Vrbo host canceled 24 hours before I arrived

Dear Vacation TROUBLESHOOTER: Our Vrbo host canceled our reservation fewer than 24 several hours before our arrival, resulting in lost airfare for my wife and daughter. I want your aid finding a refund for our resulting hotel bill.

I reserved a rental in El Paso, Texas, and paid for it in whole. At 9:30 p.m. the night time ahead of my family’s flights to El Paso, I received a message from the host expressing: “The property is not readily available. It’s currently been booked.” Then yet another information that she canceled our reservation and initiated a refund.

I despatched her panicked messages indicating there have to be some blunder — that we booked and paid in entire additional than 6 months earlier. I stated we had flights and have been arriving the up coming working day. She didn’t reply. No support, no apology, no nothing. I uncovered her cell phone number and named a few instances: every single went straight to voicemail.

Vrbo explained there were no other rentals offered. So in its place, they booked us a one night time in a double home at a hotel. We would be left on our personal to locate a spot for the other two evenings. I cannot warn other Vrbo renters to the host’s unscrupulous behavior, and I would like a refund for all of the nights we experienced to stay in a hotel. Can you support me?

— Jim LoScalzo, Washington, D.C.

Remedy: The host was improper to cancel just ahead of your arrival, but which is not the worst of it. When you looked into your account, it turns out the host had specified you a a single-star assessment, even while you never stayed in the rental. (This could have an impact on your potential to hire from Vrbo again.) Vrbo need to have found a substitution rental for you and lined any more value. Rather, the organization refunded your rental and paid out for just one night in a hotel.

Vrbo has a “book with confidence” assure that guards you from a very last-minute cancellation. It guarantees company rebooking support or unexpected emergency lodging if their reservation is “wrongfully canceled” at the previous minute by the host.

It wasn’t immediately crystal clear why Vrbo compensated for only a single evening in the new hotel. You termed and emailed the organization half a dozen instances, but it wouldn’t explain to you. By the way, I checklist the names, quantities and emails of the Vrbo executives on my client advocacy web-site at www.elliott.org/organization-contacts/vrbo-purchaser-assistance-contacts. A brief, well mannered e mail to 1 of them may possibly have helped.

I contacted Vrbo about your circumstance. Its information exhibit that Vrbo covered crisis lodging for the very first evening.

“For the relaxation of his remain, Mr. LoScalzo was requested to guide a lodge as a result of 1 of our sites and submit receipts for reimbursement only if the price of his resort keep exceeded the charge of his primary scheduling,” a agent stated. “Because the overall value of his resort reservation did not exceed the price tag of his authentic scheduling, he is not suitable for reimbursement.”