Sunshine Magic Vacation Homes in Windsor Hills UPDATE, P.3

[BarbWB]

We arrived today very excited to get to stay in a pool house at Windsor Hills. When we landed, we called the mgmt co, Sunshine Magic Vacation Homes, to get the code for the door lock. They ARE GONE!!! The phone is "temporarily disconnected" on both the local number and the 1-800 number. We can't find ANYONE! And, I can't get ahold of the owner, either (I think he is in the UK, so maybe he is just missing our emails b/c of the time difference?)
Does anyone have the scoop on this company? What is going on? Is it b/c it is Sunday? Shouldn't the co be open to tell us the door code??? What is the deal?
Any advice appreciated.

We are staying in a so-so hotel tonight waiting to get this fixed tomorrow!!! ARGGGHHHH!!!

 

[janeprice]

So sorry to hear you are having these problems, it is terrible. There is someone on these Boards who can help you (he is a senior member of the CFPMA - Central Florida Propert Management Association - the body that lays down codes of conduct etc., for property managers). He has posted on another forum that he can help but he thinks he is probably not allowed to contact you on these boards as it might be misinterpretted as promoting his business (even though it would not be doing so).

Please P.M. me if you would like his help. I am certain he can sort this out for you and doing that is the most important thing!

 

[Mainebound]

Wow. This is the worst owner and/or MC behavior I have seen reported on these boards for as long as I have been here (5 + years).

I would forget trying to email the owner - if this doesn't justify a wake up call I don't know what does. Get on the phone and call them! (and then bill them later -- for the hotel and the call).

I hope there is a misunderstanding and all will be worked out. Maybe the MC just moved?

Please let us know how you are doing!

 

[mungo]

Did you book thru this management company? or thru the owner?

Either way you should of received your codes to get into the villa before you left.

Hope you get sorted anyway,

 

[gwensvilla]

I think the owner might be in for a surprise when they get the phone call/e-mail and probably not too chuffed at the management!!! (even if it is just a phone glitch!!!) and hopefully nothing more - fingers crossed for you girl!! Gwen

 

[cash]

Wow. This is the worst owner behavior I have seen reported on these boards for as long as I have been here (5 + years).

I would forget trying to email the owner - if this doesn't justify a wake up call I don't know what does. Get on the phone and call them! (and then bill them later -- for the hotel and the call).

I hope there is a misunderstanding and all will be worked out. Maybe the MC just moved?

Please let us know how you are doing!

I have to say Mainbound that you may want to re-consider your posting, we were over at our home a few weeks ago and while there we met the owners of the house next to ours, they were with this man/co and have lost £000's of pounds !!!!!!, how do you know that this was an owner booking, this man/co did get bookings themselves and if this was the case the owner may have never known, and i mean that literally !!!!!

Before having a go at the owner it might be as well to get the facts first.

 

[isla bonita]

I am so sorry this has happened to you. I hope all gets ironed out before to long.

Who ever is to blame I hope they compensate you well.

 

[Mainebound]

I do sympathize with the owner if the situation is as "Cash" describes, and I did not mean to impugn the character of any particular owner. It may well be that the owner is oblivious to the kind of MC s/he has hired.

However, IMHO, the owner of a vacation home -- and not the MC -- is ultimately responsible for fulfilling the terms of any contract he or she signs with a tenant. This is a matter of both law and ethics, IMO. If the MC has put one over on the owner, then the owner can seek recompense from the MC, but that doesn't absolve the owner of responsibility to the tenant for the contract s/he signed.

 

[tednvon]

Hello, you might try this number, Rutledge Realty International,

Call 1-800-917-8959 or E-mail: info@rutledgeintl.com ..

they advertise on the web site as the realtor for sales of property...they may know something...
All the best...Ted

 

[cash]

I agree that if its an owner booking then the owner does have responsibility but how would they now as in this case if the man/co has gone bust, I know for certain that in our neighbours case they did visit Sunshine Magic when they first got there to inform them they were changing man/co's but a few days later they went to visit them again and they had gone.

