VRBO
reviews and complaints

We paid a significant amount of money to stay in what turned out to be completely unacceptable accommodations. It was filthy, unsafe, not up to code, and literally falling apart in places.

The rental listing with pictures and rental contract had many misrepresentations about the accommodations, types of beds, private pool and the use of a boat to transport to us to the beach was non existent.

We arrived on late Saturday, April 2nd after traveling cross country, to find the house in an unacceptable condition. A stopped up toilet with feces, a bed had been slept in; other bed linens were dirty and torn. The towels appeared dirty and smelled like they had been left in the washing machine for days before drying. I had to wash all the bed linens and towels before we could go to bed. Some of the people in our party had to check into a hotel so the children could go to sleep.

Our phone calls and emails were not responded to by Patti Navilo the property manager. Each day we left numerous phone messages and sent emails and did not receive a response until on the fourth day of our week stay, we mentioned the next correspondence would be from our attorney.

We did receive a call on Sunday, April 3 from the cleaning service. We were told at that time that the cleaning people would arrive at 11:00 AM on Monday. I waited for them, but they never showed. When I tried calling them, there was no answer and voice mail was not set up. We ended up cleaning the house ourselves, taking a good deal of time away from our vacation and family activities.

As for the repairs, a repair man finally arrived on Thursday, April 7, nearly at the end of our vacation. A family member was forced to stay at the house while he repaired a few of the more glaring items. He was not able to complete the work, however, without an electrician.

Just so you dont find yourself in a similar situation, I wanted to let you in on a very horrible experience using VRBO for a unit at the Fontainebleau!

We found Avi Earl Cohen’s suite at the Fontainebleau Miami on VRBO under the Listing #233418. When we arrived on the 31st we noticed that there were open food containers in the kitchen as well as food in the refrigerator. At first we thought that they had just forgotten to clean the kitchen but it soon became apparent that they had also not changed/cleaned the sheets we were supposed to sleep on. It also became apparent that the unit he was advertising in the listing (thru photos) was different than the one we ultimately had been put in – different views, furniture and layout! We found cockroaches on the dining room furniture and we emailed Avi to tell him about the condition of his unit. He told us “that is awful” and we arranged with him to have housekeeping go back to clean our unit. We proceeded to go out to dinner and upon re-entering the unit noticed a stack of towels and some shampoo bottles on the coffee table, but the bedding (on both the master bed and the pullout bed) was still unchanged and dirty.

We did everything we could to have our unit changed, including speaking to a manager, but they told us their hands were tied. We called Avi but he didn’t answer his phone. We were stuck in a dirty hotel room with a dirty kitchen, cockroaches and nowhere to sleep. Ultimately the Resort sent housekeeping up with clean sheets at 2:30 AM and she was done making our beds closer to 3:30 AM. We proceeded to write Avi an email telling him how terrible our experience was – that while we had new sheets on the beds the rest of the unit was still dirty - and requested a full refund for our horrific situation. We then tried to get our belonging out of the safe deposit box in order to leave. His safe, however, was defective and it wasn’t until 4:30 that we had security finally open it for us to get our valuables. By that point, while we didn’t want to stay there it became highly unreasonable for us to go anywhere else.

We awoke just a few hours later to an email from Avi saying that he was very disappointed with his housekeeping staff and that “I don’t want someones money in this situation”. We of course agreed with him and got our things together to leave the unit. At this point we had had no satisfaction of enjoying the property and barely slept 4 hours. We wrote and email back to Avi letting him know that we would also not be staying in the unit on Monday as our vacation was very short and there was no way we would risk another hellish night. To this Avi got increasingly brutish and agitated and said he would only give us a portion of our money back as he had to pay for housekeeping (which clearly wasn’t true as they never showed up!).

Avi sent security to escort us out of his unit early and through various emails demanded that we pay for the night we stayed in his unit, even though he had previously told us that what we were going through was awful and that he would never expect us to pay for it.

We spent the rest of the morning before leaving the Fontainebleau Hotel, talking to various levels of Hotel Management and Condo Rental management, all who told us that Avi is commonly running into these issues because he doesn’t run his “condo rental” program correctly and forgets to have the unit cleaned.

I warn you do NOT rent this unit from him, it is a scam! We are now appealing this with our credit card as well as paypal, and while I'm sure we will get the money back somehow - it still ruined the beginning of our trip!

