VRBO wire fraud scam?? with rental company in Amsterdam

We have used VRBO and Airbnb in USA and Europe without any issues. Never have paid outside normal channels. Your gut is correct. Run away!

Wire transfer is a much more common practice within Europe than it is here.

I assume they want it wired, converted to euros or their local currency, because they don't want to pay CC fees. I had to pay for a rental property in France about 10 years ago, and they would not accept CC, but they would accept a PayPal transfer of cash from my bank, so I went with it, and it turned out OK. I wasn't comfortable with it, and I avoid those deals now because I only stay in hotels in Europe, I quit doing the "rental" via AirBnB or VRBO about 6 years ago.

I would be hesitant to wire that much money with no guarantee the place will actually be there or what condition it will be in. I booked an apartment in Budapest for this September and they requested the deposit, the equivalent of a one night stay be wired. I had previously booked from this agency in 2020 using PayPal to pay the deposit, but they no longer use it. Because of course we didn’t travel in 2020 they refunded the money. I wired the deposit and will pay the balance in cash when we arrive. I personally would look for another place to stay.

Wow our story is uncannily similar, except with a much worse ending.
Both parties (Grand.Stay BV and VRBO) are terrible.

We booked an apartment with Grand.Stay BV via VRBO in 2024.
They cancelled 24 hours before we arrived, due to a `water leak'.
They then sent a fake bank remittance, stating they had refunded our money, and to wait 10 days for it to be processed.
The money never arrived, and they abruptly ceased all communication. Also the telephone listed on the site also doesn't work.

I specifically rang VRBO before I booked, with very similar concerns to you, and they absolutely guaranteed the booking.

The customer support in VRBO is terrible. Your call will always be promptly answered. But all that the operator (who is based in another country) can do is to flag an internal database. The teams who make the decisions will typically take weeks to even process a request. And they give arbitrary and contradicting advice. Beware also that they will close your ticket if you do not reply within three days. They are always happy to fob us off to someone else, noone wants to deal with our case.

We are currently owed about 15k euros - counting what is owed to us by the owner from the original cancelled booking, and what is owed to us by VRBO. VRBO promised to make up the difference because it was very expensive to rebook 24 hours out. But so far not a cent has arrived, and its approaching two months from the cancellation.

If you pay outside of the booking engine for VRBO or Airbnb, etc.. you lose all protection. so when you get there and there’s no apartment no one has to do anything. They’re very clear about that.

Now honestly, I think expecting any of these companies to do much for you is optimistic at best, but it’s better than nothing

It is more common to pay by bank transfer in Europe, but like you I am wary of transferring large amounts of money because of the lack of consumer protection should anything go wrong. I would find somewhere else to stay.

When I have used this payment method it’s always been for places that are pretty cheap or I only have to pay a deposit upfront and I’m happy to take the risk.