Can you tell if a vacation rental is terrible just by reading the description? Are there such things as vacation rental warning words?
Maybe.
It turns out that vacation rental hosts often embed words of warning directly in their property descriptions. You just have to know how to spot and interpret them.
Before you rent a vacation home, listen to Richard Powers’ story. Earlier this year, he found a bargain on a four-bedroom cabin in Lake Placid, N.Y., through Vrbo, a vacation rental site. He contacted the “owner” through the platform, who instructed him to wire the money to his bank account.
To say that Alan Muskat’s accommodations in Costa Rica were a vacation rental disaster would be an understatement.
“It was horrid,” Muskat says. Mosquitoes buzzed through gaping holes in the screens. Termites infested the kitchen. The roof leaked.
“Worst of all, it had fleas,” he remembers.
