real estate adviser: I Just Had the Worst VRBO Experience

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Vacation Rentals

I Just Had the Worst VRBO Experience—Here Are My 3 Biggest Takeaways

Fifteen sticky notes.

That's how many little pieces of paper our vacation rental host had posted around his 1,100-square-foot lake home. Most listed very basic instructions: Don't use two appliances at once. Close the screen door. Turn on the exhaust fan when using the shower.

That was our first clue that this was not going to be an ordinary summer stay. My husband and I escaped to a Vermont lake home for several weeks this summer, where we planned to work remotely during the day and spend evenings enjoying the water.

Sure enough, within the first two weeks, our host arrived—unannounced and without a mask—eight times. Later, we found evidence he entered the property when we weren't home. This would be disconcerting in normal times (everyone deserves privacy), but it was even worse during a pandemic, when we were trying our best to avoid other humans.

The weirdness continued throughout our stay. Every time our host stopped by, he mentioned something we were doing wrong: The patio umbrellas weren't closed or the exhaust fan had been on too long. However good his intentions, we felt unwelcome.

We ultimately felt so unwelcome that we left a few days early. But had we done some things differently, we might have had a much better stay. Vacation rentals, after all, are one of the most popular ways to travel in 2020, and for good reason: You can relax with your pandemic pod while avoiding public spaces and large groups of people. Here are a few tips to follow when booking your next stay.

Avoid properties with no reviews: This is an obvious tip, but one that could have saved us some strife. Our host was renting his property for the first time this summer, so he had no other reviews. He operates another home, and those reviews were positive, so we thought nothing of it. Another risk? Sometimes hosts will pull down listings with bad reviews and re-post them as new homes (we noticed this happened to our review).
Set clear boundaries: Everyone is handling the pandemic differently, but you have every right to set strict boundaries around how and when you interact with your hosts. If we had made some specific requests—please text before visiting, always wear a mask—our experience might have been very different.
Research guest policies: The advantage of booking a vacation home is that you can travel with larger groups than a hotel can affordably accommodate. But many hosts have tightened their guest policies to comply with Covid-19 restrictions. Research this ahead of time so you're not turned away based on group size or charged with extra fees.

So whether you're planning a holiday getaway with your pandemic pod or you're bunkering down in the mountains until we get a vaccine, I've rounded up my favorite booking sites and products to help you create a home away from home.