Dear Sirs,
during the month of October 2010 we rented a house through the 'agency VRBO:
Location: Point Reyes Station CA 94956
period: 31 September 2010-17 October 2010
Object Name: "View Country Retreat"
Contact: Email: [protected]@gmail.com
Rent: $ 3250.50 + $ 200 Security Deposit
Having called two times the reimbursement of $ 200 Security Deposit
we did not get any response.
Please take note and take action to obtain repayment of the deposit.
At the moment we are interested in a new contract by the same agency (VRBO) and look forward to your prompt response in order to sign a new contract.
Yours sincerely
Lucia Lorenzetti

After a rental thru VRBO at Kiawah Island, the site disallowed a negative review, stating the owner confirmed we never stayed at the property. We furnished tons of documentation of our stay to VRBO, and they initially agreed with us and allowed the review. The owner saw the review, called VRBO, and the review was taken down after owner lied about us staying at the villa. The owners at this site have the right to pick and choose reviews to be posted. Wow, great policy there! Obviously, owners and VRBO work together to maximize the rentals for both parties. I can't imagine having to deal with VRBO over a financial dispute.

Rip off house. NOT a 3 BR/3BA house. 3rd bedroom and second bath are in unsecured basement, only partially screened (useless) and is open to outdoors. It totally flooded when it rained so everything on the floor got soaked (all of our luggage since there is no other place to put it). Mosquitoes breed in the basement bathroom and feed on you all night. Caretaker came over and snooped around while we were gone, we caught her twice. Also, we left binoculars there in the flood shuffle and the caretaker "couldn't find them". Hmmmm, we called from the airport to ask them to return the BEFORE checkin time for the next guests. Owner is a jerk, he was totally unhelpful. Milolii is a pit, there is NOTHING growing in this area, it is amazing anyone chooses to live there. We were shocked this exists in Hawaii. BAD DEAL!

Vacation Rentals by Owner (vrbo.com) gives the traveler access to a variety of private homes/cabins/condos for rent. If everything goes well, great. But if the traveler encounters problems, he is at the mercy of the owner to get any solution. If you want a partial or full refund - even if your case is rock-solid - the owner is holding your money and may not care about your unsatisfactory stay (or even NON-stay, due to a mudslide blocking access to the cabin, or other problem preventing the traveler from even entering the rental.) If you like disputes, then go ahead and risk renting from an absentee owner with no local professional caretaker. You will have the burden of proof, and all of the problems will be on your shoulders. Personally I will not rent from the vrbo.com site again.

The place is infested with bedbugs. We told the property manager, Jennifer Mohrman and she accused us of bringing the bugs in. My friends' daughter turns one today and still has a huge disgusting rash from these bugs. At 200+ night, one would expect a clean place to lay your head down...instead our trip was a nightmare! Worst part is that, she isn't going to throw those mattresses out and I am sure this problem will continue if she doesn't.

We were excited to stay at this rental because the reviews on VRBO all sounded so wonderful. Didn't know at the time that VRBO owners have control over posting their reviews, so potential renters will never see the negative reviews. Our experience definitely turned negative during our stay, and has soured our memories of the trip to the point that we will probably not rent another VRBO again.

Two things happened. First, this rental advertises "a secure GARAGE PARKING, which is heated in the winter time, with RESERVED PARKING space (Floor/level 1)". WOW, this is great in theory. The problem we had is that on our 2nd night there, someone else parked in the reserved parking space for our rental. After discussing the situation with the on-site office manager, we were told we could not have a pass to park out in one of the many spaces out front (the easiest solution for all), nor could we park anywhere else BUT our supposedly reserved spot. She was not very helpful since we were renting from a private condo owner, and the office manager was there to represent condo owners who used HER services to rent their condos vs. VRBO. A towing policy was posted on signs in the parking garage for those who violated, so we had to call a tow truck to remove the offending vehicle, and my husband wasted 2 hours of precious vacation time dealing with the tow truck process so that we could just park our car for the night. First tow truck was too big to fit through the garage door opening, and we had to wait for a second truck to show up. Then we had to worry about having damage done to our rental vehicle, keying or whatever, due to an upset owner of the towed vehicle. It cost this guy $250 to get his car back. So lesson here is (1) definitely don't park in anyone else's reserved spot, and (2) heaven forbid that someone else park in your reserved spot as you will get stuck wasting your vacation time to arrange for towing so you can park your car. I'm not blaming the condo owners for this incident personally, but just noting it is a "benefit" - ? of this rental that can turn quickly into an undesirable situation for you.

