StayPC/Vacation Candy Demanding Repayment for Rental

[icydog]

I would't even answer them. I think they are throwing out life-preservers trying to save themselves from drowning. Just ignore them. They will finally give up. They knew this was happening. Why wait until the day before travel to ask for a refund?

 

[TravelAmore]

While this thread is getting a little dated, I heard an excellent podcast on The Journal the other day reviewing and interviewing owners of AirBnB units and how AirBnB responded to renters and owners during the pandemic. The title, "Airbnb Hosts Built Mini-Empires. Now They're Crumbling" released May 7. Words to the wise for owners who rent their units through agencies, tech platforms, or other companies...


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[bobpark56]

I just received an email from StayPC demanding repayment of the rental fee paid for a week they rented from me at Westin Kierland. The check in day is tomorrow. This is the first they have contacted me about it.

This the text of the email:

You are receiving this email because you entered into a rental agreement with VacationCandy for a recent, current and/or upcoming reservation on behalf of a VacationCandy traveler. VacationCandy is actively monitoring the current COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it has on our rental agreement.

Given the current pandemic, travel bans/restrictions, quarantine mandates, resort closures, etc.. A termination of contract for the rental agreement as it relates, but not limited to, impossibility/impracticability of performance and/or frustration of purpose. As such, a refund for monies paid is now required and due immediately.

Refunds may be issued by one of following methods:

PayPal Personal Transaction (Friends and Family): accounting@vacationcandy.com

Check: Made out to:
VacationCandy
Attn. Accounting
275 E. South Temple Suite 103
Salt Lake City, UT 84111

Should you have any questions, feel free to reach out to our customer service team. Due to the high volume of inquiries being received our response times are significantly delayed. To facilitate an expedited refund resolution please use the following contact info:

Email: cancellation@vacationcandy.com
Phone: 888-998-1787

I don't see anything in the agreement I signed that says they have the right to cancel the agreement like this. I know quite a few of us have weeks that we have rented to them. As far as I know, the resort is open, so I'm afraid to cancel the reservation, and then give them cause to demand the repayment.

Anyone else in this situation? Has anyone else received a similar email?

I think the short of it is that you promised to deliver a week that you (not the resort) owned to a renter for a specific period. You did not deliver that week, therefore you owe the renter a refund.
Consider this: If the government were to order the resort closed, as happened to us this month in Cancún, and the resort or vacation company issues a refund...who do you think the refund will go to? To the renter? Not a chance. To Vacation Candy? No way. That refund is going to come to you, the registered owner.
What does that tell you about your responsibility to the renter?
Those on this thread who are telling you otherwise either have not thought this through or have confused ethics.

 

[grupp]

I think the short of it is that you promised to deliver a week that you (not the resort) owned to a renter for a specific period. You did not deliver that week, therefore you owe the renter a refund.
Consider this: If the government were to order the resort closed, as happened to us this month in Cancún, and the resort or vacation company issues a refund...who do you think the refund will go to? To the renter? Not a chance. To Vacation Candy? No way. That refund is going to come to you, the registered owner.
What does that tell you about your responsibility to the renter?
Those on this thread who are telling you otherwise either have not thought this through or have confused ethics.

I don’t have confused ethics, but am confused by your example. Are saying that the management company refunded the annual maintenance fee to the owners who couldn’t use their weeks? I have never heard of that happening, but it would nice if they did. What about those instances where the resort is still open but the renter choses not to go, what does your ethical compass say about those situations?

 

[VacationForever]

I think the short of it is that you promised to deliver a week that you (not the resort) owned to a renter for a specific period. You did not deliver that week, therefore you owe the renter a refund.
Consider this: If the government were to order the resort closed, as happened to us this month in Cancún, and the resort or vacation company issues a refund...who do you think the refund will go to? To the renter? Not a chance. To Vacation Candy? No way. That refund is going to come to you, the registered owner.
What does that tell you about your responsibility to the renter?
Those on this thread who are telling you otherwise either have not thought this through or have confused ethics.

The resort was open. There was no confused ethics. There was no refund going to the OP.

 

[grgs]

The resort was opened. There was no confused ethics. There was no refund going to the OP.

Correct--the resort was open. I understand why someone wouldn't have wanted to travel, so I would have given them the option to cancel and rebook later. However, I was never asked about this.

 

[bobpark56]

I don’t have confused ethics, but am confused by your example. Are saying that the management company refunded the annual maintenance fee to the owners who couldn’t use their weeks? I have never heard of that happening, but it would nice if they did. What about those instances where the resort is still open but the renter choses not to go, what does your ethical compass say about those situations?

Nope. Not maintenance fees. Why would anyone refund those fees. Those fees are simply your responsibility as an owner...kinda like taxes. What they did refund was points...StarOptions in our case...but with limitations that will make the points more difficult to use than usual.

 

[bobpark56]

The resort was open. There was no confused ethics. There was no refund going to the OP.

I'm with you if the renter just decided they did not want to keep their end of the bargain.
Then there are 'tweener cases, I think. We had a week booked at Marriott's Custom House in Boston for the end of March...via an Interval International trade. The governor closed down restaurants and other venues in Boston, but I don't think hotels and resorts were closed by edict at that time, but I could be wrong. I contacted interval to see how they wanted to address the issue. They let us cancel and essentially gave us our deposited week back, with a requirement that we use that to rebook somewhere before the end of 2020. I found a December week we liked and Westin Lagunamar, and we booked that. So the gist is, we canceled due to personal inconvenience that was not the resort's fault, but were issued a refund with restrictions...not a refund in full. They waived the usual rebooking fee for us (thank you Interval). I doubt that Marriott got reimbursed...they just lost the booking. There may or may not be parallels here with the renter in the OP's case.

 

[VacationForever]

I'm with you if the renter just decided they did not want to keep their end of the bargain.
Then there are 'tweener cases, I think. We had a week booked at Marriott's Custom House in Boston for the end of March...via an Interval International trade. The governor closed down restaurants and other venues in Boston, but I don't think hotels and resorts were closed by edict at that time, but I could be wrong. I contacted interval to see how they wanted to address the issue. They let us cancel and essentially gave us our deposited week back, with a requirement that we use that to rebook somewhere before the end of 2020. I found a December week we liked and Westin Lagunamar, and we booked that. So the gist is, we canceled due to personal inconvenience that was not the resort's fault, but were issued a refund with restrictions...not a refund in full. They waived the usual rebooking fee for us (thank you Interval). I doubt that Marriott got reimbursed...they just lost the booking. There may or may not be parallels here with the renter in the OP's case.

There was no parallel with OP's case.