After booking a vacation rental for Dec 25 - Jan 1, 2025, the property owner emailed us telling us that there would not be any preparation either on our arrival and on our departure.
He asked if we would change our reservation to Dec 24 - Jan 2, 2025 - and if we couldn't make that arrangement to please cancel and he would issue full refund.
Canceled reservation and received $88.88 - we paid $635.23 down payment.
VRBO gave us a Case Number. The agent said "Never cancel - Always wait for refund, then cancel."
I reserved a rental home and then cancelled it, the reason I cancelled was the home was not large enough, so I rented another home from them for the same date that I paid in full because I had to to hold the reservation. I was told I would receive a full refund in 10 business days for the original cancelled reservation. I did not, i contacted them again and was told they made a mistake and would receive a full refund in 10 more business days. IToday is May 1st and I was supposed to be refunded on March 24. To date I have spent 6 hours on the phone and sent 23 emails. I am still waiting for my 336.81 refund. Please help me
We were told the house we were renting for a large amount of money had air conditioning. It had one small portable air conditioner (that we couldn't move) in one bedroom of a 2800 sq ft house. I complained to the host within an hour and they only said, "sorry."
I complained to the company but because I had contacted the host, they didn't follow up. I asked for a partial refund and the host stopped responding to me. Then I get a 4 out of 5 review for communication, which is not true. I asked VRBO to remove it and they said they can't.
I have to ask the host, which is ridiculous since it is the host who is lying. The host basically gets no repercussions and we are out $3500 with no support from VRBO. Avoid this company!!
This place is a rip off and I feel as if is in on it this company cancelled my reservation on April 13th 1hr prior to check in and left me and my family stranded in said they were gonna refund my money and has yet to do.
I’ve contacted every week from April 18th for the last month and keep getting the same story of they promised to refund and now I can’t even get through on customer service line at all they also gave me a number to the supposed company that just rings Atlanta Georgia.
BUYER BEWARE. I have used VRBO for years. I actually use to recommend them to friends and family. Always had a good experience until recently as owners (and their accomplices at VRBO) take advantage of unsuspecting customers. They are greedy and taking advantage of the pandemic for profit. I booked a year in advance only to have my booking cancelled 40 days out from the booking dates.
This of course is just outside the Book with Confidence Guarantee which apparently is only 30 days. How am I supposed to know that this can happen???? Where is the warning? What ever happened to offer and acceptance. Simply contract law. I am travelling with 2 other families and the prices have increased for the same accommodation 400%.
Of course VRBO's fees go up too because they are % based. I am on about my 20th case number as VRBO's customer service is specifically designed NOT to support is customers, but instead exhaust them into submission. Hours of emails, phone calls, made up titles, FALSE perception of Escalation.
It feels like collusion. It feels like extortion. It feels like price gouging. It feels like exceedingly poor business practice. I will NEVER again book through VRBO. Do yourself a favour and follow my lead.
We booked a stay at an apartment in Washington, DC. It looked good on the ad, but didn't have a lot of reviews, which should have been a red flag. My friend and I got to the apartment and the host did not adhere to COVID protocol, and stayed in the apartment to tell us miscellaneous information for an hour. Once the host left, we looked through the apartment, and found it was in the middle of a renovation, and completely different than the advertised photos. The ceiling was unfinished in four places, the apartment was different than the ad, and the toilet didn't function properly.
My friend had trouble with a newly scratchy throat in the morning, and with the dust that appeared to be coming from the unfinished ceiling, we decided to cancel the rest of our stay for health reasons.
We were willing to pay for the first night in full, but assumed the rest of the stay would be refunded, considering it was a gross misrepresentation by the host. The first issue with working with VRBO was the wait time was excessive to reach a representative. By the time I talked with someone, the checkout time had passed, and the host said we were responsible for another night, even though we had said we wouldn't be staying another night prior to checkout time.
When I talked to someone from VRBO, they explained the refund should be negotiated between the host and the guest. This is problematic, since VRBO should be obligated to act as a mediator when one side of the guest-host agreement is in the wrong. But what makes it worse is that the guest has no recourse or negotiating standing in this agreement.
I talked to VRBO representatives every day for the next two weeks, explaining to them the misrepresentation, and providing supporting evidence. All representatives agreed the deception was unreasonable, yet said they had no ability to challenge or receive a refund unless the host agreed to it. Considering I had no leverage, it is predictable how this negotiation worked out - I got back about 1/5 of the total cost, when I had only stayed for one of the seven nights.
I did everything right to resolve this, and had clear documented evidence of all the disputes, including correspondence on the app chat service between the host and I where he admitted the place did not match the advertised photos, and was undergoing renovation. However, I still ended up on the hook for nearly the total cost. I do not plan to use VRBO again, and will recommend others avoid it as well, since VRBO has been unreasonable and offered no recourse.
We booked a vacation rental in Atlanta, GA for July 24, 2021 - July 27, 2021. The rental was booked on June 17th, 2021. After spending 9 hours driving to Atlanta we arrive only to find out the host had double booked our vacation rental. Someone was staying in the unit that we already paid for a month ahead of time. So now my family who has spent 9 hours cooped up in our car, now has no place to stay.
We contacted the host and all they could say is sorry and we can try and help find another place. Now mind you it is 6 pm in the evening there is no way we will find a place now. So we called VRBO and all they could say is sorry we will have to investigate what happened. Here we are basically nowhere to stay after spending 9 hours on the road. And they have to investigate? Finally, the representative said we will help you find a hotel for the night and cover the expenses. However, they couldn't find one that was pet friendly so they said to find a hotel, and VRBO will reimburse you for the night.
So we found a hotel and paid $600 for the night. The next day contact VRBO and they said to send over the receipts from the hotel. We sent over the receipts and a few days later they said sorry we can't reimburse you. What? Are you joking. My family had a reservation with your host and basically, we were on the street and this is how you treat a paying customer. So not only did you take no action to help us find a new place, but also refused to live up to your promise to reimburse us for our inconvenience.
This is totally unacceptable and VRBO needs to take responsibility for their host's mistake. We will never use VRBO again and advise anyone to not use them. To leave us stranded and then offer us reimbursement and then do not honor their word. They showed they do not care about their customers and we had used them for multiple vacations. We will be escalating this until we get our money back.
I have used VRBO over the past several years with moderate results. Unfortunately, my company and I are done using this company.
While heading out the door for an international trip I got a 'We are so sorry, but your home is not available' email. Keep in mind that the trip was booked confirmed weeks in advance. It was cancelled hours before our departure flight.
