We strongly recommend that all travelers, owners, and property managers follow health and safety information from health officials as well as travel advisories from local authorities. For your convenience, we have provided a list of FAQ's when booking Vrbo's vacation rental inventory.
For additional information, please click on the anchor links below or contact [email protected] with further questions.
Although Vrbo’s website often allows travelers to make a deposit, this feature is not available at Classic Vacations. We require payment in full at the time of booking for all vacation rentals.
Each property is individually managed by the property owner with their own set of House Rules and Cancellation/Refund policies. When you click “Book Now” the next page in the checkout will detail out all rules, regulations and fees for the property. You’ll need to carefully read through all the House Rules and accept them before you can book the property. It is very important to review these rules with your clients so they understand their obligations.
As a Vrbo affiliate, Classic’s inventory and pricing are not designed to cross-shop with Vrbo. We only sell a subset of Vrbo’s full inventory, and our traveler service fee will always be higher because we absorb Travel Agent commission into that portion of the pricing. In some cases, property owners will also require a higher refundable damage deposits on our website than what is found on Vrbo direct.
Each property is individually managed by the property owner. Some owners prefer to have the assurance of liability coverage. On Vrbo’s site, shoppers have choice of $69 Liability Insurance OR an additional refundable damage deposit which could cost $1500, $3000, or $5000. At this time, Vrbo hasn’t extended the option of Liability Insurance to Classic; therefore, we are forced to require the expensive Refundable Damage Deposit.
Your refund is issued based on the property's cancellation policy. If you cancel your reservation and are within the window to receive a 100% refund, the service fee will be refunded to you automatically when the cancellation is confirmed.
If a booking was charged in a different currency, the payment and refund totals might vary based on currency exchange rates and bank-issued exchange fees. Your refund will be sent to the original form of payment. If that account is closed, please contact your financial institution.
If you paid an upfront refundable damage deposit at the time of booking, you will automatically receive that amount back once you have completed your stay, provided the host does not report any damage to the property.
Depending on the host's account settings, it can take up to 14 days for the damage deposit to be released back to your original form of payment. Additionally, your financial institution may take five to seven working days to release the money into your account.
If a booking was charged in a different currency, the payment and refund totals may vary based on currency exchange rates and bank-issued exchange fees.
If the host reports there has been damage to the property, you may not receive all the money paid. Please contact them directly to discuss any damage costs.
The nightly rate is the same, but in order to pay a commission to Travel Advisors, Classic Vacations will have a slightly higher Traveler Service Fee. The exact amount of difference varies between properties, but it is set to cover the cost of commission.
No, Vacation Rental bookings must be paid in full at time of booking. Many properties have an additional Refundable Damage Deposit that will also be paid at the time of booking and refunded after travel.
Classic Vacations is not the Merchant of Record—travelers’ credit card statements will show a charge from Vrbo or the Property Management Company.
Royalty Rewards Points will not be earned on Vacation Rental bookings nor can they be redeemed for a Vacation Rental booking.
Here’s a quick tutorial that was put together to answer this exact question.
How to setup your Private label:
https://www.youtube.com/watch? reload=9&v=LnU8sMoa9aQ&feature=youtu.be
How to share Vrbo recommendations with a client:
Classic sells a subset of Vrbo’s inventory, so the only way to know if we carry a specific property is to search our site. Entire your destination and dates, view our search results, then use the map or filters to narrow the selection. Often the map view is the easiest way to track down a specific property.
Classic Vacations is an affiliate of Vrbo, which simply allows travel advisors the option to book commissionable vacation rentals for their clients. Your account at ClassicVacations.com will show the Vrbo booking#, but it does not contain all the needed booking details.
The commission is automatically sent out from Classic Vacations within 30 days after travel. However, the booking details and all post-booking communication will be managed through your Vrbo.com My Trips account. Your My Trips account will include all the vacation rental bookings you’ve made for your clients through Classic.
Here are instructions to access or create your Vrbo account:
- Go to: www.vrbo.com
- Select Traveler Login
- Create an account or login using the SAME EMAIL ADDRESS you used to sign in to ClassicVacations.com . This is very important as your email address will tie the two accounts together.
Follow prompts from there.
The “Message Owner” feature hasn’t been shared with Classic, though it is available at vrbo.com. If you want to connect with the owner pre-booking, you’ll need to go through these steps. It’s a little tricky, but many agents have been successful with this:
- Go to www.vrbo.com , create an account with the SAME email address you use when signing in to ClassicVacations.com
- Find the property you are trying to book
- Use the “Message Owner” chat feature to contact the property owner. Be aware that MOST property owners aren’t familiar with Travel Agents or Classic Vacations, so you’ll have to do a little explaining. Explain the following points:
- Identify yourself as a Travel Agent looking to book on behalf of your client
- Explain that you will be booking through a Vrbo affiliate site for Travel Agents called “Classic Vacations”
Most property owners have been really responsive, but. . .just know that the concept of a Travel Agent might confuse them a bit. When you’re ready to book, remember to come back to ClassicVacations.com . If you accidentally book direct on Vrbo, we can’t see the booking or pay your commission.
