We are new to STR’s and have our first Vrbo booking. The next day we received an email from vrbo warning us this may be at risk for an unauthorized event. When talking to support on the app they couldn’t tell us anything further except to reiterate the house rules to the guest and we can cancel if we want. Has anyone else experienced this? Suggestions? Should we cancel??

The only thing I really need is a direct booking website that syncs to my Vrbo calendar and accepts payment. I’m currently listed on ECBYO also but they do not accept payments there.

TL;DR: VRBO has made several recent decisions that directly impact hosts: AI-altered photos, automatic member discounts, and a Labor Day email that felt more like a warning than a helpful reminder. Collectively, these show a growing disconnect between VRBO and its hosts. I’ve included a template below that you can copy, personalize, and send directly to Ariane Gorin, CEO of Expedia Group. If enough hosts speak up, maybe they’ll finally listen.

I think it’s time for us, collectively as hosts, to make our voices heard.

There have been three recent issues with VRBO that, taken together, demonstrate a growing problem with how the company is treating the hosts who make its business possible.

First was the AI takeover of our listing photos, which has been a massive failure. Our photos are how we market our properties and establish guest expectations. VRBO shouldn’t be altering how our properties are represented without our knowledge or control.

Second is the VRBO member discount program, which can automatically apply discounts to our reservations without our explicit permission. We are business owners. We set our prices and decide what discounts we are willing to offer. VRBO should not be making that decision for us.

Third is the recent email sent to hosts with Labor Day reservations. It was presented as a helpful reminder, but came across as a warning that we need to do our jobs or face fines and reputational consequences.

We know.

We are the ones running these businesses. We own the properties, pay the expenses, manage the guests, handle the emergencies, and absorb the financial consequences when things go wrong.

What VRBO seems to be forgetting is that hosts are its business.

Without us providing the properties, there is no VRBO. We expect to be treated as business partners, not simply as inventory that the company can modify, discount, or lecture whenever it chooses.

I highly encourage every host who shares these concerns to copy, personalize, and send the email below to Ariane Gorin, CEO of Expedia Group, VRBO’s parent company.

The more hosts who respectfully communicate these concerns directly to the top, the harder it becomes to dismiss this as a handful of unhappy hosts complaining online.

We need to make it clear: we want VRBO to succeed, but the relationship needs to work for hosts, too.

Email template:

[argorin@expediagroup.com](mailto:argorin@expediagroup.com)

Subject: VRBO Hosts Are Asking Expedia to Listen

Dear Ms. Gorin,

As a VRBO host partner, I want to share my growing dissatisfaction—and frankly, some anger—regarding the direction of the relationship between Expedia Group and the hosts who make VRBO possible.

There is a growing perception among hosts that VRBO is making significant changes to our businesses without meaningful consultation, consent, or consideration for the people actually operating the properties.

First came the AI-generated photo initiative. What was presented as an improvement to our listings has, for many hosts, been a significant failure. Rather than helping hosts accurately represent their properties, it introduced changes to the very marketing materials we rely on to set guest expectations and protect our businesses.

Then came the VRBO member discounts, which can automatically be applied to reservations without the host explicitly choosing to offer that discount. As a business owner, I find it deeply troubling that a company can alter the price of my product without my affirmative consent. We should decide what discounts we offer and when we offer them.

And now, hosts received an email regarding Labor Day reservations that was presented as a helpful reminder, but came across very differently. The message essentially reminded us that we are responsible for operating our businesses, while warning us of potential fines and reputational consequences if we fail to meet our obligations.

Of course hosts understand that we are responsible for our properties and our guests. We do not need a lecture from VRBO about the basic responsibilities of running a short-term rental. What we do need is a partner that recognizes the significant responsibilities, costs, risks, and effort that hosts take on every day.

These issues may appear unrelated, but collectively they represent a much larger problem: hosts increasingly feel that VRBO is making decisions that directly affect our businesses while treating us as a commodity rather than as partners.

Hosts are the backbone of VRBO. Expedia Group does not have a vacation-rental business without property owners and operators willing to list their homes on the platform. We provide the inventory, invest the capital, manage the properties, deal with the guests, absorb the risks, and ultimately bear the consequences when something goes wrong.

That relationship cannot work if hosts feel that decisions are continually being made for us rather than with us.

I am asking you, as the CEO of Expedia Group, to take a serious look at the current relationship between VRBO and its host partners. We are asking for transparency, meaningful communication, and—most importantly—respect for our role as business owners.

There are already many hosts openly discussing whether VRBO remains a platform they want to do business with. I sincerely hope Expedia recognizes this as an opportunity to repair that relationship before more hosts decide that their businesses are better served elsewhere.

