PSA - Beware the VRBO or airbnb honeymoon! [rant]

Thank you for the heads up, and I'm so sorry this is happening!

Did you read reviews and do research before you booked? Sorry this is happening

Wow. Have used VRBO lots and never had this happen. Where were you going? I'll know to avoid there in the future. Sorry you are having such bad luck. Maybe a beautiful window is opening after this door is closed. Hoping for the best.

There is a good chance these property owners have probably sold or are planning to sell their property. I primarily sell vacation homes and almost everyone has a VRBO site.

My family books vacations from VRBO all the time and never had problems, so this is surprising to me! I'm so sorry this happened. How frustrating!!

Sorry, what is VRBO? I've used airbnb and had no issue but if they're similar unfortunately the quality differs from host to host...

Anyway, you'd think the site would have some protections in place for problems like that. So sorry this happened to you

This is common during peak season times. FH and I were going to use Airbnb when we go to NY for New Years but decided against it because the odds of the renter canceling were so high. People would rent their space, then cancel when they realize they can get 2 or more times what they were charging the original guest.

Future Mrs C - yes, we always book only with places with over 20 very positive reviews. In both cases the hosts had glowing reviews going back years.

We had this happen with an AirBnB. AirBnB didn't pass along the reasoning for cancelling, but I contacted the host and asked. The city we are traveling to passed a new ordinance that affected house sharing sites, and the property we booked was one that was no longer allowed. After she explained that, it made sense. There could be something like this going on.

^Bicycle was it in Austin by chance? They passed the house sharing issues AND the uber/lyft issues like three weeks before I traveled there, really threw a wrench in things...

I'm trying to book a place in Oahu next month for our honeymoon! @OP when/where were you headed?

Honeylife - Colorado in December.

That's insane!! I am so sorry. I didn't realize they could just cancel like that. Did they give any explanation?

@Holly no, it was Asheville NC.

The new ordinance is that within city limits, any short term rental has to be the primary residence for the owners. They've had a big problem with people buying homes in the really popular neighborhoods to rent, and it is affecting real estate availability for people who actually live there. All of the AirBnBs available in the city now are private apartments in homes or detached buildings, with the owners still living in the main part of the house. We had booked 8 AirBnBs for our wedding weekend for family/bridesmaids/groomsmen, and only 1 was affected.

Thanks for the heads up-- I'm sure a lot of people, who've yet to have a problem with either of those sites, wouldn't stop to consider the lack of reliability.

I hope you're able to pull something enjoyable together for yourselves!

Unfortunately with sites like that its not always the best idea to book them so far in advance. People sell their homes, have weather damage, change their own plans. Etc.

This makes me nervous as we're booking in advance for a convention next year and I've heard similar stories..

I am a huge anti-AirBnB/VRBO person. It has destroyed my small town and the price hikes it caused has pushed out generations of indigenous. In my home town, I am the 12th or 13th generation born and raised there and now cannot afford to live there or have my child graduate from the same schools generations have been doing for years. People can blame it on the economy or whatever, but it's true that there are ordinances, people are profiting beyond all belief and NONE of it goes into the community. My FH now cannot get to work on time due to an influx of the commuters taking the bus transportation to a job they used to be able to bike to. Anyone truly thinking about these types of deals for their honeymoon, I highly suggest you look into whatever community it may be and what these sites have done to their economy/neighborhoods.

Thanks for the sympathy, all! We're in a pretty tight spot - the only saving grace is that I hadn't yet booked any activities in that area, so at least canceling hte honeymoon won't cost us anything. We're unable to reschedule - I teach, so it's December or wait until summer, when we hope to be pregnant and buying a house. I badly want to hand the whole thing over to FH, but his suggestions so far make me very nervous about his ability to execute a comfortable, romantic honeymoon on our limited budget - one of his ideas involved a week in a Winnebago.

Wow, we have used Airbnb lots of times. Didn't realize owners can cancel on you without recourse