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> Also, their support is abysmal. Often when hotels fail to provide rooms as advertised, they play a "not my fault" game with the hotels, where the hotels claim

> Also, their support is abysmal. Often when hotels fail to provide rooms as advertised, they play a "not my fault" game with the hotels, where the hotels claim they can't refund because the money is stuck with Booking.com while Booking.com claim the money is in the hotels account. Then they give you a "20% refund" that you can use on your next purchase there. I'm going through the exact same dispute with VRBO (Expedia Group). The apartment that we rented wasn't at all what was advertised, so we left after one night. VRBO first said that because we left voluntarily, there was nothing they could do. After pointing out that we still have our booking as active, they said we need to talk to the owner directly. After pointing out that the owner is just ignoring our messages, they just said that they handle as a middle-man between us and the owner. After pointing out that the apartment isn't what is advertised, and that the reviews don't even match the property, they said that we agreed to their terms and conditions. I then spend a couple of hours looking at their other terms and conditions, and pointing out that the owner had agreed with these, but that they had broken several of their terms and conditions by apparently using the same listing for multiple properties. VRBO finally agreed and refunded us their 10% service fee, but claimed that the rest of the money is already with the owner, so we need to talk to them for a refund. (They have ignored us for weeks now) I'm still baffled that they would handle it this way. First completely dodging any responsibility, only taking some responsibility after highlighting that the owner had broken several of their rules, and only refunding us their service fees. I never paid any money directly to the owner, so I have no clue how the owner will ever refund me. At this point I don't even really care about the money that was lost, but the fact that both VRBO and the owner are willing to just take my money (1500 EURO), for a single night in their falsely advertised property infuriates me to no end. And I'm doing anything in my power to make their lives as difficult as possible.

Aeolun 5y ago
Small claims court?
- woutr_be 5y ago
  That's exactly the route we're taking now.
- ratww 5y ago
  For me, in the end I disputed the charge with my credit card and they sided with me when I send pictures of the hotel. The single collective bathroom (yes) had no locks on the door (yes).
  - woutr_be 5y ago
    I already disputed the charges weeks ago, but from talking to the credit card company, it seems that VRBO just claimed that nothing was wrong. Luckily in their last email to me, they admitted the owner broke their TOC, and that they had asked the owner to change their listings. I personally think that should be enough evidence for my credit card company to provide a charge back.
  - lowercased 5y ago
    wife had rented via airbnb in london a few years back. Booked for... 10 days. It was close to $2000. Got there - TV broken. No curtains on window in main room, which faced an office block close enough where people could see you and you could see them. You had to walk between bedroom and bathroom through the main room. Leftover food in the fridge ("you can eat that if you want, previous people didn't finish it"). 2 hangars in a closet. Shower head didn't work - sprayed water out of the top, but not down. After 3 days of 'complaints' (messaged on airbnb and directly), my wife got an extra 6 hangars and the shower 'fixed', sort of. They claimed she must have broken the TV - no one previously had complained. My wife provided video and picture evidence of this to airbnb - no support. Hosts threatened to provide negative feedback to her and essentially blackball her with other hosts in London. We provided THAT messaging to airbnb - still nothing. airbnb's position was "well, if it was bad, you should have left and we might have refunded some of your money". Leave $2k with them, go spend another... $2000 on hotel someplace else (assuming you can even get anything short notice), then hope/pray you get some refund? I think we have waived some chargeback ability because of T&C we'd agreed to (I might be misremembering this). We should have pressed chargeback with cc company. It was horrible experience, and we've not used them since.
    - Reason077 5y ago
      > ”No curtains on window in main room, which faced an office block close enough where people could see you and you could see them.” This place sounds terrible, and of course it should have had curtains. But the part about facing onto other buildings is pretty normal in London.
tluyben2 5y ago
I am very careful never to book vrbo via hotels.com (which i usually use); there is 0 support once you do. Both are selling via Expedia (hotels.com and vrbo) but with vrbo you have no recourse. Doesn't matter what is wrong, good luck to you. Hotels has it's flaws but even in the weirdest places on earth where we booked hotels and the hotel owners had no clue what Expedia is or why we turned up, they always find a similar or better accommodation for you. We found our favorite hotel (unfortunately on the other side of the world) that way. They couldn't find anything close so they asked if we would mind an extra drive but the hotel is 2x the price: they would pay the difference. We said yes and ended up in a fabulous place we immediately stayed 3 weeks at. It is all about the service. Booking has more inventory and vrbo is often cheaper but screw that; peace of mind is definitely better for me.
- woutr_be 5y ago
  Normally I would just book through a hotel directly. But this was a 6 week trip, through multiple countries and multiple cities, with a friend. So instead of us both spending $120 each, we could spend $120 a night on an apartment. We had 4 reservations through VRBO, and the other 3 were perfect for us. But that 1 bad experience really put me off of ever using their platform again. They could've just accepted responsibility and refunded our money, but they decided against it. I'm now traveling alone, and am paying around $80 a night for a decent hotel. I agree, peace of mind is worth paying for, traveling these days is already stressful enough.
datavirtue 5y ago
Almost the exact same thing happened to me. I used a debit card to pay (don't do this) and got refunded because I filed a dispute, which was denied, only because my bank failed to give a provisional credit (violation of federal regulations). VRBO offered no help at all. You know this happens a lot when they issue 10% refunds. If it were rare and they cared about customers at all they would refund 100% and deal with the owner themselves. They just don't want to get into the business of talking with renters.
- woutr_be 5y ago
  That's what I still don't get, they admitted the owner broke their TOS, and used the same listing for multiple properties. Especially after they said they're just the "middle man", you would think they would just issue a full refund, since they essentially just let stuff like this happen. Them issuing a 10% refund just felt like an insult to me. Hence why we're taking it further as well.

