After checking into our house at 38 North Forrest Beach on Hilton Head Island, managed by iTrip Vacations, who is affiliated with a local company called Low Country Rentals, who in turn lists properties for rent on VRBO, we began discovering a series of issues. The first was the living room television. We got a prompt call back about getting it to work, only later to find if it was turned off everything had to be reloaded which took more than 20 minutes. The only way to get it to come on was to unplug it and plug it back in. Days later, we found that the DVD player could not be connected to it either. Soon, guests began discovering several toilets were backed up and overflowing when used. The office had closed by then. Plungers were not helping with two of the four bedroom toilets. The sink backed up that night because the garbage disposal was broken. We found several electrical outlets that would not hold a plug. One even sparked. The pool appeared to be neglected, especially compared to the one next door where people were able to play in the water. We did not want to be complaining about everything so decided to concentrate on getting the plumbing issues fixed. We texted the next day when the office was open, leaving a message about our biggest concern - the toilets. We received a text back that plumbers rarely came out on Sunday, but they would be in touch Monday, if not. It was noted their inspection report had deemed the plumbing system operating correctly. In the meantime, one toilet upstairs overflowed to the point it flooded the bathroom and leaked a large amount of dirty toilet water through the ceiling into the kitchen. ( You could tell looking at the ceiling this problem had occurred before ). On Monday morning we got a text from the management company ( Low Country Rentals or iTrip Vacations ), saying that Low Tide Plumbing would be at the house between 11:00 and 1:00 PM, so some of us went back to meet them. We never heard from them so sent two texts over several hours back to the management company and did not hear anything back from them until that evening. Finally, we got a text saying Superior Plumbing would be there by 8:15 PM. We scrambled back and a courteous young man did his best to solve the problems using different machines. After indicating he had a lot more to do and had two toilets pulled out with no problems solved, we excused him for the night ( 11:00 PM ). The next day we were notified Low Tide Plumbing would be there just before noon, so once again, we left what we were doing and met with them. The information they were given from the previous plumber some how got mixed up so it's a good thing we were there to show them what had happened. They fixed the problems pretty quickly, mentioning the disposal was dead, and the management company sent out a cleaning person to freshen the bathrooms and kitchen, which we were grateful for. So three and one half days into our stay, that major headache finally was resolved. We did not bother to complain about anything else and we had a good time in the house. After our stay we asked the management company for an appropriate refund ( in our minds maybe 1/2 off ) for all of the inconveniences. We did not hear back for several days, so we talked with VRBO about it several times. They were sympathetic, but explained the owner and management company were the ones who charged us, and would be responsible for any refund. Itrip vacations said the same thing. VRBO did say they would review the case and might penalize them for neglect ( but who knows ). Since we could not get a response, VRBO left three messages to the management company to get them to communicate. Then, suddenly, Matt Williams responded to us by email saying he had been on vacation and did not like our tone. He defended their actions and declared they would not be held hostage to us waiting to write a review based what they decided to do. He was defensive about everything we brought up, putting it back on us. There were several things he did not know about that we just lived with, so that could have all been worked out in a phone conversation we never were able to have. It turns out we were never able to leave a review on VRBO because a brief one sentence message to the management company had been put on there early on and we were not allowed to put on our review ! We will now try to work with the BBB for a more favorable outcome and share this story with other potential renters using any of the above mentioned parties, including VRBO. read more

