r/vrbohosts

I do not own a VRBO property and am not renting one out, but a VRBO host is definitely using my phone number or at the very least has a typo in their message to guests. I have no idea what to do. I have tried contacting VRBO but can’t make it to speaking with someone since I need the listing ID, the email that was used to make the account, etc. I have the address because I get at least 1 call a week from someone who cannot get in and they all leave voicemails!! I originally thought it was a scam but it’s always the same address and when I do answer, people are very upset. I’ve gotten to the point where all I do is tell the folks who book to contact VRBO (and now booking.com). I’ve even found the listing using their websites!! I have no idea what to do, but I feel like this is definitely an issue!! Please, if anyone has any advice at all, let me know.

In my listing settings, I have check in set to "after 4 PM" and check out set to "before 11 AM" (on VRBO). I use Hostex, where I also have these same times listed. It isn't always clear which settings Hostex will update, but since they are the same, it should not matter.

Imagine my surprise when I happened to check the online VRBO listing this morning and saw this under House Rules:

Check in after 11:00 AM

Check out before 4:00 PM

It is completely backwards! My instructional email sent prior to check in clearly states 4 PM, and that is when the lock codes become valid. I don't know how long this has been displayed wrong, but it didn't cause any problems with my last booking, thankfully. I happen to have a back-to-back booking coming up next week, and having the guests show up at the same time the prior guests are checking out would be all kinds of awful. Nightmare!

I tried changing it to another time, saving, waiting a little while, then changing it back (as suggested by what I found via Google). No change.

At this time I am waiting for a confirmation email from VRBO tech support that they have it fixed. I had to start with chat, then they called me, and that person escalated to a "special team" who could fix this.

I recommend taking a look at the listed check in and check out times under House Rules on your listing, to confirm they are correct.

Go check out your property in incognito mode. You may be surprised at the cover photo you see.

I remember the email in early June, so I knew this was going on. I clearly neglected to opt out.

You must opt out or you’re automatically enrolled.

Here is the form to opt out.

Happy Hosting!

P.S. remember to upvote so others see this!

VRBO claims that they cannot separate their fees and my cleaning fee from my base price in the search and it shows the higher price when looking for my booking. Yet I can “book” other places with their base price shown and then fees are added. How do I get rid of my fees showing up on the initial search?

Hello! Seeking advice from VRBO hosts.
Guest is staying in my property for 1-month and since they moved in, there have been a few WiFi outages at my property. I have Xfinity (unfortunately) and any time it's gone out I've responded to the guest immediately. The first time it happened I had an Xfinity technician out to fix it, which held for about a week, but the WiFi currently out again. My guest let me know, so I offered the Xfinity hotspot as a solution and a $10 reimbursement (the cost of the hotspot) so they could get back online immediately.
It's clear Xfinity needs to come out again and replace the wiring outside the apartment building, which will further disrupt the guest.
I am concerned this guest will leave a bad review due to the spotty WiFi and interruption during their stay. I feel completely helpless - I respond immediately, provided a viable solution, but if I were in their shoes I'd be pissed. Anyone run into this situation? The guest moves out September 12 (little less than 1-month), so it's not much longer.
Switching from Xfinity internet is not an option in my area. TYIA!

Guest came to town for a small party (granddaughter's 21st); we were aware of it. Unfortunately, the downstairs air went out. There are ceiling fans but, I'm sure it wasn't as comfortable as planned. They have been very understanding. Should we offer some sort of refund? Thoughts?

We booked a property in WA state near an active wildfire zone and sent an email and documentation to VRBO support two weeks ago asking for a refund. Anyone have any idea what could be taking so long with their decision?

VRBO has locked me out of my host account for nearly a week now. I can’t even close the account

I’m a VRBO host with active bookings, and I’ve now been unable to access my account for nearly a week.

This started with a login/account problem that VRBO support has been unable to fix. I’ve called repeatedly, spent an absurd amount of time on hold, been passed through support, and was told the issue had been escalated to technical support multiple times.

I still cannot log in.

That means I cannot access my booking calendar, properly manage my existing reservations, or see what is happening with my property.

At this point, I’ve had enough and would like to remove my property from VRBO entirely.

Except I can’t do that either — because VRBO has locked me out of the account.

So I am now in the bizarre position of having active reservations on a platform that I cannot access — while my property remains available for new bookings. I am also unable to remove my listing or close the account.

