stiffed by holiday rental company
Discussion
in May we went to Corfu as a family and stayed in a villa with a pool. Figured it would be a good idea to book somewhere with a heated pool as early in the season, so we ended up paying more for that, and it also had a hot tub so that seemed pretty good.
We get there and the pool and hot tub are basically cold, which is annoying as these things can take days to heat up. The on-site agent (not the same as the villa rental company, crucially) said oh it's fine it just needs time, we've had rain last few days etc etc. So we just sort of waited as they said, and sure enough neither got any warmer.
We then raised it with the villa rentals company, and thus ensued days of them all trying to fix broken parts and whatever. Ended up they didn't even manage to get the pool any warmer at all, and the hot tub was only fixed after half the holiday.
On return to UK we kicked off to the villa company but they said as we hadn't notified them straight away of issues, they were not liable. Unfortunately as this is in the contract, the credit card company sided with them too when we did a chargeback request of some of the money we had paid.
So now we're left having paid full price and feeling pretty screwed over.
Can anything be done here? Surely having that in a contract is totally unreasonable but then i entered into it so...
We get there and the pool and hot tub are basically cold, which is annoying as these things can take days to heat up. The on-site agent (not the same as the villa rental company, crucially) said oh it's fine it just needs time, we've had rain last few days etc etc. So we just sort of waited as they said, and sure enough neither got any warmer.
We then raised it with the villa rentals company, and thus ensued days of them all trying to fix broken parts and whatever. Ended up they didn't even manage to get the pool any warmer at all, and the hot tub was only fixed after half the holiday.
On return to UK we kicked off to the villa company but they said as we hadn't notified them straight away of issues, they were not liable. Unfortunately as this is in the contract, the credit card company sided with them too when we did a chargeback request of some of the money we had paid.
So now we're left having paid full price and feeling pretty screwed over.
Can anything be done here? Surely having that in a contract is totally unreasonable but then i entered into it so...
It was almost 6 months ago... leave it in the past and book a different villa next time.
It doesn't seem unreasonable that the company expected you to let them know about the pool/tub when you discovered the issue.
Edit: you did let them know while you were there, so that does seem a bit odd there's not a pro-rata "sorry about the pool here's a few quid to make up for the limited use".
It doesn't seem unreasonable that the company expected you to let them know about the pool/tub when you discovered the issue.
Edit: you did let them know while you were there, so that does seem a bit odd there's not a pro-rata "sorry about the pool here's a few quid to make up for the limited use".
Nothingtoseehere said:
It was almost 6 months ago... leave it in the past and book a different villa next time.
It doesn't seem unreasonable that the company expected you to let them know about the pool/tub when you discovered the issue.
as i said the local agent told us it wasn't an issue, so we did what they said and waited. Apparently we should have assumed they were wrong and complained to the villa company immediately. I don't see why the local agent was introduced as the person to go to with any queries, but we should then disbelieve them and go to the villa company straight away regardless? It doesn't make sense.It doesn't seem unreasonable that the company expected you to let them know about the pool/tub when you discovered the issue.
In any case it's unreasonable to use it as a get-out as we were still without these facilities (and one of the showers was broken too) for most of the time we were there.
Blown2CV said:
Nothingtoseehere said:
It was almost 6 months ago... leave it in the past and book a different villa next time.
It doesn't seem unreasonable that the company expected you to let them know about the pool/tub when you discovered the issue.
as i said the local agent told us it wasn't an issue, so we did what they said and waited. Apparently we should have assumed they were wrong and complained to the villa company immediately. I don't see why the local agent was introduced as the person to go to with any queries, but we should then disbelieve them and go to the villa company straight away regardless? It doesn't make sense.It doesn't seem unreasonable that the company expected you to let them know about the pool/tub when you discovered the issue.
In any case it's unreasonable to use it as a get-out as we were still without these facilities (and one of the showers was broken too) for most of the time we were there.
Either way, it was 6 months ago. Chalk it up to experience and move on.
We rented a villa in lanzarote this year. On arrival the guest book had a page from the owner welcoming us and said any issues, speak to the local villa manager, don't contact us.
We had lots of issues! Contacted the local villa manager and they partially resolved some of the issues and ignored / shrugged shoulders at others, some of which were safety issues.
