I believe there is a separate section on VRBO, something like “Other info renters should know” where you can mention the dirt road or how far the nearest grocery is. You would think that renters reading your descriptive words of “rustic” and “very remote” would get the picture, but some people need to be tapped on the head.
I rented a house a few years ago that was wonderful, but the description neglected to mention how steep the driveway was. It was so steep that we had to get down on the ground and ease our rolling suitcases inch by inch to get them inside (the online pics showed only a fraction of the driveway and were taken at an angle that made it look level). An elderly person really would have struggled. I also wasn’t informed until after the final payment, in a “welcome to our home” document that the owner emailed me, that I had to haul the garbage to a dump - and this involved dragging cans up that very steep driveway. I complained about those two things in my review and took off a star. I’m sorry but if I pay a cleaning fee, I’m not hauling garbage in my car.
I stayed in a rental last week in FL for my annual college girls’ weekend. It wasn’t my year to plan so I’m always a bit nervous about what I’m walking into. This house was large enough for our group of 12 and looked amazing in the pics but upon arrival had many condition issues that weren’t reflected in the pics. The worst of which was that the lights would “strobe” and our hair dryers repeatedly blew the GFI plugs. We made it work, but I was ready to be back in my own home.
Oof, that is really wrong. When I first saw the description the property manager wrote for my cabin I was borderline insulted but now I see the wisdom of clearly stating all the drawbacks up front.
When my kids lived in SF we rented several different Airbnb’s/vrbo’s. I researched carefully and was never surprised about the location, condition, etc. and I have never complained on a review. But the one thing I didn’t care for was that in some SF rentals the owner lives downstairs and rents the upstairs. That’s fine (and convenient if you need something, and we once invited one owner to join us for appetizers on the deck) but one owner, a very nice owner and apparently one of the very first Airbnb renters, smoked, and the cigarette smoke would waft up the stairwell or through the windows (even some when closed) when he smoked outside. I didn’t like that as I am allergic.
The Airbnb where we currently stay when visiting MIL is the walkout basement of the hosts’s home. Everything about it is wonderful, but the path across the backyard to access the unit is very steep and uneven. It’s fine for us, but anyone who has balance issues or uses a cane or rollator would be unable to safely walk from their car to the unit. Nothing was mentioned in the description or in any of the reviews, so I found a way to mention it without sounding negative. I think it’s important information to share.
That is the perfect way to do it. I think also some owners don’t realize that things like this need to be mentioned, they think it’s just about the dwelling and immediate amenities like it has a pool or it’s waterfront. If I had listed on my own, it never would have occurred to me to mention that it’s at the end of a dirt two track road; every cabin I’d ever been to had been at the end of a dirt road so I just assumed people knew that. Even though the pictures of mine show that there are a lot of stairs, the description states that it’s not a good choice for people with mobility issues; had I been writing the blurb, it would have never occurred to me that I had to spell that out. And I think most owners take the reviews to heart; I bought bigger coffee mugs and had the road re-graded!
On the cleaning list, for my places, I ask people to start a load of towels if it is convenient. And I mention, laundry takes more time than anything & everyone wants early check in. If they can start those towels, we have a better chance of offering the next guest early check in. But I don’t rate anyone down if they don’t do it, especially if they leave early (super kind if hey let us know ahead of time they are leaving super early so cleaners can plan to get started sooner than normal.
I was annoyed once given only 4 (of 5) stars as the renter because not left clean enough. I’m not aware of anything we left in really bad shape. Admittedly I did not do a kitchen deep clean before leaving because we were paying a cleaning fee…. so I knew there would be professional cleaning crew coming between renters.
Ha! I was annoyed once, traveled to a place I had been several times, with 5 start reviews as guest.This time we had a 2 year old with us. Left in the dark, 5AM. I pretold the host that so the cleaner could plan.
Apparently there was some food under the table from the toddler and spilled coffee splashes on the counters. She immediately gave me a 1 star review and will not rent again. This means I cannot instant book and have to explain it to all.
When I received this, I was literally elbow deep in a poo clogged toilet. A happenstance where the guest checked into the wrong home (had stayed before with another guest as the main booker so did not read directions & the place they accidentally entered was unlocked as the managerr was coming and going) and left that messiness in the wrong home. Lucky it was me arriving & not a real guest.
I did not rate that guest down, it was a big group, he likely did not know someone else did that, it’s embbarassing for people to admit they clogged the toilet, etc. The irony of coffee splashes = won’t rent again (no conversation, no questions, just slammed) versus poop made me laugh out loud.
