VRBO or AirBnB

[ivinsfan]

I haven't done a booking on either site for over 2 years now. I'm getting ready to pull the trigger on a 5 week stay in the St. George area of Southern Utah, from mid Jan toward late Feb.

My last booking on VRBO was a disaster, as someone slipped in a completely bogus listing for the same area. A guy who had some legit rentals he was running for other people and somehow was able to list "fake" properties that he had no interest in. He really faked me out, we actually talked on the phone several times, he had extensive knowledge of the area. He gave me a good price but not good enough that I should have been wary of it. To add insult to injury I had to report him myself as I was emailing to extend my dates and he just went MIA. I later found out he has gypped the owners he was working with of booking money and been replace with the knowledge of VRBO, but I was never notified even after the fake listing had been removed

I had bought the VRBO insurance for the first time ever since it was a 5 week rental. Long story short I got my money back after an untold amount of hassles. Unfortunately, for the SGU area VRBO has many more listing then AirBnb. So I am looking at both but, still leery of VRBO...I noticed they seem to roll the insurance for fraud and misrepresentation right into the final price of the rental, so it now looks like that is mandatory, which doesn't inspire a ton of confidence.

Actually I have never booked on AirBnb, so can anybody share stories good and bad about problems you have run into and how the companies helped or didn't help you solve them. There are a few old threads about this but I think updated information is more helpful.

 

[Earl E Retyre]

Wow, that is awful.

We used VRBO only 3 times and had good experiences. The last VRBO rental was only about a week ago and the person we were renting it from had us pay him directly (via credit card) as opposed to paying through the VRBO site. I was a little leery of it, but he had all 5 star reviews and VRBO allows this. It turned out to all be good. But after reading your story, I may not book again unless I can pay through VRBO.

While reviews can be fake, I would not book unless there are a fair number of reviews and they were all positive.

I have never used AirBnb.

 

[ivinsfan]

So I just got a nice response from an owner on VRBO and the email come from VRBO so we can't email directly. I had a couple of small question and I have to log on to VRBO check-in and send her another rate request to ask my question. She emailed me her personal email in the VRBO response and VRBO BLOCKED IT OUT...

They did let her cell number thru so I guess I can text for her email, but for crying out loud.

 

[nwsteve]

You might check out TripAdvisor's FlipKey service as an option. We have reserved a month in Sedona starting in Jan and have had several direct exchanges with condo owner.

 

[folivier]

We spent last March at the New Harmony House through VRBO. Really nice house, big yard, beautiful view of the Kolobs out the back door. But we did have snow the first few days that lasted a week before it melted.
New Harmony is just off the interstate between Cedar City and St. George.

 

[ivinsfan]

We spent last March at the New Harmony House through VRBO. Really nice house, big yard, beautiful view of the Kolobs out the back door. But we did have snow the first few days that lasted a week before it melted.
New Harmony is just off the interstate between Cedar City and St. George.

yes it's a nice area but for mid-Jan to mid Feb, it's going to be a little cooler.

 

[savory]

We've used Air BNB in various towns. Most of the time the host was there and perhaps our longest stay was 8 days in one location. Sometimes the host would give us their room if the house was not set up well for two guests. We would move on to the next location enjoying a town for a little while.

It worked well for us. We always had our own room and bathroom. And, often use of the kitchen but not always. Obviously, you need to comfortable with a roommate who has been very accomadating. Works for us.

 

[Nemo2]

Never used VRBO, but have used Airbnb, Wimdu and House Trip numerous times without problems.

 

[NW-Bound]

I have always stayed at hotels, and never at a private rental place. The summer of 2017 will be the 1st time I use AirBnB in Europe. I would not want to send my money directly to a stranger, and AirBnB looks like a safe approach.

 

[ohyes]

We have used VRBO numerous times, never AirBnB, though I almost always find the rental we choose listed on both sites.

As somebody else already mentioned, we only book properties with numerous positive reviews. We look for ten or more and never book if it has more than one semi-negative review.

Keep us posted, please. I have been thinking about trying AirBnB. I am sorry to hear you had that bad experience. (That guy was quite the jerk.)

 

[ivinsfan]

You can have a bad experience anywhere, but I wasn't thrilled with the back-up provided by VRBO, that's my main issue.

 

[HadEnuff]

I am curious to learn if any savvy VRBO users here could enlighten us as to ways to identify fraudulent listings. I have never actually rented anything via VRBO, but I've surfed the site, and could see myself using it.

 

[donheff]

I have used VRBO and AirBnB several times. All were satisfactory but a few experiences with flaky owners who made me worry about fraud were nerve racking. One was in a trendy (read sketchy) area of Berlin that my daughter and her boy friend who were with us wanted to stay at. The owner had to take a subway down to meet us and we sat out front for an hour worrying that he would be a no show. Ended up working out fine and the apartment and neighborhood were fun. On AirBnB I have used the certified owners feature (or whatever it is called) recently. I am more worried about arriving at my destination to find out it was BS than losing money. It is the disruption of a trip that would be alarming.

