Buckingham Properties Lake Tahoe

When I signed up the property (October 2015) the hot tub was on orderThe contractor built a wooden deck for the hot tub, the footings for the deck moved considerably rendering the deck unsafeThe hot tub was not deliveredWe were told they could not do repairs/rebuild the deck until springWe took the hot tub off our website the same dayTo the best of my recollection that was around the end of NovemberPlease let me know if you need anything else

I am rejecting this response because:The hot tub is a minor point, but it is, in fact, still listed on the [redacted] website as of now, which was where I made the booking I have nothing to add, at this pointGiven previous interactions, I held out little hope that Buckingham would admit treating us unfairly I simply wanted to alert future renters that their bookings, even for thousands of dollars, might be substituted at the last minute for something they did not want but could not turn down, thereby ruining their vacation

I am rejecting this response because:The summary of the long response from Buckingham is that they had a property on file which they were not comfortable with from the beginning, they knew there were potential problems as early as January 25, and yet, could only notify me with less than hours notice that the property was no longer available Meanwhile, they told me that this was due to an "emergency" in which the "owners had to suddenly move back into the home." Apparently, a complete fabrication I did, in fact, ask ***, with whom I dealt, if Buckingham would financially compensate me with at least a discount on the new property Property values are, of course, subjective and this seemed reasonable to me since I was not getting a property I valued as highly She spoke with her manager, who apparently summarily dismissed the suggestion I told her at the time, that I was disappointed and suspected it was because they knew I had no other options but to take what they offered.Here is why the "bait and switch" is actually apt to my experience (as opposed to theirs) As I understand it, the tactic is employed whereby a customer is lured in on the promise of one product, and is then told that product is no longer available, but an "equivalent" one is The customer has sunk costs in terms of time and commitment and immediate need, and has to weigh that into the decision to purchase If I had had more than two days notice, I definitely would have asked for a full refund and gone elsewhere The fact is, I had guests coming from different places and simply did not have enough time to start a new booking somewhere else I even said as much to ***, who reiterated that she wished they had a better home to offer me (and my 5, not 7, guests).To me, this is a tale of poor business practices from start to finish The fact that the property manager was suspicious from the start, but went along anyway, is not inspiring The fact that the owner is under legal obligation to compensate Buckingham (and, hopefully, the prospective tenants), but has chosen not to exercise that option is equally uninspiring The fact that I was cornered into paying the same amount of money for a property that did not meet my any of my desired criteria is unacceptable (fyi, there was, in fact, a hot tub listed on the booking website h*** even if qualified by the fine print of their rental agreement

When I signed up the property (October 2015) the hot tub was on order. The contractor built a wooden deck for the hot tub, the footings for the deck moved considerably rendering the deck unsafe. The hot tub was not delivered. We were told they could not do repairs/rebuild the deck until spring. We took the hot tub off our website the same day. To the best of my recollection that was around the end of November. Please let me know if you need anything else.

I am rejecting this response because:The hot tub is a minor point, but it is, in fact, still listed on the [redacted] website as of now, which was where I made the booking.   I have nothing to add, at this point. Given previous interactions, I held out little hope that Buckingham would admit treating us unfairly.  I simply wanted to alert future renters that their bookings, even for thousands of dollars, might be substituted at the last minute for something they did not want but could not turn down, thereby ruining their vacation.

Buckingham Properties Lake Tahoe would like to respond to the complaint submitted on 2/21/2016 with an ID of [redacted]
 Firstly, I would like to provide the back story on how this issue arose including going in to detail on our process when bringing on a new property and general office...