The property manager used his undisclosed security system to spy on us (more on this below). The property owner threatened to evict us because we arrived with our service animal in training. Discrimination against someone with a legitimate service animal is illegal. He then proceeded, without our consent, to charge our credit card ($125) for the service animal. Charging anything additional for a service animal is against the law. My husband is an optometrist and he trains Seeing Eye dogs for the blind. We had to file a credit card charge back to recoup the illegal charge. VIDEO SURVEILLANCE Any form of surveillance at a rental is illegal when it is used for anything other than security issues. Simply put, the property manager used his security system to spy on us without any notice, and without our consent. He contacted us during our stay to tell us that he saw our service dog on video, and that "pets" were not allowed. We were shocked that he was using video/audio to spy on us. This was not a matter of security at all; and all members of our party feel grossly violated. We are afraid of what footage of our children may be out there in the world now (which includes our teenage son and daughter, and younger children). We have a very poor opinion of the property manager's ethics and knowledge of rental laws. We feel this opinion is warranted given the circumstances. As you can tell we are very upset; but, we are a very reasonable and understanding family. If you don't mind having your right to privacy abused, and/or discrimination against disability laws, the home itself was nice.  We planned on spending significantly more time at the home, but we just did not feel comfortable or safe living in the space provided. VRBO ghosted us, and would not even give us replies. Due to their lack of response, we are in contact with the Internet service provider, the security system provider, and local law enforcement. We attempted to contact the homeowner, but they will not reply either. All of this has been a tremendous amount of homework that we did not anticipate with renting a home for a few days. Because this company manages more than this home, I am fearful that the above practices are more than likely occurring at all of the homes they manage. This is the only negative review we have ever had to leave for a vacation rental. UPDATE: the property manager states that the above surveillance claims are unfounded. Luckily, we have his admission of guilt in writing. Again, a poor display of ethics: 6/15/21 email from Property manager: "The camera was installed by the owners a few weeks ago after an issue at the home.  It was an oversight on our part to not update the listing at the time." This company has set a precedent that crime is allowed (federal and local cybercrime, disability discrimination), customer safety is not a priority, and punishment for crime is nonexistent. They do not care about your rights to privacy, nor do they care about how you feel when they violate you. They are in direct violation of their own policies. Disgusting. read more

My family arrived at "The Artist's House" (https://www.vrbo.com/408060) in Kissimmee, Florida with great anticipation for our 13 day rental, walked in, and immediately found live and dead roaches in the house (under the master bed, in the dining area, in the living room, under the sink, in the cabinets; as well as significant amounts of roach droppings within the cabinets, silverware drawers, pots&pans, etc). I have photos. We immediately contacted the owner and the property management company who sent over an exterminator. The exterminator sprayed, said it would take from 1-3 days for the pesticide to take effect, and advised that he will be contacting the property management to make a return visit to spray again because it was so bad. We found more roaches moving about during the night on the kitchen countertop. Impossible for this infestation to be a surprise to owner or management because we have photos of 5+ roach baits in plain view on the kitchen floor and one that was ON the kitchen counter next to the coffee maker. Gross. And there were two empty cans of roach spray under the infested sink. The next morning, we vacated the house, we provided photos via VRBO's message board, and we asked for the owner to cancel our contract and have our rental refunded. The owner agreed to do both, in writing, via VRBO message board. VRBO Customer Service called me to say don't worry and they'll work with the owner to refund my money. Then a week went by. Then the owner posted on VRBO that there were "a few cockroaches in one side of the kitchen and nowhere else in the house", that they sent "a pest control guy and not an exterminator" to do a treatment, and that this was not an infestation. She refunded me ONE night's rent (out of the 13!) and ignored my pleas to refund the remainder of our rental. Shame on this greedy owner for trying to keep my $3,300, and shame on the property management company for a half-ass job of pest control. Anything to keep the money coming in, right?! After three weeks of me calling VRBO every other day and having them say that my refund request case is "with the Billing department" and no update is available, VRBO called me. They refunded me their service fee of $346.00, advised me that they do not control the balance of the funds to refund me directly and that they cannot force the Owner to refund me, and they recommended I contact my credit card company to file a charge back claim to refund of the remainder of my payment. I did, and my credit card sided with me. This is an insane amount of trouble for having stayed one night in a roach house. It took a long time for VRBO to try to help, but at least they tried. SHAME ON THIS GREEDY PROPERTY OWNER. Don't put full trust in property reviews as VRBO did not publish mine (same exact objective language used above). read more

"I had a very disappointing experience with VRBO and the host, Careen Santos. I booked a vacation rental property for my mother's surprise 60th birthday celebration on February 12th, which was fully paid for. Before confirming my reservation, the host Careen Santos asked me what the reason for my stay was and the age of every person staying at her home. After 24 hours, the reservation was confirmed. Over six weeks later on May 30th, I received a message from the host stating that she would like me to cancel the reservation because the price I reserved the property under was not accurate. I immediately contacted VRBO to explain the situation, as family members were flying in for the celebration. VRBO informed me that it was the host's responsibility to ensure the accurate pricing was listed and that the host had the right to cancel the reservation or increase the price at any point in time. I was shocked that someone could increase the price six weeks after the reservation was confirmed just because they realized they had listed the price inaccurately. VRBO also informed me that they would not cover the difference, and the host would be penalized for poor business practices if they did not honor the reservation or at least discount the difference. I was disappointed with the lack of customer service and care from both VRBO and the host. Despite multiple attempts to speak with management on more than five separate occasions, I was told that my case would be elevated, and I would receive a call. However, there has been no resolution to date. The host, Careen Santos, currently has her property listed at $497 per night. It is clear that she canceled my reservation so she could make a few hundred dollars more over a three-night stay. I am disgusted with how Careen Santos and VRBO handled this situation. It is evident that they do not care about their customers or their reservations. I will never book with VRBO again, and I caution others to be careful when booking with this host or this company. If you are looking for a vacation rental, there are plenty of other options available that value their customers and their reservations." read more

