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      Vacasa

      Part of Casago

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      Vacasa Reviews

      2.7

      29% would recommend to a friend

      (1,870 total reviews)
      avatar

      Steve Schwab

      32% approve of CEO

      17% positive business outlook

      Vacasa has an employee rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars, based on 1,870 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Vacasa employee rating is 25% below average for employers within the Hotel and travel accommodation industry (3.6 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      2K reviews
      1.0
      12 Sept 2019

      Worst experience of my professional career. Stay far, far away.

      Senior software engineer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      You get to work in the most expensive building in Portland (cited as a benefit by management). Snacks. Genuinely good people at the lower levels of the business.

      Cons

      1. Comically bad compensation. This is the #1 issue you will hear from inside the company. When interviewing for similar positions in the area, I was routinely offered 40% - 80% higher salary. This all happens while the top leadership boasts about how much they are personally worth. 2. Nepotism abound. The only real path to advancement is to have, be married to, or be old buddies with a member of a certain family. 3. Micro-management. At one point, our team had a standup in the morning, a "pre-lunch" checkin, and an evening checkin on our calendar. These would be interspersed often with private messages from various people asking about how the feature/bug/document was coming. On one particular day, I updated the team about the status of a bug during standup, was asked about it an hour later by a PM who was in the standup. Then asked about it an hour after that by a director and asked about it an hour after that by another director who had never interacted with me before. The PM then asked again in the afternoon, telling me a C-level executive was personally asking about it... all this for a bug that had been sitting in the backlog for about 6 months. It was not deemed high priority during planning the prior week. 4. The wrong people in the wrong places. - I moved halfway across the county for this job. Over about 40 in-person, 1:1 meetings with my manager, the overwhelming majority of feedback I heard was "you can probably do my job." I definitely could, because I did the entire job. My manager was not familiar with any of the tech stack we worked with and made no attempt to learn it. This resulted in making embarrassing technical choices virtually every feature. When asked how we fix that process, the feedback from the team was always "have a better voice in the room when planning." That never happened, even though we repeatedly asked for it. I wrote his slides for company meetings. I wrote his technical documents to present to leadership. I reviewed every single PR that our team of 5 developers deployed because he didn't know the tech. I coded POC's for him to present to the company for technical consideration. I wrote the vast majority of JIRA tickets we identified and worked on... ... and as he left the company, he recommended to his manager (who I've never spoken to) that I wasn't the right guy to succeed him for the job. - Vacasa in insanely bureaucratic for it's size. I spent years in an 125000+ employee aerospace company and was significantly close to leadership than I was at Vacasa. As mentioned, I never spoke to my manger's director. That was by Vasasa's design. - As a friend was leaving the company for compensation reasons (see point 1), a C-level member chider her for "making a bad career move in chasing money." - The only management "technique" I ever encountered when trying to resolve issues presented in retro ("low morale" appeared on our retro board for about 4 months straight) was a member of the team expressing frustrations about being lied to/misled/not heard and a member of leadership defending their actions, saying "Well, that sounds reasonable to me." That was it. That's how every single problem was addresses. The only exceptions to this was the time I was told repeatedly "I encourage you find another job if you don't like how we work." when trying to address micro-management issues. I was then told I could be replaced with a few interns. 5. Hilariously out of touch leadership. See examples below: - Compounding the compensation problem (see point 1), leadership often (probably an average of every other week throughout the year) asks people to VOLUNTEER THEIR TIME to clean the rental units. Vacasa employs housekeepers are part of staff. When challenged that maybe the business should hire more housekeepers, leadership DOUBLED DOWN and claimed it was "part of the Vacasa experience." Yes, the experience to directly richen a certain family who happens to comprise 80% of top leadership by devaluing the very people that work for you. - During one company meeting, a member of top leadership joked that employees would now have a chance for compensation increase quarterly. The room went silent because compensation is a huge issue at the company (see point 1). He then said "just kidding" and laughed at his own joke. - Top leadership repeatedly complains publicly about the product I work on because it is not a direct revenue generator. It was not uncommon for a C-level executive to directly ask to our team about a minuscule bug report every day, multiple times a day until it is addressed. This happens while also loudly complaining that the product "doesn't make us any money." - I have sat in a meeting where it was explained to me that the company should NOT engineer any solutions that aren't "supporting our best IP," (which our team is not considered) and therefore we should look to buy vs build for all features. A week later a request was denied to purchase a software license to complete a task and we were asked to "find a way to do it for free."

