First deposit made November 13, 2024 Trip confirmed as secure with VRBO on Feb 15, 2026 Reservation HA-32ZPhd Property name: Isle be Back in Grayton Beach, FL through VRBO. I am writing to inform you of a completely terrible experience my family had with Portoro rentals this week. We had booked a property in Grayton Beach FL through VRBO for the dates of Jun 28 - July 5, 2026. (Reservation HA-32ZPhd) We had paid a year and an half ago and confirmed this reservation as recently as February 15 of this year. Then suddenly this week, my family began receiving threatening and extorting emails and phone calls with intimidating deadlines meant to evoke fear and panic because Portoro apparently messed up and charged us the wrong rate. How is this our problem? And why would we need to cancel due to their error? In all my years working in corporate business and customer service, any time you or your company makes a mistake, you own it and learn from it. You DON'T punish your customers! But that is exactly the route they took! Not to mention all the different LIES they blatantly fed us along the way-- such as the house was double-booked, or another property management company bought them out, or the owner's needed that week for themselves -- all to learn it's all LIES and really they just wanted MORE MONEY for themselves because they posted the wrong rate! So they forced us out just to repost the same dates at double the price. In many emails and phone calls from my family begging them to do something to make this right, they refused, and continued with the path of threats and extortion. We ended up cancelling because they did this to us and now 23 people of my family from Texas, Ohio, South Carolina and Canada will not have our bi-annual family trip that we look forward to and plan 2 years in advance! This company and the agent named Amber Raycraft need to be held accountable for getting away with this! read more

Our family reunion stay with a Portoro Homes-managed property was one of the most disappointing rental experiences we've ever had. On the first morning of our trip, we woke up to a major plumbing failure: toilets and showers on the upper floors stopped draining and an entire level of the house flooded with what smelled to be waste water. It was an obvious health and safety hazard and made the home completely uninhabitable. We immediately notified management and later learned from the maintenance team that this was not a new issue, indicating the house should never have been rented in that condition. The situation consumed almost an entire day of our short vacation as we dealt with the flooding, waited for instructions, and then packed and moved our entire group, including groceries and supplies, to a different home. Although we appreciated being relocated on short notice, the replacement property was not equivalent to what we had reserved. It had smaller bedrooms, one fewer bedroom, and a much smaller outdoor area compared to the large deck and pool space we had specifically booked the original home for. Unfortunately, the second property also had its own plumbing issues, including sewage odor and water pooling after using the downstairs kitchenette. Given the severity of the sanitation and safety issues, and the substantial disruption to our stay, we believed a full refund would have been an appropriate and responsible resolution. Instead, Portoro initially offered only the difference in price between the two homes, since the replacement property was of lower value than the one we had originally booked. I explained that if we had wanted a smaller, less expensive home, we would have chosen one from the start and that simply adjusting for the price difference did nothing to address the severe disruption, safety concerns, and loss of time we experienced. They reluctantly added 3 additional small incremental amounts as I continued to convey the severity of the situation. After more than 2 weeks of back-and-forth, their "final" additional offers totaled $1600 for a stay that cost us over $6400. This in no way reflects the seriousness of what we experienced or the downgrade in accommodations. To further highlight the lack of competence in Portoro homes, they were unable to process the full refund amount they offered by card and are now mailing a check for the last $22.44 of the $1600. We tried to resolve this privately and professionally and held off on leaving any public comments while discussions were ongoing. Unfortunately, the lack of meaningful accountability or fair compensation leaves us unable to recommend booking a Portoro Homes managed property. At a minimum, guests should be aware that significant maintenance issues may exist and that resolution, if something goes wrong, may be slow, insufficient, and not reflective of the conditions experienced. read more

