Any one with experience with VACASA rental company?

[harllee]

I live in North Carolina and have been renting vacation homes in the North Carolina mountains for several months each summer for the last few years. This summer we are in a nice rental house that we rented from a locally owned rental agency. We liked the house so much that at the beginning of this summer we signed a lease with the local rental agency to rent the house for 6 months for next summer (summer of 2020) and put down a $3000 deposit. Then in June we got notice that the local rental agency had been bought out by VACASA, a national rental agency headquartered in Portland Oregon. We immediately noticed that dealing with VACASA on repairs, etc was not nearly as good as dealing with the local agent.

Then a few weeks ago Vacasa notified us that the house we had rented for next year was being taken off the rental market for next summer for "repairs." Our lease allows a house to be taken off the market for "repairs". Vacasa tells us we will get our deposit back "sometime soon". We complain and ask for our deposit back immediately, we file a dispute with our credit card and finally get the deposit back, takes about 10 days.

So we start looking for another place. Nothing we like is available for next summer at this late date. We are going to have to settle for a house/area we don't like. In doing our search for a new place, we see that the house we had rented is still shown as available for next summer on Vacasa's website but at a MUCH higher price (about double what we were paying). We call Vacasa and they say their website is a mistake, that the house is suppose to be off the market next summer. But a couple of weeks have gone by and the house is still being advertised for rent next summer by Vacasa. We figure Vacasa and/or the owner of our house breached our lease because they think they can get a higher rent.

Anybody with any experience with Vacasa? Any advice for me?

 

[ivinsfan]

Unfortunately my advice it to move on...it's obviously NOT a mistake but the only way to prove it would be book it and make a down payment. It's really not worth the effort IMO..This is all happening in NC so if you want to complain to the AG go for it, but don't expect much to happen.

I'm guessing if they found someone to pay the higher price, the need for repairs would suddenly vanish or be "rescheduled"..

 

[harllee]

OP here, good idea about filing a complaint with the NC Attorney General. After my current lease with Vacasa is over I will confirm the house is still for rent for next summer and then I may file a complaint with the North Carolina Real Estate commission as well as doing reviews on Facebook, Yelp, Tripadvisor, etc. I don't like to be cheated by a big corporation.

 

[jpeter1093]

Good for you. If we allow ourselves to be 'taken'; then we will continue to be 'taken'

 

[harllee]

OP here. I wanted to update what has happened regarding my vacation rental with Vacasa. Shortly after I started this thread someone from Vacasa contacted DH and me and apologized for the situation. Vacasa's employee said that the owner of the house we had rented for next summer had told the local rental agency he did not want to rent the house long term next summer because he was going to remodel the house. However, when Vacasa bought out the local rental agency the owner's request was not documented and it did not get on Vacasa's computer system.

After Vacasa apologized they made an effort to find us a substitute rental and showed us a house available for rent next summer in our preferred area. Unfortunately that house did not work for us because it had too many steps.

I talked with the construction person who is going to be working on the house we had wanted to rent next summer (he came to the house to look at the job) who told me that there will be quite a bit of remodeling on the house, some to be done in November and some next spring. So it does appear that the house will not be available for at least a portion of the time we had it rented next summer. Vacasa has now removed next summer's rental dates for this house from its website.

We are now working with a different vacation rental agency who we hope will be able to find us a house to rent for next summer.

As part of their apology, Vacasa has now offered us a future complimentary stay at some other property that they mange up to a maximum of $1200.

 

[Z3Dreamer]

I live in the mountains of NC. In Watauga County. Any chance you could tell which local company was bought out?

 

[harllee]

Dereka’s Sugar Mountain was the local rental agency that was bought out.