Evolve Vacation RentalReviews 1,238

Do not waste your money or time with Evolve. This service is worthless! Evolve would not refund my money after having to cancel a tip because of COVID. So, I have a credit to try and use from that trip. This is all you need to know about Evolve: they have very few options for rentals, their rental rates are outrageously expensive, many of the rentals look sad and depressing and dated, and they stick you with extra fees. There we're literally no rentals that allow dogs for under $300/night in the ENTIRE state of WA, even though I searched multiple dates, in the off season. I checked several other locations throughout the states with similar experiences: massively overpriced, junk rentals, ridiculous fees, little to no options for rentals.

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.

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. Their response to me was that this isn't an issue and is fine by them. Don't waste your time with this company - I will never rent from them again. Renters - beware! This company is a scam. They also clearly don't care about sanitary practices or presenting a clean and properly maintained home.

Do NOT hire this company to manage your vacation rental. Their customer service is AWFUL! They over priced and then under price your listing. They allow cancellations and don't charge the renter anything when canceling the day before. They canceled all of my bookings and then charged me! Absolutely terrible!

I should have done my homework and researched Evolve before signing up with them. They should stick to Colorado and stop acting like they can manage from afar when they have ZERO knowledge of each city they have properties listed in. They will GET YOU IN TROUBLE due to the fact that they simply don't know local ordinances. They also are NOT on your side when it comes to avoiding horrible renters. They don't care. And you will not get money back if they do break something. I'm warning you. Don't go for the 10% low fee. It's NOT worth it.

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. I have filed a complaint with Airbnb and tried to reach out to them on their social channels.

I have just listed my property with this company and have been stressed out completely. Had guests stay at my property and had a party and then disputed charges. I can understand if this happens 1 time, but his has happened twice back to back. Evolve does not verify the guests in any manner is what i have learned. Do not use this company to manage your property. They do not even have insurance to cover these kind of situations. If they have coverage, then they need to have a better system in place to verify the guests. Even a state issued photo id to verify would work to avoid a lot of these issues but they don't even have that in place. They verify owners with photo ID, why not guests.

I hope there was a way to give this company a 0 star.

Worst customer service ever.

I 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 they can lower the minimum rate manually.

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 last 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.

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 Evans 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.

We had a guest cancel two days before Christmas, ( day they were supposed to check in) and they receive a full refund from Airbnb, our management company Evolve did nothing about this! 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.
Airbnb and Evolve 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 on Airbnb/Evolve.

I used Evolve to manage my home as a vacation rental. They were very pleasant to talk to but clearly immature, unprofessional & petty. They misinformed me on rules related to cameras then denied they had misinformed me. When I produced the email they told me I should have reminded them (which I had). They took no responsibility. They did not assist when a client disputed her charge for a booking they made & managed. I ended up having to return $1000. When I informed them I was leaving they suddenly changed the rules on submitting claims for damages. They now required my handyman have a website & logo. When I asked to see the policy they told me the decide what they request on a case by case basis.
Childish behavior. I would avoid them at all costs.

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.

I booked with VRBO, but then Evolve took over! What a mess of overcharges, mistakes and multiple phone calls and errors that they wouldn't listen to. They charged my card for almost $2,400, I had to cancel to get the proper credit. I rescheduled the same property again but on AirBNB and the same rental was $1512, they then cancel on me and let me know 4 days before the arrival that the owner is doing maintenance and cancelled the weekend all together. Will never use Evolve again! I ended up booking a last minute rental, cheaper, better and without a terrible experience of Evolve.

This has been the worst experience of my life. I wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy. I have never been treated like this in my life. A bunch of low life crooks

I rented a cabin on vrbo that is managed by evolve. I fractured my wrist at our rental because it wasn't shoveled. I have yet to receive any communication from their insurance claims department to discuss my injury. I have had to chase them down and my claim has just been pushed aside. I have been told multiple times that someone will contact me and no one has. Stay away from either company!

For those considering choosing Evolve to manage your property as a short-term vacation rental, you should know what will happen: 1)Lots of bad guests will book your place. Your property will be disrespected & abused, again & again. Things will be broken, scratched, stained, etc. Rules will be broken. Why?, because Evolve does not hold guests accountable. Evolve has "insurance", and you get to experience that hassle. 2) Evolve does not care about reviews. Even BAD reviews. They just ignore them. I had more bad guests in 1 year with Evolve, than I had in 3 years total with 2 other properties using Airbnb, where you can see guest reviews and decide whether to accept or not. With Evolve you know nothing at all about who is inside your property. This industry runs off of reviews, how dumb to ignore them. 3) Lousy software. Very frustrating. 4) No contacts at Evolve for you, the owner, because you simply don't matter. Very slow response also. 5)Huge Penalty Fee if you have to cancel any booking, even in the distant future. In Summary, when I host again, I will use VRBO, or Airbnb, or another, but I definitely WON'T be using Evolve. I've learned my lesson. You have been fore-warned. Having "No guest" is Better than having a "Bad guest".

We were going to spend a month in New Mexico to help my husband's sister with her many health problems. Since motels are expensive, we decided to rent a house. My husband is the one who contacted Evolve. I don't know if he read reviews before he did. The company promises that someone will inspect the home before the renters arrive to make sure it is all clean and ready. The company talked about the special cleaning precautions they are taking because of covid. They explained that their is a "Partner" or associate nearby with a phone number, and this is the person we should contact if there are ANY problems at all.
We get to the house, and we are flabbergasted at how filthy it is! I'll include some photos. The bath tub was the worst. It was DISGUSTING. There was a cap over the drain, and when I lifted the cap off, it was so gross. There were dead bugs in a drawer I could use. The only closet we could use was stuffed full of stuff on the floor.
So when I tried to call the Partner, an elderly lady's voice greeted me on her message machine all the about 20 times I tried to call. No one ever called back! Finally, about 10 days later, the owner told me that the real Partner got a new phone number, and the number on my packet was his old one!
We made a deal with the company and the owner that she pay for a thorough cleaning of the house, and we would stay. She agreed, so we stayed. She still doesn't know what was so dirty!
Unfortunately, I deleted most of the pictures from my phone, and to my shock, they also deleted the pictures from my iPad! So I only have these two. The disgusting tub and the bug drawer. But believe me, the place was filthy! If you get into a situation like this, the company can either return your money or contact the owner. You and the owner must make a deal, like we did with the cleaning service that she paid for, or if you don't reach an agreement, the company will refund your money.