Evolve Vacation Rental

It was a pleasure booking with Evolve Vacation Rental Network. Communication was fast & easy. Self check in option was effortless. The home was beautiful and had everything we needed. Highly recommend booking with Evolve Vacation Rental Network.

We would deal with Evolve Vacation Rental Network again. My husband booked an apartment through VRBO that was managed by Evolve. Everything from the ease of booking the apartment and sedan service, to the information and bookings (if you wanted) of activities etc. was great. They were polite, efficient and helpful beyond any requirements.

Evolve manages our rental property and while communication has been limited after the sales team signed us up, we now have a problem with how they remit taxes to the city - Evolve keeps passing the buck, no one will take ownership, and they insist that they are doing correctly when the city says otherwise. It’s crazy the amount of time we’ve spent on this, contacting the city and Evolve. I think they’re good at marketing rentals and price management but that’s where my kuddos end. If someone from Evolve, other than accounting, reads this - will you please work with your accounting team. This also concerns me with how Evolve will handle our guests if there is an problem.

This is an Owner review who trusted evolve with my property. Website is good and there fees are reasonable. That is where it stops and goes all downhill. This is not about the really poor customer service and attitude of some there but more about the flat out disregard for their clients for which they would not have a site to make money from. Everything favors the guest and not the owner- period. Which in some cases we understand the need to help the guest and can deal with some. This is about holding guest payments until they are 5 days into their stay prior to depositing in our accounts. To allowing full refund even up to 48 hours prior to stay and owner get ZERO to their "Smart Pricing" feature which you cannot opt out of which over charges guests so they can make more money and when you ask to set a fee they tell you they cannot. It is sad because this could be a good service and work for both the owner and the guest if they just would balance out there approach. Unfortunately we have to depart this company and we have experienced there poor service and utter lack of client requests for too long. If you are owner beware. They hold "Your" money" and make interest on it for months and even after check-in it takes days to be wired to your account. Pricing requests are like asking Hitler for leniency. It is a shame as just some minor tweaks and they could have a good service.

Keep in mind I'm a professional property manager, have managed my own short term rental for years, even managed a couple for others (but no longer do). I chose Evolve for our personal short term rental b/c at 10%, there were just a little more expensive than what we were experiencing in hard costs b/c of payment processing fees and rising Airbnb/VRBO fees. To start, they are great at demonstrating the product, sales, presentation, onboarding, etc. I was so excited to get started with them. This was in December. Then, I when I get done with 90% of the onboarding tasks, I try and arrange pictures, but they gave me a VERY hard time about the fact I had a temporary Tenant living there. After going back and forth a little, I wasn't happy about losing marketing time and why they couldn't just use my pics, but I agreed I would wait a couple of months until March (losing marketing time) when she moved out to make sure the property showed great for the pics. Tenant moved, we cleaned up and remodeled a bath and got pics done and all was fine. Then we get a draft of our listing. In their defense, the rest of this occurred during the beginning and into the first month during COVID-19.....but still..... Let's just say the draft wasn't written that well, and definitely not from someone who knew the lake at all. Pics looked good, but were not in good order. We went back and forth like 10 times in emails trying to get the right wording and pic order. Not only were they confident they knew the lake better than we did, but they were very arrogant about it. Finally, we agreed on the ad. All we had to do left was finalize pricing. When I was onboarding, I made it very clear that I'm happy to trust their algorithm, but I want to set the floor, and I was only really concerned about the floor during the weekends and on holidays, I really didn't care about the weekdays. Now, 3 plus months later, and 99% of the way done with the listing, in the middle of a pandemic, they wanted to tell me they "changed" policy and they are not allowing Owners to set the floor on pricing. They wanted me to list my property for about 1/2 of what it was getting the year before, and their only explanation is b/c of COVID-19. Understanding this unprecedented time, I kept asking for a different solution like "lets put it up for a month with my pricing and see..." to "can I just set the minimum floor on weekends..." to finally, after days of trying to find a solution and them constantly saying "no", I even said... "OK, we've come this far...spent all this time onboarding, and at this point, I just want to get it active and see how it goes. I can still cancel at any time correct?" I kept getting answers that weren't specific for a couple days until finally they said "Thank you for your patience. After review, Evolve has decided it is not the best time to go live with a new listing in your market. That could change quickly, as we are hopeful there will be a return to normal..." and went on to tell me to list myself and try them next year. BOTTOM LINE: Excellent sales and onboarding process, COVID-19 did throw a wrench in my relationship with them and I am understanding of that to a degree.... but they had NOTHING to lose by simply activating my property, yet they chose not to? So now, I have wasted 30ish hours preparing and onboarding and see ZERO benefits from all this work, and I'm out 5 months of marketing time. That, combined how they had so much arrogance about how RIGHT they always were about the listing when I was showing them constant examples of how they were wrong, it all just leaves a bad taste about getting into a long relationship with someone like that. Seems like they want to control you rather than work with you.

Horrible rental experience included active rodent, rodent feces, unsafe railings, nasty mattress and more. I booked a 4 night stay at a house in TN for our family. The morning of our departure, my young adult daughter informs me that she had found rodent droppings in the downstairs bathroom after the 2nd night of our stay and had heard scurrying noises within the ceiling above her bed. She didn't tell me until the day of departure because she did not want to ruin our family vacation with the news. She asked her adult brother to clean up the droppings the day she found them, which he confirmed were there and that they were "still wet". I checked the downstairs bathroom again before we left and there were more droppings! I also looked in the laundry area downstairs and found even more. So much rodent poop! I photo documented both areas. When I reached out to Evolve, this was the response I got from their 'Resolutions Team' after a few exchanges...an Evolve employer emailed me and wrote "Please know that from experience in this industry, mice are commonly found inside homes. In most situations, mice inhabit homes more often than we are even aware of and while they are not ideal creatures to share the home with, they are not actively disruptive to the entire stay." That is a direct quote from the email sent by Evolve. I asked to have a supervisor contact me. That never happened. This company claims they have core standards for their properties ... Clean, Safe, Guest Ready and As Advertised. This property did not meet a single one of those standards. Rodent feces are not clean nor safe, and certainly were not included in the advertisement. Other safety and cleanliness issues, the railings on the deck were spaced too far apart to be safe for very young children. (I had my 4 year old with me.) The carpet was badly stained and buckled up (tripping hazard.) The king mattress I slept on was nasty and was not covered with a mattress pad only a thin sheet. Had I known of the filth and rodent issue, I would have reached out to the manager sooner. I did call as soon as I knew of those issues. I am giving the company 2 stars instead of 1 simply because I was actually able to speak to a representative. (When I called the local property manager associated with Evolve, no one ever called me back.) With Evolve, I had several exchanges with the Resolutions Team before being told I had to take their measly offer of a tiny partial adjustment or nothing at all. 2 stars is for at least answering the phone and emails. This company needs to do a better job of vetting their rentals! It's a shame that the truly great properties are lumped in with the nasty ones. And since there are limited ways to tell the difference and since their response was so egregious, I would NOT recommend using Evolve.

Evolve did a great job walking us through the many steps of setting up our vacation rental. I would have given them a 5 Stars if they were listed as a "Travel" company with the credit card companies (Capital One, BarclayCard travel rewards). Once Evolve does this guests will be able to use their travel rewards to book Evolve rentals.

I have used VRBO before and it was great so I used Evolve this time and had a great experience. I was kept up to date on everything I needed to know and was very glad I booked with Evolve and plan to again in the future.

You guys was on point. I listed all the amenities that i wanted and a quiet area and you listed some great places. Thanks for helping me find a safe place for me and my family.

Excellent service and followup on a very difficult renter that claimed issues with the house --that it did not have. Thanks for taking care of the issue without me getting involved with the renter directly.

