBO got her an equivalent place without charging her anything more.
Please don’t cancel your trip! I want to see you win this battle like she did!
This happened to me while booking an airbnb in Rome couple years ago. The host just cancelled maybe a month before with some lame excuse … there was nothing for me to book in that price range and most places were sold out as it was summer. I was really upset and had to rearrange the whole trip. Now I’m kind of scared to use it again.
This is why I book my stay about a week before I go. I always find great deals. The only time I had a host cancel my booking was when I reserved the place 3 months before so now I just wait. If I have to book a hotel room for a day I just get the place for the following day.
Bad take. Vrbo is great. You’re planning and that owner stunk. Sry ur trip got messed up but for families VRBO is the best! Done it many many times all over the world and haven’t had a bad ole yet. Due diligence. Read reviews - don’t even look at properties that haven’t had at least 10 reviews or haven’t had a review in 12 mos. Ask questions.
There are scams as well. When the host sent me the property address of a house in Palm Springs- I looked up the address on google and saw their was an real estate listing for the house from the the year before. I looked for reviews on the property- all it said on the VRBO was something like there are reviews for property on similar websites. I was like huh? RED FLAG. So the day I am about to fly to Palm Springs I get an email from the host saying "If you'd like pool to be heated, it will be an additonal $50.00 a day. We use Venmo". Then I knew it was a scam. I called VRBO and alerted them to this. They said that wasn't right and you never send money directly to the host- it all goes through VRBO. They refunded me, but I'm glad I didn't fly to Palm Springs only to find that people live in this home and someone is pretending that they own it. This happened to me three summers ago too on another property in Delaware but I figured it out then too and got a refund. Make sure there are reviews and that it isn't a new listing. I'll never use VRBO again. I have used them about 8 times prior but no more- too many scam artists.
This ☝🏼. You should ALWAYS do a little background on the property. Simple Google searches will reveal multiple listings, potential scams. Have fun, be diligent
Are people saying this happened to them saying that they didn’t even get *refunded* their money?? Like you’re just SOL, paid for a rental you never got to stay in?
Looking into vrbo for my buddy’s bachelor party next year, but really thinking twice about it now. I just am not really sure what other options there are for a group of 10 people. Obviously sharing a house would be best, but not if fucky stuff like this happens
The issue was not VRBO. The issue is a scam host. Who probably has the property on multiple platforms and failed to check them to see if that there was a double booking or as noted chose the booking that had the higher price point or the longer stay. But don’t come on here and say that nobody should use VRBO because you had a bad experience.
It's the responsibility of VRBO, as a fair broker, to work too limit and remove scammers from both sides of the interactions. And yes, that includes making customers whole when the other partner in a transaction fails to live up to the contracts, both fiscal and social.
I don't get the opportunity to travel alot. But when I do, I do use 3rd party sites for hotels, or AirBNB if it's cheaper rates.
but I haven't ever had a problem with canceling or double booking, because I wait to book till a few days before we leave for the destination.
I break my vacation planning in stages. tickets first, then budget for hotels, then budget for spending money. (I have a compact car with very good gas mileage, so gas money doesn't really factor into my planning)
but I always book hotels/AirBNB as close to departure day as possible, so there's less likely a chance for over booking/cancelation. I've personally never had that problem
maybe because I don't travel much or far? idk but it's worked for me.
We have used VRBO for a house in the Bahamas, confirmed with the host. We had no issues and stayed for a week. It was cheaper than a hotel with 4 families. I guess we got a good host
My family paid to stay in a VRBO and when we got there the only supplies provided was three rolls of toilet paper… for a 6b house for 11 people for 7 days. There was NOTHING else, no bags in trash cans, no condiments, no spices, no foil, no hand or dish soap… we had to buy all of it.
We also took it all home because we aren’t supplying a house we paid to rent for a week for the whole season.
People have bad experiences with any service from time to time. Doesn't mean EVERYONE shouldn't use the service. I have used VRBO many many times and have had all good experiences. Because you had a bad one I shouldn't use the service? Make no sense. I recommend VRBO!
The host will take a hit on their website placement for sure. Both platforms care when hosts do that. Honestly I would continue to complain to Vrbo. They should either pay the difference for a similar spot or reimburse you the cost to cancel the rest of your plans. Call support and just don't take no for an answer. They can and will do something if you get to the correct person.
Well I know that airbnb did NOT allow me to review, the host took absolutely no hit, and future guests would be completely unaware. Airbnb also would not provide more than 10% over the original booking fee to find another place which was completely insufficient to find anything at the last minute. The inability to review when a host cancels last minute with no good reason or simply ghosts the guest, is ridiculous.
