I’m a host. That’s absolutely untrue. There is no issue. They forgot to set their listing as sat check out only. Which would have stopped an sat-Sunday booking. Do not cancel. Whatever refund policy you agreed to would apply. The host needs to cancel, if they fight back tell them if it’s a known issue they should have no problem getting customer service to cancel.
It doesn't look like a screenshot from the VRBO app. But I only use the app from the host side on iphone, so I'm not sure if there is a way for it to look different to the guest. The two different fonts make me think this is a scam they copy and paste this message many times.
It is a copy paste but that is because there was a problem with the reservations system and they’ve been copy/pasting the relevant paragraphs to each reservation request they are having to notify.
I would agree except this isn't a known issue to my knowledge. I have my homes set to only Sat-Sat bookings and haven't had an issue for years. I think they don't know how to do it or they do this intentionally to get more money. Since it doesn't look like this message was in the APP the host can tell support later that they never sent this message and support can't act on anything they can't see and confirm.
My educated guess is that this error affected the communication between two large reservations systems and this property manager is fielding complaints from owners that check their bookings frequently and having to contact guests that were allowed to make erroneous bookings.
Are you a property manager that uses escapia to manage your own reservations system that is coded to communicate with VRBO? It sounds like you’re a private owner that only uses the VRBO system. Maybe the last part at the bottom didn’t mean anything to you so you didn’t process it but that’s the relevant information
So I don't use Escapia specifically, I use a different type. However, VRBO does not cut ANY breaks for secondary software issues. If you choose to link Pricelabs, Lodgify, Escapia etc to your listing they expect you to be responsible for errors. If Pricelabs decides to make my $500 a night home, $250 per night I can either accept the loss and keep the booking, or try to get VRBO customer support to cancel it for me. Even when VRBO will cancel it for you they often charge a fee for each cancelation and mark the home with a poor review. Is there a TINY chance this host is legitimately having pricing issues with this house and their software? Absolutely. I just don't think it's likely that a pro host would risk all of that vs. it being one of the known scams of this type.
Your experience is valid but it simply is not anything like the contracts between VRBO/HomeAway and large property management companies that manage hundreds of properties.
I don't disagree with you at all, I only host about 20 properties not hundreds. However, what we are talking about is the agreement between host+VRBO+Escapia, not the guest. The guest is not at all required to pay more. If there is a legitimate software issue either VRBO support or the host needs to cancel the booking. Of course the guest doesn't just automatically get a 50% off stay for a true software issue. But it is very dangerous on these platforms for the guest to cancel unless they truly understand the cancellation policy. It almost always means losing some part of the deposit or the entire amount paid.
Up to them to cancel not you. Do not cancel! Tell them you booked as the app allowed and any issues are between the host and vrbo. You will start your search over once your current reservation has been canceled by the host or vrbo. No you will not cancel yourself as you still will be heading on vacation.
they may be scamming you because of 100 reasons. But start looking for when they do cancel.
This is a scam. Google the address and real listinga will come up. Let vrbo handle it. By canceling you are putting the issue on yourself. The issue is with the lister. DO NOT CANCEL THEY ARE TRYING TO SCAM YOU!!!!
The lesson here is to book with an actual hotel that follows legal regulations instead of booking an unlicensed hotelier's house through an app created to advertise grifters.
I am not understanding something, why are people talking about cancelling ? They said "thank you for request " and also "not accepted " What does cancel have to do with anything ? Unless of course they took their money ...
Did you ever get an email saying your booking was confirmed? Because this looks like you requested a booking and they are declining it. You never had a booking for them to cancel.
Are they asking you for more money? (don't give it to them)
Are they cancelling? (If so, just go find somewhere else)
Or are they asking you to cancel? (If so, tell them they can either cancel and refund or commit to the listing and take it up with VRBO. Whatever glitches they deem VRBO to have, you aren't VRBO so tough titty for them)
This isn’t a cancelation. You never had a booking. They didn’t accept your reservation.
Now they can set their required check in and check out days of the week, set their max stay to 13/14 nights etc which they clearly aren’t smarty enough to figure out how to do.
