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Top > United States > North Carolina 
| Vacation Rental Complaints |
| 3. |
Executive Rental Suites -- withheld deposit
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I rented a condo in Raleigh owned by a real estate agent in Florida and managed by her daughter in Raleigh, who is an attorney specializing in real estate. To get into the apartment for a 1-month lease, they required us to complete a credit check, give them 2 cashier's checks (1 for the deposit, 1 for rent), and sign a 10-page lease. We thought this was all a bit excessive, but were hoping that it just meant everything was being done by-the-book.
When it was time to leave, they told us at the last minute that the attorney wasn't available to check us out because it was her daughter's birthday, even though they knew when we were leaving before we even arrived. We became a bit suspicious and asked if she could check us out the night before, but they refused and asked us to simply leave the apartment unlocked. Instead, we locked the door, put the key under the doormat, and took pictures of everything before we left. Unfortunately, we were unable to complete a check-out inventory because they refused to check us out.
They initially returned $122 of a $500 deposit, claiming that we had "decimated" a dried flower arrangement, left the place "excessively filthy" and requiring rug cleaning & 6 hours of extra cleaning by the housekeeper (who came weekly while we were there), and that most of the cleaning supplies were gone. We immediately responded with our pictures, proving that their accusations were unfounded. They responded with a "compromise to be fair to all parties" and returned an additional $123.
We were initially thinking of suing them, but decided in the end that it wasn't worth further frustration and expense. Instead, we are trying to put notifications in as many places as possible to alert potential renters of these people's dishonesty.
Date Added: Apr 18, 2009
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| 5. |
Carolina Sun, Holden Beach, NC
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I am writing in reference to #55437 on vacationrentals.com. We rented this home for the week of june 27 to July 4, 2009. The owner wrote in an email: 'the weather stripping on the front door and faucet handles on the outside shower, needed to be replaced. Extra cleaning in the bedrooms and kitchen was required as well as plumbing services for a clogged drain in the outside shower.' To me, these are OBVIOUS damages and we did not do such said. We have NEVER been refused our security deposits from vacation rentals, so we are shocked to hear of such absurd accusations. Her faucets were old already, but worked perfectly fine while we were there, so she found it convenient and easy to use my money to get new ones. I could not have clogged her drains by ONE WEEK usage, come on! AGAIN,convenient and easy. People need to be aware of her business practices and steer clear of her all together. I feel that she never intended to refund my $300 sec.deposit in the first place. Her home was very well maintained during my family vacation, there was no disrespect or misuse done to that home.
Date Added: Jul 22, 2009
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| 6. |
DO NOT RENT One Particular Harbor (Corolla, NC)
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My husband and I rented this home after receiving a referral from a friend. We arrived late in the evening on 7/25/09 for a 2 week stay. We had paid the owner in full and paid by check, written a separate check for $250.00 for the security deposit and paid extra to bring our dog. Upon our arrival, we found 3 exterior trash cans, 2 trash cans and 1 recycle bin full of trash that the previous owner had not brough to the curb as instructed by the owner and contract, so my husband brought them to the curb. In the charcoal grill, there was a huge amount of used cigar and cigarette butts. In the kitchen upstairs, the stove, oven and bottom drawer were filthy. The house stunk like cigarette smoke. The home was listed as a no-smoking residence which was one the reasons why we rented this home. My 11 year old daughter had to use her inhaler as she is an asthmatic. The shower curtains in the home had mildew stains on them. Apparently, the previous owners had a water balloon fight outside in the pool area and left hundreds of small balloon fragments all over the place which we had to pick up because we were afraid that our dog would eat one and choke. We also noticed a black scum line around the pool when the water level fell below the line and that the hot tub water was cloudy. We also noticed 2 cracks in the concrete around the pool. We were told later by the pool service man that the skimmer was broken and that the homeowner was aware since he had tried to patch the broken part seveal times. The ceililng fans in the home had black dust on the blades as well. I emailed the owner that night (I did not mention the shower curtains or the dust on the ceiling fans but mentioned everything else) who told me that she would contact the previous renter. We asked for a partial refund for the 2nd week. The owner refused saying that our issues were minor and that she would send her cleaning company. I responded that we had already cleaned the stove as we needed to eat and my husband had cleaned the grill (before I could take pictures of it) and that I had picked up all the balloon fragments since I had to be sure our dog didn't eat one. The owner accused me of "stonewalling" her because I didn't not feel the need for the cleaning crew to come out again. My husband and I relented and allowed the "cleaning crew" to come back to the house. We had to leave the vacation home for 3 hours while the "cleaning crew" came back. When we returned, there was a new gas grill outside however, the ceiling fans were still filthy and the stove was clean BUT like I said, I had cleaned it the night before. The home showed no signs of having been cleaned again for 3 hours. We still smelled the cigarette smoke. I again requested a partial refund