We arrived late evening to a temperature inside the house of 48-degrees, and the heat was not working. As it was an upside down house the bedrooms on lower level were freezing.
We tried unsuccessfully to reach owner, and the online VRBO rep advised it was fully understood and appropriate to cancel, book elsewhere and process a refund, so we arranged alternate lodging for our second night.
The next morning, as we were leaving the property, we finally heard back from the owner, explaining the heat was not working and advised we just booked elsewhere and unfortunately had to cancel the remaining night of our res (to not risk freezing another night, as the temp actually dropped to 11-degrees).
He told us the cleaners had come in prior to our arrival and checked everything (impossible, as the home had not been prepared, the water was rusty, and each room full of dead flies and live gnats all over the floor). He apologized for the inconvenience, and told us he understood.
When we contacted VRBO about the refund, (less cleaning fee, which we offered, since we had used nearly all towels in the house to seal the bedroom from the elements) we were advised we had to go through the owner to process it, the owner told us to go through VRBO to process it, so we reached out to customer service again, who informed the owner had refused to authorize any refund, and expected us to honor both nights of the reservation since it was past cancelation date.
Very frustrating experience.