ComplaintsforHarbor Point Vacation Rentals

• Initial Complaint

  07/20/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We reserved a vacation rental house from Harbor Point Vacation Rentals in January and had paid 50% of our cost to them already. On July 18th, we were notified by email that our reservation was cancelled. They claim that they had the right to cancel, however, none of the paperwork we received in January made any mention of that action. This action represents several things. First, it is false advertising to claim monies on our behalf, hold the monies for over six months, ($2330.00) and then return to us without any interest being paid to us. The Harbor Point business has made interest on our funds. We demand they repay us those funds. To date they have not returned our deposit. Second, this is a fraudulent business practice that needs to stop and they should be held accountable to the paperwork we signed in January, not some vague reason that they did not define. The owner of the property should honor the contracts made on behalf of this negligent action by Harbor Point Vacation Rentals. None of the emails we received had the last name of the employee just Amber. We had heard, from other sources, that they were not a reputable business, yet we had tried them this past January and they were not real quick to fix the problems that we encountered at the Gulf Breeze location. This house for next January was called A Point to Remember, and was a much nicer place, supposedly, than what we had this past January. The employee, Amber, offered four other places that were substantial less suitable than the reservation we had. We feel they have taken advantage of us and should honor the contract. The malfeasance on their part needs to be corrected, as evidently this has happened before to other renters. At this time, we will probably not be able to find a suitable place for next January due to their illegal action of cancelling our reservation. They will probably relist it for a higher price as the area rentals have risen quite dramatically this year. Thanks.

  Business response

  07/21/2022

  This guest booked a vacation rental property from us on 1/25/22 for a vacation with an arrival date of 1/7/23.
  
  In accordance with our policy they made a payment of 50% of the total rental amount to hold the reservation, and also signed a rental agreement.
  
  On 7/18/22 we contacted the guest to let them know that the property they reserved was no longer being offered as a rental in our program.
  
  Here is the policy concerning inaccessibility from page 3 of the rental agreement the guest signed:
  
  5. If the property you have reserved becomes unavailable due to unforeseen circumstances such as mechanical or structural failure or due to removal from the rental program, we will contact you as soon as we become aware of the inaccessibility. We will offer you a comparable property at the published rate. If a comparable property is not available we will refund your deposit and any prepaid rent.
  
  The guest was not interested in finding another property for their reservation, and instead insisted that we somehow allow them to visit the property that we no longer manage.
  
  Because the property they reserved has been removed from our rental program there is no way we can host guests at that location 6 months from now.
  
  Per the policy, because the guest was not interested in the four comparable rental choices available, we cancelled the reservation and refunded the guest the prepaid rents on 7/18/22.
  
  Like all property management companies, our prepaid rents are held in a non-interest bearing escrow account.
  
  After reading this complaint, I understand the guest thought we invented the loss of the property. We truly do not manage that property anymore. We had to cancel all future bookings at that location, as our contract with the homeowners did not renew. I would encourage the guest to look at our website and note that the property is no longer in our inventory.
  
  We certainly don't like to lose rentals, but unfortunately it does happen.

  Business response

  07/25/2022

  ***Document Attached***
  Rental Agreement Signed by Guest that clearly defines policies.
  See Attachment/File: Rich Rental Agreement.pdf

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