My friends and I booked this place for a weekend trip in Orlando with plans to go to the parks. Unfortunately, this weekend trip ended up being the weekend that hurricane Ian hit Florida. I immediately contacted the host to see what could be done if the hurricane ended up hitting FL, and to see if he would consider a refund for a late cancellation due to the hurricane. This message was sent a week before my stay, and I could have gotten a 50% refund at this point, but my group and I really did not want to cancel our trip. He waited 4 days before getting back to me, and at that point I was unable to even cancel my trip for a 50% refund. After a few calls he eventually said he was unable to refund us as the timeshare property that is listed already charged his account. I later found out that the timeshare would have refunded him, but he waited too long to initiate the refund. I contact the host again and he said that he could not refund me because of the vrbo cancellation policy. I contact vrbo customer service and they said that the host can still refund me and sent him a message to do so. He has ignored this message per customer service. After the hurricane hit FL, I call him again to see what can be done and he denies there being a natural disaster, denies significant flooding in the Orlando area, denies there being damage to any of the highways, and states that even the parks are open, so there was no reason for my party and I not go to Orlando and that I will be at fault if I don’t show. A quick Google search will quickly dis-prove all of this. He eventually offers to move the travel date to a different weekend, but tells me that I would have to send him more money and he will not be able to give me any written confirmation of the change of date or that this new reservation was even ever made.
Unless you’re flying into FL and can get travel insurance, I would avoid booking with this host unless you’re booking the day of your stay.
