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Joanne May and her extended family got a terrible surprise when they arrived in London. The luxurious eight-bedroom, six-bathroom Vrbo vacation rental May reserved for the group of 15 was suddenly unavailable.
The rental host assured the family not to worry; he’d already moved them to a similar Vrbo nearby. Not only that, he claimed the new apartment was actually a complimentary upgrade.
Temporarily relieved, the tired group made their way to the replacement property. But when May entered the vacation rental, she knew instantly that a bait and switch scam was underway.
The “similar” vacation rental wasn’t similar at all. With just two bathrooms and five small bedrooms containing air mattresses and toddler-size triple bunk beds, this was a definite downgrade. The flat looked more like a flophouse than the spacious $12,000 townhouse May had selected for her multigenerational family.
With no other options, the 15 family members endured four miserable days in the highly inadequate substitute rental.
Vrbo guest: “This vacation rental was a classic bait and switch.”
But when they got back home, May set out on a mission. She wanted justice for her family’s ruined vacation – in the form of a full refund.
However, after repetitive refund rejections from Vrbo and two failed credit card disputes, May had run out of options.
That is until she shared her plight on Reddit and a fellow user suggested asking Consumer Rescue for help. And that’s exactly what she did. She hoped we could convince Vrbo that her family had been victimized by a classic bait and switch scheme. As a result, she felt that all their money should be returned.
But can a vacation rental guest ever complete a stay and then expect a full refund at the end?
I’ll give you the answer to that question in a moment. First, here’s May’s awful tale, what my investigation revealed, and how you can avoid the same type of scam.
A family reunion in London and a perfect vacation rental
This trip to London was meant to be a special family reunion. May was in charge of planning it. There were many things to consider when selecting the accommodations.
“Our group was made up of five elderly family members and a six-year-old child in a wheelchair,” May told me. “I spent a great deal of time carefully considering various vacation rentals on the Vrbo website.”
May’s goal was to find a large townhouse in the heart of London that could fit her entire family.
She quickly discovered that finding a vacation rental in London that could accommodate 15 people would be a challenge. But suddenly the perfect property appeared in the search on Vrbo. May couldn’t believe her luck.
With eight bedrooms and six bathrooms, the beautiful vacation rental called “Sophia’s Dream” had more than enough space. The luxurious townhouse even had a private terrace with outdoor dining and a hot tub. To top it all off, its location near Piccadilly Circus was exactly where the family wanted to stay.
This vacation rental was nearly too good to be true.
Of course, we know now that it actually was too good to be true, but May didn’t know that yet. Not wanting to miss out on it, she immediately booked the property on Vrbo without doing any kind of research.
That was a mistake. In hindsight, the Vrbo listing contained glaring red flags — but May didn’t recognize them until it was too late.
Vrbo host asks his guest to accept a rental switch, sight unseen
On the day their vacation rental was scheduled to begin, May’s son, Jeremy landed in London before she did. He was the first to arrive – and the first to learn that something wasn’t right about this Vrbo rental.
Before hopping into an Uber at London’s Heathrow, Jeremy texted the host to ask for the flat’s address.
After an extended delay, the host finally responded. He told Jeremy to send all the family members to an address that wasn’t in Piccadilly Circus.
When Jeremy questioned the location, the host admitted that the group would not be staying in the originally booked unit.
“He informed my son that the electricity wasn’t working,” May told me. “Tim [the Vrbo host] told him that the place where he was going was an upgrade.”
Taking the host at his word, the switch sounded acceptable to Jeremy. He got into his Uber and went to the address where a woman, identifying herself as the co-host, was waiting. She let him into the property and quickly left.
As Jeremy began inspecting the rental, he got a sinking feeling that only deepened with each new room he entered. The place smelled bad and felt cramped even without the rest of the group there. He knew this definitely wasn’t an upgrade and wouldn’t be suitable for the family.
Jeremy was sure he’d just walked straight into a vacation rental scam. Dejectedly sitting down to wait for his mom, he suspected that she was going to be furious.
That was a spot-on prediction.
15 family members dumped into a 5-bedroom, 2-bathroom vacation rental
A few hours after her son arrived, May and the rest of the family made their way to the replacement rental.
When I looked around, I was in shock. It was preposterous that anyone could think a family of 15 could share this space. Two of the bedrooms had bunk beds stacked in three tiers. No regular-sized person could get in those beds—and we had six elderly people and five full-size adults, too. The other rooms had broken fold-out couches and blow-up beds.
Only one room had a normal bed. Not only that, but one of the toilets in this two-bathroom unit wasn’t working properly. The place smelled like sewage. The other bathroom had no electricity. I just couldn’t believe it.
Joanne May
May immediately started calling the unresponsive host and then Vrbo. She received a notification that her plea for help was being escalated.
Despite the dire situation, May says she felt pressured to accept the rental the Vrbo host had dumped them into.
“We were standing there with all our luggage and we were tired,” May explained. “It was vacation season in London and there were no other replacement properties available.”
When a Vrbo agent asked her to confirm that she agreed to the move, May did just that.
