Plum Guide rentals BEWARE

In May of 2023, we booked an apartment from Plum Guide for September 14, 2023 through October 12, 2023 in Rome. We contacted them on September 7, 2023 because we were not getting a response from the host, and we wanted to see if we could start our stay one day early. I have what's app messages beginning on September 7, daily through September 12, when we were waiting to get on a flight from SFO to Rome. As it turned out, the company could not reach the host AT ALL. And each time we contacted Plum Guide via phone or what's app, a different person was on shift AND none of them had any authority to help us. The advertised 24/7 service is a myth. The problem was that none of the apartments left in their inventory were of similar size, accouterments or price to the one we had rented in May. BUT we were assured by the Plum Guide agent that "our customer care team is great and whatever discounts or options or compensation they're able to provide, they will, they're just the only ones that have the ability to", in other words, they were not available at the present time, in fact they were not coming on duty until midnight. But with this promise we boarded our flight to Rome. Once we arrived, things just went from bad to worse. We spoke to multiple different people, again no one with authority to do anything. At one point we were actually told we had to wait for someone to come online in Hong Kong! So we booked hotels for two nights. Rome was very busy and not much was available. On Thursday, we were so frustrated and angry, our vacation plans ruined by the total incompetence of this company, that we asked to cancel the reservation for a full refund. We had planned this trip for months. Plum Guide did give us a refund however we had to cut our vacation short by 2 weeks, cancel all of our pre booked reservations, leave Rome for other areas of Italy, in other words we tried to salvage our vacation. Plum Guide does not supply the service they profess. It is still hard for us to understand how they had no idea that one of their hosts had essentially ghosted them. Please feel free to contact us. I have saved all of the correspondence from the fiasco.