VRBO.com Reports & Reviews

VRBO.com Reports & Reviews (9)

Scammer's website www.vrbo.com
Scammer's email [email protected]
Total money lost $750
Type of a scam Rental

The scammer, Facebook handle, Shawna J Ryan, posed as the condo owner and sent a VRBO link. She offered to book directly through her to save on fees. She asked for payment through Zelle. Once I paid, I received an odd invoice. I then researched the property and called the managing company and confirmed that there was a different and legit reservation already on the property. I requested my money back on Zelle, but did not receive it.

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Scammer's phone 1 (877) 228-3145
Scammer's website www.vrbo.com
Scammer's address Chandler, TX 75758, USA
Victim Location CA 94560, USA
Total money lost $8,366
Type of a scam Travel/Vacation/Timeshare

I rented a 1br1ba so called "luxury" vacation home on vrbo in July for 3 months. Minimum stay is 28 days (red flag #1). The host gave a deep 40% discount from $120 a night to make me think I got a deal (red flag #2). Today they posted it for $69 per day only. The host required me to prepay prior to arrival time (red flag #3). There is no review of the rental at all since they joined in 2019 (red flag #4). Vrbo site allows a compliment stating that the property was rated 4.9 on other travel site (red flag #5). Do not believe in such claim that the property was reviewed in other "unknown" site! This is a scam!! I took the words on surface which turned out to be a huge mistake. I spent $8,366 for nothing and now staying in a hotel pending for a resolution that Vrbo trying to get away from. There is NO guarantee, NO satisfaction, NO service. Vrbo would only keep themselves clean and do nothing and harboring scam! I can only reply on my cc dispute and next attorney.

I checked in the first day just to know that this property is below 2-star motel. No 2nd sofa sleeper, "smart" TV prompted you for your Amazon account instead of promised Netflix and cable, no fireplace, no grill, broken lights, broken toilet and endless filthy furniture. They do not even have coffee, shampoo, shower gel...no nothing.

They promised to move us to a livable apartment that was still available on Vrbo. Then they made it unavailable overnight and told us it was unavailable. Obviously dishonest business offered dishonesty. Now, they make that apartment available again after we have moved out. We moved out immediately as the apartment was in poor condition and I don't want to get my kid sick. Not to mention there was scorpion and coaches. It was misrepresented, false advertised and was intentionally luring renters.

Now Vrbo said they are only advertising agent and wanted to back off from their "misrepresentation" guarantee. The same property is still advertised exactly the same as luxury apartment to continue cheating people. The company behind all of this is stayhikaru who has their own website without business address telling they only rent "LUXURY" apartment. Do not believe them as they are renting only low-end properties covering up with painted descriptions! Yet, Vrbo is doing nothing about it and just want us to swallow it!! No way, I will go to attorney if it is not resolved.

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Victim Location 37031
Total money lost $600
Type of a scam Rental

I contacted the Host Bruce and Nita Laten as VRBO listed them on the property. They offered us a discount if we were to make direct purchase through them to save us some money. They lied and took our money ($600) and refused to issue refund. Do not trust these people. VRBO stated they could have protected our purchase if we’d went through the app. They got our CC info and name and home address.

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- New York, NY, USA

Scammer's phone 4697155286
Scammer's address 538 West 50th Street Apt. 5A, New York, NY 10019, USA
Scammer's email [email protected]
Country United States
Victim Location NY 10019, USA
Total money lost $2,350
Type of a scam Rental

Scammer contacted me through VRBO to rent my home in Dewey Beach for December 20 to December 24th. Cost was 1800. They then contacted me directly through my email. Sent a check for 4250.70 to my address in ** ******** **** Rehoboth Beach DE. I text the person that the sum was too much. They said to deposit the check, take out the 1800 for rental and wire the rest to them. I waited til check cleared on Nov. 4th and wired money to this account. Ayobami Babanumi, Account #: 4460 3963 5709, Routing #: 026 009 593. Bank of America 222 Broadway NY, NY 10038. I was notified on Sunday through my on line banking that the check bounced. I promptly called my bank to report it. The call is logged as Ref. CFG 00128484. The person did contact me and said they would send a money order for the confusion of the bounced check and then they stopped contacting me.