Working with Evolve was great they constantly sent reminders and information regarding our stay. Love that there was no extra charges that other companies charge and then refund after your trip.

We had absolutely no problem with evolve! The booking was very easy and user friendly. The stay was great and was just as it was decribe. We will definitely be using evolve in the future for our vacation rentals.

Evolve vacation rental was wonderful to work with! Very thorough and very pleasant to talk with. They were always quick at answering any questions I had and I really appreciated that.

The evolve team was very responsive and helpful throughout the booking process. We had minor changes multiple times that they quickly addressed and handled well. They were able to address all of our questions effectively.

The property met our needs..The listing was clear and factual..no hidden fees or any thing to that nature.Evolve made sure we were well taken care of with clear instructions of the property..Overall great listing

Evolve was a great option for us to find just the right vacation spot. They answered all of our questions quickly and we always knew we could count on them. The reminders of payments and important dates were great as well.

**UPDATED** Evolve reached out to me after reading my carefully crafted review of their listing. To be honest, at first, I thought the outreach was a way to explain their practices and I wasn't interested. After responding with my issues to the customer service representative, Patrick, he went above and beyond to help me. He tracked down my review, read it, ensured me it would be posted within 24 hours, and the most important, he validated my frustration with the events that happened during my stay. Patrick worked with me to resolve my case and truly cared about making it right (not just tempering my anger). They also updated their reviews on the listing with a disclaimer that some of them were pulled from HomeAway which is disclosure -- also a change I am happy with. **Original review on 8.12.19*8 Evolve manufactures their listing's reviews. They absolutely filter and silence comments that are less than 5-stars. I gave a low review with a very thoughtful comment and evidence to back up my claims in order to help future potential renters similar to me (this house is great, but not a good fit for everyone and I wanted to share why) . They will not approve the review I left on their platform (which I could see if it were straight slander or no evidence to back up said review). Since no third party program controls their platform (like VRBO or Yelp), they can absolutely create whatever reviews they want (and they do). Be aware of all their 5-star reviews. I wish they understood that sometimes, low reviews with quality comments, are sometimes better for their listing (people can determine if the low review is applicable to them or not). They're taking that opportunity away from potential renters.

The Evolve Team was superb! They answered all of my (numerous) questions and they did it with kindness and professionalism. It would be our pleasure to work with Evolve again.

Ease of communication with Evolve. First time doing this rental of our cabin and they have been very informative in helping us along the way and always available for Questions and suggestions.

Evolve made it such a smooth and easy way to find our amazing vacation spot and make sure we had everything we needed for an easy check in. If I needed any help an evolve representative was just a text or phone call away.

The rental process on our recent Oregon vacation home was error-free in every way. Instructions were clear and timely and all communications were understandable and easy to follow. Very impressive!

While our rental was wonderful and the people who own the property were outstanding, kind and communicative my actual experience with evolve was less than stellar. I booked the rental with no issues but when it came to logging in to my account to view the booking my login would not work. I tried a number of times to get the situation resolved but to this day cannot login to my account. That part of the process was very unsatisfactory and did not inspire confidence in the technological or customer service side of the company.

I started using Evolve for my vacation rental a little less than 2 year ago. When I first started using them they were outstanding. I was telling everyone to switch. They charge only 10% compared to the other local companies charging 20% and over. Which is a huge difference. Especially since everything is done online now. But they use to be very quick to respond. They really cared about my place - getting it up and ready. I get a lot of bookings - so that is not my complaint. I just think Evolve has grown too big for itself. Now when I put in a request I don't hear back for days. And usually I have to follow up to get an answer. They always have an excuse (Oh this time of year is busy) or (Oh we had a lot of changes this month) or (Oh if you call in we are better at resolving the issue right away) truthfully - I really don't care what your excuses are. And truthfully I love how I can send a request by email - they use to be so quick to respond. I work a full-time job - I really don't want to be on hold for 30 minutes to get it resolved. Truthfully I don't want to hear excuses. I want good response time. I want a group to overlook my property. They need to do whatever it takes to do that. If that means hiring more people - then do it. They have really gone downhill the last 10 months. I think their only focus is to get more clients - very sad.

