Help! My $1,988 Spring Break Rental Was Canceled at the Last Minute.

19.09.2024 - 09:15 / nytimes.com

I found a great deal for a short-term rental on St. Thomas this past March: eight nights for me and my two kids at a villa at Marriott’s Frenchman’s Cove for $1,988 through Vrbo, booked two months in advance. I wrote to the owner five days before the trip and didn’t hear back, so I tried again. No answer. The day before departure, I contacted Vrbo, who got in touch with the owner, who canceled. Vrbo said it would be in touch about rebooking, but as we boarded the first flight of our trip from Denver, we still had no place to stay. To buy time, I agreed to be bumped from our next flight in the connecting city. Vrbo told me I could take a refund (and find same-day lodging in the Caribbean during spring break, no thanks) or reserve a hotel through their partner Expedia while they helped me book a new Vrbo property. They said I could spend up to $3,976 for the new booking — double what I had originally paid — but when I said that might not be enough, the agent told me she would advocate for covering additional costs. After a lot of stress, we ended up staying at a Westin resort for two nights via Expedia, at a Vrbo rental at the Ritz-Carlton resort for four nights and the final night at a Vrbo in town. The lodging cost was $4,147 on top of my original reservation, an amount that doesn’t include $200 in “environmental” fees at the Ritz, all the taxi fares and the loss of a vacation day. After lots of back and forth, Vrbo offered me $3,330. I think they should cover at least the full amount. Can you help?

Both traditional hotels and short-term rentals have advantages, but if avoiding cancellations is a primary concern, hotels win in a landslide.

That’s because it generally takes a landslide — or flood or wildfire or other disaster — for a hotel to shut down. But short-term-rental owners are at least as likely to cancel for other reasons, like plumbing problems, power outages and scheduling errors.

At a time and place where inventory is not at a premium, say October in Sacramento, that’s not usually a problem. Spring break in the Caribbean, however, is a whole other story.

But not a unique one. As I worked on this column, Bryan and Carol of Norwalk, Conn., wrote to me to lament that their August Airbnb reservation for nine in London (to celebrate their 60th anniversary with family!) was canceled 36 hours before check-in. I’ll get to their dilemma in a bit.

As for St. Thomas, if we take you at your word that you took the cheapest comparable accommodations, I agree that Vrbo should have covered your additional housing costs. After I got in touch with the company, you heard that you would receive, over the $3,330 you already got, an additional $861 as “a good-will gesture.” That’s slightly more than what you