Over three hours of being tossed from one customer service rep to another, where absolutely no one could help. Disaster.
Message; VRBO has lost its customer services and it is very evident that their team is not trained. Total incompetency across all of their reps, sadly struggling to read a script to tell me they were sorry, but had NO idea what happened or how to fix. Guess there is no script for that.
Nice that you grew, VRBO, but when you methodically trash your customer's vacations you will be lucky to stay in business. Can you say, 'Motorola?'
Our fully paid reservation was cancelled by the Owner just a few days before our trip was to start. We had paid well ahead of time. Had WE cancelled we would have lost our entire rental fee.
Neither the Owner nor VRBO, however, suffered any consequences.
They sent a number to call, we are from Canada and were not aware that the number they sent us was in Austin Texas. I waited close to an hour on my cellphone which does not have USA service and resulted in a very high phone bill. VRBO sent us email links to possible rentals, the properties were all more expensive than our original rental.
We finally paid more for our new rental and were in no way compensated by VRBO or the host for the cancellation or the higher costs incurred. I have been reading VRBO reviews and was surprised to see that my experience is not unusual. I would not recommend this company.
I recently stayed at 100 Collins Ave , Miami better known as The Mercury Hotel.
I really trusted this to be a professionally run vacation. The agent Lucinda Jones seemed kind enough however once it came time to get my refund back a lot of not smart and unprofessional thinking began. ( Alot of passing the Buck to VRBO began. I understand VRBO is the middle man but the owner and owners agent should bear the responsibility of making sure customers get their money back properly.) Not sure who to blame, maybe her , maybe the owner , maybe Vrbo but what I do know is instead of doing the sensible, rational thing and refunding back the last card used the refunded back a card that Is a closed out account.
I know many of you can relate to the fact that we are in the midst of a Pandemic. I do not have money to throw away. I only even followed through on the Miami trip to not lose the money that could not be refunded. I was relying on the $300 for myself and my children and of that $300 I received $113 to the correct card while the rest went to a now defunct account. They are all passing the buck instead of helping rectify the situation. I run 3 businesses and I know that I would have obviously used the last card used versus one used months ago during a pandemic , where people are losing everything they have including bank accounts.
While the condo units were nice , although a little dated and with some broken items... I was willing to repeat again. But now .. NEVER.. Do not trust them with your Damage deposit unless you can afford to lose it forever. If this were my business , and this kind of error was made, and it is an error because the last card used should be where the refund goes, I would pay it myself to ensure that my customer was happy... Worst ever... Char.
Rented the property because it had a hot tub. Hot tub broke and the apartment had a bad odor. rented for 4 days 1,337.00 stayed 12 hours called the owners they were unresponsive and did not return my calls. Offered to pay $437 for 12 hours they took the total amount. Tried to get them to do the right thing and they stole my money! Don't rent from these people they are not honest!
We (Six total family members) rented Mike Palmer’s (p 305-793-6914 email [email protected]) Sandy Bottom house located at 1351 Tahiti Drive, Sanibel Island, Florida 33957, from Tuesday, June 16th, through Sunday, June 21. During our stay we encountered a number of issues with the property.
On the first night 6/16, we drove our vehicle to the beach and parked in the designated Trade Winds parking lot with the parking pass hanging in the rear view mirror as indicated on the pass. Upon returning to our vehicle, a note was placed on our windshield stating that our vehicle information had been recorded, and we would be towed if we parked there again. I contacted owner Mike Palmer, who was responsive to our issue. He called the board members of the association to relay what happened.
Some other issues with the property included…
ii. dirty utensils (Mr. Palmer said that was unacceptable, and he would work with the cleaning person)
iii. flies in the curtains of the master bedroom.
iv. cable did not work in the master bedroom and the family room. It did work in the second master bedroom and kids’ bedroom. Mr. Palmer stated in an email that he would follow up with Comcast, but we did not have cable on those t.v.s during our staff. I mentioned this in an email and again when I spoke to Mr. Palmer on the phone.
v. shower curtain in the master bathroom was moldy. Mr. Palmer ordered a new shower curtain via Amazon that I put up on Friday, June 19th after it arrived.
vi. Mold was also in the master bathroom.
vii. the children’s bikes were rusted and did not work. My ten-year-old could not turn the bike because it was rusted, and when I tried to adjust the seat it would not move because of the rust. Mr. Palmer said in the email that there was lubricant in the garage, to which I emailed him that I had already used the lubricant. I once again addressed this with Mike when he called me on Sunday, June 21. Mr. Palmer described the bikes as being in “tip top shape” and “ready for touring”. I told Mr. Palmer about this verbiage, to which he said, “I’ll work on that.” My kids were disappointed that they could not use the bikes.
viii. When Mr. Palmer emailed us our confirmation on May 27th, he sent an attachment stating that we could purchase a membership at the Sanibel Recreation Center, but when we arrived, the center told us that the vast majority of items on the sheet were not available because of Covid 19. In fact, they were closed when Mr. Palmer emailed us.
ix. The two bigger lawn chairs that we took to the beach were broken. Probably rusted from the saltwater. Mr. Palmer offered to reimburse us if we purchased replacement chairs, but I told him that there were other chairs in the garage that we could use.
X. When my wife hung her bathing suit on one of the chairs, the rust stained the suit (see pictures).
Xi. In the kitchen, I noticed a puddle coming from the garbage can. Upon further inspection, I realized that the bottom of the garbage can was cracked, causing the leak. The top of the garbage can was also cracked. I informed Mr. Palmer of this during our conversation on 6/21, to which he said, “It’s an old garbage can. I’ll replace it.”
Xii. On Friday, June 19th, Traci Bookler noticed bugs on the ceiling in the second master bedroom. There were about 10 bugs that I killed. We only took a picture after the fact, but we suspect that the bugs might be termites. I informed Mr. Palmer about this during a conversation on the phone.
I emphasized with Mr. Palmer being a property owner as I have managed property for family members.
During our stay Person 1, Person 2, Person 3 and Person 4 developed severe itching, but we first attributed it to being bit by bugs outside. On Monday, June 22, and Tuesday, June 23, the itching continued and the welts did not go away, so Person 1 and Person 2 sought medical attention and were diagnosed with bed bugs. They were injected with a steroid shot and prescribed three different medications. Person 3 was also diagnosed by a doctor with bed bugs and prescribed medicine. Our dog also had to go to a vet to get medicine.