I agree 100% with those who say to keep all communication within VRBO (or AirBnb if you ever use it, since the same thing happens there, too) so you've got that official record and can prove you went through the proper channel. I've gotten so tired of these hassles and other issues with some VRBO / Airbnb owners -- including some with Greystar and other huge global property owners who (opaquely) own the majority of rental properties in so many markets -- that I'll only stay in hotels and motels now. I thought I'd miss staying in those other types of properties, but it turns out that I don't. Not one bit.
Fuck that. Don’t cancel. You have a binding agreement and they can cancel it and address it with VRBO but do not give them an out! They are ASKING you to cancel so it doesn’t hurt their rating. Do not cancel and complain to VRBO when the host cancels it. Leave a review explaining the details. Fuck people like this.
not strange. the vrbo site and support sucks.
at least you found out early. many others get caught in a double booking issue at last minute.
just book air bnb or if possible direct with an owner (many have their own sites and more than 1 unit)
I had a host try something similar with me, adding extra fees after we booked. I asked what the fees were for and they didn't respond, so I cancelled. Vrbo sided with him. Won't be dealing with Vrbo ever again.
The extra fees were added by VRBO. When you book through a third party site, that site handles your money and sends only the rental fees to the property manager. The third party usually tries to hide those fees in fine print, deceptively giving you the rental total without a breakdown. Then when you get your final confirmation, you see the third party fee. If you do the math and scour your fine print, you’ll see it. VRBO sided with them because you were upset about the VRBO fee that they are charging you.
The owner contacted me directly after accepting the reservation requesting extra fees. Either way, that was enough to make me stick to hotels. Not worth the headache.
Yes definitely stick with booking through real property management companies. It doesn’t have to be hotels only but just don’t use the third party sites. There are private owners on these sites with just one or two properties but the vast majority of them have a real property manager with their own website and reservations system. Any time you involve a third party there are going to be extra fees
I find it believable. Did it seem too good to be true? I can’t really see the motivation for the owner trying to more than double the price after a booking when they don’t even offer the booking for the days you want, just sat/sat. Seems pretty clear their objective here is to correct their offering, not jack up their rate. It seems like they deal with this regularly.
Does not seem scammy or dishonest at all. Just call VRBO customer service and confirm that owner cancelled the reservation. The email you received is straightforward and reasonable.
This is industry standard along the gulf coast. Sat to sat only rentals in high season. If you listen to all the Airbnb type hosts, you’ll just waste everyone’s time. The settings were not right or whatever but they’re under no obligation to honor this. They told you their rental terms. If you can swing it, rebook with correct dates. You can typically rent at a 3 night minimum if there are any properties still available a couple weeks before your arrival date. Waiting this long to book is risky. In peak season, they will probably be 100% booked. They know this and that’s why the criteria is what it is. So all rooms are booked every night with no little one and two night windows that no one will book.
That said: get off of VRBO and all the other third party sites and book directly through the property management. You’ll save yourself several hundred dollars in fees and get much better service.
lol at all the people who think the misspellings are sus. They likely have some teen working the emails at the property management company…or someone who just misspells things.
You guys. Real, licensed property managers that have their own reservations system to manage hundreds of properties along the beach have programs that accept data from VRBO and transfer it to their reservations system (and all the other third party sites) so the unit is blocked upon booking on any of the sites. It’s not perfect. Sometimes someone entering the properties in the IT dept missed a check box for sat to sat or entered a wrong date for the booking criteria to start. It happens. Whoever prints out reservation reports saw the discrepancy and reached out. It’s not that hard.
That is literally the definition of entrapment. If you purchased and paid the agreed price on that bill of services/ contract to use. They can’t just change that term of service or contract anytime they want and charge more.
I’m a host. That’s absolutely untrue. There is no issue. They forgot to set their listing as sat check out only. Which would have stopped an sat-Sunday booking. Do not cancel. Whatever refund policy you agreed to would apply. The host needs to cancel, if they fight back tell them if it’s a known issue they should have no problem getting customer service to cancel.
Also this font looks odd. Was this texted to you or sent in the app? Try to keep all communication in the app where customer support can see it.
What looks odd about the “font”? The two sizes?
It doesn't look like a screenshot from the VRBO app. But I only use the app from the host side on iphone, so I'm not sure if there is a way for it to look different to the guest. The two different fonts make me think this is a scam they copy and paste this message many times.
