Some $$ back for problem vacation rental ??

[Nazgul Girl]

    Hi everyone !   Hope that you had a wonderful holiday season !    I am hoping your collective wisdom can help me with a problem that we just had with a vacation rental on Marco Island.

    We just spent 11 days on lovely Marco Island, FL.   My husband, our daughter, and our baby grand daughter and I rented a very nice (looking) home on the island for the vacation.  We rented it through VBRO.   This is our first experience with a VBRO.   Hotel prices are outrageous during "season," so this was the most sensible thing to do to house four people.   It averaged out to about $ 280 per night.

   We got to the house and all seemed well.   It's a classic flip with marble countertops and cheapie wood flooring, etc.   No problem.   Then came the issue with the flooring actually bending when you step on it when you go to step into the master bath.   Safety hazard.   Then came the no coffee cups.    Minor issue.    Then came the no Wifi, even though it was supposed to have WiFi.   The property manager managed to put in a new router by the end of our trip, but she didn't set it up, so I still couldn't use it.   Then came the cold snap and we turned on the furnace.   It stunk to high heaven.   It probably hadn't been serviced in years.   We couldn't use it.   The washing machine ( old as the hills ) gave out on the fourth day and flooded.   They got us a new washer a few days before we left.   Then came the:::::: COCKROACHES !    YES !    EEEEEEKKKKKK !!!!!   

    We have pictures of one of them.   It was in the bathtub in the guest bath.   You know, the one the baby was bathed in.   Prior to that, the baby pounced on a giant one, somehow split it into thirds, and ATE part of it.   I didn't see it happen, but my daughter showed me the leftover pieces.   It was disgusting.   The baby is smart, fast, beautiful ( ! ), and athletic.   I'm not sure about whether she's going to be an entomologist or not ( joke ).  

     We contacted the property manager about the issues.   She took care of the WiFi ( sort of ) and the washing machine.   Nothing on the cockroaches.   I'm very unhappy and asked her to give us a $ 30 per day cockroach refund.   I don't think that a " luxury rental " should have cockroaches.   Of course, I'm aware that Florida has cockroaches.   But this is our fourth rental on the island, and no others had cockroaches.   In other words, the owners or management companies had a regular pest spraying program.

    I'm trying to get ideas for getting some compensation for our not-so-peaceful vacation.    Of course, I can put up bad reviews on Yelp and VBRO.    I've held off on doing that until I hopefully get  some other ideas.    I looked up the owner of the house.    He's a bigtime realtor in Naples and on Marco.   I could also call him, but I don't know if he would care.   His property manager is a nice young lady who just started with him in October, and I don't really want to see her lose her job.   I could cause her to lose her job, but I don't want to do that.

    Has anyone ever been though an experience like this and and lived to tell the tale while putting a partial refund in their bank account ?    What approach did you utilize ?  

    Thanks much.  

    Naz

    

   

[Gardening Grandma]

The property manager did not do her job. Either she or the owner was too cheap to use a regular pest control program.
So, if you want to pursue this, you will have to let go of the worry about the oroperty manager’s job.

I’d send a certified letter to the property manager and cc the owner.  Lay out the details you posted here and conclude with a request for a specified refund with an expected date of response.

If you don’t receive a refund by the exoected date, I’d post a factual review on vrbo. I use vrbo a lot. I read the reviews carefully and they factor into my choices.

[hoops902]

I wouldn't use the approach of "$30/day cockroach refund". That just sounds like someone who saw a cockroach once and it trying to leverage it into a payoff. It also seems less likely that having 1 issue is going to motivate anyone into giving you a discount. I'd be clear every time you discuss it. There was no wifi even though the ad clearly stated there would be wifi.  We got a cold streak and could not use the furnace because it was not properly working (I assume you brought this up to the property manager as well at the time?  If not, that kind of negates your ability to come in after the fact and get money for your trouble).  The washer broke and it took X days to get a new one.  There were roaches.  I actually think the roaches might be your smallest claim...it's so overused and there's such an easy response "it's Florida".  I would stick to things you can quantify more easily (X days without wifi, X days without washer, X days without a furnace).

You almost certainly can't cause the property manager to lose their job over 1 bad rental experience.  If you can't get a response you want from the property manager then go ahead and call the owner.

[Tennesseer]

Nazgul Girl-hopefully you have a printed copy of the advertisement touting the amenities of the rental, yes?  I might come in handy if you decide to persue your concerns.

