Tina K.

I am a vacation rental owner advertiser with VRBO & Homeaway for 10+ years with 4+ homes. Before the Homeaway Family (VRBO, Homeaway and VacationRentals web sites were bought by Expedia FOR $3.9 BILLION homeowners were required to supply proof of the home ownership by providing utility bill or mortgage statement. NO MORE. Anyone can place an ad on VRBO. The cost is now only $349/ ad. Expedia/Homeaway Family began charging travelers 6% for NOTHING. Owners are penalized if they do not use the new Book It Now system. VRBO owners ads are disabled if the owner attempts to save the traveler money by allowing the traveler to book directly with the owner. Guests are forced to enter credit card information to make an inquiry. If a booking occurs, owners do not get the rental proceeds until after the guest checks into the home (unless the owner complains to VRBO and then, VRBO will release the funds sooner. VRBO deducts from owners proceeds the credit card fees incurred when Traveler uses a credit card. VRBO harasses owners with any traveler complaint (forcing the owner to compensate the complaining Traveler), even when the Traveler did not book the home through a Homeaway Family web site. Travelers, please call owners directly. Make sure the person advertising actually owns or manages the home. Ask to be supplied a tax record or contract of employment. You will probably get a discounted rate if you go directly to the owner.

VRBO sold out to Expedia Nov 2015 for $3.9 Billion. VRBO, Homeaway, VacationHomeRentals now adds on and charges Travelers a SERVICE FEE of 6% of the total rent! They also force homeowners who advertise their rentals to use the BOOK IT NOW SYSTEM which forces Travelers to pay the huge SERVICE FEE.
They advertise the fee as good for Travelers. A Guarantee. But they don't even verify if the home is actually owned by the person placing the ad! I guess they figure the odds of someone getting defrauded are slim and those 6% fees are huge income.
Better for Travelers, CALL the OWNER direct. Tell them you want to book through them directly. STOP EXPEDIA GREED

My family of 27 stayed for a week with 7 of our family dogs. The resort has cabins and homes all on the same location with frontage on Sequim Bay. It was perfect for us. We brought a small skiff and went crabbing. The tide goes out every morning, and we can walk the shore. The dogs loved it. There is a central Landing with fire pit. There are two cabins right on the water, the rest flow uphill with awesome views. They are charmingly decorated. Some of my family loves the quaint beachside cabins... others wanted more amenities and larger space uphill. It's a perfect place for all people and kids. Easy access, close to Seattle (only a ferry ride from Edmonds WA). The owners are awesome... easy going. You can rent kayaks and paddle boards from them, too.

I used Helping Hands Vet Clinic on 8/23/16 to obtain a health certificate for my dog, in order to travel back to Hawaii. I fly my 120 lb mastiff in the cabin with me as my ESA dog.
The state of Hawaii requires a certificate. I have gone to the clinic 4 times in the past and saw Dr. Guidry (the owner of the clinic) with no problems.
This time I saw Karak Eshak.
He examined George (my dog) and began listing out meds supposedly I needed, including a very expensive antibiotic pill. When I questioned why I needed the pills, he just said "because you need it". I didn't fight with him any longer and accepted the $411 bill.
I told him George was highly allergic to the Frontline with Fiprinol (one of the many flea meds the ST of HI recommends. Eshak was going to admister it anyway. HE didn't care that George got 2 huge $#*! lumps on either side where it had been administered the very first time we ever went to Helping Hands. It took me 3 months and $$$ to get rid of the reaction.
I told Eshak that I would be right back (I got there at 9:30 AM, had the plane to catch that day)... and I went and got water and soap, so that I could wash off the Frontline he was going to put on George's back). I was gone 20 min.
When I returned, they made me wait over 45 min (out of spite) I kept asking why it was taking so long for Eshak to come out and put the Frontline on George.
I saw (when they opened the door to the back room) people just standing around and talking.
Finally he came out, put it on George's back in the front reception room, and then they couldn't figure out what page of the health certificate to give me. Good Lord!
I didn't get out of there until NOON!
In spite of the fact that I washed George's back 3 times with soap and water, he is having a reaction to the Frontline. Licking the spot where the Frontline was put.
Thanks for NOTHING Karam Eshak. You are a worthless vet. You don't care, you don't listen, you just want to trump up a bill for $$$$$.
You could have researched what other flea med the State of Hawaii allows and use that on George, which may not have caused a reaction.

Homeaway Strong Arm Tactics forces owners and Guests to use Book It Now being is wrong. If owners don't use it, they get put at the bottom of the list. Guests have no choice. And if owners use CSA property damage insurance in order to put a claim into CSA for guest damage, they need to provide the signed written contract from the guest? With Book it Now, we don't get a signed contract!
Make sure you send the guest a rental agreement and have them sign it and return it to you.

READ THE FINE PRINT. Red Tape and more Red Tape prevents service.
Because of the fine print in Select Home Warranty Contracts they deny your claim more times than they will approve it.
Then if you do pass the firsts hurdle and they allow your claim, it's impossible to find a contractors who will work with Select Home Warranty. Apparently they don't pay the contractor so the contractor assigned doesn't even want to work with Select Home Warranty! Their own contractors refuse to work with them. How are you going to get something fixed if they don't have a valid contractor and you can't find one that will accept SelectHomeWarranty?
I called every contractor in Kona Hi and NONE of them would work with this company!

VRBO new feature BOOK IT NOW IS A DISASTER! There is absolutely no benefit to guest or owner to use this feature.
VRBO strong arms guests and owners to use the service.
Owners do not get the guest's booking money timely from VRBO. It is not released to the owner until after the guest checks in.
Guests are charged a large "fee" by VRBO to use Book it Now,
Owners are charged $700-$1500 annual fee owners to advertise on VRBO.
VRBO penalizes owners who refuse to use BooK It Now at the bottom of the list of available homes.
Recent scams of fraudulent phishing of owners VRBO inquiries which resulted in stolen guest funds where the guest was offered a "discount" by an unknown person (not the owner) appeared to be perpetrated by VRBO employees in an attempt to "sell" Book it Now. This problem occurred with many owner accounts, but the majority of those owners were ones that did not use "book it now". VRBO's only official comment was "your email password must have been hacked.
Owners and guests emails are "filtered" through VRBO
A word to guests: CALL THE OWNER Deal directly with the owner. Save yourself much grief.