I've used VRBO for years and never will again. We checked in on the 13th and because the apartment was uninhabitable, we left on the 14th as soon as we found other lodging.
The listing on VRBO is a front for an Expedia reservation. The company that owns the apartment doesn't have ANY agreement or contact with VRBO and as far as they were concerned, I'd reserved through Expedia. The VRBO entry for the apartment doesn't have a real phone number or email address to contact the rental company.
When I tracked down the rental company, I called 4 different numbers the company gave me. No one would answer any questions. They gave me an email address and never replied to any email I sent. When I contacted VRBO, they ALSO gave me a runaround and took no responsibility. VRBO and the apartment owner took our money for a place we couldn't use and there is no apparent recourse.
Here are the issues making the Valetta townhouse uninhabitable:
- No light in the bathroom
- No door on the bathroom: A thin shower curtain is not a substitute for a bathroom door.
- The bathroom ceiling leaks when it rains
- The lamps provided use 2 prong European plugs, but the apartment is wired for British 3-prong plugs. The guy who checked us in told us to stick the door key into the grounding hole in an outlet so it unlocks, then we could plug in the two prong plugs. Thats not quirky, thats a recipe for electrocution.
- Only 1 of the 3 fans is functional and that one fan is the only source of cooling for the entire apartment.
- I had to clean out the 2 filthy and full dehumidifiers before they would turn on. In the single night we were there, both dehumidifiers filled completely (About 8 cups of water pulled from the air in 10 hours).
- The sheets on the bed were wet. It was so humid, they never dried.
- The built in lamp fixtures are corroding and dropping bits onto the bed
- The clothes dryer vents directly back into the basement increasing the already terrible heat and humidity.
- The glass walkway has holes on both sides large enough to put a foot through
- The entire space smells overwhelmingly of mildew.
- There are holes in the downstairs walls around plumbing.
- We were told to not open the windows because of the cockroach problem. With 1 fan, 2 dehumidifiers and no open windows we never got the apartment as cool as outside.
