Case dismissed: A “disgusting” apartment rental and no refund

When Steven Silverman found an apartment in London through HomeAway, one of the largest home rental sites, he was sure it would be perfect. After all, the site specifically guarantees its rental properties won’t be misrepresented.

Maybe the apartment’s owner didn’t get that memo.

Silverman says the rental, for which he paid £1,350, was “disgusting” and didn’t meet his requirements. He’d specifically asked for an air-conditioned unit, and was promised one. But that’s not what he got, he says.

Here’s what he saw when he entered the apartment, which had no air conditioning, after arriving in England:

It had not been cleaned from the prior renter. There was food in the refrigerator and used soap on the sink in the bathroom.

We were exhausted, needed to take showers and go to sleep, even without the air conditioning. When we went to use the shower, it had also not been cleaned. The shower mat was black in places and was filthy. Even more incredible, there were only two bath towels for three people.

When my son tried to go to sleep, we opened the bed. It would have been perfect, if he was a foot shorter. He was a little under 5’6’’, so he is not a giant. Maybe a 10-year-old could have used the bed. There was also no clean bedding for him.

Silverman left the apartment the next day and found another hotel. The owner agreed to a full refund.

A happy ending? Not quite.

[The owner] was supposed to have our credit card refunded with the money that we paid. Well, of course, she did not do that. We waited a few weeks after our return to get our money.

We then contacted her and she said that she had changed her bank and could not refund to the credit card. She then said she would send a check. Well after another delay we got a “check”. It was a check that was drawn on a new account.

It had numerous problems with it. She had spelled my name wrong, and then crossed out part of it. She used numbers instead of dates, so it looked like the check was written on February 8, 2010 instead of August 2, 2010. She also shorted us by 300 pounds.

Needless to say, his bank wouldn’t accept the check. A subsequent credit card dispute didn’t work because it was an overseas transaction, according to his bank.

So here I am, out some $2,000 when we did everything correct. We researched the place, paid by credit card and got screwed. It is not feasible for me to try and collect $2,000 from London.

It is not fair that I should get screwed by this landlord and my credit card company. Can you help?

I thought Silverman had a strong case, and that he should be dealing directly with HomeAway. But when I read the details of its guarantee, I came away with two impressions. First, who the hell writes these contracts? And second, I’m not convinced it applies to Silverman’s rental.

Anyway, I contacted HomeAway on Silverman’s behalf. Maybe, in the interests of good customer service, it would find a way to help him with a refund. Here’s the response he received:

We’re so sorry to hear about your negative experience with property [redacted].

We certainly appreciate the time and effort made to communicate this unfortunate situation during a frustrating time. We want all of our travelers to have a positive experience. Reports such as yours help us maintain the integrity of the site.

Please note that the property you referred to, listing [redacted], is no longer displayed on our website.

You may try calling the advertiser at: [redacted]

According to our complaint process, we have documented your complaint details on the advertiser’s account. Per our privacy policy, we will be unable to discuss the details of any actions.

Although this may be no consolation for this trip, for your next trip we have the following programs specifically designed to protect our site users
when booking vacation rentals online:

HomeAway Carefree Rental Guarantee: http://guarantee.homeaway.com/
Access America Trip Insurance: http://uat.accessamerica.com/homeaway

Thank you again for bringing your experience to our attention, and we wish you carefree renting in the future.

In other words, sorry, no can do on the refund — shoulda bought the insurance. (I’m not sure an Access America policy would have covered a dirty apartment, but I might be wrong about that.)

At any rate, this case was a spectacular failure from my point of view. Silverman deserved a full refund, and if HomeAway couldn’t vouch for the apartment, then why deal with the site at all? Why not just visit Craigslist for your next vacation rental?

I do see HomeAway’s perspective on this, too. If it starts refunding every rental for which there’s a hygiene issue, it would probably be bankrupt in no time. And Silverman didn’t have to check out of the unit and go to a hotel.

Still, it upsets me that this customer had to take a £1,350 loss. I wish I could have helped him.