      avatar
      Vacasa Response
      6y
      Many reviews on Glassdoor contain valuable feedback & insights. This is not one of those reviews. If you read closely, you’ll note a wide range of inconsistencies. A prime example: this review claims “comically bad compensation”, and that they were "routinely offered a 40%-80% higher salary”. Yet it also states that they “moved halfway across the country for this job", and that they’ve been here 1-2 years despite rating their experience 1/5 stars. If it’s true that we’re drastically under market, why would they have moved here, and why do they remain? This employee is in engineering, a department in which have a quarterly raise cycle. We have a quarterly calibration based on performance reviews, and we have detailed salary tiers based on the role & performance level. Two consecutive top performer reviews will take you to the top of the pay bracket for your current role. On to the nepotism claim: yes, it’s true my brother, Scott Breon, leads our revenue team, as he has since he started the team seven years ago. He’s done an incredible job on this front: our ability to drive industry-leading revenue for our homeowners is widely recognized, and it’s one of our key competitive differentiators. The existence of a connection does not mean one is unqualified for the job. And as for the claim of “a certain family who happens to comprise 80% of top leadership”, this is yet another example of the total disconnect with reality this review represents. This review implies that our business is highly hierarchical, and that they “never spoke to their manager’s director…by Vacasa’s design.” Yet in the very next sentence, it speaks of a C-level member attempting to retain a peer. Our executive team is highly accessible. I personally don’t have an office, and I work from common areas between meetings (including an hour every morning in our lobby / coffee lounge). While it’s true I may not meet someone who doesn’t take the initiative, I greatly value knowing people throughout the organization and understanding their perspectives. My calendar is open to all employees, and I respond to all emails. My greatest disappointment in reading Glassdoor reviews is when an employee is entirely negative about their current job. Negative feedback from a former employee is fair, but a massively critical review from a current employee simply doesn’t make sense. Engineering roles in Portland are plentiful; it’s the employee’s choice to me here. If this review truly represents what this employee believes, it doesn’t seem salvageable, and I encourage them to move on.
      1.0
      28 June 2018

      Sad but True

      Marketing
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Working from home might be an option, "unlimited vacation" for salaried people, some teams are flexible, meet wonderful people. Beer on tap, snacks, San Francisco 'tech vibe'. A good place to start your career but you'll have to move on to make a living wage and be respected by leaders.

      Cons

      Sadly no one can take a vacation when pay is SO low and it's not getting better. This year people got 0% - 2% increase and were told they were high performers... Favoritism, and nepotism in every department. Directors reporting into other Directions with no experience (she's CEO's favorite). Everyone but new directors/VPs are (way) underpaid. Don't be fooled by the high Glassdoor review the CEO asked us to write them (twice). Vacasa hires new employees at a higher $ and you no longer have room to grow or any sort of path, years ago they used to promote within. The Marketing team has been dismantled 5 different times, find the 'strategy'. The culture is toxic including the 'HR team'. Everyone is quitting (even the co-founder).

      2.0
      7 July 2016

      Honest Review for Job Seekers Considering Vacasa

      Anonymous
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      I never really care to leave Glassdoor reviews, just as I don't leave product reviews on Amazon. But occasionally, you get a product so horrendous that you feel it's a disservice to remain quiet. I'm not here to talk poorly about Vacasa per say, but simply provide a warning to job seekers that in all honesty, your job with Vacasa will be a gamble, and you should continue your search. Vacasa is a fun company. It's the type of company that has some very wild booze filled parties, and if your hung-over the next day, no ones going to fault you for just taking a day off. If you do make it in but want to take breaks to BS or play a game, you certainly may. Catered parties are commonplace, and the office culture can be a blast. Sadly, the frosting quickly melts and you realize the cake you invested in is moldy. Vacasa isn't inherently a bad company. Some folks vilify them on here for being ultra evil which I disagree with. The problem with Vacasa is they are crossing a thin bridge between a noble, fun loving company to a profit driving money hungry mad-max style death race. So where's the in-between? The honest experience. Do you trust the super happy 5-star reviews? The ones still skating in the icing talking about the work-life balance, the parties, the opportunities? Or, do you trust the one star reviews from someone that was over-worked and finally had enough (or may have just been a crappy employee). Either way, you need to know that it's a gamble. You WILL absolutely love it at times, and hate it at times. This is work. This is having a job. If you are new to this: welcome to being an adult and congratulations on paying taxes. BUT.....but... you can do this at a company that won't slay you for a dollar. You can do this with a company that understands REASONABLE business growth. You can find a job that while may not have catered lunch, they'll at least be consistent enough that you can trust having a career with them.

      Cons

      What are the real tangible problems at Vacasa? Well, they are growing rapidly which is typically a good sign, however, they will cut you out, or severely cut your wage if need be. These are things that are great for investors and owners, terrible for employees. The company has dozens of lovely wonderful people, but is also filled with people that should NOT be in leadership positions at all. They are immature, unprofessional, yet keep their jobs while some amazing people have lost theirs. Most employees are plain over-worked. This isn't always the case, but with the company looking to grow rapidly, they want to drain every last bit from each employee. LOM's probably have it the worst, but some people in every department can be found working 45-70 or more hours a week. Certain departments are akin to a high school clique. Hard work means nothing here if you don't fit the mold. You really have to go in to this job knowing that your title will change, your responsibilities will change, your pay will change, and you may not even have a job, regardless of how sturdy you think it may be. Lay-offs and restructures are commonplace. It's not just about lay-offs and pay changes. You may think you have a job tending to properties, but now.... you have to perform guest services (equivalent to working a call center). Companies face crisis all the time, or at least in any good ol' fashion recession, but Vacasa faces it EVERY day and only in part to their desire to own a death star...er grow the business.

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