AirBNB/VRBO?

[cmcewen]

Has anybody used AirBNB or VRBO.com? Cheers, jeers?

[enduser]

We used AirBnB for our Barcelona trip. Enthusiastic thumbs up.

[The Lord of the Jungle]

Never used the former, but they recently got a sh*tload of bad press for some dubious practices on the west coast.  Have used the latter however numerous times, and have been very much satisfied.

[RBE]

Had a great experience with VRBO in Italy several years ago.

[T@B]

We have used VRBO twice for trips to SC and have been satisfied.

[enduser]

Never used the former, but they recently got a sh*tload of bad press for some dubious practices on the west coast poorly handling a single isolated incident.  Have used the latter however numerous times, and have been very much satisfied.

fixt.

They botched the handling of a really unfortunate exploitation of a single customer. By many accounts they did some but not enough to help out a customer who was the victim of some pretty heinous crimes perpetrated by someone taking advantage of their system. Things got uglier in the tech press as they may have not been fully truthful with the press in explaining their side of the story. That said, it's always hard to know how to weigh Mike Arrington's side of any story, especially when it's outside of his wheelhouse.

That also said, they've made a lot of service improvements and done a few mea culpas. It's a very useful service and I'd use them again (edit: as a renter. I have no experience as a property owner.)

[Bef]

Rented a house near Seaside from VRBO a few years ago and had a great experience.  Renting another VRBO house in Destin in just a few weeks.  Will let you know how it turns out, but so far the experience has been good.

[J. Grouchy]

Not sure what site we used, but we rented a house out on the California coast summer of last year and the experience was great until it came time to get the deposit back.  Stupid owner tried to claim that we damaged the wall where the child gate was mounted.  The gate was already pulled out of the wall when we got there (whatever moron mounted it screwed it into drywall only and not the stud.  You could see several areas around it that had been patched up previously, so it wasn't the first time obviously.  Fortunately we had some pictures that showed this and the lady gave up trying to keep our money. 

Lesson learned:  Do a detailed walkthrough before and after your trip.  Take pictures if you see any damage.  Be extremely anal about it because the owners certainly have no hesitation trying to keep your deposit.

[cmcewen]

Thanks for the all the feedback. I've only heard good things, but I haven't talked to a ton of people about it.

GBC, Italy is the main reason I'm asking, so your endorsement is great to hear. NYC is the other trip we currently have planned.

LOTJ, I read about the big stink out west, and I'm pretty sure that the shortcoming exposed by that incident only affected property owners. Still makes me a little extra cautious, but I read one of the mea culpas that enduser mentioned, and I'm not completely turned off from the company.

J. Grouchy, thanks much for the heads up- noted. It sounds like that shithead owner had that child gate for the express purpose of scamming renters. Let us know if you remember which site you used.

[Leah]

We use VRBO all the time.

Highly recommend!

[J. Grouchy]

J. Grouchy, thanks much for the heads up- noted. It sounds like that shithead owner had that child gate for the express purpose of scamming renters. Let us know if you remember which site you used.

Well, one of the perks of that house was it had a lot of toys for our kids to play with during the vacation.  I am inclined to believe the owner really did have kids but either knew nothing about the pull-out strength of a screw from drywall or knew she'd fucked up the installation again and decided to try to get us to pay for it.

I'll go back and see if I can't find that site.  I remember going to a few different sites and don't recall which one we settled on.

[J. Grouchy]

J. Grouchy, thanks much for the heads up- noted. It sounds like that shithead owner had that child gate for the express purpose of scamming renters. Let us know if you remember which site you used.

Well, one of the perks of that house was it had a lot of toys for our kids to play with during the vacation.  I am inclined to believe the owner really did have kids but either knew nothing about the pull-out strength of a screw from drywall or knew she'd fucked up the installation again and decided to try to get us to pay for it.

I'll go back and see if I can't find that site.  I remember going to a few different sites and don't recall which one we settled on.

Just checked and it WAS VRBO. 

[cmcewen]

Just checked and it WAS VRBO.

Cool, thanks much.

[Allyson]

Only cheers for VRBO.

[vigodas-pants]

we've used vrbo a couple times.  trying airbnb for the first time for an upcoming trip.  it's been great thus far...and is a hell of a lot better experience than wading through vrbo's ancient relic of a site.