Last April (April 22nd 2020) I went online and booked a nice Oregon beach house for my family to get away from the crazy COVID chaos. VRBO accepted my payment and confirmed my booking for May 2020. They told me I would get an email confirmation from Evolve Vacation Rentals. We were excited to get out of Portland and go somewhere to enjoy ourselves while the Covid tyrannical lockdowns took place by our idiot Governor Kate Brown were in place. Little did we know, she shut down all vacation rentals as well. A little while after, I received a cancellation notice from Evolve Vacation Rentals and instead of crediting my money back, both VRBP kept their $43 service fee and Evolve Vacation rentals kept the other $409. In the email it said they issued a credit that I could use on a later date. Being a normal understanding human, I had no idea that Kate Brown would lock the whole state down for a year!!! Well, I decided that I wanted my money back this month and we were going to just go to Arizona where there isn't the restrictions like Oregon. Evolve and VRBO were unwilling to refund my money even though I basically loaned them money for about a year! The one representative did slip up and say that they could call the home owner and see if they would be willing to refund my money but VRBO and Evolve would not. I do not agree with this and I think is us completely unacceptable. I have disputed this charge with American Express and will definitely take them to court if this is not resolved. This is not good business and I will never use VRBO or Evolve Vacation Rentals ever again in the future. Do not be scammed. They will accept our money but there is no guarantee they will not immediately cancel your reservation, keep your money and issue you a useless credit. read more

READ THIS!!!!!! Do not use VRBO!! STEPHANIE WHITMORE Is hands down one of the most immature, unprofessional, and simply one of the most disrespectful property managers I have ever dealt with in the past 7 years this dealing with discrimination to me and my family. We had our family member finally come back from serving our country to celebrate with him and his family flying in to see him. She had neighbors take pictures of us coming in invading our privacy taking notes of us and discriminating us as soon as we arrived. Most of my family are people of color and having these neighbors continued to watch us and doing everything in their power to kick us out of the place without violating a single rule made us angry and ultimately feel that we are some sort of threat to the neighborhood!! Stephanie Whitmore stated "I will give you a full refund just please leave I can't look bad to the neighbors" this is what set us off! I have a total of 5 of us who confirm and are witnesses to what Stephanie Whitmore has done and said to us. The hundreds of dollars we had to pay for hotels after being threatened to leave the premises or cops would be called I am telling you NEVER RENT WITH Stephanie Whitmore!! She even kept the money for the place after staying for 2 hours against VRBO's rules and only sent half back stating "you violated some sort of policy I'm refunding half out of kindness. I don't have the money to pay you you're going to have to deal with Vrbo" NEVER RENT WITH STEPHANIE WHITMORE AND FEEL THE DISCRIMINATION AND UTTER HUMILIATION THAT WE FELT!! She should be fired this place should not be listed!! Stand up with us during these times of discrimination and utter disappointment we went through! read more

Palm Springs - Exact same horrible nightmare as other postings. They canceled on us less then 36 hours before. This after hours of document filling out (with the City of Palm Springs and with Vacation Palm Springs) Everything turned in - paid in full - then notified by VBRO at 9:00 PM that we were canceled. Then they tried to up sell me another property but for more money (bait and switch) At Vacation Palm Springs (they have about 4-5 different phone numbers) No one answers the phone - then another company pops up (I guess a parent company) booking was for June 12- 15. Someone did finally call me back - after begging them to send me something in written form stating they were canceling us (didn't want them claiming "no show") I at least received an email. The anxiety, panic, helplessness and ruined vacation- the disappointment of my grown children who were flying in and had requested PTO from their work. I'm still battling - hoping I will get my money back - VBRO said their portion of the refund would take 4-6 weeks. (OMG) Do you know what would happen to me if I canceled this last minute on them? Yep - large percentage penalty would happen. When its them cancelling - nothing - for anything they ruined (food & other items already purchased and packed for the trip) no compensation for anything - they flat out don't care - it's a scam and I'm still panicking that I won't see my $2,000 refunded. FYI - I've never ever written a review - however this was so criminal that I just had to warn others. Who in the City Palm Springs or the California Realtor's board polices this company? There are so many victims with the same story on the internet! WOW read more