operations. Second to address the specific situation and how it was handled by our office. Back Story A contract was signed with the Owner to bring the property originally reserved by the Guest on board with Buckingham October 20th, 2015. I interviewed her at the property, and what was interesting was that the Cleaner she insisted on using was at that interview. This was highly unusual as assigning a cleaner is the last step in the process, and one that is mutually decided on by myself and the owner. I was not happy with the situation. Buckingham went through the steps to bring the new property on board to our program. Buckingham arranged for them to receive a vacation rental application. Buckingham arranged a professional photographer. A management agreement was signed and all house details provided [Attachment 7]. Five staff members worked on data entry for the owner and the property. We entered in all house information to our software, entered and edited the photos, created captions and wrote a lengthy description to market the home. [Attachment 1]. Some homes in our inventory have specific steps that the reservations have to go through prior to finalizing a reservation. For this particular property, reservationists were required to alert the Cleaner with the following information so that the door code could be set. Included in the information sent was the Guest Name, Guest Phone Number and Dates of Reservation. Prior to January 25, 2016 all correspondence followed this protocol and reservations occurred as normal [Attachment 2].  The Cleaner would then add to their schedule to change the door code for each specific guest. On January 25, 2016 Buckingham received an email from the Cleaner that the Property was unavailable for Buckingham’s guest [Attachment 3]. This was unusual. With many upcoming bookings in the home, Buckingham them made it a priority to confirm availability on every new booking made [Attachment 4]. By January 30, 2016 the Cleaner had become unresponsive via email, and Buckingham began to become leery of the situation [Attachment 5]. At no point, was it said that any future Buckingham reservations were at risk. As Buckingham had a contract with the Owner, this did not concern us as a problem. By February 1, 2016 Buckingham reached out personally to the Cleaner and was told that Buckingham no longer represented the home [Attachment 6]. This was a complete shock, and as mentioned above a breach of contract between Buckingham and the Owner. This was two days prior to the Guest’s arrival date [Attachment 11]. Within the Management Agreement between Buckingham and the Owner, it states the “owner hereby appoints Manager as exclusive rental and management for the Unit with the sole and exclusive right to execute rental agreements and rent the Unit on Owner’s behalf in accordance with the terms hereinafter set forth.” The Owner’s Cleaner thus had no right to refuse the home to Buckingham’s guests. However, Buckingham still needed to take action to make sure all guests had a home to stay in. Thus the need to move all future reservations in the Property. The Management Agreement also states that the Owner can rent their own property on the condition that “the Unit has not been previously reserved or rented by Manager,” and that “Should Owner not honor a reservation, then Owner will be liable for any additional costs to provide suitable replacement accommodations for the guest.” In addition, and Owner is required to give Buckingham 30 days written notice. [Attachment 7]. This shows the breach to the contract, as Buckingham did not get 30 days’ notice, nor were we expecting a situation of this kind to occur. Upon receiving the email when the Cleaner informed me that the “contract was up with Buckingham” I called the Owner [Attachment 6]. It was at this time Buckingham was informed that we could not honor any of our future reservations [Attachment 8 and Attachment 9]. Buckingham had four paid upcoming reservations to move, include this Guest’s. This was the situation being dealt with by Buckingham prior to this issue with this Guest. Buckingham came to the decision that all reservations should be moved, rather than deal with a larger issue on the day of guests arrivals. Yes, the Owner and Cleaner breached the contract, however with the close time-frame of some arrivals, Buckingham wanted to provide a suitable alternative to each guest. I did not like the Cleaner from the get go (always trust your instincts/gut), and it is my assumption that they probably offered the Owner a screaming deal on commission to take it over the Property. The Owner told me many times their only concern was the bottom line. Buckingham’s commission includes brick and mortar, a staff of eight and everything that goes along with that and maintaining a working business. In conclusion, my feeling is it was their intention all along to get the Buckingham staff to get everything set-up and for them and then drop us for a lower commission. They stole all of the photos and the description Buckingham staff worked on, and are still using it to market their home to renters. The GuestBuckingham contacted all the guests immediately; there were four bookings we had to move [Attachment 8]. Buckingham reached out to the Guest on the phone to alert them of the situation. After the phone call, an email was sent [Attachment 10] offering the alternative home or a full refund to the Guest. The reservation was booked through a channel partner (websites that list homes for a commission), Vaycayhero.com, and they were also alerted of the situation. As stated in the Rental Agreement to guests “Buckingham reserves the right to move Renters confirmed Reservation, should the Property become unavailable due to property damage, property sale, or other unavailability. Renters will be moved to another property of comparative value, with advance notice given as soon as possible” [Attachment 11]. As the Property was no longer available, we moved the Reservation. We found a home to fit the size of the group, at comparable cost. This Guest had 8 guests and a dog [Attachment 11]. A suitable alternative had to be one that allowed pets. This was difficult as most of our properties are not pet friendly, and it being last minute had limited availability. After apologizing profusely and offering either a full refund or to move them, the Guest became very hostile with Buckingham staff, and the staff at our [redacted] So threatened to complain to the Revdex.com or to reach out to Social Media, direct quote “GIVEN OUR REACH AS AN ORGANIZATION [Attachment 12]. This is becoming a nasty trend on review sites such as Yelp. The sites are becoming vehicles for blackmail, i.e. if you font give me what I want I will write a bad review – which the guest did [Attachment 13]. The Guest eventually decided to move into the alternative house rather than accept the full refund [Attachment 12, and Attachment 14]. Just to clarify, this was not a dark, dismal, orange shag carpet, green fridge, bats flying out of the door property [Attachment 15]. This property is on the water, 2600 sq ft; beautiful views, access to a heated swimming pool, a hot tub and a gym. The home they originally rented was only 1400 sq ft [Attachment 16]. The guest did state that “there was nothing unusually wrong with our rental’ within the Yelp review [Attachment 13]. It was stated by the guest in the complaint that they chose the original Property because of a “hot tub on the balcony.” The Property originally booked did not have a hot tub [Attachment 16]. We completely understand the emotional decision that goes in to booking a vacation rental, and when that home becomes unavailable, the heartbreak that is felt by guests. In no way did Buckingham want to ruin a guests vacation, thus offering an alternative home. Buckingham matched the price of the first home to the alternative home, even though the rate was higher [Attachment 17 and Attachment 14]. The Guest stated in the “Customer Statement of the Problem” that “the house did not have the value they claimed (otherwise it, too, would have been rented).” To address this, the alternative home was being marked exclusively as a Long Term rental only [Attachment 18]. Thus, the home was available in our system. The Guest was still able to enjoy a trip to South Lake Tahoe, and Buckingham did everything in their power to make it a great stay, including letting the guest have a late departure time of 3.00 PM rather than the standard 11:00 AM [Attachment 12]. It was not until after the Guests departure that they asked for a full refund for the stay. As Buckingham is in the business of managing homes for owners, both Buckingham and the owners need to make a profit. In addition the cleaner that hot the alternative home ready for the Guest also needs to be paid for their work. A full refund was offered to the guest at first contact [Attachment 10]. The Guest has peppered all emails and reviews with the saying “bait-and-switch.” It seems to me that in the end the Guest “Bated” us with, yes they wanted to stay in the new property, after their stay they “Switched” to “I want a refund.” I have included as much information as I have in the following Attachments. If you need anything else please contact me immediately and we are happy to oblige. Sincerely,[redacted]