based on the fact that the previous renter's had violated the rental contract by apparently smoking inside the homoe but again the owner refused. We ended up staying at the home for the entire 2 weeks but we feel this homeowner ruined our vacation by treating us like we were in the wrong and by not refunding our money. Also, the homeowner forwarded me an email by someone named "Barbara" who, in the first email to the owner, said that the home was clean prior to our arrival no matter what "she" said; "she" apparently being me. What kind of businesswoman forwards a customer an email like that?? What kind of person doesn't have compassion for an 11 year old kid who is forced to use an asthma inhaler because of smoke in a home that was clearly advertised as being a smoke free home and refuses to give a partial refund not even an entire refund?? I don't know if I will get my deposit back or not. My husband and I left the home very clean as I brought my own paper towels, windex, dishwasher deterrgent, etc. We also had to spray the home because of the cigarette smell. My advice to anyone looking to rent a home in Corolla, NC, DO NOT this home.
Date Added: Aug 25, 2009
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| 7. |
100 Bogue Court Beachhouse
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We rented this property through VRBO and since all guestbook comments on that website have to be approved by owners, I am entering this negative review on this website to warn other would-be renters. The house in located at 100 Bogue Court in Point Lookout area of Emerald Isle, NC. While the house looks attractive on the VRBO website, don't let the marketing fool you. We found the amenities to be subpar for a beach house in that price range. For example, the website showed a ping pong table in working condition, but when we arrived it was in disarray. We battled ants in the kitchen all week. We paid an extra $200 for linens and towels - well, we received an insufficient number of towels and the linens were thrown on the beds for us to make. It was very windy all the week and with the pool and hot tub located right across from the beach access, we were sandblasted all week. Also, don't be fooled by the video which makes it seem like you can simply walk across the street to go to the ocean -- no, that area is too rough for swimming, so you have to hike hundreds of yards down the street to access the beach. Finally, to add insult to injury, the owners retained the bulk of our security deposit for items that we were not responsible (i.e., sand that was blown in the pool) and for the time their remote "property manager" spent trying to talk us through how to fix the malfunctioning hot tub. Think twice before renting this property.
Date Added: Aug 30, 2009
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| 8. |
Place was filthy and customer service-"I'm sorry to hear that"
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Being from Nebraska, a land-locked state, I had high hopes for my family reunion at Kitty Hawk, NC in September 2009. We rented a between roads house and another group of family members rented a house right on the beach. We paid $871, including a $100 fee because one of my family members staying with us needed to bring their dog. The process of renting was very easy and all done over the phone. I did not want the rental insurance figuring if we didn't go then, we weren't going. When my lease came through on e-mail, they had charged me for the rental insurance. I called and they reversed the charges. My new lease said I had a credit of $44.16 and was dated 7/29/09. I kind of forgot about the credit until we got down to Kitty Hawk for our trip. I was given the paperwork and keys after 4 pm (so the unit could be cleaned) and went to check it out. When we got there, there was a old, dirty coffee cup in one of the bedrooms and a used kleenex on the floor of another. Later on, we opened the dishwasher and it was filled with DIRTY dishes. We had paid $100 to have the dog with us but the grounds were not kept up and the poor dog got a bunch of burrs stuck in his foot pads within 5 minutes. We toughed it out, cleaned it ourselves and bought all paper and plastic since we didn't trust what was provided. Two days later my sister was sweeping up the kitchen and found a prescription medication on the floor. She was very upset since we had my 3 year old staying with us and the dog, which either of them could have swallowed it and been harmed. She was so upset that she called Sun Realty. They were pleasant on the phone but that was it. They did not ever call us again or stop by for the remainder of the stay. The next day, my sister was looking under the bed in the room and found a chewed up, used TAMPON and two pairs of chewed up ladies underwear. Luckily, my husband, son and I had to leave so we were out of there. When my sister returned the keys that Saturday, she brought a list of all of our complaints, plus ziploc bags of the evidence. She left hers and my phone numbers and e-mail addresses. She also inquired about my refund and they said the check was in the mail. By Tuesday of the following week, I had no check and was starting to fume since really I had been waiting since 7/29/09, over 2 months. I called the local Kitty Hawk office and talked to the assistant manager about our experience. He was cordial and told me he would make sure the housekeeper did not get paid for that week. Gee, thanks. I inquired again about my refund, he said he would call accounting after we hung up the phone. The following week, still no refund. I still had my old lease (that said $44.16 on it) so I e-mailed the address and wrote them an e-mail saying I was still waiting for the money and was not impressed with the customer service. I got a return e-mail a day later saying that a check will be mailed this Friday but it would be in the amount of $36.76 with no explanation of why, "Thank you and have a great day". Unbelievable, I think I could have lived with some of that disgusting mess if they seemed apologetic or helpful. Never again....I'll stay in a hotel where where at least it appears clean.