I have contacted support again in writing and asked them either to restore my access immediately or help me close the account and tell me how my existing reservations will be handled.

Has anyone else had this happen? If so, how did you finally get someone at VRBO who could actually resolve it? At this point, I’ve been through three support representatives and two supervisors, and I’m no closer to getting back into my account than I was when this started.

I go into the suite to clean and realize everything’s still there.. clothes, make up & toiletries, food purse, jewellery😅 suitcases.. 11:30 AM with a 4pm check in coming. Got the message from Vrbo saying guest has checked out rate guest. Call Support got the AI, which was absolutely no help told me to message the person. Well, you don’t think I’ve already done that three times.??? I have no information to get a hold of them because they block it after the stay! Then I remember that she messaged me on my phone the week prior.. I find her text and text her and finally hear back and they are out on the ocean on a fishing charter and thought their checkout was the next day. Needless to say, I had to pack up all their things and clean the unit.😂 I was just glad she was all right honestly. I did a much better job packing up all thier stuff than I ever would’ve my own. I treated everything respect and filled their cooler with ice, etc. for their food. Anyone else else?? what did you do?

They were super sweet and apologetic when they came to get their stuff. I have a large storage area that I put all their stuff in. This is a five unit vacation rental kind of like a mini hotel strip… the funny part is this is the second time it’s happened to the same unit 🤪 It dawned on me that I probably could’ve got in trouble or somebody could’ve said I stole something or something was missing, etc. obviously I never would but what would you do? Or what have you done? In this scenario?

We are looking to expand our listings on other booking sites. We currently use Guesty for our PMS, and I have noticed there are many options, but I'm not sure if it's even worth it. Has anyone had success or issues using other booking platforms besides VRBO and Airbnb? I know both dominate the market, and most guests use either one when booking places to stay.

Reviewing this facebook post https://www.facebook.com/groups/professionalhosts/posts/9014465815316697/

And official property sale notice
https://www.vrbo.com/tlp/trust-and-safety/property-sale-notice-policy

It says, we incur the cancellation fee for future bookings, is that what has been happening in practice?

I think Airbnb just cancels future bookings, they don't penalize for a sale.

Hi, looking for some advice as a homeowner with a VRBO rental in Florida:

We’re temporarily renting out our single-family primary residence for about 2 months while traveling. This isn’t an investment property or full-time vacation rental. It is our actual home, with new furniture and our personal belongings. Because of that, we have a strict no-pet policy. A guest booked our home and we later found out they brought a service dog. They are currently staying there.

From speaking with VRBO, my understanding is that anyone can state they have a service animal without providing documentation to VRBO or the homeowner, cannot be charged any additional fee, does not need to disclose it, and can stay in any property regardless of its no-pet policy. We’ve essentially been told there is nothing we can do because it’s the law.

I completely respect the need for legitimate service animals however this is our primary residence, and we should have every right on who or what we allow into our home. We have a no-pet policy because we don’t want to risk odors, stains, hair, or damage to our home and new furniture, especially given there are plenty of pet-friendly alternatives nearby that are both comparable size and cheaper.   I say this as someone who loves dogs.

If anyone can simply claim their pet is a service animal, provide no verification, override a homeowner’s no-pet policy, and leave the homeowner with essentially no say over an animal entering their own home, that seems incredibly open to abuse and unreasonable.

Is this actually the law for a single-family primary residence in Florida being rented temporarily, or is this VRBO policy?  What should we do if any damages or additional cleaning are required? Thanks

***This individual even has a post on their social media talking about their "emotional support dog." I could be wrong but it appears to be someone exploiting a system.

We had our property listed through a management company. We terminated the contract due to some shady charges to the guests. We will be putting it back on the STR market using VRBO only mostly so we can keep our permit active (minimum 30 days rented in a calendar year). Is the VRBO owners app good enough to do the job or should we use something like Hostex or Guesty?

I want to be able to have a digital welcome guide, email/text templates that can be set up to automatically send at certain times before during and after a stay. As well as a calendar. Anything else we need? TIA

I have 4 properties listed and 3 are showing pictures I didn't choose as my cover/thumbnail in search. One shows the view out the window, one shows our newly half-completed back deck, and one shows the kitchen. None of these are great choices for the main photo people see when browsing places to stay.

But when I look at my competitors in the same search, it seems I got off easy. They show, in no particular order, photos of the local Starbucks, the golf club several miles away, a public swimming pool, common areas of their condo complex, a dimly lit hallway, a bank of elevators in their building, a coffee maker?

