We booked an apartment via vacationrentals.com. We had frequent contact with the owner and received a rental agreement, and made the payments for our stay. However, after the last payment, the owner vanished and we have not been able to get in touch neither on phone nor email. We did pay $2600 for the apartment which we expect was lost.
Consumer Complaints & Reviews
We rented a cabin thru Vacationhomerentals.com from Shirley M. who claimed to own the property. When we arrived there was no cabin at the address given. When we finally got a hold of her by phone and told her that the key code she had given us worked in another cabin that we found by matching the picture on the internet site, she said that she had made a mistake and that we were at the correct cabin now, though the cabin was dirty and not made up. The day we checked in two other families also showed up saying they had booked the cabin for the same dates that we had--also through Shirley M. and also paid in full.
Shirley never answered any of our phone calls after that and police reports were filed reporting it as a possible scam. We have never been able to reach Shirley M. as she does not answer her phone and she has not returned our money. The cabin is now being listed on other rental sites still by Shirley M. We were not able to get our money back for the deposit of about $375.00. We also ended up having to stay at several hotels costing us an additional $600.00.
On 12/17/2009, I visited the website vacationhomerentals.com. I sent a request for listing 45432 for more information on renting. On 12/17/2009 at 5:10PM, I received an email from Shirley ** saying that the cabin was available for the dates that we needed (12/26/2009-12/31/2009). I contacted Shirley by phone. She asked for a deposit of $300 to be sent through PayPal to Lynda ** and requested a credit card number to be held for security. She gave me a reservation number to include with the PayPal transaction.
I sent the Paypal payment of $300 on 12/18/2009. She requested we pay our balance by 12/21/2009 as a wire transfer to a bank. I said I was uncomfortable wiring money but she insisted that it cost them money to do Paypal, so they preferred that did a wire transfer. I sent the wire transfer of $309.98. On 12/23/2009, I emailed Shirley to confirm she had received our payment. On 12/24/2009, I received an email from her stating that she received our balance and we would receive our packet later that day. I never received anything. I called Shirley and left a voicemail several times saying that we weren't sure where we were going so we needed the address. We were scheduled to leave at 11AM on 12/26/2009. At 10:30AM, I finally received a call from Shirley giving us the address and key code.
We arrived at the cabin at approximately 7:30PM on 12/26/2009. There were cars in the driveway so my husband went up and looked inside. There was another family there. We went to leave and they came out and asked if we had rented the cabin for the night. We said we had. The family said that they had also booked the cabin for that week. They said that we were the second family to come by and say we had booked the cabin. All of us had paid in full, either wiring money or PayPal.
We called the Sevier County Sheriff's Department and filed a report. Upon leaving the cabin, I called Shirley ** and left a voicemail. I also emailed her stating the situation. I received an email on 12/27/2009 stating that there was a mix-up and we would receive a refund in 7-10 business days. This is the last contact I have had with Shirley. I have called and emailed several times with no response. I filed complaints with vacationhomerentals.com, my bank and Paypal. None have been able to refund my money. The cabin is no longer listed at vacationhomerentals.com. It is now listed with Shirley **.
