Does Vrbo allow hosts to change the cost of a confirmed vacation rental after booking?

17.11.2023 - 14:47 / thepointsguy.com / Paris Olympics

A Vrbo host recently surprised TPG reader Diah Jones with a troubling ultimatum that felt a lot like a shakedown.

One year after confirming the price of Jones' three-week vacation rental in Paris for next summer's Olympics, the Vrbo host decided to change the rate. She told Jones that other hosts were charging thousands of dollars more for the same time frame. The previously agreed-upon price wasn't fair, the owner said, so she demanded that Jones pay an increased rate or stay elsewhere.

When Jones didn't immediately agree to the inflated cost of the small apartment, the host canceled the reservation. Without delay, she relisted the property on Vrbo at a new, much higher rate.

With Vrbo seemingly allowing the host to cancel her confirmed vacation rental and re-rent it at an inflated price, Jones hoped TPG could help. She wanted some answers from Vrbo and help finding a replacement property at a comparable price.

But with the 2024 Paris Olympics less than a year away, could that even be possible?

Last September, Jones and her husband decided to spend their 2024 summer vacation in Paris to see the Olympics. Instead of staying in a hotel, they liked the idea of immersing themselves in a quiet residential area of the city.

"We chose to book a vacation rental to have more space," Jones recalled. "At the time, since it was almost two years before the Olympics, the rates weren't outrageous."

The couple browsed the Vrbo site looking for a place and zeroed in on a one-bedroom apartment in St. Germain de Pres. Its central but quiet location in the city would be perfect for attending various Olympic events.

Jones wisely messaged the host through the Vrbo platform to ask a few questions about the property before booking. In that correspondence, which I have reviewed, she explained that the purpose of the visit to Paris was to attend the Summer Olympics.

In response, the Vrbo host offered Jones a 10% discount on the rate if she booked the property for 20 nights. Jones was sold on the apartment and quickly agreed to the rate of 3,800 euros ($4,300 at the time).

After paying the initial deposit, Jones received confirmation from the owner and a cordial message.

That was the last time Jones and her husband heard from the Vrbo host until 11 months later. When the host got back in touch, she wasn't so cordial. In fact, she had a downright unpleasant proposal.

The next time Jones heard from the Vrbo host was on Aug. 7, 2023. Now, the host claimed the rate on the contract for the vacation rental wasn't fair to her.

She wrote to Jones:

Jones says she read the message a few times, trying to make sense of it. The rate confirmed on her Vrbo contract was a rate the host had proposed nearly a year before. The dates of the