Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  05/09/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  From Fri., Feb.18,2022-Sun. Feb. 20,2022 we rented this vrbo from River City Resorts. The next morning upon arising, we found the kitchen infested with ants, on all the counter tops, stove top, etc. I immediately called the number provided in the unit.Maintenance came several hours later and sprayed an over-the-counter bug spray. This only accentuated the problem as now cockroaches and spiders entered the scene. Maintenance told me to contact the office upon further complaints. I called the office but only voicemail was available. Even though the ad for this vrbo said that the office was open Sat. from ****, it turned out that they did NOT work weekends.We were faced with a huge obstacle, not being able to use the kitchen at all.We were babysitting 2 toddlers who require constant snacks, drinks, meals. When we attempted to set a spoon or anything upon the kitchen countertops, bugs appeared. This was an extreme hardship not being able to **** or use anything in the kitchen. Plus, the bugspray was nauseating and I am sure is the result of our 2 yr old vomiting.River City thought, by giving us a $77 dollar reduction(the **** for the 2 nights was $597) all would be forgiven. The kitchen is the main room of a unit-all functions revolve around eating, snacking, drinking and we couldn't use the room at all. We had to eat all meals, snacks, etc. out. flying bugs also added to the entourage of bugs.This is unacceptable for a rental unit.Their contract stated that"In the event of unforseen circumstances, RCR reserves the right to move Tenants to an equal or higher priced unit. The tenant then has the right to cancel the reservation with no penalty or fee."We were not given this opportunity as the office staff were not available for contact the entire weekend.We do not want to pay for the unit.

  Business response

  05/20/2022

  To Whom it May ******* at Better Business Bureau, 
  
  
  I have attached a file that includes our letter to our credit card processing company in our rebuttal to Ms ********* disputed the charges for the condo in question. We sent in a copy of her contract, all correspondence, copies of maintenance responses and receipts for pest control spray, ant traps and replacement pastries. She disputed both the booking fee and the entire cost of her stay and upon review of all information provided to the credit card processing company, River City Resorts won the dispute.  Please note the time stamps of the Quality Control walkthrough prior to guests arrival, notification from the guest to the head of maintenance on Saturday morning and to his notification of the weekend maintenance man and his purchase at HEB of the previous listed items. Maintenance arrived in less than 45 minutes to the condo to deal with the ant infestation (not several hours later). The guest admitted to maintenance of leaving the pastries on the counter overnight, thus leading to the ant infestation. Maintenance sprayed the floor around the perimeter of the refrigerator and up the side of the cabinet and left the ant traps on the counter. He also cleaned up ants noted to be on the counter and the sink and removed her trash as she had thrown the pastries in the trash can and the can then had ants in it was well.  At no point did he spray the countertops with the bug spray. They were informed to call the maintenance line or the 24 hour on-call phone line (both of which are posted in their contract and their check in information, which is how we presume she contacted maintenance in the first place) for any further issues during her stay. On Monday, when staff arrived to the office, a voicemail (male) was found on the office line, left after the maintenance mans departure on Saturday am and after the guest was informed that the office is closed on the weekend (hence the 24 hour emergency on call phone or the 24 hour maintenance phone). River City Resorts responded quickly and appropriately to a situation in which the guest had accidentally created in leaving pastries on the counter overnight. We are sorry that her stay was inconvenienced by the ant infestation and we gave her a 20% discount towards her stay. 
  
  
  Regards, 
  River City Resorts Management
  

  Customer response

  05/26/2022

  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  From: ************************* <**********************>
  Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2022 9:52 AM
  To: ******************* <**********************************************>
  Subject: Complaint #********

   

  We are not happy with the response from River City Resorts.

  Several things;

  -the counter tops in the kitchen of the VRbO are black-you would not notice any bug activity until food is introduced on the counter tops.

  The food items we brought and set on the counter tops were packaged-not open.

  The maintenance man told us to call the number on the refrigerator if we had further concerns-this went directly to the office, which was closed.

  The over-the-counter spray maintenance used not only was very strong(caused our 2 yrs old grandson to throw-up) but attracted more bugs.  The bugs were clearly always in the kitchen but needed to be drawn out by introducing foods, used eating utensils, etc. onto the countertops.

  We booked this VRBo to spend time with our 2 grandsons.  They require constant snacks, drinks, meals, etc. WE WERE NOT ABLE TO USE THE KITCHEN BECAUSE OF THE *** ACTIVITY!  That completely changed what we thought would be a lovely weekend to lots of confusion-having to eat out the entire time.

  River City Resorts is not owning the fact that their kitchen has infestation problems and will happen again when a future visitor tries to use the kitchen.

  I want this posted on the BBB site to warn future tenants that River City Resorts refuses to work with the customer.

  15% off of one night is NOT compensatory for the confusion we had to endure!!

   

  *************************

   

  
  Regards,
  
  *************************

  Business response

  05/31/2022

  To Whom it May ******* at The Better Business Bureau,
  
  
  This is River City Resorts second and final response to **** ********* rejection to her complaint to BBB in regards to her rental unit. River City Resorts has already responded to her dispute of payment to her credit card company. Ms. ******** disputed ALL charges towards her 2 night stay at one of our condos, thus resulting in all her funds returned to her until River City Resorts could prove our due diligence in taking care of the customers complaints. We sent in all correspondence from prior to her arrival to after her departure, along with copies of receipts, her signed contract, text messages from maintenance in response to her notification of the ants and how we handled the situation in in a timely manner and with due diligence. ******************** lost her dispute with the credit card company and we were reimbursed payment by her credit card company. 
  We are sorry that she had to experience the ants in her unit and had we noticed that he unit was infested with ants prior to her arrival we would certainly have moved her reservation to another unit. However, the unit she was in, had a Quality Control walk thru done prior to her arrival and no bugs were noted and she did not report any bug infestation upon her arrival to the unit on Friday. We have our units on quarterly pest control services and would like to point out that we have had no complaints of infestations on her unit prior to and after her reservation.
  Of note in her latest responses to the BBB,  we would like to address her following statements:
  ********************* stated that the food that she brought and set on the countertop were packaged-not opened.  If that were the case, how were the unopened items infested with ants? That statement indicates that the brought in items were already infested or that the items were not closed packaged, thus drawing the ants into the kitchen. 
  ********************* was able to reach the after hours Emergency Maintenance for her first notice to our business, but therein called the only the Office line once on Saturday after maintenance treated the unit after being told the office was closed for the weekend. 
  ********************* states that the over the counter spray (in which no spray was applied to the counters, only the ant traps of which she was present for maintenance treatment of the unit with both the spray and the traps) attracted more bugs. We are not sure that ant spray works in that manner in which she states it did. In our experience bugs tend to avoid the pesticides intending to kill them. 
  ********************* states that River City Resorts is not owning the fact that the unit is infested. We did respond to her initial complaint within 45 minutes of her initial contact to the 24 hour Maintenance Emergency number and treated the unit for ants. Again, we would like to point out that the unit she stayed in has had no previous nor any post complaints to her stay for infestations. 
  ********************* was compensated 20% not 15% of one nights rental. 
  
  
  Again, we are sorry that ******************** experience ants in her pastries (which were replaced by River City Resorts), but we did do our due diligence in response to her complaint which was supported by her credit card company when we won our response to her dispute. In response to her loss of her dispute, ******************** reached out to the BBB to see if she could get a different resolution not provided to her by her credit card company. We still stand with our initial response in that Ms. ********* inconvenience of the ants did not therein entitle her to a free weekend. 
  
  
  Regards, 
  
  
  River City Resorts Management
  May 31st, 2022Tell us why here...

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