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FOR THE PAST SIX years, we’ve rented a house in Florida for a month or so. We used VRBO, and all went well. Even minor problems with a house were quickly addressed by the owners or their rental agents.
Not this year.
In September 2023, we rented a condo on the beach in Hillsboro Beach for February 2024. In December, I received an e-mail from the rental agent, Houzlet, Inc., saying the owner had financial problems and was selling the place, and thus all reservations were cancelled. I was offered a few other places, none of which was acceptable, so I requested a refund of my $5,000 deposit.
I received an e-mail from Houzlet confirming I’d receive the refund within 45 days. You guessed it, time goes by and no refund. Repeated calls to customer service went nowhere. I received repeated promises my refund was on the way. Customer service wouldn’t give me anyone else to speak with. All I heard was that they’d advise the accounting department. Weeks went by and still nothing happened.
I called VRBO and explained it all, and also pointed out the firm was the agent for this rental. The phone rep promised to escalate the matter. Bottom line: After repeated e-mail requests, VRBO never got back to me again and did nothing to help. It appears VRBO has little, if any, oversight over who posts rentals on its site. VRBO did, however, refund its booking fee within a few days of the cancellation.
Now, I was getting mad. I started researching Houzlet. I found many other similar complaints with virtually the same story as mine, except more money was involved in some instances. Many cases were reported in detail to the Better Business Bureau—in fact so many that the site has added this alert:
“According to BBB files, this business has a pattern of complaints concerning service issues. Consumers state their bookings were cancelled by Houzlet and in some cases, they were offered to re-book at higher priced properties. Consumers indicate that they want their original booking fees refunded in full. On January 26, 2024, BBB sent written notice to Houzlet, Inc. identifying the pattern of complaints with a request for a business response. As of February 23, 2024, we have received no response from Houzlet, Inc. BBB will continue to monitor and update the company’s report as needed.”
Did we get our money back? We did. Thanks to my wife, we were once again saved from financial disaster. “Call the bank,” she said. Why didn’t I think of that? I reported what I called a fraudulent charge.
The bank immediately applied a full credit to my credit card. A few days later, the bank sent me a letter saying Houzlet had 45 days to contest the credit. Not surprisingly, it never did and the bank confirmed the credit was made permanent. But by then, we were on our way home from Florida after spending a month in a hotel, because we couldn’t find another suitable rental.
We travel a great deal and typically stay at AirBnbs. We filter our results to look for “Superhosts” or “Guest Favorite” properties. Whether they’re individual or corporate owners, they seem to be more reliable, established properties with a decent track record. Those don’t seem to be folks who double-book on other platforms or give short shrift to guests. That’s my tip.
Pay attention to reviews and importantly property hosts who actually live and host clients on their personal property. Management persons and companies are not always available when issues arise.
Wow, $5k deposit. That was the first warning sign. Was this a million dollar condo? I have rented many homes, my deposit’s have never exceeded $1k.
I have found that when issues with a company are not resolved, finding the CEO’s email online helps. Send them an email and someone will usually get back to you within 24 hours and resolve the issue.
I just read an article where some homeowners rent their property out (long-term), only to discover that the renters have sublet their property on AirBnB and are collecting weekly rents on property they do not own. There is nothing AirBnB does to verify that the person renting out the property actually owns it.
These companies do not have much control over the kind of subcontractors they have either. I had a very positive experience with one of these operators (Vacasa) recently, though. I left a backpack with some valuables behind at one of the vacation rentals they manage. They contacted the property management company who cleans the place. I got my bag back in the mail within a week and they refused to charge me for the service.
After reading this article and its subsequent comments, I’m convinced to never ever use VRBO for anything. We run an AirB&B and are happy with their system….and use AirB&Bs when we travel.
VRBO and Airbnb are the same.
I have only seen owners listed in Airbnb and VRBO. I’m not sure there is a way to know the rental agency/management beforehand. So, I would say there’s not much we can do to prevent a situation like this. Thanks for the credit card tip to address the aftermath.
I’ve only used Airbnb. On Monday I had to cancel a rental for a much awaited trip to Reno next week. Because I canceled before the deadline, which amazingly was only 5 days out from the rental date, my money was immediately credited back to my card. I was pleasantly surprised. I’ve owned a little stock in Airbnb for a while now and am impressed with the company.