Hard to believe any star ratings, I only read the words as who knows how people rate.
We rarely book anything other than hotels, but are learning to, as sometimes it’s just much more convenient and cheaper to have a place with a kitchen and parking. We were mulling between several different rentals and finally found one that we liked. I really prefer when we have a SUPERHOST who is very responsive. I sent her several consecutive messages and she responded to each one. Another place we were considering was much slower at responding and never fully answered my question. The place we booked has the owners living in the house behind our rental home. As we aren’t wild partiers, that’s fine with us. The one slight drawback is that it only has an A/C in the main part of the house and the master bedroom. I told D that she will be in the master bedroom and if we find it too hot, we can always ask the host for a fan and leave the door open to the rest of the house. It has 59 reviews, all 5*, so it must be OK.
Last summer we stayed in an apartment in the BVI that just had an AC split unit in the bedroom, the rest of the place did not have AC.
It was more than fine. The bathroom had screens on the window and we kept that door closed, it wasn’t too hot.
The living room got plenty of AC from the bedroom, I would think that you wouldn’t be hot at all, we were very comfortable and we weren’t used to the heat and humidity.
It seems like it will work just fine for us and only one or two of the 59 reviews even mentioned the issue. Since D will be healing from surgery, I told her of course she gets the master bedroom with its own split A/C unit and H and I will be just fine. Hey, we just got A/C in our own home in the last few years, mostly so she would feel welcome to come and stay as often and long as she wants. Haha!
I did tell the other place that we loved their home but prefer to be closer to the surgeon as we need to make multiple trips to see him, which was why we canceled but will keep her place in mind for future visits (it’s near our friends in San Marino).
It’s important to compare terms on the different sites.
We just rented a beach house near Wilmington, NC for a June stay. It was listed on both VRBO and Airbnb, and each had different terms. The VRBO listing had a no refund policy, but the Airbnb listing had the normal cancellation and staggered payment provisions. We rented it on Airbnb, of course.
When I search both VRBO & AirBnB, I found more listings around $4000 or less for the time period I was interested in and better cancelation policies at AirBnB (hardly any at VRBO). I opted to stick with AirBnB, as so far have only had good experiences with them. The superhosts were quite responsive, especially compared to new regular hosts.
One of the places we had been considering said “washer/dryer on premises.” For H, that was a red flag that the appliances were NOT in the unit. I sent a message, as I didn’t see the washer/dryer in any photos and the host confirmed the washer/dryer was a few units down from the unit being rented and she “could check” on the price (but never did and never got back to me). I sent her a text that we would consider their place if we didn’t need to do laundry. (Haha) We are staying >2 weeks and of course we want to do laundry!
I just found a nice Airbnb in Gdansk and a good Vrbo in Krakow. My guidelines were that I would spend what I would in the US for decent but not fancy accommodations, so I was able to get large units in good locations. My DIL is protesting that I’m spending too much but I told her I don’t mind since Poland is so much cheaper than the US. This is a once in a lifetime trip - we probably won’t see our son and DIL very often. We really enjoy their company so it’s worth it to plan a nice trip.
I received a message from an AIRBNB host we have rented from for a week’s family vacation the last 3 years. If you are a good renter, they will reach out before they open up their rental for the summer and give first dibs on weeks. We have decided to try a different rental in the same area this year because we need a little more space but I will definitely respond and thank them for reaching out - I feel almost bad NOT renting from them because they are such great hosts and because they value their past visitors to their home.
Some time ago, we rented a family vacation home for part of every summer. While most of our renters were fine, a few were not. And a few were stellar – one was an artist who made me notecards of the view out the front door! That family came every year. As an owner, repeat renters who treat your home like it’s theirs are gold! I never raised the rate for them and they had “their” place for most of August. My guess is that the owner who reached out to you will indeed be sorry you’re not coming back!
On a London FB group, there are a lot of warnings about last minute cancellations for AirBnb/VRBO rentals. Evidently you can lower risk with the normal cautions about Superhosts, review etc… but it still gave me pause. For 2 of us, hotel was fine. But in London accommodations are pricey, so I feel for groups sweating that risk (cancel recovery would be pricey because the majority of hotel rooms are expensive and only big enough for 2 or 3 people).
We had excellent experiences with ivylettings in London. (Have not used them post covid.) Having a management company that has to protect its reputation and also has the personnel and infrastructure to help with everything from key delivery, etc. is a huge plus.