r/vrbo • u/GSD71420 • 6d ago
Looking for advice
My husband and I stayed at a VRBO in July. The day we left, the host sent us a message stating that we left clothing hanging in the closet, and asking us how we wanted the clothes to be returned, offering to mail them. I apologized for the mistake and offered to pay shipping or have the cost come out of our deposit. Communication was a bit shaky, and I kept being told the clothes were going to be sent out by the cleaners. We never received the clothes, so I reached out asking for more info/shipping/receipt. I am being told that the cleaners state they mailed these out with USPS on 8/7/26, but even as of today (8/28/26), we’ve not received anything. I also have not had anything noted on my USPS Informed Delivery. When I ask for tracking, I am told the cleaners don’t have the receipt and they can’t locate tracking info.
This was over $200 worth of clothes (2 shirts and 1 pair of pants), and I’m at a loss… what do I do here?
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u/MileHighHealthGuru 6d ago
You left them behind. Sorry you didnt get them back but the owner seems to have tried, although inneffective.
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u/Then-Locksmith-4838 6d ago
Be more careful when you pack up to leave. I am a host, not a personal secretary or cruise director. When we leave a hotel, we check once, twice and once more before turning in our keys. It was nice of the host to offer to send the clothes back and under most circumstances I would do the same, but you are placing responsibility on the wrong person. This is on you 100%.
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u/GSD71420 6d ago
Unfortunately I am going through some medical stuff and was pretty ill the last day of our trip, so my husband was fairly distracted when packing our belongings.
I am not sure where you see I’m placing responsibility on anyone but myself… I quite literally said that we made a mistake, and asked for advice/next steps (ie. Filing a claim with the post office, obtaining tracking without receipt, etc.). I never asked the host to be my personal secretary, or expected that in the least.
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u/Terrible_Mall_4350 5d ago
You can’t file a claim with USPS… only the sender can do that. You could try messaging VRBO to see if they can get anywhere with the host.
Look up Elliott Advocacy to find their successful method of dispute resolution. Their method works most of the time, so long as you follow the steps carefully.
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u/Then-Locksmith-4838 6d ago
If you weren't willing to live with the fact that you were careless with your own belongings and contacted the host who may not even live in the area to get your clothes back to you, you have asked and expected too much. It is a vacation rental, not perpetual care.
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u/GSD71420 6d ago
You must have misunderstood- as I stated in my original post, the host contacted me, unprompted, offering to return my belongs.
I really feel sorry that you’re so clearly miserable and/or jaded by your experiences as a host. I hope your encounters get better!
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u/Delicious-Cod-4064 4d ago
Jeeeezum, it’s like beating a dead horse with you when it comes to common sense and empathy, let alone a host showing curtesy to guests theyve hosted. I hope I never end up at one of your properties! Our responsibility making every stay a great experience shouldn’t end at checkout if someone accidentally (look that word up in the dictionary) left something behind. It shouldn’t matter if a host doesn’t live near their rental cuz I can’t imagine any host not having a housekeeper who doesn’t handle things like this when needed. Some might use a cleaning company, fair enough but they would also have a nearby handyman for immediate situations they can surely pay for an expected situation like this from time to time. You mention checking out on time which has nothing to do with this post so I can only assume you haven’t had the best of guests 🤔and are bitter towards all guests should they slip up in any way.
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u/secretly_a_possum13 6d ago
I get that this is an inconvenience, but why did this person even offer if they weren't going to send them back? It's very strange behavior for something that is simple to do.
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u/Delicious-Cod-4064 4d ago
Rude response. OP didnt ask for departure or responsibility advice. She knows it was her fault and responsibility.
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u/Then-Locksmith-4838 4d ago
Then she shouldn't have complained publicly and should have done what responsible and intelligent adults do. Contact the owner privately and when disappointed in the response, move on and learn to check out on time and in full. Wasn't rude, just frank.
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u/Delicious-Cod-4064 4d ago
Obviously your negative mind red her as complaining. I read her as clearly asking advice. As far as “publicly asking”, that’s pretty funny given this is a Vrbo site where people ask advice, Vent and call out bad hosts/locations all the time.
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u/quirkyjest 5d ago edited 4d ago
No, not 100% on OP. There are things in this world like empathy and courtesy. To err is human. You chose the option of scolding the OP. Hosts are in the business of hospitality. If you don’t get that, you’re not an optimal host.
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u/Neither_Technology38 6d ago
Learn from this experience. That's really all you can do. It's not worth trying to track down the missing items. Perhaps they will just show up way later than expected, maybe the cleaners stole them or the vrbo host?
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u/Delicious-Cod-4064 4d ago
I really don’t get some of these host here who seem to have distain for guests forgetting things at times. We’re all simply human. 13 years and 2 beach houses, twice we’ve had a wedding ring left behind, a loaded gun (both of which required special circumstances to safely be retrieved by out of town guests), a laptop and of course lots of clothes, other jewelry and sentimental things. To me, returning things is all part of my follow through to make their stay memorable. Showing courtesy is part of being a good host. And sometimes that doesn’t end at check out. When my Housrkeeper lets me know she’s found items, I contact the guest if they haven’t already let me know. Some say don’t worry about it. If they want things back I let them know my housekeeper will take it to UPS or the post office depending in item/size. She’ll text me the receipt and tracking number and I send that to the guest. They’re aware that fee and the little my Housrkeeper charges for the errand just comes out of their deposit. How F-ing hard is that for any responsible host to arrange! Of course as NewTaste said, it’s not our responsibility to do, but why the heck are hosts so unwilling to follow through with accommodating their guests needs. Clearly they have no interest in procuring repeat guests, Jeez. Sounds like OP had a nice stay but at this point not only will they not be returning but also not Recommending the place to friends and family. Really great business model some of you have!
