Join Early Retirement Today
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 06-19-2013, 12:32 PM   #21
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
kcowan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Pacific latitude 20/49
Posts: 7,677
Send a message via Skype™ to kcowan
We used vrbo in Paris and in Lucca. All three were exceptional experiences. I tried to provide feedback to the owners but all 3 rentals were through agents. It was not possible to pass on suggestions to the owners. The person who lists the property gets to approve all the feedback so don't expect anything negative. You need to rely on volume of recent reviews.
__________________
For the fun of it...Keith
kcowan is offline   Reply With Quote
Join the #1 Early Retirement and Financial Independence Forum Today - It's Totally Free!

Are you planning to be financially independent as early as possible so you can live life on your own terms? Discuss successful investing strategies, asset allocation models, tax strategies and other related topics in our online forum community. Our members range from young folks just starting their journey to financial independence, military retirees and even multimillionaires. No matter where you fit in you'll find that Early-Retirement.org is a great community to join. Best of all it's totally FREE!

You are currently viewing our boards as a guest so you have limited access to our community. Please take the time to register and you will gain a lot of great new features including; the ability to participate in discussions, network with our members, see fewer ads, upload photographs, create a retirement blog, send private messages and so much, much more!

Old 06-19-2013, 02:19 PM   #22
Moderator
rodi's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: San Diego
Posts: 14,169
I've used VRBO, homeaway, and various country specific listing places. I alway felt like I had enough information about the place by reading the reviews... not just on vrbo... but on trip advisor, flipkey, etc...

My trick for both finding reviews, and finding other places the rental might be listed (for a lower price) is to look at the "name" used for the rental. Often, the vrbo listing will link to a homeowners personal website listing... and there might be lower rates there.

I've never done a last minute rental... I'm too anal to leave a detail as important as a week long accommodation to the last minute.

Most recent VRBO was a great 1br apt in the French Quarter of NOLA. Next one planned is for a gathering for my BFF's 50th b-day - a fabulous spanish style view home in Santa Barbara.

Favorite vacation rental - this one: Vacation rental - Taormina - Apartments - Residence Schuler - Holiday Accommodation - Villa - Terrace on the sea
rodi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 06-19-2013, 02:33 PM   #23
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
Give me a forum ...
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 7,746
I just got back from a VRBO rental in the mountains of NC. Lake front 4 bedroom cabin place that usually rents for $350 per night. We only needed it for a few nights. I searched for Lakefront 3-5 bedrooms in the area we wanted. Spent maybe an hour or so going through listings. Some had special rates for short notice stays (within 2 weeks or so). I contacted 2 owners that were offering half off their normal rates - $175/nt for one, and $150/nt for the other. Both very similar places. The $175/nt owner called me first. I asked if she would match the $150/nt place. Yep. So I booked with her for 2 nights.

So I ended up paying less than half the going rate. She had great reviews, with no real negative ones on vrbo. No surprises during our stay.

My advice would be to do a little due diligence on the place (read reviews, see if the owner is responsive and a real person). Spend some time searching the listings, seeing if any offer discounts. Find some you like that are in your price range and see if they want to negotiate. Some owners will be of the mindset that their particular palace is worth every penny they are asking and will be insulted if you don't pay the asking price. Others just want to make a buck and will take a reasonable offer to fill up the space. In my search, we had the flexibility to go whenever we wanted for a variable number of nights, and also had the choice to simply not go on the trip if we couldn't find anything reasonable that met our specs. So we ended up getting 2 nights in between the normal weekly Saturday to Saturday rentals that the owner was having a hard time filling

We didn't have to pay any reservation fee or cleaning fees, which some places were charging up to $90-100. Our owner had wrapped these expenses into a 5% "admin" fee that she hid in the "tax" fee, but disclosed it when I asked her why her taxes were 5% higher than competing properties. $15 fee on $300 seems very reasonable since her credit card fees were probably close to that much (paid by paypal).
__________________
Retired in 2013 at age 33. Keeping busy reading, blogging, relaxing, gaming, and enjoying the outdoors with my wife and 3 kids (8, 13, and 15).
FUEGO is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


» Quick Links

 
All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:17 AM.
 
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.