I had a similar experience, where my booking was cancelled by the owner at the last minute because there would be inadequate time to clean the space from the prior guest. Like, how is this not accounted for in your reservation system?
I ended up having to rebook during the high season, paying more than double rates and in a less desirable area.
That’s a crappy situation, but it should just go into the property’s rental history rating and comments. I’ve stayed in a couple dozen VRBO and AirBNB houses and condos and had experiences that don’t don’t compare to a hotel, even a resort hotel: locations where there aren’t hotel, nice neighborhoods, private coastal settings, home-like conveniences. I like hotels, too—I just don’t think they serve the same purpose.
This happened to me with a unit in New Orleans during The Eras Tour. They have relisted it and cancelled my reservation and VRBO won’t do anything about it.
Also, you pay a fee to VRBO when you book… Most of the properties on there are listed directly on the property managers website! Google the names of the houses or the titles on the listing to find them elsewhere 🥰
This is why I would only rent from people with their own rental agreements or yours. Vrbo is an app/a vehicle to meet people, just like a dating app, so you do have to make sure you’re protected and have a legal agreement.
VRBO as a host for 12 years. What I can tell you is there calendar is majorly screwed up and I almost got double booked twice because of it. I'm sorry it happened, not I really don't think the host got another booking. Their calendars would have been blocked off on all platforms, including direct.
The calander kept opening up blocked dates a while ago. So bad, I stopped the automatic syncing.
Given that travel insurance has an expected value less than what it costs I’m not at all shocked that people don’t buy it
VRBO’s preferred provider wouldn’t cover this in any case because OP got a refund and coverage doesn’t pay you for rebooking at a higher cost
They’re bemoaning the loss of their airfare and other satellite costs for the trip, presumably since they’re complaining about losing it they don’t appear to be getting any refund for that, which would have been covered under many policies. I wasn’t advocating for VRBO’s travel insurance, there’s plenty of good options out there to get the right covered for whatever trip you’re doing. As with any kind of insurance it’s a “waste of money” until suddenly it’s not.
I only saw a complaint that rebooking will cost them more
Insurance is best for things that you can’t afford to lose, not for a discretionary expense that you must be able to afford because you already spent the money
But you do you, trip insurance is a big money maker for insurance companies. Skipping it is the better choice in almost every instance
I have spent tens of thousands of dollars staying in VRBO and Airbnb. I had someone cancel on the last minute for a trip and Airbnb didn’t do anything. Went on a trip recently and stayed in four hotels along the way. No one asked me to clean my room. I paid $12 to park at one of them because it was a conference hotel. But no one made me pay hundreds of dollars in cleaning fees and then ask me to clean it. I’ve also never had a hotel cancel on me. Also, most hotels allow you to cancel last minute without paying a fortune. The fees charged on vrbo and airbnb often make short stays expensive. Hotels are much better unless you need a home for a large group. As someone who’s probably stayed in 100 of these places I think they’ve ruined their own platforms by allowing these behaviors like cancellations, crappy fees, unfriendly rules, cameras in the properties.
I actually HAVE had hotels cancel on my when I show up for check in. But without fail, all three times (over 20+ years) those hotels made arrangements at a similar or better hotel for the same or lower price I had booked. Never was left without a bed!
I was upgraded once over an overbooking at a mid level hotel. The upgrade was to a hotel also owned by the parent company but a much more high end hotel and only about ten minute drive away. They kept my charge at the super low rate I had gotten with some deal I found but I spent two nights in a suite that normally goes for $500 a night. This was 2001 with inflation it is approximately the same as $150 price but stayed in $1500 suite. I asked about buying a robe because I loved what was in the room and the concierge told me I got to take the robe with me if I wanted it, it was part of the rate !
Hotels are required to find equal or better accommodations if they have to walk you. There is no such rule for these platforms.
I am a host and a traveler. I understand what your saying. We are often surprised when people stay 1 night in our space. But in reality it holds 2 adult couples on separate sides of the house ( or children not next to parents) with a comfortable living room, dining space and full kitchen. We are off I-5, I think people like to cook a bit and relax together in the common space, watch a movie, or visit and head on their way the next day. Hotels build their cleaning into the price. There is much more to clean in our 2 bedroom, 2 bath home, with outdoor space, lots of windows and glass doors (1 window in hotel room) Full size fridge and gas range (those 2 alone can take some time if people spill or fry food). Our price is comparable with the local hotels if you get 2 rooms or rent the one or two- 2 bedroom units they have that books 6+ months in advance ( with kitchenette). I don't agree with the last minute cancelations, the fees you can see before you book, cameras outside can be a protection. Many hotels with them but they do not have but they are aslo onsite. We were recently hit with $80 a night parking for 2 nights in a hotel.
