The property owner treated us like common criminals after we rented her house in Newport, Oregon. She claimed we damaged a door, but did not even ask if we did, which WE DID NOT. She then told us the cost to fix the damage, coincidentally enough, was exactly our entire DEPOSIT so VRBO gave it to her that and was that. The owners they have four other properties in Oregon, be careful.
The owner's first e-mail to us was: The door in the game room, connecting the unit you rented to the neighboring unit, was kicked in. This is breaking and entering, trespass, and criminal vandalism. Unfortunately I must now file a police report as well as charge your security deposit. I cannot imagine who could do this to someone else’s home, and am beyond disappointed. I will need to provide the police with your name as the responsible guest, but if you were unaware of this, you may wish to identify the responsible member(s) of your party as soon as possible. I will email you pictures of the damage."
Important to note there was no walk through when we left. The owner was absolutely not willing to even consider the idea that someone else that has access to the property (she was out of the country during our stay so she relied on second hand information someone gave her) could have possibly done the damage and simply placed the blame on the tenants.
My wife and I rented the house so we could take our children, their spouses and kids to visit my wife's aging mother in Newport. We are all professional, respectful and honest people who also own rental property. We had the code to open all doors so there was no reason to break in as she accused us. Let me reiterate that if we would have caused the damage, we would be the first to acknowledge it and pay for it. It is not the money, it's the absolute conviction without even a discussion by both the owner and VRBO/HomeAway.
The second problem is with VRBO and their corporate owner HomeAway. I've contacted them four times and each time they say they'll get back to us within 24-48 hours It has now been 13 days since we first contacted them and NOTHING. In all our reaching out to them, they have never asked us for our version of events.