Travel
Zuma Zoom
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Any feedback for VRBO?
My family is traveling to Alaska in July. We wanted to get a vacation home instead of hotel rooms, and found some through the site VRBO.com (vacation rental by owner). I wanted to see if anyone has used this site or had feedback for the process.
We've made contact with a rental property, but we haven't paid as of yet.
Thanks!
Zuma Zoom
Re: Any feedback for VRBO?
Thanks lady!
This guy didn't have any reviews, and was listed as "new" to the site. It looks really nice and the calendar is booked up quite a bit. He's originally from Wisconsin, haha, so he has some of our Midwest flavor.
Glad that you've used the site though. It helps to have trusted info for it.
Zuma Zoom
We've used it twice now (Vegas & Hawaii), and both times were great experiences, no probs at all. I always pay attention to the reviews, how many bookings they have, and whether they're available to speak to on the phone and not just through email messages. Sometimes I ask to see additional pics if they don't have very many posted (I've heard of people being disappointed because the place didn't look as nice as in the pics, etc.).
FYI, there's Homeaway.com as well, same kind of thing.
We used it once for a Taos ski trip. It was managed by a property manager who I didn't think shared all the info she could have about the property up front. I had to call her every day about something. But the place was nice and it was a good price so it worked out fine.
We just booked our May vacation with VRBO. I think it should be fine.
Zuma Zoom
I use that site all the time. Never had a bad experience.
We actually had a bad experience on a property that had great reviews. We read through everything and the pictures looked great. It stated that the cleaning fee was built into the rate. It did not state that we had to do several things before departing and there was a strict check out time. It also said it had modern TVs and DVD players with satellite. There was no satellite. The TVs were at least 10-15 years old and had 2 channels barely coming in. He really misrepresented the place since none of the electronics showed on the pictures. This wasn't a huge deal since we brought DVDs and weren't there to watch TV.
The first problem with this was that the bathroom had not been thoroughly cleaned. There was hair in the steam shower, dusty vanities, and the fridge was so loaded that there was almost no room for our own food. I need to bring my own food for an intolerence that can make me really sick. We would have overlooked the fridge, but we were very specific about needing it for me and the owner was adamant that he only kept a few basics there.
The second issue was that the hot tub was not heated at all (65 degrees) when we arrived and was not functioning according to the owner's instructions. We spent the first 36 hours trying to contact the owner about the lack of cleaning and how to make the hot tub heat. When we finally reached him, he had a "whatever" and there's nothing I can or will do for you.
When we looked at the check out list, we were really surprised at what he wanted done. He wanted all the beds stripped with sheets in the washer, the fireplace completely clear of ashes to be dumped outside, all dishes out of the dishwasher, the kitchen sink fully cleaned as well as the counters, the fridge cleared of anything that wasn't his (nothing of his was labeled making this a little difficult), the hot tub completely off (and cooled), all towels in the washer, all the rooms vacuumed, and the hard wood floors dust mopped. Some of it was stuff we had done like dishes, but we felt like he misrepresented the "built in" cleaning fee since it wasn't clean when we arrived and we did more cleaning on departure than was done for our arrival.
I just wanted to give you a heads up to read all of the fine print and ask lots of questions. We go through property management firms now since we got so burned on this one. We may use them again, but would be very careful and investigate the property beyond reviews.