I dont know what the answer to this is, as its not the first case of a man/co doing a runner and ive no doubt it wont be the last, the only advice i would give to owners is make sure that you get monthly statements and if you have money owing to you insist it is paid into you account.

 

[irishgal]

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[janeprice]

I have managed to contact Barbara and she is contacting Steve Trover from ....... Homes. He is a really honourable chap with a very good and ethical management company. Barbara is going to call him and Steve has indicated he will be happy to give Barbara a free house on Windsor Hillls until/if this cannot be sorted out. I would have offered her ours but we are booked.
Barbara has emailed me to say she is now in contact with the owner and will contact Steve if she needs to.

So sad for the owners and the guest, but fortunately there is a network of owners who know each other and or have some of the good MC's. We can nearly always help a guest if something like this happens as we can use our network to track down the owner or MC and find out what is going on.

 

[sympatico]

I have managed to contact Barbara and she is contacting Steve Trover from ....... Homes. He is a really honourable chap with a very good and ethical management company. Barbara is going to call him and Steve has indicated he will be happy to give Barbara a free house on Windsor Hillls until/if this cannot be sorted out. I would have offered her ours but we are booked.
Barbara has emailed me to say she is now in contact with the owner and will contact Steve if she needs to.

So sad for the owners and the guest, but fortunately there is a network of owners who know each other and or have some of the good MC's. We can nearly always help a guest if something like this happens as we can use our network to track down the owner or MC and find out what is going on.

That's great ! Glad you guys can look after each other and us.

Just out of curiosity: jane, gwen, sevenstars, cash : you only have a very few posts on here how did you know about Barb's problem ?

 

[gwensvilla]

Have to back up Janes comments with reference to owners networking to help each other out and doing there best to help clients when problems may arise (as can be seen on this thread - the number of people who were willing to help with accomodation if they had the space- and Steve who has offered accomodation)- similarly there are a great set of management companies out there too - sadly we always hear about the baddies - but Steve Trover is a great guy and always willing to help with advice/ information on the vacation home business in his own time - Also the CPFMA are working hard to get the industry standards up. There will always be hiccups - just like double bookings in hotels and bumpings on flights!!! hope barbara gets sorted Gwen

 

[janeprice]

That's great ! Glad you guys can look after each other and us.

Just out of curiosity: jane, gwen, sevenstars, cash : you only have a very few posts on here how did you know about Barb's problem ?

It's very difficult to post on here without it looking like we are trying to promote our own homes (something we accept, we are understandably, not allowed to do). Some of us do 'Lurk" however and we are all members of a very large owners' forum. When something like this happens we try and rally together as there are concerned owners who hear about the problems and the call for help goes out. If we can help, we will, it is in our interests to show that the vacation home industry is a professional and courteous industry with most owners really caring about their guests and their homes.

A message expalining the mess Barbara found herself in was posted on the owners' forum and I was able, on this occasion, to post here to try and help Barbara. We have access to over 5,000 owners and we are usually able to track people down and sort out problems.

We are all individual owners and most of us would hate to see someone's vacation ruined.

 

[sympatico]

Jane,
Thanks for answering my question. We love staying in vacation homes and so far haven't had any problems. We'll be in WH the first 2 weeks of Nov. and hoping that everything goes smoothly this time too but if not I'll post a big HELP on this board.

 

[janeprice]

Sympatico,

You are most welcome. I am sure you will be fine in November but sometimes things can go un-avoidably wrong. If you need help, just post on here or on any of the other Disney Boards as many owners go on all the Boards and will help if they can.

 

[janeprice]

Hey, by the way, can anyone help me? Whenever I am on this Board and I press the "New Posts" button I get a search result screen saying my search did not produce any results. An ideas?

 

[tarmand]

Sorry, posted on the wrong thread.

 

[sympatico]

Jane,
I can't get the new post search to work either. There's been some ongoing technical issues for the last many months so I guess it hasn't been worked out yet. Maybe someone else knows more.