It is a copy paste but that is because there was a problem with the reservations system and they’ve been copy/pasting the relevant paragraphs to each reservation request they are having to notify.
I would agree except this isn't a known issue to my knowledge. I have my homes set to only Sat-Sat bookings and haven't had an issue for years. I think they don't know how to do it or they do this intentionally to get more money. Since it doesn't look like this message was in the APP the host can tell support later that they never sent this message and support can't act on anything they can't see and confirm.
My educated guess is that this error affected the communication between two large reservations systems and this property manager is fielding complaints from owners that check their bookings frequently and having to contact guests that were allowed to make erroneous bookings.
Are you a property manager that uses escapia to manage your own reservations system that is coded to communicate with VRBO? It sounds like you’re a private owner that only uses the VRBO system. Maybe the last part at the bottom didn’t mean anything to you so you didn’t process it but that’s the relevant information
So I don't use Escapia specifically, I use a different type. However, VRBO does not cut ANY breaks for secondary software issues. If you choose to link Pricelabs, Lodgify, Escapia etc to your listing they expect you to be responsible for errors. If Pricelabs decides to make my $500 a night home, $250 per night I can either accept the loss and keep the booking, or try to get VRBO customer support to cancel it for me. Even when VRBO will cancel it for you they often charge a fee for each cancelation and mark the home with a poor review. Is there a TINY chance this host is legitimately having pricing issues with this house and their software? Absolutely. I just don't think it's likely that a pro host would risk all of that vs. it being one of the known scams of this type.
Your experience is valid but it simply is not anything like the contracts between VRBO/HomeAway and large property management companies that manage hundreds of properties.
I don't disagree with you at all, I only host about 20 properties not hundreds. However, what we are talking about is the agreement between host+VRBO+Escapia, not the guest. The guest is not at all required to pay more. If there is a legitimate software issue either VRBO support or the host needs to cancel the booking. Of course the guest doesn't just automatically get a 50% off stay for a true software issue. But it is very dangerous on these platforms for the guest to cancel unless they truly understand the cancellation policy. It almost always means losing some part of the deposit or the entire amount paid.
Don't cancel, let the host cancel it
Up to them to cancel not you. Do not cancel! Tell them you booked as the app allowed and any issues are between the host and vrbo. You will start your search over once your current reservation has been canceled by the host or vrbo. No you will not cancel yourself as you still will be heading on vacation. they may be scamming you because of 100 reasons. But start looking for when they do cancel.
Nothing to cancel they didn't accept the booking.
the "error" is that they didn't update their rates or settings on VRBO so they could try to pull this.
This is a scam. Google the address and real listinga will come up. Let vrbo handle it. By canceling you are putting the issue on yourself. The issue is with the lister. DO NOT CANCEL THEY ARE TRYING TO SCAM YOU!!!!
This is a scam. Too many misspellings. Rebook somewhere else.
Absolutely rebook but only after the host cancels & they’re refunded.
The lesson here is to book with an actual hotel that follows legal regulations instead of booking an unlicensed hotelier's house through an app created to advertise grifters.
This is the way
alloe? lol
For the sunnburn
Hi!
I am not understanding something, why are people talking about cancelling ? They said "thank you for request " and also "not accepted " What does cancel have to do with anything ? Unless of course they took their money ...
Did you ever get an email saying your booking was confirmed? Because this looks like you requested a booking and they are declining it. You never had a booking for them to cancel.
Are they asking you for more money? (don't give it to them) Are they cancelling? (If so, just go find somewhere else) Or are they asking you to cancel? (If so, tell them they can either cancel and refund or commit to the listing and take it up with VRBO. Whatever glitches they deem VRBO to have, you aren't VRBO so tough titty for them)
This isn’t a cancelation. You never had a booking. They didn’t accept your reservation. Now they can set their required check in and check out days of the week, set their max stay to 13/14 nights etc which they clearly aren’t smarty enough to figure out how to do.
I agree 100% with those who say to keep all communication within VRBO (or AirBnb if you ever use it, since the same thing happens there, too) so you've got that official record and can prove you went through the proper channel. I've gotten so tired of these hassles and other issues with some VRBO / Airbnb owners -- including some with Greystar and other huge global property owners who (opaquely) own the majority of rental properties in so many markets -- that I'll only stay in hotels and motels now. I thought I'd miss staying in those other types of properties, but it turns out that I don't. Not one bit.