The 15 family members then spent the next four days sleeping on blow-up beds, hammocks, broken couches and even floors…all sharing just two bathrooms, with one toilet only partially functioning.
It was a true vacation rental nightmare – a textbook bait and switch scam.
Asking Consumer Rescue to investigate: Are we owed a refund?
By the time May reached out to Consumer Rescue, she had already filed and lost two credit card disputes over the rental fee. That part of her case wasn’t surprising since the family had completed their stay at the substitute rental.
Despite what many consumers believe, credit card disputes can rarely resolve cases in which there is a subjective complaint about a service or product. This is especially true in the case of a vacation rental, where a guest accepts the property and completes the stay.
Related: Credit card disputes: Everything you need to know before you file one
Under duress, May had accepted the vacation rental and confirmed that detail with Vrbo. That detail made the loss of her credit card dispute a foregone conclusion – even though May believed the rental to be part of a bait and switch scam.
Vrbo fought the dispute and provided the evidence that the family agreed to the switch and stayed at the property. The credit card companies really had no choice but to find in favor of the listing giant.
But when I went through May’s paper trail what was surprising was the truly awful conditions that this family endured. Comparing this rental to a flophouse is no exaggeration – yet, Vrbo would not budge.
What do the photos of the Vrbo rental show?
There were 11 adults and just four children in this group. Seven of the beds at the replacement rental are trundle beds or tiny bunk beds stacked on top of each other.
May was not exaggerating when she said it was preposterous to expect full-grown people, much less elderly adults, to climb into these beds.
Only one bedroom at this property had an actual bed. The other two rooms had broken fold-out couches.
The lack of proper bedding for all the family members led some of the group to sleep on hammocks and air mattresses outside on the porch.
“That was particularly awful since it got cold at night,” May pointed out. “Imagine elderly people being forced to sleep on the floor on an air mattress – and I paid $12,000 for this experience.”
As I looked through May’s extensive photo album, I was fairly certain no one at Vrbo had looked at these pictures. That was the only explanation I could come to as to why the group wasn’t immediately rescued from these awful conditions.
This family had been in search of making a lifetime of memories during this trip to London. Unfortunately, they had accomplished that goal – in the worst way.
It was time to ask Vrbo why this host was being allowed to profit off a clear bait and switch vacation rental scam.
Can a guest expect a full refund after a complete vacation rental stay?
I’ve seen some pretty deplorable conditions at vacation rentals over the years.
Easily the worst I’ve ever seen involved a young woman who rented a shared-space Airbnb… without considering who she’d be sharing space with. Unfortunately, she got matched with a middle-age drunk who she was forced to take care of each night. It was an astoundingly gross situation from start to finish. (See: Is this the worst Airbnb rental ever?)
There haven’t been any cases that came close to challenging that guest’s vacation rental experience as the worst… until now.
May’s photos and descriptions of her family’s time in London, catapulted her case to number two position on my list of awful vacation rental experiences. The Airbnb case will continue to retain its top-slot position because of the drunk stranger’s bodily fluids floating about in that rental.
After that troubled traveler contacted me while still inside the deplorable rental, I was able to negotiate a full refund for her by showing the shocking visuals to the Airbnb team.
Vacation rental guests should always keep in mind that if you remain at the property and complete your stay, the refund policy of Vrbo (and others like it) do not allow a full refund later. That is unless three conditions are met.
- The vacation rental guest reported the problems to the host and Vrbo (or other listing agent)
- There is visual proof of the issue (clear photos and/or videos)
- The guest has documented their request to leave and be re-accommodated.
In May’s case she had hundreds of photos of the unpleasant conditions her family was facing. She also had proof to show that from the moment she arrived at the replacement rental she asked Vrbo to move her group.
But it never happened.
Asking the executive team at Vrbo to look at this rental
When May first sent her complaint to me, “Sophia’s Love” was still on Vrbo. But when I looked at the listing a number of red flags appeared to me. First, for a high-end, luxury vacation rental, the photos were unusually dull and grainy – a sign that the listing could be using screenshots. Scammers who create fake listings often screenshot photos from legitimate properties and create bait listings. (See: I wasted $2,000 on a vacation rental that doesn’t exist!)
When I put the photos of Sophia’s Love into Google Images, those photos appeared on multiple listing sites (with different names). In fact, that property is listed as a shared, one-bedroom unit on Airbnb, where at least one review mentioned a bait and switch experience.
On Vrbo, the only reviews of the property were external. External reviews should not be weighed heavily when evaluating a vacation rental. Scammers will often review their own listings with glowing accolades on external sites.
Neither Vrbo or Airbnb allow guests to share an opinion about a rental unless they’ve stayed there. That limits the possibility that the vacation rentals will have fake negative or positive reviews.
Based on everything I had seen about this listing and May’s evidence, I believed she had been a victim of a bait and switch. I shared my findings with our executive contact at Vrbo and asked that her team take a look as well.