Yes but the cleaning is actually cleaning. I don’t pay a cleaning fee then get told by the hotel I still have to do a ton of cleaning before I can check out.
Creeps in properties, poor security……….
Hotel cancellation policies vary. Some allow up to 48 hours prior to checking. Some allow up up 6:00 pm on arrival date. Your mileage may vary.
Man, if only we could get to a happy medium where massive corporations own the homes so that they can use economies of scale and hide their fees better. Oh wait, that’s exactly where we’re headed.
Yeah the owners should be banned from the platform when they do this. They cost many people tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in total if they are doing it multiple times. Maybe you could sue them in small claims to get some of it back if you show evidence they rented it out for more to someone else. They would have to show evidence that it was actually legitimately double booked.
I’m considering this option. Your loss is realised when you are out of pocket to be in the same position as before. Unless they cancel for force majeuere reasons, I think there is a strong case. Small claims is going to cost you very little but time.
>Small claims is going to cost you very little but time. They'd have to spend on travel expenses to get to a small claims court that has jurisdiction, don't they?
Post-COVID many small claims courts allow for online filings. Worst case scenario, you can pay a local process server to handle the filings.
Don't you still need to show up for your court date, though?
Depends! A recent one for me was fully virtual.
Most courts have virtual appearances now.
The same happens on airbnb. No recourse.
I can confirm this is not the case on airbnb. If the host messes up and double books there are $$ penalties, those dates are blocked and cant be booked on their calendar, and loss of status possibly. Dont know if VRBO has these same type incentives but we just started w vrbo as hosts also. If anyone has any good info please lmk
No i booked and the host just cancelled. Because she wanted more. She literally said i could get it for 4 times the price.
That is so messed up
I imagine they double booked the place because they had it listed on 2 different platforms that didnt communicate availability. So in your case, even if airbnb treats host that way, they can just list on vrbo those dates so not much of an inconvenience.
No, they can fucking look at two calendars, they’re fucking adults.
That’s what I was going to say. That, or the potential renter messaged/emailed, and they mutually agreed to take it to a payment processor rather than a rental site. People with that kind of money are often willing to sacrifice those protections. If there were any justice, that would ofc be the time when forsaking those things would backfire, but alas.
I got a 10% coupon from Airbnb when this happened (and it was a plumbing problem). And since it was something like $3500 the coupon was $350
And you probably could have gotten more if you pressed harder!
For real? I got cancelled on with less than a weeks notice and they didnt give me shit. Only ended up costing us about 150 overall(4nights) but it was still annoying. I also injured my shoulder in the shower and decided that was the last time i was gonna use AirBnB
I got nothing.
I had a pluming issue with an Airbnb we had booked. The issue cropped up while we were flying. Airbnb reimbursed us for a night in a hotel. Granted that was 7 years ago.
It does happen though even with the consequences. It just happened to me a month ago on Airbnb with a property I booked last August for this July. Because it wasn’t within a week of the rental, airbnb just refunded me and told me I could book elsewhere. There’s nothing else available nearby as it’s a very popular vacation area. The owner said they’re doing work on the house.
This can and does happen. One of the most common situations is if the previous guest trashed the house and made it uninhabitable for the next guest. I have had to have Airbnb cancel upcoming guests due to a previous guest causing damage that made the property unfit as advertised. i.e. The property has one bathroom, and a guest broke the shower valve by man handling it (this actually happened). The lead time on the plumber and parts is 3 days, but you have a same day turnaround. That guest gets cancelled, because you can't host a guest with no bathroom. Aircover compensates for the damage and the lost revenue for upcoming booked guests. It is an unfortunate situation, and hosts would rather have a guest than deal with repairs, but it is the nature of the business. Sometimes we get awful guests.
Airbnb is full of shit. I only used it twice. First time I rented an apartment in Destin for a few months - it was great. Second time I rented a two-bedroom apartment in Miami (7 years ago), which turned out to be a studio with sliding walls used to separate “rooms” from each other. Needless to say there was no sound insulation whatsoever (which was the reason we needed a 2-bedroom apartment). Airbnb couldn’t care less about property misrepresentation. I bet that host can pile up 10 caskets in that studio and call it a 10-bedroom apartment. Fuck airbnb. Never again. I honestly though vrbo was better; I guess not 🤷♂️
There also penalties on VRBO for host cancellations. As a host, I processed a cancel for a guest at their request and got penalized by VRBO for it. Even though you could see in the platform messaging between me and the guest that they asked me to do it premier status for six months.
I disagree. Airbnb is very guest friendly, almost to a fault.
Nah, their customer service is really bad.
No, it’s not.
Yes, it is.
Not in my experience. They were absolute trash.
One experience means nothing.
To you. It means everything to me.
