Why we require our own Booking Form, Account/Security Deposit, and Insurance on VRBO Bookings.

I received an email today from a new guest who just booked through VRBO

VRBO is a great website, and we get a number of bookings from them each year. Unfortunately, just like with AirBnB and other websites, guests truly don’t understand what VRBO is, and their relationship with us as a host listing our properties on their site. This often results in misunderstandings and some frustration… for both the guests and ourselves.

As a host with almost a thousand guest bookings completed, one starts to see patterns emerge amongst guests. Obviously in a group that large, some guests are going to be better to have, or let’s just say more enthusiastic than others. How? Some guests simply don’t like to take the time to read all of the information we provide them with. As a caring host, this is both surprising and frustrating. It is hard to imagine that someone could leave their home, fly across an ocean to go on vacation, go through customs, grab their luggage, and rent a car… all without knowing the address of the place they will be staying at! But it does happen! And inevitably it’s a guest that can’t be bothered to read anything.

We require certain things from all of our guests, for the safety of ourselves, our properties, and our guests as well. We explain our booking requirements in many places, including our listings on VRBO.

It’s a tough job being a very ‘little guy’ and trying to get folks to understand that a huge corporation with lots of market clout (who has actually been in this industry less time than we have) is actually doing things in a manner not consistent with best practices or guests best interests. However, when one remembers that VRBO is owned by Expedia (it was once a private company owned by actual vacation rental owners) it makes sense that their first loyalty is to their shareholders, above both guests and hosts.

Forgive me for being completely honest, but it does get tiring explaining certain things about VRBO repeatedly to unaware guests, who assume they know and understand the ins and outs of using and booking through VRBO. But most often, as shown by the email exchange below, they really have no idea why and with whom they should be placing their trust.

No one likes to have their beliefs challenged, or have something pointed out to them that makes them look foolish for not knowing it before hand. Often this results in embarrassment or resentment towards the one bearing the bad news. In this case, that’s usually us, and it happens when we attempt to elevate the guest from an simply an internet ad shopper, to someone in a guest/host relationship.

The truth about booking through VRBO

Hello Cheryl,

Thank you for your email. Let me begin by saying that I really do appreciate your booking with us, and choosing our property. It’s is a wonderful, magical place and I know you will really enjoy it.

Please see comments/responses below.

On Feb 9, 2026, at 3:58 AM, Cheryl wrote:

Hello Robert

Thank you for your email.

We have been using Vrbo for many years.

As have I. That’s why I’m an absolute expert in it! (That’s a bit of a joke! )

Therefore when I booked your villa I took out their ‘accidental damage protection’.

I don’t know why you would choose to do this, especially if you have history using VRBO.

VRBO is a website, run by Expedia. They do not own or rent out any properties, nor do they have any experience in doing so. Their purpose is to make money providing mostly what is an advertising service online.

All of the properties that they advertise for are independently owned, and each has and sets their own policies. One of the unfortunate things about a marketplace like VRBO is that they present themselves as ‘involved’ in the transactions and relationship between guests and hosts, when nothing could be further from the truth.

The reason that they do this is because, well… it is basically how they make money. And they can make more money if guests think that VRBO is somehow involved in the transactions and/or relationship between the guest and the host.

VRBO understands that guests are intrinsically weary of conducting business online with an unknown entity; a vacation rental host. And they understand that they can make money off that hesitation be presenting the appearance of a safe marketplace for guests to look for a vacation rental. And they can make much more money if they present the appearance of somehow protecting that guest in the transaction, and even through their eventual stay in a host’s property.

It is actually a strange balance they have to maintain, because VRBO wants the guest to be weary enough to use their website, but not so frightened of booking an independently owned vacation rental online that they give up on the idea altogether. VRBO could actually help the hosts by assuring guests that the vast majority of properties and hosts are perfectly safe to deal with, and what steps the guests can and should take to protect themselves booking online, but instead they actually scare guests enough by telling them that booking a vacation rental online is safe, as long as you do it through their website.

If only that were true.

Let’s take a look at the ‘Accidental Damage Protection’ that VRBO promotes to guests when they book a property.

VRBO’s accidental damage protection has absolutely nothing to do with us as your host, and it provides us with absolutely zero protection. It is of no interest or concern to us. It is something that makes VRBO (I imagine) a lot of money, because they offer it to thousands of people making bookings, who accept the charge and pay them some extra money believing they are buying something other than what they actually receive.