My friends and I booked a very special trip on VRBO. We booked it early March, within 30 days. We were excited to find this beautiful property listed and opted to not get insurance 1) we had no intentions of cancelling and 2) unless we cancelled the day we bought, we were out the money either way. Then about two weeks later, COVID-19 news became overwhelming. Our kids were asked to stay home and there was a panic worldwide. Sadly, we cancelled our flights and reach out to the property to cancel in light of the tragic events. Their response was that the Encinitas area wasn't heavily impacted and since we did not get insurance and are inside the 30 day cancellation policy, they can't refund us the money. After explaining our situation, they denied us a refund. Less than a week later we received an email stating due to current events, they were crediting 50% of our trip on the account to use later. Fifty percent of our hard earned money, gone, just like that. During a worldwide crisis where people, including some of the ladies I was traveling with, lost their jobs, are confined to their homes, losing loved ones, they kept 50% of our money. We have decided to cut our losses but felt the need to warn people about this company! Out of pure principle, we will never use that credit and will never, ever book with this company. I was a first time VRBO customer and last. If they can't manage the type of people posting on their site than they don't deserve my business. We would have been happy for a cancellation and credit to use at a later date. Instead they kept 50% of our money in the blink of an eye. Shameful! read more

My experience with Vrbo has been completely unacceptable and has exposed serious flaws in both their booking system and customer service practices. Three days before my scheduled Memorial Day vacation, my reservation was abruptly canceled due to a "double booking" error allegedly caused by VRBO's platform. A failure of this magnitude should never occur, especially for customers who booked and paid in full well in advance. What is even more concerning is VRBO's handling of the aftermath. Despite this issue being entirely caused by their system and/or host management failures, I was informed that my refund could take up to 14 days to process. In the meantime, I am expected to somehow secure alternative accommodations during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year while VRBO continues holding my money hostage. Property prices have dramatically increased due to the short notice, and because VRBO refuses to immediately release my funds, I am now facing the possibility of canceling my vacation altogether. The lack of urgency, accountability, and customer protection is astounding. A company of this size should have safeguards in place to prevent double bookings and should absolutely prioritize immediate refunds when their errors directly impact customers. Instead, customers are left financially burdened, stressed, and without meaningful support. This has been one of the worst customer service experiences I have encountered, and I will seriously reconsider ever using VRBO again. read more

Absolutely terrible experience with Vrbo. I booked a reservation that had the option to cancel for a 100% refund within a certain date. I canceled within this date, it submitted as a "Property request change" with the request being to cancel and it even made me submit to the owner why I was requesting to cancel. The owner left it pending so I would lose out on my 100% refund. When I reached out to Vrbo they refused to honor this as well, telling me because I submitted as a "request to change to cancellation" instead of hitting a different "cancellation" button, they wouldn't honor their own rules. This is ridiculous when I have screen shots and emails proving I had requested to cancel. Vrbo is screwing me over based solely on nitpicky details. They shouldn't offer two ways to cancel and then only allow one. You can tell they're just trying to do anything to keep extra money at the traveler's expense. Also, when I resubmitted for at least a partial refund, they tried to cut me out of almost $200 and not give me my full partial refund - I had to submit a case with them AGAIN and ask for the full amount of the partial refund to be given to me. They're really sneaky and untrustworthy. I shouldn't have been surprised when I looked up the reviews online and they were all negative. They are underhanded and don't know how to treat people. read more

I booked a house in Florida from VRBO and you know how they state they are always there for you - IT IS NOT TRUE! We were only there for 4 days, I was in constant contact with the owner, with issues - NOT how I wanted to spend my vacation! Get back, go onto VRBO to Stay Neighborly to complete a complaint form, not even 24 hours later I get an email saying my complaint was closed - no explanation - nothing - AND over three weeks later, my bad rating was mysteriously deleted - pretty sure they claim that can NEVER happen. SO I decided to call customer service - all I was asking for was a $200 refund on an over $2000 rental because of all of the things that were not disclosed and all the extra money we had to put out for things they said they provided and did not - know what customer service told me?? Nope cannot help you because you are already home - so they would rather me spend my whole vacation on the phone and not being with my family - never will they get my money again....We always book here for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, vacations - it really is a shame. read more

