Recourse Against Nice, FR Rental Agency

From my understanding, Nice Pebbles is a listing agency. They don't own apartments. Typically, people
who clean between rentals have an hour to do the job. It's best to speak again with the agency and have them fix the problems, a reclean, a new frying pan? I'm sorry about the water shut off. That's what happens in residential neighborhoods and we never get to choose the dates. I think you should ask Nice Pebbles to supply a six pack of drinking water.

We had a similar, catastrophic 4-week rental in the city where we now live. I had the agents coming over daily bringing basics, repairing leaks, mold, even electric shutters that opened on their own at 2 am with no remote to reprogram them, ants on an 11th floor in January, neighbors banging on the door, all in an upscale building in a nice neighborhood. Each rental is different. Talk to the agency for repair. Since the money went to the owner, it's doubtful you'd get any refund.

In our case, we walked away before the end date, just glad to be out. The agency tried, but the owner was neglectful, and the rest was just bad luck.

In France, we have a system of negotiators that are used before parties take legal action. It can take years. A reclean and a new frying pan could be quicker.

Are you aware that full-apartment holiday rentals are harmful to the local housing market? Many cities have tried to stamp them out with regulation. Even my ritzy New Jersey suburb prohibits short-term rentals.

Did you read the Terms and Conditions before you clicked "I accept?" I imagine that the intermediary told you that they merely introduce independent buyers and sellers. Welcome to the Silicon Valley.

A tough lesson to learn about renting apartments. It is usually buyer beware. Doesn’t help you know but could for future trips and rentals. Can you give them and the rental agency a scathing review. The Agency should be responsible to check the rentals to confirm they adhere to their description.
PS, this is why we only stay in hotels.

Pack up and move on, chase them up later. If need be publicise your issues extensively on social media. Pebbles are a big company and might choose to do something if they are getting bad SM publicity.
There are some great places in France and some of them aren't that far from Nice. Go and find them and put your sh!tty Nice experiences behind you.

I use short-term rentals sometimes when traveling, but am SCRUPULOUS in vetting them - they must have a large number of real reviews, preferably in multiple places. They must have a lot of photos that are clearly all of the same apartment, and I very carefully examine all of these photos. I use Google Street view and satellite images to suss out not just the building but the surrounding buildings. I research the ownership.

Sometimes we are a little disappointed, that is rare. But with short term rentals you really need to vet thoroughly. What one never does is trust a rental agency to tell you how nice it's going to be.

I'm going to say something you might not want to hear. Synapse. You are not a good listener. You have solicited many dozens of threads of advice on this forum. And you got good advice from a lot of experience travelers. But from follow-up replies and what's happening to you now on this trip, it appears that you didn't really pay attention to the help that was kindly given to you.

My great grandmother, a hatmaker from Linz Austria before she immigrated to the US, used to say something in German that was translated to me as " If you don't listen, you have to feel." Yep.

So here's my bit of advice, direct from the man Rick Steve's, for you to listen to or more likely not: Revel in the pits. Travel is almost always rough in some ways, and Europe is the real world not a giant theme park. You spent a lot of money and went a long way to be chapped about dog poo and broken dishwashers. Figure out how to have fun, do some reading and dork out on the art and history, have a great time in spite of all not being as expected.

Hank, thanks for your replies. I too, look at multiple sources for reviews, use google street views (spent hours virtually walking the streets of Nice, but street view does not reveal everything),
and did due diligence on this rental agency by corresponding with others who have used them with satisfaction. agsin photods dont reveal details, inckuding something like arriving to dirty dishware and a dishwasher that doesnt work properly. We typically have had very good luck with short term rental because of my due diligence. Obviously there were elements of this particular rental that slipped through the cracks as this is an exception to our good experiences. Due diligence also doesn't anticipate a water service being turned off for two days of a stay (I am fully aware that these things happen, but the notices were posted several days prior to our being notified and so I am questioing why we werent notified sooner) My frustration is with the rental agencies lack of responsibility. It is in situations like this that the quality of a service and their decision making process can either shine or fall flat. Regarding your comments on ability to listen, I have asked many questions and received some excellent responses for which I am grateful for because I have never undertaken a trip like this.
I have been planning over a period of time when I was also quite busy with work responsibilities, and also trying to find a good balance of place and activities for the varying interests of our group of four. Much of the information has been incorporated into our plans. Some things can't be planned for, and we have encountered a couple of those things. We are very capable of overcoming these relatively small issues (in the grand scheme of things), but came to the forum for insight from experienced travelers who are familiar with this specific area with the goal of improving upon the experience. Spain was wonderful, and we will certainly find ways to enjoy our time here, nonetheless I would like to hold this rental agency accountable.

