at what point is it false advertising? UPDATE: Owner threatening to sue me.

[connorlevismom]

Hopefully the owner has not had more contact with you. If she does, you need to report her to the authorities as she seems unstable to me.

Good luck with your next vacation rental.

She has not contracted me again and neither has "Kathy". I hope the owner learned her lesson and learns to treat renters better. But I just looked on her website and the grill is still on it, so either she bought a new one or she did not learn anything.

It is just to bad that it had to go down like it did.

 

[brucerob62]

did this owner have references? when we go off site i always ask for them. I have never had a problem. Hopefully this is a rare instance if this owner has rented before.

 

[connorlevismom]

did this owner have references? when we go off site i always ask for them. I have never had a problem. Hopefully this is a rare instance if this owner has rented before.

I looked at her online reviews and it all seemed legit. It was my first time renting a house so I thought I did all my research that I needed to do. I checked out her management company and they were good, but she switched bewteen the time I rented and the time we actually stayed and I did not know that.

It was just one of those things were I got a really bad owner and paid the price for it. But I also rented 3 other homes at the same time (we had a family reunion down there) and had absolutely no issues with those. So it was just a bad apple.

 

[SunkistJoy]

I looked at her online reviews and it all seemed legit. It was my first time renting a house so I thought I did all my research that I needed to do. I checked out her management company and they were good, but she switched bewteen the time I rented and the time we actually stayed and I did not know that.

It was just one of those things were I got a really bad owner and paid the price for it. But I also rented 3 other homes at the same time (we had a family reunion down there) and had absolutely no issues with those. So it was just a bad apple.

Would you mind posting the names of the other 3 homes you rented? We are looking for a home for Sept or Oct and would love to know which ones are good. Thanks to your heads up we definitely know who to stay away from!

 

[connorlevismom]

Would you mind posting the names of the other 3 homes you rented? We are looking for a home for Sept or Oct and would love to know which ones are good. Thanks to your heads up we definitely know who to stay away from!

Sure!

Laughing Place - Beth Stec, owner.
This is a 4 bedroom house and was great. The owner is amazing and extremely easy to work with. We are renting from her again next month. She also owns 2 townhomes in Windsor Hills. Home is managed by Florida Sun.
http://www.laughingplacevilla.com/

Magic Palace - Rita Smith
This is a 5 bedroom house. The layout was a little strange - but the house was clean and Rita was pleasant to work with.
http://www.themagicorlandorental.com/magicpalace

Tinkerbells Retreat
This is a 6 bedroom home, but the owners also own a 4 bedroom house as well. It was very clean and managed by Magical Vacation Homes.
http://www.windsorwonderland.com/#

If you have any questions about any of them, please let me know. I am more than happy to help!

 

[nugov2]

Wow...thanks for the naptime entertainment What a nut. Glad this got bumped up so others will not rent from her. We are renting from WH in June, but thankfully not from her!

 

[ABtwinmommy]

Wow.

Thank you for the review ..... And the subsequent entertainment

I must say, the owner's response and reaction to the situation including the "reviews submitted by owner" and the whole "Kathryn" thing was just and 10x more of a reason to NEVER EVER rent that property than the original issue in the first place. Your issues were completely valid but I don't think the owner could have handled it worse. That was... special.

 

[mamabear0222]

Wow I read this a while back. Thanks to Kathryn I don't think many people here will risk renting from this person. A whole lot of crazy. BUMP This one should be a sticky!!!

Sent from my Samsung S3 using DISBoards

 

[SunkistJoy]

If you have any questions about any of them, please let me know. I am more than happy to help!

Thank you! I will look into each of these.

 

[mrsklamc]

Would you mind posting the names of the other 3 homes you rented? We are looking for a home for Sept or Oct and would love to know which ones are good. Thanks to your heads up we definitely know who to stay away from!

We had great experiences with 5mins2disney and romancing the mouse.

 

[coastgirl]

Notice how this "kathryn" or whatever her name is, used the word "holiday" for vacation. Sounds like this "kathryn" could be from the UK? Coincidence?Hmmmmm

LOL, good catch, thank you! I was more than a little chagrined that she claimed to be Canadian.

We also rented our first house with a game console we couldn't get to work/no useful games. (And it was also a system we don't have, which added novelty value.) Next time I'll ask first. But if owners want to rent directly, they should have the customer service skills to make sure renters understand what they're getting, not see how little they can get away with. Fortunately there weren't other major issues, and the owner and mgmt co were very responsive when we had difficulties with the internet, for instance. I think that's the difference. A reasonable work-with-you response keeps things from getting worse.

But clearly this owner doesn't have those skills!

 

[SunkistJoy]

We had great experiences with 5mins2disney and romancing the mouse.

Thank you! Romancing the Mouse is my front runner right now. We are waiting to see which week my dh gets vacation before we can book. Since we are a party of 9 (my parents going also), there is only one RtM home we will fit in. So I'm looking for backups...and/or an even better deal! Decisions, decisions...