[alabamagal]

Cockroaches need to come in from the cold also.....

I don't like roaches, but grew up in South Florida.  My parents have struggled with them all their life in Florida despite maintaining a clean house and paying for pest control.  So that would be the thing I would not seek a refund on.

But if wifi was supposed to be included in the rental, that was an issue.  Unable to use HVAC system would be another issue worthy of refund.  And washing machine, might mention but they fixed that one.

Good luck.

[HoneyBBQ]

As someone who lived in texas with waaaaay too many cockroaches, I agree with hoops. Stick to the electronic failures and not the animal prevention ones. You should definitely get a refund for those problems. (but not the cockroaches, though you could mention it).

As an aside while cockroaches are horrible, it's better in my mind then living with the off-gassing of the pesticides and poisons they'd use to prevent them. Especially if you have a baby or small child.

[irishpad]

I concur with the advise above: concentrate on the Wifi, furnace, clothes washer and the lack of cups(a very basic thing that should have been supplied).   Our family has rented houses on Marco Island through VBRO twice in the last 4 years.   The second time the washer broke down on us.    They had it replaced in two days which I thought was very prompt (not many homes would be able to make it happen that quickly.)   

On a bright note for me, will be on Marco in two weeks staying with a friend from college.   Looks like it is suppose to be warmer than what you experienced.    My previous time there were over the Christmas/New Years holidays and we were lucky with great weather.   Sorry you missed out on that this year.   

[justme]

I'm 99.9% sure what you tried to use to heat the house was not a furnace. I could be wrong, but I don't know if anyone from central Florida south that has one. What houses in Florida have is essentially a heat strip in the unit that pushes the air it warms around the house. The first time I use it every year my place always stinks. It's burning off everything that accumulated on it in the last year. Mostly dust, maybe a bug.

You were much farther south then where I live so very easily it could have been years since someone turned on the heat vs less than a year at my place.

If the heat didn't work at all, definitely a refund, but if it just stunk well that's just kind of how any place in Florida is usually so I'm not sure they'd necessarily give money back.

[Nazgul Girl]

   Thank you for your thoughts and answers.   We want compensation for the roaches and inconvenience of Wifi and washing machine pooping out.    The other issues were more minor, including the heat issue, since it only got cold the last few days of our stay.    One thing we are always aware of with these properties is that we don't want to mess up someone's half a million dollar investment home, so we are cautious about running anything that is smelling bad such as the furnace, or seems to be acting up.   We call the prop manager instead.   

   I recontacted her by text today, outlining our concerns with the whole stay.   Coffee cups I don't care much about, although it's a symbol of how bad the prep was.   We have a couple of pictures of our daughter drinking out of a 2 cup measuring cup.   Hilarious.    I will call the owner if we don't hear from the manager.    Thank you for your input everyone. 

[Nazgul Girl]

    I do have a copy of the ad on VBRO.   Marco is heavenly, and much valued by its residents for good reason.   My father and stepmother live there in the winters ( well, now, 7 months out of the year ).      They don't step foot up north until May 1st.   They fly out ahead of the hurricanes, though.   Dad is almost 93.   I think 93 y.o.'s don't need to be in hurricanes lol.

[Nazgul Girl]

   I am still patiently waiting for a response to my inquiries about a partial refund.   I haven't heard back from our "rental agent" Angela, so I called the office today and spoke with someone else, and told her my tale of vacation rental woes, including the fact that I sent Angela a picture of the big ole cockroach that we found in the bathtub right before the baby's bath, and that she hasn't replied.    They will have Angela call me tomorrow.   I've been waiting to write my VBRO review of this place.....

[Value Buy]

I am confused.
Are you dealing with a property mgr or with VBRO?
I have always read where VBRO always worked for the benefit of the renter, or am I thinking of a different internet broker?

[milee]

For people who haven't lived in Florida, I totally understand that the roach thing is shocking and horrifying.  Unfortunately, it's a "Florida" thing.     

We lived in North Carolina for 3.5 years and Phoenix for 15 years and during those times, I saw a roach in my home/apartment once in each state.  Once.  We're been back in Florida now and unfortunately, fighting roaches is just sort of a constant thing here.  They are so prevalent outside, at warehouses, in shipping systems, everywhere that it's a constant battle.  Older homes - like the one described in Marco don't help either since there are places for bugs to get in from the outside.  You can keep as clean a house as possible and still you're going to be fighting the new ones that get in through the crack in the old window or in that box that UPS just delivered.  Sucks, but it's just a part of life in the tropics.

