I had two bad experiences with VRBO within the last 4 months. I booked a VRBO for our trip to London in November 2025. I found a property that I liked better so I cancelled the first property within the cancellation guidelines / timing and booked a different property. I had to chase the refund multiple times via VRBO. They kept advising to contact the host, which I did. The host said they never got the deposit and therefore couldn't refund it. VRBO customer care was no help and said I need to work it out with the host. My frustration is that they do not hold their hosts accountable for refunds. So what's the point of booking with VRBO if they cannot (or will not) help? Eventually VRBO just said to dispute the charge with my credit card company as they were not able to help. Then there was the second property... We were on the train from Amsterdam about to arrive in London and we still hadn't got our check in instructions after multiple requests from both the host and the VRBO customer care. The host was giving me the run around and so I was working with VRBO customer care again and they said the host will send the check in instructions. This went on for hours on the train. After check in time came and went, the host finally admitted the they property we booked had been sold and they were going to put us up in another property (similar location was their words). The similar location was in North London and we wanted to stay in South London so that did not work at all. They cancelled our reservation, but now we didn't have a place to stay. Surely, the host and VRBO should have known the property was sold ahead of our check in time. Our refund came eventually but it was minus a $100 fee. Again, VRBO took no responsibility and said cannot control their hosts. We ended up staying at a hotel the first night we were there and then booked an AirBnB with no issues. The additional last minute cost us +$500 more than we were going to spend on the VRBO booking.VRBO does not protect their customers and lets the hosts do whatever they want with no accountability.
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