Vacation rental issues

[svtrit]

We arrived at our vacation rental and were shocked how terrible the neighborhood is. Garbage, junk cars, damaged houses, unkempt yards, and other questionable things. The house is fantastic, though it only has a window AC that has frozen up in the 85 degree weather and we can’t hardly sleep.

Then I noticed 2 police cruisers outside trying to talk down a man who I couldn’t tell what the problem was. Hours later, as well as an ambulance and a massive fire truck, things calmed down and night set in.

We have scheduled a hotel for tomorrow night though we have one more night. Further investigation to the neighborhood let me know my 8 year old daughter is not safe, nor is my wife. Our bear spray is next to me in the house as I type this.

Am I out of line for wanting to ask for a refund for the last night?

Shame on me for not digging into the neighborhood before renting the property for 3 days, but this is not a good neighborhood.

The house is fantastic. It’s a sad situation.

 

[dishdude]

How'd you find the house? Were you searching for something in that general area?

 

[svtrit]

How'd you find the house? Were you searching for something in that general area?

I used a brand name vacation rental company website and looked in the town in the area we wanted to be.

The pictures of the house did not show much detail around it. I knew it was in town, but not exactly where is it’s other than the generic 11 minutes from this activity or 7 minutes from this restaurant, etc.

Plus I’ve never been to this town before.

Oddly enough, there were no bad reviews either.

 

[Bailes1992]

In my opinion, you're renting the property and not the area. Things external to the property are out of the property owners hands.

 

[dishdude]

In my opinion, you're renting the property and not the area. Things external to the property are out of the property owners hands.

Agreed. However the A/C is a valid complaint if it was listed as an amenity and won't keep the place at a reasonable temperature.

 

[carviewsonic]

It would have been helpful if at least a few of the reviews mentioned the rough neighborhood. I use Google Maps street view (along with reviews from different sources) when considering a vacation rental. The street view pics can be years old though, and the neighbourhood can change for the worse.
Doesn't hurt to ask for a refund, the A/C not working is your reason.

 

[97prizm]

We arrived at our vacation rental and were shocked how terrible the neighborhood is. Garbage, junk cars, damaged houses, unkempt yards, and other questionable things. The house is fantastic, though it only has a window AC that has frozen up in the 85 degree weather and we can’t hardly sleep.

Then I noticed 2 police cruisers outside trying to talk down a man who I couldn’t tell what the problem was. Hours later, as well as an ambulance and a massive fire truck, things calmed down and night set in.

We have scheduled a hotel for tomorrow night though we have one more night. Further investigation to the neighborhood let me know my 8 year old daughter is not safe, nor is my wife. Our bear spray is next to me in the house as I type this.

Am I out of line for wanting to ask for a refund for the last night?

Shame on me for not digging into the neighborhood before renting the property for 3 days, but this is not a good neighborhood.

The house is fantastic. It’s a sad situation.

Next time look at a crime map (I know you shouldn't have to but) . If you used a well known vacation rental company they should have been all over this and not rented it out. I'd take as many pictures of the area as possible especially if law enforcement shows up. This will give you leverage on a refund.

 

[Ronin73]

What state?

 

[PWMDMD]

You have to be careful online. Two summers ago the family and I were in Paris and then London. The Paris apartment was awesome, actually so much better than I thought it would be. The original London apartment canceled three weeks before the trip so I had to scramble and we ended up in Camden Town which I knew was known for its more "rugged scene". The people who took the pictures of this apartment were the most skilled human beings alive because it looked big and awesome online and it was small and mehhhhh IRL. It was a rare heatwave in London and the window ACs were all terrible. The location was in a particular sketchy part of Camden Town next to a strip club. I learned my lesson about the level of scrutiny needed when evaluating rentals. We were there for a week and I very nearly got a hotel room several times but we decided to make the most of it and by the end of the week, the neighborhood had actually grown on me, because we got to see and live with real Londoners living their real lives instead of the tourist experience.

That said, we've rented a house on the Cape the last two summers and you can bet I scrutinized the house and location before committing.

 

[MParr]

Renting inner-city homes is never a good idea.

 

[Cheetah-kins]

I would add to all this that it's a good idea to scrutinize hotels a bit as well. We've generally had pretty good luck but a few times have stayed in places we wouldn't have, had we understood better what we were getting. We learned from those experiences and are much more careful now when reserving something. Realizing your first day you regret where you're staying is never a good thing.

 

[zzyzzx]

That's what you get for using an AirBnb.

 

[thastinger]

We arrived at our vacation rental and were shocked how terrible the neighborhood is. Garbage, junk cars, damaged houses, unkempt yards, and other questionable things. The house is fantastic, though it only has a window AC that has frozen up in the 85 degree weather and we can’t hardly sleep.

Then I noticed 2 police cruisers outside trying to talk down a man who I couldn’t tell what the problem was. Hours later, as well as an ambulance and a massive fire truck, things calmed down and night set in.

We have scheduled a hotel for tomorrow night though we have one more night. Further investigation to the neighborhood let me know my 8 year old daughter is not safe, nor is my wife. Our bear spray is next to me in the house as I type this.

Am I out of line for wanting to ask for a refund for the last night?

Shame on me for not digging into the neighborhood before renting the property for 3 days, but this is not a good neighborhood.

The house is fantastic. It’s a sad situation.

Nobody wants to live around rentals and nobody cares about a rental property, the landlord does the bare min and the renter has no skin in the game.

 

[dlundblad]

Blame the broken AC as to why you left. You couldn’t sleep and had to leave.

Make no mention of the neighborhood.

 

[svtrit]

What state?

CO

 

[atikovi]

What state?

What town? Why are you keeping this a secret? You may be entitled to a partial refund for the a/c, but since you did stay 2 days and it's too late for the owner to rebook the 3rd day, a full refund isn't happening. You should have left before spending the first night to even consider that.

 

[svtrit]

What state

Next time look at a crime map (I know you shouldn't have to but) . If you used a well known vacation rental company they should have been all over this and not rented it out. I'd take as many pictures of the area as possible especially if law enforcement shows up. This will give you leverage on a refund.

The crime map, and more specifically the sex offender map, put us over the edge on this and it’s why we decided to move to a hotel. It was too late last night by the time the activity in the neighborhood occurred for us to load up and leave then.

As for being vague on location, I am just looking for advice on the situation and was trying to keep the details out of it. However, Colorado Springs is not on my list of places to stay again in the future. We have other places in CO to visit on this trip and I did some checking into our next house. We should be fine. It has been heartbreaking to see the homelessness, drug induced zombies wandering, and all of the garbage littering this city. I guess that is most cities now. Even Ames, IA, where I live is starting to have homeless sleeping around the library and using the bathrooms and computers like their personal home.

I think we will let the events of last night go and we will move on, letting the owner know it was too hot for us to sleep in, but thank him for a very nice house and leave it at that.

 

[atikovi]

Is this an area that is in heavy demand for lodging? I mean, why make reservations at a place you're only staying a few days, instead of just getting there and finding a motel?

 

[svtrit]

Traveling for larger families requires planning. Hotels don’t always have the size room we need, plus, hotels are stupid expensive, as is eating out.

A home allows us to cook, do laundry, and gives the kids some room to play. Hotels with three kids under 10 is not fun. We’ve done vacations to the OBX with the only major expense being the house at the beach since we could save so much by cooking our own food.

This is the first time in 10 years of renting home that we have been burned. I feel good about that.

 

[Passport1]

Its a long way to the beach from Colorado.