Arrived for our Girls Getaway (4, 40+ women) to find a semi-clean house. Meat blood spilled in fridge, hair in bathrooms, showers with black mold in the corners. No mattress covers on mattresses. Bath towels smelled mildewy, like they had been left in washing machine too long, so we washed them. Only then to find out that they dryer doesn't get hot. It took 4 dryer cycles to dry them.
The first night, hot water ran out about 2 minutes in to shower. 2nd day, same and then no hot water whatsoever. So we decided to find the hot water heater to make sure pilot light hadn't blown out. Found a BRAND NEW water heater in the process of being plumbed in. Then found the old, dying water heater. Electric, not gas. At this point it is nearly 10 pm. Call the first guest contact number and it is the cleaning service. Called the owner next and left a voicemail. Finally called the property management company and reached Katie, who was a STAR. Explained the situation and when she heard about the BRAND NEW water heater that was not hooked up yet, she got right to it, calling the owner. Owner told her he was not able to get it fixed before our arrival, but that no one else had complained. Which is not true at all. Upon going back to the listing and reading the reviews, the last person to stay at the house prior to us that left a review complained about the hot water too.
We elected to leave the property as we realized that if the owner was not able to schedule it to be fixed before our arrival, the chances of getting it fixed at the last minute were slim. We were refunded all but the cleaning fee. Since we were not given a full refund, VRBO would not refund their fees. Thankfully in all my years of using VRBO, nothing like this has ever happened.