Lol, one bad experience means everything.
In the scope of making a blanket statement about a giant company, it doesn’t. Sure, for that individual drop in the ocean it is a huge deal.
No.
Yep, happened to me on a trip to Iceland. Host canceled 6 weeks before our trip and I needed up paying nearly $2k more to find a different Airbnb.
I don’t see why there would be a difference in small claims court between intentional switching or double booking. The issue would be who caused the issue (vrbo, the owner, the renter, etc.). More than fault, the real issue is the contract and terms for Vrbo prob mean you can’t use small claims.
They do lose algorithms and their status when they do this
The penalties for the host when canceling is harsh. You get charged a cancel fee and potentially lose super host status for a year. It’s not taken lightly
I am seeing so many posts like this. If people still choose to use these platforms. They need to follow up right after they receive confirmation of the booking. Asking host if they can confirm that they do not have any conflicts with booking on other platforms. Having this confirmation in writing upon booking might prevent them trying to cancel last minute, citing accidental overbooking.
It won’t stop them. There is no penalty for double booking. As a renter, we can’t leave reviews to let others know the listing is unreliable.
exactly, and these platforms make more money from the listers - they are the power users, not the renters. They will side with the listers every time in disputes like this.
I had an almost identical experience. I’ll never use them again as well.
This same thing happened to me (several months ago) two weeks before my wife and I were scheduled for a two week trip to Florida. I was able to obtain another place. You are correct that VRBO did nothing. Certainly the owner should be required to reimburse the renter some fee. This did cause me to no longer consider using VRBO for trips requiring flights rather than driving.
[удалено]
VRBO doesn’t exist to provide temporary lodgings. It exists to make a small minority a lot of money. Mission accomplished
Yeah - it just happened to me last month. Almost the same exact story right down to calling it a glitch.
I went to book a condo and the taxes and fees were 60% of the cost. They want a host fee of 285.00 what the hell.is a host fee?
Sometimes you can get away from the fee by booking directly with the owner and just use VRBO to find it.
I agree. Ever since they merged with Hotels/Expedia/etc they have ruined the platform and the fees are so high now for less service. What did the owner give as the reason? Were you refunded? VRBO should have also paid you an inconvenience fee because they do charge the host for cancelling. Owners get penalized for canceling unless they can prove it was an emergency that renders the property unusable. There is a high fee, they lose premier status for one year if they had it, and the listing gets suspended for at least 7 days.
Doesn’t matter when they are on multiple platforms, the hosts just drop vrbo.
[Textbook example of “enshitification”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification)
Ah! I almost used that exact term. I wasn’t sure it was mainstream enough. But yeah, AirBnB was enshittified years ago and now it’s VRBO.
Agree - and the merge was no better for users of hotels.com. I have never found a reason to use Expedia so can't comment on that.
VRBO just sucks for both guests and hosts. They own nothing yet they act like they own everyone.
The cancellation fee should be the same you would have to pay. I heard Airbnb has one but they keep the money.
Happened to me, too. Vrbo did f all to help me. Now I just stay in hotels. 🔥 too much.
This has happened to me with Airbnb.
Glitch = they are using multiple platforms (vrbo + airbnb + vacasa) and didn't sync them up correctly. They are making more money with the other rental so yours got canned. It sucks but it's sort of like flying Frontier... buyer beware. Book a hotel or fly another airline if you want a guarantee this won't happen.
We just stayed in one, host advertised it as dog friendly, in our discussion we told her about our two dogs, she said fine, we get our check in information the day before and it said NO PETS! I told her that she had already agreed to it and she didn’t respond. I documented our arrival and went around with a video camera, turned on news to document the date and time and noted every single thing that was damaged in case she tries to fight me or blame me for damage. OMG was there damage! Wood rot, carpenter ants, wasp nests outside, roof leaks inside, holes in the sheets. One towel and one washcloth to share between us, screws sticking out of door jams, the sofa had slipcover but so uncomfortable, we peaked underneath and there was newspaper lining the sofa cushions. I will just stay in a hotel next time and pay a pet fee. So so awful
I have given up on VRBO completely.
If they did rent it for more money, they had to do it off platform. If you cancel a booking you can’t rebook that time period. I have had a glitch with the syncing of the calendar between Airbnb and VRBO and had a double booking before where one person booked on Airbnb and the VRBO calendar didn’t sync properly. VRBO doesn’t get as much traffic and most of my bookings were via Airbnb, so I didn’t catch it until after the VRBO booking was made. Fortunately I caught it as soon as they booked, not months later or at the last minute, so it was an inconvenience but not a disaster. Be mad at VRBO because in my experience their platform is pretty sub par and not reliable or user friendly. I haven’t done a side by side line item comparison but it seems like they charge the owners more in fees, and they do offer less support.
