Cherrybomb: >>I do disagree that this is all an issue of my "gut" feeling though<<

You are the one who wrote &quot;<i>I rented an apt and paid several months ago and <u>am not comfortable at all with the person</u> I am renting from.</i>&quot;

That is what I meant by &quot;gut feeling&quot; . . . . . That if you are uncomfortable, you should listen to your gut feeling . . . .

I really don't want to argue the semantics of what gut feeling. There are more issues here than just that which I have laid out; they include:
*Change in what floor the apt is located on from when I initially paid.
*Change in whether there is a contact in Berlin.
*Non-responsive to giving information after payment and the information about the rental given prior to payment has changed.

If it were ALL gut feeling at this point, I would just be a nervous renter. There was misinformation given about the apartment that would have lead me to not renting it which I may or may not should have told her. I did tell her I would not be renting if it either did not have an elevator or was on the ground floor. I was told it was on the ground floor, more specifically without steps, now it is suddenly a flight up. If I were renting an apartment/running a business, I would be upfront about the question asked of me 3 times, especially when told that the potential rentee cannot deal with stairs. As if the rentee won't find out later? That is weird.

Please update....did you cancel or go ahead with a plan B in case you needed it?

cherrybomb, updates ?

Cherry:

I'm still unclear exactly what correspondence you have from the owner.

Did she WRITE that it's on the ground floor (b/4 you paid)?

Did she write you AFTER you paid that there are steps, or it's up one floor, or what?

IOW, what do you have in writing <i>specifically</i> changing what you had been told in writing before you paid?

That would seem to be the nut of any claim you could make to cc company.

american express is pretty good about taking the cardholders word.

I imagine the owner is using their credit cards machine at their studio. I believe they said it was an artist studio?

I just have not seen the fraud on the owners portion. Not feeling great about it is one thing.

I also get the first floor vs. the fourth. I know that traveling with my dd in the fall I am very careful to make sure she is not going to have to climb any stairs etc. due to her recent foot surgery but is it really a big deal for you Cherry or are you just having cold feet?

I have no update. I am waiting on the other apt prior to calling. The husband has a friend on vacation in Berlin who we have asked to look at it to see what the situation actually is as the owner is non-responsive. My Monday email regarding the supposed Berlin contact (in case of emergency/problem/pipes break/etc.) has gone unanswered--it took several emails from Saturday-Monday to get info on just getting into the apt--i.e. keys--that was the only question answered and included was the sudden flight of stairs that did not exist prior to payment.

I have it in writing on 3 emails prior to paying that the apt is on the ground floor, also that I would not consider if there were stairs more than the 3 steps I was told on the 2nd email--I double checked on the 3rd that that was it--3 half steps.

An email I received after my initial post here states that the apt is not on the ground floor--I received this email after paying, after asking, after my initial post. I have MS and cannot comfortably do stairs, especially when on holiday-why would I pay to make myself uncomfortable?

Can I walk stairs--yes, I do so daily on the train, would I rent a place with them--no. I point blank stated that I needed to know the stair situation including if there are *any* to the entrance of the building as that would make me reconsider the rental, rather, make me not rent it which I stated to the owner--i was ok with 3 half-steps. I now have a knee injury which makes the stairs more of an issue, not the 3 steps, but a fight up. Immobilizing knee brace + stairs = really problematic.

This is beyond cold feet or finding a better apt after paying--I have been scrambling trying to come up with an alternative all week while simultaneously trying to book an event rental for work which has to be done prior to leaving.

I do realize stairs for most people is no big thing--it is for me and I check that and ask the questions needed to avoid them.

Again, I think the renter is inexperienced and negligent in providing information rather than a scam artist.

I think the renter got you (and probably himself) confused with the stairs/steps issue.
Historic buildings from the early 1900s in Berlin usually look like this :
Entrance on street level.
No first floor (US) on street level, but some 5-7 steps upstairs.

Since the ceilings are quite high in those buildings for the first two floors, you can expect to have to climb some 15ft by stairs/steps from street level to the apt (if it sits on 2nd floor US).