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- Los Angeles, CA, USA

Scammer's phone (801)368-0292
Scammer's address 950 South 283 East Orem UT 84058, Orem, UT 84058, USA
Scammer's email [email protected]
Country United States
Victim Location CA 90068, USA
Type of a scam Travel/Vacations

Tony pulls a popular vrbo.com/airbnb.com scam where he lists a property with pictures on their site and gets you to book it online. The day before you are to leave on your vacation, when it is too late to change plans, he says that property is not available for some reason (in our case a broken pool heater) and directs you to another property that is "much better" and happens to be the same price. It is not better and in fact would be less money to rent.

In case anyone believes this is simply a misunderstanding, you should know that I said I would take the original property with the broken pool heater and he refused. If you look closely at the reviews for the property they seem suspicious as well, as if they were written by him or an associate.

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Scammer's address Austin TX, MI, USA
Scammer's email [email protected]
Total money lost $6,000
Type of a scam Online Purchase

VRBO website is used by paying homeowners to advertise their rental property. VRBO collects the deposit and holds it, collects the remainder of the rental fee and holds it and is supposed to dispense funds to owners account when renter checks out. For the past 3 weeks, they have sent a message that fees are not being dispensed into the owners account for 14 days due to a "glitch" in the system. For 21 days, even today, we are being told there is a glitch in the system. They are keeping the money owed to homeowners, surely a glitch in the system would have been corrected in the 28 days of the message. They are keeping the money. They have merged with homeaway, have not changed any property numbers and rental properties are being rented with the same account numbers. We are being charged a lot of money for this incompetent, unprofessional service. I am filing the complaint but this is being done to ALL of their thousands of clients.

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- New York, NY, USA

Scammer's website csvcushomeavvay-com.application-booking-host.com
Scammer's email [email protected]
Country United States
Victim Location NY 10011, USA
Type of a scam Travel/Vacations

I attempted to book www.vrbo.com property number: 1985009 on the morning of 5/21/20 by emailing: Mathias Linde as was listed as the contact information on the posting. I received an email from Mathias indicating the property was available, requesting the dates of my intended stay, the names of the people in my party and a copy of my drivers license, which I provided. I then noticed the listing on vrbo.com was no longer available via the search feature. Later in the day, I received a text message and two emails from Mathias indicating that the booking had been initiated from the VRBO platform with a link to complete the booking process. The link took me to a website that very much resembled a Home Away/VRBO (sister companies) page, however, I contacted VRBO to confirm the link was valid only to learn that it was not. Mathias Linde falsely advertised a home on VRBO and then attempted to collect $4,600 USD from me via website he crafted to look like an official Home Away page.

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Victim Location 34770
Type of a scam Rental

I went onto VRBO to rent a property, it has you contact owner, a James Silvestrini contacted me via email, gave me a rental contract and a paypal account (elmrett@gmailcom) to make payment. I was having an issue with paypal, he told me he was as well, and he would let me know when his paypal account was resolved. He contacted me today asking if I can pay directly with my bank account. I told him yes to get his information. I have attached his bank account info.

Thru a little sleuthing from a friend, she found the home owners name and phone number, I contacted him and he told me he does not use VRBO nor did he know of a James Silvestrini. He told me he has a listing of who is renting in June and they only book for a week at a time, that this was a fraud.

I contacted VRBO and all they did was remove the posting, nothing further. They could not even find me another rental for that time period I needed in June. They said that is the chance I have to take.

With the Grace of God I was able to not lose money, but I felt you should be aware of this scam so hopefully others will be aware of this website and this person.

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- San Francisco, CA, USA

Scammer's website vrbo.com
Scammer's address unknown
Scammer's email [email protected]
Country United States
Victim Location San Francisco, CA 94110, USA
Total money lost $250
Type of a scam Other

I had an issue with a listing on VRBO, so I posted a negative review (1 star). The listing currently has 16 reviews--all 5 out of 5 stars. It looks as if VRBO is suppressing/not publishing bad reviews for listings. The owners of the property wrongfully withheld half of my deposit. I was not warned about any potential issues because the owners' reviews were inflated and potentially negative reviews that could have warned me about issues with the owners were not posted.

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