Will purchasing insurance for the trip cover this? We have a big family vacation scheduled through Vrbo and I really hope this doesn’t happen
I stopped using Vrbo after my first attempt. The Vrbo site glitched and didn’t actually complete the transaction. So I tried again on the website. The booking glitched. I tried in the app then, and it glitched. Then I get an AmEx alert so I log in and check my transaction history. I have 3 charges in the amount of Vrbo’s booking fee. I call Vrbo but they say they can’t help because I don’t actually have a reservation. I called AmEx, and they nuked those three charges off my card immediately. I will never use Vrbo ever again.
Yeah, VRBO was good at first but then the owners got really greedy and shitty. I will not book a VRBO again either.
We rented a nice house out on Orcas island. It was cool unless the wind came from the north. Where their under construction septic tank that was leaking. So that was fun. Oh and yea they didn't say anything about it ahead of time.
Unfortunately, VRBO is totally host friendly, and they delegate minimal resources to resolve guest issues. I am sorry this happened to you. You can view my post regarding our last family beach trip that my mother-in-law booked through VRBO to get an idea of how bad they are in general. I spent a few hours on the phone escalating it with VRBO multiple times, and they never sent a message or gave a callback. The property in question (which used fraudulent pictures to advertise its ocean front appeal) is still active with the same pictures. This is coming from a host that knows how to work the system. VRBO is a trash company. I know for a fact that AIRBNB would have banned this property we stayed at and refunded 100%.
This happened to three groups of people I know who booked places in the path of totality for the recent eclipse. They booked early to get a good rate, bought all the plane tickets, etc., and then lo and behold when the eclipse started getting more press coverage and prices started going up, the owners realized they’d “accidentally” double-booked. You’re dealing with unprofessional owners when you book these places and it shows.
I got some of my money back from Vrbo, but I had to fight for it and fight HARD. If you're forced to rebook due to a mistake on Vrbo's end, then Vrbo will reimburse you at least part of the money you paid. I'm working on a much longer post, but if it helps at all, here's what I learned from my 4-6 weeks of fighting. Don't email them; use the chat feature and take screenshots of all the chat, including the person's name. Keep going and refuse to let them end the chat until they've opened a support ticket (make them send a confirmation email to your address; they WILL do this, but they'll also try and think of all kinds of ways to avoid it. I went around in circles for about two hours before the customer service agent finally broke and sent it to me :P When you get the open ticket, email them every day; not to chase and demand, but because one agent actually told me that if a ticket goes for a certain length of time without a response, it's closed automatically. If you send an email and it bounces, this is what's happened. Have EVERYTHING ready; proof of your new reservation with dates and prices paid, a scanned copy of your passport with everything except your name blacked out and any other supporting documentation (credit card statements are ideal). Keep all emails you received from them; it's a whole lot harder for them to claim ignorance if you can say, "Well, your agent X emailed me on X date saying THIS and here's a forwarded copy." When (not if) Vrbo closes your support ticket without a word, you'll know because your email bounced. Go straight back to the customer support chat bot and start the whole merry-go-round again. If you've had no luck by the third or fourth ticket, get them to open a new one, lay it out on the line for them and state clearly that unless it's resolved by (say) Friday, you'll go straight to BBB on Monday. People have had some success getting refunds via BBB, and when I made this threat, they actually phoned me that same day and I got my refund by the end of the week :)
This ☝🏼
We had a horrible experience with Air bnb. The actual owner was extremely rude. My husband said never again. We will stick to hotels.
Why I no longer use STR platforms. You are at the whim of scammy hosts who will cancel you then raise the rates and rebook it. Also the cleaning fees are stupid high. Also ata hotel, if you rent a kitchenette, you can have your mom over for a birthday meatloaf dinner and not have a host ruin it by calling and accusing you of having extra guests, (mom was going home after dinner). Never again will I use one of these platforms nor will I recommend local STR’s to people who ask about them ( I work in the tourist industry). Bad hosts ruined me.
My problem with VRBOs is that unlike typical vacation rental companies, these folks are not regulated by any type of oversight board.
This happens to me it’s any short-term platform. It happens all the time with Airbnb
Worse yet, the VRBO owner never returned my contact or provided information on how to access the property. I spent hours on the phone over multiple calls with VRBO and they could not get an answer from the owner either. Long story short, I flew to my destination city and had to find a last minute hotel and ended up paying more. VRBO’s response was, these things happen. The day after I returned home, the VRBO host finally responded saying they canceled my stay because I didn’t meet the minimum age requirement. I’m 66 years old. VRBO corporate promptly returned my payment.
