Vacation Rental By Owner

When we went to New Bern for the MS 150 last weekend, we stayed in a house we rented from VRBO. (249486 if anyone wants to check it out on www.VRBO.com) This place was a mansion on the Trent River, and we shared it among 3 families and me and my 2 friends with the plan that my group would have the loft. A team member rented it. It was represented as a new rental by the owner and had no guest comments.

The place was certainly beautiful, but about ten minutes after my friend arrived, another party showed up expecting to stay there! It had been double booked! Then, to add to the festive atmosphere, people from a large group started arriving planning on having a pig picking there that evening. As it turns out, that group had actually rented another house down the street owned by the mother of our house's owner. They had been given the wrong address.

The house was poorly equipped and not as represented. There were not enough linens to sleep the number they said they had accomodations for. There was a loft, but it was only accessible through the garage - meaning if you had to to to the bathroom, it was down and through the garage into the house. It also wasn't very clean and was in the process of having a lot of punchlist type repairs being made.

I went on the website to post a comment and found out that the comments have to be approved by the homeowner?! What on earth? No wonder there aren't any comments! He isn't approving them because they are negative.

Moral: if you are renting from VRBO and there are no comments, beware!

That is terrible. We have used VRBO for many years and have always had wonderful experiences. Each time we do it though we feel like we are taking a big gamble but so far so good. Sorry that you had a bad excperience . It really doesn't help that the owner has to approve your comments. How are people supposed to know about the not good ones if you can't post.

I have always had great luck with VRBO, but I do remember a clause on the site that says if the rental is not as presented they will refund your money, as long as you complete the booking through them (sometimes folks use the service to find a place, but complete the rental outside of the site so they lose their commision). So, while I am sorry your friend had a bad experience, I do suggest she follow up with a call to the VRBO management to see what her options are.

We use vrbo every year for family reunions, and my folks have a house in SC that they rent through vrbo. We have never had a bad experience.