Vrbo executives share concerns about this host and the rentals
In May’s effort to show the true horror of her family’s vacation, she had overdone it. She had sent hundreds of photos, documents and messages to everyone, everywhere all at once – including the legal team of Vrbo.
When consumers do the email carpet bombing thing, they run the risk of having their messages disappear into oblivion, with each person on that list assuming someone else will tend to it. Additionally, long explanations with extraneous information intermixed with truly awful details are often scanned by the receiver who is typically handling tons of complaints simultaneously.
May had a valid and serious complaint. Her family’s trip to London had been ruined by this vacation rental scheme. But her jumbo sized letters had buried the most egregious parts of her experience among mundane things like a broken coffee pot.
Related: Here are 7 simple ways to fix any consumer problem
To give your complaint the best chance of being favorably received, always keep your narrative:
- Concise
- Clear
- Cordial
My message to our executive contact at Vrbo got straight to the point and I included five of the worst of May’s photos. Those photos along with the undeniable fact that the family had booked a spacious 8-bedroom house with 6-bathrooms and been taken to a 5-bedroom apartment set up for kids with 2-bathrooms for 15 adults was compelling.
In the end, Vrbo removed Sophia’s Love from its platform. At the same time, that property’s listings on other platforms around the internet became “unavailable.” That signals to me that someone may have realized their gig was up.
Related: Flying to the UK soon? Here’s how to get your ETA without getting scammed
The best news for this family: Vrbo issues a full refund and an apology
Our executive contacts at Vrbo issued an apology to May and her family for their terrible experience. But after a brief investigation, they weren’t quite convinced that this was a straightforward bait and switch scam. They are continuing to keep an eye on this host and may remove his other properties at a later date.
But the best news for May was that Vrbo issued a full refund for their London vacation rental disaster. This is part of our correspondence:
Hi Michelle,
While we expect hosts to honor their bookings, cancellations can occasionally occur due to unforeseen circumstances such as property damage. However, when cancellations are within a host’s control, they negatively impact listing performance and may lead to removal from our platform if repeated.
In Ms. May’s case, the original property was unavailable upon arrival. Although she accepted an alternative accommodation, it did not meet the expected standards or comparable amenities, resulting in a disappointing experience for her and her family.
We want to emphasize that guests who book and pay through Vrbo are protected under our Book with Confidence Guarantee, which includes 24/7 customer support and rebooking assistance in the event of wrongful last-minute cancellations.
While Ms. May pursued a chargeback, it was overturned as the stay was completed.
What was meant to be a memorable stay turned into a stressful situation, and we deeply regret the challenges the family faced, especially in trying to accommodate all guests in a property that didn’t meet their needs. This is not the experience we want for any guest. Understanding the impact this situation had on their trip, we’ve provided a full refund.
The listing remains suspended, and we continue to monitor the host’s activity closely. At Vrbo, we remain committed to improving our marketplace and ensuring every guest has a reliable and enjoyable trip.
[Vrbo spokesperson]
May is ecstatic that she finally has vindication – and the money back that she paid for this vacation rental fiasco.
Good Evening Michelle:
I’m stunned! and want to express how deeply grateful I am for all that you’ve done. Your dedication, persistence, and commitment to ensuring that voices are heard and fairness is upheld, is outstanding and clearly effective!!!
Joanne May
You’re very welcome, Joanne. I hope your family can plan a do-ever family reunion soon – no bunk beds, air mattresses or dirty hammocks included!
The bottom line: How to handle a bait and switch
I’m pleased that Vrbo chose in the end to refund this family for their awful rental experience in London. But the family didn’t need to suffer the way they did.
Vrbo customers should familiarize themselves with Vrbo’s Book with Confidence Guarantee before their travels. That policy ensures that hosts can’t easily perpetrate a bait and switch scam on their guests.
Had May been aware of this policy she would have felt confident in rejecting this vacation rental host’s so-called “upgraded” switch. She would have requested Vrbo to re-accommodate her family. In this type of situation it is the responsibility of Vrbo to find a suitable replacement for its customers.
If you find yourself in a suspected vacation rental bait and switch scam, always contact Vrbo’s 24/7 customer support and report it. Don’t unpack your suitcase or agree to any switch while your tired brain is still in a different time-zone.
The easiest way to quickly reach customer support at Vrbo is by signing into your account and using the chat feature. Keep your complaint, concise and describe the material difference of the property and ask to be moved.
The key to handling these situations smoothly and with the least amount of inconvenience to your group, is to be prepared. Hopefully, you’ll never need to know how to invoke Vrbo’s Book with Confidence Guarantee, but if you intend to use the platform to reserve your next vacation rental, it’s critical that you read and understand it. That way if an unscrupulous host tries to pull a fast one on you, you can easily dodge their scheme. (Michelle Couch-Friedman, Consumer Rescue)
And a special shoutout to the Reddit users who pointed May to Consumer Rescue. Referrals like these keep our mission alive — rescuing consumers who feel stuck with nowhere else to turn. Our mediation is always fast, friendly, and, best of all, free, so spread the word! Cheerio, friends! 😀