As far as getting the attention of a property manager, a picture of a roach would be disgusting but probably won't cause alarm since it's just one of those things that they deal with all the time.  Sort of like how people from Florida would be shocked and angry if they were staying in a rental up north and slipped on snow and ice stepping outside the door first thing in the morning - it's just one of those things that constantly happens and gets dealt with.  A picture of an icy patch in front of the door at 6 AM wouldn't alarm the landlord... it would have to be there for more than a day before it would rise to the level of neglect since you have to give them time to clear new issues.  Same thing with a roach.  It's icky, but unless the landlord is constantly using enough toxic nasties to cause the entire home to be a dead zone (at that level you're risking the health of the humans too), there will sometimes be a roach in a house here.  Even the million dollar homes.  

Not that a roach isn't gross, but if you want to get action from the management company, don't lead with the roach thing.  I'd focus on the lack of washing machine, Wifi and cups (kitchen - one of the main reasons people rent a house rather than hotel room is to prep meals there - wasn't adequately stocked with basic serving implements).

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Black pepper keeps roaches away.   My parents had a problem with them when the Missouri flooded and all our  basements were constantly damp/humid.   They didn't want to expose Gwen to pesticides so my mom looked up natural remedies.

She sprinkled it in the vents, under the fridge and my dad sprinkled it around the windows in the basement.   It worked.

[milee]

A few weeks ago I was using the main bathroom at 2 AM.  As I'm sitting on the toilet, I realize that there is a roach (ick!!!) on the floor.  I have nothing to kill it with and I'm worried that if I leave to get something it will run away and I will never be able to sleep knowing it's there but I can't find it.  So I grab the only thing there - the toilet brush and leap for this thing.

Of course it runs faster than I can in my half-asleep stupor so I end up chasing it around the bathroom - swatting, missing, swearing, bumping into things.  For about 20 seconds it must have sounded like rabid raccoons were battling it out in the bathroom.  When I finally got the damn thing, I felt bad because the ruckus must have wakened the whole house.  Nope.  DH and the boys slept through it all.  

I love Florida but roaches and humidity suck.  I try to comfort myself with the thought that they are the only reason our state isn't overrun with tourists and overpopulated like California, but it's small comfort when I'm doing battle with a roach in the middle of the night.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

The roaches my parents had were big enough that if I had tried to hit them they would have kicked my ass.  One came out of the sink, I made my grandfather come over and kill it. 

The bugs were HUGE that year.   The mosquitoes were big enough they could haul off small children.

[NastyWoman]

Jan 16, 2018 13:14:05 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

The roaches my parents had were big enough that if I had tried to hit them they would have kicked my ass.  One came out of the sink, I made my grandfather come over and kill it. 

The bugs were HUGE that year.   The mosquitoes were big enough they could haul off small children.

Slight trauma heh?

You want a really gross/horrific roach story? It happened in the cleanest house I ever lived in but those buggers can FLY andthere is no keeping them out!!!

So (in the style of Sophia from the Golden Girls) Imagine this: Bangkok 1984 I am asleep in my very clean, very well airconditioned bedroom. I turn over in my sleep and somehow my hand ends up on the top of my head. and then I felt it -> a roach scurrying away out of my hair... Well Milee's DH may have slept through her battle with the ROACH, my (now) xH most certainly did not. I screamed almost loud enough for the roof to cave in. And he was going after that ROACH, THE FLYING MONSTER ROACH. And not just that night → for weeks after he had to go into the bedroom and check everywhere and I mean everywhere armed with a flashlight before I would even consider getting back into that room.

Mind you I had seen plenty of roaches before that night, but the fact that it got into my hair <shudder>

[dee27]

Eww, Nasty woman! Better than your ear.

[raeoflyte]

I'm never going to Florida.  

[irishpad]

Sorry to continue the derailing of the thread, but the roach stories ..... need to share mine.  
I spent a summer in Colombia.   One week I flew from Bogota to Popayan (80 miles south of Cali) to visit a friend.   Went to bed, had light on while reading for a bit.   Saw some movement at the foot of the bed.   A roach climbing up and peeking over the edge.   This sucker was as big as my three middle finger put together (my hands are  big enough that I can easily palm a basketball)   I jumped out of bed, tried to kill it, but it slipped under the door into the hallway and disappeared.   I didn't sleep much that night.  

Nazgul Girl, I'm flying to Marco tomorrow for a week.   Need me to me to make a visit to Angela?  

