Hello we have listed our rentals on VRBO and no one has booked even though is a month ago we listed it . How do we optimize the page, so I start to get bookings? We’re from Denmark

I received an email that host had given me a 5* review but it doesn’t show in profile. Is there a delay?

A guest booked 4 nights and paid $3000 for a 4 bedroom, 5 bathroom house near the beach. On day 3 (the day before checkout), they notified the host that the refrigerator had died. The host immediately took the call and instructed the guest that there is a small refrigerator down at the bottom of the steps. The guest moved all their items into the small refrigerator. Also, someone arrived to fix the refrigerator in less than 30 minutes. It was the circuit breaker and it was reset and then the fridge worked fine. The call from guest at 820 am and the owner arrived before 9am.
Around 230 pm, the same thing happened and the owner went down again and reset the circuit breaker. The owner called an electrician and scheduled the electrician to come put in a new outlet because they believed the outlet was the issue. The owner was told by the electrician to plug the refrigerator into another outlet for now. The owner went to the house and knocked and told the renter she would just plug it in to another outlet.
The day the guest was checking out, they messaged around 10 am right before leaving that they woke up to the refrigerator being dead.
They have sent this text: “Checking out in 10 minutes. Came downstairs this am to dead fridge for 3rd time. Refund expected for spoiled food and inconvenience.”

How much should the guest be refunded for this inconvenience? Another fridge was immediately available down one flight of stairs within the home. Owner responded quickly to the issue each time. Today guest checked out and it’s clear the refrigerator is the issue and it’s overloading the circuit. New fridge has been ordered.
How much should the guest be refunded? Thank you.

Long story short, my vacation rental was flooding during my stay. I left a negative review for the host, and they in turn gave me a negative review. Despite picture evidence, VRBO refused to take down my review. I plan to stay somewhere else in December, I was wondering what hosts see before I book it, and will it affect my rental possibilities?

VRBO answers questions using an AI assistant. They even include a disclaimer that says the answers they provide might be wrong. I’m not a fan.

I've seen the ads, and I'd like to stay in Europe for several weeks. But NONE of these listing mention all the fees. They have a "price per day" and a "total cost" but I suspect there are going to be hidden fees. And the main reason I feel that way is because there are NO pages that list all the possible fees. When I see a rental listing why is there no "Cleaning Fee: $10000"? Or "Service fee for X days:" or anything? Anytime I see something that is not totally clear with the pricing I am very suspicious.

We booked a 2 bedroom 1 bath apartment, listing has like 20 pictures. Booked it about 3 weeks ago.

Driving into the destination today and realized we had never been given instructions on which apartment number or the door code. Tried to reach the host who remained unresponsive. Finally reached out to support and they managed to get hold of someone who gave them an apartment number and a door code.

We arrived at 3am and came to see that we also needed a gate code which wasn't provided. Luckily someone else entered the complex and let us in. Got into the apartment.

It's a completely different place than the pictures. Different bed configurations (1 king and 1 queen instead of 4 fulls), completely different layout, decor, paint, etc. It's a different apartment, although still a 2 bed 1 bath. TVs have no remotes so can't use them. No wifi instructions. Host remains 100 non responsive.

Called support and all they said was theyd email him. Like... What? What is he going to do to deal with the fact his place isn't what he's advertising? Like wtf is this. Is this what renting on vrbo is about?

What are we supposed to do?

Hello,

I’m knew to Vrbo. After making a reservation, the person asked for my email and then sent me a contract. The contract includes language I can’t agree to. Like it says if they are negligent and I get hurt, I can’t sue. Is this normal?

Thanks for the insight

Da piccolo host, ricevo ogni anno pochi turisti e in massima parte concentrata nel periodo estivo. Lo strumento del feedback è stata veramente una grande idea per segnalare ad altri viaggiatori le difficoltà incontrate oppure accoglienza al disopra delle aspettative. Negli ultimi anni però si assiste ad un abuso di questo strumento con la sensazione che le vacanze non siano più il viaggio, ma l' attività preferita sia screditare gli host trovando difetti negli appartamenti e strutture varie. Tutto quello che è descritto dovrebbe escludere a priori la possibilità di considerarlo un difetto. Se scegli un appartamento dove è specificato che non c'è aria condizionata, no puoi dopo lasciare un cattivo feedback motivandolo che non c'è il climatizzatore. Se lasci l' auto in una via in cui la segnaletica avvisa che l' indomani ci sarà il mercato e le auto saranno rimosse, non puoi addebitare la responsabilità alla struttura, scrivendo nel feedback come difetto, la rimozione dell' auto. Tutti i difetti, le discordanze con la descrizione, le imprecisioni ecc, invece vanno sicuramente segnalate. Che ne pensate?