I have been on VRBO since 1995. VRBO has turned into the worst possible platform to put vacation rentals on due to the greed and incompetence of the people that bought the company and that run the company now. Expedia is a greedy company that. In the early days of the Internet tried to take over travel agency businesses and failed. They strive to monopolize whatever they get into and then rip everybody off. I believe they are kiting money because of how they run their business and run it into the ground. Recently, I had a guest cancel, and VRBO has been unable to do the refund or the cancellation for the past five days. I believe the RPO is floating money to cover for their failing business due to their idiotic and deceitful business practices. Whatever they did their website has disrupted everything. This is the worst company I deal with in my life and have ever. It really hurts me to say that because they have a monopoly on the vacation rentals in it's what I do for a living VRBO sucks b***s.... read more

We rented an apartment in Paris for a week. When we got there we were astonished to find out that there had been no mention in the description that it was a 5 floor walk up on stairs so narrow and steep that it was challenging and dangerous to walk up . It was impossible to to get our luggage past the second floor . There were no handrails and for anyone to think this was acceptable is has never been there. We contacted Vrb immediately and there response was we will" look into it". I took a video of us trying to walk up( I am athletic) and sent it to them. We have sent several follow up e mails but haven't heard back which is the reason for this review. We are out almost $3,000 , had to find a hotel for the week. I understand that not everything is under there control but their lack of response to this is not acceptable. Fortunately the rest of our trip was fantastic and We are in a position that getting ripped off doesn't have a big impact. read more

Stranded for Family Reunion: Do not use Resort Rental Pros or VRBO - They are both unreliable and unprofessional. Resort Rental Pros managed a property through VRBO that we booked for a vacation in North Myrtle Beach for a family reunion 2.5 months ahead of time. We checked in with the rental company a few times and they said all was well. Less than 3 days prior to our vacation, they reported that they couldn't locate the host and had nothing to offer us. They have not yet refunded us our money and our vacation plans are a mess. Our only choice is to cut our vacation time in half and to pay twice as much at a hotel. Our other bad experience with VRBO was with Vacay Home Connect. They misrepresented a property, listing it as on a private beach, with an intracoastal view. It was on a canal off the intracoastal and a 10 minute drive to the beach. read more

Be aware that hosts can cancel your stay at any time, with no compensation or reparations given to renters. Even if you receive a booking confirmation, the host can cancel on you for any reason. DO NOT book the rest of your trip with the comfort in knowing that you will have a place to stay. This happened to us with a beach house in Manasquan - the reservation was confirmed, we made our plans, and then the host canceled it, saying that we did not meet the minimum number of nights and there would be zero flexibility (even though the error was on their part). There were no properties left in the area to book, and we had to redo our entire vacation plan. This was our first time booking with VRBO and we were very unhappy with the experience. read more

VRBO is nothing but a face for fraudulent transactions. They allow owners to be listed as a PREMIER PARTENER and how they offer a "Book with confidence GURANTEE". Do not fall for it. If a property has a no refund policy, it doesn't matter about the contract you sign, any of the emails you exchange through the site, they owner's can change a policy or a contract at any time no matter what and then NOT REFUND YOUR MONEY. VRBO will do nothing about it. They will literally only read from their manual and say, "please refer to the property's refund policy". They will try to contact the owner, but if the owner never responds they wash their hands of it. read more

I am writing to express my deep disappointment with the service provided during our recent reservation. The booking was unexpectedly canceled on the day of arrival, leaving us without accommodations. When we attempted to resolve the issue, the host was unresponsive and unwilling to assist. Additionally, our calls were ignored unless we used a new number, which is unacceptable customer service practice. This experience has led us to decide that we will no longer use your services for personal or company purposes. A business that does not prioritize customer care and well-being is not one we can support. read more

What a waste of time and money. This company is wildly under regulated and someone needs to bring up a class action lawsuit for the amount of issues that arise when booking with VRBO. False advertisement, mental distress, financial distress, breaking legal binding contracts, putting customers in harms way, etc... We have been harassed out of our VRBO by the owners and have spoken with the cops in the area to see what legal actions we can take against the owner... where was VRBO in this? No where to be found. I would not recommend booking through them. Listen to the review warnings!! read more

Don't use Vrbo - ever. They are allowing hosts to participate in theft by keeping full payments for stays the government will not allow us to make because of this global pandemic. Not only are they not intervening and trying to negotiate reasonable outcomes in the forms of partial refunds and/or future credits - they're ghosting. No contact from Vrbo or any host. It's a scam. We are out $1,621. Other home share company Air B&B came right out with a promise to refund 100% for COVID-19 related cancellations. Vrbo should be ashamed. read more