Since VRBO reviews are limited to 1500 characters, and this review requires quadruple that, I've decided to add this review to a page from my business website. Here, I can also post videos and pictures of the property and what we dealt with at this property.
My family and I had an 8 night stay booked over Easter and the kid's (7 and 4) spring break. The host was accommodating at first, allowing us to check in an hour early after a 20 hour drive from NJ. We checked in, the house appeared to be clean and well maintained. The first two days of our stay were uneventful and we enjoyed the beach, surrounding area and the pool. There is a RING camera in the lanai area overlooking the pool. When I asked the owner about this, she said the camera and location were mentioned in the booking app, but we did not notice that statement anywhere. The owner confirmed that the RING camera was on while we were staying in the home, so she can essentially watch my family and my kids swim in the pool.
On the third day, we noticed a few, small sugar ants in the kitchen, so while we were out that afternoon, we picked up some organic/kid safe ant spray. Later that night when putting our kids to bed, my wife noticed an insect on the wall next to my 7 year old's bed. Then, she noticed 4-5 more crawling over the blinds, which was less than 1 foot away from the end of the bed. When I lifted the blinds up, an infestation of these insects were crawling on the glass, and in and out of the window frame. We immediately took my children and their belongings out of the room so we could examine further. Upon further investigation, we discovered that these insects were FIRE ANTS (later confirmed by an entomologist). I immediately called the owner but she did not pick up the phone.
Luckily, we bought the ant spray earlier that day and I used it on the fire ants in the room. As I sprayed, more and more came out of the window. I have pictures and video of this infestation, which are posted below. I sent these pictures to the owner as she had not yet returned my phone call and asked her to take care of this ASAP. When she responded to the pictures via text, she said she would call in the morning, but "in the meantime, there is spray in the garage that you can put around the window and out." The owner suggested that I GO OUTSIDE, IN THE DARK, OF A PROPERTY THAT I'M NOT FAMILIAR WITH, and suggested that I spray for FIRE ANTS, and possibly put myself at risk for stepping on a nest. The owner didn't even tell me where I could find a flashlight! While she was apologetic that this had happened, I did not want to risk keeping my family in the home, so we called VRBO and requested a refund for the remaining nights of the trip. I spoke to a woman named "Ana" and the refund was granted, citing it was a health and safety issue after the pictures of the fire ants were sent to the VRBO Health and Safety team. We told the owner this and her response was "You do what you feel is best, we can't control Mother Nature. It's Florida. but we will have someone come out."
Considering it was almost 10:00 pm at this point, we thought it would be best to try to get the kids to sleep in another bedroom while we took that evening to pack up our belongings. We moved our kids into another bedroom that night, but they were obviously scared of these venomous insects coming from the walls, so my wife and I, between trying to pack everything up, were in and out of their room until they finally fell asleep around midnight. At that time, I took a trip with some of our luggage to the hotel which was about 30 minutes away while my wife was trying to gather the rest of our belongings, check on the kids, AND check for other areas of fire ants throughout the home. I finally returned to the home around 2-230 am, and tried to sleep for a few hours, but was not able to.
Early the next morning (Monday), as we were just about to leave the property, the owner messages me and tells me that "we do have Trugreen coming out tomorrow to retreat the exterior of the home." We told the owner that we did not feel safe that we were leaving.
Although the owner was trying to be accommodating, we felt that this incident was not taken seriously: If not discovered, my son could have ended up in the emergency room or worse; the owner told me to go outside, in the dark, and spray with a potential fire ant nest at my feet; the infestation of fire ants were found INSIDE the house, but the owner is only going to treat the outside; I have no idea if there are other nests/infestations in the house, and the owner wanted us to stay in the home for 36 hours untreated (fire ants were discovered Sunday night, owner told us Trugreen would be out Tuesday morning). Throughout this whole ordeal, I just did not feel SAFE in that house and the owner, in my opinion, did not take the steps necessary to correct it in a timely manner (or prevent it all together by properly treating the home).
Later Monday evening, the owner again reached out to tell me "by 10:00 am this morning, the ants were gone (insinuating that there were actually more in the wall). We had the whole house sprayed inside and out for the ants." So now the inside of the house was sprayed, and she expects my family and two children to SLEEP in the room or the house that was JUST SPRAYED WITH PESTICIDE? No thanks.
All quotes are verbatim from the owner.
Two days later, VRBO emailed me to say that they rescinded my refund request and that venomous insects aren't considered a health and safety risk. They suggested we go through the owner to request a refund, which the owner also denied. This began my fight and frustration with VRBO. In the 17 days since my initial contact with Ana, I have spoken to 14 customer service representatives, 3 "supervisors," 1 person from the "Resolutions Department,' and a gentlemen named Adam, who apparently is a customer service executive. Every person I have talked to could not give me an answer as to why my refund was approved and then 2 days later rescinded. Before my case reached the executive (which I had to reach out directly on my own), the person from the Resolutions Team - Keegan- stated that this should absolutely be a refund considering all the evidence I presented of the fire ants and the owner's lack of desire to help in a timely manner.
Once I spoke to Adam- the customer service executive, he explained that (these are EXACT QUOTES)
- "Ants were not considered pests"
-"The health and safety team did not consider this an infestation"
-"Most companies use safe pesticides"
The following is an excerpt from my response to an email of his detailing what had happened...
I asked to see the following policies.
-The policy that states: "venomous insects" are not considered a pest. (Just a thought, why would the owner hire PEST CONTROL to deal with fire ants if they aren't considered a PEST?)
-The policy that covers if a property becomes unsafe for a traveler during their stay? (ie. If there was an electrical fire in the house and the home was unsafe?) Why is this policy kept a secret (if it even exists) and isn't available to travelers? Don't you think they have the right to know what their options will be if God forbid they are forced into an unsafe environment? Or is it VRBO's policy to keep all of that info "internal" as you had called it.
-The policy on VRBO's definition of an "infestation?" As you again stated on the phone, your "H&S team did not consider this an infestation," which are you EXACT words. As this matter directly deals with my refund, please tell me what VRBO DOES consider an infestation. Or is it one person's arbitrary opinion? Or again, does it even exist?
-The report on pesticide used to spray the interior of the home, and a study of the long and short term effects of extended exposure of that pesticide to children 12 and under. While I appreciate your attempt at "googling" some random website for info on pesticides, you are not considered an expert. I question if ANYONE on your health and safety team is actually considered an expert in that field, and knows 100% how safe it would have or would not have been for my family to stay in that home after the entire interior and exterior were sprayed in its entirety (according to the owner). As I'm sure you are aware Adam, a person needs to have the education and experience to be considered an expert in a certain field. If you were to testify that you "did a quick search and found this about pesticides," although I'm not a judge, I don't believe that you would be taken seriously, and neither do I in this case.
While on the phone with Adam, he assured me that these polices DO EXIST and that he would forward them to me. Then in our follow up email, he responded "the policy documents you are requesting are internal documents that I am unable to share with you. I can inform you again that our H&S team did not classify your situation as an infestation as we don't consider ants or mosquitos pests. This is why our Guarantees department denied your refund claim."
I am still in a fight with VRBO, I have yet to come across ANY employee that can help me answer the questions I asked. VRBO should really be ashamed of themselves for running a company like this and PUTTING RENTERS IN POTENTIAL DANGER.
Renters beware of using VRBO and using this owner.
Definitely will not be using VRBO ever again, and I would highly suggest staying away from this owner.
VRBO Review: 2511 Stagnaro Road, North Port, Florida
April 7 - April 15, 2023
