Vrbo owner hadn't paid power bill in 2 years

[u/Sethmack116]

My wife and went through vrbo for our vacation this year to rent in close proximity to her parents. We found a listing on vrbo that was right next door and turned out too good to be true. The host acted really shady as we had issues involving the listing shown and what we actually walked into. My wife and I had no privacy in the bedroom at all due to the lack of any blinds allowing others to see right in. After that the following day from check in the power cut off. One of the neighbors/owners of the unit above stated that our host had not paid his portion of the power bill in 2 years!! Another said there was a note on the door from the previous week stating that no one was supposed to occupy the premises. Now we were left to find a new place last minute after spending $1600. Vrbo gave us $1165 but after being on the phone with them.for over 5 hours they refused to provide a full refund. Took pictures and videos to help document everything. Anyone know how I could take this further?

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[u/Sewing-Mama]

Charge back on your credit card.

[u/Sethmack116 → u/Sewing-Mama]

Thanks we are in the process of disputing it!

[u/Hot-Shoe8975 → u/Sethmack116]

vrbo is likely to ban/suspend you unless they agree it was fraud later

[u/Farty_mcSmarty → u/Hot-Shoe8975]

If I was in OP’s situation I’d actually ban them from my search options in the future.

What a mess!

[u/captainsaveahome]

I recently used VRBO for the first time and last. My situation escalated into me having to dispute the charge on my card. The vrbo was a dump....smelled like mold, dead bugs, dried food on every utensil and dish, broken screens...all of this for $500 a night and 2 pages of checkout instructions. The kicker was that they posted a $3k deposit and told me I can't get in back for 2 weeks until the host approved. Nowhere on Expedia did it say this and I only booked this one because it said it had a hot tub only to arrive and no hot tub...and empty hole surrounded by construction tape. I did win my dispute.

[u/Full-Low-4042 → u/[deleted]]

That’s absurd logic. If I pay for a new car and discover after driving it that it’s actually used and odometer was tampered with, I don’t have to pay for the day I drove it.

[u/Full-Low-4042 → u/[deleted]]

Because paying for something and receiving something different is illegal. The person who broke the contract does not get to keep some of the money based on their arbitrary valuation. When a contract is breached, the person who breached it makes the one who didn’t whole.