PLEASE Help Me Choose Among These Apartments in Rome
Nov 9th, 2008, 05:53 AM
#22
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lbrawer,
I'm glad I picked up this thread - I caution you to stay away from Ital-Accom.
I won't say that they completely ruined my stay in Rome, but just about!
We were staying (or so we thought) in one of their apartments in Piazza Navaona, which is my husband's favorite part of Rome. He was very excited at the prospect of spending a whole week there (and at a reasonable price too).
I'd tell you the name of the apartment, but it wouldn't do you any good -- it was SOLD two months before we got there! I found THAT out from the new owner who called the old owner, Andrea Podesta. He told me the apartment had been sold, and Leon Kammer, the owner of Italy-Accom knew of this for two months!
Yes, there we were standing on the street in front of it waiting for someone from Italy-Accom to show up with the key (which never happened).
Telephone conversations with "Michael" in their office were useless; all he did was lie and offer ridiculous excuses ("we've been trying to reach you for 20 days"
. Oh Puleeze!
Our entire first day was spent (ruined) trying to straighten out this mess. The next morning was spent with me firing off an email to the owner.
Not only did we not get the apartment we paid for (and had a confirmation), but we had to get a cab to New Apartment because Michael "couldn't leave the office".
(you know, just typing / reliving all this is getting me mad all over again)!!
Just about the point in the conversation where Michael's assuring me that New Apartment is an upgrade, oh, much much nicer, and how LUCKY we are, he drops the bomb that we can only stay there until Wednesday, at which time we'll have to move to Apartment #2...and oh, by the way, he'll have to get back to me where that will be.
As I said, we specifically wanted to stay in the Piazza Navona area. I'd done alot of research on restaurants, plotted out sightseeing routes,etc., using the Navona as our base...you get the idea.
Now I was being told that not only would we have to unpack and pack again, we don't even know what area of Rome we'll be staying in.
I'm pretty sure I shrieked at that point because I distinctly remember birds flying from the trees and Italian mothers covering their kids' ears.
In my email to Leon I used bullet points to go over exactly what happened:
o how they had my contact information, both email (how we'd been communicating) and my phone number - this could have been avoided with ONE phone call.
o "If" they couldn't reach me as they claimed, they had to know I was on the way to the apartment - why not send someone to meet us?
o How our first day was blown - by the time we straightened everything out and got to New Apartment it was 7P (we started the day at Old Apartment at 1:30P waiting for keys)
o We asked for, and had a confirmation for, a ground floor apartment; at New Apartment we had to haul our luggage up two flights of steps.
o We were looking foward to unpacking and settling into our apartment for the week - now we have to be out of New Apartment by 10A on Wednesday.
o We invited my sister & brother in law for cocktails and dinner - we gave them directions from their hotel to our apartment - the one we're not in. Now she's in transit and I don't even know where we're staying on Wednesday!
What I asked for from Italy-Accom was:
o a transfer from New Apartment to Apartment #2
o reimbursement for the 13E for the cab from Old Apartment to New Apartment.
The reply that I got from Leon stated that he believed "...that Andrea Podesta took the property off the market some time ago, and yet agreed to honor your booking."
?????? I'd never HEARD of this man before - all of my correspondence was with Leon.
Leon's email response was very very apologetic. He had a driver pick us up and take us to Apartment #2, he also offered to have a Mercedes transfer take us to the airport at the end of our stay.
He offered to refund the balance for New Apartment.
Apartment #2 was nice. It was also no where NEAR Piazza Navona, so all the research I'd done...
While I appareciate his desire to try to make this up to us...
well, how would you feel?
Regards,
Melodie
I'm glad I picked up this thread - I caution you to stay away from Ital-Accom.
I won't say that they completely ruined my stay in Rome, but just about!
We were staying (or so we thought) in one of their apartments in Piazza Navaona, which is my husband's favorite part of Rome. He was very excited at the prospect of spending a whole week there (and at a reasonable price too).
I'd tell you the name of the apartment, but it wouldn't do you any good -- it was SOLD two months before we got there! I found THAT out from the new owner who called the old owner, Andrea Podesta. He told me the apartment had been sold, and Leon Kammer, the owner of Italy-Accom knew of this for two months!
Yes, there we were standing on the street in front of it waiting for someone from Italy-Accom to show up with the key (which never happened).
Telephone conversations with "Michael" in their office were useless; all he did was lie and offer ridiculous excuses ("we've been trying to reach you for 20 days"
. Oh Puleeze!Our entire first day was spent (ruined) trying to straighten out this mess. The next morning was spent with me firing off an email to the owner.
Not only did we not get the apartment we paid for (and had a confirmation), but we had to get a cab to New Apartment because Michael "couldn't leave the office".
(you know, just typing / reliving all this is getting me mad all over again)!!
Just about the point in the conversation where Michael's assuring me that New Apartment is an upgrade, oh, much much nicer, and how LUCKY we are, he drops the bomb that we can only stay there until Wednesday, at which time we'll have to move to Apartment #2...and oh, by the way, he'll have to get back to me where that will be.
As I said, we specifically wanted to stay in the Piazza Navona area. I'd done alot of research on restaurants, plotted out sightseeing routes,etc., using the Navona as our base...you get the idea.
Now I was being told that not only would we have to unpack and pack again, we don't even know what area of Rome we'll be staying in.
I'm pretty sure I shrieked at that point because I distinctly remember birds flying from the trees and Italian mothers covering their kids' ears.
In my email to Leon I used bullet points to go over exactly what happened:
o how they had my contact information, both email (how we'd been communicating) and my phone number - this could have been avoided with ONE phone call.
o "If" they couldn't reach me as they claimed, they had to know I was on the way to the apartment - why not send someone to meet us?
o How our first day was blown - by the time we straightened everything out and got to New Apartment it was 7P (we started the day at Old Apartment at 1:30P waiting for keys)
o We asked for, and had a confirmation for, a ground floor apartment; at New Apartment we had to haul our luggage up two flights of steps.
o We were looking foward to unpacking and settling into our apartment for the week - now we have to be out of New Apartment by 10A on Wednesday.
o We invited my sister & brother in law for cocktails and dinner - we gave them directions from their hotel to our apartment - the one we're not in. Now she's in transit and I don't even know where we're staying on Wednesday!
What I asked for from Italy-Accom was:
o a transfer from New Apartment to Apartment #2
o reimbursement for the 13E for the cab from Old Apartment to New Apartment.
The reply that I got from Leon stated that he believed "...that Andrea Podesta took the property off the market some time ago, and yet agreed to honor your booking."
?????? I'd never HEARD of this man before - all of my correspondence was with Leon.
Leon's email response was very very apologetic. He had a driver pick us up and take us to Apartment #2, he also offered to have a Mercedes transfer take us to the airport at the end of our stay.
He offered to refund the balance for New Apartment.
Apartment #2 was nice. It was also no where NEAR Piazza Navona, so all the research I'd done...
While I appareciate his desire to try to make this up to us...
well, how would you feel?
Regards,
Melodie
