News!

Tomorrow in Atlanta on WAGA, Fox news @ 10PM airs another segment on WooGo's ongoing hotel fraud. (They will run preview commercials in tonight's 10PM news, and on two local radio stations.)

This concerns WooGo Lincoln Center Apartments in NYC, as discovered from our vacation. This news story is a result of my family's ongoing efforts to expose and stop these crooks.

See WooGone.com for details.

I'm going to try to make a point of watching it. Thanks for letting us know!!

I recently was forwarded an LA Times article from Aug '05 -- It's like deja 'vu ... (Except it's bigger and even more criminal in NYC.)

This article excerpt is eye-opening in many ways:

"Raz Ofer, an executive with YourStay, which recently began using the name WooGo, said in an e-mail Friday that he had an agreement with Casden and later with Apartment Investment & Management that allowed YourStay to lease some units for as little time as one night. Ofer said his company has similar lease arrangements in Times Square and other New York City locations.

A spokeswoman for Casden Properties denied that statement. Undercovertourist, Expedia, Ratestogo and other travel-related websites continue to advertise the YourStay hotel rooms."

The link to the recently discovered LA Times article about shutting down a WooGo (YourStay) illegal Hotel in Los Angeles is here: http://tinyurl.com/rhjj8

Again, tomorrow night is a new feature news segment on FOX in Atlanta @ 10pm, and tonight they will start promoting.

I heard the promo this morning on the radio. A few sound bites about the sofa hitting the TV/Sink, and the door not closing... This segment focuses on "How to avoid getting ripped off on your vacation."

Tonight in Atlanta on WAGA, Fox news @ 10PM

More historical news documnets:

Chairman R. Ofer disolves "Sun Apartments Limited" in London early '05, Ofer says "the Company cannot, by reason of its liabilities, continue its business". http://tinyurl.com/ewv94

So, then Mr. Ofer bankrupted YourStay (as above post's LA Aticle), and now we have NYC WooGo's Lincoln Center.

This historical information you won't see on the news tonight, because I've heard they are still actually trying to find Mr. Ofer for more upcoming news segments.

Btw, they seem to be doing some pretty heavy promotion for this story -- someone called me to say the've heard three different promos on the radio!

topping
Will be interested to see the coverages.

Friends stayed in NYC on UWS in a WooGo apartment. I was worried, but they were happy given the price.

Just saw the promo. About to see our man Kelly.

Topping this for other Atlantans as a reminder to turn on the news.

Great story Kelly! Congratulations.

Really enjoyed seeing the undercover camera filming when the NY affliate went in. The distress on the other guest's face who booked via Hotels.com was very apparent.

Lame response from Expedia - they are going to revamp their description of the listing?

When ya gonna take them up on their offer - 7 day stay in any location in NYC, London or Berlin?

The squeaky wheel, indeed! Way to go!

Greetings from NYC!!! Some small bit of positive news from the tenants living at West 63rd Realty Apartments -which is being passed off as WooGo Lincoln Center Hotel.

I received a letter today from our NYC councilwoman Gale Brewer. She gathered 16 other NYC politicians, NY State congressmen, and a member of congress and has formed a new ILLEGAL HOTELS WORKING GROUP! The letter is addressed to Mayor Bloomberg of NYC asking for increased funding for the Office of Midtown Enforcement which apparently has the juristiction of puuting the WooGo Companies of the world out of business - something the NYC Dept of Buildings has little teeth in combating. It's a small glimmer in a long while. The Illegal Hotel Working Group has an new office address if you need there help - 563 Columbus Avenue NY, NY 10024.

This is not likely the end of WooGo and many of the other faux hotels popping up all over NYC but it's a step in the right direction.

Also another one of the scheduled NYC Dept of Building hearing was for today. No word on a verdict yet - but the infractions against WooGo / West 63rd LLC have been upgraded from moderate to severe. Stay tuned...

cgny, great news for the tenants!

The Atlanta Fox news segment just aired. It was very good. In comparison, I thought the NYC piece was a little more hard hitting against WooGo as no tenants were mentioned in the Atlanta piece -- it was all our vacation nightmare.

It is not correct that WooGo offered us 7 free nights. They offered us 3, but the lie from WooGo is expected. And, no thanks! I told them I was offended by the offer, and a better offer would be one that went toward helping rebuild that community. It would be more accurate to say that WooGo has made 7 legal threats to me since exposing them.

More disturbing was the quote from Expedia -- which seems to be 180 from the song they've been singing to me -- no one goes to Expedia to search for "apartments", further they failed to address that the bldg is not licensed for short-stay occupancy, weather you call them "apartments" or "suites" or "hotels". This report made it seem like Expedia is playing with semantics. Almost as if the mistake was mine... Also, Expedia.com changed the photos on their site! I noticed the news segment actually intermixed the current Expedia photos. Those are new since we booked. The real ones that were originally listed are on my site, and I believe they are the same ones that WooGo.com shows for Lincoln Center. (still "Hotel of the Month" at WooGo.com)

In the end, WooGo still sucked and I'm sure this will only help further their demise or reform. I'll post a copy of the segment on my site soon...

The best quotes from the piece were:

From the undercover NYC reporter:
"When you open the sofa there is garbage."

and my beautiful sweetie describing the "hairs in the towels"

and yes, the mortified look of the other tourist who used "hotels.com"

ibkdb, when your wife mentioned the hairs on the towels (believe there was a total of two towels?) I wanted to gag..I can't even imagine!

I was wondering, did you find out what the garbage was under the sofa bed?

I posted on one of your other threads..your problem makes me so glad that I have always make reservations through reputable hotels. I don't travel as often as many here on Fodor's do but when I do I have never had the horrifying experience you and your family had...well except for a couple of times when we fled places around 5:00 in the morning..but always places we checked into while doing road trips and didn't have reservations. We sure learned to ask to see the room before paying for the room! Best wishes and hope you and your family can take a future trip that will more than make up for the nightmare this current one was!