Can you tell if a vacation rental is terrible just by reading the description? Are there such things as vacation rental warning words?
Maybe.
It turns out that vacation rental hosts often embed words of warning directly in their property descriptions. You just have to know how to spot and interpret them.
Carol Egan thought she was doing the right thing when she booked an expensive and nonrefundable room at a Hampton Inn. After all, she was coming to Wetumpka, Ala., for a special occasion, and she was just following the instructions for the event.
But the instructions were incorrect, leaving her with a $264 overcharge on her hotel bill. Now she wants our help getting a refund for her nonrefundable room.
Avis blindsided Claudia Lockwood with a $4,228 surprise charge after her last car rental experience.
She thought she’d done everything right and expected no problems. She brought the car back to the correct lot and left the keys in the vehicle, as instructed. Lockwood even saved her gas receipt that showed she had filled the tank before returning the Ford Edge SUV.
Not much good it did her. One month later, Avis claimed she still had the rental car in her possession. This, even though she had proof that she’d flown to Germany (without the car, of course) soon after the end of her car rental contract.
So will she just be stuck paying Avis this $4,228 upcharge?
Charysma Adams’ birthday party was ruined by a Vrbo host who wouldn’t let her into the house she’d rented for the night. But now, instead of returning her money, the host is making a bad situation even worse — and Adams wants our help to make it right.
Adams’ strange case is a warning to anyone thinking of using a rental platform like Vrbo or Airbnb for a special event. It’s also a reminder to do your due diligence when you’re planning a party. You don’t want to overlook certain important details, or you could end up standing outside in the cold like this birthday girl.
All Linda Shapiro wanted was to change her train tickets from Seville to Madrid. That’s all. How hard can that be?
Harder than you might think, it turns out.
Her online travel agency, Trainline, took her on an unexpected journey through ticket-change hell, followed by a surprise stop in refund purgatory. And now that I’ve almost run out of theological metaphors, here’s one more: Shapiro needs a little redemption from our team of consumer advocates.
When SriLankan Airlines cancels the flights for Joseph Obiora Ezezue’s wife and son, he requests a refund. But the airline refers him to his online agency, GotoGate. And it doesn’t help him. Who is responsible for getting his money back?
I purchased two airline tickets from GotoGate for my wife and son in late 2020. The tickets were for a one-way trip with SriLankan Airlines from Guangzhou, China, to Kigali, Rwanda. Sadly, the airline canceled the flight. I bought new tickets with Qatar Airways for my family to return to Kigali.
When Betsy Bair’s husband loses his job, they cancel their Vrbo rental. Are they going to lose all their money even though Vrbo offered them a refund?
My husband unexpectedly lost his job last year [2021]. We had to cancel a two-day vacation rental through Vrbo. I spoke to a Vrbo representative, who agreed to issue a partial refund of $751. I waited a month but did not receive anything.
I called Vrbo and the company told me it approved the refund, but that I would need to contact the property owner since the owner was the one that was holding up the refund. I contacted him again. Now he says he doesn’t know anything about a refund and never agreed to a refund.
Can you help me sort this out? Initially, all I wanted was a refund of the cleaning fee since we weren’t there. But ideally, I would like them to honor their promise of a partial refund. — Betsy Bair, The Dalles, Ore.
When Elie-Anne Chevrier rents a car in Palm Beach, Fla., she expects to pay around $200. So why did Hertz just charge her over $900 for extra days she didn’t have the vehicle?
Question
I recently rented a car from Hertz for three days in Palm Beach, Fla. Hertz billed me for 2 hours and 11 days.
I have contacted the car rental company several times to try to resolve this. But Hertz employees haven’t been able to fix this problem.
If Amtrak stranded you in the middle of nowhere after a train derailment, you would expect a refund, correct?
That’s what Matthew Lopez also expected after a disastrous ending to his recent national park vacation. A terrible Amtrak accident left him stranded in a remote location in Montana with no way home — and no refund from the company.
This case is unusual because Amtrak cases are few and far between in our consumer advocacy practice. But with the new infrastructure bill pumping billions of dollars into the national rail carrier, Amtrak and its customer service reputation are finding their way into the headlamps of our readership. Problems like these — and their resolutions — have a way of informing future booking decisions. And this case has all the elements of a true vacation nightmare. It features not only a deadly train derailment, but also shuttered hotels, vanishing transportation options, and a tone-deaf customer service department.
Why did Amtrak leave these people stranded and also refuse their refund request? Let’s find out.
Janet Fried and her husband had big plans to take a Mediterranean cruise next year with Tauck, a luxury tour operator. They looked forward to casting off in Marseille, France, on a small ship and visiting exotic ports of call in Corsica, Italy, and Sicily.
But they’ll never have that chance. In December, her husband died.
What followed should have been straightforward: Tauck should have refunded all of her money. It didn’t.