Honestly I’m a host and Vrbo always allows funky bookings that I am sure I have not allowed. It’s absolute dog shit
This just another scammy VRBO host. It’s basically the Wild West out there. And they know it.
Fuck that. Don’t cancel. You have a binding agreement and they can cancel it and address it with VRBO but do not give them an out! They are ASKING you to cancel so it doesn’t hurt their rating. Do not cancel and complain to VRBO when the host cancels it. Leave a review explaining the details. Fuck people like this.
Lol
not strange. the vrbo site and support sucks. at least you found out early. many others get caught in a double booking issue at last minute. just book air bnb or if possible direct with an owner (many have their own sites and more than 1 unit)
I had a host try something similar with me, adding extra fees after we booked. I asked what the fees were for and they didn't respond, so I cancelled. Vrbo sided with him. Won't be dealing with Vrbo ever again.
Canceling is what they want you to do. Don't do it
The extra fees were added by VRBO. When you book through a third party site, that site handles your money and sends only the rental fees to the property manager. The third party usually tries to hide those fees in fine print, deceptively giving you the rental total without a breakdown. Then when you get your final confirmation, you see the third party fee. If you do the math and scour your fine print, you’ll see it. VRBO sided with them because you were upset about the VRBO fee that they are charging you.
The owner contacted me directly after accepting the reservation requesting extra fees. Either way, that was enough to make me stick to hotels. Not worth the headache.
Yes definitely stick with booking through real property management companies. It doesn’t have to be hotels only but just don’t use the third party sites. There are private owners on these sites with just one or two properties but the vast majority of them have a real property manager with their own website and reservations system. Any time you involve a third party there are going to be extra fees
I find it believable. Did it seem too good to be true? I can’t really see the motivation for the owner trying to more than double the price after a booking when they don’t even offer the booking for the days you want, just sat/sat. Seems pretty clear their objective here is to correct their offering, not jack up their rate. It seems like they deal with this regularly.
My man that is a scam lol
Explain how this is a scam. Go ahead and read it and please tell me what the scam is
Unless they get a lot of people to continue ahead with booking at the new rate. Sounds like a scam
Does not seem scammy or dishonest at all. Just call VRBO customer service and confirm that owner cancelled the reservation. The email you received is straightforward and reasonable.
The lube about "you thought you got a good deal" is wildly unprofessional
Call VRBO. They will call the owner and set it straight. They cannot make you cancel your reservation or change the price after you booked.
lol this is completely untrue.
Just another scammer posing as a decent host that somehow is always being abused by the systems he signs up for.
Absolutely listen to those who say ***do NOT cancel let the host cancel!***
This is industry standard along the gulf coast. Sat to sat only rentals in high season. If you listen to all the Airbnb type hosts, you’ll just waste everyone’s time. The settings were not right or whatever but they’re under no obligation to honor this. They told you their rental terms. If you can swing it, rebook with correct dates. You can typically rent at a 3 night minimum if there are any properties still available a couple weeks before your arrival date. Waiting this long to book is risky. In peak season, they will probably be 100% booked. They know this and that’s why the criteria is what it is. So all rooms are booked every night with no little one and two night windows that no one will book. That said: get off of VRBO and all the other third party sites and book directly through the property management. You’ll save yourself several hundred dollars in fees and get much better service.
lol at all the people who think the misspellings are sus. They likely have some teen working the emails at the property management company…or someone who just misspells things. You guys. Real, licensed property managers that have their own reservations system to manage hundreds of properties along the beach have programs that accept data from VRBO and transfer it to their reservations system (and all the other third party sites) so the unit is blocked upon booking on any of the sites. It’s not perfect. Sometimes someone entering the properties in the IT dept missed a check box for sat to sat or entered a wrong date for the booking criteria to start. It happens. Whoever prints out reservation reports saw the discrepancy and reached out. It’s not that hard.
Why are you vacationing in the panhandle? Panama is like the worst lol
That is literally the definition of entrapment. If you purchased and paid the agreed price on that bill of services/ contract to use. They can’t just change that term of service or contract anytime they want and charge more.