Date Added: Oct 9, 2009
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| 9. |
Untrue claims. Important information not provided.
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This house is at 15 Ashleigh Grove Lane, Weaverville, N.C., a suburb of Asheville, N.C. The rental agent and owner is Kimberly Evans of Alpha Real Estate. 1-828-251-9966 (office hours) and 1-828-285-0658 (after hours).
The posting on www.vrbo.com is rental #85620 and contains untrue information and is omits important information.
The material omission concerns failing to disclose that a single lane road leads up to the house from Rheems Creek Road. The Ashleigh Grove Lane road up to the house is a narrow single lane road on a steep grade with a blind curve. There are other houses up the road past the rental house. If you meet another car traveling on this road in the opposite direction, you or the other car must back up all the way and get off the road to allow the other car to pass. This road is not suitable for someone who is uncomfortable driving backwards on a steep grade around a blind curve. The stress that this omission caused destroyed much of the enjoyment of our visit to the Asheville area.
When I discovered this material omission upon arriving I telephoned Evans to complain that I would never have rented this house had she disclosed this information. She laughed at me.
Also, we chose this house over others because the narrative states that the house “is one mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway.” The first time we drove to the Parkway we learned that this is not true. The actual distance to the parkway is nearly five times farther, 4.7 miles to be precise.
The house also is not “15 minutes from downtown Asheville.” It’s more like a half hour drive.
Our rental was for three weeks. When I asked the owner for the name of the local newspaper so I could buy a daily mailed subscription during our stay, she failed to inform us that the house has no mailbox. This caused our paid subscription to be worthless as all the papers were returned by the Post Office as undeliverable.
You can identify the listing for this “New Home with Mountain Views 15 Minutes from Downtown Asheville” (the owner may change the headline after this posting) from others because the listing states it contains a “gourmet kitchen“, a “game room aka The Dog Pound sports a professional pool table, cable internet access, media room w/big flat screen TV & leather sleeper sofa w/recliners.”
This house is very narrow. It’s about the width of a double wide trailer.
I waited several days after I emailed my negative review to the listing sites to see if the owner would correct and modify her listing before posting this review here. She changed nothing.
The listing also appears on www.homeaway.com as rental #p141216. This listing even fails to disclose that the house is in Weaverville, N.C. The headline is “Upscale new home with views just 15 mins from downtown Asheville.”
Here is one suggestion on how to search for a hopefully suitable rental on www.homeaway.com. Homeaway includes a tab for “Reviews”. Negative comments are permitted without the owner’s permission I believe, IF the owner has chosen to allow Reviews at all. If you see a listing on homeaway that does not show a tab for reviews, you can be confident that there are problems the owner does not wish you to know.
VRBO.com offers no such help. All “reviews” there appear only if the owner allows the review and after the owner edits it. Consequently reviews there are useless.
One hint I missed in reading the reviews for this house was that no one had commented about the house itself, only the area. It appears that any possible negative comments, such as the dim and dreary house lighting, the loud noise from cars on Rheems Creek Road down below, the damp basement, the ugly uncomfortable furniture, the lack of even a single DVD for the home theater were edited out.
Date Added: Nov 10, 2009
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