VRBO ?

[BeaLola]

I'm a dinosaur - never used air b n b

Going away with DH to Portugal and work colleague suggested VRBO - to be fair have found some lovely places to rent but just wondering if anyone has used them, good or bad ? TIA

Yes we stayed in a VRBO place in Brittany and it was fab. Was definitely someone's personal holiday home rather than a "professional" setup but that was fine and added to the charm.

Yes, stayed in a lovely apartment in Spain, had no issues.

VRBO are fine- honestly all the OTA's are very similar and have many properties in common. I advertise mine on all of them!

They’re fine. Used them several times and never had a problem. Seem cheaper than Air B&B for the places and times I have booked. Owned by Expedia. They used to have a different name, Owners Direct I think.

Thank you all

Yes - we've used them a lot . Some of the people advertising on there are individuals renting out their own properties but others are managing agents which use VRBO for advertising . You will need to check individual listings for cancellation policies - eg some allow free cancellation up to two weeks before travel, for others it's 6 months or more .

Never again. Used it 3 times. Problems and last minute cancellation every time. No supper or alternatives from vrbo.
We travelled for 11 hrs couldn't get into accommodation couldn't get hills of the owner, it was going dark... never ever do I want that feeling ever again.

Used them for years. Much prefer
Them to Airbnb as in my experience it's more actual holiday homes being rented out, which I prefer to renting someone's actual home residence

Never had any trouble with them, the only hiccups we've had have been with the host themselves which isn't anything to do with Vrbo

We have used them many, many times to book Villas in Lanzarote and not once had a problem. We also used them last year to find a holiday home when we went to Italy. Again, all went smoothly and we had a great experience.

Also looking at booking.com. I've also never used AirBnB because for ages you could only know the location to within 1 km and being able to walk to the supermarket, beach, restaurants etc without a 30 min uphill trek in 30 C heat is important to us, and you couldn't be sure you were avoiding this sort of thing with the location radii given.

With booking.com you can see the precise location, use filters for review scores, price etc and choose from a variety of apartments, hotels, villas etc.

It's always been reliable for us but a friend once got accommodation cancelled by the owner at short notice (there was a huge carnival in the town he was going during that week) and he got compensation as well as a refund from booking.com

Just got back from a week in Portugal in a VRBO villa. Was amazing. Clearly someone's home/holiday home as had absolutely everything we needed....no need to buy seasoning/oil for cooking, or any cleaning products or loo roll. Totally recommend.