I have owned two Florida vacation rental properties for 14 years. VRBO & Homeaway worked great when we started but they were bought out by Expedia and now are bad for both the owner and the guest. The costs are way up and they prevent owners and guests from talking on the phone until after the reservation has been made. I rented a vacation property last year from VRBO that was managed by Vacasa, which is a national company. The unit had suffered flood damage and all the furniture in the lower level was gone but it was still shown on the listing. I spent many hours on the phone with VRBO and Vacasa and finally was promised a partial refund which never happened. I wish I had simply called the credit card company. It is much better to deal directly with the owner or a local property manager that knows the property and the area. The Vacasa rep had never seen the property they were managing and were useless.
This is almost completely unrelated to your post, but we live in south Alabama and always dream of renting for a month or so in a place far north from the summer heat here. Any recommendations on where we “sandbirds” should escape to in the summer for, say, the month of July or August?
Cape Cod
Yes — but don’t even try to drive onto the Cape on a Friday afternoon or depart on a Sunday afternoon.
Same for Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, AL
I’m so sorry to hear about your problem. The first year we rented in Florida with VRBO, it worked out, but the unit could have been cleaner. The following year, we used a real estate agent. That was the best decision we ever made. She took wonderful care of us and became a friend, even helping when we finally gave in and bought a place with another real estate agent.
Good outcome for you! I had a scare with Houzlet myself. I booked a monthly rental also, but then I requested a slight change in dates and my email was pinged back. I figured I had gotten scammed so I researched Houzlet and found many poor ratings. Now panicked I immediately cancelled my booking. A different contact person tried to beg me to keep it, but in the end I got my deposit refunded with no issue. I decided never to rent through them via VRBO.
Thanks for the word to the wise. I guess one way to play it safe is to get referrals from folks you know who have rented in the same area whenever possible.
I thought you only had 60 days to dispute a credit card charge?
I don’t know, but since the fraud was first detected on December 15 when the reservation was cancelled maybe they counted from that date
Me too. I recently did a charge back through Citibank, and I made sure to start it within sixty days. They gave the merchant two months to respond. It only finalized a couple of weeks ago.
Dick — thanks for sharing. We use VBRO and while we haven’t had any problems, I suspect it’s just because we’ve been lucky enough to pick listings with trustworthy owners and/or rental agents. I have no idea how one would determine that from a listing, so I think we need to be more cautious going forward. Thanks again for the heads up, and your wife’s clear eyed solution.
I am sorry to hear your story. I can’t imagine the frustration it caused you and your wife.
Next year we are planning on snowbirding for a month or so, do you have any suggestions from your experience how to protect a rental nightmare for a couple of newbies
We live in an area that snowbirds flock to. There are still a few local realtors that manage vacation rentals. They are the best bet if you can find one in the area you’re interested in. Reservations are made as early as a year in advance as their inventory will be more limited than on-line firms. Hope this helps.
I’ll take an established hotel or vacation rental company any day over VRBO. I’ve heard enough horror stories from friends and neighbors whose vacations were ruined by a VRBO listing, not to mention the money lost.
Just one example; several years ago a neighbor answered their front door to find a family, suitcases in hand, who had “rented” their home off of VRBO (or possibly a similar site) to be at their son’s college graduation. Of course, my neighbor knew nothing about it and the family was left in a lurch at the last minute with no place to stay on graduation weekend in a college town.
Buyer beware!
What are what you would consider established rental companies?
I had a similar problem with an online fax provider and also solved it with a credit card challenge.
I will not be using Houzlet after reading this post.
Dick, thanks for the cautionary tale. I was wondering, did the VRBO rental have strong (5-star) reviews? I’ve seen more listings in our beach own and they all seem to have 5-star ratings. I wonder how they are controlled – does the owner control them? I’ve rented many places and there are many non-5 star places.
I don’t really recall, but I look for those when renting. I don’t think VRBO controls much at all, they just operate a website.
I found a substitute rental on VRBO, and thought it was all set. The next day I received a note saying due to technical reasons my rental requested was rejected. When I called VRBO to find out why I was told the house was already rented and that it was listed on several sites by the owner. VRBO told me they had no way to control that. For several days after the house still showed up as available on VRBO.
The key is not VRBO, but the owner or rental agent and when first reserving, you don’t know who that is until they accept the rental.
I think that’s right. I’ve rented twice off VRBO, and both times I ended up dealing directly with the owners. The second one was pretty aggressive about trying to get me to rent again, telling me that she’d give me a discount if I went directly through her and not VRBO.
What a mess. Glad to read you got your money back, even though you paid for altered plans. Thanks for the warning to dig deeper for information on VRBO rentals.