VRBO Rebooking and Refund Policy | What to Know

Most of the time, when travelers book holidays, they intend to complete their stay but sometimes due to emergencies, personal reasons, or other factors such as natural disasters and travel restrictions, they may have to cancel. That's why a cancellation policy is of utmost importance to hosts. It gives guests all the important information as part of the short-term rental agreement while helping you cover costs if guests cancel at the last minute.

VRBO refunds as an owner

Processing refunds on Vrbo can be done through the property owner’s Dashboard in a few easy steps. Let us look at the different types of situations in which you’d have to process a cancellation request for a booking on your property.

Approving a traveler’s cancellation request

When a guest who has booked a stay requests a cancellation, you can follow these steps to approve their cancellation request from your profile:

1. Log in to your VRBO account
2. Select listing
3. Go to inbox and filter to find the guest
4. Select guests name
5. Confirm from the My Trips section that you are processing the correct request.
6. Click on Confirm cancellation from within the chat area to cancel the booking

Canceling a guest's reservation

If for any reason, you as the owner want to cancel a reservation here’s how you do it.

1. Log in to your VRBO account
2. Select listing
3. Go to inbox and filter to find the guest
4. Select guests name
5. Click on Cancel booking at the bottom of the screen.
6. Select the most accurate reason for canceling
7. Review the refund amount
8. Click on Continue
9. Click on Confirm to process the refund and cancellation

Refunding a Vrbo traveler without canceling the reservation

There may be situations where your guests will only require a partial refund; they may want to reduce their stay by one day or they may want the pet fee waived since they decided against bringing their pet.

1. Log in to your VRBO account
2. Select listing
3. Go to inbox and filter to find the guest
4. Select guests name
5. Go to Payment Schedule
6. Click on Send refund
7. Enter the correct amount that you need to refund
8. Click on Continue
9. Click on Send refund so that the amount is sent back to the guest

VRBO Cancellation Policies

When it comes to cancellation policies, VRBO has 6 options for hosts, 5 of which are pre-described in a range of strictness, while the 6th one allows owners to customize according to their risk appetite. Here is a quick snapshot of the many cancellation policies:

• The no-refund policy - This is the strictest policy where refunds are not offered for any reason whatsoever

• The 60-day policy - 100% of the booking fee is refunded 60 days before the check-in date

• The 60/30 day policy - 100% of the booking fee is refunded 60 days before the check-in date and 50% of the refund if made 30 days before the check-in date

• The 30/14 day policy - 100% of the booking fee is refunded 30 days before the check-in date and 50% of the refund if made 14 days before the check-in date

• The 14/7 day policy - 100% of the booking fee is refunded 14 days before the check-in date and 50% of the refund if made 7 days before the check-in date

• The custom policy - custom time, percentages, and fees based on host and risk appetite. A potential guest can review these terms on the property page. In case they are not able to see the cancellation policy, they should contact the host directly to review the cancellation terms.

VRBO refunds as a Guest

While making a booking on Vrbo, it is extremely important as a traveler to check what the cancellation policy is for the property. Let’s find out how to cancel a VRBO booking and get a refund as a traveler

Canceling a Vrbo booking

The following steps describe how easy it is to cancel your Vrbo reservation if the situation arises:

1. Sign in to your Vrbo account.
2. Go to My Trips to select the reservation you want to cancel.
3. Go to Details
4. Select Cancel
5. Go through the property’s cancellation policy before canceling.
6. Once you have reviewed their policy, select Cancel booking
7. Click on Request cancellation if you see the option, and give the host 24 hours to approve and process the cancellation

To conclude:

This article covers everything that you need to know about Vrbo refunds from a guest's and a host’s perspective. As a host, it is important to have a fool-proof cancellation and refund policy to protect your interests and as a guest, you must be fully aware of what you are signing up for when you are making a booking on Vrbo.