The second thing that happened concerned the king-size master bed. My husband (6' tall, 190 lbs. - normal weight!) went to lie down for a short nap on the afternoon of our last full day. After a few seconds, the side board of the bed collapsed. It was made of some type of softwood, with large grain variations and knotholes galore. The sudden drop actually jarred my husband's back. We called the local property manager (Rob) immediately, and waited 1 1/2 hours for him to show up. He looked at it and noted that the weak point seemed to have been a rather large knothole right smack in the middle of this sideboard. We sent the condo owners a cell phone picture of the damaged board. The condo owner husband quickly texted back that he was sorry for the inconvenience, and that it appeared to him as well that the knothole was a weak point AND stated to us that he was a safety inspector for his career. THEN, the real problem started. The condo owner wife called me about 2 hours later, and started making accusations that my husband or I must have stood on the side rail to cause it to fail. I told her we certainly did not. She was wanting us to pay for the damages, claiming we had CAUSED the problem. If we had caused any damages, we certainly would have paid - we are honorable, church-going people. But we had done no harm. If a 190 lb. person lying on a bed results in the bed collapsing, then one has to question the integrity of the bed. When inspecting the bed after the collapse, while the property manager Rob was there with us, it was noted that the bed had no vertical supports underneath the mattress and that the bed side rail had an inferior quality wood that was used to support the horizontal slats underneath. Most of the weight to support this bed was resting on these side rails. Paired with all the knotholes in the wood, it was clearly an accident waiting to happen. I'll save you the long story of the next few days concerning all the phone calls and e-mails from the condo owner wife seeking payment from us. Bottom line, she deducted the money from our $400 security deposit to repair this faulty bed. We came away from this experience grateful that something more expensive had not failed during our stay - a heater, a refrigerator... as we obviously would have been blamed if it had occurred during our stay.

So do yourself a favor. Don't assume, like we did, that just because a VRBO has favorable reviews that you will have an enjoyable experience with that rental. Truth be told, if the condo owner wife had been more sympathetic and understanding, we probably would have offered to pay for some or all of the damage of this faulty bed on our own initiative, just out of human kindness. But she insisted on falsely accusing us of CAUSING the damage (which we did not do), and that does not make for a very conducive environment for reaching a settlement. I would not rent this VRBO again. The owners operate under the company name of JMD Vacation Property Rentals (or JMD & Associates for billing purposes). Their names are Jeff & Maureen Kleinfelter, and the condo address is 5519 N. Lillehammer Lane, #1403, Park City, Utah.

15 Highland Ave located in Los Gatos, CA is listed on VRBO #292327. This house is misrepresentated. We prepaid 2 months rent in total $9, 200. We lasted 17 days in the house. There was no central heating. An antique floor heater that would only keep the living room warm if we kept all doors closed to other areas of the house. Each room had recessed heaters that were from the 1950's made by a company called Wesix that went out of business years ago, and looked like a fire hazard if turned on. The kitchen did not have any heat. In the morning even the heated room (living room), required a blanket to stay warm. The sheets in one bedroom were thread bare. We bought and left 2 sets of sheets, and a mattress topper, since the twin bed was so uncomfortable. We were instructed to refrain from opening certain windows in the bedrooms. Thus no circulation of air. A mildewy smell was present throughout the entire house, which we noticed when we moved out and had to wash our entire suitcase full of clothes to get the smell out. There were cable wires coming through certain bedroom windows, and that is reason why we could not open them. As regular VRBO users we rely on the integrity of the presentations. This house should be delisted. We will be suing the owner, Teresa Spaulding. We have several photos of the inside of this house to back up our complaints and would be happy to share with anyone that is interested.

The owner of this property makes a habit of stealing guests security deposits. The property was returned in pristine condition and he has refused to return our security or respond to any of our phone calls or emails. He's a thief. Do not rent this property. VRBO has allowed him to turn off feedback so that renters can become future victoms of his scam. Beware.

