FORT COLLINS, Colo. — A Colorado couple has been renting out their basement apartment on Airbnb and Vrbo for years, but they say that suddenly guests are showing up mistakenly believing they've rented the entire house because of incorrect information on affiliated sites, such as Expedia.
Just minutes away from Horsetooth Reservoir, Tim Knowlton and Erin Cardona are proud to rent out a lake home away from home, their basement apartment, which comes complete with kayaks.
They have listed the one-bedroom space for years on Airbnb and Vrbo.
"We have never had a negative review. We are super hosts," said Knowlton. "And then we got that one-star review."
A recent "terrible" review accused the couple of misleading guests by saying they would have the home to themselves, and suddenly they had nearly $3,000 worth of cancellations in a matter of weeks.
"Three-thousand dollars worth of cancellations is a lot," said Knowlton. "We were shocked. I mean, we're, Erin and I, are perfectionists. And so we lost sleep over it."
They soon learned their Vrbo listing had been posted on Expedia Groups affiliated sites, including Expedia and Orbitz, with incorrect information.
"You can see it says, 'Entire Home' and then it says, 'You'll have the entire home to yourself and will only share it with other guests in your party,'" said Cardona, looking at her Expedia listing. "We did not write that. And we can't get them to take it down."
While the description on the site makes it clear that the listing is not the full house (the owners live upstairs), guests have been confused because of the headlines.
For weeks now, Knowlton said he has been trying to get the listings changed.
"It's almost like a hamster wheel, at this point. We're just going round and round. We have contacted Expedia and they're telling us it's Vrbo's fault, where Vrbo's saying, 'You need to talk to Expedia,'" he said. "So it's literally one of those [fingers pointing at each other]."
A quick search on Expedia showed multiple "Entire Home" listings that appear to be good deals are also not entire homes if you read the entire description.
One nearby Expedia property listed as "Entire Home" includes "Shared Home" in the headline.
So for now, Knowlton and Cardona have updated their listing to emphasize that it is not an entire home despite what the description says, calling every booking to clarify and warning people to check the full description before booking on these sites.
"We don't want to mislead anybody. That's not how we built this," said Knowlton. "If the description says you're getting a full home, and you're not, that's misleading, and that's a bait and switch, and that's a problem."
Vrbo and Expedia have not responded to our requests for comment.
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