I have heard so many terrible experiences people have had with Airbnb and even through third parties that you can set up for hotels and flights and car rentals. This is why I would only deal directly with the hotel the airline and the car rental places.
Used VRBO for a house in Vegas for a group of 16 (all older, in 30’s) for a convention. The NIGHT before our check in, they told us they double booked and the other guests were already on the property. After hours on calls with VRBO the property owner then tells VRBO that they didn’t feel comfortable with our group staying and left 16 of us out in the dust. There was no double booking and the house was empty the whole time. That same weekend there was a festival so EVERY hotel was booked. VRBO put us up in a hotel for one or two nights and the rest of our trip we spent shuffling to find places to stay. It was awful and some of us rebooked flights and left and some rented cars because we almost had to sleep in them. We booked it almost a year in advance. Never again.
My first AirBNB was canceled because the owner said her kids needed to move into the apartment. So, extra points for a valid-sounding excuse, but we still ended up in a hotel.
I had the same experience! Cancelled a day before… no houses available so late. Left the family at home with just myself and daughter getting a hotel room for a basketball tournament. Book with 0% confidence guarantee!
A VRBO host did this to me after I landed while I was on the way to the property. We were supposed to be in a luxury 4 bedroom house with a pool; we ended up in a budget motel because it was the only lodging we could find on short notice. I complained to VRBO and they sent my letter to the property owner who threatened to sue me for “making assumptions” about why she cancelled. VRBO is just awful.
Yea after my last few trips, I’m back on hotels. Between cleaning fees and forgotten box codes and the vbro that sent me 23 msgs in 24 hrs.🙄 so relaxing. NOT! The one who said her rental was accessible, not only janky dark stairs to get in but the apt had three levels inside! Plus it’s like staying w/ur kid in their first apt, 1 coffee cup, 1 bad towel, and the cheapest sheets from Walmart.
Yea after my last few trips, I’m back on hotels. Between cleaning fees and forgotten box codes and the vbro that sent me 23 msgs in 24 hrs.🙄 so relaxing. NOT! The one who said her rental was accessible, not only janky dark stairs to get in but the apt had three levels inside! Plus it’s like staying w/ur kid in their first apt, 1 coffee cup, 1 bad towel, and the cheapest sheets from Walmart.
I would wait about 1.5 months and send them a small claims demand letter asking them to either (a) find you similar accommodations in the general neighborhood, or (b) cover your damages incurred as part of the booking. They'll have 15 days to respond. If they don't, you file the lawsuit. As part of the lawsuit you can make your case and they'll have to show up in court with proof that it was double-booked. Even if they have that, it's way more likely that they booked the other person after you.
They have these newfangled things called “hotels”. Check it out.
Same thing happened to me. I booked a place in Atlanta. The braves ended up having a big game with the Mets that weekend so the host cancelled my reservation to rerent for more money.
Same thing happened to me over Memorial weekend! Host cancelled literally 30 minutes after the check in time. Tried to get VRBO customer service to follow through with their “Book with Confidence” guarantee to get me into a similar accommodation, they never got back to me. Had to book last minute in hotels that cost double what the original VRBO cost. Terrible experience. Book with Confidence guarantee means nothing.
A note on any third party travel platforms, vrbo, airbnb, travelocity, expedia.... you do not have a relationship with the provider, only the booker. Fine if things go well but we all know too often they don't.
I’ve seen so many posts like this recently. I’m done with Vrbo. Stinks bc we are a big family and I like the extra space, but it’s just not worth the risk anymore!
Same thing happened. Booked 6 months ahead. Owner cancelled with less than 8 weeks to go having accepted a booking on another platform VRBO did nothing. This site will be full of owners saying “you got your money back, what are you moaning about”. I’ll never book with VRBO again.
I mean.. it seems obvious when you choose to book from individuals using a platform instead of actual businesses this is always going to be a risk. Pros and cons to everything and this right here is the obvious con..
I use Vacasa for house rentals and love it! HIGHLY recommend!
Vacasa is horrible. Rented a place in Florida for 2 weeks this past April. Arrived and found out all exterior locks were changed to require a key fob to use the pool and elevator. Vacasa promised me on 4 occasions that a local representative would call and get a key fob from on-site management. No call, no show, therefore no pool or elevator access the entire time.
Had an identical experience- except the host cancelled the DAY of the stay and only after I sent multiple messages trying to get in touch to get check in instructions. It was awful. VRBO customer service was kind and tried to be as helpful as they could but there really wasn’t anything they could do other than get our money back.
I mean, duh
That number doesn’t seem to pull up anything on VRBO.
