Ugh: Paris Homeaway property not up to our standards
 

We're not THAT fussy; after all; we booked a flat on the 6th floor; with no elevator, near Rue Montorgueil. However; the convertible sofa in the living room has no sheets that we can find. The duvet is dreadful and the duvet cover needs a good wash. Daughter is sleeping on the sofa with dad's freshly laundered tshirt over the pillow. On the up side, the location is fabulous and there's room to spread out. Am looking for alternatives; in case the owner doesn't make it right. Have already contacted the credit card company about disputing the charge.

Suggestions appreciated.

You must contact the owner or contact Homeaway .
Disputing charges is not the way to go. You have to get this resolved. Disputing a charge can only be done because it is a payment not authorised by you and I take it you did authorise it.
In the end you can right a bad review on homeaway.

Amy, can you post a link to the apartment?

So sorry about the apartment, hope you can get a good nights sleep.

I sent an urgent message and the owner did show up just q few minutes ago with clean sheets that had gone to his apartment (presumably nearby). All's well; thankfully.

Please don't post the apartment link here - it seems like a very minor issue that the owner fixed very quickly - I can't imagine why you would jump to contacting your credit card company - or even posting on here - without giving the owner at least a few hours to remedy the situation.

I had the exact same thoughts, Hez. Glad it has been rectified.

Au contraire, Hez and Patty. The owner should never have allowed these unwelcome conditions to exist. Amy_torres_sd took immediate action and got things righted. Do not tolerate poor performance or it will continue. Good work Amy.

You missed the point, spaarne. Amy should have given the owner some time to remedy the situation before posting about it here, especially with the part about already having contacted the CC company to dispute the charge. "Stuff" happens, and the important thing is whether the owner takes care of it, and how quickly. Sounds like a good lessor, to me.

I don't see how you can "dispute the charges" if you stay in the apartment.

Agree - if yuo stay in the place you really can;t dispute the charges That would be only if the apt was either not there/available - or unlivable - as in not having any water or being filthy, not having and sheets and towels and appliances that don;t work.

If the owner had not provided sheets right away I would just have bought some and then had the owner reimburse you

I think contacting the credit card company was totally jumping the gun, considering the issues involved and the OP was actually staying in the apartment. Anyway, sounds like it got resolved. Anyway, sounds like the owner responded quickly and responsibly.

As you specifically request suggestions, mine would be to calm down a bit and take your whole trip a little slower mentally and emotionally.

Posting on the web and calling your credit card company is kind of a strong reaction to something " not meeting our expectations", especially when you haven't given the other party a chance to make good.

Trips are not going to be perfect. Sixth floor walk-ups are not going to be the Ritz. The landlord made good.

I agree with Ack. Just the fact that it is a 6-floor walkup guarantees that it was never going to be the Ritz. If the owner took care of the important problems immediately, that is great.

Of course, we have no idea whether you overpaid for what you got, of course.

Point taken (that I was jumping the gun.) I didn't start the dispute process, just asked what my options were in this situation. The landlord arrived shortly before midnight, and produced sheets within a few minutes. There are a few other inconveniences (such as advertised AC being nonexistent and the refrigerator precariously tipping forward under the counter) but on the whole, I am satisfied with the flat. It was late and we all were tired and hungry. Thanks for your patience:

This thread feels like typical American travel anxiety. With the internet, many travelers feel pressured to have the best possible outcome, no matter what the price point or circumstances. If they don't see immediate five-stars (in their 1-star rental), they will run to the blogs and post anything and everything negative, a real-time thumbs-down, before the bags are even unpacked. How insane is that? Who would want to be a vacation landlord in this day and age?

There was a time, when you wanted 5-star accommodations, you had to pay for them. Maybe that's still the case.

