originally sent - June 15, 2016

VRBO/ Homeaway – Negative experience with our property listing.

Subject – Refund of membership fee for property located in Mykonos

Dear Property owners and Managers

In the beginning of March 2015, after nearly 2 months of correspondence including many letters and phone conversations with a salesperson at VRBO, we agreed to list our property in Mykonos for rental with VRBO.
We were told that we could not sign up under the free subscription program, where commissions are paid to VRBO per rental – it didn’t apply to our home. We had to pay an annual subscription fee of $1648 by credit card, which would enable us to be listed on about 23 different websites. We were very hesitant to do so , but were reassured by the salesperson that VRBO/Homeaway have a full subscription refund policy if no bookings are made through them. This policy was verified in writing from the salesperson – who surprisingly no longer answers her emails and has conveniently moved along and disappeared . This was the deal clincher – a no risk subscription fee, refundable if no bookings made. Commission paid upon successful rentals. Cost and risk free. Why wouldn’t we join !?
Fast forward 11 months. Not one single booking was made through VRBO. We had many inquiries which were always answered quickly, our calendar was regularly updated, 6 months always available, tons of great photos etc etc. In summary we met every single condition and criteria required by VRBO, yet still didn’t get any bookings. We took bookings on other sites such as AirBnB and Trip Advisor.
So, as the year was coming to a close, we tried to implement the subscription refund policy, as they require that you submit your request within a week of expiring. We wrote emails. We called. We wasted hours of time speaking to various customer support people at VRBO – and were told that the policy changed 2 weeks after we subscribed and that 1. They no longer refund due to no bookings and 2. They had no obligation to inform us of this policy change. One customer rep Sonia, actually and definitively denied this change of policy on March 4, 2016, call number 18020245, yet VRBO refuses to share this recorded phonecall with us.
In addition, said Sonia of VRBO sales team still admitted that this refund policy exists, and was not canceled, I was still able to see this policy in black and white on their website on February 8 2016 – when I checked to see if it had in fact been cancelled. It seemed rather unbelievable that in the few weeks of us being interested in registering and in fact signing up, that the policy (Dated September 2012.) had in fact changed , so I investigated it further, and surprisingly found that it still exists unchanged on the company's website. I have dated screen shots which clearly show this.
To say we feel cheated and scammed is an understatement. We have made many exhausting and frustrating attempts to recover our money to no avail. If we can prevent other owners signing up under this scheme, we will be happy, and believe me, so will you. So do yourself a favour and don’t waste your time and money here. You will get results on the other top websites such as Airbnb and Trip Advisor, without having to fork out thousands for nothing.

Signed
Very disgruntled property manager.