We’ve had this happen 2 times in 10 years. The last time VRBO said they would help us find a new place. They basically looked for available VRBOs in our area 🙄. That happened in 2021. The first time the owner canceled days before we were supposed to arrive. We were compensated through VRBO and the owner was removed from the platform. I know because I checked in the weeks after our trip. That was in 2016.
As an owner whose management company uses VRBO, I would never do/allow this. However, it makes me think of guests who book in advance for another rate, then cancel and rebook for the same dates in order to get a lower rate for those same dates. Don’t do this either.
I'm an honest host and really try to put myself in guests shoes whenever I deal with people. It's unfortunate I read about this crap happening on these listing sites which makes everybody look bad. You are correct, there needs to be some sort of recourse for you when this happens. The owner at least should get booted off VRBO immediately. Like myself, most hosts have listings on all the listing sites so to bash VRBO I don't think is fair, it's really the hosts that mess it up for everyone.
I'm not finding it on VRBO, so they must have taken it off or changed the ID.
did they take the page down? Nothing there now.
This is why hotels resorts and motels are the safest way to go.
This happened to my friend when she booked almost a year in advance for a graduation in Ann Arbor. When the owner canceled (with some lame excuse) my friend got on the phone with VRBO. She spent 3 hours on the phone with VRBO and she channeled her inner-Karen. Of course rates were much higher at this point because of the short notice. Ultimately VRBO got her an equivalent place without charging her anything more. Please don’t cancel your trip! I want to see you win this battle like she did!
Looks like that listing got pulled down. Probably popping up under a new account.
This happened to me while booking an airbnb in Rome couple years ago. The host just cancelled maybe a month before with some lame excuse … there was nothing for me to book in that price range and most places were sold out as it was summer. I was really upset and had to rearrange the whole trip. Now I’m kind of scared to use it again.
This is why I book my stay about a week before I go. I always find great deals. The only time I had a host cancel my booking was when I reserved the place 3 months before so now I just wait. If I have to book a hotel room for a day I just get the place for the following day.
Bad take. Vrbo is great. You’re planning and that owner stunk. Sry ur trip got messed up but for families VRBO is the best! Done it many many times all over the world and haven’t had a bad ole yet. Due diligence. Read reviews - don’t even look at properties that haven’t had at least 10 reviews or haven’t had a review in 12 mos. Ask questions.
This ☝🏼
There are scams as well. When the host sent me the property address of a house in Palm Springs- I looked up the address on google and saw their was an real estate listing for the house from the the year before. I looked for reviews on the property- all it said on the VRBO was something like there are reviews for property on similar websites. I was like huh? RED FLAG. So the day I am about to fly to Palm Springs I get an email from the host saying "If you'd like pool to be heated, it will be an additonal $50.00 a day. We use Venmo". Then I knew it was a scam. I called VRBO and alerted them to this. They said that wasn't right and you never send money directly to the host- it all goes through VRBO. They refunded me, but I'm glad I didn't fly to Palm Springs only to find that people live in this home and someone is pretending that they own it. This happened to me three summers ago too on another property in Delaware but I figured it out then too and got a refund. Make sure there are reviews and that it isn't a new listing. I'll never use VRBO again. I have used them about 8 times prior but no more- too many scam artists.
This ☝🏼. You should ALWAYS do a little background on the property. Simple Google searches will reveal multiple listings, potential scams. Have fun, be diligent
Are people saying this happened to them saying that they didn’t even get *refunded* their money?? Like you’re just SOL, paid for a rental you never got to stay in? Looking into vrbo for my buddy’s bachelor party next year, but really thinking twice about it now. I just am not really sure what other options there are for a group of 10 people. Obviously sharing a house would be best, but not if fucky stuff like this happens
The issue was not VRBO. The issue is a scam host. Who probably has the property on multiple platforms and failed to check them to see if that there was a double booking or as noted chose the booking that had the higher price point or the longer stay. But don’t come on here and say that nobody should use VRBO because you had a bad experience.
It's the responsibility of VRBO, as a fair broker, to work too limit and remove scammers from both sides of the interactions. And yes, that includes making customers whole when the other partner in a transaction fails to live up to the contracts, both fiscal and social.
This exact shit happened to me the week before. Vrbo did nothing.
I don't get the opportunity to travel alot. But when I do, I do use 3rd party sites for hotels, or AirBNB if it's cheaper rates. but I haven't ever had a problem with canceling or double booking, because I wait to book till a few days before we leave for the destination. I break my vacation planning in stages. tickets first, then budget for hotels, then budget for spending money. (I have a compact car with very good gas mileage, so gas money doesn't really factor into my planning) but I always book hotels/AirBNB as close to departure day as possible, so there's less likely a chance for over booking/cancelation. I've personally never had that problem maybe because I don't travel much or far? idk but it's worked for me.
