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| Vacation Rental Complaints |
| 14. |
Casa Conde Mexico City is a scam
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Although Jacobo and Jorge advertise themselves as excellent hosts of a "unique" and "trendy" home away from home, in reality their service is more like a neglected hostel. Their image online and their actual service do not match.
On their website they advertise their home as a luxurious accommodation with the Disco Huichol room priced at $90 USD a night. I paid $70 a night for a week. What I walked into was an old dusty home that hadn't been cleaned. There were dishes piled in the grease-stained kitchen. There wasn't toilet paper in my room. The floors were dirty so that even in the most expensive "Huichol" room I would have dirty feet if I didn't wear sandals. The covers on my bed were bulky, the mattress and pillow were thin, and I'm not sure if they were clean.
Breakfast was supposed to be included at this B&B. The first two mornings I woke up to a plate of fruit and eggs on an old table. For $70 USD, wouldn't you expect more? Nobody at this hostel--the only thing it can justify calling itself--nobody ate a communal breakfast prepared by Jacobo or Jorge. It's not a real B&B.
Being dissatisfied with my stay, I called Jacobo (whom I've never met in person) and got a signal that he was out of his area of reception. I sent an email to the Casa Conde house where Jacobo and I had made the transaction. I politely asked him for the rest of my money back. Jacobo responded without putting any text. He then sent another email entitled "Money back" also absent of text. From there, he simply ignored my emails, playing dumb. After I asked for my money back, the next morning of my stay there was no breakfast and no host.
I conferred with David, a freelance journalist from Canada who'd been living in the house for a year and a half. I told him that I was growing dissatisfied. He explained to me that no one in the house was paying much and that Jacobo especially had neglected the place, failing to pay the cleaners on a number of occasions, ignoring requests to put in heaters during the winter, showing up and demanding money in cash from guests--claiming the credit machine didn't work. Evidently, Jacobo and Jorge weren't happy with the home they had invested in and were not comfortable with their own idea for a hotel, opting to spend as little time and money as possible there. David told me that Jacobo wasn't an honest person, trying to swindle tourists and guests left and right. I felt nickel and dimed myself.
Most of the posts on TripAvisor look as though the proprietors wrote the reviews themselves as if they were overly satisfied guests. I don't have any way of proving their validity, but I highly suspect they're written by the owners and/or their friends. I believe they are fake just like their descriptions of their services. The photos are photoshopped as well.
The content descriptions of their service--everything from the breakfast menu to the bikes to the disco ball to the spa and Jacuzzi to the mezcal--were false. The bikes exist but they are small and rusted. The disco ball is hanging but it isn't running and is coated in a grimy layer of dust. The Jacuzzi and spa products are non-existent. The mezcal sits next to the drinking water. Both were seldom replaced. The breakfast??? I either got a small, tasteless and boring breakfast or none at all.
I left on my fourth day, not having seen Jorge in over two days, never having met Jacobo Braun.
Date Added: Jan 23, 2012
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