Community: Message List - How do you get vrbo not to print a negative review from a renter who is harrassing and threatening you.

Re: How do you get vrbo not to print a negative review from a renter who is harrassing and threatening you.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:13:47 GMT

If you do everything through reservation manager you can refund the same way that they paid. Then you don't have to deal with checks, or the mail. Everything happens very quickly and reservation manager keeps all the records that you would need for funds transfered back and forth.

Re: How do you get vrbo not to print a negative review from a renter who is harrassing and threatening you.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 11 May 2012 17:57:11 GMT

Well, since some baby complained I can no longer leave comments to others only to myself. I think the

Childish reaction to my comments might explain at least some of the negative comments received by other owners. I have no idea how long these comments will appear because in about 5 minutes I am going to

Delete my account. I have never been able to converse with mental over sensitive midgets who run to the authorities with their complaints while complaining about negative complaints. You can't make this stuff

Up. Too funny.

Re: How do you get vrbo not to print a negative review from a renter who is harrassing and threatening you.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 11 May 2012 16:34:49 GMT

I am an 8 year VRBO owner here that recently had some bad luck with an unfair review. Even with emails from this crazy renter ranting and saying "I will take things into my own hands if that deposit doesn't get here soon". We didn't even hold their deposit, they requested a check and gave us the wrong address so when the check didn't arrive they got mad and slammed us with a review full of lies meant to keep people away from our property and complain about not getting their deposit. In the end in turns out they were having trouble getting mail and we had to send them a pay-pal payment.

Even after providing vrbo aka Nadia with all the emails I was told that unless this person used some form of the words, “will write bad review unless you pay”, there was nothing they could do. "Nadia" not vrbo is the who is the one making the decisions for all the review issues. So far we have had good luck with the blurb in our agreement about reviews, haven't had to use it but knowing it is there is a comfort and may have already deterred crazy people from saying crazy things, who knows.

On that note, there are many on this community that will post negative comments to an owner with a genuine problem reaching out for help. Don't pay them any attention, online they are called trolls, and they are sad pathetic little people who's only joy in life is to try and bring suffering to others so they can feel momentarily better about their sad lives. Best to ignore them, not address them directly, because then they won't get the attention they so desperately seek, woops I think I just fed the trolls a bit. I don't think is far-fetched to assume that VRBO employees post here under personal names...

I am glad to hear you had good luck with that lawyer but VRBO is untouchable when it comes to this, unless ofcourse they **** off the wrong person, and by wrong I mean rich and/or powerfull enough to change things.

Re: How do you get vrbo not to print a negative review from a renter who is harrassing and threatening you.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:51:53 GMT

Well thank you for your congenial words longtimelandlord. We are a community that I would hope helps each other. Calling me a cheapskate is not being conducive to all of our problems. You having no idea of my financial capabilities is irrelevant but if you did you would be embarrassed by your words.

What I take from your message that you put in your document untested verbiage. If it was done by an attorney then you would have been proud to post that fact. I too am wanting to do the same but only when knowing there has been a precedent already done on this subject....

Re: How do you get vrbo not to print a negative review from a renter who is harrassing and threatening you.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:03:04 GMT

Longtimelandlord.......I took your advice. I just got off of the phone with one of my attorneys that I will be golfing with here shortly he said bottom line:

If you take check, or cash and the renters are out of state then it would not be in the renters favor at all to try to fight this monetarily and they would have to give in.

He said that taking credit cards, PayPal or others protecting their own skin then the situation changes and it would be to the renters advantage to fight it.

And the call was free! Thanks

Re: How do you get vrbo not to print a negative review from a renter who is harrassing and threatening you.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:55:42 GMT

I believe that the word is precedent not president. Perhaps with all that wealth you could afford a spell check. I also think that President is usually capitalized.

Re: How do you get vrbo not to print a negative review from a renter who is harrassing and threatening you.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:40:17 GMT

I am not a lawyer. If you really need to know that quit being a cheapskate and hire one.

