VRBO Issues

[Road Guy]

So we had a issue with our rental house while on vacay last week..

The day before we were supposed to fly out I get a call from the guy that we rented through VRBO and he says the County has issued him a cease a desist order not to rent his house out. Apparently the County had passed an ordinance basically banning short term rentals (less than 28 days) The hotels pressured the county to enact this since you can get so much more for your money with a VRBO.

Of course we are already packed and they guy does offer us a refund but he says btw I have a house that slightly further south that is in a city jurisdiction and doesn’t apply to this ruling, he says it’s a nicer house but its just a  tad farther from where we wanted to be. Not a big deal just a 30 minute drive to our dive shop versus a 5 minute drive. So not wanting to be looking for a place to stay less than 12 hours before our flight we just take him up on the deal..

The house is technically bigger, but it had the worst AC, I don’t think even at night the house got below 85, kitchen was in the process of being rebuilt, no dishwasher, basically none of the things you expect when you pay $2K for a weekly rental. The back porch was also being re built, and I know this sounds 1% problem but one of the things I had in mind was that we go dive in the morning and then I spend the evening drinking on the back porch..  The original house we rented had a large second story screened in porch with ocean view. This one had a view of the canal.

So long story short it wasn’t miserable but definitely caused some issues for us (gasp we had to go buy a blender and some other kitchen comforts to get through the week) which he did say he would pay for , but it seemed like I was always running to “family dollar” for something, i.e, no towels! & the extra 30 minutes to everything did add up after a week.. basically added an hour to almost everywhere we wanted to go

We have always used VRBO and my issue with this guy is that I believe he knew about this for a long time and basically left us with no choice but to take his other house. Had I been given even a weeks notice I could have found something closer to what we originally wanted to rent. So after we got home I called him and told him that I wanted some money back and if he didn’t then I was going to rat him out to VRBO about using the illegal rental and maybe even the City / County down there. He of course is saying that the house we ended up with was bigger, and if anything I owe him more $$, basically he did me a favor somehow?  He is the typical rich CA ******* (sorry CA People)

Talking to the lcoals this has been a “new” county ordinance for almost  a year and everyone knows about this change so he was basically continuing to rent his property until the law caught up to him..

Anyways just wanted to rant. I don’t know if VRBO would do anything to him but I think they need a system other than just a review where you can ding ****** property owners (& equally shittty renters)

Am I being a **** or do I have some justification to seek some $$ back?  I think $500 would make me happy..

 

[MA_PE]

1) I'm glad he offered an alternative as you were going out the door so the vacation wasn't thrown into complete turmoil.

2)  I don't think a $500 refund is unreasonable.  The justification is that you were not ocean front, you were 1/2 hour away from your planned activities and the house was under renovation.

I would tell the guy that if he doesn't give you $500 you'll contact VBRO, say the guy is false advertising after being aware of a city ordinance against him and hopefully they'll ban this guy from using their site any more.

 

[mudpuppy]

Sounds like he's an ******* making shady deals.  Even if he agreed to give you some money back, don't know if I'd trust him to follow through.  I'd be reporting him to VRBO ASAP.

 

[tj_PE]

Sounds like a scammer. he's probably done this to other people and responded the same way, scaring them into submission. 

I've never heard of VRBO, but if it's anything like airbnb i think they can force a refund? 

hope this gets resolved soon. that's such a bummer. 

 

[Supe]

Wouldn't surprise me if he didn't even own the first property...

 

[MA_PE]

FWIW:  I used VRBO to rent a condo in Destin FL somewhat blindly (I got the name of condo complex from JR (remember him)) but had never used VBRO before) and had a great experience.  The place as advertised and the price was very good.

thejulie:  VRBO = Vacation Rental By Owner

 

[Road Guy]

We drove by the original property and it was for sale, it had been listed for sale a month ago. (My wife had her aunt / realtor check the MLS listing #) but he did own both properties.  From what I gathered is that the original property was also in more of a HOA type area and they probably also in addition to the County ordinance probably don't like summer rentals in this particular area. I think he was continuing to rent it out through the county ordinance and his neighbors who were full timers were "rattingn him out"  sad cause that place had a hell of  a view!

But  my main beef is that I would have preferred not being lied to and jut given a refund and ample time to find someplace we wanted to stay (especially when you plan a trip 6 months out)

we have used VRBO for probably a dozen rentals and never had an issue, usually they end up exceeding our expectations..  we rented a place in steamboat this past winter that was so nice I felt bad staying there.. true story!

