Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  01/10/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I reserved this home for 12/23 - 12/28. Prior to arriving I received a text confirming that we could not check in til 4 because someone check out that morning and the home would be being cleaned. Upon arriving at 4:30 the home reeked of sewage. I reached out to them immediately and was told it was the grinder pump. Which confirmed they were aware of the issue prior to my arriving. They sent someone to look at but of course nothing could be done to remedy due to the holiday. There was only one other property available within the resort (which was owned by Vacation Properties) I asked them to move us several times and they kept ignoring me. No other properties were available due to the holiday. I conferenced with my children and of course they wanted to stay. They had made so many plans. We would’ve left 12/26 but there was a terrible rainstorm, and we live four hours away. We had to leave the home several times for “repairs”. We had to turn off the heat and cover the vents to try to keep the smell to a minimum. We purchased space heaters and kept the windows open. The right side of the home was unlivable, so we all had to stay left side of the home. Vacation Properties ignored my request for a discount or move despite them having the only available property. Please boycott this Vacation Properties. They are renting properties they know are not inhabitable. My family suffered for days while the owners were comfortable with their families. Companies like this are greedy and do not care who they harm. I spent my hard-earned money to give my family a memorable holiday experience and they ruined it. Please stand with me and not allow them to take advantage of another unsuspecting family.

  Business response

  01/20/2024

  While we are always disappointed when a guest does not have a good experience, in this case we did everything possible to try to make this guest's experience a positive one. Their story is only partially truthful and they are writing a retaliatory review due to the fact we refused to refund them in a non-trackable way (**** ***/*****) vs to their original credit card. We tried very hard to work with this guest. We are definitely not renting uninhabitable properties. This home has consistently received five star reviews, including from the guests prior to this guest's stay, and the guests following her stay. We feel badly we couldn't make this better for her, but we did try our best to help. Again, we offered to refund her if wanted to leave, and we offered to move her to another property which were both turned down.  This guest stayed over the Christmas holiday.  The reservation for the property was Dec 23-27, not through the 28th as she states in her complaint.  She also made the reservation for two guests. Seven people checked into the home along with 2 unauthorized dogs. Upon checking in, the guest let us know she experienced a "strong sewage smell."  Prior to her arrival, seven different people from housekeeping, maintenance, and inspection teams were in the property to get it ready for her check in that day, with the last person in the home approximately thirty minutes before she arrived. No one smelled sewage. As soon as the guest reached out to us, approximately an hour and half after she checked in, we sent maintenance over to check the situation and they found the grinder pump had been clogged by baby wipes. Neither of the maintenance gentlemen who went to check it, smelled sewage but we still took the issue seriously. A plumber was contacted and the earliest they could come was following the Christmas holiday. We did bring over an ozone machine to help out with her complaint of a smell, and the maintenance person who delivered and set up the ozone machine did not smell any sewage smell when he entered the property.  After the ozone machine was removed, the guests did not reach out to us again until after they checked out and wanted us to see if we could find an Apple watch they left behind.  (We did locate it and it was shipped back to them.)Following are several items in the guest's complaint that are inaccurate and not true:  The guest references being asked to leave the property multiple times for "repairs".  When maintenance came the first time, they went under the house from the outside and the guests were not interrupted or asked to leave the property.  When the ozone machine was delivered, this was the ONLY time we asked the guest to leave the home, and we scheduled it when they preferred it to happen, which we were happy to do on Christmas Eve.   Again, that was the only time we asked the guest to leave the property for a "repair".The guest mentions asking multiple times for a refund and no one responding.  We did offer to refund her for the remainder of her stay after the first night if she wanted to check out.  She requested a refund be done in a **** ***, *****, or *****. She turned down the offer of a refund when we explained our reservation system only allows us to refund back to the credit card used to make the reservation. We also offered to move her to our only other available property and asked her to confirm the number of guests in her party.  She said two adults and two children. This wasn't accurate.  As mentioned above, seven people were staying in the property along with two dogs. This property has exterior cameras for security (which are fully disclosed in our listing) so we can see how many people come/go from the home if we need to verify.  We told her the only available property was not at the Resort, but in the surrounding area.  This was also turned down.  The guest mentions in her complaint that we had an available property at the resort she wanted us to move her to, but that was not the case as the only open property was the one off site, thirty minutes away.  She only asked to move once.The guest mentions the right side of the home was "unlivable and they all had to stay on the left side of the home".  However, upon her check out, we did find all the rooms in the house had been well used during their stay.  They also moved a television to the bunk bedroom, which was on the side of the house mentioned as "not being livable",  and all of the beds on that side of the home were used as well.We did refund her security deposit of $250 on 12/30/23 back to her original method of payment.  She did leave behind an Apple Watch and dog bowl. She reached out about the watch the day after they left, and we did send it back, along with the dog bowl, charging a minimal shipping fee which she agreed to and paid. She was very nice in her messaging about having the watch and dog bowl shipped back to her.The guest also ignored our house rules when making the initial reservation for the home and did not disclose her 2 pets for approval or pay the required pet fee. The guest brought two small dogs with her that stayed in the home during her reservation.  We have in the **** listing : "*Pre-Approved Dogs are allowed for a $100 per-dog fee (plus tax), maximum of 2 dogs."  It also has the following pet rules in the listing: "*We are not able to host puppies under nine months old and/or any dog that is not housebroken. *Pet waste needs to be cleaned up promptly and disposed of properly.  *Pets must be crated when in the house alone and stay off all furniture.  *We must have advance notice of pet on property.  *Pets can not be left alone outside."  When the maintenance men went to check the home the first night, they heard the dogs barking.  When a maintenance man took the ozone machine to the home and set it up, he noted puppy urine pads on the floor in a bedroom, dog bowls in the house, and a large box of disposable puppy urine pads.  At check out, we also found a dog bowl on the screened in porch, which we shipped back to the guest with the Apple watch.  Housekeeping needed to spend extra time due to dog hair, including in the "unlivable rooms".  Based on our standard policies, we would charge a $200 fee for the dogs but we would not have approved these dogs since they were not housetrained.  We did not charge the guest this fee, even though they never disclosed the dogs and the dogs were discovered - because  we did not want to create any additional tension with the guest as they were already slightly inconvenienced.  Ultimately, this is an unfounded complaint filled mostly with incorrect facts and blatant lies.  It's clear the guest came looking to make up an issue in an attempt to try and get a refund and stay for free which is something we see happening on a regular basis in the short term rental world.  They also broke several of our advertised rules and policies.

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