But here is how the ‘protection’ works from a host’s point of view:

• Guest books and comes and stays in the property. Guest leaves and there has been damage done. Either through accident, or negligence, or maliciousness… it doesn’t matter.
• Host contacts VRBO and says ’There was damage done. Here’s what the charges are to repair it.’
• VRBO contacts the guest and says ‘Did you do any damage?’
• Guest says ’No.’
• VRBO replies to the host ‘Guest says they didn’t do the damage. You don’t get any money.’

That’s it. It doesn’t matter that the damage was done, that the host has photos, invoices for repairs, etc. If the guest says ‘I didn’t do it,’ the host get’s nothing. And the host has no recourse at all. This is because the guest bought an insurance from VRBO, that pays only if the guest wants to make a claim.

VRBO’s ‘damage protection’ is nothing of the sort. It’s simply a way for them to charge the guest more money than they already do with their ’Service Fee’ and if the guest pays it, it is pure additional profit for VRBO. But it provides me as a host with no protection whatsoever, and as an experienced professional it’s part of my responsibility to be aware of this and know if it has any value for our protection, or not.

You don’t have to take my word for this. One can easily search online and see countless cases/examples demonstrating that VRBO’s damage protection provides no real assurance or protection for hosts. Given this is the case, why would we ever use or rely on it? And why would we ask our cherished guests to pay additional money to a third party for essentially nothing? We don’t.

If you do that search, you will also unfortunately see many instances where guests were denied a claim as well. I don’t understand those circumstances, I have no details about them, and I expect the guest may have misunderstood something along the way, but no matter… their frustration and disappointment with the lack of service and support they receive for their purchase from VRBO is clearly evident. The insurance, in those instances, certainly did not work the way the guest’s expected it did.

This is something I always do as it eliminates the need for a deposit.

I hate to be put in a position of having to disagree with a guest, but no it does not. We set the terms for renting our properties, not VRBO. This is true for all properties listed on their site, not just ours. Our Terms and Conditions of Rental are available to anyone through VRBO and the security/account deposit is clearly explained in a number of places.

In addition, the Account/Security Deposit requirement/process is clearly explained in our VRBO listing. I’ve attached a screenshot below.

Further, it is a Credit Card Authorization only. Nothing is charged against the guest’s account, they don’t pay anything, and it automatically expires after their departure and no refund is then necessary. Most people, certainly those who can afford to travel, have lots of room on their credit limit such that a Credit Card authorization like this doesn’t affect them in the least. If it would, they likely can’t afford to be booking a vacation home for any purpose.

This is all explained in our listing, and in the response you received immediately upon submitting your booking request.

Did you not read any of it? (Note: No, of course the guest didn’t!)

I should also point out something rather important: The protection of an Account/Security Deposit via a Credit Card Authorization with us costs the guest nothing. To my mind, this is far more in the guest’s interests than needlessly charging them extra money for providing essentially nothing in return.

We also have our own holiday insurance, as one of our party has to have specialist insurance due to medical issues.

I completely understand what you’re saying. Does your insurance cover the cost of your rental? It is very common to purchase medical travel insurance without covering flights, accommodations, etc.

Will your insurance cover the cost of your rental if you need to cancel your trip? And would we receive those funds?

We offer the insurance we do because VRBO’s ‘Free Cancellation’ is not proper protection against trip cancellation for legitimate reasons. It is simply offering refunds to guests if they decide to cancel their booking, and the host is left high and dry without any revenue, but must still pay all of their expenses for dates they can no longer book to someone else. (Note: Complete details about this aspect of vacation rental hosting are explained at this page here.)

‘Free cancellations’ like VRBO promotes are very harmful to hosts, and have driven many from the business. Hosts can not afford to NOT be paid for time booked and blocked in their rental property!

If we don’t take up your offer of insurance and lodging a deposit, does that mean we can not book your villa?

You don’t have to purchase ‘our’ insurance. That is very clearly stated in the email below. We cover the cost of it. It is much easier administratively if you purchase it and allow us to either credit your VRBO account, or refund the cost of it to you, but that is not a necessity for you to rent our property. And understand, it costs you nothing out of pocket. We pay for it.

Completion of our booking form and the account/security deposit on the other hand, absolutely is a requirement.

Are you aware that we have received no money from you or VRBO in connection with your stay? That we are already being asked and expected to take a week of prime time in our vacation rental home, and set it aside for you, simply on the ‘hope’ that you will show up and we will eventually get paid?

And that by promoting and offering ‘free cancellations’ VRBO is actually making it more likely that we won’t get paid?

Requiring a $500 Credit Card Authorization four days before you arrive is hardly a big ask in return. We are turning over a $400,000 home, fully equipped, with furniture, appliances, and expensive electronics to essentially strangers, in a completely trusting and unsecured manner, with no onsite staff or anyone to monitor their activity. How could anyone reasonably object?

