Should I trust Vrbo?

So, is Vrbo legit? Vrbo is a legitimate vacation rental website. If you're considering booking through Vrbo, make sure to read reviews so you know what to expect, and pay through the website to be protected by Vrbo's guarantee, which provides a number of protections.



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Although both VRBO and Airbnb take precautions to guarantee the protection of their visitors, Airbnb poses more potential dangers for guests simply because it allows visitors to remain in shared spaces.

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VRBO reviews offer more information to potential guests. On Airbnb, guests and hosts have up to two weeks to leave a review after the guest stays. VRBO allows an entire year as a window of time for guests and hosts to review each other. These guest reviews are extremely helpful when selecting your vacation rental home!

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While Airbnb is publicly traded and owned by a variety of shareholders, including its co-founders and venture capital firms, VRBO is a subsidiary of Expedia Group, a publicly traded company that also owns other popular travel brands.

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Investigate the rental company with searches that include “review,” “complaint” or “scam.” If you find negative comments, consider looking elsewhere. Make sure the address is real. Check the address using Google Map's street view. Does the property match the picture in the listing?

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Vrbo's map looks a bit outdated by comparison. However, aesthetics aside, Vrbo offers far better filter and sort functionality than Airbnb. For example, Vrbo lets you filter by user reviews, including properties rated highly for cleanliness and properties rated 4 stars and above. Vrbo's filters are also more intuitive.

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The biggest difference between these two platforms is the type of accommodation they offer: Vrbo offers stand-alone vacation homes only. It doesn't generally offer “shared” spaces like private rooms or more unusual options like campsites.

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Steep Service Fees A guest may find two comparable vacation rental properties but choose to book the property on a website that does not include additional service fees. This feature has caused guests to look elsewhere when choosing their vacation rental, which has proven to be a major disadvantage to VRBO owners.

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Travelers should always be cautious of brand-new vacation rental listings because it's a lot more difficult to tell if it's a fake listing or not. For one, it means that there are no reviews to find out what the property and host are like.

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Vrbo Cons. The downside to using Vrbo is that they have much lower visibility than Airbnb since they have fewer listings overall (2 million compared with 6 million). This means you may not get as much exposure for your listing as you would if you used Airbnb instead.

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Vrbo rental guests can be verified using data such as their name, date of birth, physical address, and email address. But it's not mandatory in most countries, leaving hosts open to increased risk.

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Secure Online Payments We leverage world-class systems to detect and prevent fraud, and protect payments between guests and owners. Our community members transact securely in the Vrbo marketplace thanks to Vrbo systems and infrastructure that meet rigorous security requirements to be PCI-DSS compliant.

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YOU COULD BE FINED $1,000 OR MORE OR SLEEP ON THE STREET The biggest problem with Airbnb is hosts cancelling on you last minute. Most short-term rentals are not licensed and thus illegal. At the time of writing almost 80% of online listings were not licensed. You and the owner could be fined.

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Property addresses are automatically released to guests 30 days prior to check-in on all confirmed bookings. If check-in is more than 30 days away, a countdown appears in the traveler's account, notifying them when the booking address is available.

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In 2006, VRBO was acquired by HomeAway. In late 2015, Expedia Group acquired HomeAway, including VRBO. In March 2019, VRBO was re-branded Vrbo, including a new logo, capitalization, and pronunciation. In May 2019, the HomeAway and Vrbo websites were both rebranded as Vrbo.

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Vrbo Commission Structure The pay-per-booking model has a commission and payment processing fee. The commission fee is five percent of the rental amount and any additional charges. This percentage may be higher if bookings originate from Vrbo's expanded distribution partners.

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Vacation rentals are suddenly more expensive, thanks to a new guest service fee tacked on to the rental price by the big sites VRBO and HomeAway.com. Travelers looking for a place to stay will pay up to $499 a week extra now that the sites have instituted a 4% to 9% service fee on all vacation rentals.

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