I have rented apt thru agencies or directly from owner maybe 10 or 12 times, and I can assure you that your experiences are not &quot;typical&quot;.
For future rentals, I would recommend to either rent thru a local agency, or from someone who got at least a few reviews on websites like VRBO - as if that would help now, I know...

Cherry I missed that you had a knee injury. That is really a problem. Like I said, I am traveling with my dd whom had foot surgery so that is an issue as well.

Imo, not hearing from them with a question you asked Monday is unacceptable as well.

Hope it gets worked out.

you must've followed this link to the agency/owner owne website

http://www.vrbo.com/global/siteFrame...urnurl=/141420

see pic with the set of steps up to the front door (presumably).

I think it looks legit.

Let us know what your friend finds if he can get by the apartment.

As you describe the emails it sounds like you made it clear (b/4 pmt) that more than 3 steps was unacceptable. If she reassured &quot;ground floor&quot;--and then later said a full flight of stairs--then I think you have a case with Amex.

I think this is what I would do:

--Why cancel since you've already paid?
--Send her an email (or letter) stating your concern about the steps--- reference what she told you b/4 payment. Tell her: if you are not able to maneuver the steps you will be filing a claim with Amex. Keep the letter very simple, factual (no &quot;feelings&quot, and short.
--Make a reservation at a reasonable hotel for the first night only. If the apartment works out ok, the worst you'll be charged is the single night.
--Reserve another hotel for the rest of the stay. Read reviews and try to determine it's an honorable hotel and will respect your cancellation, if it comes to that.

If the apartment is acceptable, the worst you'll be out is the first hotel night.

If it's not OK then you have hotels and can take up the claim process when you return. Notify Amex immediately that you will be filing a claim upon returning to the states. And TAKE PHOTOS of the steps.

To apartment owners responding here:

I have a question about VRBO, other owner sites. I noticed this unit was registered with VRBO last summer. Yet there are no &quot;comments&quot;.

When I'm searching, I always treat that as a warning bell. But I don't know how the system works.

Does VRBO know if comments are negative? Do they know if owner isn't posting complaints? IOW, what should one read into such a situation?

I'll tell you what sends off even bigger warning bells to me -- an apartment that looks great and is not newly registered, yet has a calendar of dates booked. You click on the calendar and not one date is taken. What gives. Nice apartments are hard to find vacancies in. I generally think the owner isn't bothering to fill in the taken dates and would just as soon have people contact them anyway. To me it's the very first sign of total lack of customer service -- or just plain not carrying about the potential customer at all. Or if the apartment really has no reserved dates, then it sure makes me wonder why.

Ive watched this thread with interest, and will throw in my 2 cents as RENTER..(Im mostly a Hotel/B&amp;B type, but on extended family vacations we get houses or large apts).
There is a burden on the renter. Caveat Emptor prevails in this case, and I feel enough information was available. I would just say that cherry should not look to historic(older areas) to rent with her condition. Some areas of older cities in Europe have steep stais and hills just to get into the local market. I would suggest a Hotel, why take a risk?

Frank, I'm a little confused by your comment. Do most hotels provide a service of pushing their people up the hill in a cart or something? In some European cities, there are nearly as many hotels without elevators as there are apartment buildings. I can't forget the five difficult floors of climbing we did several times a day at our lovely little hotel in Prague, or the stairs so narrow we couldn't figure out how to get our luggage upstairs in Cochem. I think rather than suggest that renting a hotel instead of an apartment would solve the problem, either needs a thorough checking out.

I did ask about that photo of the stairs and was told that she was just showing detail of the building and that those lead to other apts--I believe that is true as the actual entrance to the apt, as I was told, was through the back courtyard.

I now have confirmation on the elevator building and can proceed with the calling to attempt to cxl in an amicable way. I do realize there were no block out dates-but there was only 1 apt on VBRO with dates blocked out, this is still the case--I let it go.

The same style of apts are in NY which is why I asked about steps over and over with her--the front entrance could have had a walk up and with high ceilings, 1 floor = 2, in a &quot;modern&quot; building with 9-10' ceilings--there is a difference. In the end I went with the information given, the information has changed, I wish it hadn't and that she had been more upfront with my questions. That's life.

