Vrbo’s luxury property bore no relation to the listing

My family and I stayed in a Spanish property booked on Vrbo that was blatantly different to the listing. Instead of the three bedrooms advertised, there was only one, accessible via an outdoor stone staircase. The listing also failed to mention that the bathroom was outside as well. Neither of the rooms had heating. To reach the toilet at night involved going down the flight of steps. Since it was raining during our stay, they were slippery and treacherous and we got very wet. Moreover, frequent power failures left us without running water, heating or wifi. We had paid £1,009 for the week, but it was so miserable we decamped to another house at an additional cost of £574 after three days.

Vrbo’s complaints process is impossible to navigate. You are repeatedly transferred to people in different teams and have to start from square one each time. So far, I have spent six hours on the phone to them. I feel its process is not designed to actually solve customer problems, but merely to wear people out so that they are forced to make their own arrangements, which then allows Vrbo to argue that they wouldn’t accept help.
KC, Sheffield

The listing suggests the sort of luxury you’d expect for £1,009 out of season. Three bedrooms sleeping four people were specified, but closer inspection of the photos shows the one photographed from different angles in different lights. This room is at the top of what looks like a converted windmill; the bathroom is at the bottom, linked on the outside wall by a curved flight of at least a dozen steep stone steps.

The kitchen and living area are in an adjoining building, which you’d assume were accessible from the tower, but which you found involves crossing an unprotected terrace. This is a significant fact for families with young children since that’s where two of the party would have to bed down.

All this, and the lack of heating, matters when you’re staying there during a cold wet snap in March, as you were. It would matter even more if any of the party had a disability and could not climb the steps to bed. There is no mention of accessibility on the listing.

Giant platforms like Vrbo do not inspect the properties they list, and rely on guest feedback about any anomalies.

Its indifference to your experience is dismaying, not just for you, but for anyone else who relies on its promise to “help families find the perfect holiday homes to reconnect”. It only amended the listing when I intervened, although the outdoor bathroom and staircase are still not mentioned.

Vrbo tells me it did offer alternative accommodation when you first complained. You say this was an unspecified motel. It has now refunded the four unused nights and the service fee as a “goodwill gesture”.

It says: “We’re disappointed to hear that the property didn’t correspond to the customer’s expectations, and we’d like to reassure her that this is not a common occurrence among Vrbo customers.”

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