no refund of deposite with 6 months notice!!!!

I am sorry this happened to you. It is one of the serveral reasons I do not rent apartments,, ( but not the only one). I think it is riduculus how many apartment rentals demand full payment in advance( not all do,, I would only consider them ). Hotels do not, and payment in front booked almost a year in advance.. well, that is just silly, that money could have earned you some interest in YOUR account, not theirs. Regardless, they just ripped you off.

Where did you find out about this apartment?

I suggest you also go to tripadvisor.com and post. I hate the way SOME apartment owners take total advantage of tourists.

It's a good experience to warn others and to learn how important it is to read about cancellation policies before booking. Don't assume anything!

When I prepare a spreadsheet to compare different accommodations, no matter if it's a hotel, B&B, hostel or appartment/cottage, I always include:

• size

• type of beds (sofa/double/queen)

• ammenities (washer?)

• meals included

• location

• price: deposit + final rate (amounts and dates)

• cancellation policy

Cancellation policies are not always posted in a way that you easily find them. In a few cases I send separate emails specifically to ask about them. We travel as a family with kids, usually in high season. So pre-booking is important for us. But in order to stay flexible knowing about cancellation policies is crucial.

As a vacation rental owner, I think this is totally crazy. Do you have a copy of the rental Terms and Conditions and were the cancellation policies stated? Did you pay by credit card or PayPal? If so, I would contact the credit card company or PayPal ASAP (!) and provide them a copy of the rental agreement, along with any email contacts to back you up. If the owner is withholding money and in breech of contract, I honestly think the credit card company is the way to go - they will help you and open a dispute. Some owners do take non-refundable deposits - and, I think they certainly should - they have mortgages, housekeepers, utilities, taxes, etc. to pay and if they hold the dates and someone cancels last-minute, they are out that money as vacation home renters do usually not book last-minute as they do for hotels...if they do not have some sort of non-refundable deposit, people tend to book way, way in advance at many different rentals while they decide on plans - not fair to block off those dates and make them unavailable to someone ready to book their trip...that said...I know quite a few other owners and I do not know anyone who takes a 100% non-refundable payment! (I, for example, have a 60day cancellation policy - I think that is fairly standard...not over 6 months!)-Nicole

John, there is a difference between not honoring their refund policy, not returning your calls, and/or having an unreasonable cancellation policy.

Anyway, don't misunderstand me, I'm not unsympathetic at all, I'm just confused. I know you are really upset right now, but you might get more helpful responses if you clarified this for us.

I think it's a good idea to warn other travelers about your experience with this apt. (or with this agent? Is it the problem w/ both?) Sharing this not only helps others, it holds people accountable for their business practices, and we all learn how to avoid these problems at other facilities, so I appreciate that you share this with us.

Per your entreaty not to use that website, you can post reviews of this property on travel sites such as tripadvisor.com, slowtrav.com,
Virtual Tourist, etc. so others can be warned. As upset as you are, it's important to say how they violated the terms of your agreement. (It's frustrating, but it doesn't matter what the other apt. does or what your Italian teacher thinks.)

John, what was the cancellation policy that you agreed to when you booked the apartment? It does seem unfair that there is no refund with 6 months notice given but it all depends on the terms agreed to when payment was sent.

Thanks for all the help.
I have double checked the site and all of my emails and there is no written cancellation policy.
I am counting on decency to refund all or most of the deposite with over 6 months notice.
We still have had not responce to over 20 phone calls and 5 emails.
I wait a few more days before I tell here about posting over the net about her poor business practices.

I had similar problems last summer. I can almost guarantee you no taxes have been paid unless this is a big chain hotel - that's why they want you to pay in cash! One place, recommended by Rick, refused to refund and I just wrote an email telling them that I would post the problem on Rick's site; problem solved. Another that wasn't Rick's rec was very nasty about the whole problem and I wrote an e telling him that he should never accept American travelers since he obviously did not like Americans and refused to realize that it was impossible to reserve with a bank draft on a European bank - and he backed off. The moral is: don't give up unless it's a big/chain hotel!

John, if your attempts to rectify this can be demonstrated to the CC company, you can simply as ask them to reverse the charges. Plain and simple.

I have had to do a similar thing in the past. cheer up, your money is not gone.

John, how did you pay? There are a few good posts on what to do.. but you haven't explained to us whether or not you used paypal or a credit card,,

Frankly I am stunned you did not even find out about a cancellation policy before you paid whole rent up front,, not good John.

We paid with Paypal.

I have only paid with paypal for a very few purchases, but I think that they do have a dispute procedure available. My son bought something online & never received it. He was refunded after he went through the dispute procedure.

Don't give up and let us all know how it turns out!

They do. They will dispute just as a credit card company will. I, honestly, don't know though if you would win in this case since there seems to have been no rental contract (!) at all (?)!

There was a rental agreement.
There was NO cancellation policy.
My Italian teacher from Roma called her yesterday and it appears that a refund minus taxes paid in 2008 and an administration fee will be refunded to PayPal by the agent.
At this moment I have no idea how much she will refund.
I am too trusting and had no idea that 6 months notice would be a problem.
When I asked around 60 days is the usual.
In the future I will ask about a cancellation policy.
Thank you to all who replied for all your help!

John - that's wonderful that it looks like things will be resolved! fingers crossed that this person will be reasonable and refund most of your money - you are totally right that around 60 days is the norm. It's awful that you had to fight for your money back...and, hopefully, by posting and sharing it will serve as a warning to others to remember to ask for some sort of cancellation policy in writing. (and, to use a credit card or paypal so that there is someone to back you up and handle any dispute should one arise) anyway...thanks for updating - good to hear