[bobosensei]

I agree about not expecting money for the roaches.  I did property management on a large scale for a few years in North Carolina and Oklahoma.  Managed 900+ homes at the peak of things.  Even with regular pest control live roaches get inside of homes.  If you spray regularly they just die after they come in, it doesn't create an invisible physical barrier so that they can't get inside.  It's worse in warm climates especially if you don't have a good long freeze in the winter to kill things off like in Florida.  I also agree that the heat would probably have been fine once everything burned off. 

But I would be irritated about the washer and wifi.  Especially if it inconvenienced you at all having to be there for someone to get in or if you had to leave your belongings unattended while others were in the house.  I'd base the argument on that especially that TWO of the things happened at once.  If it had only been one you probably would have let that go.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Jan 17, 2018 12:20:46 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

I'm never going to Florida.  

Don't go to Hawaii either.  All 4 of our car rental had roaches in them.

[saveinla]

Jan 17, 2018 12:20:46 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

I'm never going to Florida.  

What about California? We have roaches here too - although not as much as it looks like in Florida

[raeoflyte]

Jan 18, 2018 15:34:45 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Jan 17, 2018 12:20:46 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

I'm never going to Florida.  

Don't go to Hawaii either.  All 4 of our car rental had roaches in them.

Yeah, that'd likely do me in.  

[raeoflyte]

Jan 18, 2018 15:36:23 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Jan 17, 2018 12:20:46 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

I'm never going to Florida.  

What about California? We have roaches here too - although not as much as it looks like in Florida

We have them where I live to, but I've never seen one in my house and am pretty unlikely to.  

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I've been lucky and avoided roaches but we had gnats one year.   DH and I were seriously discussing whether or not we'd win in an arson case.

Thank god a cold front came thru and killed the bastards.   I have no idea what caused the problem to begin with  but we haven't had a problem since.

[NastyWoman]

Jan 18, 2018 15:36:23 GMT -5 saveinla said:

Jan 17, 2018 12:20:46 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

I'm never going to Florida.  

What about California? We have roaches here too - although not as much as it looks like in Florida

I have yet to see a roach since moving to the Bay Area. And since moving into my condo 14 years ago I have seen exactly one (1) mosquito. There have been a few flies but very few and I am NEVER EVER moving to Florida, or an equaly hot humid place, for the rest of my life

ETA: that is not to say there are no roaches here/ I just haven't seen any

[saveinla]

Jan 18, 2018 16:39:04 GMT -5 NastyWoman said:

Jan 18, 2018 15:36:23 GMT -5 saveinla said:

What about California? We have roaches here too - although not as much as it looks like in Florida

I have yet to see a roach since moving to the Bay Area. And since moving into my condo 14 years ago I have seen exactly one (1) mosquito. There have been a few flies but very few and I am NEVER EVER moving to Florida, or an equaly hot humid place, for the rest of my life

ETA: that is not to say there are no roaches here/ I just haven't seen any

After a very long time, I saw one last week in the office. I guess it was too hot for them here in SoCal, so they were out and about

[toomuchreality]

Jan 15, 2018 15:57:52 GMT -5 Nazgul Girl said:

   I am still patiently waiting for a response to my inquiries about a partial refund.   I haven't heard back from our "rental agent" Angela, so I called the office today and spoke with someone else, and told her my tale of vacation rental woes, including the fact that I sent Angela a picture of the big ole cockroach that we found in the bathtub right before the baby's bath, and that she hasn't replied.    They will have Angela call me tomorrow.   I've been waiting to write my VBRO review of this place.....

Any new news?  Update? What's the latest? 


I can deal with a lot of things, but roaches are not one of them! 

[milee]

Jan 18, 2018 15:34:45 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Jan 17, 2018 12:20:46 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

I'm never going to Florida.  

Don't go to Hawaii either.  All 4 of our car rental had roaches in them.

Yeah, that's part of the story that the rental manager will probably be too polite to say, but there's no way to know that OP's family didn't bring the roaches into the house on their luggage.  Not that the luggage would have had roaches when they left their home in colder places, but there are just so many places to pick up roaches once in Florida.    It rarely gets cold enough in Florida to kill the outside roaches, so they can be in the trunk of a rental car, or on the baggage carousel inside/outside the airport, on the trucks that the airlines use to haul luggage to planes, etc.  And of course they're drawn to baby/kid equipment, which no matter how well cleaned still smells like drool and food...