Park City rental isn’t what customer expected

A: I’m sorry for your unpleasant stay in Park City. Of course, your host should have provided you with clean accommodations that matched the photos on the site.

Those are two of my vacation rental pet peeves, actually. Hosts should always post honest photos of their properties — and they should be cleaned before you arrive.

I think you could have leaned on Vrbo a little more in trying to resolve this. The company offers a “Book with Confidence” guarantee, with a dedicated team to help answer questions before and during your stay. When you book through Vrbo, and your accommodations are not up to par, the team will

I booked a condo in Park City, Utah, for four nights through Vrbo. When I arrived, I found that it was much smaller than it appeared in the images on the site. But the main problem was that it clearly had not been cleaned since the last renters left.

Instead of apologizing and agreeing to pay for me to stay in a clean room that night, the property owner questioned whether I went to the correct unit and said he would have to “investigate” the situation.

The next day, the unit was still not clean. I tried to reach the owner, but my call went straight to voicemail. He did not respond to my voice or email messages.

I then spent two nights in another, much more expensive unit in the same condo development. On day three, I went back to see if the unit had been cleaned. I discovered that my keycard didn’t work. I was left with nowhere to stay for the last two nights of my trip. I managed to find something at a hotel up the road, but it cost me a fortune.

Despite my repeated requests since returning home, Vrbo refuses to do anything to help me recover any of the $2,300 I spent. It claims it is simply a marketing site and it is completely up to renters to try to get property owners — even dishonest ones — to do the right thing. I would like my money back. Can you help? provide lodging assistance and help rebook you in another vacation rental.

That’s not just marketing hype. I had to use the Vrbo rebooking team when one of its hosts abruptly canceled my stay because she wanted to sell her condo. They fixed the problem before I checked in.

If for some reason Vrbo’s team doesn’t respond, you can always appeal to one of the Vrbo customer service executives.

Vrbo is owned by HomeAway, which is owned by Expedia. I list names, numbers and email addresses on my consumer advocacy site.

I checked with Vrbo. Its records show that instead of contacting the rebooking team, you rebooked yourself in a different property. That effectively canceled your first reservation, which was why you couldn’t access the property later, according to the company.

“That said, arriving at your rental and finding that it doesn’t meet your expectations is a frustrating experience,” a Vrbo spokeswoman told me. Vrbo will offer you a credit for your rental.

Christopher Elliott is the ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler magazine and the author of “How to Be the World’s Smartest Traveler.” You can read more travel tips on his blog, elliott.org, or email him at chris@elliott.org.