Kyle B.

I booked a reservation for a home in Lake Arrowhead, CA - a very remote place, but a serene vacation spot nonetheless. I booked a property that stated in the listing "your pets will love it as well!... Feel free to let them run around in the fenced-in backyard" as I have two pets that always travel with me. After arriving late in the evening, we noticed a number of safety issues (a top stair leading to the home was rotten, an oven could not be turned off - upon inquiring the owner's assistant stated "that's just the way it is") but the worst of all is that the backyard was completely overgrown with foxtails, a plant that produces barbed seed heads that can be fatal to dogs. If yards are properly kept, foxtails do not consume an entire yard. Our dogs were covered from head to paw with hundreds of these barbed seed heads and they ran back into the home and these foxtails became embedded in the carpet of the home. We contacted the owner about this problem and she arrived intoxicated at the home and, upon seeing the gravity of the situation, stated that she does not recommend her home for us as it is not safe. The homeowner was compassionate abut the dogs - and I appreciate that. But that's where the compassion ended. We also had two small children with us on the trip who could not walk through the home because the foxtails could be embedded in their feet.

We followed every protocol listed on the website, as it was very late at night when the culmination of these safety issues came to light. We called the owner. We called FlipKey the next morning and explained the situation and told them we had to vacate the home. We asked for a refund (although we were willing to forego the amount of the night we actually had to stay) through FlipKey and they said the owner said "no". We disputed the charge with our credit card company, as the property was unsafe and unfit for consumption as advertised. We were then told that because we stayed in the property the one night we had to pay for the entire rental. There was NO OTHER PLACE TO GO. We were in a VERY remote place in California with one hotel in the city that was fully booked. Driving back home would have taken 4 hours and we had 2 small children and 5 other adults with us. Risk vs benefit is important to analyze here.

Basically, FlipKey has a VERY one-sided contract that benefits FLIPKEY - NOT property owners OR travelers. The contract is unconscionable in many ways. There is nothing practical for dispute resolution in the contract. We explained all of this, we explained that we made calls all night long to find different accommodations (and included phone call logs from our mobile phone provider bills) with photos of the problems. None of this mattered to FlipKey.

The purpose of this review is to make it known that a consumer is NOT protected when renting through FlipKey. They have a very one-sided, rigid contract that does not protect renters. We were told that they cannot be responsible for misrepresentation in an advertisement and FlipKey "takes no accountability for maintenance issues/amenities/services of a property."Basically, they only intend to act as merchant for rentals. They want all the upside, but do not want to take responsibility for bad listings.

TRAVELER BEWARE!