We are asking for a full refund for our stay as well as any medical expenses incurred as a result of the bed bugs from staying at Mike Palmer’s Sandy Bottom. VRBO has been unresponsive to our complaint, including receiving an email asking us for pictures and documentation when we had previously sent that information to them. A representative at VRBO told us that others who had stayed at the same location also had bed bugs. Why didn’t VRBO remove the listing from their site?
All of the above has been completed to the best of our knowledge.
Warning-Rental owner Molly Beane - Hapuna Beach Big Island Hawaii treated our family extremely poorly. 2018 Kona volcanic eruption-due to natural disaster and family medical health issues, we formally requested in writing a refund but were denied. As well as subsequent attempt to coordinate and alternative stay period. Owner Beane initially agreed to be accommodating due to medical health issues but unilaterally withdrew documented commitment.
As a family, we feel we have been defrauded by this rental/VRBO, who took advantage of documented natural disaster. Worse part, we never stayed one day and this rental took entire rental fee as well as 100% refundable security deposit (approximately $5K)
VRBO initially informed they would assist as we were justified with natural disaster, but all they did was provide run around with no resolution…
I made two bookings through VRBO and VRBO added another one for the same location and dates that I had booked. The booking was not listed under my reservations either. I did not know to look for a third reservation so I filled out all the paperwork I was given. I though the extra money was a refundable security deposit and didn't find out until after when the deposit wasn't returned that a third booking had been made.
The rental property, Turnkey Rentals, did not care that a mistake had been made because they had their contracts filled out. VRBO did not have my money and would not communicate its mistake to Turnkey. I am out a lot of money and feel cheated and humiliated.
Be warned! Homeowners can cancel at any time, including on the day of check in! The only thing VRBO will do is refund your money and try to find you another place if one is available. This company does nothing to protect its customes and give no guarantees.
They are nearly impossible to get in contact with and offer little or no assistance. Do not use them! Your rental is not guaranteed!
VRBO and Property Owner Jill Stanley Tybee Island Georgia This company and this property owner are dishonesty and the VRBO system is pure rip off. The property owner Jill Stanley is also a dishonest person. I would advise anyone to look elsewhere to rent in Tybee Island. I was ripped off of 100's of dollars by this scam team of VRBO and Jill Stanley. VRBO is not Americans. I don't know what country this VRBO operates in but they are for sure able to get around American law and ethics. And people like Jill Stanley profit- something for nothing is what they are after. Be careful when dealing with VRBO and Jill Stanley of the Tybee Island rental. Rent from someone else. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. This is a scam. American laws do not apply to VRBO and they can and will do whatever they want with your credit card ... your description ... Tybee Island GA
I tried to book vrbo several times over the holidays and none of the listings where as advertised. Stay away from the listings that don’t use calendars but instead write in bold text "we have other listings”. There seemed to be no legit listings for the Disney area. These are nothing but upcharge schemes. Significant upcharges. I contacted vrbo on this and they where just as dishonest in there response. Pretending to be surprised wanting specific listing numbers. They responded a month later, there were so many scams I wouldn’t of thought they needed specifics. Like reporting a hurd of livestock has escaped, did you get a branded number of one of them? No! All you need to do VRBO is take one look and you can’t miss them. They don’t care because those are VRBO paying customers. The consumer gets the raw deal with fake listings left and right.
Never ever purchase the so called "Cancellation Insurance" from VRBO. They will not pay out. VRBO promotes it as a simple button to add when you book. When you contact the lodging owner for a refund due to cancellation, they say to contact VRBO. When you contact VRBO, they say it is a third party provider with no affiliation to VRBO.
We were biking the Oregon coast for a couple of days. I prebooked out lodging along the way. I purchased the cancellation insurance because I did not know if we would make it that far. Unfortunately, one of our riders developed a saddle sour that was so bad, he could not continue. We did not make it to the VRBO lodging.
Ultimately, the insurance is provided by a third party carrier, CSA. In the super, fine print, they say that you can cancel due to a physical problem. However, you must have a doctors report. I am certain there are many, many physical ailments that would preclude someone from advancing on a journey that they could easily self diagnose with out visiting a doctor - high fever, vomiting, diarrea, sprained ankle, abrasions, you get the point. On top of being a dibilitating problem that was easy to self diagnose, it was on a Sunday afternoon in a rural area.
Obviously the insurance is designed to not pay out claims. I lost. In my opinion it is a fraudulent scheme.
We rented to one of VRBO's members that did damage to our property. A deposit that was set aside by the renter was applied to pay for the damage. The renter denied wrong doing without any proof. We had pictures, text's from the duration of the stay, and bills from porfessionals who did the clean up. Yet we were forced to return the funds and pay for the damage ourself.
The damage was real and the renter actually agreed to pay for some of it. Yet VRBO still pulled money out of our bank that was paid from her deposit, to give back to this person and then charged us 110.00 is service fees. We have since changed to and have listed our property with airbnb.com and hope for better support. We have a 5 star record both before and after this happened. Nothing but the best reviews. We had proof of the damage and reciepts. Yet they turned their backs on us. We suspect something fishy but it's not worth persuing. The damage was just under 500.00 so hardly worth fighting in court.
If you have a property listed with VRBO don't be mislead by thinking that the damage deposit will help you. It won't. Don't be misled that VRBO will stand behind you and help you with these types of issues and disputes. They will cave and take the easy route. They have no spine or since of fairness.
Travelers BEWARE! Homeaway BOOK IT NOW system is a rip off! Go to Flipkey to rent the dwelling without the padded Homeaway 6-10% service fee.
When you use VRBO, Homeaway, Vacationrentals.com, Homehildays.com, OwnersDirect.com, Toprural.com, Stayz.com, Travelmob.com, and all the other names under the Homeaway site, you are being charged a 6-10% SERVICE FEE that is not going to the owner, not for anything except helping Expedia stock.
The owners are being strong armed into allowing the new BOOK IT NOW system, with the threat of ad placement at the bottom of the list if they don't allow BOOK IT NOW. If the owner says "book thru me" Homeaway takes their ad offline.
Also, the homeowner owner is being charged higher merchant service fees by Homeaway.
The emails you receive that you think are from the owner, come form Homeaway with the owners name on them (talk about fraud?).
You are not allowed to have the owners phone number until after you privide a credit card!
Homeaway does nothing to guarantee that the home you are booking is actually owned by the person using book it now. So you can still be scammed after you pay the SERVICE FEE.
Always email owners directly.
Use Flipkey or VACATIONHOMERENTALS.COM they have no service fees.