Contacted the air company to complain, long story short, they agreed and said we were elligible for a 30% refund. Villa owner disputes, he said we didn't tell him. Well, no we didn't because your welcome note told us not to. We had photo and video evidence of theissues and the welcome not telling us not to contact the owners.
After much backwards and forwards the air company agree and provide the refund. Owner emails to say issues are all fixed. We thought fair enough, thats an end to it. We didn't leave a review because we'd had a refund and owner had said "thanks for bringing to my attention, I've fixed all of the issues".
Day after we can't leave a review the owner leaves us a scathing review. Air company refuse to remove it despite evidence its factually not true.
Can't be bothered any more, got our account deleted, never again!
Accept there is nothing you can do and move on is my advice!
We had lots of issues! Contacted the local villa manager and they partially resolved some of the issues and ignored / shrugged shoulders at others, some of which were safety issues.
Contacted the air company to complain, long story short, they agreed and said we were elligible for a 30% refund. Villa owner disputes, he said we didn't tell him. Well, no we didn't because your welcome note told us not to. We had photo and video evidence of theissues and the welcome not telling us not to contact the owners.
After much backwards and forwards the air company agree and provide the refund. Owner emails to say issues are all fixed. We thought fair enough, thats an end to it. We didn't leave a review because we'd had a refund and owner had said "thanks for bringing to my attention, I've fixed all of the issues".
Day after we can't leave a review the owner leaves us a scathing review. Air company refuse to remove it despite evidence its factually not true.
Can't be bothered any more, got our account deleted, never again!
Accept there is nothing you can do and move on is my advice!
You walk a tightrope with VRBO/Airbnb, I've turned up in Cannes to a (agency let) property that sounded like we was on a building site, luckily we got a refund from Airbnb but got charged for the first night as we got the work never started until about 3pm and by the time we'd moaned etc it was not easy to find alternative accommodation.
I got caught out with a hot tub at easter in France, it was easily noticed that we needed to pay for the chemicals/cleaning agents in the advert, we had a few days to go so contacted the owner and paid extra, got it cleaned and refilled, the old boy turned up didn't speak a word of English it was painful AF.
I got caught out with a hot tub at easter in France, it was easily noticed that we needed to pay for the chemicals/cleaning agents in the advert, we had a few days to go so contacted the owner and paid extra, got it cleaned and refilled, the old boy turned up didn't speak a word of English it was painful AF.
fourstardan said:
You walk a tightrope with VRBO/Airbnb, I've turned up in Cannes to a (agency let) property that sounded like we was on a building site, luckily we got a refund from Airbnb but got charged for the first night as we got the work never started until about 3pm and by the time we'd moaned etc it was not easy to find alternative accommodation.
I got caught out with a hot tub at easter in France, it was easily noticed that we needed to pay for the chemicals/cleaning agents in the advert, we had a few days to go so contacted the owner and paid extra, got it cleaned and refilled, the old boy turned up didn't speak a word of English it was painful AF.
What exactly caught you out? I don’t see why the “old boy” had any need to be able to speak your language…I got caught out with a hot tub at easter in France, it was easily noticed that we needed to pay for the chemicals/cleaning agents in the advert, we had a few days to go so contacted the owner and paid extra, got it cleaned and refilled, the old boy turned up didn't speak a word of English it was painful AF.
fourstardan said:
tex200 said:
What exactly caught you out? I don t see why the old boy had any need to be able to speak your language
On the advert it wasn't stated about the Jacuzzi. Have you tired negotiating/arguing terms with Google Translator and a French guy?
I have to use google translate with my landlord’s maintenance man regularly ( he only speaks Chinese) and it works pretty well. Now he should be able to speak English because there is an actual language requirement for him to have passed to have his visa to work in New Zealand but you were in France so your man had no need to be able to speak your language.
blueg33 said:
Notifying the holiday company of issues whilst you are on holiday is standard in the terms and conditions. My wife works for Sykes, the number of people who try and get a refund after a perfectly good holiday by making things up is staggering.
but there is a clear paper trail with the on site agent, so it is verifiably not made up. The villa company is using this term in their contract to pretend I am lying when they know I am not. Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff