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What do you do when your VRBO rental is a nightmare in Lake Geneva?

What do you do when your VRBO rental is a nightmare in Lake Geneva?

Old Oct 22nd, 2014, 06:05 PM
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What do you do when your VRBO rental is a nightmare in Lake Geneva?

My DH and I travel extensively and like to rent apartments. We took a 3 month once in a lifetime trip to France and Italy and decided to end our extended trip in Lake Geneva Wisconsin where we used to own a second home in our to see friends and family before our drive cross country back to California. We had just been commenting how fortunate we were to have stayed in such great places on our trip when we got to the rental in Wisconsin. spoke to soon. We rented through VRBO and had to pay the rental upfront. When we arrived there was a keypad lock and the owner wasn't there as he lives in Chicago. The minute we opened the door we knew there was a problem. We were hit in the face cheap air freshener smell. The actual property looked very nice but as we unplugged the air fresheners we could tell there was a horrible mildew smell in the master bedroom and Living room. after much back and forth with the owner we ultimately cut short our stay because the mildew was affecting us physically with headaches and wheezing . It was very difficult to obtain a refund for the remainder of the stay and we ended up having to cancel most of our plans with friends and family.

Until this point I have had a postive experience with VRBO but this is a perfect example of how it can go wrong. Is there a way to protect oneself ffor a very expensive rental when owners insist on upfront payments? Curious to hear how others have handled similiar situations.
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Old Oct 22nd, 2014, 06:22 PM
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If it was actually uninhabitable (you'd need supporting evidence of some sort - not just your word) a credit card dispute might work.

Or . . If it was a lot of $$ and worth the effort of traveling to Chicago, small claims court.

But really, trip insurance -- w/ adequate evidence -- would have been your best bet.
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Old Oct 22nd, 2014, 07:38 PM
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kelbo, all this research needed to be done before you go into a vacation rental situation:

1. You need to check if the vacation rental is legal. This can require quite a bit of work: several e-mails/calls to municipalities, condominium and/or homeowner associations, perhaps BBB

2. You need to ascertain what protection you have under the law and what recourse you might have if something should go awry.

And you have to do this for EVERY single separate location where you are considering a vacation rental, because the ordinances and laws are different for different municipalities.

At this point, you can do the extensive research yourself and see what is available for you. This may be a little convoluted because you are a resident of California, the property is in Wisconsin and the owner of it is in Chicago. There are also attorneys which specialize in this type of law. You could check with your own personal attorney and see if he has any suggestions, but he may refer you to another.

You may not have the same protection with that vacation rental at that which you would have had with a hotel.

I'm also not sure that trip insurance would have been of any benefit, if the vacation rental was be determined to be illegal. Also, it may depend on what causes the property to be uninhabitable.

janisj, this may not be a Chicago matter. The property is located in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2014, 03:49 AM
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With this situation, the only hope you'd have of avoiding it would be if you'd been able to read a review of the property mentioning the offending smells. I trust you will be posting such a review at VRBO to help future travelers.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2014, 07:36 AM
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Thanks everyone. The condo is legally registered with the state, I did check the reviews ( although there were only four, and looking back two of them look fake now). I have also posted a review on VRBO being very careful to follow their " guidelines" . We will see if it gets posted.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2014, 09:29 AM
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kelbo, I didn't want you to think I was being harsh with the above answer, but there is such a lot of prior research that needs to be done on vacation rentals if someone is thinking about this option. In fact, based on the answers one discovers, they might find it preferable to just go the hotel route.

I'm not sure what you mean by "condo legally registered with state"???

I'll give you an example of what I mean...In the City of Chicago, vacation rentals units of less than 30 days must be *licensed* with the City in order for them to be legal. The owners must have the proper insurance for such an enterprise, meet the public safety guidelines and fire codes, etc.

But, in addition to that, if it is located in a condo/townhome/homeowner's association, the bylaws might prohibit such usage. There have been instances of some associations taking legal action against them, shutting down this type of usage.

So, if this was in the City of Chicago, you would have to make certain that it is 1) licensed by the City of Chicago (meeting all their criteria) - the license number would have to be shown *for that specific, sole unit*; and 2) and such occupancy would have to be allowed by the condominium association.

Then you would need to see what legal consumer rights you have with these and what legal recourse. If you have little or none, compared with what you do with hotels, motels, B&Bs or inns, perhaps you may not wish to pursue this route at all.

What constitutes a legal vacation rental in Lake Geneva may be different. As I mentioned above, you have to check every municipality's ordinances/laws where you are considering this. AND if it is part of a condo, townhouse or homeowners association, you'd have to check on that as well. Two associations in the same municipality may have different bylaws, where one is silent on this and the other specifically prohibit such use.

You may also wish to check the BBB to see if they are listed and if were any complaints lodged against this particular owner.