This home looks exactly like the photo gallery shows. River kayaks and flotation devices are provided. Property is in excellent condition. The owner is available for any information needed. She certainly makes your stay a memorable adventure.

As an owner of multiple properties I have had my share of problems with Evolve. They have agents 24/7 but they are on limited hours especially for us on the West Coast. When I call after 7PM I get a recording and it takes a day or two to get a response, if I email them it takes up to a week to get a response. Evolve charges 10% of the rental fee which they even tap the cleaning fee for 10% which isn't right as it comes out of the owner's pocket. The cleaning fee is usually a pass through fee and someone's wages and even if you charged more to cover the 10% it just means more for Evolve on the higher fees. They take no responsibility for their booking mistakes even when they over book the amount of guest staying. Instead of a refundable deposit they charge the guest $14.50 a day for damages for $3000 worth of damage. That won't even cover our couch and love seat. They won't pay claims unless over $25 and then you have to produce a receipt for the item. Our bookings for 2018 were down almost 30% as compared from VRBO for 2017. Seems like their experts over priced our property, which we argued about after we told them we knew our area better than they do but they stood their ground only to find them discounting our property below the price we wanted when someone book the property with less than 30 days before their arrival. After we showed them that our properties in the past had been booked solid all summer and their agency only had it minimally booked they agreed to lower the nightly rate plus we got them to remove the discounted rate as a portion of our bookings are made with less than 30 days prior to the stay. Still down 30%. When you add up all the fees (including the damage fee) it appears the guest pays more with Evolve than other agencies especially when they have an extended stay. We moved away from VRBO as we thought Evolve would be a better deal for us especially not having to return deposits but maybe it was a mistake. As an owner they asked me to email them our suggestions and they would bring them forward to management at their meetings. They also told me they were hiring extra personnel for quicker response times to guest and owners (hasn't happened yet in 1 years) and were working on round the clock personnel for contact ( that never materialized).

I appreciate how attentive Evolve people are to my questions and requests. And they are phenomenal in resolving thorny problems, e.g. double booking, even though I caused the problem.

The property was nice, but upon arrival the kitchen was dirty. We had to clean it before it could be used. The stove top had food on it and the garbage can was disgusting. The property could use a fresh paint job and new carpet. The bedrooms were nice and the beds were comfortable. The decor was stylish. We enjoyed our stay once we cleaned some and got settled in.

Sabrina rocked! Help me (very patiently) through some questions I had as a nervous *my first renter" landlord experience, and helped me with some corrections I had made on my check in details. Super!

The condo was relatively clean, the master bath counter was covered with makeup and hair. There were a lot of the owner's personal belongings in the closet, drawers and under the bed. The hot tub temperature could not be adjusted. I made several calls, and sent texts to the appointed property manager and this issue was never resolved. The water was tepid, too cool for bath water so we were never able to use it. It's been 3 weeks since we checked out and still have not had a resolution to the hot tub issue, we asked for a partial refund and have not been given an answer. There is no view from this unit except the parking lot. We left the unit considerably cleaner than we found it. There is a property management charge in addition to the usual fees, taxes and cleaning fees. This was $227 for 6 days which I feel is exorbitant since management did not take care of problems with the unit.

From the time we decided to have a family vacation (rather late) until we checked out of our wonderful beach house, the entire process couldn't have been easier. Our families will definetly use Evolve again.

The house was just as described. Clean and comfortable. The house was located a block away from a nice cafe, a variety of restaurants and small shops. Communication with Evolve was good. We were able to check in early.

The process of renting was wonderful. We had all the information we needed prior to arriving at the rental. We ended up needing an additional night because of flight delays and were accommodated with no problems.