This owner, B. Skinner, has 4 listings including this Garden Apt. They are all in a state of disrepair on the outside and I assume they are not much better than this one inside. There are no pictures of the kitchen or bath online for a reason. The kitchen is way beyond antique, with a water heater in the corner "masked" by a broken trellis & fake ivy. The floor is so slanted that things roll out of the fridge. The kitchen has no usable counter space for preparation and is poorly equipped by comparison with other units I have rented. The bathroom has a sink from the late 1800's--the only place I have ever seen such a thing is in an unrennovated brownstone in Brooklyn--cracked marble with iron stains all over it. The shower is a small, old, metal stall with a door that does not close properly. The steps to the upstairs bedrooms (& where the bath is located) are so steep that a child or someone with a hip, respiratory or cardiac problem would have difficulty negotiating them. The larger bedroom has a musty odor--and this at the end of an unusually dry/hot summer. Although the ad indicates a a washer as part of the amenities, it fails to mention that while it is on premises (housed outside in the original "outhouse"), you must pay to use it. The outside of the rental is as run down as the inside: brown leaves all over, weeds, overgrown ivy and dirty patio furniture. One parking space is included in the rental, in an area carved out of the property. Unfortunately, 2 other renters from the main house must park there as well and the area is not large enough to fit 3 cars comfortably. Be prepared to jockey your car back and forth over a dozen times to get in/out of a spot. The only positive thing I can say about this rental is that it is in a good location 1/2 block from the beach.

1) This property is being represented as lakefront, which it is not.

2) It is filthy (and I'm used to staying in 3rd world hotels), unwashed, unvacuumed, and personal property literally piled in corners. Plus it stinks like dog, altho it is represented as being pet free the owner, Susan Slavik, keeps her dogs there. Refrigerator full of opened, out of date food. Cabinets and closets stuffed with the owner's personal property, no room for the renter's things.

3) The property was double booked so Susan Slavik asked us to move out 2 days early. She wrote us a check as refund for the 2 days we had already paid for. When we attempted to cash the check at Susan's bank, she had reported the check as STOLEN! and had the bank confiscate the check! So of course we couldn't cash the check and she didn't even have to pay a stop payment fee.

It has been over four months since we stayed at a VRBO vacation rental home at Lake Tahoe and they still have not refunded our deposit. Agent won't answer phone and no other way to reach them except through a website and that won't respond either. There was no damage and they have not even provided a response to that effect either. Rental claimed to have wireless internet (no wireless router present), and hot tub (tub could only get to luke warm after several hours). Complained, but once they had the money, no response. Don't trust these people.

The owner of this VRBO condo has violated our contract by neither returning my security deposit nor communicating to me within 3 weeks of departure why not. I have attempted to contact her via email, phone and registered letter, but have had ZERO RESPONSE. She was very communicative when I was seeking to rent her place. DO NOT TRUST THIS OWNER.

Tyra IV Riverbend Lodge
Breckenridge, Colorado
Vacation Rental by Owner Listing 206023
THE GRINCH THAT STOLE CHRISTMAS.
AVOID THIS PROPERTY OWNER LIKE THE PLAGUE

We planned a ski vacation for part of our child’s Christmas gift and were scheduled to rent this unit for several nights but were unable to fly to Colorado due a winter storm that closed the entire Southeastern Air Corridor. We requested that she call us to discuss the situation and she dodged us by sending and e-mail informing us that she has a strict policy of a 45 day advanced notice on all cancellations. It’s like she seems to think that we had some kind of control over the situation. We were more than willing to work with her in an effort to resolve this issue in a fair and equitable manner for both parties but she never gave us a chance.

She’s a truly evil and greedy human being. You shouldn’t have to look very hard to find a better property owner then this one.