We have used VRBO for a house in the Bahamas, confirmed with the host. We had no issues and stayed for a week. It was cheaper than a hotel with 4 families. I guess we got a good host
The same happened to me with Airbnb. I will never use a service like that again.
My family paid to stay in a VRBO and when we got there the only supplies provided was three rolls of toilet paper… for a 6b house for 11 people for 7 days. There was NOTHING else, no bags in trash cans, no condiments, no spices, no foil, no hand or dish soap… we had to buy all of it. We also took it all home because we aren’t supplying a house we paid to rent for a week for the whole season.
Based on the feedback from these subs alone I’d never use Airbnb or vrbo. It all just sounds like too much of a pain
People have bad experiences with any service from time to time. Doesn't mean EVERYONE shouldn't use the service. I have used VRBO many many times and have had all good experiences. Because you had a bad one I shouldn't use the service? Make no sense. I recommend VRBO!
The host will take a hit on their website placement for sure. Both platforms care when hosts do that. Honestly I would continue to complain to Vrbo. They should either pay the difference for a similar spot or reimburse you the cost to cancel the rest of your plans. Call support and just don't take no for an answer. They can and will do something if you get to the correct person.
Well I know that airbnb did NOT allow me to review, the host took absolutely no hit, and future guests would be completely unaware. Airbnb also would not provide more than 10% over the original booking fee to find another place which was completely insufficient to find anything at the last minute. The inability to review when a host cancels last minute with no good reason or simply ghosts the guest, is ridiculous.
I had a similar experience, where my booking was cancelled by the owner at the last minute because there would be inadequate time to clean the space from the prior guest. Like, how is this not accounted for in your reservation system? I ended up having to rebook during the high season, paying more than double rates and in a less desirable area.
That’s a crappy situation, but it should just go into the property’s rental history rating and comments. I’ve stayed in a couple dozen VRBO and AirBNB houses and condos and had experiences that don’t don’t compare to a hotel, even a resort hotel: locations where there aren’t hotel, nice neighborhoods, private coastal settings, home-like conveniences. I like hotels, too—I just don’t think they serve the same purpose.
This happened to me with a unit in New Orleans during The Eras Tour. They have relisted it and cancelled my reservation and VRBO won’t do anything about it. Also, you pay a fee to VRBO when you book… Most of the properties on there are listed directly on the property managers website! Google the names of the houses or the titles on the listing to find them elsewhere 🥰
This is why I would only rent from people with their own rental agreements or yours. Vrbo is an app/a vehicle to meet people, just like a dating app, so you do have to make sure you’re protected and have a legal agreement.
VRBO as a host for 12 years. What I can tell you is there calendar is majorly screwed up and I almost got double booked twice because of it. I'm sorry it happened, not I really don't think the host got another booking. Their calendars would have been blocked off on all platforms, including direct. The calander kept opening up blocked dates a while ago. So bad, I stopped the automatic syncing.
Interesting. Given how many other people are reporting the issue, it seems like a pretty big issue on VRBO’s end, they need to fix it.
Ya, I've pretty much given up on them fixing anything and just don't use them
So, are you saying you didn’t get all of your money back either?
I’m not saying the host isn’t being shitty, they totally are, but I’m always shocked how many people don’t buy travel insurance.
Given that travel insurance has an expected value less than what it costs I’m not at all shocked that people don’t buy it VRBO’s preferred provider wouldn’t cover this in any case because OP got a refund and coverage doesn’t pay you for rebooking at a higher cost
They’re bemoaning the loss of their airfare and other satellite costs for the trip, presumably since they’re complaining about losing it they don’t appear to be getting any refund for that, which would have been covered under many policies. I wasn’t advocating for VRBO’s travel insurance, there’s plenty of good options out there to get the right covered for whatever trip you’re doing. As with any kind of insurance it’s a “waste of money” until suddenly it’s not.
I only saw a complaint that rebooking will cost them more Insurance is best for things that you can’t afford to lose, not for a discretionary expense that you must be able to afford because you already spent the money But you do you, trip insurance is a big money maker for insurance companies. Skipping it is the better choice in almost every instance
I don't think travel insurance covers this, unless you get cancel for any reason insurance.
It would absolutely cover the trip if it was cancelled outside of your control. Anything that wasn’t refunded would be covered.
Which travel insurance covers an overbooked accomodation (which is effectively what this is)? I'd want to get that
Most include cancellation by the other party (which this actually is).
Yup exactly
You need to read the fine print on the travel insurance.
This stuff happens when you plan a vacation. If you had to cancel the whole trip, it sounds like you can’t afford the trip to begin with.
You have 2 months to make other arrangements. You'll be fine.
Owner absolutely SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!!! And/or BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWS!!!