VRBO Owner review: Rental property not accessible due to hurricane ian 1

My husband and I rented a property on Fort Myers Beach from 09/27/22 through 10/02/22. The cost was $3,000.00 up-front through VRBO. The owner of the property sent information regarding check-in on 09/24/22. I replied, and asked what would happen if Tropical Storm Ian became progressively worse, not allowing us to travel. I also asked her if she needed me to sign an apparently old rental agreement sent via VRBO. I did not hear from the owner, and on Sunday, it appeared that Tropical Storm Ian would have a significant impact on Ft. Myers Beach. I reached out several times to the owner, who offered to move my dates to check-in on Friday the 30th, staying into the following week. I thanked the owner, but told her that this would not be possible, as my husband and I could not move our vacation dates – we both had full work schedules for the following week. By Monday, mandatory evacuations were taking place, and both the President, and Governor of Florida, had declared a state of emergency for Florida, as Tropical Storm Ian, was becoming Hurricane Ian. Realizing that we could certainly not travel, and would not have any access to the property due to the evacuations, I reached out several times to the owner and asked for a refund. She responded that she would not offer a refund, and that her later check-in date was her only offer. I spent over two hours on the phone with VRBO on 09/26/22 (terrible experience), trying to resolve this issue. Finally, one VRBO representative put the owner and me on conference call. The owner still refused a refund, but offered to move our vacation dates to next year. She asked that we book after May. I checked her property availability and chose three dates that were open after May, as she asked us to do. Instead, she chose three random dates for later this year, and stated that, “Next year won’t work.” It is now Thursday, 09/29/22, and Hurricane Ian has had a horrific impact on Ft. Myers Beach, and its surrounding areas. Power outages are still noted, as well as flooding. Clearly, there has been no way for us to access the property, and I suspect we would not be able to access it tomorrow, either. The fact that this person would actually keep our $3000.00 and refuse to offer a viable solution of any kind, is just baffling to me. The bottom line, is that we paid for a room that the owner could not deliver due to a massive hurricane, and we would like our money paid back in full. I do not trust the owner to reschedule our dates, as she has already proven that she is not trustworthy, and I would feel very uncomfortable having anything more to do with her, once our refund has been issued. I never signed a lease agreement (as she never responded to my question regarding that), and should VRBO or the owner note that I was agreeing to the stipulations of the agreement upon booking, well, I did not receive the lease until after I paid. Also, the bottom line, is that we were not able to access a rental property that we paid in full for. All we ask, is that our money is refunded due to these exceptional circumstances.

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