Ever had a dream holiday turn into a holiday nightmare?

Jan/Feb 2013, my wife and I stayed at the Riu Nautilus in Torremolinos, Spain, for four weeks, as we have done for many years. But this holiday turned out to have a very unhappy ending. Our room was entered, by the use of a key ( there was no evidence of any forced entry ), whilst we were at dinner. About £3000 worth of jewellery was stolen, and the locks on the suitcases were destroyed. Although the hotel reception was duly helpful in contacting the police, we had to visit the police station to make a statement, there was no offer to inspect the scene of crime.The Management could not have been less helpful. In fact the impression that my wife and I got was that there was a wish that we would just go away. There was not any form of regret or apology. It was not until the Thomson rep got involved did the hotel offer a bottle of wine. Later,information emerged that, from video recordings, there was no suspicious visitors either entering or leaving the hotel. It still makes me wonder how many people have keys to the hotel rooms and are aware when clients are unlikely to be in their rooms. No feedback has suggested that any formal investigation took place. Even Riu, the hotel group did not show any serious interest.

Some time ago – pre-Madeleine McCann disappearance – myself and my immediate family (Mother, Father, and Brother) were flying from Manchester to Faro, in the Algarve, Portugal, for a holiday in that area (Algarve). We were flying with some rather random and surely very little known-about airline, who probably by now do not exist any more. They also probably only had around one or two planes.

We arrived at the airport in plenty of time, I believe that check-in took about an hour, then we were through to departures for breakfast, which we had – everything up until this point seemed absolutely fine. After breakfast, we may have shopped around a bit, before heading to our gate. Upon arrival there, I believe that ourselves and everyone else on the flight were either held there at the gate for a while, or just sent straight downstairs to some slightly-secluded waiting area ‘at runway level’. We waited around down there for what was definitely over three hours but what was then approaching 4-hours (which I believe was, back then, the limit before I believe they had to reimburse passengers financially or provide food/drinks, etc.) before we were then finally taken out to the plane…… which we then sat on for another [not so] good few hours (probably, by now, waiting a clear slot to take off)!

At some point now on the plane, they handed out little plastic cups for hot drinks with a packet of some kind of biscuit inside, but they didn’t want to serve us hot drinks in-case we suddenly got a take-off slot (understandably, ultimately).

In the end, we /eventually/ arrived in Faro and then finally arrived at our end destination via hire car in-time for dinner – we were meant to arrive in-time for lunch(!).

Basically, they had kept us waiting for as much time as possible up to just before the point where they had to arrange for financial compensation or complimentary food/drinks, before then keeping us waiting yet again but now on the plane.

In hindsight, I’m grateful that I don’t actually truly remember the name of this shoddy airline!

My daughter went on holiday to turkey this year with her boyfriend and his family. They went on a jeep safaris and the driver was texting on his phone causing the vehicle to overturn and Bryony was catapaulted through the roof. She fell 260ft down a mountain. Miracously she survived with bruising and scratches. She waited 2 hours to be rescued. She spent 4 days in intensive car and wasn’t allowed to fly home for another week. She has pictures if the jeep and her injuries. Obviously there’s more detail to the story but she’s really lucky to be alive. An angel was certainly looking down on her that day.

In September 2013 we booked a fantastic 2 week holiday to Florida for our family with Virgin Holidays. We pushed the boat out and upgraded to Premium Economy flights to make sure that this holiday was special as it would probably be our last family holiday with the girls. We arrived in Florida on the 4th of July 2014 where we collected our hire car before we set of to collect our keys for our villa. When we arrived at the villa office, which was closed, we went to the drop box to collect our keys to find no envelope. We contacted the villa companies out of office service to be told they didn’t have a booking for us. We then contacted Virgins out of office service, based in Las Vagas, who couldn’t help us and didn’t seem to be bothered!!!! The villa people then offered us a villa 80 miles further south, which we had no option to take due to Virgins lack of support. During the 2 weeks we were in Florida we had no contact from Virgin. They totally ignored the emails I sent them.