Warning: 850 Vacation Rentals / Portoro bait-and-switch Tried to book a vacation rental in FL through 850 Vacation Rentals for our family trip. The price on their website was ~$7,400 total. I began the reservation and was prompted to call them due to an error. When I did, they suddenly told me the actual price was over $12,000. That's a $5,000+ jump. I shared this screenshot from their own checkout page and asked them to honor the listed price. Here's what they said in texts: "We are terribly sorry for the error and appreciate you bringing this to our attention... Our team is working to have the information taken down." And: "This site is no longer being managed... the rates reflecting are not in sync with the rates we have." Yet their phone number was still listed for booking, and they continued communicating as if it was their listing. I asked if they'd honor the rate they posted, and they refused. Their fallback? A disclaimer buried in their terms that basically says: "We're not responsible for anything shown here." It's frustrating to see a company acknowledge their error and still not make it right. read more

I was one of 16 women who stayed at the Pelican Perch property from August 17th -20th, 2023. Bedbugs were found. I left. The bugs were on the floor I had a room also. There were so many issues with that house. I even took pictures of the filthy tables, missing pool tiles, hot tub not working, standing water in the tub, slow drains, and of course the bedbugs! Property Address: 85 Santa Clara St, Santa Rosa, FL read more

Truly the worst property management company. I would never let friends or family rent from this place. We rented a house through them on VRBO where they advertise 100% refund if we cancel by X date. We canceled 7 MONTHS before that date and they kept $750 of our money for NOTHING. We fought with them and VRBO and neither of them would refund the money that was advised we would get 100% back. VRBO is a crock for letting them post on their site 100% refund and 850 Vacations are just running a scam. Take your money elsewhere and get a better house. There are plenty of other rentals available in the Destin area. read more

850 Vacation Rentals by Portoro - Vacation Rentals Near Me - Destin, Florida

Saved my vacation - very nice - helpful and quick turnaround- property was great - thanks to them!

We rented the property at 78 Tarpan St, Destin Florida from October 22nd-October 30th. Long story short, we accidentally left some belongings in the top drawer dresser in the 2nd floor bedroom that faces the back yard and pool. The items included woman's panties, bra's, and a box of jewelry that was sitting underneath the panties and bras. We contacted the owner on the 30th about 7 hours after we left and informed "Shawn" that some belongings were left and that we will pay for the items to be shipped back plus a little extra for their time. He contacted the cleaning lady and apparently she didn't find anything. And informed us he has to take her word over anyone's because they have worked for him for 10 years. Nobody else entered that house except them. We are 110% positive we forgot them in that drawer. This is very unprofessional. I am NEVER recommending this company to anyone. read more

Horrible travel experience. We had to unfortunately cancel our trip, but it was within the 100% refund parameters on VRBO's website. They refused to refund $750 of the fee that was already paid to them. Now, looking at other websites, this seems to be commonplace with them. Best to rent elsewhere! read more

The absolute worst property management company I have ever experienced. We booked a home on March 1st for July 16, 2022. We had already paid in full. On June 14th, the property manager reached out and told us that the house we wanted wasn't finished being remodeled/build (she didn't elaborate) and stated she was cancelling our reservation along with many other families. She had ONE house to offer us that was a different area, completely gaudy pictures. They offered no refund to stay in the house we preferred in the future despite our request given their mess up. We are now without a house unless we want the horrible one. We requested a conversation with the home owner or the owner of 850 vacations. The agent's response, "Good luck ever getting Jordan the owner of 850 to call you, that will never happen." She then ended the call & has refused to answer any calls, texts or emails we've sent. I would stay far far away from this company. read more

Second year in a row this company has emailed us within 5 months from staying at their facility to tell us they are refunding our money and they are not managing the house anymore. Never again will we use this company to make vacation reservations! read more

