Having made this booking for a 3 bed villa in East Bainbridge Ave, Fountain Hills, Arizona, we had high hopes for this beautiful villa, and the host was very responsive until payment was received and then less so after. Upon our arrival we could see from around the front door frame that the house was not well kept, e.g. large area of paint loss, not repaired, indication of poor maintenance. This continued throughout the villa with a so called 'floating floor' acting as a trip hazard. Both patio door sliders to the rear pool/patio area had their original locks broken and make shift replacements fitted, one of which allowed a 1 inch gap in the top of the door when the door slider was pulled, so not secure, and the side door to the garage had a hole whereby access to the property via the internal garage door could be gained. Numerous other issues with maintenance, red ant trails around the patio area, filthy patio furniture and loungers, you would not let your pets sit on them never mind yourself. I immediately tried to call the host and it went to voicemail, so left a message. I tried VRBO based in the US.and they said to try the host which I explained I had and told them the issues, during the call the host rang me back so I took the call from the host. The host tried to say I way too picky and he has 100s of 5* reviews and yet VRBO only display 24 of them??? I explained we didn't feel secure due to exterior door issues and also the safety issues of tripping on the various areas where the flooring was bulging/lifted. He agreed to a full refund and to his word the refund came through, but it wasn't a full refund as promised, just a partial refund leaving us $561 short of our original payment, covering items such as a cleaning fee (which if we hadn't stayed there is NO cleaning fee due) and also both local taxes and VAT charged which as we hadn't stayed or consumed the goods, taxes should not be due, withheld or retained as essentially the purchase was voided when a refund was agreed. We had to find another accommodation at short notice for our 6 night stay which caused a lot of stress, none of which has been acknowledged by VRBO or the host for that matter. I spoke to VRBO in the US and they said they would contact the host to verify the agreement to a full refund and get back to me within 24hrs, guess what they did not. I messaged back and forth with the host and he stated that 'all' the money he'd received from VRBO was refunded to me by him and VRBO holds/retains the rest, strange but I allowed him to liaise with VRBO which he said he'd do the Monday June 3rd, following our arrival on Fri 31st May. At no time, even though the host and VRBO were aware we were not staying at this home did they cancel our booking, not sure if this is some kind of scam or get out clause, as a non-cancelled booking permits the owner to only make a partial refund; something definitely amiss. Since returning home from my holiday, I continued to chase VRBO in the UK whose site was used to make this booking and I had a complaint reference to quote from the US side, who asked me to send photos, etc which I did, but I couldn't attach the video we took as they have a 33mb upload limit not helpful. So last Fri 13th Jun I spoke to a lady called Derryn and she claimed to understand the problem of the refund shortfall and said she'd reach out to the host/owner to confirm they agreed to the full refund, even though the VRBO app shows all the message trails I had with the owner including him saying he refunded me everything VRBO had paid him and that they are holding the remaining funds I paid, e.g. $561 but she said she needs to 'hear' it directly from him, almost implying I could have manufactured or faked the messages in their own app/system. Anyway she said she'd get the refund sorted within 24hrs. Again nothing, so called again on 18th June and spoke to Miriam who said she'd tried to call the host whilst I held on the line but there was no reply, she said she would message him and speak with her supervisor to sort this out, and guess what, still no reply, contact or update. Am considering taking this to the small claims court, as much out of principle as anything else because VRBO and its villa owners cannot be allowed to dupe genuine customers, charge double tax to UK customers, e.g. US local and sales tax and UK VAT on their rentals and cannot retain money when the host agrees to a full refund, not only is it scandalous, it's potentially/bordering on fraud. I will NEVER book through VRBO again, I'd rather stay at a hotel or resort because if you have a problem they will try to move you to another room or accommodation, VRBO offered no suitable alternative or solution when this problem arose even though they advertise that they will try and arrange other alternatives, a potential trading standards issue, they don't do what they advertise they will.