Once we got back we sent a letter of complaint which wasn’t dealt with, with any satisfaction. When things go wrong, and you’ve paid a reputable company you expect the reps to sort things out!! We just wanted them to say SORRY , and deal with the matter. What should have been an idyllic holiday turned into a ‘make do holiday’. Not what you spend 8K on!!! I would not book or recommend another Virgin holiday.

I booked an apartment in New York between 23rd May 2015 – 2nd June 2015 through HomeAway.com (HomeAway), from a male that we will call the ‘Harlem Homeowner’, a total payment of $1,384.00 was made in March 2015 and paid directly to HomeAway (bank statements to prove this). I contacted the trust and security department of HomeAway on the 22nd May 2015 advising that I had heard nothing from the ‘Harlem Homeowner’. HomeAway also made a number of attempts to make contact with the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ but were also unsuccessful (email proof available). I had no choice but to book alternative accommodation through Airbnb for $1,768.00.

During a number of calls made to HomeAway on the 22nd and 23rd May 2015 I was advised that;

1. A payment had NOT been made to the ‘Harlem Homeowner’,
2. The money was being held in escrow with a sister company of HomeAway called VRP (vacation rental property),
3. If the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ had not made contact with HomeAway by the 24th May 2015 a fraud investigation would be carried out and HomeAway would contact me to confirm; and
4. The payment to the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ was not due to be made until the 25th May 2015 (the idea behind this is that they wait until travellers have accessed a property before any funds are released to homeowners)

At the point at which HomeAway were also unable to get in contact with the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ it was obvious that I was unlikely to get access to the apartment I had booked, HomeAway as a result of my issue removed the ‘Harlem Homeowners’ other property listings from their website. Additional advice I was given by HomeAway, was to;

1. File a complaint with the NYPD; and
2. Contact the bank to see if they could stop the payment (a payment that had been made to HomeAway two months previously and that was now being held in escrow with HomeAway’s sister company VRP vacation rental property

The one positive about HomeAway was that their trust and security representative did apologise for all the problems I was having and was kind enough to send me a list of property owners I could contact to see if they had accommodation I could rent for the rest of my time in New York. All the property listings I was given however were listings that would need to be booked through another sister company of HomeAway called VRBO.com. I would call this a 50% goodwill gesture, the other 50% is using my misfortune to make more money for HomeAway and its subsidiaries, but thank you J*** nonetheless. While sending a list of property owners, that could be booked through HomeAway’s sister company (VRBO.com), the trust and security team advised that I could NOT transfer my payment to a new apartment booked through their sister company and I also could NOT get a refund, but would have to make an additional payment (email proof of this conversation).

On the 25th May 2015 HomeAway, processed my payment to the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ even though;

1. HomeAway had known since the 22nd May 2015 that I had not been in contact with the ‘Harlem Homeowner’,
2. They knew I had not accessed the apartment on the 23rd May 2015 as agreed with HomeAway and the ‘Harlem Homeowner’,
3. HomeAway had removed all of the property owners listings from their website due to this issue and because they too was unable to get through to the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ (email proof of conversation); and
4. They had sent me a list of alternative apartments I could rent for the remainder of my holiday in New York

I sent numerous emails to HomeAway throughout my stay in New York and when I returned to London, but heard nothing from HomeAway, one of my emails included information relating to the ‘Harlem Homeowners’ social media accounts and proof that the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ was holidaying in Europe. I did a lot of my own detective work in order to identify the ‘Harlem Homeowner’, I managed to find him on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and his place of work. Understandably HomeAway would not give any information about the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ due to data protection, so I had to investigate myself (the wonders of the World Wide Web).

