VRBO or AirBnB

[JTOrt]

We have used VRBO about a dozen times with no issues. We only rent from units with lots of feedback and pictures. We prefer to cook our own food when traveling and VRBO usually has reasonable units that have full kitchens, frequently much cheaper than hotels. The only downside is if you cancel within a week (or even a month cases), you forfeit your deposit.

Same experience, owners have always been respectable. Have 2 friends with bad AirB&B experiences so have never tried them but as you point out it could happen with any service.

 

[GoodWishes]

We have used both VRBO and AirBnB several times without any problem. Most recently we used AirBnB in Montreal in September, the apartment and the owner were wonderful.

We always look through all the reviews and usually don't look at ones with none or only a few reviews.

We always correspond with the owner/manager multiple times with quesitons to see how reasonable they seem.

As with anything else, problem can occur so take whatever precaution you can.

 

[Watertree]

vrbo or Airbnb

I have used VRBO for Destin FL condo rentals. Very good experience.
VRBO and Homeaway are both owned by Expedia. Better price is available if you rent direct from owner. Professional real estate rentals have lots of fees that go along with their rentals.
The more positive reviews, the more piece of mind for your rentals. I have found if there is a problem with a listing, folks are quick to complain about any problems. If a rental is good, positive comments are shared.

I tried to navigate AIRBNB website, found it challenging to navigate. As a serious and committed retiree, simple is better.
Have a great vacation.

Watertree

 

[kcowan]

I tried to navigate AIRBNB website, found it challenging to navigate. As a serious and committed retiree, simple is better.
Have a great vacation.

Watertree

Try airdna for the location. It only shows you the top 100 with the most reviews.

 

[ivinsfan]

Update, after lots of looking I booked a brand new 3 bedroom townhome with 2 master suites and a community center with 2 outdoor heated pools and a workout area in Hurricane UT...the cost for 30 days was 2125 plus the mandatory VRBO fee/insurance of 125 dollars which includes fraud protection. The owner was very responsive and is a realtor and listed the name of the large national company he worked for.
I googled the website and was able to find him and also match the contact numbers to VRBO. He was completely fine with doing the entire rental through VRBO and my simply using a CC for another layer of protection.

The rental begins in 2 weeks and he has already sent me all the T and C's and been very responsive to my questions. The property only had 2 reviews which threw me off a little bit, but it said on the VRBO website the house had been purchased in 2016.He also had some ongoing bookings before our arrival, so I didn't cross him off the list.

All in all I'm happy with this and in fact for this area of the country (Southern Utah) the rental costs have been in a downward spiral for probably 10 years..our first booking 10 years ago was a 2 bedroom condo that cost me 80 bucks a day.

Since I did a 30 days rental no sales tax will be applied..cost per day about 75 bucks..we have different sets of friends joining us for large parts of the trip and then cost per couple would around 38 bucks per night.

I'll post back after to report if I had any issues.

 

[Tdoug58]

London and Chicago

AirBnB for a week in Chicago for first time recently and everything worked out great. Never used VRBO. Rented a flat for 10 days in London a few years that I found through Home Exchange. Best deal!

 

[kcowan]

We were about to book an apartment in Berlin and checked with airbnb management who warned us that the posting was a scam and would be removed.

 

[Nemo2]

We were about to book an apartment in Berlin and checked with airbnb management who warned us that the posting was a scam and would be removed.

Was the apartment listed on the airbnb site?

 

[CaliKid]

We were about to book an apartment in Berlin and checked with airbnb management who warned us that the posting was a scam and would be removed.

I was looking the other day at airb and noted one nice looking one had only been on the site a few days. I just didn't bother as I figured the possibility of a scam was high. On the other hand if they have been a few years on the site much less chance of scam. Still could be but less chance.

 

[kcowan]

Was the apartment listed on the airbnb site?

Both airbnb and VRBO.

 

[Yarnstormer]

My boss stayed in a place in park city that she raved about if you want to go there. It was on vrbo

 

[Nemo2]

Both airbnb and VRBO.

So much for their vetting process, eh?

 

[ivinsfan]

We were about to book an apartment in Berlin and checked with airbnb management who warned us that the posting was a scam and would be removed.

why did you check with management...did something seem off?

we are in our Southern Utah rental now and it's exactly as advertised.

 

[Running_Man]

I am curious to learn if any savvy VRBO users here could enlighten us as to ways to identify fraudulent listings. I have never actually rented anything via VRBO, but I've surfed the site, and could see myself using it.

I have used VRBO on multiple occasions and have never had a problem. But I do not rent if there are not at least 10 reviews on the website. Number one that is enough eyes to give you an idea of the property and number 2 it greatly reduces the chance of fraud since VRBO is controlling the website and approves reviews. I do also check on hotels.com to see if there is a hotel that competes better on price than VRBO so I am willing to use either source, I just go for the best option for the lowest price.

 

[jimnjana]

1) only rent single family homes from owners
2) contact them ask questions get a copy of the contract and read it
3) read their reviews

google the names of the owners, use bing and search the image of the home you're researching (that is how i found a phony Craigslist ad for my home). i would get trip insurance for long rentals.

 

[kcowan]

why did you check with management...did something seem off?

we are in our Southern Utah rental now and it's exactly as advertised.

Yes it seemed too good to be true compared to the others available at that time.

 

[Chuckanut]

This thread is near 5 years old and I thought It might be time to update especially since I may be using them much more over the next few years.

Any thoughts on comparing the two services in 2022? I heard that when Covid hit AirBnb was easier to deal with regarding cancellations due to restrictions than VRBO. That may or may not be true. On a recent trip I met a couple who rents for several months a year and they prefer VRBO for long term rentals (over 2 weeks). They seemed to think cancellations were easier.

Thoughts?

 

[Scrapr]

No experience with VRBO but had a bunch of cancellations with AirBnB in December. We were in England ready to go to Strasbourg & Paris at Christmas. Then the French PM shut the door to England visitors the day before we were to leave. We cancelled & were refunded in full quickly. The first place we were to stay nicked us for one night but that was expected. It was very easy. We felt bad for the operators as they were unlikely to re rent

 

[Philliefan33]

A year ago when I was looking for a 30-day stay in FL for (now), I ended up using VRBO because the cancellation policy was more reasonable. In Feb 2021, if I booked on AirBnB I had roughly a month to cancel and get at least some money back. On VRBO, we booked in Feb 2021 for a Feb 2022 stay, which we could cancel for full refund anytime before December 2021.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

I use both. Airbnb more often. Vrbo owners in my limited experience appear to be less experienced. No idea why

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I'm a relatively new user of AirBnB and VRBO. I have now booked one vacation on each since November. My VRBO trip starts next Saturday. My November stay was via AirBnb.

My only comment is that I find the AirBnB website and app much more user friendly to use than the VRBO equivalents. I find AirBnB much more intuitive to navigate around while searching multiple properties and the information they seem to provide up front is more complete.

I have not had to request any refund or assistance from either, however.

 

[ivinsfan]

I'm the OP and I'm going to open a new thread about vacations bookings, I have found a third way that has worked for me.