We don’t expect VRBO to get everything right. We do expect to be treated as partners.

Respectfully,

VRBO Host Partner

Edit 1: I received an email asking for a phone conversation from someone on their Executive Customer Relations team. I will update again once the call has occurred.

VRBO just sent an email out to hosts saying that they will offer 12% - 20% discounts to gusts if they are members. These discounts will be automatically applied to hosts unless the hosts opt out. VRBO is screwing over their hosts in order to gain a bigger market share.

Most hosts will probably not opt out because they don't pay attention. Other hosts won't opt out because they don't want to be priced higher than the new average. Those that do opt out will be priced higher than the average and will be punished with fewer bookings.

This is definitely a losing scenario for hosts.

Selling father in laws fort myers condo and buying a townhouse 4br in a resort area of Disney. We live in Wisconsin and want to spend January February in Florida. Also allow each of our 5 kids to have one week a year. I ran and owned restaurants for 45 years so hospitality and business finance come naturally. I have a few hospitality ideas.. the themed bedrooms seem overdone and easy to find. We will have personal pool also.

Ideas ...

. An amazing coffee tea station with paper cups and to go lids

. A basket of inexpensive ponchos for that 3pm orlando rain

. A disney cinch sack for carrying items and for them to keep

. A qr code for everyone to scan and when they leave to park. Their photos are added to a family slides when they return home.

These are just some of my 1st thoughts.

Every property looks the same. Im gonna kill them with hospitality..

Thoughts?

Coming soon: Members Only Deals for your listing 

Based on our data showing that properties with promotions see over 1.4x higher conversions*, we will be automatically applying Members Only Deals to your listing(s) starting September 18, 2026 at the following levels: Blue tier promotions at 12%, Silver tier at 15%, and Gold/Platinum tiers at 20%. These promotions will be offered and funded by you as the host unless you opt out.

I just left a guest a less than stellar review. They checked out late, did not respond to any of my attempts to communicate while they were there (not a big deal), left the place horribly dirty, and stained the couch. But then they left me a wonderful review and messaged me asking about why I left them such a poor one. I just feel so guilty. But I wrote them back and told them why I reviewed them the way I did.

I’ve all of a sudden started getting tons of requests to host weddings after five years of hosting and never, ever allowing events, which is clear in my listing. The requests all seem a bit sketch and almost have the same vibe as the scam ones that say they’re traveling for work and the company will pay with a check. I’m getting them on both AirBnb and VRBO, so it’s not like VRBO just did their usual nonsense and started advertising my place as a wedding venue or whatever. Anyone else seeing the same thing?

We use Guestwisely PMS, and we’re merchant of record in VRBO - so when a guest books, VRBO follows our payment schedule then we pay vrbo their commissions monthly. Until recently when guest put card details in VRBO, the deposit would be processed through our Stripe account.
It’s changed. We’re now getting VRBO bookings without deposit. Not declined card or insufficient funds (we can see them in our Stripe account). No transaction at all in Stripe & funds are not taken from the guest (confirmed with guests and our own test bookings).

No response from VRBO support after a week.
GW say problem not their end & we need to apply to Stripe to handle guest cards and take payment.
We are sending PAY NOW link to the guest and they pay through Stripe no problem (by adding their card details again).
We ask guest to check their bank if deposit showing as zero on our invoice, but it’s unprofessional and confusing for guests.

Anyone else having same issue?
Has VRBO changed setting or has Stripe changed?
Really appreciate any input on this problem.

Hi - I am creating this post to gauge interest in a class action lawsuit vs VRBO as owners/hosts.

Allow me to elaborate.

I have been a VRBO host for almost 10 years. I find that every so often (perhaps ~1 year or so, that I notice) VRBO goes through a "system update" that conveniently screws with your settings, always in a way that will increase revenue to VRBO. How convenient. Examples of this include:

-Changing cancellation settings from 60 days to 7 days (I have NEVER had my cancellation policy at 7 days. VRBO nudges you all the time to lower cancellation policy because it will "increase bookings", per their own admission)

-Lowering my nightly minimum. I had always done 2 night minimum during non peak season, but 7 night minimum during peak season. Someone booked in the middle of my peak season for 2 nights - while 3 other guests had already done bookings that confirmed to my 7-night/Sunday changeover. I cancelled their reservation, restored my reservation settings, and VRBO removed my premiere host badge. When I tried to call and get it restored they said I never had nightly settings.

-Lowered my rates from 450/night to ~250/night

-Started offering discounts for some minimum amount of nights, which is something I never did

The list goes on and on.