Why would a lawyer offer a free opinion anymore than a carpenter would offer a free deck?

Re: How do you get vrbo not to print a negative review from a renter who is harrassing and threatening you.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:23:19 GMT

Longtimelandlord: I believe TripAdvisor which has or partnered with Flip Key is the model which VRBO is trying to become.

You mentioned that you put that clause in every contract. Do you have knowledge that this is legal and binding (which was my question) or is this just speculation? I am truly asking as I am not questioning your experience or domain knowledge.

As Far as negative reviews you are contradicting your previous statement of putting verbiage in your contract. Do you now make this statement because you do not think putting verbiage into a contract will not hold up or stating this for others that do not. As for post what they say......Unfortunately several posters say that the complainers will never put it in writing as a threat they just hold up their opinion that ie: "Stay away from this home as there was trash everywhere" .

VRBO is entirely unfair as you state but they have set themselves up as the portal and can not be sued or if they did they would win as they are only trying to hook a buyer to a seller and making money off of both.

I wish that someone with legal knowledge or is an attorney would weigh in on this. Like Longtimelandlord and a few others I personally do want to add this verbiage to my own contract but do not want to be wasting my time if its not enforceable and is not just a scare tactic.

Thanks

Re: How do you get vrbo not to print a negative review from a renter who is harrassing and threatening you.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:03:02 GMT

VRBO is hardly the same as TripAdvisor or other such services. VRBO makes it's prifits from private investors and although they appear to be in the same league they are not.

As fa as to what can be done I have a clause in all my contracts stating that neither the contract nor any byproducts of the contract can be displayed on the Internet. I use this for all my rentals including those not on VRBO which are long term rentals.

As faR as negative reviews respond with facts. If property was damaged then show or link to photos of damage. Display those threatening e-mails in your responses.

One thing I will concede. Many want to be critical. VRBO is being entirely unfair with their policy. Any nut can post anything the want. I predict that VRBO and some unpaid critic will one day both be sued as a result of a defamatory remark or remarks made on VRBO.

Re: How do you get vrbo not to print a negative review from a renter who is harrassing and threatening you.

community-no-reply@homeaway.com — Fri, 11 May 2012 10:38:15 GMT

Someone made this amendment regarding "non-disparagement" with fines of $10K or more to go into his contract and posted it online for others to use.

1. I have read several posters state that this would not hold up in court. Could someone explain why it would not hold up in court and hopefully this person would be a lawyer?

2. Software companies use this language all the time. They are a business and we are a business. We market our properties on a personal level by what we do to it so in some form we have "branded" our homes. So in essence this could also be called Intellectual Property. Could someone explain why we are different?

3. Yes you will probably get a lot of renters question this in the contract, but is that a bad thing? All you are asking is that they get your permission to do so before hand. I would have no problem doing the right thing and if something was legitimate then allow them to make the review and post. If they do not like this then move on to another property.

4. I get the kumbaya posters here that state "We feel that you don't need to do this if you treat the renters right". I get that but obviously reading many of these post on the forum contradicts your theory. But then again to each his own.

5. VRBO/HA are here to make money. They have to compete with TripAdvisor and others that allow posting of reviews. Obviously nothing was done about this from the recent convention and I am sure numerous attendees made their point. The bottom line is nothing will change. With this in mind how do we take control and quit hoping VRBO/HA will do something.

I just keep reading complaints after complaints but again we must do something about it instead of just hoping things will change. We are paying for a listing on the internet. So lets figure out how to handle this problem ie: add the addendum which this guy posted, build the perfect site and then build "bots" to search this new site so that in short order the new site will be seen almost as much as VRBO/HA, or something else. We got to think and do!

ARE THERE ANY LAWYERS OUT THERE THAT COULD CHIME IN HERE AND GIVE AN OPINION!?

Thank you