VACATION RENTAL

Can you trust a vacation rental?

October 27, 2012

The two-bedroom apartment in the trendy Tunali neighbor-hood of Ankara, Turkey, that Richard and Ellen Lacroix rented through Airbnb fell dramatically short of their expectations.
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Was his vacation rental too good to be true?

July 28, 2012

Frank Leibsly says his recent apartment rental in London was a disaster of Olympic proportions, and he has the pictures to prove it.
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New confidentiality clauses can influence vacation rental reviews

April 14, 2012

Desert — Look who's trying to doctor those online reviews! / Photo by I Scott-Flickr

Tom and Terri Dorow didn’t like their recent vacation rental in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Their online review is clear about that. It’s a laundry list of complaints about equipment, appliances and even the appearance of a house they felt didn’t meet the expectations of a $3,500 price tag for five nights.
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91 comments

Was this Grand Canyon vacation rental a grand scam?

April 12, 2012

The rental cabin in Williams, Ariz., she found through VRBO.com had three bedrooms — the perfect size for her family. So last year, Trudi Wood sent the owner a $839 check for a deposit.
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Vacation rental phishing scams catch more travelers

January 28, 2012

Shauna Kattler thought she’d found the ideal rental home in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, for her Christmas vacation: a two-bedroom penthouse condominium with a hot tub and an impossibly perfect view of the Caribbean.

And she was getting it for the impossibly low peak-season rate of $450 a night through HomeAway.com, a popular vacation rental Web site. “Impossibly” being the operative word.
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47 comments

Is this enough compensation? A $300 refund for an oil-soaked vacation

March 22, 2011

Fort Morgan, Ala., is a quiet Gulf Coast resort known for its sparkling white sand beaches. Well, usually.

Thanks to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill last year, Anne Hill’s spring break on Alabama’s Gulf Coast wasn’t all she had hoped for. She phoned a local rental agency, Meyers Real Estate, and says she inquired about the state of the beaches before booking a vacation rental.

“They said they were in great shape,” she says.

They weren’t.
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87 comments

Advanced vacation rentals: 9 things to know

May 22, 2010

Renting a reliable vacation home isn’t easy.

And not just because there are a seemingly endless number of rental resources to turn to — everything from local sites that list a few condos to big listing services like HomeAway.com or VRBO.com.

For me, it’s the politics.
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