(Photo: jdiego_gr/Flickr Creative Commons)

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  • Leigh

    Homeaway is not a manager of vacation rental homes (they are just a listing service), so renting through them is indeed similar to renting through Craigslist. The renter should choose a professionally managed vacation home in the future. Professional vacation rental management companies would have collected the money themselves, and only passed it along to the property owner once the guest had successfully checked in. This situation would have been completely avoided. You can look at VRMA.com for a list of professional management companies in the US (I believe they will be expanding out of the US in the near future).

  • Leigh

    Homeaway is a listing service, that advertises itself as though it were more (“guarantee”). You must rent with a professional management company who will collect the money themselves as the middleman and disburse it to the home owner only after the guest checks in successfully. The public needs to become more aware of the distinction to avoid more of these situations.

  • Brooklyn

    I don’t know the legal situation, but if he cashed the check it might be interpreted as an acceptance of that amount as the full refund he was due. Can some of you lawyers advise? If he wants a full refund I think he needs to ask for a new check, although he should really have contacted the owner as soon as he got there to see about having the place cleaned.

  • Anonymous

    if for the single reason he was promised an airconditioned unit…this should be refunded.

  • Anonymous

    “After all, the site specifically guarantees its rental properties won’t be misrepresented.”

    How is this *NOT* HomeAway’s responsibility?

    Section 2, clause C specifically says that Material misrepresentation is a cause for being covered under their guarantee. I would say no airconditioning and horrible sanitation to be a material non-compliance as the define it in the above clause!

    Section 3, which outlines exclusions do not mention any of the issues this customer encountered, so according to HomeAway’s guarantee document which guarantees up to $10,000 of coverage should cover this customer’s rental!
    of course, IANAL, but read it for yourself:
    http://guarantee.homeaway.com/tac

  • Sadie Cee

    I sympathize most deeply with the OP. On two occasions I booked accommodation in London, U.K. from home for extended periods and on arrival was appalled by the filthy conditions. Fortunately, even though we planned to stay for two months in each case, we were only required to pay in advance for 3 days in one case and 5 days in the other. We tramped around, made phone calls and in less than 24 hours were able to secure suitable alternative accommodation. We decamped as quickly as possible.

    We returned the keys to the management office and did not bother to go through the hassle of asking for a refund. The monetary loss was not all that significant in each case.

    The third time we had to do it again, we booked ahead into a recognized hotel for 2 nights and in the daytime visited places in person to find one that came up to our standards. Even then although we indicated we were staying for 8 weeks, we were able to pay on a weekly basis.

    No way would I ever pay the large sum the OP paid in advance for accommodation, sight unseen, unless it was in a first-class hotel. I don’t believe that even though he deserves a refund that he will ever see his money again.

  • Karen F

    I have used Homeaway and/or VRBO no less than a dozen times to book rentals across the US and throughout Europe and have always been very pleased with the quality of the properties and the responsiveness of the owners. One bad apple, and a company sticking to its policy very specifically, are not enough reasons for me to start paying more to stay in boring hotels that could be anywhere – I do that enough with my job, thank you. I’m in the middle of a Homeaway booking right now for our annual Girls’ Beach Weekend along 30A in the Florida Panhandle – Beverly has been a pleasure to work with and I have no doubt her home will live up to my expectations.

  • Karen F

    I’m afraid I don’t see a single property on this site that’s in the UK – not much help at all. The beauty of the big sites is that they have multiple properties in locations all around the world. They offer great selection from which to choose.

  • Jjweldon

    Because Homeaway makes a guarantee they should be responsible. If they had any sense they would have a disclaimer saying they do their best to ensure the accuracy of the listing but they cannot guarantee every feature is true. Then it’s a no-brainer. You cannot offer a guarantee and then throw up your hands and say “not my fault.”

    You should file a complaint with the FTC and the TX attorney general’s office. That may get their attention.

  • Jjweldon

    @Leigh: “Homeaway is not a manager of vacation rental homes (they are just a listing service), so renting through them is indeed similar to renting through Craigslist.”

    Except Craigslist does not make a performance guarantee. That makes it a very very different game.

  • Jjweldon

    “Beyond that, this is purely a transaction between the rental guest and rental owner and it’s the owner who owes the guest the refund.”

    Those legal terms and conditions. Always getting in the way

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000171447550 Margery Wilson

    The bank rejected a check because the name was misspelled and the date was in European style (day of month/month/year)? My bank accepts checks with misspellings of my name (happens frequently!) and European dates, I don’t understand this. My bank would cash the check without problems — unless the check was returned for insufficient funds.

