Owner requested constant arrival status updates. I sent several messages so he would know when we were arriving. The owner replied once with a wall of text with details about the rental buried between lengthy rants about past renters who had wronged him. I arrived at his shop at 3pm and he was not there. His employee started that he was in Phoenix and would not return for several hours. I let him know I rented Unit 2 and he provided me with the keys and directions to the condo, just down the road. He informed me that it was just cleaned. It was a normal friendly interaction.
Thirty minutes later we were frightened by an irate man pounding on the door. It was the owner and he was furious we were inside the condo before the 4pm check in. My wife and children were hiding in a bedroom because of his unstable behavior. He was shaking with anger. He screamed, yelled, and berated me for a solid ten minutes. He threatened to kick us out several times. I was never given a chance to explain my side or even speak. His behavior and what he was saying made no sense in the situation. I was very compliant because I thought things could get violent. I also wanted to salvage our family vacation. I never demanded a key and didn't realize being at the shop an hour early was an issue. The employee who happily gave us the key. If we had been asked to come back later that would have been fine. We could have easily walked around the village for an hour. We were not in a rush to check in. We were caught totally off guard by the owner's erratic behavior. Later in evening more texts were sent with rants about locking doors, operating blinds, light switches, putting feet on table, food in rooms. My responses were kept short and polite to limit communication.
My wife and I both were anxious and unable to sleep. We were afraid that the owner could be come back at anytime and launch into another tirade. We were worried it could get violent and did not feel safe.
We made the difficult financial decision to leave and get a hotel. We left Sedona sooner than planned. I called VRBO and spoke to their incident center at length before leaving. They documented the incident, offered no support, and told me to call the authorities if needed.
Before booking please consider this experience. Do you want to risk ruining your vacation and losing your money? Do you want to be harassed by a high conflict personality with unpredictable rage? Owner has 5 rentals in Sedona. BEWARE.