VrboCare Nightmare
TL;DR: VRBO is making it extremely difficult to receive reimbursement that they promised.
Pic is the body of an email that VRBO sent us during this process.
On March 9, we booked and paid for a beach house in Gulf Shores, AL for 5 couples for the nights of June 25-27. This is an annual trip for the group. The day prior to departure we had not received check-in instructions, so we contacted VRBO Customer Service. Customer Service said they would try to contact the host and get back to us.
We left the next morning and headed to the beach anticipating a 2 PM check in. A little after 1 PM on check-in day, VRBO customer service called us and said they couldn't contact the host. They said they were going to find us equivalent (5 bedrooms) alternate accommodations and that we would be reimbursed for the difference if the alternate accommodations were more expensive than what we had originally booked. VRBO was unable to find alternate accommodations for the first night. They told us that we needed to find our own lodging, and if the group stayed in a hotel, it had to be paid for by the person that made the original booking and had to show that it was for 10 total people, just like the original canceled reservation. We were told we had to reserve and pay for the alternate beach house for the final two nights through the VRBO app, which we did.
We booked 5 rooms at the Embassy Suites in Gulf Shores (Excellent hotel!) and charged everything to a single card. After some extended discussions with the hotel, they were able to provide us with the documentation that VRBO required.
We were also told that it was up to us to dispute the charge for the original reservation with our credit card company. We did that and Capital One was great! With one phone call they credited our account without requiring any additional documentation.
Between the hotel charge, and the charge for the replacement house, the alternate accommodations were roughly $1900 more than our original reservation. We weren't worried about this because we had been assured that VRBO would cover the difference.
We submitted all requested documentation on Monday, June 29 and after multiple phone calls totaling around 5 hours, we still have not been able to secure our reimbursement. We have asked for escalation, supervisors, all of it. I just wish we could talk to someone that could actually help.
Not to mention the trouble of having to unload, load, and unload again and having a period of 5 hours between hotel checkout and being able to get in the alternate house where we didn't have a place to land.
Any suggestions on how to proceed?
VRBO needs to learn from Capital One and Embassy Suites how real customer service works.