Booking through Evolve was so easy! I booked over the phone and they were quick, helpful, and pleasant to deal with. The cabin we stayed at was not as nice as portrayed on the website though. Whoever manages this property for them does not clean very well and is not very aware of problems at the property. There was dirt and grime everywhere and there was a mouse problem that didn’t look new judging from the amount of drippings found.

We were extremely pleased with our booking with the Evolve Vacation Network. From making the initial reservation, to charging the deposit, to making the final payment on-line, everything ran smoothly and on time.

Evolve was an easy, fast and user-friendly service. I was able to ask them any questions I had about the property. They were quick to respond and best of all, friendly about it.

Working with Evolve was easy and seamless. We were given all the information to access the rental property prior to arriving and their web site/app made it super easy to view the information about the rental.

I really enjoyed renting through Evolve! I need help with a question and it was so easy to contact them- and the response came back so quickly! Would definitely work with again!

Evolve Vacation Rental made my vacation rental an easy process. They were very responsive with answering my questions prior to our stay and assured us that everything was very available in the property.

Our group of six had a very negative experience with Evolve during our reservation and after speaking to their lower level manager, but a positive experience after speaking to their senior manager Stephen. For those who are considering booking a vacation rental with Evolve, be careful and do your research about the property, especially if you book through a third party website like Airbnb. We booked a Breckenridge cabin with Evolve through Airbnb for our ski trip, and were not warned of some major issues (e.g. the type of vehicle required to reach the cabin, and the fact that the cabin was not correctly located on Google maps). Because of this, we were nearly in a car accident and had to walk around for an hour in the dark and freezing temperature before finding the cabin on foot. We also had to hike 1+ mile round trip from the cabin to our car every time we wanted to go out during our stay. Evolve never returned our multiple Airbnb messages asking for help. Our only contact was their cleaning lady, who was unable to give clear directions to the cabin when we were lost and never returned our second phone call. It is unacceptable that Evolve used Airbnb to market their property, but did NOT use Airbnb to communicate about the property. We were disappointed with their lack of communication and attention to safety, and their refusal to take responsibility when we called them during our reservation. However, a few days after our reservation ended, I talked with their senior manager, who sincerely apologized for the situation and did everything he could to make things fair for our group. This tells me that, while the company still has some major operational issues to solve, their heart is in the right place.

We had an excellent experience with Evolve. Communication was timely and efficient and the place we stayed was lovely. We wouldn't hesitate to use Evolve again and will in the near future!

I intitally had a great experience with Evolve. The cabin was amazing! However, we had some minor issues (cable did not work/cable box was blowing smoke). The owner called me about the cable not working and he claimed he spoke to AirBnB in regards to some kind of refund. The next day we woke up to a smoking cable box and I called the property manager, Phil, several times and never received a response back. The smoke was probably a sign of an electrical fire and could've had terrible concequences. Upon my return back home, I contacted AirBnB who contact the "host." The Host claimed I never reported such issues and he never agreed to any refund. I was left a little confused and I was never contacted by Evolve or AirBnB again. I have screen shots of every time I called Phil and screenshots of when the so-called owner called me back.

We found the one bedroom condo to be totally updated and clean. We were surprised to see the coffee filters and a very well equipped kitchen. The king bed was very comfy. Very short walk to the beach.

The property rental was great and as described. All information that I needed prior to check-in was emailed in a timely manner. I ran into minimal issues working with evolve. The only thing I noticed is that there is no chance for cancellation once booked which would be my only complaint. Otherwise everything was great!!

Great customer Service. I called a couple of times before my trip and they were very polite and knowledgeable of everything i asked. I will be using Evolve to book my next trip.

I thought it was very easy to use and response time was great. However, I received a few emails about the rental and I'm not sure all of them were necessary. A confirmation email is great, and then a follow up email about check in instructions is really all that is needed.