Vacasa Review [2024]: Trustworthy vacation rentals site?

When you hear about vacation rental services, the first name that comes to your mind is probably Airbnb. But, as a peer-to-peer service, it cannot fully guarantee the condition and quality of the rental itself.

Have there been situations when you booked a place that looked extremely appealing in pictures but turned out to be a disappointing surprise in reality?

Well, vacation rental services aim to overcome this by taking the complete responsibility of managing the rental from start to finish. We've previously reviewed vacation rentals like Vrbo and Homestay, but another airbnb contender is Vacasa.

Does it live up to the expectations of guests who prefer the rental to be exactly as advertised? Read our Vacasa Rentals review to find out! 

What is Vacasa Rentals?

Founded in 2019 by Eric Breon, Vacasa is a vacation rental service company that aims to make rental listing and rental booking a hassle-free task.

The company takes up the responsibility of overseeing the quality and standards of each property listed on its website, ensuring that guests receive a consistent service in terms of cleanliness, customer support, and comfort. 

At present, Vacasa Vacation Rentals operates in 34 U.S states, Canada, Mexico, Belize, and Costa Rica. There are over 30,000 rentals available in these areas.

In addition to a website, Vacasa is also available as a mobile app for both iOS and Android devices.

How is Vacasa different from Airbnb?

Now, Vacasa rentals sound like a synonymous concept to Airbnb, VRBO, and other rental services in the market today. But, as mentioned before, it’s quite different.

Airbnb works by allowing you to list your property on its website and increase bookings. The difference with Vacasa is that it goes beyond just a listing website, it also helps both property owners and customers. 

Vacasa offers a complete vacation rental management service to property owners, taking care of all the aspects of the rental from start to finish. So, for you, it means a well-managed property offering a comfortable stay with constant customer support.

For this reason, you will find Vacasa-managed rentals listed on other rental sites as well.

How does Vacasa work?

1. If you want to find a vacation rental on Vacasa, visit its homepage and enter the location, check-in, and check-out dates. 
2. You will get the entire list of vacation rentals available in the destination, along with a map denoting their exact locations.
3. To narrow the search results further, you can enter the number of guests and apply more filters such as the number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, nightly rate range (based on your budget), type of property, and amenities.  
4. Once you find something interesting, click on it to view full details of the properties. There would also be reviews left by past guests to help you gain a good understanding of the rental’s standards. 
5. Then, all you have to do is enter the payment details and place the booking.

Advantages of Vacasa

Convenience and ease of use 

The UI of the Vacasa website and mobile app is user-friendly, simple, and appealing. It’s easy to navigate around the website, search for rentals, add filters, and place the booking.

Once you explore their website, you'll see that the information given on rentals is very descriptive. Check-in and check-out are hassle-free as well. You can also cancel any Vacasa reservation within 24 hours and get a full refund. 

Ability to compare the availability 

One of the pain points of using many booking sites is the difficulty of viewing the availability of all the properties in a location in one glance.

In other words, you have to spend a significant time viewing each property individually and then comparing the dates by yourself. However, Vacasa specifies the availability of each property in the list form itself (under each listing).

So, if you select “flexible dates” and specify a series of dates/months, you can compare the dates of each property easily and quickly to make the booking.

3D tour of the rental 

As a technology-enabled rental service, Vacasa allows guests to take a 3D tour of its properties prior to booking!

If 3D viewing is available for a property, you can take the tour, walk from room to room, and see the condition of the property for yourself. It improves your confidence and the overall booking experience with Vacasa. 

Disadvantages of Vacasa

Subpar customer service 

While Vacasa is equipped with a 24/7 customer support team and has supervisors and housekeepers assigned in each location for in-person assistance, customer reviews speak of a different situation.

While researching others' opinions, I came across many negative reviews that mainly pinpointed their unresponsive or delayed customer support.

Guests had to spend hours and, in some cases, weeks to receive a response for their queries. Actually having them honor their cancellation and refund policy is also very time-consuming and difficult. 

Poor property management

Despite Vacasa’s promise of offering a high-standard and consistent service, I came across some reviews that highlighted how certain rentals were in poorly maintained conditions.

Property management is one of the factors that set Vacasa apart from the others, and the management must pay attention to these sorts of issues. Some guests also noted price discrepancies of Vacasa-managed rentals on different websites. 

What are people saying about Vacasa?

The majority of Vacasa reviews speak to the fantastic rental experiences they've had with Vacasa, including prompt customer service replies from Vacasa should they have an issue with the rooms. The majority of the property managers do a spectacular job maintaining the rental units, ensuring guests have the best experiences staying in the rentals.

However, on the other end of Vacasa reviews, people are pointing out that the disadvantage of using Vacasa as an Airbnb alternative is that they're often overwhelmed in their customer service volumes. This eventually led to missing out on quality checks or delayed replies to Vacasa customers. In other words the quality of their rentals and customer service is inconsistent.

The majority of Vacasa reviews have personally received replies from Vacasa's customer service, which shows Vacasa's commitment to delivering the best customer service they possibly can. 

Is Vacasa Vacation Rentals worth it?

After browsing through multiple reviews, it's important to note that many of them were positive. Satisfied guests have highlighted that properties were well maintained as promised, and support from Vacasa was also good.

If you're looking for affordable accommodations and an alternative to other rental sites, Vacasa Vacation Rentals worth giving a try! 

But, as we mentioned earlier, Vacasa is only available in some countries in the Americas. So, unless you are looking for a good rental in those areas, you have to consider other top vacation rental sites!

Overall, Vacasa Vacation Rentals is a great Airbnb alternative to use if you'd like to switch things up from the usual listings.

Our Rating: 3.8/5

Pros:

• Easy-to-use interface
• Availability comparison feature
• 3D-view of rentals

Cons:

• Variable quality in rental units
• Inconsistent customer service

A trip is more than just accommodations

Maybe you're still on the fence about using Vacasa, or sticking with good old Airbnb. Whichever accommodation route you go, remember that there's a lot more to trip planning than where you're going to stay.

If the idea of planning your entire trip is starting to stress you out, you're in need of a great travel planner. Good thing Pilot is a travel planning app made by travelers for travelers to make organizing all your adventurers easier!