Unhappy w/ beach rental - your advice, pls.
 

Hi all - I just returned from a great trip to an island just outside Charleston, SC. I rented a big beach house for my husband and myself, and both sets of parents.

I really splurged on this house for the weekend. The pictures looked great at the online website. When we arrived, the beautiful white slipcoverd dining chairs were filthy and stained, no slipcovers in sight. The living room sofa and chairs looked like the ones you see sitting by the curb waiting on Goodwill. Completely different from the sofa pictured on line.

Outside on the beautiful screen porch was an eyesore of a stained outdoor sofa, and 6 plastic chairs, 3 of which were broken and 1 that appeared to have red dirt ground into it. Fortunately, there were some rocking chairs, but we weren't able to eat dinner outside because of the other broken chairs.

I arrived on Thurs at 4:30 and called the realtor immediately, thinking we might move. She said she would call right back, but did not call until 5:15, at which time we had given up and unpacked. She promised new outdoor furniture to be delivered the next day, and that the leak (half a bucket's worth) in one bedroom would be repaired. Never heard from her again.

When I dropped off the key, I noted these issues, along with others (toilet had to be plunged, lights were burned out) and asked to be called first thing monday morning.

Monday afternoon I called them, and the person who rented he house to me said her manager would call that afternoon. Tuesday (this morning) I called again, and was given the manager's voice mail. Nothing so far.

I think they should seriously discount this rental that was clearly not as advertised. The lack of response so far makes me think there's going to be trouble. We spent $1,625 for 3 nights. What do you think, and what would you do?

Where exactly and what agent?

Why didn't you follow up when you didn't hear from her again? If you thought you might move, why did you unpack?

Litespeed, so sorry about this! What a disappointment for you!!!

Did you charge this place to your credit card? I really hope you did, because if you have a contract and things were not as they were represented, your CC company will do a chargeback on them! Good luck!

I'd take them to court if you can. It sounds like you have a fairly good case of misrepresentation. Be sure you have everything documented well.

Hopefully, you have printed the photos on the web site and also have pics of what the place looked like when you got there. They can very easily update the web site so if you haven't already printed these photos, I would do so right away.

And if you didn't get pictures of the place when you got there, you may not have much to go on - your word against theirs in a court of law.

Good luck!

Did you prepay?

I would have demanded to be relocated. The rental house was unacceptable, in my opinion, given the amount of money you paid for it.

Good luck!
Tracy

Always be ready to take pictures, and threaten to use them on the internet. AND, why not list the property and people involved here (without getting into libel territory) to warn us/punish them?

Give us the e-mail be can all send them a little note from people who travel and TALK!!!!

Before you post any information here, send them the link to this thread. Maybe they'll want to rectify this situation before this black eye against them goes world-wide. LOTS of people frequent this travel board, afterall.

IF you paid with a credit card, I would contact the card company and dispute the charge. That may get you some results.

Debi

Hi Litespeed_Chick, I would write a letter and send it certified with a return receipt requested. I would give the Realtor ten days to respond. I would very calmly list what was wrong with this rental house. Try to not get personal, keep it very business like, short and to the point.
In the last paragraph tell them what you expect (I seriously doubt that they will refund all of your money since you did stay in the house).

If you do not receive a respondence after say 12 days you can than file a small claims suit (I am assuming, I live in CA) but if you do that I assume that you would have to file it in the county (or are they called parishes in SC?) where the transaction took place. At least in CA if the other party does not show up for the court hearing the plantiff automatically wins whatever the judge decides is a suitable judgement.

Be sure to make a copy of your letter to the Realtor. And I agree you should immediately download and print the photos of this rental house from the website. And I sure hope that you took photos of the house, most important for evidence in court if it comes to that. Otherwise it is just your word against the Realtor's.

If by some chance you did pay for the rental I would call the CC Company just to get some thoughts as to how they would handle this. I don't know how CC companies handle complaints of this type (versus paying for an item that is never delivered for example).

Best wishes and let us know how this turns out for you.

