| Vacation Rental Complaints [Tag : Beach] |
| 1. |
MISREPRSENTATION OF PROPERTY
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My wife & I had rented a beach house in Fort Myers Beach, FL for the month of Sept. I spoke to BytheSeaRentals, Karen Nichols, and agreed to rent a beach house by the canal. She assured me that the house had been professionally cleaned, with linens, dishes, pots & pans etc. She also told me the 2 TV’s were cable ready and had DSL connection for my computer. We also had access to a washer/dryer. She said the house was in a great location on a canal.
We arrived at the beach house and found it to be very dirty and unsafe, certainly not professionally cleaned. In fact, there were cobwebs in the corners with dead bugs caught in them. All the windows and glass doors were very dirty. The kind of dirt that has been there for a while. The electrical outlets came out of the wall when a plug was pulled. The livingroom furniture was dirty. We had to soak & wash the dishes and cooking utensils in hot, soapy water over night to get them clean. We had to sweep and wash the kitchen floor. The TV’s weren’t hooked up and we attached the cable, they still didn’t work. We complained to her and she sent her handyman over to fix them, he made several attempts to program the remote, but it still didn’t work. I suggested that he should put new batteries in the remote. He didn’t have any so I offered mine and then the TV went on! The remote didn’t turn the TV on or off - we had to do that by hand.
The stove (which I tried to clean) was so dirty with old food & grease that when we tried to cook the smoke detector went off. The next morning I tried to make some toast, again the smoke detector went off. I called her and she said that she would send her handyman. He came over and raked leaves, then left. The bedroom door that led outside had a large space between the door and the floor and lots of gecko’s had “Carte Blanch” into the unit. The house was hard to keep cool because of the space. I used a towel to block the opening. The canal couldn’t be seen from the unit, you had to walk around the littered property, go by someone else’s unit (very uncomfortable) to get to the canal. The so called patio & furniture was located on someone else’s area and not usable because of dirt. The grass & weeds were so overgrown & dirty it was hard to safely walk to the canal. Yikes!! It was the end of the canal, there was sludge caked all around it, old tires, etc. In general the house was filthy dirty not to mention the large dead bug in the bathroom. The shower was filthy as was the bed. We did have clean linens - so wrinkled we did not to use them. We found it to be to intolerable a place to live. I called her and told her we had to leave. I informed her again of all the problems and asked her for a portion of our $1,000. rent back. I feel that she grossly misrepresented the property. It was not habitable. I sent her the money (1,199.00) in good faith and did not get what I expected.
All she returned to me was the $250.00 security deposit/cleaning fee in two separate payments which I had to ask for via e-mail several times.
Beware of these rentals from Karen Nichols, By the sea Rentals, Ft. Myers, FL
Date Added: Nov 21, 2009
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| 2. |
Refusal to return booking deposit
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We booked a vacation villa in Cozumel called "Casa Ballena" for a week for our wedding. They required a 50% deposit ($1176.00) paid by check. Their contract has no cancellation policy in it. Unfortunately, we had to cancel our wedding. This was on March 15, 2010 and our reservation was for July 20, 2010. This was more than 4 months in advance. 127 days in advance, to be exact. In desperation I tried to negotiate applying part of the $1176 to a 1 bedroom property instead, since the wedding was canceled and no guests would be attending. The owner of the company, Ron White, said that was not possible. He said we will lose our entire $1176 unless they are able to rebook the same exact villa during the same exact week (which happens to be during Cozumel's low season). He also refused to give me the contact information of the property manager or owner, who according to him had control of our money.
I would NOT recommend doing business with this company. There are plenty of other rental companies that operate in Cozumel, do not take a chance with Sherrie and Ron White if there is even the slightest chance of an unforeseen circumstance that could cause you to cancel. It would be understandable to have a small cancellation fee(even though we canceled over 4 months in advance), but absolutely no refund?? Over $1100 for nothing? That is completely unethical.
Date Added: Mar 24, 2010
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| 3. |
Don't stay at Pebble Beach Property, CA
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I made a phone reservation for a 2-night stay on 4/9/2010 at 8:03pm for 4/9 - 4/10. Seller emailed reservation confirmation/info at 8:21pm. I did not have a chance to sign the contract, but I sent 50% payment ($284) at 8:28pm. Soon after I sent the payment, I found out my husband\'s family had already made alternative lodging arrangement in advance. Since I was on the road, I notified the Seller of the change in my earliest convenience at 9:21pm. Seller acknowledged the change at 9:49pm with the following, \"Rates provided to you and your family are for a 2-night stay. I\'m very willing to make adjustments on my end, but would prefer that reservation be continued as agreed. Might that be possible?\" I responded, \"I will talk to my husband\'s family tomorrow. I think they would not mind paying a little more for a 1-nt rate.\" Since I did not hear from the Seller, I just assumed we would pay a higher 1-night rate since the initial reservation was based on a 2-night
stay. Upon arrival, Seller demanded the full 2-night payment minus a $40 discount. I did not think it was reasonable for her to charge $528 for 1 night and decided not to stay there at all. If Seller could provide evidence that she had to turn down other reservation for the first night between 8:03pm and 9:49pm due to our resevation change, I would rest my case. Since she did not miss any business opportunity on 4/9 and acknowledged the reservation change, it was unreasonable for her to demand a 2-night stay payment.
After discussing my case with 2 attorney friends, they informed me 2 issues are of relevance: 1. Equity–Is it fair for the owner to charge for two nights when she was informed of the change in reservation in a timely manner? 2. Owner suffer loss (lack thereof)-Is the owner able to show loss of business due to the change justifying charging 2 nts? Rebuttal: 1.While her contract indicate the deposit is nonrefundable; it doesn’t disallow changes to reservation. I expected the deposit to be applied toward the actual stay. She acknowledged the change & indicated she was willing to make adjustment. I made it clear in my email that we would be paying for 1 night, & she did not decline. 2. Owner seemed to imply we canceled the reservation due to a smaller party–NOT true. Had that been the case, no one would have shown up. She only had my contact info (no financial info or a ratified contract). She would not have been able to collect remaining payment. Instead, my husband, his M
om, younger brother, and older brother & his girlfriend (in 3 cars) met the owner with intent to stay. We only cancelled because she was demanding another $240 (total of $524 for 1 night).
I made a complaint against the Seller at the local Better Business Bureau. She refused to refund the $284. I then emailed her directly asking for a transferrable credit for the same amount. She did not respond. I brought it to BBB\'s attention, and she was contacted by BBB regarding my second request. Seller did not respond to BBB after 30 days. The Seller continues to advertise her property on Craigslist.org and violating the website\'s policy of only posting one ad on the same service/item once every 7 days. She posted 8 ads in 6 days. What she fails to realize is that if her business practice was friendlier, she would have more business via word of mouth. Now her property will have negative feedbacks. What a shame!
Date Added: Jul 12, 2010
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