We contracted to rent a San Diego condo - VRBO #xxxxx. Our initial inquiries, agreement to rent,  and a copy of the rental agreement were all done via email, successfully.  I sent a final email advising the owner that the contract and check would be in the mail on a specific date and I followed up by mailing everyting directly to the owner's address provided in the contract 3 weeks  before our scheduled arrival..  Upon our arrival, to our surprise, we found the owner staying there himself.  He said he never heard back from me, never received the contract/ check, so even though I have it all in writing that I agreed to rent and mailed the check, he "assumed" we had decided not to rent the place and decided to fly out and stay there himself. With 4 adults and 2 kids in tow on Memorial Day weekend, we sat in our car and called Hotels.Com who promptly found us a couple of hotel rooms that would allow early check in.  This obviously cost us much more than the cost of the condo, but what else could we do?  VRBO would not allow me to post a review because we had not actually stayed at the place.  I feel I should have been able to at least warn people to send their checks via registered mail and to buy the rental guarantee insurance on this place.  This is the type of transaction that leaves a bad taste even though we have successfully rented from VRBO for Hawaii condos on numerous occasions.  I should have realized that the legitimate owners, as business people, always followed up with me, provided me detailed information, and always confirmed payment. My bad; I generally assume people are good.