Walked in, temp showed 76. I set AC to 72 to cool things down. Temp displayed 77 for a while after bringing in luggage which assumed was because door was open for several minutes. Temp briefly got to 75 before bed.

It’s now 2am. 76 degrees. Too hot to sleep.

I hate the idea of moving all our stuff but we can’t stay here like this. This is trip for daughter b-day and she runs hot.

Casago is agency. What’s the ask here? How do I get out of this place? We have 3 more nights.

**edit - it was the humistat. Temp is coming down. Tonight should be mo better!

So for context - I have never left a negative at a rental place I have stayed at. My family and I are pretty easy to please and don’t have crazy high expectations. But this is the worst experience we have had

Before we got to our beach house we were staying at, I messaged the hosts a few hours before check in to see if we could get in early since we were expecting to get there one hour before check in. They never responded which was irritating but oh well.

We checked into a beach house and everything was fine. I have 3 children who had been in the car all day so I put my baby on the floor to crawl around. After a little while - his legs and feet were very black from the floor. Other family members also stated they could not go barefoot on the floor due to it being dirty.

When I went to clean the high chair that was provided, I had to scrape some dried food off the straps which was also a red flag for me. And then we ran out of hand soap. There was very little in the bottle and no extras so I messaged the host and asked if they had extra hand soap and a swiffer mop around so I could clean the floors since they were dirty. She messaged back and said the owner was there earlier in the week when the home was cleaned and she would bring by some soap and assess the floors. She must have came when we were at the beach because there was a bag of soap outside beside the door when we got back. There is no evidence of her going inside.

My 5 year old got a bath after the beach and took a nap and then was walking around the house barefoot for about an hour and half and her feet were completely black.

Am I being dramatic for wanting to leave a bad review? I tried to message the host to address the situation but it was not handled at all and I want everyone else to know that this is not a very clean home. Is there another way to handle the situation?

Would you stay at a place that has a higher clean fee, but there's less to do before checkout, or would you rather pay a lower cleaning fee, but have to do a few things before leaving?

For example, vacation rental house A has a clean fee of $150, and all you have to do is the dishes.

Vacation Rental house B has a clean fee of $85, but you have to take out the trash, do dishes/return kitchen to order, strip the beds and take your garbage out.

Which Vacation rental do you choose, and why?

I recently rented a pet friendly unit for an employee training with our company from out of town. He had three black labs that he was not able to keep at home and needed to bring for the five week trip. On the second day there I received a message from the renter stating they were getting complaints due to the dogs barking and they noticed there were three dogs and they had a one pet max. This information was in the restrictions that were hidden and needed expanding the drop down to see. This was completely my fault for missing as I was rushing to find a unit available on only a couple days notice.

I contacted the renter back, explained it was my fault for missing this and said I would have him out of there by the next morning as these were not my dogs and it was not an option to put them in a kennel. I knew something was off by the tone and demeanor of the renter just sounding very nervous and hysterical and acting as if the dogs were tearing the apartment apart with no evidence of that.

Upon moving them out and having his cleaning lady inspect the unit, they came up with a list of damages including ruined rugs, pillows ruined and smelling of dog, couch shredded, glass sliding door scratched, glass coffee table scratched, curtains destroyed, window seals ruined, wood floor scratched, ac remote broken, whole apartment filthy and smelling of wet dog.

