Sorry you’re going through this.
With VRBO it’s your responsibility to collect payments after the first payment. I’ve had a few guests who didn’t make their second payment and I had to contact them. They promptly paid. But VRBO doesn’t send you a message (or at least me as co-Host) saying that the guest is delinquent. You need to check the reservation list for the message that the guest has paid; if not, message them.
Our rental agreement on VRBO says that if they fail to make subsequent payments before the check-in date that any payments made are forfeited and nonrefundable, that the reservation is cancelled. Oops – I just saw @PitonView made same point.
A few other thoughts:
Were you concerned that initially taking this reservation through Airbnb violated Airbnb’s ‘no parties or events’ rule?
I understand if you don’t want her as a guest now, but if you do can she simply re-book now on VRBO and pay in full?
This was her fault. She didn’t make the required payments when due. She didn’t pay attention to the notices from VRBO. It would have been ‘nice’ for you to remind her when she was delinquent but I’m guessing you never promised to do that. Yet she promised to make the payments on a schedule and she failed to do so. And she chewed you out??? She took your place off the market since the day she made the reservation, and now what do you have? You’re the party hurt by the guest’s failure; you’ve done nothing legally wrong that I can see (not legal advice).
I wouldn’t laugh in her face but I wouldn’t worry about it. And I wouldn’t accept a re-booking from her.
She didn’t install the VRBO app or pay attention.
We like VRBO, love the damage protection option – the only thing is that they generate far fewer bookings than Airbnb for us in our market.
Well, VRBO lets you put in a rental agreement that you can upload. The one disadvantage – and it’s a significant one – is that the agreement is not signed. Plus, having an agreement, suing and winning, AND collecting is another thing. Creating an agreement is not something most of us can do on the fly, It needs to be thought out, developed in advance, ideally by a licensed lawyer knowledgeable about applicable laws and short-term rentals.
Maybe it would hold up; maybe not. But if you won the suit, easily expect to pay $50K in legal expenses and for the suit to take several years. Again, that’s if you win. And most of us probably can’t easily vet attorneys to get someone really good. God help you if the accident was caused, even in part, by your negligence [Is your property in compliance with the building code? How do you know? Take a look at this on safety: Is Your Property Safe? Take the Challenge -- A 75-Point Safety Checklist
You should in the opinion of many here also have liability insurance, like through Proper insurance or another carrier.
But if I had qualms about a guest – and now I have qualms about this guest – I would not let them book even though we have a rental agreement and a good insurance policy. For many reasons, it’s not worth it.
I think you might have dodged a bullet here.