We checked into this property for an extended period of time, expecting (given the amount we were paying) an upscale vacation rental. What we found was a home that appeared to be lived in. Groceries in the pantry, left over groceries in the refrigerator and personal items throughout the house. Photos of the owners, and other personal affects. The bathroom cabinetry was not not cleaned out properly and many personal items left there too (some not to be mentioned). The house itself has a very modern feel in its' furnishings primarily however the minimalist feel doesn't compensate for lacking of warmth and an overall feeling of "home". It appeared as though the owners started construction but didn't quite finish. There were holes in the walls where I am guessing lighting was to be installed but never quite made it. The garage was filled with junk and boxes, making it difficult to park our vehicle until after having to move it around. This property is completely NO FRILLS and leaves you with a feeling that at any minute the owners will be returning. The saltwater pool was nice however wasn't always working properly and after 1 week it started to smell like the Pacific ocean. The owners did not continue the maintenance while there, so we were responsible for picking up limbs from fallen trees and removing the garbage as it was instructed. We were charged additional for additional items that we did dispute such as an additional 110$ cleaning fee to scrub residue of the bottom of the tub however we never heard back from the owner.
My recommendation is that if you are looking for an upscale vacation home in lieu of staying at a 3 or 4 star property- this isn't it. Spend the extra money to get the quality of service, and the quality housing.

We just rented this place from Jan 20-26, 2010, and we feel their property description is misleading regarding several features. First, the master bedroom w/king does not have an energy efficient window and needs a bigger heater vent because the room temp remained slightly chilly even with thermostat set at 78! Also, since we had to keep the temperature set higher, the rest of the house would get uncomfortably warm. My father was in the other master bedroom and had to close his vent because it would get too hot in there. There was a broken closet knob, missing handle on one of the dresser drawers, one of the toilet handles broke (which we fixed ourselves rather than having to wait for someone to come out), lots of scrapes & scratches on the walls in the dining area, bedroom, bathroom, as well as doors, railings, and wood floors (which leads me to believe the remodel was done quite some time ago, or one of the previous tenants really banged up the place and the owners have not bothered to fix it yet). Technically it’s 1.5 bathrooms, since one has a shower only, which really needs an adjustable showerhead (otherwise the water goes right over your head unless you’re over 6 feet tall!). The owners should purchase new pots and pans for the kitchen, as the teflon is all scratched up and flaking off. We didn’t want to use them, but didn’t have a choice. Also, note that the rooms with triple bunk beds are VERY small – only big enough to fit the beds, a dresser, and a closet. Lastly, the cabin was not cleaned before our arrival, which meant having to wash sheets/blankets/towels and clean up the kitchen/bathrooms so we could use them during our first night. The owner refunded our $150 cleaning fee, but pointed out that since we received a discounted rate of $250/night (our original agreement, not because the cabin was dirty), he couldn't take off any more than that. In my opinion, that's not an adequate reason because basically he’s saying that since we paid less than the regular rate, it’s all right to get a less than satisfactory property! We felt we should have gotten back a little more money for the inconvenience of having to clean it ourselves plus wait while it was cleaned the following day (thus cutting into our skiing/boarding time), as well as the needed repairs/improvements listed above. After driving through a snowstorm to get to the place, the last thing we wanted to do was clean! The owner did offer a free night on our next stay of 4 or more nights, but why on earth would we want to stay there again after our experience? Especially receiving his response to my complaints: “Thanks for your detailed summary of things we need attention” and “sorry the place wasn't ready when you arrived.” No apology or concern that his place is no longer in the “pristine” condition described in his listing. This place is definitely NOT worth the regular rate of $300/night -- you can find much nicer places in that area for the same price. We ended up renting this place because we thought we were getting such a great deal. Boy, we were wrong!

My wife and I rented this house for a week in June of 2009. The pictures were very attractive and the location was perfect, the north shore of Kauai in Hanalei. Dawn, the owner, seemed pleasant enough from her emails and the price was within our budget. Imagine our disappointment when we arrived and found the place in horrible shape. Dust and dirt everywhere, the ceiling fans not working. The DVD player not working AND cat feces in the bedroom. My wife is allergic to cats so after one miserable night we left and were fortunate enough to find a another place which is difficult on such notice. Our attempts to deal directly with the owner went nowhere, despite our numerous attempts. Our attempt to deal with VRBO (Vacation Rentals By Owner) went nowhere despite the fact that their complaints department agreed with our list of complaints and voiced genuine concern about the listing. Finally, our attempts to get the 2nd half of the rent refunded from our Credit Card (CitiBank Visa) were unsuccessful for reasons that were never explained to us. WARNING TO ALL who plan to rent a home for a vacation! 1. Insist on a contract that stipulates the return policy. 2. Don't use CitiBank Visa!

WARNING #2: The owner has craftily changed the name of the house on VRBO to "Red Ginger Retreat." Same property. Same dump!

There are a lot of great houses to rent in Kauai. Avoid this one!