Questions to VRBO owners

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skp
Posts: 317
Joined: Tue May 01, 2018 8:12 am

Questions to VRBO owners

Post by skp »

I recently rented a VRBO beach house, and I wondering what VRBO owners thought of my situation. I guess I just feel nickel and dimed and am annoyed, and I wonder if the below is standard operating procedure or if I am just being unreasonable. About a month after renting the home and paying my initial deposit, I received notification that I was being charged an additional $100 cleaning fee for a new grill that they just bought (refundable if we left the grill clean). The cost of the house was high enough that I felt a grill would not incur an additional expense. But whatever. I was already feeling somewhat perturbed. I was also mandated to purchase damage insurance which I initially didn't think much of... until 7 months later. Now I am really pissed. I just got a notification that the insurance was paying the owners $50 for a towel we supposedly took (and we didn't). The notification from the insurance stated that since I paid the damage insurance, it isn't causing me any additional expense. Are the owners gaming the system. Are they counting on that If it isn't costing people anything they won't complain. Probably if it wasn't for the additional grill charge I would be less annoyed. So I am wondering if 1) this is standard procedure. 2) if the owners do this on a routine basis will the insurance figure them out. It isn't costing me anything should I just ignore?
NYCaviator
Posts: 1967
Joined: Sat Apr 09, 2016 5:06 pm
Location: NYC

Re: Questions to VRBO owners

Post by NYCaviator »

skp wrote: Sun Mar 26, 2023 3:32 pm I recently rented a VRBO beach house, and I wondering what VRBO owners thought of my situation. I guess I just feel nickel and dimed and am annoyed, and I wonder if the below is standard operating procedure or if I am just being unreasonable. About a month after renting the home and paying my initial deposit, I received notification that I was being charged an additional $100 cleaning fee for a new grill that they just bought (refundable if we left the grill clean). The cost of the house was high enough that I felt a grill would not incur an additional expense. But whatever. I was already feeling somewhat perturbed. I was also mandated to purchase damage insurance which I initially didn't think much of... until 7 months later. Now I am really pissed. I just got a notification that the insurance was paying the owners $50 for a towel we supposedly took (and we didn't). The notification from the insurance stated that since I paid the damage insurance, it isn't causing me any additional expense. Are the owners gaming the system. Are they counting on that If it isn't costing people anything they won't complain. Probably if it wasn't for the additional grill charge I would be less annoyed. So I am wondering if 1) this is standard procedure. 2) if the owners do this on a routine basis will the insurance figure them out. It isn't costing me anything should I just ignore?
That seems very odd. We mostly use AirBnB, but the last time I used VRBO I don’t remember having to pay for separate damage insurance, or it even being offered. And the “price” should be told to you at booking. I’d take this up through VRBO and leave the owners a really bad review. That’s a garbage way to run a vacation rental, and hopefully a bad review will help someone else avoid these shady owners.

Sounds like these owners probably bought a vacation rental not mowing that doing so basically makes you a hotelier, with the attendant costs and hassle.
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