GoldDot40
Senior Member
About 5 weeks ago, we rented a cabin in the mountains for a 3 day weekend trip. There was a total of 15 people including adults and children (my wife's family), so it was a pretty big cabin. I got there late and was exhausted from driving nearly 650 miles that day at work.
When I got there, I put my luggage in the room my wife, youngest daughter and I were sharing. My niece had already put her 2 kids in their beds upstairs. My youngest was pretty sleepy, so my wife took her to our bed....BUT like she always does when staying anywhere that's not home, my wife ALWAYS pulls back the sheets and lifts the mattress corners looking for bedbugs...all while the rest of the family rolled their eyes and snickered.
Well, she found some. She called her mother in to the bedroom for confirmation since she was involved with public housing at one of her previous jobs. She knew what she was looking at. Confirmed...bedbugs. So the panic set in. Everybody else rushed to their beds and started inspecting. Yep...every single bed in this cabin had them. Out came the phones and all of us started taking pictures and videos. Fortunately, none of us had unpacked much of anything.
My oldest sister-in-law immediately called the property management people....and didn't get an answer. The property manager would not talk to her on the phone, only through text messages, which I found strange. I actually think it worked to OUR advantage in this situation. She tells us to go ahead an pack and she would find another place to go. It took about 20 minutes, but she gave us the address...so we head to it, about 20 minutes away.
Turns out, this is somebody's Winter time home and they offer it as part of this property management company's available rentals during the Summer. It was roomy and relatively clean. Before we took the first bag inside, we went in and inspected every bed, couch and chair in there. Finally at around midnight, we decided it was good to go. Ended up staying there and managed to salvage the rest of the weekend and relaxed.
The property manager offered to refund the cost of one night since we "were cordial and didn't raise too much of a fuss from the inconvenience of having to pack up and relocate after 11PM". I don't think my sister-in-law replied to her right away. So then she offered to refund ALL of the money and even offered a complimentary weekend late in the fall for all of us...we agreed as long as it is a different cabin as the first one. But now, she's dragging her feet on the refunds. She keeps making excuses and attempting to stall/delay....then insisting the refund had been issued to the credit card. This has been an ongoing feud now for 2 weeks. Today, the cardholder saw a "pending" deposit transaction...but it was cancelled later in the day.
My sister-in-law was headed for the review sites to rake this place over the coals. When she finds the place on one such site, she sees there's already a very recent review. The complaint was about the exact same issue...in the exact same cabin. Their party had actually came the weekend AFTER we were there. They had a much worse outcome. They did NOT do any inspection of their own and spent a night there.
Their entire party woke up the next morning COVERED in bedbug bites. It gets worse. Not knowing exactly what the bites were, they went home...and took the bedbugs home with them. My sister-in-law was able to comment on their review and made contact with the person and they swapped phone numbers and have been talking. Their experience was/is a nightmare. THOUSANDS of dollars spent trying to rid their home of the infestation. THOUSANDS of dollars worth of clothing, furniture, linens and belongings that had to be disposed of.
This property management company is giving this woman the run around too. They went as far as threatening to sue the poor lady for slander. So we dig deeper...we find reviews/complaints for the exact same issues from earlier this year all the way back to last year. Get this...all the reviews that were posted were followed up by the property manager replying saying the all the accusations were lies and false. Unfortunately for the property management people WE have videos and pictures of the bedbugs IN their cabin. The woman that stayed after us sent my sister-in-law pictures of the bites...and it is truly a horrible situation for her family. Every one of them was covered from head to toe. She actually has missed a couple of weeks of work since she is a customer service representative who sees dozens of people a day in person.
We even went as far as finding out the pest control company they use. We called them. They said that no bedbugs have been mentioned whatsoever by the property management company. So this company has been renting this particular cabin out for over a year (that we know of) KNOWING they have a bedbug infestation...yet refuse to have the place treated. I know they are hard to get rid of...but a fumigation treatment will do it. I also know how much such a treatment costs...and I know why they don't want to have it done. I think this may end up costing them a bit more than what the treatment would have cost.