I did not post the url for the apartment on purpose. I was hopeful for a favorable outcome but trying to get my game plan on for the worst case scenario. Yes, this IS a new experience (renting apartments instead of hotel rooms.) Our previous home rental was a perfect situation for us, and we have others to follow in this trip. It's a big investment for us (a family of four) in both time and money. So YES, there was a fair amount of concern.

amy, sounds like you did the right thing, it can be a struggle to get the brain going after a long flight with the burden of language barriers and responsibility for other family member's enjoyment, well done, deep breath, enjoy the holiday

I think if you rent a vacation apt, particularly a cheaper one, you really have to have a different mindset and not expect perfection or the services of a hotel. I think some people maybe shouldn't rent vacation apts, getting upset about a refrigerator not tilting quite right, etc., shows that maybe you should stay in a hotel.

<i><font color=#555555>"We're not THAT fussy"</font></i>

Doesn't quite gel with

<i><font color=#555555>"So YES, there was a fair amount of concern."</font></i>

Perfection in the apartment rental game is completely unrealistic. Many of these apartments are for sale in "as is" condition. Nobody is going to tell you if this is the case.

Christina is right, "I think some people maybe shouldn't rent vacation apts."

I thank the OP for not posting the link.

Actually, a refrigerator that tilts too much could fall over. Probably not likely in this case, since she mentioned it being under the counter, but it's still possible. A more likely problem with a tilting refrigerator is that the door could open of itself. That would make it difficult to keep food cold.

And WHY do some words keep getting automatically capitalized when they aren't supposed to be? In this case both "Cold" and "Words". Is this something Fodors is doing? It's very recent and did not happen last week. Oh, and almost every word is underlined in red, too. Why?

Amy yesterday: "Have already contacted the credit card company about disputing the charge."

Amy today: "I didn't start the dispute process . . ."

So, which is it?

Oh, nevermind.

Agree that a bargain apt is unlikely to be perfect as is a bargain hotel.

The owner responded quickly to a fairly minor issue. (If you don;t think this is a fairly minor issue - perhaps apts are not for you - or you need to go for more upscale apt instead of a 6th floor walk-up. I mean, you knew that was the deal going in and then seemed to be complaining about it.)

On any trip things will do wrong, The whole trip will not be completely perfect. And you will need to learn to roll with the punches.

amy_torres_sd thanks for posting back and letting us know it was resolved. People do have bad experieces, as I did, which was not resolved but could have been worse. It's no excuse but as said it happens and I'm glad it worked out. Enjoy Paris!

"This thread feels like typical American travel anxiety. With the internet, many travelers feel pressured to have the best possible outcome, no matter what the price point or circumstances. If they don't see immediate five-stars (in their 1-star rental), they will run to the blogs and post anything and everything negative, a real-time thumbs-down, before the bags are even unpacked. How insane is that? Who would want to be a vacation landlord in this day and age?"

No the real problem is the ridiculously *positive* reviews that most people on forums like this and tripadvisor. People on vacations generally brainwash themselves about how wonderful everything. I always laugh at these perfect trips that people report where everything was just great, nothing went wrong and there were no bummers. They come home and write absurdly positive reviews about everything and mislead those who read them into thinking that there won't be any negatives. The result is unrealistic expectations among the naive who actually believe the reviews.

Holly: to be clear... I contacted the CC company about my options should the apt owner not make it right. Sorry that I didn't make it precisely clear in the original post. Regarding the refrigerator, I was concerned about being held liable for the tilting fridge ( the side of the cabinet has fallen down too.) We brought it up to the landlord when he came with the sheets and he acknowledged that the issue has been present since before we arrived, so all good there.

Happily, we have had a lovely day enjoying Paris, and look forward to the rest of our time here.

amy - just curious, what did the cc company say were your options in this situation?

This seems a good example of where having access to the internet is more negative than positive.

If it had been 20 year ago and this same thing happened, there would have been a few worrisome moments, the landlords would have come with the sheets and checked out the tilting frig, and the story would be over.

Only because of being able to post about it real-time did it make this into more of a panic/problem that it needed to be.

Not knowing the price paid for the apartment it is hard to judge, but if it was relatively inexpensive the things you describe don't seem all that surprising.

You did everything right Amy. Glad you are enjoying Paris.

If the OP had not called the credit card company to find out what her options would be, and the landlord had then not addressed the problems, plenty here would be shouting that she should have called the credit card company right off.
I think she did just fine. She called the landlord. She checked her options with the cc company. She asked for advise here.