 

[jeb6294]

Agreed...the fact that the city had passed the ordinance a while ago tells me that this guy should at the very least be reported.  I will say that it very well could have been a last minute thing.  Even though they passed the ordinance a year ago, I'm betting he just figured he'd keep renting it out until he got caught.  Even if that's the case and he had every intention of having you stay in the original house until he got busted, still tells me he's extremely shady.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Have you tried looking to see if it's still listed as an available property?  If it is, definitely report his ***.

 

[Ble_PE]

RG, I'd report him whether he gives you anything back or not. He knew about the issue and continued to rent his place, so it's on him. I've also not had any issues on VRBO, so hopefully they will back you up.

 

[ptatohed]

I have no idea what VRBO means.   :dunno:  

 

[MetsFan]

I would definitely report them to VRBO.  Who knows how long they've been doing this.  I wouldn't be surprised if Suave was behind it somehow 

I have no idea what VRBO means.   :dunno:  

Vacation Rentals By Owner.  It's basically AirBnB but I think it's been around for a long time.

 

[Road Guy]

so I never heard back from the owner so I left an honest review on the site and also tried to find a way to directly talk to VRBO but they only really have an anonymous reporting system but doesn't allow a ton of space to describe the issues.. But maybe the message will get through..

It looks like he is showing the property only available for rent for 28 days so I guess he is trying to comply with the new law.

The new law really sucks because I wont be able to visit the keys again with our entire family. We always enjoyed renting a house and it will be a while before I can take a month off   so If the County is going to force everyone to a 28 day rental or into a motel, I think I will just have to find a new place to dive. which sucks cause there are not many places on the planet that have reef diving plus large scale wreck diving in the same place..

 

[SNAPE/SMOTT PE]

Hope you hear something back. We love using VRBO, and haven't had any issues so I've never dealt with trying to report. No numbers to call?

 

[Road Guy]

They just have a very generic section for complaints, more geared toward fraud, which I get, but I think they need some sort of "feedback" points system for their owners and the renters alike - cause I am sure this is a 2 way street.  I don't know what VRBO could have really done, but I just wanted to point it out to them so they could make sure this guy isn't messing up peoples vacations...

 

[Road Guy]

so it looks like VRBO sides with the property owner. they rejected my review and are trying to make it look like I didn't stay there (technically I didn't) but oh well..


Thank you for submitting your review. Unfortunately, it needs a little bit of work before we can post it to our site.

The reason we are currently unable to approve it is listed below. Please revise your review so that it meets our content guidelines, which you can see here. When you’re done you can resubmit it by clicking the button below.



 

• There is no record that you have stayed at the property being reviewed.
  

 

[csb]

Did you try the "The calendar is not accurate" radio button? 

 

[Road Guy]

I tried doing a review describing the property not being "as described" and they rejected it again. I've emailed their "contact us" and support sections several times with no response.. may have to take this to FB!

 

[Supe]

A good scathing FB post with VRBO tagged seems like the way to go.  Amazing how fast they respond when outed on social media...

 

[Dleg]

******* VRBO.... we set up our "temporary" apartment in Guam through them before we left.  Made a reservation through the end of November. Discovered that they required payment up front. Okay.... so we did, figuring that they would be reasonable if we had to shorten/extend.

So we get here and the place is a dump. I can't believe something that looked nice on the internet turned out to be located in the middle of the low income housing and violating several building codes (sarcasm). After our next door neighbor beat his wife for the second night in a row, I finally contacted the VRBO agent and asked for a refund or to be moved to another property. As a basis for our request I cited not only the wife beating but also the fact that the unit had no smoke or CO detectors and had a burnt up outlet in the kitchen, which we had not noticed at first (how in the F did they ever get an occupancy permit??)

So they moved us to another property in another slum, but it had a smoke detector and was marginally nicer. Fine. In the meantime, we searched like crazy for a place to buy and move into. That finally occurred last week. We moved into a condo that we are renting from the owner while the purchase agreement goes through (and BTW all this got done by my wife while I consulted with her remotely from the typhoon response deployment in Saipan - just a little stressful!)

Now, I have asked the VRBO agent for a refund of the remaining amount we paid through the end of the month, which amounts to about $1800.  They respond "sorry, we have a strict no refunds policy".  So I responded back that I am asking again one more time, and if they don't refund me, I am putting an honest review on VRBO and also going to the base JAG office here to inform them that these properties are not suitable for military housing allowance purposes (military renters are the biggest market here). 

Granted I probably share some responsibility in not fully vetting the agreement when I signed up, but for ****'s sake you would think that someone trying to attract more renters would just try to be reasonable to at least avoid the bad press and possible black listing from the military....