Florida Deluxe Villas - Fraud - What are my options?

[irvsax]

Hi All,

This is a warning as I have just been informed that Florida Deluxe Villas have run off with a whole heap of money and disappeared from existence.

We have a booking with them in less than 2 weeks and have paid over $4000 for our accommodation.

We seem to be lucky and the owner of the property has said we can still stay there (even though he has had no money obviously), but that we need to cover any cleaning and pool heat in addition as he cannot be out of pocket for it (which i do understand)

Obviously I appreciate him being so lovely about still letting us stay. However, I would rather not be out of pocket myself. Also there is the thing of if anything is wrong with the property we wont want to really say.

The last thing i want to do is sound ungrateful to this owner. However, for the purpose of my holiday i would rather not have to compromise on the quality. Maybe I am sounding like a right ba*tard and I should just be very grateful.. .

The property was found on HomeAway but the management company sent me invoices direct etc and looking into them I didn't see any issue with this (more fool me).

If anyone has any advice as to what my next steps could or should be then that would be great. I did pay the balance using revolut and they come under mastercard's protection so I hope there is a case for a claim back.

Please though.. I dont need to know what i 'should' have done.. just what are good options now. Essentially, I would rather the quality of my stay was not compromised at all and while I appreciate the owners position, I have still paid out a considerable sum of money...

Thanks all :-)

[unixgirl]

I would ring up the card provider straightaway and see what they say. I really hope you get your money back.

[irvsax]

Originally Posted by unixgirl

I would ring up the card provider straightaway and see what they say. I really hope you get your money back.

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Thank you. I have filled in a form with Revolut. Looking at money saving expert site it seems I have a fairly good case with getting it back. Thank god I used Credit Card. Just hope it comes back before we go so that I can pay the actual owner and get the pool heat and cleaning covered without additional expense.

[Lisbon]

Hi
I won't say what you should have done but as an owner he seems too good to be true, these people have obviously taken his money as well - a percentage of the $4000 should have been his, if the contract was with the company and not the owner why would they take a hit of $4000 when they could still rent their home out between now and then.
Hope it is as good a situation as possible and as said hopefully you will get your money back - if you do I would start again well away from the original villa
Good Luck
Rob

[irvsax]

Originally Posted by Lisbon

Hi
I won't say what you should have done but as an owner he seems too good to be true, these people have obviously taken his money as well - a percentage of the $4000 should have been his, if the contract was with the company and not the owner why would they take a hit of $4000 when they could still rent their home out between now and then.
Hope it is as good a situation as possible and as said hopefully you will get your money back - if you do I would start again well away from the original villa
Good Luck
Rob

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Thank you. Its really tricky as not sure how long it will take to get the money back and to be honest without it coming back I dont know what else we will be able to get. The woman I spoke to did say that she was very surprised he was being so generous and letting us stay still. What i hope to do is get my money back and be able to pay him for the rental instead, but i am anxious now for our stay. The trouble is that we are staying for nearly 5 weeks so availability seems to be pretty limited...

[scoobydooby]

Villa owner sounds like a saint to me... If this is a fraud as you say then report it to the police as that's a crime.

[angelcake71]

So sorry this has happened..

I do hope you get your money back...

Difficult decision to make, as you don't have long before its your holiday, and as you say you are going for 5 weeks. I can't imagine that it would be easy to find somewhere that has all 5 weeks free... so even if you did change it may be staying at several different places, or a hotel... you could put the feelers out and have a look to see just what is available, before deciding.. then at least you will know...

or stick with the villa you have already booked... xx

[Guest]

Something is striking me as a bit odd here. Who informed you? There's nothing in the local papers or anything on other forums about people being let down. Are the police involved, do you have a case number? Have you only heard from the owner?

[irvsax]

Yeah, i know what you are saying! The place i have booked with seems to have definitely dissapeared so that stacks up. The women who has taken it over used to work for them until she left (supposedly because she wouldnt lie for them) and that is why she knows the owners of a lot of the properties. She runs Florida Vacations 365. She says they are certified etc and I will be checking them out.

Its really tricky... I have spoken to her twice today and nothing strikes me as 'dodgy'. Of course it is impossible to tell, but she is not asking me for any money up front, so I genuinly dont think there is a scam here.

She has told me all about the owner and his situation. Turns out he does not have a mortgage on the place so is not 'losing' massively by letting us stay and by all accounts he is just a good guy who doesnt want to see us screwed over.

All that being said.. you can never be too careful. However, my alternative is to spend money I dont really have on an alternative place. I suppose if i get there and there is any sign of a problem then I can clear off somewhere else.

I have been told the place will be cleaned properly still and they have people in there now bringing it up to scratch as last management team obviously had not done much the last few months.

[irvsax]

Originally Posted by scoobydooby

Villa owner sounds like a saint to me... If this is a fraud as you say then report it to the police as that's a crime.

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Yeah. I am told it has been reported and even FBI are involved, but should I report to UK police as well?