Aeolun 5y ago

Small claims court?

woutr_be 5y ago
That's exactly the route we're taking now.
ratww 5y ago
For me, in the end I disputed the charge with my credit card and they sided with me when I send pictures of the hotel. The single collective bathroom (yes) had no locks on the door (yes).
- woutr_be 5y ago
  I already disputed the charges weeks ago, but from talking to the credit card company, it seems that VRBO just claimed that nothing was wrong. Luckily in their last email to me, they admitted the owner broke their TOC, and that they had asked the owner to change their listings. I personally think that should be enough evidence for my credit card company to provide a charge back.
- lowercased 5y ago
  wife had rented via airbnb in london a few years back. Booked for... 10 days. It was close to $2000. Got there - TV broken. No curtains on window in main room, which faced an office block close enough where people could see you and you could see them. You had to walk between bedroom and bathroom through the main room. Leftover food in the fridge ("you can eat that if you want, previous people didn't finish it"). 2 hangars in a closet. Shower head didn't work - sprayed water out of the top, but not down. After 3 days of 'complaints' (messaged on airbnb and directly), my wife got an extra 6 hangars and the shower 'fixed', sort of. They claimed she must have broken the TV - no one previously had complained. My wife provided video and picture evidence of this to airbnb - no support. Hosts threatened to provide negative feedback to her and essentially blackball her with other hosts in London. We provided THAT messaging to airbnb - still nothing. airbnb's position was "well, if it was bad, you should have left and we might have refunded some of your money". Leave $2k with them, go spend another... $2000 on hotel someplace else (assuming you can even get anything short notice), then hope/pray you get some refund? I think we have waived some chargeback ability because of T&C we'd agreed to (I might be misremembering this). We should have pressed chargeback with cc company. It was horrible experience, and we've not used them since.
  - Reason077 5y ago
    > ”No curtains on window in main room, which faced an office block close enough where people could see you and you could see them.” This place sounds terrible, and of course it should have had curtains. But the part about facing onto other buildings is pretty normal in London.

tluyben2 5y ago

I am very careful never to book vrbo via hotels.com (which i usually use); there is 0 support once you do. Both are selling via Expedia (hotels.com and vrbo) but with vrbo you have no recourse. Doesn't matter what is wrong, good luck to you. Hotels has it's flaws but even in the weirdest places on earth where we booked hotels and the hotel owners had no clue what Expedia is or why we turned up, they always find a similar or better accommodation for you. We found our favorite hotel (unfortunately on the other side of the world) that way. They couldn't find anything close so they asked if we would mind an extra drive but the hotel is 2x the price: they would pay the difference. We said yes and ended up in a fabulous place we immediately stayed 3 weeks at. It is all about the service. Booking has more inventory and vrbo is often cheaper but screw that; peace of mind is definitely better for me.

woutr_be 5y ago
Normally I would just book through a hotel directly. But this was a 6 week trip, through multiple countries and multiple cities, with a friend. So instead of us both spending $120 each, we could spend $120 a night on an apartment. We had 4 reservations through VRBO, and the other 3 were perfect for us. But that 1 bad experience really put me off of ever using their platform again. They could've just accepted responsibility and refunded our money, but they decided against it. I'm now traveling alone, and am paying around $80 a night for a decent hotel. I agree, peace of mind is worth paying for, traveling these days is already stressful enough.

datavirtue 5y ago

Almost the exact same thing happened to me. I used a debit card to pay (don't do this) and got refunded because I filed a dispute, which was denied, only because my bank failed to give a provisional credit (violation of federal regulations). VRBO offered no help at all. You know this happens a lot when they issue 10% refunds. If it were rare and they cared about customers at all they would refund 100% and deal with the owner themselves. They just don't want to get into the business of talking with renters.

woutr_be 5y ago
That's what I still don't get, they admitted the owner broke their TOS, and used the same listing for multiple properties. Especially after they said they're just the "middle man", you would think they would just issue a full refund, since they essentially just let stuff like this happen. Them issuing a 10% refund just felt like an insult to me. Hence why we're taking it further as well.