I’m eager to see my younger daughter this coming week, the first chance I will have to chat with her face to face about her recent three-week trip to Italy with her fiance. I want to see the treasures they brought back and hear more about her impressions and experiences. Some she has already shared with me, including their lost-luggage saga with British Airways (which I wrote about here a few weeks ago).

Overall, Jenny and Josh had a fabulous time, having done lots of research and lined up their accommodations and special activities in advance. They did experience one glitch with one of their VRBO stays, however. They arrived in Modena on the fifth day of their trip, looking forward to a very special dinner that evening at tiny Osteria Francescana, recently rated No. 1 on the 50 Best Restaurants in the World list. They learned that their VRBO apartment had been double-booked, however, but the owner told them he had arranged another place for them to stay. A taxi took them quite a ways out of town to an apparently new agriturismo property which seemed quite deserted, had no internet service nor a.c. (as they’d been promised) and was too remote for them to be able to get to their dinner — or anywhere else — very easily.

After some frantic scrambling to locate a room within Modena (and frustrated by weak cell service), they finally managed to secure what appeared to be the last open hotel room in the city and got back to town in time to change for a fabulous dinner. In between, they’d tried calling VRBO to get some assistance and found that to be a futile exercise. A few days later they were assured that they would not be charged for their original booking, but it wasn’t until just a few days ago that they confirmed that the company would be reimbursing them for the accommodations they had to rustle up on their own.

Though VRBO makes several claims meant to assure clients of great customer service and assistance, Jenny and Josh felt it fell far short in their situation. They’re chalking the experience up to another lesson well- and hard-earned and have decided, at least for now, to avoid booking with the company in the future.

Have you had less-than-stellar experiences with VRBO or Airbnb?

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor