Name: Evolve Vacation Rental
Rating: 4.7

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Justin M

Atrocious experience. We have time-stamped documents to prove every claim made below, but I will keep it brief. 1- approximately 18 min after we (and our employees) checked in, we advised them of a large leak, water damage, falling ceiling, and mildew. In an attempt at being patient, understanding, and allowing a bit of grace (because we own a business as well and understand that things happen), we decided to allow evolve time to clean up instead of immediately throwing a fit and leaving. That, however, was a massive mistake. We should have never assumed that they would care enough about their customer to address the issue. 2- NO efforts were made to clean up the water damage, the mildew, or the falling ceiling for 4 days - leaving the living room completely off limits for the entire stay. We had to find alternate locations to use as a gathering space, as this living room was so nasty and smelly that nobody could stand it. 4- after 5 nights the roof leak was so bad that we had to relocate. They canceled our remaining days but only allowed a 30% return our stayed nights? we think that it is ridiculous to charge us 70% for a space we never had complete access to. Even worse, they never acknowledged that they had completely neglected to clean up the mess inside the house. What a joke of a company. 5- on the last day, while we and our employees were at training, someone from the company dropped by the house and placed OUR COOLER under the leaking roof!!! Our cooler that we then had to clean out just to move our food when we were forced to relocate! Again, we have pictures, videos, and messages to prove every word of this. We did not intend to take it this far, but they refused to speak to us about making it right. We feel like they have had ample time to address the wrong, so we have chosen to make this public for everyone to see. They clearly did not deserve the patience and understanding we attempted to allow them. It was a powerful teaching moment to show our employees on this trip exactly how we will NOT treat our customers.

1 month ago

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F Dozier

We walked in the door Thursday night to a house that was clearly not cleaned. Some highlights included: a sink with food in it, tables with crumbs on them, but the best was probably the busted bag of BREASTMILK we found in the refrigerator. After contacting the owner, he sent a cleaner over that night who cleaned the kitchen, as it seemed at first as that was what was not cleaned, to find out that clearly none of the house was cleaned. There were dishes in the dishwasher, a load in the dryer, no top sheets on some of the beds, an unidentified object under a fitted sheet on a bed which is a good indicator those sheets weren’t even changed. Even then, we were trying to make the best of it. It all came to a halt when there was a leak in the roof which eventually caused two different ceilings to cave in, and exposed mold that was on the sheathing. We couldn't sleep that whole night worried that the roof may collapse in other areas. Part of our group couldn’t access the main floor because of the collapse in the stairwell and had to go outside in the pouring rain to access the main part of the house. The guy who came to fix it told me that he couldn’t fix until it stopped raining. The owner then came by and after much pressure agreed to move us. Yes, he did pay for the relocation, but after sending photos and complains the solution from Evolve was to refund us $36.73. Yes, you read that right. We paid $5,700 and for the nasty health hazards we encountered were offered a whole $36.73.

1 year ago

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CHRIS MARCHANT

Watch out for this companies cancellation policy. Our vacation was cancelled due to the Crowdstrike outage, but they took our money anyway. There was no accommodation made by this company at all, and they feel justified in stealing $3K from us. I will never rent from this company again. Look out for them on VRBO and AirBNB. Know if there is some event outside of your control they will not work with you. They don't care about their customers and are only in it for themselves. They will put the responsibility on the owner, but it's their name on the store. They represent the owners. If I knew who the owner was I would blast them too.

1 year ago

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Joy Grimes

Horrible company. We arrived at the cabin we rented for 2 weeks, and it was nothing as expected. There were several safety issues, cleanliness issues, and deceptive pictures advertising. When we contacted Evolve we were told there were no serious safety concerns. So they feel difficulty getting up the driveway because of loose gravel, uneven decking, à deck gate you have to lift to get open and large brown spiders are not enough of a safety hazard. Leaving the property my car slipped going down the driveway, the foundation was crumbling, the mountain was sliding down onto the house ...not to mention the 1980 time machine hot tub that was a health hazard. The house was so dirty there were spills on the floor, large ants everywhere. Don't trust any property advertised by Evolve.

1 year ago

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Justine Mucci

Terrible TERRIBLE customer service. Very misleading cancellation policy. We had reservation for 8 days, called was told we could change the dates up to 48 hours before check-in. Attempted to do this online. Evolve website showed switching days would cost $81 less, but their website kept experiencing an "Error" so I called and talked to their incompetent customer service and was told it would be $200+ more and couldn't explain why the website was different. I cancelled my extra day because their website said I would be issued a future travel expense so I was going to use that $$ to add on my extra day. They refused to give me the travel credit despite looking at their website with the cancellation policy in front of me stating that if I cancel within 48 hours of check-in, a future travel credit will be issued. Supervisor was arrogant, non-empathetic. Will never use again and will advise my travel host of this!

1 year ago

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ArthurT

I booked a vacation rental with Evolve, and was looking forward to my trip. However, just couple months before my scheduled arrival, they abruptly canceled on me, citing they were selling the house. Not only was this extremely disappointing, but it left me scrambling to find alternative accommodations at the last minute. What's worse is that while they gave me only 48 hours' notice, they had the flexibility to cancel whenever they pleased, which felt incredibly unfair. Resigned an agreement, I put money down, bought tickets, hotel, reservations, now they’re all being affected instead of honoring our agreement first I understand that things can change, but the lack of consideration and transparency in this situation was unacceptable. I will not be booking with evolve again and highly recommend the same for everyone else.

1 year ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Arthur - we're very sorry to hear that your reservation was canceled and appreciate your feedback on the situation. For context, we do not own the homes that we help manage and it is the owner's decision to sell and to cancel future bookings. We do our very best to work with the owners and new property owners to honor existing listings, but unfortunately are not always able to and strive to let the guests know as soon as we find out. We understand the impact this had on your plans and hope that you are able to find alternative accommodations within the few months time you mentioned you have. Our team is happy to help with your search if needed. If interested in our assistance, please feel free to give us a call at 877.818.1014.

May. 8th, 2024

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PCT

Disappointed Property Owner: Avoid Evolve Short Term Rental As a property owner, my experience with Evolve Short-Term Rental has been nothing short of disappointing. Firstly, they deactivated my account before the agreed-upon deadline, resulting in the loss of all my hard-earned reviews. This lack of consideration for their partners is unacceptable. Evolve's promise of listing your property on multiple platforms comes with little benefit. 99% of the bookings actually come from Airbnb, contrary to what is advertised. Moreover, their failure to respond to guest reviews without the owner's intervention adds an unnecessary burden to property management. Their supposed 90-day stay requirement is another hurdle. They make it nearly impossible to leave without incurring penalties, trapping property owners in unfavorable agreements. Even after meeting their demands, they still find ways to nickel-and-dime you, such as charging exorbitant fees for retaining property photos. To add insult to injury, their customer service is subpar. I recently received a survey, only to find my access revoked the next day. This lack of transparency and accountability speaks volumes about their professionalism. In conclusion, I strongly advise property owners to steer clear of Evolve Short Term Rental. Their business practices are exploitative and their promises often fall short. Protect your investment and reputation by choosing a more reliable and respectful partner. Avoid Evolve at all costs.

1 year ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi there - although we are disappointed to learn that this was your experience with us, we do sincerely appreciate your review. We are always taking customer feedback into consideration as we find balance between continuing to grow and adapt to this ever changing industry and ensuring we are meeting, if not exceeding, customer needs. We understand that our services will not always be the right fit for homeowners, however, we are sorry to hear that our partnership did not work out and will be sharing your feedback with our wider team for further discussion. We appreciate the opportunity to partner with you and wish you all the best.

Apr. 9th, 2024

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LIANNA SARKISIAN Buckeye, AZ

Subject: Warning: Terrible Experience with Evolved Management – A Cautionary Tale for Property Owners Dear Fellow Property Owners, I feel compelled to share my recent, incredibly disappointing experience with Evolved Management, as a cautionary tale for those considering their services. As a property owner, I entrusted Evolved Management to handle my property, only to discover their complete lack of concern for owners' best interests. Despite charging guests for insurance, Evolved Management failed to cover any damages or provide additional cleaning services after a 30-day guest stay left my property in shambles. Broken banisters, curtain rods, missing blankets, stolen items, and damaged paintings were just a few issues, none of which were covered, despite the extra insurance charges. Attempting to file a claim became a month-long nightmare, with constant runarounds until I contacted them directly. Shockingly, none of the damages were deemed reimbursable. Even after spending four days cleaning the property myself, taking time off work, and incurring expenses, Evolved Management refused any reimbursement, citing that owners cleaning their properties aren't eligible for compensation. The disregard for my request to cancel reservations, leaving guests stranded during the holidays, highlighted their profit-first mentality. Evolved Management's actions prove they care little for property owners or guests, acting as money-driven vultures. Their corporate responses on the Better Business Bureau further expose their true nature. If you value pride of ownership and wish to avoid financial losses, I strongly advise against entrusting your property to Evolved Management. Learn from my mistake – do your homework, read reviews, and choose a management company that genuinely cares about your property and its well-being. Sincerely, Concerned Property Owner

1 year ago

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Jamey Miller Bonney Lake, WA

I book a rental through Air BnB and Evolve was the management company. My rental had AC issues the week prior however I stated we were more than ok to still stay without the AC. They said that would be fine. Upon arriving at the rental for check-in the owner was there and refused to let us enter saying he canceled our reservation. I never received any calls or texts updates from Evolve about this situation. They then pushed me back to Air B n B to try and find support to book another location for my stay. I did finally talk to someone in "Trust and Safety" and she informed me it's their company policy not to allow guests to stay at a rental with a non working AC unit, so she was blown away none of the other 3 representatives I spoke with informed me on this. A week has now passed since this issued and they "reviewed" my case. They indicated it IS NOT their policy to not allow guests to stay, but it was the owner's decision to cancel at the very last minute, and they had to follow what he wanted. As I stated the owner of the property was at the house when we tried to check in, and he was a very suspicious dude, and since we met him we decided to do some research, and found an interest criminal record on his background. We probably realized it was a good thing we didn't stay at this house, but if you want to work with an shady, uncommunicative, and non-supportive booking company, this is the one for you!

2 years ago

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Justin Horne Chandler, AZ

We are a host and listed our full-time short-term rental with Evolve. Evolve talks a high game, but fails to deliver in almost every way. Over the course of our listing our property with Evolve, nearly every single ticket opened was politely dismissive of our concerns. For example, six months ago I raised a list of 16 concerns with Evolve, and asked to speak to a manager to address. Evolve refused to connect me with a manager, however the gentleman I spoke to seemed to take interest. At that time we were considering cancelling, but were reassured they would work to address our concerns. As you can imagine, six months passed and not one of our concerns were addressed. The final straw was during the months of April and May, Evolve failed to secure a reservation. I did my own investigation and found that Evolve was placing 3-night holds on our listing. I raised this matter via a ticket to Evolve, and was told the system was intelligent and would self-adjust. It took several back-and-forth emails for Evovle to finally admit that the system was in fact making an error and they corrected this to permit 2-night bookings (which was our minimum and request at sign-up - 3-night requirements were only to be applied to holiday weekends). After we left Evolve, I setup new listings with another integrator and we had 3 Airbnb bookings in the first 48 hours! I should note that I've CC'ed Brian, Evolve's CEO, on multiple concerns however not once has anyone with any management title reached out to me to address my concerns. As a property owner, I couldn't possibly recommend Evolve to anyone else unless you are completely OK with lackluster rental performance and want an entirely hands-off experience. You are literally signing up with your competition.

2 years ago

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Tanya G Woodbridge, VA

BEWARE of this company! COMPANY IS SKETCHY! We paid $8k to rent a home for a month in NJ for our sons brain surgery. We contacted the owner prior to ask questions about the area since our aunt and daughter would be spending time alone there while we were in the hospital. They said it was very safe. Turns out it was in a terrible neighborhood... trash everywhere - drugs needles on the sidewalk - home looked as though someone was living in it with food and clothes in drawers - nowhere to put our stuff - banister broken in several places - ceiling fan improperly mounted and unusable - TV not mounted and unsafely propped on dresser, etc. We contacted the owner and were told that the place was fine. They didn't offer to even come remove the trash in the yard -- empty pizza boxes and beer cases. We had to leave after one night and find another home to rent before our son's surgery. Evolve still wanted $4k for one night. That was bad enough, but then they didn't post our negative review. That should tell you everything you need to know that this company is SKETCHY! Only reviews of the home we rented were 5 star! On top of that, when we disputed charges with our credit card they then claimed we damaged their home! We have excellent reviews from the Airbnd we rented afterwards! I never post reviews, but I'm just so upset that they are lying and taking advantage of our family when we've been through so much.

2 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Tanya - first and foremost, we are sorry to hear that your son needed surgery and sincerely hope that he is healthy and recovering quickly. Additionally, we're disappointed to hear that the home did not work out for your stay and that you were not satisfied with the resolution provided. We do our very best in these situations to support both the guests and the homeowners by providing a fair and reasonable resolution based off of the information and evidence we receive from each party. Although we were able to make an exception to our cancellation and refund policy to refund you 50% of your stay, we understand this is not the outcome you were hoping for and do appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback. Lastly, we'd like to provide this resource for more context on why a review may not be posted to the site: https://help.evolve.com/s/article/What-are-evolves-review-guidelines-guest

Upon reading your review, we went ahead and reached out to our reviews team in order to dig a bit deeper. They informed us that this property is no longer an active listing available for rent in our system and therefore, no new reviews will be posted as we are working on removing the listing entirely. For reference, you will notice that there is no calendar availability for the home on our site: https://evolve.com/vacation-rentals/468804

We appreciate your communication and follow through on this matter. Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any additional questions.

May. 11th, 2023

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White Crow Ranch SLV Fort Garland,CO Denver, CO

Management nightmare. Save yourself the time and mo ey by listing your property yourself. You will have better quality control over the guest. You have to do all the on the ground work with Evolve and they take a fat cut for "listing " your property. O had guest bring dogs and lie about it, walls where scratched mud in every crack and crevice. Had a shower pan busted and even had guest poach and dress a deer on our property. I had zero ways of taking action against people when they violated the basic rules. There seems to be a party class when they rent through Evolve. Save your time.and money. List it yourself. And they refused our Management fee return because we lapsed over the 210 days while waiting for an insurance claim after a guest damaged the place.

2 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi there - we're disappointed to hear that this was your experience. We understand our services do not meet the needs of all homeowners and do appreciate your feedback regarding your concerns. We will be sharing your review with our team internally for further discussion. If you have any out standing damage claims that you are still seeking resolution for, please feel free to reach out to us at 877.818.1014 or on any of our social media channels and we are more than happy to look further into the cases. Thank you again for taking the time to let us know your frustrations - we wish you the very best in the future of your vacation rental.

Mar. 23rd, 2023

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T M Morristown, TN

Would never recommend. We stayed at an Evolve rental in Banner Elk NC on Jan 5-8 for a family ski trip. The house was dirty (hot tub had soap scum and a ring of dirt all the way around, inside the stove was dirty and the front glass had water marks all the way down, the master shower and toilet was Maseru. The shower curtain was damp and moldy. We found patio furniture in our bedroom. The fireplaces didn’t work and the hot water didn’t last long enough to cover the jets in the tub.) the lost goes on.. however we contacted VRBO and the property manager with no response from vrbo and the manager said she would contact the owner m. We still have had no response to our issues. We will never use the company again and for sure will never recommend anyone use them.

2 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi there - thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us here. We're saddened to hear of the cleanliness issues you experienced as we know this is not what you were expecting, and we can assure you it is not the experience we aim to provide for our guests. Additionally, we are concerned upon learning of the delay in response you experienced when reaching out about your frustrations. We had sent a request for more information via your review on Trustpilot so that we could take a closer look at the issue, but unfortunately did not hear back from you. We hope that you have since been connected with our team to discuss a resolution, and invite you to reach out to us directly on any of our social media networks if there is anything we can do to further assist you.

Feb. 15th, 2023

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jbcb713 Hailey, ID

In my entire time with Evolve I haven’t received a call or gotten anyone on Athena phone once. The customer service team is incompetent and not made of problem solvers (one time they applied a unique guest access code to every existing reservation.) Their rate system had to be overridden manually so that I wasn’t losing money or charging less than an empty RV in the neighborhood. All the calls from guests and all the coordination fell on my shoulders. As far as I can tell Evolve does nothing but get in between the owner and Airbnb in order to collect a fee. I’m sure there are great property management services out there, it Evolve is not one of them. They are an expensive and poorly run middle man who passes all the responsibility for a property right along to the owner. I’ll keep my money and continue doing all the work until one of the other management companies opens my city.

2 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi there - thank you for your review. We're disappointed to learn that this was your experience. You are correct that we do use a dynamic pricing model, but do offer homeowners the flexibility to set their minimum nightly rate to ensure we are not listing their home for less than they feel reasonable. Additionally, we are sorry to hear of any misunderstanding in regards to the services we provide. We offer our unbundled version of property management to give homeowners the ability to keep costs low, and be more hands on if they prefer. For homeowners who prefer to be less involved, we are happy to recommend boots-on-the-ground partners from our network of vetted professionals. While we are very sorry to hear that we are no longer partners, we understand that our services do not meet the needs of all homeowners, and wish you the very best!

Feb. 15th, 2023

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Michael Moran Louisville, KY

We were new to short term rentals and were attracted to the 10% fee since everyone else wanted at least 20%…..we quickly found out why it was so cheap and why it’s worth paying more for property management. Literally all they do is host a website and collect bookings off Airbnb/VRBO. Everything else you have to do. They’ll recommend some cleaning companies, but it’s up to you to manage the cleaners and the guest contact as Evolve won’t do any of that. So be prepared to be the middle man 24/7 and have to be very involved. If you’re looking for passive income you won’t find it with Evolve, despite their name, “Evolve Property Management”, they don’t actually do any managing….that’s going to be you’re job. It will get to the point that you’re doing so much work and investing so much time dealing with guest complaints, micromanaging the cleaning company because you can’t trust them to do their jobs, you’ll start to wonder, “what am I actually getting for that 10% if I’m doing most of the work running the short term rental? Surely I can just make my own Airbnb listing?”. Also, it’s not actually 10%. They charge that 10% on the cleaning fee as well (money that’s not going to you in the first place). So you end up actually paying them 11%-14% of the booking depending on your cleaning fee and the price of the rental. We ended up leaving Evolve and just hiring a company that charges 20% but actually manages the property and has in house cleaning services so we don’t have to play middle man and micromanage the cleaners. And we don’t have to deal directly with guests. As they say, you get what you pay for.

2 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Michael - we sincerely appreciate your feedback regarding your experience as a homeowner with Evolve. We take a unique approach to property management in which we offer an unbundled version of services to allow homeowners the flexibility to save on costs and be more involved if they prefer. We understand that our services do not meet the needs of all homeowners, and while we are disappointed to hear that you have decided to end your partnership with Evolve, we do appreciate the opportunity to work together and wish you the very best on this new endeavor!

Mar. 23rd, 2023

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Ravenz K103 Nunya Ellerslie, GA

The Most Disgusting company I've ever used, I feel horrible for the owners who rely on evolve. We rented a house for Thanksgiving holidays. The pictures on site over complimented the house, They have done here minimum to even keep this place up and standing, at no fault of the owner . She was very mature and nice admitting fault of the mistakes and grossness we were greeted with in this house. Evolve was sent photos of the roaches running through the microwave, counter tops, coffee pots, rotten fruit sitting on the table, mold, 1 working tv in a house with 4 bedrooms. Ask we got in return was "Sorry not enough evidence" ask they needed to do was acknowledge the unkept place and apologized. Now they can look forward to my attorneys, and all of social media knowing how they treat their clients properties and their guest. With proof of the owners acknowledgement, proof from a family of 16 who (only 5 were staying in that house, the other family members apparently had better luck) posting all the dirty details of their lack of responsibility and acknowledgement. Thank you Evolve for showing me who not to trust

3 years ago Edited November 30, 2022

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Carrie Jannazo Seminole, FL

We were extremely disappointed with our Airbnb experience with Evolve. We live in the Tampa Bay and were told to evacuate due to hurricane Ian, so we booked an Evolve rental in Cocoa Beach in hopes to escape the storm. 10 hours later the storm's projected path took an unexpected turn south and was headed south of us through the state to exit through Cocoa Beach (Brevard County) where we booked this rental. Brevard County was then declared a state of emergency in response to the pending threat of Hurricane Ian, so we decided to cancel our plans to travel there. (10 hours later). Wouldn't you? We didn't want to put our family in harm's way by traveling to this rental, only to be stuck there to be right in the storm's path! I then asked Evolve to consider refunding our money due to the extenuating circumstances through the Airbnb app. After 5 days of no response, I called them to inquire about the refund. Due to this natural disaster, you would think a vacation rental company would consider giving a refund but Evolve refused. We had to cancel an Airbnb in the past due a tornado and were given a full refund. I do not recommend using Evolve for planning any vacations!

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Carrie,

We’re incredibly sorry to hear that Hurricane Ian not only impacted your hometown, but the area you were hoping to find refuge in. We understand how stressful of a situation this was for you and hope that you, your home and your loved ones remained safe from the storm. We were disappointed to learn of your experience with Evolve and after further review with our team, are pleased to inform you that we were able to fully refund your reservation. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have added to your situation. While we know our team was doing their best to follow the protocols put in place for the storm at the time of your original cancellation request, our policies were changing rapidly as we learned more of the storm, and we recognize now that your situation very much so falls under the protection of our extenuating circumstances. You should receive the funds back into your account within 3-5 business days. If you have any follow up questions about this situation, please do not hesitate to contact us on any of our social media channels and we are more than happy to discuss further. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to make this situation right for you - we hope to be able to host you for a future stay!

Oct. 26th, 2022

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Gary Grand Rapids, MI

Evolve was a good company a few years ago but they have gone down quick. As a owner I have had several properties with them. Over the past year or so their performance as a management company is horrible. They are much more demanding on establishing very low nightly rates, poor screening of guest and when damage or issues occur they are extremely slow in responding . Their communication to owners and constant policy changes can be overwhelming and often contradict themselves when dealing with owner support. I wouldn’t use them again and I’m sure there are better management companies out there.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Gary - first and foremost, we want to thank you for choosing Evolve as your partner in vacation rental over the last few years. We understand that changes in policies and procedures can be difficult to adapt to, and we appreciate you taking the time to raise your concerns regarding these changes, as well as the changes in service and response times you have experienced. Our team works hard to ensure we are providing homeowners with industry leading service in a market that is ever changing. We hope that the roll out of our most recent homeowner agreement succeeded in clearly communicating the updates we have made to our operations so that you can feel confident in making an informed decision when choosing whether or not to stick with Evolve. Whichever route you choose, please know our team is here to support you in making this a smooth and stress-free transition. We appreciate your feedback and sincerely thank you for taking the time to share it with us.

Oct. 17th, 2022

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Brandi Whitney-Tran Reynoldsburg, OH

Communicating with Evolve has to be the most inept string of customer service responses I’ve ever had. It’s a simple question that you are still incapable of providing an answer to. I simply needed to know, prior to booking, if someone would be available to let us into the property if we cannot arrive from the airport until after midnight. We would have booked the entire day but the flight comes in after the 4-11pm check in time. If Evolve has one job, to mediate for the host, one would think Evolve would be capable of answering this simple question. Or better yet, Evolve would reach out to the host, on behalf of the guest and get an an answer. Instead you have suggested that the guest book, wait until 48 hours before arrival, then reach out to the host who, assuming they cannot make arrangements to let the guest in at 1am, requires the guest to cancel the reservation which in fact cannot be done with a full refund because the cancellation needed to be done within 48 hours of booking (at least I’m guessing that’s what the response means). Your vague and incomplete answer to one question create issues that you then answer in contradiction to your previous replies. I will look elsewhere and will not be booking. A shame because I’m sure this homeowner would have enjoyed having their place rented for 4 nights during a non busy season.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Brandi - We're very sorry to hear that this has been your experience when communicating with our team and looking to book one of our homes. If you are still interested in this rental, we would love the opportunity to connect with you, speak further about this situation, and get your questions answered in a way that is most helpful for you. We aim to make vacation rental easy for everyone and are disappointed to learn that your experience has not been reflective of this. Please feel free to contact us directly on our social channels if there is anything we can do to help improve your experience. We apologize for the misstep and hope to hear from you soon.

Aug. 31st, 2022

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Joseph Brooklyn, NY

We searched for months to find the perfect house for our family vacation because we are all coming from different areas of the country and we had a few specific requirements. We booked a house months in advance with Evolve Vacation Rentals. The transaction was made online and there was no additional communication. Some of us booked flights, others trains to meet in one location for a road-trip to our destination. One week before our check-in date, we were contacted, not by Evolve, but by some other company, iTrip Vacations, stating that the property we booked with Evolve will no longer be managed by Evolve and as a result we would need to cancel the trip and re-book with the new management company. The email wasn’t crafted professionally; they addressed us by our email name instead of our actual names. The website was shabby; pixelated logo, antiquated styling and out of focus photos. It just felt very scammy, so we reached out to Evolve to verify. They assured us that our house was secured for those dates and we had nothing to worry about. Additionally, they asked that we forward the email to them, so they could report the fraud. The “scammers” were persistent in their communication, so we eventually reached out to them over the telephone to scare them off. The “owners” sent the emails, answered the phones and handled all communication, which felt sketchy in and of itself, but as it turns out, they did have our names and all of our booking information. When we questioned their credibility, they laughed condescendingly about how Evolve was fired and that we had better get down to the bottom of the matter because the doors will be locked upon arrival. We reached out to Evolve again and Chris said he would look into the matter. After some time, he returned to advise us that the owner of the property had in fact ended their relationship with Evolve and our reservation would be cancelled because she refused to honor further bookings with the company. This was now less than a week from our scheduled trip. Chris seemed to sincerely want to help, but he had to transfer us to Adrian in Guest Services who advised us he could not assist us because he didn’t have the time, but he quickly refunded the trip before we discussed the matter in detail, which seemed like a way to prevent us from applying that transaction to another property. In the end, we had to remind Brandon that we booked our trip with Evolve and we were counting on Evolve to resolve the matter. We advised him that we expected the company to find us a comparable home at the same price for the same dates. He said that he would search for homes and email them for our reference. He also said he would follow up with a phone call to discuss. He didn’t sound convincing. We wound up searching night and day, on our own, for a new destination as Evolve was clearly not interested in picking up the ball they dropped. We were unable to find anything comparable, so we wound up spending far more than we budgeted for to upgrade into a better space with a better company. Brandon did email a few links for houses much further away that did not meet our criteria. He never called. They took zero accountability for the trouble they put us through. They simply placed the blame on the property owner of (All-Encompassing Escape w/Private Pool & Hot Tub! In Rutherfordton, NC). You may want to avoid that property. It’s on all the sites. We were lucky to find anything on such short notice. If you have booked a trip with this company, good luck to you.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Joseph - First and foremost, we’re incredibly disappointed to learn that this has been your experience with Evolve. What you have shared is not exemplary of the guest experience and service we wish to provide and we do appreciate you letting us know of the frustrations the situation has caused for you and your fellow guests. As we take concerns such as yours very seriously, we have taken time to discuss the situation with our team internally. We kindly ask that you please keep an eye out for a direct message from us on social media so that we may discuss next steps. Your patience and cooperation are greatly appreciated and we look forward to taking this opportunity to work together towards a fair and reasonable resolution.

Aug. 22nd, 2022

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Nicole Bender Haverhill, MA

This is the worst rental management… This is the worst rental management company ever!!! Run for the hills. I have had major issues with EVOLVE :( when there is an issue they will leave voicemail and no extension number to get a hold of the person who has contacted you. So you have to sit on hold and explain the issue with someone who has no idea what is going on. 1. I did not get one booking for 10 months and my house is great location and newly renovated. 2. I had to fight for my referral sign on fee of $250 for over a year. And the person who referred me never received her pay out. 3.The cleaning lady is the point of contact? How can you trust a cleaning lady to take care of all issues? Issues arise and the cleaning lady calls me..so whats the point? 4. They would not allow photos of the beach or village walking distance from my house. Only the house? 5. They work on alga rhythem's that fluctuated so much I lost 2K on a weeks rental at the height of my beach rental season. They had no excuse other than the alga rhythem 's told them to do it? 6. They say that they offer 3 professional photo shoots. When I requested another photo shoot, they emailed me and asked me to take photos and document the changes on my home that were different than last shoot. 7. they have zero social media or marketing for your home 8. they blocked my entire calendar because a tax law changed in my state which required an occupancy certificate. They never emailed or called giving me the heads up this was happening or that I had to provide this or they could not rent my home....they simply just blocked whole calendar. This is such bad customer service!!!! RUN!!!

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Nicole - We're disappointed to hear that you have not been satisfied with your experience as a homeowner with us and are very sorry to hear of your frustrations regarding bookings, income and calendar issues. We encourage you to work closely with your owner support team to towards a solution as we are always happy to discuss minimum nightly rates and minimum nightly stays to ensure you are staying booked and reaching your homes income potential.

We'd also like to take the time to address your other concerns, as we feel there may have been some miscommunications regarding the services we offer and how we operate. While we are happy to refer local cleaning professionals from within our network, we do allow the flexibility for homeowners choose their own boots on the ground services - We would love to work with you to help find a more efficient arrangement if your current set up has not been successful.

Again, we sincerely apologize for any miscommunication and would love to chat further with you to help clear up any remaining questions. We invite you to follow us on our social media channels to follow along with our promotions or reach out with questions at any time. We are @evolvevacationrental on Facebook and Instagram or @EvolveVR on Twitter.

Thank you again for the time you took to share your frustrations. Your feedback is valuable to us as we continue to work towards a more clear and streamlined communication process with our homeowners so that we may provide the top-tier service and partnership we aim for every day. Please continue to follow up with our team via your owner portal or on social media and we are happy to support you.

Aug. 16th, 2022

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Texas_rental Sunnyvale, CA

As a homeowner, the 10% management fee sounds like you can keep more of the rent when compared to Vacasa or other property management companies. However, it soon turns out that the actual fee is much like 15-17% since they tack on all other marketing fees on top of it to sell thru other web sites. You are left at the mercy of the local cleaning and maintenance company they recommend. This can be tricky because the very reason why you want a full service property management is to avoid the hassle of dealing with scheduling of guests and other maintenance items. Evolve certainly does this in bits and pieces so that means as an owner you have to deal with a lot of items and spend time managing the property. I had to deal directly with handyman teams to get fixes done just because my property manager's team was busy and could not get to it. Another item to watch for as it could be very expensive when you want to end the contract. Evolve could take bookings months or even years down the line (I had one for Feb 2023 that came in in April of 2022). This is not good if you want to take the property of the market for any reason like selling or not wanting to do vacation rentals any more. You will end up paying $250 or twice the management fee, whichever is greater, this fee is per booking. So if you have 10 bookings that need to be cancelled, even if they are six months away, you will end up paying at least $2500. The customer support is spotty, depends on whether you get a good agent who understands you pain as an owner calling in. Not sure how good they are with renters. The sales team is very eager, but once you are handed over to the onboarding team things go slow, it took me more than four weeks to get the property online and advertised, a one time pain in lost revenue.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi there - We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback on your partnership with Evolve and are sorry to hear that you are anything less than satisfied. We’d like to take the opportunity to provide some clarity on how we handle third party platform fees. In short, our team adjusts prices on each platform to ensure fees are taken care of, and the homeowners are making a consistent income on the home, no matter where the booking is made. You can learn more about this at this link here: https://help.evolvevacationrental.com/s/article/How-are-rates-and-fees-quoted-for-my-property-online

We are also disappointed to hear that you have experienced frustrations with the way our services are structured and want to acknowledge we understand we operate a bit differently than some management companies and are not always the best fit for every homeowner's needs. We aim to provide a flexible partnership that allows owners to be as little or as involved as they’d like. By keeping our management fees low, this allows for homeowners to be more hands-on with the home and the guests, or leaves a budget for them to hire boots-on-the-ground partners. Again, we understand this is unique from your typical management company and are sorry to hear of any misaligned expectations upon joining our network.

Your review is important to us and will be shared with our team internally to ensure we are communicating thoroughly and setting appropriate expectations with our homeowners as to what services we provide within our contract. While we are sorry to hear it sounds like you have decided to leave Evolve, we appreciate the opportunity to work together and wish you the very best in the future of your vacation rental.

Aug. 5th, 2022

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Viktoria Schmitt Glen Cove, NY

This company does not worth trusting or listing with them! As a homeowner, I listed my house with them and it did not turn into anything good besides uncounted issues from day one. Any time when I needed customer support or had damages on the property from renters it would turn into a disaster. The company is one Big Joke calling itself a Management Company that NEVER has your back in any upcoming dispute over the payment or the damages. Evolve has a limited to None protection policy for Homeowners. They simply collect the highest management fee compared to other platforms and provide the least of protection. Evolve is a company you don't want to list with!

3 years ago Edited February 2, 2023

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Viktoria - We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience, although we're disappointed to hear that you did not find it to be a successful partnership. We understand that we operate a bit differently from your every day full-service management company and may not meet the needs of all homeowners. We do our best to structure our services in a way that offers homeowners the flexibility to be as little or as involved as they wish. If you have any questions regarding our services, please refer to your owner agreement. For any clarification regarding what damage our Property Protection Plus program covers, please head to https://help.evolvevacationrental.com/s/article/What-damages-are-covered-by-Property-Protection-Plus. If you feel there may have been a mistake with one of your claims, please feel free to follow up with our team and refer to the coverages listed in this article.

Aug. 5th, 2022

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Pharmacist Cape Coral, FL

I’m not really sure where to begin… It is 11:30pm and we are just getting our 5 year old to bed in a new rental property we were directed to go to after spending nearly 10 hours of our vacation day attempting to get a response from the management teams involved in our original rental property that had a major water leak coming through the ceiling and ceiling light fixture in the master bathroom. To say that the second rental was “dirty” is an understatement and would not do the situation justice. We have attached pictures of the following text description of the condition of the replacement property. The master bedroom reeks of vomit and has previously used sheets piled on top of the bed. There are fingernail clippings on the sink in the master bedroom. There is a tampon behind the toilet in the master bedroom. There are drain flies circling both the sink and the shower in the master bathroom. In the living room there is a used piece of floss on the end table. There is garbage, dirt, and grime on the floors and countertops in both the living room and kitchen. There are dirty dishes in the sink. The additional rooms are also in frankly gross condition. We were appropriately refunded for the 5 nights that we will no longer be staying at property 1. We were given an additional $250 “inconvenience refund”. However, we did pay for 3 nights at property 1 and the $250 doesn’t sufficiently cover the fees and taxes that we paid in advance for the entire 8 night stay. More simply put, we literally paid more for staying 3 nights at the property and then being inconvenienced to leave than we would have for just booking 3 nights to stay there! Additionally, the first property wasn’t in ideal condition itself as there were also these unmentioned until now problems: the kitchen was infested with ants (and appropriately placed Raid), the dishwasher leaked water from the bottom, and there were ants in the pool. What is even more concerning than all of this was the lack of response to an emergent situation that rendered Property 1 a liability for anyone to stay overnight. We had to make 7 outgoing calls to various places starting at 11am before finally getting any resolution after 9PM!! And to cap things off we then had to negotiate down the price of the replacement property to the original price we payed for property 1!! To say that we are not please would be an understatement. This is unacceptable on behalf of both the property management company and Evolve alike. The property management company refunded their service fees with relative non-issue for what it is worth. We wasted nearly 2 full days to get a partial refund from Evolve as we currently sit and wait for further contact from supervisors at Evolve.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi there - We appreciate you taking the time to share the frustrating experience you have had having to change homes during your stay. This is certainly not reflective of our rest-easy promise nor our guarantee for our homes to be guest-ready upon arrival, and we are disappointed to learn that you experienced this with both homes. We're glad to have connected with you via other channels and to know that you allowed our team the opportunity to work with your family towards a fair resolution. This feedback is incredibly valuable to us as we further discuss the situation internally and review with both our team and the homeowners on how we could have made this a more positive experience for you. Thank you again for the time you have invested in communicating with our team to help us to gain further insight into this situation.

Jul. 20th, 2022

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laura campbell Raymond, ME

Evolve has not done anything right from day one! They fought with me on my nightly fees, wanting to charge $340 for a nine bedroom home in Maine! After we kind of came to a compromise, I had set my minimum night rental in season to four nights. My very first booking was a TWO NIGHT RENTAL. I complained and asked them to fix it immediately. They said they did and guess what... my second booking was also a TWO NIGHT RENTAL. My property is nearly 7,000 square feet so it is not a one day turn around. So immediately I am losing money with that scenario. Then when I asked for a credit on the management fees for not one, but two of their screw ups, they tried to apply it to a rental that was six months in the future. If you decide to use them, which I absolutely will never do again, be prepared to speak to about six different people each time you have a problem. I ended up copying every single evolve email that I had in my address book to get to the bottom of a calendar issue. The underwriting email address had it head on when she stated "Owner is escalated". I finally got an answer to my question. Overall, my experience was awful from beginning to end! I do not recommend Evolve even a little bit. I would give zero stars if I could.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Laura - We want to thank you for taking the time to share your feedback, although we are disappointed to hear that this was your experience with us. We take pride in offering homeowners the flexibility to set minimum night stays as well as rates to work in conjunction with our dynamic systems and are sorry to hear that you experienced difficulty when doing so. We apologize for the frustrations this caused over the course of your time with Evolve and are sorry to hear that we missed the opportunity to turn things around and make this a successful partnership. Again, we appreciate you sharing your experience as we are always open to hearing how we may be able to improve the experience for our valuable homeowners.

Jul. 11th, 2022

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Diana K Carolina Beach, NC

DO NOT USE THEM TO MANAGE YOUR PROPERTY. Evolve is a nightmare. They will lie about all of the timelines to get your property live, they will price your unit offensively low, anytime you call them they will be extremely RUDE and act like THEY OWN YOUR HOUSE! Not to mention, anytime you have an issue they will call you back in "2-3 business days" UMMM WHAT? Oh and if you have a pricing issue---forget it! They'll call you in "6-7 business days" So your listing will take months to go live, and even if something is wrong, good luck speaking to someone about it. Oh and decide to give up and list it yourself? THEY WILL CHARGE YOU $250 to cancel (or $500, depending who you talk to) EVEN THOUGH THEY LITERALLY COSTED YOU THOUSANDS BY WASTING WEEKS THAT YOUR PROPERTY COULD HAVE BEEN LISTED. Please please please, learn from my mistake and RUN RUN RUN far away.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Diana - Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We completely understand any frustrations due to delays in the listing process, and want you to know that we are growing our teams significantly to best support our owners as we grow. We are also sorry to hear of any frustrations that arose regarding pricing. We do our best to communicate with new Evolve homeowners how our ramp up phase works to attract bookings and reviews with a lower rate at the start of our partnership so that we can increase rates as momentum builds. In addition, we hope that although frustrated with the resignation fee, you were aware of this policy prior to your decision as it is included in the owner contract. We want to thank you again for sharing your experience with us - While we’re disappointed to hear that our services were not a good fit for your home, we can assure you that your feedback is valuable to us and will be shared with our team.

Jun. 30th, 2022

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Eva Yu Flemington, NJ

DO NOT USE Evolve for your rental property's booking company!!! They do not think for home owners and just want to take advantage of our property for their benefit/reputation and let guests abuse it however they want. I have had so many bad communication experiences with them. The staff are rude and ignorant, always siding with the guests. They take in guests' intentional unreasonable requests to ask for unlimited discount, ( using their 'as advertised' reason to take money from my bookings without my approval ) without the ability or interest to tell truth from fake. Their booking process is so bad and unorganized that I lost a lot of money 2 TIMES!! because of fraud ID and they did not realize that till the guests stayed full term. They didn't do anything to compensate me, although they work so hard to compensate the guests at any small complaint. I could give them 100 pieces of evidence (with videos, pictures, text receipts), and they would still get me to reimburse the guest at any small turn (plus I'd be paying them 10%)!! Of my profit every guest stay. At this point I'm basically losing money. I am glad I got out of Evolve's trash system as now as I finally have time in the summer to manage my property with many other wonderful booking sites. Evolve has lost me as a customer and my property to list. What an irresponsible company with many irresponsible and ignorant staff. Very sad to see such a horrible company still in running robbing home owners.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Eva - We're incredibly disappointed to hear that this was your experience while working with Evolve and want you to know that we take feedback such as yours very seriously. We do our best to support both guests and homeowners and resolve any issues with a reservation in a fair and professional manner. We understand that the outcomes of these situations are not always what each party hoped for and are very sorry to hear of any frustrations such resolutions may have caused throughout your partnership with us. While we are of course saddened to hear that you are no longer working with Evolve, we do understand that our services do not meet the needs of all homeowners, and offer our sincerest support and best wishes for the continued success of your short term rental. Thank you again for taking the time to share your experience with us - Your feedback is incredibly valuable to our team as we continue to grow.

Jun. 15th, 2022

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Chris Lasiter St. Petersburg, FL

Im becoming very frustrated and worried to what I have gotten into. I bought an investment property using evolve for property management. Since then I have made plenty of changes and renovations to my property. The content, and pictures are outdated making it a false advertisement and there is NOTHING I can do to fix it. I submitted updated pictures but it took them 10 days to upload. I could have had this done in less than 2 minutes, but I am paying them $1,000/month to do it in 10 days? To make matters worse, the listing shows the old outdated property and the rennovated one because they have a minimum amount of photos? So their solution is just to slap on outdated and misleading photos... The support person (Rodney) I spoke with was very polite, and professional and I could tell I was not the only dissatisfied person he had spoken to. I asked if he can give me a date of when my tickets will be completed and I can expect my listing to be accurate, and he said he cant give me a date because its memorial day and they are so busy. While I appreciate his honesty, it shows that this company is currently not a solution for anyone who wants good service. One of their core values is "as advertised", but they are the only thing stopping me from accurately advertising my property. If I could just edit my own listings, instead of passing it up some chain that always seems to lose important context, that would solve everything. I am evaluating my options but I currently feel like I am held hostage by Evolve much more than I feel like I am a valued customer.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Chris - We're very sorry to hear that this has been your experience working with our team. While we’re happy to hear that you have had a positive and professional experience working with Rodney, we are disappointed that our overall services have fallen short of the support we wish to provide and know that our homeowners deserve. We’re glad to see that your home continues to acquire bookings, but of course want to ensure that you feel supported and that your home is being advertised properly in all aspects. Our teams are actively working on making this situation right and updating your listing to properly display the work that you have put into your home. We will also be continuing to discuss improvements to address your concerns with our partnership, and hope to be able to create a more positive experience for you moving forward. Please feel free to continue to follow up with our Owner Support team with any further questions or concerns. Thank you again for this feedback - We look forward to finding a resolution to your frustrations as soon as possible.

Jun. 7th, 2022

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Ashley Snoozy Miami, FL

STEER VERY CLEAR OF THIS COMPANY!!!!! These employees will use specific terminology to trick their home owners into cancelling to save them from having to return the money involved in their "risk free guarantee". Recorded phone calls that they refuse to pull because they know they are wrong. Will not recommend this company to anyone as all they care about is their money, and going behind your back to take your money. They know they are wrong and my recorded phone call with their employee specifically doing the opposite of what I requested, just to steal the thousands of dollars they own me. A complete fraud. They ignored my phone calls, voicemails, and emails, just so they could falsely take the money they owed me.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Ashley - We are incredibly sorry to hear that this was your experience when working with our team. Upon looking further into the situation, we do feel that the resignation terms were clearly laid out in our communications as well as in numerous articles on our website. We appreciate your feedback and apologize for any frustrations you experienced during your time working with Evolve. For more information regarding the Risk-Free Guarantee policy, please see the article at this link here: https://help.evolvevacationrental.com/s/article/evolve-risk-free-owner-guarantee

May. 24th, 2022

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gayle benjamin Mount Vernon, NY

In the past 6 month, $75k was spent renovating my apartment and it was beautifully furnished [all new] by the 1st week of April 2022. On or around April 10th, 2022, i stated communicating with EVOLVE. After many conversations with Evolve's Sales, Marketing and onboarding teams, I reluctantly agreed to have Evolve manage the bookings for my apartment. I said reluctantly, because they could not get my listing right in spite of the write up I forwarded. The nightly price on my unit was not cpmparable to the rates in my area and my emails with questions/concerns were answered with a phone call....never a response via email in writing.After reading the small print in Evolve's Agreement, I made sure my calendar was completely blocked completely the 90 day trial period. I was not comfortable accepting / fulfill any bookings beyond my 1st 90 days. On April 25th, Evolve notified me of my 1st booking...my very, very 1st guests...for arrival on April 28th thru May 7th. On the 28th, 2 couples were observed standing outside of the apartment.....at day 2, an endless parade of individuals were seen entering and leaving the apartment; suspicious looking characters. Mostly men, observed letting themselves into the apartment using the access code, which they retrieved from their cell phone. When I attempted to reach the young lady in the apartment to ask what was going on , she conveniently doesn't speak or comprehend the English language. EVOLVE was no where to be found, no support while every house rule was being broken: Smoking, large gathering, loud music, non-guests accessing apartment with access code that was intended for 2. On day 6 ....at 4am, I had to risk my life by knocking on the apartment door because of loud music and a parade of scary men on my Driveway. On Day 7 innthe PM, I received a call from Evolve stating .."they don't know who is staying in my apartment and the credit card used was fraudulent" EVOlVE advised I should evict/change the access code . Evolve notes they cannot help because the are in Colorado but they sent notification to the guest to vacate the property by 9PM that night. I called the police and was told i needed a court order from a judge in order to evict the guests; they cannot remove the occupants, even a short term tenant. At 11pm the guest returned to the apartment to find the code changed with no way of accessing the apartment . While Evolve said they had not been able to contact the guest, I notified Evolve that i started receiving calls and messages from the number they provided with the booking. I also forwarded (3) other numbers to Evolve after receiving a deluge of calls & text messages from the guests asking to unlock the apartment in order for them to retrieve their personal belongings. I forwarded all information to Evolve. At 1:30am, I received an alert from my Security System . When I looked on the Security camera, the lady returned with 2 masked men attempting to enter the apartment ....all recorded on my Security System. One of the men was heard saying in Spanish (translated)" let's go through the window". Fortunately, the windows were locked, therefore they left.....and this was shortly before the police (4 officers) arrived in response to a breaking and entering call. The following morning, I noticed the Screens on the ground floor windows were missing. After inspecting footage from another security camera, the guests can be seen walking down my driveway at 1:40am with my screens in hand. Upon entering the unit the following day, the stench was incredible!!. Body fluid all over the brand new sofa and throw cushions. Food on the bed and on the walls; the new $600 coffee table was scratched. The back of the new sofa broken and cushions covered with Semen. I was disgusted and afraid to touch any surface. To add insult to injury, Evolve attempted to withdraw the full payment from my checking account, eventhough the guests had spent 8 days running a prostitution & drug ring out of my apartment. EVOLVE offered to give me an $85 cleaning fee.... nothing else. I was advised to file a claim for damages While I sent photos, they would not accept the itemized receipts showing my sofa and other damages items were recently purchased from Ashley Furniture. Evolve said I had to repurchase another sofa or damaged items and forward the new receipts for consideration. From my nightmare of an experience, Evolve is not a ligitimate business enterprise. EVOLVE is complicit with the fraud being perpetrated against both hosts and guests. EVOLVE allowed criminals to threaten myself and my family, which has left us traumatized. THIS NOT ACCEPTABLE!!

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Gayle - We're so very sorry to hear of the fraudulent booking that took place in your home. We understand the time, money and effort that goes into making a house a temporary home for your guests and offer our sincerest apologies that this was your experience at the start of your partnership with Evolve. We want to reassure you that our team is here to support you and would like the opportunity to continue working to address the damages left by the guests. As we mentioned in our previous correspondences, we apologize for any miscommunication regarding the damage claims and will be connecting with you to discuss next steps in ensuring you are fairly compensated for the damages caused by the guests. Please look out for an email from our team in the next few days and continue to follow up with us through that channel. We look forward to working together towards finding a resolution and hope we are able to ease some of the frustration and loss you have endured during this incredibly unfortunate situation.

May. 18th, 2022

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Valarie Yuskaitis Tampa, FL

As a guest, I rented a house in Punta Gouda FL for a training I was attending there locally and I prefer a home when I travel (rarely use hotels any longer). There were many issues - no info sent on how to get into the house, no welcome packet to tell us about Wi-Fi and house info, dirty dishes in sink upon arrival, filthy tub and the hot water ran out in like 5 mins, they left left-over bar soaps in the bathroom for use (not sanitary), the home was not in good condition (hardwood floors buckling up, ants in the home, general maintenance needed), and the kitchen was not stocked with basics (sauce pot, measuring cups/spoons, etc.). Their customer service is NON EXISTENT. Don’t waste your time with this company - I will never rent from them again. Renters - beware! This company is a not ethical and is a scam. They also clearly don’t care about sanitary practices, providing a safe home, or presenting a clean and properly maintained home.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Valarie,

We appreciate you taking the time to leave us a review, although we are very sorry to hear that your experience was not a positive one. We were able to take a closer look at your booking and see you have been in close communication with our team. We were able to confirm that an email with lockbox instructions was sent just a few days before your stay and do apologize for any confusion that occurred that did not allow for a smooth check-in process. After close review, it seems that our team did not feel the documentation of concerns regarding the home warranted the requested refund, but did offer a travel credit for future use in good faith. While we’re disappointed to hear that you did not find this to be a fair resolution, we do hope you consider giving us the chance to host a future stay of yours. Thank you again for your feedback and for choosing to stay with Evolve during your training.

Apr. 20th, 2022

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Pam Mealor Gainesville, GA

Unsafe unsafe unsafe!!! Do not book with them. You are putting your life and property at risk. They advertise falsely unsafe rentals on their site. No lights in a very bad area with all kinds of people walking around. People living out of cars and vans. The property we booked was not as promised. The amenities promised were not there. It was an absolute construction site. The garage you pull into had tons of construction equipment. The entire property was a construction site. We told them we felt unsafe and they did not care. They do not care about your safety. I would not trust them. Their rest assured policy is a lie. They will not help you!! Do not go with evolve!!

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Pam - We are terribly sorry to hear that you felt unsafe during your stay. That is certainly not representative of the service we traditionally aim to provide and we do hope you will give us another opportunity to prove that this is not our standard. We would like to look further into this situation for you and invite you to please reach out to us directly on our social channels to connect with us. We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback here and look forward to hearing from you to gather more information regarding your experience.

Apr. 12th, 2022

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Robbie Essex, CT

Back when they started in 2014 they put up our listing and they were wonderful. Now, they have gotten too big and greedy. They are hard to reach, their reps lie about what they will do and don't get it done, you can't talk to anyone but reps who just spout the company line, they issue refunds or cancellations without input from the host, and basically have commandeered the property - making all the decisions about rates and minimum stays. The WORST thing [as you can see from other hosts here] are their "Smart-rates". They are so ridiculously high and vary by the day, we don't book until a few weeks before when the rates drop to motel rates. But the reason I am so upset today, is because they accepted a 4 day booking in June when our summers have always been a week. For 7 years we were completely booked. We look forward to the summers, when we don't have to nag guests every 3 days about their driver info to get them into the gate. And reduce the wear & tear on the unit with all the traffic. It also aggravates the HOA who would love nothing more than to limit the vacation rentals. Contacting all the guests, purchasing & inputting all the passes, and following up with housekeeping & property manager is exhausting. The more guests = the more things that can go wrong. I told the kid to change the minimum stay. He lied and closed the request. I found out it wasn't done, when I got another little booking in June, thereby screwing up the entire month. So I chatted and called and they said the minimum stays are related to their awful "Smart-rates" and that I can't tell them what they should be. So this will drag on while they make excuses and refuse to put on a manager. I used to be able to go up the food chain to resolve issues. No more. What's next 2 day - 1 day? I got a booking for a month next February. Then it canceled. I contacted the guest - it was because it was $6000 for 28 days while others in the area around were at least a grand less. Their insurance rates are obscene. If they are going to provide damage insurance, they should include trip insurance. They are now like Amazon who does not support their sellers, does not listen, does not respond in a timely manner.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Robbie - We appreciate you taking the time to leave us this feedback, but are disappointed to hear that your experience with Evolve over time has become less than wonderful as it was when you first joined us. We understand that a shift in the way we operate can be an adjustment, and at times frustrating, and we want to ensure you feel supported throughout the process. We would love the opportunity to look further into this situation for you. If you’re able to, please reach out to us directly on our social media channels with more information regarding your account and we are happy to assist. Again, thank you for your review. We hope to hear from you soon!

Apr. 7th, 2022

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Tiana Parker

If I could give a negative star I would. If you are looking for a property management company to partner with DO NOT HIRE EVOLVE! They DO NOT verify guest that book directly through the Evolve site. Anybody can make a fraudulent reservation and stay in your home.Now that scammers know this they are flooding the site with reservations that you will not be paid for. As a result you end up with scammers with stolen credit cards trashing your house. Guest can stay at your house for FREE for as long as they want. EVOLVE will not cover the cost of your utilities used, cleaning cost and money lost because those unpaid for nights could have went to a qualified guest. As many have stated, they offer no assistance. They simply throw their hands up and leave you with the bill. Of course I learned my lesson the hard way. Evolve has done a great job covering their tracks to keep this information hidden. I can not stress this enough if you care about your home and are interested in making money off your vacation rental with minimal stress THIS IS NOT THE COMPANY FOR YOU! Get with a company that verify the people staying in your house are who they say they are. This issue not only affects the homeowners but also the individual who's card information was stolen. It's sad because Evolve is making millions off this scam.

3 years ago

Reply from Evolve Vacation Rental

Hi Tiana - Thank you for reaching out to us here. We are deeply sorry to hear of the frustrations you have experienced due to issues with a fraudulent booking. We completely understand the stress this can cause to you as the homeowner and while we do our very best to avoid such situations happening, unfortunately it does occasionally occur. We want to reassure you that we are working diligently and strategically as a team to improve our processes regarding this matter, and that your feedback is incredibly valuable to us. If you have any remaining questions or concerns about your experience, please feel free to reach out to us directly on social media with more information and we are more than happy to take a closer look for you.

Apr. 6th, 2022

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Eric Estrada

Unbelievably bad experience with Evolve. We booked our house 2 months through VRBO for spring break. We got our confirmation email three days before with the check in information code and everything we need to know for the house. My husband just happened to call the contact for the property the night before to ask a question. They were completely dumbfounded when we said we had booked the property and couldn’t believe Evolve had not contacted us to let us know the property was sold. This was literally hours before we were supposed to be pulling up for spring break. After spending an hour on the phone with VRBO, we were assured by VRBO that after talking to evolve we were fine to check into the house. Wanting to be 100% sure that we had a place to stay I then contacted Evolve myself. After they checked into it a little bit more they realized that it was sold and had made a mistake by not contacting us. Now the day of spring break we were expected to try to find a house for 11 people for the same price that we paid two months ago. They were only willing to pay up to 20% more if needed. Obviously we were unable to find any property day of for that many people and for that price so our spring break vacation was completely ruined for 11 people. They didn’t even refund the full amount with the fees I had to go through Vrbo to get all our money back. Not to mention the plane ticket we had for a family member to join us there. Completely horrible experience.

3 years ago

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John E Wilson Taos, NM

This company is based in Denver, our rental was in south Texas - they knew nothing . except how to jack up the nightly rate. The advertised nightly price was $129 but the actual price ended up at $193/night. The $129 was OK as they were "pet friendly" but they charged an additional $320.00 for " damage protection". As a property manager myself & a former VRBO member with a Texas rental I assumed the fee was a deposit that would be refunded upon cleaning & finding no damage. Nope... they keep that & do not refund it. When I called and tried to plead my case they basically said "tough" even when I pointed out to them that on the email showing their charges there was an ad, in their email, promoting additional insurance coverage at a cost of $59.00 for $1500.00 in damage protection. When I asked why they would have an ad promoting additional coverage when they were already charging $320.00 they had no answer. That was in addition to a pet fee, a service fee & a cleaning fee. An unscrupulous & deceitful company that will never see another dollar of mine

3 years ago

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Edward Hauser Goodlettsville, TN

Evolve is in the business of making money, not helping clients by managing their property. They do the bare minimum, approve all guests, even ones that attempt to burn your rental down by starting log fires on your tile floor, stop up your septic tank by flushing unimaginable things, break furniture and more. Then they refuse to cover the damages although the guests are required to pay for a damage waiver. Luckily I was l only with them for the required 2 month minimum before I could cancel. I lost more money in damages than I gained in payouts. A management company in theory sounds nice but not when I have to do more work and pay more. Right now I am managing the rental myself and it has been a much better experience. Plus I am actually making money now.

3 years ago

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T Dembro Amherst, NH

I rented a house last weekend in RI (Fri & Sat) for my stepfathers funeral. There was a storm coming that was going to hit Friday mid day, I emailed Evolve days in advance asking if we could arrive early in anticipation, and then followed up with them the day before and received no response. As a result we were not able to get there safely due to a terrible ice storm. Someone from Evolve finally emailed me on Saturday around 2pm acknowledging that they did not respond, but hope we were having a great time. I explained to them that this situation was hard enough, and that we had to scramble to make other arrangements the day before because they did not respond and asked for them to refund us for that day. They refused due to the owners cancellation policy. I am a rental owner and I would never treat my clients like this. I will also never rent another house managed by Evolve and certainly will never use their services.

3 years ago

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Erin Nations Alpharetta, GA

Stay away from this fly by night company. I booked a rental through VRBO only 11 days ago. The reservation was for late August, over 200 days away from today. I had to cancel due to a family conflict. Evolve will not refund my deposit even with the rental being this far out. The rental is in a popular beach location, and I have no doubt Evolve will be able to fill the rental for our canceled dates. They did credit my account; however, I am concerned that the company won't be around next time I am ready to book. This is an extremely harsh cancellation policy not consistent with the market. There are a myriad of alternatives to book travel with more flexible policies. Please don't make the same mistake that I did.

3 years ago

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Kymberlieblu Birkenkamp St Louis, MO

I rent Airbnbs for my employer, a Fortune 500, several times a month, so I have had a profound amount of experience with Airbnbs from both a corporate and personal standpoint. In this case, I made a personal reservation 9 months out and chose to pay in full. The policy stated a 48 hour cancellation for a full refund. I received news mere hours after the cut off that would require me to cancel the trip. Knowing this, I immediately reached out to Evolve. I also knew that this weekend was a college football weekend in the small town. I knew they would have no issue rebooking. I reached out to Evolve and asked if they would consider giving me a full refund since my cancellation was so close to the cut off. In the last three years, I've never had a property company not respond to my messages. They could have easily responded letting me know they could not make an exception and I would have accepted that. Instead, I never received a response though I reached out three times and was only refunded 50%. This is completely within their policy, but I have never dealt with a host who would not have made an exception in this case, or at minimum respond. Due to this behavior, I will never rent from Evolve for myself or my company. I distrust the location quality and experience potential of any property holder who cannot even be bothered to respond to a potential guest. .