 

[hoff41]

Bump. Best thread ever

 

[Disneymom2kiddos]

I came on here looking for info on WH, but this was AWESOME!! BEST THREAD EVER!! Plus, thanks for the info on different places to stay!

 

[brunette8706]

Hi OP!

I am for a loss of words! I'm so sorry about the fiasco from this woman.

And to think she gets $1600.00 A WEEK for her home is ridiculous!

Hope you have a better time finding another vacation rental. I'll be sure to put this on my NO list! LOLOL!

Brunette

 

[Sunnywho]

All this aggravation could have been avoided through a $45 grill rental and a $20 offsite games rental! For lack of $65 and some manners, who knows how much business she has lost.

 

[Ametista]

I have been thinking a lot about this thread because it bothers me. Now, I can see being disappointed by the Playstation not having games, but honestly, I can't imagine that it would be possible to keep them from being stolen. My own son did not take very good care of games on disks, so how would vacationing kids treat them? That goes for the system remotes too ($50/each every time to replace?). The barbecue, well, they should quit advertising it.

But what gets me is this: I have been to many, many resorts and hotels where some great advertised feature wasn't working. For instance, we went to Cozumel and the hot tubs weren't heated/were broken. One trip to Orlando the water slide at our resort was broken. At another one the pool heat wasn't working. One place advertised three bedrooms but the third was barely larger than a closet and you couldn't even get the door all the way open because the bed was in the way. At one resort the spa/shower setup was like a death trap because the shower sprayed water all over the tile floor no matter what you did.

My point is, you will find a complaint at EVERY place you stay, but do you demand to be compensated or want your money back for it? Or is it maybe easier to just go after a private property owner and threaten to leave bad feedback and destroy their small business? I just don't think the fact that games and a barbecue were missing warrant this thread.

And if the barbecue HAD been there, who do you think would have cleaned it? I doubt anybody would, which is probably why it ended up in the trash. Unless they could find guests willing to pay an extra $20 cleaning fee for the barbecue?

 

["Cinder" Ella's Mom]

I have been thinking a lot about this thread because it bothers me. Now, I can see being disappointed by the Playstation not having games, but honestly, I can't imagine that it would be possible to keep them from being stolen. My own son did not take very good care of games on disks, so how would vacationing kids treat them? That goes for the system remotes too ($50/each every time to replace?). The barbecue, well, they should quit advertising it.

But what gets me is this: I have been to many, many resorts and hotels where some great advertised feature wasn't working. For instance, we went to Cozumel and the hot tubs weren't heated/were broken. One trip to Orlando the water slide at our resort was broken. At another one the pool heat wasn't working. One place advertised three bedrooms but the third was barely larger than a closet and you couldn't even get the door all the way open because the bed was in the way. At one resort the spa/shower setup was like a death trap because the shower sprayed water all over the tile floor no matter what you did.

My point is, you will find a complaint at EVERY place you stay, but do you demand to be compensated or want your money back for it? Or is it maybe easier to just go after a private property owner and threaten to leave bad feedback and destroy their small business? I just don't think the fact that games and a barbecue were missing warrant this thread.

And if the barbecue HAD been there, who do you think would have cleaned it? I doubt anybody would, which is probably why it ended up in the trash. Unless they could find guests willing to pay an extra $20 cleaning fee for the barbecue?

That is why you hire a management company. They inspect the home and charge the previous tenant if items are missing (video games). Then they replace them with that money. Every house should have a before and after checklist. They also contract cleaners who clean the home and grill. If you as an owner want positive feedback, either hire a reputable management company you can trust or be ready to make it right. When many other properties charge for the use of a grill, having one included factors into your decision to rent a property. Knowingly lying and saying you have one is not acceptable.

 

[mrsklamc]

I
But what gets me is this: I have been to many, many resorts and hotels where some great advertised feature wasn't working.

My point is, you will find a complaint at EVERY place you stay, but do you demand to be compensated or want your money back for it? Or is it maybe easier to just go after a private property owner and threaten to leave bad feedback and destroy their small business? I just don't think the fact that games and a barbecue were missing warrant this thread.

What matters is 1) what the issue is and 2) how it is handled. If I am planning on grilling a lot, a missing grill could destroy my food budget. (our last trip was 11 people so messing up a meal could cost a lot of $.) Additionally, it seems this owner has known for awhile the grill is missing but chooses to keep advertising (which you acknowledged she should not do.) And the video games are a no-brainer- you check after each guest, and if they are stolen you buy new ones out of their security deposit. (That's what a security deposit is for- a practice also followed by hotels. ) But the biggest issue is how this was handled. An apology rather than acting like either a brat or a psychopath- take your pick- would have gone a long way.

And yes, if the issue was big enough I would complain to a hotel as well.

 

[hoff41]

Bump. Just love this thread will bump to keep places like this from messesing with potential clients