Need opinions on VRBO!
 

Hey all,

Just need some opinions on booking a rental through vrbo.com. I am planning a trip to NYC in October and this seems to be a good alternative to sky-rocketing hotel prices.

General info on the site would be great and if anyone could actually recommend a NYC rental they've stayed in or know about, that would be fantastic! Word of mouth is always better than going blindly about it ;)

Strongly consider choosing a condo with plenty of good comments from previous renters,this is a good indication you won't be disappointed!

I have used vrbo.com for rentals in the Cape May area, northern Maine, West Yarmouth and NYC, and have been very satisfied. The Manhattan place we rented is not longer offered. I'd recommend talking to the owner by phone and be sure to sign a contract.

I can't vouch for NYC properties, but CAN/WILL vouch for vrbo.com in general. I rented a great condo in Waikiki for two weeks this summer and I doubt I'll ever stay in another hotel! The whole experience/process went very well and I love the flexibilty of dealing with the owner vs a hotel and all their rules. Also - as you mentioned - the prices for what you get FAR surpass what you get/pay for in a hotel. I agree with the other poster - try to find one with satisified comments from previous renters. Also - one thing I found helpful before I rented mine was to try and get one where either the owner or the agent is located near to the property in case there are any problems that come up (like clogged toilets or sinks, a/c on the fritz, etc) so they can be easily taken care of.

Thanks all, these are good tips and helpful with putting my mind at ease trying something new. One other thing though---where do you find comments from previous renters? Did I just totally blank out on that resource, or is it a little tricky to get to/outside of the vrbo site?

I rented a house in Sonoma, California (Wine Country) thru VRBO. It was terrific!

jg, if there are comments, there's a link on the website page.

thanks starrsville, they're kind of indesript, huh? it's nice for the ones that actually have them though!

Here's some advice posted here on Fodors by Marvin Floyd, General Manager of VRBO.

Author: mdfloyd322
Date: 12/31/2004, 01:07 am
First, I must say, I am the General Manager of VRBO.com so take my comments as being from that perspective. For the one person below who doesn't know who we are, we simply list the properties for rent at our website. We are not an agent or property management company.

I will try to make my comments generic, meaning that they pertain to any vacation rental site and it I don't know how other sites deal with a subject, I will that VRBO.com does it 'this way'.

When looking online for a vacation rental property one of the first things to consider is how long a property has been on a site. The longer it's been there the higher the chance it is a legitimate rental. If something's been on a site for a very short period of time there is no history for it and the site would have no way to know anything about it. That doesn't mean not to consider new listings, it just means that you need to be more careful.

At VRBO.com, if asked we will tell prospective renters how long a listing has been online and it's also posted at the bottom of each listing.

VRBO.com has nearly 32,000 listings and we've only had a small number of complaints from renters that they were charged for damages that they didn't cause. In the unlikely event that this happens, you can try and work through the problem with the owner and/or contact the site. VRBO.com makes a note of issues like this and if a listing is accused of withholding deposits more than one time by different renters we generally will remove them and ban the owner from further listings.

We have also recently enlisted the services of an Internet arbitration company called Square Trade to help resolve problems of this sort. The other sites we partner with in the Rentors.org site also participate. They are Greatrentals.com, A1vacations.com, and Cyberrentals.com.

The best way to reserve any vacation rental is to use a credit card. If possible do that. If there are problems, the card company will do a 'chargeback'. The vendor (rental owner) does not want this to happen as they are penalized when it does, plus the lose the entire rental money generally. PayPal is less willing to work with renters it appears from what we've heard from renters. Each VRBO.com listing has an icon on the index pages indicating which listing accept credit cards and I believe most other sites do as well.

One of the comments below is very good (actually most of them are...grin). Talk with the owner and ask for references. If they hesitate, you should wonder why. Most will have a list of references at hand they are happy to provide. Call at least one of them at random.

Remember, you are spending a lot of money on their homes and you have the right to interview them as much as they have the right to interview you. It's a two-way street here and it needs to be a good match.

Be sure that they owner uses a rental agreement or contract. That will prevent problems/surprises from occuring later. I'm still amazed how many owners do not use one. I'd move on to the next owner and tell them why you will not be renting from them. Losing a single rental worth hundreds or thousands of dollars might get their attention.

In conclusion, each vacation rental site has about as many individual owners as they do properties and each one has different policies and approaches to renting. Some require payment in full by check in advance while others will accept payment upon arrival after getting an earlier deposit to hold the reservation. Some accept credit cards and other use PayPal.

Again, be sure that they use a rental agreement to spell out everything: deposit amount, damage deposit and its refund, cleaning feees, taxes, check-in and out times, use of facilities like the pool, club, beach, etc. By being sure of what to expect in advance you run much less risk of getting scammed and having the deposit held for whatever reason.

Enjoy your vacations and have a great 2005.

Marvin Floyd
General Manager - www.VRBO.com
'Carpe Vacationum - Seize the Vacation' (R)

We rented a house in Michigan on Lake Michigan that we found on vrbo.com and it was beautiful! The owner was wonderful and the whole experience was great!

emd---thanks so much for posting that gm's comments, it is certainly helpful!

From an owner's perspective, I have had a wonderful experience with VRBO. I have a house that I rent through that site and the guests have all been really terrific! We usually email back and forth and by the time they get there they are like friends...and they treat the house as if they knew me. It has worked out just fine.

I have rented using VRBO in Paris, Amsterdam, Rome, Venice, Florence...
all with great success.

When we lived on Kauai our guest cottage was listed on VRBO and our renters were always wonderful.

There is usually quite a bit of back and forth e-mail correspondence between owner and renter before the vacation commences. I always felt comfortable being the renter and the rentee!

v - did you warn your guest about cane spiders or answered only when asked? :)

cabovacation, is your rental home in cabo, or is that where you like to vacation---maybe a little of both? i ask since the reason for a trip in october is to "replace" a trip we didn't get to take for my beau's 30th in june. sadly, i was in a car accident that put the trip on the back burner. but we were planning for hawaii or mexico then and cabo was on the list...tthe only real reason i'm looking at nyc now instead is because of hurricane season, but i am known to be a worry wart and i have done cancun in the fall before. i dunno, just a thought.

i like the idea of a lot of back and forth communication before the actual trip; just makes it feel more concrete i guess.

and will someone please tell me what the heck a cane spider is???

http://www.instanthawaii.com/cgi-bin...i?Animals.cane


cute little critters, well as big as your hand. and yes, they are harmless!

http://www.instanthawaii.com/cgi-bin...i?Animals.cane

try this

a few years back we rented a house on the big island (hilo side) and i'm sad to say the screams my sisters and i issued upon seeing what i think (now that i've checked out that site) was a cane spider was enough for our dad to run in and do away with him. poor guy, we just didn't know :(

LOL Kauai_aka. No, I did not make a disclaimer about cane spiders though I did hear blood curdling screams one night when the renters came home late as our back lawn was covered by hundreds of bufos.

aaa, so you forgot that minor detail...poo tings