I booked a rental on VRBO for "the barn" in Cottonwood, AZ. In the profile for the rental, the OWNER's cancelation police stated, "100% refund for cancellation more than 60 days before check-in date." I booked the rental Aug 1, immediately had issues with the owner, so I canceled Aug 4 for a planned October 15th stay, which was more than 60 days. The owner only refunded $158.00 out of the $374.00 deposit because she claimed that her own policy superceeds the one posted on the VRBO ad--which was only provided to me AFTER the booking, which I booked based on the advertised policy. We emailed back and forth about the policy and she still refuses to give the refund. This is false advertising and completely dishonest--to me it is theft. But the reason why I am making this report about VRBO is because of the way the case was handled.
I called VRBO to make a complaint and all three people that I spoke to agreed with me that she needed to give a full refund based on what they were seeing on her profile. The only way to see the rental agreement in which she has her own cancellation policy is to book the rental--so there is no way to know about it or agree to it. They said she would be contacted, etc, and after a week the owner was still refusing to give a refund, and she had not even changed the wording of the cancelation policy to accurately inform renters of the policy prior to booking. When I emailed the owner about this, she forwarded me her emails back and forth from VRBO, and here are some exerpts from these emails:
This whole experience was the absolute worst! TL;DR, owner was out of the country, the house was abandoned, I spent 6 hours getting passed around VRBO and their horrible customer service line.
This was my first time renting through VRBO and definitely my last!! I booked three days at this property a month in advance. My payment went through immediately and I figured I wouldn't get details until closer to checkin. When it was 5:30pm and checkin was supposed to be 4p I started getting really worried. I booked this rental property for a business retreat my company was hosting. We had 2 out of state consultants coming to stay and we needed the extra rooms on site for work sessions/work space.
I called VRBO and all they could do was give me the owner's number.
The owner did not answer any of my multiple calls and messages. VRBO then had the bright idea to ask me to drive by the property to check it out. I was so desperate to make this retreat happen that I figured what could happen with just driving by since my office was only a mile away.
The property had no lights on at all and no cars in the driveway. Apparently, the owner Vicki N. was in Thailand! The VRBO rep was able to get a hold of the old property manager who gave me the lockbox key. VRBO rep told me to go inside the house and I found out there was no electricity and no running water. I left as soon as I could but then noticed a car arriving in the driveway. The VRBO rep then told me to go see who it was!!
I am a young female by myself in a strange area and this VRBO rep could have gotten me killed! I go back to my car ASAP and the strange guy gets out of his car and walks towards me. Turns out he is Vicki's brother. He didn't know anyone had rented for the week. (Then why the hell was he there in a house with no elec/water?) He gets me in touch with Vicki's fiancé Blake who also didn't know there was a renter. Blake says he will try to get elec/water on in the morning. I text him in the morning and its almost 2 hours before I get a response. I tell him to get me my refund ASAP.
After this whole 3 hour process that night, I still had another 3 hour call with VRBO on and off hold to get alternate accommodations booked. They couldn't get me a new rental but was able to book 2 hotel rooms. I also had to cancel the charge on my credit card because they have a terrible refund policy. Take my experience and DO NOT BOOK THIS LISTING.
The reason for my review is to file a complaint about VRBO. We have used the company for 5 years now with 5 of our properties. We upgraded one of the properties to the next level subscription and paid $449 for the year of service. 7 months prior to that we paid the $340 for another subscription for Vacation Rentals.com (another sister site of theirs). We have just sold this rental property now a month after signing up for the year and they will not refund us one dime. The will not even transfer any credit to any of the other properties that we still have with them.
I have spoken to 3 people, including a manager and all of which told me that there is no way they could give me the amount of unused funds even as a credit. Terrible customer service.
VRBO refusing to publish our complaint because we did not stay at the property, but we couldn't since they double booked!
In early May 2015, when we first contacted Abbey Lane Cottages through VRBO, we inquired about two accommodations, The Captain's Quarters and Cozy Cottage. After consideration and numerous emails with the manager, we booked the Cozy Cottage. We sent our $300.00 deposit and signed a very detailed contract. We received the formal rental confirmation VRBO 701911 on May 27th 2015 for Thursday August 27th to Sunday August 30th.
When we arrived in Picton on August 27th, Abbey Lane's manager told us the Cozy Cottage was not available. Later, he made a passing reference to the fact that we were only renting for 3 nights. He also said he felt entitled to switch us to the Captain's Quarters because of our initial inquiry. When we objected, the manager reacted with disrespect and belligerence. In a underhanded attempt to mollify us, he displayed his handicap and listed his numerous ailments. It was with reluctance that he showed us the Captain's Quarters, and it was clear we were imposing. The situation was extremely uncomfortable, and the Captain's Quarters did not meet with our expectations.
We took the refund of our deposit and went to the local Chamber of Commerce for redress. Their representatives told us Abbey Lane Cottages were no longer members of their organization because too many complaints had been lodged against them. These Chamber representatives were very courteous and kind enough to help us find suitable accommodations on a very busy weekend.
We rented this cottage for 5 nights in August. My husband and I chose the downstairs sleeping area so we could have some space and privacy to work. This area, to our dismay, turned out to be very cold and wet. The air was heavy and everything down there felt damp. I couldn’t work down there during the day, but at night there was no choice, we had to sleep where the beds were. In the mornings my leather sandals felt as if I’d walked through water the day before and they hadn’t dried out. I pulled back the area rug in the center of the main downstairs room and there was actually standing water beaded up under the rug, which was itself wet. It was horrible.
The downstairs was also dark, the windows overhung by deck and sunporch, and there was very little in the way of lighting with just a lamp here and there. There were other less serious but irritating problems with this rental:
No bottle opener, no cork screw, no remote for the DVD, kitchen poorly stocked in general with very cheap tools (can opener fell apart in my hands), poor lighting throughout, no laundry facilities or even a clothesline (remember, this is on a lake), burned out lightbulbs with no spares, etc.
I tried calling the owner a couple times to get help with some of these issues but she never returned my calls. I have been trying to contact her through VRBO ever since to negotiate a partial refund on the grounds of uncomfortable and unhealthy downstairs accommodations but she completely ignores my emails.
I contacted VRBO to see if they could help and all they said was to work it out with the owner.
Since VRBO does not publish negative reviews the renter has absolutely no clout in these transactions. Once the owner has your money, too bad. You are dependent on their sense of justice, and Ms. Trudell of Swan Lake Cottage apparently has none.
VRBO Reviews
After booking a vacation rental for Dec 25 - Jan 1, 2025, the property owner emailed us telling us that there would not be any preparation either on our arrival and on our departure.