3 years ago Edited February 9, 2022

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John J Tashkent, TK

Worst customer service ever. I had used them for property management, they will promise you high daily rates and high occupancy rates to get your listing. Then they'll use their precious rating algorithm to calculate the minimum daily rate. I was told I could expect $250 a night with 80% occupancy. Unfortunately, everyone in my neighborhood was priced between $80 and $100 per night with 50% occupancy. Didn't know that until it was too late. Big difference, no bookings. But that's OK, right, I mean they can manually adjust the minimum rate. They can adjust the minimum nightly rate, but its too much trouble for them, so you'll go without any bookings. When I did get them to manually reduce the minimum rate to be competitive, I immediately got bookings, yea! However, constantly adjusting my minimum rate was too much trouble. So they quit doing it. And, then they dropped me as a customer while I was overseas and unable to get another service. Great people! In my review on Trustpilot, they blamed me for being a bad customer, but what would you expect when they overpromise and never deliver. I'm sure they will blame me again for being a bad customer. Good luck, but better to just find someone else.

3 years ago

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MSmith

My stay was the absolute worst. Roaches, broken furniture, a rude and arrogant owner that refused to answer any questions once he received full payment. When contacted by a representative from Evolve, I shared my experience and also provided pictures to support my claim. I was given an apology and was told that I would receive a credit for one day of stay for my inconvenience. It’s been weeks since I was sent that email and nothing. After waiting 3- 5 business days (The timeframe I was given) I reached out and was told to wait another 3-5 business days. I’m done with the running around. I implore you to stay far away from this group. There are plenty of companies that you can trust with your time and money.

3 years ago

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Dylan San Francisco, CA

I booked a rental with Evolve through Vrbo. I had to cancel the reservations unfortunately and Evolve never cancelled the reservation on Vrbo, so I was never refunded my Vrbo fee of almost $150. I called Evolve and spoke with Senior Travel Advisor Support Specialist Nathaniel Evans. Nathaniel E told me they had a communication error between Evolve's system and Vrbo's system and that I (as the customer) needed to have Vrbo reach out to Evolve so they can resolve this communication issue between THEIR systems. This is ridiculous I am the customer, why am I having to resolve THEIR technical issue so I can get my rightfully so refund? This is terrible customer service, I will never book through Evolve in the future.

3 years ago

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Maria Aretz Philadelphia, PA

We had a guest cancel two days before Christmas, ( day they were supposed to check in) and they receive a full refund from Airbnb and Evolve! Our property is $600 per night at a non-holiday rate. To allow a guest to block a booking calendar for two months and then back out at the last minute and receive a full refund is a slap in the face to property owners/hosts! Our property books every holiday for the last 4 years and now our home sits empty because of a last minute cancelation with a full refund. This is 0 support for hosts, allowing guests to manipulate the system if they choose. A 50% refund should the max a guest should receive for a last minute cancellation. Evolve in partnership with Airbnb will never support a host yet hosts are the backbone of their business. We have been hosting 2 properties in Philadelphia for over 4 years, if you aren't ready to do all the leg work yourself in vetting guests you will have issues with hosting.

3 years ago

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Sothdra Nguon-Devereaux Kailua-Kona, HI

I had a very negative experience with evolve vacation rentals. I rented a property with them through Airbnb, and their listing is misleading. It mentions AC three times on the listing but upon check in we realized that only one of the two upstairs bedrooms had an AC unit. Also, the AC unit was broken and the upstairs was unbelievably hot. We reported this immediately, and was told to contact our local guest contact Ellen. She sent the cleaning lady to inspect the broken AC unit, which made no sense. I assumed I had reported the issue to enough people to have it resolved, but they did not try to repair it until I called and reported the issue to Airbnb two days later.

4 years ago

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Annie Farley Cedarburg, WI

We rented an Evolve managed home in Minnesota, as we were attending a memorial for a family member. The home was a high-priced rental meant to house up to 13 people. It advertised a pool, and our kids were looking forward to using the pool, and we were anxious to have a relaxing place to stay during a very stressful weekend. No Pool.. dirty linens, stained pillows and towels.. no toilet paper. Bed sheets hung on doors when we arrived, food on utensils and kitchen tools in drawers. garbage, dirty cleaning rags and used toilet paper under sinks. There were not enough utensils for the number of guests.. 6 spoons? 13 people? The a/c was non functional, and the garage that was supposed to be available for our use had an above ground swimming pool thrown in the middle of it. This is management?? Our check in information had the incorrect contact numbers on it. We attempted to contact evolve directly and via Email and nobody got back to us. So disappointing

4 years ago

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Christopher Passetti Anderson, SC

From the first day I booked I could not get a personal or response to my questions. I was bounced around through the automated phone system with no success. Tried the app and email and got what seemed like automated replies. Once I got to my condo the wifi didnt work, the codes for the pool, garage, and building didnt work. I was told the wifi issue I needed to take up with my local representative . After finally contacting my local representative through email she said she was no longer in charge of that unit and had no way of reaching anyone to help me. There was not enough cell service for me to conduct the business I needed to do while I was there. The place I stayed was nice. The hot tub was broken the whole time we where there. The most frustrating part was the email and phone call i received the day after I got home asking how my stay was. Where were you the last week?????????

4 years ago

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Jamie Hall Mountain Home, AR

Very disappointed with this company. I booked a rental months in advance and paid the balance in full at the time. Days before we were supposed to leave, my dad was put in to the hospital AND my daughter was in the ER with a bad kidney infection. We still thought we could make the trip, so I didn't cancel before their 48 hour window. 36 hours before check in, my daughter did not think she could make the 10 hour drive so we decided to cancel. I did not expect to get a refund but called to find out if I could at least be reimbursed for the cleaning fee and damage insurance, being there was no need for cleaning and no damage to be done by us. After sitting on hold for a lengthy amount of time, they told me they would contact the owner and return my call with an answer. After a day I decided to also email this request. It has been over a week and I have yet to hear anything from anyone. Customer Service is obviously not important to them. If you choose to book with them, read ALL the fine print and be prepared for them not to communicate at all if you have an issue.

4 years ago

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Mike Taylor Jenks, OK

Booked a stay at what looked to be a nice cabin, and ya pics can be deceiving. So we arrived at this cabin 5.5 hour drive later, only stuck at the front door with an invalid code. My wife contacted evolve with no help on any codes to get in, then finally got ahold of one of the owners which we shouldn’t be in contact with in the first place since evolve is a management company and they’re the ones to handle that. So anyways finally get in only to walk into a horrid stench of some combination of odor chemical and a one to two pack a day smoker in the house. So we’re trying to give this a shot so we walked around inside and it only got better as to find dishes left out in the sink, crushed pop cans on the back patio and I’m betting these sheets never got changed because of the body print still showing. Noticed the at least 1/4 inch of dust build up on the ceiling fan along with the return air looked like cousin IT was living in there. smh The bathroom has used razors in plain view I mean at least the razors were in the trash can. Pop cans on the back patio. The downstairs had random decor leaning up against furniture. Anyways it was a complete dumpster fire. So at this point we sat down for maybe a total of 5 mins to rush find another place to save us from this disaster only to hear what sounded like scratching inside the walls and after that we left and drove several hours away. My wife contacted evolve for a fund’s reimbursement and say said they need the owner to verify what all we said was accurate 🤔 maybe evolve hasn’t heard of bias yet, and for the less then 30 mins of stay they send us 268 bucks back out of the 865 to book. I have filed with BBB, and they still want to keep on acting like they did is a favor so tomorrow attorney time so if I have to file small claims I will in a hot minute. I’m going to leave a trail of my experience all over the web until I get your attention EVOLVE and my money back all of it not just a little percentage. All of it. I got pics I will be releasing with this info to.

4 years ago

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ACR Newtown, CT

Do NOT rent any VRBO or Airbnb if Evolve Vacation Rental is involved. We just had to cancel our 4 days of vacation due to a family medical emergency. Bottom line - we could not travel and if we could have, we could not have used the property safely. We asked for a refund (even partial) especially after we saw they were able to RENT the property for our cancelled days. They said absolutely no refund. We got Airbnb involved and they tried to plead our case, but Evolve still said absolutely no refund. They double dipped and we lost over $1,500 because of a family medical crisis. Thanks for your humanity Evolve. - NOT!!!!

4 years ago

Evolve Vacation Rental

The Good

Set, Low Fee for Property Owners

Flexible Terms

Communication with Guests

Property Damage Protection

Professional Listings

The Bad

Limited Country Availability

Limited Pricing Options

The Bottom Line

User Reviews