Review closesttodisney -Palm Tree Vacation Homes

[Barry Robinson]

I rented a condo through this company and it was the WORST condo that my family has ever stayed in. It was filthy inside. The cable was disconnected for 5 days because the owner didn't pay the bill. The kitchen light would go out 10 minutes after being turned on, forcing us to eat out at night, spending extra money. the table and chairs on the patio looked like they had never been cleaned. One of the chairs had a small crack in it and when a family member sat in it , it broke , leaving a large gash in his leg. Towels had to be put on the kitchen chairs because they were also filthy. The clock didn't work. A bulb in the chandelier was out. The carpets in the condo were filthy. The bedspread and pillow shams had rips all in them. When I called I was told that the cable issue was being worked on and a technician would be sent out to fix the other problems. The new cable was installed after 5 days and it had around 15 channels compared to the 70 channels that we had. The technician never showed up. Fortunately, I had someone listen in on every phone call to verify what I was being told. We received calls from bill collectors trying to reach the owners. When we checked into the condo, there was only 2 bath towels, 2 hand towels and no wash cloths. After calling the management company, they did bring out bath and hand towels. I was under the understanding that Palm Tree Vacations was going to refund 5 days of rental to us, to compensate us for being without cable and the other issues. When we checked out, They wanted to refund $ 500.00 instead of the $550.00 plus taxes. I am now waiting on the paperwork to take this "management company" to small claims court. I hope The court is able to get the attention of Closesttodisney/Palm Tree Vacation Homes, so that no other family has to go through what we went through. If you would like to see any pictures of what we had to stay in, please e-mail me.

 

[katscradle]

I see that you are new here so welcome.

I won't comment on your post as we have never stayed off disney property.
I am sorry that you had a bad trip.
However these boards can be very helpful in planning a WDW vacation.
Along with recomendations of great places to stay both on and off property.

 

[dougsmom98]

Oh no. I am sorry you had such a bad stay. Two years ago when we stayed at a home in Solana Resort, the cable got turned off because the owner/management company had not paid their bill. It took 5 days to get cable for us too. Our home was beautiful so we didn't have some of the issues that you had, but the pool filter hadn't been cleaned in quite a while and the pool turned green for the last 3 days of our stay. I can imagine how awful your stay was. The good news is, we have had great stays all other times. Most owners are really good. I hope you have better luck next time.

 

[MM32830]

As a former owner of a vacation rental home, I can tell you that almost all the problems you experienced are a result of a poor management company unless the owner is local and manages his own house.

I always took pride in making sure that my house was clean and in good repair but being 1500 miles away made that difficult between rentals. I would purposely visit the home 4-5 times a year just to make sure that the house was clean and in good shape. Unfortunately, many owners of rental homes are from England which make it difficult for them to check up on their houses.

There are lots of good clean rental houses and condos (Kevin and John have one; more?) and are a very good alternative to staying on Disney property.



_________________
Armand

 

[isla bonita]

So sorry your holiday turned out this way. No need for the neglect of the home.
Hope all goes in your favor on getting your $$$ back.

 

[KathVA]

We just booked with www.orlandovacationrentalsneardisney.com and they use the Palm Tree Vacation Homes as their management agency. I booked a townhouse. I wonder if it's different people using this agency. I don't think the TH that I rented is owned by the same people of your condo?


Kath

 

[jeza66]

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. We have rented through closesttodisney several time over the past 2 years and have not had any problems. I'm surprised that with all you experienced, you had not asked to be moved to another condo, rather then stay there and then ask for your money back.

 

[closesttodisney.com]

as always there are 2 sides to every story, and being a small family business we feel the need to defend ourselves as some of the comments/complaints were unjust and untrue.

the main complaint that Mr Robinson had was the lack of cable, when we were informed of this we did everything we could to have it turned on in a timely manner, we even offered to move them to another condo, but this was declined. we also generously offer him compensation for his inconvenience of $500, again this was declined. at no point did we offer him $550+taxes, as this level of compensation was totally unrealistic for lack of cable at a resort less then 5 minutes from Disney.

none of the other complaints were brought to our attention until the day of check out and none of the issues were raised by the guests who checked out 3 days earlier.

we would very much like to see the pictures as we have been offered them 3 times and as yet haven't seen them.

MM32830 - i can assure you that not all the problems are the result of being a poor management company, and you as a former owner should no this!!

KathVA - i would like to reassure you that you have nothing to worry about, we are a family business of 3 (and 2 young kids) and this is our livelihoods (not a hobby) and pride ourselves on people having a great stay. 99% percent of the people that stay are delighted with us, unfortunatly there are those who we can never please and will use any tatics to get compensation.

luckily, no court in the great country is going to justify that level of compensation, especially after such a generous offer and an alternative offer.

 

[MM32830]

MM32830 - i can assure you that not all the problems are the result of being a poor management company, and you as a former owner should no (sic) this!!

As a former owner I feel somewhat qualified to comment about this matter.

In my opinion, any problems with a rental home is almost always the fault of the management company. I certainly hope you don't take offense but as a management company it is up to you to make sure that all aspects of the house to be rented is up to your highest standards. If it isn't, don't put anybody in it.

Your housekeeper is your eyes and ears. When he/she goes in to clean after a stay, they should be looking for problems that need attention and until those problems are corrected, you shouldn't put anyone in that unit.

I certainly am aware that they are many owners that really don't pay attention to the day to day details of their rental home. If they can't (or won't) do this, it is up to the management company to insist that they take over the details or be dropped from the rental pool.

There may be other facts at hand about this situation that I am not aware of but I can safely state that a proactive management company should be able to catch 95% (or more) of those problems.


___________________
Armand

 

[KathVA]

as always there are 2 sides to every story, and being a small family business we feel the need to defend ourselves as some of the comments/complaints were unjust and untrue.

the main complaint that Mr Robinson had was the lack of cable, when we were informed of this we did everything we could to have it turned on in a timely manner, we even offered to move them to another condo, but this was declined. we also generously offer him compensation for his inconvenience of $500, again this was declined. at no point did we offer him $550+taxes, as this level of compensation was totally unrealistic for lack of cable at a resort less then 5 minutes from Disney.

none of the other complaints were brought to our attention until the day of check out and none of the issues were raised by the guests who checked out 3 days earlier.

we would very much like to see the pictures as we have been offered them 3 times and as yet haven't seen them.

MM32830 - i can assure you that not all the problems are the result of being a poor management company, and you as a former owner should no this!!

KathVA - i would like to reassure you that you have nothing to worry about, we are a family business of 3 (and 2 young kids) and this is our livelihoods (not a hobby) and pride ourselves on people having a great stay. 99% percent of the people that stay are delighted with us, unfortunatly there are those who we can never please and will use any tatics to get compensation.

luckily, no court in the great country is going to justify that level of compensation, especially after such a generous offer and an alternative offer.

Thanks for posting! As you said, there is always to sides to every story. I did go back and read your website after I posted and saw that you were a family-owned business . We do look forward to our stay next summer . I'm sure everything will be just great!!

Thanks!
Kath