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Fiascos and Fixes
These are the real-life stories of travelers who have encountered dramatic and expensive vacation rental problems or scams and asked our consumer advocacy team for help. From bad hosts to outright scammers and everything in between, we tell the real-life experiences of vacation rental guests and Consumer Rescue’s efforts to fix their problems.
An Airbnb hacker spent a month in Malaysia using Laura Ward’s name, account, and stored credit card. Now, after a failed chargeback, Laura wants to know how this happened and why she’s being held responsible.
Mary Shaw was confident that she had done everything right while planning her trip to Paris. She had carefully selected what she thought was the perfect apartment for her family. But when Mary arrived in the French capital, she hated the Airbnb vacation rental so much that she knew they couldn’t stay.
Now Mary wants to know how she can get a refund from the unwilling Airbnb host.
What if you don’t feel safe after you check into your next Airbnb rental? That’s the frightening situation that confronted Ericka Wilson and her sister during a short vacation to Puerto Rico. They didn’t expect luxury, but they did expect to be able to lock the front door. When that wasn’t possible, they wanted to hit the eject button and get a refund.
So why was the refund request for their three-hour stay rejected? That’s what the sisters want our advocacy team to find out.
Could you be falsely accused of causing damage to your next vacation rental — and be forced to pay for it?
Colleen McKenna is sure that the answer to that question is “yes.” She just returned from what she thought was a peaceful and uneventful stay in a rented condo in Hawaii. But the property manager says she and her husband caused significant damage to the vacation rental during a domestic disturbance. As a result, he charged her credit card for cleanup and repairs — several days after the couple’s departure.
Colleen says she has absolutely no idea what this man is talking about and believes it’s a scam. Now she’s asking our advocacy team to investigate.
After a 12-hour flight from Israel to the U.S., college students Nadav and Odelia were eager to get settled. They grabbed their luggage and headed to the cute Vrbo in Queens, scheduled to be their home base for three months. But those plans quickly changed when they arrived at the vacation rental and shockingly found rats already settled there.
Then things went from bad to worse for the tired and bewildered United Nations interns. The Vrbo host refused to release them from the nearly $9,000 rental contract. Instead, he told the young ladies to go to a youth hostel while he evicted the rats from his vacation rental property.
Now, after several weeks of trying to reason with this Vrbo host, they’re asking for our team’s help. The college interns do not want to return to the basement-level apartment where the rats have been residing. But the owner claims they are in breach of contract, and he says he gets to keep the $9,000.
That definitely doesn’t sound right to the Consumer Rescue team. So can we fix this vacation rental fiasco?
Franklin Wu had a most unusual experience with Vrbo after he prepaid $9,000 for a four-month apartment rental in Switzerland. Although Vrbo doesn’t allow shared vacation rentals, suddenly, in the middle of the night, the host made it clear she wasn’t leaving. So he did.
But then Vrbo gave him another shock — the host could keep all his money.
Is your Airbnb account safe from scammers and hackers?
Berenice Anaya certainly thought so. In fact, the possibility of a criminal accessing her Airbnb account and causing havoc had not even crossed her mind.
However, this Airbnb user recently woke up to an unpleasant reality after a scammer successfully hacked right into her account. The Airbnb security team thwarted the thief and prevented him from completing his ultimate goal. But not before $1,942 was removed from Berenice’s bank account.
So why won’t Airbnb return the money to its victimized guest? That’s what Berenice is asking our team after repeatedly trying unsuccessfully to retrieve her cash from the company.
What’s going on here, and can we help?
If you book a vacation rental and it has mice, are you responsible for catching and disposing of the rodents? And if so, does the Airbnb host owe you a refund or other compensation for your troubles?
That’s what Gabriella Costanza wants to know after her recent unpleasant experience. She and her significant other had planned to celebrate the holidays in a clean, cozy Airbnb property. Unfortunately, soon after the couple arrived, it became clear they weren’t alone in the vacation rental. And although Airbnb allows shared-space rentals, these additional “residents” were of the most unwelcome and unapproved kind – mice.
But maybe even worse than the reality that mice were living at this Airbnb was the host’s response. This vacation rental owner expected Gabby to put down glue traps and spend her holiday dealing with the inevitable outcome, which the young traveler did.
Now Gabby is asking Airbnb for a refund for this vacation rental experience. But will the fact that the couple completed their entire stay make that an impossible outcome?
Paul Trosclair says he just spent nearly two grand on a vacation rental that does not exist. To make matters worse, Vrbo sided with the person he believes is a thief disguised as a host.
Now Paul hopes our advocacy team can prove this vacation rental is nonexistent and get his money back.
But can we do it?
Karen Barney used Vrbo to book a vacation rental to celebrate Christmas in Puerto Vallarta with extended family. But after she pressed the confirm button, this first-time Vrbo user got a surprise from the vacation rental owner. It turns out the property wasn’t actually in Puerto Vallarta. Even more surprising? The rejection Karen received when she asked Vrbo to fix the problem by canceling and giving her a refund.
Now Karen is hoping our team can convince Vrbo to refund the money she spent on this mislabeled vacation rental.
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© 2025 Consumer Rescue / Michelle Couch-Friedman
