My family has just returned from Hawaii in what was one of my worst experiences ever. If you know of any recourse effort you can suggest, please do so! Here is the story in as short a form as I can get it. I contracted with a vacation home rental agency for a week stay on Oahu's North Shore. Upon arrival we learned that the home had been double booked. Once by the rental agency for us and once by the owner for another party, which was already in the residence and scheduled to stay through our vacation time. We ended up in a medium rate hotel in Honolulu, with 18 people spread out over 16 stories! And this was supposed to be a family reunion. Needless to say, I accomplished nothing of what I intended to do on this trip. Does anyone know what I can do to recoup my expenses and any other restitution? THANKS in advance!

I assume you already have or will get back the $$ that you paid for the rental unit.

You may also be able to get any difference between the cost of the hotel compared to the cost of the beach home.

Submit a claim through the rental agency that you went through. Perhaps they will just settle up with no hassle.

Or you can threaten to take them to court, but that would probably mean hiring a lawyer or a another trip to Hawaii.

Or you can contact Oahu newspapers & TV stations with your story. Some of them have investigative teams that may help you out.

If nothing like that helps, letters to the editors of the newspapers may make others aware of the company.

On the other hand, you must have been able to find some things to do as a family on Oahu.

Good luck.

You could post the name here of the agency that let you down. Won't help you but might help others?

dusty brings up a good suggestion. If you cannot get some kind of restitution, you may want to write letters to the Better Business Bureau, the Star Bulletin "Kokua Line," and KHON.com's "Action Line."

If you print the name of the company and also the property here, you can save others from dealing with them.

The Real Estate commission (state office that regulates realtors, NOT the board of Realtors)would be interested in getting the details. The company involved could be fined and be forced to compensate you, or possibly have their license suspended or worse.

Again, I don't know how to help what has already happened, but you could help others by saying specifically who you were dealing with.

You could also help others by telling us all the details and what the rental agency did about it:

Did they acknowledge the "mistake" and offer any refund?

Did they offer to help you find other accommodations?

Did they OFFER any other accommodations?

All you've said is that it was bad for you (understandable) and you didn't get anything accomplished.

Before all the armchair passive aggressive warriors get their knives overly sharpened for the mass condemnation/jump-up-and-down on the dead body festival, how about a little more info.

I'm not quite ready to jump on the body yet, BUT I would like to know who you dealt with and which property it is that you attempted to rent. I rent properties once a year or so in the islands and it would be nice to know.

-pila

the mass condemnation/jump-up-and-down on the dead body festival

Can I steal that line, Dukey?

Do you mean that you knew nothing until you actually got to the home you rented? That the agency never knew the owners had rented it?

If so, did the agency offer you other options? did they organize the hotel and transport to it for you? did they offer any compensation at all.

At a minimum you should have received return of the rental cost, any additional cost for the hotel and transfers to the hotel and costs of anything specific you missed and had alredy paid for.

Over that - it's hard to say what would be fair - but if it's a legitimate agency - they should have offered something.

And plese list the name of the agency and the house owners - since it sounds like they were the ones who really caaused the whole problem.

Failing any of the above I would complain to everyone you can think of. Small claims will work only for actual losses. (I don;t think you can collect for fun things you didn't do - unless they were prepaid - or you had to pay extra - transport etc - in order to get to do them.)

Frequently even just a letter from an attorney (do you have a friend who will do you a favor?) will result in at least partial compensation for any "soft - non-monetary" loses.

Maybe y'all should wait for the OP to come back before replying and repeating yourselves. Clearly more info is needed, but until he/she returns, you're all just talking to each other and that's pretty pointless, isn't it?

P.S. I'm not saying this as a criticism of anyone trying to be helpful. It just seems this OP has a brief history of starting threads and not returning to them, so until he/she returns to this one, don't waste your time.

I very much thank all who have offered their opinions on this post. I will very gladly give the name of the company, owner and all the details in a future post. I very much would like to prevent any other person from having to go through what myself and my family did. I have contacted an attorney and will have to wait for his input before I add any specifics as to names, companies, etc. on this forum. I was looking for guidance in what avenues are open to me legally and I have gotten some good feedback. I also will be resolute in spreading the word (the whole story) in this forum and the Hawaiian papers that may be intersted. I have to believe that the honest and upright people who rent out homes,condos etc. would be very glad to keep the rats who cheat people out of their legitimate business. It may be a few days before I can respond with names etc on this forum, but rest assured, if there is no legal reason why I shouldn't, I will. I want to expose the persons who have taken advantage of my family. However, for those who are interested here is a little more information that gives you an idea of what happend, but I am still not naming names until I know I can do so with the okay of my lawyer.

I booked a week long stay in a "luxury" home with beach front access through an agent/company. Got a contract signed over 6 months ago. Upon arrival on Hawaii, we found other people in the house we rented. The owner,(who I never talked to, I just went throught the rental company) was contacted (the people in the house had his name and number because they had booked through him) and he said he was the one who made the mistake and it was all his fault. We were put up in a medium rate hotel far from where we were supposed to be. The rental company offered no help. At least the owner was trying to help somewhat. After two days, (the owner paid for these two days but read further, he wanted the money back!)the rental company offered to refund our money LESS the amount spent on the hotel and we were given options of staying at the hotel,(spread over 15 floors) or two other houses (we had a very large party). The other two homes were VERY low quality and also 30 minutes apart and did not have any beach access. The company of course expected us to pay for these rentals also. After three days of hair pulling we contacted a lawyer. We are of course following his advice as to this matter. I very much wanted to settle with the owner and rental company before we left the island, but their stand was that they would credit our card minus the hotel charges and then we were on our own after that. They basically accepted no responsibility whatsoever. All they did was to contact a few agents for available homes, ALL of which were not acceptable. Therefore we stayed in the hotel with some of the party leaving early and the others trying to see and do what they could with their remaining time. But my greatest pain is that this was supposed to be a family reunion with the whole family spending time together. That is why I rented a large house. We could do our own things during the day and then gather together at night for real family time. NONE of that happened. What was seen of the island was under great duress and not very enjoyable. In fact due to all the time we spent on the phone and time spent trying to rectify the situation, we saw very little of what I know is a wonderful place. I met some very nice people who had true aloha spirit and I am very angry that I did not get to truly experience the best hawaii has to offer. Again, I thank those who offered suggestions and I will be checking back as I can. When it is okayed by my lawyer to name names, I will post them here as well as the BBB, any Hawaii newspaper who is interested and any government office that is interested.
Thank you all again for you time and help.

Watch out making the people involved or the rental agency public. You can get sued right back. We travel to Hawaii frequently and have been successful booking our condominiums through VRBO. Before that we were at the mercy of guidebooks. Twice we got burned using the recommendations from the blue Revealed books. One was a party hotel where we could hear the neighbors drinking all night on their balcony and the other was in a high crime neighbohood. Right on the beach but surrounded by chain link fence and barbed wire. VRBO allows you to communicate by e-mail and photos of the property come with the listing. Prices are in all ranges and we have one special place on Maui that we've stayed in twice now.