I don't want a hotel, I am not a full on crip/gimp (I can use that term--I use it to refer to myself), and I like to be left alone and not have people busting in on me if I decide to sleep all day, stay up all night or come home at dawn. I also travel quite often, and the statement that &quot;given my condition&quot; is a tad patronizing, I'm sure you mean no harm--but I have a condition, I'm not dead yet nor incapacitated--I am active and walk around. Let's not go there please. Even if I did not have an injury or &quot;condition,&quot; if I stated I don't want stairs to the owner, and will not consider if there are stairs and am told there are only 3 half-steps, then there should only be the 3 half-steps. There are plenty of lazy people who don't want to climb stairs. It is unfortunate that I have to pull the crip card to explain why I *really* don't want to deal with them.

I have some options, will see what happens with the telephone conversation. Hopefully she does the right thing. In my opinion, she rented under false pretenses--the stairs/floor it was on and should rectify. Then again, my opinion is just that--my opinion and everybody has one. We'll see.

I do appreciate the responses from everyone..

Thank you Patrick...

I'm sorry, Patrick, but I don't agree with your statements about hotels and elevators. With a hotel, you can choose to stay in one without an elevator or not. The hotel's info should make it clear, if not, you can ask. I've been to Prague several times and there are many many hotels in Prague with elevators, so the fact that you chose to stay in one without one doesn't mean that it is impossible to find one. Berlin is a major capital city, I'm sure one can find a hotel with an elevator there. It is really not difficult to find hotels with elevators in major European cities, but in any case, it is within one's control when they choose a hotel.

Christina, I'm not sure what you disagree with me on. Are you saying it's NOT possible to choose between staying in an apartment with an elevator or not? I have no idea where you got the idea that I suggested it's not possible to find a hotel with an elevator in Prague. I certainly never suggested that at all!

Of course, I knew there was no elevator in the Three Ostriches in Prague, but chose to stay there anyway. That wasn't my point. Likewise if the elevator is a concern you can find apartment buildings in Prague with them as well. The point is that you need to check out either apartment or hotel to make sure it has an elevator or not if that is a concern. There is no automatic assurance that a hotel will have an elevator, just as there is no automatic insurance that an apartment will have one. I still fail to understand why suggesting that if an elevator or a lack of stairs is a concern that that has anything to do with choosing a hotel over an apartment -- that's all. It should be a concern either way.

Just an update--after several phone calls we were able to speak with the owner. We had to keep calling, btw, it wasn't phone tag.

The apartment isn't actually in the building as shown--there are 2 other separate buildings accessible by walking through the courtyard of this building, this apartment is one of those. I am more comfortable about the place--the sudden staircase is just those steps that lead to the apt that were already mentioned--the 4 steps.

There are no directions at all on site so it was a good thing to have a call with her--she didn't know the login/password for the wifi and has to get it from her husband, without the husband asking on the phone, we would have been screwed. The apt will be cleaned before we arrive, though it sounded like something that she forgot to arrange and is doing so now.

She slipped and made some interesting comments which explains some things. They have owned the apt for 2 years but have only been there 4 times, she just came back last month from her 4th stay. the husband is German and we suspect they got a sweet deal on the place, like it was family owned and they just bought it. It has been rented at least once prior, though I suspect it was probably only once and the renter locked the keys in the lockbox so they switched to a code rather than key lockbox. At least she was just there, so there should not really be any other surprises.

We are taking it and if there are any problems will switch to another apt in the middle and eat our loss.

I will provide an update on the actual apt once we are there.

Again, this is as I thought, a kinda half-a$$ed owner who does not really know what they are doing and hasn't put much thought into the whole rental thing.

Lessons learned:
1. we will never again pay *all* upfront (despite some people here stating that it is no problem, it is for us, though we paid when the exchange rate was $1.45 to the euro and saved $60-70 on this one.)
2. we are not jazzed with owners who don't live at least in the same country or those who do not have contacts in the city (turns out our contact is the cleaning woman who speaks no English and we are to contact owner first who will in turn contact the cleaning person--not so ideal)
3. something else that I don't remember.