Review: On January 13, I booked and paid for a vacation rental in South Lake Tahoe, through Buckingham. I signed a contract binding me to the agreement on January 19, which bound me to arrangement and which would financially penalize me for any changes or cancellation.

The rental period was for Feb 3-7. I chose the property for the following characteristics:

- unique interior design features

- relative distance from other homes/seclusion in the forest

- hot tub on the balcony

- layout of rooms for my guests

On February 1, less than 48 hours before we were to depart for the vacation, Buckingham phoned to say the property was no longer available. They instead offered me a property that met none of my desired characteristics and charged me the same amount of money for it. Although they did offer me a refund, this was not an option given the proximity of the booking and the impending arrival of my guests.

They claim two things:

1) the owner pulled the rental and thus they had no power to honor the agreement and

2) no other house was available.

I take point 1 as a sign that they do not have a legally binding right to rent the homes in their portfolio and point 2 as a sign that the house did not have the value they claimed (otherwise it, too, would have been rented).

Regardless of the reasons, this was a classic "bait and switch" practice.Desired Settlement: I believe I should be financially compensated. If I had an emergency 48 hours in advance that forced me to cancel, I would have forfeited the entire rental amount to the company. It seems fair to me that they should be similarly penalized.

Business

Response:

Buckingham Properties Lake Tahoe would like to respond to the complaint submitted on 2/21/2016 with an ID of [redacted]

Firstly, I would like to provide the back story on how this issue arose including going in to detail on our process when bringing on a new property and general office operations. Second to address the specific situation and how it was handled by our office. Back Story A contract was signed with the Owner to bring the property originally reserved by the Guest on board with Buckingham October 20th, 2015. I interviewed her at the property, and what was interesting was that the Cleaner she insisted on using was at that interview. This was highly unusual as assigning a cleaner is the last step in the process, and one that is mutually decided on by myself and the owner. I was not happy with the situation. Buckingham went through the steps to bring the new property on board to our program. Buckingham arranged for them to receive a vacation rental application. Buckingham arranged a professional photographer. A management agreement was signed and all house details provided [Attachment 7]. Five staff members worked on data entry for the owner and the property. We entered in all house information to our software, entered and edited the photos, created captions and wrote a lengthy description to market the home. [Attachment 1]. Some homes in our inventory have specific steps that the reservations have to go through prior to finalizing a reservation. For this particular property, reservationists were required to alert the Cleaner with the following information so that the door code could be set. Included in the information sent was the Guest Name, Guest Phone Number and Dates of Reservation. Prior to January 25, 2016 all correspondence followed this protocol and reservations occurred as normal [Attachment 2]. The Cleaner would then add to their schedule to change the door code for each specific guest. On January 25, 2016 Buckingham received an email from the Cleaner that the Property was unavailable for Buckingham’s guest [Attachment 3]. This was unusual. With many upcoming bookings in the home, Buckingham them made it a priority to confirm availability on every new booking made [Attachment 4]. By January 30, 2016 the Cleaner had become unresponsive via email, and Buckingham began to become leery of the situation [Attachment 5]. At no point, was it said that any future Buckingham reservations were at risk. As Buckingham had a contract with the Owner, this did not concern us as a problem. By February 1, 2016 Buckingham reached out personally to the Cleaner and was told that Buckingham no longer represented the home [Attachment 6]. This was a complete shock, and as mentioned above a breach of contract between Buckingham and the Owner. This was two days prior to the Guest’s arrival date [Attachment 11]. Within the Management Agreement between Buckingham and the Owner, it states the “owner hereby appoints Manager as exclusive rental and management for the Unit with the sole and exclusive right to execute rental agreements and rent the Unit on Owner’s behalf in accordance with the terms hereinafter set forth.” The Owner’s Cleaner thus had no right to refuse the home to Buckingham’s guests. However, Buckingham still needed to take action to make sure all guests had a home to stay in. Thus the need to move all future reservations in the Property. The Management Agreement also states that the Owner can rent their own property on the condition that “the Unit has not been previously reserved or rented by Manager,” and that “Should Owner not honor a reservation, then Owner will be liable for any additional costs to provide suitable replacement accommodations for the guest.” In addition, and Owner is required to give Buckingham 30 days written notice. [Attachment 7]. This shows the breach to the contract, as Buckingham did not get 30 days’ notice, nor were we expecting a situation of this kind to occur. Upon receiving the email when the Cleaner informed me that the “contract was up with Buckingham” I called the Owner [Attachment 6]. It was at this time Buckingham was informed that we could not honor any of our future reservations [Attachment 8 and Attachment 9]. Buckingham had four paid upcoming reservations to move, include this Guest’s. This was the situation being dealt with by Buckingham prior to this issue with this Guest. Buckingham came to the decision that all reservations should be moved, rather than deal with a larger issue on the day of guests arrivals. Yes, the Owner and Cleaner breached the contract, however with the close time-frame of some arrivals, Buckingham wanted to provide a suitable alternative to each guest. I did not like the Cleaner from the get go (always trust your instincts/gut), and it is my assumption that they probably offered the Owner a screaming deal on commission to take it over the Property. The Owner told me many times their only concern was the bottom line. Buckingham’s commission includes brick and mortar, a staff of eight and everything that goes along with that and maintaining a working business. In conclusion, my feeling is it was their intention all along to get the Buckingham staff to get everything set-up and for them and then drop us for a lower commission. They stole all of the photos and the description Buckingham staff worked on, and are still using it to market their home to renters. The GuestBuckingham contacted all the guests immediately; there were four bookings we had to move [Attachment 8]. Buckingham reached out to the Guest on the phone to alert them of the situation. After the phone call, an email was sent [Attachment 10] offering the alternative home or a full refund to the Guest. The reservation was booked through a channel partner (websites that list homes for a commission), Vaycayhero.com, and they were also alerted of the situation. As stated in the Rental Agreement to guests “Buckingham reserves the right to move Renters confirmed Reservation, should the Property become unavailable due to property damage, property sale, or other unavailability. Renters will be moved to another property of comparative value, with advance notice given as soon as possible” [Attachment 11]. As the Property was no longer available, we moved the Reservation. We found a home to fit the size of the group, at comparable cost. This Guest had 8 guests and a dog [Attachment 11]. A suitable alternative had to be one that allowed pets. This was difficult as most of our properties are not pet friendly, and it being last minute had limited availability. After apologizing profusely and offering either a full refund or to move them, the Guest became very hostile with Buckingham staff, and the staff at our [redacted] So threatened to complain to the Revdex.com or to reach out to Social Media, direct quote “GIVEN OUR REACH AS AN ORGANIZATION [Attachment 12]. This is becoming a nasty trend on review sites such as Yelp. The sites are becoming vehicles for blackmail, i.e. if you font give me what I want I will write a bad review – which the guest did [Attachment 13]. The Guest eventually decided to move into the alternative house rather than accept the full refund [Attachment 12, and Attachment 14]. Just to clarify, this was not a dark, dismal, orange shag carpet, green fridge, bats flying out of the door property [Attachment 15]. This property is on the water, 2600 sq ft; beautiful views, access to a heated swimming pool, a hot tub and a gym. The home they originally rented was only 1400 sq ft [Attachment 16]. The guest did state that “there was nothing unusually wrong with our rental’ within the Yelp review [Attachment 13]. It was stated by the guest in the complaint that they chose the original Property because of a “hot tub on the balcony.” The Property originally booked did not have a hot tub [Attachment 16]. We completely understand the emotional decision that goes in to booking a vacation rental, and when that home becomes unavailable, the heartbreak that is felt by guests. In no way did Buckingham want to ruin a guests vacation, thus offering an alternative home. Buckingham matched the price of the first home to the alternative home, even though the rate was higher [Attachment 17 and Attachment 14]. The Guest stated in the “Customer Statement of the Problem” that “the house did not have the value they claimed (otherwise it, too, would have been rented).” To address this, the alternative home was being marked exclusively as a Long Term rental only [Attachment 18]. Thus, the home was available in our system. The Guest was still able to enjoy a trip to South Lake Tahoe, and Buckingham did everything in their power to make it a great stay, including letting the guest have a late departure time of 3.00 PM rather than the standard 11:00 AM [Attachment 12]. It was not until after the Guests departure that they asked for a full refund for the stay. As Buckingham is in the business of managing homes for owners, both Buckingham and the owners need to make a profit. In addition the cleaner that hot the alternative home ready for the Guest also needs to be paid for their work. A full refund was offered to the guest at first contact [Attachment 10]. The Guest has peppered all emails and reviews with the saying “bait-and-switch.” It seems to me that in the end the Guest “Bated” us with, yes they wanted to stay in the new property, after their stay they “Switched” to “I want a refund.” I have included as much information as I have in the following Attachments. If you need anything else please contact me immediately and we are happy to oblige. Sincerely,[redacted]

Consumer

Response:

I am rejecting this response because:The summary of the long response from Buckingham is that they had a property on file which they were not comfortable with from the beginning, they knew there were potential problems as early as January 25, and yet, could only notify me with less than 48 hours notice that the property was no longer available. Meanwhile, they told me that this was due to an "emergency" in which the "owners had to suddenly move back into the home." Apparently, a complete fabrication. I did, in fact, ask [redacted], with whom I dealt, if Buckingham would financially compensate me with at least a discount on the new property. Property values are, of course, subjective and this seemed reasonable to me since I was not getting a property I valued as highly. She spoke with her manager, who apparently summarily dismissed the suggestion. I told her at the time, that I was disappointed and suspected it was because they knew I had no other options but to take what they offered.Here is why the "bait and switch" is actually apt to my experience (as opposed to theirs). As I understand it, the tactic is employed whereby a customer is lured in on the promise of one product, and is then told that product is no longer available, but an "equivalent" one is. The customer has sunk costs in terms of time and commitment and immediate need, and has to weigh that into the decision to purchase. If I had had more than two days notice, I definitely would have asked for a full refund and gone elsewhere. The fact is, I had guests coming from different places and simply did not have enough time to start a new booking somewhere else. I even said as much to [redacted], who reiterated that she wished they had a better home to offer me (and my 5, not 7, guests).To me, this is a tale of poor business practices from start to finish. The fact that the property manager was suspicious from the start, but went along anyway, is not inspiring. The fact that the owner is under legal obligation to compensate Buckingham (and, hopefully, the prospective tenants), but has chosen not to exercise that option is equally uninspiring. The fact that I was cornered into paying the same amount of money for a property that did not meet my any of my desired criteria is unacceptable (fyi, there was, in fact, a hot tub listed on the booking website h[redacted] even if qualified by the fine print of their rental agreement.

Business

Response:

When I signed up the property (October 2015) the hot tub was on order. The contractor built a wooden deck for the hot tub, the footings for the deck moved considerably rendering the deck unsafe. The hot tub was not delivered. We were told they could not do repairs/rebuild the deck until spring. We took the hot tub off our website the same day. To the best of my recollection that was around the end of November. Please let me know if you need anything else.

Consumer

Response:

I am rejecting this response because:The hot tub is a minor point, but it is, in fact, still listed on the [redacted] website as of now, which was where I made the booking. I have nothing to add, at this point. Given previous interactions, I held out little hope that Buckingham would admit treating us unfairly. I simply wanted to alert future renters that their bookings, even for thousands of dollars, might be substituted at the last minute for something they did not want but could not turn down, thereby ruining their vacation.