This is what VRBO meant when they said they were going to rearrange our photos for us. Yikes

https://preview.redd.it/8bxbjwiwq8ih1.png?width=406&format=png&auto=webp&s=d7332492c21d66500542bd49f9f5db756ce4889b

https://preview.redd.it/cvzs9wiwq8ih1.png?width=406&format=png&auto=webp&s=dcf3865e2cb71ced8f89b1e25b9b93a9545a146c

https://preview.redd.it/evofnwiwq8ih1.png?width=406&format=png&auto=webp&s=fdfec9d8704c64559201740254ef9496cad6fb75

https://preview.redd.it/bh5l1xiwq8ih1.png?width=406&format=png&auto=webp&s=76515bc58b7de2904355a8f0ed7a4f70c4ad0e19

Hosts,

I don't use auto booking. My property is large and my primary home. I have an 83% Acceptance rate that I need to improve to 90%. My minimum stay is 6 nights. Property is too large to turn over for weekends. In my area cleaning is expensive. I get inquiries for weekends all of the time. Even though my settings are set for 6 nights. If I get a booking request and let it expire I get dinged by VRBO. So I have responded to the last request for 6 day stay next summer by sending a pre-approval and will let the guest take the action. In the message they wanted to try out the house by booking a long weekend which we don't do. I actually have a long term renter until the end of October which I communicated to the quest. Why do people send booking requests when they just want to "try out the house"? How to I improve my Acceptance rate?

in August of 2025, we booked a lovely place in the mountains of Spain for the Total Eclipse coming up August 12. We booked it for 4 nights beginning August 10. It is in the path of totality, as close to the center as we could get!

It is a big place which is perfect because getting family and friends together for an eclipse is something we have done before. But all the way in Spain!? whew!

I did not realize that this booking was actually through VRBO, which isn’t great… but that VRBO is with Expedia!! What? I refuse to use Expedia because of their terrible customer service.

So, I unwittingly booked through Expedia via DELTA… well, I can trust Delta. So I let it be.

Fast Forward to January 2026 and I am wanting more information about the rental, so VRBO gives me the phone number of the owner, Eduardo, who has a US phone number that is on What’sApp. They also make it so that I can email the owner though the VBRO platform, which I do when he doesn’t return my calls.

He didn’t return any messages through VRBO either.

So I call VRBO and I call Delta Stays to express my concern. Delta Stays agent reassures me. VRBO can never find my reservation without hunting for it, but they do find it and reassure me.

Fast Foward to last month, or maybe June 2026. The Eclipse is in August and I need to make sure the owner knows about this rental! I prepaid $4880– $1000/nt +$400 in taxes, and $480 in fees way back when I booked it in August 2025. So It’s time to just CHECK IN, you know?

I had 13 people in total staying, all with tickets to Spain from the USA. It wasn’t that I needed reassured. I needed to KNOW, wthout a doubt, that we have somewhere to stay because if you have ever tried to book a room during an Eclipse, it’s insanity. Prices are Quadrupled IF there is any availability.

VRBO says that I will get an email 3 days before check in with access information.

So here we are— August 7.

Today I get an email. VRBO saying everything is in line and that I should hear from the owner as the owner/manager has not yet given them the access info. They say if you need to, call the owner/manager now.

Our ESIM on our phone isn’t working. but we put the number for Eduardo in WhatsApp and he’s on it, so we call him and this time, he actually answers! and he says “It is not possible. I sold that house in 2024. You might be getting scammed. I’m sorry.” and he hangs up.

He sounded genuinely sorry.

So, I can’t call VRBO or Delta Stays, and neither of them has an email anymore. They aren’t on WhatsApp, go figure.

The Hotel doesn’t have a phone with an outside line.

It’s after 8 PM and the phone places are closed.

Our guests are already here in Spain…

What do I do?

Delta, you some explaining to do!

Thanks for any help.

Note how carefully worded their terms and services are for Sponsored Listings. You only pay if a guest books. I just received a booking for 6 months in the future and if they cancel before 5 months, I'm out $60! It's a good deal for me if they maintain the booking as they are paying the non discounted rate. However, if they cancel at anytime, I'm in trouble

I need to figure out a way to only have promotions within my cancelation window

EDIT: You can only block days 30 days TOTAL from your promotion. I thought this would be a good way to boost last minute stays but it's not