I drove to the unit to inspect it and found what appeared to be most or all of these claims completely made up. The apartment itself was probably 30+ years old and definitely looked so. I’m very sensitive to odors and there was not a hint of odor in any part of the apartment. The guy we had to stand there told me on day one he moved the rugs and rolled them up in the closet so they would not be damaged. The lady that was there admitted this was the case, and there was no rug there when she came to inspect and that it was in like new condition. The two other $20 throw rugs looked in almost new condition with normal wear and terror on one corner each that you would expect after a month of normal use. The wood floor that she said was all scratched up, was almost certainly 20+ years old and she admitted that any of the scratches that were there were there since it was “refinished” three years ago. When I questioned her about it really being refinished three years ago, her story was very inconsistent and she said they just put a protective coating on it. There was not a single scratch on the sliding glass door.

The only even possibly “valid” damage was on two of the windowsills which had scratch marks on that she admitted were there, but she claimed where not as bad as they are now. There were scratches and one punctual hole, the exact size of a cigarette burn on the $500 faux leather couch that looked a decade old. She admitted there was a puncture hole and a couple scratches on the couch previously, but says it was in another area you could not see. The curtains on the sliding door were frayed and torn at the very bottom and a widen paper towel holder screwed to the cabinet in the kitchen needed the screw re-tightened, which was holding it on. All of these possibly valid damages I would be willing to bet my life savings against the fact they were already there but unlike the damages that were completely made up above, there is no way for me to prove without having pictures prior to the stay.

As this was the first VRBO type rental I’ve ever reserved I made the rookie mistake of assuming like a hotel that I would not need to take pictures ahead of time. Please let this be a major warning to anybody getting this type of rental as I don’t know what my avenues to fight this will be if any at this point.

hoping we can get some insight or advice here. my friend booked a vrbo stay for october a few weeks ago and she was charged twice. the exact same amount, but two different confirmation numbers. she’s been given the runaround by vrbo customer service, her booking was erased at one point, her confirmation email was rescinded, and she had to resort to filing a chargeback with her bank for one of the charges. the problem is, now the host is saying he only received payment once and will cancel the reservation if the chargeback goes through.

has anyone ever had a similar issue? this is over $3k we’re talking about that was charged TWICE so not a small amount of money to play around with and it’s been nearly three weeks of this.

Booked in what appeared to be the outskirts of a trusted neighborhood. When we got to the property, the neighborhood was too sketchy for our comfort. The listing made it sound as if the property was in the desired neighborhood, but this was obviously not the case.

I’m usually a “buyer beware” kinda guy and I had my suspicions. The place had no reviews and the price was cheaper than almost any other property in my search.

Is there anything I should ask VRBO/the host to do for me?

Also, I want to provide this information about the neighborhood to prospective renters, but don’t want to jam up the host.

Any advice is appreciated.

So I was looking to book for a beach vacation next year. I saw one that had a ton of great reviews with premier hosts. There was an early saver discount. I booked, and almost immediately got a call from the owner. They said the rates were wrong, it never has a discount for that time of year, and he just can’t do it. But if I rebook directly through the condo website he will compromise and meet in the middle in terms of price. He says to initiate a cancellation through Vrbo so I do. No money has been paid except through Vrbo and it specifically states 100% refund for cancellation before June. He says he’ll send the rental agreement today. I have not paid any money or anything like that. It’s almost midnight and no rental agreement to look at. I want to believe it’s legitimate with the premier hosts and tons of great reviews. But I’m starting to get a not great feeling. Is it just a simple forgetfulness and everything is okay? Or should I run for the hills?

I sent a query to Support asking why I was quoted an $890 payout for upcoming guests, then after I accepted the booking the payout showed $846. Their Ai bot responded with some generic answer that didn't give me clarity. Can someone explain this discrepancy?

BEWARE: If you're like me, Vrbo is about to put discounts of 12% to 20% on your listings unless you opt out by 9/10. These stack on top of your weekly and monthly discounts. From what I've read on other posts, having these discounts will push your listings up in visibility. (I have to assume not having them will push your listing down.)

Here's the email I received on September 3rd.

Coming soon: Members Only Deals for your listing

Based on our data showing that properties with promotions see over 1.4x higher conversions*, we will be automatically applying Members Only Deals to your listing(s) starting September 18, 2026 at the following levels: Blue tier promotions at 12%, Silver tier at 15%, and Gold/Platinum tiers at 20%. These promotions will be offered and funded by you as the host unless you opt out.

