Ghosted by host day of arrival
I have been using VRBO regularly for a few years now for my team to travel and play in rugby tournaments. We prefer to book a house so we can all hang out together, bring our dogs, and cook real meals.
I booked a house in Missoula for 9 people for the annual Maggotfest, which is a huge tournament that over a thousand ruggers travel to, internationally as well so housing, even hotels, get packed. I booked on 4/16 for 5/14-5/18 and we all pretty much drove through the night from CO (14 hour drive) to be able to check in at 4p. We got into town early, and our host had not yet sent us our check-in info. I messaged them and called them with no response. Then suddenly could no longer view the property details. Called VRBO support who tried repeatedly to contact the host. After hours, they said they would cancel the booking and issue me a refund, which would take 5-7 business days ($2.5k).
They had no other place that could house us so I then had to find housing for all of us elsewhere. Posted a review and now VRBO won’t post my review because what I wrote ‘broke content guidelines’.
I will never use VRBO again and will recommend everyone I know to never use VRBO either.