He asked if we would change our reservation to Dec 24 - Jan 2, 2025 - and if we couldn't make that arrangement to please cancel and he would issue full refund.
Canceled reservation and received $88.88 - we paid $635.23 down payment.
VRBO gave us a Case Number. The agent said "Never cancel - Always wait for refund, then cancel."
Had no idea it worked this way.
Beware!
I will never go through VRBO again.
If we get a refund, I will amend this report,
I reserved a rental home and then cancelled it, the reason I cancelled was the home was not large enough, so I rented another home from them for the same date that I paid in full because I had to to hold the reservation. I was told I would receive a full refund in 10 business days for the original cancelled reservation. I did not, i contacted them again and was told they made a mistake and would receive a full refund in 10 more business days. IToday is May 1st and I was supposed to be refunded on March 24. To date I have spent 6 hours on the phone and sent 23 emails. I am still waiting for my 336.81 refund. Please help me
We were told the house we were renting for a large amount of money had air conditioning. It had one small portable air conditioner (that we couldn't move) in one bedroom of a 2800 sq ft house. I complained to the host within an hour and they only said, "sorry."
I complained to the company but because I had contacted the host, they didn't follow up. I asked for a partial refund and the host stopped responding to me. Then I get a 4 out of 5 review for communication, which is not true. I asked VRBO to remove it and they said they can't.
I have to ask the host, which is ridiculous since it is the host who is lying. The host basically gets no repercussions and we are out $3500 with no support from VRBO. Avoid this company!!
This place is a rip off and I feel as if is in on it this company cancelled my reservation on April 13th 1hr prior to check in and left me and my family stranded in said they were gonna refund my money and has yet to do.
I’ve contacted every week from April 18th for the last month and keep getting the same story of they promised to refund and now I can’t even get through on customer service line at all they also gave me a number to the supposed company that just rings Atlanta Georgia.
BUYER BEWARE. I have used VRBO for years. I actually use to recommend them to friends and family. Always had a good experience until recently as owners (and their accomplices at VRBO) take advantage of unsuspecting customers. They are greedy and taking advantage of the pandemic for profit. I booked a year in advance only to have my booking cancelled 40 days out from the booking dates.
This of course is just outside the Book with Confidence Guarantee which apparently is only 30 days. How am I supposed to know that this can happen???? Where is the warning? What ever happened to offer and acceptance. Simply contract law. I am travelling with 2 other families and the prices have increased for the same accommodation 400%.
Of course VRBO's fees go up too because they are % based. I am on about my 20th case number as VRBO's customer service is specifically designed NOT to support is customers, but instead exhaust them into submission. Hours of emails, phone calls, made up titles, FALSE perception of Escalation.
It feels like collusion. It feels like extortion. It feels like price gouging. It feels like exceedingly poor business practice. I will NEVER again book through VRBO. Do yourself a favour and follow my lead.
We booked a stay at an apartment in Washington, DC. It looked good on the ad, but didn't have a lot of reviews, which should have been a red flag. My friend and I got to the apartment and the host did not adhere to COVID protocol, and stayed in the apartment to tell us miscellaneous information for an hour. Once the host left, we looked through the apartment, and found it was in the middle of a renovation, and completely different than the advertised photos. The ceiling was unfinished in four places, the apartment was different than the ad, and the toilet didn't function properly.
My friend had trouble with a newly scratchy throat in the morning, and with the dust that appeared to be coming from the unfinished ceiling, we decided to cancel the rest of our stay for health reasons.
We were willing to pay for the first night in full, but assumed the rest of the stay would be refunded, considering it was a gross misrepresentation by the host. The first issue with working with VRBO was the wait time was excessive to reach a representative. By the time I talked with someone, the checkout time had passed, and the host said we were responsible for another night, even though we had said we wouldn't be staying another night prior to checkout time.
When I talked to someone from VRBO, they explained the refund should be negotiated between the host and the guest. This is problematic, since VRBO should be obligated to act as a mediator when one side of the guest-host agreement is in the wrong. But what makes it worse is that the guest has no recourse or negotiating standing in this agreement.
I talked to VRBO representatives every day for the next two weeks, explaining to them the misrepresentation, and providing supporting evidence. All representatives agreed the deception was unreasonable, yet said they had no ability to challenge or receive a refund unless the host agreed to it. Considering I had no leverage, it is predictable how this negotiation worked out - I got back about 1/5 of the total cost, when I had only stayed for one of the seven nights.
I did everything right to resolve this, and had clear documented evidence of all the disputes, including correspondence on the app chat service between the host and I where he admitted the place did not match the advertised photos, and was undergoing renovation. However, I still ended up on the hook for nearly the total cost. I do not plan to use VRBO again, and will recommend others avoid it as well, since VRBO has been unreasonable and offered no recourse.
We booked a vacation rental in Atlanta, GA for July 24, 2021 - July 27, 2021. The rental was booked on June 17th, 2021. After spending 9 hours driving to Atlanta we arrive only to find out the host had double booked our vacation rental. Someone was staying in the unit that we already paid for a month ahead of time. So now my family who has spent 9 hours cooped up in our car, now has no place to stay.
We contacted the host and all they could say is sorry and we can try and help find another place. Now mind you it is 6 pm in the evening there is no way we will find a place now. So we called VRBO and all they could say is sorry we will have to investigate what happened. Here we are basically nowhere to stay after spending 9 hours on the road. And they have to investigate? Finally, the representative said we will help you find a hotel for the night and cover the expenses. However, they couldn't find one that was pet friendly so they said to find a hotel, and VRBO will reimburse you for the night.
So we found a hotel and paid $600 for the night. The next day contact VRBO and they said to send over the receipts from the hotel. We sent over the receipts and a few days later they said sorry we can't reimburse you. What? Are you joking. My family had a reservation with your host and basically, we were on the street and this is how you treat a paying customer. So not only did you take no action to help us find a new place, but also refused to live up to your promise to reimburse us for our inconvenience.
This is totally unacceptable and VRBO needs to take responsibility for their host's mistake. We will never use VRBO again and advise anyone to not use them. To leave us stranded and then offer us reimbursement and then do not honor their word. They showed they do not care about their customers and we had used them for multiple vacations. We will be escalating this until we get our money back.
I have used VRBO over the past several years with moderate results. Unfortunately, my company and I are done using this company.
While heading out the door for an international trip I got a 'We are so sorry, but your home is not available' email. Keep in mind that the trip was booked confirmed weeks in advance. It was cancelled hours before our departure flight.
