Our villa has been sold!!!

[Mount Mayday]

We booked 2 villas way back in May(2015) for our forthcoming trip at the end of July (2016). Communication has been great with the villa owner until about May this year (after payment had been paid) Our friends who have rented one of the villas have had key codes and all the confirmation needed. AS of last week we hadn't received anything. So we sent about 4 emails-no reply. Last Saturday we decided to call the owner. Our call came as a shock to her! She then proceeded to tell my husband that she has sold the villa we had rented and the new owners have decided to cancel all bookings!!! She claims she has rebooked us another villa (and after being asked emailed pictures). We leave on the 31st July and still have NOT received any official documents confirming this new booking! I have emailed her again this morning as we are beginning to get really anxious about the whole thing especially with our friend having all her paper work in place. Any advice!!!!!!!!!

 

[disneyholic family]

did you book with vrbo? i seem to remember something on their website about being insured against something like this happening..

also, this actually sounds pretty darn illegal....they took your money when they must have known that they were selling...must have been in the process of selling...

 

[karen4546]

Yeah definitely not right... The owner knew she booked you and took payment. The new owner is not under obligation to keep booking but the original owner took your money and committed fraud-if they don't make it right I would contact your CC company and let them know.

I'm so sorry this happened. That's the only thing that worries me about renting points. I used a broker recommended on this site so hopefully everything goes as planned.

 

[LiquidSunshine]

So sorry to hear this has happened to you.

I agree with the previous posters, this sounds wrong.

As you have not heard anything further from her, personally I would now be looking at other steps to take. Did you book through a third party type website (i.e. Air BnB, Owners Direct etc) who you can now contact about this? If you paid by credit card, contacting your CC company also.

She knew you had booked & paid (her silence over the whole matter speaks for itself), if there was a rebooking then there would be no issue contacting you immediately, explaining the situation & give you all details/confirmation of the new booking.

Again, really sorry this has happened to you. It is an unnecessary stress that could have easily been avoided. I really hope there is a genuine mistake, but from my point of view, her actions are worrying and I hope you get sorted out.

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

We had this happen to us last July so I totally understand what you are going through. We had paid the full payment as well. Luckily for us, the new owner did honour the bookings and things turned out OK. It's a hard place to be, we had paid by cheque so thought we might end up losing our money, what about you?

 

[Mount Mayday]

Yes, we too have paid by cheque. Last Sunday she emailed to say she was going into hospital until fri (just gone) Yesterday I emailed and she responded with "i am still in hospital, hope to come out tomorrow. Still in a lot of pain and hope to get things sorted in the week". Without sounding HORRIBLE I don't care how much pain she is in!!!!! She has had this booking for over 12 months and SHOULD have had the decency to let us know what was going on! we have booked with "owners direct". Yesterday I emailed the owners of the villa she claims she has secured for us because our dates are showing avalible.No reply as of yet...

 

[Mrs Doubtfire]

I hope you do get a response soon. Our owner had a heart attack and had to sell his condo, in the aftermath of everything he had used an old email address for us, but it was agony for those days when I couldn't get old of him and thought we had lost everying!

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

Why didn't she just offer you your money back? Why did she book another villa you did not choose? I don't understand her relationship with the now booked villa?

 

[Wakey]

I wouldn't take the in hospital and in pain line on face value. My job is dealing with fraudsters and the financially stressed and I am afraid these are the types of stories you hear all the time. May be genuine, but certainly may not and may be just fobbing you off. No one honest takes money, sells the property (was it sold or repossessed) and fails to contact their customer. So your starting point is that you are likely dealing with a dishonest person. I'd email her and say if you don't get confirmation of the new villa in 24hrs then you are calling Orlando police (if she is in Orlando). The problem you now face is trusting whatever she tells you about a new place. Maybe better pressing for your money back and getting somewhere else booked. Contact Owners Direct. The whole thing may be a scam. The fact the owner of the supposed new villa doesn't know you either leaves me with a bad feeling. Where did you send your cheque?
Anti fraud tips for booking villas: Always do due diligence on the person and villa. Try if you can to book with a UK owner if you are in UK as easier to sue. Always Google the villa name and address, telephone numbers, owners names, emails etc. You will sometimes find the telephone number links to a person so you can check their identity. Enter into Facebook search their name and email and telephone number, you will often find them. The USA has open tax records on property where you can see who the owners are in Florida at least I think. In the past few years I have (seriously) found out from these simple things that the house owner who owned the place I rented at Rehobeth Beach was head of air traffic control systems for the whole of USA. I felt pretty confident he was genuine after that and he was a lovely guy even met us at the Air and Space museum Washington to hand over the keys. Last year I rented a house in San Destin and the guy was in charge of the new rockets they are developing at Nasa to go to Mars. These are extreme examples but show what checks turn up, just got back from a villa in Majorca I rented from an Irish guy I had aleady established was a police officer. I also nearly rented a place on Marco Island until a google on the owners name turned up a newspaper report that she was a convicted fraudster. Next always try to speak to them on the phone. If there is no phone number ask them what is so you can call (and do your googling). On Homeaway etc always only book with someone with a history of reviews. You may find they have their own Web page as well as the Homeaway vrbo type page. If you find one go to www.who.is and enter the Web page address and it shows you who owns that domain. Finally if you can, pay by credit card. Follow all these tips to reduce the risk of problems and fraud as much as possible.

 

[mackay_j]

have you checked her story out - You can check who owns a villa- if they have paid their taxes and if it is either being/ been sold or if repossessed/ bankrupt. Is the owner in the UK. If so it may be that they have handed your booking on to their agency that they have been using for cleaning etc - this happened to us at xmas. I am wondering if it may be the same woman - Our villa was out at haines in southern palms the pool heating broke and they couldn't afford to fix it so moved us to their agent. It was all ok in the end but I know they wanted to sell up.

 

[SpencerOrg]

I have no useful words of wisdom to add except I really do hope everything is ok for your holiday. All the best.

 

[disneyholic family]

what was the outcome? did you get another villa in the end?