10/10 Excellent
NEIL N., Elk Grove Village
11 Apr 2020
Liked: Cleanliness, check-in, communication, location, listing accuracy
Owners = A+, Great; VRBO Mgt = D, Refund of Damage Deposit
The first half of my stay went very well: the location was excellent regarding baseball venues, shopping and other services. Unfortunately the remaining half of my stay was covered by stay-inside mandate, but the property, its amenities, and the owners enabled me to pass the time comfortably and also helped out with a couple of health items.
The only complaint regards the handling of the refund of my damage deposit. The owners had released the hold on the deposit on April 1 and VRBO confirmed this action. However, a week later the refund was not delivered and an inquiry with the owner determined that VRBO did not take any action despite announcing so on their website. An email from VRBO a few days later confirmed that no refund would made for up to a couple of weeks due to unprecedented number of cancellations. While this is understandable to a certain extent, fault is blamed on VRBO because: 1) An explanation of this situation should have been made when the refund was posted, not leading me on that the refund was processed as done; 2) VRBO functions as a fiduciary, accepting damage deposit money for the owners and remitting the deposit expeditiously when the owners release the damage hold. By surreptitiously delaying the refund, VRBO has wronged both the owners and myself.
In previous years VRBO has established high regards by me but in this case, VRBO has definitely fallen short of their expected level of performance. A partial refund of the VRBO fees should be made to me and the owners to compensate for time lost and to encourage VRBO to meet their standard of service
Bottom line: the owners provided an excellent experience and I would stay there again if possible AND hope VRBO does a better job in future.