    England is not at the end of the universe, I’ve been able to seek assistance with problems using the British chapters of BBB and other such agencies. I am aghast that this customer took a loss of this amount without pursuing common sense remedies beyond HomeAwayFromHome and the landlady. Heck, for an amount like $2000 I’d file the equivalent of a small claims action in London. Just filing such an action might be enough to get the refund.

  • Mark K

    You can also have your bank send the check for collection (this is not like a bad debt collection agency thing, it is an inter-bank process for collecting the funds on items that don’t qualify to go through standard automated check clearing because the item is damaged or has readability issues) where you receive the amount of the check after the foreign bank pays it. Most major banks will do this. There is a small extra fee, but at least you get your money most times and in this case would be better than nothing.

  • Livermorebrian

    “She used numbers instead of dates, so it looked like the check was written on February 8, 2010 instead of August 2, 2010.”

    Any sentient person would know that in Europe they write the date as Day Month Year not the US way of Month Day Year. If you talked to a bank manager you probably could have got it deposited. Worst thing that could happen is that the other bank sends it back. Also, if they wrote you one check why the hell couldn’t you talk to them and have them send you another check? I would even offer to pay for postage for that amount.

    Sounds like you got impatient and the property owner is trying to make it right to some extent?

    Seems to be contacting the owner about another check would be the next step.

  • http://wnissen.livejournal.com/ Walter N.

    Yep, it is $300+ minimum, just to get decent search results.

  • http://www.telavivapartments.org/ tel aviv apartment rentals

    nice building .. im sure this is one of the most beautiful things in that place. . and im sure many people go to that place ..

  • MikeZ

    I’m not sure if anyone else pointed this out, but the people at her bank are morons. In Europe, dates are written by date/month/year, so 2/8/10 would be August 2nd, 2010. Even if the check had been dated Feb 2nd, it would STILL BE GOOD. Checks do not expire after 90 days as some companies would like you to believe when they put them on the checks. Call your bank and they will tell you this. You can write any expiration date on your check that you would like and they will still cash it regardless of the date.

  • http://www.travelswithnathan.com Nathan Segal

    After a disastrous experience with a con artist and rentals, I’ve come to the following conclusion: Never pay for a long stay in advance. Instead, do one of two things, put a small amount down, say $100.00 with the rest on completiong of the deal. If you see it and don’t like it, you’re only out of pocke the $100.00. The other option is to get a cheap hotel for a day or two and when you arrive, look for another place that suits you better. I know that’s not an ideal solution for everyone though it’s the best one I have.

  • Sylviaguarino

    As a vacation rental owner , vacation rental user and active on several vacation rental owner boards, I think I can speak from a lot of first hand experience. It is not likely most owners will be open to the kind of suggestions here regarding putting down little or no money to reserve (a condo, house, cabin, etc.) Questions to the owner, reviews, networking on Facebook and Second Porch should reveal what you need to know to book a vacation rental property. Owners with popular places are not going to risk having a guest show up with little to no money down and then leaving because they find something objectionable. And no nice hotel I have ever used would do that either.

  • FTL Vacation Rental

    Sad story, but shows you need to do your homework when looking for a vacation rental. Do everything you can to avoid a scam. As for testimonials from previous guests. When traveling to South Florida, please consider staying with us, FTL Vacation Rental. You can find us on Facebook or our website is http://FTLVacationRental.com. Very nice, clean homes and close to Fort Lauderdale’s beach. We also advertise on Homeaways

  • Sadie Cee

    My sentiments exactly. Sorry that others do not see the benefits of our practices or share our views.

  • Sadie Cee

    Are you familiar with the London, U.K. vacation rental scene? Just asking.

  • madchickenlittle

    Chris,

    I wonder if HomeAway realizes that folks like me (I am currently planning a 2 week trip to London in October) are going to avoid using their site if there is no advantage to me as a renter for using them as a go-between.

    I am waiting for the rental site that puts the rents into escrow and pays the landlord after a successful rental experience.  Until then, I avoid them.

    HomeAway shouldn’t advertise any sort of guarantee if it’s all puff and no substance. Shame on them.

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