P.S. Was this rental agent a REALTOR Litespeed? If so you could also contact the Board of Realtors branch that she belongs to. At least here in our area the Board of Realtors has a Grievance Comittee to review complaints against any of their members. If you do not know if she is a REALTOR you could contact the Board of Realtors in the area of her office to inquire and get advice. REALTORS are suppose to keep to an ethical standard of doing business per the Boards rules and regulations. I know, sometimes some don't..but it would be a good place to contact if you don't get a response in due time to your letter. And of course there would be the State Licensing Board of the State of SC also.

LoveItaly makes good points, but be aware that though you might win a judgement against the house owner and/or realtor, actually collecting on that judgement is a different, and in some cases, much more difficult matter.

Yeah, but really hurting their business would help ease the pain?

If you paid with a credit card call and have the charge cancelled. Then send the owner/manager a letter offering to negotiate.

If you paid in advance send a certified letter outlining the problems in detail, including the broken promises to make repairs things. Give them 2 weeks to respond to a specific request for a dollar refund - include the exact amount you want.

If they don't respond file with small claims court.

(You could also make a complaint to the Ombudsman at Conde Nast Traveler - they are usually sucessful - in the case of legitimate problems that are messed up because of bureaucracy.. But these people sound deliberately bogus - so they may not be able to do much.)

How disappointing! LoveItaly and nytraveler have given you some excellent advice in regard to sending a business-like letter and saying specifically what you want from them. I think that's a good first step.

Additionally, you can probably file a complaint with the SC Attorney General's office. We did this when we had a problem with a vendor in another state.

And FOR SURE email them this thread. I would be posting their internet site immediately, to protect others. You may want to wait, but it would be hard for me to do so.

How about posting the website here?

Here's hoping you took lots of photos and immediately print the photos from the website for comparison purposes.

If you paid with a credit card, I would definitely dispute the charge, then offer to negotiate, though I would hope not to have to pay a penny for a dismally misrepresented property.

For future planning, as you now know, it is not the least bit unusual for photos to be just after redecoration many years ago, now worn and torn and not well kept.

And, it's always best, especially for pricey accommodations, to book only if you can find recent reviews. The www is absolutely amazing for this.

Since your issues with rental are very subjective, I think the way to go is with side-by-side comparisons of website photos and your photos of dirty and/or damaged furniture. From your description could be anything from an absolute dump to normal wear-and tear (burned out lightbulbs and temporarily clogged toilet would fit my definition of normal wear and tear). Dirty and stained could also cover a very wide range of situations - beach houses tend to get more usage damage than city condos, in my opinion, and so objective photos would be really helpful.

This may be difficult, since small photos you may have taken and those on website may not show in enough detail the areas with which you had issue.

While $1600 is a lot of money, I have no idea what going rate for beach houses sleeping 6 go for on weekend in Charleston - you may have ended up paying a premium since most beach rentals I know of are weekly Sat-Sat - I know that is the owners choice to rent over a weekend, not your problem, but I am guessing this would be about market rate. If you paid a lot more than market rate, your complaints carry more weight. But if it was at or below, then your complaint may have less teeth.

Glad your first sentence rated the trip as "great" and you were able to overcome your disappointment. Since bucket was collecting water (I am assuming it was raining), that may have further dampened your spirits. Also not sure waiting 45 minutes for call-back is outrageous.

So compare those photos, and if you can't I think you may be out of luck.

Litespeed, I'm guessing that the realtor had been on the owner of the home to refurbish the house.

I would call, let them know you are writing a letter (send it certified) to the Broker In Charge of the real estate company, and find out who the owner is and try to send one to them. Include photographs from the website and ones you took.

Plainly outline what you would like done ( a refund for half the amount??) specifically. Don't just write that you want a refund but let them know for what amount.

Let them know specifically that they have 15 days or 21 days to respond to you. Make sure you include a time frame.

Start with that and if it doesn't work, go to small claims court.

Good luck! Usually you'll get what you want since you've let them know what it will take to make you happy.

The real estate company will get their money and penalize the home owner.