Over three hours of being tossed from one customer service rep to another, where absolutely no one could help. Disaster.
Message; VRBO has lost its customer services and it is very evident that their team is not trained. Total incompetency across all of their reps, sadly struggling to read a script to tell me they were sorry, but had NO idea what happened or how to fix. Guess there is no script for that.
Nice that you grew, VRBO, but when you methodically trash your customer's vacations you will be lucky to stay in business. Can you say, 'Motorola?'
Our fully paid reservation was cancelled by the Owner just a few days before our trip was to start. We had paid well ahead of time. Had WE cancelled we would have lost our entire rental fee.
Neither the Owner nor VRBO, however, suffered any consequences.
They sent a number to call, we are from Canada and were not aware that the number they sent us was in Austin Texas. I waited close to an hour on my cellphone which does not have USA service and resulted in a very high phone bill. VRBO sent us email links to possible rentals, the properties were all more expensive than our original rental.
We finally paid more for our new rental and were in no way compensated by VRBO or the host for the cancellation or the higher costs incurred. I have been reading VRBO reviews and was surprised to see that my experience is not unusual. I would not recommend this company.
I recently stayed at 100 Collins Ave , Miami better known as The Mercury Hotel.
I really trusted this to be a professionally run vacation. The agent Lucinda Jones seemed kind enough however once it came time to get my refund back a lot of not smart and unprofessional thinking began. ( Alot of passing the Buck to VRBO began. I understand VRBO is the middle man but the owner and owners agent should bear the responsibility of making sure customers get their money back properly.) Not sure who to blame, maybe her , maybe the owner , maybe Vrbo but what I do know is instead of doing the sensible, rational thing and refunding back the last card used the refunded back a card that Is a closed out account.
I know many of you can relate to the fact that we are in the midst of a Pandemic. I do not have money to throw away. I only even followed through on the Miami trip to not lose the money that could not be refunded. I was relying on the $300 for myself and my children and of that $300 I received $113 to the correct card while the rest went to a now defunct account. They are all passing the buck instead of helping rectify the situation. I run 3 businesses and I know that I would have obviously used the last card used versus one used months ago during a pandemic , where people are losing everything they have including bank accounts.
While the condo units were nice , although a little dated and with some broken items... I was willing to repeat again. But now .. NEVER.. Do not trust them with your Damage deposit unless you can afford to lose it forever. If this were my business , and this kind of error was made, and it is an error because the last card used should be where the refund goes, I would pay it myself to ensure that my customer was happy... Worst ever... Char.
Rented the property because it had a hot tub. Hot tub broke and the apartment had a bad odor. rented for 4 days 1,337.00 stayed 12 hours called the owners they were unresponsive and did not return my calls. Offered to pay $437 for 12 hours they took the total amount. Tried to get them to do the right thing and they stole my money! Don't rent from these people they are not honest!
We (Six total family members) rented Mike Palmer’s (p 305-793-6914 email [email protected]) Sandy Bottom house located at 1351 Tahiti Drive, Sanibel Island, Florida 33957, from Tuesday, June 16th, through Sunday, June 21. During our stay we encountered a number of issues with the property.
On the first night 6/16, we drove our vehicle to the beach and parked in the designated Trade Winds parking lot with the parking pass hanging in the rear view mirror as indicated on the pass. Upon returning to our vehicle, a note was placed on our windshield stating that our vehicle information had been recorded, and we would be towed if we parked there again. I contacted owner Mike Palmer, who was responsive to our issue. He called the board members of the association to relay what happened.
Some other issues with the property included…
ii. dirty utensils (Mr. Palmer said that was unacceptable, and he would work with the cleaning person)
iii. flies in the curtains of the master bedroom.
iv. cable did not work in the master bedroom and the family room. It did work in the second master bedroom and kids’ bedroom. Mr. Palmer stated in an email that he would follow up with Comcast, but we did not have cable on those t.v.s during our staff. I mentioned this in an email and again when I spoke to Mr. Palmer on the phone.
v. shower curtain in the master bathroom was moldy. Mr. Palmer ordered a new shower curtain via Amazon that I put up on Friday, June 19th after it arrived.
vi. Mold was also in the master bathroom.
vii. the children’s bikes were rusted and did not work. My ten-year-old could not turn the bike because it was rusted, and when I tried to adjust the seat it would not move because of the rust. Mr. Palmer said in the email that there was lubricant in the garage, to which I emailed him that I had already used the lubricant. I once again addressed this with Mike when he called me on Sunday, June 21. Mr. Palmer described the bikes as being in “tip top shape” and “ready for touring”. I told Mr. Palmer about this verbiage, to which he said, “I’ll work on that.” My kids were disappointed that they could not use the bikes.
viii. When Mr. Palmer emailed us our confirmation on May 27th, he sent an attachment stating that we could purchase a membership at the Sanibel Recreation Center, but when we arrived, the center told us that the vast majority of items on the sheet were not available because of Covid 19. In fact, they were closed when Mr. Palmer emailed us.
ix. The two bigger lawn chairs that we took to the beach were broken. Probably rusted from the saltwater. Mr. Palmer offered to reimburse us if we purchased replacement chairs, but I told him that there were other chairs in the garage that we could use.
X. When my wife hung her bathing suit on one of the chairs, the rust stained the suit (see pictures).
Xi. In the kitchen, I noticed a puddle coming from the garbage can. Upon further inspection, I realized that the bottom of the garbage can was cracked, causing the leak. The top of the garbage can was also cracked. I informed Mr. Palmer of this during our conversation on 6/21, to which he said, “It’s an old garbage can. I’ll replace it.”
Xii. On Friday, June 19th, Traci Bookler noticed bugs on the ceiling in the second master bedroom. There were about 10 bugs that I killed. We only took a picture after the fact, but we suspect that the bugs might be termites. I informed Mr. Palmer about this during a conversation on the phone.
I emphasized with Mr. Palmer being a property owner as I have managed property for family members.
During our stay Person 1, Person 2, Person 3 and Person 4 developed severe itching, but we first attributed it to being bit by bugs outside. On Monday, June 22, and Tuesday, June 23, the itching continued and the welts did not go away, so Person 1 and Person 2 sought medical attention and were diagnosed with bed bugs. They were injected with a steroid shot and prescribed three different medications. Person 3 was also diagnosed by a doctor with bed bugs and prescribed medicine. Our dog also had to go to a vet to get medicine.
We are asking for a full refund for our stay as well as any medical expenses incurred as a result of the bed bugs from staying at Mike Palmer’s Sandy Bottom. VRBO has been unresponsive to our complaint, including receiving an email asking us for pictures and documentation when we had previously sent that information to them. A representative at VRBO told us that others who had stayed at the same location also had bed bugs. Why didn’t VRBO remove the listing from their site?
All of the above has been completed to the best of our knowledge.
Best regards,
Warning-Rental owner Molly Beane - Hapuna Beach Big Island Hawaii treated our family extremely poorly. 2018 Kona volcanic eruption-due to natural disaster and family medical health issues, we formally requested in writing a refund but were denied. As well as subsequent attempt to coordinate and alternative stay period. Owner Beane initially agreed to be accommodating due to medical health issues but unilaterally withdrew documented commitment.
As a family, we feel we have been defrauded by this rental/VRBO, who took advantage of documented natural disaster. Worse part, we never stayed one day and this rental took entire rental fee as well as 100% refundable security deposit (approximately $5K)
VRBO initially informed they would assist as we were justified with natural disaster, but all they did was provide run around with no resolution…
Beware! Beware! Beware!!!
I made two bookings through VRBO and VRBO added another one for the same location and dates that I had booked. The booking was not listed under my reservations either. I did not know to look for a third reservation so I filled out all the paperwork I was given. I though the extra money was a refundable security deposit and didn't find out until after when the deposit wasn't returned that a third booking had been made.
The rental property, Turnkey Rentals, did not care that a mistake had been made because they had their contracts filled out. VRBO did not have my money and would not communicate its mistake to Turnkey. I am out a lot of money and feel cheated and humiliated.
Be warned! Homeowners can cancel at any time, including on the day of check in! The only thing VRBO will do is refund your money and try to find you another place if one is available. This company does nothing to protect its customes and give no guarantees.
They are nearly impossible to get in contact with and offer little or no assistance. Do not use them! Your rental is not guaranteed!
VRBO and Property Owner Jill Stanley Tybee Island Georgia This company and this property owner are dishonesty and the VRBO system is pure rip off. The property owner Jill Stanley is also a dishonest person. I would advise anyone to look elsewhere to rent in Tybee Island. I was ripped off of 100's of dollars by this scam team of VRBO and Jill Stanley. VRBO is not Americans. I don't know what country this VRBO operates in but they are for sure able to get around American law and ethics. And people like Jill Stanley profit- something for nothing is what they are after. Be careful when dealing with VRBO and Jill Stanley of the Tybee Island rental. Rent from someone else. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. This is a scam. American laws do not apply to VRBO and they can and will do whatever they want with your credit card ... your description ... Tybee Island GA
I tried to book vrbo several times over the holidays and none of the listings where as advertised. Stay away from the listings that don’t use calendars but instead write in bold text "we have other listings”. There seemed to be no legit listings for the Disney area. These are nothing but upcharge schemes. Significant upcharges. I contacted vrbo on this and they where just as dishonest in there response. Pretending to be surprised wanting specific listing numbers. They responded a month later, there were so many scams I wouldn’t of thought they needed specifics. Like reporting a hurd of livestock has escaped, did you get a branded number of one of them? No! All you need to do VRBO is take one look and you can’t miss them. They don’t care because those are VRBO paying customers. The consumer gets the raw deal with fake listings left and right.
Never ever purchase the so called "Cancellation Insurance" from VRBO. They will not pay out. VRBO promotes it as a simple button to add when you book. When you contact the lodging owner for a refund due to cancellation, they say to contact VRBO. When you contact VRBO, they say it is a third party provider with no affiliation to VRBO.
We were biking the Oregon coast for a couple of days. I prebooked out lodging along the way. I purchased the cancellation insurance because I did not know if we would make it that far. Unfortunately, one of our riders developed a saddle sour that was so bad, he could not continue. We did not make it to the VRBO lodging.
Ultimately, the insurance is provided by a third party carrier, CSA. In the super, fine print, they say that you can cancel due to a physical problem. However, you must have a doctors report. I am certain there are many, many physical ailments that would preclude someone from advancing on a journey that they could easily self diagnose with out visiting a doctor - high fever, vomiting, diarrea, sprained ankle, abrasions, you get the point. On top of being a dibilitating problem that was easy to self diagnose, it was on a Sunday afternoon in a rural area.
Obviously the insurance is designed to not pay out claims. I lost. In my opinion it is a fraudulent scheme.
We rented to one of VRBO's members that did damage to our property. A deposit that was set aside by the renter was applied to pay for the damage. The renter denied wrong doing without any proof. We had pictures, text's from the duration of the stay, and bills from porfessionals who did the clean up. Yet we were forced to return the funds and pay for the damage ourself.
The damage was real and the renter actually agreed to pay for some of it. Yet VRBO still pulled money out of our bank that was paid from her deposit, to give back to this person and then charged us 110.00 is service fees. We have since changed to and have listed our property with airbnb.com and hope for better support. We have a 5 star record both before and after this happened. Nothing but the best reviews. We had proof of the damage and reciepts. Yet they turned their backs on us. We suspect something fishy but it's not worth persuing. The damage was just under 500.00 so hardly worth fighting in court.
If you have a property listed with VRBO don't be mislead by thinking that the damage deposit will help you. It won't. Don't be misled that VRBO will stand behind you and help you with these types of issues and disputes. They will cave and take the easy route. They have no spine or since of fairness.
Travelers BEWARE! Homeaway BOOK IT NOW system is a rip off! Go to Flipkey to rent the dwelling without the padded Homeaway 6-10% service fee.
When you use VRBO, Homeaway, Vacationrentals.com, Homehildays.com, OwnersDirect.com, Toprural.com, Stayz.com, Travelmob.com, and all the other names under the Homeaway site, you are being charged a 6-10% SERVICE FEE that is not going to the owner, not for anything except helping Expedia stock.
The owners are being strong armed into allowing the new BOOK IT NOW system, with the threat of ad placement at the bottom of the list if they don't allow BOOK IT NOW. If the owner says "book thru me" Homeaway takes their ad offline.
Also, the homeowner owner is being charged higher merchant service fees by Homeaway.
The emails you receive that you think are from the owner, come form Homeaway with the owners name on them (talk about fraud?).
You are not allowed to have the owners phone number until after you privide a credit card!
Homeaway does nothing to guarantee that the home you are booking is actually owned by the person using book it now. So you can still be scammed after you pay the SERVICE FEE.
Always email owners directly.
