Vrbo reviews

3.6

65% would recommend to a friend

(732 total reviews)

Jeff Hurst

67% approve of CEO

46% positive business outlook

Vrbo has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 732 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Vrbo employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

732 reviews
5.0
Nov 25, 2015

great place to work

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

HomeAway technology stack has come a long way. One of the most appealing things about working here is the fact that you get to work with cutting edge technology. In addition, the engineering team are super smart, so working here is a great networking opportunity too.

Cons

Company is getting pretty big, and if you end up on the wrong team, you may find it that it is difficult for you to be impactful.

avatar
Vrbo Response
8y
Thank you for taking the time to leave a thoughtful review. We love a good tech stack as much as the next tech company and it’s great to hear you enjoy working on ours. Our Data Science and Engineering teams are so important to the success of HomeAway. You’re right though, we are growing rapidly. If someone finds themselves on a team that doesn’t quite feel right, we highly encourage internal movement and having a conversation with your manager.
5.0
Dec 29, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Always jumping on the latest tech, so opportunities to learn new things are frequent. Collaboration is great, few egos that I've encountered. Most people and managers are genuine and very open/approachable. Frequent parties and celebrations Free breakfast every Friday Free snacks + coffee Plenty of free leftovers floating around the office at lunchtime. Domain location is more vibrant than your typical office complex Can work from home easily and often

Cons

Sometimes is like drinking from a firehose bcs the tech adoption moves so fast I think different teams work in vastly different ways, so everyone's experience may not be like mine A little too much big company process creeping in as we adopt Expedia practices and policies Too much agile focus now (too many meetings)

1.0
May 4, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Engineering Managers have no backbone whatsoever and provide zero value-add function since the EXPE buyout. That is, they have no influence or power other than to approve vacation for direct reports. New EXPE Product forces are running the show now. So, what you get is Engineering Managers randomizing slack chats and starting fires to look busy. They stay greenlit at all hours of the day/night on slack, but yet provide zero business value unless you count asking unbelievably stupid questions in standup just to act like they are contributing. It's all a horrible painful political game. New world order EXPE product says jump and Engineering Managers say how high. Management who are at risk of being managed out are now firing direct reports for NON-work misconduct. I know because a colleague was recently fired for outlandish reasons. I'm writing this review because I want my colleagues' story to be known (and some of my own experience). My colleague, who worked in a different group put in for vacation (2-3 weeks) as time off to help her elderly father in poor health. My colleague's manager said that was fine and to report back with weekly updates. Two days later her manager asked if she wanted to take FMLA (family medical leave). She said that wouldn't be necessary. Two days after that she received a voice mail from her manager that Friday at 5 pm stating her position had been terminated due to unapproved time off. She said that after having 6-7 friendly email exchanges with her manager prior to the "you're fired" voice mail there was not one mention that her time off was unapproved. Her attorney said the reason they asked about FMLA is that employers can't fire you if you are on FMLA. She filed for unemployment and documented everything. Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) ruled in favor of my colleague, stating that the firing was improper. TWC wrote: "Our investigation found that your employer fired you for the reason that was NOT misconduct connected with the work." HomeAway fired her with no severance and terminated her benefits that same day. At least she was able to get unemployment. Do you really want to work for a company who treats their employees like this? Go work for Google, Facebook, Apple or for that matter anybody other than HomeAway/Expedia or whatever they are calling themselves these days VRBO.lol.

Cons

Too many to list here! Toxic work environment like others have noted, low pay, managers are two-faced poker players and have zero backbone when it comes to making decisions but are really good at throwing their own direct reports under the bus. Product and non-Engineering functions are running this company into the ground and people are leaving in droves, especially experienced A+ players who will not tolerate a toxic environment where you can't disagree about anything, less being looked at as an antagonist and trouble maker. Since the EXPE buyout, HomeAway is very draconian in process, childish in how they treat their senior/staff engineers, product has ego the size of TX, incompetent scrum masters who call themselves technical project people run scrum/agile from textbooks from the ’90s, and the politics and political correctness is like a cliquish high school. Don’t believe the positive canned reviews created by HomeAway HR Branding. The majority of the positive reviews are canned and similar in language and structure (i.e. “Great Place”, “Great Place to Work”, “Great Jon”, “Great tech + great culture”, Great for Families”, “Excellent place to work”, etc.). Seriously? These canned reviews are being propped by HomeAway HR Branding Content personnel because attrition is at an all-time high. If these (fake) HomeAway sponsored positive reviews weren’t in place the company would have a 2.0-star rating and John Kim a 39% approval rate.

avatar
Vrbo Response
7y
Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback. We were not able to locate a report or any information regarding the situation or circumstances you have described, but I invite you - as well as your former colleague—to contact me directly to talk about your concerns. Of course, we want to make Vrbo a great place to work for everyone, and we welcome the opportunity to discuss your ideas about how we can best achieve that goal, especially since you’ve had eight years of experience and gone through lots of changes with us. You can reach me on slack or via email: Melissa Bitner mbitner@homeaway.com. Alternatively, if you would feel more comfortable raising an issue or asking a question through the Expedia Group Ethics Helpline, you always have that option to do so anonymously. Thank you again for sharing your concerns.
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