 

[big-papa]

I've used VRBO, Homeaway and Flipkey. Haven't had any issues, but I do make sure that there are reviews. BTW, VRBO and Homeaway are owned by the same company. There are also some other, smaller services out there that are also part of Homeaway.

 

[BellBarbara]

We have used both with no issues, I agree that lots of reviews on the exact property are important. I think fraud is widespread these days. A friend of ours stopped using these online services after a very bad experience and he now swears by using local real estate offices that carry rentals in the area he is interested in. He said once he went to one of the properties and didn't love that there was construction next door and the RE company put him in a different property.

I would like to try TripAdvisor though.....

 

[ivinsfan]

Well in my case, the fraud came because the guy actually had legitimate VRBO properties that had lots of very good reviews attached to them that said how good the rental people were to deal with and that things went fine. The actually property I rented was listed as a new listing and it did not have any reviews. The jerk explained very smoothly that he handled listings for many owners, which in not unusual in an area with lots of second homes and went on to say one of his owners had bought a single family home and wanted income from it. He knew the area inside and out and said any of these places would work so it's up to you. Of course he didn't care which place I took because he was ripping off the legit owners too, taking their money and not doing the reservations for anyone.
This was I was so ticked off, I asked VRBO do you have no safeguards in place to prevent people taking reservations for properties they don't actually own, which seems like kind of no brainer, and why didn't you tell me the dude had been kicked off your site for ripping off the actual owners who are paying you money to show their listings. I never got a good answer. So now I try to actually rent from a real live owner and deal directly with them, which kinds of limits some of your choices.

 

[Koogie]

Have used Airbnb a lot, four times just in the last year and have another one coming up in February. Always as represented and no problems so far.

Used VRBO once. Got screwed by the host who double booked his property and cancelled on us on the day of arrival ! Got all our money back but my complaint to VRBO was answered with a form letter and that was it for support from them. Never again.

 

[kcowan]

We have used VRBO for European bookings many times. The contact has been the rental agent. No problems. Suggestions for improvement do not get passed on to the owners so I guess the agent is covering their ass.

 

[cbo111]

We have used VRBO about a dozen times with no issues. We only rent from units with lots of feedback and pictures. We prefer to cook our own food when traveling and VRBO usually has reasonable units that have full kitchens, frequently much cheaper than hotels. The only downside is if you cancel within a week (or even a month cases), you forfeit your deposit.

 

[ivinsfan]

So as I mentioned VRBO now has things set up so that you and your owner cannot see each others email. Low and behold I just got an email from a private Yahoo account about a condo that actually has a lot of pretty good reviews attached to it. I did send a rental quote request thru the VRBO website server.

However this woman just gave me her first name and said if I wanted to send a check she could give me a very good discount..in fact the discount was too good..it was lower then any of my other quotes by over 600 bucks. I answered her by saying yes that is a good price but would you mind explaining to me how you got my private email and then sending me a quote thru the real VRBO website, I said if it's higher so be it, that's how I want to deal with you for reasons of safety for my money. Haven't heard back yet...

 

[Ronnieboy]

I have never rented thru any of the sites, but my brother has used VRBO many times, once for a large group vacation/celebration in St Thomas about 3 years ago. The actual trip was great and everything turned out really well.

I too would be skeptical of online fraud as I don't know how hard it is that these sites vet the owners or representatives of the homes?? I don't think it would be too hard to apply to VRBO as a homeowner, lift some pics off of a realtors site or home builder in the area and post a fake ad for a real house. Take multiple reservations - as the majority seem to require 50% down when you make the reservation - then skip with the cash before the first actual reservation shows up.

 

[Davis65]

As I understand it, Airbnb charges you when you reserve, but doesn't pay the owner until the day after you check in. So if there is no apartment, you call Airbnb and you get your money back. The owner doesn't get paid. I ve never had to do this, though.

I booked a bunch of Airbnbs in Europe this autumn, and had no problems with any of them.

I tried to book an apartment in Italy through Homeaway, and had several delays in getting information from the owner, and eventually she sent me bank account information so I could transfer the money to get Italian bank account. Um, no thanks. I pictured getting there, finding no apartment, and then trying to convince an Italian bank to refund my money.

I booked an Airbnb, and explained to the HomeAway owner why I didn't book with her. She replied that she was finding HomeAway too much of a hassle, and was going to switch to Airbnb.

 

[Nemo2]

As I understand it, Airbnb charges you when you reserve, but doesn't pay the owner until the day after you check in.

I believe that's exactly how it works with Airbnb, Wimdu and House trip.

 

[ivinsfan]

My issue is ST George Utah..AirBnb..20 properties open during my stay

VRBO 237 properties open for my date....

 

[KmmFIdreamer]

I have rented a lot with VRBO and not had any problems. I do look for the owner operated ones but have booked one with property manager at the local ski area with no problem. (I actually use the same property manager now for my vacation rental that I own!)

I have no personal experience with AirBnb, but a coworker of mine has used it a few times and been pleased.

I definitely think that paying thru the service is easiest, but I have also sent a check to one owner. I definitely think that one should be cautious though, just as you would be in purchasing anything....

I can see the point of it being a problem if the listing isn't legit - some places are so booked to capacity that it could be difficult to find other accommodations at last minute.