Of course, then you can go on and check the location, amenities, reviews, etc.

You can see what type of legal wranglings are happening with Airbnb in NYC and SF - and they aren't the only ones involved with this matter, either.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2014, 09:37 AM
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Sorry, I meant to mention this as well:

With regard to trip insurance, you'd have to discuss the matter with a licensed insurance professional. The insurance contract would spell out the terms of when the coverage would apply and when it wouldn't.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2014, 09:37 AM
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<It was very difficult to obtain a refund for the remainder of the stay>

That implies you were able to get a refund. Yes?

If so, you are looking for advice on how to prevent future issues and deal with problem properties should you encounter them, correct?
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Old Oct 23rd, 2014, 11:02 AM
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The owner is in Chicago - the money was sent to Chicago - the best place to use small claims court would be in Chicago.- but unless it was a huge amount of money likely not worth the effort.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2014, 12:28 PM
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Ultimately we were able to leave the unit early and obtain a partial refund. This wasn't without alot of distress and unpleasantness dealing with the owner, It isn't worth my time or effort to take someone to small claims court as i would have to fly to Chicago, at my expense, and take off work. I use VRBO quite often and this is the first instance I have run into a serious problem. I am looking for ways to protect oneself in the future, as I do enjoy renting apartments and condos versus hotels. I guess the real question is , is there really a way to protect oneself with VRBO? It becomes a he said, she said scenario when it comes to " Smells" and odors. Once I suggested we get a mold specialist into the condo , he offered the partial refund and at that point I just wanted out and some of my money back. I see very very few negative reviews on VRBO and I believe they are screened somehow by the owner. This unit had nothing but 5 star reviews...although there were just a handful of them, but that isnt uncommon for the area. I wrote a very factual review and highlighted positives and negatives about the property. Itsbeen 48 hours and it hasnt shown up yet on VRBO.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2014, 12:39 PM
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no, of course there isn't. That's the risk you take by renting unseen properties from an individual on the internet. I'm astounded you got any refund just because you didn't like the smell.

I can't imagine trip insurance would cover a case where you decided you didn't like the smell in a place you rented. You would have to have some certificate from the health dept declaring it uninhabitable, I imagine.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2014, 12:59 PM
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http://www.vacationprotection.com/?a...ntal-Guarantee

Lots of fine print and I'm not sure something like this would even be covered.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2014, 02:42 PM
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Although this is a moot point for the OP, there are small claims court advisors who could be consulted in order to determine the correct place to file the first time.

And it might be a very good thing to do some research (sorry!) on any company offering the type of a policy such as the one mentioned above by Patty.
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Old Oct 23rd, 2014, 03:06 PM
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VRBO used to allow owners to decide which reviews to publish, but no longer. They can only add a rebuttal. In my experience, it takes about 4-5 days for a review to post.
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Old Oct 24th, 2014, 06:52 AM
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I think it is just part of the deal, of the 30 or so VRBO rentals we have made one was not great, but not bad enough to warrant a refund. I like places with lots of reviews; the only bad experience we had only had a couple, but I really liked the location.
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Old Oct 24th, 2014, 08:30 AM
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<It isn't worth my time or effort to take someone to small claims court as i would have to fly to Chicago, at my expense, and take off work.>

I once filed a suit in small claims court, and my opponent sent me the money he owed me as soon as he was notified of the suit--apparently, it wasn't worth HIS time to deal with my suit, so a win for me! You might consider filing even if you don't intend to show up...

I wish I had better advice to give, but I think the "payment in full in advance" part was the part where you lost.
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Old Oct 24th, 2014, 12:23 PM
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Thinking that research means merely looking at photos online and reading reviews is a BIG mistake.

Anyone who does no more research than that is leaving themselves wide open for problems, IMHO.
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Old Oct 24th, 2014, 12:26 PM
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Newbe, of all the houses and apartments and villas I have rented full payment is generally due a month ahead.
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Old Oct 24th, 2014, 06:39 PM
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Every VRBO rental I have done has asked for payment 14 to 30 days in advance. So the downside is basically there is no protecting oneself except to read between the lines of reviews and hope that there are many of them. I had done my due diligence and checked with the BBB, made sure it was registered as a rental and had a contract. I spoke to the owner by phone before the rental as well. My reason for the post is the realization that you really cannot protect yourself with a VRBO rental , in any way shape or form IF there is an issue once you get to the unit. Once I asked the owner to hire a miod specialist to come in to assess the situation he quickly reversed course and offered a partial refund .At that point I cut my losses because I was leaving regardless.
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Old Oct 24th, 2014, 08:10 PM
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jubilada and kelbo, I didn't mean that you, kelbo, should not have paid in full--my remark sounded harsh, I see in retrospect. I meant only that under that circumstance, which, as you both point out, is a common one, there is little to be done after the fact. I said it to underscore that this is a risk one takes when renting.
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