At it's core, my feeling is that we shouldn't have to constantly check every menu and sub menu in our settings to constantly make sure that VRBO didn't "accidentally" change all of our booking and rate settings. It's too coincidental that the settings always change in a way that will maximize bookings and revenue for VRBO. It never raises your rates, makes your cancellation policy more strict, etc.

Please let me know your thoughts. I am considering contacting class action attorneys.

hello I posted earlier yesterday about not being able to get into the vrbo account

I was able to access the main account with the listings, Now here is situation

We have condos in costa rica, a property consisting of 6 condos each with 3 bedrooms that can sleep 6. What we had done previously is that each condo has its own listing(this is how I have it on Airbnb) this works kinnda especially syncing up a calendar with Airbnb. I thought I couldn't get into the account so I went ahead and created a new VRBO account, but it has no reviews and is bare. The old account had 3 condos on it, not alot of reviews but #1. has a 8.8, #2 has a 10 (1 review), # 3. has a 8

These are my questions

- Should I keep the old account scratch the new one and revamp the old since it has reviews?

- how Should I set up the properties with such a unique structure of rental units? How can I set it up if there is a party of 12 that they can book 2 condos with one bookings. Will this be able to sync up to a calendar that has 6 individual listings from Airbnb?

- If I delete the new account, can I transfer over to the old account with my email and phone number from the new one? will there be a delay with the VRBO system putting in the business & tax info? Will that cause me trouble?

Thank you All, for the quick reply on the last post, Im exited to see what this property can do

For context- we have a luxury lake house (average rental cost per night is 3K. We have had the $119 policy that covers up to $5000 in damage for the past two years of renting. We have never had a claim.

Until last week. We had renters who caused a major sewage backup due to flushing wet wipes. We lost 15K in revenue because we had to cancel the next renters' booking, and 13k in repairs to the sewage lines.

We have filed a claim with the Generali CSA plan that the renters bought when they booked our house. But that only pays out a maximum of 5k.

Looking to change our policy to have a credit card on file with a limit of 10k in coverage if there is damage.

Do any of you have any advice? we are going to be adding an additional rental agreement to our listing, as well as changing our house rules regarding plumbing, and also adding signage in all the bathrooms.

Thanks in advance!

alright so here is the situation....

My family were running these rental units in costa rica, I have since helped and taken over the booking platform side of things. Airbnb is going well and wanted to add in VRBO, and then I remembered why I didnt want to do it....

There are two different listings of the same property with different owner accounts. I am trying to get access to the accounts so I can delete them but I am not able to get the right log in information. I have tried in the past to contact VRBO and get them to take the listings down however no-go on that either.

SO here is now the questions: Do I give up trying to get rid of the old ones and focus on the new listing I have made? (ps I do not need to recover the old listings because they didnt have bookings or reviews to begin with) or Do I try and get the old ones taken down

Any help would be much appreciated, VRBO customer service is not so good

Help me understand as I have 100+ five star bookings on Airbnb…. I’ve had 4 Vrbo bookings. Just not
Popular in our area I guess.

Anyways I am using Lodgify as my PMS. Guest books on Vrbo and wants the ability to pay for their own damage insurance vs my $400 refundable deposit.
I see where it might live on Vrbo but it’s blocked since I’m connecting to my pms.

My options on Lodgify are refundable deposit or subscription to safely ( which I can’t do- a whole story in itself. What a scam)

Regardless what option is this guest talking about?? They canceled over it. Not sure why you’d wanna pay for the damage insurance when mine is refundable (and assuming no damage which I’ve never charged a guest for- in an upscale resort area we get great guest).

This cancellation really confused me but I’m ok they canceled if this was their sticking point.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

Hi all! Our guests contacted us this morning of a massive plumbing emergency in our house. They had just checked in yesterday. We immediately went there, got an emergency plumber. Still working on it now. This was a large group- 19 people (some children with special needs), VERY NICE family. They packed up and left, understandably. The house is not OK to be in right now. Shit everywhere. This has never happened. I am pretty sure the last guests flushed wipes down the toilet. We found them everywhere when we cleaned. We do not have any signs up stating not to do that (lesson learned).

I canceled the reservation so that they could get the full refund. VRBO is charging us a $7000 penalty. Yes, you read that correctly. About half of the booking cost. So not only are we losing the payout of the 13k, we have the 7K on top. 20K in the hole.

I called support and they told me to document everything and send them pics, and invoices. Hopefully the penalty will get waived.

Has anyone ever gotten a penalty waived?

Also ANY ADVICE on how to handle this with the previous guests who caused this to happen in the first place?

HELP!

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.