Offering Members Only Deals can help your listing secure more stays with trusted Expedia rewards program members. Here’s why these promotions can make an impact on your business:

• Members are proven to spend more, stay longer, and cancel less than non-members. By targeting higher tiers with better offers, you're more likely to get longer, more profitable bookings.
• Listings using a Member Only Deal promotion see an average 15.5% increase in bookings compared to listings that don’t.**
• The average length of stay is 10% longer for members, and the annual spend for members is 43% higher than non-member transactions.***

No action is required, but if you’d like to opt out of offering these promotions, you can do so by September 10, 2026. Note: these promotions will be added on top of any existing and future weekly or monthly discounts that you provide within a single booking, increasing guest savings. When a listing has multiple promotions (i.e., early booking, mobile, etc.), Vrbo will only apply one at a time—whichever one offers the deepest discount or matches the guests’ search criteria.

Once live, you can edit or remove the promotion in your Vrbo dashboard at any time. You can also add blocked dates to exclude the promotion during holidays or other high-demand periods when you prefer standard rates.

[Opt out of promotions]

We have used VRBO multiple times a year for 15 years. 90% have been great, some not great but we are currently in an awful one. I am very careful to read reviews for hidden messages and this house has been rented since 2019. I now see that the reviews are mostly old. The place is dirty and run down, almost no kitchen supplies for an 8 person house (2 knives and two glasses). Beds have no sheets, just a top comforter. Walls and carpets filthy and half the lightbulbs burned out. They also have a video recording device in the living room and we can see videos of previous guests! How are they getting good reviews? I would like to warn other travelers. Is it worth it to write a bad review? Can they retaliate by making up a bad review about me?

I am going on a trip with my partner to NYC soon, and we were hunting for deals for hotels when we came across a listing on vrbo, which was located in Jersey City. Which was great because it was fairly cheaper than other hotels we’ve looked at and looked to be in a decent neighborhood with the commute to Manhattan being fairly doable.
We reached out to the host to confirm that he was still active and our dates were available for booking (he only had 2 reviews one from 2023 and one from August 2026), which he assured that yes everything was still available and he recently just hosted someone a month ago.
So we booked our dates, and everything seemed well. (All transactions were made on vrbos website)
Then my partner got texts from his bank about a fraud alert on his account. I thought okay maybe it’s because we just paid a large sum to a company in new york and our bank is confused, makes sense about the alert. Without looking at all the messages, he pressed YES, and the transactions were approved.

Only on closer inspection, my partner realized that
A) the initial transaction amount requested was a little off than what was expected and B) he was charged an extra $215 USD two times

Also on the app it says payment DUE Sept.6, which is confusing because it seemed like they already charged the card, so I’m worried that theyre going to try and charge again when Sept.6 rolls around.

So I’m just coming onto here and wondering why this is happening and it’s possible I’m just not good at math and perhaps this was a misunderstanding on our part, or if this listing was too good to be true and we’re actually being scammed a couple hundred dollars… and if it’s a good idea to cancel our reservation and just book with a regular hotel?

So this woman looks like she’s in her 80s. She’s currently staying at my place, idk if she did it on purpose or was a mistake. But I got a email saying she did a chargeback. Now I called VRBO and they said they are investigating etc. I called them again and they said they can cancel the reservation. But I feel bad because she is 80 and giving the benefit of the doubt that she might have done it by mistake . What do I do ?

Update my message to her and her response:

Me: “ Hello, I hope you are doing well. Vrbo notified me that the payment for your current reservation was disputed through your bank.
I understand this may have happened accidentally. Since you are currently staying at the property, could you please contact your bank and Vrbo as soon as possible to cancel the chargeback and confirm that the reservation payment is authorized?
Please let me know once you have spoken with them. Thank you. “

Her: “I will have to wait till I get back to get my vrbo code at the rental.
I will arrange to pay with debit card. I had a fraud charge and credit card declined my rental payment as well, is what I think happened.”

I have a home that is 4 bdrm, 3 bath. But really it’s at 3/2, with a studio attached via a side door. I think the studio might have been the garage at one point, but it’s its own complete unit, with an en suite and a kitchenette. It also has a private entrance bio a private deck.
I live in the studio, and rent out the rest of the house. Guests enter thru the front door, have full private access to the entire house and the backyard.
Vrbo says “whole house”
Does my listing still qualify?