As Bets noted, there is nothing that can be done if there are works in the neighborhood and water must be turned off. There often will only be a sign on the door or a note left in the mailbox, and they would appear with very little notice if there is the need for an urgent repait. Normally the water is only turned off during the day, during certain hours. You may be able to get a replacement frying pan, if the owner authorizes it and give them feedback about the cleaning job. The terrace could also get an inspection.

If you haven't documented and sent your concerns in writing to the agency, do so already - but in my opinion, the best you can hope for is some sort of voucher for future stays, or perhaps some refund of cleaning fee if such a fee has been charged.

Beyond that, all the points you report, while annoying indeed, do not quite amount to a misrepresentation of the property you rented, so even if you were living in France I do not think small claims court would be worth pursuing! And even less worthwhile trying to pursue a claim from abroad.

Thanks balson, but when an apartment listing brags about the "sun-soaked terraces" and they arr clearly failing concrete that has fallen off and exposed rusted metal, that is misrepresentation. If I could share photos on this forum you may agree that it is cause for concern. Inhave forwarded the photos to Nice Pebbles with no acceptable response or compromise proposed. I recall the Surfside condo collapse in Miami a couple of years back with structural issues that people overlooked for years. In addition an appliance such as a dishwasher should work properly if it is advertised as such. If it doesn't, then price should be adjusted accordingly because it is misrepresentation of what they are claiming to offer. I sent another follow-up email this am, we shall see...

The water is extremely hard in the south of France, leaving cloudy film all over glasses unless the right products are regularly added to the machines : salt made for dishwashers and rinsing agent.
Tourists aren't going to know how to do this; a house cleaner probably doesn't bother. So, call the agency and have them do this. Your dishes will probably come out fine with the correct products.

I have to add that we've had so many rentals like this that we go to aparthotels now. We had jackhammering below us for 3 days as a wall was drilled out, we had a backed up grinder pump toilet when a cleaner put a tampon down it, we've had numerous neighbors with parties, internet failures. As I wrote above, the worst was the city where we live now--not one friggin frying pan, mold, ants, broken lamps, crazy neighbors and crazy electricity in a great building. I might be a sucker because we never demanded compensation or talked about it online; we just went with the flow but we were able to sleep fine at night and move on, except for the shutters opening automatically at 2am.
Life is too short.

PS, this is why we only stay in hotels.

and from Bets who lives in France:

I have to add that we've had so many rentals like this that we go to aparthotels now.

Ditto to both of these comments...

I will need to learn more about aparthotels. Generally, we have had good luck with a variety of short term rentals, and the hosts have been conscientious and hospitable people who benefit from the supplemental income.

There are some pretty turdy rental agencies and individuals in touristy places in Europe. I'm way way more skeptical and how I vet a place in Vienna or Paris compared to say Bend Oregon.

Apart hotels are pretty cool. I really like the big one just on the outskirts of the center in Ghent for instance.

Once I pick a short-term rental in a city in Europe, I greatly lower my expectations. I under promise myself, and usually as such break even :)

Sorry your vacation hasn’t gone as you hoped. I think rentals are “iffy” regardless of whether they’re in the US or abroad. We’ve had several vacation homes that were over-advertised…

One house in South Carolina was dirty. There were 2 dishwashers and 2 stoves/ovens, nothing worked. Bedrooms on four different floors, broken elevator. Several boards on the elevated walkway to the beach were broken, very dangerous. The photos of the house, landscaped yard, and pool looked great. In person, not so much.

We also rented a nice place “on the beach” in Michigan. Turned out it was 100 (no kidding) rickety, broken steps down to an 8x8 piece of sand. The house was dirty and the oven didn’t work. Another broken elevator. It’s really a gamble 🎲🎲

After renting several apartments successfully, we rented a luxury level apartment in Rome during the New Years holiday. It was beautiful but the refrigerator did not work, none of the TVs worked and on and on. Repairmen weren’t working over the holiday. We were told into TVs in the building were working which a lie as we could hear them when in the hallways. So frustrating. They blamed it all on the tenant before us. But why didn’t they check that everything was in good shape for us? Back to hotels! We could have changed rooms in a hotel!