Login to Vrbo.com using the same email address you used to book at Classic and contact vrbo customer service through “TRAVELER CHAT” after following the recommended steps found here:
There are a few things TA’s can do to mitigate the risk when booking a Vacation Rental:
- Use the Customer Reviews – this is probably the #1 resource for ensuing a good experience. Read the reviews available on our site to make sure that other travelers have had good experiences at the property. You can even filter the search results to show only properties with 4 stars and above.
- Look for the “Premier Host” or “Premier Property” badge – this is a designation that Vrbo grants to property owner with a track record of great service and low complaints.
- Vrbo’s Book with Confidence guarantee - https://www.vrbo.com/l/travel-with-confidence/ Vrbo goes to great lengths to take care of travelers during their entire booking/travel process. They will even help re-book in destination when something goes wrong. This support and guarantee is available to Classic customers as well. Vrbo’s customer care team is available to help with issues like the one described below.
In the confirmation email from Vrbo, click the “Manage Booking” link. This will take you over to Vrbo.com. If you don’t have this email, you can go directly to Vrbo.com. You’ll need to create a “Traveler Login” using the SAME email address you used to book this trip at Classic – this ties your two accounts together. Once you’re signed in, go to the “My Trips” page where you’ll find all the trip details as well as the ability to “Message Owner”. This is where you’ll receive the address and all check-in instructions for your clients. Make sure to pass the details along to your clients before they leave so they don’t encounter issues.
Here are instructions to access or create your Vrbo account:
- Go to: www.vrbo.com
- Select Traveler Login
- Create an account or login using the SAME EMAIL ADDRESS you used to sign in to ClassicVacations.com. This is very important as your email address will tie the two accounts together.
Follow prompts from there.
Our Vacation Rental inventory is provided by Vrbo and available for Mainland USA, Mexico, Hawaii, Canada, and Caribbean.
Life is unpredictable. Travel Protection and Damage Protection help guard your vacation investment from certain unforeseen events and accidents that might otherwise cost you a bundle.
For further details, please visit: https://www.vacationprotection.com/?partner=cv
Classic offers a subset of the inventory sold on Vrbo. We would love to have it all, but not all of their inventory is available to us as an affiliate. Here are the three criteria for properties to be included on the Classic website.
- Destination – currently we are limiting this to United States, Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, Caribbean.
- Instant Book – Vrbo offers both “Book Now” and “Request to Book” properties on their website. This is determined by the Property Owners. Only “Book Now” properties are available through Classic. We do not have the capability to Request, Hold, or make Payments – that feature is only available on Vrbo directly. We would love to sell these properties, but currently Vrbo does not make them available through the affiliate API.
- Platform Property – this final criteria is harder to detect because there’s no obvious distinction on Vrbo. Vrbo has two kinds of listings – we ONLY sell properties in the “Platform Property” category:
- “Platform Properties” meaning they are listed directly on Vrbo and Vrbo will be the merchant of record.
- “Independent Property Management” meaning these properties are actually managed by a third party. When these properties are booked, the customer will have two credit cards charges, one from Vrbo and another from the Property Management company.
Please direct all post travel CS Vacation rental concerns concerning unsatisfactory conditions to
https://help.vrbo.com/articles/What-can-I-do-if-the-property-is-not-as-described
Your concerns are best managed through reviews. You can also contact Vrbo customer service through Traveler Chat or “Contact Us”
The vacation rental inventory offered by Vrbo is quite vast and always changing which makes it impossible for Classic to personally vet individual properties. However, Vrbo awards their best properties with the “Premier Partner” designation.
When searching on ClassicVacations.com, you can filter your results to only see Premier Partners.
Unlike Classic’s Hotel or Package bookings, the Vrbo product is completely self-serve. We have over 150,000 vacation rental properties in inventory and can’t offer any suggestions or recommendations for your clients. The property details that you see on the website are the exact same details that we see – we don’t have any additional knowledge.
If you have questions about a specific property that aren’t covered on the website, you may want to ask the property owner using the “Message Owner” feature on Vrbo.com. Unfortunately, we don’t have the messaging feature at Classic, so you’ll need to find the property on Vrbo.com, login/create account using the SAME email address you use at ClassicVacations.com, and use the “Message Owner” feature found on the property page.
The easiest way to find a specific property on Vrbo is to do a Google search for the (name of the property + “Vrbo”). For example, “The Best of the Beach & Bay Vrbo”. Typically the first result on Google will take you directly to the correct property page.
Make sure to return to the Classic site to make the actual booking in order to get paid commission.
Once you’ve booked a Vacation Rental, you will receive contact information for the Property Owner through your Vrbo My Trips account. Please contact the Property Owner first for all questions, changes, and check-in instructions. For escalations, please contact [email protected] or for post-booking issues, check Vrbo Help. Classic Vacations’ Customer Service team will not be able to assist with Vacation Rental bookings.