TAMPA BAY, Fla. — It was anything but a vacation for Grand Rapids resident Dustin Rehn and his wife Amy Brumwell. They were on a mission. Brumwell needed to come to Tampa in September to undergo a specialized procedure at Tampa General Hospital to fix a hole in her heart.
Rehn used VRBO to rent a unit for five days in a high-rise in downtown Tampa near the hospital.
“She had to do two days of recovery afterward. And so we kind of wanted a living space,” he said.
The pair checked in on September 12 and fell in love with the space.
"When we walked in there, it had everything we needed. It had a view and had space, It actually had a pool,” Rehn said. “So it had everything that we were looking for.”
But two days after check-in, just one day before Brumwell’s scheduled surgery, Hillsborough County Deputies taped an eviction notice to the apartment door. Rehn said he checked in with the building’s management office and found out the person on the lease was being evicted and the units inside the building are not permitted to be used for short-term rentals. According to Rehn, management said, “they were in the process of evicting these people. And this was the final notice.”
On its site, VRBO advises hosts to check “local laws to determine whether your property may be made available for rent and the requirements with which you must comply. VRBO has not determined whether your property may qualify as a short-term rental."
The couple left the rental and found a hotel at a much higher rate. After Brumwell’s surgery, Rehn showed ABC Action News multiple emails he sent, asking for his money back.
“I asked for a full refund just for the fact they were supposed to be there for five days and because this was on the second day, after the second night this had happened. And they refused,” he said.
VRBO refunded the couple for the first two nights but nothing else.
ABC Action News found the listing still active in late September after the couple filed a complaint. We emailed VRBO, asking about the return of the rest of the couple’s money and why the unit was still on their site. The company responded in a statement:
“Thanks for reaching out. We don’t want anyone to have a negative experience, so we’ve gone through the details of this situation and are providing Dustin and Amy with a full refund for the cost of their booking. They will be contacted by our Billing team shortly for next steps. Our Trust & Safety team is actively investigating this complaint against the host and listing and will take action accordingly, which can include permanent removal of any host in violation of our policies.”
ABC Action News recently went back to VRBO’s website and verified that the listing had been removed.