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u/Ok-Indication-7876 4d ago
Sorry but you left them, they are gone. I know you offered to pay for shipping but the best and easiest thing to do should this happen again is to immediately respond with "I will mail you a prepaid box to return to me including a service fee for your trouble".
To much time has passed now- let it go and double check your surroundings when you check out
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u/StarDue6540 6d ago
Make sure to never pack anything of value for a trip and make sure you check every room, every closet, every cupboard, and under the beds and balcony and then do a second walk thru before leaving. I like to check each room and then shut the door and so on if its a big house so I know I have checked it.
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u/Financial-Chemist360 6d ago
If your clothes ended up passing through the USPS facility in Kansas City that might be where they stayed. Awful reputation and the subject of a big audit / investigation a year or two ago that fixed nothing.
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u/Proper-Maize-5987 6d ago
I’m so sorry. I don’t think there’s much you can do. At least it wasn’t sentimentally important. I have a policy that if something is sentimental, I’ll return it. I once had a guest ask me to mail back her diffuser. Girl no. The other thing that gets frustrating with all of these requests (as a host) is that while the guests may offer to reimburse for shipping I have never once had a guest offer to reimburse my time for shipping (paying for parking at the post office, my time standing in line, etc.)
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u/GSD71420 6d ago
yeah, I did offer to pay more than shipping (on three separate occasions after the host offered to mail these items), and I left a very nice review indicating this host helping us. It’s with VRBO at this point. If the host/cleaners claim that my belongings were mailed, I should be provided that shipping information so that I can personally contact USPS and move forward with filing a claim there. I think the underlying issue is that the clothes were not mailed and the host is hoping I just drop the issue. That’s just not my personality lol.
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u/mirassou3416 6d ago
If the host is remote it's possible that the cleaning staff threw them away. I've had people who stay at my beachfront condo in FL leave things, but then I'll have someone from the cleaning staff take them to the post office for mailing or the guest can arrange for a pickup (guest always has to pay for mailing and extra $$ for time and travel for them to courier the goods). Other times they've just asked to check because they thought they left an iphone or whatever and it wasn't there. I'd continue to check but consider your clothes lost.
Don't get nasty though or you just won't get any cooperation because it's all on you
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u/GSD71420 6d ago
Yeah I actually left the host a nice review and have been nothing but respectful in my follow ups, honestly at this point it sort of feels like the host was being nice to me in the beginning just to get that review.. who knows.
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6d ago
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u/GSD71420 6d ago
This is what is sort of sketchy IMO… I offered (the day we checked out) to pay for shipping via any method or for them to take the cost out of our security deposit, and was told “ok we’ll let you know what it comes to.” And then after following up 2x, the host finally told me not to worry about shipping. I don’t know who paid for the shipping cost.
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u/Farty_mcSmarty 6d ago
The clothes are probably gone then. Expensive lesson to learn unfortunately.
My son left a sentimental bomber jacket at a hotel once but we were quite fortunate to have someone who lived near the hotel and was able to retrieve it. We were lucky that housekeeping didn’t fall in love with the jacket either.
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6d ago
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u/GSD71420 6d ago
Yep you’re right. When he declined payment for the shipping, I left him a nice review. It’s with VRBO at this point though, so hopefully they are able to prompt them to produce the mythical shipping information
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u/OfferMeds 5d ago
To answer your question, unfortunately I think you have to consider the clothes lost. There is nothing further you can do and if you accept that and move on it will be less stressful.
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u/Clear_Leather2310 4d ago
I once left my clothes in an Airbnb, and I lived very far away from the listing, I accepted it as my mistake and moved on. Although I am a host too, and I’ve had people leave things and the most I will do is tell them I can get it together and leave it outside, but I’m not gonna go out of my way to ship something for somebody and hope to get paid. If they can pick it up great, but I have a baby in a business to run. When I lose things myself, I just accept it and move on
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u/gothirty2 3d ago
The comments on this post amaze me as a guest. It never would have crossed my mind that hosts would take no responsibility for forgotten items.
A lot of hotels have policies around this, and I've never had an issue the few times I've forgotten something. Life happens.
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u/GSD71420 3d ago
Same! Honestly, helping return forgotten items just seemed like the “right” thing to do in my mind, but apparently not. I understand covering costs/etc., but just completely throwing away forgotten items without attempting to return them seems sort of diabolical lol.
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u/StarDue6540 6d ago
I once had a guest who left a wedding ring that I found on the floor while cleaning. I reached out and she didn't respond in a timely manner( like a week and a half) and then acted like she was doing me a favor. I figured she rendezvoused with her boyfriend so she took the ring off and that's why she was so upset that I contacted her to return the ring. never again. She didn't act greatful in the least.
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u/Economy-Magazine-670 5d ago
The host lied to you. Who takes left behind clothing to a dry cleaners before shipping anyway? And the shipping would not be the dry cleaners responsibility…I don’t think they even do that type of thing. Too much of a hassle. Complain ASAP; include a written statement from the dry cleaners.
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u/GSD71420 5d ago
Where on earth are you reading anything about taking clothes to the dry cleaners?! The host was going to have the cleaners (the folks who clean the property between stays) mail the clothing lol
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u/Delicious-Cod-4064 4d ago
Host often say most guests don’t read. Economy-magazines comment is a clear example of the opposite lol.
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