After hearing nothing from HomeAway for over a week, on the 9th June 2015 I contacted C*** S******* a CEO from HomeAway, who did very little to help, accept to advise that he had received my email and would forward it onto the correct department (I guess I should be happy he responded). Finally on the 18th June 2015 I did get a response back from HomeAway.com, BUT it wasn’t from the CEO; that would be too kind, or the customer service team; nope that would be too kind or the trust and security team; no that would be too kind also. It was from the Better Business Bureau an organisation I had first contacted on 31st May 2015 as advised by the NYPD (The Better Business Bureau is a platform in America to make complaints about companies, they will forward your complaints directly to the business for response). The full response from HomeAway regarding my complaint is below;

‘We cannot comment on this consumer/traveler’s complaint, because it appears that this complaint is not with our online advertising service, but appears to be the result of a marketplace transaction between this consumer and the owner or manager of an individual vacation home rented by that owner or manager to the public. We are in no way a party to the agreement or contract between this consumer traveler and the owner manager, and cannot solve this consumer’s complaint. Our advertising service is an online site for owners to advertise and travelers to find vacation homes to rent, but we are never involved in the transaction between the traveler/consumer and the landlord/property manager. See theTerms and Conditions below that the consumer/traveler and landlord/property manager agreed to about our role here. Therefore, this complaint is incorrectly being associated with HomeAway Inc, and it should be associated with the landlord/property manager.’

‘Finally, while we do take certain measures with a goal to assist users to avoid potentially fraudulent or other illegal activity of which we become aware, we assume no liability or obligation to take any such measures or actions. In the event we do provide warnings or messages to users about any such activity, we do not warrant that such messages or accurate or that such messages will reach any or all users they should have reached in a timely manner or at all or that such messages or measures will prevent any harm, result or action.’

‘According to our records this consumer also filed a formal property complaint against this advertiser. As part of that formal complaint process we did reach out to the advertiser on behalf of this consumer in order to try to get the two parties to settle their dispute. We however do NOT mediate; we simply try our best to put the two parties together to work the situation out if possible’.

The response from HomeAway still does not explain why HomeAway processed a payment to the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ after being aware that the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ had breached his contract by not giving access to the apartment as agreed. There is nothing in the HomeAway terms and conditions that advise travellers that payments to homeowners will be made irrespective of whether a traveller accesses an apartment or not and irrespective of whether the fault lies with the homeowner.

While HomeAway do not mediate between two parties, they would not give any information relating to the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ (email to prove this). HomeAway were a third party to the agreement as they were in receipt of the payment not the ‘Harlem Homeowner’, stopping the payment had nothing to do with not being a party to an agreement or not mediating between travellers and homeowners. There is also nothing relating to a non-refund policy relating to travellers, when it is the homeowners fault nor is there anything that states that travellers are not able to transfer their payment to another apartment when HomeAway or their subsidiaries are still in receipt of a travellers payment. HomeAway had every opportunity to stop my payment being made to the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ and they did nothing.

To end my nightmare experience booking with HomeAway, ultimately HomeAway are a breeding ground for fraudsters, HomeAway made a payment to a rogue homeowner and have no strategies in place to stop payments to homeowners where they breach their contract with travellers, in the form of not giving them access to apartments which is the end result when booking an apartment through HomeAway. Instead they make payments to rogue homeowners and leave traveller to fight to be reimbursed, which I am still in the process of, nearly 3 months after returning from New York.

I would urge anyone that has had a similar issue with HomeAway to make it public, I cannot even begin to imagine how many people this has happened to and the blame should lie first and foremost with HomeAway. It is about time HomeAway, the ‘Harlem Homeowner’ or any other rogue homeowners are held accountable for the negative impact their errors have on unsuspecting travellers.

P.S. My advice to anyone that is going through this issue or something similar

1. Always take the name of any customer service representatives you speak to
2. Always make a note of the date and time you make any calls to a business like HomeAway
3. Always make a note of the key points of a conversation you are having with a business like HomeAway
4. Let the person on the other end of the line know you are making notes and confirm that they are recording the conversation also
5. Before you end a call go over all the notes you have taken so you are both clear on what is discussed
6. Ask for an email address to confirm so you can confirm your telephone call in writing