VRBO: Comedy in Errors

[Christina B.]

Anyone else experiencing technical issues with their VRBO bookings today? I've unfortunately wasted several hours on the phone with them and with the prospective return guest.

First problem: my returning guest is less tech-savvy so they reached out to tell me what dates they wanted. I had to ask them to send me an inquiry or request for those dates as I could not create the booking for them (because VRBO had already obscured their contact info- e.g. phone and email). They forgot to check the box for bringing pets so...

Second problem: when I tried to edit the quote on both a Chromebook and my desktop, I got a blank screen (when clicking edit quote). I also found my extra guest charge (for groups over 10) was not being followed (it's automated via VRBO or should be). When I provided screenshots to the VRBO agent, they said they were experiencing the same problem (blank screen). We were finally able via work on her side and work on my side via the VRBO app (on my phone) to edit the quote and send out the pre-approval.

Third problem: when guest clicked "Pay Now", they got a blank screen. They tried repeatedly. With my encouragement, they called VRBO and VRBO told them the problem was my end because I hadn't approved their request. WTF?! At this point, I called VRBO again and they saw the pre-approval. Their solution was to ask the guest to re-submit the request (and click correctly on bringing pets although VRBO's system defaults to one animal and they're bringing two so I'd have to edit the quote again at some point). I balked at that because they hadn't confirmed that all technical issues with editing a quote- were fixed. So then they said "Pay Now" is working again.

Fourth problem: no, "Pay Now" was not working but guest at least got a "try again in a few minutes" screen. They tried again and again. It didn't work. In the mean time, a new guest submitted a request for most of the same dates. I'm not sure why VRBO allowed that to go through because my understanding is that Pre-Approvals were good for 72 hours (but I see less than 14 hours on my countdown on the app).

Fifth problem: (you could see this coming)... guest now says that when he tried to pay, he's told those dates are no longer available. !!!

I know technical issues are a fact of life. But the above interaction seems crazy to me for how much time we've each spent trying to make this 4-day booking happen. At this point, I could see VRBO saying the problem is mine because I have to manually unblock the calendar as a result of their system allowing the new guest request (when the pre-approval was already done for the previous guests). AITA? Lol. Or have any of you been experiencing VRBO issues as well?

[Andrew Steffens]

I just asked my reservations team and they did not have any known issues yesterday.