Use Flipkey or VACATIONHOMERENTALS.COM they have no service fees.
I booked a rental on VRBO for "the barn" in Cottonwood, AZ. In the profile for the rental, the OWNER's cancelation police stated, "100% refund for cancellation more than 60 days before check-in date." I booked the rental Aug 1, immediately had issues with the owner, so I canceled Aug 4 for a planned October 15th stay, which was more than 60 days. The owner only refunded $158.00 out of the $374.00 deposit because she claimed that her own policy superceeds the one posted on the VRBO ad--which was only provided to me AFTER the booking, which I booked based on the advertised policy. We emailed back and forth about the policy and she still refuses to give the refund. This is false advertising and completely dishonest--to me it is theft. But the reason why I am making this report about VRBO is because of the way the case was handled.
I called VRBO to make a complaint and all three people that I spoke to agreed with me that she needed to give a full refund based on what they were seeing on her profile. The only way to see the rental agreement in which she has her own cancellation policy is to book the rental--so there is no way to know about it or agree to it. They said she would be contacted, etc, and after a week the owner was still refusing to give a refund, and she had not even changed the wording of the cancelation policy to accurately inform renters of the policy prior to booking. When I emailed the owner about this, she forwarded me her emails back and forth from VRBO, and here are some exerpts from these emails:
This whole experience was the absolute worst! TL;DR, owner was out of the country, the house was abandoned, I spent 6 hours getting passed around VRBO and their horrible customer service line.
This was my first time renting through VRBO and definitely my last!! I booked three days at this property a month in advance. My payment went through immediately and I figured I wouldn't get details until closer to checkin. When it was 5:30pm and checkin was supposed to be 4p I started getting really worried. I booked this rental property for a business retreat my company was hosting. We had 2 out of state consultants coming to stay and we needed the extra rooms on site for work sessions/work space.
I called VRBO and all they could do was give me the owner's number.
The owner did not answer any of my multiple calls and messages. VRBO then had the bright idea to ask me to drive by the property to check it out. I was so desperate to make this retreat happen that I figured what could happen with just driving by since my office was only a mile away.
The property had no lights on at all and no cars in the driveway. Apparently, the owner Vicki N. was in Thailand! The VRBO rep was able to get a hold of the old property manager who gave me the lockbox key. VRBO rep told me to go inside the house and I found out there was no electricity and no running water. I left as soon as I could but then noticed a car arriving in the driveway. The VRBO rep then told me to go see who it was!!
I am a young female by myself in a strange area and this VRBO rep could have gotten me killed! I go back to my car ASAP and the strange guy gets out of his car and walks towards me. Turns out he is Vicki's brother. He didn't know anyone had rented for the week. (Then why the hell was he there in a house with no elec/water?) He gets me in touch with Vicki's fiancé Blake who also didn't know there was a renter. Blake says he will try to get elec/water on in the morning. I text him in the morning and its almost 2 hours before I get a response. I tell him to get me my refund ASAP.
After this whole 3 hour process that night, I still had another 3 hour call with VRBO on and off hold to get alternate accommodations booked. They couldn't get me a new rental but was able to book 2 hotel rooms. I also had to cancel the charge on my credit card because they have a terrible refund policy. Take my experience and DO NOT BOOK THIS LISTING.
The reason for my review is to file a complaint about VRBO. We have used the company for 5 years now with 5 of our properties. We upgraded one of the properties to the next level subscription and paid $449 for the year of service. 7 months prior to that we paid the $340 for another subscription for Vacation Rentals.com (another sister site of theirs). We have just sold this rental property now a month after signing up for the year and they will not refund us one dime. The will not even transfer any credit to any of the other properties that we still have with them.
I have spoken to 3 people, including a manager and all of which told me that there is no way they could give me the amount of unused funds even as a credit. Terrible customer service.
VRBO refusing to publish our complaint because we did not stay at the property, but we couldn't since they double booked!
In early May 2015, when we first contacted Abbey Lane Cottages through VRBO, we inquired about two accommodations, The Captain's Quarters and Cozy Cottage. After consideration and numerous emails with the manager, we booked the Cozy Cottage. We sent our $300.00 deposit and signed a very detailed contract. We received the formal rental confirmation VRBO 701911 on May 27th 2015 for Thursday August 27th to Sunday August 30th.
When we arrived in Picton on August 27th, Abbey Lane's manager told us the Cozy Cottage was not available. Later, he made a passing reference to the fact that we were only renting for 3 nights. He also said he felt entitled to switch us to the Captain's Quarters because of our initial inquiry. When we objected, the manager reacted with disrespect and belligerence. In a underhanded attempt to mollify us, he displayed his handicap and listed his numerous ailments. It was with reluctance that he showed us the Captain's Quarters, and it was clear we were imposing. The situation was extremely uncomfortable, and the Captain's Quarters did not meet with our expectations.
We took the refund of our deposit and went to the local Chamber of Commerce for redress. Their representatives told us Abbey Lane Cottages were no longer members of their organization because too many complaints had been lodged against them. These Chamber representatives were very courteous and kind enough to help us find suitable accommodations on a very busy weekend.
We rented this cottage for 5 nights in August. My husband and I chose the downstairs sleeping area so we could have some space and privacy to work. This area, to our dismay, turned out to be very cold and wet. The air was heavy and everything down there felt damp. I couldn’t work down there during the day, but at night there was no choice, we had to sleep where the beds were. In the mornings my leather sandals felt as if I’d walked through water the day before and they hadn’t dried out. I pulled back the area rug in the center of the main downstairs room and there was actually standing water beaded up under the rug, which was itself wet. It was horrible.
The downstairs was also dark, the windows overhung by deck and sunporch, and there was very little in the way of lighting with just a lamp here and there. There were other less serious but irritating problems with this rental:
No bottle opener, no cork screw, no remote for the DVD, kitchen poorly stocked in general with very cheap tools (can opener fell apart in my hands), poor lighting throughout, no laundry facilities or even a clothesline (remember, this is on a lake), burned out lightbulbs with no spares, etc.
I tried calling the owner a couple times to get help with some of these issues but she never returned my calls. I have been trying to contact her through VRBO ever since to negotiate a partial refund on the grounds of uncomfortable and unhealthy downstairs accommodations but she completely ignores my emails.
I contacted VRBO to see if they could help and all they said was to work it out with the owner.
Since VRBO does not publish negative reviews the renter has absolutely no clout in these transactions. Once the owner has your money, too bad. You are dependent on their sense of justice, and Ms. Trudell of Swan Lake Cottage apparently has none.