My sister-in-law is helping the other lady to track down other people who've stayed there and posted reviews about the bedbug issue. Not sure how far they intend on pursuing this...but it could get interesting.
When I got there, I put my luggage in the room my wife, youngest daughter and I were sharing. My niece had already put her 2 kids in their beds upstairs. My youngest was pretty sleepy, so my wife took her to our bed....BUT like she always does when staying anywhere that's not home, my wife ALWAYS pulls back the sheets and lifts the mattress corners looking for bedbugs...all while the rest of the family rolled their eyes and snickered.
Well, she found some. She called her mother in to the bedroom for confirmation since she was involved with public housing at one of her previous jobs. She knew what she was looking at. Confirmed...bedbugs. So the panic set in. Everybody else rushed to their beds and started inspecting. Yep...every single bed in this cabin had them. Out came the phones and all of us started taking pictures and videos. Fortunately, none of us had unpacked much of anything.
My oldest sister-in-law immediately called the property management people....and didn't get an answer. The property manager would not talk to her on the phone, only through text messages, which I found strange. I actually think it worked to OUR advantage in this situation. She tells us to go ahead an pack and she would find another place to go. It took about 20 minutes, but she gave us the address...so we head to it, about 20 minutes away.
Turns out, this is somebody's Winter time home and they offer it as part of this property management company's available rentals during the Summer. It was roomy and relatively clean. Before we took the first bag inside, we went in and inspected every bed, couch and chair in there. Finally at around midnight, we decided it was good to go. Ended up staying there and managed to salvage the rest of the weekend and relaxed.
The property manager offered to refund the cost of one night since we "were cordial and didn't raise too much of a fuss from the inconvenience of having to pack up and relocate after 11PM". I don't think my sister-in-law replied to her right away. So then she offered to refund ALL of the money and even offered a complimentary weekend late in the fall for all of us...we agreed as long as it is a different cabin as the first one. But now, she's dragging her feet on the refunds. She keeps making excuses and attempting to stall/delay....then insisting the refund had been issued to the credit card. This has been an ongoing feud now for 2 weeks. Today, the cardholder saw a "pending" deposit transaction...but it was cancelled later in the day.
My sister-in-law was headed for the review sites to rake this place over the coals. When she finds the place on one such site, she sees there's already a very recent review. The complaint was about the exact same issue...in the exact same cabin. Their party had actually came the weekend AFTER we were there. They had a much worse outcome. They did NOT do any inspection of their own and spent a night there.
Their entire party woke up the next morning COVERED in bedbug bites. It gets worse. Not knowing exactly what the bites were, they went home...and took the bedbugs home with them. My sister-in-law was able to comment on their review and made contact with the person and they swapped phone numbers and have been talking. Their experience was/is a nightmare. THOUSANDS of dollars spent trying to rid their home of the infestation. THOUSANDS of dollars worth of clothing, furniture, linens and belongings that had to be disposed of.
This property management company is giving this woman the run around too. They went as far as threatening to sue the poor lady for slander. So we dig deeper...we find reviews/complaints for the exact same issues from earlier this year all the way back to last year. Get this...all the reviews that were posted were followed up by the property manager replying saying the all the accusations were lies and false. Unfortunately for the property management people WE have videos and pictures of the bedbugs IN their cabin. The woman that stayed after us sent my sister-in-law pictures of the bites...and it is truly a horrible situation for her family. Every one of them was covered from head to toe. She actually has missed a couple of weeks of work since she is a customer service representative who sees dozens of people a day in person.
We even went as far as finding out the pest control company they use. We called them. They said that no bedbugs have been mentioned whatsoever by the property management company. So this company has been renting this particular cabin out for over a year (that we know of) KNOWING they have a bedbug infestation...yet refuse to have the place treated. I know they are hard to get rid of...but a fumigation treatment will do it. I also know how much such a treatment costs...and I know why they don't want to have it done. I think this may end up costing them a bit more than what the treatment would have cost.
My sister-in-law is helping the other lady to track down other people who've stayed there and posted reviews about the bedbug issue. Not sure how far they intend on pursuing this...but it could get interesting.
