Summer In Italy

Hi Ina! Thank you so much for sharing your feedback. I have to say that I am very sorry about the issue we had with your reservation but, at the same time, I am pleased to see that the safety measures that we employ to make sure an inconvenience does not turn into a tragedy have worked. "What has worked?" you may be wondering... as you mentioned, we got back to you --> one hour later <-- to report that the property had been triple booked (triple!), with an offer for an alternative (more on that later). Such a very unusual event may happen when technology fails. Availability calendars are synced via the Internet around the globe, and, as anyone might have experienced, connections from time to time do fail. When bookings are taken through many different platforms, this might become a problem since holiday homes, unlike hotel rooms, are not "one of many", but individual properties with unique amenities. That is why at our company we double-check each and every reservation with a live human being whose job is to catch a failure as soon as possible. Can you imagine if the issue with the calendar had been discovered days later, or, even worse, at check-in? That's what we call a tragedy. This is not to say that we are happy with the way things went... it's just to let you know that we tried our best to handle an issue where a calendar update repeatedly failed while three travelers were trying to book the same house for overlapping dates through different platforms at the same time. As for the alternatives offered, we selected the two available properties that most closely matched the style and amenities of the property you had originally booked, based on our knowledge of the properties we represent. Our job is exactly one of helping travelers to choose the right place for their Italian holiday, which is a concept that might sound alien to travelers used to "self-service" platforms where you have to pick and book on your own. The staff felt that it would have been "as usual" to receive feedback on the initial selection to go deep into details, so they didn't think they should explicitly mention that you were welcome to provide any input to take advantage of what for us is exactly the service we provide. Sorry about that, this will teach us not to give it for granted and be proactive about it. The automated email were triggered as the normal course of action for a reservation. The "safety net" that caught your booking is rarely used, to be honest, and so our technicians didn't feel that they needed to wait for the reservation to clear before the onboarding procedure would get started. Your kind feedback will help us to improve on that front, too. So, dear Ina, please accept our apologies for this glitch. It was a very unfortunate situation, and we tried to deal with it as best as we could. I understand you expected more of us, and, as usual, we would like to take the opportunity given by your feedback to improve for prospective travelers who maybe reading this in the future, and to send them a message: dear friends, if you feel we are not doing enough to help you, please ask! We are a human-powered company, and as much as we try to answer questions before you ask, your input will be at times necessary, and at all times welcome!

Dear Stephen, thank you for following up. I am still surprised at finding such hardship on your side, honestly. Call me dumb, tell me I don't understand customer service, but we clearly state that booking requests are confirmed with 24 hours. You put through a booking request that could not be confirmed, and I am very sorry about that, and the response was given within the stated 24 hours. No credit card payment was processed for any portion of the rental fee. We do not blame any failure on any party, to be fair, since the request was correctly processed along a flow which can result in a request being confirmed or, regrettably, declined. Your request was put through Vrbo, and I am not blaming you for trusting Vrbo. Vrbo clearly explains on their web site that they charge a service fee for putting through a request, which is not a rental deposit, and which is refunded if the booking request can not be accepted. That's all. I don't see how explaining how they work or using quotes around the word "agent" means we are keeping them at a distance. The quotes were used since Vrbo does not operate on an agency model and is technically not an agent, but the word can nonetheless be used to identify their role. I understand that you might have bought airfare before receiving a response on the status of your request, and once more I am sorry to hear about the trouble. However, and let me also apologize for my lack of understanding, I don't see how an offer for free land transportation for a booking that never actually happened could have been expected. I realize that you feel that there was an issue that should have been mitigated, however you reservation request went through the normal flow at our company, where all requests are treated individually, and where a definite answer is given with 24 hours. To prospective guests who might be wondering why we go through the trouble of checking each and every request with a live staff: in today's connected world, reservations are made by multiple "agents" around the clock, through web sites, apps, phone calls, email. Unlike hotel rooms, private holiday homes are unique dwellings which are not easily replaceable, and the technology currently available to process automated reservations is not able to completely eliminate the risk of double bookings. At our company we feel that it is far better service to promise a definite response within 24 hours rather than create double bookings. We will try to further improve our communication so that guests booking with us have no doubts that they need to wait for a live member of our team to confirm their request before finalizing their travel plans. Also, I apologize to Stephen for appearing like the one who always wants to have the last word. The Trustpilot system is such that companies are required to respond to guests' feedback -- which I think is fair and shows respect for the guest's opinions, as well as the will for participating companies to always listen and improve. Even though Stephen's experience does fall within the usual flow, his comments are being analyzed by our management as we strive to always surpass expectations.