DONT rent through 850 Vacation Rentals!!! The following is a detailed account of our recent experience with them- bit long, but worth the read if considering spending a large sum of money on one of their rental properties. My husband and I planned a family get together this past November 1-4th, 2019. We rented a property (The White Pearl) back in November of 2018, at which time we paid the deposit of 1/3 the total cost ($6,020). We rented through Destin Luxury Beach Rentals. Apparently at some point over the year, the management company changed to 850 Vacations, but we were never notified. We had 20 family members joining us for the stay, and had planned a family dinner to be held at the property on Saturday evening. I had some questions regarding items the house had on site (we were all coming from different parts of the country so unable to view the property before our stay), and tried texting our rental agent, Natalie, to get an idea of what was provided and what we'd need to rent. 70% of my texts went unanswered. The week before our stay, Natalie called-the rest of the payment was due and she needed our updated credit card ASAP. She was very reachable during this time since a substantial amount of money was owed. On the day of our arrival, I received an email requiring signed waivers for use of the bikes at the property, however, there were NO BIKES on site, which I didn't realize until late Friday afternoon. The house also had a large golf cart that would have been nice to use to make trips back and forth to the beach, which we were told initially we would have access to, but no key and no lock box code were provided. When I sent a text to Natalie inquiring about the cart and bikes, my texts went unanswered all weekend and all calls went straight to Voicemail. This was particularly frustrating because Natalie text me early Friday morning demanding a $500 event fee be paid or we would be "evicted". As mentioned previously, we were having a large family dinner outside on the patio (so I had tables, chairs, etc., delivered as there weren't enough on property to accommodate), but it was only for GUESTS STAYING at the house. Because Natalie deemed it was an "event", the money had to be paid. The following is a list of other issues we encountered during our stay: Broken outdoor fireplace - November the weather is quite cool so this was a big bummer not to have. We were told by the house manager, Dan "it just broke today" and the required part would take a week to receive. Broken patio furniture - chairs and loungers. They were set up as if ok/safe to use Broken stone on patio step- family member stepped on it and fell Leaking refrigerator in main house. Large puddle of water on the floor at all times, had to constantly clean and keep towel down so no one fell. When I contacted 850 vacations after our stay informing them of all about issues to see how we would be compensated, the response basically said they aren't responsible. I have made multiple calls and sent emails to the manager, Jordan- all unanswered. To say this company is unprofessional is an understatement. The website for 850 has no place to leave a review, which isn't that shocking as I'm guessing there would be a lot of bad press! We are planning on making this an annual trip, but will be sure to go with another company moving forward. read more

Rented a property and was due to stay this weekend. May 7-10,2020. My guests were to fly in from all over the country so when the Coronavirus pandemic struck and the different travel restrict had been implemented, we were forced to cancel. I submitted 2 emails and placed several calls to find out what policy they'd set in place to deal with the travel restrictions due to the pandemic or to cancel but there was no answer and no response to either email so we were forced to dispute this with our bank being that we'd spent over $2k to rent this property. Weeks later I received a call from Ellen who was upset that we'd chosen to dispute through our banks instead of calling to speak with her. I explained that this step had already been done and also sending the emails and that it was only their non-responsiveness that prompted us to push through with our bank. Ellen asked that I forward her the email and this was done. I waited for a follow up call or email but received neither so today May 9, 2020, I placed a call to speak with Ellen who answered the call, I introduced myself and reminded her of the reservation so she'd know who she was speaking to and Ellen proceeded to tell me that she is not allowed to speak with me because I am disputing the charges through my bank, and that my business name and others that have disputed have been placed on a list that they have all been instructed by the owner not to respond to. I think this is highly unprofessional being that none of this could have been controlled by anyone and no one should be penalized for having to cancel. We are in the midst of a pandemic and with each state implementing their own travel restrictions, at the time of the cancellation no one would have been able to travel without ha omg to be self quarantined for 14 days upon arrival to this property. What kind of weekend would this have been? It has only been recently that the state of Florida has chosen to reopen some areas but what about my travelers who were traveling from New York, New Orleans, Detroit Michigan etc. 850 vacations agreed to the refund and later renigged on their decision with no explanation as to why and now they are not talking. They have also received an addition $233 from me from VRBO that is being held due to them. DO NOT RENT from this company, DO NOT RENT from this company as they do not care about unforeseen circumstances and will keep your money by any means necessary. I own a travel business and will Place them on a DO NOT do business with list and pass this along to all of my business partners. They have no compassion to those that cannot travel and the are very unprofessional when it comes to resolving issues. DO NOT RENT with this company. read more