There is a story on this on
click2houston website
Search VRBO
I found the news story as well.
VRBO is a middle man here. They facilitate the transaction. It is still the owners property though which is why they put that clause in there. If your friend says you can stay over but then says "nevermind" it's still their property to do so. VRBO's terms and conditions are intentionally vague, just like just about every other company out there, because there are way too many 'what if' situations out there. There are so many things that could happen to an owner's property where they shouldn't be penalized for it.
So you've got 1 owner here who has up and decided they cancelled a person's reservation. He offered a 100% refund but they also offered to help find another property for him it's just the availability wasn't as plentiful at that moment (which I suspect was the real issue). Could this owner be of the bad kind? yup but you'll find that with a variety of places--one hotel branch could have fantastic management while another doesn't.
Within the news story it advised:
“Each homeowner or property manager who lists a property on VRBO sets their own rates and manages their own calendar. Homeowners or property managers who repeatedly cancel reservations may be removed from the site.” That's an internal checks and balance within the company. Just like
Amazon for example has set up.
As far as reviews that becomes tricky. Unfortunately a lot of people out there write unfair reviews or straight up falsify information. The point leaving reviews is to give experience on the unit/property one is renting. I would agree that things like "owner communication" can be helpful though.
There are def. companies that allow reviews without having stayed there but even TripAdvisor, who allows you to list a review though you are supposed to put when you
stayed there so if you did stay your review is inaccurate, states "Is false, unlawful, misleading, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic, indecent, lewd, suggestive, harassing (or advocates harassment of another person), threatening, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, abusive, inflammatory, fraudulent or otherwise objectionable" so you would def. have to be careful about how you word your review of the owner. But really even TripAdvisor is set up to review the property itself as the main component.