Hopefully not, as we love that part of Florida as it’s near to our favourite golf course. We also love an individual hot tub, so your villa fits our brief perfectly!

That’s great. We chose it very carefully and decorated and outfitted it precisely so that it would! We want guests to choose to stay with us, and enjoy the experience.

Are you suggesting that the account/security deposit would prevent you from going ahead with your booking?

If so, I would kindly suggest to you that the fact that we require such a thing demonstrates that we are professional hosts who are experienced and do things properly, and don’t reply on third party websites with no responsibility to either ourselves or our guests. We function quite properly and independently from VRBO, who has demonstrated that they have little care for either guests or hosts if things ever unfortunately go wrong. In an industry where business is conducted primarily online, between parties who don’t know each other and have no experience dealing with one another, trust is important, but so is doing things properly in a manner that protects both the guest and the host.

As a guest, I would want to stay with an experienced, knowledgable host who knows what they are doing, has a demonstrated history of taking great care of their guests, and does things properly. I hope you would to.

The fact that there are thousands of hosts booking properties online through sites like VRBO and know nothing of the risks involved in relying on those sites to properly conduct their business (and you may have stayed previously with many of them) only means that there are many people out there who have absolutely no idea what they are doing. We are not one of them.

You may believe that booking through VRBO somehow protects you or provides you with some sort of ‘rights’ as a guest. It doesn’t, no more than it protects us as hosts.

Here’s the proof. Take a look at VRBO’s Terms and Conditions, copied from their website this morning when I wrote this to you:

Section 1 Rules and Restrictions

As well as these Terms, other terms and conditions provided by Travel Providers (such as separate or additional terms imposed by the Travel Provider, including any house rules, cancellation policies or rental agreements) also apply to your booking (“Rules and Restrictions”). The relevant Rules and Restrictions are provided to you before you make a booking.
To make a booking, you must accept the Rules and Restrictions of the Travel Provider that you select (such as payment of due amounts, cancellation policies, refundability, availability restrictions and use of services, etc.).

If you violate a Travel Provider’s Rules and Restrictions, your booking may be canceled and you may be denied access to the relevant Travel Service. You may also lose any money paid for such booking, depending on the Travel Provider’s Rules and Restrictions.

Rental agreements are concluded only between a Guest and a Travel Provider. We are not a party to any such agreements.

Any such agreement:
• will apply to your booking of a property
• will govern your right to occupy and use such property, and
• may limit or exclude a Travel Provider’s liability.
You are therefore advised to read any such rental agreement before booking a property.

We are not obliged to mediate between a Guest and a Travel Provider in any dispute arising between them.

You acknowledge and agree that:
• you and the Travel Provider are responsible for performing the obligations of any rental agreements between each other
• we are not, and do not become, a party to any contractual relationship between a Guest and a Travel Provider
• Travel Providers are not our service providers, and
• Travel Providers are responsible for complying with all laws, rules and regulations applicable to the listing and rental of their property and to the conduct of their rental property business.

I would encourage you to contact VRBO and ask for a refund of your ‘damage protection charges’. I wouldn’t get into an explanation with them as to why, just tell them it is already covered by your travel insurance. They may try to talk you out of getting a refund, because of course they want the money, but politely insist on it.

And don’t purchase it in the future. If you are taking out proper travel insurance, you don’t need to be paying for coverage twice. Just make sure that such coverage is included with your separate policy.

I look forward to your reply.

Kind regards

Cheryl

Cheryl, I appreciate your time and attention to this message. I understand it may be longer and more involved than you might like to see as a response.

However, it is very important that our guests be willing to read and understand all of the information that we expend a great deal of time and effort to provide. It is exceedingly rare that we ever receive a question that we haven’t already answered in the information previously provided to a guest. This is because we are highly experienced and skilled at what we do. We anticipate and understand what our guests need to know and when, and we provide them with that information in a timely manner, usually before they ask for it.

It is important that guests pay attention to what we provide them with, in order to save them time, hassle, frustration, and to get maximum enjoyment out of the experience of staying with us.

The requirements for our own booking form, and a security/account deposit administered separately from VRBO, and that cancellation protection is provided separately, and not through VRBO policies, are all shown in our VRBO listing. They are included with our Terms and Conditions which are provided when you make your booking.

The appropriateness and correctness of our own Terms and Conditions applying to bookings with us, are confirmed by VRBO’s Terms and Conditions for use of their site as a booking venue by guests.

Your understanding and cooperation are greatly appreciated!

Kind regards from your host;

Robert
Breezy Oak Villas